Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1910 — AN OLD-TIME MIDSHIPMAN. [ARTICLE]

AN OLD-TIME MIDSHIPMAN.

When a boy entered'the naval service of the United States in the days following the War of the Revolution, the highest tank obtainable was that of captain, and he had to pass through what R. Macdonougb, In the “Life of the Commodore Thomas Macdonough, U. 8. Navy," describes as “a laborious and dangerous minority dr apprenticeship” before securing the coveted prize. fi In those days our midshipmen’s dines were not cast in pleasant places, nor were their paths the paths of peace. Although “the wards and children of the public,” as they called themselves, little or no attention seems to have been paid to their physical, mental or moral welfare. They picked up on board ship, as best they could, the technical education necessary to fit them for their profession. Although ship schoolmasters were mentioned in connection with the service, there were few of them. Therfe was no exacting etiquette, no rigid courtesy. Instead, there was the rude discipline of the merchantman transferred to a man-qf-war—a discipline often enforced by intemperate and abusive language and occasionally by blows. “So great were the exactions,” wrote Admiral Porter in his “Memoir of Commodore David Porter,” "and so unceasing the strain on a Boy’s nervous temperament, that only the moat rugged and determined could remain in the service for any great length of time.” In 1880, when Midshipman Macdonough, afterward the hero and commander of the naval force on Lake Champlain at the beginning of the War of 1812, entered the service, he Irew nineteen dollars a month in pay and was entitled to one ration a day. This, on Sunday, consisted of a pound and a half of beef' and half a pint of rice; on Monday a pound of pork, half a pint of beaus or peas, four ounces of cheese; Tuesday, a pound of beef, a pound of potatoes or turnips, pudding; Wednesday, two ounces of butter or six ounces of mqlasses, four ounces of cheese, half a - pint of rice; Thursday, a pound of salt fish, two ounces of butter or one gill of oil, a pound of potatoes; Saturday, a pound of pork, half a pint of peas or beans, four ounces of cheese, and every day a pound of bread. The value of this ration was twentyeight cents. It was changed later, by act of March 3, 18(11, to a ration of a value of twenty cents. When Midshipman Macdonough—he was sixteen when he entered the service—appeared In ( full dress uniform, he wore a coat of blue cloth wlth'short lapels faced with the same, and ornamented with six buttons, standing collar with a diamond formed of gold lace on each side, not exceeding two inches square;' slashed slefeves with small buttons, all buttonholes worked with gold thread; single-breasted blue .vest with flaps, ( no buttons to the pockets; blue or white breeches; goldlaced cocked hat,- shoes with buckles, and a banger. When in undress Uniform, he wore a short blue coat without worked buttonholes, and having a standing collar with a button and a slip of gold lace on each side. Dirks were not to be worn on shore by any officer. This was the uniform, prescribed by the Ndvy Department under Robert 'Smith, Secretary of the> Navy from 1801 to 1809.