Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 153, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1917 — Playtime With Men of the Navy [ARTICLE]

Playtime With Men of the Navy

What Happens When Several i Hundred Japkies Are Turned Loose for Shore Liberty. MAKES FOR THE ‘HAPPY SHIP’ -- ■ u Liberality* Private Citizens Has Given Men of the Fleet a Big Athletic Field for Their Recreation. With the United States Atlantic Fleet. —It is two bells in the afternoon watch when the shrill trill of the bos’n’s whistles are heard piping the crews of the mighty dreadnaughts to the rails and the sing-song cries of the bos’n’s mates carry out over the water, “Liberty party to muster.” This is the summons given three times each week to the men of the Atlantic fleet to take their hours of recreation on the Immense athletic field provided for them by the Navy league. By the hundreds, on every battleship and cruiser, the youthful, white-uni-formed Jackies come rushing on deck to form into line for the liberty inspection.

Two long white lines form on deck and every man stands rigidly at attention while officers pass along marking the appearance of each one. Their uniforms are spotlessly white. Their shoes freshly blackened. Off come their little round white caps to show that their hair is closely cropped. No visitor to the fleet fails to be struck, when he views that line at inspection, with the extreme youth of the men, their intelligent faces and happy, smart appearance. The average age appears to be less than twenty years and many of them seem barely to have passed their eighteenth birthday on the date of their enlistment. From every state tn the Union they hail and thousands of them from the farms of the middle West. A collection certainly of America’s finest gathered on the deck of a floating fortress to form the first line of the nation’s defense. ... •

Off for Day of Sport. On every sun-tanned face is worn a broad smile in expectation of the sport that the afternoon will -bring. Over the rail, the visitor sees the ship’s launches bobbing about in the seaway with the bowmen holding fast to the ship’s side with their boathooks. Then the sharp word of command rings out on deck and the white line of sailors begins to move forward toward the gangway and the men go over the side to the waiting launches. Discipline begins to give way a little at this point, although the coxswain of the boat is all business as he calls to the bowmen to shove off. The afternoon’s recreation has begun. Thousands of superfluously healthy, absolutely carefree and very young men are turned loose. To be sure there is the provost guard with their policemen’s sticks, but that is only to guard against the chance of ugly blood developing from the fun, which does not happen. When the dock at the athletic field is reached the men from the launches tumble out pell-mell and immediately begins a raid upon the canteen.' Pop is sold faster than corks can be pulled. The man who gets anything over the canteen counter fights for it. You must come with your change ready or go without. There is too much business to stop to change money. Watermelons Last Quick.

A pump receives the overflow from the canteen and those who have been unable to spend their money for candy or pop take their chances on getting ducked under the pump. A farmer drives onto the field with a load of watermelons. At 50 cents apiece his watermelons last about fifty seconds. A colored cook’s helper buys a melon and dives into it when a huge hand belonging to a Jackie from an Indiana farm buries the dark’s into the melon up to his ears. Another enterprising farmer brings some old farm nags on the field to hire them out for “gentlemen’s mounts” to the sailors. Obviously the horses are about as used to their saddles as a hog is to work. But they are hired by the sailors at any price the farmer asks. A lad hailing from Maine takes his first chance on horseback and slides down the horse’s neck.. His shipmate yells at him, “Go aft, you fool, go aft.” The thousands of Jackies swarm over the field. Hundreds of them break and run for the beach for a swim. A crowd of them gather at target practice with small rifles. Six of the ten baseball diamonds are promptly put info use by scrub teams.

And then more launches from the battleships come in bringing the star baseball teams from four of the battleships. A double-header is to be played between four of the best teams of the fleet In a series to determine the fleet championship. The grand stands fill rapidly and soon they are a swelling sea of white suits and red and brown faces as the sailors cheer their ship’s teams on to victory. Rattling good ball is played by these navy teams. The nine men on the diamond represent the pick of' a thousand from a battleship and they play with the interest and a good bit of the money of the whole crew backing them. They train and work for months for a championship series like this. Provides the “Happy Ships.” It is the liberality of private American citizens that has given these men of the fleet their big athletic field. When the war oune on the fleet lost

the Income it usually had for its athletic fund from the Guantanamo canteen and the Navy league of the United States offered to lay out a field for the men of the fleet, v. In all about 115 acres have been obtained. The ground has been leveled, plowed and prepared. Ten baseball diamonds have been laid out. Docks were built at the water’s edge. A bathing beach was cleared. The officers of the fleet also were provided with tennis courts and a "golf course. . Every sort of sport is found there. The result is that every man on the fleet has plenty of healthy outdoor sport and the officers of the fleet say that this provision or their recreation has done much to provide “happy ships” in the fleet as it waits for the opportunity to strike a blow at the Huns in defense of civilization and freedom.