Full Speed Ahead: Tales from the Log of a Correspondent with Our Navy — John Shaqi
Full Speed Ahead: Tales from the Log of a Correspondent with Our NavyBeston, Henry
History
Full Speed Ahead: Tales from the Log of a Correspondent with Our Navy
Beston, Henry
United States. Navy; World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations
No notice of Queenstown, no history of the Navy would be complete
without a word about golf. It is _the_ Navy game. Golf clubs are to
be found in every cabin; in the tiny libraries Harry Vardon rubs
shoulders with naval historians and professors of thermodynamics. If
you take the train, you are sure to find a carriage full of golfers
bound for a course on the home side of the river. I remember seeing
the captain of an American submarine just about to start upon the
most dangerous kind of an errand one could possibly imagine. It was
midnight; it was raining, the great Atlantic surges were sweeping
into the bay in a manner which told of rough weather outside. Just
as he was about to disappear into the clamorous bowels of his craft,
the captain paused for an instant on the ladder, and shouted back to
us, "Tell Sanderson to put that mashie in my room when he's through
with it."
Were it not for the great "United States Naval Men's Club," I fear
that Jack ashore would have had but a dull time, for our amusements
were limited to a dingy cinema exploiting American "serials" several
years old, and a shed in which a company of odd people played
pretentious melodramas of the "Worst Woman in London" type on a tiny
Sunday school stage. Alas, there were not enough people in the
company to complete the cast of characters, so the poor leading lady
was forever disappearing into the wings as the wronged daughter of a
ducal house, only to appear again in a few minutes as the dark female
poisoner, whilst the little leading man with a Kerry Brogue was
forever rushing back and forth between the old white-haired servitor
and the Earl of Darnleycourt. Once in a while Jack came to these
performances, bought the best seat, and left the theatre before the
performance was ended. The British Tars, however, sat through it
respectably and solemnly to the end.
The Men's Club was to be found at one end of the town close by the
water's edge. It was quite the most successful and attractive thing
of its kind I have ever visited. The largest building was a
factory-like affair of brick which once housed some swimming baths,
then became a theatre, and finally failed and lay down to die; the
smaller buildings were substantial huts of the Y.M.C.A. kind which
had been attached to the original structure. This institution
provided some several thousand sailors with a canteen, an excellent
restaurant, a theatre, a library, a recreation room, and, if
necessary, a lodging. Best of all, one could go to the Club and
actually be warm and comfortable in the American style, a boon not to
be lightly regarded in these islands where people all winter long
huddle in freezing rooms round lilliputian grates. Enlisted men
controlled the club, maintained it, and selected their stewards,
cooks and attendants from their own ranks. Upon everybody concerned,
the Club reflects the highest credit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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