Great Britain. Royal Navy; World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations
Each day is started with prayer on the quarter-deck, and an impressive
ceremony it is. Honour and glory is what they will tell you they hope
to get out of the Navy, and not money. And the idea of honour, as it is
known in the Navy, is drummed into them from the moment they enter the
school.
To see these youngsters at any meal is to believe that it was the first
time they had eaten for a week. They are ravenously hungry, and the food
is of such excellence that it makes a visitor feel as if he would like
to sit down too. There is little waste here, for I observed that each
plate was polished clean; and, when eating was over, the boys bounded
out for an hour's recreation on the spacious grounds. On their way many
of them paid a visit to the candy-store, and while they were playing
they munched candy.
The port where this school is located is a healthful spot, and in war
time no person is permitted to board a ferry to the school without a
special pass. When you first land you are decidedly struck by the great
figure-heads of old war vessels, which are set up on the "quarter-deck"
and in front of some of the buildings. There is one of the old Ganges
there--a mammoth wooden head of a very black negro. The size of it is
startling.
The officers have a charmingly comfortable ward-room and mess-room. In
the bay is the second Ganges, now a sort of mother-ship for
mine-sweepers and trawlers, and one of the busiest places one can
imagine. The King not long ago dined aboard this ship, and is said to
have expressed great interest in the work carried on from the Ganges.
VII. "GENTLEMEN, 'THE KING'"
There are many traditions to which the Royal Navy still clings, and
there are messes afloat and ashore where it is manifest that time has
not withered impressive and picturesque features of the days of the
wooden warships. For instance, no layman can help being struck by the
British naval officers' toast to the King. And the other toasts are
offered with such splendid solemnity and grace that it makes one wish
that something of the sort could be done at even the minor affairs where
civilians are gathered. Of course, the Londoner and the man from
Manchester offers his toast at a great banquet, as they do in New York
and other American cities to the President of the United States. But
although it takes no longer at a naval mess, there is a something about
it which places the civilian in the shade. With the Navy it is a mess,
and not a dinner where there are many strangers, and every officer has
been doing this since he was a boy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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