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Of Wardrooms and Mess Decks


Subdeacon Joe

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From a commerical site so the ones I post have big yellow banners on them, but still interesting.

USS Newark ca 1891-1901 Petty Officers Mess - Note the upscale white china plates, bowls, cruet holding the vinegar and oil. Note the wooden kegs hanging from the ceiling! Sailor on front right sitting on armament locker. 

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USS Newark ca 1891-1901 Crews Galley where food was prepared for the Crew. Note the black and philippino officers stewards and mess cooks in front and in the rear you can see enlisted crew members being served thru a serving window 

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USS Newark ca 1891-1901 Crews Berth Area also served as the Mess - Note wooden spitoon on floor next to sailor sewing. He is also sitting on his "ditty box" which contained a sailors personal items aboard ship. The sewing machine is sitting on one of two small arm armament lockers. 

x-006-1891-1901-uss-newark-berth-deck.jpg

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Great stuff.  

Is the Boatswain's Mate third from right in photo 3 the same guy as seated far right in photo 1? 

Who is the man, second from right in photo 3?  Civilian or short timer?

USS Olympia is still around as a museum.  Videos showing walking tours of these very areas can be searched out on You Tube.   These turn of the (last) century ships are real beauties.

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On 9/21/2019 at 1:55 PM, Joke 'um said:

Great stuff.  

Is the Boatswain's Mate third from right in photo 3 the same guy as seated far right in photo 1? 

Who is the man, second from right in photo 3?  Civilian or short timer?

USS Olympia is still around as a museum.  Videos showing walking tours of these very areas can be searched out on You Tube.   These turn of the (last) century ships are real beauties.

The sailor at far right in first photo does not appear to me as being a Boatswains Mate. He does not have the white stripe on his jumper. It looks to be dark colored. White stripe would indicate someone from deck department. For example the sailor in photo 3 on far right has a white stripe. I know this does not answer your question but It seems to me that the guy in the 3rd photo has a longer mustache. 

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What a bunch of sourpusses. :lol:

 

The dandy in the last photo is probably an early “Tech Rep” (civilian technical guy). ;)

 

In that first photo I can see why the Navy eventually went to stainless steel trays...the cost in dishes alone lost due to breakage must have been pretty high. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

What a bunch of sourpusses. :lol:

 

The dandy in the last photo is probably an early “Tech Rep” (civilian technical guy). ;)

 

In that first photo I can see why the Navy eventually went to stainless steel trays...the cost in dishes alone lost due to breakage must have been pretty high. 

 

 

http://www.thepirateslair.com/us-navy-china-nautical-dinnerware-by-rank.html

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9 hours ago, Dustin Checotah said:

The sailor at far right in first photo does not appear to me as being a Boatswains Mate. He does not have the white stripe on his jumper. It looks to be dark colored. White stripe would indicate someone from deck department. For example the sailor in photo 3 on far right has a white stripe. I know this does not answer your question but It seems to me that the guy in the 3rd photo has a longer mustache. 

Called him a BM because of the white lanyard around his neck, most likely attached to a Boatswain's whistle in left breast pocket.  Things such as stripes change with the different eras.  I believe the white stripe of which you speak is for non-rates (Seaman).  Red would be for engineering non-rates (Fireman).  P.O's wore their "crows", as now.  Some left sleeve, some right.

Not sayin' you're wrong.  Just sayin'.

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7 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Hmm - I have quite a bit of the wardroom china (with blue fouled anchor); various sized plates, bowls, & saucers - plus a couple of butter dishes that we use almost every day as spoon holders when cooking.

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Many years ago it was all headed to a dumpster so I salvaged that and the flatware that was available and boxed it up.

 

Except for the butter dishes, it's all still boxed up in storage - looks like I need to do an inventory - that stuff is pricey.

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8 hours ago, Joke 'um said:

Called him a BM because of the white lanyard around his neck, most likely attached to a Boatswain's whistle in left breast pocket.  Things such as stripes change with the different eras.  I believe the white stripe of which you speak is for non-rates (Seaman).  Red would be for engineering non-rates (Fireman).  P.O's wore their "crows", as now.  Some left sleeve, some right.

Not sayin' you're wrong.  Just sayin'.

I see at least 3 other men with the lanyard around their neck. How many bosuns would there be?

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37 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I see at least 3 other men with the lanyard around their neck. How many bosuns would there be?

There could be at least those three - maybe more depending on the size of the crew.

 

BMs were responsible for ship-handling and ship keeping (maintenance of the anchoring & mooring gear/equipment, exterior paint and preservation, etc.) among other things.

 

There were relatively few rated BMs compared to the number of seaman that worked for them.

 

The BMs supervised the deck seaman, who actually did most of the manual labor.

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I shall continue to call them Bos’ns. I can’t call em BMs. ;)

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12 hours ago, Joke 'um said:

Called him a BM because of the white lanyard around his neck, most likely attached to a Boatswain's whistle in left breast pocket.  Things such as stripes change with the different eras.  I believe the white stripe of which you speak is for non-rates (Seaman).  Red would be for engineering non-rates (Fireman).  P.O's wore their "crows", as now.  Some left sleeve, some right.

Not sayin' you're wrong.  Just sayin'.

I do not claim to be an expert in Navy uniforms. I know they changed and do change. Just in the 6 years I was in the dress uniform changed from the "Cracker Jack" to something akin to the good humor man and the authorized dungarees were three different configurations  I am familiar with the "Crows" and at one time they were right arm and left arm rates. I have some of my fathers that were modified after the change. They did not use the white / red stripes to denote deck / engineering either when I was in. I don't know if the stripes went away when they got rated all I know is a story that my dad told me about what he and his fellow white stripe sailors would tell girls about the significance of the white vs. red stripes meant. I won't say it here in a public forum so as to keep it PG 13.

Now in the last pic there are at least 7 guys with lanyards. The guy from the top pic has what appears to be a stripe on his uniform but it is not white and with b&w pic maybe red.

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