"On Every Ship"

ARMY & NAVY

They say that every sailor's got

A wife in every port.

That's a dirty lie because

He's nothing of the sort.

If a sailor has a wife

In every port then take my tip,

That every sailor's wife has got

A man on every ship.

--Harry Lauder.

U. S. Navy men last week adopted a new fashion. To Commander Calvin H. Cobb of the destroyer Billingsley, bound out of St. Petersburg, Fla., for Philadelphia, came a radio from the police that a St. Petersburg girl was believed to have been smuggled aboard the Billingsley; please to make a search. Indignant, Commander Cobb searched--and found 15-year-old Cynthia Alberta Pool. She said she had been persuaded to go by a seaman named Kramer; that a married woman of St. Petersburg had planned to go too but was prevented by her husband, who appeared on the dock at the last moment.

Seaman Kramer was put in irons. Cynthia Alberta Pool was put ashore at Mayport, Fla. She said she would have jumped overboard if she had known her father would hear about it. They locked her up in a boarding house until the father came. Meantime, Commander Cobb sent a radio to Rear Admiral Frank H. Clark, commanding the destroyer force of the Scouting Fleet. Commander Clark and his ships had just left New Orleans, bound for Atlantic Coast ports.

A search of Commander Clark's own flagship, the Concord, and of the destroyer Sands and the repair ship Dobbin, discovered four more baggages. They said they were Billy Lacer, Rose McQuire, Flossie Rice, Ramilda Avery, "waitresses from Philadelphia." They had been sneaked aboard at New Orleans. Commander Clark led his ships into Key West. The waitresses were disembarked. Courts martial began.

On other U. S. men-of-war, bluejackets experienced successive waves of wonder, envy, anger, relief. In Washington, Navy officials were shocked, embarrassed, furious. Secretary Wilbur, in particular, had to answer an irate telegram from Joseph Pool, the 15-year-old's father, asking how such things could happen. Since Navy tradition mentions only a wife in every port and none on shipboard and the regulations say very little about human nature, there was nothing that Secretary Wilbur could say beyond expressing regret.

It is well known that Secretary Wilbur likes to think of his bluejackets as a fine, clean-cut lot of Christian sailors who would never think of smuggling girls or women aboard ship, even as a "prank," especially after ten days of shore leave in the Gulf ports. Five years ago, when a seagoing girl was found on the battleship Arizona between New York and Panama, Secretary Wilbur was shocked, embarrassed, furious, and a dozen sailors were court-martialed. Though no announcement was made it was safe to say that last week, as in 1923, every U. S. Navy ship afloat was carefully searched to ascertain just how prevalent girl-stowing had become.