The Sailor and His Dudheen
The Sailor and His Dudheen
IT is possible to find a sailor who does not smoke or chew tobacco; but he is a rare creature. The great majority of seamen enjoy their pipes and some chew the weed as well, finding much comfort and consolation thereby.
A very large number of friends have asked why do sailors smoke so much? It is not an unusual occurrence to see some of the seamen leave our concert hall while there is an excellent entertainment taking place, for the sole purpose of having a few draws on their old dudheens. Generally they are firemen and coal passers of the merchant steamers. These men have more opportunities than the deck hands to smoke. Usually they are on watch four hours of every twelve, and off or on duty they are allowed to smoke their pipes. There maybe an exceptional ship where the engineer of the watch will prohibit a fireman or coal passer from smoking while on duty, but such discipline in the fireroom of an ocean steamship is seldom seen.
Naturally these men feel the need of a smoke after the duration of an hour. They long for a whiff of the pipe, and therefore leave their seats during a good concert to obtain it.
I do not think that seamen smoke oftener nor use more tobacco than any other class of men. When a sailor has donned his “go shore” clothes and is ready to take a spin on the beach the chief thing he sees to, is that his pipe and tobacco are in his jacket pocket, and when away from the restraint of ship life, he smokes to his heart’s content. Perhaps during the day when other men have had the privilege of enjoying several cigars and as many pipefulls as they desired, poor Jack has had only a few draws during the meal hours, so when his day’s work is over he makes up for lost time.
Take the amount of tobacco used by a ship’s crew and compare it with the amount used by the same number of landsmen and I think we will find the lesser weight to be credited to the“shell back.” So with drinking. The sailor uses less alcohol than the man ashore; not being accustomed to drinking, a very few glasses makes him totter and shake, and soon throws him on his beam’s end, while his brother, the landlubber, has been pouring it down his throat all day, and is able at the close of the night to meander his way home safely.
On a sailing ship it would be considered a breach of discipline for a man to be seen smoking his pipe while on duty. He is expected to refrain from such tendencies which help to weaken ship discipline, and abide his time till eight bells have been struck and he is relieved. Then before he closes his weary eyelids for a few hours’ nap, he can have the pleasure of a draw on his old dudheen.
I recall a voyage on an American full rigger where the question of smoking tobacco was the cause of much disturbance to the crew. During the watch below a sailor was not allowed to come on deck with his pipe in his mouth. He must confine his incense to the denizens of the forecastle. On Sundays, when the decks had been washed and the brass work cleaned, he could chew and spit over the rail; but the privilegeof smoking at such a time or on watch during the night was an offense which meant the loss of an afternoon below.
On some ships there are times when the boatswains are not severe and cruel, then a sailor may slip into the forecastle and steal a few draws from his pipe. Especially if the man has come from the wheel where he has been grinding salt water for two hours, doing his best to keep the ship on her course, lest the officer of the watch find her wake is crooked and greets him with an oath or blow, or from the lookout where he has spent his watch in strange meditations.
The merchant sailor can smoke his pipe only during his watch below at sea, and in the meal hours and the evenings when in port. I have heard that on some English vessels and American coasters, the crews are allowed to smoke at all times, even at the wheel; but I have never sailed in such homes. In the United States Navy there is such a thing as a “smoking lamp,” and when it is lighted every man can fill his pipe and smoke on any part of the spar deck forward of the mainmast. This smoking lamp is made of copper. Holes, about an inch incircumference, are bored through the sides so that a piece of paper can be inserted so as to reach the flickering flame. The lamp is hung in some convenient place, usually near the foremast, and during meal hours and the evenings in port, till nine o’clock (2 bells) it is kept lighted. At sea, in the dog watches and meal hours it is hung up for use. There are times on a war vessel when the smoking lamp is kept lighted the greater part of the day. Saturday afternoons, when the work of the week is ended and the men are overhauling their bags; Sunday after the morning inspection is over, and on holidays. Then the man-of-war’s man can smoke without fear of some officer or marine on duty inviting him to the mast for punishment.
Again it may be a day when all hands are busily engaged coaling ship or taking aboard provisions, something that keeps the whole crew busy, such a time the seamen feel they have sufficient reason to ask permission for the smoking lamp to be lighted.
Most seafaring men enjoy a smoke the last thing at night. It is a comfort to stretch oneself in a hammock and just before dozing into that unconscious state between wakefulness and sleepto withdraw the pipe from the lips and place it under the pillow, then roll over and slumber away.
During a cruise on an American war vessel, we came to anchor in the harbor of Pernambuco. Several of the crew slept under the top gallant forecastle where there was room for about fifty men. I managed to find a vacant billet away from the suffocating berth deck. That very night after taps had been sounded I turned into my hammock for a few hours’ solid comfort. My pipe was lighted so I decided to continue my smoke. I stretched myself out, and pulled away at my old clay stump, keeping one eye on the corporal of Marines at the gangway. I fell asleep while smoking, for in a few moments I felt a burning pain at my side which awakened me, and, on rolling over, I saw my blankets burning. In a moment I was on deck, and in the twinkling of an eye I had the hammock unhooked and “Presto change” the whole thing, bedding and all went through the gun port. I was none too soon for the officer of the deck and the anchor watch came running forward looking for the fire. They had smelt the smoke and were seeking the cause. I hid myself in themanger under the heel of the bowsprit and listened to them as they discussed the whereabouts of the fire. My heart almost failed me when the officer of the deck noticed the burning hammock over the side. The tide was taking it astern and as there was an English ocean “tramp” a short distance ahead of us, he decided that the smell of smoke came from that bundle of old rags drifting by us from the steamer.
For five nights I slept on the bare deck planks and on the sixth evening I reported my hammock missing. A search was made and when it could not be found the first lieutenant said I must have thrown it over the rail that morning in tossing it into the netting before the hammock stower was there. I was glad to escape so easily for had I been detected having smoked my pipe in bed, I would have suffered the penalty of a court martial. As it was, I only lost my mattress and bed clothes, which were worth about ten dollars. It would be easy to write a few more pages of the many stolen smokes I and others have enjoyed, yes, and of the many hours we have scrubbed the copper on the water line of the ship as a punishment for smoking without permission; but I will leave it untouched.