Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: men in confined quarters; to provide for some play as well as a great deal of work; to maintain contentment under adverse conditions— for all sea conditions are abnormal to the average man; to systematize whatever may have a bearing upon the health, comfort and efficiency of the entire personnel, requires unceasing effort and long experience on the part of those in authority. All these things have been touched upon most happily in this book and those who are curious as to the details of life in the Navy of to-day, and the means taken to promote and insure the battle efficiency of the individual ships as well as of the fleet, will find in the following pages much to interest, instruct and amuse. Chas. J. Badger, Rear Admiral, U. S. Navy. A LANDSMAN'S LOG Wednesday, January A new world it was that I stepped into when I came aboard the Kansas about three bells this afternoon and reported my arrival to the Officer-of-the-Deck. I had long had a dim knowledge of the interior of a man-o'-war and some inkling of the service itself, but the many hours I had just spent in the pilot-house of the Pawnee,—a navy tug of imposing insignificance which had conveyed me and my luggage from the Navy Yard to where the fleet rode at anchor in the North River,— had convinced me that I knew "durned little" after all. At least, that much I gathered from my friend, the Boatswain, who in that short space of time had managed to find out all the whys and wherefores of my present being, and overwhelmed me with advice which he considered essential to my welfare while sailing the ocean waves. Once on board it did not take me long to get settled. My room is on the gun-deck, abaft the after twelve-inch barbette, and just off a kindof passage called the wardroom country, surrounding which are t...