A day or two before the "Yankee" left the navy yard, one of the pretty
girls who had come over to visit her asked: "Where do you have your
washing done? It must require a great many washerwomen to keep the
clothes of this dirty [glancing rather disdainfully at her somewhat
grimy friend] crew clean." Though we knew that the luxury of a laundry
would not fall to our lot, we were at a loss as to the method pursued to
clean clothes.

We soon learned.

We who had been anticipating an order of this sort came running forward
with bundles of clothes that would discourage a steam laundry. This was
the first opportunity we had had to clean up. The forecastlemen led out
the hose, which was connected to the ship's pump, and, after wetting
down the forecastle deck (where all clothes must be scrubbed), we were
told we might turn to.

The "Kid," who was the youngest member of the crew aboard, very popular
with officers and men, and who afterward became the ship's mascot, said,
"How do you work this, anyway?" I confessed that I was in the dark
myself, but proposed that we watch "Patt," the gunner's mate, who had
served in the navy before. Presently we saw him lay his jumper flat on
the deck, wet it thoroughly with water from the hose, then rub it with
salt-water soap. Then he fished out a stiff scrubbing brush and began to
scrub the jumper as if it was a floor. We then understood the
significance of the order _scrub_ and wash clothes. In salt water the
clothes have not only to be washed, but scrubbed as well.

The "Kid" remarked, "Well, I'll be switched," and forthwith fell on his
knees and proceeded to follow "Patt's" example.

Though we scrubbed manfully, "putting our backs into it" and "using
plenty of elbow grease," as instructed, still the result was hardly up
to our expectations. The navigator remarked, as we were "stopping" the
clothes on the line, "You heroes might scrub those clothes a little bit;
it does not take a college education to learn how to wash clothes."

I agreed with the "Kid" that, though cleanliness was next to Godliness,
cleanliness, like Godliness, was often a difficult virtue to acquire. We
found it almost impossible to be cleanly without the aid of fresh water,
so the schemes devised to avoid the executive's order and get it were
many and ingenious.

One man would go to the ship's galley, where the fresh water hand-pump
was, and, without further ado, begin to fill his bucket, remarking, if
the cook