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playing cards aboard ship

These guys are playing poker.  They would play night and day when we were not under weigh.  I never did gamble as it was a huge waste of time and money.  They were always trying to borrow money from me do they could keep playing.  If I had all the money I lent to these guys I could probably retire.  The officer whose back is turned to us in this photo was the chief pharmacist mate.  He was an old Navy man and he was often inebriated as he had access to medication and ethyl alcohol.  The guy in the white hat was the 'gangway watch'.  That is why he had to clean up and look sharp to salute the officers as they came and went down the gangway of our ship.   His name was Worth.  The other two guys shown here both went crazy and cracked up. They were taken off the ship as psychos.  That was about the only way to get off our ship.  Instead of gambling when we got to shore, I would take off and explore the island and swim.  My crew mates thought I was crazy because of the stories of Japanese who would hole up and wait to ambush sailors but I never saw anything like that.