Sweepers

Sweepers

Sweepers: "Sweepers, Sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a good clean sweep down both fore and aft! Sweep down all decks, ladders and passageways! Dump all garbage clear of the fantail! Sweepers." Most ships actually discourage throwing of trash over the side but instead use mulch/pulp rooms. In port, "Dump all garbage clear of the fantail" is replaced with "Take all trash to the proper receptacles provided for on the pier."

Now many people I know tend to be sloppy about mundane daily cleaning. So this USA Navy saying is appropriate to many of us, including me. I myself only sweep down every third day, which is poor given the Golden Retriever in my house, too. She sheds a lot of dog hair, too.

Even I have much time at sea both as a swabby (sailor) and a Marine, and have heard this saying over the 1MC (an intercom system) as part of waking up (really being rudely awaked) in the morning when I was not otherwise on watch.

If you think about it, putting all these people in close quarters does require daily cleaning of the spaces mostly to “prevent” diseases and pandemics.

Prevention seldom gets any “thank you” type of comments, too. Mostly it is the complaints about having to clean up routinely and on a daily basis.

So if you buy this idea, then make up your own routine, or just borrow some Navy ideas you can use for your own preventive medicine benefit.