The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-07-01

The man at the wheel
Was made to feel
Contempt for the widest blow;
Tho It oft appeared,
When the gale had cleared,
hat he'd been in his bunk below.
The Battalion of the East, New Jersey
Naval Reserves, which for close upon a
| year has had to content itself with an
abiding place Upon the dull earth, now
has a home of it's own upon the bound
ing b.llow, and even should the billow
| cease to bound the Reserves would have
their home just the same. A crew with
out a ship is in as bad a fix as a soldier
without his gun. The Reserves were
not even upon a par with shipwrecken
| sailors. for the latter had something
to sail in. while the Reserves never
had until Saturday.
Saturday June 29, 1895, VIII be a red
letter day in the history Of the Battalion
of the East, for on that day the good
ship Portsmouth hove In sight the heav-
ing, by the way. was done entirely ana
solely by the ship around the Battery,
and slowly, but majestically withal.
gIided up the North River, ioked her
nose into a capac.ous slip at Fifteenth
street, Hoboken. and was made fast.
There was very little yong of heave-
hotng, or any of that sort OF th-ng Tor
the Reserves are new to the business,
and, to tell the truth, there would have
been very little OF 1t for the veriest sea
dogs. everything was so calm and peace
full, the waveiets and the breezes having
| fallen asleep in each others's arms. ap-
parently.
AN HISTORIC VESSEL.
A grim old wanderer of the seas Is
+ho Dorfcvyoitfh with mn nonsense about
/ her. She was built in 1913 and the waters
| Of every quarter of this mundane sphere
| nave Tapped her venerable sides. She is
painted black and from her single tier
of port hoiss no less than a dozen heavy
| guns frown. She went out of commission
| early last fall. when her upper masts
| and spars were sent down and taken
ashore together with the running rigging
and nearly everything movable. Early
| last week, however, a number Of the Re-
| serve men were sent to the Brooklyn
| Navy Yard with a list Of articles for
which they could make requisition upon
| the commandant. They worked like beay-
ers, and when the ship left the yard she
| had on board nearly everything required
for a ship of her class save the upper
nasts, spars, sails n rigging. This last
| sounds to some. perhaps, like speaking
of a gun without its lock, stock and bar
| rel,& but seamen and Reservemen will
know much better.
The spar deck, the berth deck and the
gun deck are at present heaped with ar
| ticles of all sorts. There are coils and
| coils of rope. brooms and brushes for
~swabbing decks. lamps, lanterns, re-
h~ectors, oars for the boats, boat spars,
| all the tackle for handling the big guns,
cooking utensils, the ships colors, cases
containing $50 Springfield rifles, belts,
cartridge boxes, mirrors for the officers
quarters, and a mass Of things which
no ans shq Rao Of a t fr.zz asa see 81. sharp f IS cop pu1
mored also that the upper mssts and
spars are soon to be sent over from the
he Battalion stall y o Of the Seel East will vi have a
home to be proud, of, one indeed that
probably no other battalion in the coun-
larly attractive about the old ship as She
rlaes at ner present %rnoorings. After q
busy, restless life on the wave extending
strange that the young sailormen to be
went up, to her side for the first time
with feeling akin to awe.
peered down into the hold, found their
they half expected 10 come upon the
pigtaii down his back and eutlass at
SIDE. To say that the boys are delighted
with the Portsmouth does not half ex-
THE FIRST RESERVE CREW.
The men from the Jersey City Division
who were detschec as q crew to bring
tin, Davenport. Giyenapa and Ransom.
wTar as Rea Tr9n M Mate Sep =. J. p pansea,
-vrte, McCrs. Hardy, Hudson, Maher,
and jaeger. M Shorty s= sfaeT fMsive o ssFssT
everything was in readiness for the
start. Four tugs sent around by G E mel
ship, and AT 1896. the voyage began
Commander Washington Irving was on
the bridge, in fuil, uniform. while Nayl-
men at the wheel were ssarnea GoId-
irgay ard Hudson. of the Newark Divis-
ion. and Mate vreel la;a , ana Seam nan
journey was made without 2 misnan,
and on arriving at the dock aboui 3.SJ,
the majority crit s Ct 1ne m Irsfnsrsa G II tn me p en-
'husitG ErTING IN sH1PsHAPE.
upon the wharf with orders to allow none
but members to come aboard, and other
sentries were placed at various points
ell in un.ferm and carried rifles The
Reserves swarmed over the ship from
stern to stem, peered into every nook and
tEdiIuN,. dul II III ttEAl Wor v SAC
shrouds. An officer happened to ask one
Of the seamen where another officer was.
st don't know SIR" was the reply, butt
think he's down cellar, He e much
wiser already. Many funny plumbers
were made. Tho sea men did not attempt
to call the things they saw about them
by names; they simply pointed at them.
All realize that they ave a deal to learn
and, as they arc a bright and intelligent
lot of young men, they will learn 1t
ranidly.
There are a. dozen big guns on the ship
eleven old fashioned mEzzle loaders,
eight-inch sixty Founders, and one four
inch breach loader. There are three cut
tiers, two ten-oar and one eight oar; two
whale boats. a captain'S gle and a dingy.
Last evening COMMUNICATING ordered
the Newark division to report for drill or,
the shin tomorrow light. The nen will
bring their uniforms anapplltt themIor on
the ship. 1t is expected there will be 2
short gun drill and. then b men viii
Ia set at work stortng the equipments.
The JERSEY City division will report for
drill on Wednesday nfght.
Among the crew which. brought the
vessel from the NAVY Yard was Seaman
Nsndeman of the United States Navy,
one of the survivors of the De Long ex.
nadition. He will be the shlpkaeper of
the Portsmouth.
WHAT THE SOUTH 0AN DO.
4au$ -
1t is evident that the South has at hand.
49, +barafara cham oil fna raw natnrf-