The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-07-07
BADGERS KEY WEST TRIP.
Hot w Gather 0vercame Some
Of the Jersey Naval Re
serves--A Quiet Trip.

ON BOARD UNITED STATES SHIP
| BADGER. KEY WEST, July /, 1898. The
cruiser Badger, with the members of the
New Jersey Naval Reserves, Battalion OF
the East. on board, arrived here this af-
ternoon at 4:so O'Clock and anchored in
the harbor The Badger left Portland,
Me, on Sunday morning, june 26, and the
entire trip of six days was made in pleas
ant weather.
On the first day out from Portland the
Badger sighted several vessels and made
them all show their colors At 2 o'clock
Monday morning the smoke of a large
steamer was made out. She was running
parallel to the Badgers course. When
day broke she was made out to be the
United States cruiser San Francisco. Af-
ter signalling for nearly an hour, she
turned around and left the Badger. Dur
e@g the afternoon several steamers were
spoken.
Shortly after daybreak on Tuesday two
large steamers were sighted on the hori-
zon. The Badgers course was altered so
it would bring the vessels nearer. About
noon another small fruit steamer was
sighted. The Badger signalled her and
she came up close. The men were kept
busy all day scrubbing down decks with
sand. In their few spare moments they
mended clothes. A school of whales.
about dozen in number was sighted.
One large one came within Twenty-Five
feet of the ship, spouted and then dived
out of sight.
The great change in temperature
knocked out good many men, especially
IN y,rriY, fsr,,.,
most northern part of this country, where
an overcoat was needed, to the extreme
southern part, where the heat is intense,
was very hard on the crew Six men
were overcome with the heat in the fire.
room The temperature in the freroonl.
with the big fans going, was 115 de-
grees.
AT P. NJ Tuesday Diamond Shoal
Lightship, which is off Cape Hatteras,
was passed. The sea was quiet, and no
one was sick, to speak Of About ten
minutes after passing Hatteras the San
francisco came up to the Badger and be-
gan signalling. She had been in sight all
the morning, but the Badgers engines
had given her a good chase After sig
mailing the San Francisco took the lead
During the afternoon, after drill, all
men not having complete white suits for
hot climates had to go to the Paymaster's s
storeroom and draw what was lacking
Every man had to have three white duck
suits and two or more duck hats. Here
after every one must appear in white.
On Wednesday quarters were sounded,
when the ship was hove to and a target
was dropped overheard. Then the ship
steamed around it in a circle and had
practice with the main battery with full
service charges also practice with the
secondary battery. One of the big guns
was put out of order for short time by
the recoil, her elevating gear becoming
jammed. This was followed by rife and
revolver practice at floating targets, small
pieces of box being thrown overheard
for the revolver targets and boxes for the
rifle; also sight-shooting practice with the
rifle, some very close shooting being done.
The first land seen after leaving Port
land was part of the main land of Florida
which the lookout sighted at P. M, on
Thursday. The Badger kept in sight of
land all the rest of the day. When the
first watch went on all the men were at
gun stations and had to stand up there
four hours on duty, instead of one man.
watching and the rest sleeping on their
guns. AT A. NJ on Friday, Alligator Reef
Light was passed. The coast was very
pretty and the men watched the blending
of the coast water with the water of the
Gulf Stream until anchor was dropped at
Kew West in the afternoon.