The Portland daily press., 1898-04-07
ESPECIAL TO THE PRESET

Bath, April 6-The shipping city is to
raise a battalion of naval reserves. That
was decided upon tonight at an enthu-
siastio meeting in Baths somewhat his
toric city hall, which was too small to
hold the patriotic citizens, many being
unable to gain admission. Gen. L. W.
Hyde of the Bath Iron Works, who arrived
home today from visit to Havana, called
the meeting to order and at his sugges-
| ton Mayor Torrey was chosen to preside.
Gen. Hyde addressed the meeting, Civ
ing vivid picture of what he saw in
Havana. He toldtof a visit to the wreck
of the Maine. saying it was plainly evil
dent that the loss of that ship and q
greater part of her crew was by Spanish
treachery. He said he did not desire to
be an alarmist, but appearances indicate
that there will be war with Spain. In
that event the almost defenseless coast OF
Maine would surely be attacked by the
small gun boats Of Spain. said the Gen
eral, and Bath where number of gov
eminent vessels are building, would be
one of the first cities attacked. In our
present condition of defense it would be
an easy matter for Spanish gunboat to
stroy the city.
While in Washington a few days ago
Gen. Hyde was told that the heavy guns
stored at Fort Popham would soon be
mounteds and that he had been promised
by the navy department that monitor
and naval vessel Of the auxiliary type
would be sent to the Kennebeo when
the government was assured that bat
TALON of naval reserves had been orga-
nized to man the warships. Mr.. Hyde
said uniforms for the reserves would be
furnished by. the citizens and that the
government, as soon as the reserves was
organized, would furnish their arms and
rapid fire guns with which to drill.
He advised that steps be taken at once
to organize naval battalion and that a
recruiting committed be appointed and
that naval reserve association, to con-
sist of citizens be formed to raise funds
to purchase uniforms and furnish place
to drill in.
At the close of Gen. Hyde's speech
which was frequently interrupted, Mayor
Torrey announced that enlistment pa
pers were ready for signatures. Promptly
young men came forward and in short
time 100 names had been placed on the
recruiting papers. The first man that
signed was Wilmot K. Patten. A COM
mittee on preliminary work for organic
ing a naval reserve was appointed as fol-
lows: Mayor Torrey, ex-Mayor r. D.
Bibber, f. Fl. Twitchell, John o. Shaw,
Geo. f. Thompson, Charles R. Hans
com, Edward W. Hyde, Scott Frye, E.
Q. Plummer. Committee to form inaval
reserve association, Mayor Torrey, Hon.
Arthur Sewall, Gen. L. W. Hyde, Hon.
James W. Wakefield, Charles E. Patten,
Frank Il. Percy VIM. ID. MussendeD,
Albert H. Shaw, John S. Hyde.
A member of the recruiting COMMITTEES
will be at the City hall daily to receive
enlistments for the naval reserves and
it is confidently expected by the close of
the week there will 300 or 400 recruits
for the naval reserve battalion. A num-
Der of the men enlisted tonight are ma
chinists, engineers and boiler makers.
Lieut.. Banks, government naval construc-
tor on duty at the Bath Iron works, VIII
probably command the naval battalion
organized here. Gen. Hyde said that this
city has the distinction of taking the
first step in Maine for organizing nav
al reserve.