The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-07-24
| NAVAL RESERVES OFF TO SEA
THE NEW YORkERS START on
FOIR BiTTLESHIPS.

GOinG To Do Real Jack Tars' work WIN
the Regulars to Josh Them q Bu and
SHOW Them HsW Busy Time Gettlng
Them Al on the Granite state,
Manifold were the doings at the foot
Of Ninety seventh street and the North
River yesterday morning. Az the first
sweeping glance you might have thought
the country on the verge of war. At
anchor in the broad river lay four battle
ships. On the decks Of these men moved
alertly. In her slip at the waters edge
lay the training ship Granite State.
sturdy and with high reaching masts
and spars. She too was filled with men
IN al lor garb who moved in little masses
here and there and tumbled over the ships
side into launches which bore them out
to the battleships in midstream.
Ashore there was hubbub: more
sailor clad men arriving every instant;
women and children who talked and
chartered and piped continually in diver
gent tempoe. A battalion Of sailor men
came marching down from the New York
Central Railroad tracks and piled aboard
the Granite State. They all wore heavy,
dark blue winter uniforms and looked
hot and fatigued.
II was emharkation time for the New
York Naval Militiamen. who must now
60 To sea for week and play the naval
tar Or hardly play. I'm be work they
find themselves doing. work Of the sea-
man before the mast. intermittent and
callousing to the hands. But most Of
the men know what To expect and the
New Workers will have u rather easier
than the men Of most Of the other Eastern
States.
For The New York militiam"n are
going 10 sea for their annual cruise ON
first class hattleships. The First Rat
talon IN qtnrtered aboard the Connec-
ticut. Rhode Island and Michigan. The
Third Battalion. up-Staters from Buffalo
and Rochester mostly. are on the Ne
braska. Both hGttAliCns are under the
command 1T Lieutenant Commander Rus
sell Rayner
The Sachusetts men and the Naval
Reserves from Connecticut, New jersey.
Pennsylvania aud Maine on the other
hand will not have so proud an expert
ene~. They will man some Of the navy's
slightly worn craft such as the monitor
Ozark and the gunb0at MschIas. The
New Workers aboard the battleships
will simply he paired with regular blue
jackets and will merely have to tag around
with them. doing what they do and en-
deavoring 50 far rs possible TO do II the
way they dot.
There will be a certain drawback about
this for the New York men. They will he
tested with IN the way Of the sea, which
IL maddening to the ssnsihillties. But
it's only for q week and a week scrubhing
Of decks and cleaning Of brass~ork. at
tended 10y sardonIC comment. will not
kill them.
Most Of the Naval Nilitiamen Of this city |
were aboard the Granite state last night
and precious little sleeping they did.
There were clothes bags 10 he got ready,
which means needles and thread and scis-
sors and the simpler toilet articles. and
after all the labor spent they got an order
that has<s were not 10 he taken. When |
you come 10 think ~ IL mans clothes will
hardly give out nor his seams rend asunder
IN a weeks cruise.
As soon ~ breakfast was down the men
tegan - travel 10 the wanhii-. They
were all ia white duck sRllor suits with the
exception e the up-Stat"rs, who got in
over TIA. New \ prk Central a: half past
O Clp"k looking sl~apy These upstate
militlaman. whose knowledge 81 nAviga-
ton was chiefly gained On Lakes Ontario,
Cayuga seneca and Onnndaga. had their
winter suits " dark blu" Commander
Russell cast one plying glance At them the
while he mopp-d his own brow and then
asked Capt WAlbrdge Il the recent frosts
in Rochester had blighted the CROPS badly
Capt Nalbrdge said that a. soon as the
men had eaten breakfast and boarded the
Nebraska he "a order hem into ducks. |
He had forgotten that latitude II north on
the Atlantic coast ia July II apt 20 L.
torrid
All hands were supposed 10 be- EN-
barked by O'Clock. but " was a little /
later than that when the white launches
ceased to ply between the warphlps and
the Granite State launch could hold
only twenty men with their rolled up I
hAmmocks and other gear piled high ~ I
the stern. and there were 23O men in all
To be put aboard the battleships The
Naval Militiamen. whose experience Of
deep water is limited "a this annual brief I
cruise, were not exactly expeditions /
either They fused around a bit, osten- |
tatiously saying good-by to their women |
folks and greeting one another with /
boisterousnees suitable Ia the occasion
Symptomatic Of their saafartng ability
perhaps was the performance Of some
Of the Rochester men who slipped in n
puddle Of water on the Granite States
deck and skidded in a safe but infantile
posture the len 9Th Of the gangplank.
Also the cheerful. rollickng demeanor
was the thing while waiting Ia embark
for the warships You stood in a circle !
with your hands on others shoulders
and lifted up your voice and sang:
loved a maid in Lincoln square.
Marx well the words say
loved a maid In Lincoln square,
lie tum to tum - tum - tare.
I1lgon no more a-roving Nth on. fair maid
And then. after a suitable pause:
From yardarm 10 yardarm the sailor must
20,
Who. heave ho' blow the man down
which il just exactly as near - n
yardErm IS any Of them will get this
imp They will fIrl no sails whose teaches /
are in tatters while the deck below moves
through an arc 81 sixty degrees. Thew
will not be called from their hammocks
10 haul tight weather braces in a pitch .
black squall
All things are relative. including the .
hardshipe Of a Naval Militiaman on his .
summer cruise.