New-York tribune., 1910-07-23
NAVAL M|L|T|A'S SEA TRIP
Three BattaIions Will Board Big
BattIeships for Cruise.
REAL SERVICE FOR A WEEK
Officers and Men to Work with
Men Of Same Rating in
United States Navy.

Sailors near-sailors, able-bodied seamen
and just plain landsmen were buzzing like
bees around hive last night. swarming
all over the Granite State. because this
morning at o'clock the 1st Bat
talon, Naval Militia of New York. together
with the ID and Sd. will embark on
board four of Uncle Sans big battleships
and sail away for week under sealed
orders
The Granite State lies in the North River
at 9th street 1t is the headquarters for
the New York Naval Militia, and of the
230 New York boys who are going on the
weeks cruise it seemed last night that not
one had taken the chance of reporting
this morning. They were all there last
night with their "ditty boxes and stuff
bags" prepared to swing a hammock on
the dock If necessary.
About those "ditty boxes,'' too. there was
a little excitement last night. The naval
militiamen felt they could hardly lay
claim TO being sailors unless they carried
"ditty boxeS,'' with needles and thread,
pen and ink and paper, and picture of a
girl in the box not to speak of a lot of
other odds and ends that any regular sailor
always has on hand.
On this trip the militiamen are going to
be guests, in a way, of the Atlantic fleet,
so it was decided that to bring along
"ditty boxes would be going a little too
far-sort Of like carrying ones piano on
a weekend visit-and the order went out
that no militiaman should carry his "ditty
box this morning.
Besides the go New York militiamen
there will be 160 from Rochester and
Buffalo, comprising the Sd Battalion
from Brooklyn, about $50 strong. They
will all begin to embark from West 97th
street this morning at O'Clock, and go
aboard the Connecticut, the Rhode Island.
the Nebraska and the Michigan
Commander Russell Raynor. with LIEN
tenant Commander c. L. Poor, will be in
charge of the New York contingent, and
they will have Surgeon Walter Bensel
along in the capacity his title indicates.
Once aboard, the men will be paired off
with the biuejackets, according to their
rating in the militia. That is, if Naval
Militiaman Smith is rated "A r. 6 -
meaning able bodied seaman" he will ne
paired off with Seaman Jones'" of the
United States navy, with the same rating.
Likewise the bo'sun's and gunner's mates
will be paired off with the same ranking
men Of the United States navy. and it will
be each militiamans duty TO take part in
everything that his mate has a hand in
The officers of the militia will be putting
in the week in exactly the same manner
with the officers of corresponding rank in
the navy, and the pairing off, both among
officers and men, extends to bunk and mess,
as well a TO work.
AS soon as the naval militiamen are
aboard Rear Admiral Schroeder will point
the ships down the Hudson, out across the
Lower Bay and away, away, out some
where. No one is supposed to know where
the Atlantic fleet will take the naval mi
litiamen; they don't know themselves and
Furthermore, they don't care. They're only
happy that they will have the chance for a
full week to live aboard and work alongside
the regulars at sea. or wherever they are
taken, and more particularly that they will
see that service aboard first class battle
ships.
1t will be quite change from the sta
tionary life aboard the Granite State. And
these miiitiamen of the New York State
Naval Militia want their friends to know
that this cruise is not the general naval
militia cruise III which half dozen other
state naval militia battalions are going to
meet UP toward Gardeners Bay. Those
militiamen, from New Jersey, from Massa-
chusetts and from other New England
states, will cruise aboard boats like the
Chicago and the Tonopah and other YES
sells not first class battleships. and they
will be independent of the regular navy.
But the New York men will be student
guests aboard the finest boats in the navy,
near regulars of the Atlantic fleet, for the
next seven days.