Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-07

Off. active preparations were
| begun the past week by the Naval Bat
| talon of the National Guard of the Dis
trict of Columbia for the voyage. The
battalion is scheduled to board the ship
! at Baltimore July 6. and there are just
four drill nights intervening, during
which the members must complete their
preparations for the cruise.
| There is much work to be done. The
, newly enlisted men must be fully equip
ped with uniforms while the. older men
| must complete their outfits if anv part
| is missing. Their clothing must be
cleaned. Hammocks must be tied up.
garments must be plainly marked. and
between times the men must keep up
their drills and exercises During ali,
! these preparations the fighting efficiency
must not be forgotten, and the seaman
ship practice must be kept up.
The drills at the battalion armory at
the foot of Water and o streets last
thursday night We're many and varied
| The second division devoted it's time 10
INSTRUCTION on the large three-inch gun,
which recently was placed in the drill
| hall for practice purposes. From among
those who practice with this gun will be
| picked the gun crews that will do the
actual firing on the target range while
| on the Tennessee this year. No member
of the naval militia is permitted to act
| as gun pointer in actual target prac-
tice unless he has been qualified through
practice with guns in the armory Tc
let men without this training act as gun
pointers would be expensive, it is de-
clared. owing to the waste of amlnunl-
ton while they We're learning to point
the gun true.
The third division was given seaman
ship instruction. A rowing party was
sent out from the dock, and for more
than an hour Lieut. Sisourney, COM
manding the third division. gave his men
| instruction in the proper methods of
handling oars and in acting S coXsWans
of rowing craft
The fourth division, engineers. devoted
their time to engineering instruction,
and the men were given pointers by the
officers on the methods of handling the
many kinds of naval machinery.
Many new recruits are coming into the
battalion every week. but those who en-
list after June IL will not be permitted
to go on the Tennessee, because they VIII
not have had sufficient training. Each
division in the battalion IS working hard
to obtain sixty men, which Commander
Dempf has said they must have by the
1st of July.
The large whaleboat which recently was
assigned to the third division, commanded
by Lieut. Frank w. Sigourney, and upon
which members of that division have been
employed, has been completed and was
launched last Thursday night. The dull
gray color in which the boat was painted
has been changed to a pure white 1t is
with this vessel that the third division
expects to win the prize of S25 and the
silk pennant in its race with the second
division of the battalion.
As soon as the vessel was put over
board the men wanted to make trip in
her. and so. with Lieut.. Sigourney at the
tilIer. practically the whole third division
got into the whaleboat and went out into
the river where they received instruction
in seamanship. Later the race boat crew
will be picked out, and it is reported that
Lieut.. Sigourney will act as coxswain of
the boat during the race.
Chief Boatswain's Mate P. NJ Ward of
the third pivision is engaged in picking
men from that division to participate in
the try-out for the racing crew He or
dered all men who wished to make the
crew to report to him at the battalion
dock this morning. when he will give all
of them try-out at one of the oars. He
pointed out to them that the time for pre-
pairing for the race was very short, and
he wanted to get the crew picked Just as
soon as possible so that they would re-
port to him several evenings a week for
training.
The date for the race has been set for
July 4, and the course will he from the
battalion dock to the steel plant wharf at
Giesboro point and return. All of the
third division men declared Thursday
night that even if they were not lucky