The Washington herald., 1914-07-06
SEEKS SEA DOPE,
FINDS MADHOUSE
Scribe IN Search Of Nautical
Terms Gets Into Chaos
on Militia Ship.
HEADED FOR BERMUDA
Herald Man Accompanies Citizen
Sailors on Annual Cruise Aboard
the Rhode Island.
HEADED FOR BERMUDA
BY IRWIN BARBOUR.

| STAT correspondent with the District Naval Bat
tAllion-
1t used to be in the good old days that
whenever you started out to write some
thing about the sea, any sea, you had
two standbys to fall back upon. You
could refer familiarly to Neptune. or you
could crib some OF Robert Louis Steven
sons stun.
Neptune is still on the job, although
a trine threadbare and timeworn and
badly in need OF a shave, but since the
| navy has gone dry one can't do much
yo-hoIng any more. Not on bottle Of
grape juice.
The newspaper business is just full Of
such hardships- There ought to be a
| Congressional investigation to lay the
blame-on the administration or some
body.
Sailing Down Ray.
All of which brings US to the fact that
| the District Naval Battalion is. or will
| be by the time this Is read, sailing down
the Chesapeake Bay. Tomorrow or the
| next day they will be out on the wide
vast ocean showing the bluejackets how
| to run the battleship Rhode Island. There
are $50 of them. including twelve officers,
led by Commander Joseph A. Dempf. and
\ they went away from here yesterday
| evening on the Norfolk steamer. bound
| for Old Point, the Atlantic, and all points
east
We took a ride down to the armory
yesterday on one of Mr. Kings street
cars to lay in a supply OF strange nauti-
cal terms, but didn't manage to do any
thing but get our feet mixed up in a lot
of hammocks and buckets and other
paraphernalia of which We knew nothing
at all, but which we were assured was
absolutely necessary to the success OF a
cruise.
There were a lot OF young men in
bluejacket uniforms rushing around as
II it were pay day. or as though the
river were on fire or something, and
we found ourselves very much in the
way. So we climbed up a flight OF
stairs and went into what appeared TO
be a quiet nook. and there we found
Commander Dempf.
Not So Quiet.
We were mistaken about IT being
quiet, however. Commander Dempf
was in his shirt sleeves. like a man
very much at work, and he was hang
ing halfway out of a window yelling
directions at a couple of individuals
below how to tie up a boat. Hardly
had he turned around and waved US
a pleasant greeting when the parade
started Men in all kinds of uniforms,
and some without any uniforms at ALL
kept rushing in asking instructions
about something and rushing right
out again.
Between orders Capt Dempf man
aged to tell US something like this:
Yes, it's going to be a great cruise.
This is certainly my busy day. We
mobilize here in the armory at s
o'clock this morning. There are a
lot of new men in the battalion, and
we had to see that their equipment
was complete. II they forgot any
thing. we sent them home for 1t. The
entire battalion went to that lunch
room across the street for lunch at
noon. There are $50 Of us going. in
cluding twelve officers. We have about
ninety or so new men. Last Thurs
day night we had to call the police to
drive away the crowd outside. Every
body in town wanted to enlist, II
looked like. That's the truth. we had
to call the police. About twenty-five
men took the oath that night Come
on down stairs and I'll show you how
things are going"
Back to Madhoasc.
So we went down into that madhouse
again, with somebody stopping Com
mander Dempf every few steps to ask
him something, and he told us in de-
tail how a naval militia battalion gets
ready for a cruise. We gathered that
there was much work connected with It
but then, we had known that before just
by. looking.
But by 4 o'clock everything was done
spirit of calm hovered over the arm
ory The men formed in line at 40 and
marched to the Norfolk steamer. where
they were served with dinner in a body
at $50.
The ship up-anchored at 6:45. Scores
of wives, sweethearts and friends stood
at the shore and handkerchiefs were
waved, and bon voyage" cheers shout
ed. until the Rhode Island had become
only dialy visible to those the naval
militiamen left behind"
And now they're of for two weeks on
the well-known briny deep. with a visit
to Bermuda that island OF royal prom
Use. especially in these days of naval
drouth, as a part of the program