The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-30
PLENTY TO DO
 FOR ''ROOK|ES"
 ON NAVY CRUISE
So Busy They Don't Have Time to Write Letters
 to Their Friends

cruises for civilians on the reserve ships of the Atlantic fleet has seen adventure subsiding into work. At least it's that way on the Virginia, which carried 300 odd recruits from Boston
 Efficiency demands that under war conditions the men fire three shots a minute. It takes ten to man a twelve inch gun, from the shell men down in the hold, four decks below the turret, to the pointer above. It took the civilian crew just five minutes from ''hoist away" to fire" Yet a train ed crew goes through it all in twenty seconds, shell after shell, to the end. It was better lesson than any amount of preparedness talks in the necessity of trained men. It is a scientific job, this one of being a modern fighter. re- quirtng the proper coordination of brain and hand and eye and nerve. That is what the training cruise is for ito get men ready so that precious months need not be spent in teaching men to shoot.
 The Boat Drill
 For boat drill the men are divided into regular full crews. They man the davtts and lower away and man the odRO and row away. Among the rockies are half of Harvards first crew men: Herrick, Harwood, White and Allen. They are in the same boat, and there are eight other men in the boat with them. The oars are narrow, and the seats don't slide. It is half 0f hro hot volo off ha water last June.
 "But somehow" as one man sadly remarked, "It doesn't seem the same"
 But the observers can see the ev1- dence of the trained oar, struggling for form" in the numbering clumsi- ness of the ships boats.
 Then there are the old rockies. men who rowed on the long sweeps when the Virginia was youngster. They are accommodating a good bit of extra weight amidships and show a roll as they walk: But they are game and pull at the oars as they did on the winning varsity in '03 or so. They come in puff1ng and played out after practice row, but there Is the light of excitement in their eyes, which comes from living over again well remember ed times. s.
 They are men-of-war's men now, ev- cry one of these 800 recruits. They rise at to the bo'sn's pipe, tumbling out of their hammocks six feet to the floor. They lash their hammocks in the required nautical way with the re- quired number of hitches. Then they roll up their broad legged sailor pants to the knees and swab down the decks with cold sea water. They polish brass ant wash paint, as though their very exister cc depended on the job.
 Millionaire Washing Brass.
 It might be funny to see man whose fortune runs to millions shining brass in a way that would not earn him $2 a day. Yet you know that brass polishing is not his goal. That is incidental to the larger work of being prepared to help on a big ma an- of-war in time of danger. .
 After cleaning comes breakfast and after breakfast assembly, with setting up exercises. From that to gun prac- tice they go immediately. then to boat drill, to classes of special instruction to torpedo defense stations, taking barely time for bite of dinner in be- tween. They are trying to teach the the utmost it is possible to learn in the time of the cruise, and every minute is precious.
 "I don't even get time to write a etter," says one dapper sailor plain lively. T have written Dear Ethel i've times, and that is as far as get"
 From turn to- at of the gray fnv fo Nov cp of O nf fha night the men work and learn. They are displaying a remarkable quickness for the mechanism of gun and ships. | The days are full of work. but they are also full of accomplishment.
 "I don't know what to do with my men," said the commanding officer of | another vessel of the fleet to the cap ain of the Virginia.
 Keep 'em at work" Captain Jack son advised him.
 Not that life is all work for the | 'ookies. Morning and evening a 1 boom is rigged from the side of the | ,hip sloping down to the water, and | town it the men go to swim. Probably | half of them go in the water The other half lean over the sides and | ,heer. The water is cold and very | ;alty. If a swimmer stays too close to | he sides of the ship little wave will | come and slap him against the hard | lrmor plate. Therefore most of the | nen swim out, followed by lifeboat.
 Who said men do not live well in the | navy? Asparagus on toast, steaks, | casts, grapes, oranges, cantaloupes- hese are items chosen at random rom the menu of the last three days At every meal enough is thrown away o feed several large families. Fasti- liousness goes by the board. The ,nly requirement is that men remove heir hats while eating. At every neal a dozen men forget it.
 The 000 mem hers of tha N1a4ar