The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-07-20
MILITIA SAILORS
N MANOEUvRES
Depart On Battleships, Cruisers, and
Gunboats, To Mobilize AT
Block Island.
TO CRUISE AT SEA FIFTEEN DAYS
Seventeen States Send Battalions.
Ten OF Nations Ffghtin~ Craft Make
Up the F9ect-Tnrget Practice To
Be Featured

New York, July 1.-THE most i'm
portant manoeuvres in which the ma
val militia OF the Eastern territory OF
the United States has ever partici-
pated recently. when battleships.
cruisers and gunboats having on board
the civilian sailors from eighteen
States sailed from various ports on
the Atlantic for the mobilization base.
Block Island. Nearly $500 naval
militiamen started on the fffteen-day
training cruise. About 1000 of the
men were from New York and Brook
lyn.
The battiesfrfps on board Of which
the navy's civilian reserves have gone
! to sea are ell units of the Atlantic
4 Reserve Fleet under command of
/ Rear Admiral John NJ. Helm, U. s.
| N. The vessels are the Kentucky,
Kearsarge. Maine, New Jersey. Illi-
nois, Alabama, Rhode Island, Loutsi-
ana and Virginia, with the Alaoama
as flagship. The States represented
by militia battalions are New York.
/ Pennsylvania, New Jersey. Rhode Is
land Massachusetts. Maine, Maryland.
| South Carolina Florida, Minnesota,
Missouri. Ohio, Illinois, North Car
DINA, louisiana, Texas, Michigan, Vir-
ginia and Connecticut
| The Manhattan militfamen sailed on
| tho Kentucky, which has been as
!signed TO the First New York battal-
ton az training ship, and Will be
permanently stationed In the Hudson
after the conclusion of the citizens
training cruise which has been plan
ned to follow the naval militia ma
noeuvres.
| Commander Charles l. Poor. n. NJ.
| N. Y, is in command OF the Manhat-
tan battalion Of 470 men on the Kear-
sarge, while the 400 men of the Sec
| ond Battalion of Brooklyn on the
| Battleship Maine are commanded by
| Commander Edward T. Fitzpatrick.
Also on the Maine are 100 men from
the New Jersey battalion.
| With every officer and man In the
white service uniform of summer, the
First Battalion Of Manhattan assem-
bled on the old training ship Granite
State. at the foot Of Ninety-seventh
Street. in the North River. at 7 o'clock
Saturday morning.
Each man carried little navy
chest, In which we're hts spare uni-
| forms and other clothes and such ar
| ticles as were permitted under tbs
naval regulations. Every enlisted man
will sleep in a hammock on the cruise,
and Commander Poor assured his
/ command before sailing, that the
cruise would be "the real thing"
| During the cruise the enlisted men
viii be paired with bluetackets or
| the regular service OF corresponding
! grades and II will be the duty OF
each biuejacket to instruct the civilian
comrade In the duties that the mill
tiaman would Rave to perform IN the
event the Naval Militia were called
- IT, - Ses,-
instance, a regular gunner will be
/ paired with 8 militia gunner, reg1a-
lar quarternaster with q rnfiftaaman
of Hike rank, and SO On through the
various enlisted grades.
! The same procedure win be fus-
lowed with the officers, the regular
navigator having ga his pupil the nav
! iga ting officer Of the militia battalion.
The executive officer of the Ken
lucky Is paired with the officer who
holds that rank tn the First Naval
battalion while Commander Poor
wifi have as his chief instructor Com
mander Douglas Z. Dismukes, T. s.
| n. the commanding officer OF the
Kentucky. Commander Poor. II may
be mentioned, is a graduate OF the Ma
val Academy, and served many years
az an officer in the regular service
before he resigned to enter private
business.
The only thing that the mifitfamen
knew about the program of the cruise
was that the Reserve Fleet would as
semble Off Block Island. The orders
for the training to be followed after
that are sealed and will not be opened
until the entire training squadron has
/ modified Off the Block Island base.
It is known, however, that target
work with the main, as we'll as Sec
ondary batteries OF the ships, will be
a feature Of the work during the next
two weeks. Torpedo exercises have
also been included in the program, It
WAS said, as we'll "a searchlight drifts
and landing exercises. A battle prob
LEM may bring the manoeuvres to a
close.
The kentucky called shortly after 10
O'Clock and was followed 10 sea by the
Maine and the gunboat Gloucester,
me latter having on board 100 MEM
beers Of the Brooklyn battalion. Mas
sachusetts u!Ltiarnen are on the Kear-
sarge. the rest of the New England
ers are on the Virginia, the Illinois
and Maryland units. on the Alabama,
the First Battalion Of Pennsylvania
on the Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio
units are ON the Rhode Island, tho
North Carolina, Texas, Florida, and
Louisiana units are on the Louisiana,
while the Second Pennsylvania Bat
talon and the South Carolina and
Michigan units are on the Illinois
Just before the battleships sailed
a bulletin was issued relative to the
civilian training cruise, which was to
follow Rear Admiral Helm will also
command during that cruise. The
| bulletin had to do with the motor
boat mobilization and exercises which
will bring the civilian training period
to an end and be the feature of the
week of September to September 12.
The program for that week, as ar
ranged by Admiral Helm, is as fob
lows:
September ebay instructions In
noeuvres and signals and assignment
! of patrol stations and groups. Night,
night signal drills between groups.
September 6-Dal, instructions in
scouting and patroling, massed attack,
etc.
| September DAY. instruction in
sweeping for mines, countermining.
etc. Night, search problem connec-
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