South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-09-11
HAPPENINGS IN AND ABOUT TOWN
Ho! Ho! The Life of Tar Is
Not as Exciting as One Might
Think Is This Rocks Version

lions were given Tor nre, COliiSloll
and abandon ship drills. These drills
are usually sprung on the unsuspect-
I ing pOpulace in the dim watches OF
the night. And woe betide the man
who does not turn out OF his ham
mock 10 attend. If he is "a regular
I he is damned on the report; II civ
| ilian he is made time orderly as soon
as his turn comes around. Time or
DERBY is easy but mopotOnOus. The
unfortunate hangs around a clock
and at frequent intervals goes 10 the
officer OF the deck and tells him the
time. The O. O. d. then does as he
| pleases Usually the bugler is called
upon TO blow some unintelligible
call and every one runs somewhere.
| it makes little difference where.
some Good Cussing.
Each week one company is given
the engine room watches. The naval
rockies go down into the bowels Of
the ship and sit around for two
hours GUESSING the impulse that ever
| prompted them to go on this cruise.
So far as training and instruction
go the week in the engine room IS
wasted one. Ii is impossible to
/ learn the intricacies Of a triple eX-
pansion engine or applied electricity
in a week The men regularly sta
toned there were as put out as the
rockies because the rocks were
aWfully in the way and usually pre-
empted the seat under the ventilator.
Just lately the companies have been
divided up into sections that want
| to specialize in certain branches and
given some regular instruction. This
should have been done at the start.
| THE second week of the cruise
was taken up with the war game.
I 1t was a great deal like most games
OF war: absolutely no blood shed,
but ali the ships in the reserve fleet
were theoretically sunk. one night
our own fleet Of torpedo boats came
in sight. Every one was ordered 70
his battle station and we proceeded
to theoretically sink our own fleet.
| The explanation is simple. We
thought il was the enemys. The
next day we met the real enemy and
they proceeded to thee setically sink
us with precision and dispatch.
Target Practice.
After the war game was over the
| fleet that had the volunteers aboard
went to Tangier sound for target
practice. For a week the various gun
crews had been practicing loading
/ dummy shells into "A dummy gun
The practice was wildly exciting
When the day finally came every one
was a little nervous but tried not to
let the other know it.
Each crew fired four shots at q
target 1900 miles away. Tho target
was anchored. but the ship was
moving at rate of five knots The
noise OF the three-inch guns which
were used is more like bomb thar
ANYTHING else. At a distance il
sounds like someone pounding on q
giant base drum. If the word had
been passed Immediately afterwarc
that the 13-inch guns were to b'
fred. about half the rockies would
have jumped overheard.
The last few nights have been de
voted 10 searchlight drill. This j:
TO prepare for the motor boat at
tacks which will take place the las
| week Of the cruise.
1t is the general impression amonl
the civilians that the cruise has no
been as instructive as il might have
been, but it is an entirely new ex
perience and next year will undoubt
eddy be a great Improvement over
this. The officers have been very
patient and answered countless Ques
tons such as Why are these mat
tress covers longer than the mat
tresses p" and others equally intelli
gent.
Although there has been a grea
deal of kicking and large number
have left for home. the general ruI
of the volunteers think this is
great institution and have alread!
decided to come next year"