COURSE NINETHE HARTFORD

FURLING SAIL ON THE U. S. S. HARTFORD

The yearly cruise of 1904 was on Farragut langsyne flagship, the Hartford, relic of the battle of Mobile Bay. It was as interesting as any which the division has ever taken, barring, perhaps, that on the Panther. When station billets were issued even the old hands volleyed questions at their running mates of the regular crew. Here is the start of a typical station billet:

That was easy enough, even for a rooky. But what do you know about this?

EVOLUTION.Loosing sail.Furling sail.Up and down topgallant and royal yards.Up and down topgallant masts.Making sail and getting underway.Tacking and wearing.Reef topsails.Shorten sail and come to anchor.STATIONS AND DUTIES.Loose topgallant sail.Furl topgallant sail.Topmast crosstrees to rig upper topgallant yardarm, etc.Topmast crosstrees, reeve and unreeve mast rope, fid and unfid, etc.Loose topgallant sail, then on deck to halliards.Overhaul foresheet and shorten in, man maintop bowlines, main and fore tacks.Man topsail bunt lines, then halliards.Let go topgallant halliards, man topsail clew lines, veer and stopper cables.

EVOLUTION.

Loosing sail.Furling sail.Up and down topgallant and royal yards.Up and down topgallant masts.Making sail and getting underway.Tacking and wearing.Reef topsails.Shorten sail and come to anchor.

Loosing sail.

Furling sail.

Up and down topgallant and royal yards.

Up and down topgallant masts.

Making sail and getting underway.

Tacking and wearing.

Reef topsails.

Shorten sail and come to anchor.

STATIONS AND DUTIES.

Loose topgallant sail.Furl topgallant sail.Topmast crosstrees to rig upper topgallant yardarm, etc.Topmast crosstrees, reeve and unreeve mast rope, fid and unfid, etc.Loose topgallant sail, then on deck to halliards.Overhaul foresheet and shorten in, man maintop bowlines, main and fore tacks.Man topsail bunt lines, then halliards.Let go topgallant halliards, man topsail clew lines, veer and stopper cables.

Loose topgallant sail.

Furl topgallant sail.

Topmast crosstrees to rig upper topgallant yardarm, etc.

Topmast crosstrees, reeve and unreeve mast rope, fid and unfid, etc.

Loose topgallant sail, then on deck to halliards.

Overhaul foresheet and shorten in, man maintop bowlines, main and fore tacks.

Man topsail bunt lines, then halliards.

Let go topgallant halliards, man topsail clew lines, veer and stopper cables.

It was a novelty to nearly all of the division, bringing back the old days of heave and haul. The regulars were husky men with legs like barrels and arms like blacksmiths’, nearly every one raw material for a football player or anchor of a tug-of-war team. Bosn’s mates were weather-beaten salts with faces like teakwood, seamed by the suns and snows of the seven seas, tanned tar-mequickswith chests like hair mattresses. One barnacle in the port watch had a voice as rasping as a nutmeg grater. You might have imagined that he was born in Lat. 2, North, Long. 2, West, and that he learned to creep on the lee side of the foc’s’le. When he shrilled out a pipe with a chaser like the growl of distant thunder a nippous rooky from the Tenth Ward asked in blank amazement:

“What in heaven did that fellow say?”

“One man from each part of the ship coal the first steamer,” was the reply.

Some of the best boat work which the division has ever done was performed on this cruise. This is true not only in the line of oarsmanship, but also in the securing of boats for sea and for port.

The duty took the division up Sound to Huntington Bay, then east to Gardiner’s Bay, thence over to New London and finally back to New Haven harbor. The men had a welcome convenience in the line of large lockers. They took much interest in the apprentices, frolicsome little fellows then from the training station who had school each morning at a mess table on the starboard side of the gun deck near a frowning five-inch gun with its glittering brass and its oiled steel.

The boys were poring over their books and papers in very much the same way that lads in the seventh and eighth grades in the Second North or the West Middle schools are poring (perhaps more so), over arithmetic. In the instruction of the class the chaplain was using some of the books which citizens of Hartford gave to the ship’s library in 1899 at the suggestion of Admiral Bunce.

Most important among the events of the early part of the ensuing drill season was the election of Lieutenant Lyman Root to be navigator of the battalion to succeed Lieutenant Robert E. L. Hutchinson, promoted to be lieutenant-commander and in turn succeeding Lieutenant-Commander Frank S. Cornwell, promoted tobe commander of the battalion,viceCommander Averill, retired. In his capacity as chief of the division, Mr. Root had shown exceptional versatility, having been successful in the social and athletic lines, as well as in drill and discipline. At the next drill evening he took formal farewell of the division which he had so long and so ably and so considerately commanded, giving generously of his best energy and most faithful loyalty. He had taken the helm when the command was little better than a wreck, had nursed it back to health and prosperity and made it the finest military company in all Hartford. In fair weather and foul weather, in joy and sorrow, on soundings and off soundings, his steadying hand had been at the wheel and had time and again brought the division safe into port. Strong and clear purpose, affection for the command and for salt water,—these were our chief’s dominant traits. The ability to read character was another quality. But of these three characteristics his affection for the division stood ever foremost.

LIEUTENANT HOWARD J. BLOOMER

Captain Howard J. Bloomer came over from the infantry to act as next lieutenant of the division, not the least of the prerogatives being the privilege of presidingas toastmaster at the yearly banquet. On the menu card was a huitrain re-rigged from Coxswain John Kendrick Bangs so as to read:

Oh, Navy Plug, Ottoman, Alonzo,Puritan Boy, Especial, H. Clay,Invincible, Rosedale, Alphonso,Soby’s Best, German Lovers, El Rey,Elegantes, Re-ina, Selectos,Oh, Two-For, Madura, Grandé,Shoe Pegs, Oscuro, Perfectos—You drive all my sorrows away.

Oh, Navy Plug, Ottoman, Alonzo,

Puritan Boy, Especial, H. Clay,

Invincible, Rosedale, Alphonso,

Soby’s Best, German Lovers, El Rey,

Elegantes, Re-ina, Selectos,

Oh, Two-For, Madura, Grandé,

Shoe Pegs, Oscuro, Perfectos—

You drive all my sorrows away.

A floral bell nearly as large as the foretop was lifted and revealed an elegant silver loving cup presented to Mr. Root as testimony to their high esteem. A little later followed the elevation of Mr. Root to the rank of lieutenant-commander of the battalion.

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