“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 to be commander of the battalion, _vice_ Commander 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.