Home plate on the forecastle near the foremast, for baseline the starboard foremast shrouds and for first base the foretop; along main topmast stay to second base, the main top-masthead; down main topmast rigging to third base, the main top; then down the mainstay and on to the point of beginning. None of the other teams would play on that diamond.
In a sham battle held in the armory in Governor McLean’s honor the division had a conspicuous part and in the spring the battalion had its field day in the South Meadow. Governor McLean had appointed Mr. Middlebrook to be naval aide on his staff, with the rank of captain, the highest rank which any member has obtained in the Connecticut naval militia, later naval-aides having the rank of lieutenant-commanders.
COURSE SIX
TO CAMP NEWTON
The third anniversary of the mustering in of the battalion at Niantic was observed by an outing at Woodmont, followed by a week-end cruise on the Elfrida, the converted yacht once owned by W. Seward Webb and purchased by the government at the breaking out of the war with Spain. At a banquet in the Pembroke Hotel at Woodmont, General Edward E. Bradley, adjutant-general when the First Division organized, and Senator Joseph R. Hawley were speakers.
Master-at-Arms Murphy trained a volunteer racing cutter crew at intervals in the course of the summer, bitterly lamenting that he never had the same men two evenings running. Still he had men who were fairly proficient when the battalion had its annual tour of duty, at Camp Newton on Fisher’s Island. Tent life was varied by considerable work in pulling boats. It was expected that a cutter race would be rowed between the Hartford racing crew and a crew picked from the New Haven and Bridgeport Division, but the latter did not materialize. That spectators might not be disappointed, two crews were selected from the Hartford oarsmen, Lieutenant Lyman Root acting as coxswain for one and Assistant Surgeon Carroll C. Beach for the other. Mr. Root’s crew was inspired by the presence of Dick, the division’s mascot, a corpulent bulldog with a blue flat cap cocked rakishly over one ear. With one hand on the tiller and the other on the dog’s collar, Mr. Root incited his crew and won by a half-length in a course of half a mile.
For most of the six days rain came down in buckets. The camp work was a practical lesson to the men of the division. That they returned healthy, well disciplined, and contented, as well as much more familiar with duty either afloat or ashore, demonstrated the learning capacity of the men and the value of the camp.
On the return the Elfrida cast off, outside Saybrook Light, a tow consisting of the steam whaleboat and the division’s cutter, its barge and its pulling whaleboat. The “whaler” with the pulling boat in tow started up the river, but a squall descended and gave work to all hands. The crews landed in Essex in torrents, and after making the boats snug for the night, turned in at a sail loft near the landing.