COURSE TEN
THE COLUMBIA
Sail drill was the feature of the cruise on the Hartford in 1904 and in the following year drill in small boats was the feature. On the training ship the boats usually hung outside the rail, but on the cruiser the boats were frequently kept inside the rail. With the ship’s four funnels and her multitudinous skylights and deckhouses her superstructure was unsuitable for “setting up.”
A series of tug-of-war pulls enlivened the trip. The New Haven division won from Bridgeport and Hartford from New Haven. Thus it was for the Hartford team to pull the ship’s team. This contest came and to the astonishment of all, the Hartford men won. And so it was that when the division returned half of the lads were hoarse.
Bugler L. Wayne Adams was in high feather during the trip. He had memorized the calls and sounded them accurately. By virtue of his high office he was excused from previous service as messman; for much of the cruise he was a man of elegant leisure. On his return to Wethersfield, residents of Jordan Lane and the Nail Keg Club at Hanmer’s grocery heard many a fine yarn, spun in Wayne’s best style.
The old rifle range in the South Meadow was discontinued, owing to the increased range and power of the rifles just introduced into the Connecticut National Guard. In consequence the division’s fall target practice was conducted over the range in South Manchester. Acting as a marker, Landsman Hill was hit by a deflected bullet, which was found later in his shoe. Hill was taken to the Hartford Hospital.
Following the indoor meet, given successfully, of course, the division began to prepare to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The banquet was held in the Hartford Club. In the blue uniform the men of the division attending mustered for entry into the dining room, to the strains of a march. A dismounted signal gun of old-time size from the Dauntless rested at the center of the head table, flanked by two silver cups, trophies won by athletic teams from the division. Knife bayonets of the new kind rested on the cups. Two stacks of rifles afforded resting-place for the division’s colors.
The menu cards contained the following:
“Such a deal of skimble, skamble stuff