LONE VIGILS, HARD STUDY, AND STOKING DUTY LOT OF CRUISING STUDENTS

Lone night watches on the bridge, five-hour stretches in the engine-room with the temperature at 116 degrees Fahrenheit, systematic investigation and study of the innards of a light cruiser and the workings of those innards, were part of the program outlined for the members of the Naval Science Unit from the University who took a brief cruise down the Atlantic seaboard early last summer.

All students in the Naval Science Department who plan to qualify as Ensigns in the Navy are required to take one of these summer cruises. Fifteen members of the class of 1930 left Boston on June 25 on board the cruiser Florida, especially assigned by the Navy Department to carry the Naval Science units of Harvard, Yale, and Georgia Tech. Proceeding down Long Island Sound, the cruiser touched at Newport and New Haven, where the Yale unit, already veterans of a week's service, disembarked. The cruiser carried the Harvard sailors to Annapolis, where the contingent spent July 4, and sailed for home, arriving in Boston on July 8.

The novices were Initiated into all the mysteries of seamanship on a Navy cruiser of the second line. They took turns at standing watch in all quarters of the ship, from bridge to fire-room. Lectures were held on the theory and practice of navigation, and the students were required to make detailed study and drawings of the more important parts of the engines and the navigating apparatus.

Commander L. S. Stewart, of the Naval Science Department, declared that the cruise was a complete success, and that it will be repeated next year, with a foreign port, such as Hamilton, Bermuda, or Halifax, in view as a destination. A similar cruise was held on the west coast, where the cruiser Tennessee took students from western universities through a short period of practical application of the theory propounded through the year in the lecture rooms.