US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

The First Thi~ty Years 17
The yearbook added, possibly with the Congressional abolition of hazing in
mind:
With the passing of the Old Academy, not only the old buildings have
disappeared, but also the old customs and the old life.
More specifically the 1905 Lucky Bag noted of the Class of 1908:
Bedad, yer a bad un’
Now turn out yer toes’
Yer belt is unhookit,
Yer cap is on crookit,
Ye may not be drunk,
But bejabers, ye look it.43
YOUNGSTER CRUISE
The 1905 Summer Practice Cruise for the midshipmen of the Naval
Academy was made by the 6,000-ton second class battleship USS ~exa~
(Flagship), four monitors, the USS Terror, USS Arkansas, USS Fiot+da, and
USS Nevada, two small cruisers, the USS Neuark and USS Atlanta, the old
but famous USS Hartford, and the Naval Academy Station Ship, the USS
Severn. The last two had sails only,’+ Even without the Severe and Hartfo~d,
this was a patch-work of ships of rather varied formation keeping qualities.
These ships, except the Naval Academy Station Ship, normally comprised
the Coast Squadron of the North Atlantic Fleet. Rear Admiral Francis W.
Dickens, U. S. Navy, was the Coast Squadron Commander, Rear Admiral
Robley D. Evans (Fighting Bob) was Commander in Chief of the North
Atlantic Fleet.
The schedule of the cruise was about as uninteresting from the viewpoint
of midshipmen anxious to see the world, as it was practical for naval
authorities to make. Ports visited were: Solomon’s Island, Maryland; Gardiner’s
Bay, Long Island; Rockland, Eastport, and Bangor, Maine; and New
London, Connecticut. According to the Lucky Bag “We saw the same old
New England towns.” The summer was marked by “the seasick cruise up to
Gardiner’s Bay, a little work, more play, good times ashore,” and .
‘Lucky Bag, 1907, p. 16i; Ibid,, 1908, p. 276.