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. In the autumn the division sustained another severe affliction in the death of its first honorary member, a firm friend in fair weather and foul, Admiral Francis M. Bunce, an officer whom it had been a rare privilege to honor. A veteran of the Civil War, a seasoned sailor, a loyal Hartford man who took pride in his townspeople, the Admiral had richly merited the division’s high esteem. His strong, yet kindly face the men missed and mourned. In the autumn an order came for a parade in New Haven, and when the personal escort for President Roosevelt was selected, it was found to be the Naval Battalion; and when the parade started it was found that the senior division, the Second, was next to the President’s carriage. Wall-scaling had a conspicuous part in the drill of the winter, and in the spring small boat work and volunteer work on the Elfrida, the battalion’s practice vessel, were attractions for those most interested in the command. The Elfrida played her part well in the duty of the spring field day of 1902, when the battalion rendezvoused in Bridgeport. [Illustration: CAMP PARKER ]