THE AMERICAN FLEET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 7

THE AMERICAN FLEET.

THE 'FRISCO VISIT. IMPOSING SPECTACLE. A MHXION PARTICIPATE. i BY ,MAIL. SAN FRANCISCO, May 7. Sitting proudly on her hundred hills, San Francisco watched the staging of a naval spectacle which marks an epoch in, not only in the history of the American navy, but of the world, the stately progress into the Bay of the mightiest fleet ever got together under ■ the Stars and Stripes. More than a million people watched this spectacle and marvelled. From the moment the curving white prow of the \Connecticut, flagship of the Atlantic fleet, cleft the tumbling tide around Bonita's wave-washed point until the last ship of the great armada had flung its anchor into the bay this million gazed, all athrill with patriotism. By ten o'clock the homes of the city were almost deserted, jtnd from the ocean coast line along the hills that hedge in the Gate and on the topmost ridges of the city's heights throngs had gathered atd were waiting'and watching for the first blot of smoke that would herald the earning of the armada. In launch and steamer and sailing boat the thousands who could not find vantage points on the hills and spread themselves over the bay, which two hours before the fleet could be sighted was alive with vari<*d craft. A westerly wind blowing in from the ocean kicked the s\irface of the bay into a tumble that made travel there for those in the smaller boats uncomfortable and for this teason only a few of the most daring ventured out into the throat of the Gate. There tide and wind in the narrow cleft raised a sliort, vicious sea that prevented all but one or two boats from venturing out beyond the "Heads. By 11 o'clock the hills crowning Point I Bonita and the slopes rising from Point I Lobos' on the south shore had caught &i j glimpse of the approaching smoke blots, and the crowds which carpeted tlus height 3 awayed and rustled] expectantly. Then almost before the nearest crowds had time to settle down and watch, the first great division of the fleet had swooped down on the line between Bonita and Lobos, and the fleet had commenced its entrance of the harbour. With the Connecticut cleaving the vfay, the three sister ships of its division, the Kansas, Louisiana and Vermont, the largest battleships that have ever entered San Francisco Bay, 16,000 tons each, marched in like giants of the sea. Trailing out astern in a dead' straight line, Rear-Admiral Emory's flagship, the Yorktown, led in the New J» rsey, Rhode Island, Virginia and the battleship Wisconsin, which joined the second division of the Atlantic fleet while it lay at anchor outside the heads. Then came the Minnesota, flagship of J the second squadron, with Rear-Admiral Thomas on the bridge, leading in the ■ smoke-belching Maine, the Missouri and the Ohio. And then Rear-Admiral Sperry's I flagship, the Alabama, leading through I the gate the fourth division, the Illinois, I Kearsargc and Kentucky and the added battleship Nebraska. And • trailing at a respectful distance after them, the big Glacier, meat ship ! of the fleet, the Panther, its machine ship, ' and the towering Relief, the hospital ship i t)f the armada. The entry of the fleet into the ihroat of the gate was a spectacle which none of those who saw it will ever forget. ;To add to its impre'ssiveness Admiral Evans had departed a little from the original programme and allowed the destroyer flotilla to share iii the honor of gettle a little of the cream of the reception.

So with the Whipple leading, with Lieutenant Commander Hutch Cone on its bridge, the Hopkins, Hull, Lawrence, Stewart and Truxton in. their black war paint slid along beside the leaders

of the battleship fleet, and slowed down to the last notch to keep pace with the stately thread of their big- brothers. Never in all their long cruise have these ships entered a harbour more picturesque, nor one in which the very air was more electric with warm welcome and patriotism. The colour, the light and the life of the scene were such as few men there had

ever seen before. On their perch, high : up on old Telegraph Hill, old men who had fought for their country, men of the G. A. R., looked down at it all and at the fleet that brought it into being, and wept. Thousands who had never fought except for their daily bread, who had never before felt the keen thrill of love for their country—that is, patriotism— ; looked upon it, too, and were moved. I It was not until the Connecticut swept ■ almost abreast of Fort Mason that the' great ships gave tongue to the answer that each man on board must have felt welling in hi 3 throat. It was then the big coast defence' guns, hidden. from the bay in the heights of the Presidio, in Battery Godfrey, rose up in their might to roar a welcome. Plash on flash and ' roar on roar, they belched forth a joyous I scream of greeting Across the bay the big guns on Fort Baker took up the cry, and roared out a welcome from their iron throats. Twen-ty-one guns, t&e greatest honour a nation can pay in salute, rang out over the bay, awakening a thousand sleeping echoes in the hills and throwing a canopy of smoke into the heavens under which the battleships rushed proudly on. And then when the roar from the shore was still echoing away among the hills, and sounding a tocsin call through the deserted city, a pulT of smoke burst from the after turret of the Connecticut, then a white fla.sh of flame, and the rfrarp report, until fitting answer was 1 made to the booming salute. Someone likened the roar of the big 1 guns that marked the progress of the j Atlantic fleet through the fortified ' throat of the harbour to the sublime I music of a march accompaniment to the wedding of America's two mighty armadas, the giant fleets of tie Atlantic and the Pacific. All through the long morning, while ' bay and hills echoed back the greeting to the fleet that had come fourteen • thousand miles and more to teach the ' world a lesson, the Pacific fleet had j tugged impatiently at its anchors behind! 1 the hills of Sausalito, waiting for its ! chance. That chance came when the last I of the great battleships had swept under Afcatraz. Then the great armoured eru-i ser West Virginia, flying the flag of RearAdmiral Dayton, commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet, swept in a graceful curve in the white wake left by the line of battleships. Then sweeping in the same curve the armoured cruisers Colorado, Maryland, and Pennsylvania followed, exactly the same distance apart to a foot as the battleship which had preceded them. Then Tteav-Admiral Sebree on the armoured cruiser Tennessee led the second division of this fleet into line with the ■ California, South Dakota, Washington, Lajad nnarlcaton smraim! **> rfttem. TV«n

the cruiser Alliany, and the little cruiser Yorktown.

With the Pacific fleet as with tlie Atlantic fleet, the destroyer flotilla kept pace with the lea-ding ships, marching around under their lee in the big curve that brought tliem into line.

And that entire majestic cavalcade of warships moved along the whole city front.

And s% on down the bay, tearing on without ( a hitch or lull, to Hunter's Point, where the Connecticut, turning , on her heel, led the fleet back to its anchorage.

The Connecticut' flung its anchor into the bay at_ exactly thirty-eight minutes past one. At precisely two o'clock, as much on schedule time as is humanly possible, the last warship in the line had thrown overboard her anchor' and hauled its flag from the gaff of the staff, and the great fleet was at rest.

THE SCENE AT NIGHT.

BRILLIANT DISPLAY BY SHIPS. _ As night settled down upon San Francisco bay and concealed from view the great white battleships, the throngs on the city's streets remained as great as at any time during the day. When darkness came it was met and neutralised by the artificial illuminations; but the great fleet of ships disappeared for a time when the sun had gone and a high fog had chut the early stars from view.

Then, suddenly, there blazed upon the bay a great field of illumination, and, marked in circxric outline, stood the fleet. The form of each ship was revealed in electric lamps; the hulks, smokestacks and rigging traced upon the darkness, in far-sweeping fairy aspect. And when the outline had been thrown against the sky and the hundreds 6f thousands of gazers along the' ' water front and on the elevations of the city had given expression to the surprise occasioned by the show, the cause of wonj derment still greater grew.

From all the battleships and crtßsere in the assembled fleet flashed the searchlights in full play upon the city, and then in rapid, incessant searching of the bay, the hills and homes of the city, and the clouds that hung above the fleet.

There were lights of unusual sort ashore, «.s -well as on the water, and the street illuminations were in some respects more extensive and spectacular than the city ever before had known.

But the feature of far the greatest interest, attracting pTobahly not less than 50,000 persons to the water front streets, and holding the attention ol fully 50,000 others in San Francisco, Oakland, . Alameda, Berkeley, and the Marin county points within range of the anchorage, ■was the illumination of the ships and their searchlight display.