HERALDED BY SEAPLANES

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 36, 11 August 1925, Page 8

HERALDED BY SEAPLANES

CIRCLING OVER THE CITY

DETACHMENT OF TEN SHIPS

IMPRESSIVE ENTRANCE INTO HARBOUR

Heralded by a squadron of six seaplanes flying in perfect order the detachment of the American fleet which is visiting Wellington arrived in the harbour shortly before noon. After a long spell of wet and' gloomy weather the day broke clear and fine, with a light breeze from the north floating a wrack of feathery clouds out to sea.

The smoke of the fleet —which consists of ten ships, the

flagship, Seattle, carrying the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Ooontz, three other battleships, the Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Nevada, four light cruisers, the Eich- , mond, Trenton, Marblehead, and Memphis, the hospital ship Relief, and a repair ship—appeared over the clear southern horizon of the sea about 10 o'clock. At 10; 30 a.m. the fleet became perfectly visible about a dozen miles out, and began to form into column to enter the harbour. The battleships, headed by the Seattle, came first, and, then, after an interval, the hospital ship and the repair vessel. The light cruisers drew out, at first across the rear like the cross of. a letter T, and then swung round quickly and fell into line. At the same time, a squadron of seaplanes arose like gulls off the water and swung round in wedge formation, circled the fleet, and came up its starboard side,

heading for the entrance of the harbour at an elevation

of about a thousand feet. At 11.25 a.m. the seaplanes, with engines roaring, swept in a compact wedge through the gap of the Heads and flew up the entrance and round into the inner harbour and over the city. They returned in wedges of threes a little later to accompany the. Seattle and her consorts through the entrance. A seventh seapalne flew up and down the line at a low elevation, a few hundred feet above the water. The entry of the fleet was made in splendid order, the

Seattle belching out smoke from three of her four funnels,

but the rest of the fleet hardly showing a plume at their funnels. Crowds of people, including many school children, witnessed the superb spectacle of the inward passage of. the most formidable detachment of warships that has ever visited Wellington Harbour. Hundreds of motor-cars moved along the lower roads towards the gap at Breaker Bay, and along the roads of the Seatoun Heights. On the rocks by Fort Dorset were many other spectators, and the beach was thronged. The Duchess, Muritai, and

Cobar blew their whistles for welcome, and the Seattle gracefully responded with the boom of her syren.

During their stately. progress up the harbour the fleet made a most impressive spectacle, the sun shining on the light grey of the turrets of the battleships and .the sides of the cruisers. The whole scene was highly reminiscent of the arrival last year of the two great British battlecruisers, the Hood and Eepulse, with the Australian light

cruiser Adelaide. Strangely enough, the American ships —or was it simply the effect of a blithe sunny day?—

did not look such formidable fighting machines .as the

Hood and Repulse, but they had a decided element of grace .in their appearance, with their clean lines and their lattice towers aiid fighting tops.

With the aeroplanes still circling joyously round, like mothering seabirds, the .Seattle and her consorts berihed quietly at the Pipitea Wharf, the berthing-place of the Hood and Repulse, and the boom of guns announced the salute of formal welcome.