"CHEER UP & GET BUSY!"

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13658, 28 March 1918, Page 1

"CHEER UP & GET BUSY!"

AD&IRAL SIMS' MOTTO. lv the London Ihiily Mail, Frederic William Wile vnites: —President Wiibon a^kwl Congress to declare war-on ixuruuuiy on 2nd Atprii, liUtf. Urn i>th April, ha.vang left J\&\v ioiik. quietly nolle days bdt'ore, an admiral of tiiie ll.nit.ed Sta.te*> Navy slipped quietly into .London and reported, himself to tfhe liritisih Admiralty. Jlis name was William bowdeii- Sims. On 30tii April, exactly tliree week* later, American warships were at work in Britdyli waiters, with Admiral JSinis in \chief command. Same's motto is "Cheer up and busy!" It was not, as pretty nearly evea-yibody m England now isaiows, the first historic occasion ot Admiraa Suns's aa-nval an this country. T'hiat happened ou 3i'd Deicember, 1910, when Sims, at a luncheon in the Guildhall, said: "If the time erer oomesi when the BritMi Empire is seriously menaced by an external enemy, lfiej my opinion, that you may count upon every ship, every man, 'every" dollar, and every drop of blood of your kindred across the 6 eas." ■ liSims was notf cut out for Diplomatic Service, for his speciality is saying exactly he meana, From: 1897 to 1.900' he was American' Niavial Attache in Paris and Petrograd. Month after month, for four 1 years, he bombarded Washington with reiports proving that in comparison witih niodein European fighting' craft", the United States warships

were jojses. .. &O0I) '■GUNNERY. Later, an oißScer in the new battleship'■ Kentucky- iboiind for the Far East, it,was Slims's great good iorfcune%o fall in, with Admiral Sir Percy Scott on the China Station. He'calls Scott 'rthe mam who stood jtiheartillery e«g on Its end." i.e., ciorivert&d gunnery Vrroiri guesswork into a xnatjh'einaGcal soieiiice. Sims studied reVereutially at Scott's feet, wad .T returned to iSie tFnited States detlermined henceforth to devote himself exclusively to teaching the lAmerican Niavy "how io shoot." Every man in the United States Navy will tell you that Vioe-iidmiral Sims is the father of its present-day efiioiehcy. .'.;.. Sims is Canadiaii.-tK)rn---'Poi >t Ontario wa^ his birthpace 59 years ago -^-but he has lived all his life in the States and is ''Yankee" in aspect, accent, and temperament. Two Presidents £aye : s^nally diistangmshed him. Mr. Roosevelt, I thinik, ', claims ,to have '/disoovered'' him. Mr. WiWm; promoted. Sams through two grades of senior officers to his present post aa Commander.jin-;C!hief of American Haval forces operating in Euaropean wat€«r6. Sams is about 1 a® handsome a.Nioorth America^, and sailorman as you. wiU find in a i month's oruiise. Stiralght as a Cherokee, he measures a good 6ft 2dn in height, his distin(gusihin% fea- ! ture being a wonderfully olafifiio head and profile adorned with a closencropped beard/ now, quite white. i Ho confesses to a pasßdon> for tactful i indiscretions .like his immortal Guild-

ball speech. . i I heard the . Yankee admiral ,-in one of his "indiscreet" moments recently at a gmofeer 'of the American j Ntewy Leau©. This is what ho said: i "TKe greatest iioiiour of my lite was conferred on me when I was per- : mitted to "tibist my flag, as Comi ma-nder-m-<3hief of the. Irish Station diwmg the v temporary absence of, I Vice-Admiral Sir Ljewis Bayly—one lof the greatest sailors and finest !gentlemen whoever wore naval undi form. ■.'.•■ ' .■'' '