The San Francisco call., 1899-09-30

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knots, but so magnificent was its area
that the impression was one Of exceed
ingly slow and stately movement. The
picture was continually changing, bu
it melted so slowly and in such meas
ured rhythm from form to form thai
the sense of motion was largely lost
1t started under brilliant sky, pass
ed at the mouth Of the Hudson through
the threat of an ugly storm and
emerged through a rainbow arch that
stretched from shore to shore into a
clear and brilliant sunset off the Grant
tomb.
! The night had been a busy one in the
! fleet of warships off Tompkinsville
The last details of the days ceremony
were hardly settled before the day itself
broke on scene of greater activity
than the classic anchorage had ever
witnessed before. The great vessels of
the white squadron swung at their an
chorage as for the past two days. but
the crowd of neighb1ring craft had been
sWelled past counting AS far as could
be seen the water was mass of NOV
Ing steamers. 1t was a moving, shift
boats, torpedo boats, yachts, launches,
tramp steamers and ocean liners and
sailing craft of every kind, with big
ferry excursion boats plowing their
way through the ruck in mysterious
paths that opened before them and
closed again behind them like the ice
of an Arctic foe
The only stable points in the scene
at that early hour were the warships.
They lay like a great white grounded
berg about which the pack-ice turned
and swirled without moving them from
their mOorings. 1t was a morning of
repressed excitement on board the New
York and the other ships behind the
Olympia. Everything had been cleaned
and FURNISHED from ram to rudder.
Noon was ushered in with scream of
whistles that sounded like ten thousand
craft. The last far-away echo had
hardly drifted back from the Staten Isl>
and hills when a sudden impulse seem
ed to seize the far aching mass of
tugs and other craft. Instead of drift
ing idly round and round the warshIps.
like ships in an eddy, they began to
steam away to the south in parallel
lines as though some current were
bearing them out to sea. But as they
vanished in scores toward the Narrows
there were hundreds more that swept
down from up the harbor. Then there
was a scurrying home of the white
hooded steam cutters of the warships.
The great boat cranes amidships reach
ed down their graphing hooks and
whisked the pinnaces aboard. Mega
phone commands flung across the water
brought the torpedo boats to heel like
the greyhounds they were at the Olym-
pia's quarter. The brilliant code flags
blossomed like flowers on the Olympia
from bridge to maintop. 1t was the or
der to form in column. The Brooklyn's
pennant snapped Aye. aye" from the
signal yard and a duplicate set of flags
passed the order to the Indiana. whence
it was flung from shin to ship down the
squadron. The black speed cones of
the Olympia climbed slowly to her
yards as the big cruiser got under way.
The other vessels slowly turned. like.
troop of cavalry squadron, front toward
the Narrows, and then fetching
graceful sweep, headed back up the
harbor toward the Battery. the Olym-
pta, escorted by the Mayors boat, the
Sandy Hook, in the lead
Back Of her at 40O-yard interval
came the New York, then the powerful
Indiana and Massachusetts, the fleet
footed Brooklyn, the sturdy old Texas
the rakish, yacht-like Dolphin; the old
Lancaster, a relic of another naval age:
the powerful Chicago, and finally the
little Marietta, the rear guard of the
fighting craft. Behind stretched the
transports, and farther still, almost
lost in the distance, the yachts and
miscellaneous craft hull down on the
horizon.
The evolution began at 1 o'clock and
in fifteen minutes the fighting line was
Strengthened out up the harbor. Ad-
miral Dewey was going to his own j
place at the head of a squadron that
would have Won at need three battles
or Manila Bay without stopping for
breakfast.
The head Of the column was a broad
arrow. Six torpedo boats spread out as
the bar, three on a side, from the
Olympia's quarter. Outside of them a
flying wedge Of police patrol boats
formed a great V, whose apex was the
Olympia. Flanking them, ahead and
astern, were the harbor fire boats
spouting great columns of water that
turned threateningly toward the ex-
cursion boats on either side when they
attempted to crowd the line of march
But the pageant back of this power
full vanguard was not limited to sin
gle nor sextuple line of ships 1t was
a sinuous marine monster half a mile
wide, whose vertebrae were the ships
of the white squadron and whose ribs
were rows upon rows of every sort of
floating thing that had ever run by
steam in New York harbor. Thou
sands viewed the spectacle as it moved
up past Staten Island, thousands more