The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1900-01-02
HER NAMEA'fTHET TOP
~. s. S. BROOKLYN WENT Arovt
III. M. s. SPHINX"

/ - AAENUNt EtAN Nv NuNfMN ny nnNMt
of Uncle SANS Old Time Jack Tar.
That Thrilled tbeHenrts of n who'll
ships Crew.
There was once another Brool,iy
the forerunner Of the present aruic.
cruiser, but the old Brooklyn, wh.gh
suring the civil war, gained the peme
Of the Butcher Shop" had no rescin
blance TO the floating fortress that
hurled destruction into the feet OF Ad
miral Cervera.
The old ship bore q groat spread q
canvas and had but auxiliary steam
power Her lofty masts and creaking
yards would seem singularly out Of
place todey, but they served their pur.
pose in their own time. Her ocon deck.
with double row of muzzle leading.
moothboro guns. looked like a scene
from a medimval drama, aud when she
went 20 sea the Tapping of the sails
and the snap Of the cordage were not an
unwelcome lullaby to those who slep,
beneath her cool white decks.
This old Brooklyn sailed one Gas
from New York, bound upon rowing
cruise and came in time to tho A2cros
islands, whence she sailed for Lisbon
and Gibraltar aud, passing through thu
Mediterranean and tho Suez canal,
steamed slowly down the scorching Red
sea- A stop at Alden for day or two
made her ready for a journey 10 the
Persian gulf, but when the gulf Of
Ormaz was reached the skipper thought
to take look at Muscat, and so the
course was shaped for the capital of the
son of Abraham, whose forefathers for
hundreds, nay, thousands, of years, had
been sheiks of the desert
In all her journey the good ship had
entered not a port where the proud
Cross Of St George could not be seen
from the staff of a British man-of- war,
but here at Muscat it was thought that
at least our flag would be the only token
of western civilization in evidence. But
it was not so, for. as the Brooklyn
rounded a high promontory that shut
in the little harbor, there, lying at an.
ohor, was seen the English gunboat
Sphinx with her milk white flag feat
ing above her.
I Muscat had m-ch that was strange
and weird to interest the Americans.
but neither the palace of the sultan,
with its double wall. between the two
parts of which are kept the tigers
whose duty ii is to guard the palace at
night, nor the imperial harem's grim
exterior, nor the gorgeous apparel of the
sultan himself had half the attraction
for the westerners that the grim, sheer
| face of the promontory mat shuts in the
harbor had; for there upon the bleak
wall of this towering height were
painted the names Of many ships, and
high above them all, in place that
seemed inaccessible, we're the words
"H. M. s. Sphinx"
The men of the Brooklyn stared at
that name day after day, until it seemed
burned into their brains, and the spirit
Of emulation grew within them.
The night before the Brooklyn was
TO sail for Persian waters there were
evidences Of a secret movement among
the crew, and after the night had fallen
still and black a boat pulled off from
the vessels side, and with mufiled oars
made rapidly for the shore. 1t carried
many things of various sorts, end among
them lantern, whose tiny glimmer
those on the chips watched with bated
breath as it reached the shore and slow
ly began the ascent Of the promontory
Now it would disappear and then gilt
ter again like star Of hope and COM
fort, and so it went slowly on, ever up
and up the face Of the outlined preoipice.
The hours dragged slowly by, and il
was far into the night when a tired
boats crew clambered slowly over the
B1ooklyn's side and dropped exhausted
into their hammooks for a short sleeI
before the call Of "all hands" in the
morning.
The Brooklyn sailed away just as the
sun began 20 show above the eastern
horizon, and as she swung upon heI
course and stood for the waters of the
open gulf cheer burst from tho thrOatl
Of the whole ships company. For there
in great letters of white that caught th'
warmth Of the rising sun, far above the
name OF ber maiestY's Bhip Sphinx, fal