Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1902-08-28
THE NAVAL CONFLICT
No Meeting Between the Hostile
Fleets Yesterday.
HIGGIgSON SQUADRON MADE UNEASY

nIddlNOuN oYuADhUN lhDl uAIhoi
The Admirsl's Wonderful System Of Sig
mails said to Work to Perfection Com
mandsr Plllsbury Reported to
Have Landed Spies.
Rockport, Mass, Aug. eat mid
night SO hours had passed Of the
possible 12o for the naval conflict
between the attacking squadron, in
charge Of Commander Pilbbury and
the defending squadron commanded
by Rear Admiral Higginson. The
coming Of another day was recorded,
but the anticipated meeting between
tho hostile fleets had not come to
pass. After a day which had been
On the whole devoid Of many SEN
sations, the night, thick and cloudy
O. it was, with the moon quite OBJ
scure, developed so many confusing
situations and SO many extraordinary
reports that the Higginson squadron
had Just cause for grave uneasiness.
Somehow the feeling grew that it
would not be such a difficult attain
ment after all for the three auxiliary
cruisers of the white squadron to
slip In and anchor at some harbor,
protected as they would be by the
inviting darkness which prevailed.
Perhaps the greatest danger which
came to Admiral Higglnson was that
Of yielding to the temptation to with
draw the Kearsarge and leave only
the Alabama and the Massachusetts
to 60 in search Of the enemy, report
ed on apparently reliable authority
to have been sighted at either this
point or that point along the coast.
Such reports were, in fact, made.
In the early part of the night the
station on the Isles Of Shoals noti-
fled the nearest mainland point by
She use of torches and the secret
code Of the navy that large,
strange, two-masted craft had been
sighted outside the shoals. Admiral
Higginson's wonderful system Of Sig
mails worked to perfection. Almost in
a moment 1t seemed the destroyer
Decatur was rocketed from Ports
mouth to pursue the mysterious com.
er, and in another moment the De.
catur, with the smoke belching from
her four great stacks, was blowing
furiously through the heavy seas.
The stranger turned and fed at full
speed, and this fact led to the deci-
sion that she may have been one Of
the attacking fleet passing onward
on scout duty. At later hour the
Decatur had made no report
At II o'clock came another report
Of a strange ship sighted south Of
Eastern Point light, Gloucester. Ad-
miral lIigginson at once ordered the
torpedo boat Bagley to investigate,
but the Bagley found to her surprise
that 1t was the cruiser Brooklyn,
which had come down from her
northern station pursuant to the
privilege extended by Admiral Hig-
ginson.
The reason that the admiral stead
tasty refused to leave his anchorage
in the harbor here was that he dared
not leave Rockport exposed to the
enemy, which, taking advantage of
needless passage of the defending
battleships to another port, might
easily creep in and drop anchor at
the very heart of the operations of
the blue squadron. 1t was these con-
siderations that forced Admiral Hig-
glnson to the conclusion that on none
but the surest authority would he
leave the Rockport station to join
other members Of his squadron in
the work of putting the enemy out
Of action.
The complications which developed
yesterday in the shape of undoubted
news that Commander Pillsbury had
secretly landed some of his officers
ashore to spy upon the movements
OF the blue squadron, served only
to increase the perplexity of Admiral
Higginson's position and this re-
ported shore system of spying was
one OF the" things which led the adj
miral to establish the new signal
station off Straitsmouth point, and
also to remove his ships as he did
early In the evening to a point in.
side Thatcher's island.
In the early morning the position
of these boats had not changed
The Kearsarge held the outer bert'l
and the Massachusetts was inner
most.
y ------------------------.
Rockport Mass, Aug. 23.-com-
mander Pillsbury and his fleet of
three auxiliary cruisers are still at
sea. Unless the commander Of the
white squadron makes an attempt
to reach harbor within the next 60
hours from midnight, his efforts to
win a victory In the game of mimic
war will fail, for theoretically 1t will
be considered that his ships have
sunk, or he has found that the block
ade established by Admiral lliggin-
son from Portland to Cape Cod can
not be broken. 1t is only fair to
say that naval experts believe that