The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-25
ATTACKING SQUADRON LOSES
PILLSBURY SURRENDERS UN-
 CONDITION4LLK.

in the Naval Strategy Gamc-Dis-
 covered Eight Miles south of ThaIch-
 er's Island, Near the Mouth of Glou-
 cester Harbor, While Attempting to
 Make the HaTbor of SaIem-The Caps
 ture SIndc on the Fourth Night of the
 Mnneuyers.
 Rockport, Mass. Aug. 24-The naval search problem on the New England coast was terminated at $40 this morn ing by the signal Surrender: demand and unconditional" from Rear Admiral Higginsons flagship, and the reply "Ac- cept surrender from the foretruck of the Prairie, Commander Pillsbury's flagship. The battle between the blue, or defending squadron, and the white, or attacking squadron, was thus quick ly ended eight miles south of Thatch- CTS Island. The enemy had most sig nally failed to make the harbor, having for it's objective Salem. A preponder- ance of fighting strength, relatively GA points represented by the battleships Kearsarge, Alabama and Massachusetts, Scorpion and a torpedo boat had over whelmed the 45 points represented by the auxiliary cruisers Prairie, Panther and Supply. To speak from a theoretic standpoint the white squadron was en- tirely destroyed by the guns of the de- lending battleships. Thus on the fourth night the game of naval strategy was brought to an end it having covered a period of unceasing toll, sleepless nights of anxious and wearying vigil and of grave uncertainty to its participants.
 The destruction of Pillsburys squad ron occurred at $40 this morning at point just within the outer limit of Gloucester harbor not over eight miles southerly from Thatcher's Island, off which it had been anchored since We'd nesday, when the war game was de- clared by the three powerful battleships of the blue squadron.
 The surrounding and putting out of action of the squadron in charge of Commander Pillsbury was the culmin- ating incident in one of the most inter
 
 the American navy. For the placing in operation of the maneuvres of the war ships off the coast of New England, hte navy had long prepared itself and had long looked forward to them with keen anticipation. As planned by the naval authorities at Washington two squad rons were to be put into the game, one the blue, the defending fleet, and the other the white, to be d hostile fleet bent upon effecting an anchorage into some unprotected harbor on the coast from Cape Elizabeth to Cape Cod, op- posed all the time by the first named fleet. This anchorage had to be main- tained against the defenders for pe- riod of six hours. Commander Pills bury's white squadron consisted of auxiliary cruisers Prairie (fagship), Panther and supply. The two former boats were each assigned twenty points of fighting strength while the supply was assumed to represent five points. Admiral Higginson's fleet was actually superior in the number of it's members and by the same arrangement made as to the Pillsbury ships, it represented a grand total of 97 points of strength. The Kearsarge the Alabama and the Massachusetts, battleships were given twenty, the cruisers Brooklyn and Olympia eight each, the Mincinnati and Montgomery, Gloucester, May1ower and Scorpion three points each, while a number of torpedo boats made up the remaining numbers. To win in the sa hn bring against the attacking vessels, as it did early to-day, warships superior in their combined assumed fighting powe. Each side had the right to cap ture individual craft of the other fleet by overcoming them in point of strength and under the rules of the game the captured vessels were to re- tire altogether from the field of action.
 In the defeat of Pillsbury this morn ing the defense with three battleships, the Scorpion and with single torpedo boat had sixty-four points, so that the balance was against the attacking squadron. Throughout the mimic war which closed to-day there was placed in operation a system of coast defense which was admittedly of credit to those who engaged in it.
 The problem was so complicated that on the war vessels tonight the weeks work is viewed with satisfaction for the one reason, if for no other, that the squadron has had invaluable practice.
 The final event of these war moves was the sequence of many complicating developments.
 The capture came at the end of a night filled with rurnors as to the loca- ton of the attacking squadron At 9:30 o'clock last night three battleships of Higginson got under way in hurry and sailed to the eastward. The inten- ton was to move on to Portland, and if this had been carried out Admiral Higginson, as it later developed, would have unconsciously swung the balance of his fighting force to that end of the coast line as Pillsbury had intended he should, but which was not done on ac- count of heavy seas running outside of deflected his course back to Gloucester, after swing seaward, in response to a report that the enemy had not been sighted when it was believed she had been, but in the last hours of the night Pillsbury sailed toward Cape Ann from the outside, and, as it proved, right un- der the very guns of the defending squadron. Commander Pillsbury, when still out to sea, after maueuverirg head