Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-12-16
Mr.. Roosevelt Wishes Officers
! Good Luck and Reviews Float
ing Fighting Machines
DoFF THEIR HOLIDAY eARs
Bio ship. Look in Trim for Business
when They Pass virsinia capes -
Expect to Reach Trinidad on Christ.
mas Eve-Imposins Spectacle Marks
Departure Of the Fleet.

s& Old POINT COmIOTt, d., DeSs "
The backbone Of the American navy,
sixteen first class battleships, under
command Of Rear Admiral Robley D.
Evans, set sail today for the Pacihc
ocean. a $4,000 mile cruise which has
set all the world talking.
Parading in review before the pres
ident OF the United States and saluting
as they went, the stately white vessels
drew anchors from the rendezvous IN
Hampton Roads and steamed out OF
the famous old Virginia capes at
speed Of ten knots per hour, headed for
the eastern end OF the West Indies.
After threading their way among the.
reefs of thnse islands the fleet will
bring up At Trinidad on Christmas
eve, the first stage Of its journey at
an end.
President Witnesses Start.
President Roosevelt, accompanied by
part of his guests, reached here at
$40 from Washington on the naval
Yacht Mayfower. His arrival in the
roadstead was signalized by the firing
OF the national salute of twenty-one
guns from the fleet. When the re-
sulting veil of powder had lifted from
the ships, the Mayfower proceeded to
anchor in the very center of the throb-
8 bing fleet. There followed brief re-
ception on board, the president hav-,
ing a farewell message for the four
admirals and the sixteen commanding
officers who are taking the ships thru
the Magellan strait to San Francisco.
the Mayfiowers quarter deck the presi-
dent shook each Officer cordially by the
hand and as they went over the side
he bede them an Official adieu. Then
for the journey of nearly ten miles, the
president, as commander -in-chief of
+ the American army and navy, led the
long line of battleships out to Chesa-
peake bay. They followed his flag to
Thimble shoal light, Just five miles
inside the capes, where the MayfloWer
turned aside and dropped her anchors
for the formal review.
Each Ship Booms Farewell.
AS a naval pageant, the review and
departure was notable in American
history. There have been several
5 presidential reviews of the Atlantic
feet during the past eighteen months,
but in those instances the great ships
were lying docile at the end Of spread.
yacht passed up and down their lines.
To-day the fleet was under way and
had cast off from shore and was OUT
ward bound ON a cruise, which as the
president himself expressed it: No
fleet of such size has ever before un-
y dertaken."
Most of the big guns which
had voiced a welcome to the president
upon his arrival in Hampton Roads,
uttered good bye tribute as
they passed the Mayfower outward
bound The salute of welcome had
been paid in unison; the farewell trib-
ute was in the individual offering from
each one Of the sixteen ships.
The fleet passed out in single coll
,l1nn, the big government built Con-
necticut, the flagship Admiral Evans,
leading the way
Vessels were four hundred yards
apart and from the Connecticut to the
Kentucky, which brought up the rear.
the line reached distance of more
than four miles. Five stages of Amer
lean battleship construction were rep
resented ain the line, and as an object
lesson in the growth Of the American
navy the spectacle found one of its
most striking features
A large number of yachts and ex-
cursion boats accompanied the fleet
down the bay and gathered at the re-
viewing round. President Roosevelt's
party on the Mayfiower, included Mrs.
Roosevelt, Ethel Roosevelt, Secretary
of the Navy and Mrs. Metcalf, Assist
ant Secretary of the Navy and Mrs.
Newberry, Rear Admiral and Mrs.
Brownson, Rear Admiral and Mrs.
Cowles, and Lieutenant Commander
and Mrs Simms. The naval dispatch
boat Dolphin also Name down from
Washington with party of congress-
men on board The weather was beau
tiful and conditions for the departure
OF the fleet could not have been much
Anproved upon.