Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-12-16
|er. storm or fog, that interval will be
kept vigorously! ~,
Will Not Scatter.


scatter. 1t 7must be kept together COM
pactly so as to practice what Charles
H. Cramp, the shipbuilder, once said
was the greatest need of our navy
battleship seamanship.
Only five stops will be made on the
way to San Francisco. The first will /
be at the Port of Spain. Trinidad; the
Punta Arenas, in the straits of Magel |
Ian; the fourth at Callao, Peru. and
the fifth at Magdalena bay, in Lower
California.
Five days each will be spent at
Trinidad and Punta Arenas, and 10I
days each at Rio and Callao. Thirty
days will be spent in Magdalena bay
for target practice.
After that the ships will go to San
Francisco, and then the problem of
what to do with them, whether to bring
them back in the same way or by way
of Europe, leaving large part of them
in the Philippines, will probably be an
nounced The president in his mes
sage intimated that they might be
brought back to the Atlantic coast by
| way of South America, and that cruises
such as this, from one coast TO the 9th
er, should be the regular thing here
| after at least once in two years, if
not oftener
Previous Gathering of Warships.
| While it is true that mo fleet of such
size has ever made such voyage" it
is rot the largest feet of battleships
ever assembled for evolution. 1t is
the largest and strongest American
fleet.
Only last fall Great Britain assem-
bled no less than 20 modern battle
ships and 20 armored cruisers for ma
neuvers in home waters. AT Oyster
| Bay year ago there were 81 Ameri-
can warships of all kinds in the great
review. At the opening of the James
town exposition last April there were
SO warships, counting the foreigners,
and AZ of them flew the stars and
lstripes. -..:
But no American feet has had the
homogeneity of the one Admiral Evans
is to take around South America. 1t
is composed exclusively of heavy fight
ers. the bull dogs, if naval dogs of war
can be so designated.
The four other ships that go along
do not count, because two of them are
strictly supply ships, one is a repair
ship, and the other is known as 4
tender. Their purpose is to furnish
supplies from a shaft to a can of ma
chine oil, and to see that all the little
material wants that any great ship, not
the men, may need are furnished.
Dividing Up the Fleet.
The fleet is to be divided into tive
, squadrons and four divisions Admira
; Evans will command the fleet, the first
squadron and the first division. Eacf
squadron will have eight battleships
and each division four.
Rear Admiral Thomas will command
the second squadron and the third di
vision. Rear Admiral Emory will com
mand the second division and Rear AID
y miral Sperry will have charge of the
fourth division Commander Hogg vii.
have charge OF, the auxiliary division
/, of small craft
. Preceding the battleship fleet there
has been sent ahead a fiotilla of 81,
=, torpedo destroyers. They will be pass
= Iocean between Punta Arenas and Cal
ilao.
Reason Not known.
No full explanation has been give,
:, as to the reason for the dispatch o
these egg shells of the navy. Thei
f. departure has not aroused extende,
= comment, because the interest of tn,
. ipublic has been centered in the battl
fleet.
Naval men believe that they are sen
, around to the Pacific for business ratt
Ter than practice. The future alone ca
disclose that. Their journey is regard
: ed by naval men as fivefold more dar
lgerous than that of the battle fleet
The fleet will arrive at Trinidad Dec
"a and remain there until Dec. 90 TIL
distance from Hampton Roads to Trir
iidad is 1850 miles, and with the excer
ltion of the run from Magdalena bay t
San Francisco, about $500 miles, vii
be the shortest reach on the voyage
1Christmas will be celebrated at TriI
lidad, and it will be the usual merry
making type aboard ship.
Battleships All New.
All of the ships OF the fleet are q
idistinctly modern type. not one of ther
being in existence at the time of tn
tSpanish war. The fleet therefore, wi
display more than any other exhibi
could show the great advance that ha
been made in American naval affair
in 10 years.
When the Spanish war came the I'm
ted States had only four battleship!
the Indiana, Oregon, Massachusett!
and Iowa. The eyes of the nation wer
centered on the performance of tn
Oregon in its celebrated trip from Sa
Francisco to the Atlantic coast, pra,
tically duplicate of the journey of tn
! battle fleet except that it did not sto