The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-08
CONNECTICUT TAR
 COMMANDS YARD Rear Admiral Goodrich Set ties Down in
 Brooklyn.
SUCCEEDS BRAVE MAN.
The Picturesque Experience of Admiral Coghlan of
 DaWeu's Fleet
Dewev's Fleet.

Dewey's Fleet.
 The Brooklyn Navy Yard is now un- der the command of Connecticut boy. Rear Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich. whose home is at Pomfret. He inher- its as his aids Lieutenant Robert Hem derson, who married Miss Genevieve Cronan of this city. Lieutenant Hen derson, after his return from service in the Philippines, succeeded Lieutenant Cronan, his brother-in-law, as Admiral Coghlan's aide
 The retirement of Admiral Coghlan was set for last December, but he was paid the high and unprecedented com pliment by President Roosevelt of be- ing asked to remain little while long CT. He has served, counting the period in the Naval Academy, forty-seven years and is now 69 years old. Captain Coghlan was one of Dewey's advisers at Manila and played d con l spicuous part in the engagement. He also made himself felt in the friction afterward with the German fleet. Al ! day or so after the battle he was 1 standing on the hurricane deck of the Olympia when an officer of Admiral won Diederich came aboard to make complaint because one of the German ships had been stopped during the strict blockade following the battle
 Tell your Admiral those ships of his must stop when say so,' said Dewey.
 But we fly the German flag" an- swered the officer.
 Those flags can be bought for a dol lar yard anywhere" the. American Admiral retorted "A whole Spanish fleet might come at me with those col- ors. Tell your admiral and be explicit in saying that 1t comes from me that | the slightest infraction of my rules will mean only one thing, and that will be war. If your people are ready for war with the United States they can have it at any time.'
 And the quicker the sooner" chuck led Captain Coghlan as he watched the German aide scamper away, and al the same time squinted enc eye as he sur veyed the positions of the American and German ships.
 After the unpleasantness had passed over and Captain Coghlan had been as signed to the job of smelling couple of belligerent forts and had completed the l'task, he was sitting on the deck one day when he discovered an Australian newspaper of ancient date, possibly the only newspaper in the fleet. As all ca bles had been cut this was seized. 1 Strangely enough Admiral Coghlan s eye fell upon q satirical poem written about the Kaiser a number of years before by Canadian at a time when England and Germany were not friendly. The piece was entitled 'Hoch der Kaiser" and tickled the Admiral s l funnybone. He memorized 1t and a few nights later recited it at dinner of the fleet commanders. It is said that Admiral Dewey laughed so hard over 1 the recitation that he narrowly missed choking.
 Months later, after a dinner given to Coghlan at the Union League club in New York, at which Elihu Root, then president of the club, presided, the ad- miral was persuaded to recite the poem again. It leaked out and for a time it looked as if there would be interna- tional complications on account of It.. However, it is said that no one laughed more or was more amused than the German Emperor when he got as far as the fifth verse, which runs: l "Deres Grandma dinks she's nicht sehmali beer
 | Midt Boers und such she interfere; She'll learn none owns dis hemisphere
 But Me-und Gott. 1 After rereading 1t several times 1t Is told that the Kaiser had it known at l Washington that man who was dar- ing enough to recite those lines open- j ly was q foeman worthy of his steel. That was the last official word of the incident. Coghlan never received a sin gle word of reprimand,
 The Admiral was the ranking officer I'of after dinner speakers in the navy and his fame rapidly grew to outer circles It was always customary to put him at the end of the list because the I speakers ahead of him would always be sure of good audience. Nobody ever | went home when he was down for a speech. Not long ago at dinner given to him at Delnlonico's as chief of the New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States he was tne recipient of many compliments He re- piled by saying:
 This is honor enough 10 take any mans breath away. hope that 1t does take mine away before I get home Such a reception would be most pleas ing to any but diffident man like myself I am in the same boat with the fellow who dled and then came to life His wife said feelingly as she showed him some floweTy obituaries,
 John, don't you feel glad over that?
 "'No. he replied. I wish to God ] had died"
 Admiral Coghlan is in robust health and of late has been actively engaged with important construction work at the navy yard. He knows that he may be called upon by the government in an advisory capacity, but aside from that he has no plans.
 | "pt broadens ones horizon, so to speak, does it not?" inquired the man who was studying municipal condi- tions. "to serve the city in the capacl. ty of Alderman?"
 q don't know about that" answered the other man, "but I have noticed that it generally broadens his equator
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