The Nevada County picayune., 1908-05-21
FLEET ID PUGET SOUND
LEAVES SAN FRANCISCO AFTER TWELVE DAYS OF MERRY
 MAKING.
SHERRY HOSTS HIS FLAG
Before the End of the Month Play Days Will Be Over and Officers and Men Will Resume
 the Usual Routine.

San Francisco. May 1S.-The At lantic fleet of battleships, after F days of naval pageantry and merry making in San Francisco harbor, sails Monday for Puget sound, ar irving of Seattle on May g. One half of the ships will dock at Bremen ton navy yard while north and the others will return here for repairs and painting beneath the water line
 Play days in Puget sound will be over before the end of the month and then the officers and men will re- sume the usual routine of man-ofwar life.
 Orders call for the reassembling of the fleet in San Francisco harbor not later than July 8.
 Of for Honolulu July 7.
 On July the fleet sails for Honou- lu and after a weeks stay there goes direct to Auckland.
 The Pacific fleet of armored cruis- CTS, under command of Rear Admiral Dayton. sailed south Sunday morning at S o'clock and Rear Admiral Sperry, in command of the Atlantic fleet. hoisted for the first time his com manding flag of blue. Being junior In lineal rank to Admiral Dayton, Admiral Sperry was compelled by nacval regulations to fly a subordinate flag of red so long as the Pacific fleet remained at this station. The long line of armored cruisers which sailed for Santa Barbara was headed by the flagship West Virginia and included the Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington and Cali fornia. The protected cruiser Charles ton, flagship of Rear Admiral Swim burne, also sailed with the fleet, but her destination Is Monterey. The gunboat Yankton accompanied the cruisers 10 Santa Barbara.
 The South Dakota, one of the eight armored cruisers composing the sec ond squadron of the Pacific fleet which returned late Saturday from her official trip, did not sail with the others
 Catholics Provide Entertainment.
 Last of the official entertainments provided here for the Atlantic and Pa. cific fleets was the banquet rendered Saturday night at the Fairmont hotel by San Francisco Council No. 615, Knights of Columbus, to the petty officers of the two fleets Arrange ments for the affair were carried out by Rev Father Gleason. chaplain of the flagship Connecticut
 Admiral Sperry and Thomas both spoke and there were in attendance Capts. Southerland of the New Jersey and Nicholson of the Nebraska.
 Sperry Makes Speech.
 Many wives of officers and petty officers were also among the diners. Admiral sperry. made the first speech since assuming command of the At lantic fleet He spoke directly and pointedly. He declared that the en- listed men of the navy were the bull warks in the defense of the navy.
 Their training" he continued, lis entirely Tn the hands or the pettE or dcers who stand between the men and commanding officers. We have now in the navy the most splendid body Of young men that could be SC lected in all the world. Above every thing else they are American gentle men and their training should always be along that line. And when they salute a superior officer, they should remember it Is no hard line of caste that is drawn. but that 1t Is merely the courtesy due and the salutation of one gentleman to another They are brave men and true, all of them, and l am proud 10 command such force"