Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-18
ATLANTIC FLEET
Off FOR PUGET
SOUND TODAY
PLAY DAYS NEARLY OVER FOR
NAVAL MEN
ARMADA WILL REAssEMBLE ON
JULY 3
Armored Cruisers Under Admiral
Dayton Sail South-AdmiraI
sperry Runs Up the
Blue Flag

BY Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 17.-The At
lantic fleet of battleships, after twelve
days of naval pageantry and merry
making In San Francisco harbor, sails
tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock for
Puget sound, arriving off Seattle on
May 21. One-half of the ships VIII
dock at Brementon navy yard Whlie
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 ana
then the officers and men will resume
the usual routine of man-of-war life.
/ Orders call for the reassembling OF
the fleet in San Francisco harbor not
later than July 8. On July Z the fleet
stay there goes direct to Auckland.
The Pacific fleet of armored cruisers
under command of Rear Admiral Day
ton, sailed south this morning at .
o'clock, and Rear Admiral Sperry, In
command of the Atlantic fleet, hoisted
for the first time his commanding nag
of hlue Being Junior in lineal rank
to Admiral Dayton. Admiral Sperry
was compelled by naval regulations to
fly subordinate flag of red so long as
the Pacific fleet remained at this sta
ton.
West Virginia Leads
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 California.
The protected cruiser Charleston,
flagship of Rear Admiral Swinburne,
also sailed with the feet, but her destl-
nation is Monterrey. The gunboat
Yorktown accompanied the cruisers to
Santa Barbara.
The South Dakota, one of the eight
armored cruisers composing the second
squadron of the Pacific feet. which re-
turned late yesterday afternoon from
her official trial trip, did not sail with
the others.
The last of the official entertainments
provided here for the Atlantic. and Pa
cific fleets was the banquet rendered
last night at the Fairmont hotel by Sar
Francisco council 615,, Knight of Co
iumbus, 20 the petty officers of the two
, fleets. The arrangements for the affair
were carried out by the Rev. Father
Gleeson, chaplain of the flagship Con.
necticut. Rear Admirals Sperry ano
Thomas both spoke, and there were ir
attendance Captains Sutherland of the
and number of other commanding
and commissioned officers.
Sperry Makes Speech
Many wives of officers and petty Off
GERS were also among the diners Ad-
miral Sperry made his first speech since
assuming command of the Atlantic
fleet. He spoke directly and pointedly.
He declared the enlisted men of the
navy were the bulwark and defense of
the navy.
Their training" he said, lis entirely
in the hands of the petty officers who
stand between the men and the COM
manding officers. We have now In the
navy the most splendid body of young
men that could be selected ir all the
world. Above everything else they are
American gentlemen, and their training
should always be along that line. And
when they salute a superior officer they
should remember 1T is no hard line of
caste that is drawn, but that it Is
merely the courtesy due. and the salu-
tation of one gentleman to another.
They are brave men and true, all of
them, and 1 am proud to command such