Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-26
BID DFARFWELLTO
ATLANTIC FLEET
THOUSANDS GATHER AT SANTA
MONICA
WARSHIPS 'MANEUVER IN THE
HARBoR
Beautiful Spectacle Draws Cheers
from Vast Throng Which Assem-
bes in Beach City to Say
Good-by to Vessels
BY Associated Press.

toy ASSocldleu TicSs-
| SANTA MONICA, April 25.-Sailing
away into a summer haze that hung
over the bay of Santa Monica the six
teep Abattleship5 of the 4 kl1ntic fleet
! steamed slowly past Point Dune short
| ly after 9 O'Clock this morning with d
hundred thousand people assembled
along the shores to extend them re-
luctant farewell.
No spectacle so superb has ever been
witnessed off the coast of Southern
California unless it was the arrival of
the same ships a week ago today, and
it will be long before the patriotic en-
thusiasm of the great multitude sub
sides to forgetfulness of the impress
sions made today.
Cheers did not suffice to express their
emotion, the waving of flags and the
booming of guns seemed inadequate,
but the groups of tired people that
stood for hours patiently awaiting the
coming of the ships and the tears that
filled eyes straining seaward as one
by one they faded from view were
evidences of the welcome that the fleet
has known and of the regret that at
tended it's leaving.
Multitude Awaits Ships
Never before has such multitude
gathered along the shores of Santa
Monica bay, and rarely if ever have so
many people submitted to discomfort
and inconvenience to witness spec
| tacle however thrilling and unusual
Since noon yesterday every available
car of the Los Angeles-Pacific system
was operated without interruption, and
for eighteen hours a stream of peo-
pie poured into Venice, Ocean Park
and Santa Monica, the three beach
| cities that commanded a view of the
| theater where the warships would
make their last appearance. Days ago
the quest for accommodations for last
night had been abandoned as hopeless
and with every resource exhausted,
with hotels and lodging houses and pri-
vate residences crowded far beyond
their normal capacity, men. women and
children slept last night on the beach
or in the canyons just outside Santa
Monica.
Others passed the night on the floors
of offices in the city hail. and hun
dreds who had gathered at Venice
whiled away the hour before daylight
by dancing to music furnished by a
band that furnished a concert last
night. AS a final test many of the
sleepless but eager sightseers, finding
that the restaurants were unable to
provide breakfast for half the people
who waited in lines before their doors,
cheerfully sacrificed the meal for early
choice of a view somewhere along the
shore.
Seek Points of Vantage
Before daylight the crowds were
abroad, seeking points of vantage along
the high bluffs at Santa Monica, lining
the walk extending along the waters
edge before the three beach cities and
taking ther way to the summit of
the sharp ridges back of the towns.
AS daylight broke the walters on the
shore were able to make out the four
ships of the third division, the Maine
lying farthest off shore and the others
close to the end of the pier.
AS the sun rose the haze of early
morning cleared away from the shore
but hung in an impenetrable veil across
the mouth of the bay, hiding point Vim
cent, where the warships would first
be seen, and Point Dune, beyond which
they would vanish.
AS If to clear the stage for the stir
ring spectacle soon to be presented the
four battleships in the harbor weighed
anchor and steamed away in the direc-
ton of Redondo, where the fourth di-
vision lay and where the sixteen bat
tleships would again unite for de-
parture.
The third division got under way at
6:20 o'clock and the movement was the
signal for gathering such as the
Continued on Page Five)