The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-05-03
THE WORLDS GREATEST FLEET NOW IN CALIFOF
Fifty-Three War Ships and
Auxiliary Naval Crafts
Ready for Voyage
Across Pacific.

The greatest fleet of warships the
world has ever seen, fifty.three vcs-
sells. will salute tho flag with big guns
at the review OF the Atlantic and Paci-
&c fleets in San francisco Bay May
9TH, lust before the sixteen battle-
ships regime their record breaking
voyage OF $4,000 miles around the
world. When the ak thirty-knot tor
pedo boat destroyers started on the
voyage around South America it was
thought to be an event. When the
sixteen batleslips wendell their way
through the Straits of Magellan
and reached the Golden Gate. It
was said to be the limit These
fleets have now met on California's
coast and Joined by the eight big
nrmored cruisers and other ships of
the Pacific fleet. make an aggregation
outnumbering any assemblage under
any flag on any seas.
The two miles of lighting ships that
sailed the English Channel at the
Jubilee Of Queen Victoria could not
stand up against them. The feet that
dotted Oyster Bay when Roosevelt
reviewed his strong right arm number
cd but thirty-ive ships. The rendez-
vous at Hampton Roads. when the
great nations Of the earth sent re-
preventative ships, numbered thirty
eight American vessels and twelve
foreign ships.
The battieshlps and cruisers alone
aggregate more tonnage than all the
ships of the japanese navy. The feet.
according to the official list Of the Bu-
reau OF Navigation. Washington, d. c..
will be made of the following:
Ships of the Fleet.
First-class battleships ............ is
Armored cruisers ...........,.....
A
Torpedo-boat destroyers ...........
Gunboats ..................
Submarines ................
Golfers ........ t..................
supply ships ......ess.... s....s z
Hospital ship ....................
Repair ship Observation-Disclosures I
50
At the head OF the feet will be the
sixteen battleships that sailed $4,000
miles around the South American con-
tincnt. headed by the flagship Connec-
ticut with her crew Of 1880 men, and
the two battleships Wisconsin and Ne
braska, Just completed in Pacific ship
yards. With the big white fighters
will be tho eight armored cruisers,
which are really high-speed battle
ships, making total of twenty-six
swift-firing. hard hitting, armor-
geared fighting machines.
These twenty-six floating fortresses,
500 feet long, are masses OF honey
combed steel giants trained to the
minute, but with the agility OF
yacht. They are belted with foot
thick steel, and shoot IL and l3-inch
shells to the horizon and beyond. To
these will be added eight OF the thirty
IN. do az ~ ,r.tS
est craft under the Stars and Stripes.
the scorpions of the navy. that fly at
an enemy in the dark. give death
dealing sting with torpedo and dis
appear in the night with the speed of
an express train; and three OF the tor
pedo boats, the wasps, built to wound
the big fighting ships OF an enemy.
The submarines Grampus and Pike,
rcalizations of Jules Verne's dreams.
and the two gunboats complete the
list of those that go forth to battle
In the train of the fighting ships will
be four capacIous-hulled coal GOLFERS.
the refrigerator and fresh water sup
ply ships Glacier and Culgoa, the now
famous hospital ship Relief and the
floating machine shop Panther. a total
of ffty-three ships, all under the Stars
and Stripes.
The United States navy now ranks
second, and OF the worlds powers only
Great Britain has greater aggrega-
ton. OF necessity, Englands ships
must remain scattered among her do
minions. on which the sun never sets.
Can she match the formidable display
of this. the greatest nation on earth?
When the review is over sixteen bat
tleships Will head across the Pacific,
on voyage across all the seas. length
ening the $4,000 mile. run around South
America to 45.o0o-mile cruise around
the world.
Two Miles of Fighters.
Placed end to end. with bows and
storms touching, the ships would make
boulevard OF steel along which one
might walk four miles. Strung out at
anchor In single file. the fleet would
stretch away for ten miles. which is
nearly as far a s the eye can reach at
sea and with tho IA q hull