Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1909-02-16
Batueship Fleet Nearing End Of
Wort.circ|ing Cruise
THROUGH SIEVE, DIFFERENT SEAS
Vessels and Men, After Journeyins
Forty-tive Thousand Miles, Are Re-
qarded as More Efficient Than
Ever-Strangers in Armada.
(By Associated Press

OLD POINT COMFORT. VA. F"D.
l5.-tialf way across the Atlantic
Ocean on the last long reach OF their
spectacular cruise around the world,
the sixteen ba,tleships of the
United States Atlantic fleet are
stcaming today in le!surely fashion
towards the anchorage grounds OF
Hampton Roads from whence they
sailed just fourteen months ago.
During these months of record steam
ing the heavily armCred fighting yes
sells have travelled approximately
l:,nro miles and returning in conIl-
ton stiil fit for "a fight or froic.'
The cruise has been i veritable eX-
pediti0n of tn" seven seas ana tasks
heretofore deemed impossible for th'
m; Germ ironclad have been accom-
plished with ali ease bordering on
the commonplace.
The stories @! the cruise have been
succeeding charters of receptions.
banquets, balls and merryniaking.
but back Of all this relaxation and
entertaining in the hospital ports OF
the two hemispheres has been a test
o. men and material which mas
,acCI the American navy in an en-
,iable position before all The world.
Tic engine room efficiency in the
logger legs of the journey develop
ing a new and unexpectedly
:. .ering radius for a r., 80" - h"
Facility in following the m&:inns q:
rne nasSniD in the fier;. a1ua:irc:'
End divisional manonv".'s which
came with constant experience At
sea. and above all the n? .rvcloI: ->c-
trds made n the tare'," ii Nigga
lena and Manila Bays, te.! of The real
"tIk and ne subs anita: accomplish
ncnts that nave marN%i this most
rotaIic C roacr i"nD -: 'a'!)1.i
rmong the navies of the Void
The p-r. :ously arranged schedule
of the journeys from port 10 port has
cen adher ii TO in rema kaD!A man.
ncr except in two instances when vio-
Lent storms made full speed too danger;
GUS and uncomfortable. 10 <fS"t
these lapses from punc;::aiity the
feet has made some of its longest runs
two whole days ahead of time. None
&C the undertakings imposed upon
the ships or The men has been too
difficult The cruise. however, was
not inaugurated without serious mis-
sivings at home and abroad. Victor
VI Metcalf. of California. was Sec
rotary OF the Navy when the cruise
began. After The ships had set sail
from Manila with homeward bound
pennants flying. MIR. Metcalf said:
When the purpose CT giving this
assem5lage OF battleships the privi-
I.gcs and advantages OF a practical
cruise was announced. criticisms
from high technical quarters were
heard II was suggested that the
undertaking was too monumental;
that a battleship is too vast and COM
p.icated a piece of mechanis m to send
around the globe on any ordinary
occasion: that dangers more than
multiplied with numbers in such a
case: that disaster lurked on every
submerged ledge and was borne on
every unknown tidal current: mat
the skeleton OF some of the ships
would doubtless be lett in the Straits
Ct Magellan: that. If the feet should
succeed in rounding South America
i, was reasonably certain that Inc
Individual ships would. one by one
arrive with machineries loose and
a,mcs, unserviceable. with crews re-
acctins the demora,ized condition
Ct the material. and tnat woeful
Spectacle of failure would thus be
presented
AS 70 kc material. TIRE cold facts
CT tho case are that the ships have
practically taken care of their own
rcpairs on this cruise. The repair