Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-02-16
RETURN OF THE FLEET
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

ors in white spelled out the word ''wel-
come on the steep hillside near the city
Out again on the Pacific without touch
ing shore, they beat along the coast until
they made Callao in late ebruary. There
were bull fights and other Latin-Ameri-
can diversions, and with the bunkers full
of COAL they headed eight days later for
Magdalena bay, where the Pacific squad
ron was at target practice. Then they
came to San Diego in April. when the
men saw home soil for the first time ia
their long rush of 1900 miles.
Into San Francisco bay the fleet sailed
in May, a feet bigger than the entire
navy OF any country in the world save
Great Britain, France and Germany.
From the Pacific coast and bit of rest
there, they went to Honolulu, passing
close inshore as they rounded Molokai, in
order that the lepers in exile there might
see the great wonder. They then went
to New Zealand, and to Australia, where
at Sydney 5000 school children in solid
mass represented the crossed flags of
Great Britain and the United States, and
where provincial authorities bestowed
true Anglo-Saxon hospitality. In Manila
bay the ships outrode a hurricane of
twelve hours duration that played havoc
with the lighter shipping in the harbor,
and later they returned to the scenes
of Dewey's victory of ten years ago to
demonstrate in a world breaking record
at target practice the advancement of
the ship, the gunner and the gun in that
decade.
They went to Japan, where much cere-
mony and many garden parties proved
the amity of the people, then to the China
Seas, and on to the route that Column
bus thought he was following to the beck
oning East Indies four centuries ago,
when he touched San Salvador on the OPP
posite side of the globe. Through the
Indian ocean, up the Red sea, palpitant
with the history of countless centuries.
through the canal that has knit the Seven
Seas into one, and into the Mediterrar-
can, they passed They brought the PIANO
piled greatness of the twentieth century
to cut into crisp foam the waters where
! once sailed the Argo of Jason, the gal
leys on the way to the seige of Troy. the
barge of Cleopatra, the bireme and the
trireme of ancient Greece, the ships of
Saint Louis, of Napoleon, of Nelson and
of Decatur, and of the hundreds of other
; heroes who made the history and sons
of that sea through thirty centuries.
! They bombarded Gibraltar with friendly
greetings that hung the sea with a pail
of smoke for hours, and doubtless awoke
false hopes in the shades of Moors long
dead. The ever yawning bunkers received
more coal there, and the fleet began on
| the first of February its homeward cruise
The cost has not been much more than
would have been spent had the fleet re-
manned in home understanding like
| $25 900 a day. but each man has learned
more in each day of that practical trip
| than he would have learned in a year of
! theoretical instruction. 1t was all on a
gigantic scale, things were measured as
for a big city. Take the food, for exam
| pie The fleet, exclusive of the auxiliaries
consumed a daily average of over 1900
pounds Of fresh beef, and other fresh
meats in proportion. 1t used over 5000
pounds of sugar a day, 1920 pounds of
-four and canned meats that ranged from
| IS pounds of Goldfish to 1500 pounds of
beef. All other things of widely varied
! menu were in proportion, and the ships
will have been out 434 days, all told.
| This was no pleasure cruise. All tho
while the ships were sailing the men
were. drilled, and drilled. Guns were man
ned and marines defended the ship
against imaginary invaders. From the
the crews the officers daily hammered
| into shape a fighting force that will be
able TO cope with any in the world.
| The president will review this fleet with
pride, on its home coming. The nation
will smile with pardonable arrogance over
| it's great achievement. The world will
look with renewed interest on the plans
for the new seagoing fighters that are be-
! ing made. And the song "Rule Britannia
will now be sung with less assurance on
the high seas, while the Tilt of "Colum-
bia, the Gem of the Ocean" will be fresh
er and clearer in the worlds ears.-(Copy-
right, 1909, by Frederic ]. Haskin.)