New-York tribune., 1909-09-26
THE NAVAL PAGEANT.


The naval display of yesterday which was
uunrecedpnted in the waters of New York and
had seldom been surpassed in any harbor OF tue
world was an exceptionally appropriate ana
felictous beginning of the celebration both OF
the tercentenary of Henry Hudson and OF tue
centenary of Robert Fulton. For both those
illustrlous men were cOnspicuOusly and indeed
chiefly associated with navigation. When we
think Of Hudson we think of the Half Moon ana
of the Discovery. When Fulton's name is men
toned there arises instinctively 10 mind the
name of the ClermOnt. 1t was a happy concep-
tion which led to the reproduction Of those
famous vessels. to appear in our pageant by the
side of the Lusitania and the IntieXible and
those ships Of ours which recently made voy-
age around the world worthy TO be bracketed
with the farreaching journeys of Hudson him
self
Between the iialf Moon and the Clermont
there was a great difference. Yet we are in
clned to think that progress in shipbuilding Is
really more marked between the Clermont and
her successors than between her and her prede-
ceSsors Lay the old Constitution or Nelson's
Victory by the side of the Clermont and the
sailing vessel might well seem TO be the more
imposing and the more powerful. But by the
side of a Lusitania, an InfeXible or a Delaware
the Clermont sinks into insignificance or retains
Sl3lluCa0Ce Only as tlIe IuuIltIItlle BNAAA AA'i
which these giants grew. 1t is in view of this
marvellous development of FultOn'S invention,
supplemented by the invention of Ericsson, that
we may pardon the cXuherant enthusiasm of the
hiographer who. niuety-two years ago. declared
that there cannot be found. on the record of
departed worth. the name Of person to whose
individual exertions mankind are more ln-
"debted than they are 10 Robert Fulton We
cannot in6eed wonder that al the time ii was
written this estimate of Cadwallader Colden's
was regarded by The Quarterly Review" as eX-
travagant and visionary. just that journal
little later declared that one might as well think
of riding on q COngreve rocket as on a railroad
train at twenty miles an hour! We may not
even now. nor ever accord TO Fulton the unsur-
passed eminence which his friend and biogra-
pher gave 10 him. But at least review of the
last hundred years makes the estimate seem
| mmeasurably more reasonable than it did to
! the average unprophetic and mima ginative eye
/ q century ago.
History and romance are enriched with the
names of famous ships and fleets and with the
records of their exploits-frOm the Argp and its
| passage where the narrowing Sympegades
1 whten the cliffs of Propontis with spray" and
the sixty ships of Hanno; through the little
| SquadrOns OF Columbus and Cana and Ma
! Gellan, the Golden Hind and the Revenge: down
| 10 the Great Eastern. the Monitor, the eSa ana
| the Fran. But among them all there have been
| few more worthy of remembrance than the two
whose counterfeit presentments were the cynO-
sure of all appreciative and discriminating eyes
| in yesterdays long drawn review The one
| charted the way through the New Worlds chief
| gateway of commerce and of empire, while the
other made practical and assured a conquest
over the marine elements such as had not been
! known IN all the centuries from Jason TO Mel
SON For all the floating fortresses and the
| thronging argesies of yesterday the world is in
| debted to the Half Moon and the Clermont and
the glamour Of the historic glory of those two
vessels will illumine all the coming days of this
| cOmmemOration.