Las Vegas optic. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1908-1921, 1909-09-25
IA WONDERFUL SPECTACLE
ENGLISH FLAGSHIP INFLExiBLE
THE PEER OF ALL FIGHT
ING VESSELS
PRESENT FOR CELEBRATION
FOREIGN NATIONS PARTICIPATE
ING IN THE HUDSoN-FULToN
TERcENTENARY

New York, Sept. 25.-With more
than three score of the picked fight
ing ships of eight nations swinging at
anchor in the Hudson river, awaiting
the coming of the Clermont and the
Half Moon, sightseers at the Hudson
Fulton celebration looked upon the
most impressive assembly of foreign
warships that has probably ever been
in American waters. Riding in the
river between 44th street and Spuy-
ton Duyvil, besides the fifty vessels
of the United States Atlantic fleet,
under Rear Admiral Seaton Schroed-
er, the foreign navies are represented
by sixteen fighting craft in all. Great
Britain has four, Germany has four
also, France has two, Italy has two,
Mexico has one, Argentine has one
and Cuba has one.
Their massive hulls tugging lazily
at their anchorages represent the
highest development in construction
from the great shipyards on the Clyde
4 lid -the best efforts of the German
naval constructors. The trimmest
ships of France, the pick of the fleet
of Italy, are most impressive ennis
saries from the old world to the new.
Swift cruisers with triple expansion
engines and long rakish lines like
greyhounds of the ocean; massive
battleships mounted from turrets to
the fighting tops with batteries of
the highest type. swift torpedo boats
and torpedo boat destroyers, wonder
full submarines type of fighting
oh l. m
eight other navies, four of them
world powers, are in this impressive
assembly.
The United States Atlantic fleet un-
der command of Rear Admiral Seaton
Schroeder. is represented by the bat
tleships Connecticut, Q6,0OO tons),
flagship; Vermont, 10000; Kansas
(16,OOO), Louisiana, Q6,O0O), Mime
sofa, 10000; New Hampshire, (16,-
OOO; Mississippi, (13,OOO); Idaho,
q3,OO0); Georgia, Q4,94S); New Jer-
sey, q4,94S); Nebraska, (14,94S);
Rhode Island, (14,948); Virginia, a.
94S); Missouri, (12,3OO); and Ohio,
Q2,440); the armoured cruisers North
Carolina, (14,500 tons), speed 22.4S
knots; New York, (S,200) Montana,
Q4,5O0 tons), % knots; the scout
cruisers Chester, Birmingham and
Salem, (3,700 tons) 25 knots; and
fleet of five submarines and twenty
four destroyers, torpedo boats and
other auxiliaries.
Rear Admiral Seaton Schroeder is
outranked by both Admiral Won Koest-
er of the German Imperial navy and
Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, of the
British Royal navy. A movement to
petition the president to place Ad-
miral Dewey in commend was prompt
ly halted by Admiral Dewey himself,
who said that his health and age
would not permit him to undertake
eight days of full dress duty and ban
quoting. The appointment of Ad-
miral Seymour to these waters is re-
garded as another evidence of King
Edwards tact Admiral Seymour was
in command of the British fleet in.
Manila Bay on the day when Commo-
dore George Dewey annihilated the
Spanish fleet, and the rejoinder of
his captain, Sir Edward Chichester. to
the German commander who inquired
before Dewey went into action and
while the attitude of the German
fleet, then at anchor in the same
waters, was still a matter of anxiety,
what action the English proposed to
take, won him instant popularity in
this country and passed into history,
crystallized in the aphorisms of Mr..
Dooley:
That" said Sir Edward, with sig
nificant ambiguity, "is matter known,
only to Admiral Dewey and myself, "
Admiral Seymour became still bet
ter and even more favorably known to
Americans during the international oc-
cupation of Pekin at the time of the
Boxer uprising. His feet here con-
sists of the armoured cruisers Infiex-
ible, (17.500 tons) 25 knots; Drake,
Q4,1OO tons) "a knots; Argyll, (10,-
$50 tons), 25 knots. and the Duke of
Edinburgh, (15.550 tons1 22 knots.
Grand Admiral Won Koester is also
well known to Americans. An init
mate friend of the kaiser, fifty years
an officer, and one Of the committee