With the Battle Fleet Part 32

On the Atlantic coast there were frequent minor breakdowns, boilers, condensers, steering engines and the like needing repairs. All these incidents showed not only how and where mishaps were likely to occur, but showed that it was possible to make repairs in such cases at sea.

Although several ships dropped out of the column at various times only once was the fleet slowed down, and then only for a few hours while repairs were going on. The ships might fly "breakdown" pennants but they kept up right along. On the Pacific coast there were very few mishaps, and these chiefly relating to steering gear. One of the ships had a cylinder accident coming up to Santa Barbara roadstead, but the ship kept right along in the column.

There is little doubt that if pleasure stops had not been made it would have been comparatively easy to take the fleet right on around the world without docking or sending them to a navy yard for repairs. Many officers in the fleet regret that such a course was not adopted, once it was decided to have the fleet encircle the globe, so as to make a record such as the naval world has scarcely dreamed of.

The trip has also been valuable in determining not only the cruising capability of the ships but also the best cruising speed. Although it was proved that the ships could go faster than ten knots it was found that from ten to eleven knots was the most trustworthy speed to be maintained. You could depend upon ships at that speed. Valuable data as to coal consumption and wear and tear on machinery have also been secured. From the engineering standpoint Uncle Sam has learned now exactly what his ships can do in sustained steaming under favorable conditions of weather.

By way of contrast between the fine cruising record of the battleship fleet and that of the Russian fleet on its way to j.a.pan, one should read the diary of one of the Russian naval officers who sailed under Rojestvensky, which was published about a year ago. It had this to say about the Russian ships:

"There are continual mishaps to the various ships. One gets sand in her valves. Although six miles off sh.o.r.e, she must have sc.r.a.ped a shoal.

Another gets hot bearings and the whole fleet is stopped. Another breaks her condensers, another smashes her propeller blade, another breaks her piston rod. With most of them the steering gear is continually getting out of order. Naval constructors are in demand night and day."

Nothing of that kind happened with the American ships. They were sent out to cruise and they did cruise, accidents in no way interfering with their steady progress.

The effect on the men was most beneficial. They got the sea habit, so to speak. They were in splendid health. You could almost see youngsters growing robust from day to day. Discipline improved all the time. The men, like the ships, were shaken down into a cohesive force, with wholesome, fresh, American youngsters, hundreds of them right off the farm, as the bone and sinew of the fighting force. They are a fine set of men, and no fighting force in the world can compare with them in what is called morale. In every port their conduct elicited enthusiastic commendation from the authorities high and low. They honored their uniform. Contrast this also with the conduct of the Russian crews, as the Russian naval officer already quoted records in his diary:

"A transport, the Malay, is largely loaded with lunatics. She is about to return to Russia with lunatics, drunkards, invalids and men deported for crimes. The crews are all hard cases, beachcombers and the like, picked up in the Madagascar ports. All the officers carry loaded revolvers; mutiny breaks out among the lunatics and other prisoners; the officers suppress it with slaughter."

It's many a year since an American naval officer carried a loaded revolver because of fear of his men. The sc.u.m of the country is not found in the American navy these days. No brighter, more hard working, loyal men in the world are to be found than those behind the guns on the Atlantic fleet, and when the ships left Magdalena Bay no crews on any warships in the world were in more efficient fighting shape.

Although much has been said about the need of a hospital ship to accompany the fleet, and the Relief did join the ships at Magdalena Bay, the truth of the matter is that each of the ships cared for its sick adequately on the way around. Surgeon-General Rixey lamented publicly that when the fleet left Hampton Roads it had no hospital ship with it.

While there can be no doubt that some cases could receive better attention on a hospital ship than on a battleship, especially in the way of better quarters and possibly better diet, it is also true that none of the sick on the fleet suffered seriously from the lack of a hospital ship, unless it was in tubercular cases. Such could have been put on sh.o.r.e for better air and sustained treatment in various places had it been necessary. The sick on each ship were not more than from twenty to twenty-five cases on an average and a large part of these were trivial, slight accidents of colds and the like.

There were the usual number of deaths. No one can say that any of these lives would have been spared had there been a hospital ship with the fleet. Some of these cases developed on a single run, when it would have been impossible to transfer them to the hospital ship. This comment is not meant in any way as taking sides in the hospital ship controversy.

It is meant to declare that it is quite feasible for a great fleet while cruising to take care of its sick successively, even if no hospital ship be at hand.

One great drawback to the full enjoyment and probably to the full development of the benefits of the cruise was the condition of Admiral Evans' health. Soon after leaving Trinidad, his old enemy, rheumatism, took hold of him and laid him low for the rest of the voyage.

Complications in the nature of stomach troubles followed. The Admiral suffered intensely from pain. At times he was in a most serious condition, as the country now knows. The correspondents with the fleet did not feel it necessary to reveal the grave condition of the Admiral's health, largely because of the misunderstandings that might arise, to say nothing of possible complications. For the most part they kept silent, recording, however, at every opportunity any favorable change in his condition.

Nevertheless, although Admiral Evans was a gravely sick man, the truth is that he was always in command of his fleet up to the time when he left it at Magdalena Bay. He might have done more work with it in the way of manoeuvring had he been well. His work may have been negative rather than positive, but he was in command all the time. He directed all important movements. He was informed of every situation. He gave every important order himself. He also kept up with the routine and many painful hours did he spend signing doc.u.ments and going over routine work.

The details of an Admiral's task are burdensome even to a well man. Yet Admiral Evans insisted on keeping up with most of the work even when every stroke of the pen caused him severe pain. Never did he have more loyal subordinates.

Particularly was this true of Rear Admiral C. M. Thomas. Had the latter made unfavorable representations to the Navy Department of the condition of Admiral Evans he possibly might have secured the command of the fleet for himself. Not for one moment would he have listened to such a suggestion, and no one dared to make it to him. Robley D. Evans never had more loyal friend or more faithful subordinate officer than Charles M. Thomas. He deserves lasting honor from the country for his record on this cruise, to say nothing of the enviable record throughout his long service to his flag.

California's welcome to the fleet was characteristic of the ardent temperament of that commonwealth. It received the men and the ships with an acclaim such as might have been bestowed justly had they returned to an American port victorious on the high seas over an enemy. The people seemed to go mad in their enthusiasm. The demonstrations began when Admiral Evans left Magdalena Bay in the latter part of March by the advice of his physicians, to go to Paso Robles, Cal., for a stay on land. His flagship took him to San Diego and his presence in California seemed to stimulate the people into a sort of frenzied patriotism.

The fleet stopped at five California anchorages on the way from Magdalena to San Francisco, the real terminus of the cruise as ordered originally by President Roosevelt. There was a stay of four days at San Diego, of seven days in the four anchorages adjacent to Los Angeles, the fleet being split up into four divisions; of five days in Santa Barbara and of four days in Monterey and Santa Cruz. At each port the welcome was overwhelming. Streets and buildings were decorated, flowers were scattered on the streets before the marching sailors and thrown in profusion into vehicles in which the officers rode. Los Angeles particularly devoted its attention to entertaining the bluejackets.

Santa Barbara gave one of its wonderful flower shows. It was the most novel and beautiful entertainment of the cruise. The other cities entertained with dinners, b.a.l.l.s and receptions. The keynote of the functions was one of great rejoicing on the part of California, not only because the United States had a great fleet of battleships, but because California was enabled to see them all at one time.

The arrival of the fleet at San Francisco on May 6 was characterized by such a demonstration of enthusiasm and an outpouring of the people as the country never saw before. Tens of thousands came hundreds of miles to see the entrance through the Golden Gate. Admiral Evans, who had returned to the command of his flagship the day before at Monterey, led the fleet into the harbor. The hills were black with spectators. The harbor was crowded with beautifully decorated shipping carrying thousands on the water to see the show. The Pacific fleet of eight armored cruisers and auxiliaries lay inside the bay. With the Battle Fleet was the torpedo flotilla that made the trip around South America at the same time that the Battle Fleet went around.

The Atlantic and Pacific fleets joined in one and then Admiral Evans made a circle, nearly two miles in diameter, leading no less than forty-two men of war of the United States, the largest number of American warships ever a.s.sembled together since the civil war, and the most powerful fleet ever seen in the Western hemisphere, a fleet greater in size and power than any nation had ever gathered together before with the exception of Great Britain.

Following the arrival of the fleet there was a great land parade in San Francisco, the next day, in which 6,000 bluejackets joined with the regular army troops and state national guard and other organizations. It was the largest parade of the kind since the great Dewey parade in New York ten years before. Admiral Evans rode in the line. It was his last public appearance as a Commander-in-Chief. The people cheered the bluejackets wildly, but they went mad over Admiral Evans. They made a hero out of him because of his persistent and plucky struggle with pain and disease. Although thousands of men marched in the parade there really was only one man in it--Fighting Bob Evans. All the others were a mere escort. His naval sun went down that day in a veritable blaze of glory.

The next day Secretary Metcalf of the Navy Department reviewed the combined fleets, pa.s.sing through the lines on the gunboat Yorktown and receiving a salute of seventeen guns from each ship as "the personal representative of the President." The next day Admiral Evans gave up command formally to Admiral Thomas at a hotel, where that evening Admiral Evans was taken in a wheeled chair to the dining room where a banquet in honor of Secretary Metcalf and the officers of the fleet was being held and where Admiral Evans, wan and feeble and scarcely able to stand, electrified his audience by declaring impa.s.sionedly that what this country needs "is more battleships and fewer statesmen." On the day following Rear Admiral Thomas hoisted his flag as Commander-in-Chief, to be relieved five days later by Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry.

Under the latter's command the fleet went to Puget Sound to give the people of that region an opportunity to see the ships, such as had been given along the California coast. There were the usual rounds of entertainment and then the fleet scattered to various places to make repairs and to prepare to resume the voyage around the world by way of Australia, the Orient and the Mediterranean.

The arrival of the fleet at San Francisco marked the real end of the cruise. With that there was accomplished the specific purpose for which it was ordered to the Pacific. What that purpose was may never be revealed. All the naval officers concerned felt that the rest of the trip to the home stations of the ships would be largely a pleasure jaunt. All agreed that with the arrival at San Francisco the record of a momentous cruise by a momentous fleet had been made up.

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