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Show i GIANT COLLIER PROMETHEUS LAUNCHED AT MARE ISLAND MARE ISLAND NAVY YARD, Cal., I Doc. 5. Flinffinc up a clowl of spray I from her stern, t.uo piant collier Prometheus, Prome-theus, tho first of her kind to be built in a government navi yard, slipped racefullj' into tho waters of Marc Island channel shortly after 11 o'clock today and was brought to a standstill by the giant hawsers training in her wake within threo hundred feet of tho wavs. Tho great black hull began to move an instant aftor Miss Dollie Evans, daughtor of Naval Constructor Iloldcn A. Evans, had shattered a bottle of champagne on the vessel's bow and given her a name, saying: "I christen thco Prometheus." Tho samo instant Constructor Evans was directing tho hluc-clad mechanics who cut through tho last pin blocks that held tho Prometheus in her cradlo of steel and wood. Thoro was a faint grinding of timbers, a tremor of the platform that held tho distinguished guests, and almost imperceptibly the vessel began to move. Sped by the momentum of her own weight., carrying carry-ing willi her tho fragments of wood that had held her in place, she slipped casil3' off tho ways and settled on an even keel in tho water, sailing straight towards the Vallejo shoro until she had run I lie length of lior bouds. Tho scream of whistles from the vessels ves-sels in tho chunnel and shops in the navy yard, tho music of a band that pla3:cd "America" as tho signal for the launching was given, and the cheers of sailors, marines and civilians who witnessed tho cercmonv grpoted tho collier's col-lier's first dip into tho wtrr. A scoro of distinguished guests thronged about Constructor Evans and Captain T. S. Pholp3, Jr., Commandant of tho yard, tendoring their congratulations congratu-lations upon tho successful climax to an undertaking that has had no precedent preced-ent upon tho Pacific coast. Through the efforts of tho California Promotion committco aud a .ioint com-mittco, com-mittco, representing tho Valle.io chamber cham-ber of commerce, tho Merchants' association as-sociation and tho Trades and Labor Council, tho launching was made an affair af-fair of stato importance, and while business was suspended for tho day in Valle.io, hundreds of San Franciscans braved tho threatening weather and came to Mare Island by steamer. The completion of tho collier in tho ! record-breaking time of thirteen and one-half months, the fact that tho ves- I sol is now practically 05 per cent finished, fin-ished, and the knowledge that she is tho first largo steel snip evor constructed con-structed in a government yard on the Pacific coust were tho principal topics of discussion at a brief ceremony that followed tho launching. ' Governor ,T. N. Gillett spoko of California's Cali-fornia's interest in the event; Naval Constructor Evans delivered an address on "Ship Building at Navy Yards," and .T. O. Harron, of tho California Promotion Pro-motion committee, dwelt upon San Francisco's relation to tho Maro Tslnnd Navy yards. |