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Show FAMOUS AMERICAN FLEET LEAVES IBRALTAi FOR "HOME, SWEET HOME" Sixteen Peerless Battleships Under Rear Admiral Sperry Begin the Last Lap of the Remarkable Around-the-World Cruise of 45,000 Miles After a Voyage of One Year and Sixty-eight Days, They Will Be Welcomed at Hampton Roads on Washington's Birthday from the signal station on top of Gibraltar, Gib-raltar, 1,300 feet above sea level. They were headed a little to tho south of west to reach the tnirty-nfth parallel, which they inten? to rollow. The dispatch boat Yanicton is TOO miles ahead of the fleet and three Hundred Hun-dred miles ahead of the supply ship Culgoa. which left here February 4. The collier AJax and the repair Bhlp Panther will remain here until tomorrow tomor-row in order to clear up odds and ends. The officers and men lort here with, feelings of Jubilation that lueir next port will be home. When the fleet reaches Hampton Roads, it will have travelled about forty-five thousand miles and traversed about 400 degrees of latitude and as many degrees of longitude. The American battleship fleet, composed com-posed of sixteen warships is now on its last run of its famous cruise around the world. It left Hampton Roads December 1G, 1307, and when it again anchors in that port February 22. it will have been gone one year and GS clays. No accident has marked mark-ed the progress of the greatest armed fleet that has ever made sucn a long voyage. The cruise has been in eery respect an unqualified success The trip has been watched with ihe greatest interest by all rorergn rowers, row-ers, and wherever the vespers called. South America, Australia, Japan. China. Chi-na. Ceylon. Egypt and tne ports of tho Mediterranean the officers and men have been given hearty oflicial and pilvale welcome. The fleet left Hampton Roads undor Admiral Robley D. Evans, wno conducted con-ducted it as far as San Francisco. Rear Admiral Charles M. Thomas then took command, but he was succeeded on May 15th by Rear -Admiral sper-j ry. who brought the ve.ics home. Rear Admiral Arnold's third squad ! ron of the Atlantic fleet, consisting of the battleships Maine. Mississippi. New Hampshire, and Idaho, and the scout cruisers Chester ana Birming-ha Birming-ha mand Salem, will meet Admiral Sperry's fleet in the Atlantic about a , thousand miles from the coast and I then: with Arnold's ships as an escort, ! the world-touring vessels win proceed towards Hampton Roads, wnere they , will be received by President Roose- j velt on Washington's blnnaay. I Gibraltar, Fob. 6. With the band3 onboard playing "Home Sweet IIom," the American fleet of sixteen battleships battle-ships under Rear Admiral Sperry left Gibraltar, at 11 o'clock this morning for Hampton Roads on the last lap of its famous around-the-world cruise j of 45,000 mlle9. One hour later tho i vessels were well clear of the land and steaming westward in double column col-umn formation at a speed of ten knots on hour. They will follow the southern south-ern route to Hampton Roads, a distance dis-tance of 3,600 miles and . about jl.OOu miles off the American coast they w ill he met and escorted home by . the third squadron of the Atlantic fleet under Rear Admiral Arnold. The weather conditions at the time of departure were glorious. 'The sky was without a cloud and there was just enough breeze to curl the crests of tho pun-flooded ravrs. Nothing j could have surpassed tne beauty of j the marine picture as the American armada ar-mada weighed anchor from under the shadows of the towering roc.t or Gibraltar Gib-raltar and moved out Into the strait. 1 The difficult operation or getting the Fixteen'huge battleships out of the j narrow war basin of the port and under un-der way was accomplished with a skill I and perfection of maneuvering and do- . tall, which won the admiration of all the foreign naval men who witnessed : the proceedings critically from land and sea. Admiral Sperry directed the , whole operation from the centerDrldge , of the Connecticut At half past eight : o'clock the signal to unmoor was glv- en and the great chains, holding the ships to the buoy6, - were loosened, ' ono by one, until ' the vessels were held to their anchorages by but a sin- , gle strand. At 8: 5 a strcem or multl- : colored signal flas on the flagship ; communicated the order to get under way to the Georgia, the Nebra6Ra, tho New Jersey, the Rhode Island and tne Virginia, lying at the rear or tue Tas-in Tas-in As the flags came fluttering 'dowa flte minutes later, the designated battleships bat-tleships cast off their las: imes and. like freed leviathans see:;rng ebcape, they slowly swung their noses in the direction of the breaches :n the breakwater. break-water. Twisting and turning to the clanging of engine gongs, they crept out. the Georgia leading the way with , Lieutenant Commander George W. j Kline on the bridge. Once outside Rear Admiral Wain-v.-right's division fell into formation and waited for the second and third i groups. Tho second group consisted I of the Vermont, prouri:y nylng tno "battle efficiency" trophy, at her rore; the Minnesota. Kentucky, Ohio an ! Kearsarge, and the tn:rd was compon-ed compon-ed of the Wisconsin. Kansas, iou;sI-ana. iou;sI-ana. Missouri and Illinois. The three groups waited outside." and at half past tea the Connecticut j brought up the rear. Although it H not customnry to fire parting salutes, the Devonshire, tne flagehlp of Rear Admiral Sir James ! Goodrich. R. N., Admiral Superlnten- I dent of Gibraltar, which had taken up a position at the entrance or the nar-bor, nar-bor, hoisted and saluted the Hag as the ships passed out. The Dana on the quarter-deck of the Connecticut played the English anthem, while the musicians on the foreign warships plajed the "Star Spangled Banner" as tho respective ensigns wefe dipped. Admiral Goodrich and Admiral Lit vlnoff of the Russian nary, signalled: "Good-bye; pleasant yage." Admiral Admir-al Sperry replied laconically "Thanks."' Then the Connecticut cteamed majestically ma-jestically along the line or tne waiting American vessels, took lt6 place at the head of the coiurnn and bet the guiding flag "five of clubs." The flf-, flf-, teen other vessels wheeled gracefully In behind th Connecticut, ana with the black npoed cones run up to the yard arms. The imposing procession, which was over three mileu long, moved to the J-outh. . The alignment of the Bhips was perfect, per-fect, and the sight was so impressive, that the spectators, crowding; tho terraces ter-races of the Alamadea and ' the Euro-pa Euro-pa point, could not restrain exclamations exclama-tions of delight, while tho American iassengers on two linens anchored clone into shore burst Into involun-tflry involun-tflry cheere. . , , For a distance of twelve miles tno fleet stood to tho south. Then being 1 clear of Cape Tarlfa, the most south- erly point, and with nothing hut tho broad Atlantic between tnem and hom. the flagship headed abruptly to the westward and in Indian - Hie. ' tn fplendid fleet left the ancient Pillar of Hercules behind and steamed , through the Btralts and out ro sea. Looking from the rock or u;trauar, the water separating the 8:i:pa seemed seem-ed gradually to be obliterate as the distance Increased until tho sixteen hulls resembled a long wa;;e ::ne pur-mounted pur-mounted by a trailing pnrmo of smoke. Suddenly, off Cape Spartel; the line wavered and broke into small parts. Then a few minutes later, there were two parallel lines . instead, or one, showing that tho fleet r.u assumes its regular double cmUIng .rormatton. The last glimpse of tao warships was obtained at 1:57 this aneraoon |