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Show FAMOUS BATTLESHIP ARMADA RETURNS FROM CRUISE AROUND THE WORLD Entrance Into Hampton Roads, Where Grand Spectacle Is Reviewed by President Roosevelt, Is Witnessed by Thousands, Who Jubilantly Welcome the. 14,000 Men and 600 Officers to Their Nat-ive Nat-ive Shore Excursion Steamers, Tugs and Launches Respond to the Triumphant Salute of the Fighting Ships Fortress Monroe, Feb. 22. Sixteen battleships from round the world with an honor guard of four mighty men, fighting men, ships of the line to tho number of a score; sixteen battleships that circled the globe with their shotted tongues oil mute with never a. grain of powder spent, except In friendly salute. Into Hampton Roads they sailed today,- this fleet with history in Its wake, just at. noon, when the guns of Fort Monroe were firing the national salute In honor of George Washington's birthday, birth-day, an auspicious moment for a homecoming. home-coming. i As a spectacle the arrival of the homeward-bound fleet was marred by a steady rain which continued through- , out the day. j The rain could befog the vision an.l ; wet the powder, but it could not damp- ; en the spirits of those who gathered j about, the roadstead to welcome homo i ships and men. The shore line, was black with a j path of umbrellas.' - - . Jealously the men and women be-hind be-hind the umbrellas guarded their po- billons and 6tood for hours In the rain. to give a cheer when the great fleet fteamed in. The first those ashore knew of the j arrival of the ships between the capes : was the distant booming of the guns, a dull beating away out in the fog. i The reports of the saluting guns fade.l, j and then the crowd stood on tiptoe to j catch the first glimpse of the fleet. ; Just as the Connecticut appeared, the 1 national salute sounded from the lort j and. the ships, were echoed from coast to coast In a single column, they j came In a procession Into the roads, : until all came to a safe anchorage and ) the homeward-bound pennants were J furled at last. Not the slightest hitch j occurred during the review and an- j choring of the fleet. The health officer boarded the Con- ! necticut and granted a clean bill oti health to the entire fleet. When the , Mayflower came -up the harbor, the fleet saluted the President by a din of , whistles. In a quarter of an hour, flagship launches took the admirals, ' their staffs and the captains of the fleet aboard the Mayflower. The Pres-dent Pres-dent addressed them and then started on his rounds of the divisional flag-! ships. i President Roosevelt, In his address, said: "Admiral Spcrry. officers and men of the battleship fleet: Over a year has passed since you steamed out of this harbor and over the world's rm, and this morning the hearts of all who say you thrilled with pride as tho hull of the mighty warships lifted above the horizon. You have been In, the Northern and Southern hemispheres, hemis-pheres, four times you have crossed the line; you have steamed through all the great oceans; you have touched the coast of every continent. Ever your general course has been westward! west-ward! and now you come back to the port from which you set sail This Is the first battleship fleet that has ever circumnavigated the globe. Those who perform the feat again can but follow in your footsteps. "The little torpedo flotilla went with you around South America through the Straits of Magellan, to our own Pacific Pa-cific coast. he armored cruiser squadron met you and left you again, when you were half way around the world. You have falsified every prediction pre-diction of the prophets of failure. In all your long cruise not an accident worthy of mention ha6 happened to a hardly- have been more Jubilant and sincere if the fleet were returning victorious vic-torious from some famous battleground. battle-ground. The President addressed not only the officers of the fleet, gathered upon the quarterdeck of the Mayflower, Mayflow-er, but he visited the four divisional flagships and there he addressed himself him-self to the crews in terms of enthusiastic enthus-iastic compliments. As it was impossible impos-sible for Mr. Roosevelt to visit each of tho sixteen returning vessels, representatives repre-sentatives of the men from each ship in the four divisions were gathered upon the flagships, and they In turn took the President's greetings to their shipmates. The Mayflower had not long lain at anchor when the tracings of smoke on the horizon told of the approach of the fleet, and soon the mastheads of the Connecticut could be picked up with glasses through the wide-swung capes. Then the white hull of the famous flagship flashed Into view. Out of the distance the fleet grew rapidly until at last the end of the white column col-umn in front could be distinguished. The gray clad bulks of the escort drew far more slowly above the horizon and served as a splendid demonstration of the value of a neutral color for tho naval vessels In tliue of war. While the leading ships were still a mile or more distant from the Mayflower, May-flower, a puff of white smoke lrom the forward bridge of the Connecticut, followed by a mufried boom as the sound waves followed moro slowly the dancing waves of light, served as a signal to all the fleet that the flagship had "made out" tho President's Has on the Mayflower. It was also the signal of "home at last" and, made the hearts of 14,000 men and 600 officers of-ficers beat more quickly, in realization realiza-tion that the day they have looked forward to through all the days of lav- ' ish hospitality abroad, had at last j arrived. That first gun of the Connec- J-lcut's naval salute to the President, found every ship in the line with saluting sa-luting cannon ready and tho second powder purf from the flagship had not sounded, when the guns of all the other oth-er 6hlps had begun to speak In unl-ton, unl-ton, the honors due the chief executive. execu-tive. The fleet was almost lost to view as the saluting was at its height, but the clearing veil of smoke flashed the ships into view in a Tar moro brilliant bril-liant picture than had been the first glance, far down on the horizon. The president made his way to the bridge of the Mayflower while the saluting sa-luting was In progress. He had not long to wait before the Imposing line was bearing right down upon the reviewing re-viewing boat. The scene like that at the departure' of the fleet "was one which the President probably never will forget. It set nerves tingling with patriotic pride, for there Is no more Inspiring In-spiring sight than a long column ol well drilled fighting ships. On either side of the incoming armada were gathered scores of excursion steamers steam-ers which grew constantly thicker and thicker, as tho warships ploughed their way to a home anchorage. The excursion ex-cursion steamers, the tugs and the launches were keeping up a continuous continu-ous roar of salutes from their van-toned van-toned whistles, and thousands aboard, as well as the throng on shore, were, cheering in a chorus which carried its welcome home far across the waters to ears that had not hoard so sweet a sound in all their 45,000 miles ot cruising through the seven seas ot the world. ! make us at home proud of being your countrymen. You have shown that the best type of fighting men of the sea knows how to appear to the ut-i ut-i most possible advantage when his bus-j bus-j iness is ,to behave himself on shore ' and to make a good impression in a foreign land. "We are proud of all the 9hlps and all the men In this whole fleet and we welcome ou homo to the country' whoso good repute among nations has been raised by what you have done." Old Point Comfort, Feb. 22. The boom of the sunrise gun echoing over ; the moat of picturesque old Fortress i Monroe marked the beginning of a day ! that added another chapter of thrilling I beauty and interest to the historic ', waters of Hampton Roads, first made : famous by the battle of the Monitor i and Merrlmac. It required a vivid Im- agination to look back today over a j span of forty odd years to picture the ' fury of that deadly conflict between I the" two first Ironclads of their day, and to compare their tiny strength with a modern battleship of the class of tho Connecticut. In the battleship and cruiser' Wquad--rohs that fl.lpd. by. the Mayflower today and saluted tho President's flag at the mainmast of the graceful little cruiser yacht, there wore represented 420,490 tons of water displacement. Every battleship in commission In the navy had a place in the long line. There were twenty of the heavily belted belt-ed vessels, fifteen' being among the original sixteen that sailed away fourteen four-teen months ago. The only vessel missing from the line today was the Alabama. She came home with the Maine last October, and both of these ships had the distinction of going all ! the way around the world, even if they ' were excluded from the fleet itself. I The Maine served today as flagship of I the squadron of vessels sent to meet i the incoming fleet, and as the wireless i dispatches already have told, she was greeted at sea with all the enthusiasm i of an old friend. The Alabama is in j reserve at the New York navy yard. ' The strangers In the fleet today were 1 the Nebraska, which replaced the Maine, and the Wisconsin, which re-j re-j placed the Alabama. Both these vessels ves-sels were built in the Pacific. Both joined the fleet at San Francisco and today made their first appearance in l an Atlantic port. The battleship fleet . and its escorting squadron of four bat-' bat-' tleships and five cruisers arrived at the southern ocean drill grounds fifty miles off the Virginia capes, yesterday, yester-day, and while there, made ready for today's review and inspection. The news that the fleet was almost -within sight of the shore caused intense inter- est in all the cities bordering Hamp-; Hamp-; ton Roads, and today at the first streaks of the coming day, residents of Norfolk, Newport News and other nearby places began to make their way to some previously" selected se-lected point of vantage along the borders bor-ders of the ocean or bay. Virginia beach, offering one of the first opportunities for a glimpse of the in-coming squadrons, was sought by thousands. The ramparts of Fortress Monroe were black with spectators, and wherever a place could be found along the water front, the eager onlookers on-lookers were gathered. The battleships picked up their regular reg-ular cruising speed of ten knots an hour early this morning. Brass work was polished to a deg:'ec of unequaled brilliancy and wherever paint work had been marred on the Journey home, single battleship, nor yet to a cruiser or torpedo boat, "You left this country in a high state of battle efficiency and you return re-turn with your efficiency Increased; better prepared than when yon left not only In personnel but even In material. ma-terial. "During your world cruise, you have taken your regular gunnery practice nd. skilled though you were before "lth the gun6, you have grown more skilled still and through practice you have improved in battle tactics though here there is more room for improvement improve-ment than in your gunnery. "Incidentally, I suppose I hardly heed say. that one measure of your fitness fit-ness must be your clear recognition of the need always steadily to strive to render yourselves more fit; if you ever grow ta think that you are fit enough, you can make up your mind; that from that moment you will begin to go backward. ' "Au a war machine, the fleet coms back In better shape than It went out. In addition, you the officers and men f this formidable fighting force havo Miown yourselves the best of all pon-Mblo pon-Mblo ambassadors and heralds of Peace. Wherever you have- landed. , ou have borne yourselves so ae ty fresh coats of white and buff applied yesterday made the ships as , immaculate imma-culate as they were on that beautiful day in December, 1907. when they sailed sail-ed away on a world cruise. . When the battleships pointed their prows at daylight for the gateway of the roads, the Mayflower, with the President and his party on board, was steaming down Chesapeake Bay to the anchorage at the tall of the horseshoe, a channel leading around Thimble Shoals where fourteen months ago the President had stood on the bridge of the same trim little vessel to review- the out-going fleet, and bid it God-speed on its epoch making journey. jour-ney. On that occasion the President said the sentiment meant simply the sending of a homogenous body of warships war-ships on au extended practice cruise. It was a matter of ordinary duty, ho declared, and while, he was present to w itness tho sailing in his capacity as commander-in chief of the army 'and navy, he did not consider the event one of sufficient importance to rcqulro a speech or other special ceremony. Today, with their splendid record of achievement and victories of peace behind be-hind them, the sixteen battleship.? came home to a welcome and to a ceremonious greeting which could |