Entering the Golden Gate
[CHAPTER XIV]
END AND LESSONS OF THE CRUISE TO THE PACIFIC
WITH the arrival of the battleship fleet at San Francisco on May 6, 1908, the longest cruise ever made by a fleet of battleships of any navy came to an end. About one month was consumed by brief stays in various California anchorages on the way from Magdalena Bay to San Francisco. On the long cruise the fleet was reviewed by the Presidents of four republics—President Roosevelt, at Hampton Roads; President Penna, at Rio Janeiro; President Montt, at Valparaiso, and President Pardo, at Callao. According to the log of the Louisiana, on which the Sun's correspondent sailed, the fleet cruised 13,738.7 knots, or in round numbers 13,750 sea miles. Estimates of the exact distance vary on the sixteen battleships, according to the calculation of individual navigators. Some days' runs were estimated by dead reckoning, and there was no way of determining to a knot the distance that the ships travelled.
The elapsed time from leaving Hampton Roads on December 16 to dropping anchors in San Francisco harbor on May 6, was 141 days 7 hours. The actual time of cruising for the 13,750 knots voyage was 61 days 19 hours. Practically 80 days (79 days 12 hours, to be exact) were consumed in various ports. Of this time a period of 30 days was occupied largely in practice at Magdalena Bay. In Trinidad there was a stay of 6 days; in Rio, 10; Punta Arenas, 7; Callao, 9; or sixty-two days in round numbers. The rate of steaming was practically 10 knots. Occasionally 11 and even 12 knots was tried; several times speed was reduced to 8 knots and once or twice to 6 for experimental purposes or because of some mishap to a ship. Such accidents were few and at most only delayed the fleet an hour or two.
Allowing reasonable time to coal in foreign ports and eliminating the time for target practice at Magdalena Bay and the various stops along the California coast, the trip could have been made easily at 10 knots steaming in less than eighty days. One day could have been saved at Trinidad, 5 at Rio, 2 at Punta Arenas and 4 at Callao. These with 30 days at Magdalena Bay and 21 spent in California stopping places make 63 days which could have been cut off the elapsed time if the movement had been purely military.
These data are valuable as showing what an American battleship fleet can do if called upon in the way of steaming long distances. All the strictly unnecessary time spent in foreign and home ports, with the exception of Magdalena Bay, was occupied with social duties and pleasures. The Government now knows it would take seventy-eight days without undue speeding to send a fleet of battleships from Hampton Roads to San Francisco, providing all coaling arrangements are made in advance.
The longest run of the cruise was from Trinidad to Rio, a distance of 3,225 miles as the fleet sailed it, occupying thirteen days twenty hours. There was a strong head wind, a southeast trade wind. This and the persistent Amazon current caused the fleet to sail far out to the eastward along the northern coast of South America. The next longest run was from Callao to Magdalena Bay, 3,025 miles, occupying twelve days twenty-two hours. The trip from Punta Arenas to Callao, although only 2,693 miles long, occupied twelve days ten hours, largely because the fleet was slowed down on the way for nearly forty-eight hours to obtain data as to slow cruising, and also because of a fog. Slow speed was maintained for some time, in order not to enter Valparaiso harbor in advance of schedule time.
This trip from Atlantic to Pacific was supposed by people generally to be one of hazard and great daring. From the cruising standpoint it was almost a picnic. There was no bad weather to speak of. Off the River Plata there was half a storm one morning and the ships were shaken up a little as they emerged into the Pacific from the Magellan Strait, always a bad place. Not once, however, were table racks used on the ships and the heaviest roll the Louisiana experienced was less than twelve degrees. Other ships would probably tell a similar story.