JONATHAN AND JOHN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 944, 21 January 1911, Page 4

JONATHAN AND JOHN.

When the second division of the United States Fleet left Portsmouth recendy (says a cable message to an Australian paper), they passed through the hues formed by the ships of the British Home Fleet. The event was almost an historic one, and the interest displayed was wonderful. The British crews “ manned ships,” and the general scene was one of brightness marked by a great display of friendly feeling. As the American vessels passed slowly out into the English Channel cheers and counter-cheers passed from fleet to fleet. The usual salutes were fired amid any amount of enthusiasm from the crowds of people in pleasure craft and private yachts and motor boats. Handkerchiefs and flags representing the Union Jack and Stars and Stripes were waved by hundreds of women, and there must have been at least 200,000 people on the water and lining the shores at Portsmouth Hard and Southsea Esplanade. As the last of the American craft passed the end of the lines of the Home Division, the band of the British flagship struck up “ Auldj Eang Syne,’’and in a moment the; lusty voices of thousands of British and American tars could be heard singing the song, verse alter verse, until the tail end of the departing armada was quite a mile away from its starting point.