NAVAL REVIEW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 44, 14 August 1911, Page 7

NAVAL REVIEW.

V "OUR SAILOR IvING." SALUTED BY THREE THOUSAND GUNS. (Wellington Times' lady correspondent). Spithead, June 24. To see the King of England crowned and anointed such in the beautiful old Abbey of Westminster; then to watch him drive through no less tlmn seven miles of his capital to a never-ceasing accompaniment of cheers and cries of joyful recognition and loyalty from his people; then again to see him as High Admiral of the Fleet at such a naval review as the world has never before witnessed; and all this in the short space of tliree days, is an opportunity to be sung by poets and recorded by historians in language that will make loyalists thrill. And such oportunity fell to many New Zealanders this week. From the deck of the good ship Dongola, a troopship on which the writer is a guest, can be viewed a spectacle that, once seen, can never be effaced, the significance of which, once appreciated, will never be lightly forgotten. Yesterday and the day before, viewing the pageant ashore, we trod on land undoubtedly our own, to have and to hoI(|, with evidences of British owner- ' ship all fdunfl; a place of magnificent buildings, towers and streets, ablate with Jlags/' and banners that themselves were further silent' bookfs, that he who ran migHt read, of what England had won in the past and held for the future. A city 'oif gaiety, of thousands of lights, of flowers, full, of joyful human voices, oi , ; liyiirfc "ha citizens, and full, too, ol , ; :t}ip Tnujrtpliant sjjirit of the season. ''irounjfr, is. a world the very , j^ntfreSis of_ tha^/jtlier. , and forbidding as she .?aH W''.Meli J.,he' sun ignores her, can i .Mjt t>'e .coaxcA into a rollicking atmosivnjade gay. with flags ~r -'jjpfy. the hundred vanities of , } jj}i r d«6raw's, magic. ■ ■ tfifi [ Plfl flcgan i with only the 'M B ft |ai)o,ye r ,Jier to' dominate -her o*y , "Mistress of the reverence, knowfog how much and li.ttrdawesome phrase emr ' Mbie have been days isl , lth i. Wy trapped horses ilieiftg, with men and wo T -*?' JWI W> ivi 1!l ever y decora-!; t>fn jandvisiWe proudly displayed ~op tlle.bbyo owner?,, ,And (J nno'«|V^l%^ r ; 0 ..;, . ;di #,AWUffOF STERNNESS?'';'") ~ leV# IwaWf.foi 'Have; passed | t felo{vly 'in rftdfetf sen\te of sternn&ia' '/ej)iiaiati<fti is jila^fiil' and' '<ljairftf^ J an 4 pj|tli. IJoybells and flut- ' te: nigt^KaiViffieXflii^, l 'prancing "steeds' f'ajid' Mimari, be-' '"JOi;S'^ifl : ?eFawajF il fi ? p'fc us out here in %; p rfndW''nie !l lee of g/ey guns th i#l£ouM ■ ittfd th'ousiirtdsijkc ''lis | fche , t(Wcli, urtder.a'sky' ■ th itniicmMl a sea that coiiJd 'iftaltbH ukj'OilglftV #lftr(igh"We seem .to j be drijorf®instant! r qid'things "go wrong, iv , as il si! ilvif--- .<••; ' : ,; ! j toJiS-iAspifhig- Atribes the scejie ] pe rhitps liwltet' l ffla'n any other eithe't',, ] fo 1 :,rii<joOT«ifl fWttfei*iig lines of buntfng'j ■ca I'/.rfothatSvfll'teoltJbsEfl- engines' 61 wki'/qt l lin.'signlfiSlinc^ 1 ; ■no merry music—ami] •Hl' irinri'HMObtffceY, to' us by. the yind Wi iVt i S.si3s L '-can blind us to the '''fli'it reas^f'ifßi-oWiij'existence of ifhdse li lii(iilstap'ftiijicMfcpj'. ■'' il '- > WiiV'a Vfft'y' of beauty.. Tondi im'ei fi«d JWekuty and grandeur ,it •is bocttusebth'ef®''!s a beauty other than ter Mrffy ire ugly, tb femipine "■fy !lp tfc<ss»?|jrey fert.ts. JxJ/crtteiiJidiilrtTmeri alike have foupd ' Wi':, - t'£>(l" !itl]iiH9^l)l r (lr<lwing comparisons till; find fpreign slups ;ft'hC'i)<)tC(Vos();[«(i'iO('fiillv • sidp by side to l <lo| -Ikmiojc tofl'thei-Sailor ffing, apd in thdlrfiftJiirttSbio changes in the -tHeorctf vesßte'-sintfe the last review. Wday'a! liaiii told; id- the first wJier.e ! lio iS touch ; was. otherwise so :ijc;en,tifically perfect, by •itiie ota^; Ships 'in the old jjsiiy!] fj,rijjfpg,up the stays and stand<ing «Wiy .''- cross-spar—bluejacket (i'K'C'^nalf,.had a' capital view of itHc proceedings of the ro.'tfew,,, W, various vessels, \yc H-fi-e, pinning taken down the street :fllf (ships. -4jjad then anchored in such a ; .t), e King 1 on the Victoria ! 'ttflfl passed us three times. ' <J3Jlie ~q{le(;t ..of, steaming slowly down ; lilids, of fj)£v(y;lips, of peering at them and noting their '-poinjts they'd been racehorses, s«a'i)ge, but not so remarkable,, |p a ..woman, as that produced by •H«b' sajutc.. of thousands of guns when the .pignaL fired from the Lord 'flWgsfiip,, gnve the command. ' The, a gun at sea breaks on M'lie air.,iTiti..a' short, sharp bark, and the etl'eet is as if one's ears had'been .boxed: ...,It rwaa a surprise to at least .onlooker to find tlmt the smoke ' precedes the report by the space it does;

Pictures of the old days and the way they had' in the navy then, the sweating, smoke-begrimed, haif-clothed men sticking to their guns and dealing out death when half-dead themselves, came to one's mind, stories of great heroism, of cruel struggles,, .memories of tales of wreckage, fire, defeat or victory, and of men's bodies floating in the angry sea after all was decided—all this in a minute when the fleet of to-day, huge, clean, the mightiest in the universe, boomed its noisy welcome to its King. And he looked a King indeed. Even in a more telling fashion than the last two days' pageant have made him. As the Victoria and Albert, a large yacht of beautiful lines, steamed past at a good speed, turning the blue water back like the earth from the, nose of a plough, with the Royal Standard floating finely in the sharp breeze, and with the spotless decks dressed with lines of Jack Tars, hand in hand, all eyes were nn the High Admiral of the Fleet, a slender figure standing on the bridge, and. with hand uplifted, returning our deafening greeting.

The Queen, the Prince of Wales, and many princes and princesses of our own and other lands were on his yacht, but from every ship the eyes of men were strained on that solitary figure with the raised hand, and from every ship as he passed there came a great roar of cheers which the breeze bore away across the flecked waters.

It Avas a sight that made one hold one's breath lest one detail of the syinmetry of so wonderful a picture be missed.

THE SATLOR KINO'S TRIRUTE. To hear a score of sailors cheer is a lusty sound pood to remember at any time. To hear thousands yell from robust lungs greetings of joyful loyalty to another sailor who is their King is something never to be forgotten. As the Royal yacht passed eacli warship its band played the National

I Anthem, and King George personally re- [ turned the officers' salute. The Royal procession took the following route: —From Portsmouth Harbor| eastward of the Good Hope and Shannon J to the westward between lines E (Nep-I tune and Indomitable) and F (foreign] warships), westward of Latona (past I the liners having on board the meniuera of Parliament, colonial Premiers, and other distinguished personages), to the eastward between lines C (armored cruisers) and D. (older battleships), and to the westward between lines F and G i (large merchant ships). A most impos--1 ing spectacle was unfolded to the view not less impressive to the seafarer than to the landsman, A little after 4 the Victoria and Albert anchored in line G between the French battleship Danton and the Chilian cruiser Chacabuco and abreast of the battleship Lord Nelson, flying the flag of the Commander-in-Chief. His Majesty at once began his reception of all flag officers whose flags are flying in i the Spithead fleet, all foreign flag officers, and other commanding officers of foreign ships of war. This interesting function closed at half-past 5, and the Victoria and Albert again weighed anchor and returned to harbor amidst the thunders of a final salute. She has gone past us for the third time, the men among us trying to burst their throats, the women glad we are not called on to find a voice that would betray us, and very shortly we are set out for Southampton and home. We take one last look at the long grey lines of foreign ships with their men not yet dispersed, their guns still finishing their salutes—every ship fires twenty-one guns. More eyes have been glued on the Von der Tann, the German cruiser, more tongues busy about her perhaps than any other vessel present. Is it because we fear her—and the power behind her of which she is a specimen—more than any other in this fine array? She is easily picked out by her immense beam and the light bluish grey of her hull. Her two funnels arc thick and stunted, and she is reported to be one of the most powerful ships showing. The I French Danton, by the side of which the King anchored, also has squat funnels (five weird-looking affairs like thermos flasks!), but no other points of special interest to eyes feminine. A strange sight is the United States' representative, the Delaware, with extraordinary latticed masts like Eiffel towers on her decks. The special advantage of these, I believe, is that it would be unlikely that they would be blown away as completely as ours. The new battleship of Austria-Hun-gary, the Radetzky, painted deep green, was another of special interest, and the Russian, the Rossiya, the only ono in all this fearsome collection that has 'taßted fire. We have started on our homeward : jo|irney, and now pass in succession Dreadnoughts from Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, China, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, Sweden and Greece, and as we ' say good-bye to them our last memory is J ofi their flags and ours flying together '• ;; in|the breeze and the dusk falling gently 'onj all.