With the Battle Fleet: Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908Matthews, Franklin
History
With the Battle Fleet: Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908
Matthews, Franklin
United States. Navy. Atlantic Fleet -- Cruise, 1907-1909
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.
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