Rain dappled the brownish waters of Wallabout Bay one morning last week. The intricately girded ways of Brooklyn Navy Yard were slickly wet. Four bells (10 o'clock) sounded. A drenched band struck up the national anthem.
Rear Admiral William Woodward Phelps, his gold braid dulled, stood at attention. So did plump Assistant Secretary of the Navy Henry Latrobe Roosevelt, and Mrs. James Roosevelt, the President's mother, and Ernest Lee Jahncke of New Orleans. Assistant Secretary Roosevelt's predecessor. High above them rose the knifelike prow of a 10,000-ton cruiser, her anchor ports swathed in...
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