Victory Parade for Navy to be Held in New York City, December 1918

From The Daily Times, Wilson, N.C., Dec. 24, 1918

U.S. Fleet Is Here. . . Big Parade Thursday

New York, Dec. 24—America’s great armada and her 25,000 sea fighters are expected home from the war today and Father Knickerbocker and Uncle Sam have prepared for a celebration that is expected to outdo in magnificence any naval demonstration ever held in New York.

From the minute the battleship Pennsylvania, the flagship of Admiral Henry T. Mayo, commander in chief of the fleet, passes through Ambrose Channel ahead of the procession of dreadnaughts, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, gunboats, and cruisers, at dawn today, until the evening of December 26, the American jackies and their officers in lavish fashion.

Secretary Daniels and other government notables aboard the Presidential yacht Mayflower, anchored off the Statue of Liberty, will review the flotilla as it steams proudly into New York Bay and up the Hudson river after nearly 18 months of foreign service. Every ship—and there will be 21 dreadnaughts in line in additional to the scores of smaller Warcraft—will be gaily festooned with the colors of the allies. At night thousands of incandescent electric light bulbs will outline the vessels and their names in color.

After the last of the ships has passed the reviewing point the Mayflower accompanied by city officials aboard other craft will follow them up the Hudson and review the vessels at anchor, steaming around the fleet. The Mayflower will then drop anchor at the foot of 92^nd Street, Fifth Avenue and 23^rd Street to the Hudson river and back to their ships. In course of the parade which will be without arms, and past the city’s cheering throngs, the sailors will tread jubilantly under the great Victory Arch at Madison Square which later it is purposed to transform into a permanent memorial.

Altogether the picture of the American fleet resting at anchor practically from the Battery to Harlem will be most imposing and especially at night when every turret, mast and gun will be ablaze with light. The flagship Pennsylvania will be designated by an illuminated pennant with a blue field and four scintillating silver stars. The flagships of Rear Admirals Hugh Rodman and T.S. Rodgers will be indicated by pennants showing two silver stars.