Squadron To Meet The Natal.

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 22, 1912:
Two Battleships and Four Destroyers Assigned to Convoy Her Here.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Dec. 21.— The Secretary of the Navy has selected the battleships Florida and South Dakota and the destroyers Roe, Paulding, Drayton, and McCall to act as escort to the British battleship Natal, which is bringing the body of Ambassador Whitelaw Reid to this country.
    The six vessels will rendezvous at Tompkinsvílle on Dec. 31, and proceed to sea so as to meet the Natal off Nantucket Light about sunset on Jan. 2, and accompany her to the North River. They will anchor off Ninety-fifth Street the forenoon of Jan. 3.
    Admiral Bradley A. Fiske will command the special squadron, and will fly his flag from the Florida. He will also have general charge of the arrangements for the removal of the body from the Natal to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, on 110th Street. Two companies of seamen and two of marines will be landed from the Florida and the North Dakota, and will form the funeral escort when the body is landed on the afternoon of Jan. 3.