Dedication To Bring Battleships Here.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 4, 1913:
All the Big Ships of the Atlantic Fleet Coming for Maine Monument Celebration.
NEW MEN IN COMMAND
With Rear Admiral Badger at the Head — To Anchor in Hudson and Receive Visitors.
    Arrangements are being completed for the anchorages of the Atlantic fleet when the vessels come to New York the latter part of this month to represent the Government officially at the dedication of the Maine Monument in the Circle entrance to Central Park. The entire fleet of twenty-one dreadnoughts and first-class battleships will not be here for the celebration, two of the battleships being on duty in Mexican waters and two or three more being scheduled for docking about the time of the proposed visit.
    The vessels that will come will include all the dreadnoughts. They will be headed by the great Wyoming, the flagship of Rear Admiral Charles J. Badger, the Commander In Chief of the fleet, who will make his first appearance in the Hudson as the supreme commander of the mighty Atlantic armada. In addition to the Wyoming, the vessels are the Arkansas, the Florida, the Delaware, the North Dakota, the Utah, the Louisiana, the Michigan, the South Carolina, the New Hampshire, the Virginia, the Georgia, the New Jersey, the Rhode Island, and the Kansas. The old fleet flagship Connecticut will be missing in the line-up for the first time in several years, so far as Hudson visits are concerned. She is one of the vessels now en route to Vera Cruz, Mexico, for a stay that will probably last until the internal troubles of Mexico are ended.
    In addition to a new Commander in Chief the Atlantic fleet will also come to New York in all probability with an almost complete new company of ship commanders. No less than eleven of the commanding officers have completed a year and a half of sea service, and they are soon to be relieved. Six of these officers are dreadnought commanders, including Frederick L. Chapin, commander of the fleet flagship; William J. Maxwell of the Florida, Henry B. Wilson of the North Dakota, W. S. Benson of the Utah, Edward E. Capehart of the Michigan, and Thomas Snowden of the South Carolina.
    The other commanders who are due to be relieved are H. McL. P. Huse of the Vermont, James H. Oliver of the New Hampshire. J. D. McDonald of the Virginia, Marbury Johnston of the Georgia, and William L. Howard of the Idaho. The impression is general that when Capt. Benson is relieved of the command of the dreadnought Utah, which he has commanded since she first went into commission, he will be ordered to Annapolis to be the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and that Capt. John H. Gibbons, the present Superintendent, will be ordered to command one of the dreadnoughts of the first division of the fleet. Capt. Benson is a former Commandant of Midshipmen and has long been known as an enthusiast in all matters having to do with the Naval Academy.
    Another rumor that is interesting naval officers is that the Atlantic fleet, when it passes through the Panama Canal next year, will go from the Pacific to the Atlantic instead of from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This would mean another around-the-world voyage. The fleet is going to the Mediterranean in the Fall, and it would be a comparatively simple matter to send it on around via the Suez Canal to the City of Panama and thence through the canal back into its home waters.
    When the fleet comes to New York this month it will anchor in single column, the Wyoming probably having an anchorage off the Soldiers and Sailors' Monument, with half of the fleet anchored to the north and the rest to the south, the southern end of the column being about opposite Sixtieth and the northernmost vessel probably off 135th Street. Visitors will be welcomed on all of the ships, and the city will take precautions to see that visitors are not overcharged by boatmen who will ply between designated points on the shore and the vessels. It is also probable that on the night of Decoration Day the entire fleet will be illuminated.