Mohave County Miner

A Great Marine Pageant.

Norfolk, Va.--The greatest event in the naval history of the world will take place on the waters of Hampton Roads during the continuance of the Jamestown Ter-Centennial exposition, which will be opened by the president of the United States at noon on the 26th day of April, and which will close on the 30th day of November at midnight of the coming year, 1907.

The maritime powers of the world will be there represented by the craft that is making and has made them famous. Every European, Asiatic and American country which boasts of a navy will send a representation and this will be maintained throughout the six months of the exposition. Thus there will be had a constant and a panoramic view of the great seafarers, as the ships will be changed from time to time in order that the best may be shown and seen.

That great display will be in the nature of a homecoming for the ironclad floating fortresses of the present day, for the site of their anchorage in Hampton Roads is the scene of the first battle that ever took place between ships of that construction. On April 8-9, 1862, the Monitor, under the command of Captain Winslow of the United States navy, and the Merrimac, under the command of Captain Buchanan of the Confederate states navy, met in deadly conflict in Hampton Roads. It was the first clash between ironclads.

The navies of the world are now made up of ironclads and hence the appropriateness of a reunion on the site of their initial test. This display will mark an epoch in history. These huge monsters of destruction and death will meet together in amicable salute. The end of international peace will be largely substituted and strengthened by that assemblage and its instructive value to the millions of exposition visitors will be paramount.

The romance of the sea, its fury; its horror as well as its calm and attraction will be exhibited to the mind and impressed on the heart. The ever present element of danger will be seen through an environment of stately and formidable impressiveness. It will be a metaphor of the ocean, vast, expansive, overwhelming, yet cheering, ennobling and uplifting. It will be a sight worth seeing. It will hardly ever again occur in the world's history.