The King spent the " week-end " with the Fleet
at Spithead. More than two hundred vessels were in the lines, stretching over nearly forty miles, and the officers and men afloat numbered over seventy thousand. This was the largest Fleet ever gathered together at Spithead. The King had intended to reach Spithead last Saturday morning and review the ships, but his arrival was delayed by the political crisis until the evening. Then the Royal salute was fired and a combined flight of air- ships and aeroplanes appeared over the land. The Times correspondent says that the manner in which the aeroplanes "kept station" in their flight was the most notable event of the day. At night the Fleet was illuminated, and the display of searchlights—the fantastic clashing in the sky of the enormous shafts of light—is said to have been the most remarkable ever seen. On Sunday the King informally visited various ships, and on Monday led the way in a tactical exercise. When the Royal Yacht had anchored twenty-two miles of ships passed in procession, the crews cheering. In the evening the King returned to London.
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