Editing Great White Fleet (section)

==Fleet composition==
[[File:President Theodore Roosevelt - NH 1836.jpg|thumb|President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] (on the {{convert|12|in|cm|adj=on}} gun turret at right) addressed officers and crewmen on {{USS|Connecticut|BB-18|2}}, in [[Hampton Roads, Virginia]], upon her return from the fleet's cruise around the world, 22 February 1909.]]

The 14-month-long voyage was intended to be a grand pageant of American naval power. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors. They covered some {{convert|43000|nmi|km}} and made 20 port calls on six continents.<ref name="GWF-H-00" /> The fleet was impressive, especially as a demonstration of American industrial prowess (all 18 ships had been constructed since the Spanish–American War), but already the battleships represented the suddenly outdated [[Pre-dreadnought battleship|predreadnought]] type of capital ship, as the first battleships of the revolutionary {{sclass|Dreadnought|battleship|4}} had just entered service, and the U.S. Navy's first [[dreadnought]], {{USS|South Carolina|BB-26|2}}, was already fitting out. The two oldest ships in the fleet, {{USS|Kearsarge|BB-5|2}} and {{USS|Kentucky|BB-6|2}}, were already obsolete and unfit for battle; two others, {{USS|Maine|BB-10|2}} and {{USS|Alabama|BB-8|2}}, had to be detached at San Francisco because of mechanical troubles and were replaced by the {{USS|Nebraska|BB-14|2}} and the {{USS|Wisconsin|BB-9|2}}. After repairs, ''Alabama'' and ''Maine'' completed their "own, more direct, circumnavigation of the globe" via Honolulu, Guam, Manila, Singapore, Colombo, Suez, Naples, Gibraltar, the Azores, and finally back to the United States, arriving on 20 October 1908, four months before the remainder of the fleet, which had taken a more circuitous route.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alabama (BB 8)|url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships/alabama-bb-8.html|access-date=2021-02-13|website=NHHC|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Maine (BB 10)|url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships/maine-bb-10.html|access-date=2021-02-13|website=NHHC|language=en-US}}</ref>

The battleships were accompanied during the first leg of their voyage by a "Torpedo Flotilla" of six early [[destroyer]]s, and by several auxiliary ships. The destroyers and their tender did not actually steam in company with the battleships, but followed their own itinerary from Hampton Roads to San Francisco, California.<ref name="GWF-H-00" /> Also, the [[armored cruiser]] {{USS|Washington|ACR-11|2}} preceded the fleet itinerary for its first and second legs by about a month, perhaps making arrangements to later receive the fleet.<ref>{{Cite web|title=USS Washington / USS Seattle ARC 11|url=http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~cacunithistories/military/USS_Washington.html|access-date=2021-02-13|website=freepages.rootsweb.com}}</ref>