A little after 11:30 a.m. on the 20th of August 1908 the USS Connecticut passed North Head and entered Sydney Harbour, firing a 21-gun national salute. The four divisions then moved to individual anchorages within the harbour.
"So intense was Australia's interest in the visit that half the population of that city "remained awake the entire night and thousands upon thousands of them long before night was over were on their way to the hill tops outside the city limits, where they massed seemingly in unbroken lines to view the spectacle. Estimates of the number of spectators vary from 500,000 to 650,000."
- James Reckner's book, Teddy's Roosevelt's Great White Fleet.
Realistically I believe that the Fleet was greeted by somewhere around 250,000 people, who had stayed up all night so as not to miss the ships' arrival. For the next eight days, there was a non-stop celebration in honour of the Navy visitors.
Regards
Sean
