A LITTLE SMOKE A LITTLE FIRE

Ran across this tonight while browsing and it struck me. The world of today would go absolutely berserk if they saw this in today's light. This is the Great White Fleet taking departure from Hampton Roads, Virginia back in 1907. Later in the same century I would field interesting questions from the skipper such as, "how did you handle fines issued by the EPA for smoking black?" I had to confess to being wilier than all that since I always started the main engines at night in the dark when we were pierside in the States ran them long enough to warm them up to operating temperature and then secured them until light off again in the morning. That way we only showed a quick trace of black smoke to the beady little eyes watching us like hawks atop Point Loma. When I ran things we didn't get tickets. These guys didn't either.