the Americans in terms of fishery protection vessels, with 226 guns to 31 respectively. On 5 August 1853, contingents of the U.S. and British fishery protection squadrons for the area met at Halifax, Nova Scotia for a goodwill visit. The steamer , carrying Commodore Shubrick and his flag, arrived under dense fog and heavy rain at 8:00 pm. Princeton saluted the citadel, and fired a 15-gun salute "for the red cross of St. George", which was displayed by Vice Admiral Sir George Seymour on . There was a minor problem when Commodore Shubrick received with a 13-gun salute; he returned the salute to the vice admiral with an equal number of guns, rather than the 15 that the vice admiral was traditionally entitled to. He believed that "a commander in chief is a commander in chief", whatever his rank. The rest of the event went without any problems, as did a similar event held at Berkeley Springs, Virginia. At the end of May 1898, and arrived at St Johns from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to form part of the fishery protection squadron for the French treaty coast. They were sighted off Trepassey by the Americans, who reported on their arrival in the New York Times. With these new arrivals and others, by the end of 1898 the entire squadron had been rebuilt with powerful, modern cruisers replacing the outdated corvettes previously seen. The squadron was rebuilt in part because of the threat of an oversized French armoured cruiser sent to the area the previous year, which was seen as a threat despite being too large to enter most of the local harbours. Two smaller ships were also sent by the French to replace local wooden transport vessels, and in Autumn a French squadron gathered at Saint Pierre and Miquelon, forcing the British government to respond by sending two extra ships to Sydney, Nova Scotia, only 18 hours steaming from St Peirre. For two weeks near the end of the year, a small scale war seemed likely, but was averted after diplomatic talks. French Shore By 1900, the situation had escalated. The key issue was the French Shore, resulting from the Peace of Utrecht. The treaty allowed the French to fish along the Newfoundland coast between Cape St. John and Cape Ray, however it made no claims about whether this was an exclusive right. As a result, the two nations roughly shared