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| Photograph of Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet anchored in Elliot Bay at night, May 1908. Spotlights are beaming off the fleet’s ships. Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives. |
Memorial Day ’09
May 25th, 2009 @ 2:22 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure |
On the holiday formerly known as Decoration Day, we remember men and women who have died in military service. The U.S.A. chant is optional. Click on the photo of Roosevelt’ s Great White Fleet for higher re s.
Wow, fantastic! Bring that custom back please!
Are you sure about the date? I believe that I see the Smith Tower and it had not yet been built…
That is the Smith Tower…
Anhow here is History links page on the great white fleet…says they came to Seattle in 1908…
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=3610
so what is this picture of then?
Not sure what the ships in the pictures are, but they do not appear to have the same three funnels as the ships pictured in other “Great White Fleet” photos.
I did get a response from the UW archives folks they agree that this must have been takan after 1914
From: Washington State Digital Archives – Orders XXXXXX@digitalarchives.wa.gov
Dear Martin Lawson,
We double checked the image and found that “The Fleet in Elliott Bay” with the photographer was the only information on the back of the photo. The rest must have come from conjecture. i’ve changed the record to reflect only what is on the photograph.
Thank you for using the Washington State Digital Archives,
Mary Hammer
XXXXXX@secstate.wa.gov
OOPS now I am conjectoring… sorry
She said nothing about the date I am assuming this because they removed the “Great white fleet” and the “1908″ from the record
who knows when it was taken, other then one can clearly see the Smith Tower
The battleships have seaplane catapults and recovery cranes and other post WW I refits such as the tripod masts. I’d say that the photo was taken in the mid 1930′s.
Salutations, gentlefolk,
OK, here are two USN battleships, left foreground and center (probably that’s a third on the right, as the interwar USN usually grouped BB’s in three-ship divisions.)
Photo is pre-WWII, as during war portholes (lit up on ship in left fg) were plated up, anti-aircraft guns and radar added (greatly changing appearance), and most searchlights (needed for pre-radar night fighting) removed. Both have tripod masts (foremast spotting-top of ship on left is lit up between searchlight beams), and both have only 2 rear turrets (ruling out _Texas_, _New York_, and _Arkansas_). Which leaves us with a portrait of two of the _Pennsylvania_, _Arizona_, _Nevada_, or _Oklahoma_.
I shall leave it to the Washingtonians to dig thru the local newspapers’ reports of Navy Day / Memorial Day / 4th of July to find the exact date.
Yours, John Desmond
http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?krequest=subjects+contains+Battleships%201930-1940
#11 in that link says:
“On July 20, 1939, as part of the Golden Jubilee celebration, six Navy dreadnoughts, powerhouses of the Pacific Fleet, entered Commencement Bay at 8:30 in the morning and dropped anchor at the mouth of the Puyallup River. The ships and their 8,000 men and officers would be in Tacoma for the Jubilee celebration and depart on Monday, July 24th. The six battleships, the California, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Mexico, Mississippi and the Idaho, would be available for tours 1-4 p.m. through Sunday. They would also provide SEARCHLIGHT SHOWS in the evening and take part in the water carnival races. TPL 9081 (TNT 7/20/39, pg 1)” (emphasis mine)
So I’d say July 1939 is a good bet for this pic.