Your TR Source
In compliance with President Roosevelt’s November 28 letter to former Secretary of the Navy Charles J. Bonaparte, Victor Howard Metcalf has enclosed the general board’s opinion on the merits of armored cruisers and battleships.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-15
Admiral Dewey writes to President Roosevelt about the ineffectiveness of armored cruisers. Dewey says that while there are some specific uses for armored cruisers, generally either an unarmored cruiser or a battleship is a preferable choice. The General Board does not recommend building any armored cruisers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-15
This document lists the ships in the largest battleship fleets in each of three countries: England’s Channel Fleet, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, and the United States’s Atlantic Fleet. Notes are included regarding the commission of each fleet and planned replacements, repairs, and additions to the Atlantic Fleet.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-13
William Sowden Sims sends President Roosevelt his report on the advantages of big gun battleships of large displacement.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-10
George von Lengerke Meyer writes to President Roosevelt about troubles in Russia, including the mutiny of the battleship Potemkin and marines in Libau who rebelled. Meyer notes that as soon as Czar Nicholas II of Russia makes a move in the right direction he is countered with obstacles in the press or in bureaucracy. He is “surrounded by men who are not in sympathy with needed reform.” Meyer feels education, freedom of the press, and a representative government will raise standards for citizenship.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-01
The Office of Naval Intelligence describes the outbreak of fire following the explosion of a gun during a training exercise on the USS Missouri on April 13, 1904, a fire that killed six officers and twenty-seven enlisted men. The report details the crew’s response to to the emergency and the evidence gathered in review of the incident. The writer states, “The discipline, readiness, and alacrity shown by every person in every department of the ship deserves highest approbation,” and he praises the willingness of numerous crew members to assist in the rescue of others, including three men who ultimately earned the medal of honor for their actions: Gunner Robert E. Cox, Chief Gunner’s Mate Mons Monssen, and Gunner’s Mate First Class Charles S. Schepke.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904
President Roosevelt holds a “bill providing for two battleships” as the “Senate” says, “Only two!” Roosevelt replies, “Two every year, tho!”
Budget priorities were a continual point of friction between President Roosevelt and the United States Senate. The disagreements were about more than financial allocations for some issues like conservation — the establishment of national parks, game reserves, bird sanctuaries, and monuments. The very concept of protecting natural resources and wildlife sparked conflict.
President Roosevelt swings “the big stick” at battleships hanging from a tree as “Congress” holds onto the branch. A paper begins to fall to the ground: “pledge of 2 battleships each year in future.” A little boy labeled “Navy” watches the battleships fall.
Theodore Roosevelt, whose first major book was about the naval aspects of the War of 1812, and who was Assistant Secretary of the Navy before forming the Rough Rider Volunteer Regiment to fight in Cuba, never abandoned a lively interest in America’s seaborne defense capabilities.
In the upper left-hand corner is a Native American man standing in a canoe with a stick with “1607” in the corner. The rest of the cartoon is a much larger President Roosevelt holding a “big stick” and standing on a battleship cruising into the “Jamestown Exposition” in 1907.
A number of expositions and fairs were held during the Theodore Roosevelt Administration. The Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, of course, is where President William McKinley was shot, leading to Roosevelt’s succession. The St. Louis World’s Fair was opened by the president by electronic signal, and only visited in late 1904, because Roosevelt did not want to appear to use a visit to the Fair as an advantage during his presidential campaign. In the last weeks of his presidency, among several national observances, Roosevelt made his way to Hardin, Kentucky, to mark the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
This newspaper article includes two photographs of President Roosevelt aboard the USS Louisiana during his voyage to and from Panama. He frequently visited the bridge and often took walks on the decks of the ship.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-03
This magazine articles states that President Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt invited $125,000,000 worth of fighting craft to Oyster Bay, New York, for a naval review.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-02
This article includes pictures from President Roosevelt’s naval review of vessels in the United States Navy from September 2, 1906, to September 4, 1906.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-09
President Roosevelt sits on a box in the “U.S. Navy Yard” as he holds a paper entitled, “new Navy plans.” He is surrounded by equipment like “steel” and an “armor plate” as well as two sides of the “Kansas” and “Vermont” battleships. There are a number of battleships in the distance. Caption: “More and more our people are waking up to the need of a navy, and, in view of events happening all over the world, I think we can count on Congress to build up our navy. It certainly will if I can persuade it.”—Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-24
Charles J. Bonaparte wears a a “Secy of the Navy” ribbon and stands at the front of a battleship. Behind him are President Roosevelt with “the big stick,” Secretary of War William H. Taft, Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, Secretary of State John Hay, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, and Attorney General William H. Moody.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-03
The goddess of peace holds several weapons, battleships, and “the big stick” as she looks at President Roosevelt, who sits in a chair and holds “the dove” by the neck.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-01
President Roosevelt stands on a “U.S.” battleship and points a “Monroe Doctrine” gun at “Europe,” who reaches for a man sitting on the “Republic of Santo Domingo.” Caption: “This in reality entails no new obligations upon us, for the Monroe Doctrine means precisely such a guarantee on our part.”—President Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-18
President Roosevelt holds “the big stick” and sits on cannons as Uncle Sam looks through a monocular. Beside Uncle Sam is an “Uncle Sam debt collector” bag. In the background is an angel of “peace” and a sign that reads, “Roosevelt Monroe Doctrine—’Scat’!!!” There are a number of battleships in the water.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-12
Russian officers cheer because the Spanish government let the Russian fleet refuel in Vigo, Spain. Caption: “The Baltic fleet in Vigo. Hurray! Hurray! We are safe now!”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11
Caption: “Illinois,” the most powerful type of battle-ship in the United States (just launched at Newport News), as she will appear when under way. One thousand tons larger than the “Oregon” and “Iowa,” heretofore our greatest battle-ships, and is a sister-ship of the “Alabama” and “Wisconsin,” now being built.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898
List of battleships and cruisers in commission with armament detail of main and secondary batteries.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-26