United States. Navy. Atlantic Fleet. Battleship Force

Memorandum from Augustus C. Wrenn to Victor Howard Metcalf

Navy Department Clerk Augustus C. Wrenn informs Secretary of the Navy Metcalf of the American vessels offered for transporting coal for the fleet from the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, Edgar F. Luckenbach, New England Coal and Coke Company, and the Boston Tow Boat Company. He discusses the negotiations and concludes that only 12,000 tons out of the offered 70,000 tons have accepted the Navy Department’s terms.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-04

Letter from William Sowden Sims to Theodore Roosevelt

Commander Sims writes to President Roosevelt with the results of the long-range firing tests completed by the Atlantic Fleet. After his updates over the years on their great progress in gunnery training, Sims now reports that the battle firing system has proven to be satisfactory. He describes the tests conducted, the control system, and the outcomes for each ship. The fire-control officers, although rattled by stress at first, performed very well by the end.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-08

Letter from Whitelaw Reid to Theodore Roosevelt

Ambassador Reid seeks Theodore Roosevelt’s direction as to whether William H. Taft will stop by London on his way back from the Philippines, seeing as he will already be stopping at St. Petersburg and Berlin. If so, Reid will arrange some visits for Taft with British dignitaries. Reid also encloses some news clippings from British publications discussing American political affairs.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-10

Letter from Jonathan Bourne to Theodore Roosevelt

Senator Bourne will send President Roosevelt’s regards to his wife, Lillian Elizabeth Wyatt Bourne. He encloses a review of Fred A. Mackenzie’s book on Japan. Bourne is pleased with and supports Roosevelt’s decision to send the Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific and feels the Eastern opposition to it primarily stems from potential economic loss.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-17

Letter from Willard H. Brownson to Theodore Roosevelt

Rear Admiral Brownson, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, gives President Roosevelt his opinions and recommendations on Admiral Robley D. Evans’ proposed route plans for the Atlantic Fleet. Brownson feels a single newspaper correspondent for the trip is ideal.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-17

Letter from Robley D. Evans to Willard H. Brownson

Admiral Robley D. Evans gives Chief of the Bureau of Navigation Rear Admiral Brownson his thoughts on routeing the Atlantic Fleet. He is primarily concerned about how other nations will view the Fleet’s maneuvers, and the season the fleet will be passing through the Straits of Magellan.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-17

Letter from Truman Handy Newberry to Theodore Roosevelt

Acting Secretary of the Navy Newberry sends President Roosevelt three itineraries from Admiral Robley D. Evans along with memorandums from the Bureau of Equipment and the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, all of which concern the logistics of the Atlantic Fleet’s upcoming tour.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-07

Letter from Truman Handy Newberry to Theodore Roosevelt

Acting Secretary of the Navy Newberry informs President Roosevelt that he forwarded the papers to the Navy General Board. He details a list of the available battleships and cruisers and their stations. Newberry also includes a list of ships under construction. In all, sixteen battleships of the Atlantic Fleet, the USS Indiana, and possibly the USS Iowa can be sent to the Pacific.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-08

Letter from Jonathan Bourne to Theodore Roosevelt

Senator Bourne believes conflict with Japan is likely in the future. He hopes President Roosevelt will send the Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific as it will accomplish much regarding foreign policy. His wife, Lillian Elizabeth Wyatt Bourne, recently visited Japan. He includes a lengthy excerpt from one of her letters in which she provides social commentary on the Japanese.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-09

Letter from John P. Merrell to Victor Howard Metcalf

Admiral Merrell informs Secretary of the Navy Metcalf that President Roosevelt has misunderstood several points recently made by the General Board, and attempts to clarify its statements.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-15

Letter from Truman Handy Newberry to Theodore Roosevelt

Acting Secretary of the Navy Newberry updates President Roosevelt on naval matters. Newberry is glad Roosevelt approves of his plans for educating midshipmen, and believes it is a good idea to enlist them at a younger age. Newberry has conferred with Admirals Robley D. Evans and Willard H. Brownson regarding itineraries for the Great White Fleet’s trip to the Pacific, and will send the specifics of three proposed itineraries soon.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-01

Response to memorandum from H. N. Manney to Theodore Roosevelt

Rear Admiral Merrell of the Naval War College and Navy General Board has analyzed a recent memorandum from Rear Admiral H. N. Manney in which Manney asked President Roosevelt to reconsider sending the Great White Fleet to the Pacific Ocean, in case of war with Japan. While the General Board agrees with Manney that Japan’s current finances would make war nearly impossible, they believe that should war develop, the Philippines would be a primary target of the Japanese, rather than the Atlantic Coast of the United States, as Manney suggests. Merrell and the Board reiterate their recommendation to send the fleet to the Pacific, and indeed recommend consideration of having permanent fleets in the Atlantic and Pacific.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-02

Letter from Willard H. Brownson to William Loeb

Rear Admiral Brownson, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, asks William Loeb to inform President Roosevelt that he emphatically does not approve of sending the Great White Fleet home from the Pacific via the Suez Canal, no matter what an editorial in the Herald might say.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-04

Letter from Hermann Speck von Sternburg to Theodore Roosevelt

German Ambassador Sternburg tells President Roosevelt that if his own representatives in Mexico had not told him of a recent wave of Japanese immigrants there, he would not have given the matter any attention, calling the idea of a Japanese reserve of men stationed to attack the United States “quixotic.” A German naval attaché in Tokyo says Japan is not considering another war in the near future. Sternburg includes a lengthy excerpt from a letter from German diplomat Friedrich von Holstein, who says that British diplomacy, led by King Edward VII, is geared toward using Japan as a “bogey,” stoking anxiety in Russia and the United States about the possibility of Japan initiating hostilities. Sternburg mentions a recent newspaper article that says Germany is actually spreading anti-Japanese feeling, which he finds amusing. Sternburg praises the Great White Fleet’s trip to the Pacific, and notes that many former soldiers emigrate from their home countries, “war seems to create a restless spirit among the fighters.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-19

Memorandum from H. N. Manney to Theodore Roosevelt

Retired Rear Admiral Manney outlines the reasons he believes sending the Great White Fleet to the Pacific Ocean is unwise given the tensions between the United States and Japan. Because Japan is not a wealthy nation, Manney believes it will not attack and occupy targets that would be expensive to win and maintain, and that therefore neither the Philippines nor Hawaii are in danger of attack. Rather, Manney describes in detail how the Japanese could gain control of bases from which to attack both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the United States, how such attacks would affect the U.S., and how long it would take the fleet to return to the Atlantic as a consequence. Because much more damage can be done to the United States on the Atlantic coast rather than the Pacific, it makes more sense to keep the fleet in the Atlantic, in case of war with Japan.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-19

Letter from John Callan O’Laughlin to William Loeb

Journalist John Callan O’Laughlin relates the “current diplomatic opinion” of Russia, Japan, and Brazil to William Loeb. O’Laughlin says a Russian military attaché, Colonel N. N. Raspopoff, told him he has heard that Japan is preparing for war, and Russia is preparing diplomatic policies with this in mind. Raspopoff does not feel Japan has the money for a war against the United States, and has more to gain from focusing on Korea and Manchuria. In Brazil, war between Japan and the United States is seen as inevitable, and Brazil wishes to support the United States and open her ports to the United States fleet on the way to the Pacific. A friend of O’Laughlin’s who is close with people at the Japanese embassy tells him Japan does not want war. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-07

Letter from Charles J. Bonaparte to Theodore Roosevelt

Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte updates President Roosevelt on a number of issues that Roosevelt had inquired about. The battleships of the Asiatic Station have already been given orders to return as soon as possible–one will undergo repairs at San Francisco, and the other will return to the Atlantic Coast and join the Atlantic Fleet Battleship Force under Admiral Robley D. Evans. Bonaparte has received a report on the topic of bad meat at the New York naval yard, which he encloses. Bonaparte finally shares some plans for the posting of wage schedules, and reports on the untangling of a controversy between the Bureau of Navigation and a local Naval Militia. Plans for an upcoming naval review are going smoothly.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-13

Scientific American advertisement

Captain A. T. Mahan will be writing an authoritative article about the composition of the Great White Fleet and the reasons for sending it first to the Pacific Coast, and then around the world. The article will feature in an upcoming double-size special Navy edition of Scientific American, which will be available December 7, 1907.

Collection

Duane G. Jundt Theodore Roosevelt Collection

Creation Date

1907

Admiral Evans, Commander-in-Chief

Colorized stereograph celebrating the appointment of Admiral Evans as Commander-in-Chief of the Great White Fleet. Evans is dressed in his officer’s uniform on the front of the stereograph with a draped American flag and a variety of flowers surrounding him. On the reverse of the stereograph is information about Evans’ life and his naval service.

Comments and Context

As printed on the reverse of the stereograph, “Admiral Robley D. Evans: Admiral Evans is commander-in-chief of the American fleet; was born in Virginia, fought on the Union side during the Civil War, commanded the Iowa at Santiago, is now Rear-Admiral of the greatest fleet ever assembled by the United States, and will make the longest cruise of any fleet in the history of the world. Admiral Evans is known the world over as “Fighting Bob,” the pride of the American Navy, and the idol of the American sailor. He has a long and interesting history, full of stirring events from the day he graduated from Annapolis up to the present time. He was in the Indian battles of the far West, and had the luck to be present and took an active part in all of the many naval affairs since the Civil War. In August, 1908, he will be made either Vice-Admiral or placed on the retired list.”

Collection

Duane G. Jundt Theodore Roosevelt Collection

Battleship Ohio

Colorized postcard showing the USS Ohio painted white and decorated with flags. Another unnamed ship can be seen in the distance. Text on the reverse of the stereograph details the history of the Ohio and lists various features of the ship.

Comments and Context

As printed on the reverse of the stereograph, “Second squadron of the second division under the command of Rear-Admiral Charles M. Thomas. This battleship is of the Maine and Missouri type; has the same displacement and the same armament and carries the same complement of crew, but is a slower sailer, making 17 knots. Her trial trip for speed was not satisfactory but she has not lost this average in her later trials. The Ohio is one of three battleships built in San Francisco and launched in 1901. She mounts four 12-inch guns in her turrets and is considered one of the powerful battleships of the American Navy, although not in the first class. On this battleship was installed the great firing system, where a secret telegraph or system is brought about, showing the range of the enemy’s fleet. This is a secret known only to the United States Navy. Captain, Charles W. Barrett.”

Collection

Duane G. Jundt Theodore Roosevelt Collection