The Great White Fleet

The Great White Fleet leaves Hampton Roads Virginia. Image in the public domain. Click on image to open in a larger window.

This image shows the 16 capital Battleships, followed then by their Escorts, leaving Hampton Roads Virginia on their round the World trip, starting in December of 1907. USS Kansas leads the way ahead of USS Vermont. The ships were painted white and became known as The Great White Fleet. This image was taken by CE Waterman and as it was taken prior to 1923, the copyright has expired, and it is now in the Public Domain. The black smoke indicates that these ships are all coal burners, and probably an image like this these days would send the Kyoto seeking environmentalists right over the top.

This story appeared in the Australian ABC online news bulletins today. The journalist correctly attributes the name of the ship, USS John S McCain, and how it was named after the only father and son Admirals in US history. However, had the journalist dug a little deeper, he may have noticed that at least someone has a sense of the actual history of the occasion when something like this is done.
This Arleigh Burke class Destroyer was named after those two John McCain’s who were both Admirals. With a simple check, the journalist may have found that the first of these great Admirals, John S McCain Sr was actually on that first great expedition, as a junior officer.
Another image from that Great White Fleet shows an address by President Roosevelt upon the return of the fleet in February 1909. He was standing on one of the Battleship’s gun turrets addressing a group of assembled Officers and sailors, and John McCain was among that group of men. McCain Sr went on to command all allied air forces in the Pacific as a Carrier Admiral during World War Two, under Admiral Halsey, and he served with distinction at Guadalcanal, the Solomons, the Philippines, the Marianas, and for the air attacks on mainland Japan at the end of that war. He passed away as a Vice Admiral. As is tradition, senior Naval Flag Officers who pass away while still serving are promoted to the next substantive rank, and so Admiral McCain was given Full Admiral status, his fourth Star, after his passing. His son, John S McCain Jr was a submarine commander during that war, and later rose to the rank of Full Admiral. He was CINCPAC when his son, LCdr John S McCain lll was shot down in his Skyhawk during the Vietnam conflict and then so brutally tortured as a POW, and when the NVA found out just who he was, they further sought to take advantage of the situation in a disgusting display of brutality. When the current John S McCain retired from the Navy he was two ranks higher, a Captain, and only one rank away from his first Star. These men make up part of one of the most famous military families in US history.

I was aware of this first Great White Fleet, because I am a big fan of Theodore Roosevelt, arguably one of your best Presidents. On his watch, there were many firsts for the US, and he was among those who also had many firsts as a US President. It is a great pity that he did not agree to run for a further term, as he was entitled to do. During the latter days of that, what was his last term, he wanted to demonstrate to the World the strength of the US, and his perception that they were well on the way to becoming a major World power. He directed this huge fleet to travel the World visiting the major Capitals to effectively demonstrate that the US was more than capable of holding its own in the event of any conflict.

The first part of the voyage took them around the tip of South America, and then up to San Francisco. Keep in mind here that was six years before the Panama Canal was officially opened for shipping traffic.

They reached Australia 100 years ago today, on the 20th August 1908. They arrived in Sydney on that day, having come directly from Auckland in New Zealand. For this trip, the USS John S McCain sailed from its home base at Yokosuka in Japan. It did not visit New Zealand, as US ships are persona non grata there. New Zealand has declared itself Nuclear free and has been for many years now, and the policy of the US to neither confirm nor deny if their craft carry nuclear weapons, New Zealand got in a huff, and said that no US Naval ships can visit.

I’m a little offended when some places loudly declare themselves to be nuclear free. It would seem that this being the case, you might think that a whole swag of medical procedures are then out of the question, as in radiation therapy for the cancers, Catscans, and Petscans, and other treatments and tests, but it seems altogether too convenient that this form of ‘nuclear’ is somehow okay, and divorced from all other ‘nuclear’ connotations, as it still produces its own nuclear waste.

When that first Great White Fleet arrived in Sydney, people lined every vantage point to see this fleet of huge ships. There was a series of large balls, and other functions specially held for the momentous occasion, and I feel sure most of the 14,000 men enjoyed the short stay in Sydney. The fleet then sailed for Melbourne, where again huge crowds gathered to see the vast number of ships. After Melbourne, the fleet sailed for Albany, the largest deep water port in Western Australia.
The staggering number of Australians who turned out to see the fleet amounted to almost one million, which at that time was almost one fifth of the total population of Australia.
This visit alone was instrumental in the formation of the Royal Australian Navy, as, until that time, Australia only had access to a tiny English Naval contingent.

The fleet then sailed for Manila in the Philippines to Subic Bay. This Naval Station was raised during the Spanish and Philippines Wars of the late Nineteenth Century, and Subic Bay was built up to become the largest US base outside the US after Clark Air Base, also in the Philippines. Sadly, both were wiped out following the eruption of the volcano, Mount Pinatubo in 1991. Subic was not as badly damaged as Clark which was totally destroyed, and Subic was partially recovered, before, due to political disagreements, the US was asked to leave.

This huge fleet then sailed through the Suez canal, and visited Europe. Whilst in Egypt, some of the fleet was dispatched to Sicily to offer assistance following a disastrous earthquake.

The fleet returned to Hampton Roads in February of 1909, after a voyage of 43,000 miles, visiting twenty ports of call on the six continents.
It may be viewed today as a huge display of outright militarism, but at the time, it was considered a huge exercise in goodwill only, and besides showing that the US had come of age, it was the start of a Worldwide sense of good feeling towards the US, something sadly missing in this day and age now.

As to the fleet itself. It had to visit large ports, mainly because they needed access to huge amounts of coal, as the fleet burned around 100,000 tons of coal each month. Those white ships must have got pretty black with all that coal smoke, hence the old term, ‘swab the decks’.
The fleet itself. Virtually half those battle wagons were obsolete, and conjecture has it that with the launch of the first of the Super Dreadnoughts, all of them were technically obsolete.
Four senior Admirals who sailed with the Fleet were veterans of the Civil War.
This was a triumph not only for the Navy, and for Theodore Roosevelt, but for the US as a whole.

The Great White Fleet. Why White?
US policy at the time was to only paint their warships grey in time of war, and during peace time, all warships were painted white. After all, the US most certainly had nothing to hide. They were proud to advertise who they were. Later, all ships were painted grey and stayed that way, as they all are today.

600,000 people did not turn out to see the USS John McCain sail into Sydney. In fact there was a water police presence in case anti nuke protestors tried to cause trouble.

How times change!