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| (President Theodore Roosevelt via Mort Künstler.com) |
It was on Monday December 16, 1907,
that the Great White Fleet steamed out of Hampton Roads Virginia at the
beginning of a good will tour that took them to twenty ports on six continents,
a voyage that lasted fourteen months and traversed 46,000 miles across the
world’s
largest oceans. It was a warm cloudy
morning, and President Theodore Roosevelt was on the deck of the presidential
yacht “Mayflower”’ and
he saluted the more than thirty navy vessels and 14,000 navy and marine
personnel that set out on the most ambitious venture thus far in the entire
history of the United States of America, an event that demonstrated the mighty
power of his nation that was emerging widely into the international political
arena.
A total of sixteen magnificent
battle ships, all newly painted in gleaming white with golden ornamentation
upon the bow, steamed in a neat row at four hundred yard intervals, flanked by
four destroyers. Billowing black smoke
announced that these ships were now set out on a course for diplomatic endeavors
on an international scale that the world had never witnessed before. This majestic flotilla of naval power was
under the direction of Admiral Robley Evans, and this was the final grand event
in his notable career before retirement.
The first port of call was at Port
of Spain on the British island of Trinidad, at the edge of the Caribbean. The crew spent six days in coaling all of
their vessels, and in visiting throughout the island which was not yet an
international tourist destination in those days. They also celebrated a special Christmas at
the island. On the occasion of the
departure of the Great White Fleet, Governor Jackson held a fitting ceremony in
which he complimented the navy personnel on their good behavior on his island.
The Great White Fleet crossed the
equator on January 6 of the next year, 1908, and then steamed down the
coastline of Brazil in South America.
Here the American ships were welcomed by several naval vessels from
Brazil.
After coaling at Rio de Janeiro, and
a multitude of festivities ashore, the American flotilla left on January 21 for
the stormy Straits of Magellan at the bottom of the continent. Here they were met by a navy vessel from
Chile which guided them safely through the turbulent and dangerous waters.
Along the Pacific coast of the South
American continent, the ships were welcomed at several ports, and they arrived
back in their home waters at San Diego in California on April 14. There were several ports of call in
California and Washington, and then they left for Pearl Harbor in Hawaii,
arriving on July 16.
Across the Pacific, they visited
Auckland in New Zealand, and the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne, as
well as Albany on the southern coast of Western Australia. At their arrival in Sydney, a quarter million
people came out to welcome the Great White Fleet.
Next was Manila in the Philippines,
and then Tokyo in Japan, where they were granted a most gracious welcome, which
was described as an event that was overflowing with Japanese hospitality. Three Japanese destroyers welcomed and
escorted the American ships; the newspaper Boyaki Shimpo printed a special
edition to honor the arrival of the Great White Fleet; and 50,000 people
celebrated with a torchlight parade.
As they were passing Formosa on the
way to Tokyo, they encountered s massive storm.
One sailor was washed overboard by a huge wave, and another huge wave
washed him up onto the deck of another nearby ship.
The onward voyage of the Great White
Fleet took them to Colombo Ceylon; they celebrated their second Christmas in
the Indian Ocean; and they traversed the Suez Canal, taking on coal again at
Port Said. Several ships from the Great
White Fleet went on to Messina on the Italian island of Sicily to provide
relief supplies for survivors of the recent earthquake. The entire fleet re-assembled at Gibraltar on
February 6, 1909 and steamed out into the Atlantic for the final leg on their
journey back home.
A couple of week’s
later, on February 22 to be exact, also a Monday, President Theodore Roosevelt
was again on the deck of the “Mayflower” this
time to welcome home the men and the ships of his triumphant Great White Fleet,
though on this occasion the weather was dull, windy and rainy.
We go back to the the summer of the
year 1907, a few months before the Great White Fleet set out on its epic
journey, and two sets of Forest wireless equipment were installed on the
American navy vessels, “Connecticut” and
“Virginia”. In September, test transmissions were carried
out between the two ships and with station CC on Cape Cod. Although these test transmissions were
conducted in haste and they were considered to be incomplete, yet they were
described as being fairly successful.
The navy ordered 26 sets of the
Forest wireless equipment, transmitters & receivers, and these were manufactured
in haste. At best, Forest equipment had
a reputation for poor quality, and there were no instruction manuals. Dr. Lee de Forest himself supervised the
installation of his equipment into some of the ships of the Great White
Fleet. The remaining sets of wireless
equipment were sent to Rio de Janeiro prior to the arrival of the fleet for
installation there by American navy wireless electricians.
On departure day from Hampton Roads,
Forest presented a live program broadcast from the deck of the ship “Dolphin” which
was anchored at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. The program consisted of messages of good
will and musical items. Swedish born 34
year old opera singer, Eugenia Farrar, sang several songs, including the
popular parlor song, I Love You Truly, and this is considered to be the first
live broadcast of a musical presentation.
The wireless equipment on the USS “Ohio” under
the callsign DC was considered to be the network control station for the Great
White Fleet. On January 12, 1908, the
ship’s
brass band made a broadcast for the benefit of the combined navies of Brazil
and the United States.
Many subsequent broadcasts were made
from station DC, for the benefit of passings ships, and for amateurs living in
each of the various ports of call. The
Forest equipment was a spark wireless transmitter modulated with a telephone
mouth piece. All transmitters were tuned
to approximately the same wavelength.
Some of the other ships that were
equipped with the Forest wireless sets also made program broadcasts while en
route with the Great White Fleet.
However, none of the 26 sets, most of which were operable, were taken into
usage for naval communication.
While anchored in San Francisco, the
wireless personnel on board the “Ohio” procured
several music recordings and a phonograph player and these were used in
subsequent wireless broadcasts. The
broadcasts in San Francisco were picked up by station PH at Russian Hill and
the information was printed in a local newspaper report.
Good will broadcasts consisting of
music, interviews, speeches and reports were made at each of the subsequent
ports of call from transmitter DC on board the “Ohio”. In most of these locations, these radio
broadcasts were the very first radio broadcasts in the history of those
localities.
At the end of the more than a year
long itinerary of the Great White Fleet, and with many successful program
broadcasts transmitted at so many different locations, all of the wireless
equipment was removed from each ship, and placed into storage, permanent
storage, and never used again.
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 290 via Adrian Peterson)
