The Hospital Ship

 

I can't be certain, but my best guess is that this is a military hospital ship.  But is the man on the right a doctor or a patient?  

The Panama Canal

 

Written on the back, "Gatun Locks Panama Canal" Construction of the canal started in 1904 and was finished ten years later in 1914, so if nothing else, we know this picture was taken after that.  The Gatun Locks are on the Atlantic side of the isthmus, near the city of Colon, and right off of Limon Bay.  This view is looking north towards Gatun Lake.  The men standing on the boat on the left side of the print are wearing hats worn by members of the U.S. Navy, though it's quite possible that sailors of other nations, as well as sailors of the merchant marine, might have also worn them.  

The Dancing Sailor

 

No, not Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra or Jules Munshin.  On The Town, for those who don't get the reference. 

An Ordinary Seaman

Written on the back, "Is"  Israel, Isaac, some other name?  Around the World War 1 era would be my guess.

MSN

Sometimes, the internet is just no help whatsoever.  I was fairly certain that wasn't an American uniform seen in the top photo, so I blew it up as large as I could.  The insignia on the man's collar, an anchor and the letters MSN.  Needless to say, type MSN into a search engine and all you get is Microsoft.

So with the Asian hostesses, these were probably taken somewhere in the far east, so maybe Japan, the Philippines, or even Vietnam.

Mobile Defense

If my translation is correct, that bit of type on the top of the card reads, Algeria, the admiralty and the mobile defense.  This card was published by "LEVY ET NEURDEIN REUNIS."   Levy and Neurdein was in business from 1920 to 1932.  It was a company that was formed when Levy & Sons merged with Neurdein et Cie.  Algeria, of course, was once part of France.  My guess is that the patrol boats seen in this card were part of the French equivalent of the coast guard.  There was once a major French naval base at Mers-a-Kebir on the Algerian coast.  After the fall of France, and the formation of non occupied France, the British government demanded that the French fleet in north Africa head to England and join in the fight against the Germans.  When Admiral Darlan of the Vichy government declined but promised that the French fleet would never be surrendered to the Nazis, Churchill ordered an attack that sank the fleet, killing thousands of French sailors.  Latter, when the Germans tried to seize the rest of the French fleet at Toulon,  Darlan ordered the scuttling of his ships. 

Now, for a movie recommendation,  The Battle of Algiers.  It'll help explain why Algeria is no longer part of France.

Gyys Drinking

Yes, gyys.  Written on the back, "Gyys off the ship watching the game and drinking beer."  There's even a date stamp, "2.10.71."  So, navy or merchant marine?  What grooming standards did the navy set for it's sailors?  Did they allow beards?  If they didn't we'd know these guys are civilian sailors.

The Green Album 3

Well, I did write that I was going to break up publication of this album.

The first two posts gave us a probable location, somewhere along the California coast.  This one gives us a general time frame, probably World War 2.  It looks like one son was in the army, and the other in the navy.  Take a close look at the sailor and you can tell that the photo wasn't taken on a ship, but in a photo studio.

Click on The Green Album in labels to bring up the other posts.

Anchors Away

I just picked up an envelope of military photos and documents from the World War 2 era.  Some are of the same people, some not; the documents don't have matching names, so I'm guessing that some of the contents of the envelope are related, but not all, so I won't be adding a separate collection tag in labels.  I am, however, going to post the whole envelope, without interruption.  Some of the documents will end up on my Fair Use blog.   Most of the lot are from the army, so I've decided to start with the navy.  The portrait is embossed.  "BEN'S STUDIO, DELTA."  There are a lot of towns named Delta in the United States, though none on a seacoast.

A Speed Trial Scene

This is not a commercial postcard.  Some sailor, stationed on an unknown warship, took a photo and had a postcard made up for his own use.  What, no patriot act violation?  No damage done to national security?  No classified image in need of censoring?   Hard to believe, but there was a time when soldiers and sailors took pictures and sent them home for all to see.

Here's a fun fact.  One of the most influential men in world history was an American naval officer named Alfred Thayer Mahan.  Who?  Mahan was an instructor at the Untied States Naval Academy at Annapolis.  While there, he gave a series of lectures that he latter published as a book called, "The Influence of Sea Power on World History, 1660-1783."  Mahan's thesis was that great nations could only exist through sea power.  Specifically he cited the British Empire.  His book was read and studied all over the world.

 One of  Thayer's many disciples was Kaiser Wilhelm 2.  Germany, as a unified nation, didn't exist before the Franco-Prussian War.  The first Kaiser Wilhelm, and his chancellor, Otto von Bismark, saw Germany as a continental power, an industrial nation with an army so  large and powerful,  that  other European countries would think twice before challenging German might.  Willy the second read Mahan and dreamed of a large and modern fleet of warships, spanning the globe, acquiring colonies.  The British weren't exactly in love with  the growing German fleet, so they increased the size and power of their fleet.  And, an arms race was on.  There were other factors, of course, but the growing distrust between the two nations was one of the causes of World War 1, which, of course, led to World War 2, the rise of the Soviet state, and a whole lot of other problems that we're still dealing with.  I'd recommend Dreadnought by Robert K. Massie for far more info than I'm willing to type.

And in the United States.  Think naval expansion and the Great White Fleet, sent around the world by President Theodore Roosevelt as a sign of American power.  I suspect the ship in this card might have been part of that fleet.

Let It Snow

Woe is me.  Between my ongoing financial problems and my off again on again car problems, I haven't been backpacking in years.  Finally, I thought I had a solution.  Since I probably won't be working next week, I thought I could take the commuter train from my Los Angeles neighborhood to Acton at the edge of the Antelope Valley, walk back to a trail head in the Angeles National Forrest, and then walk a series of trails to Pasadena, and then a bus home.  But then it snowed in our local mountains.  Good for the skiers and snow boarders, but not so good for me.  I've hiked in snow before, but without knowing the accumulation, and with only a week, well what should have been a six to seven day walk could have ballooned into something much longer.

So what about our snow family.  I'm thinking that sailor suit might be World War 2 vintage.  A my dad's in the navy sort of thing.  Then again, maybe the kid just liked the clothes.  With everybody dressed up, I'm also thinking holiday diner at Grandma's.  Over the river and through the woods.  But Thanksgiving or Christmas?

Instructing the Fire Chiefs

I tried finding some info on Peck Photo, the credited owner of the image.  Go to Google, and find just how many photographers there are in the U.S. named Peck.  I gave up after scrolling through a dozen pages or so.  My guess is that this photo is from sometime between the two world wars.

Auntie Belle

Yesterday I put up a photo of a man dressed as a woman.  Well, maybe.  I'm still not 100% sure.  No questions today, though.  Without a doubt, a woman dressed as a man.  Written on the back in a faded pencil, "Mrs. Cullum, Belle, & Frank."  Written in ink, "Grandmother, Auntie Belle, Dad."

The Submariner

Am I wrong about this?  My first thought on seeing this print, "Just another guy in a uniform."  I've got so many in the collection, that I don't really look for them anymore.  But, if I see something interesting.... And on  closer inspection, I began thinking this is interesting, that this gentleman was standing on the deck of a very early submarine.  

Now, I suppose early sub is open to debate.  I've been doing a little reading on the history of America's submarine fleet, and early could refer to the Turtle, the colonial navy's secret weapon during the Revolutionary War.  Then there was our two sub fleet from the Civil War, the Alligator, and my favorite ship's name of all time, the Intelligent Whale.  (The Hunley was a Confederate sub, and doesn't count.)  For the record, the Alligator sank in a storm while being towed into battle.  A ship with a propeller turned by a hand crank would have taken too long to get into position otherwise.  The Intelligent Whale was tested, but never used, and is currently on display at The National Guard and Militia Museum of New Jersey.  

It wasn't until the early twentieth century that world navies began building true submarine fleets.  But which model is the one in this photo?  The fact is, there just isn't enough of the sub in the picture to match it up to anything I've been able to find on the web.

Anyway, the thing about early twentieth century submarines,  they had a tendency to sink.  Sometimes a captain would make the mistake of going too deep and water pressure would crush the hull.  Sometimes a hatch would fail, or a sub, pre-sonar, would run into something in the water.  I have a book by Commander Richard Ellsberg that's about an attempt to save the crew of a sunken sub using hard hat divers.  The cover can be seen on my other blog, www.fairuse-wjy.blogspot.com, posted 11/25/12.  The book was published in 1939, before the invention of the scuba tank.

Lloyd Fisher

This one's from the grab bag of photos, a sealed envelope of 100 + photos that I picked up a few months ago.  It's also the first of a series of nautically themed posts.  Other than a name, "Lloyd Fisher," there's nothing written on the back of the photo.  Below decks, is Lloyd in the navy or the merchant marine?

Bluejackets From Nebraska

The only photo in this group that has any writing on the back is the first one in the column. "Adm. Olson, Bob Harris-Yokosuka, Me" Is "Me" Denzel Smith? I went to the obituary photo of Denzel, (See the previous post for a link.) and compared the gentleman on the right, same cleft chin, same shape to the face. I'd say it's about a 95% match. Too, we know that Denzel Smith was in the navy from 1942 to 1946. Yokosuka was a large Japanese naval base at the mouth of Tokyo Bay that was turned over to the United States in 1945. So, while I don't know if Denzel was ever posted to Japan, it's possible that he was there, playing baseball for a navy team in 45 or 46. And we also know from an earlier post (navigate back two) that Denzel was a high school baseball player. Yes, I'm thinking another chapter in the extraordinary life of Denzel Smith, scholar, athlete, veteran of both the army and the navy, consultant to presidents.

There is also some stamped information on the first three photos. On the first one, "Neg. No VNC-6693 (c) -9-56 RELEASED OFFICIAL NAVY PHOTOGRAPH IF PUBLISHED CREDIT LINE MUST READ: OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH" And on the next two images, "OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH Released for publication The navy department has no objection to use of this photograph to commercial advertisements, provided copy and layout are submitted for review, prior to publication to a District Public Information Office. Naval Training Center Public Information Officer. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE, U.S. Naval Training Center, San Diego 33, Calif."

U.S.S. Inchon

I understand that most viewers will not find this postcard all that interesting. I understand that only military enthusiasts and those who actually served on the Inchon will want to look at this post. But it works as a companion piece to the liberty ship post that I just put up, and I would be very interested to read any comments that any Inchon crew members might leave, so here it is. Written on the back, "Tempory Duty aboard U.S.S. Inchon Sept 18-Oct 2, 1975" Caption and credits, "U.S.S. INCHON (LPH-12) An Amphibious Assault Ship of the United States Navy's Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet." "Atlantic Fleet Sales, Box 6202, Norfolk, Va. 23508."

July 4

Why do we equate patriotism with war?

On Leave

Every time I see a picture of a man in uniform, especially if it's from the World War 2 era, I wonder if it was the last time he was photographed. The odds are this sailor returned from the war, got a job, got married, and fathered a couple of kids. But with over 400,000 American war dead, this photograph might have been the final keepsake of a gold star mother.

Mt. San Jacinto, 1943

Hand franked, "Hubert G. Cain, U.S. Navy, Columbia, Mo." Addressed to "Mrs. J.H. Cain, 201 So. Wright St., Champaign, Ill." The message, "Hi Folks, Well I arrived here Sat. at 12 o'clock. I am doing Los Angeles now. I have to take the 3:15 train and it's after one now. I'll write a letter as soon as I get an address. Jigs" Franking is a signature or mark placed on a piece of mail that allows the sender free service. Jigs could be a nickname or it could mean Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Mt. San Jacinto now has an aerial tram that goes to a state park at the peak. Navigate back one to see another Cain family postcard