Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Francisco Chronicle
May 6, 2008
Pg. B3
By Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer
The newspapers all said it was the grandest spectacle of the age - that great day exactly 100 years ago today when what looked like the entire United States Navy steamed through the Golden Gate, 16 battleships bristling with guns and trailing plumes of black coal smoke.
It was popularly nicknamed the Great White Fleet, sent on an around-the-world voyage by President Theodore Roosevelt, who famously liked to quote an old African proverb: "speak softly, but carry a big stick."
Perhaps a million people saw the fleet steam in the Golden Gate, and millions more saw it in South America, Australia, Japan, China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Suez, Italy, Greece and France.
The Great White Fleet was a spectacle on many levels. Sending around the world a fleet this size - those 16 battleships and dozens of escorts - had never been done before.
The ships were painted white with gilt trim to show this was a goodwill voyage. But the message was not lost on other countries, particularly Japan.
"Roosevelt's idea was to show that the United States was a power to be reckoned with," said Richard Abrams a professor of history at UC Berkeley. "He wanted to show that when it came to world power, the U.S. was in the game."
Congress had appropriated funds for half the voyage, but Roosevelt said he would send the fleet to the Pacific, and the politicians would have to put up the money if they wanted to get it back.
The Atlantic Fleet, its Navy designation since 1906, sailed from Hampton Roads, Va., in December 1907. Rear Adm. Robley D. Evans -"Fighting Bob" - a hero of the Spanish-American War, was in command.
"We are ready at the drop of a hat for a feast, a frolic or a fight," he said.
The arrival of the Great White Fleet on May 6 was also a pointed lesson for San Francisco, a city that had annoyed Roosevelt by attempting to segregate Asian students, and particularly Japanese, in separate schools.
Roosevelt summoned the city's mayor and members of the school board to the White House and read them the riot act. Later, in a message to Congress, he called the school board's action a "wicked absurdity" and the city's leaders "infernal fools."
There were two results: One was a "gentleman's agreement," in which Japan would restrict immigration to the United States, the other that the United States would not make Asians go to separate schools.
All that was forgotten when the fleet arrived in San Francisco. The hills around the Golden Gate were black with people; the San Francisco waterfront was jammed. "The largest crowd of San Franciscans ever assembled," said the San Francisco Municipal Report.
It might have been true. The number of people riding on the Transbay ferries increased by 450,000 in the first week the fleet was in town.
There were parades up Market Street and a grand ball at the Fairmont Hotel that went on for two days. The city's elite hosted the officers with dinner and theater parties. The enlisted men could visit a Naval Club House, erected in their honor. The city even put up tents in several parks where they could sleep free.
The sailors loved it. "The boys were used to the East Coast, where some bars had signs that said "no sailors allowed," said John Freeman, who has studied the history of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire.
"The city's merchants, saloons and bordellos did a land-office business," wrote Gray Brechin in "Imperial San Francisco."
Part of the fleet visited Seattle during the early summer; all the ships sailed from San Francisco on July 7.
The fleet was well received everywhere it went, particularly in Japan. It returned to Hampton Roads on Washington's Birthday, 1909. Later, Roosevelt said, the cruise was "the most important service I ever rendered for peace."
May 6, 2008
Pg. B3
By Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer
The newspapers all said it was the grandest spectacle of the age - that great day exactly 100 years ago today when what looked like the entire United States Navy steamed through the Golden Gate, 16 battleships bristling with guns and trailing plumes of black coal smoke.
It was popularly nicknamed the Great White Fleet, sent on an around-the-world voyage by President Theodore Roosevelt, who famously liked to quote an old African proverb: "speak softly, but carry a big stick."
Perhaps a million people saw the fleet steam in the Golden Gate, and millions more saw it in South America, Australia, Japan, China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Suez, Italy, Greece and France.
The Great White Fleet was a spectacle on many levels. Sending around the world a fleet this size - those 16 battleships and dozens of escorts - had never been done before.
The ships were painted white with gilt trim to show this was a goodwill voyage. But the message was not lost on other countries, particularly Japan.
"Roosevelt's idea was to show that the United States was a power to be reckoned with," said Richard Abrams a professor of history at UC Berkeley. "He wanted to show that when it came to world power, the U.S. was in the game."
Congress had appropriated funds for half the voyage, but Roosevelt said he would send the fleet to the Pacific, and the politicians would have to put up the money if they wanted to get it back.
The Atlantic Fleet, its Navy designation since 1906, sailed from Hampton Roads, Va., in December 1907. Rear Adm. Robley D. Evans -"Fighting Bob" - a hero of the Spanish-American War, was in command.
"We are ready at the drop of a hat for a feast, a frolic or a fight," he said.
The arrival of the Great White Fleet on May 6 was also a pointed lesson for San Francisco, a city that had annoyed Roosevelt by attempting to segregate Asian students, and particularly Japanese, in separate schools.
Roosevelt summoned the city's mayor and members of the school board to the White House and read them the riot act. Later, in a message to Congress, he called the school board's action a "wicked absurdity" and the city's leaders "infernal fools."
There were two results: One was a "gentleman's agreement," in which Japan would restrict immigration to the United States, the other that the United States would not make Asians go to separate schools.
All that was forgotten when the fleet arrived in San Francisco. The hills around the Golden Gate were black with people; the San Francisco waterfront was jammed. "The largest crowd of San Franciscans ever assembled," said the San Francisco Municipal Report.
It might have been true. The number of people riding on the Transbay ferries increased by 450,000 in the first week the fleet was in town.
There were parades up Market Street and a grand ball at the Fairmont Hotel that went on for two days. The city's elite hosted the officers with dinner and theater parties. The enlisted men could visit a Naval Club House, erected in their honor. The city even put up tents in several parks where they could sleep free.
The sailors loved it. "The boys were used to the East Coast, where some bars had signs that said "no sailors allowed," said John Freeman, who has studied the history of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire.
"The city's merchants, saloons and bordellos did a land-office business," wrote Gray Brechin in "Imperial San Francisco."
Part of the fleet visited Seattle during the early summer; all the ships sailed from San Francisco on July 7.
The fleet was well received everywhere it went, particularly in Japan. It returned to Hampton Roads on Washington's Birthday, 1909. Later, Roosevelt said, the cruise was "the most important service I ever rendered for peace."