Posted 14 years ago
ttomtucker
(313 items)
San Diego staged this exposition in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canel. The Navy fleet was on hand for the celebration. The three foot photo post card shows six armored cruisers, four torpedo boats, and two submarines.
AR8Jason, I don't know if you lived in San Pedro, CA like I did when the fleet was out to sea, the town was dead. Boy when the fleet came back in all hell broke loose on Beacon St. My dad was moonlighting as a bouncer at the notorious Shangrila Bar. He would say that's no place for a woman to be when the fleet is in. I sent the photo to the Navy Archives and they could not ID the ships, because there were no hull numbers then. I thought they were battleship and they informed me they were battle cruisers with the four stacks.
AR8Jason, I have added another photo. What I have found out about what ships were in San Diego bay during the exposition. The Navy reclassified Battle Cruisers to Armored Cruisers and at the same time changed there names from being named after states to cities. These were the ships in the SD bay.
USS California named changed to USS San Diego
USS Maryland " " USS Frederick
USS Tennessee " " USS Memphis
USS Washington " " USS Seattle
USS Texas '' '' USS Galveston
USS Missouri " " USS St Louis
Now to tell what name went to what ship was by the white rings on there smoke stacks. The armored crusier dead center in my photo with two white rings on her first stack was the USS San Diego. if you look at all the armored cruisers there are one or two white rings on either of the four stacks. One white ring on the first stack is the first ship of that squadron.
I added a second photo number 4, it has two white rings on the second stack. this would be the second ship in line for the second squadron. I believe this is the USS
Frederick.
AR8Jason, the caption reads: United States Pacific Coast Fleet of Battleships, Torpedo Boats, and Submarines, San Diego Harbor, California.