Transcriber's Notes:
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by
=equal signs=.
Small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase.
Blank pages have been eliminated.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
original.
[Illustration: From painting in Navy Department by R. S. Meryman]
OUR NAVY AT WAR
BY
JOSEPHUS DANIELS
SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
1913 to 1921
[Illustration]
Illustrated with Reproductions of Original
and Official Photographs
Pictorial Bureau
Washington, D. C.
1922
COPYRIGHT BY
PICTORIAL BUREAU
1922
_To the Six Hundred Thousand Men_
_Who Served in the United States Navy
and Marine Corps in the
World War_
_Manning more than two thousand vessels--_
_Operating with Allied Navies from the Arctic to the Adriatic--_
_Transporting troops and supplies across the Atlantic--_
_Protecting ships from attack and destruction--_
_Driving off and defeating the murderous submarines, You made safe the
seas, and Kept open the Road to France, so that, Of all the vast Army
sent overseas, Not one soldier on an American troop-ship Lost his life
on the way to France._
_Fighting with the Army, your comrades, The Soldiers of the Sea, won
fame in Hard-fought battles that saved Paris, Drove back the German
hordes, and Won for Humanity Complete and Glorious Victory._
_In recognition of your splendid service, your dauntless deeds, this
work is dedicated by one who was sometime your commander and always
your shipmate._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. When the War Call Came 1
II. "To Be Strong Upon the Seas" 9
III. The Break with Germany 19
IV. The Day of Decision 30
V. Sending Sims to Europe 36
VI. Naval Allies in Historic Conference 45
VII. "We Are Ready Now, Sir" 53
VIII. Race Between Wilson and Hindenburg 70
IX. The Fleet the Kaiser Built for Us 89
X. Guarding the Coast of France 99
XI. Gibraltar and the Convoy 116
XII. Shutting up the Hornets in Their Nests 125
XIII. President Wilson as a Strategist 143
XIV. Comrades of the Mist 151
XV. Cinderellas of the Fleet 161
XVI. "Do Not Surrender"--"Never" 173
XVII. When the U-Boats Came to America 187
XVIII. Marines Stopped Drive on Paris 206
XIX. The Answer to the 75-Mile Gun 218
XX. The Navy That Flies 228
XXI. The Ferry to France 241
XXII. Radio Girdled the Globe 250
XXIII. A Surprise for Count von Luxburg 259
XXIV. American Admiral Saved Kolchak 268
XXV. The Half-Way House 275
XXVI. To Victory on a Sea of Oil 280
XXVII. Edison--and 100,000 More 285
XXVIII. Building a Thousand Ships 297
XXIX. Making Sailors out of Landsmen 309
XXX. Three Hundred Thousand Strong 318
XXXI. Women in the Navy 328
XXXII. Coast Guard Wins Distinction 332
XXXIII. Winning the First Battle of the War 341
XXXIV. Fighting the Profiteers 347
XXXV. "Sirs, All Is Well with the Fleet" 354
XXXVI. After the Armistice 366
ILLUSTRATIONS
Josephus Daniels _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
War Chiefs of the Navy, the Secretary and his Advisory
Council 16
A Friendly Bout 17
School Hour Aboard a Battleship 17
President Wilson and the War Cabinet 32
American Dreadnoughts, the Embodiment of Sea Power 33
American Destroyers in Queenstown Harbor 52
The Return of the Mayflower 53
The Surrender of the U-58 58
Crew of the Fanning, which sank the U-58 59
They, Too, Were Ready 67
The Seattle and Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves 68
A Dash through the Danger Zone 68
The Sinking of the President Lincoln 80
The Secretary of the Navy with Captain Dismukes and the
men who saved the Mount Vernon 81
The Mount Vernon safely in port after being torpedoed 81
Brest, Center of the Great System of Naval Operations in
France 112
A German "Sub" and Some of its Enemies 113
At Gibraltar, Key to the Mediterranean 124
The Great Mine Barrage against the Submarines 125
Planting Mines in the North Sea 128
How the Big Mines in the North Sea Barrage Worked 129
One of the Perils of Mine-Sweeping 136
The Mine-Sweepers Proved Wonderful Sea Boats 136
United States Naval Officers in Important Commands 137
American and British Naval Officials 137
The Transport which carried President Wilson to the Peace
Conference 144
Allied Naval Council in Session at Paris 145
Fifth Battle Squadron Joining the British Grand Fleet 160
Surrender of the German High Seas Fleet 161
American Sub-chasers at Corfu, Greece 168
A Flock of Sub-chasers with their Mother-ship 169
Gun-crew of the Luckenbach has a Four-Hour Fight with a
Submarine 192
Chief Gunner's Mate Delaney, of the Campana, Defying his
Captors 192
The Merchant Submarine Deutschland 193
Leaders of the Marines 208
The Marines in Belleau Wood 209
Naval Railway Battery Firing from Thierville upon Longuyon 224
On the Turret Platform of a Battleship 225
Assembling Naval Airplanes at Brest 228
A Navy Blimp Leaving Hangar at Guipavas, France 229
Naval Aviation Hangars at Guipavas 229
Pauillac, Naval Aviation Station 240
Fliers whose Exploits Brought Prestige to Naval Aviation 241
The Station Whose Messages are Heard around the World 256
The Tablet on the Main Building of the Lafayette Radio
Station 257
Eagle Boats at Anchor in the Ice of the White Sea 274
The Half-Way House 275
The Naval Consulting Board and the Navy Department Chiefs 288
Secretary Daniels and Thomas A. Edison 289
Fitting Out for Distant Service 304
Hanging up a Record 305
The Living Flag 320
United States Naval Academy at Annapolis 321
Yeomen (F) in Liberty Loan Parade, New York City 328
Cyclops, the Collier which Disappeared without Leaving a
Trace 329
Lost with Every Man on Board (Coast Guard Cutter Tampa) 336
They Saved Survivors of Torpedoed Vessels 337
Gallant Officers of the Coast Guard 337
A General View of Bantry Bay 352
A Close-up View of American "Subs" at Berehaven 352
Rodman and Beatty 353
From Manila to the Adriatic 368
Scorpion, only American Naval Vessel Interned during the
War 369
Our Navy at War
CHAPTER I
WHEN THE WAR CALL CAME
NEWS FLASHED TO SHIPS AND STATIONS FIVE MINUTES AFTER PRESIDENT
SIGNED DECLARATION--ENTIRE NAVY MOBILIZED AT ONCE--FLEET, ON WAR
BASIS SINCE BREAK WITH GERMANY, WAS AT YORKTOWN--"IN BEST STATE OF
PREPAREDNESS IT HAD EVER BEEN," ADMIRAL MAYO SAID--OFFICERS AND MEN
EAGER FOR ACTION.
Five minutes after President Wilson signed the war resolution passed by
Congress April 6, 1917, the Navy's radio operators were flashing this
message to every ship and station:
Sixteen Alnav. The President has signed act of Congress which
declares a state of war exists between the United States and
Germany. Acknowledge. 131106.
SECNAV.
That dispatch had been prepared hours before. Radio and telegraph
operators were at their keys waiting for the word to "let it go."
Lieutenant Commander Byron McCandless, my naval aide, was waiting in
the executive office at the White House. Lieutenant Commander Royal
Ingersoll was stationed at the Navy Department, across the street,
watching for the signal. The moment the President appended his
signature, McCandless rushed out and wigwagged that the resolution had
been signed. Ingersoll dashed down the corridor to the Communication
office, and ordered the operators to start the "alnav" (all navy)
dispatch.
Flashed from the towers at Arlington, in a few minutes it was received
by the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, by vessels and stations all along
the coast. By radio, telegraph and cable, the message was carried to
Panama, across the Pacific to Honolulu, the Philippines, to the vessels
on the Asiatic station. By the time the newspaper "extras" were on the
street, the naval forces had received notice that we were at war.
The fleet was mobilized that afternoon by the following telegram to the
five flagships:
_U. S. S. Pennsylvania_
_U. S. S. Minnesota_
_U. S. S. Seattle_
_U. S. S. Columbia_
_U. S. S. Vestal_
Flag Sigcode. Mobilize for war in accordance Department's
confidential mobilization plan of March 21. Particular attention
invited paragraphs six and eight. Acknowledge.
JOSEPHUS DANIELS.
[Paragraph 6 assigned the rendezvous of the various forces, and
paragraph 8 contained instructions with regard to vessels fitting
out at navy yards.]
When this message was received by the Atlantic Fleet, at 1:33 p. m.,
Admiral Henry T. Mayo, Commander-in-Chief, hoisted on his flagship, the
_Pennsylvania_, the signal, "War has commenced." At 5:50 o'clock he
received the mobilization order, for which officers and vessels were so
well prepared that Admiral Mayo said he did not have to "give a single
order of any kind or description to pass the Fleet from a peace to a
war basis." The entire Navy--Department, Fleet, yards and stations--was
on a war footing within a few hours after war was declared. Complete
instructions and plans, brought up to date, had been issued two weeks
previous, and mobilization was completed without an hour's delay.
The Fleet was at its secret rendezvous "Base 2," to which it had sailed
from Hampton Roads on April 3, the day after President Wilson delivered
his war message to Congress. "Base 2" was Yorktown, Va., one of the
most historic spots in America, and our battleships were in sight of
the place where Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington. They rode
at anchor in the waters where the timely arrival of De Grasse's ships
assured the success of the war for American independence.
In those waters, first made historic in naval annals by the presence
of the French ships sent to aid the struggling colonists in the
crucial days of 1781, the American Navy was making ready to repay that
invaluable assistance--to send its vessels to the beleaguered French
coast, both to safeguard the vast army America would send to France and
to drive back the onrushing enemies that threatened its life. In 1917
the York and the Chesapeake were again the rendezvous of fighting men
of the same mettle as those of 1781, who were to strengthen by united
service and common sacrifice in the World War the bonds of friendship
between France and America that had been forged more than a century
before.
And those who fought each other then were comrades now. "Old wars
forgot," Great Britain and France for years had held the lines, and
America was taking its place beside them, throwing all its power and
strength with them against the common foe. From Yorktown went the
first United States forces, ordered overseas just after war began.
Sent to England's aid, to serve with the British forces, their
arrival was hailed as the beginning of a new era in the relations
of the nations--the "Return of the Mayflower." And later went huge
dreadnaughts to the North Sea, joining the Grand Fleet in the mightiest
aggregation of naval power the world has ever seen.
That is a wonderful harbor, there in the York River, with water deep
enough for the largest battleship, and broad enough to accommodate a
whole fleet. With defenses at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and nets,
mines and patrol across York River, no submarine could ever hope to
penetrate to this safe haven.
"When the active fleet arrived in Hampton Roads about the 1st of April,
after its training period in Cuban waters, it was in the best state of
preparedness that it had ever been," said Admiral Mayo, "and there was
a feeling of confidence in the personnel of being able to cope with any
emergency."
"At the end of March, 1917, when we were on the verge of entry into
the war," said Rear Admiral Charles P. Plunkett, Director of Gunnery
Exercises, "the gunnery was in the highest state of efficiency that it
has been in the history of the American Navy."
When the break with Germany came the fleet was in Cuban waters, engaged
in target practice, engineering exercises, and battle maneuvers. This
intensive training had been going on under regular schedule for more
than two years. Every man in the fleet, from the Commander-in-Chief to
the youngest recruit, felt in his bones that the maneuvers that spring
were a real preparation for war. Eager to get a chance at the Germans,
confident that they could defeat any force of similar strength and
tonnage afloat; they were just waiting for the word "Go!"
Is there such a thing as mental telepathy! Would you call it that or a
mere coincidence, if the same thought at almost the same moment came
to the Admiral of the Fleet at Guantanamo and to the Chief of Naval
Operations in Washington? That is exactly what occurred on February 4,
1917. And the two dispatches stating the same conclusions in regard to
moving the fleet were en route at the same time.
At 3:59 o'clock that afternoon Admiral Mayo sent this message from his
flagship at Guantanamo:
Unless instructions are received to the contrary, propose to shift
fleet base to Gulf of Guacanayabo after spotting practice February
5th; then proceed with schedule of all gunnery exercises.
Before that message reached Washington, in fact in less than ten
minutes after it was handed to the operator in Cuba, the following to
Admiral Mayo from Admiral William S. Benson, Chief of Operations, was
being sent from the Department:
Position of fleet well known to everybody. If considered advisable
on account of submarines, shift base to Gulf of Guacanayabo or
elsewhere at discretion. Inform Department confidentially.
The first duty was protection of the Fleet from submarine attack. Four
months before the U-53 had called at Newport, and sallying forth, had
sunk British vessels just off our coast. On January 16th a Japanese
steamer, the _Hudson Maru_, captured by Germans, a prize crew placed
on board, had put into Pernambuco with 287 survivors from half a dozen
vessels sunk by a German raider. That raider, as was learned later, was
the famous _Moewe_, which captured twenty-six vessels, sinking all
except the _Hudson Maru_ and the _Yarrowdale_, which carried several
hundred prisoners to Germany, among them fifty-nine American sailors.
The Germans could easily send their U-boats across the Atlantic. There
was a possibility that they might strike quickly without warning. Naval
strategists do not yet understand why Germany did not make an immediate
dash against our coasts in the spring of 1917, instead of waiting until
1918. Allied and American officers alike expected the submarines to
extend their operations to this side of the Atlantic when this country
entered the war. It was necessary to provide for the fleet a rendezvous
with which the Germans were not familiar, one easily defended, where
battleships could carry on their work free from attack until the time
came to bring them into action. But why Guacanayabo?
Though you would hardly notice it on the average map, the Gulf of
Guacanayabo is a sizeable body of water, extending in a sort of
semicircle some seventy miles, the broadest part about fifteen miles
wide. On the southern coast of Cuba, it extends from Santa Cruz del Sur
to below Manzanillo, nearly to Cape Cruz. With plenty of deep water
inside, once the main channel is closed, only a navigator familiar with
the turnings and depths can navigate safely through the other channels,
for the Gulf is surrounded by a chain of islands, with many shoals.
Difficult for submarines to negotiate submerged, it is easily defended
against them.
When Admiral Mayo had placed his ships in this landlocked harbor, shut
the door and turned the key, they were as safe as my lady's jewels in
a safety deposit vault. At Guacanayabo the fleet continued its work,
going out to sea for battle practice and long-range gunnery in the
daytime, returning at night to conduct night firing with the secondary
batteries, torpedo attack, and other exercises. There was even room
in the Gulf to carry on torpedo firing and defense at 10,000 yards
distance.
There the fleet remained until it was ordered north, on March 20th.
"I feel sure that if this force had engaged an enemy on its cruise
north in the spring of 1917, the victory would have been ours," said
Admiral Henry B. Wilson, commander of the flagship, and Admiral Joseph
Strauss, in command of the _Nevada_, declared: "In April, 1917, we
could have gone out in mid-ocean and engaged the German fleet and come
out successfully. Our ships were superior; our guns were superior; I
believe our morale was superior."
Upon the arrival of the fleet, Yorktown became the center of battle
training. During the entire war this base was one of the busiest places
in America. Every ship was carrying on intensive training day and
night--training gunners, engineers, firemen, deck officers and crews,
armed guards for merchant vessels, men of every rank and rating to man
transports, destroyers, patrol craft, and all the many vessels put into
European and trans-Atlantic service. In addition to new men in their
own crews, the special training squadron of older battleships trained
more than 45,000 officers and men for service in other vessels.
When the bugle sounded, they all wanted to get into action. They had
looked for the declaration of war as the signal to weigh anchor and
set sail for Europe. As the destroyers and patrol craft went overseas
and the cruisers plunged across the Atlantic escorting troop-ships
and convoys, those who were left behind envied those who had received
such assignments. But teaching recruits, tame and tiresome as it was,
was their job, most necessary and useful. Until they had their heart's
desire and were ordered abroad, they stuck to it with the vim and
determination with which they afterwards entered upon the U-boat chase.
That was the spirit that won.
Three thousand miles across the seas the men on the British Grand Fleet
were likewise eating their hearts out because the enemy dreadnaughts,
after the one dash at Jutland, were hugging the home ports, denying
to Allied naval forces the chance for which all other days had been
but preparation. All naval teaching for generations had instilled into
American and British youth the doctrine that, whereas battles on land
might continue for months, domination of the sea would be lost or won
in a few moments when the giant dreadnaughts engaged in a titanic duel.
German naval strategy, after the drawn battle at Jutland, defeated all
naval experience and expectation. Hiding behind their strong defenses,
never venturing forth in force, they imposed the strain and the
unexciting watchful waiting which more than anything else irks men who
long to put their mettle to the test by a decisive encounter.
The acme of happiness to the fleets at Yorktown and at Scapa Flow to
which all looked, both before and after the American division joined
the British Grand Fleet, was a battle royal where skill and courage
and modern floating forts would meet the supreme test. It was not to
be. The disappointment of both navies was scarcely lessened by the
knowledge that they had gained a complete victory through successful
methods which a different character of warfare brought into existence.
They wished the glorious privilege of sinking the ships in an
engagement rather than permitting the Germans later to scuttle them.
Admiral Beatty voiced the regret of both navies in his farewell address
to his American shipmates, when he said: "I know quite well that you,
as well as all of our British comrades, were bitterly disappointed
at not being able to give effect to that efficiency you have so well
maintained."
The sense of disappointment at the drab ending was heightened by the
belief entertained that there had been times when the bold and daring
offensive would have compelled a great naval battle. In Germany, fed
up for years on the claim of naval superiority and stuffed with fake
stories of a great German victory at Jutland, there had been demand
that their navy make proof of its worth by giving battle instead of
rusting in home ports. Men of the navies that had produced Nelsons, and
Farraguts and John Paul Joneses and Deweys grow restive under inaction.
They knew that the existence and readiness of the two great fleets
and of the French and Italian fleets held the German High Seas Fleet
in behind shore protection, rendering impotent the force Von Tirpitz
had assured Germany would sink enemy ships. But the dreary program of
blockade carried on during four long years was not to their liking.
It succeeded, but it was not the finish for which they had trained.
They longed to the very end for the real fight, the daring drive, the
bringing of their big guns into play, the final combat which could end
only with annihilation of the enemy's fleet.
Whatever may be said of the wisdom of the ancient prudent doctrine of
"a fleet in being," I shall always believe that, if, at the opportune
time, such fighting sailors as Beatty and Carpenter, Mayo and Rodman
and Wilson, could have joined in a combined assault, they would
have found a way or made one, to sink the German fleet, in spite of
Heligoland and all the frowning German guns.