Radio Faux Pas
16 DECEMBER 1907
RADIO FAUX PAS
Communication between ships at sea had been line-of-sight visual to date, even in foul weather. Experimentation had been in the works for years, indeed in 1888 a genius of naval invention, CAPT Bradley A. Fiske, ran current pulses through insulated wire wrapped around the steel hull of the cruiser ATLANTA and listened to sounds picked up on a nearby similarly enwrapped ship. Fiske later experimented with “fleet telephony”–stringing telegraph wire between ships steaming in column. By 1903, Guglielmo Marconi’s wireless telegraph had become practical, and shore wireless sets of 1906 were broadcasting weather information seaward. As well, the Naval Observatory was transmitting wireless time signals to 75 radio-equipped US Navy warships.
On this brilliant blue Monday morning of December 16th, the steam yacht USS MAYFLOWER (PY-1), with President Theodore Roosevelt embarked, weighed anchor and proceeded out of Hampton Roads. She led sixteen first-class battleships of the “Great White Fleet” in single file. This was Roosevelt’s “big stick,” cruising around the world to demonstrate new-found US naval prowess. MAYFLOWER paused at the mouth of the Chesapeake to wish the fleet a final farewell. The battleships filed past the Commander-in-Chief at precise 400-yard intervals, CONNECTICUT (BB-18) in the van, each firing a gun salute, each with the rails manned. No spectacle of this scale had ever before been accomplished. These were the finest and best equipped ships in any Navy, but even among our own sailors there were doubts about the durability of turn-of-the-century naval technology. In fact, against the possibility of embarrassing mechanical failures, Roosevelt and Navy officials announced only that the fleet intended to go as far as California.
After dinner on this first night at sea, fleet commander RADM Robley D. Evans addressed his fleet. Despite official precautions about the itinerary, and despite Evan’s unfamiliarity with this new-fangled radio, he announced to the fleet their true intent to sail around the world. Cheers echoed across the water. Unknown to Evans however, his broadcast was picked up by wireless stations along the Atlantic coast. The story headlined newspapers around the nation the next day, humiliating President Roosevelt. An immediate walk-back claimed it was only Evans’ personal belief that a world cruise was planned. Secretary of the Navy Victor H. Metcalf denied even this, stating that the ultimate destination of the fleet beyond San Francisco was as yet “undetermined.” In fact, the political damage control proved prudent on December 20th, when ILLINOIS (BB-7) and KENTUCKY (BB-6) did suffer brief mechanical issues.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 25 DEC 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Fiske, Bradley A. “Fleet Telephony”. Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 121, March 1907, pp. 239-42.
Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy, Vol 1 1775-1941. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, p. 442.
Reckner, James R. Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1988, pp. 23-27.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, pp. 109-10.
