8 JANUARY 1907

                                          THE ORIGIN OF “U.S.S.”

Prior to the 20th century there was no policy governing the titling of US warships in official correspondence.  Navy vessels were sometimes distinguished from merchant or research ships by writing out the words “United States Ship” in front of their name.  Alternatively, the type of vessel might be referenced (“Unites States Frigate CONSTELLATION”).  Occasionally the ship’s rigging (“United States Brig SOMERS”) or mission (“United States Flag-Ship CONGRESS”) formed the basis of her identification.  Following the Civil War a simple “U.S.S.” prefix fell into unofficial usage, however none of these practices was universal or mandatory. 

Then the last century dawned upon a worldwide upsurge in navalism.  Our nation’s success in the 1898 Spanish-American war was followed by Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, in which the battleship, in particular, became his “big stick” of foreign policy.  Our Navy enjoyed a great expansion, in the year 1906 alone no less than six new battleships were commissioned.  In June of 1906, Congress made an extraordinary authorization in the case of DELAWARE (BB-28), unprecedented in that it included no limit on her tonnage!  By late 1906 planning was underway on the unrivaled endeavor of sending our Atlantic Battleship fleet (the so-called “Great White Fleet”) on a world cruise.  Elsewhere that same year Britain commissioned HMS DREADNOUGHT, the most powerful battleship to date.  Similar US designs had already been approved and on December 17^th and 18^th, respectively, the keels were laid for MICHIGAN (BB-27) and SOUTH CAROLINA (BB-26), our first Dreadnought-type, all-big-gun battlewagons.  It is understandable that amid this naval ascendancy Roosevelt would require that US warships be formally designated as official agents of our government.  On this date President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 549:

In order that there shall be uniformity in the manner of designating naval vessels, it is hereby directed that the official designation of vessels of war and other vessels of the Navy of the United States, shall be the name of such vessel preceded by the words, United States Ship, or the letters U.S.S., and by no other words or letters.

Unfortunately, we still had no convention for hull numbering, and the written-out identities of some ships remained cumbersome, for example, “UNITED STATES SHIP COAST TORPEDO BOAT NO. 6.”  This problem was resolved in 1920 with General Order 541 that created our present alpha-numeric system of hull numbering.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  15 JAN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, pp. 193-94.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 608-09, 698-702.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 429-433.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  General Order 541 in 1920 shortened written-out designations and discriminated combatant from auxiliary Navy vessels by giving combatants a double-letter prefix–BB for battleship, FF for frigate, SS for submarine, etc.  Auxiliaries were assigned a leading “A” as in AS for submarine tender or AO for oiler.  Naval thinking of the 1920s emphasized gunnery–aircraft were thought useful largely for scouting and reconnaissance.  Therefore, purpose-built aircraft carriers were classed as auxiliaries with the prefix “ACV.”  Despite their changing role in modern times this convention has been continued, with the leading “A” often omitted.  (The double “CC” designation was reserved, of course, for combatant cruisers).

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                                               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 16^th, 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 20^th, 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, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, pp. 109-10.

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                                        BILLY MITCHELL’S COUP

As an early advocate of air power, one of Army Air Service BGEN William “Billy” Mitchell’s loud proclamations was the invincibility of his aircraft over any Navy ship.  His assertion was one of several points of intense rivalry between the Army and Navy in that day.  Most in the Navy accounted the Army’s puny biplanes as little more than gadflies.  In fact, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels promised to, “stand bareheaded on the deck of a battleship and let…Mitchell take a crack at me”.  However, the Navy did need an honest appraisal of how well compartmentalized warships would fare under air attack.

Thus, the Navy began careful tests this day off the Virginia Capes with Navy F5L flying boats sinking the ex-German submarine U-117 with 12 bombs.  Then, holding that its capital ships would ultimately prove resistant, the Navy invited the Army Air Service to participate.  Over the next month, under monitoring by naval engineers, Navy and Army pilots sank several small warships.  The climax of the testing came on 20 July when the ex-German battleship OSTFRIESLAND was anchored 60 miles off the Virginia coast.

Mitchell, however, used the occasion to pursue his personal goal of proving capital ships vulnerable.  His pilots mounted an unrelenting attack on the 20^th, rapidly dropping 57 bombs.  Navy engineers hardly had time for damage assessment after each of the eight direct hits.  Angry Navy officials recognized Mitchell’s intent to upstage the sea service and threatened to call off the tests.  Some even asserted Mitchell had rigged the test, noting that Langley airfield-based pilots were able to locate OSTFRIESLAND only by following a trail of destroyers laid at Army Air Service request.  As the sun set that day however, the still floating battleship appeared to vindicate Navy claims.

The tests resumed the following morning, but only after Mitchell promised to pause his bombers with each direct hit.  Secretly though, Mitchell had instructed his pilots to avoid direct hits in favor of near misses that he correctly concluded would be more damaging to hull integrity.  Using 2000# bombs and lower altitude than originally planned, Army pilots landed four charges as close as 20 feet.  To the astonishment of all except Mitchell, OSTFRIESLAND rolled to port and sank by the stern in 21 minutes.

Mitchell had hoodwinked the Navy.  The fact that OSTFRIESLAND had been defenseless at anchor was lost against the visual spectacle of a massive warship succumbing to aerial attack.  In an embarrassing turn of the tables, instead of acquiring data that might have been valuable for future warship design, the Navy found herself having to defend her very existence.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  26 JUN 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare).  United States Naval Aviation 1910-1980.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, pp. 49-50.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 185.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 538-39.

Weisgall, Jonathan M.  Operation Crossroads:  The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1994, pp. 18-23.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  “Billy” Mitchell served as a private in the US Army during the Spanish American War and rose to the rank of Brigadier General during WWI, when he commanded US Army air forces in France.  His proponency for the air services was hobbled by a caustic demeanor that earned him disfavor during the interwar period.  In fact, he was convicted by a Court Martial in 1925 for “conduct of a nature to bring discredit on the military service.”  On 5 September of that year ,he had lambasted the Navy over two tragic air crashes stating, “These incidents are the direct result of the incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense by the Navy and War Departments.”  Mitchell died in 1936.  General Mitchell is remembered with the WWII Navy troop transport USS General William Mitchell (AP-114), one of several classes of troop transports named for Army generals.

OSTFRIESLAND and U-117 were former German warships captured by the Allies after WWI.  Today OSTFRIESLAND rests in 400 feet of water in the Norfolk Canyon, too deep for sport divers.

The Army Air Service (USAAS) was the air arm of the US Army from 1918-26, the forerunner of the Army Air Corps of WWII, and ultimately in 1947, the US Air Force.

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