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Theodore Roosevelt Links: |
Theodore Roosevelt,
author of The Naval War of 1812, former Assistant Secretary of
the Navy and the hero of San Juan Hill, etc., ascended to the
presidency upon the assignation of William McKinley in 1901.
With his boundless enthusiasm also came an understanding that
the United States must become a major naval power to protect
her interests and assert her policies throughout the world. During his first term in office, 11 new battleships joined the fleet; funds being allocated during TR's tenure as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and after the resounding success of the fleet in the Spanish American War. These early battleships became the power behind TR's often quoted policy to "Speak softly and carry a big stick." As President, he lobbied for a series of Congressional Acts that continued naval growth and included 16 additional battleships; over half of these commissioned before he left office. TR's unquestionable crowning achievement in his effort to strengthen the Navy was the world cruise of the "Great White Fleet." Though other small squadrons of military ships from various countries had previously circumnavigated the globe, this was the first attempt to do so with an entire battle fleet; only the journey of the Russian fleet to the Sea of Japan compared and their devastating defeat by the Japanese Navy was considered by many to be, at least partially, as a result of the problems encountered during, and caused by, the long journey. As the Atlantic Fleet began their departure from Hampton Roads, the sixteen battleships simeltaneouslly saluted their Commander-in-Chief with a thundering twenty-one-gun salute. Afterward TR's is to have said, "Did you ever see such a fleet? Isn't it magnificent? Oughtn't we all feel proud?" Finally, as the parade of the ships passed the Presidential Yacht Mayflower, off the Tail of the Horseshoe, each individually fired a parting twenty-one-gun salute ... you can almost feel TR's wander lust welling up from inside as Mayflower chased this grand procession as if to suggest the Commander-in-Chief would throw off the vestiges of his office to travel the world with these "brave young men." While anchored in the North River, just off New York City, the USS Utah half-masted her colors at 1440 on 7 January due to the death of the former President and, on the 8th, fired salutes at half-hour intervals throughout the day in memory of the great American statesman. |
