Sunday – December 16, 2007 – was the 100th anniversary of the sailing of the Great White Fleet. In fourteen months, the battleships and supporting vessels of the Atlantic Squadron circumnavigated the globe at the order of the President: A signal accomplishment, considering the published orders only covered a transfer of naval power from the Atlantic to the Pacific theatre.
On Aug. 15, the fleet sailed for Sydney, Australia . . . The fleet was greeted by more than 250,000 people, who had stayed up all night so as not to miss the ships’ arrival. For the next eight days, there was a non-stop celebration in honor of the Navy visitors.
With all this celebrating, some of the crewmen were beginning to feel the wear and tear. One sailor was found asleep on a bench in one of Sydney’s parks. Not wishing to be disturbed, he posted a sign above his head which read:
“Yes, I am delighted with the Australian people.
“Yes, I think your park is the finest in the world.
“I am very tired and would like to go to sleep.”Being truly hospitable, Sydney let him sleep.
What an adventure. What a tribute to the American nation.
Sadly, all of the ships of the Fleet were scrapped according to the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 which limited the naval power of the signatories. Unsurprisingly – as in modern diplomacy – all parties immediately ignored the terms and continued building out their navies as world events required.
The title of the post is a shout-out to Alfred Thayer Mahan, whose book, The Influence of Seapower Upon History,1660-1783, inspired Theodore Roosevelt and the American people to undergo the crash program of naval construction that resulted in the existence of the fleet that put to sea.
The story of the Great White Fleet – a President ordering the expression of American power despite recalcitrant Congressmen, the heroic welcome given to Americans by foreign people despite the pessimistic rumblings of the press and politicians, the destruction of a mighty symbol of American power out of hopeless, treaty-bound naïveté – just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.