The Great White Fleet postcards

Dear Mom,                  December 23, 1907                                                                            

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/18b.htm

I hope you are as excited as I am about my choice to join the navy and to embark on this great journey. We are doing great things for the US by showing our superiority and how strong we are. I am stationed aboard the USS Connecticut and our leader is Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans. We have just made our first stop in Trinidad since our departure from Hampton Roads, VA on December 16th. I participated in this great ceremony called the “Crossing The Line” ceremony since I had never crossed the equator before. Several of the other men on the ship participated in this ritual too, it was a special time for us to bond. You would be so proud of what we are doing for our country. Write you again soon.

With love,
     John

                                                                                                                                                                                     Dear Mom,                     January 13, 1908

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/18b.htm

I got your letters! We just arrived in Rio last night on January 12, 1908 and were handed our first batch of letters. Boy does that feel good to hear from you! We all headed out to the local bar here last night and several of our men got into a fight, that was entertaining and a bit frightening. As I mentioned in my other letter, Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans is our leader and he got a severe case of gout, but he will be alright. Write you soon. 

Much love,

        John

                                                                                                             

Dear Mom,             February 20, 1908

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/18b.htm

Leaving Rio was a bit difficult. The Straits of Magellan were extremely rough and pretty dangerous. We had to make a stop at Punta Arenas before we made our way through those bone chilling waters. We safely made our way to Callao, Peru where we had an amazing 9 day celebration in honor of George Washington’s birthday! Can you believe that? The next time I write you’ll I’ll hopefully be in Magdalena Bay, Mexico. Talk to you soon.                   

               Love,

                 John

Dear Mom,                          March 14, 1908

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/18b.htm

We are spending a whole month here in Magdalena Bay, Mexico to practice our gun skills.The day we arrived here was March 12, 1908; my birthday! It has been loads of fun to shoot these firearms and since I’ve always been a big hunter, this is something that is up my ally. Almost everyday of this adventure we have had to scrub down the decks of this massive ship to make sure it stays in the greatest shape possible.... It is getting kind of old. We have been loading the ship up with coal here too, you should see how black my hands are!                                     
                           Lots of love,
                              John
                                      

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/18b.htm

Dear Mom,                      March 30, 1908
         Admiral Evans had to leave the ship because his health is in terrible condition. Hopefully he will return soon, I have really grown fond of him. We have spent our days here still practicing our shooting, loading the ship with coal, and making foot mats. Our next stop after we finish here in Mexico is the beautiful USA! I cannot wait to be back on my own turf. 
                   Love,
                     John

Dear Mom,                            May 6, 1908

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/18b.htm

          I'm sorry it's been a while since I've written. It's been so busy here on the ship lately. On the bright side, we made it to San Francisco! Seeing the Golden Gate Bright for the first time was better than I ever expected, it's huge! I wish you could see it, maybe one day. I love being back with more American's and not just the men on the ship. All of the people I've encountered on this journey have been very nice, but not as nice as people from the greatest country in the world! Admiral Evans rejoined us and seems to be doing better. I'll keep you posted.

                             Much love,

                                 John

Dear Mom,                                July 2, 1908

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/18b.htm

          These parties are amazing! You would absolutely love them, the food and wine is delicious, the best I've had in a while! The food reminds me of home and your great cooking, oh how I miss it. Rumor has it that when we leave here and head towards Hawaii, Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry will be leading us. We are supposed to depart for Hawaii on July 7, 1908, only 5 days away! It will be hard leaving California, it's such a beautiful state. I will have to come back and visit one day. 
                               Love you,
                                  John

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/18b.htm

Dear Mom,                                October 22, 1908

          I hope you haven't been worried about me, I feel terrible that I haven't written you in so long but I hope you understand. We are now in Yokohama, Japan and everyone is unbelievably nice and welcoming here! We are only here for a couple more days but our week has consisted of celebration after celebration. One of these grand celebrations was hosted by Admiral Togo Heihachiro who was a winner in the Battle of Tsushima, he is pretty famous around here. I'll be home soon. 

                           Love you lots,

                                John

Sources:

Great White Fleet – History and Memorabilia

I used this helpful source to look at where the Great White Fleet traveled to. I learned how far the Fleet traveled and it put in perspective for me how far they traveled from home. This source was pretty helpful and introduced me to the Fleet because it was the first source I chose.

Naval History – Great White Fleet 

This source was extremely helpful and gave great information on the Fleet as a whole. It told me exactly how long their journey was and really allowed me to understand the purpose of the Fleet and what they did. I thought this website was an incredible source and helped me out a great deal with my project. 

Great White Fleet Information – Library of Congress 
This website was very helpful and was such a clear, easy to read, source. I liked how it introduced the Fleet and its mission in the first couple of paragraphs, and then went into a timeline describing where the Fleet traveled to and when in chronological order. I loved how short and simple the timeline was but it still included great detail. 

Smithsonian – History of Postcards
This source was helpful because it displayed authentic postcards from the time period of the Great White Fleet which made it easier to pick out ones that looked like that to use as my images. I found it interesting to see what postcards looked like then and compare them to how they are today; very similar!

Navy Source- The Great White Fleet
This amazing website is where a lot of my facts, and all of my images came from. It gave great detail on the ship that I chose for my character to be on and described all of the stops it made on the journey. I loved being able to use actual pictures of the ship that I was writing about and being able to use them in my final paper. This website is extremely well done and very reliable!

Military History- The USS Connecticut
This is where I got some information about the ship that my character was on. It was an extremely helpful source and gave great description on the ship and the stops it made. Very helpful source!!