The Sand Pebbles

[Sgt Saunders]

That would make an outstanding thread....hopefully you could post the photos and some of the letters!

I'll start to think to think about how to do it. Everyone on my father's side of the family

is gone now. I do remember a couple of the storys. I will try to draw info from the letters.

I'm going to need some help here doing research. I want to post factual information, but I don't know what his roll was except he was the ships barber. It was allways known that he was a Merchant Marine? Is that terminogly correct? Most of this stationary is from the USS Illinois.

I an a total novice to anything Navy. Most of this letters are 1901-1908. But I remember reading the letter about the sinking of the Maine. "Alot of those on board were our friends" was in that letter.

but I've never been able to find it. I will have to look at the postcard collection. It may be there he wrote it. One thing about word of mouth family history I' ve learned, is that it's more missed informed or or miss remembered to the point.

And can someone tell me how to get the spell check to work? My spelling sucks to put it bluntly. :thumbdown:

[Sgt Saunders]

Here's a photo I scanned out of my uncle's album. More to come. 1907-1909. I believe taken from the USS Illinois. It looks like a US flag on the back of the launch.

[Dirk]

That looks a lot like the USS Mayflower

[Sgt Saunders]

Target practice? I can't make out the flag on the Junk. Chinese Nationalist Party? Same period.

 

A later tour of duty on the Favorite.

 

Again, aboard the Favorite. Repair or salvage. Frigid work!

 

The Favorite on Ice braking duty. The sailor in the front is taking a picture of his picture being taken!
Notice how he is looking down in to the view finder.

[sigsaye]

I'll throw this shot out for viewing...taken aboard the Vilalobos prior to WWI. This is part of a collection recently broken up on e-bay of sailor that served aboard several ships of the Asiatic Squadron and who must have assumed the duties of the ships photographer. A number of photos of the Vilalobos went for a few dollars each until several bidders figured out the importance of the ship to the Sand Pebbles story and then bidding went nuts. I was able to get few images from this collection but would have loved to have had it all. Anyway I liked this photo a lot, as it gives the impression that there were indeed some real characters on the Yangtze.

Notice the guy leaning on the gun with the moustache is wearing very faded 1913 reg denim dungarees.

 

Steve Hesson

[sigsaye]

 

 

See if this works for now, I'm trying to blow it up.

It looks like the Sailor standing all the way to the right has a Second Class Petty Officer crow. Also, the guy kneeling in front center with the moustache and both hands gripping his rifle loks to have a striker mark on his left fore arm. Can't tell for sure, that could be just a flaw in the photo.
Steve Hesson

[Dirk]

Notice the guy leaning on the gun with the moustache is wearing very faded 1913 reg denim dungarees.

 

Steve Thanks for adding your expertise on the details of my picture...Up until now I was thinking earlier, but the 1913 date changes it for me. Thanks!

[Rustykamel]

What I like about this gunboat photo is the sailor near the flag who is barefoot, and the sailor aiming what looks to be a 1898 Krag rifle. A sailor on deck without shoes on is interesting because it has to do with the definition of a "boot" and "boot camp." Thanks for sharing such a wonderful photograph. Jim

 

 

I'll throw this shot out for viewing...taken aboard the Vilalobos prior to WWI. This is part of a collection recently broken up on e-bay of sailor that served aboard several ships of the Asiatic Squadron and who must have assumed the duties of the ships photographer. A number of photos of the Vilalobos went for a few dollars each until several bidders figured out the importance of the ship to the Sand Pebbles story and then bidding went nuts. I was able to get few images from this collection but would have loved to have had it all. Anyway I liked this photo a lot, as it gives the impression that there were indeed some real characters on the Yangtze.

[teufelhunde.ret]

1930's THE USS GUAM - YANGTZE GUNBOAT. RENAMED THE USS WAKE IN 41

[Rustykamel]

What's interesting about this USS Wake photo is the pith helmets that the men are wearing. I can't ever remember seeing a white pith helmet pictured on this forum. A sad piece of naval trivia---the USS Wake was the only US warship to strike her colors during World War Two. Jim

[45ACP]

Good eye it is a Krag. I had to go back and look I was more interested in the gun looks like a six pounder.

 

 

What I like about this gunboat photo is the sailor near the flag who is barefoot, and the sailor aiming what looks to be a 1898 Krag rifle. A sailor on deck without shoes on is interesting because it has to do with the definition of a "boot" and "boot camp." Thanks for sharing such a wonderful photograph. Jim

[teufelhunde.ret]

... A sad piece of naval trivia---the USS Wake was the only US warship to strike her colors during World War Two. Jim

 

In January 1941, she was renamed Wake, as Guam was to be the new name of a large cruiser being built in the United States. In March 1941, Columbus Darwin Smith, an old China hand who had been piloting river boats on the Yangtze River, was asked to accept a commission in the U.S. Navy and was appointed captain of the USS Wake with the rank of commander.

 

On 25 November 1941, Commander Smith was ordered to close the Navy installation at Hankow, and sail to Shanghai. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941, Shanghai immediately fell to Japan. Smith was in command on 8 December 1941 (December 7th in Hawaii), when the Japanese captured the ship, which was tied up at a pier in Shanghai. Smith had received a telephone call the night before from a Japanese officer he knew. The officer asked where Smith would be the next morning as he wanted to deliver some turkeys for Smith and his crew. The Japanese did the same to other American officers and officials so as to determine would they would be on December 8th. However, Commander Smith received word from his quartermaster about the Pearl Harbor attack and rushed to the ship only to find it under guard by the Japanese. Surrounded by an overwhelming Japanese force, the crew attempted unsuccessfully to scuttle the craft. The Wake surrendered, the only U.S. ship to do so in World War II.

 

Commander Smith and his crew were confined to a prison camp near Shanghai, where, coincidentally, the U.S. Marines captured on Wake Island were also later imprisoned.

 

The Japanese gave the Wake to their puppet Wang Jingwei regime in Nanjing, where she was renamed the Tatara. In 1945, at the end of the war, she was recaptured by the U.S. The U.S. gave the ship to the Chinese nationalists, who renamed her the Yuan. Finally, the ship was once again captured by Communist Chinese forces in 1949.

 

As of 2010, no other ship of the U.S. Navy has been named Wake.

[Grizzly Adams]

 

 

Here we go, let me know if I need to do it again. The bottom looks more like a stable. That is the first time I've blown it up that far. Like I said I'm just a novice. It's a hit and miss, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

It could be the USS Olympia's Murmansk Landing party. The building looks much like one in another photo I have seen.