Two Years on This Packet and No Sign of Relief

[Dirk]

Of course crew members looked forward to breaking their daily shipboard routines with either land based training or shore leave. Here we have several sailors of the ship’s landing party with some type of bi-pod mounted weapon, Shanghai (c.1912-14). If anyone knows the model I would be grateful.

[Bob Hudson]

Very interesting: have you seen his WWI draft registration card as Clarence Christopher Harvey?

[Dirk]

Harvey records his Marine Detachment periodically practiced landing operations as well as marksmanship qualification in China and the Philippines. Periodically they would join other Marines from the Asiatic Fleet in a camp to practice their field skills…usually during the summer months. For this purpose, one of the sites the Marines utilized was Kentucky Island, off Chefoo. Here is the ship’s detachment, plus on Kentucky Island c. July of 1914, right before the outbreak of WWI.

[Dirk]

Along with training there were opportunities for swimming, organized sporting events, sailing or rowing contests between other ships of the Asiatic Fleet…all well documented in the album. Here we see one of the Cincinnati’s boats rigged for sail near Chefoo.

[Dirk]

Of course sightseeing was popular, with occasional 48 hour liberty. Several members of the Cincinnati’s crew are photographed atop Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. I believe the regulations at the time forbid seagoing Marines and sailors from having civilian clothes while in foreign waters. Despite the restrictions, Harvey, in a letter home noted a number of men had civilian clothes that they hid all over the ship. In fact, he wrote, the men were considering stashing a threshing machine on the ship, but were having trouble finding a location to hide it!

[Dirk]

Toward the end of Harvey’s cruise he wrote his mother he hoped to take the civil service exam and receive his discharge. He returned to the states March 1915 and served the remainder of his time at Mare Island alongside a number of his fellow shipmates. When we next hear of him in 1917, he is in training with the Santa Fe Railroad as a telegrapher and had fallen in love with a young woman. With the US entry into WWI he faced a dilemma, he wanted to reenlist in the Marines but was still too new to his good railroad job to walk away and besides he wanted to marry first. Unfortunately, he was drafted into the Army before he could get married and therefore as a draftee, ineligible for the Marines. But while in the Army was able to finally marry the woman he had so fallen with. During stateside training he quickly rose from a Pvt to a 1st Sgt, and while in France received a Commission. He served with the 90th Division. A reservist, he was reactivated for service during WWII. His son described him as a quiet man who really hated war and yet served his country proudly. Currently, his daughter-in-Law is working to publish his letters home while he served with the AEF. On his return from Asia, Pvt Harvey sent the post card below from Hawaii to his future stateside address at Mare Island. I guess he was trying to see if his transport would beat the mail ship home.

 

I hope you have enjoyed my look at Pvt Harvey’s life and will continue my research into this period. I always welcome comments about our Asiatic fleet and if you have albums such as this or family stories from this period I encourage you to post them and provide us all with an opportunity to add to our knowledge base of this lightly documented era. The title of this thread comes from an entry Harvey wrote in his travel log.

[Dirk]

A few notes on photos/locations. One of the first questions I ask when I acquire an album is who took the photos. Harvey’s family noted he was an avid photographer for most of his life. During his WWI service he wrote in his letters of using a camera, but during the China period the jury is still out. Currently, I am of the opinion a number of the photos were done by the ships photographer. However, there are others that indicate Harvey clearly had access to a camera. Regardless of who took them, they are of very good quality and well composed. So much so, that is it hard to tell the professional from the amateurs work. When you compare the album to his travel log he does a very good job of documenting what he saw. Almost all photos have captions. Photo sizes in the album range from a cropped 9 ½ X 6 ¾ through 2 ½ X 1 ¾. The majority of images however are 5 ½ X 3 ½. This size seems standard through 1914, when a larger sized image appeared based upon a larger negative. I use the increased size picture to assist in dating many of my China images. A number of shots have info written directly on the image, which was apparently done on the film using a metal pencil-like device attached to the camera body. Lastly, I also record the names of all photo studios, as it helps me date other images I may encounter later or determine a location. The album itself is unmarked, and the pictures not in chronological order, so I think was made in the US and was probably assembled upon his stateside return. This image labeled “me” shows CC in front of one of the Cincinnati’s 5 inch guns. Finally, a number of the Chinese locations have had their names changed or spelled differently, since the 1946-49 Civil War. I have chosen to use the earlier spelling for place names solely for historical reasons, as these are the names Harvey would have known the locations by.

[camelgreen44]

Very Fine Job, Dirk.Fantastic pictures and commentary ! Thanks Denny

[Rustykamel]

Hello Dirk, The nighttime aerial shots at Beijing 2008 show lights as far as the eye can see. To think that Chinese engineers dammed the might Yangtze, a river that looks huge in some of your photos, makes it pretty amazing in just how far China has come. As always, a most enjoyable read. I especially like seeing the salty uniforms and ships that would have had real scuttlebutts. Thank you for sharing.

 

Jim

[Mr-X]

Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing

[teufelhunde.ret]

Dirk, as always the depth and breathe of your research work continues to astonish me. While much is known of America's strategic role in the far east during these early decades of the 20th century, far too little is known of the Officers and Enlisted men who carried out these missions. I do hope you will let us know if the family does get his memoirs published. And thank you for sharing and preserving! Semper Fi, Darrell

[Dirk]

Thanks guys! There will be more images coming from this collection so it will be interesting to see what else he recorded while over there. And as Darrell pointed out so nice to hear from the enlisted men on what they thought of the country and the duty that they performed. Yes it is amazing from watching the Olympics how much China has changed since these pictures were taken....

[bobgee]

Dirk, you've done it again! Another great historical USMC thread with fabulous pictures!

Semper Fi! Bobgee