Strange WWI Navy Women's Story? Need help/opinions.

[Bob Hudson]

This topic breaks some ground in bringing together some info about women in WWI that challenges popular consensus.

 

I just revisted this history of women in the Navy - http://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/2015/03/21/celebrating-the-first-women-to-join-the-naval-reserve-force/ - and found an interesting statement about going beyond just yeoman/clerical ratings when enlisting women. This would certainly justify rating some women as SC's depending on local (ditstrict) needs:

 

"...such other ratings as the commandant may consider essential to the district organizations.”

 

[Bob Hudson]

So we know that the Lighthouse Service facilities and people were all assigned to the Navy - not the Coast Guard - in WWI.

The records show that the Navy sent signalmen, mostly, to establish lookout stations. One writer pointed out that these lookout crews had their own cooks so they would be "self sufficient." I read that there is little data about the location of those, but here we have the names of four sites in Maine and each has a lightkeepers wife is officially part of the US Navy, cooking for these crews. (Having cooked at remote ICBM launch sites, I can't even imagine what a Herculean chore it must have been do that on wind and wave-swept rocks jutting into the Atlantic - I doff my cook's hat to them).

With these four women, you had people who were already at the remote outpost and they could cook. They certainly qualified for "ratings as the commandant may consider essential to the district organizations."

I would guess that The US Naval Reserve Force section in Portland, Maine would have issued the request to the district in Boston to make these ladies Navy cooks. Are there any USNRF records of 1917-18? Lottie Purington was on the Navy rolls as of December of 1917, the others in 1918.

 

These ladies were specialists and certainly rated a rating reflecting that.

 

I believe that they filled an SC 4 billet assigned to each lookout crew, and in muster rolls and other reports Minnie was called SC4 Smith because these crews had no billets for a Yeoman, male or female.

[mars&thunder]

Excellent summary, Bob. To develop this topic perhaps a little bit further, I have been able to get into contact with Theodore Panayotoff who wrote one of the articles that was referenced in the thread. The article itself demonstrated that he knew his way around the lower level of records (Navy and Lighthouse service logs, etc), and he's the guy who indicated the Navy groups at these sites had cooks. He said he would dig into what we've observed and get back to me, but he's not where he can do this for a while. I hope he can determine if this was a practice wider than just the Boston Naval District that covered Maine, and what was behind the August 31st disenrollment date. When (if) I hear anything (even a negative report) I'll tack this on to the end of this thread. Keep watching for more news!

[Bob Hudson]

To narrow things down a bit, we find that the Nash Island loookout, at least, was under the jurisdiction of the USNRF section at Machias, Maine. Here's some clips about closure of the Naval lookout teams:

 

 

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

One link above to Lighthouse Digest often brings up an error, so here's some relevant text from that in case the link goes bad fulltime.

 

"The operational control of the “Navy” light stations was under the Naval District Section Bases. Naval Districts were divided into Sections, each with a Section Base responsible for coastal patrol, observation and signaling in its area. Using the First Naval District and light stations in Maine as an example, one can form a picture of how the system operated from reading the various logs. Two things become evident; the number of light stations that were part of the “system” went far beyond the original five listed in the Executive Order and the “system” took about six months to get up and running.

The Navy called the installations “Signal Stations” and assigned about six personnel to each light station. These were relatively junior personnel with sometimes a Seaman 2/c in charge. The Signal Station kept its own log, separate from the Light Station log kept by the lighthouse keeper. Based on the surviving logs in the National Archives from the First Naval District, some Section Bases and their subordinate Signal Stations can be identified: Rockland, ME Section Base; Two Bush Island Signal Station, Saddle Back Ledge Signal Station and Monhegan Island Signal Station; Boothbay Harbor, ME Section Base; Seguin Light Signal Station.

The Section Base at Bar Harbor, ME covered Great Duck Island, Petit Manan, Baker Island, and Mount Desert Rock light stations. The Section Base at Machias, ME covered West Quoddy Head, Nash Island, Libby Island, Moose Peak, Little River and possibly Machias Seal Island light stations. The latter is interesting because the light station is Canadian with Canadian light keepers. The West Quoddy Head Light Station was called a “Patrol Station” in the logs, possibly reflecting its status as one of the original five taken over by the Navy. The Lighthouse Service and Navy logs available in the National Archives are incomplete so it is difficult to develop a complete list of all the additional light stations in the First Naval District that had naval signal personnel as tenants. Some logs exist from transferred light stations in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th Naval Districts.

The logs for the 1st Naval District give some insight into the operation of the Navy Signal or Patrol Stations. The Navy logs have typical administrative entries; setting up living quarters in the boathouse, assignment and departure of personnel, and inspection visits. In addition, notations were made of lights observed at night and vessels passing the station in daylight. The navy personnel included a cook so they were probably self sufficient. The extra personnel must have made for crowded conditions, especially on off shore light stations. The duties of the naval signal personnel were as lookouts and for maintaining visual signal communication with the Section Base patrol vessels. These probably lacked radio communications equipment. With resident navy personnel at the light station dual logs were kept; the Lighthouse Service log kept by the light keeper and the Navy Signal Station log kept by the Navy person in charge."

[cutiger83]

So we know that the Lighthouse Service facilities and people were all assigned to the Navy - not the Coast Guard - in WWI.

 

 

 

Just to clarify about the Coast Guard during WWI, I found the following on the Coast Guard history website. They were involved with the Coast and light houses but as a part of the Navy:

 

At that time a coded dispatch was transmitted from Washington DC via the Navy radio station in Alexandria, Virginia to every Coast Guard cutter and shore station. Officers, enlisted men, vessels, and units, we're transferred to the operational control of the Department of the Navy with its 223 commissioned officers, more than 4,500 enlisted men, 47 vessels of all types, and 279 stations scattered along the entire U.S. coastline.

[mars&thunder]

Sometime in the future, when we all this figured out, this thread would form the basis for a nice little article about this aspect of women's service in WW1. I have no idea what sort of magazine or journal (online or hardcopy) would be interested in this, but somebody should be, and I don't want the information we've uncovered here to be forgotten or not given the exposure it deserves. I would consider taking a stab at that, but it would be a while before I get around to it - I have a long list of articles I should be writing, in addition to the novels and short stories I dabble in. By the way, if you haven't yet done so. go take a look at photos of the Boon Island lighthouse. What a desolate, desperate assignment that must have been!

[Bluehawk]

Wow... this is a wonderful history thread to read.

 

Thanks

[Bob Hudson]

Here's the Nash Island station: luxury housing compared to a lot of lighthouses, but you can be sure there was no grocery store close by.

 

[mars&thunder]

Just for purposes of completeness in this thread, Harry Smith was the keeper of the Boon Island Lighthouse from 1916-1920 so Minnie Smith would almost certainly have been his wife. The 1930 census lists Minnie as Harry's wife and he as a lighthouse keeper. Bob had named the other three ladies specifically as lighthouse keepers' wives, but didn't name Smith.

[mars&thunder]

Found a reference to a newspaper article that I think would be quite informative for our study. I posted a separate request for help to the forum so it has more chance of getting noticed outside of people reading this thread. For your info, the article is:

 

Harlow, Len: "Mrs. Minnie Smith Distinguished as One of the Few Women in Legion" Bangor Daily News May 26, 1955.

 

I couldn't find a way to access this article online.

[MastersMate]

The information concerning the Light Keepers’ wives makes it a bit easier to piece together the logistics operation of the USN lookout stations..

 

Boon Island is about 8 miles by boat from the town of York Harbor, Maine. Goat Island is slightly over ½ mile by boat from the town of Cape Porpoise and Nash Island is about 7 miles from Addison, but only 3 miles by boat from Otter Cove, a fishing port connected by road to Addison.

 

Each of these Lighthouses were family stations with a keeper and family in residence. The keeper would have been receiving a rations subsistence allowance in addition to regular pay. The stations would have had a well established grocery supply line with the local towns. The keepers wife would, no doubt, be an expert at budgeting the LHS ration allowance and keeping the provisions well stocked and accounted for.. The lighthouse organization inspections would monitor the administration of the station.

 

With the establishing of the USN lookout stations, now you are throwing maybe 6 or 8 non rated seaman 2c enlisted men onto the station that will require separate berthing and messing and a lookout post. With no USN galley at the light station, the enlisted sailors are placed on commuted rations and receive the 30 cents per day ?? ration money to subsist on their own. They will have to form a mess and pool their allowance to provide meals for themselves..

 

Here is where enlisting the Keepers wives as Ships Cooks 4^th class makes perfect sense. She would be familiar with ordering in bulk and rationing and managing the finances for the mess. As enlisted members of the Naval Reserve, they would also receive a USN daily ration. The USN most likely enlarged the storage and built basic living facilities and a lookout station for the USN detachment. Cooking most likely done in the keepers house with a USN messman from the crew detailed to pick up chow and deliver to the USN quarters. Much like a separate mess aboard ship.. The Commissary Steward would oversee the issue of rations, the ships cooks 3^rd and 4^th class would prepare it under supervision of the ships cook 2^nd class. Messmen would pick up and deliver the portion to each mess and then clean up after meal.

 

Something to chew on as to the administration of these detachments.

[Bob Hudson]

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[Bob Hudson]

In doing research on this I found some official documents which make it clear that the consensus was that the Navy had no legal authority to enlist women, but once they started down that path it was too late to reverse course. Here's one such document

 

 

Here's what the Sec. of Navy used as justification to enlist women:

 

[mars&thunder]

A lighthouse keepers group (mostly paper and photos) popped up on early this morning. Sold quickly to a BIN - way too rich for my blood since not my collecting focus. The most interesting thing to me was the issue document for his Victory Medal so I took a snapshot of that and am attaching it to this post.

 

 

 

[mars&thunder]

To flesh out Mary E. Robinson... her husband was Herbert Robinson and he was head light house keeper of the Moose Peak Light Station during WW1.

[MastersMate]

Moose Peak Light ( Mistake Island ) near Jonesport, Maine. Looking at the Keepers house, there was an assistant keeper living in the second quarters, No date from the photos, but possibly show the USN lookout station tower..

 

 

[mars&thunder]

Was able to talk to the Bangor Public Reference Librarian. They have the Bangor Daily News in microfilm. She was able to locate the article I was interested in and sent me a digital scan. It's too big to post on the forum so I am extracting the pertinent info. I am leaving out things like the paragraphs describing the many American Legion offices she has held and a description of other lighthouses she lived in during her husband's 35 1/2 year career.

 

"Mrs. Minnie Smith of Ingraham Hill is one of the few women in the coastal area holding a membership card in the American Legion and one of the few to hold a 20 year membership in the same veteran's organization. She earned that distinction as a result of an enlistment in the United States Naval Reserve in World War One. Her story for the Legion activities which were to take the place of bringing up 10 children starts in January, 1918, when Minnie enlisted as a ship's cook in the United States Naval Reserve force and was sent to Boon Island, nine and one-half miles at sea from York Harbor, to cook for five naval personnel stationed there as lookouts during the war. The island contained a lighthouse and Minnie's husband, Harry, was head lightkeeper on the island. Minnie's enlistment was for the duration of the war and she was discharged in August of that year. However she remained on the island, or 'Rockpile' as she describes it, for four years, making just one trip off to the mainland in that time. While serving as a member of the Navy, Minnie cooked all the meals for the Navy personnel as well as her own family, which was considerable. Minnie remembers that she actually was to have been discharged earlier but officers were unable to reach the island by boat with the papers because of the heavy seas. She was the only enlisted woman on the island, although two other lightkeepers had their wives with them at the time.The lightkeepers were attached to the lighthouse service and not to the Navy at that time. Her husband Harry served a six year hitch with the Army, three years during the Spanish-American War."

[Bob Hudson]

"The lightkeepers were attached to the lighthouse service and not to the Navy at that time"

 

I wonder if they meant "Coast Guard" since we know the lighthouse service operated as part of the Navy beginning in April 1917:

 

The United States declared war on April 6, 1917 and on April 11, 1917; President Wilson signed Executive Order #2588 activating the provisions of the August 1916 legislation and the subsequent planning.

On April 18, the keeper at Heron Neck Light Station, Maine received this Western Union Telegram from his boss, the Inspector of the First Lighthouse District in Portland, ME:

“KEEPER HERRONNECK(sic) LIGHT STATION VINALHAVEN ME

YOU ARE TRANSFERRED BY PRESIDENT TO NAVY DEPARTMENT TOGETHER WITH LIGHT STATION AND ALL EQUIPMENT REPORT IMMEDIATELY FOR DUTY BY TELEGRAPH TO COMMANDANT FIRST NAVAL DISTRICT NAVY YARD BOSTON MASS YOU WILL SERVE UNDER HIM UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE AND AT SAME TIME PERFORM ALL LIGHTHOUSE DUTIES REQUIRED BY REGULATION AS WELL AS DUTIES WHICH NAVAL OFFICER WILL REQUIRE IN ADDITION

[mars&thunder]

There have been a few brief references in this thread to Navy personnel receiving subsistence pay at a certain per diem rate and that forming the basis for the meals cooked for them by the lighthouse wives (Ships Cook 4th Class). Attached is an excerpt from the 1919 Navy Register which contains the various subsistence rates depending on the circumstances of the duty performed. My reading of this leads me to believe that para 20 b c applies, and that these sailors had $1 a day each for food.

 

[ScottG]

So now the question is did this only happen along the eastern seaboard? Are there any documented Women in the Great Lakes region? More lighthouses there than anywhere, particularly Michigan with around 150. How about the south, I see some reference to Florida, but nothing in the Gulf or even out west? It is quite interesting. Thanks for all of the research! Scott

[MastersMate]

From the Report of the Light House Service for fiscal year ending June 1918.. Would take a guess that the lookout operation was Maine coast operation. From the Portsmouth, NH area southward along the coast, a system of Coast Guard Lifeboat Stations maintained a constant day and night beach patrol/lookout as part of their regular duty.

 

 

[mars&thunder]

In the Lighthouse Keeper ebay group (John Brown) I referenced earlier (photo of victory medal above), there was a letter telling him to report to the Commander of the 2nd Naval District via letter or telegram reporting himself for duty. He was keeper of the Sakonnet (Rhode Island) Light Station. It's not clear if this equates to being one of the 21 stations transferred to the Navy, or if every keeper got the same letter (dated April 14, 1917) and reported purely as a means of establishing administrative contact, and later the Navy picked its specific stations of interest. Also I'm not sure exactly what being transferred tot he Navy entailed. Did the Navy still establish a lookout station at lighthouses it did not take over in a transfer? As a tentative starting point we have to take the data in the Navy report on face value... only 21 stations were used as lookout stations, and only these have the possibility of having a woman ships cook. But we might be misreading what the report intends.

 

Regarding light stations in the Great Lakes, I would be surprised to find that the Navy established lookout stations at any of these facilities. How credible was a German threat in these waters? Of course a lot of things were done from a sense of panic and knee jerk response, but my gut says no. Unfortunately Michigan's military records aren't available online for the purposes of this data. The state has boxes of Victory Medal applications, but without a focus that would be a brutal task to undertake looking for a woman with service in the Navy as an SC4. There is no consolidated list of lighthouse keepers that I can find, so it would be hard to build up a list of names to try to narrow down the effort. On a light house by light house basis there often is a website that contains a list of keepers, but I don't know what the complete list of light houses even is.

[ScottG]

I work weekly as part of our Governors WWI Centennial Commission. We have reached out to the Coast Guard and our Department of Military and Veteran Affairs here in Michigan. We are thinking that in Detroit and Sault Ste Marie there is a possibility that this same type of situation may have occurred. Both are very strategic, both border Canada and in the case of Detroit there was an active enemy cell that actually destroyed part of Windsor Ontario in 1917. We will see what comes back. Scott

[67Rally]

Brilliant thread! I love the collaborative research!