A COLLECTION OF 162 REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS FROM THE U.S.S. PITTSBURGH, IMAGES TAKEN DURING ITS MISSION AS FLEET FLAGSHIP FOR THE U.S. NAVAL FORCES IN EUROPE, 1922-1924, PLUS 4 ORIGINAL PHOTOS OF CREW MEMBERS AND ONE COLORIZED PHOTO OF THE SHIP, AND INCLUDING A HAND-WRITTEN DIARY OF A MEMBER OF THE CREW ON THE VERSOS OF 91 OF THE PHOTO POSTCARDS.

[Aboard ship: 1922-1923]. Chief Yeoman S.V.M. Ray documented the voyage of the U.S.S. Pittsburgh from its recommissioning in Philadelphia in October 1922 to serve in European and Mediterranean waters for two years, and through some 81 ports of call. Nearly every card, 3 1/2 x 5 1/4 in., has a caption title in white ink, accompanied by Ray's name or initials, and occasionally a stock number. Images show the ship in dry dock in Philadelphia, destroyers in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the crew painting or coaling the ship, loading stores, a Captain's inspection, the ship's departure for Europe, a whaleboat transfer of a sick man from the USS McFarland to the USS Pittsburgh in mid-ocean, en route to the Canary Islands, Bumboats alongside the ship in the Canaries, native boys diving for coins and native women washing clothes in Las Palmas, the Rock of Gibraltar, Vice Adm. A.T. Long transferring the fleet flag from the USS Utah to the USS Pittsburgh, orphan children on board in Constantinople, the pyramids of Egypt, Haifa, Nazareth, Jerusalem, the Syrian coast, Rhodes, Gallipoli, etc. etc. One of the last photo postcards in this group shows a detachment from the USS Pittsburgh in a Memorial Day parade in Paris, May 30, 1923.
The photos are accompanied by a running diary by one of the sailors on board, a seaman second class, who records his duties aboard ship, his homesickness and concerns about the girl he left behind, his adventures in the various ports of call from departure at Philadelphia on September 3, 1922 until his last entry in July 1923. The diary occupies the versos of 91 of the cards, each card with two or three entries over successive days, sometimes continuing on to the next card, a total of approx. 18,000 words. A handful of the early cards start and end in mid-sentence, but thereafter, they are sequential. His handwriting, though small is very legible. The unnamed author, clearly part of a green crew, says his first assignment was lookout duty from the crow's nest, a job he had never done before, "starting in early for that without any experience." Thereafter he describes painting the ship, coaling, gun drill ("I am an inside shell man"), inspections, and other duties aboard ship. He describes their first port of call at Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, and his first shore leave where he went to a cathedral and saw artifacts from the Popes, including one Pope's heart in a bottle. He also says the sailors on board are buying monkeys, dogs, canaries and the like and that if it keeps up they will have a zoo on board. At Gibraltar he sees Shackleton's yacht, "the one [who] discovered the South Pole," come into the harbor (Shackleton himself had died in Jan. 1922). By November the USS Pittsburgh was in Constantinople, and "all the limey ships are ordered out of the Bosphorus by the turks." [Following World War I, Allied forces occupied Constantinople, sometimes under tense circumstances, until the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923]. The young sailor diarist visits Ste. Sophia church in Stamboul, sees the Howling Whirling Dervishes in an old Turkish house, and Robert College. He is descriptive and observant, curious about the places he was visiting. He apparently spoke some French, and was often singled out by officers on board for his seriousness and reliability. His ensign complimented him as a natural born helmsman during his time on wheel duty. Two of the four original photos have names on the verso, Vernon Hazelton and George Szabo, but it was not possible to determine if one of these sailors was also the author of the diary. Item #63634

Two of the photographs Chief Yeoman S.V.M. Ray took during the USS Pittsburgh's mission in Europe appeared in an issue of "The Outlook: an Illustrated Weekly Journal of Current Life," vol. 133, Jan.-May 1923. Under the title “Proof That Recruiting Posters Do Not Lie: Photographs by S.V.M. Ray, Chief Yeoman, U.S.S. Pittsburgh,” the photo illustrations, both of the harbor at Rhodes indicate that they were developed and finished by him on board the USS Pittsburgh.

Price: $1,500.00

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