Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
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From July 1923 through June 1924 Lieutenant Jack Barrett took the Junior Course at Naval War College, Newport Rhode Island, and wrote his 1924 TACTICS thesis,which is part of "RED HEADED STEPCHILD" and appears on this website p 66. He lived in Jamestown on the west side of Narragansett Bay and enjoyed visits there with Dr. Julius Neuberger USN and Warrant offcier Joseph Czarnetsky in 1960s. Dr. Neuberger recommended Stuartinic, a mixture of B Vitamins and Vitamin C. From July 1924 to June 1947 Jack was First Lieutenant and Construction and Repair Officer of newly commissioned light cruiser MARBLEHEAD, which participated in war games Hawaii and fleet visit in Australia-New Zealand 1925 and was in combat situation at Shanghai 1927. MARBLEHEAD CHAPTER: chronology from notebook at -272- July 3, l924 JBB reported to Naval Inspector of Machinery, William Cramp and Sons Co Philadelphia in connction with fitting out MARBLEHEAD Arrived Navy Yard 8 AM July 16 few days - return to Cramp. Later short run down Delaware (River) First week in August go to Rockland for full trials for ten days.eturned to Cramp yard to 30 August. 5 Sept at Navy Yard Philadelphia. Also 11 September. September letter C.C. Plummer (ex Hydrographic Office, friend of Gershom Bradford) Sept 8. To visit Newport Rhode Island about 16 September. Then about one month New York. Ready about 29 Sep at Navy Yard New York. MARBLEHEAD Commissioned October 10. Nov 5 leave New York. Nov 20 shore patrol Murray Bay Bermuda heading toward Newport News Va Nov 21.- Dec. 2 galley hot - 6 Dec. Southampton England Leave request 8 December to noon December 9 JBB address c/o Archer 35 Vartrey Road, Stamford Hill, London. To sea Dec 12 - Marseilles Dec 24 - Villefranche Dec. 25 - Algiers Dec. 31 Jack collected many excellent large photos at Marseilles and Algiers, including two of the MARBLEHEAD in Algiers Harbor New Years Eve and many of Algerian countryside. At some time he met Ronald Bodley, author of a 1927 book on Algeria- Jack kept his Algeria address in his address book.- Jan 6 l925 JBB writes report on shakedown cruise - Jan 7 Funchal Madeira - Boston - Board of Inspection and survey at Final trials in February and necessity for completion of annual inventory of Construction and Repair equipage by 31 March. - March 23,l925 San Diego - m- Feb. 18 - had already left Boston - April 6-l0 San Francisco leave plus weekend April 11 and 12 Reported back to ship 0035 MONDAY APRIL 13. April 24 Landing force exercise Molokai 27 April shore patrol Merchant and Bethel Streets Honolulu for duration of stay of fleet Reported 10 M April 28 Latter part of may JBB got ships service funds. MARBLEHEAD to fire Short Range Director Practice off Lahaina (Maui) during week commencing 15 June until Thur 18 June. 1 July depart Honolulu. 6 July cross equator 165 degrees 40 minutes west.- July 25 Melbourne - July 31 Tasmania -,Hobart- Launceston-August 5 and 6 New Zealand through Monday August 17th. August 30 Shore patrol TAHITI - GALApagos - Panama =- Guantanamo 8 to 10 Nov - Dec. l925 Boston - 11 Feb. l926 Balboa Schedule of provision issues at Balboa CZ MARB 18 f Refrigerated supplies 0600, fresh vegetables are dry strores. 1300 from store ship "BRIDGE" Vessels of light cruiser division two will use all motor launches for transporting provisions.These boats will be be posted as required. JBB officer in charge of the boats. 0545. June 20, MARblehead (town) Masachusetts Hotel Rock-Mere one night Six dollars. See Boston Post story on naming dedication of ship. - 8 June NY Boston JBB request duty on European station for balance of present sea cruise. If not granted, continue present assignment. - 6 & 14 July MARBLEHEAD at Boston - 30 Sep Aid to Executive Officer Alexander Sharp Construction and Repair, Ships Service. - Oc 19 Gonaives Bay Haiti O 25 Guantanamo Bay N 6 to 16 Guantanamo Nov 25 to 29 leave Dec. Boston New York weekend D 4-5, 11-12 - Philadelphia D 27 JAN 6, L927 SAILING FOR NICARAGUA - FEBRUARY 27 HAWAII TILL MARCH 18 MAR 8 LAHAINA - Sailed from Pearl Harbor 24 Marc 4 PM to Shanghai Ap 2 - at Shanghai 21 April. June 4 Shanghai Jack Barrett detached June 6 Pres. Madison Kobe (acquainted with Harams.) June 20, Seattle June 27, New York. 1927 from note outline]. Narrative from April 1925-MARBLEHEAD Lahaina l925 After Panama the MARBLEHEAD traveled up the West Coast, where Jack saw his second cousin Robert Fahrbach & Fahrbach's father Emil Fahrbach in San Francisco. They took him touring by automobile. The senior Fahrbach worked in Dinkelspiel department stores and was executor of the Polk Street properties that had belonged to his wife's mother, the immigrant Johanna Hession. Johanna left half her property to Jack's aunt Catherine Barrett, who came from Boston to San Francisco on the newly completed transcontinental railroad in 1871. Much of the property was destroyed in the fire after the 1906 earthquake, and Catherine divided her share in half, gave a life interest to her cousin from Ireland Kate Kerrigan, and then a remainder to Jack Barrett, which proved to be only three thousand dollars when he received it in 1926 - less than he had been led by his aunt to expect. The MARBLEHEAD traveled from San Francisco under well-maintained radio silence and upon arriving in Hawaii April l5,l925, took part in the very important war games in which the attacking "Blue" Forces defeated the defending "Black" Forces & captured the Hawaiian Islands. Admiral MacDonald in collaboration with the Army,had the defense of the Hawaiian Islands.The story is well told in the New York Times article headed "MARBLEHEAD at Hawaii War Maneuvers",Sunday,May l0,l925.Story of the swift triumph of Blue Forces on Hawaiian Defenses forced to anchor because the capital ships could enter Pearl Harbor only with difficulty because of the lack of anchorage space inside.After the War Games many departed with General Hines including Major General Neville, who commanded the Blue Mai??col Forces (some material illegible will be checked against original article when available)the senior Black umpire,a general & Lieutenant Colonel Kruger,who was the chief Army assistant to Admiral Coontz & General Hines.Several thousand persons went to the pier decorating the officers & other passengers with leis.The ship was tied to the pier with paper streamers that cracked when the ship pulled away to the strains of "Aloha Oe" & other Hawaiian tunes.252Major General Lewis,the Hawaiian Department Commander,declined to comment on the statement attributed to Chairman Butler of the House Naval (Appropriations) Committee (Philadelphia Congressman & father of the great Marine General Smedley Butler) to the effect that appropriations would be asked to make Hawaii the strongest military outpost in the world.The General admitted that there are serious deficiencies in the defenses as they exist.General Lewis said,"I am naturally very much interested in any proposal for developing the denfeses of Hawaii as they have constituted my most earnest study since my arrival in the Territory.I can assure you that it has been for some time the conservative opinion of our trained officers that these defenses are insufficient even for a reasonable security against unfortunate eventualities.And I concur in that opinion." General Lewis was asked to comment on the prevalent belief that Army garrison here should be from five to ten thousand men stronger than at present,that the air forces should be greatly increased & provided with modern equipment to enable the Army to resist successfully such landing as that simulated in the recent maneuvers- that there should be additional modern eighteen inch guns in the Coast Defenses-that the Construction program has been seriously neglected & that the local naval protection in the form of submarines & mines is seriously deficient. Some officers wanted on hundred thousand men.The General replied that there were serious shortages in all of these respects.The details from the flagship Pennsylvania to the New York Times,April 27,l925: "Now that the struggle is ended between the Blues & the Blacks for the control of the Island of Oahu-keystone in the Hawaiian Arch of the American Structure of National Defence, the story of the campaign plan of the pictors & vanquished may be told" (Jack Barrett was on the MARBLEHEAD of the victors,the Blue Forces-SMB note)- "it is clearly evident 253 it is evident from the progress of this major peacetime conflict that the Naval & Marines forces comprising the Blues would now be camping in Pearl Harbor after having taken the Island by direct assault in today's operation.The mission of the Blues was to recover from the Blacks possession of Honolulu & Pearl Harbor as Naval Operating Bases.That mission was certain of achievement when the umpires called a halt on the contest.The action of the umpires was founded in the conviction that the Blue forces had been able to land & advance on the north shore of Oahu,- a superior military force of Marine Sl...? troops & maneuver them in a position where the Blacks were unable to halt or defeat the advance of the khaki-clad invaders.The defeat of the Blacks does not mean that the Hawaiian Islands are not strongly defended.Both Nature & Washington with liberal hands have contributed toward the defense of the Islands against attack by enemy forces.The mountain ranges along the east & most of the west coast of Oahu are absolutely impossible for armed forces landing along these particular stretches of the shoreland.After a twelve day voyage of 2600 miles from San Francisco to the Hawaiian group, the Blue Fleet arrived off the northern & southwestern coasts of Oahu at midnight of April 26.The armada traveled in special screening formation en route to protect the sixteen vessels of the Fleet train (constructively representing transports) against enemy submarine attack. This formation consisted of a series of concentric circles of warships.The battleships were in the center,with the train of transports.Around the battleships steamed the smart & speeding destroyers. Beyond the -254-steamed the light cruisers" (JBB in MARBLEHEAD-SMB note)"& beyond that were the submarines-the furthermost outpost of the Fleet formation,which was 42 miles in diameter.Not a mishap marred the voyage.All ships that left San Francisco Harbor on April l5 in an aggregation of one hundred twenty-seven of all types of warships arrived at their appointed positions at the Islands of Oahu & Molokai in safety & good condition.The battleship MARYLAND,which left Puget Sound at a later date joined the main body of the battle fleet several hundred miles north of Oahu.Somewhere out in the Pacific the Blue Scouting Fleet headed by the battleship WYOMING was detached from the main formation & sent ahead so as to be able to carry out the operation of establishing an air base on the island of Molokai April 25, two days before the scheduled [landing] of Admiral Robinson for the main expedition attack on Oahu.The rest of the fleet continued on a direct route to Kaena Point at the northwestern corner of Oahu,maneuvering from day to day in th execution of Battle Problems.Radio silence was established on the seond day out from San Francisco & was not lifted until arrival of thew vessels within sight of Diamond Head late this afternoon after the execution of the mission involved in the War Games.At twelve o'clock last night when the bulk of the main battle fleet moved into position off the northern coast of Oahu,mighty searchlights from the interior & along the northern coast flashed seaward.Under cover of darkness the vessels were in position for the attack,six miles out when several minutes after midnight a bombardment of the beach was inaugurated preliminary to the landing 255--#39 MARBLEHEAD P.255 preliminary to the landing of the first wave of Marines at twelve o'clock this morning,exactly twelve hours after the bombardment began.During these twelve hours the main force made the landing on the north coast.Some of the battleships- with destroyers were detached & sent around to the southwestern coast to carry to carry out a similar landing of Marines- this was only a secondary operation.The attack on the north was the primary one.Meanwhile the Scouting Fleet under the command of Vice ADMIRAL MCKEAN, WHICH HAD GONE WITH THE AIRCRAFT carrier LANGLEY to establish a temporary air base at Molokai Island, slipped westward to the southern coast of Oahu & endeavored to delude the Blacks into the belief that a landing force was about to be put into east of Diamond Head.It was a successful manoeuvre & in combination with the secondary landing of the Marines on the southwest coast caused the Blacks to think that the main landing was being made on the south coast.In this assumption the blacks made a fatal mistake & were not in a position to meet the shock of the primary landing of the expeditionary force when it was shoved forward on the north coast.Ideal weather conditions favored the Blues when it (the Blue Force) emerged from the long spell of radio silence & lowered the boats in which the Marines were sent through the surf to the beach.While the heavens sparkled with thousands of starts,the region between shore & coast was blanketed with that particular form of tropical semi=mist & near rain which Americans in Hawaii have come to regard as 'liquid sunshine'.It was difficult for the powerful searchlights of the Blacks to distinguish the faint shadows of the hulls (hulks?)in the darkness that enveleoped the arrival of the Fleet.The Fleet had been darkened & traveled with 256 no lights showing above decks long before reaching Oahu.When morning broke magnificiently over the island,the main section of the expeditionary force began landing on the northern & southwestern coasts,& feinting operations were progressing east of Diamond Head.On the north coast especially where no ships had stood the night before,morning disclosed the presence of a strong naval force.The big guns of seven dreadnaughts were trained on the shore.Beyond them were the transports between boats filled with Marines,& destroyers were protecting the formation against submarine attack while seaplanes were being catapulted from the decks of battleships & spinning off into the air for reconnaisance of the enemy positions ashore.The sea was as smooth as glass & the breakers not as heavy as usual over the coral reefs.The first wave of Marines sent ashore were met with heavy machinegun attack & suffered heavy casualties,but the defense cordon of Blacks on the north coast was weak & the second wave were pused through so far that the succeeding waves had soon charged the beachhead & soon had driven six miles from the beach.The operation was accompanied by a spectacular aircraft operation in which there were thrilling battles between enemy bombing & fighting planes & the fighting planes & scouters of the Fleet.Had not the Blues completely outgunned the Blacks in the north of the principal landing shore,it would have been difficult for the invader to have made such easy headway in pushing their Marines forward in the northern coast.Part of the time the Fleet steamed with darkened lights.& for nearly ten days it steamed the Pacific with all wireless switches pulled so as to ensure complete radio silence.Not a single letter was flashed by radio from any of the ships.The radio silence was a complete success-a real simulation of actual war conditions as near as it could be achieved in time of peace.Should the United States as a nation ever be faced with the problem of defending Oahu in time of war,it would be infinitely better257...." On the September 1925 return trip In the Galapagos Islands they were surprised to see a large number of seals-hundreds of them.A rather cold current runs through them,& it seems strange to see the seals where only tropical animals would be expected.But the seals were there.p260 MARBLEHEAD itinerary departed Philadelphia l5 September l924 - arr.Sep l6 Newport RI dep.l7 Sept. -arr.l8 Sep.Navy Yard,New York dep.5 November-Arr.. 7 November Bermuda Islands dep Nov 2l arr. 23 Nov.Navy yard Norfolk Virginia dep. 28 Nov.-arr.6 December Southampton England dep 12 Dec. -arr. l7 DecMarseilles France dep 24 Dec.-arr.24 Dec Villefranche France dep 25 Dec - arr. 27 Dec. Algiers,Algeria dep.31 Decem-1924-arr. 1 January l925 Gibraltar dep. 5 Jan- arr. 7 Jan. Funchal, Madeira dep.9 January -arr. l7 Jan. Navy Yard Boston dep l0 February -arr. l0 Feb. Boston Light dep.l3 Feb. -arriv l8 Feb. Hampton Roads Virginia dep. l9 Feb.- 23 Feb. arr.Colon,CaNAL ZONE DEP 23 FEB.- arr. 23 Feb Panama Bay dep 25 Feb. arr. 12 March San Diego California dep l6 March arrive l7 March San Pedro Cal.depart 3 April - arr. 5 April San Francisco California dep. 15 April -arr. 25 April Molokai, Territory of Hawaii Honolulu Territory of Hawaii -#40 -25 Apr.l925 arr. Molokai Territoy of Hawaii dep. 25 Apr. -arr .27 Apr.Honolulu dep 30 Apr.-arr. 30 Apr. Pearl Harbor dep l May - arr. 1 May Honolulu dep.7 May - arr.9 May Lahaina,Maui dep.28 May-arr. 29 May Hilo,island of Hawaii dep.29 May - arr. 1 June Honolulu dep. l Jun-arr. 1 June Pearl Harbor dep 2 Jun -arr. 2 Jun Lahaina dep 6 June- arr. 6 June Honolulu dep.l5 June -& l July - crossed equator 6 July l925 - arr.l0 July Pago Pago Samoa dep.11 Jul -arr. 23 Jul Melbourne, Victoria, Australiadep 4 August - arr. 5 August Hobart Tasmania dep 7 Augu -arr. 11 Aug Wellington New Zealand dep.24 Aug- arr 30Aug..Pago Pago Samoa dep 3 September -arr. 8 September Papeetee Tahiti dep.ll Sep -arr. 22 Sep Galapagos Islands, Ecuador dep 24 Sep-arr.25 Sep Balboa Canal Zone dep 2 October -arr. October 4 Guantanamo Bay, Cuba dep -dep 12 Oct-arr. 12 Oct Gonaives Gulf Haiti dep. l6 Oct.-arr.l6 Oct. Guantanamo Bay Cuba dep.26 Oct.- arr.26 Oct. Gonaives Haiti dep. 30 Oct. -arr.30 Oct. Gonaives Gulf Haitidep 2 Nov- arr. 2 Nov Guantanamo Bay Cuba dep.20 November arr. 23 Nov Hampton Roads Virginia dep ? - arr30 Nov.North river New York dep30 Nov.- arr. 1 December Navy Yard Boston dep 8 January l926-arr. 9 Jan Hampton Roads Virginia dep. 10 Ja. page 262- ... arrived Bluefields Nicaragua ll January l927 - Puerto Cabezas on l3 January. 1926: In late 1925 and 1926 the MARBLEHEAD cruised in Panama, Guantanamo, and Haiti along with East Coast calls at Boston, New York, and in Virginia.In June 1926 the Boston Post reported the ship's visit at the town of Marblehead on the Massachusetts North Shore, in honor of which the ship was named in a christening ceremony. In August 1926 at Newport, Rhode Island Jack saw several former South Boston friends who came to see the ship- his second cousins Gertrude and May Hartigan, then living at 80 Brown Avenue, Roslindale,and former East Fourth Street neighbors Mrs. Charles Curtaz (Molliie Manning) and her sister Anna Manning, who had moved to West Roxbury were were neighbors of the Barretts 1947-87.Jack Barrett received ribbons in l927 for being in combat areas in Nicaragua in January & Shanghai China April-June during the civil war there. He was scheduled to lead a landing force at Bluefields, but the MARBLEHEAD was shifted to the Pacific. He encountered marine writer John Thomason this time in Nicaragua & later l943 arranged his transportation to the mainland. Jack's old friend Ora Whittlesey Sterry Waterman had introduced them by letter and wrote Jack subsequently again [497) -533] on November 14, l926 Jack's old friend Mrs. Ora Waterman from her apartment in Camaguey Cuba"Dear Jack, Edgar and I are just back after a two month trip to the States, and something I saw in a Habana newspaper led me to believe you and your ship are in Guantanamo.If I am right, I want to tell you how sorry I was to fail to answer your last letter from there.One of the children was ill, and by the time I got around to it I mislaid your letter and didn't know where to write.Can't you get away this trip and come up to Camaguey? We'd be glad to have you, and I am anxious for you to see the children.Garda will be four the last of this month and Bonnie will be eight on the eighteenth of December.Itwas so nice for you and John Thomason to meet up. I have an idea you'll like each other given the opportunity to know each other better. He is in Nicaragua now or was the last time I heard, which was in September.Here are the children with some sort of problem for me to settle so I must go. Best love from us all, and write to me at once if you are in Guantanamo, and tell us when to expect you.The best train the "rapido" gets in here at 4:15 PM. Ever - Ora." In February in Honolulu he received a letter from "Chesty" Puller - who later commanded Marines in the Inchon Korea landing September, l950 - the letter stolen l993 concerned an informal evening party.- continuing chronology: MARBLEHEAD arrived Puerto Cabezas Jan. l3, l927 left Nicaragua 29 January = spent some time in Honolulu February-March departed 24 March to make record eight & a half day cruise to Shanghai with hundreds of Marines, who came under command of Gen. Smedley Butler, survivor of the Boxer rebellion in Peking l900. Jack admired Butler, who was very sucessful in China l927-9 & was slated to become Marine commandant but for the personal animosity of Herbert Hoover, who had worked in the Kailin mining operations in North China & objected to remarks Butler had made condemning the dictatorial actions of Benito Mussolini.Butler in l930's retirement condemned over-use of Marines to serve commercial interests in foreign countries where national security was not threatened. Chaing-kai shek took the offensive against the communists at Shanghai speing l927, & both sides were strongly anti=foreigner & business interests were threated. Jack had a number of friends from l927 at Standard Oil co. Shanghai.He was detached June 4 at Shanghia & traveled Tokyo to Seattle on the same ship PRESIDENT MADISON as General Leonard Wood, retired l920's US governor of the Philippines.Jack traveled by rail from Seattle to his home in Boston & next duty in New York June l927-l929. -#56-# 56 Fradd letter Marblehead l927 Shanghai page M 259 responded magnificently to our letters of inquiry: John F. Fradd wrote from Florida: Your two very nice letters awakened nostalgic memories of the first cruise I ever had in my thirty-five years in the Navy.Whenever MARBLEHEAD sailors get together,all we talk about is our cruise to China & back,which covered nineteen months.The MARBLEHEAD was my first ship.I joined her in June of l926 & served four years in her.I can't vouch for the correctness of dates,& l927 was a long time ago. You mentioned that Jack Barrett was mess treasurer, & so was I shortly afterward.I had the job for about three months during our cruise up the Yangtze River & after. I recall the mess bill at that time was thirty dollars a month. It was near Christmas time in l926 when we returned to Boston, her home port, from Guantanamo,Cuba.In January l927 we were ordered to proceed to Norfolk,& load our torpedoes & two scout planes & continue on to Nicaragua,where trouble was brewing.We put a company of our landing force ashore to join our Marines, who were protecting the holdings of United Fruit company from some bandit who was trying to start an uprising. The name of the place was Puerto Cabezas on the east coast.Our flagship was the USS RICHMOND, another six inch gun cruiser. We were ordered to Pearl Harbor.At the time very few of us knew about what was going on in China.We spent a month or so in the Hawaii area practicing gunnery, torpedoes,& operations,-when suddenly we were ordered to Shanghai,China.I can recall returning from libery with Lieutenant Close to find the navigator & chief engineer figuring out how fast we could make the trip without running out of fuel. M260. We got under way in the morning & completed the (Shanghai) run in the shortest time ever up to that time (eight & a half days).Our sister ship the CINCINNATI had some propellor trouble & arrived twenty-four hours later.At this point we were getting reports of civil war in China, & the names of Chiang kai-shek & Chaing Tso-lin & (Michael) Borodin were in the news.We also received a report of the Communist attack on the "foreign" embassies in Nanking,in which the USS NOAH was involved.When we arrived at Shanghai,the Whangpoa river near town was loaded with ships, so we went downstream to the juncture of the Whangpoa & Yangtze & anchored for a week or so.While there we witnessed the first naval battle many of us had ever seen. The Wonson fort at the juncture of the two rivers was held by South Chinese forces & was to be attacked by the North Chinese fleet.The commander of the fort came aboard to ask if we would move off to an anchorage to the west,as he was expecting an attack by the northern forces & did not want us in the way. So we moved.Sure enough,at 11:30 Saturday morning four gunboats appeared,standing upriver right after our Saturday inspection.They opened fire on the fort,which returned the fire.The accuracy of both left much to be desired,but we had to admire the tactics of the commander of the ships afloat.It happened an English warship was anchored in the stream-& the Northern commander took full advantage of this fact.His ship would steam within range of the fort,fire & then swing around in columns behind the English warship while they reloaded their guns. this continued for a hour, until a burst from the fort M 261 appeared to hit the bridge of the leading gunboat.This signalled the end of the battle.Shortly after this we steamed up river to just south of Shanghai & moved to the Standard Oil docks.In the city the Southern forces had taken Shanghai & moved north,although barbed wire entanglements & bunkers were still in place on the streets.The city quickly returned to normal,but brigands were active. While on liberty,most of our officers were robbed at one time or another.I relieved "Shorty" Milner as head of the baseball team, & MARBLEHEAD not only won the Shanghai league championship but had the opportunity of playing with five other teams including the Japanese. One of these was the team representing Japan in the eastern Olympics.We also played later for the championship of the Phillippines.The next episode concerned our trip up the Yangtze River to Nanking. The CINCINNATI went up first for a stay of a month,& we followed later.She was fired on by small arms from the banks & an officer was wounded,so we placed boiler plate around the bridge & other exposed positions for protection- nobody fired at us, but all guns were at the ready.The navigator measured the fall of the river every morning so we would know when we had to return down river in order to cross over some sand bars safely.Otherwise we would have had to remain upstream for months before the river rose again.The ship visited Tsingtao & Chingwantao later. In July a number of us took a trip to Peking.We got there aboard a Chinese troop train.Upon arrival we saw an armored train furnished by the Japanese & tried to take snapshots of it,-but guards with fixed bayonets prevented that. I did ask one of the M262 guards if I could take his picture-& he was quite pleased- we got good pictures of him -& the train! (notes on photos).- John E Fradd, Rear Admiral USN Retired."-#58 Dahlquist MARBLEHEAD l927 Commander Phil Dahlquist in commentary on Admiral Fradd's letter wrote from Eugene Oregon: "The MARBLEHEAD did not stop at Nanking, as he intimated but went on up the Yangtze River for another couple of hundred miles to Hankow.I'm sure he would recall this if he remembered all the golf he played on the course there,which was surrounded by a ten foot high (or higher) stone wall. It wasn't unusual to hear shots on the other side of the wall as we played.I think one of the sad days of that era was when "Eva" Brant was lost overboard.He was an excellent young oficer & probably one of the most popular on board. Brant went back to the after part of the ship-which was very low.The seas were coming up from astern & breaking over the deck very heavily.Brant went out to help an enlisted man & held the man with a scissors hold in his legs until others could pull him back-but a following sea washed Brant overboard.It was a very heroic act on Brant's part & typical of what one would have expected of such a man.On our trip to Australia we stopped off at Samoa going & coming.I was swimming in at the dock & missed the last boat back to the MARBLEHEAD.I waited,& the Captain's gig came in fromthe MARBLEHEAD to pick up a guest for dinner with the Captain.He was a Samoan gentleman of about fifty years.He seemed very dignified & wore a black dinner jacket,black tie, & studs in his shirt. Instead of trousers he wore a sort of wrap-around garment of excellent quality material-very neatly pressed.coming down to his kneecaps.Riding out to the ship I said I had been at a nautical school at Norfolk about three years before, & we had a Samoan classmate who acquitted himself very well- he had graduated well up in his class & had been well thought of.The man was Chief of Police in American Samoa, & we was very pleased by my story,as the boy was his son.It was the l927 Nanking incident that took the MARBLEHEAD to China in the first place.Trouble had been anticipated aapparently-& we were already out as far as Honolulu on a standby basis.Then the Nanking thing happened,& we went out the rest of the way.I think the NOAH was in on it. The american destroyer NOAH had been sent up to Nanking on a plea from some missionares who were in danger from bandits overrunning the area.The American destroyer skipper went over to call on his counterpart on an English destroyer - they agreed & laid down a barrage above the mission-then the missionaries could come out & down to the dock under cover of the barrage.This was successful,& the destroyer took them to safety.In April l97l Rear Admiral James McNally wrote,"I cannot add too much to your wonderful job of research work.Jack loved papers & kept all kinds of papers & notes.That in fact is one of the strongest memories I have of him.I remember sitting in his stateroom & he pouring through a wicker hamper full of notes to locate a paper that would settled a wardroom argument. Jack was very thoughtful & kind to us junior officers. Phillips, Brant,Van Nagell,Florence, & McNally all reported to the MARBLEHEAD azt Pearl Harbor after Naval Academy graduation l925. I notice you have not mentioned John E.Florence.He lives in Charleston, South Carolina. You will have to excuse this new automatic typewriter. It writes faster than I can think, & it cannot spell.We all made the Australian cruise together.Then after leave & recreation in New York after we got back we went to the West Indies- Guantanamo & Haiti. I served on the MARBLEHEAD 23 June l925 to 25 June l926. I was first division junior officer. In that job I had lots of contact with John (Jack).John read a lot & had a good grasp of what was going on in the world.Some of his statements were prophetic.(Executive officer) Commander Alex Sharp would ask,"What has the saber-rattler to say today?" The next contact I had with john was at Pearl.Marjorie & I called on you- young John was only a baby.I was stationed at the Navy Yard & was machinery-electrical planning officer.After the attack I became the Salvage Planning officer & was in charge of preparing the plans for raising & repairing the sunken ships.John helped me get the family off to Long Beach,California.Later he assigned me transportation so I could go to Newport News Virginia to fit out & be chief engineer of p.266M YORKTOWN. The "Fighting Lady" was another wonderful ship just like the MARBLEHEAD.#57 Phillips letter MARBLEHEAD l925 Rear Admiral George L.Phillips of Maine wrote: Dear Mrs. Barrett,I well remember your husband Jack (sometimes known as "Red") from the MARBLEHEAD,which I joined in June,l925 & served in until July l926. I used to stand watches with him in station for several months until I qualified as a top watch stander.I remember the trip he arranged with a New Zealand friend of his (Haskell Anderson of Wellington & Napier) for a party (of which I was one) to spend a few days in Napier.NZ.I believe that Jack & the New Zealander had met in Newport News Virginia at the end of World War I when the latter was on his way home was on his way home from service in Europe (wounded at Gallipoli).We had a splendid cruise to Australia & New Zealand & a wonderful voyage through the south Pacific islands.I remember seeing Jack at Pearl Harbor in late l944 when I was on my way out to Ulithi for the attack on Iwo Jima & Okinawa.I called on him at his office & well remember being at your house for dinner some time in November or December,l944. I brought out a jug of maple syrup to give you.My wife came from Australia where I met her on the cruise in l925.We were married in Montreal,Canada in l928, & Jack was one of two sponsors for her entry permit into the United States.The other was Frank Maeihle (spell?) who was also on the MARBLEHEAD with Jack.I was in occasional touch with Captain Shackford before his death in Jamestown a few years ago." |
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Related PHOTOS captions gaps }M{ 1924-7 p 8-64 equator crossing p 20-160 p.21 Jack at Kailua after hiking over Pali photo by Eddie Arroyo p35-914 p48-1014,1016 8 p 50-1035,1036,1037 51-1038,1039,1040,1041 p 89-1374 p57-1099text p64-1159text p79-1287text p 85-texts MARBLEHEAD Edward Arroyo,Forrest Close,Dahlquist May 71 on Sharp, log ,Maichle John Florance,Dahlq Nov on mess Kenneth Walker letters Dahlq on walnut #1183 p 67 MARBLEHEAD CRUISE Spring 1925 Jack hiked over the Nuuanu Pali with Lieutenant Edward Arroyo, a recent Annapolis Naval Academy graduate from Louisiana who was at Pearl Harbor again l941-l942 with his wife Lillian and daughter Mary. He was involved in the intense secret preparations for the Battle of Midway June 4-5, l942. his wife went shopping with Sophie Barrett when very little was available in Honolulu after the Pearl Harbor attack, but Sophie found two rocking chairs suitable for use outdoors and three Phillippine teakwood bookcases the Barretts used for fifty years.The Arroyos left Hawaii in l942, but the Barretts located Eddie Arroyo in l969 and he sent several letters with recollections of MARBLEHEAD days l924-l927 and Hawaii l941-l942.His wife had passed away and his daughter Mary was in religious life in Louisiana.He knew Phil Dahlquist and many of our friends. At this time the Nuuanu Pali was the only short route to Kailua and windward Oahu, as the coastal Prince Kalanianaole Highway and Kalihi tunnel were not developed. Eddie Arroyo wrote " 7608 St. Charles Avenue, Apartment 'E', New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 -23 April 1970, Dear John- Mrs. Arroyo: she passed away years ago in May of 1951. My daughter Mary, 35, is working at a local hospital after doing a strech in the Cenacle order of nuns while my son, Edward B. Arroyo, junior,is in the Jesuit order completing studies for his doctorate at Duke University in North Carolina.I have read your letters with much interest, especially information about your father.Another shipmate of ours on the MARBLEHEAD was Paul Coloney USN retired, who resides in Bradenton, Florida.Should you have a Navy Register of Retired Officers, you may find his address therein.He was a good friend of mine, but I being a poor correspondent,- I've lost track of him. Glad you heard from Admiral Sharp, for whom I had great admiration and respect.You mentioned the CLAXTON in your letter. I served as her engineer 1931-1932 and as her 'Exec'from 1932 to 1934. I recall her being turned over to the British in 1939 [1940? in exchange] for our use of some of the British bases in the Atlantic. I did not know captain Fred Holmes. In your of 29 March you mention Ralph Earle and Dan Candler, both classmates of mine whom I know quite well.Earle is living in Durham, North Carolina, while Candler was residing in Dallas, Texas.Since retiring in 1946 I have been teaching at high school and college level, except for a couple of years I was in engineering work in New Orleans. Last years I was retired for good because of my age - sixty-nine, so I've been living a very easy life, playing golf - bridge occasionally and meeting with friends here in New Orleans.Last summer I made a delightful cruise on a Holland American liner to North Africa, the Mediterranean, and western Europe and incidentally revisited some of the ports the MARBLEHEAD had visited on her shakedown cruise in 1924-1925.I hope you will continue your writing projects, and I should think you could write a very interesting book about your father.My regards to your mother, and should you pass this way, - give me a ring- I would be glad to see you. Sincerely, Edward B. Arroyo --P.S. An interesting note about Captain Coloney. He put the MARBLEHEAD in commission in 1924 and he was her last commanding officer when she was sent to the graveyard after World War II." [photo caption -Front yard 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard. Variegated panax hedge visible in background, border of Needles property on east (Diamond Head direction) photo by John Barrett, Jr. Sophie is sitting in a rocking chair purchased very early 1942 before goods from mainland became unavailable.She went shopping with Lillian Arroyo, who left Hawaii mid-1942.Her husband Lt. Commander Edward Arroyo wrote two letters in 1970:] " 7608 St. Charles Avenue, Apartment E New Orleans Lousiana 27 July 1970 Dear John Thank you for the pictures, which arrived in the mail today. As I recall, it was taken on Kailua Beach on the north coast of Oahu, the isle on which Honolulu is located. I don't recall your father going to the Charlestown Hospital while we were in Boston,nor do I remember hearing about Samuel Wilder King, Duke Kahanamoku, or Riley Allen.The King family were prominent in Hawaiian history years ago. I recall our doctor on the MARBLEHEAD flying over to visit the Leper colony on Molokai, and possibly your father may have accompanied him.As for Lahaina, it was a large anchorage off the southwest coast of Maui where the fleet anchored frequently after exercises. There wasn't much there at the time [May 1925] except large [sugar] cane fields.I remember Captain J.R. Van Nagel and Captain Fultz slightly.As I may have told you, I left the MARBLEHEAD about June 1926 to go to the Submarine School, New London, Connecticut.In October 1926 having been disqualified physically for Sub duty, I joined the CINCINNATI in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and served on her until June 1929 when I was ordered to the Naval Academy for duty as an Instructor.However, I did see the MARBLEHEAD during 1926-1929 as we operated with her in Hawaiian waters and then to China in the summer of 1927, returning to the States in company with her in July, 1929. I didn't know Miss Ashley mentioned in your last letter.The Litton Industries Destroyer contract is reviving the shipping industry on the Gulf coast.New Orleans has a very good shipbuilding facility -Avondale- which has a large contract for ship construction, both Naval and commercial. I didn't know anybody living in Cuba,but I do recall reading some of Thomason's stories about the services. Re-our visit to the Galapagos Islands we stopped there on our return from the Australian cruise to make a survey of the islands, as the charts available at the time were antiquated and out of date. I don't recall anyone going ashore there. As I recall, we, along with the RICHMOND, remained near the islands about a week taking soundings with our Sonic Depth Finders. The islands are peaks of high mountains, with great depths of water close inshore. Your father must have had a lot of friends according to your letter. I do recall his having a very friendly and interesting manner and he was a good conversationalist. Re: -problems on the MARBLEHEAD when the ship was new there were a few that I recall. I was Torpedo Officer, and our torpedo tubes were in semicircular areas just aft of the ship's beam, fairly close to the water line, so that in heavy weather and when the ship turned sharply- as in maneuvers-Green Sea would wash through the torpedo areas, salting up everything. Shortly thereafter,the tubes were removed from the ship, and the areas closed in.Your father had a difficult duty on the ship, and in my opinion he performed his job in an outstanding manner.I do recall in Papeetee [Tahiti] having had Shore Patrol duty there.It was a difficult assignment as liquor and women were cheap and the men ashore quite disorderly after a long cruise. Thank you again- Eddie Arroyo- MARBLEHEAD Forrest Close letter--B8-25 Forrest Close Hotel Castellana Spain 4 February 1972 Dear Mrs. Barrett,I reported to the MARBLEHEAD in Boston in June 1926 and was detached in June 1930, having spent the full four years on that very good cruiser with many delightful shipmates and pleasant memories.Jack Barrett, then a Lieutenant, was on board when I reported, and I believe he was detached before our return from the Asiatic Station in 1927.Jack was always a very good friend of mine.I believe that he was Senior Watch Officer when I came aboard.I was a stranger to New England, and Jack, being a native of those parts, took me on various pleasant excursions to Marblehead [town], Swampscott, and the various environs of Boston. At one time Jack and I had a visionary prospect of joining an expedition to the South Pole.He had picked out a job for himself in the commmand echelons, and I was going to be Navigator.We talked about it a lot, but nothing ever came of it - for one reason, because the MARBLEHEAD was constantly on the move,as you will recall. On one occasion we were absent from our home Port, Boston, for eighteen months, during which time the ship was in Nicaragua, China,the Philippines, and all ports on the Asiatic Station.I lost contact with Jack after he left the ship in China. However, we were always the [26] closest of friends,and I have happy memories of the many hours we spent together.I hope that the foregoing may be of some use to you in compiling Jack's biography. I wish you every success in this undertaking and the best of health and happiness in the future. Sincerely, Forrest Close 121 Dahlq-Shackford-Tasmania-John Barrett 121 M-A-R-B-L-E-H-E-A-D In May 1971 Commander Dahlquist wrote:"You asked me to comment on Captains Shackford and Miller and (Executive officer) Commander Sharp. I think that Captain Shackford had more than he bargained for in the MARBLEHEAD. It was a fast ship- much faster than most. After almost two years it seemed to tell on him, and the strain was there. However, I believe he was a good skipper. He did retire, however, soon after leaving the ship. Captain Miller was also a good Captain "Jocko" and handled the ship well out in China while we were there.The Executive officer, Commander Alex Sharp I knew quite well and admired him in about evey way a man can admire a completely good Naval officer.He was an excellent ship handler, a fine Executive officer in every way, completely competent and well liked by officers and men alike.This is borne out by the fact that he became a Vice Admiral while the other two did not advance beyond Captain.' In l971 as a result of our correspondence Commander Dahlquist wrote his "Log" which he sent (a copy) to me. On the title page he wrote that I had "nudged" him into writing it.Iam entering here some excerpts from that Log which relate to the MARBLEHEAD when Jack was aboard.: The MARBLEHEAD was commissioned on September 8, l924 Commanding offcier Captain Chauncey Shackford 270 August 21 Navy Grand Farewell Ball at Adelphi. It was a big time enjoyed by all. August 24 Left Wellington New Zealand for Pago Pago. People in Wellington apparently very sorry to seee us go.September 9 Papeete Tahiti Chief Engineer Harry Badt made a Commander. September 23 Galapagos Islands Tower Island Captain had instructions to test various possible places for suitable anchorages. They crossed the equator some twenty times while cruising the islands.Wonderful fishing - five thousand pounds. October 18, l925 Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Anchored. MARBLEHEAD beat TRENTON baseball 4 to 0. No runs, no hits, no man to reach first base. October 24 Played TRENTON. Won 7 to 2. October 25 beat TRENTON 3 to 2 and won the flag. October 29 At Gonaives Gulf Haiti MARBLEHEAD fired SRBF score 76.3. Five "E"'s including after twin mount.RICHMOND score 69. MEMPHIS 55. 25 March l927 Departed Pearl Harbor en route to Shanghai as a direct result of the Nanking incident. Made record run in about 8 1/2 days. Chief Carpenter O'Brien of the MARBLEHEAD was on duty in Cavite Navy Yard when the Japanese attacked and captured it. He got away and went to Corregidor and later was in the Bataan Death March [1942]. Later again he was being shipped to Japan in a prison ship, which was torpedoed by an American submarine, and he was lost. - While on the MARBLEHEAD in Manila in December l927 Commander Dahlquist golfed a lot always had the same Filipino caddy and was pleased to shoot an 82. He asked the caddy if he ever played the game. The caddy did play on Mondays. When Dahlquist asked him what he shot, he said,"a 67!" After the Battle of Coral Sea Dahlquist learned that the MARBLEHEAD had been badly damaged by the Japanese in battle in Southwestern Pacific and had put in at South Africa. In May 1971 we received a letter from Mr. Frank M Maichle, Vice President of Conley Associates, Chicago "I have read your letter with great interest as it recalled names of old shipmates on the USS MARBLEHEAD.My orders to the MARBLEHEAD were dated 28 July l924, and I left the MARBLEHEAD 7 January l926.I made the shakedown cruise and the cruise to Austalia etc and in total was aboard about one and a half years.Then my orders were to Naval Academy to teach Ordnance and Gunnery and act as assistant wrestling coach.I resigned from the Navy in March l928 due to what I considered lack of opportunity. I remember Jack well- was very fond of him and considered him a fine efficient officer and gentleman.Sorry I can't be of more help." (Maichle and Jack were the two sponsors for Phillips's Australian bride to enter the United States after they were married in Montreal in l929 (8?). On June 8, l97l Captain John E.Florance of South Carolina wrote "I reported aboard the MARBLEHEAD in Honolulu on June 29, l925 along with the other '25ers and on the following day we left on the Australian cruise. Eddie Arroyo was my Division officer when I first reported aboard. On the trip from Honolulu to Melbourne I stood my sea watches as your husbands J.O.O.D. My principal memory of him at that time has to do with his interest in the wildlife of Australia.. I don't know where he got his information but I remember every time we had a night watch together he would tell me something new about it. Jack's path and mine crossed 272 momentarily in August of l936. I had just reported aboard the TAYLOR as "Exec" and we were carrying Second Classmen from the Naval Academy on A Midshipmen's cruise to Easthampton, Long Island. Jack was the senior captain of the five destroyers and hence commander of the group. The last time that I saw Jack was while he was in Pearl (Harbor) during the war.I was returning from the Pacific, and he arranged my transportation to San Francisco.I always found him to be most friendly and most interested in the careers of the young officers about him."(Jack always stressed the importance of personnel.He said, "You can always replace materiel, but not personnel. Always take care of the personnel first." Commander Harold Fultz assistant Engineer officer on the MARBLEHEAD from l926 wrote in June l97l from New Jersey:"I remember the day Harlow Hull our navigator was killed in a car - didn't make a curve.Eva Brant who was washed overboard I remember well."Shorty" Milner was our baseball star - really a top player. I got quite a kick out of the fact that I commanded nine ships and never damaged one of them." On November 21, l971 Commander Dahlquist wrote:"I think this was just after Jack left the MARBLEHEAD, but maybe not. We got an extra slug of ensigns from the Acadmey, and they immediately became incensed because the mess treasurer (I think it was the doctor at the time) put a lock on the refrigerator to keep the kids out.They were enjoying glasses full of fresh orange juice.So they got together and were going to vote in one of their kids as mess treasurer.The Executive Officer got wind of it and immediately issued a statement to the effect that all ensigns with less than two years service would be rated as having only a one-half vote.273 There were cries and howls from all sides, but it stuck,and they did not get their man in.There was a question as to whether or not he could do this but it died down when they got their mess bill - and it was more than they expected as it was. It could easily have been double this if action hadn't been taken. As indicated earlier in this chapter Jack had been Mess Treasurer of the MARBLEHEAD and had kept the mess bill down by serving two fresh vegetables in addition to potatoes at the evening meal. This reduced the consumption of meat - the most expensive item on the menu. Captain Kenneth Walker, who was a junior officer on the MARBLEHEAD with Jack wrote from California on February 6, l971:"Dear Mrs. Barrett: I liked your letter and what you are doing about the MARBLEHEAD.I also liked duty aboard her.The junior officers in the mess were fun- very outgoing - and almost all were team captains at the Academy, and some were Participants in the Olympics. - By far the sharpest group in my experience."Shorty" Milner (Edward Joseph) was baseball captain and a joy to watch play. He frequently practiced with the Philadelphia Phillies.I joined the ship in San Francisco just before leaving for Honolulu as signal officer and ship secretary. I remember your husband well.My duty was quite confining since I was on the signal bridge from sunrise to late at night while underway.ånd in port I was busy in the Captain's cabin office.He (Shackford) was a real sharp skipper, demanding but fair.Ashore in Honolulu I was busy escorting gap bottom p. 273 .. get around much on my own.Wherever we went in Melbourne we wen to parties under orders.I don't remember a single name there-they were fun though. The only memory I carried away from Tasmania was our speedy crossing and choppy seas and the beautiful streams and woods in the high country.The trip you mention is pretty dim in my memory - in the hotel waking up before dawn with a maid giving me a cup of tea and my being surprised that I did not have to break the ice in the wash standpitcher - it was that cold. Of course the harbor in Tutuila, Samoa I will never forget - also Tahiti was a lovely place.I should remember people there, but the names have slipped.I have dug in my memory and have not been helpful,but I wish you luck." From papers in our possession we read a Dahlquist comment:"USS MARBLEHEAD 5 August l925 arrived at Hobart Tasmania after a run up a river for a few miles.There was plenty of water,but the river banks were so low we had to reduce speed considerably so as not to create waves that would damage shorelines and property.Tied up at the dock.Twenty officers and one hundred men were detailed to go by special train across Tasmania to Launceston.Jack Barrett and phil Dahlquist were among the party.They arrived in the late afternoon and there was an oficial greeting at the railroad station. The officers were quartered at a hotel. In the evening there was a big official dinner for the officers at the Brisbane Hotel.The Lord Mayor made a speech of welcome.There were no alcoholic drinks served at the dinner. A lady rendered a solo 275 but there was a loud crunching noise made by a Lieutenant from the TRENTON who had imbibed too freely on the train. He would take a walnut from a bowl and gently crack it with his fingers, making a noise disturbing to the singer.Someone suggested he could use some fresh air. M-A-R-B-L-E-H-E-A-D 266-277 p 85-1340 --266.5--On the thirtieth of April 1971 Rear Admiral Evenson ("Chick") EVENSON wrote from California: "I remember Lieutenant Barrett well and we were all fond of him and very much impressed with him.He was a very intelligent man with a ready wit and never at a loss for the good word."Of course he was very senior to me - I was a fresh-caught Ensign in 1926. I was a member of the part of [Naval Academy] 1926 that was assigned to "Aviation Summer" after graduation.And I had a bad accident - caught a crack of a Liberty engine mounted on F-5-L Flying Boat right in the mouth. When the plastic surgeons had finally fixed me up,I decided that I didn't want anything more to do with aviation,-and was assigned to MARBLEHEAD.One of the things I will never forget on the MARBLEHEAD was when Captain 'Jocko' Miller rammed the wharf at Pearl Harbor as we went to come alongside. I was on the bridge at the time, and I can still see that knife bow slicing into the solid concrete!!! Another of my memories of Honolulu was the beach picnic we all went on during which 'Boney' Close got into a fist fight --267-- with 'Tough Bill' a gigantic Hawaiian beach boy.What a battle - ended as I remember in a draw.The fast trip to Shanghai I remember very well. I was Signal Officer of the MARBLEHEAD then.I remember the trip to Peking Fradd wrote you about.I bought a Chinese rug from Shoemaker.I still have it - the Jewel Tree pattern.I remember also when Lieutenant Barrett left the ship in Shanghai with "Shorty" Milner and Paul Coloney.I was transferred in the fall of 1927 to the USS PITTSBURG.In 1929 I decided to give aviation one more try and was a Naval Aviator until my retirement in 1956." |
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DAHLQUIST letters - 67-1184 Feb 8-9, 1971 Tasmania and March 24'71 Galapagos 67-1186 Ap 2'71 on Bloody Saturday and Peggy diary. 67-1183 May '71 on Sharp,Shackford, Miller 1182 response to Fradd on Yangtze action. p 58-1109 April 8, 1971 on carrier YORKTOWN Coral-Sea-Midway May June 1942 and Nov. 5, '71 on Admiral Clark 67-1183 On Feb. 8, 1971 from Eugene Oregon Commander Philip C.Dahlquist wrote to me,"Yes, I was on the MARBLEHEAD at that time and made the trip across Tasmania with the group (Jack Barrett was one of twenty officers from the five cruisers). I have a rather bulging file of that entire trip to Australia, and I shall soon give you as much as would be pertinent for your purposes.I knew your husband quite well although I don't suppose we could have been considered close friends. I did like him, however." On Feb 9 he wrote: "To answer your question: Yes I was in that group of twenty officers and hundred men who made the train trip crossing Tasmania.Your husband was one of the officers from the MARBLEHEAD who made the trip with me. I remember the then Lieutenant Barrett as the First Lieutenant or Construction Officer of the ship.I was on the MARBLEHEAD detail while she was being readied for commissioning, and on board when she was commissioned.I remained on the MARBLEHEAD until I was detached on December 15, 1929. On the first trip ashore in Melbourne I met a young couple who were on practically all the parties we were listed for.There just weren't enough hours in any one day to do all the things we were supposed to do. I find the Australians very nice.The New Zealanders were a bit more 'British'.The Australians liked Americans and American ways- particularly American cars. In New Zealand I had a most enjoyable time in Wellington, and they have a large share of the finest scenery in the world. On September 25 we arrived at Charles Island, Galapagos Islands. We went fishing and caught thirty-two fish.On the next day we left for Tower Island.We went fishing, and in two hours fishing we caught three hundred sixty-two fish- weight about five thousand pounds--great spirit and lots of hard work- about six people at a time were fishing from a motor launch." USS MARBLEHEAD in Tasmania "On the fifth of August l925 we arrived at Hobart,Tasmania after a run up a river for a few miles.There was plenty of water,but the river banks were so low we had to reduce speed considerably so as not to create waves that would damage shorelines and property.Tied up at the dock.Twenty officers and one hundred men were detailed to go by special train across Tasmania to Launceston.Jack Barrett and Phil Dahlquist were among the party.They arrived in the late afternoon and there was an official p555 greeting at the railroad station. The officers were quartered at a hotel. In the evening there was a big official dinner for the officers at the Brisbane Hotel.The Lord Mayor made a speech of welcome.There were no alcoholic drinks served at the dinner. A lady rendered a solo 275 but there was a loud crunching noise made by a Lieutenant from the TRENTON who had imbibed too freely on the train. He would take a walnut from a bowl and gently crack it with his fingers, making a noise disturbing to the singer. Someone suggested he could use some fresh air." {end Dahlquist letter] Sophie text: Jack thoroughly enjoyed his July-August 1925 visit to Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and he kept up lifelong friendships he made there.His special friendships in Australia were the entire family of Dr. William Bannerman Craig of Melbourne.In Melbourne life was one party after another- ashore and return parties given by the ship. In New Zealand one special friend was Haskell Anderson, wounded at Gallipoli who Jack had befriended in Virginia or Washington DC while Anderson was convalescing and returning home.Anderson was General Motors automobile dealer in Wellington and Napier in 1925, and he telegraphed to Jack prior to the MARBLEHEAD's arrival August 3, "Motor car at your disposal during stay." Anderson made sure Jack saw Napier and the North Island Thermal District and was entertained extensively. The Rainey family were new friends from the 1925 visit, with whom Jack kept in touch.To give some idea of the Australian, New Zealand days, I am giving here verbatim an account Jack wrote at the time [Mrs. Marjory Rainey enjoyed reading a copy we sent in 1970]Jack Barrett handwritten 1925 text:"Turned out early Sunday morning,had some breakfast. AARD car called for me about 7:45 AM. Rode in front seat so had good view--went around to Masonic Hotel to join other car and receive some additional passengers. There were two American women,tourists coming down from Rotorua,in the other car, which led the way out p6666 247= of Napier. This leading car was an old Hudson touring car, the driver of which claimed he had driven it more than three hundred thousand miles. Snapped a few pictures of it later at Palmerston north.Had a very interesting trip-fortunately the Manawatu Gorge was open till five pm so we got through it, saving time by avoiding detour and also gaining view of the gorge.Second car only went as far as Danvenirk? where some of the passengers left us.A man who owned stores in Dannevirk was in our car. All the remaining passengers climbed into the older car with three hundred thousand miles' service, driven by Robert Wallace. Driving through the gorge was very nasty in some places, but we had no mishaps.Once had to crawl along very slowly in slippery mud on edge of gorge, where we met two small cars going in opposite direction- one a Ford, driven by a girl - apparently a new driver being coached by a male companion in front seat - slithered about in mud rather dangerously while passing while we were stopped on the other side about two feet from edge in mud so slippery it was dangerous even to start the car again. = We arrived at North Palmerston at 12:45, had lunch there -some changes of passengers were made- Palmerston North being the point where AARD routes effect junction from Wanganui, Wellington, Napier, [122] and other points. We changed cars, taking a car [that had started] from Wellington now turning back for Wellington.It happened that my companion in the front seat for this stage of the trip was Captain John.B. Rainey,General Manager of Cunard (Commonwealth & Dominion) Shipping Lines in Wellington,New Zealand. He was returning from Wanganui. He had spent some time in the United States when a young man and had served in the Texas Rangers,the expert riding and shooting Texas group that enforced law and order in early days. We talked and were fairly well acquiainted by the time we reached Wellington.We had good weather all the way and good going most of the way although we had to stop once to change a tire,- and when about fifteen or thirty miles from Wellington, we ran into very nasty wet mud for a few miles that was deep and treacherous. However, we arrived safely and about on time. Through Captain Rainey's kindness I left my baggage at the Wellesley Club overnight- then I went to the Midland Hotel and had dinner - happened to be seated at table with a Captain Lochner, Thirty-First Lancers Retired, now in business in Auckland, and we spent an interesting evening till 10:30 discussing strategy, economics and our past experiences straight from the shoulder like old friends.Then parted- I returned to ship and at last got a real night's sleep. Routine work next day.I was detached to Rotary Club reception in Kirkaldie and Stains [?] at 8:00 pm Monday.Met some people that had been in Nice last Christmas (l924) when the ship was at Villefranche, a nearby port, and after a pleasant evening was invited to dinner with them for Wednesday.The next afternoon Tuesday I drove about town considerably to arrange =p7777 to buy some materials including one half-ton of soap for ship's laundry, then around to railway station to meet Napier train.{I] finally decided that Napier people had been unable to come,- then went in to see Captain Rainey. He took me to the Wellesley Club afterwards -remained there to nearly seven when the Marine Superintendant for Commonwealth and Dominion Captain West invited Captain Rainey and me to go out home to dinner with him and take pot luck. Did so. General Beers drove us out.Captain West showed us medals he got for saving lives in North Atlantic winter gales while in the White Star line.Also a piece of China salvaged from wreck [of the] old USS TRENTON wrecked at Apia Samoa l888? -then we all had dinner. ??Mrs. West and Molly Lusk?? Then Captain Rainey, Captain West, and I went down 166? steps and over to Barclay Smith's (numerous other people there Commander Farwell being only other Naval officer) and played roulette till one AM. Rather a strenuous evening all told but weathered the gale and returned to ship in TRENTON boat, which Commander Farwell had telephoned to hold. Captain Rainey and I were partners in the roulette, so I didn't have much to bother about. Next evening I had dinner with folks I had met at the Rotary Club reception Monday Mr. and Mrs. Launcelot Moore and Miss Leslie Taverner. Had a very pleasant quiet evening and got back to ship early for a change. Next day I went ashore early, went to races at Trentham,saw many people that I knew- Captain West...,Captain Rainey. [I] had a very interesting day picked three or four winners actually netted a slight loss finally and returned to Wellington about five pm went out to ship slipped into uniform evening dress and went to Navy League Ball. Unfortunately because of guests dinner aboard ship dragged slowly, - boat ashore after dinner was delayed waiting for guests to get ready, and we were late getting to the ball so fared poorly on program. I met Miss Taverner. Mr. and Mrs Ritchie,whom I had invited to lunch next day, had to change because next day we were to have wardroom officers of HMS DUNEDIN aboard as luncheon guests.The next day while going ashore in ten am boat to meet Mr. and Mrs. Ritchie (he was an aviator and so intereted in seeing our planes catapulted) and Mr. Rainey's son John and his faincee Marjorie Flux, - the boat (ML No. 1) took fire when engine backfired and fire became serious. Assistance came in boats from our own and other nearby ships, and from a harbor tow boat-, but by the time I had shifted to another boat and got in to the dock to meet my friends,Mr and Mrs. Ritchie had on recommendation of dock patrol gone out to ship in another boat while young Rainey and Miss Flux I found finally waiting in his office.I waited with them. The Ritchies finally returned to Rainey's office. We all had lunch together at Kirkaldie and Stain's - then Mrs. Ritchie had to go home to pack, but the rest of us went out to ship. []from other manuscript]and had lunch with the Raineys - young Rainey and his fiancee Miss Flux, Mr. and [249] Mrs. Ritchie]] At 3:30 we went out to the ship.At 4:30 we went ashore again to the CLUB then back to the ship./?]] Instead of taking the duty I was ordered to join Commander and party to represent the wardroom at a dinner at the Wellesley Club that was being given by Mr. Martin Leickie, Mr. Fowler, Mr. Ardlow, and some others. There were six of us. Elaborate dinner, wines, good luck Tiki for each of us then adjourned for stories to upstairs compartment to about ten PM Refought Jutland, talked politics -Then we separated, drove to dock missed Commander's gig, so returned to Club to look for him -had just decided he had gone home when young McNally came into club with a local man looking for Naval personnel for a dance at Mr. and Mrs. Tansley's, so we went & danced-missed the auto going to dock,got into car with local crowd, so missed one am boat and slept on the SEATTLE till 7 am then out to the ship with Commander Bee-- on MEMPHIS boat. Busy till 2:30 then ashore to pay bills for ship's activities- laundry etc- had Mr.and Mrs. Launcelot Moore and Miss Taverner off to ship for dinner thence by boat with John Higgins to farewell ball on PENNSYLVANIA. This was a very well managed affair enormous expanse of deck was used with three and sometimes four orchestras in use in different parts of the ship.Supper below decks in cabin and wardroom. (Kittinger)- tremedous crowd but by reason of large deck space everybody had room enough although I believe there were at least three thousand people present. Next day Sunday I expected Captain Rainey, West, DeGrunchy,and wives out to lunch on ship, but windy weather set in, OMAHA dragged anchor, and fouled our four [anchors?] about 1000 AM,[p10, damaged stern and adjacent plating somewhat, and when I finally succeeded in getting a boat ashore, I was late, and because of the heavy wind and rainstorm the party was "off." Had lunch at Midland- a pair of men at my table proved to be another Naval officer and a man from Dunedin.The latter ordered Burgundy Sparkling and insisted on my having some of it with him instead of the stout. I had previously called Captain Rainey,and he and his son took me out to their home, Bloomfield Terrace, Lower Hutt,for the afternoon and evening tea, fireplace, a card game. Ended by winning fifteen shillings at card game I do not even know the name of. John Rainey and (his fiancee) Miss Flux drove me in to the dock. I caught the midnight boat back to the ship.Another boat hit us on way out and dented side about twelve inches abaft where I was sitting on port side. Then after trying to find boat that hit us, I went aboard and slept. Next day Monday we were under way at 9:30 AM for Samoa." [end JACK BARRETT text] SOPHIE BARRETT: On the 28 of November l924 the MARBLEHEAD left Norfolk Virginia for her European shakedown cruise.On the sixth of December they were in Southhampton England.The young pay clerk Philip Dahlquist took a boat to take a walk on shore but the fog came up after the boat left the ship and was so thick that they got lost and landed some distance from Southampton. They had to remain there for two days before they could find their way back to the ship. Jack was taken for an Englishman at his hotel on Leave in London and when he bought a suit, the clerk offered to "sent it around to your rooms."Even in the subway he was asked directions. Christmas eve they were in Marseilles and Christmas Day in Villefranche, France.They spent four days at Algiers and four days p ELEVEN M251 at Gibraltar. At Algiers he investigated the possibility of selling International Harvester tractors in Siberia, but nothing came of it. He also bought some very interesting photos of outdoor scenes in Algiers and the surrounding desert. From Marseilles he took leave to visit friends in Lyon.He was very fond of the onion soup served in a well known restaurant in Marseilles where he had visited 1909 or 1911 with ITASCA.Probably at Algiers he met Ronald Bodley, author of a 1927 book on Algeria. In the 1960s he mentioned Bodley's name in conversation with widely traveled West Roxbury neighbor John Hey, engineer in U.S.Coast Guard and merchant marine. Bodley's name and Algeria address appear in one of Jack's 1920s address books. The MARBLEHEAD spent two days in Funchal, Madeira before sailing for the Navy Yard, Boston. In quite a number of different ships p 271 Jack had responsibility for supervising the mess and kitchen either as commanding officer,executive officer or mess treasurer. Before accepting the mess treasurer's job on the MARBLEHEAD elected periodically he insisted the members agree to allow him to serve two fresh vegetables in addition to potato for dinner every evening. When the mess members objected that the extra vegetable would cost more and raise the mess bill, Jack proved that the extra vegetable actually reduced the mess bill by reducing meat consumption. On the HANNIBAL he bought a hand operated coffee grinder to ensure fresh coffee. On another ship he told the mess steward to put away the frying pans and use them only for breakfast.He also insisted that sixty per cent of meat purchases be beef. Jack claimed that the excellent food was one of the advantages of enlisting in the Navy.Another matter that Jack considered of great importance for morale was prompt promotion of deserving subordinates and to see that they received the benefit of all available educational and training programs. As communications officer on the WYOMING he had the responsibility of picking personnel from time to time to attend radio school. He later took particular pleasure in recommending Miles Edward Saunders of the Branch Hydrographic Office New York for a Naval Reserve commission and likewise Philip Dolan of the Overseas Transportation Office at Pearl Harbor for a reserve Commission in l945. [#129] MARBLEHEAD M'260 In July 1924 after completing the Junior Course at the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island, Jack reported for duty in Philadelphia putting in commission the new light cruiser MARBLEHEAD at the William Cramp Company and the Naval Shipyard.Chauncy Shackford was Captain of the ship and Alex Sharp the Executive Officer, while Jack was the Construction and Repair Officer with additional shore patrol duties,ship's service and later mess treasurer in addition to watch, patrol,and court and hull board duties.The MARBLEHEAD was commissioned on 8 September l924, and Jack remained on board until June l927, when he was detached and left her in Shanghai, China. The ship had covered in excess of eighty thousand miles. I am giving here the entire Itinerary of the MARBLEHEAD to clarify just where Jack was on specific dates:After detachment June l927 he traveled to his next assignment in New York via Tokyo and Seattle. Former Philippines Governor General Leonard Wood was aboard the same ship with Jack, as was Mrs. Weesner, who corresponded with the Barrett family up until the l950's.She invited the Barrett to attend her daughter Brenda Haram's graduation Baccalaureate from Radcliffe in Cambridge June l955.=p299= Captain Shackford usually ordered his cabin or the gangway painted when he knew his wife was coming aboard. One day only two hours before noon he told Jack, the Construction and Repair officer to have the railing and gangway painted before his wife came aboard for lunch.Jack tried to dissuade him,as it was a wet day, and the paint could not possibly be dry by 12:30 noon. But Shackford was adamant, and the gangway and railing were painted.Mrs. Shackford came to the ship in white shoes and a flowing summer dress. She was distressed when paint got on her dress, gloves, and shoes.- VILLEFRANCHE a nearby port, and after a pleasant evening was invited to dinner with them for Wednesday.The next afternoon Tuesday I drove about town considerably to arrange =268- from Dahlquist log-Executive Officer Commander Alexander Sharp, Gunnery Officer Lieutenant Commander George Hull, Engineer Officer Harry Badt (remained Jack's good friend for many years)Supply Officer Walter A. Beu?le? Pay clerk Philip C.Dahlquist. Nov 7, l924 arrived Bermuda from New York Navy Yard Anchored in Gra?issey Bay and almost got caught in there by a hurricane. Managed to get out, and the Captain wanted to see what his ship could do in rough weather.So we rolled as much as fifty-five degrees at times. Most unconfortable.Nov 23 Arrived Norfolk Navy Yard for repaires to storm damage. It was mostly broken insulators in the rigging of the masts. (John Barrett note: Jack Barrett used to quote an old saying about hurricanes "June too soon - July Stand by -August Look out you must - September Remember - October, All OVER-" but contrary to the verse he also recollected this November l924 hurricane mentioned by Phil Dahlquist.)..6 Dec. l924 Very heavy fog when they landed in Southampton, England. ..16 April l925 En route to Hawaiian Islands MARBLEHEAD in Scouting Fleet in advance of Battle Fleet. -24 April Scouting Fleet assembled for attack. 25 April Sent landing force from Scouting Fleet- MARBLEHEAD to island of Molokai- Captured airplane landing field and radio station-Established base for air force.Left to join attack on Oahu. Apr 26, l925 Attacked and broke up railroad communications in three different places. Proceeded to attack Honolulu at night. First attack unsuccessful. Second attack proved very disastrous for enemy. Earlier in the day enemy bombing planes were destroyed by sixty of our planes operating from Molokai.Apr. 27, l925 At daylight attacked beach to cover landing of our forces. Attack successful and went on in to Honolulu. Anchored in the afternoon. & May l923 Underway this morning. Maneuvers. Whole fleet is out. 9 may arrived Lahaina, Maui. - 17 May Played baseball Lost 13 to 10. - 18 May At Sea for tactical exercises.=2 June at Honolulu.Ball game. Scouting Fleet 10, Battle Fleet 7. - 4 June very nice dance at Alexander Hotel Roof, Honolulu. 6 June MARBLEHEAD took Admiral Koontz, Senator Hale,and Governor of Hawaii Farrington to -269-Lahaina. Back again to Honolulu. Speed 32 knots. June 12 To sea for SRDP rehearsals. Back again.June 18 Went to Pearl Harbor for drydocking.June l9 Dinner party on board MARBLEHEAD. June 23 Left dry dock. July 5 En route to Pago Pago (Samoa). July 6 Held Neptune party. big time. July 10 arrived Pago Paho Samoa. Fueled from SAPELO. -July 28 Star Spangled Ball at Maison Deluxe in St.Kilda, Melbourne.August 4, l925 Underway for Hobart, Tasmania Speed 25 knots. Quite rough. Aug 5, l925 Arrived Hobart Tasmania. The ship at dock. Went to Launceston twenty officefs and one hundred enlisted men made trip in private train (Jack Barrett was one of the officers, and Walter Buck and enlisted Phil Dahlquist of the MARBLEHEAD) Big official dinner given officers that evening.- 6Aug l925 Returned from Launceston. 7 August Left Hobart Tasmania for Wellington New Zealand.Received kangaroo mascots. As the flagship Richmond was pulling away from the dock, there was a huge crowd to watch the departure of the ships.The crowd made a passageway for an officer in his frock coat uniform. He caught hold of the lower boom and pulled himself aboard.The crowd cheered, and a junior officer told him not to report to the Captain until he was sent for.He got ten days in his room. (The uniform was the one specified for the party the night before in Hobart.) - 8 August En route to Wellington. Full power run for twelve hours. - 13 August dance at Evans Bay Yacht Club Wellington -15 August Dinner party on board. 18 August another dance at Evans Bay Yacht Club. Lots of balloons and a nice time - bottom 269- -from notebook 6 -l35 copy from lost notebook - Mar 24, l971 Dahlquist- Galapagos- not sure about this however. Other than this we saw no people at all. I believe a few went ashore and chased lizards for a while.We saw a great number of seals on the rocks.It seems that there is a cold current that hits these islands, and the seals apparently follow this current at certain times of the year and with all the fish I imagine they live pretty high. We anchored in several places while there and I recall the navigator saying that the main purpose of our visit to the Galapagos Islands was to look for suitable anchorages.Let me correct an assumption on your part where you wondered how we could hoist on board a whaleboat with such a heavy load of fish. I thought I said that we went out in a motor launch. Anyway, that is what it was- a forty foot motor launch-and we unloaded the personnel in the gangway before we hoisted the boat on board, and I recall that the Chief Boatswain wrung his hands and moaned and groaned about us breaking his boat. it did bend in the middle all right, but it held together, and no great harm done. I remember quite well the winter in Boston. We lived at 52 Fosket Street, West Somerville, during the latter part of my time in the MARBLEHEAD (about l928).There was one more officer whom you may remember.He was Lieutenant W. M. Thompson, the assistant engineer. I don't think he was on the ship at the time of commissioning but came later.I saw a lot of him afterwards. He was a Captain and industrial manager at the Norfolk Navy Yard during the first part of World War II and later went to Bremerton Navy Yard, where he was a Commodore.He died perhaps seven or eight years ago. It was probably in August l942 at a little party at the Norfolk Navy Yard that I met Captain and Mrs. Thompson. Then he left her with me while he went off on some table hopping mission, and we talked (Mrs.Thompson and I) about her two boys who were../. -( foregoing fills in several gaps in previously typed l924-l927 MARBLEHEAD narrative). DR. WILLIAM BANNERMAN CRAIG 1870-1961 and his family were the most lasting of Jack Barrett's many 1925 Australian friendships. For many years they exchanged Christmas presents with the Barrett family, and they telegraphed to find out if we were safe after the Pearl Harbor attack December 7, 1941. They sent us the Australian geographic magazine WALKABOUT, and we sent American National Geographic to them. Among the books they sent - Wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, Art of Albert Namatjira, Birds of Australia, Lore of the Lyre Bird, The Red Center, I Find Australia, We Find Australia, Australian Ballads, The Lost Hole of Bingoola, The Hentys [early Victoria settlers], Cobbers, Afternoon Light [Memoirs of Prime Minister Menzies], Royal Tour 1952-3 and Royal Tour 1964, the Arthur Streeton Catalgue, Highway One [photographic]. They also sent a high quality toy koala, a beautiful Australian opal, a boomerang, and many wool products. When Sophie Meranski first met Jack Barrett at 27 Commerce Street, Greenwich Village in August 1928, he showed her a photo of five-year old Sheila Craig [Mrs. Thomas Ellis} whom he called "my baby". Sheila constinued to write, and an employee of the Ellis family Ned Tiswell visited Jack in 1967 at Jack's 6 Beacon Street Boston law office. This was Sheila's letter on the passing of her father in 1961: "airmail letter received July 10, 1961, by JBB from Sheila Craig Ellis "Pine Hills" Harrow Victoria 3 July 1961 Dear Commander Barrett, We are all very thrilled with your wonderful Christmas books - thank you so much.= I wanted to tell you Dad died about ten days ago. He broke his hip last August and had it pinned, but has been in the hospital ever since. He was ninety-one.Mum was wonderful but must feel very lonely now. Dad had a military funeral, and there were quite a number of his old battalion present.= The children are growing fast now.We have a governess for them now who has been with us for the past two and a half years, but will be leaving at the end of the year when Sally and Tim will start at boarding school. Sally is going to the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Melbourne, and Tim is going to Geelong Grammar. I might try to teach Mary myself with the Correspondence School which is very good. We don't like the thought of them going away, and the house will seem very quiet without them. They are both very keen riders at present, and are really most useful at sheep or cattle work- only hope they will settle down well at school. =On the twenty-fourth we are going to Queensland until the end of September.- we have taken a house by the beach at Surfers' Paradise. We were there last year for about two months and loved every minute of it, and we were all very brown and fit when we came home. The children continue school as usual, and spend the rest of the time on the beach. We are trying to get Mum to come up for about a month as I think the change and the warm climate would do her a lot of good. She and Dad were there about fifteen years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Belle may come too. In November Tom and I hope to go to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Saigon, and Malaya for about a month. We shall fly all the way. Would much rather go by ship, but wouldn't like to leave the family for so long. Air travel is so easy now you should visit Australia again, -we should be delighted to have you stay with us and would show you as much as possible. Also I would love you to see the children, and we would all love to see you again. You wuld notice a vast difference in this country now. -it has really developed tremendously since the war, and altho there is a lot of talk around the city about the "Credit Squeeze" unemployment etc- I think it is mainly bringing the hire purchase people back to the field and most other things are pretty steady.We have a very good season here, as there is over most of Australia,altho parts of Queensland and New South Wales need rain very badly. Undfortunately it is very dry where Davy and Ken are. = We had a very hectic time here during the May holidays with our own children and five others staying with us. I foud nine children in the house, with their ages ranging from fourteen to two and a half very noisy and tiring,but I think they all had a very good time. We had enough bikes and ponies that the boys couod have the bikes in the mornings and the girls in the afternoons and vice versa- so actually we only saw them at meals and in the evnings. I think they are all coming back agin for the May holidays next year. Their only outing for the holidays is to a race meeting at the next town of Coleraine on the final Saturday It is a sort of picnic meeting,and the children adore it. = Belle now has a house of her own, very small, but most conveniently located.I think she gets pretty lonesome living by herself though. She has just had Mary to stay with her for a fortnight, for Mary had to go to Melbourne for that time to see a specialist about a rash she had on her feet. They both had a very good time.Belle is really marvelous to the kids, it will be very nice for Sol having her in Melbourne when she iis at school there, as I mimagine she will always be hungry at school, and will be able to have some good meals with Belle at the weekends.= Will write you from Queensland and send you some photos of the kids. I do hope you are in better health by now- our thoughts here have been with you a lot even though I haven't written. with love from us all, Sheila Craig Ellis." +Enclosed newspaper report: Mailed July 10, 1961: First World War MD Dies at Ninety-One - Dr. William Bannerman Craig of St. Kilda, who won the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry and devotion to duty in the first World War, died yesterday. He was ninety-one. Born and educated in Scotland, Dr. Craig studied native customs in New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands before coming to Australia. He practiced in Warrnambool before enlisting as Regimental Medical Officer of the Twenty-Second Battalion, Australian Infantry Force. On his return to Australia he became a medical officer in the Repatriation Department. Survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters.-- Australia addresses. 1925Australia NamesMelb. Eileen Ham R.N. B. Oddie G Nash O H Cuthbert W.H. Burnham G.S. Lloyd W. Roberts W.H. Dando N Menzies R. Bell D. Fitchett B Buckland L. Gleeson P. O'Malley Water Commissioner Nagambie; S. Hartigan 29 July St. Joseph Convent Jephcott, Guppy LAUNCESTON R. J. McIntyre J Cottier J Forrest, Billie, Mr. McCarthy Mrs. Cottrell Gorman E. Maxeme Andrewartha, BALLARAT : Mr. and Mrs. L.H. Vernon 1503 Hurt St. Echuca Mr. & Mrs. Stokes & Mary Stokes Mr. Simmie Shepperton: wild ride Shepperton to Maroopna Mr. Lincoln Maroopna - Boy Scouts, with medal Tatura: Mr. Hasty Bendigo: C.J. Glover. Geelong: Hollis, Newland, Curley drove us in his car. Cooperdown: Walls, snapshot of swan's nest New Zealand: Napier:Anderson, Betty Shillling Shie??. Captain Smith, Snow Clarke, Mrs. Hawke Captain Lochner [from Auckland] O. Morran L. Mellor, Sally Williams, mr. Kenneth Williams, R. P. Hakiwa E.C.S. McFarlane, A.H. Piper J.L. Whitlores, Wellington: Leslie Taverner, Mr. and Mrs. Lancelot Moore Captain J.B. Rainey General Manager Cunard Line, J Barton Rainey Miss M. Flux, Captain A. West Mr. Martin Leckie (Luckie) J.H. Fowler, Robert Arlow, D.E. Grachy, Mr. Kitching, M. Turrell, A. Sheldon, R.I. Jones Algiers: 52 Boulevard Thiers Mr. & Mrs. S.S. Powers, Compagnie Internationale des Machines Agricoles, T. Carlyon's St. Kilda after American Club Drive. |
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XANTHOS letter to New York Post Jan 24, 1928 New York Evening Post Friday January 7, 1928 Letter was written Tuesday, January 24, 1928 by "XANTHOS" Name of talking horse in Homer's ILIAD. Latin school pseudonym of John Berchmans Barrett who thought term meant 'red-head' or facetiously applied it to his own prognostications of danger like Homer's horse. The more usual translation is "blond" or "chestnut". TITLE: "Sees Need of Strong Navy" To the editor of the Evening Post: Sir It may seem 'smart' for Senators or others to deride what they do not understand.Just because the Navy spends its best energies "on the job" instead of sobbing about the difficulties imposed upon it by incompetence and indifference of alleged statesmen when laws and treaties are made, it seems the fashion to belittle the serious effects that must be faced by the Navy if and when any other nation or group of nations decides to attempt to take forcibly things they sorely need from our plenteous supply.= So I wonder then: What would be adequate then? Is the contest between Standard Oil and Dutch Shell a type of contest for control of products which might easily lead to international difficulties? Will nations fight to get their share of the necessaries of life? Will words feed the hungry or win battles? = Can our present high standards of living, comfort, and luxury be maintained if our foreign trade is curtailed or even held stationary at present volume? Is there any better use for life than to spend it in support and defense of home and country? = Give the Navy at least half a chance to save you from your own folly by providing it with at least a few items of modern equipment that the other have. [despite their poverty] instead of spending all in wasteful luxury, rum chasing, building post offices in deserts and giving idlers useless work at fancy salaries with which to support night clubs and other sybaritic parasitical growths.= Otherwise who knows even the Navy might get discouraged and join the wasters in the last made whirl before the final SMB's Black Notebook # Two pages 277-8 Sophie comments on link to S-4 rescue effort previous month Dec. 1927. It also reflects l917 experience at Bureau of foreign & Domestic Commerce. and points toward effort to warn at Pearl Harbor in War Plans very reminiscent of "Xanthos" the horse.-p. 238- When Joe Hurley had dinner with us at the Victoria |Hotel, |April 15, [1932]his wife, Peggy Strickland Hurley, who before her marriage had been an editorial worker for the Boston Post, was in Ireland. Shortly after her return, she telephoned to me at the Victoria Hotel to introduce herself and to invite me to be her guest at a lecture she was scheduled to give at a suburban women's club that afternoon.She drove me to the club, where as a paid lecturer she gave an entertaining and instructive lecture on her experiences in Eire.She had tried to learn to speak Gaelic. Before she left me,she invited Jack and me to dinner at her home on Moss Hill Road in Jamaica Plain. The party was most enjoyable, because Peggy had -239- invited five Boston Post reporters to join us at dinner.The food was delicious, and the conversation flowed.After dinner, in the living room, Jack began a long tale about his [part in]efforts to rescue the Submarine S-4, which had gone down in Provincetown [Cape Cod] waters on December 17,1927. I had never heard the tale before and have never heard him talk about the S-4 since. But I remember him saying that he was on shore duty in New York City, living alone in an apartment, asleep one night when he was told by telephone to go to a tug immediately, as the tug was about to leave to go to the aid of the Submarine S-4. He related that the tug did not have the properequipment for the job, told in detail what they did,and how they finally had to give up.{John Barrett note- after Sophie wrote this late 1969 we found records of the New York harbor tug PENOBSCOT trying to make radio contact with CHEWINK, which was trying to recover pontoons lost at sea for use in effort to refloat S-4, which could not be rescued from great deptyh and pressure. We got additional information from Gershom Bradford later and Commodore Jack Baylis USCG retired. p 224 Our first stop on the PIERCE was Shanghai where we hired two rick-shaws because Jack wanted to say goodbye to some people he knew there. First we went to see Ah Sing, the ship's chandler who had entertained us at tiffen in his home in July, 1931.Then we set off to Cockeye the Tailor's establishment on Bubbling Well Road When I remonstrated with Jack for calling the man such a name, he opened his wallet and showed me a card reading "Cock Eye- Tailor" and giving addresses in Shanghai and in Chefoo. When we arrived, one of Cock Eye's sons greeted Jack warmly, told us that Cock Eye was now too old to work, but he took us to Cock Eye's quarters for a visit. Then I knew at once the derivation of his trade name because he was indeed cock-eyed. He gave me a white terry cloth kimono with a peacock embroidered on the back. They gave Jack a pongee robe. When I boarded the PIERCE at Kobe,all the clothes I wore or carried in my suitcase were winter clothes, as it was very cold in Tientsin and in Japan at that season. However, in my trunk, which was stored in the trunkroom of the PIERCE, I had sme lovely summer clothes, which I had made for me in Shanghai on my previous visit there in July 1931 - clothes to be worn in hot Manila, at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, in Penang and Ceylon and India and at the Shepherds's Hotel in Cairo. While en route from Hong Kong to Manila, it got very hot, and I went to the trunk room to get some of my warm weather clothes.At first I was not alarmed when I could not find my trunk, but I did become worried when the trunk room man couldn't find it either. After much searching, the disappearance was reported to the purser, and I suffered in my winter clothes. Just as we approached Manila, the purser got word that my trunk had mistakenly been put ashore in Hong Kong and was on the dock there. I could not have my trunk again until we reached Marseilles in March. We tried to buy summer clothes in Manila but were unsuccessful except for two identical cheap cotton morning dresses. We had no time to have dresses made there as we were to be in Manila only one more day- when we planned to ride the rapids of Pagsanjan in canoes - a thrilling experience - [well out toward the southeast tip of Luzon island in direction of the Mount Majon volcano. Jack Barrett was amused by the pronunciation of the volcano - like "my own"- a photo of the very symmetrical cone hung in the Barrett dining room in West Roxbury from 1947 on.] So while other women appeared at dinner and dancing in lovely summer dresses, I had to wear the only one I carried in my suitcase, a black velvet dress suitable only for cold weather, and when an evening gown was not appropriate, I appeared in a cheap cotton morning dress in the Shepperd's Hotel in Cairo and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, and at the Gardens of the Sultan of Johore, where I wore a [borrowed] man's sun helmet. While on the PIERCE we became friendly with Mr. and Mrs. Harry Pardee of Saticoy, Ventura county, California/ They were on a Cook's tour of the world, traveling to try to improve Mr. Pardee's health. He had a circulatory disorder.They stayed at expensive hotels, whereas Jack and I tried to stay at "pensions" in Europe or at moderately priced hotels. We learned about foreign hotels the hard way. When we arrived in Italy, I aksed the taxi man in Naples to take us to an inexpensive hotel, making it clear to the driver, who could speak English, that I did not want to spend much for room and board. I asked the hotel clerk how much we would have to pay for a room and two meals a day PER WEEK. He quoted a price which seemed reasonable to me. When the waiter inquired after dinner, "Coffee, madame?" Jack refused, but, thinking I was paying for it anyway, I said, "Yes." I took only a few sips of the thick liquid, but every night I answered "Yes" to his "Coffee, madame?" At the end of the week we called for our bill, and I was stunned to learn that we owed the hotel seven times what I thought we owed them, plus seven cups of coffee served to me. I had no idea that the coffee was extra. They also charged for the baths I had had. I was amazed that they knew exactly how many baths I had had.-227- I argued with the clerk that he had quoted a weekly rate, but was charging it for each day, but he only shrugged and said that I had understood. Also we had to pay a tourist tax. I had learned an expensive lesson, which helped me in every other city on our itinerary except Florence, where we were too cold to enjoy anything. The Florence tea houses saw more of us than the art museums with their cold marble floors. {Jack Barrett brought home detailed guide books of the art Museum in Naples and the Louvre in Paris - he often remembered Sophie at the cold Uffizi in Florence saying "Can we PLEASE GO home?"-John Barrett note] In Naples we saw Vesuvius and went to the ruins of Pompeii but were told it was the wrong seaon to go to Capri. In Rome, our next stop, we were very fortunate to have a reasonably priced "pension" with good food, and we spent our days in the art museums, thew Colisseum, the Vatican, and the Tombs (catacombs). One day we met Mr. and Mrs. Harry Pardee on the street.Mrs. Pardee invited us to the opera. that evening, and p. 231 From Venice we went to Vienna Austria, where my mother ws born (or lived in youth). I remember our standihg up at observation windows to see the Austrian Alps in route. Jack probably thought of our trip when he bought imported Austrian Alps Swiss cheese at our local First National Stopre Supermarkets in West Roxbury Austrian Alps swiss cheese was a staple item with us in the 1950s and 1960s.1950s) |
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FULTZ letters Harold January 22, 1928, April 17, 1970,June 1970, July 29, 1970, Dec 24, 1970, January 11, 1971, Charlotte August 24,1973 Mickey ASHLEY letters 1937, 1970 + Phil DAHLQUIST letter April 2, 1971 with PEGGY DAHLQUIST diary Shanghai 1937. Notebook Four p 142 FULTZ "From USS MARBLEHEAD Manila 22 January 1928 to Third Naval District Dear Barrett: Your note just reached me here. Your inquiry about the pictures brought back memories of Honolulu. These pictures came a long time ago with explicit instructions to send you a set and with inquiries about you. So I am enclosing them. = everything aboard is fine, Barrett,old man. Our new captain is a corker. We all like him immensely. I'm communications officer now. I never realized life on a cruiser could be so pleasant. My twenty-seven months of engine room infernal heat was about enough for me. I'm regaining lost weight now = I miss you, Barrett. Our friendly discussions netted me a lot of information. Our wardroom is pretty tame now as Wells is gone too. Nobody has any ideas any more, or if they do they seem to be afraid to air them. We've been here two weeks, rather a dull place. We hope for Shanghai soon. As for returning to America, we don't give it a thought any more. Presumably, we are here for life, so if in one lifetime we are ordered back, it will just be a pleasant surprise, that's all. = Sincerely, your old shipmate Deacon Fultz. Harold Fultz letter from pages 508-510 Sophie memoir #12 Commander Harold Fultz, who was Jack's friend on the cruiser MARBLEHEAD in l926-l927 and also saw Jack frequently at PEARL HARBOR and in Waikiki during World War II wrote from Glen Ridge New J where he lives in retirement at age eighty-one: On April l7, l970 he wrote, "Dear Sophie, Your letter has come. I got out my scrap book, and there was the picture of Jack and me bedecked in leis. Taken 3 pm 25 March l927 as we sailed out of Honolulu for China. I shed a tear or two.Jack was a good officer and a loyal and esteemed friend. How well I remember your hospitality to me (Waikiki. You had a good home that Jack looked forward to returning to. And John what an appealing fine boy he was. He must be a real asset to you now.On the MARBLEHEAD I was assistant engineer and for a time communications officer. The run to China was a record, because of the anti-foreign trouble there.- eight and a half days, I believe - still stands We burned 450,000 gallons fuel oil, and our turbines revolved l9,584,000 times. - Six hundred miles per day - four thousand five hundred miles.The MARBLEHEAD had a superb engineering plant. Assuming you want details- One officer in the Engineering department decided he didn't want to go way off to China- so he resigned. After the ship sailed, he tried to withdraw his resignation and got turned down cold.We all chuckled and decided he got just what he deserved when he turned chicken at a time of international crisis.On 3 April l927 we steamed into the Whangpoo and moored along the Standard Oil Company at Shanghai.You would go ashore until ten PM in civilian clothes but steer clear of the native city.The people were excitable - easily influenced and there had just been a strike in the mill - in the melee a Chinese had been shot by the police, - and the hue and cry went out that foreigners were mowing everyone down.Miss Madge Ashley, Secretary to the Standard Oil boss, entertained us in her home.Born in China and having always lived there, she was well informed.She now lives nearby here in Ridgewood, New Jersey and lectures on China (Mickey Ashley and her sister Maimie were Jack's good friends in l927, and I met them later in l93l in Shanghai,with a resulting good friendship.Sophie Barrett note). I recall doing the following, and it must have been in the MARBLEHEAD (Jack left June 4, l927 to New York duty via Japan and Seattle). We went six hundred miles up the Yangtze to Hankow - the extreme limit for a ship- and sailed out of there in emergency in the night because the river was near low stage, which might have trapped us half way down. The populace were not frightened by our armament.They said our guns were of course wood, or we would sink.I recall going up the coast to Tientsin and entraining for Peking.October l9 we crossed to Nagasaki, Japan, and in the Inland Sea conducted our annual full power test, to the dismay of small craft. On November 2 we went to Manila. On May 26, l928 we achored in Heavenly Honolulu (no longer that way). On 23 June we took fuel at San Pedro - left 6 July for Boston where we arrived 26 July and cut up our "Homeward Bound" Pennant (chiffon silk $250) It did me good to think about you all again. If we journey to Boston, we'll man the 'phone. Sincerely yours, -Harold Fultz. P.S. don't recall the White Russian friends or Ah Sing or Cockeye the Tailor." Commander Harold Fultz assistant Engineer officer on the MARBLEHEAD from l926 wrote in June l97l from New Jersey:"I remember the day Harlow Hull our navigator was killed in a car - didn't make a curve.Eva Brant who was washed overboard I remember well."Shorty" Milner was our baseball star - really a top player. I got quite a kick out of the fact that I commanded nine ships and never damaged one of them." p. 520 On July 29, l970 Commander Harold Fultz wrote again from Glen Ridge New Jersey: "I was Executive Officer of the REPUBLIC at the beginning of the war- the big transport.We evacuated civilians from Honolulu. Had to give many of them a drink to get them aboard. No sane soul would leave Honolulu for the USA. Some of the kids we evacuated had never worn shoes. One of my jobs was to play the piano in the large theatre space to quiet passenger nerves. Our warning to mothers that in event any child got overboard we would not stopwas not exactly a happy prospect.And I was skipper of the hospital ship COMFORT for ten months. She was bombed when I was skipper but not hit.The navigational problems of a hospital ship in wartime were amazing.Except in rare places all navigational coastal lights were extinguished, and we had to "grasp at a straw" to get around,because we were on the move day and night.Without forest fires and moonlight and lightning we would often have been in difficulty.And in the October 20 typhoon the COMFORT came through by the grace of God. Forty nurses that night were scared to death, but not one even let their helpless patients know it. Seventy craft were lost that night." A lost letter of Harold Fultz recounts in his early years, when he was navigating on the east coast of Ireland, he was confident he knew the exact location of all the Lighthouses, but his skipper called his attention to regulations that required him to consult the books each time for latitude and longitude as a safety procedure and not rely on his memory.It was a lesson he never forgot.He often came to 2415 Ala Wai for swim and supper. Black Notebook Five pages 210-213:Harold Fultz December 24, 1970 sent radio talk about speed run of the CINCINNATI sister ship of the MARBLEHEAD in the summer of 1926. He boarded MARBLEHEAD later. RADIO TALK on WTAR May 26, 1933 Norfolk Virginia by Lieutenant Commander Harold Fultz USN 'Full Power on a Light Cruiser" = Three things are vital to a vessel of war: engines, guns, and radio: for a vessel must be capable of getting there, hitting, and keeping constantly in touch with the brain that is directing the battle. In this respect, she is not unlike the boxer in the prize ring who must have footwork, ability to hit, and always keep in touch with his seconds. This talk deals with engines. Strategical and tactical plans for battle assume that a ship of a certain type is capable of a certain definite speed. In the case of a very fast type like a light cruiser, this speed is attained at a tremendous expenditure of money, brains, brawn, and courage. It is vital, however, and in this particular all ships must be unfailing at all times. = I am not permitted to elaborate on the complexity of the various units of the engineering plant nor on the constant inspection, repair, and adjustment necessary to keep it running at ordinary speeds. I am pointing out that at maximum speed every single unit in such a plant must operate perfectly, and that the skill, courage, spirit, and endurance of the operators must be of the highest order. To be capable in theory of making maximum speed does not satisfy our Navy. Ships must actually perform. Every so often therefore, at given intervals each and every ship is required to make her maximum speed and not just flash it but sustain it long enough to let any unit that has a tendency to fail go ahead and fail. = Rarely do others than engineers witness such tests. To a layman such an experience would make an indelible impression. = In the fall of 1926 I was assigned to engineering duty on the USS CINCINNATI - at that time one of our newest of light cruisers. Nearly one hundred thousand horsepower, she was a fleet-footed sovereign of the seas if there ever was one.Assigned on the very eve of her maximum speed test or full power run, as such tests are called, and having had very little engineering duty, I was as impressionable as a layman.First impressions are lasting.I recall the test vividly to this day. = We stood out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, at three o'clock one afternoon under three boilers, at a lazy speed. Below however, in the engineering plant there was nervous expectancy and life. For weeks the black gang had been preparing for this day. The CINCINNATI was about to be driven at full power. A certain maximum speed was expected. She must reach this speed and hold it unfalteringly for a certain number of hours. There could be no mistakes. Every man was a vital cog in the gear that drives the ship. In the firerooms the long patient instruction in heating the fuel oil and spraying it correctly into the furnaces must bear fruit. To every part of fuel oil fourteen parts of air must be intimately mixed. Every particle of heat possible must be extracted from each gallon of oil. In the engine rooms the same skill and ecxactness must obtain.At high speed the turbines permit NOT the slightest error in lubrication. Steam must be exactly focused at these turbines and then rapidly and positively taken away, converted to water, and quickly returned to the boilers. Their cycle must go on flawlessly.= As six o'clock three more boilers were added. Thirty-six burners now belched oil into the ghastly fires, and speed was worked up to twenty-six knots to get the vessel into an aroused state of mind. Thus she dashed through the blackness of Hatteras all night. At dawn the entire watch took their stations specially trained and prepared, each one on his toes, nerved to a high pitch. The ship was about to prove her mettle. = Eight bells sounded. Men soaked in perspiration breakfasted on oatmeal in water. Fires were lighted under twelve boilers, and seventy-two burners belched oil at a rate of nearly ten thousand gallons per hour. Twelve blowers created a veritable gale to supply air to the ravenous fires.Eight great turbines impelled by the enormous volume of steam thus created were rotated at a speed, which at their outer edge stacked up well with that of that of a rifle bullet. Four propellers felt the mighty urge, and a nine thousand ton ship leaped forward and tore the ocean asunder to advance at ninety-five per cent of her possible speed, straining, twisting, jumping, roaring, and quivering. Well might she thus tremble. This means New York to Europe in three and a half days, or lunch in snow-covered Boston and breakfast in tropical Bermuda. = Yet the supreme, the utmost endeavor was yet to be. For a prescribed number of hours this ninety-five per cent of speed was maintained. Then every piece of machinery contributing in any way toward the driving of the ship was placed in full speed operation. The CINCINNATI became a thing possessed. Paint blistered on her four stacks, her firerooms were as bright as lightning. A deepening roar of whirring turbines and racing blowers pervaded the ship. Steam hissed, orders were shouted. Now did the thoroughness of training and preparation count. Skill, spirit, courage, and endurance were now at the bar.Now materials must hold. Steel barriers between men and death must prove strong and honestly fashioned. = For the prescribed number of hours she logged her maximum speed. One hundred thousand horsepower had transformed her into an enraged sea serpent. The CINCINNATI had not failed' [end 1933 Harold Fultz radio talk] "Dear Sophie and John December 24, 1970 The CINCINNATI and MARBLEHEAD were very similar. Jack no doubt went through several of these full power runs probably as a recorder in some hot, awful spot below. Your Christmas card showing Sophie, Jack, and his sister Mary in Yosemite is nice to have. It is very good of Jack - looks just as I remember him. How sad about Eva Brandt. I remember Van Nagell 'best dressed officer in the U.S.Navy'. I hope you get Millner's first name. I am grateful for your two fine letters. sincerely, Harold Fultz." Harold Fultz transferred from the CINCINNATI to her sister light cruiser MARBLEHEAD in August, 1926, and in March,1927 he and Jack Barrett were photographed together in flower leis just before the MARBLEHEAD made record speed of eight-and-ahalf days Honolulu to Shanghai. The new class of light fast ships developed many engineering problems, and Jack Barrett for more than a year 1924 had many problems as Construction and Repair Officer during the MARBLEHEAD shakedown cruise and thereafter on the long 1925 South Pacific cruise. There was severe conflict between Navy Bureaus in Washington, with overlapping responsibilities. Jack was First Lieutenant and reported to Executive Officer Alex Sharp, who later became very friendly with Jack. Some of the problems of the new light cruisers were caused by one-sided Naval Limitation treaties that burdened the United States disproportionately, as Dudley Knox pointed out in Samuel Eliot Morison's fifteen volume history of the United States Navy in World War Two. In the mid-twenties the lightest cruisers were among the fastest ships afloat, but the design was not continued. "January 11, 1971 8 Ridley Court, Glen Ridge, New Jersey 07028 Dear Biographers of West Roxbury You were the soul of kindnesss to furnish us with those splendid pictures, which included me. I say 'us' because my wife was also delighted and promptly inserted them in our Navy Scrap Book. = Later in my career I was Engineer officer of the OMAHA. She ran aground on Castle Island in the Bahamas in July, 1938. It was a major incident. For twelve days we were on the reefs and were finally pulled off and limped on two propellors to Norfolk and got rebuilt. I was held over my usual tour of duty as Engineer officer until she was repaired, and I put her through a gruelling post repair full power run twice as rigorous as the annual ones. Of all my Navy experiences this was perhaps the one I remember as the most important- almost matching my wartime command of the Hospital ship COMFORT in the far Pacific, running Philippines to Australia.= I wish that I might give you fuller data that you ask for. Here is the best I can do. I reported to CINCINNATI 19 July 1925 and left her August 26, 1926. We were in Newport[Rhode Island]. I reported to MARBLEHEAD 30 August 1926 (at Newport, I think) and left her 3 August 1928, going to Naval Ammunition Depot in Hingham on 27 August 1928. I think I left MARBLEHEAD in Boston. MARBLEHEAD was in Guantanamo, Cuba in October 1926 and then went to Boston. She was in Honolulu 6 March 1927. She appears to have been off Tehuantepec in 1926 when she rode out a terrific blow en route to Panama West coast. Also in Santiago, Chile we anchored in such warm water we could not make fresh water with our evaporators. = In 1926 in Brooklyn we accidentally pumped fuel oil into the harbor, and we swept it all night with our boats out into the river to have the tide catch it. = I find from my letters we were in China in 1927- in San Pedro California 23 June 1928 and flew our 'homeward bound' pennant - it was lost - $250 - silk. Then to San Francisco for a week - then on 6 July started for Boston arriving 26 July and again flying the "Homeward Bound" (from China) pennant, but this time cutting it up so each man could get a piece. Good luck. Perhaps you can find from all these scattered pieces some for your puzzle. We thank you again for the fine pictures. Sincerely yours, Harold Fultz." Harold Fultz died heart attack Aug 1973 in hospital Glen Ridge NJ. That morning [before going to hospital] he looked at pictures of the Dahlquists' Alaska cruise sent by Sophie Barrett but could not read Phil's detailed account of the cruise because he thought the chest pains he was suffering were emphysema pains suffered in each attack.But whe he got no relief from all the usual treatments Charlotte Fultz telephoned the doctor who told Harold to go to Emergency in the hospital.There the doctor said he had had a heart attack, and he was put in intensive care. he seemed to be recovering but suffered a second attack in the hospital and passed away in his sleep.He did inquire about Mickey Ashley but never learned she had passed away a few days after he enterred the hospital. He was angry that his illness interfered with his voluntary tutoring of disadvantaged persons. CHARLOTTE FULTZ letter:--" 8 Ridley Court Glen Ridge New Jersey 07028 Aug 24, 1973 Dear Mrs. Barrett, Thank you for your long full letter The old China days, the young officers' friendships were all so revived and real! I just knew Harold by letter then. When he got back to Boston Navy Yard and Hingham, Massachusetts,he used to come to the city and took me out a few festive times. I was enchanted, of course-but knew he was "awfully good to" a whole list of old folks and handicapped and young folks too. But although I was still in art school and really didn't aspire so high,HE was paying attention and could tell me seventeen years later,what I wore and where we went.Too bad he felt such a heavy sense of duty that he couldn't combine care for his mother and getting married, too.Well we had twenty-five and a half years anyway. Mickey Ashley died of cancer, which he [Harold] did not know about- he thought it was her heart, like her sister's.Anyhow she died about three days after he got in the hospital. I couldn't tell him of course - too much emotional jolt.When he was a wee better,he asked me if I'd news of Mickie,and I told him that her sister-in-law had phoned- but didn't say "what" and he was just sick enough to assume it was the same old news, and let it go. So he never knew.I took care of the memorial church plantings type of gift that he had done for her sister, and that was the end of the China friends.With best wishes to you both, Charlotte D. Fultz." MADGE 'MICKEY' ASHLEY letters 1937, 1970 - #79 Ashley letter l937 war crimes Shanghai: On November l2, l937 our good friend in China Mickey Ashley wrote from 94 Canton Road in Shanghai China "During July I went to a party & an Indian juggler entertained us.The year so far had been a quiet one & I was wondering what I could put in my usual Christmas letter,so I asked the man to put his performing python around my neck- at least that would be something to write about.Now I've seen so much I don't know where to commence.The war has lasted over three months & we are still in a tight spot.We hate to see the Japanese win, but selfishly hope they will drive the Chinese a few miles out of Shanghai so that our lives & property will be safe.It is a strain to hear guns going day & night,planes droning,explosions, not to be able to sleep.The company (Standard Oil) never mentioned evacuation or took any steps in that direction regarding stenographers in spite of all the U.S. authorities were urging, so I did not evacuate & my sister would not leave without me. However,all the wives & children were sent away at the Company's expense. After the first terrible air raid when everything in Shanghai was at a standstill,with no transportation facilities, they told me to stay home for a couple of days,but we've been working regular hours ever since.Being short staffed-five girls away,three on leave,& two evacuated because they couldn't stand it any longer- we were often very rushed,especially when four fell ill.However,my sister & I took the precaution of having our passports ready & the necessary papers made out to enable us to have our little Chinese girl accompany us to the United States if conditions became decidedly worse.I told the office I wasn't staying if the Japs used poison gas in Shanghai. What a lot of red tape- there were so many signatures & guarantees when the Consulate knew an emergency existed & we couldn't possibly leave the (adopted) child here (their adopted daughter, the Chinese child named Topsy- Sophie Barrett note).The greatest danger was the air raids while going to or returning from the office.The horror of the first one will always live in my memory, especially as I saw the planes & heard the antiaircraft guns just as I was approaching the devastated area of "Bloody Saturday" bombing.The huge crater was roped off,but skeletons of charred cars still remained.To watch the white smaoke in the air, to hear the pounding of guns & to know that any moment your own self & car may be a similar tangled mess wasn't pleasant.My stomach felt as if a giant had squeeezed it tight in his huge hand, & only a vacuum remained.Then to know that we were driving into the danger - the Jap men-of-war were firing from the river- & upon arrival at the office to feel the building shake & hear the bang, bang, bang as if a thousand bricks were being flung against the windows- was really terrifying.That same day & during that raid shrapnel fell at Maimie's feet when she left our car.Every day one sees hordes of refugeees with their small bundles without any idea where to go in this crowded place, little lost children- poor bewildered dogs following - cats & other animals are left to wait for death- horribly wounded people, nasty-smalling coffins conveying away soldiers or victims of shrapnel- sick & weary lying on roadsides & families parked for weeks on sidewalks with only straw mats.No wonder disease is rampant.We have all had inoculations against typhoid & cholera & been vaccinated against smallpox.Already two dear friends have paid the price of staying here-they died of dysentery.One was head of the Blind school where my little "Pine Tree" was taken in. The school has been badly damaged & how frightened the blind *& deaf boys must have been.Another friend is dangerously ill with typhoid.The doctors ran short of medical supplies.The pity & tragedy of it all just because a group of men must have more power.If it were possible, I would condemn such to intense suffering the rest of their lives.So many homes had to be abandoned- palaces & cottages alike.The very best of everything was looted- but that wasn't enough.Furniture was hacked to pieces - the Japs say eventually they must buy Japanese goods. food not eaten was strewn about, & malicious damage done whever possible.In a garden section of the eastern division where we once lived, the Japs have put furniture on the sidewalks while their horses are placed in dining & drawing rooms.Mills have been dismantled & their machinery shipped to Japan for scrap iron.An old friend now seventy-three "Auntie" we call her-has lost practically everything, her beautiful collection of linen, furs, silver, stamps, books- the treasures of fity-two years.She was so overcome over the condition of her home - her own property-that when we visited her that same evening, her face was grey with misery,& she wept- something I've never seen the little person do.Her husband was an artist & art collector- all his ivories & scrolls, stamps - his son's paintings his own embroideries were all gone.Oil paintings not taken were pierced by bayonets - doors & trunks hacked open.The Chinese had been driven out of the district long ago & the Japanese were in complete control as nobody is allowed to carry a bundle without numerous examinations by Japanese sentries-all of her things must have been carried off with the cognizance of the Japanese military.While the fighting continued in the north, & east, we were more or less safe once at home. What beautiful weather & delightful moonlit nights there were -it was difficult to believe that only a few miles away, men were being slaughtered.We preferred rain, because in fine weather planes would drone, then guns roar,-tracer bullets in gay colors would light up the sky,& anti-aircraft guns would spoil the beauty of the night.As the Japs drove the Chinese from the east & north,we in the west then came in danger,but not before those two districts were swept by fire as far as the eye could see.From a tenth story apartment we watched the destruction- our eyes glued to the holocaust-& our hearts sank with pity for those who had escaped the shells but now must run from the fire.. We thanked god fervently those two nights that there was no wind & that a creek separated us from that part of Shanghai.Every day we heard the guns & explosions a little nearer.Fortunately, from the beginning we had dismantled our pretty little home.Cases stood in the hall & only bare necessities were being used. On October 28 the nearness of guns made it imperative to move. 539 On the thirtieth while at dinner shells whizzed past the house- then I decided the hour had come.No trucks could be had at that late hour, so they were ordered for 8:30 AM. We packed until twelve & tried to sleep.I was the last to leave on my bicycle leading the dog.(Now) our one room apartment the size of Maimie's bedroom is jammed, crammed with things, but my sister is clever & has made it liveable.Some of our furnture is with friends, the balance in a garage.Where the sixty-eight thousand poorer Chinese refugees stay I don't know, though numerous refugee camps have been erected.We don't know what emergency awaits us.One morning a huge shell fell in the warehouse adjoining our office- at the same time big department stores were bombed.U.S. Naval experts say that had it exploded, it would have damaged all buildings within a radius of one acre. Our office & we would have gone up in smoke as the yard was full of drums of gasoline.We miss our home, those airy rooms,& the garden.. To be cramped into a small apartment & not even know which trunk contains one's clothes isn't important- but annoying.It's funny how one can tolerate the roar of cannons & explosions & get fussed over petty things. At the office where men's nerves are raw, it is not easy to work. I've seen as many as eleven planes over our place.We are making quilts for refugees., also helping Topsy make strips for gas masks. I hope you will receive this. So many of our cards & letters have gone astray.-Mickey Ashley."In l939 or l940 Mickey Ashley left Shanghai to work for Standard Oil's New York office because the value of "Mex" (Chinese currency ) had fallen so low she could not afford to accept her Shanghai "Mex" salary.We saw her in New York. Now she is retired & lives in Ridgewood New Jersey after years of lecturing about China. #70 Ashley letter SHANGHAI "June 30,l970 from Miss Madge Ashley ("Mickey") 7l5 Hilldrest Road, Ridgewood New Jersey 07450 Dear Sophie (P.S. For twenty years I lectured before women's clubs & garden clubs on China).It is a long time since I heard from you.The last was a card from Honolulu. I hope Jack did not suffer long. I lost my dear Maimie the same year & feel very lost without her.She had a long illness- it was heart. In September l969, I suppose it was too much for me.I had an acute coronary thrombosis & was in hospital a month, two weeks in a nursing home,& had home care for three weeks.I had to learn to walk again & now am going very slowly.I have been at Cape May for a vacation.It is lovely here- so very clean-& the food is excellent. We face the ocean. About twenty years ago my sister & I bought this little house in Ridgewood,& we have been very happy in it.The number is 7l5 Hillcrest Road (not 3l5) Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450. Ridgewood is a purely residential district,& it is kept very nicely.The people were marvelous to me when Maimie died & during my illness.All the years that I worked in New York & when I retired we have kept in touch with Harold Fultz.He suffers badly from emphysema.You asked about my brother. He married a Shanghai American school teacher from Kentucky.They came to the United States over thirty years ago.They have two daughters,who are both married.One has three boys -eight.six & four (years)-& Bob her husband was a Captain in the Marines.He went to Vietnam after three years in Okinawa.He left the Marines & is now with Kodak. The other daughter lives in Dallas & is now a government accountant. They have two girls (six & four years).Brother & Dorothy l;ive in Louisville, Kentucky.I am sorry to say Maimie- who remained in Shanghai while I came to New York to get a job- never saw (her adopted Chinese daughter) "Topsy" again after she was put in the Japanese (concentration) camp where they nearly starved to death until rescued by American fliers.I am "Mickie" & Madge is my real name.You want to know how we met Harold & Jack.The MARBLEHEAD was anchored at the Standard Oil wharf Pootung.The foreigners at the installation were under my boss- therefore I met them all when they came to the office.The families would invite me for weekends, etc.,& include some Navy officers,& then they would escort me home the next day & stay for "tiffen" - lunch & dinner..Several came that way.How my father went to China is that he wanted to see the world- so went on a sailing ship as many pioneers did- & liked the Far East so much he stayed first in Hong Kong- where he met my mother & then in Shanghai.He & a fellow American started the first volunteer fire brigade in China. All the equipment- even the huge fire bellls- came from New York.There were so many civil wars that we got used to storing rice & canned goods, filling both tubs with water, & hiding the family silver.Some of our friends were killed, but Maimie only suffered when the Japanese were so rotten to all foreigners.I don't know GraceLiang. The two Russian sisters (Gala & Vera Tsirentchikoff) I hardly knew. I met Gala once at a party,& that's all.I sent your letter to my brother.He represented Lloyd's of London & two steamship companies, so he knew Ah Sing well.We knew Cockeye & "Jelly Belly" (because he had a fat tummy) the tailors.Most American gunboats went to Tsingtao - a summer resort first made beautiful by the Germans- a bit of Europe in China & after World War I taken by the Japanese. One night in Shanghai (spring l927) the MARBLEHEAD gave A CONCERT & later a dance.During the show we were asked not to applaud as "There had been a death in one of the Standard Oil families." Then Harold (Fultz) told me confidentially that little Billy Robertson (his father was manager of the installation) had died of cholera.He took ill at noon & was dead in a few hours.Had any of us known I doubt that we would have gone to the dinner & dance, as cholera is a terrible thing, especially as there were so many salads & cold food on the table. ....On November 4, l970 our friend Mickey Ashley of China days whose l937 letter appears in this chapter wrote: My sister Maimie was in the Japanese concentration camp- starved & sick with malaria, but she was never beaten. Some Americans were.Topsy came to the camp & called,'Miss Ashley, Miss Ashley' outside, but Maimie's friends advised her not to answer because the Japs would ill-treat all Chinese who favored Americans. Maimie never saw her again. We presumed she was dead. We lost ever so many valuables, & our Chinese money went to nothing overnight. Our lovely home went for seven thousand dollars U.S currency, & we were lucky to get it.Mickey." +... Dahlquist letter:p.552 On April 2nd l97l Commander Philip Dahlquist of Eugene Oregon payclerk on MARBLEHEAD when Jack was on board l924-27 wrote a long letter from which I excerpt:"Yes I have heard the term 'Bloody Saturday'. I think it was the day the North Station (Railroad) was taken ny the Japanese from the Chinese. This was in the French Concession & after that the Chinese didn't seem to have anything more to fight for-or with.It happened in the llatter part of October l937 (see letter in this section from Mickey Ashley covering the l937 attack by the Japanese on Shanghai}.My wife Peg looked in her diary & found a lot of interesting things:She had spent the summer of l937 up at Chefoo with me when I was on the BLACK HAWK, a destroyer tender. The dependents were required to leave Chefoo before we did. The coastwise shipping having been stopped a long while before this,the submarine tender CANOPUS was designated to come up from Tsingtao & pick up our dependents & take them down to Manila via Shanghai.Some of her entries - she had with her the boys- twins eight years old & one four.October 20th, l937 Got aboard the CANOPUS at nine AM. Received our instructions & were shown to our rooms. I have two staterooms up forward on the superstructure deck. The twins have one room, & Gordie & I have the other.There is a bunk in each room. Paul has a cot to sleep on, & Gordie has a little bed.p. 553 It is made like a crate & has pillows for a mattress.We have gone to town on the good old stateside chow.We are hungry all the time.Left Chefoo at eleven AM.October twenty-first arrived Tsingtao at six AM. Went ashore - back to ship for lunch.Paul had an orange, two poached eggs, sausage & two waffles for brfeakfast- & then wanted an apple.October 22 left Tsingtao at eleven AM. Sighted a Jap cruiser.They signalled, & we had to turn a searchlight on our flag. The flag flies night & day- is not taken down at sunset.This is a large flag painted on the awning of the bridge.October twenty-fourth.-Heard our first report at 7:45 AM. We are anchored about fifty miles out.There are Jap destroyers just off our side. The HENDERSON is anchored just aft. Two of our destroyers are here to escort trhe HENDERSON & the CANOPUS into Woosung.Expect the pilot aboard at nine o'clock.The guns are uncovered & the kids are thrilled & think they may be used.The PERRY escorted us in to Woosung.Passed about six English destroyers & a Jap ship. About nine planes bombing Woosung.A haze of smoke covers the entire region.The planes curled about us & were flying low.A blimp was observing.We took on oil.October 25- Boy- the Japs are bombing with a vengeance. p. 554-The ship shakes like the dickens with each shot. The plane flew over, bombed, & returned to the ship for reloading.Missed the air raid last night - slept through it all.Watched the families in the lighter having chow.Had a live duck on board.Fifteen destroyers anchored near the buoy.The air raid was at its worst at 3:30AM. I went to the children's room to tell them to stop banging the doors.They were both fast asleep.The FINCH escorted us out of Woosung.How that place is wrecked.Looks as though the Japs deliberately shot away every house.Even the sheds are demolished. Sighted Formosa this morning.(end of diary...) They went on to Manila.According to Dahlquist the things described inthe diary were those leading up to the taking of the North Station & quite probably the day is known as Bloody Saturday.This happened very soon after the events described here.October 23rd was a Saturday.I would guess Bloody Saturday was one week later October 30. I joined Peg in Manila a month later, & the North Station had fallen long before that.-Phil Dahlquist. |
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SOPHIE BARRETT: On the 28 of November l924 the MARBLEHEAD left Norfolk Virginia for her European shakedown cruise.On the sixth of December they were in Southhampton England.The young pay clerk Philip Dahlquist took a boat to take a walk on shore but the fog came up after the boat left the ship and was so thick that they got lost and landed some distance from Southampton. They had to remain there for two days before they could find their way back to the ship. Jack was taken for an Englishman at his hotel on Leave in London and when he bought a suit, the clerk offered to "sent it around to your rooms."Even in the subway he was asked directions. Christmas eve they were in Marseilles and Christmas Day in Villefranche, France.They spent four days at Algiers and four days p ELEVEN M251 at Gibraltar. At Algiers he investigated the possibility of selling International Harvester tractors in Siberia, but nothing came of it. He also bought some very interesting photos of outdoor scenes in Algiers and the surrounding desert. From Marseilles he took leave to visit friends in Lyon.He was very fond of the onion soup served in a well known restaurant in Marseilles where he had visited 1909 or 1911 with ITASCA.Probably at Algiers he met Ronald Bodley, author of a 1927 book on Algeria. In the 1960s he mentioned Bodley's name in conversation with widely traveled West Roxbury neighbor John Hey, engineer in U.S.Coast Guard and merchant marine. Bodley's name and Algeria address appear in one of Jack's 1920s address books. The MARBLEHEAD spent two days in Funchal, Madeira before sailing for the Navy Yard, Boston. In quite a number of different ships p 271 Jack had responsibility for supervising the mess and kitchen either as commanding officer,executive officer or mess treasurer. Before accepting the mess treasurer's job on the MARBLEHEAD elected periodically he insisted the members agree to allow him to serve two fresh vegetables in addition to potato for dinner every evening. When the mess members objected that the extra vegetable would cost more and raise the mess bill, Jack proved that the extra vegetable actually reduced the mess bill by reducing meat consumption. On the HANNIBAL he bought a hand operated coffee grinder to ensure fresh coffee. On another ship he told the mess steward to put away the frying pans and use them only for breakfast.He also insisted that sixty per cent of meat purchases be beef. Jack claimed that the excellent food was one of the advantages of enlisting in the Navy.Another matter that Jack considered of great importance for morale was prompt promotion of deserving subordinates and to see that they received the benefit of all available educational and training programs. As communications officer on the WYOMING he had the responsibility of picking personnel from time to time to attend radio school. He later took particular pleasure in recommending Miles Edward Saunders of the Branch Hydrographic Office New York for a Naval Reserve commission and likewise Philip Dolan of the Overseas Transportation Office at Pearl Harbor for a reserve Commission in l945. [#129] MARBLEHEAD M'260 In July 1924 after completing the Junior Course at the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island, Jack reported for duty in Philadelphia putting in commission the new light cruiser MARBLEHEAD at the William Cramp Company and the Naval Shipyard.Chauncy Shackford was Captain of the ship and Alex Sharp the Executive Officer, while Jack was the Construction and Repair Officer with additional shore patrol duties,ship's service and later mess treasurer in addition to watch, patrol,and court and hull board duties.The MARBLEHEAD was commissioned on 8 September l924, and Jack remained on board until June l927, when he was detached and left her in Shanghai, China. The ship had covered in excess of eighty thousand miles. I am giving here the entire Itinerary of the MARBLEHEAD to clarify just where Jack was on specific dates:After detachment June l927 he traveled to his next assignment in New York via Tokyo and Seattle. Former Philippines Governor General Leonard Wood was aboard the same ship with Jack, as was Mrs. Weesner, who corresponded with the Barrett family up until the l950's.She invited the Barrett to attend her daughter Brenda Haram's graduation Baccalaureate from Radcliffe in Cambridge June l955.=p299= Captain Shackford usually ordered his cabin or the gangway painted when he knew his wife was coming aboard. One day only two hours before noon he told Jack, the Construction and Repair officer to have the railing and gangway painted before his wife came aboard for lunch.Jack tried to dissuade him,as it was a wet day, and the paint could not possibly be dry by 12:30 noon. But Shackford was adamant, and the gangway and railing were painted.Mrs. Shackford came to the ship in white shoes and a flowing summer dress. She was distressed when paint got on her dress, gloves, and shoes.- VILLEFRANCHE a nearby port, and after a pleasant evening was invited to dinner with them for Wednesday.The next afternoon Tuesday I drove about town considerably to arrange =268- from Dahlquist log-Executive Officer Commander Alexander Sharp, Gunnery Officer Lieutenant Commander George Hull, Engineer Officer Harry Badt (remained Jack's good friend for many years)Supply Officer Walter A. Beu?le? Pay clerk Philip C.Dahlquist. Nov 7, l924 arrived Bermuda from New York Navy Yard Anchored in Gra?issey Bay and almost got caught in there by a hurricane. Managed to get out, and the Captain wanted to see what his ship could do in rough weather.So we rolled as much as fifty-five degrees at times. Most unconfortable.Nov 23 Arrived Norfolk Navy Yard for repaires to storm damage. It was mostly broken insulators in the rigging of the masts. (John Barrett note: Jack Barrett used to quote an old saying about hurricanes "June too soon - July Stand by -August Look out you must - September Remember - October, All OVER-" but contrary to the verse he also recollected this November l924 hurricane mentioned by Phil Dahlquist.)..6 Dec. l924 Very heavy fog when they landed in Southampton, England. ..16 April l925 En route to Hawaiian Islands MARBLEHEAD in Scouting Fleet in advance of Battle Fleet. -24 April Scouting Fleet assembled for attack. 25 April Sent landing force from Scouting Fleet- MARBLEHEAD to island of Molokai- Captured airplane landing field and radio station-Established base for air force.Left to join attack on Oahu. Apr 26, l925 Attacked and broke up railroad communications in three different places. Proceeded to attack Honolulu at night. First attack unsuccessful. Second attack proved very disastrous for enemy. Earlier in the day enemy bombing planes were destroyed by sixty of our planes operating from Molokai.Apr. 27, l925 At daylight attacked beach to cover landing of our forces. Attack successful and went on in to Honolulu. Anchored in the afternoon. & May l923 Underway this morning. Maneuvers. Whole fleet is out. 9 may arrived Lahaina, Maui. - 17 May Played baseball Lost 13 to 10. - 18 May At Sea for tactical exercises.=2 June at Honolulu.Ball game. Scouting Fleet 10, Battle Fleet 7. - 4 June very nice dance at Alexander Hotel Roof, Honolulu. 6 June MARBLEHEAD took Admiral Koontz, Senator Hale,and Governor of Hawaii Farrington to -269-Lahaina. Back again to Honolulu. Speed 32 knots. June 12 To sea for SRDP rehearsals. Back again.June 18 Went to Pearl Harbor for drydocking.June l9 Dinner party on board MARBLEHEAD. June 23 Left dry dock. July 5 En route to Pago Pago (Samoa). July 6 Held Neptune party. big time. July 10 arrived Pago Paho Samoa. Fueled from SAPELO. -July 28 Star Spangled Ball at Maison Deluxe in St.Kilda, Melbourne.August 4, l925 Underway for Hobart, Tasmania Speed 25 knots. Quite rough. Aug 5, l925 Arrived Hobart Tasmania. The ship at dock. Went to Launceston twenty officefs and one hundred enlisted men made trip in private train (Jack Barrett was one of the officers, and Walter Buck and enlisted Phil Dahlquist of the MARBLEHEAD) Big official dinner given officers that evening.- 6Aug l925 Returned from Launceston. 7 August Left Hobart Tasmania for Wellington New Zealand.Received kangaroo mascots. As the flagship Richmond was pulling away from the dock, there was a huge crowd to watch the departure of the ships.The crowd made a passageway for an officer in his frock coat uniform. He caught hold of the lower boom and pulled himself aboard.The crowd cheered, and a junior officer told him not to report to the Captain until he was sent for.He got ten days in his room. (The uniform was the one specified for the party the night before in Hobart.) - 8 August En route to Wellington. Full power run for twelve hours. - 13 August dance at Evans Bay Yacht Club Wellington -15 August Dinner party on board. 18 August another dance at Evans Bay Yacht Club. Lots of balloons and a nice time - bottom 269- -from notebook 6 -l35 copy from lost notebook - Mar 24, l971 Dahlquist- Galapagos- not sure about this however. Other than this we saw no people at all. I believe a few went ashore and chased lizards for a while.We saw a great number of seals on the rocks.It seems that there is a cold current that hits these islands, and the seals apparently follow this current at certain times of the year and with all the fish I imagine they live pretty high. We anchored in several places while there and I recall the navigator saying that the main purpose of our visit to the Galapagos Islands was to look for suitable anchorages.Let me correct an assumption on your part where you wondered how we could hoist on board a whaleboat with such a heavy load of fish. I thought I said that we went out in a motor launch. Anyway, that is what it was- a forty foot motor launch-and we unloaded the personnel in the gangway before we hoisted the boat on board, and I recall that the Chief Boatswain wrung his hands and moaned and groaned about us breaking his boat. it did bend in the middle all right, but it held together, and no great harm done. I remember quite well the winter in Boston. We lived at 52 Fosket Street, West Somerville, during the latter part of my time in the MARBLEHEAD (about l928).There was one more officer whom you may remember.He was Lieutenant W. M. Thompson, the assistant engineer. I don't think he was on the ship at the time of commissioning but came later.I saw a lot of him afterwards. He was a Captain and industrial manager at the Norfolk Navy Yard during the first part of World War II and later went to Bremerton navy Yard, where he was a Commodore.He died perhaps seven or eight years ago. It was probably in August l942 at a littlke party at the Norfolk Navy Yard that I met Captain and Mrs. Thompson. Then he left her with me while he went off on some table hopping mission, and we talked (Mrs.Thompson and I) about her two boys who were../. -( foregoing fills in several gaps in previously typed l924-l927 MARBLEHEAD narrative). DR. WILLIAM BANNERMAN CRAIG 1870-1961 and his family were the most lasting of Jack Barrett's many 1925 Australian friendships. For many years they exchanged Christmas presents with the Barrett family, and they telegraphed to find out if we were safe after the Pearl Harbor attack December 7, 1941. They sent us the Australian geographic magazine WALKABOUT, and we sent American National Geographic to them. Among the books they sent - Wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, Art of Albert Namatjira, Birds of Australia, Lore of the Lyre Bird, The Red Center, I Find Australia, We Find Australia, Australian Ballads, The Lost Hole of Bingoola, The Hentys [early Victoria settlers], Cobbers, Afternoon Light [Memoirs of Prime Minister Menzies], Royal Tour 1952-3 and Royal Tour 1964, Highway One [photographic]. They also sent a high quality toy koala, a beautiful Australian opal, a boomerang, and many wool products. When Sophie Meranski first met Jack Barrett at 27 Commerce Street, Greenwich Village in August 1928, he showed her a photo of five-year old Sheila Craig [Mrs. Thomas Ellis} whom he called "my baby". Sheila constinued to write, and an employee of the Ellis family Ned Tiswell visited Jack in 1967 at Jack's 6 Beacon Street Boston law office. This was Sheila's letter on the passing of her father in 1961: "airmail letter received July 10, 1961, by JBB from Sheila Craig Ellis "Pine Hills" Harrow Victoria 3 July 1961 Dear Commander Barrett, We are all very thrilled with your wonderful Christmas books - thank you so much.= I wanted to tell you Dad died about ten days ago. He broke his hip last August and had it pinned, but has been in the hospital ever since. He was ninety-one.Mum was wonderful but must feel very lonely now. Dad had a military funeral, and there were quite a number of his old battalion present.= The children are growing fast now.We have a governess for them now who has been with us for the past two and a half years, but will be leaving at the ennd of the year when Sally and Tim will start at boarding school. Sally is going to the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Melbourne, and Tim is going to Geelong Grammar. I might try to teach Mary myself with the Correspondence School which is very good. We don't like the thought of them going away, and the house will seem very quiet without them. They are both very keen riders at present, and are really most useful at sheep or cattle work- only hope they will settle down well at school. =On the twenty-fourth we are going to Queensland unti the end of September.- we have taken a house by the beach at Surfers' Paradise. We were there last year for about two months and loved every minute of it, and we were all very brown and fit when we came home. The children continue school as usual, and spend the ret of the time on the beach. We are trying to get Mum to come up for about a month as I think the change and the wearm climate would do her a lot of good. She and Dad were there about fifteen years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Belle may come too. In November Tom and I hope to go to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Saigon, and Malaya for about a month. We shall fly all the way. Would much rather go by ship, but wouldn't like to leave the family for so long. Air travel is so easy now you should visit Australia again, we should be delighted to have you stay with us and would show you as much as possible. Also I would love you to see the children, and we would all love to see you again. You would notice a vast difference in this country now. -it has really developed tremendously since the war, and altho there is a lot of talk around the city about the "Credit Squeeze" unemployment etc- I think it is mainly bringing the hire purchase people back to the field and most other things are pretty steady.We have a very good season here, as there is over most of Australia,altho parts of Queensland and New South Wales need rain very badly. Undfortunately it is very dry where Davy and Ken are. = We had a very hectic time here during the May holidays with our own children and five others staying with us. I found nine children in the house, with their ages ranging from fourteen to two and a half very noisy and tiring,but I think they all had a very good time. We had enough bikes and ponies that the boys couod have the bikes in the mornings and the girls in the afternoons and vice versa- so actually we only saw them at meals and in the evnings. I think they are all coming back agin for the May holidays next year. Their only outing for the holidays is to a race meeting at the next town of Coleraine on the final Saturday It is a sort of picnic meeting,and the children adore it. = Belle now has a house of her own, very small, but most conveniently located.I think she gets pretty lonesome living by herself though. She has just had Mary to stay with her for a fortnight, for Mary had to go to Melbourne for that time to see a specialist about a rash she had on her feet. They both had a very good time.Belle is really marvelous to the kids, it will be very nice for Sol having her in Melbourne when she iis at school there, as I mimagine she will always be hungry at school, and will be able to have some good meals with Belle at the weekends.= Will write you from Queensland and send you some photos of the kids. I do hope you are in better health by now- our thoughts here have been with you a lot even though I haven't written. with love from us all, Sheila Craig Ellis." +Enclosed newspaper report: Mailed July 10, 1961: First World War MD Dies at Ninety-One - Dr. William Bannerman Craig of St. Kilda, who won the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry and devotion to duty in the first World War, died yesterday. He was ninety-one. Born and educated in Scotland, Dr. Craig studied native customs in New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands before coming to Australia. He practicsed in Warrnambool before enlisting as Regimental Medical Officer of the Twenty-Second Battalion, Australian Infantry Force. On his return to Australia he became a medical officer in the Repatriation Department. Survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters. ---Australia addresses. 1925Australia NamesMelb. Eileen Ham R.N. B. Oddie G Nash O H Cuthbert W.H. Burnham G.S. Lloyd W. Roberts W.H. Dando N Menzies R. Bell D. Fitchett B Buckland L. Gleeson P. O'Malley Water Commissioner Nagambie; S. Hartigan 29 July St. Joseph Convent Jephcott, Guppy LAUNCESTON R. J. McIntyre J Cottier J Forrest, Billie, Mr. McCarthy Mrs. Cottrell Gorman E. Maxeme Andrewartha, BALLARAT : Mr. and Mrs. L.H. Vernon 1503 Hurt St. Echuca Mr. & Mrs. Stokes & Mary Stokes Mr. Simmie Shepperton: wild ride Shepperton to Maroopna Mr. Lincoln Maroopna - Boy Scouts, with medal Tatura: Mr. Hasty Bendigo: C.J. Glover. Geelong: Hollis, Newland, Curley drove us in his car. Cooperdown: Walls, snapshot of swan's nest New Zealand: Napier:Anderson, Betty Shillling Shie??. Captain Smith, Snow Clarke, Mrs. Hawke Captain Lochner [from Auckland] O. Morran L. Mellor, Sally Williams, mr. Kenneth Williams, R. P. Hakiwa E.C.S. McFarlane, A.H. Piper J.L. Whitlores, Wellington: Leslie Taverner, Mr. and Mrs. Lancelot Moore Captain J.B. Rainey General Manager Cunard Line, J Barton Rainey Miss M. Flux, Captain A. West Mr. Martin Leckie (Luckie) J.H. Fowler, Robert Arlow, D.E. Grachy, Mr. Kitching, M. Turrell, A. Sheldon, R.I. Jones Algiers: 52 Boulevard Thiers Mr. & Mrs. S.S. Powers, Compagnie Internationale des Machines Agricoles, T. Carlyon's St. Kilda after American Club Drive |
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5-255 Rear Ad S.P. Jenkins USN mentioned by McCroskey letter - "5385 HudsonStreet, Vancouver 13, British.Columbia Canada February 4, 1961 Dear Mrs. Barrett, Your letter of January 2 finally arrrived after being forwarded from four addresses. I can't understand why the Bureau of Personnel didn't know my correct adress, as I receive quite a few handouts from them. = I have been wracking my brain trying to think of something of interest I could send you about your husband. Our dates and locations don't seem to jibe very well. I went out to the Asiaitc Station in May of 1930 and took command of the MINDANAO on the South China Patrol. We based at Hong Kong and made frequent trips up the West River as far as Wenchow. After six months of this was transferred to the HELENA, which moved only between Canton and Hong Kong. The summer of 1931 I was gven command of the STEWART, a destroyer which followed more or less the movement of the Fleet, altho it semed we were on detached duty most of the time in China coast ports. We were in Shanghai several times but never went up the Yangtze. We were in Swatow, Amoy, Pagoda Anchorage, Foochow, Tsingtao, and Chefoo. Undoubtedly we met up with the TRUXTUN at some of these places, but I can't remember any instance which might be of any interest to you.My files of those days are all at Iron Bottom Bay [Solomons] and what I have told you is entirely from memory. =Several years ago I saw Paul Rice in Pasadena and as far as I know he is still alive. He might be able to fill you in on some of Jack's TULSA duty.The above address is my permanent one. I am writing from address on envelope. I am very sorry I* can not be of more help. Sincerely, S.P Jenkins"--- Des Plaines Illinoois Dec 12, 1970 Dear john jr + Mrs. Barrett, We have your letters of October + thank you very much for them. I was syrprised that my mother has the 1911 diary or letter from my father's trip to California-Especially as i was always the 'snooper' in the family. If and when i return to Col I shall certainly read the original manuscript. my mother's letter throws a different light on the postcards whic I have. |
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