[78-L] Great White Fleet

[Mwcpc2 at aol.com]

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Fleet_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Fleet) 
 
I recently ran across an interesting phonograph related item. Below is an  
excerpt of a longer report. Can anyone identify the "special record" involved,  
or supply likely record catalog numbers for the others mentioned?
>From other sources, this test of the use of the wireless telephone for  it's 
intended purpose, fleet command communications, was a failure, however it  
represents one of the first instances of radio broadcasting. 
 
Mike Csontos
 
.........
 
"The Story of the de Forest Wireless Telephone in the U.S. Navy during the  
World Cruise, 1907-1908. Told to G H Clark (GE Historian) by Lt. Com. H. J.  
Meneratti, June, 1938.
 
...
 
18. The Fleet sailed from SF to Seattle, back to SF, then to the Far East.  
The OHIO worked Mare Island by wireless telephone about 30 miles.
 
19. At San Diego the OHIO got a phonograph, and from there on the ship used  
this as well as voice. A special record was made for this trip, of which  
Meneratti remembers only the chorus:
 
Oil and water will not mix,
Neither will the yellow and white.
Peace we'll have at any price,
And if we're forced we'll surely fight.
 
This was based on Roosevelt's speech announcing the purpose of the Cruise  
around the World, namely, "A Fight of a Frolic".
 
Another chorus went:
 
Coming round the Horn, boys,
With a hundred thousand tons
Of Yankees on their battleships,
And a hundred ten inch guns.
 
This was a Columbia record.
 
Feeling between Japan and America was very high at the time, Japan having  
"flared up" on account of the restriction of immigration put into effect by  
America.
 
20. The OHIO played the record over the wireless telephone, and got request  
after request for "repeats". When they met the Australian British Fleet in  
Australia, the British asked for a duplicate record, which was given to the HMS  
Powerful. This was the first time the British sailors had ever heard a  
radiophone.
 
21. The OHIO broadcast from records all the way from the West Coast to  
Australia. They bought an electric motor and fitted it to the phonograph, as  they 
soon got tired of cranking it up. At Sydney, the ship's orchestra gave a  
concert, which was "broadcast" to the ships of the American and British fleets  by 
wireless telephone.
 
22. The OHIO had only one record available when it left San Diego, but when  
it came back it had 250, including many foreign ones. Many of the ships of  
the U S Fleet sent over records. Among them were:
 
After the Ball was Over
Bedelia
Down went McGinty
Hiawatha
Alexander's Ragtime Band
 
23. At Pireaus, Greece, 20 miles from Athens, the Greeks heard the wireless  
telephone at their station in the palace at Athens. The OHIO and the MISSOURI  
were talking to each other. These were the only ships that went to Greece.
 
King Constantine and his minister of marine came on board the MISSOURI for  
the official visit and the MISSOURI asked the OHIO to play some records via the 
 wireless telephone. The Minister of Marine came to the OHIO and asked to see 
the  radio shack. This was done. He got all the dope from Mineratti about the 
set and  later wrote to de Forest at Sedgewick Avenue. de Forest later told 
Mineratti  that he sold two sets to Greece as a result of this, at $18,000 
each.  Incidentally, the price that de Forest charged the U S Navy was $1800.00  
each.
 
24. Others who might know of this Naval use of wireless telephone are V. E.  
Jefferson and T. J. Sanders. The latter was assistant attorney general of 
Texas. 
 
...
 
 



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