A Sailor's Log: Water-tender Frederick T. Wilson, USN, on Asiatic Station, 1899-1901Frederick T. Wilson was an engineer who carried the rank of first-class petty officer and served on one of the Navy's first modern battleships, the USS Oregon, at the turn of the twentieth century. Wilson offers a rare uncensored picture of enlisted life, with descriptions of bar girls and waterfront establishments that catered to the needs of American bluejackets, as well as observations on world events during imperialism. Wilson also discusses one of the great yet largely ignored issues of the turn-of-the-century U.S. Navy--the failure of naval officers to provide the quality leadership necessary to ensure the operation of efficient, effective warships. A Sailor's Log is a detailed and insightful account of life in the Asiatic Fleet that enriches our understanding of U.S. Navy life a century ago. |
Contents
| xxxiii | |
Manila | 46 |
Nagasaki | 62 |
Aground in the Yellow Sea | 93 |
Kure Japan | 124 |
Woosung China | 161 |
Shanghai | 186 |
Afloat Ashore in Shanghai | 215 |
BoloMen Routine Discipline | 248 |
Common terms and phrases
aboard ship American ashore Asiatic Station asked battleship beer bluejacket boat boilers bolo-men bottle captain Cavite chief China Chinamen Chinese clean clothing coal passer command comshur course crew cruise cruiser deck drill drink drunk Dutch Harbor engine English enlisted everything eyes feeling fellow fire getting girl hammock hand Hong Kong Jack Japan Japanese Japs jumped kimono knew Kure liberty look man-o-war Manila Manila Bay mess months morning Nagasaki Nanchang naval navy never night Oregon Orleans orlop deck passed Philippines pipe plenty port pretty pumps quarters rickshaw roared sailors sampan savvy Shanghai ship's shipmates sick skipper soon steam stopped streets thing thro told trouble turn U.S. Navy uniform warrant machinists watch water-tender Wilson Woosung Yokohama Yoshiwara zōri
Popular passages
Page 382 - William R. Braisted, The United States Navy in the Pacific, 1897-1909 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1958), and The United States Navy in the Pacific, 1909-1922 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971).
Page 382 - James R. Reckner, Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1988).
Page xxvii - He was not missed from among us, for during his month aboard the Lancaster he had never, so far as I knew, spoken a single word to one of the enlisted men of the crew."17 The men thus saw the chaplains first as officers and only secondarily as men of God. In a navy in which the officers...