Great White Fleet in Auckland New Zealand

And now the book:

Electronic Publication:

Auckland, August 1908: A Stop on the Great White Fleet World Cruise. By: Robert Garry Law

2008 ISBN: 978-0-473-13645-1 37 pages.

This booklet places the visit of the Great White Fleet to Auckland in its New Zealand context and its geopolitical context - that of great power rivalry over prestige, territorial ambitions and projection of force by battleship lead fleets. It shows the social context of Auckland 100 years ago. Illustrated with contemporary pictures, many drawn from colour printed post cards.

Go to:
http://garrysone.esy.es/gwf/The%20Great%20White%20Fleet%20in%20Auckland.htm

This is available in electronic form only.

Some postcards:

The Great White Fleet cruised the world in 1907/09. It was an exercise in demonstrating the USA's arrival as a naval power, and typical of the style of the then President - Theodore Roosevelt - a hero of the Spanish - American war. He was President 1901-1909.

The fleet left US territory - Hawaii - for New Zealand and after the longest leg in the world circling voyage, anchored in Auckland on August 9 1908. New Zealanders gave the fleet a very warm reception and invited Sperry and his staff to the opening of the Tudor styled bathhouse in Rotorua. There was a Maori reception there. At the conclusion of one of the dances, a Maori bounded from the circle of dancers. Halting before the admiral and his staff, the Maori dancer broke into a broad, toothy smile and exclaimed, "bully!"* Even in remote New Zealand, Roosevelt had made his mark, to the great surprise and amusement of Sperry and his staff.

* Roosevelt often used the word "bully" as an adjective meaning superb/wonderful.

On August 15, the fleet sailed for Sydney, Australia. The postcards from the voyage show how Auckland was decorated for the event and the parades.

The fleet was equipped with radio and made pioneering broadcasts - see http://radiodx.com/spdxr/Great_White.htm, though the first trans-Tasman radio communication had been made earlier that year.

The Parliamentary train prior to leaving Wellington to meet the fleet. This was the first train to travel on the nearly finished main trunk railway.
The train guard's recollections (with sound file).

Kiwi had not been settled on as a symbol of New Zealand - here an extinct moa suffices. Hail Columbia was the unofficial US national anthem of the time. Kia Ora is a Maori greeting (Be well) commonly appropriated by European New Zealanders in such contexts - though Maori had little role in the Auckland events beyond the attendance of the Maori King Mahuta.

The time of the visit in 1908 was at the height of the postcard craze. It is not surprising to find there are many from the Auckland visit, as there are from all the places it visited.

Stereo Cards (Thumbnails) - these were not postcards but from sets for use with viewers.

Not all the postcards used on the visit were specially prepared. This one posted to the USA in August 1908 is almost certainly from one of the crew.

The memorial in Albert Park is to the Boer War dead and the trophy guns are from the same war. New Zealand did not regard itself as isolated from world events. Its principal trade was with Britain. It was an enthusiastic participant in the Boer War enforcing the perceived rights of British residents in the Boer republics.

From a USS Ohio sailor - but postmarked Seattle September 1908 - this must have been returned there for posting.

Auckland postcards collected in 1908 by fleet sailor George Biller, but not posted.

Some superb Maori cards collected by a captain of one of the battleships, not posted.

Some other 1908 era postcards of Auckland and Rotorua - though not from the fleet crew (thumbnails):

What were the sailors wanting? - why to meet girls of course - preferably a Gibson Girl - like they had in California:

Perhaps catch a tram to the Onehunga Tea Kiosk? The Belle Epoch had reached here too.

The arrival of the Great White Fleet in Auckland drew ten percent of the national population as a welcoming committee. At the time New Zealand and Australia were terrified of a Japanese advance. The reduction of the British fleet in the Pacific greatly enhanced this concern. This was as a result of the 1902 treaty between Japan and Britain. Britain, in a fierce naval arms race with Germany, was then content to leave only obsolete and small naval units in the far east. As a result New Zealand and Australia viewed the American fleet almost as a saviour when it arrived in the Pacific. Rear Admiral Sperry took every opportunity to perpetuate this Anglo-American friendship, often giving rousing speeches to receptive crowds. The new naval march Anchors Aweigh was no doubt played.

From the Crimean War onwards Russia was perceived as a threat in the Pacific. Auckland and other ports underwent several stages of harbour fortifications through to1900. In 1873 there was the infamous raid on Auckland by the Kaskowiski More In 1886 a Russian cruiser Vestnik was visiting New Zealand. The contemporary eruption of Tarawera was heard widely through the North Island and was initially thought by many to be the sound of the cruiser firing at towns or cities.

At the Battle of Shantung in 1904 and in the battle in the Tsushima Straits in 1905 Japan had eliminated Russia as a naval threat in the Pacific. A major factor in the latter battle was that the Russian Baltic fleet arrived at Japan in poor order after sailing halfway round the world. The US wanted to demonstrate that was not inevitable - a fleet could sail around the world and remain in fighting trim.

After its victory Japan was now seen in the South Pacific as the threat replacing Russia. Britain had spared little on its Australian flotilla, which was seen as obsolescent. From 1908 the Australian Government started its own naval construction programme. New Zealand's response was different, deciding in 1909 to contribute a battle cruiser to the British fleet - HMS New Zealand. She was to have been the flagship of the Australian flotilla but German rivalry never allowed her to be released for that, though she did visit here in 1913.

Despite this British lean, the US fleet was seen in New Zealand as a welcome counterbalance to Japan.

New Zealand was more influenced then by the USA then than is sometimes realised today. Many of the miners to the gold rushes here were from the USA. Early cars and popular magazines were sourced there, as were early movies. American architecture was influential too. Californian bungalows were the rage and the Mission style found favour in some public buildings, such as Auckland Grammar School, completed in 1913. Visiting sailors from the fleet complained that most of the goods they saw for sale came from the USA.

Albert Park - Auckland The group of oak trees that stands near the band rotunda are a stand of oaks originally planted in 1908 to commemorate the visit of the United States Navy's Great White Fleet. Each tree honoured one of the 16 battleships in the fleet and was planted by its captain. More Most survive today.

A curiosity - The white, spar and gold upper works of the ships, abandoned by the US Navy soon after the trip, are still used today by the US Coast Guard.

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