Kraken Kronicles

Remember Theodore Roosevelt?? I know, before my time!

In 1907, alarmed by the Japanese Naval might on display after the Russo-Japanese War, he sent the Great White Fleet (US Navy battle fleet) on a cruise around the world. A bold move made without consulting the cabinet or Congress. He acted alone because the councils of war. He said "The (councils) never got around to making war, and in a crisis the duty of a leader is to lead and not take refuge in the generally timid wisdom of a multitude of counselors."



Lacking a crisis, he justified the cruise by saying that he wanted "All failures, blunders and shortcomings to be made apparent in time of peace and not time of war." When the Senate Naval Affairs Committee announced that it did not intend to seek funds for the voyage, Roosevelt said he had enough money to send the fleet to the west coast. If Congress did not want the ships to return to the Atlantic, it could leave them there.

The Fleet departed Hampton Roads, Virginia on December 16, 1907, and returned there on February 22, 1909.

Punta Arenas - February 1-7, 1908 (at the tip of South America)
Honolulu - July 16 to 23, 1908
Auckland, New Zealand - August 8-15, 1908
Sydney, Australia - August 20-27, 1908
Melbourne, Australia - August 29 - September 3, 1908
Albany, Australia - September 11 - 17, 1908
Yokohama, Japan - October 19-23, 1908
Colombo, Ceylon - December 14-20, 1908
Port Said - January 5-7, 1909
Gibraltar - February 6, 1909

Again in 1907 in one of his letters about the upcoming war with Japanese:

"When it comes, we will win over Japan, but it will be one of the most disastrous conflicts the world has ever seen."

# posted by Obernai : 11:49 PM