Ships of State
By Lieutenant Michael J. Quigley, U.S. Navy Reserve
Gunboat diplomacy and showing the flag are the edges of the Navy's sword that will never grow dull.
Acentury ago, on 16 December 1907, 16 battleships and a flotilla of torpedo boats and auxiliaries of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet steamed out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, on an unprecedented world cruise. Although the newspaper editorials at the time decried the voyage of the so-called "Great White Fleet" as "bombastic" and a shameful example of mere gunboat diplomacy, President Theodore Roosevelt's gambit of showing the flag of the United States without firing a shot proved a resounding success.
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