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Back Copies of the “Proceedings”
As indicated in the Secretary’s Notes in this issue, the Naval Institute office has received a number of letters from readers as well as educational institutions, seeking back files of the Proceedings. In some cases the inquirer is seeking complete sets, with copies going all the way back to 1873.
We are publishing excerpts from these letters immediately below, and request that readers who have copies of the back issues desired will communicate directly with the letter writer, so that mutually satisfactory arrangements can be made for shipping, etc. Here arc the letters, with addresses of those seeking back copies.
From Libraries and other Educational Institutions
“You are doing a wonderful service in calling out old files and back numbers; few subscribers to professional journals realize how much their old stored files may be wanted. . . . In the 30’s, on a tramp steamer for a 3-months voyage to the Mediterranean, I learned of a complete set of the Navai. Institute Proceedings from Volume I, which, just prior to sailing, had been given away as waste paper! No chance at all to trace or recover. That is one of those terrible mistakes which I feel there should be some way of setting time back to recover. . . . Although the Institute of Geographical Exploration is a part of Harvard University and our Library is a part of the Wid- encr system, our organization is not supported by the University. Hence I am not in a position to make a definite offer for an early set of the Naval Institute Proceedings, but 1 would like to be able to get a refusal until 1 can take up the matter with the proper authorities here. What l hope is that someone, sometime, in settling an estate, will consider placing an early set here, where it would be used and appreciated.”
Dorothy Ford Mayhew, Librarian Institute of Geographical Exploration 2 Divinity Avenue Cambridge 38, Massachusetts
“May I ask if you would be good enough to put us in touch with any member of the U. S. Naval Institute who could help us complete our files of the Proceedings. Owing to wartime difficulties we lack almost all of the issues from 1941 to the present time; the issues for the first six months of 1941, for instance, were lost due to enemy action. ... If possible we would like to obtain the issues from 1919 to 1927, those from January to June of 1941, and the issues from 1942 to 1949 inclusive. ... I need hardly add that we find the Proceedings of the greatest value in our task ot recording the history of the two World Wars.”
L. P. Yates-Smith, Librarian Imperial War Museum Lambeth Road London, S.E. 1, England
“The Boston Athenaeum has the Naval Institute Proceedings from 1946 onwards, and if any substantial run of the earlier years were at any time offered, I would be glad to know so that 1 might get in touch with the owner.”
Walter Muir Whitehill, Director Library of the Boston Athenaeum 10i Beacon Street Boston 8, Massachusetts
From Historians, Collectors, and History Students
“I am a researcher in statistical naval history and have been clawing about frantically for reliable source material in sufficient, quantities. I would be exceedingly grateful if you could pul me in touch with one or more people who wish to dispose of their back files. The issues 1 want cover approximately the ground between January, 1907 through October, 1948.”
P. R. Von Haach P. 0. Box 26
Northfield, Massachusetts
“I am a collector of books and autographs relating to the Navy, and would appreciate being put in touch with anyone offering back copies of the Naval Institute Proceedings.”
T. F. Craggs, Jr.
3429 Princeton Avenue Philadelphia 24, Pennsylvania
“I have been assembling a collection of items and publications connected with Naval History, and would appreciate it if you could put me in touch with some individual who has a file of old copies of the Naval Institute Proceedings which he would like to dispose of.”
Lieut. Ralph W. Miller, U.S.N.R.
315 Oakley Street Evansville, Indiana
“I am a history major attending the University of South Carolina and am very much interested in naval history. If anyone has old issues of the Naval Institute Proceedings to dispose of, I would appreciate being put in touch with him. I feel that they would be very valuable for research as well as for general information.”
Robert N. Sheridan 1712 Pendleton Street Columbia, South Carolina
“I would like to obtain a set of the back files of the Naval Institute Proceedings, and would appreciate hearing from anyone who has such back copies to offer.”
William II. Ailor, Jr.
1357 Azalea Drive
Jacksonville 5, Florida
“I would be delighted to get in touch with someone who has back files of the Naval Institute Proceedings he does not desire to keep. I plan to use them as a checkoff and background material for some projected articles.”
Lieut, (jg) R. W. Herrick, U.S.N.
U. S. Naval School (Naval Intelligence) Naval Receiving Station Washington 25, D. C. .
“I would like to assemble a complete file of the Naval Institute Proceedings. At present 1 have issues covering the past twelve years. I shall appreciate it if you can assist me in locating any back numbers.”
John MacPhee 14-2 Forsyth Drive Troy, New York
(Editor’s Note: Members of the Naval Institute who have any of the above requested copies of the Proceedings that they do not wish to retain, will be doing a service both to the Navy and to Education by making their back fdcs available to institutions and students such as those listed above.)
The Four-Stackers
(Sec page 753, July 1950, Proceedings)
Captain J. M. Kennaday, U. S. Navy.—- That excellent and comprehensive little article by Commander Thomas on the “four stackers” must have stirred mostalgic memories in the minds of many officers and men. Oddly enough, I had commenced a similar article, but Commander Thomas has done a far better job of it than I would have been able to because he had access to many official records which I could not have conveniently reached from my present station in Europe.
I was going to point out certain facts, however, which he did not and which I think are worth recording.
When first built the four-stackers were as formidable as any of their contemporaries in the world’s navies in size, speed and armament. In particular their torpedo battery of twelve tubes in four triple mounts was heavier than most and was not equaled even in our own navy except by a few of the later ships of the new construction started in 1934 (a very few of these new destroyers carried sixteen tubes, for a while). When I was serving in the Hatfield (which, together with the Brooks, Kane, Gilmer and Fox, carried four 5 inch-51 calibre guns) in “Squadron 40-T” in Europe in 1936-37 our torpedo and gun batteries were heavier than those of British destroyers of much later date and, indeed, of those of most foreign destroyers except the very large French types.
As Commander Thomas has said, the four- pipers were much like the contemporary model T Ford, being simple, cheap and rugged. In yet another way they resembled the model T, in that they were “naked as babies” when first built. That is, they had few of the gadgets with which they gradually and necessarily became loaded in an effort to keep them, in the absence of a continuing destroyer building program, abreast of advancing naval science and design. They did not have gyro compasses, director systems, battle telephones nor (I believe) cold storage.
I know that electric refrigerators for the wardroom and CPO quarters were added quite late in their careers. Their bridges were open; so were the sides of the galley deckhouses. All these items, plus radar, sonar, TBS radio and heavier boats were piled onto their long-suffering hulls, most of them well above the center of gravity. The Bureau of Ships and Fleet commanders were seriously worried about their stability for this reason (that was why their stacks were cut down just before World War II when splinter protection and AA machine guns added still more topside weight). In spite of all this not a one of them, I believe, was ever lost in a storm at sea—a fate which some of the later destroyers did not escape. The Wolscy (DD77) was sunk in a collision and the Truxton (1)1)221) was wrecked on the coast of Newfoundland in 1942, but 1 think I am right that no hurricane or typhoon— and they experienced many—ever proved too much for one of them.
As stated, the Stewart was salved by the Japanese and served in their navy for a time. We recovered her after the surrender and I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the ceremonies, at lliro Wan, near Kure, with which she was recommissioned as a United States ship.
A curious fact which Commander Thomas did not mention about the three “three- stackers” which were built that way—the Stockton, Conner and Gwin—was that they also had three propellers, an extremely rare arrangement in our Navy I do not believe that peculiar arrangement ever proved to be very successful.
Commander Thomas mentioned some but not all of the uses to which these ubiquitous vessels were put. Besides serving as fast transports, fast minelayers and sweepers and seaplane tenders, some of them became radio- controlled targets, some were sunk as targets for actual bombs, shells and torpedoes, several were used for strength tests by the Bureau of Ships, some for engineering and sonar experimentation. A few of those that were sold were converted by the United Fruit Company into small, fast “banana boats.”
No steel-and-steam warships, I venture to say—certainly not as a class—have had longer and more useful careers. Our old cruiser New York (later the Saratoga and finally the Rochester) was still going at the age of forty and the Turkish Yavuz (originally the German Moltke), which dates from 1912, is still in commission, but special circumstances surround each of these cases, usefulness is limited and combat value has greatly declined. The four-pipers, in contrast, served all kinds of purposes and most decidedly had something to contribute to the war at sea right up to the end of their lives.
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