Chapter One: The Savage Wars of Peace
Part I: Assistant Secretary Roosevelt Makes his Mark
(Note, Change in perspective, now being told in the 3rd Person)
Their meeting was short, Roosevelt was introduced to Commodore Davey and the other officers at the Department of the Navy. Within days after being installed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the former commissioner of New York Policemen, Roosevelt found himself in charge of the United States Fleet’s everyday operations, as Senator Long departed for a trip back home to Massachusetts. Roosevelt began moving flotillas around to his liking, especially strengthening the Naval assets in the Pacific.
The first of his major orders came during his second day of being acting secretary of the navy. The oder came to the US Pacific Squadron under Admiral Fletcher in San Francisco to load the troops of the US 5th Division under General Miller, based in California onto her transports ships to disembark them at the Hawaiian Islands, for Hawaii was to be annexed. While the troops were preparing to be loaded onto Fletcher’s ships, the US Foreign Secretary, under orders from the new President McKinley struck a deal with the Queen’s Foreign Secretary for the purchase of the Belize Territory and the Island of Jamaica for a Price of 240,000 Pounds.
TR Poses for a shot with several Top Naval officers before embarking on Fleet exercises in the summer of 1897
That summer TR also went aboard the USS Maine during Naval Exercises off the Coast of Virginia. The ocean spray and salty wind enthralled Roosevelt, who by now had begun to think globally. "I have had a grand time running the navy!" TR noted in his diary, "For three days I was aboard The
Maine during exercises off Virginia. My the sound of those guns, any man who thinks we can go without a large navy just needs to hear the thunderous sound of those guns on a great ship like this."
It was around this time that debate in the congress over the issue of how large of funding the navy should receive for its armament arose. A sizable body of representatives stood by their opinion that money should instead be used on internal improvements, and preparing the two remaining territories of Arizona and Oklahoma for entering the Union. In one of his early speeches as Assistant Secretary of the navy, Theodore Roosevelt added his voice to the debate over the naval arms race which was developing between the US and Japan, stating, “We need a large navy, able to meet those, of any other nation. It is niggardly and foolish shortsightedness to cramp our naval expenditures while squandering money right and left on everything else.”
The US 5th Division went ashore on the Island of Oahu on May 23rd 1897, that same day in Norfolk, Secretary Roosevelt Presided over the launching of two new Battleships, the Virginia and Ohio at the Naval yard in Norfolk Virginia. The operations in Hawaii proceeded without any problems. The natives in Hawaii, by now used to interactions with Americans hardly noticed the new military presence on their islands, and had no qualm with becoming a territory of the United States.
Hawaii however was not the only area which was attracting Roosevelt’s attention. The strategically important Isthmus of Panama had been weighing heavily in TR’s thoughts. It was conceivable that in the future a canal could be built there, providing the United States Navy a shortcut to the Pacific, a trip which currently required a lengthy voyage into the south Seas around Cape Horn.
The Panamanians had wished to break away from Columbia for some time now. Playing off this rift, Roosevelt in a speech declared that should the Panamanians seek independence from Columbia, they would have the full support of the US Navy. Although this bold statement was never fully backed by the administration, the Panamanians took it to heart, and went into open revolt against the Columbians in July 1897. Coincidently, this revolt coincided with the Arrival of the US 3rd Squadron, consisting of the Battleships Indiana, Massachusetts, and Missouri off the Panamanian Coast.
As would be expected, the Columbians moved to violently crush this rebellion, and soon after the United States Marine Corps (total strength 1 Large US Division) and the US 1st Infantry Division were deployed to the Isthmus. Going ashore on the 21st of July, US Forces were met with no organized Columbian opposition, with the one small Columbian Army unit in the area reported to have been evacuated by sea to safety. While the 1st Division dug in at the southern end of the Isthmus, the Marines moved north to take the rest of the thin strip of land. On August 13th However, the Marines ran into a Columbian Division near the town of Penonome, suffering only several dozen casualties. By early October the Isthmus was under total US control, and on October 17th Panama was free from Columbian rule as a protectorate of the United States.
The US Marine Division goes Ashore on the Isthmus of Panama
The last two months of 1897 saw the reallocation of US Naval forces across the globe. After a report arrived at the Naval Office stating that the Japanese now had 15 operational Battleships, the same amount as the United States Fleet possessed. The Japanese however still possessed the advantage as all of their ships would be deployed in the Pacific Ocean, while the current number of Battleships in the US Pacific Fleet out of San Francisco was only 5. In response, the US Third Squadron, then based in Kingston, Jamaica was renamed the US Asiatic Fleet and was ordered to the California Coast, bringing the total Battleship strength for the US in the Pacific to Eight. Upon Arrival in California, the USS Indiana, part of the new Asiatic Fleet was given a new commanding Officer, Commodore Patrick Davey, formerly of the Naval Armament Committee.
Commodore Davey boarded the USS Indiana on January 1st, 1898. Little did he know or expect what the coming year would have in store for the United States and her Navy...
Naval Situation: January 1st, 1898
Naval Comparison:
US Navy Order of Battle:
World Situation on January 1st, 1898
Europe:
The Caribbean:
