US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

36 Amphibians Canze To Coirqtier
anything about it, and some of us made a very complete chart of the harbor
[Nares in Western Manus Island], a thing that had never been done before.
We were four days making it, all of which were spent out in a small steam
launch, unprotected from the heat. And let me tell you it gets hot down there,
right underneath the sun. [Latitude 20 South] ‘W
Later he wrote:
Since leaving Honolulu, except for one day in Manila, 1 have spent every
bit of time on board ship, doing nothing but stand my watches and work on
my guns. It has been mighty interesting, too, I can tell you, though, hard and
tedious work as the guns on this ship are old and have to have a Iot of
doctoring to get results from them. But as it was my first target practice (as
a Gun Division Officer] and as I have a lot to Iearn about guns, I haven’t
rrnded abit . . . even over losing about fifteen pounds in weight since
leaving the States. . . . Tomorrow we put to sea and fire at a moving target
exactly the same conditions that we would have in battle. . . . We stood first
in night practice out of all the ships in the Navy, and we are hoping to do as
well tomorrow.gg
VISITING JAPAN
The visit of the Great White Fleet to Japan in October 1908 had been a
great personal triumph for President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1‘Walk softly
and carry a big stick” diplomacy, since as one historian points out:
The visit was undoubtedly successful in creating great good will and in
quieting talk of war between the two countries.lo”
In January 1910, Rear Admiral Uriel Sebree, U. S. Navy (Class of 1867),
brought the Armored Cruiser Squadron of the Pacific Fleet to Japan for a
further good will visit. From the depths of the Weft Virginia steerage, Past
Midshipman Turner observed:
I didn’t go ashore very much as I am studying for my exams. . . . Nagasaki
was very pleasant, climate good, and the people very pleasant to us. . . . The
Japanese are a really civilized people.’o’
There were times in the years ahead, when he might have wished to
question this last judgment.
WRKT to Mother, letter, 28 Nov. 1909.
mRKT to Mother, letter from Olongapo, P. I., undated.
‘wDudley W. Knox, A History oj the United States Navy (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons,
1947), p. 378.
‘“’RKT to Mother, letter from Yokohama, Japan, 17 Jan. 1910.