page_title: Great White Fleet
section_title: General fleet itinerary
hierarchical_section_title: Great White Fleet / General fleet itinerary
caption_attribution_description: English: The Great White Fleet arriving at the Port of Los Angeles, 1908. People gathered to watch the fleet enter the harbor. Breakwaters are in the background (right side).
context_page_description: The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the group of United States Navy battleships which completed a journey around the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. Its mission was to make friendly courtesy visits to numerous countries while displaying new U.S. naval power to the world.
  It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with various escorts. Roosevelt sought to demonstrate growing American military power and blue-water navy capability. Hoping to enforce treaties and protect overseas holdings, the United States Congress appropriated funds to build American naval power. Beginning in the 1880s with just 90 small ships, over one-third of them wooden and therefore obsolete, the navy quickly grew to include new steel fighting vessels. The hulls of these ships were painted a stark white, giving the armada the nickname "Great White Fleet".
context_section_description: With Connecticut as flagship under the command of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, the fleet sailed from Hampton Roads on 16 December 1907 for Trinidad, British West Indies, thence to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Punta Arenas, Chile; Callao, Peru; Magdalena Bay, Mexico, and up the West Coast, arriving at San Francisco, 6 May 1908.
  At San Francisco, Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry assumed command of the fleet, owing to the poor health of Admiral Evans. Also at San Francisco, the squadrons were slightly rearranged, bringing the newest and best ships in the fleet up to the First Squadron. Glacier was detached and later became the supply ship of the Pacific Fleet. At this time also, Nebraska, under Captain Reginald F. Nicholson, and Wisconsin, under Captain Frank E. Beatty, were substituted for Maine and Alabama. In San Francisco, Minnesota was brought forward into First Squadron, First Division and Louisiana took her place as flagship, Second Squadron.
  Leaving that port on 7 July 1908 the U.S. Atlantic Fleet  visited Honolulu; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Melbourne, and Albany, Australia; Manila, Philippines; Yokohama, Japan; and Colombo, Ceylon; then arriving at Suez, Egypt, on 3 January 1909.
  While the fleet was in Egypt, word was received of an earthquake in Sicily, thus affording an opportunity for the United States to show its friendship to Italy by offering aid to the sufferers. Connecticut, Illinois, Culgoa, and Yankton were dispatched to Messina, Italy, at once. The crew of Illinois recovered the bodies of the American consul, Arthur S. Cheney, and his wife, entombed in the ruins.
  Scorpion, the fleet's station ship at Constantinople, and Celtic, a refrigerator ship fitted out in New York, were hurried to Messina, relieving Connecticut and Illinois, so that they could continue on the cruise.
  Leaving Messina on 9 January 1909, the fleet stopped at Naples, Italy, thence to Gibraltar, arriving at Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909. There, President Roosevelt reviewed the fleet as it passed into the roadstead.
caption: The Great White Fleet arriving to a crowd at the Port of Los Angeles, 1908
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