february1913

Again, caption says "2/13", February, 1913. League Island in the Delaware River, site of the Phil. Naval Shipyard.

The New York Times archive lets us down on this one. There's a 175 word article dated February 20, 1913, with the headline "LEAGUE ISLAND MARINES OFF.; 1,300 Sail Early This Morning -- 8-Inch Shells Aboard." Unfortunately, the .pdf of the complete article is blank except for the fragment "....they had been ordered to rush the work. The shells are intended for use on the warships." A Marine Corps Historical Reference Pamphlet (online here) says, in the second paragraph of part 3, Section I:

"The final one of these temporary '2d Regiment' organizations to be formed was designated as the 2d Regiment, 2d Provisional Brigade on 19 February 1913 at Philadelphia. Headed by Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton, the regiment was originally intended for duty in Mexico as part of an expeditionary brigade. Instead, it was sent to Guantanamo Bay and held in readiness for emergency duties, while undergoing intensive training. On 1 May, this unit was redesignated 2d Regiment, Expeditionary Force, USMC. As such, it remained in Cuba until the latter part of the month, when it boarded the PRAIRIE for the United States, arriving at Philadelphia on 1 June, when it was dissolved."

It seems a reasonable surmise that the Marines in these photos, and those who were the subject of the Times article, might have been this regiment.

actually, the NYTimes article is there, you need to scroll down to see the first part.

Cotinis, whyaduck, and Harry Angstrom: Thanks for your comments and information. We will add the date and location to our source data and reload the description.

D'OH! Scrolling! Why didn't I think of that?

The ship appears to be the armored cruiser USS Brooklyn (CA-3), judging by the three tall, thin funnels, and the barely visible name on the stern. The Brooklyn also had a main armament of 8x8" guns, so the 8" shells were probably being added to or removed from her magazines.

In the uncompressed archival TIFF version of this photo, "B_OOKL_N" (missing the R and Y) is readable on the stern.

League Island is aka Philadelphia Naval Shipyard en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_Island

no question about what ship it is, it's the one of a kind Uss Brooklyn (1896-1922). no other Us ship had such a shapely design, with the tumble down sides and conter protruding sponsoons. and those give away 100 foot of the deck stacks, no other ship even came close close i t he us navy to her artistic beuty, all the other where utilitarian at best, if not down right ugly. she was built along french designs, and was the epitome of effiency,speed, beauty and power on the open seas in her day. " they don't make em like that anymore".

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