océan

Possibly at the Naval Review 14 October 1912 in New York, where a couple of other photos of US warships in the Bain collection were taken--see comments on photo of the Delaware, for instance. There is a Naval Historical Center page on the Mayflower: USS Mayflower (1898-1931, later PY-1) The ship has a long and fascinating history--see the Wikipedia article.

White text written backwards on the negative says "Conn Salutes Mayflower"

See comment on www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2162982489/

" The Merida is another well-known name in the treasure-salvage business. Ward Line's 6,207 ton passenger-freighter SS Merida, on May 12, 1911, enroute from Vera Cruz and Havana to New York, was carrying former aristocrats and other refugees escaping the Mexican Revolution of 1910. In a heavy fog, she was rammed amidships by the Admiral Farragut which itself became helplessly disabled. The wireless distress call was sent out and the steamship Hamilton responded. The Hamilton took on board all persons from both distressed vessels before the Merida sank in 210 feet of water approximately 80 miles east / northeast of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The rumor of the Merida's treasure goes something like this: there was not enough time to save the $6 million worth of gold and silver from the strong room, and the Maximilian jewels from the purser's safe. There are accounts of salvors working this wreck in 1932 and in the 1980s, but without success." www.rms-republic.com/other_cargos2.html

One of the first uses of SOS. Navy Library has the correspondence as it went down. Several articles were run in the Washington Post on May 13-14, 1911, including discussion of the sunken treasure. Should be obvious, but... photo is older stock image. They've bordered it off for publication.

This is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Portsmouth_(1843)

Written at the bottom is Dewey Day, Sept. 29, 1899 More about Dewey Day is here: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E0CE3DB153CE4...