ussnorthdakota

Photo precedes this one. August 15, 1911.

What a great and historic picture, fantastic.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_North_Dakota_(BB-29)

a terrible thankless messy wearying never ending job

The collier could be either USS Orion (AC-11) or sister ship USS Jason (AC-12). However, since this is one photo among those taken during Al Boileau's (USNA 1926) midshipmen's cruise to Europe in the summer of 1923, this would have to be USS Orion (AC-11) with USS North Dakota (BB-29). The midshipmen cruise to Europe in the summer of 1923 included the battleships USS Delaware (BB-28), USS Arkansas (BB-33), USS Florida (BB-30) and USS North Dakota (BB-29). The cruise began from Hampton Roads on June 9th, making port calls at Copenhagen, Denmark; Greenock, Scotland; Cadiz, Spain; and Gibraltar, concluding at Annapolis on August 28th. This would be the last hurrah as capital ships for both USS Delaware and USS North Dakota, as the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty required their decommissioning upon the completion USS Colorado (BB-45) and USS West Virginia (BB-48), then under construction. Accordingly, Delaware was decommissioned on August 30, 1923, as was North Dakota on November 22nd of that year. During the spring and summer of 1923, USS Jason (AC-12) was sailing the Pacific. In fact, there's a photo of Jason dockside delivering Douglas DT-2 Torpedo Bombers to Pearl Harbor on July 18, 1923 (US Navy photo # NH 52195 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center). Since Jason was in San Diego on May 5, 1923, that makes it a virtual certainty that it is USS Orion (AC-11) captured in the photo above. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_North_Dakota_(BB-29) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Delaware_(BB-28) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Orion_(AC-11) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jason_(AC-12)