ussseattle

isn't it "court martial?"

Thanks for the information! We’ll look into it.

A Kangaroo Court in this context is an informal or mock court usually performed by your peers for infractions. For example, if you are on a sports team and forget a piece of equipment the kangaroo court may punish you by making you buy a round of beers. It is generally considered a form of hazing. In the picture I can speculate that perhaps the young sailor showed up late for muster and is being publicly ridiculed. Maybe he will be punished by swabbing the deck. Based on body language, smiles of the audience, and informality this is clearly not a real Court Martial.

If it were real, he'd have to walk the plank . . . .

I once witnessed a pretty unpleasant 'Kangaroo Courts Martial' when a young sailor who was very dirty and did'nt wash as much as he should was dealt with by his peers. He was stripped, thrown into a bath of freezing cold water, the bath then having every bit of rubbish that could be found thrown into it and he was then scrubbed with long handled deck scubbers till he bled. It did the trick, that chap just about lived in the showers for a long time after that. One of the first things I learnt in the navy was this... "Cleanliness comes next to Godliness, and if you can't be Godly then by God you can be clean!" Any old Navy man will recognise that this is not a sailors yarn.

photo says reserves leaving Washington, this ship would be renamed Seattle

Note the armed guards. The Navy must have taken exercise seriously back then.

I did not realize push ups were part of war games :) The Seattle was originally the Washington, hence the cross out

In many navies push ups are a form of punishment for the crew when the drill isn't up to mark.