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Military Collector & Historian
A 1912 Real Picture Postcard of a Sailor from USS Franklin Anthony F. Gero
I
mages give historians, researchers, and collectors valuable windows into the past. Recently, a Real Picture Post Card (RPPC) of a sailor (FIG 1) of the fourth Navy ship to be named USS Franklin does just that. Launched in 1864 as a screw frigate, USS Franklin stayed in active service until 1877 and thereafter was used as a receiving ship at the Norfolk Navy Yard until decommissioned there in 1915.1 This unsent RPPC, now in the Anthony F. Gero Collection, has a notation on the reverse that reads (according to my interpretation), “U.S.S. Franklin Otto Zery (sic) 1912 just a cousin of mine Miss Anna Franzer.” Upon examination, the sailor’s hatband clearly shows the lettering for USS Franklin. Additionally, the image provides an excellent forensic study of this sailor who is armed and equipped for land service with a Model 1898 Krag rifle, bayonet, and web ammo belt.2 Since the ship was decommissioned in 1915, we have an unique snapshot into a sailor’s dress and equipage in 1912.3
My thanks go to Fellows Dave Sullivan, Mark Kassel, and late Fellow Roger Sturcke, along with Company members Bill Chachula, Terry Kaplan, Ron MacWillie, and Dave Kampf, plus Marcus Robbins of the Norfolk Naval Ship Yard for their assistance on the research for this short article. Notes 1. For some preliminary data from 1775 to 1944 on the ships commissioned USS Franklin, one can see: https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/USS Franklin. The source for the Wikipedia reference was, as stated in their article: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. My thanks also goes to Marcus Robbins of the Norfolk Naval Ship Yard in e-mail correspondence in late April/ early May 2017. 2. In consultation with Fellow Dave Sullivan in April 2017, we felt the weapon seen was a Krag rifle. Our observation was also confirmed in Franklin B. Mallory and Ludwig Olson’s, The Krag Story (Silver Spring, MD: Springfield Research Service, 1979), 86, “Starting in 1900, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps adopted the Krag rifle, and approximately 70,000 Model 1898 rifles were issued to them … .” See their entire “Chapter 7: Model 1898 RIFLE” and “Chapter 17: APPENDAGES AND ACCOUTREMENTS,” a copy supplied to me by the late Fellow Roger Sturcke. In e-mail correspondence with Fellow Mark Kasal and CMH members Bill Chachula, Terry Kaplan, and Ron MacWillie at the end of April 2017, their consensus was the weapon in the RPPC was a Krag. Unfortunately, they felt that from the angle in the RPPC they couldn’t tell whether the rear sight had been modified. 3. To begin the identification of U.S. Navy uniforms one may consult James C. Tily, The Uniforms of the United States Navy (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1962). According to CMH member Dave Kampf, “The rifle is definitely a Krag. The single stripe on his cuffs
indicated he is a seaman recruit or seaman apprentice (Army equivalent of buck private or private). The white cord around his neck disappearing into his trousers is probably attached to a sailor knife or combination tool,” taken from an e-mail sent 30 April 2017 to Mark Kasal then forwarded to the author answering his request for help with this RPPC’s image.
