Created 18 April 2000; Updated 05 January 2004
Capture History
Technology has helped free "history" from "History" as told by those with access to publishers and professional writers. Historians may have a new ocean of personal level histories to roam in writing History.
Laysan Albatross (Diomedea immutabilis) with 6½ foot wingspan who roams from breeding grounds on Midway and nearby Laysan over the entire North Pacific.
History used to be that of kings, statesmen, industry giants and "important people" largely because they were the ones who could access the publishing world. It was a highly selective and slanted view. Most historical institutions have come to realize that and are actively trying to expand the source base. With technology there is no reason so much history, particularly personal history, needs to be lost. Anyone who can write an e-mail message can begin putting their view together. If they choose, they can share it widely as we are doing on web pages or only by depositing it in local libraries and museums.
About a quarter of the e-mail I get in response to these pages makes some mention of a personal collection of information about a ship or memories of ships, times and how things were during someone's own time at sea. Some mention having historical perspective on events such as the consolidation of the Navy Transportation Service and the Army's equivalent into the Military Sea Transportation Service. A few go further back and mention World War II or even pre War experiences. Most are in response to the Army Ships page -- and there is exactly where information is apparently in very short supply.
I have no real intentions of writing a book on the subject and do not have the web space to be the web repository of your material, but I am willing to try to be an instigator of people organizing their own collections and recollections, getting them in electronic form, putting them on their own sites and making arrangements to place hard and digital copies into the hands of educational institutions who specialize in preserving these things.
The most common excuse for not recording your history is writing. "I don't spell well" or "it doesn't flow" or "I can't get it all down at once." Those excuses sort of vanished with typewriter and paper. We have spell checkers -- great teachers (I'd been typing "hundered" for years until my little Osborne I spell checker kept catching it and I got tired of that.) Flow rarely comes in one sitting. Some of these pages have been worked over and over and still don't flow. Every now and then I sit down to work it again. I've got one thing about places I've been that I've been working on and off for nearly two decades. At 100+ pages it still gets little additions. The beauty of the computer and soft copy is that you can check spelling, remember more and add, modify for flow and you never have to fully retype pages.
Just remember and type, that will stir more memories, then add, come back later with afterthoughts, eventually the words will be there and you -- or someone else -- can polish them for spelling, flow and blunders (like one I made with a ship name not long ago). In any case your particular viewpoint won't just vanish. It may in fact have no importance for life on Earth, but it has a chance to last and provide a bit of flavor. It also has the chance of being the bit of background that when woven with others produces something of real value. Just read Stephen E. Ambrose's recent work, The Victors, and look at the back under "Oral Histories, Memoirs, and Interviews." It is those little bits from the foxhole that add so much flavor to the "big picture."
On a smaller scale are very short pieces. Some examples posted on the web may be found at a British site, The World War Two Memories Project. That is one example of several sites trying to organize memories of individuals about a particular event or period.
This stuff is easy to preserve. I recently took a scrapbook started in 1890 or so by my grandmother, full of Victorian greeting cards, Duke tobacco cards and advertising prints, added dozens of family letters, entire files on family history, hundreds of old photos and put it all on a CD. Some 12 copies have gone out to family members. Another will eventually go to the University of North Carolina's Southern Historical Collection to join my grandfather's papers. Anyone with a fairly capable computer and a $75 scanner can produce material that can go onto high quality CDs in formats that can migrate as technology changes. My entire web page with all the photos fits on one 3.5 with room to spare. Over 500 copies would fit on one recordable CD and the drive needed to do that is now reaching the under $200 range. They will become more common and accessible even if you don't have one yourself.
The Southern Historical Collection is an example of the final step. Many institutions realized they had plenty of donations from the generals, admirals, politicians and big names in industry and science. What they did not have was the view of the fairly ordinary person in small towns or rural areas. They began actively looking for collections of letters, diaries, collections and other material from "ordinary" people. I believe maritime museums as well as universities might be particularly interested in the types of stories people who have contacted me might have.
I do want to add to the Army ship page. I'll probably concentrate from the 1920s to 1950-1951 for one particular reason. Pre 1920 is pretty much "history," but I might be able to tap some people who actually went to sea on those ships and have experience with the organizations in the 1920-1939 period. I know there are people who have information 1940-1951, probably some on this address list, who can add original information and perspective. Several have gotten in touch with me mentioning their personal archive. My particular interest, for now at least, are the organizations, general circumstances and few particular ships I knew later. Extensive work on particular ships is a good subject for the kind of thing I've mentioned above.
In February 2001 an unexpected, but hoped for, arrival from Australia turned into a page revealing just how strained the maritime transportation situation was in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA). Ships were in critically short supply everywhere, but the situation in nearly cut off Australia was desperate. That is indicated by the ships without operable engines described in An Australian's Experience.
What I will do on the larger scale is add to this page places that offer advice on the subject and a possible home for material. I will also post contacts who have specifically asked me to do so. One, the reason for this page and who has material on the Cable Ship Restorer, already has.
Two organizations may be possible repositories for Army ship informaiotn people have for donation:
| U.S. Army Transportation Museum Bldg 300, Besson Hall Ft Eustis, VA 23604-5259 (757) 878-1115 atzfptm@eustis.army.mil |
Official Army museum devoted entirely to the history of military transportation. "The museum staff welcomes donations of transportation artifacts, documents, books, and photographs." |
| The Army Historical Foundation, Inc. 2425 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, Virginia 22201 (703) 522-7901 armyhstfnd@aol.com |
Private organization with no museum of its own that is organizing an effort to create an official, central Army Museum and provide additional support for existing, scattered Army museums. |
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Possible Publishers for extensive collections:
| Merriam Press WWII Military History Publisher 218 Beech Street Bennington VT 05201 USA Phone: 802-447-0313 Fax: 802-217-1051 E-mail: ray@merriam-press.com |
Publisher of WW II material in hard copy and on CD. See Merriam Press Author FAQ for details on publishing arrangements. Merriam Press is also a source for hard to find WW II publications. |
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Ship points of contact:
| CS Restorer, cable ship 1902 - 1951: served Eastern Extension Australaisia & China Telegraph Company; Commercial Pacific Cable Company; U.S. Army 1941 - 1944 in Alaska, Philippines, Guam and Saipan. | Dirk van Oudenol |
Anyone wishing to be added will have to ask explicitly to be added as a point of contact. I will not "volunteer" anyone.
A recent example of what can be made available by an individual now exists. A veteran who got in touch with "Slowbell" and then me has provided information tying into stories now at the Naval Historical Center that Slowbell and I have turned into pages on the USS Laramie (AO-16) and USS Relief (AH-1). One item turned out to be Relief's end of war Chronicle of her movements and operations. To get an idea of what can be done look at the Chronicle where you will find the links to the others. We aren't in a position to take on this work for everyone who might have such information, but someone can be usually found locally who will -- or better yet, you can do it yourself with very basic computer and word processing knowledge.
Guides:
The Naval Historical Center's Personal Memoir Guide. If your viewpoint is from Navy activities NHC would be a natural collector, but the guide is useful to everyone. For anyone simply refusing to type an oral history may be the option. One correspondent, a mayor who has a particular interest in the USAT Dorchester (Four Chaplains' ship), noted on the subject of tapes that "court reporters have used them and are used to making transcriptions. Then, there are many who will edit down those pages if double spaced typed, and even do a little writing" so that might be an option. I also know many university and college history departments do oral history collection as part of course work.
Army's Center of Military History has a detailed background and guide on oral histories under "CMH 'How To' Guides" on its main page. Click here to go directly to the particular guide. This guidance appears to be for the Army's collector of oral histories, but could apply to someone wishing to do so independently.
Repository Institution Ideas:
Navy related memoirs or collections have a natural home at Naval Historical Center's various branches.
Those with items related to Army ships should contact one of the organizations at the top of this page.
Local colleges and universities may have collections that would be a fit.
Maritime museums often have collections and facilities. A good listing is found at Robert H. Smith's Master Index to World Wide Maritime Museum Internet Resources. Perhaps one nearby would be interested in helping you or becoming a permanent home for material and memoirs you have.
Every few weeks someone who was in the Navy and served aboard USS Neptune sends me e-mail. I've kept in touch with several of the more recent writers and several have mentioned that they would like to get in touch with people from their Neptune days. At least two mention dates that seem to overlap. I've sent them additional photos and they have sent me some of theirs. I'm also always glad to hear from others who have known these ships, but for the time being will also be willing to act as a point-of-contact for Neptune people who wish to share their e-mail addresses (they will NOT be posted anywhere) and ask explicitly to be added to the short list I have now. If so CLICK.
Army Ships Information
I get quite a few e-mail messages asking me to provide specific information on Army ships, what happened to them, where they went, and for things like troopship rosters. While I do like hearing from readers, I do not have such information. In fact, I have as yet been unable to get a copy of Grover's book other than on loan. As I explain below, this information is scarce. Some can be obtained, but it takes work and quite likely travel. The problem, with suggested solutions, is explained on two pages on other sites:
Wesley Johnston's World War II Troop Ship Crossings page
Theron P. Snell's Have Ship, Need Information: How to research the history of a World War II era ship on Greg Hayden's Another Merchant Marine Page.
I do not have web space or physical storage to become an archive. I have no plan to place original material by others at this site though I'm interested in incorporating facts you might provide about the subject. I would like to hear from those who are willing to provide such information for incorporation and reference. Those who have written their own histories should attempt to provide it to the public as I've outlined above. If you do choose to send such material and want it posted doing so is purely my option and I will exercise "editorial" control, particularly in formatting for the web. Whether or not I use my web space, for which I pay, to post such material and how I post it is solely my decision.
I am fairly experienced in web searches and enjoy doing a bit of digging. Within reason, I'll generally be willing to do some web searching to help, but anyone can do that for themselves with immediate results. I recommend the advanced searches with ship name, the words "ship" and "USAT" as additional matches. Expect to get a couple of pages of sporting information as "USAT" applies there. I now (2/2001) typically use the advanced Google. AltaVista (good Boolean, but lots of dead pages) appears to be commercializing and steering rather than searching as well. Increasingly search engines have been taken over by entities more interested in getting lots of commercial hits rather than solid research results. Quite frankly, none live up to the old literature searches that allowed precise and rapid zeroing in on possibles. One hope is Open Directory Project's goal to "produce the most comprehensive directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors."
Unfortunately, my estimate is that web commerce is corrupting most search engines and may eventually corrupt all the web as it converts to a "tout system" and the "free" pages for interesting, but non commercial interests die. I'm afraid personally published history will be one victim. I consider it ironic that at a time book publishing is getting more difficult with intense commercialization and the web has been the "safety valve" that the web is seeing the same take overs and consolidations.
Special Notices
Notice: On 10 January 2002 my main pages vanished and my e-mail went dead because my ISP sold the domain dc.net forgetting that I (and many others) had used it for years. I am left with dial up access and nothing else at the moment. I am changing links and restoring those pages for the time being at Patriot.net, probably my new ISP. The links on this page reach that location.
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