‘She’s All Ablaze’
In the hard Christmas of 1915, the gleaming new “Superdreadnought” USS New York (Battleship No. 34) was resting in the Hudson. Bedecked with Christmas trees from her yardarms and one huge Douglas fir on the roof of A Turret, the warship hosted 100 needy children on a tour.
USN photo courtesy of Scott Koen & ussnewyork.com, via Navsource. https://www.navsource.org/archives/01/34a.htm
Then came a large Christmas Party attended by members of the battleship’s crew, who all chipped into the fund to buy the kiddies some gifts to make their season bright.
From a period paper published on 26 December 1915:
When Chief Bos’n’s Mate ‘Arry Percival of the superdreadnought New York slipped his ‘and around ‘is waistline to the top of ‘s pocket and nonchalantly withdrew there from something which looked ever so much like a regular flask filled with an amber-colored something that made the grape juice in the punch bowl on the reporters’ table blush a deeper purple, everyone in the foc’sle was too busy feeding his or her’s Christmas face to gasp at ‘Arry’s apparent audacity. But it wasn’t that at all, and nobody should have gasped anyhow if anyone had time to indulge in an outburst.
So, Mr. Percival proceeded to justify his lack of respect for h’ by sprinkling a great big melon-shaped plum pudding with what is technically known on shipboard as the illuminating gear, same being the contents of the flask-like affair from the Chief Bos’n’s Mate’s ‘ip pocket. Then he touched a lighted match to the steaming dish and surveyed the dancing blue flames with evident satisfaction. The next instant, Mr. Percival lifted the huge platter in his arms and paraded his burden along as happy a Christmas table as yesterday knew.
“‘Ere you go, children,” beamed the Chief Bos’n’s Mate. “She’s all ablaze.”
And the “Ahs ” and “Ums” that greeted his announcement simply smothered the flames as he set the dish before the New York’s guests in the center of the long mess table.
Fast forward exactly 30 years, and after Great War service in Battleship Division Nine as reinforcement for the British Grand Fleet, earning three battle stars for her WWII service that included 1,088 operational days with the Atlantic Fleet and another 276 in the Pacific, firing over 53,000 shells in anger, she was docked in the Hudson once again.
A tired and very well-traveled war vet.
From her amazing 229-page WWII cruise book digitized online via the Bangor Public Library, the “Christmas Ship” in December 1945:
