US NAVY ASIATIC STATION - CALDWELL, Harold Marcko.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

An album recording his service on the Asiatic Pacific Station. An impressive album and collection of loose photographs recording the voyages of USS West Virginia and USS Beaver. The photographs, many taken by a fellow sailor, feature US ships underway, the recovery of a seaplane, and Pacific islands. A number show China in the warlord period of the mid 1920s, documenting the gruesome public executions of thieves and other dissidents.Harold Caldwell (1907-1984) enlisted in the US Navy at age 18 and was immediately assigned to the West Virginia. During the 1920s this ship conducted training manoeuvres in the Atlantic and Pacific. In 1924 she became the flagship for the Commander, Battleship Divisions, Battle Fleet of Asiatic Station, then helped to trial the defences of Hawaii and Australia. Caldwell's album opens with official photographs of this tour, including shots of other ships operating in the region such as the USS Langley, the first American aircraft carrier. The album's most striking feature is a collection of personal and souvenir photographs of Qingdao, Shanghai, and Hong Kong during the turbulent 1920s, many taken by Caldwell and his fellow sailor, H. B. Grapes of the USS Beaver. The Beaver was based in the city and assigned to support submarines throughout the Asiatic Station. Over 20 annotated prints record the chaos and brutality of the region, depicting public beheadings, the supposedly outlawed "death by a thousand cuts", prisoners in the stocks, and military

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