Local Sailors Engaged at the Battle of Vera Cruz, 1914

As the diplomatic crisis with Mexican military government continued to deteriorate, President Woodrow Wilson decided to act. Each of the battleships off of Vera Cruz was to assemble a landing team of armed Sailors and Marine detachments. Reinforced by land-based Marines, the force landed with orders to seize the city's custom house and secure the city. The landing itself went on without much issue. But shortly after the landing, local Mexican forces opened fire on the Americans. Here are some of the images we have of sailors from locally-based ships preparing for action or already in the middle of it.

You can see other images in our collection of the Vera Cruz intervention here,  here, and here. For an excellent political and military overview of the expedition, we encourage you to read naval historian Jack Sweetman's Naval History magazine article or his book The Landing at Veracruz: 1914.

Sailors from USS Michigan's (BB-27) Fifth Division make final preparations to go ashore at Vera Cruz.  While most sailors went into combat wearing either their summer whites or winter blues, Michigan's sailors felt their uniform needed to be more suitable for possible urban combat.  They decided on a khaki-colored uniform.  As this was not standard issue, the sailors soaked their uniforms in the battleship's large coffee vats and boiled them in hot coffee.  During anti-sniper sweeps, one Michigan sailor was credited with taking out an enemy sniper from 100 yards away at night with one shot from his Colt revolver.   

Signalmen from the USS Florida (BB-30) detachment prepare to go ashore.  During the fighting, these men exposed themselves to enemy fire to keep American flag officers informed on the progress of the battle. 

USS Louisiana's (BB-19) company of Sailors and Marines prepare to land at a moment's notice (note that the ship is underway).  While Michigan's and Louisiana's companies arrived too late for the April 21-22 street fight, American flag officers welcomed their arrival and used them to help secure the city and the outlying areas.

USS Utah (BB-31) sailors in action during the heavy fighting with Mexican forces on April 21.  The Mexican forces consisted of Mexican Federal soldiers, local militiamen, and Mexican Naval cadets.

Sailors and Marines, possibly from Florida's company, take up anti-sniper positions.  Once the heavy fighting stopped on April 22, Mexican soldiers constantly harassed American forces with snipers. 

The Newport News-built and locally based USS Montana (ACR-13) gets underway for New York City, carrying twenty-two American Sailors and Marines killed in the fighting.  The fallen were given a public funeral in New York City. 

Battleship Squadron Leaves For Mexico, 1914

A newspaper photograph of Atlantic Fleet battleships deploying from Hampton Roads to Mexico,
April 15, 1914.  It should be noted that the newspaper's caption have the wrong ship names.

One hundred years ago yesterday, acting on instructions from President Woodrow Wilson, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels ordered the Hampton Roads-based ships of the Atlantic Fleet to mobilize and head to the east coast of Mexico. The first squadron to deploy included the new battleships USS Arkansas (BB-33), USS Utah (BB-31), and Florida (BB-30); the older battleships USS New Jersey (BB-16) and USS New Hampshire (BB-25); and the dispatch boat/armed yacht USS Yankton. Daniels had specifically ordered the squadron to Tampico and Vera Cruz. Daniels deployed the squadron of heavy ships to reinforce a smaller squadron already on the scene.

The deployment of American battleships came from a culmination of a series of international incidents. A few days before, Mexican authorities had arrested several American sailors in Tampico, and later a Marine who got lost while trying to deliver official mail. These arrests occurred during the latest civil war in Mexico. There was also an American belief that European powers were attempting to intervene in the war. Thus, tensions between Mexico and the United States were high.

Mexican authorities agreed to release the American servicemen, but some senior U.S. Naval officers, and later President Wilson himself, beleived American honor had been insulted. They demanded official apology and a 21-gun salute to the American flag by the Mexican government. When the Mexican reply to the American demands was not forthcoming quickly enough, Wilson put the Navy's ships on alert.

While Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt commented to the press that the Navy was prepared for anything, there is evidence that the mobilization order caught the Atlantic Fleet somewhat off guard. Several of the ships were not prepared for an extended deployment. New Hampshire's sailors, for example, worked through the night and early morning of April 15 loading 1,600 tons of coal on board. The Navy quickly called up all sailors stationed at St. Helena Naval Training Station and on board the local receiving ships Franklin and Richmond, regardless of rate, sea experience, or enlistment status, to fill in personnel gaps. Many other ships in the Atlantic Fleet were not ready, including the battleships Texas (BB-35) and Delaware (BB-28) and several repair vessels and coal colliers.

Even though the initial operation was only a partial mobilization of the Atlantic Fleet, the five battleships' deployment raised American jingoism to a fever pitch. Most Americans fully supported the deployment and even offered to help in their own special way. The Governor of Texas, for example, offered to invade Mexico on behalf of the United States. The President politely declined.