One Century Ago: What Cold Really Looks Like

Local headlines recently proclaimed that the Hampton Roads area is experiencing perhaps the coldest new year it has experienced in a century.  Thousands of "nonessential" workers at military bases across the Hampton Roads Region are off for the second day in a row (myself included, although I'm still on deadline for this blog post and other projects).  Many of them are busily documenting the snowdrifts and other winter wonders deposited by the recent "bomb cyclone" that made it all possible.  But what did the winter of a century ago look like to the Sailors and other photographers who were working then?  

The Hampton Roads Naval Museum recently acquired photographs taken by a young gunner's mate floating on the York River that show just how cold it got one century ago. Compared to the arctic blast of January 1918, which froze battleships into place off Yorktown and made the majority of the Chesapeake region practically impassible, the so-called "bomb cyclone" that swept through the area this week was a mere inconvenience.

Thanks to a young Sailor named Ernest A. Washburn, who was serving aboard USS Rhode Island (BB 17), we now have a better idea what the York looked like during that epic cold snap.

Two photographs taken from USS Rhode Island (BB 17) have been combined to show the monitor Tallahassee (BM 9), which served during the war as a submarine tender, and the battleship Texas (BB 35), frozen in at the location near Yorktown, Virginia, known as "Base 2" in January 1918. (E.A. Washburn Collection, Hampton Roads Naval Museum)

The battleship Virginia (BB 13) waits out the weather on the York River in January 1918. (E.A. Washburn Collection, Hampton Roads Naval Museum)

When not on patrol or in the midst of training the teeming multitudes of prospective engineers and gunners passing through Hampton Roads during the First World War, the bulk of the Atlantic Fleet, made up mostly of ships that sailed with the Great White Fleet ten years before, was bottled up behind anti-torpedo nets at "Base 2" on the York River, just off the old Yorktown Battlefield.  The area was also home to "Camp Mayo," a tent encampment serving as a provisional headquarters to the fleet while the naval operating base at Sewells Point was under construction.

One of the young officers tasked with gunnery training aboard the newer superdreadnought Texas (BB 35), future Vice Admiral Bernhard H. Bieri, recalled in an oral history he gave to the U.S. Naval Institute:

They took the whole fleet into the York River, behind the submarine nets, in early 1917.  We spent the winter of 1917 in the York River and the Chesapeake Bay.  The Germans were prowling in the Atlantic and sinking ships all over.  So we had nets up, and they put us back of those barriers in the Chesapeake Bay, where we carried out our target practices. The river and the bay froze up very hard.  We had some of the old battleships that were used as icebreakers. 

Meanwhile, Sailors at the the newly-opened naval training center at Sewells Point, about 36 miles southeast of Yorktown, were facing even more extreme living conditions than those marooned on the York.  Water pipes that had just been installed in brand new barracks began bursting and the steam plant designed to support hundreds of new recruits with hot water failed. 

Roger B. Copinger, an officer candidate from Maryland who was waiting for classes to begin at the Officer-Material School, established at the former Pennsylvania Exhibition Hall on the base, later recalled what the winter was like for him and his shipmates:

Shortly after we reported the weather became even colder. The overhead steam pipe froze, and as a result we had no heat in the barracks or hot water in the showers. We slept in our clothes, and our week end liberty became not only a relaxation but a necessity. We would usually make for the Navy Y and a hot bath, or if we had the required funds, we would team up, and three of four of us would get a room at the Neddo Hotel on Plume Street near Granby.

Chesapeake Bay from the Capes to Baltimore was frozen, and while channels in the lower portion were kept open, shipping from the Potomac north was at a standstill. The Navy finally ordered the USS Ohio to try to break out a channel in the upper Bay, but the task turned out to be too much for the old battleship, and she was likewise frozen in.

When we had a few minutes before or after classes we would walk out on the ice which extended from in front of the Pennsylvania Building almost to the channel. This was dangerous because of the thin places or holes, so we were finally ordered to discontinue this activity.

Copinger, who ultimately rose to the rank of commander while serving in Hampton Roads during the Second World War, also reported that several Sailors on their way to Sewells Point for classes in early January were diverted to downtown Norfolk to stand guard over the remains of the Monticello Hotel, which had burned on New Year's Day, 1918.  

Longtime Norfolk photographer Harry C. Mann recorded the aftermath of the Monticello Hotel fire, after which a fire engine remained frozen in place.  At far left, merchants can be seen removing whatever wares they can salvage. (Library of Virginia Digital Collections)

Construction projects at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, just south of the city of Portsmouth, across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk, as well as the new mine assembly plant at St. Juliens Creek Annex, about a mile south of the shipyard, also ground nearly to a halt.

The construction site for Dry Dock 4 at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, January 8, 1918. (Courtesy of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard Archives)

The dangerous conditions did not prevent these workers from venturing out to the new power plant construction site at Norfolk Naval Shipyard on January 8, 1918. (Courtesy of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard Archives)

Despite the conditions, the nation was in the midst of war, and the work went on.

Builder's Ship Model, Cruiser USS Virginia (CGN-38)

Currently in the museum's storage room is this builder's model of the nuclear-powered cruiser USS Virginia (CGN-38).  The Navy's Ship Research and Development Center (now known as the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center) built the model in the 1970s and has been on loan to the museum since 1984.   Although typical builder's models are purposely built with few details, this model shows a close representation to the actual ship launched.  The ship's missile and gun batteries are accurate, as are much of the electronics. 

The most intriguing aspect of the model is the inclusion of a SH-60 Seahawk helicopter  on the fantail of the ship.  At the time, the Navy looked at the SH-60 to replace the SH-3 as its LAMPS platform.  Though the aircraft would not see operational service until 1983, it would seem someone decided the best way to publicize the new helicopter was on the Navy's newest surface warship.

USS Virginia (CGN-38) prepares to deploy for the Indian

Ocean from Naval Station Norfolk in response to the

Iranian Hostage Crisis. (Soundings newspaper photo)

Virginia was the lead ship in a series of nuclear powered warships.  She was the result of over twenty years (starting in the late 1950s) worth of discussion among Navy leadership on what kind of nuclear-powered surface ship the Fleet should acquire.  Many were in favor of giving the surface fleet some type of nuclear powered ship, both to serve as an escort to the new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and as the ultimate anti-submarine warfare platform to counter new Soviet nuclear submarines. 

Four ships, Long Beach (CGN-9), Truxtun (CGN-35, ex-DLGN-35), California (CGN-36), and South Carolina (CGN-37), were commissioned between 1959 and 1972.  Naval leadership was never completely satisfied with these ships and wanted their nuclear surface ships to be more capable. 

In the mid-1970s, the concept of a "strike cruiser" finally began to take hold.  The concept called for a nuclear-powered cruiser capable of all aspects of naval warfare.  Strike cruisers needed to be prepared for offensive missile strikes as well as anti-submarine warfare and anti-aircraft operations.  This became the Virginia-class of warships.  The ship was capable of operating both independently and with a carrier task force, giving the Navy more flexibility in time of war.  In all, Newport News built four Virginia-class cruisers.  

Battleship USS Virginia Builder's Model

This is the original builder's model of the battleship USS Virginia (BB-13).  It is currently on display in the museum's 1907 exhibit on the third floor of Nauticus.  Currently on loan from Naval Sea System's Curator of Navy Ship Models, this all-wood model dates back to 1901, and is one of the largest models in the museum's collection (second in size only to the museum's builder's model of USS America (CV-66)). 

When the model was located at the Pennsylvania Building at Naval Station Norfolk (the museum's first home), a steam pipe burst, causing severe water damage to the ship.   When a repair team from the Curator of Navy Ship Models began to work on the model, the group discovered this note from the ship's design team:

Francis T. Bowles, Chief Constructor
Washington Navy Yard
Model started July 12, 1901
by E.R. Marceron and H.K. Prossev and James Baker
Edwin Phillips made small boats [etc.]
Painting [etc.] by John Henry Walker
Charles Charleston
Joeh Evans, Quartermaster
this paper put in
model Aug. 8, 1901
& the model closed & glued together

"Francis T. Bowles" refers to Rear Admiral Francis Bowles, USN, who served as the Navy's chief architect and designed the Virginia-class battleships.  His design--particularly the weapons arrangement--was controversial.  Notice that there are four guns grouped together on the bow and stern of the vessel.  The lower guns are 12-inch/40 rifles, typical guns for an American battleship.  However, many people wanted the ship to have 8-inch/45 rifles, one of the Navy's most accurate weapons.  The resulting debate and budgetary restrictions forced Bowles to produce a compromise that satisfied no one. 

Built at Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia served in the Great White Fleet, the 1914 Vera Cruz Expedition, and World War I, before being sunk as a target ship off the coast of Cape Hatteras in 1923.