Oblong Quarto album (ca. 21x29 cm). 39 card stock leaves (26 blank) and 20 paper leaves of printed forms of a standard log of a sea voyage, titled “My Log and Diary.” With 45 mounted gelatin silver photographs, including six larger photos from ca. 17,5x25,5 cm (10 ¼ x 7 in) to ca. 12,5x18 cm (5x7 in) and 39 smaller ones, ca. 9x14,5 cm (3 ½ x 5 ¾ in). All but one photo with captions in negatives. With an unfilled certificate of Neptunus Rax tipped in with a tissue guard. Period custom made brown suede album fastened with a string; the front cover with a decorative pictorial vignette relief, depicting U.S.S. Kanawha. Covers with mild wear, two photos apparently removed, a couple of photos mildly faded, a tissue guard with the loss of a small fragment at the lower right corner, but overall a very good collection of strong interesting photos.

Historically interesting attractive keepsake album, documenting the U.S. Navy’s major exercise in Hawaii and its good-will tour to New Zealand in April-October 1925. The album was compiled by a serviceman from U.S.S. Kanawha (AO–1), a Navy ship commissioned in 1915 and sunk by the Japanese forces on April 8, 1943.

The collection opens with a large (ca. 17,5x25 cm) tour map “Across the Pacific with the U.S. Fleet,” outlining the U.S. Navy structure and the route of the cruise with vessels, admirals, and main ports of call indicated. Another interesting photo captures the pioneering rigid airship U.S.S. Shenandoah five months before its tragic demise in an Ohio squall line. Several photographs feature other American fleet vessels, including the USS Mexico & the USS Arizona battleships and the USS Seattle armored cruiser. Two photos also depict the US Army & Navy Y.M.C.A. buildings and the now-demolished Alexander Young Hotel in Honolulu (1903). The rest of the photos comprise ca. twenty-three views of Hawaii (Kilauea & Haleakala volcanoes, the Pali Highway, Oriental aquarium & post office in Honolulu, Hawaiian grass house, rice fields, “native coin divers greeting SS Maui,” etc.), ten views of Tahiti, Samoa, and Fiji (Pago Pago, war canoes, “carefree natives,” a rain maker, a ceremonial dance, etc.), and three views of New Zealand (Wellington and Christchurch). One photo at the rear shows a captivating portrait of a young woman “Maori” from a South Sea Island, captioned by the compiler as “Belle.” Overall, a historically interesting album of the US Navy’s major exercise and tour to South Pacific in 1925.

The expedition, which involved over 75 ships, was the largest transoceanic movement in the history of the U.S. Navy to that time. The Fleet conducted joint Army-Navy exercise no. 3 around Hawaii in April, fleet type & tactical exercise in May and June, and “the Antipodean cruise” in July-September 1925, visiting New Zealand, Samoa, etc. “This voyage helped convince… New Zealand political leaders and voters that the U.S. Navy was probably more important to their security than the Royal Navy – a point that, although perhaps unstated, was one reason for the trip.”  (Nofi, A.A. To Train the Fleet for War: The U.S. Navy Fleet Problems, 1923-1940. Newport, Rhode Island: Naval War College Press, 2010, p. 80).