16 December 1907 – Hampton Roads, Va.

Signed & Numbered Giclee on Canvas
Image Size: 18″ x 21″
100 Signed and numbered, issue price: $795
Painted in 1977, Printed in 2006

Times had changed – peace and celebration were in the air. At 10:00 a.m. on December 16, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt gave the order. With a tug on the halyard, tightly wrapped cloth bundles at the yardarm broke open into brilliantly colored signal flags with the order “Proceed upon duty as assigned,” and sixteen of America’s proudest battleships painted immaculate white to symbolize peace got under way for what was to be a 46,000 mile voyage around the world. To Roosevelt, the ships and their mission were symbol and substance of America’s proclamation to the whole world that she was assuming a broader obligation toward maintaining world peace than ever before.

The voyage of the Great White Fleet, as it came to be known, was an example of unabashed “Big Stick Diplomacy,” and for Roosevelt the fulfillment of a dream he had first had as Assistant Secretary of the Navy; to rebuild America’s neglected Navy into one second only to that of Great Britain. On February 22, 1909, Roosevelt welcomed his Fleet home to Hampton Roads, his point made to the world, his support earned among the American people.

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