Galerie

 

Archives Hunt for the U.S.S.Pittsburgh
by the Editor ii. Frau


“We’re never too old to learn”, said the sage of Danzig, Bud Hennig, in a letter last week. Accepting the challenge, two of us old geezers, Editor u.Frau, set off to Washington, D.C. one cold morning in late October. Rising before sun-up (hey’ We’re retired!) we took the bumper-to- bumper Baltimore Beltway and crept along to an obscure train stop called Halethorpe. Two Amtrack trains exploded through before our designated commuter came in for a landing, but it took less than 40 minutes to Washington’s Union Station - which is quite an interesting rebuilding job, with an impressive vaulted roof, many restaurants and shops. Across the street is the newly opened Postal Museum, which should be visited when you are in our area for the G.P.S. convention next September.

Our real reason for this trip, however, was to try our luck at the National Archives, and to provide instructions for their use. Since the Archives are about a mile away from the station, take a cab to the Research Library entrance at 8th and Pennsylvania Avenue. At this entrance, a guard will give the route to Room 207, at which you will receive a Researcher Identification card, good for two years. If your spouse left all of her/his photo identification at home, she will receive a one-day pass. Note: every person should bring a driver’s license or passport-type of ID. At Room 207, the guard will ask the purpose of your visit and direct you to the department requested. We thought that the Naval Subject Files in the Military Reference Branch would be able to trace the activities of the USS PITTSBURGH and the USS MARS during their visit to Danzig in 1920. But first, a word about the structure of the building. From the outside, the Archives looks very similar to other five-story federal buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue. From the inside, there are about twenty levels (called Tiers), which will completely confound a visitor on an initial trip. The workers are, thankfully, kind to lost souls.

Given a map with clear instructions to find Room 16W2, the Military Reference Branch (Navy). we signed in and told the cooperative clerk just what you are looking for. Prior to the visit, we had typed a list of ships and info, such as: Ships’ Logs: Navy Intelligence Reports; Dates the ships were stationed in Danzig; Ships’ Post Office info, with cancels, etc. The clerk wrote orders for logs of the cruiser Pennsylvania and the collier Mars and then handed us two volumes of Navy Intelligence Reports from about 1908 through 1923. Betty searched one and I the other, which took about an hour. Unfortunately, the topics were grouped such as: torpedos, explosives, unders eas cables, Dornier flying boats, and at least 20 references to Zeppelins. The navy was apparently fascinated by lighter-than-air flight. Out of the thousands of references, only two appeared to be within our scope: Relations and Policies iii the Free City of Danzig, and Progress Report of Naval Port QfJice,; Danzig, Germany (sic), 1919. Neither of these references turned up in the reading room; we guess that they weren’t found and that other documents, unrelated to Danzig, were sent up in their stead. It took about two hours to receive these in the reading room, but the two log books were waiting for us.

Now try to find the Central Research Room #203 on the second floor. The elevator button is marked 2, but this is a “tier”, not a floor. After a while you find Room #203 and will be told that no hats, coats, briefcases, fountain pens, writing padsor other items are allowed; they furnish the

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 81 - October - November - December - 1993, Page 18.