All of these types of naval records were transferred to the National Archives in Washington, DC, many years ago. They should be held in the Old Military and Civil Records Branch of the Archives. Contact information is as follows:
Old Military and Civil Records Branch
National Archives and Records Administration 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20408
1-866-272-6272
http://www.archives.gov/contact/
inquire@nara.gov
The Curator Branch here at the Naval Historical Center has posted a research guide called "Sources for the Study of Naval Equipment"
http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org2-4.htm
You may want to review it for helpful information.
At the National Archives, you will probably need to review records in Record Group (RG) 74, Records of the Bureau of Ordnance http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/074.html
We encourage you to consult a reference professional at the Archives for further assistance.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
LION units
This is a definition for a LION:
LION: A large advanced base unit consisting of all the personnel and material necessary for the establishment of a major all-purpose naval base. It is made up of a large number of functional components which enable the base to perform voyage repairs and minor battle-damage repairs to a major portion of a fleet.
The definition above comes from the following book:
Carter, Worrall Reed. "Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil. From The Story of Fleet Logistics Afloat in the Pacific During World War II." (Washington, DC: Govt. Printing Office, 1953): 458.
At one time our Operational Archives Branch http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/nhcorg10.htm
at the Naval Historical Center, apparently used to have reports on LION units, so you may want to check with that branch.
You might see the units listed in documents as ABD-LION (number)
The acronym ABD can stand for Advance Base Dock or Advance Base Depot.
Some photographs of (or from) LION units 2 and 4 circa 1944 are available at the National Archives in College Park, MD http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/index.html
in Record Group 38, Records of the Chief of Naval Operations http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/038.html
specifically Record Group 38.4.16, Other ONI Records http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/038.html#38.4.16 <http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/038.html> .
Contact information for the National Archives is as follows:
Modern Military Branch
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
301-837-3510
1-866-272-6272
http://www.archives.gov/contact/
inquire@nara.gov
The National Archives in College Park also may have other information concerning LION units, such as after-action reports or unit rosters or some sort of war diaries.
We recommend you consult a reference professional at the National Archives for more assistance.
Lastly, you might be able to obtain some additional information about these LION units from the Seabee Museum and History Office at Port Hueneme, CA https://portal.navfac.navy.mil/portal/page?_pageid=181,3446173,181_5309880&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
Director or Curator
US Navy Seabee Museum NFELC
1000 23rd Ave
Bldg 99, Code HO
Port Hueneme CA 93043
(805) 982-5165, 5167
LION: A large advanced base unit consisting of all the personnel and material necessary for the establishment of a major all-purpose naval base. It is made up of a large number of functional components which enable the base to perform voyage repairs and minor battle-damage repairs to a major portion of a fleet.
The definition above comes from the following book:
Carter, Worrall Reed. "Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil. From The Story of Fleet Logistics Afloat in the Pacific During World War II." (Washington, DC: Govt. Printing Office, 1953): 458.
At one time our Operational Archives Branch http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/nhcorg10.htm
at the Naval Historical Center, apparently used to have reports on LION units, so you may want to check with that branch.
You might see the units listed in documents as ABD-LION (number)
The acronym ABD can stand for Advance Base Dock or Advance Base Depot.
Some photographs of (or from) LION units 2 and 4 circa 1944 are available at the National Archives in College Park, MD http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/index.html
in Record Group 38, Records of the Chief of Naval Operations http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/038.html
specifically Record Group 38.4.16, Other ONI Records http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/038.html#38.4.16 <http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/038.html> .
Contact information for the National Archives is as follows:
Modern Military Branch
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
301-837-3510
1-866-272-6272
http://www.archives.gov/contact/
inquire@nara.gov
The National Archives in College Park also may have other information concerning LION units, such as after-action reports or unit rosters or some sort of war diaries.
We recommend you consult a reference professional at the National Archives for more assistance.
Lastly, you might be able to obtain some additional information about these LION units from the Seabee Museum and History Office at Port Hueneme, CA https://portal.navfac.navy.mil/portal/page?_pageid=181,3446173,181_5309880&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
Director or Curator
US Navy Seabee Museum NFELC
1000 23rd Ave
Bldg 99, Code HO
Port Hueneme CA 93043
(805) 982-5165, 5167
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Cruise books
Most of the cruise books in our collection can be copied.
The Naval
Historical Foundation www.navyhistory.org
which is in an office next to us, has a Document Reproduction Service and will duplicate the cruise book for you for a fee.
The fee schedule is posted online at
http://www.navyhistory.org/documentservice.html
<http://www.navyhistory.org/documentservice.html>
Contact the Naval Historical Foundation for an estimate of the cost to copy, bind and ship the
cruise book.
We can tell you it won't be cheap because the book is in color
and is 400 pages long. It will be extremely expensive to duplicate it.
1) ILL option: You may be able to borrow the cruise book through interlibrary loan. See
your local librarian to initiate such a request. I don't know for sure if
our Interlibrary Loan technician will lend the book however because it is
our only copy. We have this book in our collection so that veterans,
researchers and historians for all time will have access to the book, so we
would hate to lose it or have it stolen. If we do lend it then please note
that any cruise book we lend to another library MUST be returned to us via
FedEx, UPS or some other commercial courier service.
This is due to the fact that all regular mail delivered to the Washington Navy Yard is irradiated
for anthrax, and this irradiation process can be extremely damaging to print
and photographic material.
Furthermore, the cruise book MUST NOT leave the
borrowing library. It is for in-library use only and not to be sent home
with anyone. If we lend it to your local library, then you can view it at
your local library and take digital photographs of it if you'd like, but you
will NOT be able to take it home from there.
2) Purchase option: Cruise books are much like highschool yearbooks in that usually only as many are printed as are ordered.
Due to the sentimental value of these books to veterans, few are ever given away or sold. It could be very difficult to find an original copy.
Nonetheless, you might find one for sale on eBay or
through an online network of used booksellers, such as www.abebooks.com
<http://www.abebooks.com> or www.alibris.com <http://www.alibris.com> .
This library has the largest collection of cruise books in the country, yet
it is far from complete. Although ships are instructed to submit copies to
us, few ever do; we receive most of ours through donation. A few other
places you might find a copy of the cruise book are:
Jack Long Books -
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/StoreFrontDisplay?cid=243880
<http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/StoreFrontDisplay?cid=243880> ; contact
him by e-mail; he has a large selection of cruise books not listed in his
online inventory. He's a nice guy to do business with.
Columbia Trading Company
One Barnstable Road
Hyannis, MA 02601
www.columbiatrading.com
The Naval
Historical Foundation www.navyhistory.org
which is in an office next to us, has a Document Reproduction Service and will duplicate the cruise book for you for a fee.
The fee schedule is posted online at
http://www.navyhistory.org/documentservice.html
<http://www.navyhistory.org/documentservice.html>
Contact the Naval Historical Foundation for an estimate of the cost to copy, bind and ship the
cruise book.
We can tell you it won't be cheap because the book is in color
and is 400 pages long. It will be extremely expensive to duplicate it.
1) ILL option: You may be able to borrow the cruise book through interlibrary loan. See
your local librarian to initiate such a request. I don't know for sure if
our Interlibrary Loan technician will lend the book however because it is
our only copy. We have this book in our collection so that veterans,
researchers and historians for all time will have access to the book, so we
would hate to lose it or have it stolen. If we do lend it then please note
that any cruise book we lend to another library MUST be returned to us via
FedEx, UPS or some other commercial courier service.
This is due to the fact that all regular mail delivered to the Washington Navy Yard is irradiated
for anthrax, and this irradiation process can be extremely damaging to print
and photographic material.
Furthermore, the cruise book MUST NOT leave the
borrowing library. It is for in-library use only and not to be sent home
with anyone. If we lend it to your local library, then you can view it at
your local library and take digital photographs of it if you'd like, but you
will NOT be able to take it home from there.
2) Purchase option: Cruise books are much like highschool yearbooks in that usually only as many are printed as are ordered.
Due to the sentimental value of these books to veterans, few are ever given away or sold. It could be very difficult to find an original copy.
Nonetheless, you might find one for sale on eBay or
through an online network of used booksellers, such as www.abebooks.com
<http://www.abebooks.com> or www.alibris.com <http://www.alibris.com> .
This library has the largest collection of cruise books in the country, yet
it is far from complete. Although ships are instructed to submit copies to
us, few ever do; we receive most of ours through donation. A few other
places you might find a copy of the cruise book are:
Jack Long Books -
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/StoreFrontDisplay?cid=243880
<http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/StoreFrontDisplay?cid=243880> ; contact
him by e-mail; he has a large selection of cruise books not listed in his
online inventory. He's a nice guy to do business with.
Columbia Trading Company
One Barnstable Road
Hyannis, MA 02601
www.columbiatrading.com
Ship's name : named after Senator Eugene Hale
Senator Hale was very interested in naval affairs, especially naval appropriations.
Two US Navy vessels were named after Senator Eugene Hale.
The first was a destroyer, DD-133 http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/h1/hale-i.htm.
The second was also a destroyer, DD-642 http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/h1/hale-ii.htm
We checked our biographical and manuscript files and only have a very brief biography on the Senator.
We also checked our publication, US Naval History Sources in the United States, but did not find any collection of Eugene Hale papers. (An online version of US Naval History Sources is available at http://www.history.navy.mil/sources/index.htm although no index is available. Rather, it must be searched through the entire Naval Historical Center website at http://www.history.navy.mil/search/index.html)
We suspect all of the Library of Congress manuscript collections are cataloged in OCLC, but it may be worth checking directly with the Manuscript Division http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/ anyway.
And it may be a long shot, but you might check with the National Archives in Washington, DC. Contact information is below.
Unfortunately, many papers collections simply don't exist, having been broken up and sold at auctions, etc., but we hope that is not the case with Eugene Hale. Contact information for the Archives:
Old Military and Civil Records Branch
National Archives and Records Administration 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20408
1-866-272-6272
http://www.archives.gov/contact/
inquire@nara.gov
Two US Navy vessels were named after Senator Eugene Hale.
The first was a destroyer, DD-133 http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/h1/hale-i.htm.
The second was also a destroyer, DD-642 http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/h1/hale-ii.htm
We checked our biographical and manuscript files and only have a very brief biography on the Senator.
We also checked our publication, US Naval History Sources in the United States, but did not find any collection of Eugene Hale papers. (An online version of US Naval History Sources is available at http://www.history.navy.mil/sources/index.htm although no index is available. Rather, it must be searched through the entire Naval Historical Center website at http://www.history.navy.mil/search/index.html)
We suspect all of the Library of Congress manuscript collections are cataloged in OCLC, but it may be worth checking directly with the Manuscript Division http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/ anyway.
And it may be a long shot, but you might check with the National Archives in Washington, DC. Contact information is below.
Unfortunately, many papers collections simply don't exist, having been broken up and sold at auctions, etc., but we hope that is not the case with Eugene Hale. Contact information for the Archives:
Old Military and Civil Records Branch
National Archives and Records Administration 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20408
1-866-272-6272
http://www.archives.gov/contact/
inquire@nara.gov
Shipbuilding Contract
There is only one Heintz contract in
our collection.
The 2 that appears next to Heintz Manufacturing Co.
indicates that it's the second contract in the binder, not that there are
two contracts. (The Heintz contract is 12 pages long )
If you are indeed interested in more than one contract,
we refer to the Gibbs, Grove and Globe-Union contracts.
You will need to contact the Naval Historical Foundation to make the other copies.
The Foundation is in an office next to us and will reproduce documents for you for a fee.
The fee schedule is posted online at http://www.navyhistory.org/documentservice.html. Contact the Naval Historical Foundation for an estimate of the cost to copy.
our collection.
The 2 that appears next to Heintz Manufacturing Co.
indicates that it's the second contract in the binder, not that there are
two contracts. (The Heintz contract is 12 pages long )
If you are indeed interested in more than one contract,
we refer to the Gibbs, Grove and Globe-Union contracts.
You will need to contact the Naval Historical Foundation to make the other copies.
The Foundation is in an office next to us and will reproduce documents for you for a fee.
The fee schedule is posted online at http://www.navyhistory.org/documentservice.html. Contact the Naval Historical Foundation for an estimate of the cost to copy.
WESTPAC : ships involved during 1960-70
Consult with NHC's Operational Archives Branch in Naval Historical Center.
They keep records on the Navy in the Pacific during the Vietnam War era period.
Many of the ships on WESTPAC deployment served with Seventh Fleet.
Seventh Fleet records presumably identify ship's serving with fleet.
Phone: (202) 433-3224; Fax (202) 433-2833 http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/nhcorg10.htm
Our library has a cruise book collection. Cruise books are kind of yearbook for individual ships.
You can search records of our cruise books' records in Worldcat.
http://www.worldcat.org
Try the advance search with keywords 'westpac' and publication year from 1967-1970 (since the publication date of 69's cruise could be 1970)
Example record:
USS Robison DDG 12, WestPac 1969.
by Robison (Guided missile destroyer : DDG-12)
Language: English Type: Book
Publisher: [Marceline, Mo. : Walsworth Pub. Co. ; La Jolla, Ca. : Cruise Book Sales Offices, 1969?]
OCLC: 34343825
Subjects: Robison (Guided missile destroyer : DDG-12) United States. -- Navy -- Cruise books.
Our library has a list of cruise book collection. Take a look at the following site.
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/special/cruise_list.htm
They keep records on the Navy in the Pacific during the Vietnam War era period.
Many of the ships on WESTPAC deployment served with Seventh Fleet.
Seventh Fleet records presumably identify ship's serving with fleet.
Phone: (202) 433-3224; Fax (202) 433-2833 http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/nhcorg10.htm
Our library has a cruise book collection. Cruise books are kind of yearbook for individual ships.
You can search records of our cruise books' records in Worldcat.
http://www.worldcat.org
Try the advance search with keywords 'westpac' and publication year from 1967-1970 (since the publication date of 69's cruise could be 1970)
Example record:
USS Robison DDG 12, WestPac 1969.
by Robison (Guided missile destroyer : DDG-12)
Language: English Type: Book
Publisher: [Marceline, Mo. : Walsworth Pub. Co. ; La Jolla, Ca. : Cruise Book Sales Offices, 1969?]
OCLC: 34343825
Subjects: Robison (Guided missile destroyer : DDG-12) United States. -- Navy -- Cruise books.
Our library has a list of cruise book collection. Take a look at the following site.
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/special/cruise_list.htm
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
World War II : diesel engines
We have the following titles in our collection.
We didn't see anything relevant in them, but these particular books can be borrowed through
interlibrary loan if you think they may help you. See your local librarian
to initiate an interlibrary loan. All of the titles were published by the
Navy.
Instructions for Use of Naval Personnel Engaged in the Operation and Care of
Diesel Engines. 1937
Fundamentals of Diesel Engines, US Navy. 1945
Diesel Engine Maintenance Training Manual, US Navy. 1946
Instruction Book, Model 16-338 Diesel Engine (General Motors Corp.,
Cleveland, OH), 1951 - includes pictures and a lot of schematics.
We imagine that GM has some sort of corporate library so you might write to
the company if you haven't already:
General Motors Corporation
P.O. Box 33170
Detroit, MI 48232-5170
More materials on diesel engines should be available at the National
Archives, probably the Washington, DC, location
http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington/
<http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington/>
since you are looking for
pre-World War II material. Contact information for the Archives is as
follows:
Old Military and Civil Records Branch
National Archives and Records Administration 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20408
1-866-272-6272
http://www.archives.gov/contact/ <http://www.archives.gov/contact/>
Relevant records will probably be held in Record Group 19, Records of the
Bureau of Ships
http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/019.html
<http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/019.html> . An
archivist/reference professional at the Archives should be able to provide
further guidance.
We didn't see anything relevant in them, but these particular books can be borrowed through
interlibrary loan if you think they may help you. See your local librarian
to initiate an interlibrary loan. All of the titles were published by the
Navy.
Instructions for Use of Naval Personnel Engaged in the Operation and Care of
Diesel Engines. 1937
Fundamentals of Diesel Engines, US Navy. 1945
Diesel Engine Maintenance Training Manual, US Navy. 1946
Instruction Book, Model 16-338 Diesel Engine (General Motors Corp.,
Cleveland, OH), 1951 - includes pictures and a lot of schematics.
We imagine that GM has some sort of corporate library so you might write to
the company if you haven't already:
General Motors Corporation
P.O. Box 33170
Detroit, MI 48232-5170
More materials on diesel engines should be available at the National
Archives, probably the Washington, DC, location
http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington/
<http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington/>
since you are looking for
pre-World War II material. Contact information for the Archives is as
follows:
Old Military and Civil Records Branch
National Archives and Records Administration 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20408
1-866-272-6272
http://www.archives.gov/contact/ <http://www.archives.gov/contact/>
Relevant records will probably be held in Record Group 19, Records of the
Bureau of Ships
http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/019.html
<http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/019.html> . An
archivist/reference professional at the Archives should be able to provide
further guidance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)