Original color postcard featuring USS Virginia (BB-13), a Virginia-class pre-dreadnought battleship underway in gray paint, with two cage masts and sailors lining the rails.
Virginia sailed with Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet during its 1907–1909 world cruise. The image shows her later appearance following the 1909 refit, when cage masts were added and the original white paint was replaced with gray.
During World War I, Virginia served as a training vessel and convoy escort. After the Armistice, she made five voyages from Brest, France, returning 6,037 American servicemen. She was decommissioned in 1920 and sunk off Cape Hatteras on September 5, 1923, during historic aerial bombing tests.
This original mailed postcard is also a historical document. It was sent from New York on January 13, 1913, and addressed to Miss Alice Cattrall in Cleveland, Ohio. The reverse retains the handwritten message, New York Station Y postmark, and green one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamp.
The message reads in part:
“I have waited so impatiently for the last two weeks, so anxious to get details about you all, and the promised letter never came—or was lost. Thank you for the package. I think they are lovely.”
A strong addition to collections of naval history, Great White Fleet material, military postcards, postal history, and ephemera. This is an original vintage postcard and is not represented as rare or mint.
- Image credited to Wm. B. Child of Newport, Rhode Island
- Published by Souvenir Post Card Company
- Printed in New York
- Card number: 12418
ITEM SPECIFICS
- Type: Printed color postcard
- Subject: Battleship
- Theme: Militaria; Naval History; Great White Fleet
- Ship: USS Virginia BB-13
- Ship Class: Virginia-class pre-dreadnought
- Era: Divided Back
- Year Posted: 1913
- Postmark: New York, N.Y. Station Y — January 13, 1913
- Destination: Cleveland, Ohio
- Publisher: Souvenir Post Card Company, New York
- Image Credit: Wm. B. Child, Newport, Rhode Island
- Card Number: 12418
- Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
- Postage Condition: Posted
- Stamp: One-cent green Benjamin Franklin
- Features: Divided Back; Handwritten Message; Postmarked
- Material: Paper
- Unit of Sale: Single Unit
- Number of Items: 1
- Store Category: U.S. & Royal Navy
SHIPPING
$1.49 buyer-paid Standard Envelope shipping.
Protected in a postcard sleeve and rigid “Do Not Bend” mailer.
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