Arrived at Havana Cuba! This card is part of a collection created by Frank Lesher, Electrician, USS Virginia.  At right a photo of the crew of the Virginia camped out in Havana.

On the island of Cuba, in August of 1906, a revolution had broken out against the government of President T. Estrada Palma. The disaffection, which had started in Pinar del Rio province, grew in the early autumn to the point where President Palma had no recourse but to appeal to the United States for intervention. By mid-September, it had become apparent that the small Cuban constabulary (3,000 rural guards) was unable to protect foreign interests, and intervention would be necessary. Accordingly, Virginia departed Newport on 15 September 1906, bound for Cuba, and reached Havana on the 21st, ready t Havana until 13 October, when she sailed for Sewall's Point, Va.

GEORGE D. WITT SHOE CO. Lynchburg, VA. The USS Virginia was the "Bell of the Ball" at the Jamestown Exposition.  This undevided back card shows Dixie Girl on the deck of the Battleship Virginia modeling a pair of shoes for the George D. Witt Shoe Company of Lynchburg!

The Crew in Auckland, NZ! The crew mustered on the forecastle.  This is one of my favorite cards.

Returning southward early in the autumn of 1907, Virginia underwent two months of repairs and alterations at the Norfolk Navy Yard, from 24 September to 24 November, before undergoing further repairs at the New York Navy Yard later in November. She subsequently shifted southward again, reaching Hampton Roads on 6 December. Virginia spent the next 10 days preparing for a feat never before attempted-a round-the-world cruise by the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet.   The cruise began eight days before Christmas of 1907, and ended on Washington's Birthday, 22 February 1909. During the course of the voyage, the ships called at ports along both coasts of South America; on the west coast of the United States; at Hawaii in the Philippines; Japan; China; and in Ceylon. Virginia's division also visited Smyrna, Turkey, via Beirut, during the Mediterranean leg of the cruise. Both upon departure and upon arrival, the fleet was reviewed at Hampton Roads by President Roosevelt, whose "big stick" diplomacy and flair for the dramatic gesture had been practically personified by the cruise of the "Great White Fleet."

Following that momentous circumnavigation, Virginia underwent four months of voyage repairs and alterations at the Norfolk Navy Yard from 26 February to 26 June 1909. She spent the next year and three months operating off the eastern seaboard of the United States, ranging from the southern drill grounds, off the Virginia capes, to Newport, R.I. During that time, she conducted one brief cruise with members of the Naval Militia embarked and visited Rockport and Provincetown, Mass. For the better part of that time, she conducted battle practices with the fleet-evolutions only broke by brief periods of yard work at Norfolk and Boston. Virginia visited Brest, France, and Gravesend, England, from 16 November to 7 December and from 8 to 29 December 1909, respectively, before she-as part of the 4th Division, Atlantic Fleet-joined the Atlantic Fleet in Guantanamo Bay for drills and exercises. She subsequently operated in Cuban waters for two months, from 13 January to 13 March 1910 before she returned north for battle practices on the southern drill grounds.

Virginia maintained her routine of operations off the eastern seaboard-occasionally ranging into Cuban waters for regularly scheduled fleet evolutions in tactics and gunnery-into 1913, a routine largely uninterrupted. In 1913, however, unrest in Mexico caused the frequent dispatch of American men of-war to those waters. Virginia became one of those ships in mid-February, when she reached Tampico on the 15th of that month; she remained there until 2 March, when she shifted to Vera Cruz for coal. She returned to Tampico on 5 March and remained there for 10 days. At right is a ceramic mug with an image of the USS Virginia, pre-1910.  This is the only mug of it's type that I have found, possibly made for sale at the Jamestown Exposition.

After another stint of operations off the eastern seaboard, ranging from the Virginia capes to Newport —a period of maneuvers and exercises varied by a visit to New York at the end of May 1913 for the dedication of the memorial to the battleship Maine ( sunk in Havana Harbor in February 1898) and one to Boston in mid-June for Flag Day and Bunker Hill exericses— Virginia returned to Mexican waters in November. She reached Vera Cruz on 4 November and remained in port until the 30th, when she shifted to Tampico. She observed conditions in those ports and operated off the Mexican coast into January of 1914.

Returning to Cuban waters for exercises and maneuvers with the fleet, Virginia sailed for the Virginia capes in mid-March 1914. She maneuvered with the fleet off Cape Henry and in Lynnhaven Roads before she conducted gunnery drills at the wreck of San Marcos (ex-Texas) in Tangier Sound, Chesapeake Bay. Virgirnia subsequently held experimental gunnery firings on the southern drill grounds before she spent much of April drydocked at Boston.

The American occupation of Vera Cruz in April 1914 resulted in the sizeable deployment of American men-of-war to that port that lasted into the autumn. Virginia reached Vera Cruz on 1 May and operated with the fleet out of that port into early October, a period of time broken by target practice in Guantanamo Bay between 18 September and 3 October.

The Crew of the USS Virginia in 1917