❒ New museum display explores local ties to conflict

A new display at Mare Island Historic Museum gives visitors a fresh look at the Spanish-American War, museum foundation member Dennis Kelly said.

“They will see old photographs from the period, displaying the technology of the ‘new’ steel Navy,” he said. Many of the items on display have been donated to the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation.

The exhibit also will give visitors a chance to learn more about the conflict, Kelly said.

“I think most people would be surprised that they have seen an impressive monument to the Battle of Manila Bay while never realizing the significance of that monument and the tie to Mare Island and the North Bay Area,” he said.

While the monument is in San Francisco — situated in front of the Westin Saint Francis Hotel in Union Square — and Kelly wanted to keep the focus on Mare Island, he said the two are connected.

In an article he wrote for the foundation in his role as project manager to bring Admiral George Dewey’s flagship, the USS Olympia, to the area, Kelly said tensions with the Spanish had been growing even before the USS Maine exploded in Havana, Cuba, on Feb. 15, 1898.

The American Navy slowly was being rebuilt after the Civil War, but the United States wasn’t considered a world naval power by any means, he explained. Spain, on the other hand, had been a dominant sea power for centuries.

That changed in a three-hour battle May 1, 1898, with the defeat of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay and the end of Spanish control of the Philippines. Within three years, construction of a monument honoring Dewey and the American fleet had begun in Union Square, San Francisco.

“Admiral Dewey, the Olympia and the fleet she led crushed the Spanish Fleet in Manila Bay, thrusting the United States into the role of a world power and ending 300 years of Spanish occupation,” he wrote.

On his way to his assignment as commodore of the Asiatic Squadron prior to that battle, Dewey stopped at Mare Island. He knew the squadron’s requisition for ammunition had been tangled in red tape, Kelly wrote.

“Dewey personally saw to it that the Gunboat Concord was loaded out with so much ammunition that she was unable to sail directly to the Asiatic Squadron,” he wrote. The gunboat had to replenish its supplies at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

“My hope is that visitors will gain an appreciation for what is now a forgotten war and the key role that their ancestors and Mare Island played,” Kelly said.

“This was the war that thrust the United States into our role as a world power and began the liberation of the Philippines,” he said.

Kelly said he, too, gained knowledge and insight as the exhibit took shape.

“I was surprised by the rapid growth of the workforce as Mare Island manned up for what would turn out to be a very short war. The workforce tripled in size in a matter of months,” he said.

“I also found it interesting that the workforce had reached such a state of exhaustion in preparing ships for the anticipated outbreak of war that they were given their first night off in months on March 30, 1898.”

“On that night, a major earthquake, centered on Mare Island, struck, destroying many buildings. Had the earthquake struck on any other night, the casualties would have been significant,” he said.

The Mare Island command also had the duty of making repairs or replacing some of the industrial buildings and the existing housing at the same time the urgent shipwork was under way, he said.

“War was declared 25 days later,” he said.

“It was also interesting that the commander of Mare Island, Rear Admiral (W.A.) Kirkland, who had wanted to retire prior to the threat of hostilities, literally worked himself to death,” Kelly said.

He said the new Spanish-American War exhibit will give residents and visitors local insight into the short but significant war.

“To my knowledge, this exhibit is unique in that it is the only attempt I am aware of to focus on and describe the role of Mare Island in this critical moment in U.S. and world history,” he said.

The Mare Island Museum, 1100 Railroad Ave., is in Building 46, a former pipe shop that was built in 1854 and is the oldest building in the old naval shipyard. Across from the building is a 35-foot patrol boat with painted shark’s teeth.

Museum tours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of each month.

Admission is $5 per person, and full tours, at $14 per person and $5 for children 6 to 12, are available via reservation by calling 707-644-4746 or 707-280-5742.

Small groups of up to 24 people are $14 person or $30 per person for the tour plus lunch, and large group tours of 25 or more are $12 per person or $18 per person if lunch is included.

School groups are admitted for donations of $3 per student, teacher and chaperone, or $7 for individuals.

Tours must be arranged in advance, although reservations are not required to tour the museum. Since this is a Blue Star Museum, active military members and their dependents are admitted free with identification cards.