Great White Fleet Sails, The - limited edition print

Custom framing is available for this print.  Please call 800-850-1776 or email info@mortkunstler.com for more information.

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS
Giclée Canvas Prints
Reproduction technique: Giclées are printed with the finest archival pigmented inks on canvas. Each print is numbered and signed by the artist and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.

Classic Edition 18” x 21”
Signed & Numbered • Edition Size: 100

Historical Information
One old fellow that day at Hampton Roads, Virginia, December 16, 1907, said: “Ain’t seen so many folks out since the Merrimac fought the Monitor right here in 1862.” But the times had changed, peace and celebration were in the air. And at 10:00 a.m. on December 16, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt gave the order. With a tug on the halyard, tightly wrapped cloth bundles at the yardarm broke open into brilliantly colored signal flags with the order “Proceed upon duty as assigned,” and sixteen of America’s proudest battleships painted immaculate white to symbolize peace got under way for what was to be a 46,000 mile voyage around the world. To the people watching, many of them remembering warships with sails and muzzle loading cannon, the double line stretching from Ft. Munroe to the open sea two miles away was a proud vision of modern technology. To Roosevelt, the ships and their mission were symbol and substance of America’s proclamation to the whole world that she was assuming a broader obligation toward maintaining world peace than ever before. A follower of Alfred Thayer Mahan, the proponent of sea power, Roosevelt’s plan called for America’s flag to be shown around the world as a symbol of might and goodwill from a Nation intent upon assuming proper station among the nations of the earth. 

The voyage of the Great White Fleet, as it came to be known, was an example of unabashed “Big Stick Diplomacy,” and for Roosevelt the fulfillment of a dream he had first had as Assistant Secretary of the Navy; to rebuild America’s neglected Navy into one second only to that of Great Britain. On February 22, 1909, Roosevelt welcomed his Fleet home to Hampton Roads, his point made to the world, his support earned among the American people.