Letter from John, Manila, Nov. 10, 1928 — page 2 (Destroyer Squadron 13 orders)
Book 1, Page 448 ·1928
Transcription
[Printed letterhead in blue, identical to page 447, at top of sheet. The pencil page number ‘(2)’ is written just below the central Manila Hotel device.]
The body of the letter resumes, written in blue-black ink:
(2)
the hospitality of a great many of the passengers.
I reported yesterday and received orders assigning me to report on about Nov. 18th. to the Commander of Destroyer Squadron #13. — As yet I am absolutely in the dark as to what ship I will be on and won’t know until then. Did not cable you from Shanghai as just a five word
AI Notes
Second sheet of the same five-page Manila Hotel letter (pages 447–451). Numbered ‘(2)’ in pencil at the top centre, beneath the printed letterhead. Continues directly from page 447: the writer reaches Manila, reports for duty the previous day, and receives orders to report on or about Nov. 18 to the commander of Destroyer Squadron #13 — though he does not yet know which destroyer he will be assigned to. He explains he did not cable from Shanghai (en route) because a five-word message would have cost $15.00 (per page 449). The Asiatic Fleet’s Destroyer Squadron 13 was based at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippines, throughout the late 1920s. The writer is John McCready FitzSimons (see notes, p. 447).
Continues on page 449.
John McCready FitzSimons is reporting to the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, which in 1928 was based at Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines and patrolled the China coast and East Indies. Destroyer Squadron 13 was part of this Fleet — a small, often elderly force of four-stack flush-deckers that “showed the flag” in interwar East Asia, especially along the Yangtze.