On this day a hundred years ago the Great White Fleet sailed into Port Phillip Bay. This beautiful spring morning, the USS John S McCain was escorted into Port Phillip Bay by the Darwin, to be welcomed by a Boonwerung elder and the US consul.The Great White Fleet of 16 battleships manned by 14,000 sailors was sent around the world by President Teddy Rooseveldt as a show of strength to Japan.
Find out more about these incredible events of August 1908 at the exhibition at the Port Melbourne Town Hall/Library put on by the Port Melbourne Historical Society http://home.vicnet.net.au/~pmhps/newsfeature.html
The ships were painted white but were coal powered as the smoke from the funnels from photographs show. Imagine keeping them clean.
The sailors had such an amazing shore visit in Melbourne that 154 of them jumped ship.
