In 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt sent a fleet of 16 American Navy ships (plus some support vessels) on a two year world-wide tour to let other nations know that America, indeed, had a “big stick” it could carry and use. The ships’ hulls were painted white; hence the name for the fleet.
But white hulls were not limited to the ships officially a part of the Great White Fleet. Almost all U.S. Navy vessels were so painted, and had been since before the beginning of the Spanish American War in 1898. So it is that some refer to the entire Navy of the time as the Great White Fleet.
These images were probably taken in 1905, when these ships were at the Boston Navy yard at Cambridge, MA. That puts them two years prior to the formation of the official “Great White Fleet”.
These three images are of the U.S.S. Maryland. (Although only one is labeled as such, the second is too similar to the first for me to conclude it’s another ship and I doubt another ship of that class was in port at the time.)
The Maryland was a Pennsylvania class armored cruiser. My understanding (which could be wrong) is that the largest guns on a cruiser were not as large as those on a battleship, but the total firepower of a cruiser could have been higher. Battleships were most often used as part of a flotilla; cruisers were designed to be able to “go it alone”.
The battleship U.S.S. Illinois. This ship would become a part of the touring Great White Fleet. Unlike most other ships of it’s time, it’s two stacks were side by side.
The battleship U.S.S. Iowa.
A port quarter view of the battleship U.S.S. Massachusetts.
The U.S.S. Hist in drydock. This vessel saw action at Havana, Cuba, during the Spanish American War in 1898.