World One War: America's 'Recruiting' Landship
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Throughout the First World War, all nations which fought during the bloodiest conflict known to man endeavoured to raise patriotism and the numbers of personnel in the armed forces.
The United States, although late into the war, was perhaps the most patriotic of countries which sacrificed between 1914 and 1918.
The United States Government in partnership with the Armed Forces, created perhaps the most unique propaganda tool of the entire war.
The USS Recruit, also known as the ‘Landship Recruit’, was a wooden mock-up of a dreadnought battleship constructed by the United States Navy and located in New York.
Like other naval vessels, the U.S.S. Recruit was commissioned as any other vessel of the U.S. Navy and was manned by a crew.
The vessel was located in Union Square from its construction in 1917 until the end of the war. In 1920, with military cutbacks across most of the world, Recruit was decommissioned and moved to Coney Island.
By the time of its decommissioning, the New York Times reported that the so-called ‘Landship’ had helped the U.S. Navy to recruit 25,000 men which was 625 times the size of the Recruits crew. This number was also enough to crew twenty-eight Nevada-Class Battleships!
The Recruit operated as the U.S. Navy’s recruitment headquarters for the New York district and was not only a fully rigged battleship, but also a fully commissioned ship although ‘beached’.
Commanded by Acting Captain C.F. Pierce and with a crew of thirty-nine ‘bluejackets’, the Recruit served as a training ship for the navy as well as being a bold and visible recruitment office.
The accommodation for the crew aboard included officers’ quarters, a wireless station and accommodation for the crew.
The ‘ship’ also featured cage masts, conning tower and a dummy smokestack which made the vessel look like other U.S. Naval ships. In terms of her armaments, Recruit was fitted out with six wooden mock-up 14inch guns. Following this ten wooden 5inch guns in casemates represented Recruits secondary armament.
Following the ‘ships’ completion, the Recruit hosted and was the host of various events and receptions which were intended to boost American morale, drive people to buy war bonds and drum up support for the allied war effort. One event in particular had special and patriotic significance to America. The occasion was marked by the unfurling and presentation of a reproduced Betsy Ross American Flag.
Although the Recruit was only in commission for nearly three years, the ‘ship’ and its purpose shone out as an example of the endeavouring human spirit to be patriotic and to champion the cause of victory. Since the armistice of 1918, the Recruit has largely become forgotten next to such propaganda images and campaigns as Babies being nailed to a barn door which was a popular pro-war sentiment held by the British Press in 1914 and the merciless killing of merchant vessels and personnel by German U-Boats.
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