Courtesy of AlternateHistory user tofer

4th July 1917
Norfolk, Virginia.

As the USS Dakota dropped anchor in the Elizabeth River, Sam Carsten looked out over the city of Norfolk and turned to Hiram Kidde. "I wish we could drop a few rounds over there."

"We could smash that city up lovely, Sam, wouldn't even need to bother with the big guns," replied Kidde."

"Can't see them being too happy if we did," chimed in Vic Crosetti, gesturing over the starboard side of the Dakota at another warship lying at anchor about 8000 yards away. The gun crew turned to watch the other vessel, the white ensign flying from her stern and a Vice Admiral's command flag flying from the mainmast.

"King George the Fifth," said Carsten, reading the name from her stern

"I thought we'd had enough of Limey King Georges over here," broke in Crosetti.

"Well looks like we're done boys," said Kidde "It's been an honor serving with you, couldn't ask for a finer gun crew."

"It's not fair" grumbled Carsten "it was the army that lost the war, the Limeys never whipped us."

"Yeah, you never beat us" scowled Luke Hoskins in the direction of the British flagship.

"Come on men, let's bear up and do this" the crew turned around to see Commander Grady walking along the deck towards them. Behind them the Admiral's barge was being swung out and a side party was falling in for Admiral Fiske to leave his flagship for the last time.

A signal lamp started flashing from the British flagship, "stars…and…stripes…to…be…hauled…down…at…sunset…and …not…flown…again...without…permission" spelled out Kidde.

Carsten left the Dakota himself about a week later, ferried ashore with a boatload of other sailors. As they left the Dakota they sailed down between the two lines of armoured behemoths, British one side, American on the other, curious faces peered down at the Americans from their decks.

"They're just like us," said a nearby sailor.

"What did you expect? Two heads?" snapped a stoker.

For a moment Sam thought there would be a fight in the boat but then the first sailor said, "Aww, to hell with it, and to hell with those Limeys."

The boat curved around behind the U.S. warships and Sam caught a glimpse of the handful of Confederate Navy battleships and cruisers moored alongside the Confederate naval base. The boat, along with many others from other U.S. ships was heading towards a huge 4 funneled ocean liner anchored just past the naval base.

Coal dust rose from the port side as the liner's crew filled her bunkers from the long coal barges, the flotilla of boats swept past them and around under her stern to the cargo nets that had been hung down the ship's dazzle painted side. Sam scrambled aboard up the ladder onto the Titanic. Upon arrival in New York a couple of days later Sam reported to the Naval Yard and was promptly discharged from the U.S. Navy, given his wages owed and issued a travel warrant. He walked out of the Naval Yard as a civilian for the first time in seven years.

"Now what?" he thought.

Lost voices of the American Holocaust.
Briggs, G., 2001, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Sheldon Fleischmann, Jewish Butcher from New York.

Well there was a lot a intimidation and violence in those days, especially from the Patriotic Legion thugs. Before my father died he told me that some Soldiers' Circle men once brought pork grease into the shop and he had to get the Rhabbi to cleanse it. So there was always harassment but this was worse, more sinister. There was graffiti outside the shop. One night every Jewish shop had it's windows broken, then there was the constant abuse from people on the street.

It got worse after that Hamburger kid tried to kill McSweeney, I knew his sister, she was into politics in some way. The socialists had an office upstairs, I remember helping father to make up trays of cold cuts for them once.

Well one night just after the election I was getting ready to close up the shop when three of those Legion thugs came in to shake me down for 'protection' but they wanted more than I had in the shop, one had my arm behind my back pinning me to the counter whilst the other emptied the cash register.

Then this man came into the shop brandishing a metal bar and challenged them. Well they told him to get out if he knew what was good for him but he took at one with the bar and knocked him clean out, the other two picked him up and ran. He didn't stay, just asked of I needed help and when I shook my head he disappeared. I thought I had seen a ghost, he was so pale, almost like one of those Albinos. I never saw him again.

A few days later there was a body found in an alley nearby. The police came around asking if anyone had seen anything, but I was too scared to say anything. I kept quiet. I still wonder what happened to that man and who he was.

Sheldon Fleischmann spent three years in Sioux Falls Correctional Camp, a notorious concentration camp operated by Patriotic Guard murderer and sadist Brigade Leader Cannizzaro, before being liberated in late 1945 by a Canadian-British joint taskforce. He died peacefully in 1972 in his home in New York. This interview was recorded in 1964 as part of the 'American Lives' oral history project.

Dreadnought Navy, Lambert, A., 2002, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Following the stalemate of Jutland in May 1916, the High Seas Fleet again attempted to break out into the Atlantic in November 1916. The crushing defeat inflicted on the High Seas Fleet by the Grand Fleet, with the loss of two German battle-cruisers and three battleships with two more severely damaged in exchange for a British battle-cruiser sunk and two battleships damaged was the last attempt to break out and join the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. By January 1917 the British Admiralty were confident enough to send the 2nd Battle Squadron to help the Confederate Navy. The Battle of George's Bank in which the U.S. Atlantic Fleet was roughly handled by the combined British/Confederate fleet lead to the transfer of Admiral Fiske's task force from the Sandwich Islands to the Atlantic. This reduction of the Pacific Fleet allowed the Anglo-Japanese task force to cut off and recapture the islands in early 1917.

The Rise and Fall of US Naval Power, Anderson, J., 1992, HarperCollins, New York.

Following the cease fire request the U.S. fleet was interred by the victorious Allies, the Atlantic fleet was collected at Norfolk, Virgina under the guns of the British 2nd Battle Squadron, and the remnants of the Pacific Fleet were held at Pearl Harbor under the guard of the Anglo-Japanese Combined Striking Force. Most of the crews were repatriated by late August 1917 and only an anchor watch remained on board along with Marine guards from the Allies. The Treaty of Trenton had stipulated that the US warships were to be handed over to the Allies, as preparations were being made for this, on the 3rd of September 1917, the 2nd Battle Squadron put to sea to meet the liner carrying the King and Prime Minister to meet with the Confederate Government. Taking advantage of this a group of engineering officers on the USS Dakota overwhelmed the guards on the bridge and ran up the Stars and Stripes. As response forces scrambled from shore and other guards on nearby ships were distracted, the remaining crews opened the seacocks and detonated the scuttling charges. Confederate forces were unable to respond in time and the pride of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet slipped beneath the waves. The British were privately relieved that the bulk of U.S. naval power was gone as they had the interred High Seas Fleet to deal with, and they didn't really want to see that many capital ships added to the Confederate Navy. The scuttled ships were broken up and sold for scrap during the 1920s.

New York Times, August 22nd, 1933.

Naval Veteran Killed In Robbery.

-Ophelia Clemens

The New York Police Department yesterday confirmed that the body found in a Lower East Side alley last week belonged to a U.S. Navy veteran named Sam Carsten. Mr. Carsten joined the U.S. Navy in 1909 and served on the battleship Dakota throughout the war. He reached the rank of Petty Officer 3rd class and was commended for his part in breaking up a British spy ring on the Sandwich Islands. He fought in the capture of the Sandwich Islands and Battle of the Three Navies, as well as other minor skirmishes. Initial reports that his killing was related to political street violence were dismissed by the police department. A source said that they had made inquiries in the area and had no reports of violence so concluded that the killing was most probably a mugging. Mr. Carsten leaves behind a wife and two children.