I came across this Hugh C. Leighton Company postcard in January. It was published in Portland, Maine but manufactured in Germany. The card was posted from the USS Franklin on October 31, but alas the year in the postmark is unreadable, though likely in the early years of the last century. The addressee was Mrs. Mary Meyer in Chicago, Illinois.
The writer, John Urlan, writes about rowing all around Chesapeake Bay and having a fine time despite being tired and being cold out on the bay.
The message on the card gives us a glimpse of the weather on Chesapeake Bay in late October, and it creates a bit of a mystery that can only be solved by knowing the history of the USS Franklin when it served as a Receiving Ship in Norfolk, Virginia.
[In Navy jargon, a receiving ship is a stationary vessel, often an obsolete or unseaworthy ship moored at a navy yard. Such vessels are used to house, process, and train new recruits or in-service sailors in transit between assignments. Receiving ships also function as “floating barracks” or as a transit depot.]
At this point these three relics of Postcard History raise questions: Was the sender, John, a member of the crew aboard the Receiving Ship USS Franklin? Or, was he a crew member on the battleship Illinois? The ship pictured on Exhibit #1. Was the Illinois at Norfolk at the time the card was postmarked? These are difficult to answer without knowing the exact date that is unreadable on Exhibit #2…