1925 RARE Photo Shellback Initiation Black Sailor Cuffs USS OKLAHOMA BB-37 NAVY
1925 RARE Photo Shellback Initiation Black Sailor Cuffs USS OKLAHOMA BB-37 NAVY. Very Rare photo of the shellback initiation on the USS OKLAHOMA July 6th, 1925. Visible is the African American sailors in cuffs being brought before the Royal Court. Other sailors in the photo (shellbacks) have shillelaghs in hand. 3 1/2″ x 6″. USS OKLAHOMA joined the Pacific Fleet and, in 1925, began a high-profile training cruise with several other battleships. They left for Samoa, on 1 July, crossing the equator on 6 July. On 27 July, they arrived in Australia and conducted a number of exercises there, before spending time in New Zealand, returning to the United States later that year. In early 1927, she transited the Panama Canal and moved to join the Scouting Fleet. USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was a Nevada-class battleship built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation for the United States Navy, notable for being the first American class of oil-burning dreadnoughts. After the war, she served in both the United States Battle Fleet and Scouting Fleet. Oklahoma was modernized between 1927 and 1929. In 1936, she rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War. On returning to the West Coast in August of the same year, Oklahoma spent the rest of her service in the Pacific. Some sailors inside escaped when rescuers drilled holes and opened hatches to rescue them. Unlike most of the other battleships that were recovered following Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma was too damaged to return to duty.