This scene was taken on the opening day of the Jamestown Exposition, April 26, 1907. This was 300 years after the founding of the first English settlement in America. The chief point of interest is the great battleships lying in the roads. The little band of settlers at Jamestown 300 years ago little dreamed that they were founding a nation whose power is so splendidly suggested in these mighty warships. In fact it was not until 1775 that our navy had its beginning. On October 13 in that year, Congress voted to equip two small vessels, one with 10, the other with 14 guns. During the Revolutionary War that followed, the few vessels we had made a place for themselves in navy history. In the war of 1812, the British were victorious for the most part, in the land battles. But our navy gave the war fleet of Great Britain a hard struggle. In fact the war of 1812 was finally closed because of the appeal of the British merchants to their government. British shipping suffered so much from the raids of our war-vessels that English was very glad to make peace. In the Spanish-American war the fleets of Spain were sent to the bottom of the ocean in two memorable battles;-one at Manila Bay, and the other at Santiago. The great battleships that we now have, or have in the making, will make our navy second only to that of Great Britain. Some of these are the greatest fighting craft afloat. In the first class rank such vessels as the Arizona, the Idaho, the Mississippi, the New Mexico, the Pennsylvania, and the Tennessee, each 600 feet long. These new vessels carry the most powerful fighting equipment of any navy in the world. Keystone ID: 14158 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.