Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Office of the Chief of Naval Operations to Various Officers in the Western Hemisphere

22 June 1918.           

COMMANDANTS FIRST TO EIGHTH NAVAL DISTS INC[lusive].1

COMMANDANT FIFTEENTH NAVAL DIST.2

NAVSTA GUANTANAMO

FLAG SANTO DOMINGO3

FLAG ST THOMAS4

CAPTAIN HINES HALIFAX5

COMDR AMERICAN PATROL DETACHMENT6

     For all American routing officers colon it has come to the Department’s attention that routing instructions have been given out containing general information and instructions regarding other routes than the one for the voyage of the vessel in question and that the Department’s general instructions have been quoted at length period This practice must stop period Each route given a vessel should appear as a separate and individual route and in no manner in the vessels instructions should there be indicated the general system or general principles guiding the routing officer in laying down the route for that particular trip.7 22022,

OPNAV.

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B. Document identifier in top right-hand corner: “OCC-5118.”

Footnote 1: RAdm. Spencer D. Wood; Commo. James P. Parker; RAdm. Nathanial R. Usher; Capt. George F. Cooper; RAdm. Augustus F. Fechteler; RAdm. Frank E. Beatty; Cmdr. Warren J. Terhune; Commo. Valentine S. Nelson. These naval districts were along the eastern seaboard of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico.

Footnote 2: The fifteenth Naval District was the Panama Canal Zone; its commandant was RAdm. Marbury Johnston.

Footnote 3: The “Flag” at Santo Domingo was RAdm. Harry S. Knapp.

Footnote 4: RAdm. James Oliver.

Footnote 5: Capt. Harold K. Hines, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Footnote 6: RAdm. Edwin A. Anderson.

Footnote 7: On the same day, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations sent a second message to “all American routing officers” saying that “coastwise vessels” could use lights at night “so long as the vessels keep close to the coast.” Ibid.

Related Content