jack199.bsky.social
@jack199.bsky.social
Cpl Ivo Claude "Ernie" Sproule ,26th Australian Battalion. His WWI records for 4yrs, reflect wounded (GSW) in action, 4 times & suffered "Shell Shock" (PTSD) twice .

On occasion Ernie drank too much - went AWOL,reduced in rank twice yet was promoted for his courage & somehow survived the war.
November 11, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Norfolk Naval Hospital patient register Aug & Sept 1855. Norfolk 1855 Yellow Fever epidemic mortality was so severe within the community of Norfolk, that SecNav allowed the hospital to admit & treat local civilians. Red check marks denote patient deaths. 2nd p. is medical staff notes & comments.
October 14, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Lillian M Murphy RN USNR (1887-1918) a Canadian immigrant, assigned to Norfolk Navy Hospital received the Navy Cross posthumously for her selfless devotion to her patients during the influenza pandemic.
October 10, 2025 at 7:06 PM
The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, & Naval Hospital.

www.history.navy.mil/content/hist...

A page from Norfolk Naval Hospital patient entry log for Oct 1918. Those sailors checked in red were among the many who died during the pandemic.
October 10, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Mare Island Navy Yard, 1943,shipfitters working on the USS Nereus
September 1, 2025 at 9:25 PM
1885 District of Columbia Police photos allowed suspects Arthur L Berry to wear his top hat and Frank "Cockers" Curran his bowler,
genealogytrails.com/washdc/lawsp...
July 11, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Alfred Snitzler,aka “Little Alf”arrested March 10, 1886 in the Metropolitan Bank. He was arrested with his accomplice Walter Henry. Both were charged as “bank sneaks”. Snitzler’s 5’2’’ & 125lbs,matched his sobriquet.His DC police photo reflects his neat appearance he looks directly at the camera.
July 11, 2025 at 10:04 PM
USN Civil War enlistments recruitment forms, for Boston Mass, such as this page from July 1863 provide historians detailed information on ethnicity, age, height, work experience, scars, and tattoos of the men and boys who sailed Union vessels to victory.

www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmout...
July 10, 2025 at 4:03 AM
A "widow's man" a fictitious seaman kept on Royal Navy muster rolls during 18th & 19th centuries so that their pay and rations could be redistributed to the families of dead crew members.

HMS Hermione muster roll 7 Apr to 7 July 1797
July 8, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Loyalty oath of Washington Navy Yard, seamstress Almira V. Brown dated March 21 1864. Brown's husband had died in an explosion in 1860 at the Washington Navy Yard. Brown was employed WNY for over 50 years. She retired age 81, in 1920 with her son William F. Brown, age 59 who had served 42 yrs.
July 4, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Brooklyn Navy Yard seamstresses sewing national and ceremonial flags 1941.
July 4, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Seamstresses sewing flags at the Brooklyn Navy Yard 1915.
July 4, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Seamstresses sewing flags Brooklyn Navy Yard 1915
July 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Mary A. Woods an Irish immigrant began work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1882. Woods (standing) was later promoted to Quarterwoman where she supervised flag a large staff sewing national and ceremonial flags. Two of her annual performance reviews are attached. She retired in 1920.
July 4, 2025 at 9:11 PM
During the Civil War the Department of Navy first employed women in significant numbers as seamstresses. Typically they sewed flags, awnings and canvass bags for gun powder. They were paid $1. per day. This pay roll for Aug 1864 is from the Washington Navy . image NARA
July 4, 2025 at 9:00 PM
July 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM
By late July 1832, cholera had spread to Virginia on 7 August 1832, Comm. Lewis Warrington confirmed to Sec Nav cholera was at the Gosport [Norfolk] Navy Yard "several deaths by cholera occurred and fifteen or sixteen cases (of less violence) were reported."
Register Norfolk Naval Hospital Aug 1832
June 30, 2025 at 9:48 PM
In Washington DC Michael Shiner, an enslaved laborer in the Navy Yard recorded " the colery [cholera] broke out in about June and July August and September 1832 it Raged in the City and every day they wher twelve or 13 carried out to they graves a day.
www.history.navy.mil/research/lib...
www.history.navy.mil
June 30, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Enslaved diarist Michael Shiner recorded 5 -7 June 1833, his heroic struggle to rescue his wife Phillis & their 3 children Ann, Harriet & Mary abducted from the street in Alexandria Virginia, by the notorious slave-dealers Armfield & Franklin . animatinghistory.unl.edu/history/mich...
June 14, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Enslaved diarist Michael Shiner recorded 5 -7 June 1833, his heroic struggle to successfully rescue his wife Phillis & their 3 children abducted off the street in Alexandria Virginia, by the notorious slave-dealers Armfield & Franklin .

animatinghistory.unl.edu/history/mich...
June 14, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Formerly enslaved freeman Michael Shiner (1805 - 1880) on 16 April 1862, carefully wrote in his diary re the District of Columbia Emancipation Act

Michael Shiner ,Diary, p.178

www.history.navy.mil/content/hist...
April 16, 2025 at 4:29 PM