Addendum: “The Marines Have Landed at Nantucket, and the Situation is Well In Hand.”

Addendum: “The Marines Have Landed at Nantucket, and the Situation is Well In Hand.”

Marine Corps Gazette, May 2025. 

I recently wrote a piece that wound up in publication, unfortunately sans photographs. We couldn’t find who held the copyrights for images used in the Nantucket Historical Society’s magazine in 1981, but I thought it might be interesting to review the photos here.

In this photo we see Marines in 1901 setting up bivouac amongst the dunes of the east end of Nantucket. They landed as part of the Atlantic Squadron’s summer exercises, with the mission of setting up an “Advanced Base” where the Navy could anchor, refuel, rearm, and treat the wounded, without interference from a foreign navy. 

The Marines, first under the command of Captain C.G. Long, and then Major Charles Doyen, are erecting circular section tents; at the upper left you may spot a rectangular tent, possibly for headquarters, or an officer. I believe ships’ whaleboats can be seen at the left edge of the photo, used to transfer Marines, equipment, gear, and weapons from ship to shore. What you cannot see are the blocks, tackle, sheaves and spars used to transfer the immensely heavy naval guns from boat to beach. 


 

These Marines received training in naval guns, anti-ship mines, communications, searchlights, engineering, and shore-based torpedoes in Newport, RI, before boarding ships of the Atlantic Squadron. They landed on Nantucket twice, setting up a defense in depth to protect any ships anchored in Nantucket sound. Once in place, they exercised against “enemy” forces, landing from ships offshore. 

 

This shot shows what might have been called the “company street” and Marines may be gathered for a collective mess. It appears they are wearing blue trousers, and blue flannel half button shirts, with field hats and leggings. 



This photo shows two rapid-firing deck guns, I believe Driggs-Schroeder Six Pounders, removed from the deck of USS MASSACHUSETTS, and fired from a position in the dunes. Marines excavated the position by hand, placing timbers for a base, and building a sandbag revetment for retaining walls. Guns, mount, and timbers had to be manhandled across the beach by the Marines of the landing force. 



The Marines are wearing a khaki drill uniform, leggings, and a felt field hat. Khaki gained acceptance after fighting in the Philippines and China, and field hats were issued as early as June of 1898 for Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay. 

For the age, the Marines and Navy pulled out all the stops for arming the nascent “Advanced Base Force” landed at Greatpoint, Nantucket. “Heavy on firepower, the unit was two thirds smaller than Huntington’s Battalion. KEARSARGE contributed a 5”/40 caliber deck gun, and ALABAMA contributed a 6”/40 caliber Mark 4-gun, and six naval mines. MASSACHUSETTS contributed two torpedo tubes, two 3-lb guns and two 6-lb guns, and four naval mines. The forty-five Marines that took place in the Torpedo School training were augmented by 150 Marines from the ships’ detachments of the North Atlantic Squadron.”[1]

Over the next two decades, Marines would engage in exercises emplacing guns ashore in defense of the Advanced Base Force at Culebra, in Puerto Rico, and above Olongopo, in the Philippines. By 1913, an Advanced Base School was fully established at Philadelphia, and a garrison of Marines at the ready for expeditionary duty in support of the Navy. Even during the Great War the Marines maintained the force; in the twenties it morphed into the Expeditionary Forces, East and West, and in the thirties became the Fleet Marine Force. 


[1] John S. Naylor, “The Marines Have Landed at Nantucket, and the Situation Is Well In Hand.” Marine Corps Gazette, May 2025.

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