Item #20085 Autograph daily journal in pencil, a record of Cropsey’s naval service aboard the USS Sabalo (SP-225) during World War I. WORLD WAR I., H. A. Reginald Cropsey.
Autograph daily journal in pencil, a record of Cropsey’s naval service aboard the USS Sabalo (SP-225) during World War I.

Autograph daily journal in pencil, a record of Cropsey’s naval service aboard the USS Sabalo (SP-225) during World War I.

Various places [Congers, N.Y., Brooklyn, Yonkers, etc.], 1 January 1918 to 31 December, 1918. Date book in green cloth, 9 x 5.75 inches. Typed roster of crew members laid in. Hinges a bit weak and text block a little shaken; some occasional acidic browning from offset where newspaper clippings had been laid in; in very good condition, quite legible. Item #20085

“Had a heavy cold and the sea was rough. A trying day” (March 3). Laconic but evocative penciled daily entries (supplemented by the occasional later added historical note in Cropsey’s hand), a record of the dull grind of naval service, from Reginald Cropsey (11 June 1886-29 April 1971)—a sailor trying to get ahead while working on a patrol vessel off the coast of Sandy Hook and in the Ambrose Channel. Cropsey tries his hand in the galley, studies for his promotion exams, marries on 4 February, is rejected as an officer candidate because of a bad left eye, becomes a father on 26 October; along the way he might often note that he “learned a few things but little of lasting value” (April 28), or that he suffered “a day of jolts & changes” (November 2, when he is dismissed from his yeoman clerk position for being lousy at filing) or that he “felt put out about my liberty being restricted” (January 31). There are a few occasions for excitement; on May 19, Cropsey was about to go on liberty but “just as I finally did walk toward the gangplank was called back. The ship had just received orders to put our to sea and prepare for action as an enemy (German) craft was feared. We were soon on our way to what might end in death. I hoped it would not but said little or nothing to anyone. We saw no fighting.” (The next afternoon, the ship returns to the Marine Basin, “and when the portion of the crew that had been on liberty came aboard we felt quite proud.”) Otherwise, the Sabalo might on occasion patrol for U-boats off Block Island, help in the assembly of convoys, or attend to the sad duty of retrieving a body: “We picked up the body of a navy man (Ensign Fitzgerald) from the waters of the lower (N.Y.) bay and took it to Bensonhurst. It smelt very bad when out of the water. I might have been he. Such is life and death” (August 27). After the Armistice, Cropsey continues to work at the Naval Station until December 12, “a hard day on my psychic self. I was released from active duty in the Naval Reserve & it was done in a very discourteous manner. It was also unpexected, but pleasant, taken all in all.” Cropsey seeks work until nearly Christmas, when he is hired by Chase Bank; he diverts himself during the job hunt with exercise, noting swims at the public bath and the occasional road run. Though the diary is not signed, attribution to Cropsey is taken from mention of family members and locations mentioned in the text; Cropsey’s obituary in the Rockland County Journal-News notes that he was a bank clerk until his retirement in 1956, and was a gold medal winner with the New York Athletic Club swim team.

Price: $150.00

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