The Hatchet: Series 1. Vol. 11 -- A DAILY NEWSPAPER on "The President's Ship" U.S.S. George Washington "Outward Bound" Carrying The President On His Second Trip To Europe

On The High Seas: United States Navy, 1919. Paperback. Small 4to. Stiff tan wrappers. (14pp). Very good. Outer wrapper (only) rather age toned, edgeworn and rubbed, but internally tight and near fine. One of the most intriguingly odd newspapers ever: On March 5, 1919 President Woodrow Wilson departed the White House for Paris, boarding the U.S.S. George Washington on March 7th for the seven-day journey to Europe. By March 14 he was in France for the Paris Peace Conference, having been there in December 1918 for a preliminary conference. He remained until June 18. The U.S.S. George Washington was an enormous German ocean liner seized by the U.S. government for a troop transport that twice carried Wilson to Europe -- accompanied of course by a formidably large escort. The ship's daily newspaper was "The Hatchet," a reference to the apocryphal George Washington cherry tree story. Begun in 1918, its masthead claims "The Largest Circulation on the Atlantic Ocean" and it consisted of a single 8" X 9" leaf ("distributed free to 'all hands'") that compiled leading news stories culled from the International News Service, Associated Press, United Press and the New York Times. A shipboard press at first produced 5,000 copies daily, a number that eventrually increased to 7,000. An "Editorial" for issue No. 1 of this Volume 11 begins, "Mr. President, we welcome you back to the George Washington. We are proud to be entrusted again with the safe conduct overseas of our President; we are proud to fly again the flag of our Commander-in-Chief." Articles about the president and this very trip appear regularly; several articles have been checked in ink by this recipient, among them "Lamar Reveals a Bolshevist Plot to Overthrow U.S.," "Conviction of [Eugene V.] Debs by Supreme Court a Blow at Bolsheviki" and "Drastic Anti-Red Bill Recommended to Congressmen." Apparently at journey's end issues could be bound together within this printed wrapper -- on the front wrapper of this rare survivor a ship's crew member has penned "Compliment / of [illegible] / Ensign / USN." Interestingly, the newspaper's masthead originally included above its name the motto "We Cannot Tell a Lie" (another reference to the cherry tree tale), but by the time of this issue that motto has been dropped. Quite scarce.