Universe

Hi everyone,

I haven't been on in a long time, but I recently came across something that sparked my interest and curiosity.

Me and another chapter member were looking through the old registers from our chapter. We were looking through our first one from the 1920's. We came across a date in July of 1926, where there were more than 70 guests in attendance to a regular stated meeting. And most of them put down as the chapter they were from as "Battle Fleet Chapter". And for the location, some people put different cities (D.C., Virgina, Kansas City, San Pedro, etc.) but there were also some that put navy ships down. U.S.S. Mississippi and a few others.

What we were wondering was if Battle Fleet was a chapter consisting of all DeMolays (and there were Masons) that were in the navy at the time? I know our city played host to navy ships during that era.

I'm intrigued by this, and wondered how it worked? Per ship? per battle group?

Thanks,
William Hart
Convention Coordinator
Washington DeMolay

Bro. William,

This is a very interesting area, and one that isn't too well documented. There are several mentions of Battle Fleet Chapter and I have heard it was organized abround the Ships homeported in San Diego, Ca. I have also heard it existed through the end of WW II.

I have also head of two other "floating" Chapters, supposedly in the Pacific in that era. Possible names like "Pacific Fleet" (out of Hawaii) and "China Fleet" (Far East).

But I have seen no documentation from ISC.

I have also seen a letter, in the archives of Paul Revere Chapter, Tampa, from an Active DeMolay sailor on a Far East ship who reported that many of his "Chiefs" were Masons and they were urging him to organize a DeMolay Chapter on the ship he was on.

What became of that, if anything I have no idea. However the letter also states that there were Chapters in Manila and Shanghai (this was the mid-1930s).

A friend and Brother of mine has told me he spoke to a Chinese national, an engineer with whom he was working, who claimed to have been a DeMolay boy in Shanghai, in the 1930's, too.

There is NO RECORD of us EVER having had any recognized Chapters on the Chinese mainland; and we didn't officially have them in the Phillippines until after WWII.

There are so many mysteries, and so much lost documentation...if it ever existed????

Fraternally,

Dale