The Great Fire (54 page)

   
254
    
Back at the embassy
BWD, Sept. 12, 1922.

   
255
    
Afterward, Bristol had lunch
BWD, Sept. 12, 1922.

   
255
    
The
Lawrence
arrived after
BWD, Sept. 12, 1922.

   
256
    
Bristol wrote:
Bristol to State Dept., Sept. 13, 1922. MLB.

   
256
    
Three days earlier, a cable
STANAV to USS Lawrence for Jaquith, Sept. 10, 1922. MLB.

CHAPTER 22: HALSEY POWELL

   
259
    
In 1904, when he graduated
“Halsey Powell,” 1904 Lucky Bag, U.S. Naval Academy.

   
259
    
As a boy, Halsey
I am indebted to Amalie Preston of the Harrodsburg (Kentucky) Historical Society for this description of the Powell plantation. Ms. Preston proved to be an indefatigable researcher on my behalf
and tracked down Powell’s personal correspondence, which had remained with the Powell family.

   
260
    
“This my hope and prayer . . .”
E. W. Halsey to Margaret Halsey, August 31, 1883. Harrodsburg Historical Society.

   
260
    
At seventeen, he went off
Faculty Minutes, Sept. 26, 1899, Vol. 3, Special Collections, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

   
260
    
In his first fifteen years “
Powell, Halsey,” NPRC.

   
262
    
On August 3, Powell’s
“Powell, Halsey,” NPRC.

   
262
    
Then, with new orders
“Powell, Halsey,” NPRC. Intelligence and Technological Archives, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.

   
262
    
In April, Halsey sent
Halsey Powell to his mother, April 28, 1920. Harrodsburg Historical Society.

   
263
    
In August 1922, Powell
Powell, “Ship’s Diary,” USS Edsall. August, 1922. MLB.

   
265
    
By his own account
BWD, Sept. 10, 1922.

   
265
    
After getting Hepburn’s
Powell, “Ship’s Diary,” Sept. 13, 1922. Except as otherwise noted, this and subsequent information regarding Powell and the
Edsall
in this chapter come from the
Edsall
’s ship’s diary in September 1922. MLB.

   
265
    
“Prentiss requests following . . .”
Edsall to STANAV, Sept. 14, 1922. MLB.

   
266
    
Prentiss’s first story
appeared “Relief Man Tells Tragedy,”
New York Times,
Sept. 18, 1922.

   
266
    
Powell, Morris, and the Greek
For the interior design of the
Edsall,
see Library of Selected Images, Naval Historical Center, Dept. of the Navy. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/s-file/s584045.jpg.

   
268
    
The day before Powell’s
Hepburn, “Smyrna Disaster,” 34–39.

   
269
    
Over the previous several days,
Smith, 316, 317.

   
271
    
Turkish residents had taken
Melville Chater, “History’s Greatest Trek,”
National Geographic,
Nov. 1925 (Vol. 48), Photos.

   
271
    
For years afterward
Neyzi, “Remembering Smyrna/Izmir,” 123.

   
271
    
Throughout the day,
Merrill Diary, Sept. 16, 17, 1922. ASMP.

   
273
    
On the way back, Prentiss
“Smyrna Now Faces Plague, Famine,”
New York Times,
Sept. 20, 1922.

   
274
    
The British in particular
Thomas Woodrooffe,
Naval Odyssey
(New York: Sheridan House, 1938), 109. Brock praised Powell to Bristol. Brock
to Bristol, Oct. 16, 1922, NPRC. Admiral Nicholson also praised him to Bristol in a personal meeting. BWD, Oct. 21, 1922.

   
274
    
In a few days, the
Times Harvey to State Dept., Bristol. Sept. 22, 1922. MLB.

   
275
    
All of the big tobacco companies
A comprehensive explanation of the American tobacco industry’s reliance on Turkish tobacco emerges in the testimony and exhibits contained in the record of U.S. Senate Hearings on a foreign tobacco tariff. “Tariff: Schedule 6 Tobacco and Manufacturers Of,” Hearing Before the Committee on Finance, Dec. 7, 1921.

   
275
    
The American companies
“Standard Commercial Corporation History,” Funding Universe, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/standard-commercial-corporation-history/.

   
276
    
A Standard Commercial manager
, Powell, “Ship’s Diary,” Sept. 17, 1922. MLB.

   
276
    
The American Tobacco Co.
Testimony of Jehu E. Archbell, Report of Trial, 38–55.

   
276
    
Some of the big warehouses
Powell, “Ship’s Diary,” Sept. 17, 1922.

   
277
    
Several days after the fire
The story of Onassis as a boy in Smyrna is told in Nicholas Gage,
Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis
(New York: Knopf, 2000), 115–128. Additional detail comes from Skoulakis interview.

   
278
    
Powell met with these
The location and use of the Spartali mansion as the U.S. consulate comes from the research of George Poulemenos and Achilleas Chatziconstantinou.

   
278
    
By September 17, Jennings
Jennings to D. Davis.

   
278
    
“I must say the Navy
. . .” Jennings to D. Davis.

   
279
    
A favorite character in Greek
“Main Characters in Greek Shadow Theater,” Spathario Museum, Maroussi, Greece. http://www.karagiozismuseum.gr/en/figoures//.

   
279
    
The mansions along the Quay
Kyriakos Tsangridis,
From Utopia to Topos—The City of Smyrna
(Athens: Leader Books, 2001). Also: “Dwelling House, Smyrna, 1904,” floor plan provided by George Poulemenos.

   
281
    
The fire had destroyed
Descriptions of the city in the days following the fire appear in C. C. Davis to Bristol; Jaquith to Bristol, Oct. 6, 1922. NA 867.48/1452.

   
281
    
John Clayton, back in the city
“Plague Piles Up Death in Smyrna Ruins,”
Chicago Tribune,
Sept. 17, 1922.

   
282
    
“The worst sight I have seen”
E.O. Jacob to Darius Davis, Smyrna Diary, Part 2, (Date illegible) KFYA.

   
283
    
He also had the annoying
BWD, Oct. 23, 1922.

   
284
    
Mr. Carathina had returned to Turkey
“Vallejoan to Seek Family and Fortune,”
Oakland Tribune,
March 29, 1920.

   
285
    
Lord Curzon immediately cabled
Curzon to Geddes, and hand-delivered to Dulles at State Dept., Sept. 22, 1922. NA 868.48.156.

CHAPTER 23: THEODORA

   
Drawn from interview at AMRC.

   
287
    
In peace let us pray to the Lord.
Language of the Greek Orthodox Liturgy is drawn from “Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great,” Greek Orthodox Church of America. http://www.goarch.org/chapel/liturgical_texts.

CHAPTER 24: DAYS OF DESPAIR

   
290
    
As the suffering worsened
Unless otherwise noted, Powell’s observations and experiences here and in subsequent places in this chapter come from the “Ship’s Diary” of the USS
Edsall
.

   
290
    
Lieutenant Commander Knauss had helped
Knauss, “Ship’s Diary,” Sept. 17, 1922. MLB.

   
291
    
“From the military bakeries . . .”
Jacob to D. Davis.

   
291
    
Dr. Post (who had returned from Salonika)
Charles Claflin Davis to Bristol.

   
291
    
A local doctor, Dr. Margoulis
, “Turkey,”
The Reform Advocate: America’s Jewish Journal
42 (Oct. 14, 1911). A news item reports that the Sultan honored Dr. Margoulis for his services in the city.

   
291
    
In some cases, the French
. Demetrius Psalidopoulos, “My Memories of the First Days of the Catastrophe,” a privately printed monograph in the possession of Prof. Michail Psalidopoulos, Athens. Mr. Psalidopoulos escaped Smyrna on a French ship, “Phrygia.” Also: Peter James Spanos,
Fear and Survival,
Cape Elizabeth, Maine: Privately printed, 1989. Theodore Bartoli to Secretary of State, Dec. 5, 1922. NA 867.016/77. Pathe newsreels distributed in the U.S. at the time also show Italian ships boarding refugees. Library of Congress.

   
292
    
Some of the Allied ships swept searchlights
Woodrooffe,
Naval Odyssey,
117.

   
292
    
“The strange thing was . . .”
Ernest Hemingway, “On the Quai at Smyrna,” a short story in the collection
In Our Time
(New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925).

   
292
    
Hemingway actually never
Michael Reynolds,
Hemingway: The Final Years
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1999).

   
292
    
While he was
Hemingway,
Dateline, Toronto
.

   
293
    
On September 19, a dirty and ill-kept
“Movement of Vessels at Smyrna, Turkey,” included in
Edsall
’s Diary, Sept. 19–21, 1922; Woodrooffe,
Naval Odyssey,
110.

   
293
    
The Near East Relief also
STANAV to Edsall, Sept. 20, 1922. MLB.

   
293
    
The first rescue ships to Smyrna
Bristol to Secretary of State, Sept. 21, 1922. MLB.

   
294
    
“We therefore became more . . .”
Jennings to D. Davis.

   
294
    
Several days earlier,
Hepburn, “Smyrna Disaster,” 37.

   
294
    
But additional sightings
Powell, “Ship’s Diary.”

   
294
    
While running the American hospital
. Jay Winter (ed.), America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915, Cambridge University Press, 2004, 193. Raymond Kevorkian, The Aremenian Genocide: A Complete History, I. B. Tauris, 2011, 581.

   
295
    
The Young Turk government
Hovannisian, Power,
A Problem from Hell;
Peterson,
“Starving Armenians,”
ff.

   
295
    
The typical method was for soldiers or police
to round up Armenians in the cities, towns, and villages Peterson, “Starving Armenians:” America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915–1930, 32,33, ff.

   
295
    
Italian consulate remembered
James Bryce,
The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916,
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, London, 1916. 290–92.

   
295
    
“The passing of gangs . . .”
Peterson,
“Starving Armenians,”
34.

   
296
    
In May of 1922,
Yowell to Jackson.

   
296
    
“It seems almost impossible . . .”
Jacob to D. Davis.

   
297
    
Most were driven toward Magnesia
Many Greeks were reportedly killed in the march at a particular deep canyon (Buyuk Dere) along the Magnesia Road. Ioannis D. Kostikdakis, an Ottoman Greek from Kata Panogia, who survived, wrote, “As we arrived at the entrance of the gorge,
a stifling stench hampered our breathing. . . . Thousands of corpses, men, women, children, swollen from decay, filled the endless ravine.” See “The Grand Trek to the Ravine of Death,”
Kato Panagia Bulletin,
No. 11, September 1957. In an interview collected by the Asia Minor Research Center in its book,
Exodus,
Anastassis Haranis, an Ottoman Greek from a village near Phocaea, said, “In Bunarbassi [near Smyrna], after they had stolen everything from us, they delivered us to new guards. During the night they led us through the ravine of Sypilos (a mountain near Magnesia), where they searched us again and took all our money. Turkish men and women came to the road while we passed, and they kept saying to our guards: ‘If we give you two Turkish lira, will you give us one Giaur (infidel)?’ The guards ruthlessly gave over the people, and these [the villagers] killed them.” A description of the ravine appears in Elias Venezis’s novel/memoir
The Number 31328,
his story of being held as a work prisoner by the Turks. (He refers to the ravine as “Kirtik-Dere,” which probably was its real name, since “Buyuk-Dere” actually means “Great Ravine.”) “One morning they took us, some sixty slaves, for a small chore. It’s a small distance out of Magnesia. Next to the track of the railroad ends a long ravine passing through Sipylus mountain. It’s called Kirtik-Dere. In this ravine we reckoned that some forty thousand Christians were killed, from Smyrna and from Magnesia, male and female. In the early days of the disaster. The bodies decomposed during the winter, and the water coming down the gorge from above pushed the skeletons downwards. So they reached the road, the tracks.”