Lost in the Shadow of Fame

by William E. Lemanski

  The economic pressures following his investment losses after the stock market crash, mounting expenses and problems with the shipping industry severely affected Kermit’s already fragile temperament and greatly contributed to his lifelong predisposition of severe mental depression. He began to purge his demons in alcoholism and social carousing with his friends leading to a decline in both his mental stability and his once splendidly strong and athletic physical condition. Despite the diminishment of his finances and growing personal problems, he left a legacy in American shipping and commerce that is equaled by few if any others. His efforts and those of a few others enabled the United States to recover from the virtual absence of a national shipping industry prior to the First World War and play a major role in economic development following the war. A measure of his contribution to the world of shipping is represented by the honor bestowed by the United States Navy. In May, 1945 the navy commissioned a 411 foot Luzon Class repair ship the USS Kermit Roosevelt.

  Notes:

  1. New York Times, November 26, 1919

  2. The Rough Writer, The News of the Volunteers at Sagamore Hill, Volume 9, Issue 3

  3. The opening paragraph of the act, "Purpose and Policy of the United States," stated: “It is necessary for the national defense and for the proper growth of its foreign and domestic commerce that the United States shall have a merchant marine of the best equipped and most suitable types of vessels sufficient to carry the greater portion of its commerce and serve as a naval auxiliary in time of war or national emergency, ultimately to be owned and operated privately by citizens of the United States; and it is the declared policy of the United States to do whatever may be necessary to develop and encourage the maintenance of such a merchant marine.”

  4. The Bridge to France, 1927, Edward N. Hurley

  5. TIME, March 15, 1926

  6. TIME, January 29, 1928

  7. TIME, January 19, 1931

  8. New York Times, September 1, 1921

  9. The Audubon Ark, A History of the National Audubon Society, Frank Graham, Jr. with Carl Buchheister, published in paperback in 1992 by the University of Texas Press, Austin, TX; originally published New York: Knopf, 1990. Page 181 in the paperback edition.

  10. The Roosevelt-Astor Espionage Ring, 1981; Quarterly Journal of New York State Historical Association, Volume LXII, Number 3 by Jeffery M. Dorwart

  11. New York Times, May 8, 1912

  12. The Roosevelt-Astor Espionage Ring, 1981; Quarterly Journal of New York State Historical Association, Volume LXII, Number 3 by Jeffery M. Dorwart

  13. Ibid.

  14. Astor letter, 1938; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

  15. The Belle and Kermit Roosevelt Papers, Library of Congress, Box 19

  16. Ibid.

  17. TIME, August 31, 1929

  18. "The 1929 Stock Market Crash," Bierman, Harol, Cornel University, EH.Net Encyclopedia, March 26, 2008.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ibid.

  21. The Belle and Kermit Roosevelt Papers, Library of Congress, Box 115

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid., Box 117

  Chapter VII – Adventures

  in Distant Lands

  March by march I puzzled through 'em,

  turning flanks and dodging shoulders,

  Hurried on in hope of water,

  headed back for lack of grass;

  Till I camped above the tree-line --

  drifted snow and naked boulders --

  Felt free air astir to windward --

  knew I'd stumbled on the Pass.

  “The Explorer,” Rudyard Kipling

  The first quarter of the 20th Century was an age of hectic discovery and manic exploration. The race for being the first to the poles, discovery and analysis of the ancient civilizations of the Middle-East and South America along with the discovery of new species and many other major challenges became competitive events for the world’s scientific community. Typical of the age (trekking to far-off places to secure examples of rare or unknown species of flora and fauna) was a major interest of the world’s leading collecting institutions. Many animals that today are commonplace in zoos and museums were either only rumored to exist or not even yet discovered. Even large numbers of known species were not yet owned or displayed by the major institutions. The geographic societies, zoos and museums were anxious to acquire and display life-like settings of the world’s rare life-forms. In the 1920s Carl Akeley of the American Museum of Natural History was collecting for and planning the African Hall in New York as many museums were competing for the new fossil discoveries in the American West.

  At that time, wealthy and adventurous dilettantes served as hunter-naturalists combining sport, exploration and game-harvesting with the noble intent of expanding man’s knowledge of the world. Earlier, famous hunters such as Frederick Courtney Selous, George Cornwallis Harris, George Thomson and many others had contributed both their lives and names to the discovery of new species. The Boone and Crockett Club was originally created by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887 for the protection of America’s dwindling wildlife. The organization also acquired the various best examples of America’s antlered animals and began documenting the most dramatic specimens obtained by hunters. The Rowland-Ward Record Book was devised to document the largest and most magnificent of the world’s animals. Kermit and his brother Theodore Jr. continued this tradition and were participants in this era of grand, adventurous exploration.

  v

  Although immersed in the shipping industry with business interests requiring Kermit to travel to the four corners of the world, his insatiable thirst for wilderness adventure could not be satisfied in the board room. Adventure and discovery in wild romantic places, along with a deep interest in literature were major forces of his personality. His curiosity for the mystery of distant lands, indigenous peoples with their unique languages, hunting adventures and particularly the undiscovered secrets of natural history were always foremost in his mind. “Though I have done a certain amount of roughing it and hunting during my life, compared to Kermit I am a beginner,” noted his brother, Theodore Jr., also a seasoned world traveler, hardened combat soldier and keen student of natural history. He continued:

  “Every continent has seen the smoke of his camp-fires. His business is shipping, which takes him all over the world, and as a result he has been able in the course of his work to hunt in India, Manchuria, and various parts of the United States and Mexico.”1

  This observation, notwithstanding his previous wilderness travels with his father to Africa and South America and his own hunting expeditions to Canada and Korea, place Kermit in a select group of 20th Century explorers and hunter-naturalists. Due to this restless nature, the conventional life of a corporate executive could no longer satisfy his wandering urge and in 1925 he once again embarked upon a long expedition to the unchartered corners of the world.

  Pursuing the Marco Polo Sheep in Turkestan

  Following TR Jr.’s defeat to Alfred E. Smith in the New York Gubernatorial race of 1924, he and Kermit decided to take time off for an expedition to the mountains of Central Asia in pursuit of the elusive Ovis poli. As in the past with their father, their plan was to combine a big game hunting trip while collecting museum settings for science. This strange wild mountain sheep with its age-old legends would provide the perfect quarry while enabling the brothers to explore a region of the world along with its flora and fauna that until that time had only marginally been investigated. As Kermit and TR Jr. began to explore the high regions of Asia, Theodore Roosevelt’s friend, Roy Chapman Andrews2 of the American Museum of Natural History, was making remarkable discoveries of dinosaur fossils to the northeast in Mongolia: the early origins of man and his migration were his focus. Both Andrews and the Roosevelts would be trekking in adjacent regions of Asia generally unexplored.

  The Ovis poli has puzzled and even created doubt in the minds of many people since the great 14th Century world traveler Marco Polo first mentioned their exis
tence to the civilized world.3 This animal remained a myth for hundreds of years until 1838 when British adventurer Lieutenant John Woods explored the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan near the Chinese border. Woods returned and presented to the astonished Royal Society in London a huge set of horns, larger than any known sheep thereby officially establishing the animal’s existence. The Society named this unique creature, Ovis poli; the Marco Polo sheep in honor of the great explorer who first documented existence of the animal. Down through the years, the Marco Polo sheep has become the prized game animal for hunters who are willing to spend the time, money and enormous energy in snow laden mountains at elevations reaching up to 20,000 feet. With the impressive spiraling horns of this sheep extending horizontally from the animals head in long graceful curves sometimes achieving lengths greater than 60 to 70 inches, many hunters consider this to be the ultimate trophy. However, in the 1920s, this animal was still a mysterious novelty with its habitat even classified today as one of the most harsh, remote regions of the world.

  The Roosevelts focused on the Pamirs, Turkestan and the Tian Shan*[22] mountains for their pursuit of the Ovis poli which TR Jr. called the “father and mother” of all the wild sheep.4 Their expectations were to also collect representatives of the region’s other various fauna. The geographic diversity of high mountains, scorching desert interspersed with lowland jungle would provide a varied environment previously unstudied by science.

  To finance the expedition Kermit and TR Jr. engaged the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and Mr. James Simpson, the wealthy head of Marshall Field & Co. The enterprise was named the James Simpson-Roosevelts-Field Museum Expedition. This venture provided the museum the opportunity to acquire animal specimens not commonly available in other institutions with the possibility of even new species. To provide professional scientific expertise on the expedition, the Roosevelt’s enlisted George K. Cherrie who accompanied Kermit and his father on their South American expedition years before. Lifelong friend of the Roosevelt family, the wealthy world traveler and naturalist, Charles Sydam Cutting5 agreed to provide photographic services for the expedition rounding out the exploration and research party to four.

  For guides and camp staff, the brothers relied on the suggestions of British military officers who had experience in the mountains of Asia. Ahmad Shah, a turbaned former army sergeant-major and a tough former soldier named Feroze were employed. A syce, necessary for handling the pack animals and the four American hound dogs the brothers shipped for game tracking, was named Fezildin. Native hunters Rahima Loon and his brother Khalil were added to serve as the group’s shikaries along with a cook and three coolies for odd jobs and equipment carry.

  The travel plan chosen for the expedition would trek an arduous route of many hundreds of miles over snow covered mountain peaks and through glacial passes, across scorching desert and via ancient caravan trails through remote villages. Their caravan’s transportation relied on the local tough mountain ponies and yaks. These large rugged animals were capable of traversing the steep elevations and deep snow with little difficulty while carrying the heavy loads of both men and supplies. Beginning in the Kashmir city of Srinagar, the expedition crossed the Himalaya Mountains, passed through the Karakoram, passed onto the Takla Mahan Desert of Eastern Turkestan, thence north into the heights of the Tian Shan Mountains for the Ovis poli then on to Kargai Tash in Mongolia. Cherrie and Cutting would pursue a leisurely collecting schedule6, stopping when necessary while Kermit and TR Jr. decided to travel light and make speed through the mountains, across Turkestan and to the Tian Shan Range while linking with the collecting team in Mongolia.

  This rigorous route wore heavily on both man and beast. Temperatures at night would drop to frigid levels. Unable to stay warm at night with no camp fire due to the absence of trees for fire wood at that elevation, the only recourse was to stay dressed, huddled within sleeping bags in their tent at night. Crossing through the high mountain passes, TR Jr. noted “but every mile stands on end.”7 The thin mountain air at the high elevations taxed the breathing of the men and pack animals heavily laden with 150 pound loads, rendering each step an exercise in exhaustion. “What might be an easy climb at 10,000 feet, at 17,000 sets the heart beating like a trip-hammer and the lungs gasping for air.”8 The meager mountain fodder offered little sustenance to the laboring beasts. Many times the animals would trudge through snow belly-deep. Many frozen rivers would be forded, chilling all to the bone. At some locations the trail would lead along a narrow ledge where a slip could send animal and rider to their doom. Avalanches were frequent in the narrow mountain passes as glacial crevasses in the valleys threatened the caravan with their bottomless depths. At one location a small pony, carrying no pack, fell but could not rise. He died simply from exertion and the altitude. On another occasion during the night, one of their donkeys was killed and partially eaten by wolves within a hundred yards of their camp. A measure of the toll on pack animals in the Himalayas by previous travelers was evidenced by the numerous bones along the trail which at some locations were piled six and eight feet high.

  After fording one river to avoid a shorter route across a treacherous glacier, they met two men from another caravan who attempted the dangerous glacier crossing. Also deciding on the apparently easier river ford, they had to wait four days for the water to recede. While delayed, starvation claimed the life of one man and eleven pack-animals, forcing the two survivors to eat horse-flesh.

  In the 1920s, caravan travel in the Himalayas differed very little from the past ages. Travel through the precarious mountain passes was weather and seasonal dependent. Kermit’s pack animal caravan experienced the same dangers that have plagued Himalayan travelers for centuries. When crossing the high Karakoram Pass their eighth animal, a pack-pony, fell off the trail. His group lost many beasts through this dangerous route; all totaled, thirteen animals were sacrificed during their twenty-five-day trek across the Himalayan range. The companion caravan of a Rajah of Baltistan and his wife joined them for a portion of the trek. The Mrs. Rajah was a veiled purdah9 hidden within a litter carried by four servants. Kermit commented on the precarious situation of the swaying litter when skirting the narrow ledges above the numerous cliff faces where a misstep would send the mysterious aristocrat and her entourage into oblivion. Offsetting the dangers of the mountain travel, the trek also passed through picturesque villages and ancient monasteries, meeting colorful and exotic people.

  The expedition marveled at the culture and customs of the Buddhist worshiping mountain people. At Nurla they witnessed a Buddhist ceremony where a priest conducted a most extraordinary service: In amazement Kermit commented,

  “He scattered incense, and genuflected mystic signs. He then took a small dagger, which he ran through a hole in his cheek, plunging it in up to the hilt, so that the blade appeared between his teeth. Next he took two sabres, and, intoning a dirge-like chant, swung the swords about his head in the approved Cossack style. Suddenly he stripped himself to the waist, placed the point of each sword in the pit of his stomach, and, running a short distance, plunged forward to the ground, balancing himself on the swords.” Fortunately, “Before he could repeat this performance the two assistant lamas rushed up and took the swords from him.”10

  After descending the Karakorum onto the Depsang Plain they entered the range of the Tibetan antelope where Kermit and TR Jr. collected three of the animals for a museum setting. Up to this time, the hunting was meager although Cherrie and Cutting were successful in collecting a trove of birds and small mammals on their slower, circuitous route.

  In the lowland town of Karghalik, the expedition members were feted by the Amban, the town’s ranking official and his family. For the occasion, Kermit and TR Jr. donned a pair of tuxedos and top hats they packed for just such an eventuality. By civilized standards, they presented quite a bizarre appearance decked-out in opera hat and tails while riding ragged, half tamed pony’s through the streets of the remote town. Even typical today in m
any foreign lands with obscure cultures, indigenous peoples are often very impressed with an overt show of formality and officialdom. The Roosevelts realized this with the evening dress. They even secured from Chinese officials before embarking on the trip, obsolete, ostentatious and beribboned documents written in Chinese to impress any remote peoples they may encounter. Their ceremonious dinner with the Amban and his entourage was a big success. Along with the numerous supplies packed for the trip, Kermit, always appreciative of strong spirits, contributed brandy, sloe gin and champagne to the fare as Cutting provided entertainment with song.

  Throughout the trip, the expedition split and then regrouped to enable Cherrie to collect museum specimens on a more leisurely pace and for Cutting to proceed ahead to confirm all of the administrative incidentals in crossing remote lands. At Yarkand, Cherrie took a delayed passage to Maralbashi as Cutting headed to Kashgar to address travel arrangement there. The overland journey in the Takla Mahan Desert over a well-used ancient trail enabled the Roosevelts to overnight in many villages. Their sleeping accommodations varied between sleeping bags under the stars or a flea infested slumber in a serai, the central Asian version of a roadside motel. The serai were the standard hostelries for the locals which included accommodations for their livestock under the same roof. The evening meal would be from a communal pot enabling the plunging hands of all the guests to dig for their hand-dipped morsels as they squatted under a lamp. “The evening meal over, they would sing spirited ballad songs with a swinging lilt to them or lugubrious dirges and indescribably monotonous chants.”11