Clarence Amend “Sharkey” Gehrett of Casper may not have sailed all seven seas when he was in the U.S. Navy, but he did become a “shellback” — the nickname for a sailor who’s crossed the equator — which he did on the Pacific Ocean in 1928.
For that feat, there was a special costumed ceremony onboard the USS Maryland battleship he was assigned to, and his crossing certificate was signed by then President-elect Herbert Hoover, who happened to be onboard.
Gehrett, who spent more than two decades in the Navy, also liked to take photos and would take his camera everywhere with him. In addition to his Hoover-signed certificate, nearly two dozen of his photos are on display in a special exhibit at the Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum in Casper.
Museum Director John Woodward said Gehrett died in 1987, and his family donated the collection of photos from his naval career to the museum in 2011.
The images not only tell the story of military life and travel 100 years ago, they’re historical snapshots that captures a unique time in the United States between World Wars I and II.
“About a year or two ago, I did a historical article in our newsletter on crossing the line ceremonies when sailors or coast guardsmen or other personnel cross a significant line of latitude or longitude and they get a certificate,” he said. “And the Gehrett collection had one that was signed by President-elect Herbert Hoover.
“So that caught my attention. And when we started doing temporary exhibits, the Gehrett collection was first on my list to do an exhibit because it had so many different photographs.”
President-elect Herbert Hoover, second from left, was captured in a photo by Clarence Gehrett during Hoover’s cruise to Latin America. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Clarence Gehrett’s photo of The Shanghai Theatre possibly in 1937 as it promotes the movie “Souls at Sea.” (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Sailors put on their poses in a Clarence Gehrett photo shown at the Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Clarence Gehrett captured a couple of buddies posing with a rickshaw during his time in China. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Clarence Gherett’s photo of the USS Maryland equator-crossing ceremony crew. He would receive his own certificate for the crossing. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
A photo of Casper sailor Clarence Gherett and a Chinese woman is part of the exhibit at the Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Clarence Gehrett’s certificate for crossing the equator while on the USS Maryland. It was signed in the right corner by Herbert Hoover. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
‘Globe-Trotting Sailor’
There are 22 of Gehrett’s photos on display at the museum in an exhibit called “Globe-Trotting Sailor.”
One photo titled “Captain Caravan and the Royal Family” shows sailors and officers dressed up in wild attire, one with a horned helmet holding a pitchfork apparently as Neptune. The photo came from the USS Maryland as it crossed the equator in the Pacific Ocean with Hoover aboard. As president-elect, Hoover was doing a Latin American tour in 1928.
Another Gehrett photo shows the battleship’s officers chatting with Hoover on the deck.
“That is an interesting story in itself because we actually found a company out of Britain that has that newsreel of Hoover aboard the battleship Maryland and of that crossing the lines ceremony going on,” Woodward said. “So, there is the reasonable idea that one of the people in that newsreel is Clarence Gehrett.”
Getting the rights to show the newsreel in the display was too costly, however, Woodward said.
Photos chosen for the exhibit chronicle some of Gehrett’s five years on the USS Maryland serving as a gunners mate working the torpedo racks and as a diver. One photo shows the battleship as it transits the Panama Canal and another of the USS Maryland crew on parade in Seattle, Washington.
Other photos depict Gehrett’s time in the Asiatic Fleet from 1931 to 1938 aboard the USS Pillsbury, a destroyer. He also served on a riverboat, the USS Monocacy, patrolling the Yangtze River protecting U.S. shipping lanes from bandits, as well as U.S. citizens and interests along the banks in inland China.
There is a photo of Gehrett with a Chinese woman, of sailors in a rickshaw, a snowy dockside dragon and more.
Another photo taken of The Shanghai Theatre shows the movie on the marquee, “Souls at Sea,” starring Gary Cooper and George Raft being promoted in both Chinese and English. The movie came out in 1937.
South Dakota Native
Gehrett was born April 19, 1908, in Deadwood, South Dakota. His family moved to Sheridan and then Casper as his father sought work as a pipe fitter. Gehrett’s naval career began after a scrape with the law in 1925.
According to the museum’s display, on March 20, 1925, the then 17-year-old and a friend stole $400 worth of groceries from W.H. Brown Grocery in Casper. They put the goods in the grocery store’s delivery van, stole that as well, and headed for Glenrock.
A news article in the Casper Tribune-Herald on March 24, 1925, reported that the “youths were so anxious for a camping trip that they could not resist the impulse to commit the crime.”
“Confession was made after the pair had been identified by Roy Smith, a rancher, as the youths whose truck he pulled out of the mud and snow 25 miles southwest of Glenrock (on) Saturday,” the newspaper reported.
The pair were ultimately not charged, and in June 1925, Gehrett enlisted in the Navy.
Clarence Gherett’s photo of the USS Maryland making its way through the Panama Canal. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Casper sailor Clarence Gherett served on many ships during a 20-year stint in the Navy, including the USS Maryland iun 1928 when President-elect Herbert Hoover was aboard. (Wikipedia) 
Casper sailor Clarence Gherett served on many ships during a 20-year stint in the Navy, including aboard the USS Pillbury from 1931-38. (Wikipedia)
War Years
During much of the World War II years, Gehrett served about the USS Vixen, a converted civilian yacht that served as the flagship for several admirals as they traveled the nation’s East Coast seaboard to various naval stations. It was based in Washington, D.C., at the Naval Yard.
In 1944, Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Gehrett was assigned to the USS Prairie, a destroyer tender that serviced and repaired destroyers doing battle in the Pacific fleet.
“He was aboard that destroyer tender servicing destroyers in combat behind the lines until the end of the war,” Woodward said.
After the war, Gehrett returned to Casper having served in the Navy 20 years. Upon returning, he worked for a car dealership and the Burlington Northern Railroad. In 1950, he was called back to duty to train sailors at the Recruit Training Command Great Lakes base in Chicago for the Korean War.
After this second round of service, he returned to Casper and worked various jobs, including his last as custodian at the First Presbyterian Church in the city.
Gehrett died Oct. 29, 1987, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sheridan following a lengthy illness. He left a wife and one daughter.
Woodward said Gehrett’s photos and the time period they represent give a “unique view” of his service, the people he met and places he saw during his military career.
“That’s something you don’t see, especially when you think about the 1920s and ’30s and the cost of purchasing film for a camera, developing the film,” Woodward said. “It’s a lot different than today when it is on a cellphone. He was investing a large amount of time and money into this hobby, and now we’re continuing to enjoy that decades after his passing.”
The exhibit of Gehrett’s photos will be on display through the end of June.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
