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| The Battleship Texas As She Appeared Engaging Cervera's Fleet During The Battle Of Santiago In 1898 |
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| The Battleship Texas At The San Jacinto Battleground |
She rests quietly and majestically at her berth. Here and there a single visitor, dwarfed by her massive size, walks her decks in silence. This great ship sailed the oceans of the world for 30 years and is a veteran of two World Wars. Built just after the turn of the Twentieth Century, she was once as innovative as she is now obsolete. Her keel was laid almost a century ago. She was launched and commissioned barely a month after RMS Titanic foundered. Named after the largest state in the “lower 48,”Texas was a ship of “firsts.” She shared the name of the first true Battle Ship of the US Navy and she was built after the style of HMS Dreadnought. She was the first US battleship to launch an aircraft; she received the first commercial radar of any US Navy ship; with her ten fourteen-inch rifles, she was once considered the most powerful battleship of the US Navy; and after she was decommissioned in 1948, she became the first battleship memorial in the US. They approached the old ship slowly and quietly. They came singly, in pairs, and small groups across the gangway. Some were Navy veterans but most were not. Most were middle aged, but there were still quite a few younger men among them. Some arrived carrying chairs; most carried aprons. All brought healthy expectations.
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| Brother Williamson's Event Cap Presentation |
As they signed the meeting roster of members and guests, they entered and were seated on the “castle” deck, between two 5-inch casemated rifles, now long silent. It didn't look much like a place to raise a Mason, but in this, too, the Texas scored a “first.” The last surviving Dreadnought was the scene of the first Master Mason's degree conferred on a Fellow Craft member of Frontier #28 in the 165-years since Frontier was first set to labor. A degree team consisting of members from Frontier 28 and Garden Oaks Lodge No. 1306 conferred the degree on Brother Robert Lee Williamson.
Most Masons are raised in a “regularly constituted lodge” with the membership of their lodge and maybe a few visitors present. Few are raised in especially memorable circumstances. There are certainly occasional degrees performed outside the norm. The outdoor degrees conferred by Pleasant Hill Lodge No. 380 at Liendo Plantation, the outdoor degrees conferred by St. Johns #5, and the MM degree conferred by PGM Tommy Griffin at the Scottish Rite Temple in Galveston are notable exceptions.
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| Brother Williamson's Apron Presention |
The recent raising aboard USS Texas also was far outside the norm.
One hundred forty-four Masons attended the Raising of Brother Robert Lee Williamson aboard Texas on 23 April. They came from far and wide. They arrived from the piney woods and the coastal plains. They came from the high plains; from Pelham, GA and even one Mason from Northolt, London, UK. Every one witnessed history in the making. Amid the shipboard smells of paint and petroleum, Masonry gained another Master Mason in a ceremony not easily forgotten. If you missed the ceremony aboard USS Texas, you missed something very, very special.
Check out photos of this degree on the Facebook account of Frontier Masonic Lodge No. 28. Oh, and the next time you find Frontier and Garden Oaks will be conferring a degree, come on out and join us. I don't believe you'll be disappointed.
