AUGUSTA CRACKER, Shanghai, China, April 5, 1935

• United States Navy
• USS Augusta- cruiser

This is a "camp" newspaper printed on board the U.S.S. Augusta, the flagship of the United States Asiatic fleet.
Captain C. W. Nimitz is listed as the Naval Commander of the ship. This was the noted Chester Nimitz who would become a fleet admiral in the United States Navy and play a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet.
Four pages, 8 by 10 1/2 inches, nice condition.

Background: The Augusta Cracker issue from April 5, 1935, is an exceptionally rare piece of naval ephemera, serving as an authentic four-page window into daily life aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) while stationed off Shanghai, China, as the flagship of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet. Shipboard newspapers of this era were printed in extremely limited quantities using aboard presses or mimeograph machines strictly for the ship's crew, making surviving copies from the interwar period in China extraordinarily scarce today. Its primary historical significance lies in the roster listing Captain Chester W. Nimitz as the ship's Naval Commander—a position he held from late 1933 to mid-1935 prior to his historic rise to Fleet Admiral and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet during World War II. Content-wise, these four pages blend local Far East station news, athletic scores, internal announcements, and sailor humor with the underlying tension of 1930s U.S. naval diplomacy in East Asia, creating a rare primary source that connects everyday shipboard culture directly to one of WWII's most celebrated naval commanders.