“Grayson at Sea”

Shipboard Family Photos

John R. Grayson, USN

Living along the Atlantic Coast as they did, the Graysons of Savannah, Georgia, were no strangers to the sea. Their Virginia ancestor John Robinson Grayson (1779-1822) was impressed from an American merchant ship into the British Navy as a teenager in the 1890s. He served with distinction as a U.S. Navy gunboat commander off the southern Atlantic coast during the War of 1812, and as a trans-Atlantic merchant sailing master based in Savannah afterwards. He and his wife Frances (1800-1862) are the progenitors of the Georgia branch of the Grayson clan.

S.S. Savannah

John witnessed the beginning of the end of the Age of Sail when in 1819 the S.S. Savannah left its namesake home port for England, marking the first time steam power was used in a trans-Atlantic voyage. President James Monroe, John’s older Virginia cousin, took a demonstration excursion down the Savannah river in the days before the historic crossing.

Savannah Descendants

John and Frances’ great-grandson William L. Grayson (1870-1941) and his wife Lillian (1872-1936) had six children that lived to adulthood, including our beloved grandfather Leon (1906-1993). All three of Leon’s sisters married sea-going men. Lynne (1893-1961) wed Coast Guard Lieutenant Leo C. Mueller (1886-1980) in October 1916. The following photo is from an album preserved by the descendants of Leon’s and Lynne’s brother Spence (1900-1990).

Coast Guard Cutter Yamacraw

The caption on the back reads, “Lynne G. Mueller [center], Coast Guard Cutter ‘Yamacraw’ apprx 1917.” Others in the photo are unidentified. Yamacraw was a steel-hulled “First Class Cruising Cutter,” built in 1909 and carrying 8 officers and 65 enlisted men. The cutter’s home port was Savannah, but she served off the mid-Atlantic coast during the World War.¹

Scrapbooks and Photos

Our grandparents Leon and Mary Grayson left us two scrapbooks, a large photo album, and a drawer crammed with photos and negatives. In a college scrapbook, Leon cut and pasted three shipboard photos.

O.S.S. City of Chattanooga

Leon’s handwritten caption reads, “April 11, 1930 on O.S.S. Chattanooga coming back from New York.” The City of Chattanooga was built in 1923, one of eight passenger ships owned and operated by the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah, The Savannah Line.² In the first snapshot, 23-year-old Leon mugs behind another couple while his presumed date looks the opposite way with an annoyed expression. Leon poses alone, and at the bottom of a deck ladder with two older men.

Miami – En Route

Leon’s caption “Miami” – (En Route) is a puzzler. His erased original caption is illegible. He and Mary met sometime in 1932 or ’33, and reportedly eloped on New Year’s Eve 1934. My initial guess was a 1934 honeymoon and perhaps it was, but we never heard mention of a Miami trip. Knowing Leon and Mary’s senses of humor, it could be an inside joke. The elopement was kept secret from both families until October 1935, when Mary joined Leon in their new hometown and the couple was sacramentally united in a Washington D.C. Catholic Church.

A Summer Outing

A late-20s Mary and a still-slender 30ish Leon pose along a ship’s rail ca. 1937. Both are casually dressed. Life was not published as a photo magazine until November 1936.

The “Grayson at Sea” photo depicts a slightly older and fuller-faced Leon. It is one of three snapshots in our possession of shipboard Leon in the same white suit and spotted tie. I wrote “July 1939” on one of them, and though I’d have to dig into how and why I came to that determination, the specificity of the month persuades the now-me to give the benefit of the doubt to the then-me. It is nevertheless possible the photos date to a later date, though likely not as late as Leon’s 1947 journey to and from Okinawa.

¹ “Yamacraw, 1909.” https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Water/All/Article/2199117/yamacraw-1909/ accessed 12/02/25. Includes photos and an interesting narrative of a tragic rescue effort off the coast of Ocean City MD in March 1917.

² “Savannah Line,” TheShipsList, Benjidog Historical Research Resources https://www.benjidog.co.uk/TheShipsList/SavannahLine.php accessed 12/02/25