Photo Album USS OAHU Yangtze River Gunboat US Navy Sailor China Shanghai 1930s

Description

An outstanding US Navy or Marine sailor's photo album. A singular production of more than 500 photographs taken or acquired while assigned to the Yangtze River gunboat USS Oahu in the early-1930's.
The album measures approximately 15" x 11." It is string bound and its flexible board panels are covered in a faux-reptile skin cloth.
There are a bit more than 500 photographs (I count 513) mounted to the rectos and versos of 37 black paper leaves, loosely fit into dry corner mounts (and easily and safely removable).
The majority of photos, about 350 of them, appear to be original snapshots captured by the soldier.
They range in size from about 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" to 5 1/2" x 3 1/2".
This section is in the front and separated by about a dozen blank leaves, then proceeded by about 160 more photographs which appear to be a blend of commercial or souvenir prints and photos captured by a more skilled photographer. Most of these measure approximately 4" x 3" and there are some phenomenal cultural images among them.
There are also about 8 enlarged photographs, approximately 8" x 10," including the excellent identified and dated photograph of the Oahu crew shown here in the first image. It is dated 1932 and is the only dated photo in the album, though the balance of contents seem firmly within the same timeframe.
There is no notation to any of the album pages and we've carefully removed several of the prints and haven't found any notations to print versos either. This is fresh from a local, multi-generational estate and is as-found by me ; nothing has been added or removed. I strongly suspect the soldier was from the St. Louis, Missouri area (though I am unable to locate anything definitive in ancestral records).
This is a significant photographic document of the Yangtze Patrol captured during an important time immediately preceding the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific.
This ships professionally packed and promptly dispatched, same business day as payment via UPS 2nd Day Air to The USA. International dispatch will be done through eBay's global fulfillment program.
I have additional images of the album available. Please send along any questions and thanks for looking.