Who's Who in Naval History (Who's Who Series,)

Who’s Who IN NAVAL HISTORY • The most comprehensive compact biographical guide available on naval history • Over six hu...

Author: Joseph F. Callo

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Who’s Who IN NAVAL HISTORY • The most comprehensive compact biographical guide available on naval history • Over six hundred entries on key figures from the UK, USA and around the world • Covers participants in key events from the Battle of Lepanto to World War Two and Vietnam This authoritative biographical guide presents the lives and careers of over six hundred men and women who have made their mark in the world’s fighting navies, from the sixteenth century to the present day. From admirals who won, or lost, sea battles, through specialist minesweepers, to boy seamen whose bravery inspired their fellows; from eminent naval administrators to those who designed the ships, it features those who have helped to shape seawarfare around the world. Covering key events from the Battle of Lepanto to those of World War Two and the Vietnam War, this is an invaluable work of reference for anyone interested in naval history. Alastair Wilson is a retired Commander of the Royal Navy, in which he served as a career Officer for 34 years. He writes regularly for the Naval Review. Joseph F.Callo is a retired US Naval Reserve Rear Admiral and freelance writer. He has written extensively on Horatio Nelson as well as on military issues, travel and business.

THE ROUTLEDGE WHO’S WHO SERIES Accessible, authoritative and enlightening, these are the definitive biographical guides to a diverse range of subjects drawn from literature and the arts, history and politics, religion and mythology. Who’s Who in Ancient Egypt Michael Rice Who’s Who in the Ancient Near East Gwendolyn Leick Who’s Who in Christianity Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok Who’s Who in Classical Mythology Michael Grant and John Hazel Who’s Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History Edited by Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon Who’s Who in Contemporary Women’s Writing Edited by Jane Eldridge Miller Who’s Who in Contemporary World Theatre Edited by Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe Who’s Who in Dickens Donald Hawes Who’s Who in Europe 1450–1750 Henry Kamen Who’s Who in Gay and Lesbian History

Edited by Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon Who’s Who in the Greek World John Hazel Who’s Who in Jewish History Joan Comay, new edition revised by Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok Who’s Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing Gabriele Griffin Who’s Who in Military History John Keegan and Andrew Wheatcroft Who’s Who in Modern History Alan Palmer Who’s Who in Naval History Alastair Wilson and Joseph F.Callo Who’s Who in Nazi Germany Robert S.Wistrich Who’s Who in the New Testament Ronald Brownrigg Who’s Who in Non-Classical Mythology Egerton Sykes, new edition revised by Alan Kendall Who’s Who in the Old Testament Joan Comay Who’s Who in the Roman World John Hazel Who’s Who in Russia since 1900 Martin McCauley Who’s Who in Shakespeare Peter Quennell and Hamish Johnson Who’s Who of Twentieth-Century Novelists

Tim Woods Who’s Who in Twentieth-Century Warfare Spencer Tucker Who’s Who in Twentieth-Century World Poetry Edited by Mark Willhardt and Alan Michael Parker Who’s Who in World War One John Bourne Who’s Who in World War Two John Keegan

Who’s Who IN NAVAL HISTORY From 1550 to the present

Alastair Wilson and Joseph F.Callo

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2004 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270MadisonAvenue, NewYork, NY10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “ To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.” © 2004 Alastair Wilson and Joseph F.Callo All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this title has been requested ISBN 0-203-01351-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-34160-0 (Adobe e-Reader Format) ISBN 0-415-30828-3 (Print Edition)

Contents Preface

ix

List of abbreviations

xi

Naval ranks

xvii

WHO’S WHO IN NAVAL HISTORY

1

Preface It is a tall order to produce a comprehensive Who’s Who in Naval History. As a matter of practical necessity, we set an earliest date of 1550 for this work, since that century saw the widespread introduction of printing and the development of more detailed accounts of voyages, events and personal histories. That date also is the approximate point when the oceans became bridges rather than barriers. It was a time when trade, the struggle for markets, and broad-scale naval power became global issues. No writer can be wholly objective. We have done our best, however, by selecting individuals for inclusion in Who’s Who in Naval History who have been recognized for having significant impact on world events and/or the navy of his or her country. In addition, some individuals who seem to be obscure have been chosen to shed light on an important but relatively unrecognized aspect of naval warfare (e.g. mine warfare or amphibious warfare in the twentieth century). Joseph Callo has selected and written the US entries, and Alastair Wilson the remainder, together with general editing. There are three points to be made in the matter of nationality. First: those officers who served in the Royal Navy wholly before the union of England and Scotland formed Great Britain in 1707, are described as English: thereafter they become ‘British’. Second: Americans who served in the Continental forces before the signing of the Declaration of Independence are described as Americans: thereafter they become ‘US’. Third: we have used ‘Russian’ throughout, rather than differentiating between Russia and the USSR. We have deliberately included significant material from what the author of another book in the Routledge Who’s Who series called ‘archival research into dog-eared…lists’. Navies are hierarchical, and because hierarchical status generally correlates with achievement (a statement which some may think has so many exceptions that it must be true), we believe an individual’s progress within that structure is relevant. From the end of the seventeenth century, the basic rank structure in most navies has been unchanged: prior to that time, an admiral was an appointment pro tem rather than a hierarchical rank. And we have not included the squadronal sub-divisions for admirals, which applied to the Royal Navy until 1864. We have recorded details of at least some awards made by the state, because that provides some measure of the importance given by his or her peers to an individual’s actions. In indicating ranks, we have followed the nomenclature of individual navies (see ‘Naval ranks’, p. xv), and we have included the strings of letters which the British and other Commonwealth nations delight in adding to indicate honours and awards. As regards names, where the individual’s name begins with de, van or von they are entered under the initial letter of the proper name. The exception is the anglicized versions of such names, where the prefix has come to be accepted as part of the surname, e.g. De Chair, De Wolf, which will all be found under the letter D. Another convention we have followed involves ships’ names. USS or HMS, etc., has not always been included, because they have not always been used throughout the period

we have covered, but it may be taken that a French officer’s ship is a French naval ship. Nor have we, for reasons of space, included a description of each named ship. We have, however, used the convention with sailing warships of giving their number of guns—e.g. Constitution, 44—because that is how they were identified in their time. It should also be added that there frequently were variations in the number of a ship’s guns during the age of sail: Victory was nominally rated at 100 guns, but at Trafalgar she carried 106. We are deeply indebted to our many predecessors who have written on naval history. Virtually all of the material in this book comes from secondary sources, cross-checked as necessary, but we hope that the reader will find that some of our observations are new. We are both extremely grateful to the scores of people on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia who provided input on individual entries to this work. Space precludes our naming them all, but their patience and willingness to take up the search for needed facts was invaluable. We are particularly grateful for the counsel and keen insights of Fred Schultz, as well as for the unique contribution to US naval history by Clark Reynolds, with his invaluable research source, Famous American Admirals. For the French entries, Etienne Taillemitte’s Dictionnaire des marins français has been equally valuable. In Britain and Europe, we would like to thank particularly the late Chris Howard-Bailey and the librarians of the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, and the Admiralty Library in London; Lieutenant Commander Jock Gardner, RN; Commander Steve Haines, RN; Richard Holdsworth; Captain Peter Hore, RN; Vice-Admiral Sir Louis LeBailly; contre-amiral Remi Monaque; Ronnie Rolo; Professor Geoffrey Till; Alice Wilson; Bruce Wilson; Jill Wilson; and the late John Winton. In Australia, we owe a debt to Commodore James Goldrick, RAN, Captain Edward Hack, RAN, and Lieutenant Commander Les Roberts, RAN; in Canada to Major Peter Williams of the Canadian Army; and in the USA, we would add Arthur C.Nicholson III.

Abbreviations ACNS

Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (British/Australian: a senior Admiralty/Ministry of Defence Staff Officer.)

AEF

Australian Expeditionary Force (the Australian force dispatched to the Middle East in 1914.)

AFC

Air Force Cross (British: award for distinguished service in the field of aviation.)

AM

Member of the Order of Australia

AO

Officer of the Order of Australia

A/S

Anti-submarine

BEF

British Expeditionary Force (the British army dispatched to Europe in 1914, and again in 1939, and evacuated from Dunkirk, May 1940.)

Bt

Baronet (British: a hereditary knighthood: carries the honorific ‘Sir’.)

Captain (D), (F) or (S/M)

Captain of a squadron of Destroyers (D) or Frigates (F) or Submarines (S/M) (British)

C-in-C

Commander-in-Chief (British and American: practice now being to write CinC, or CINC. The admiral commanding a fleet or station.)

CB

Companion of the Order of the Bath (British honour for meritorious service in peace or war. The lowest grade of the Order of the Bath. Rarely awarded to officers below the rank of Captain.)

CBE

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (British honour for meritorious service. The order of the British Empire is the junior order of chivalry within the British honours system, being founded in 1917.)

CD

Canadian Forces Decoration (Canadian)

CDS

Chief of the Defence Staff (British—late twentieth century. The senior officer of the combined armed services.)

CINCAFMED

Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces, Mediterranean. (A NATO appointment.)

CNO

Chief of Naval Operations (United States: the professional head of the USN.)

CNS

Chief of Naval Staff (British, Canadian and Australian: the professional head of their navy. In the RN, more usually

known as the First Sea Lord [1SL].) CO

Commanding Officer

COMSTANA-VFORLANT

Commander Standing Naval Force, Atlantic

CoS

Chief of Staff (Usually refers to an officer of Captain’s rank or above, who runs an Admiral’s staff, and often has a comparatively free hand, within policy limits.)

CSO

Chief Staff Officer (Not quite the same as CoS. Usually a more junior officer, with less discretion to act.)

DCNS

Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (British and Australian.)

DKM

Deutsch Kriegsmarine (German Navy. Used from 1933 onwards.)

DNB

Dictionary of National Biography (British book of reference.)

DNO

Director of Naval Ordnance (British: one of the most important posts in the Admiralty in the days of the big gun, 1880–1940. Usually a senior captain.)

DSC

Distinguished Service Cross (British award for gallantry or distinguished service on active naval service. Awarded to any officer, regardless of rank. Instituted during WW1.)

DSO

Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (British award for distinguished service, including, but not necessarily, bravery in the face of the enemy.)

E-in-C

Engineer-in-Chief (British: the senior serving Engineer Officer, and professional head of the Engineering branch.)

FRS

Fellow of the Royal Society (British: a member of the senior learned society in the UK.)

GBE

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (British honour: the senior class of this order of chivalry, carrying the honorific ‘Sir’.)

GC

George Cross (British award for conspicuous bravery, for civilians, in the presence of an enemy. Equivalent in status to the VC—see below.)

GCB

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (British honour for distinguished service: the senior class within the order. It was quite usual for someone who had given long and distinguished service to be advanced successively from CB, to KCB, to GCB. The two latter awards carry the honorific ‘Sir’.)

GCVO

Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (British honour, in the personal gift of the Sovereign, for service to the Royal family. Its degrees are: MVO (Member), LVO (Lieutenant), CVO (Companion), KCVO and GCVO.)

GM

George Medal (British award for bravery on active service, but not in the presence of an enemy.)

HEIC

The Honourable East India Company

HMAS

His (or Her) Majesty’s Australian Ship (British/Australian designation for any warship in the Royal Australian Navy.)

HMCS

His (or Her) Majesty’s Canadian Ship (British/Canadian designation for any warship in the Royal Canadian Navy.)

HMS

His (or Her) Majesty’s Ship (British designation for any warship in the Royal Navy. Came into general use in the early nineteenth century.)

KB

Knight of the Order of the Bath (British. Prior to 1814, the only degree of this order, but from that date there are three degreessee CB, KCB, GCB.)

KBE

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (British honour, carrying the honorific of ‘Sir’.)

KCB

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (British honour for distinguished service: in twentieth century, rarely, if ever, awarded to officers below flag rank.)

KM

Kaiserliche Marine (German—the Kaiser’s navy) Used until 1918.

KT

Knight of the Thistle (British. An order of knighthood specifically for Scots.)

MGB

Motor Gun Boat (British)

MiD

Mention in Despatches (British. Indicates that a person’s wartime services have been recognized by a mention by name in a senior officer’s reports. There is no honorific, or use of any letter abbreviation after the name, but the recipient wears a small bronze oak-leaf on the appropriate campaign medal.)

ML

Motor Launch (British. A slower version of MTB/MGB, for more general duties.)

MoD

Ministry of Defence (British)

MP

Member of Parliament (British. Member of the House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament.)

MTB

Motor Torpedo Boat (British. At the end of WW 2, MGBs and MTBs were combined under the single designation of MTB.)

N

Qualified Navigating Officer (British)

NAS

Naval Air Squadron (British/Australian)

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Formed in 1949 as an alliance of Western nations to counter what was then seen as the military threat posed by the Soviet bloc.)

NRS

Navy Records Society (British. A learned society which publishes historical naval documents.)

NOIC

Naval Officer in Charge (British)

OBE

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (British Honour for meritorious service. Usually awarded to officers of Commander’s rank.)

OM

Order of Merit (British honour, has precedence over all other honours: the number of its members is limited. It carries no honorific title.)

PoW

Prisoner of war

RAF

Royal Air Force (British: the British independent military air force, formed in 1918.)

RCNC

Royal Corps of Naval Constructors (British. A body of civilian naval architects who design warships and supervise their construction and repair.)

RFC

Royal Flying Corps (British: the forerunner of the RAF. Formed in 1912 as a part of the Army, with a Naval Wing. The latter subsequently became the Royal Naval Air Service.)

RMS

Royal Mail Steamer (British designation for a merchant ship carrying mails—no longer used, but prior to about 1960, it indicated a superior class of merchant ship, a liner, running to a fixed schedule.)

RAN

Royal Australian Navy

RANVR

Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (British/Australian reserve for Australian nationals: very many served in the RN during both World Wars, particularly in the early stages of WW2, but tended to revert to their own national navies as these expanded during the war.)

RCN

Royal Canadian Navy

RCN (R)

Royal Canadian Navy (Reserve) (Current designation of all Canadian naval reserves.)

RCNVR

Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (British/Canadian reserve for Canadian nationals: very many served in the RN during both World Wars, particularly in the early stages of WW 2, but tended to revert to their own national navies as these expanded during the war, particularly the RCN, which in terms of manpower was the third largest navy in the world in 1945.)

RIN

Royal Indian Navy (until Independence in 1947, thereafter IN.)

RINVR

Royal Indian Naval Volunteer Reserve (British/Indian reserve for Indian nationals. They served exclusively in RIN ships.)

RN

Royal Navy (or Royal Naval) (British. The British are convinced—still—that the RN is the only ‘proper’ navy, and so don’t need to specify their country in referring to

their navy.) Regrettably, within NATO, the accepted abbreviation is UKN. RNAS

Royal Naval Air Service (British. It existed 1915–18, and was the forerunner of the Fleet Air Arm. With the RFC, it formed the RAF in 1918, and was not de-merged again until 1938, when it became the Fleet Air Arm. In 2004 there are moves afoot which suggest they may be once more moving together. Readers may also find, elsewhere, RNAS meaning Royal Naval Air Station. This is a post1939 usage.)

RNC

Royal Naval College (British. Usually refers to the college at Dartmouth.)

RNR

Royal Naval Reserve (British. Until 1958 it indicated that the officer was a Merchant Navy officer who was in the naval reserve, liable to be called up in war-time. Since 1958, RNR comprises both the professional and the ‘amateur’ reservist, formerly the RNVR—see below.)

RNVR

Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (British: formed in 1903 to provide a ‘citizen’s navy’ in time of war. Sometimes known as ‘saturday night sailors’. Officers who enlisted for the duration of the war were members of the RNVR.)

S/M

Submarine

SMS

Seine Majestats Schiffe (German—His Majesty’s ship. Used until 1918.)

SOO

Staff Officer (Operations) (British: the senior operational staff officer on an admiral’s staff.)

UK

United Kingdom (British: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Prior to 1707, England was England, and Scotland was Scotland, despite the fact that since 1603 the king of England was also the king of Scotland. In 1707 the parliaments were amalgamated and the Kingdom became Great Britain. In 1801 the Irish parliament was amalgamated with the Westminster parliament, and the country became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1921, with the granting of Free State status to what is now the Irish Republic, it took its present title.)

UN

The United Nations

USN

United States Navy

USNA

United States Naval Academy (The naval college at Annapolis, Maryland. The British equivalent is BRNC, Dartmouth.)

USNR

United States Naval Reserve

USS

United States Ship (United States’ designation for any warship in the United States Navy.)

VC

Victoria Cross (British award for extreme bravery in the presence of the enemy. First awarded in 1856, and takes precedence over all other honours and awards. Awarded to any person, of whatever status or rank, whose act deserves the award.)

VCNS

Vice Chief of Naval Staff (British—the operational head of the RN, under the First Sea Lord, on a day-to-day basis.)

W/T

Wireless Telegraphy (British. The sending of a message by radio, using Morse code, or teleprinter, but not by voice (R/T—Radio Telephony))

WW1

World War I (1914–18)

WW2

World War II (1939–45)

1SL

First Sea Lord (also referred to as CNS) (British: the professional head of the Royal Navy. Until the 1890s, referred to as the First Naval Lord: not to be confused with the First Lord (of the Admiralty) who was a politician, appointed by the government in power. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century he was sometimes a professional naval officer as well (see ANSON and ST VINCENT for example).)

2SL

Second Sea Lord (British: since the latter part of the nineteenth century, responsible for all personnel matters.)

3SL

Third Sea Lord (British: more usually referred to as the Controller, an ancient title. Responsible for building and maintaining warships, and for the Royal Dockyards.)

4SL

Fourth Sea Lord. (British: his responsibilities have varied over the years, but in the twentieth century he came to be responsible for what are now called ‘logistics’.)

*

Indicates a second award of the same medal: often written as, e.g., ‘DSC and bar’, because the holder did not actually wear two separate crosses, but wore a bar on the ribbon.

Naval ranks Throughout this Who’s Who we have, where appropriate, given details of our subjects’ ranks in their service, in their language. In very broad terms, all navies followed the British rank structure, but sometimes the ranks were not an exact equivalent. For the Royal Navy we have provided the dates of promotion to Lieutenant, Commander, Captain, Rear-Admiral, Vice-Admiral, Admiral, and Admiral of the Fleet, or as far as the subject progressed, and we have given as many of the equivalents in other navies as we have been able to determine. It may be noted that, prior to the French Revolution, the rank of lieutenant-général was also a naval rank. Table 1 below is a list of equivalent international naval ranks. We have not included the junior British ranks of Midshipman, nor Sub-Lieutenant (formerly Mate), nor their equivalents in other navies. Neither have we given the intermediate rank of Lieutenant Commander (the latter was only introduced in the RN in 1914, though the USN used it earlier). The USN rank of Admiral has a complicated history. There was no rank of Admiral in the Continental Navy, but Congress officially established the ranks of Commodore (one star) and Rear Admiral (two stars) for the Navy in 1862. Until then, commodore was an unofficial title for an officer in command of a squadron. Today, there is no official rank of Commodore in the Navy, but the term continues to be used for an officer, junior to an admiral, who commands a squadron. Following a number of variations over the years, the present flag officer structure of the US Navy is: Rear Admiral (lower half) (one star), Rear Admiral (upper half) (two stars), Vice Admiral (three stars), Admiral (four stars), Fleet Admiral (five stars). The latter rank has been employed only in wartime. In the RN, similarly, until 1999, Commodore was never a rank: it was an appointment for a captain. It is now incorporated in the rank structure between Captain and RearAdmiral. And since 1995, the rank of Admiral of the Fleet is ‘in abeyance’.

Table 1 Equivalent international naval ranks British Commonwealth

American

French

German

Japanese Russian

Lieutenant

Lieutenant

lieutenant de vaisseau

Oberleutnant zur See

Tai-I

Leitenant

Commander

Commander

capitaine de frégate

Fregattenkapitan

Chu-sa

Kapitan III ranga

Captain

Captain

capitaine de vaisseau

Kapitan zur See

Tai-sa

Kapitan II ranga

(commodore)

Rear Admiral (LH)

chef d’escadre

Kapitan I ranga

Rear-Admiral

Rear Admiral (UH)

contre-amiral Konteradmiral

Sho-sho

Kontre Admiral

Vice-Admiral

Vice Admiral

vice-amiral

Vizeadmiral

Chu-sho

Vitse Admiral

Admiral

Admiral

vice-amiral d’escadre

Admiral/General Admiral

Tai-sho

Admiral

Admiral of the Fleet

Fleet Admiral

amiral

GroBadmiral

Note: LH—Lower Half; UH—Upper Half

Admiral Flota

A Aché de Serquigny, Anne-Antoine, comte d’ (1702–80) French: vice-amiral. He was the admiral whose three indecisive battles with POCOCK in 1758 and 1759 ultimately sealed the fate of the French in India. He joined the navy in 1717; 1731, enseigne de vaisseau; 1743, capitaine de vaisseau; 1756, chef d’escadre; 1770, vice-amiral. His early career was unexciting: antipiracy operations in the West Indies, command of a small sloop in the Baltic in 1738, and little active engagement in the War of Austrian Succession. Only in 1745, off Louisbourg while commanding the Saint-Michel, 60, did he encounter any British or colonial ships. He succeeded in taking one prize. After further commands, he was given the Zodiaque, 74, as his flagship and sent to the East Indies, particularly to support the French trading posts in India, where imperial rivalry with the British was coming to a head. In 1758, d’Ache fought two actions with POCOCK’S squadron: neither was decisive tactically, though the second resulted in heavy French casualties. At the end of the season, d’Ache retired to Mauritius, leaving the British in control of Indian waters. KEMPENFELT was thus able to relieve the siege of Madras, whose loss would have been disastrous to the British. D’Ache returned in 1759, and the squadrons met once again in a furious action off Pondicherry: tactically it was inconclusive, but the French lost 1,500 casualties to the British 500, and once again d’Ache, who had been wounded, retired to Mauritius, returning thence to France in 1761. He was promoted, but not employed again.

Adams, John (1735–1826) US: second President (1797–1801). He is known by many as ‘the father of the American Navy’. The US Department of the Navy was created on 30 April 1798 during his presidency. During the American War of Independence and before his presidency, he wrote the Rules for the Regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies. Adams’s naval regulations were fashioned after those of the British Navy. As president he led the US during the naval rebuilding begun under President WASHINGTON. The navy that

Who's who in the Naval history

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developed during his presidency successfully dealt with the attacks of the Barbary pirates on US merchant ships, which began almost immediately after US independence and the naval requirements of the Quasi-War with France, which began in 1798. Leading to that latter conflict, the French demanded a payment from the US to facilitate the establishment of diplomatic relations with the new French Republic. Adams refused to pay that potentially humiliating tribute and quickly went about establishing a navy that successfully defended US trade against the French navy and privateers, particularly in the Caribbean. In developing a navy to resist the depredations against US merchant ships by the Barbary pirates and the demands for diplomatic tribute from the French, he was recognizing the US need to replace the naval protection formerly provided by the British Navy to the American colonists. Adams graduated from Harvard University in 1755 and was a delegate from Massachusetts to the American Continental Congress. He served during the administration of President WASHINGTON as the initial Vice President of the US and became the second President. He was a leading political figure in the events leading to the American Revolution, and was one of the three men, along with Thomas JEFFERSON and Benjamin Franklin, responsible for drafting the American Declaration of Independence.

Agnew, William (1898–1960) British: Rear-Admiral Sir William Agnew, KCVO, CB, DSO*. He was a most successful cruiser captain during WW2, commanding the Aurora in the Mediterranean from 1940 to the end of 1943. He joined the RN in 1911, and was one of those sent to sea early from Dart-mouth in 1914; 1920, Lieutenant; 1932, Commander; 1937, Captain; 1947, Rear-Admiral. He qualified in gunnery in 1924 and served as the Gunnery Officer of the Queen Elizabeth, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, 1930–32. At the start of WW2, he commanded an armed merchant cruiser, the Corfu, transferring to Aurora in late 1940. In the Mediterranean, Aurora and her sister ship Penelope, with two destroyers, formed a small but powerful striking force, Force ‘K’, of which Agnew was the senior officer. In November 1941, they caught an Axis convoy unawares, and sank all seven ships of the convoy andone of its escorts, without receiving any damage themselves (Agnew was awarded the CB). A month later, as part of VIAN’S force, they participated in the first battle of Sirte, in which an inferior British cruiser force held off the whole Italian battlefleet. In later actions they sank three fuel tankers, precipitating a crisis in Rommel’s supply lines. Aurora was mined in late 1941, but was nursed back to Malta and thence to the UK for repairs. She took part in the North African landings in 1942, and was chosen to take King George VI to Malta in June 1943. (Agnew had received the DSO in April 1943.) Aurora took part in the landings in Sicily, carrying out many bombardments (this author’s father, whose infantry battalion benefited from those bombardments, spoke admiringly of their effectiveness). But in October 1943, she was badly damaged by air


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attack, and went to Alexandria for repair. Agnew left her to take command of the gunnery school, and was awarded a second DSO for his services in the Mediterranean. In 1947, he commanded Britain’s last battleship, HMS Vanguard, when she took the king and royal family to South Africa. His final appointment in the Navy was as Director of Personnel Services.

Alafusov, Vladimir (1901–66) Russian: Vitse-Admiral. He was Deputy Chief of the Main Naval Staff, and Chief of the Main Naval Staff for most of WW2. After the war, he fell foul of Stalin, and spent five years in prison, 1948–53. His early career is uncertain. He was advisor to the Spanish Republican Fleet, 1937– 38, then started his appointments in the Main Naval Staff. He was Deputy Chief, 1938– 39 and 1940–42, and Chief, 1942–43 and 1944–45. In between, he was base commander at Tallinn, and main staff representative to the Baltic Fleet, 1939–40 (Kontr Admiral), and CoS to the Pacific Fleet, 1943–44 (Vitse-Admiral, 1944). He was Head of the Naval Academy, 1945–48, and became a leading naval theoretician, who was prepared to speak his mind. He was released from prison when Stalin died in 1953, and was appointed a Deputy Head of the Naval Academy.

Alexander-Sinclair, Edwyn (1865–1945) British: Admiral Sir Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair, GCB. As Commodore, 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, in Galatea, it was his sighting report which precipitated the battle of Jutland. In 1918, as Rear-Admiral commanding the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron, in Cardiff, he had the honour of leading the surrendered German High Seas Fleet into Rosyth. He entered the Britannia in 1879; 1890, Lieutenant; 1901, Commander; 1905, Captain; 1917, Rear-Admiral; 1922, Vice-Admiral; 1926, Admiral. His early career was unremarkable. He had two appointments as Flag Lieutenant: to Admiral Tracey, and to Sir Michael Culme-Seymour when he was C-in-C Portsmouth. Such appointments, due to a combination of ability and an element of influence, indicated that he would be promoted early, as he was. After two sea commands, he went on to command RNC, Osborne. At the outbreak of WW1, he was commanding the dreadnought Temeraire in the Grand Fleet, moving to Galatea in 1915. On 31 May 1916, his squadron was out on the eastern flank of the British battle cruiser force, and altered course to investigate a neutral steamer, at the same time as two German destroyers from further east did the same. His


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signal ‘Enemy in sight’ was sufficient to precipitate the only major clash between dreadnought fleets. At the end of the war he was made KCB. In 1925, he became C-in-C China, and had to cope with the advance of the Nationalist armies. His final appointment was as C-in-C the Nore, being advanced to GCB on retirement. He also held American and French decorations.

Allemand, Zacharie (1762–1826) French: vice-amiral comte Allemand. His career as a commander of commerce-raiding squadrons was successful, but he was less lucky as a fleet commander, since it was his fleet which was so nearly shattered by Cochrane’s actions (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD) in the Basque Roads in 1809. His seafaring started as a master’s assistant in the French East India Company. He entered the navy in 1779 as a volunteer, serving under SUFFREN in the East Indies; 1792, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1793, capitaine de vaisseau, another beneficiary of the purge of the royalist officer corps; 1806, contre-amiral; 1809, vice-amiral. In 1793, he commanded the Carmagnole, 40, and with three other vessels, took the British Thames, 32, which had just been engaged by the Uranie, 36. A year later, commanding the Duquesne, 74, in Richery’s squadron, he took part in the successful raids on British possessions in Labrador, and on the way home intercepted and captured most of a large British convoy. He was then dismissed from his ship for abuse of authority and bad character. However, he was given further commands, and in 1805 carried out a long cruise in the Atlantic, capturing the Calcutta, 54, and forty-four ships from her convoy. His skill in evading the British squadrons earned his force the nickname of ‘the invisible squadron’. In 1809 he was given command of the combined squadrons in the Basque Roads, when Cochrane’s attack (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD) led to the loss of four ships-of-the-line. He was later C-in-C Mediterranean, and in the Atlantic, but to no great effect. In 1814 he was dismissed, because of his particularly irascible character: indeed, he was described as ‘one of the most disagreeable men of his generation’.

Allen, Thomas (1760–1834) British: Steward. He was NELSON’S personal steward from 1793 until the latter’s death. When Nelson went back to sea in 1793, he took Allen, who lived nearby in north Norfolk, with him as his personal manservant. Although, according to reports, something of a rough diamond, Allen looked after Nelson faithfully for twelve years, helping to nurse him when he was wounded, and generally taking charge of his domestic life while


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on board ship. He was not above telling Nelson that he had had enough to drink. But he was not present at Trafalgar, having been sent ashore to carry out some domestic business for Nelson. After the latter’s death, Allen spent all his prize money swiftly, but was taken on as a servant by Nelson’s niece’s husband, Captain Sir William Bolton, RN, and later became a Greenwich pensioner, where he lived out the rest of his life. It seems likely that O’BRIAN modeled his hero’s steward, Preserved Killick, on Allen.

Allin, Thomas (1612–85) English: Admiral Sir Thomas Allin. He served the king at sea during the Civil Wars (1642–48) and was a flag officer during the Second Dutch War, 1664–67. During the Civil Wars he was a privateer and captain of various Royalist ships: he was imprisoned but escaped to join Prince RUPERT in Spain, and took command of the Charles Prize: in her, he was chased by BLAKE off Malaga, and his ship wrecked. During the Commonwealth (1649–60), he was classed as a pirate and imprisoned (1653), and spent most of the period under arrest or ‘on bond’. At the Restoration (1660), he commanded first the Dover, 48, and then the Plymouth, 60: in 1663–64, he was C-in-C in the Downs. In 1664, he was sent to the Mediterranean commanding a squadron to convoy British trade, and to keep a check on the Algerine pirates. His attack on the Dutch Smyrna convoy in late 1664 was one of the precipitating causes of the Second Dutch War (Allin was knighted in 1665). He commanded a squadron in the Four Days’ and St James’s Day Fights (1666). Later he was C-in-C Mediterranean again, 1668–70, and Comptroller of the Navy, 1671–80. PEPYS criticized him (few colleagues escaped), but Allin supported Pepys in his personnel reforms.

Alvarez, Everett, Jr (1937–) US: Commander. He was the first USN pilot and the second person captured during the Vietnam War. Alvarez’s McDonnell-Douglas A-4C ‘Skyhawk’ jet, from Attack Squadron 144, based on the aircraft carrier USS Constellation, was shot down on 5 August 1964 over Hong Gai harbour in North Vietnam. The air attack was among the first ordered by President JOHNSON after USN destroyers were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin on 2 and 4 August of that year. After his capture he was taken to Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi, which came to be known by the US military PoWs held there as the ‘Hanoi Hilton’. By the time Alvarez was released in February 1973, he had been a prisoner for eight years. His mission set the tone for the politically restricted use of air power by the US and the use of captured US military personnel for North Vietnamese propaganda and


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negotiating leverage during the remainder of the war. He was believed for many years to be the first US prisoner of the Vietnam War, but ultimately it was determined that a major in the US Army special forces, Floyd Thompson, was the first US PoW of that conflict. Alvarez was accepted as a naval aviation candidate in 1960 and earned his wings in 1961. He retired from active naval duty as a commander in 1980 and went on to become an attorney and to serve as Deputy Director of the Peace Corps and Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration. He also wrote two books Chained Eagle, published in 1989 and Code of Conduct, published in 1991.

Anderson, George W., Jr (1906–92) US: Admiral. He was CNO during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. He was appointed by President KENNEDY in 1961 and was in conflict on a wide range of issues with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Notwithstanding the highly emotional involvement in the Cuban Missile Crisis of the senior civilian leader of the US military, Anderson’s naval plan for the interdiction of sea-borne shipments of military equipment to Cuba and the forced removal of offensive military weapons from that island were successfully executed. It was one of the most important non-combat applications of naval power of modern history. Anderson was born in Brooklyn in New York City, graduated 27th in his class from the USNA in 1927 and was commissioned an ensign at the age of twenty. After three years’ duty in the cruiser USS Cincinnati he entered flight school and was designated a naval aviator in 1930. He earned a reputation for effective planning, and in 1943 joined the staff of Fleet Admiral NIMITZ in the Pacific, where he served until the end of WW2. Subsequently, in addition to duty on important staffs, he commanded the anti-submarine aircraft carrier USS Mindoro and the attack aircraft carrier USS Franklin D.Roosevelt. Anderson was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1954, while serving as special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral RADFORD. He was promoted to Vice Admiral in May 1957 but reverted to Rear Admiral in order to command Carrier Division Six during the US Marine Corps landings in Lebanon in July 1958. Anderson was reestablished as a Vice Admiral and commanded the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and Naval Striking Force and Support Forces, Southern Europe, 1959–61. He advanced to Admiral in 1961, upon appointment as CNO. He resigned from active duty in the Navy in 1963, under heavy political pressure because of his disagreements with the Secretary of Defense. He did so at the age of fifty-six, an unusually young age for so senior an officer.


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Anderson, William R. (1921–) US: Captain. He commanded the first US nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, in her 1958 transit under the North Pole’s ice cap from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The voyage deployed major technological advancements, such as nuclear propulsion for ships, an ‘upside-down sonar’ that profiled the ice ceiling above the submarine, an automated and extremely precise depth control system, and an inertial guidance system that made precise underwater navigation possible. The Nautilus’s North Pole underwater transit marked a radical advance in the strategic potential of submarines, an accomplishment that was a high priority with then-CNO Admiral BURKE. That advance in strategic potential of submarines led to the Polaris and Poseidon intercontinental ballisticmissile submarines of the United States and Great Britain. The Nautilus’s submerged North Pole transit began in July 1958 in San Francisco and on 3 August 1958 at 2315 EDT, the Nautilus reached the North Pole. On 5 August the Nautilus surfaced in the Greenland Sea, completing the Northwest Passage long sought by North Pole explorers. President EISENHOWER decorated Anderson with the Legion of Merit for his historic achievement, and the Nautilus received a Presidential Unit Citation, the first such awarded in peacetime. Anderson was a 1942 graduate of the USNA, and in September 1942 he was qualified as a submarine officer. During WW2 in the Pacific he made eleven successful war patrols in three different submarines. He became executive officer of the submarine USS Trutta in 1951, and in May 1953 became commanding officer of the submarine USS Wahoo, which was deployed to the Korean War theatre. He became the second commanding officer of USS Nautilus in June 1957. He retired from active duty in 1960 and served four subsequent successive terms in the US House of Representatives.

Anson, George (1697–1762) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Anson of Soberton. He is mainly known for his circumnavigation of the world in the Centurion, 1740–44, in which he played havoc with the Spanish colonies on the coasts of the Pacific, and which made him a very rich man. He was also an effective fleet commander and First Lord of the Admiralty, although, having appointed the man, he must take at least some of the blame for John BYNG’S failure off Minorca in 1756. He went to sea at the relatively late age of sixteen; 1716, Lieutenant; 1722, Commander; 1724, Captain; 1745, Rear-Admiral; 1746, Vice-Admiral; 1748, Admiral; 1761, Admiral of the Fleet.


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He served in the Montagu, 52, at the battle of Cape Passaro in 1718 (see BYNG, GEORGE). He then commanded the Scarborough, 20, on the coasts of the Carolinas on antipiracy patrols, returning to Great Britain in 1730. He went out again in 1732, commanding the Squirrel, 24. The start of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1739 (or the War of Jenkins’s Ear, the ostensible original cause) found Anson already commanding the Centurion, 60, in the West Indies. He was ordered home, appointed commodore, and given a squadron with which to harass Spanish possessions in the Pacific. Lack of resources so delayed the squadron that it arrived off Cape Horn in the worst winter weather, and half the squadron was lost, or turned back. By mid-1741, of the 962 men who had left Britain in the three remaining ships, 626 had died, leaving too few even to work the Centurion. But Anson pushed on, and fulfilled his task. Reduced to the Centurion alone, he crossed the Pacific, refitted in Macao, and captured the Spanish Manila to Acapulco treasure ship, theoretically greatly superior in force. In 1745, Anson became a Commissioner of the Admiralty, and in 1746, took command of the Channel Fleet, and after an intensive period of training, defeated LA JONQUIÈRE’S squadron in the first battle of Finisterre (May 1747), though most of the French convoy made its escape. Nonetheless, the British booty amounted to £300,000. He remained a Commissioner until 1756, nominally under the 4th Earl of SANDWICH, but de facto, Anson was the First Lord, instituting a series of administrative reforms which stood the Navy in good stead in the Seven Years’ War. Although he went to sea again briefly in 1757 and 1761, his part in the ‘Year of Victories’ (1759) was confined to shore administration, which enabled HAWKE, BOSCAWEN and SAUNDERS to achieve success. He died in office in 1762. Hyde PARKER, Augustus KEPPEL, and SAUNDERS had all served under him in Centurion.

Apraxin, Fyodor (1661–1728) Russian: Admiral Count Apraxin. He was PETER THE GREAT’S right-hand man in the creation of a modern navy. Peter’s aim was to give Russia an outlet to the rest of the world, until then denied them by Swedish mastery of the Baltic, and Turkish control of the Black Sea coast. He was related to the Tsar, being almost considered an elder brother, so it was natural that Peter should trust him with important tasks, after he had determined Apraxin’s abilities. After five years as Governor of Archangel, Russia’s only seaport, in 1700 he was transferred to Azov, where he supervised the building of the dockyard at Voronezh, and the building of a fleet there. Having learned his trade as a naval administrator without ever serving at sea, he was made an admiral and President of the Admiralty in 1707, and turned his attention to the Baltic, where the Great Northern War (1700–21) was in progress. The Swedes were repulsed from St Petersburg, and Apraxin commanded both


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ashore and afloat. At sea, Apraxin’s galley fleet defeated the Swedes at Gangut in 1714, and for the remainder of the war Apraxin pushed Russia’s frontiers forward on both sides of the Baltic, until he threatened Stockholm itself. After the end of the war, when Peter turned his attention to his Persian borders, Apraxin went with him to command the fleet on the Caspian, 1722–23.

Arnauld de la Perriere, Lothar (1886–1941) German: Vizeadmiral. He was a German U-boat commander in WW1, who sank the greatest total of shipping of any commander, mostly with the gun, and in accordance with the prize rules. He was admired by his enemies as well as adulated by the German public. In 1915 he took command of U.35 as a Kapitanleutnant, and stayed in her for three years: most of the time, he was operating in the Mediterranean. For the last six months of WW1, he moved to command the more modern U.139. He only fired four torpedoes in all this time (one of which missed): in all, he sank a total of 194 ships, totalling 454,000 tons. In 1916, he was awarded the ‘Pour le Merite’, the highest award possible. Between the wars, he took service with the Turkish navy, but returned to the Kriegsmarine in 1939 and became a Vizeadmiral. He was killed in an air crash in 1941.

Arthur, Stanley R. (1935–) US: Admiral. He commanded US Naval Forces Central Command and the Seventh Fleet during the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War. By the conclusion of the war, he was the naval commander of six aircraft carriers, two battleships, two command ships, twelve cruisers, eleven destroyers, ten frigates, four mine warfare ships, thirty-one amphibious ships, thirty-two naval auxiliary ships, two hospital ships, three submarines, and a number of large military sealift ships. His command encompassed the largest operational fleet since WW2. More than 82,000 USN men and women served on board the ships and ashore during the conflict. As commander of the naval component of the Central Command, Arthur’s naval forces were an essential part of the joint services operation against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. In addition his forces worked closely with British, French, Canadian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Argentine members of the coalition that brought the war to a successful conclusion. Arthur was a 1957 graduate of Miami (Ohio) University, where he was commissioned from that school’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. He was designated a naval aviator in 1958. Initially he flew the aircraft carrier-based Grumman S2F Tracker, and as a McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk pilot he flew more than 500 carrier-based attack


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missions during the Vietnam War. Prior to his retirement from the Navy, he served as Vice-CNO. Following his retirement from the active duty Navy in 1995 he became a senior corporate executive.

Aube, Hyacinthe (1826–90) French: viceamiral. He was the progenitor of the ‘Jeune Ecole’ school of thought, which advocated squadrons of light craft to overwhelm an enemy’s (Great Britain, understood) battlefleet with torpedoes. The threat was taken seriously in some quarters, but the reality was of little effect, and the overall result was a diminished efficacy of the French fleet. (Taillemitte describes the result as ‘cluttering the ports with naval dust, the (in)famous numbered torpedo boats, useless because they had no sea-keeping ability’.) He joined the navy in 1840; 1846, enseigne de vaisseau; 1853, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1862, capitaine de frégate;

1870, capitaine de vaisseau; 1879, contreamiral; 1886, vice-amiral. As a junior officer he served world-wide, earning praise particularly for his hydrographic surveys in Japanese and Korean waters in 1853. He went on to command the sloops L’Étoile and Podor, in Senegal, where he supported the governor, Faidherbe, in all his expeditions which led to establishing French influence in that area. During the Franco-Prussian War, he served as a military commander ashore. He had further naval commands, in the Pacific and the West Indies, where he was Governor of Martinique. As a contreamiral, he commanded the experimental squadron, and oversaw many trials using torpedoes, of which he was an enthusiastic supporter. He had written many articles on naval affairs from 1857 on, which formed the groundwork for the ‘Jeune Ecole’. After appointment as Navy Minister in 1886, he was able to put his teaching into effect. His ideas were built round a war on industry, a new version of the old war on trade. Battlefleets, he announced, were out of date, and the battleship building programme was curtailed, replaced by light craft. To his credit, he supported the building of the first practical submersible, ZÉDÉ’S Gymnote. But his legacy was a weakened fleet, which remained so in the decades which led up to WW1.

Augustinovich, Mikhail (1912–84) Russian: Vitse-Admiral. As a submarine commander he had much operational experience during WW2, and from 1954–56 was senior military advisor to the commander of the Chinese navy. After qualifying at the Higher Naval School in 1932, he became a submarine officer, receiving his first commands, the submarines D-3 and D-1 in 1938–39. He commanded


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successively the 3rd and 1st submarine divisions, 1939–40, and then was CoS of a submarine brigade, 1940–41. When Germany invaded Russia in 1941, he commanded the submarine K-1, and in her carried out eight mine-laying patrols: by the end of the war, he had completed twelve patrols, sinking ten enemy ships. After his time in China, he spent a year in the Operations Division of the Main Naval Staff, and from 1957 until retirement in 1968, he served in the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defence.

Austen, Francis (1774–1865) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Francis Austen, GCB. He is better known as the older of novelist Jane Austen’s two naval brothers, and it was from him that she obtained much of the naval detail which appears in her novels Persuasion and Mansfield Park. But he had a long, active and honourable career as a naval commander. He entered the RN via the Old Naval Academy in 1786 (the building is still in use in Portsmouth Naval Base today); 1792, Lieutenant; 1799, Commander; 1800, Captain; 1830, Rear-Admiral; 1838, Vice-Admiral; 1848, Admiral. From 1788 until 1814, except for two short periods in 1796 and 1806–07, and the eighteen months of the Peace of Amiens, he was continuously at sea. His career was helped by his kinsman, Admiral GAMBIER, whose evangelical views he shared. As Commander of the sloop Peterel, 16, he had a successful commission in the Mediterranean, capturing some forty vessels, including, in what was described as a ‘smart fight’, the Ligurienne, 14, which earned him promotion. It may be noted that, contrary to the fictional view of the carnage which took place in such sea fights, Peterel had no casualties at all in her crew of eighty-five, while Ligurienne had four, two killed, two wounded, out of 104. Austen was Flag Captain to GAMBIER in 1801 and 1810–11. He just missed Trafalgar, but was present at Santo Domingo in 1806 commanding the Canopus, 74. In 1809–10, he earned the pecuniary thanks of the East India Company, and more prosaic ones from the Admiralty, for his diplomacy in handling an awkward situation in Canton. His last sea-going command as a captain was the Elephant, 74, 1811–14. In her, he took the American privateer Swordfish after a chase of eleven hours. He then spent thirty years ashore, unemployed and on half-pay (but still being promoted). He was made C-in-C North America and West Indies in 1844, tasked with protecting British trade during the Venezuelan Civil Wars and the Mexico-USA war of 1846–48, and with catching Brazilian slavers. He retired in 1848. In 1854 (aged eighty) he was offered the post of C-in-C Portsmouth, but turned it down. But the inexorable march of seniority went on, and he became Admiral of the Fleet in 1863.


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Ayscue, George (c.1615–72) English: Admiral Sir George Ayscue. He was a parliamentary sea-commander, but at the Restoration was appointed a Commissioner of the Navy. He served in command throughout the first and second Dutch wars. It is known that he was knighted by Charles I, though not why. By 1646, he was captain of the Expedition, 30. In the first phase of the English Civil Wars, the fleet very largely stood aloof, but in 1648, with the king imprisoned, neutral ity was impossible. Many ships, under BATTEN, defected to the king in Holland, but Ayscue’s influence kept the rest for Parliament. He was rewarded by a command in the Irish Sea, and earned the thanks of Parliament. He was second-in-command to BLAKE in the taking of the Scilly Isles in 1651, and then led his squadron to the West Indies, where he took a number of islands (and the Commonwealth of Virginia) from the Royalists. In 1652, his squadron, operating out of Plymouth, fought the first engagement of the First Dutch War against DE RUYTER, who was escorting a convoy, and they met again, unencumbered by convoys, four months later, in an indeterminate fight. Ayscue was relieved of his command, but given a pension, and from 1658 to 1660, he was employed as naval advisor to the Swedes, at Cromwell’s instigation. Returning at the Restoration, he became a Commissioner, and in 1665, at the beginning of the Second Dutch War, he became a flag officer again, and fought in the victory at Lowestoft and in the Four Days’ Fight. On that occasion, his flagship, the Royal Prince, 64, ran aground, and surrendered. Unable to refloat her, the Dutch burned her. Ayscue was made prisoner, and not released until after the peace in 1667. At the start of the Third Dutch War, he was again given an admiral’s commission, but died before he could hoist his flag.


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B Backhouse, Roger (1878–1939) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Backhouse, GCB, GCVO, CMG. He should have led the Royal Navy as 1SL in WW2, but his early and unexpected death meant that it was POUND who bore the burden for the first three and a half years. Backhouse entered the RN in 1892 in the old Britannia; 1899, Lieutenant; 1909, Commander; 1914, Captain; 1926, Rear-Admiral; 1929, Vice-Admiral; 1935, Admiral; 1939, Admiral of the Fleet. He specialized in gunnery, and was the first gunnery officer of the revolutionary allbig-gun battleship Dreadnought, completed in 1906. After promotion in 1909, he served as Flag Commander (today he would be called Staff Officer, Operations) to three successive Cs-in-C, finishing with JELLICOE, at whose insistence he was specially promoted to Captain in 1914. Backhouse’s first command (1915) was the cruiser Conquest, which was badly damaged in an action with German battle cruisers in April 1916, and it was his personal intervention which saved the ship from sinking. He later commanded the battle cruiser Lion and the battleship Malaya. After the war, he was Director of Naval Ordnance (see FRASER). He became Third Sea Lord and Controller in 1928 and had the difficult task of maintaining naval efficiency at a time when disarmament was still popular, and when financial stringency was over-riding

in the Great Depression. He was second-in-command Mediterranean Fleet, 1932–34, and then became C-in-C Home Fleet1935–38. His experience in high command both afloat and in the Admiraltymade him the ideal successor to CHAT-FIELD, at a time when war was seen asalmost inevitable. He was not a good delegator (the DNB says ‘His tireless love of his work…led him somewhat to overlook the advantage of devolution to trusted assistants’), and it was this that led to his untimely death.


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Bacon, Reginald (1863–1947) British: Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, KCB, KCVO, DSO. He was one of the new breed of technically minded officers, prepared to follow up every innovation. He was the father of the British submarine service, and, as Rear-Admiral, Dover Patrol, 1915–17, he had command of the waters through which all personnel and supplies for the British armies in France had to pass, which was accomplished with minimum loss. He entered the RN in 1877, along with Prince George, later King George V; 1883, Lieutenant; 1895, Commander; 1900, Captain; 1909, Rear-Admiral; 1915, Vice-Admiral; 1918, Admiral. He qualified in torpedo, which also included all things electrical. He taught on the staff of the torpedo school Vernon and commanded the Vesuvius, the tender in which many experiments were carried out, but also saw active service in West Africa in the Benin expedition of 1897, earning the DSO. He went on to be Executive Officer of the battleship Empress of India in the Mediterranean, and came to Sir John FISHER’S notice for good staff-work (which happened to bolster Fisher’s ideas). He was the Inspecting Captain of Submarines, 1900–04, responsible for the building of the RN’s first five submarines, and for every aspect of their introduction into service. He then became Fisher’s naval assistant, and was much occupied with the designs for the Dreadnought and the first battle cruisers. He became the first captain of the Dreadnought, and then DNO, a most prestigious appointment when the gun was the deciding weapon. In 1909, having been invited to become Controller and 3SL, he decided to retire and accept the post of managing director of an armaments firm. He was in this position in August 1914, and was first sent to France to take charge of some new howitzers built by his company, with the rank of Colonel 2nd commandant, Royal Marines. In 1915, he went to Dover, where his organizational abilities were at full stretch, being rewarded with the KCB, and promotion, but in 1917 he fell foul of the new team in the Admiralty, GEDDES, WEMYSS and KEYES, and was sacked. But his versatile mind could not be left unused, and he was appointed to be Controller of Munitions Inventions. In retirement, he wrote biographies of both Fisher and JELLICOE.

Bainbridge, William (1774–1833) US: Commodore. He was one of the heroes of the early US Navy. His most notable achievement was the defeat in December 1812 of HMS Java in a single-ship action off Brazil’s coast. He commanded merchant ships prior to his commissioning in the new USN as Lieutenant Commandant in 1798. He was imprisoned by the French later that


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year in Guadaloupe, after the schooner under his command was taken by the frigates L’Insurgente and Volontier. After securing his own and several other US prisoners’ freedom, he was promoted to Master Commandant in 1799 and returned to the Caribbean in command of the brig USS Norfolk, 18. Bainbridge was among the USN captains who fought the Barbary War, and in 1803 he was captured when his ship the USS Philadelphia, 36, ran aground on an uncharted reef in Tripoli harbour. He was released in 1805 and returned to the merchant service. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 he was re-commissioned and took command of USS Constitution. Bainbridge was one of those who influenced President MADISON to use the small USN against the vastly superior numbers of the British Navy. Following the War of 1812 he commanded the US Mediterranean Squadron in the USS Independence, 74, the first of only six sail-powered ships-of-the-line in the nineteenth-century USN. At various times during his naval career he commanded the navy yards at New York (1804), Philadelphia (1821–23, 1827–31) and Boston (1823–24, 1832–33). He was a strong advocate for the formation of a board of naval commissioners and was President of that board from 1824–27. Bainbridge was known for carrying forward the British naval tradition of strict discipline, and wrote: ‘I believe there never was so depraved a set of mortals as sailors’.

Baines, Edmund (1913–94) British: Lieutenant-Commander, DSO. As captain of the destroyer Bramham he was largely responsible for saving the tanker Ohio, during Operation Pedestal (August 1942), probably the most vital of all the convoys to Malta during WW2. Ohio was the most valuable ship in that convoy, since the loss of the fuel she carried would have crippled Malta’s ability to resist, and more importantly would have prevented attacks on the Axis supply lines just as Rommel was at the gates of Alexandria. RNC Dartmouth 1926; 1936, Lieutenant; 1944, Lieutenant Commander. Baines spent all his lieutenant’s time in destroyers and sloops, and took command of Bramham in May 1942. There were fourteen merchantmen to be fought through to Malta, and the escort comprised most of the Mediterranean Fleet-two battleships, four aircraft carriers, seven cruisers and thirty-two destroyers. By the time the convoy was within reach of Malta, only five merchant ships remained, including Ohio, already hit three times. Baines suggested that she could be towed by lashing a destroyer alongside each side, and skilfully positioned Bramham on Ohio’s port side, and after a two-day tow, successfully brought her in to Valetta harbour. For his actions he was awarded the DSO. He later took part in the D-Day landings (MiD). He had two further sea commands of destroyers, but was not promoted further, having an ability to ruffle too many senior feathers.


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Baker-Cresswell, Addison (1901–97) British: Captain, DSO. He commanded HMS Bulldog when she captured U-110, with her codes and ‘enigma’ machine intact, during the defence of convoy OB318, May 1941. He entered the Navy in 1919; 1924, Lieutenant; 1937, Commander; 1941, Captain. He specialized in navigation (1927). As the Navigating Officer of Rodney (1929–32) he was twice commended for skill in handling her in confined waters. Baker-Cresswell commanded the destroyer Arrow in 1940, and then Bulldog and 3rd Escort Group, 1940–41. His capture of U-110., and the systematic stripping of her interior, can be said to have been a deciding factor in the battle of the Atlantic, and one of the mostimportant single events in the war at sea. After promotion, he became CoS to Admiral HORTON, C-in-C Western Approaches, but fell out with him; he then commanded the East Indies Escort Force, 1943–45, and the cruiser Gambia, 1946. He retired in 1951.

Ball, Alexander (1757–1809) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Ball, Bt. His naval career was short, but in capturing Malta from the French, he provided the Royal Navy with a base in the Mediterranean for 177 years. He also enjoyed NELSON’S friendship. He entered the RN about 1772; 1778, Lieutenant; 1782, Commander; 1783, Captain; 1805, Rear-Admiral. Much of Ball’s early service was in the West Indies, and he had the good fortune to be serving in RODNEY’S flagship at the battle of the Saintes (1782), for which he was promoted to Commander and given command of the Germain, 16. The war ended in 1783, just after he had been promoted again. With no employment, he went to France, where he met Nelson at St Omer: Nelson thought him a coxcomb, because he wore epaulettes! They next met in 1798, when Ball, commanding the Alexander, 74, joined Nelson’s squadron. Three weeks after the meeting, Nelson’s flagship, Vanguard, was dismasted, and the Alexander took her in tow, and by fine seamanship saved her from destruction. This began their friendship, only ended by Nelson’s death. Later that year, at the battle of the Nile, the Alexander was opposed to BRUEYS’S flagship, L’Orient, which blew up with great loss of life (see CASABIANCA). In October 1798, Ball was detached to blockade Malta, taken by the French earlier that year. With only 500 marines and 1,500 Maltese militia ashore, he maintained a tight blockade of the island, and starved the French garrison into surrender over two years.


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After a short period as Commissioner of Gibraltar Dockyard, he was appointed Governor of Malta, having received a baronetcy for his conduct of the blockade. He remained there until his death in 1809, having made himself beloved by the Maltese.

Ballard, George (1862–1948) British: Vice-Admiral George Ballard, CB. His writings on the late-Victorian Navy are unsurpassed for knowledge of the ships, and for their accounts of life at sea in the days when the Royal Navy ranged all over the seven seas, and inland from the upper navigational limits of the River Yang-tze to central Canada, happily under the most tenuous control from the Admiralty. He joined the Britannia in 1875; 1881, Lieutenant; 1897, Commander; 1903, Captain; 1914, Rear-Admiral; 1919, Vice-Admiral. Ballard was present at the battle of Tamai, in the campaign in the Sudan in 1885, when the Sudanese Dervishes ‘broke the British Square’. He served in the Burma campaign later that year, taking part in the storming of Mandalay, and in North China, 1891–94. During WW1 he was Admiral of East Coast Patrols, based at Immingham, with responsibility for keeping the coastal shipping moving, without which Britain would have ‘ground to a halt’. His active career ended as Senior Naval Officer, Malta, and Admiral Superintendent of the Dockyard, 1916–19. Much of his writing is not readily obtainable, since it was published in The Mariner’s Mirror and the Naval Review, which had only a limited circulation, although some are now available on the internet. But The Black Battlefleet was published in the normal way. This describes the characteristics, workings and lives of the iron, armoured battleships from the Warrior (1861–83—but still afloat and restored as a museum ship) to the Alexandra (1875–1908, the last iron battleship in commission, but one of the first ships to be fitted with wireless).

Bancroft, George (1800–91) US: Secretary of the Navy. He was a prominent historian and Democratic party politician who founded the USNA at Annapolis, Mary-land in 1845. He was appointed Secretary of the Navy by US President James Polk and served from 1845 to 1846. While planning for a war with Mexico, he secured funding for a naval academy despite the resistance of Congress. He secured the Annapolis site for the USNA and established a residence for midshipmen on his own authority. After the fact, Congress approved funding to maintain the institution Bancroft had begun on his own initiative. He named Commander Franklin BUCHANAN as superintendent, and the institution began with fifty-six students.


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As a member of the cabinet of President Polk, Bancroft was the last cabinet member to agree to a declaration of war against Mexico. Once that war was declared in May 1846, he led an aggressive naval strategy against Mexico, including amphibious assaults, blockades, and bombardment of military installations ashore. One of the noteworthy features of the blockades initiated by Bancroft was a serious effort to avoid actions against neutral shipping. The naval units deployed by Bancroft in the Pacific were essential military instruments in the taking of California from Mexico. He also served as Minister to Great Britain, 1846–49, Minister to Prussia, 1867–71, and Minister to the German Empire, 1871–74. He wrote a ten-volume study, History of the United States, and was referred to as ‘the father of American history’. Among his other literary works were The History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States, which appeared in 1882, and Martin Van Buren to the End of His Public Career, published in 1889.

Barby, Daniel E. (1889–1969) US: ViceAdmiral. He led in the development and application of amphibious doctrine and tactics used in the Pacific during WW2. As CoS Atlantic Fleet Service Force and then head of the Department of the Navy Amphibious Warfare Section, 1941–43, he organized the Navy’s new amphibious force. That process included the development of new concepts in amphibious craft and ship design, as well as in doctrine and tactics. He was promoted to Rear Admiral at the end of 1942, and in 1943 he was named Commander Seventh Amphibious Force, Southwest Pacific, a new command he built into a crucial part of the US WW2 counter-offensive in the Pacific against Japan. Following promotion to Vice Admiral he directed a part of the Lingayen Gulf amphibious assault and subsequent operations in the southern Philippines in 1945. Barby was a 1912 graduate of the USNA. After serving in the armoured cruiser USS California, his early career emphasized destroyer duty and included tours as CO of the destroyer USS Lea and Destroyer Division 17. His pre-WW2 duties also included assignments as naval port officer in Cardiff, Wales, and Constantinople, Turkey, as well as command of Destroyer Division 17 and later the battleship USS New York, 1940–41. After WW2 he commanded the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific, 1945–46, and the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, 1946–47. His final tours before retiring from the active duty Navy in 1951 included a strategic fact-finding mission in the Far East in 1947, command of the Tenth Naval District and the Caribbean Sea Frontier, 1947–50, and command of the Thirteenth Naval District, 1950–51. In 1969 he published his memoirs, MacArthur’s Amphibious Navy.


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Barham, Lord see MIDDLETON Barney, Joshua (1759–1818) US: Commodore. He was one of the original four captains of the US Navy appointed by President WASHINGTON and Congress in March 1794; he was fourth in seniority. He captained a merchant ship at the age of sixteen, and in April 1782, as the twentytwo year-old captain of the American privateer Hyder Ally, 16, defeated the British brig General Monk, 18. His ruse caused the British ship to entangle her bowsprit in Hyder Ally’s rigging in a position that allowed Barney to rake his opponent repeatedly with broadsides and caused her to strike her colours in less than 30 minutes. Of greater importance, the merchant ships Hyder Ally was escorting escaped their British blockaders. During the American Revolution he served in the Continental ships Wasp, Sachem, Virginia, and Saratoga, fought in thirty-five naval engagements and was captured three times by the British. After his distinguished service in the Revolution, Barney felt slighted at being ranked fourth in the new US Navy, and he refused his commission. Instead he served in the French navy, beginning in 1796. During the War of 1812, he returned to the United States and privateering against the British. In 1814 he was recommissioned in the USN and placed in command of a flotilla of small boats charged with the defence of Chesapeake Bay. When the British overcame his flotilla, Barney took his men and guns overland to fight in the battle of Bladensburg, an unsuccessful effort to stop the British forces that eventually occupied the city of Washington and burned the White House. During the battle of Bladensburg, Barney was severely wounded and captured. The British treated him well and cared for his wound, and he was paroled. In 1815 he carried dispatches that were part of the final negotiations after the Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812. In his last Navy assignment he served as Naval Officer of the Port of Baltimore, 1817–18.

Barrow, John (1764–1848) British: Sir John Barrow, Bt, Second Secretary of the Admiralty. He filled that post from 1807 to 1845, under thirteen different governments, and initiated the great voyages of Arctic exploration undertaken by FRANKLIN, PARRY, and John and James ROSS. He was born in humble circumstances, but took every opportunity to educate and advance himself. He undertook a voyage in a Greenland whaler, and saw for himself what it meant to be iced in. He travelled to China as a member of Lord Macartney’s staff,


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and later settled at the Cape of Good Hope, where he made a large number of topographical surveys, after it had been taken from the Dutch in 1796. He intended to make his life there, but the Peace of Amiens in 1802 saw the Cape handed back to the Dutch. He first became Second Secretary of the Admiralty, the senior civil servant, in 1804, but lost office in 1806, when the government changed. But from 1807 onwards, Barrow was responsible for the civil administration of the Admiralty for nearly forty years, being rewarded with a baronetcy in 1835. His early Arctic experience gave him a natural interest in exploration in those regions, but he sent naval officers to explore other areas, including central Africa. His name is remembered in the Arctic by Point Barrow, Cape Barrow, and the Barrow Straits.

Barry, John (1745–1803) US: Commodore. He was one of the original captains of the American Continental Navy commissioned by General WASHINGTON in 1776. In March that year he was given command of the Continental brig Lexington, 14, named for the battle of Lexington, a skirmish in April 1775 considered to be the start of the armed conflict of the American Revolution. In April 1776 he captured the British sloop Edward, one of the first British ships captured in the Revolution. In 1778 he was given command of the frigate Raleigh, 32, which was lost in an action against two British frigates. In 1781, as captain of the Alliance, 36, he fought a successful action against two smaller British ships, capturing both. In March 1783, just before the end of the naval actions of the American Revolution, he engaged three British frigates in the West Indies, preventing the capture of a ship carrying 100,000 Spanish dollars to a US port. It was the last battle of that war, and the Spanish specie was used to help establish a national bank in the United States. In 1797 Barry was placed in command of the new heavy frigate USS United States, 44. In that ship he commanded a Caribbean squadron during the Quasi-War with France, 1798–1800. Barry’s actions during that period were important factors as US naval ascendancy in the Caribbean gained momentum. Failing health prevented him from assuming command of the US Mediterranean Squadron in 1802, and when he died in 1803, he was the senior US naval officer. Like many of his brother naval officers, he began his naval career in the merchant service. In 1760 he was employed in a Philadelphia shipbuilding firm, and in 1766, at the age of twenty-one he was captain of the merchant ship The Barbadoes. The Aegis-class destroyer USS Barry was named in his honour.


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Bart, Jean (1650–1702) French: chef d’escadre. Although frequently described as a pirate, most of his career was in the royal navy, where he showed himself to be a brilliant sea-commander, ship-handler and tactician. He was, in many ways, the French equivalent of DRAKE. He went to sea at the age of fifteen, and was in DE RUYTER’S fleet in their attack on the Medway in 1667. In 1672, he started his commerce raiding in the name of the king of France (but with no more than tacit royal authority). He showed great skill in this form of warfare, and took over fifty prizes, 1674–78. He was formally commissioned into the royal navy in 1678; 1679, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1686, capitaine de frégate; 1689, capitaine de vaisseau. In 1689, after fighting against the Barbary pirates, he was taken by the English while escorting a convoy from Dunkirk to Brest. However, he escaped, and made his way back to France by crossing the Channel in a small rowing-boat. He returned to commerceraiding, for which he devised a tactic of using small groups of light and easily handled frigates to prey on trade, not unlike the wolf-pack tactics employed in WW2. He commanded the Alcyon, 44, at the French victory of Beachy Head in 1690, and in 1692, his squadron ran amok in the Dutch North Sea herring fleet, destroying eighty of them. His most famous exploit was the capture of a Dutch grain convoy of 130 ships off the Texel in 1684, and two years later he fought a furious battle with the Dutch on the Dogger Bank, again with heavy loss to the Dutch, and he returned to Dunkirk (his base throughout his career), giving the English blockading force the slip. He was promoted chef d’escadre in 1697, and died in 1702.

Batten, William (1601?–67) Sir William Batten. He was PEPYS’S co-commissioner on the Navy Board, 1660–67. Batten was a professional seaman, serving both in the merchant and the king’s service, in the capacity of sailing master in the latter. He joined the old Navy Board as Surveyor in 1638, remaining in post throughout the Civil Wars. In 1642, he became second-incommand of the Parliamentary Navy, but resigned his commission in 1647, and in 1648 took a squadron to Holland to join the Prince of Wales’s party, receiving a knighthood, but he returned to England later that year. During the Commonwealth, he retired to private life, but in 1660 was returned to his previous office as Surveyor. Pepys had a poor opinion of him as a colleague, and he was not a good paper administrator: but he seems to have been better in the dockyards.


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Battenberg, Prince Louis (1854–1921) British: Admiral the Marquis of Milford Haven, GCB, GCVO, KCMG. Despite his German/Austrian/Russian birth, he became a professional sea-officer in the RN, through a connection by marriage with the British royal family, and was naturalized in 1868. He rose largely on his own merits, though his career was bedeviled by his family connections with both Russia and Germany. At the outbreak of WW1 he was 1SL, but public paranoia about all things German forced his resignation in October 1914, to be succeeded by Lord FISHER. He entered the Royal Navy in 1868; 1876, Lieutenant; 1885, Commander; 1891, Captain; 1905, Rear-Admiral; 1908, Vice-Admiral; 1912, Admiral. He spent four years on the North American station, 1869–73, and in 1876, joined the Sultan, followed by the Agincourt in the Mediterranean. He served briefly in the royal yacht Osborne (commanded by BERESFORD), and then in the Inconstant, in the ‘Flying Squadron’: in her he was present at the bombardment of Alexandria. He then served in the royal yacht Victoria and Albert. He commanded the cruiser Scout, and as Captain, the cruiser Cambrian and later the battleship Majestic. Senior Admiralty appointments followed, and it was his decision, at Queen Victoria’s funeral, to replace the frightened horses pulling the funeral gun-carriage with the sailors lining the route, which has now become a tradition. He served under Fisher in the Mediterranean in 1901 and again briefly in 1904 in the Admiralty, at the start of the latter’s period as 1SL. From 1905 onwards, he had a series of sea commands increasing in importance and responsibility: 2nd Cruiser Squadron, 1905–06; second-incommand of the Mediterranean Fleet, 1907–08; C-in-C Atlantic Fleet, 1908–10: Third and Fourth Divisions of the Home Fleet, 1911–12. When CHURCHILL became First Lord in 1911, he made Battenberg 2SL, on Fisher’s recommendation. This provoked unfavourable press reaction, though SELBORNE said, ‘a better Englishman does not exist’. In 1912, Battenberg replaced Bridgeman as 1SL (a political rather than a professional appointment—Bridgeman and Churchill did not work well together). It was Battenberg’s personal decision not to disperse the fleet in August 1914, after a trial mobilization, which ensured that the RN was instantly ready for war on 4 August. Despite this, public clamour forced his resignation, and he took no part in the war. In 1917 he renounced his German titles, anglicized his name to Mountbatten, and was created an English peer.


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Baudin, Charles (1784–1854) French: amiral. There were three distinguished mariners of this name in the French service, all unrelated. Charles was the youngest, and also served with the other two on the voyage of the Géographe and Naturaliste, 1800–03. He was noted towards the end of his career for his capture of the town of Vera Cruz in Mexico. He entered the navy in 1799; 1804, enseigne de vaisseau; 1809, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1812, capitaine de frégate; 1834, capitaine de vaisseau; 1838, contre-amiral; 1839, viceamiral; 1854, amiral. After returning from Nicolas BAUDIN’S expedition, he commanded a gunboat in GANTEAUME’S squadron, and then served in the Indian Ocean in the Piémontaise, 40, and Sémillante, 36, in which he lost an arm during an action in 1808 with the British Terpsichore, 32. He continued to serve, commanding the Renard, 16, in which he fought a brisk action with the British brig Swallow, 18. (It is interesting to read CLOWES’S account of this action, which differs significantly from French versions.) As captain of the Dryade, he fought the last action of the Imperial navy off Toulon in February 1814. As captain of the Bayarde at the île d’Aix, he was involved in the attempted flight to the USA of Napoleon I after the battle of Waterloo, but the Emperor’s indecision brought the plan to nothing. With the Bourbons restored, he was not employed until after the 1830 revolution. His first major task was a diplomatic mission to Haiti to negotiate compensation for the former French colonists. He commanded the squadron sent to Mexico in 1838 to exact reparations for injuries done to French traders. He bombarded the fort at St Juan d’Ulloa (the earliest use of explosive shells), which surrendered, the sole occasion when a fort surrendered to naval bombardment only. His forces went on to take the town of Vera Cruz, and Baudin then completed a treaty with the Mexican government. He went on to fill a series of senior posts: C-in-C at Toulon, 1840–47, a member of the Board of Longitude, and President of the Admiralty Council in 1847. After the 1848 revolution he commanded the Mediterranean Squadron, and was present at Naples during the revolution there, when his squadron’s presence restrained the violence ashore: they did the same at Messina and Palermo. Baudin was retained on the active list, though without employment, until his death.

Baudin, François (1774–1842) French: contre-amiral baron Baudin. He was a loyal Bonapartist who enjoyed modest success in the navy.


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He joined the royal navy in 1789; 1794, enseigne de vaisseau; 1800, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1803, capitaine de frégate; 1805, capitaine de vaisseau; 1808, contre-amiral. After early service in the Mediterranean, he was on board the Trajan, 74, at the battle of the Glorious First of June 1794, and later took part in other actions in the West Indies, as well as the abortive expedition to Ireland in 1796. He also served in the Géographe under his namesake, but was invalided out of the ship at Mauritius in 1801. After command of the Aventure, in Dutch waters, Baudin was given the Topaze, 44, with which he took the British Blanche, 36, in 1805. He had a further success in 1806, capturing three British brigs off Portugal, and in 1809, while commanding a division of the Mediterranean Squadron in the Suffren, 74, his forces took the British Proserpine, 32, but he was unsuccessful in an attempt to pass a convoy into Barcelona. (The Spanish guerrillas prevented the movement of supplies overland, and the French armies in Spain relied on sea-borne supplies, against which the Royal Navy waged a continual battle.) After becoming an Imperial baron in 1810, he spent the rest of the war in the Low Countries, commanding the 3rd Squadron on the Scheldt, and the Flushing Squadron (1813–14). He continued to serve under the restored monarchy, finally retiring in 1833.

Baudin, Nicolas (1754–1803) French: capitaine de vaisseau. Nicolas Baudin was primarily a botanist and explorer. From the number of shipwrecks he endured one might assume that his seamanship was lacking, but he was certainly persistent. He first went to sea in 1775, voyaging to India, and then to the West Indies, where he was given a temporary commission in the navy. He resigned to make a trading voyage from Louisiana to Mauritius, during the course of which he met Franz Boos, gardener to the Austrian Emperor, who was plant-hunting in South Africa. He took him back to Trieste, via Mauritius and Mozambique. He then made a voyage to the Far East for the Austrians, but was shipwrecked in the Marianas, and returned in a Spanish ship. His next botanical expedition in 1791, to western Australia, ended in shipwreck again, this time near the Cape of Good Hope, while returning via Bombay (Mumbai) and the Persian Gulf. Baudin reached France via the USA. 1796 saw another voyage and another shipwreck, this time in the Canaries, but 1797 brought his first really successful expedition to the West Indies, which resulted in a valuable botanical collection for the Natural History Museum in Paris. Finally, in 1798, he succeeded in interesting Napoleon I in a major voyage of exploration and scientific research. Commissioned as a capitaine de vaisseau, and with numerous distinguished scientists (who squabbled with each other) on board his two ships, Géographe and Naturaliste, he reached western Australia which he explored at length, and then visited Timor: thence he went to Tasmania, and on to Sydney, from where the Naturaliste was sent home with a valuable cargo of specimens. (Voyages of scientific value were treated with civilized respect between warring nations.) In 1802 Baudin once again returned to western Australia, and thence three quarters of the way round Australia to Timor. He sailed for France in 1803, but died at Mauritius on the way.


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Bayly, Patrick (1914–98) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Patrick Bayly, KBE, CB, DSC**. He was a pioneer beachmaster for Combined Operations in WW2. His job was to ensure that the army got ashore in the right place at the right time, and that the supplies and reinforcements arrived on time, and in the right order. He earned two DSCs for his part in the landings in Sicily, in 1943, and at Salerno later that year. He joined Dartmouth in 1928; 1937, Lieutenant; 1948, Commander; 1954, Captain; 1963, Rear-Admiral; 1967, Vice-Admiral. He joined Combined Operations in 1941, at Largs, where he was responsible for training and development of beach parties. He liked to say that the Navy’s training was geared to keeping ships from running aground, and it needed a complete change of mindset to persuade naval officers to run aground deliberately. His responsibilities as a Principal Beachmaster were considerable for a mere lieutenant, to such an extent that when, after the D-Day landings, he was introduced to Admiral RAMSAY, who had master-minded those landings, Ramsay said ‘Not the Bayly?’—an accolade not usually accorded by admirals to middle-seniority lieutenants. In 1950 he commanded the sloop Alacrity and later the destroyer Constance off Korea, gaining a US Legion of Merit for his service in Alacrity, and a second bar to his DSC in Constance. In 1963 he became Flag Officer Sea Training, probably the most influential Rear-Admiral’s appointment in the Royal Navy, as regards the fleet’s efficiency.

Beach, Edward L. (1918–2002) US: Captain. He commanded the first submerged submarine circumnavigation of the world in 1960 in the nuclear-powered USS Triton. The eighty-four-day voyage in what was then the world’s largest submarine covered 41,000 miles. He graduated second in the USNA class of 1939, qualified as a submariner in 1941 and served with great distinction during the US WW2 submarine campaign in the Pacific. In June 1943, while he was Executive Officer, the submarine USS Trigger torpedoed the Japanese aircraft carrier Hitaka in Tokyo Harbour. As a submarine captain, he accounted for sinking or damaging forty-five Japanese ships. In addition to command of Triton, his post-WW2 assignments included command of several experimental submarines, including USS Trigger II, a Tang-class submarine. Beach was one of the officers who led the USN’s transition from diesel-electric submarines to nuclear-powered vessels. He was Naval Aide to President EISENHOWER, 1953–57, and he retired from the Navy in 1966. He is an award-winning author of numerous non-fiction and fiction works on naval subjects, including Run Silent, Run Deep (which also was produced as a popular film), Around the World Submerged, Scapegoats, The United States Navy: 200 Years, and his memoir, Salt and Steel. In Scapegoats he argued that senior naval and political leadership in Washington DC was


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primarily responsible for the lack of readiness of US naval forces when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, rather than the on-scene naval commander, Admiral KIMMEL, who was court-martialled.

Beattie, James (?–1842) British: navalsurgeon. Sir James Beattie, Kt, MD. He was the Surgeon on board the Victory at Trafalgar, and attended Admiral NELSON after he was fatally wounded. His account of Nelson’s death was published in 1807, and is the most authentic description. He was appointed physician to the Greenwich Hospital (the naval pensioners’ home) in 1806, remaining there until 1840. (The appointment was a well paid reward for his naval service, his salary being £150 p.a., in place of the £60 for a ship’s surgeon). His origins are slightly mysterious. He does not appear in the list of naval surgeons in 1805, although the DNB says he ‘entered the service of the navy at an early age, and saw much service in it in various districts of the globe’. Like most naval surgeons of the period, he had no strictly medical qualifications, being licensed by the Company of BarberSurgeons of London. He actually qualified MD in 1817 (almost certainly an honorary degree).

Beattie, Stephen (1908–75) British: Captain, VC; he also was awarded the French Croix de Guerre, and was a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur. His VC was won in the daring raid on St Nazaire in March 1942. The German battleship Tirpitz was newly operational, and the Allies feared that she might break out like the Bismarck a year earlier. If she did, the dock at St Nazaire was the only dock capable of taking her. Therefore, to restrict the Germans’ options, it was planned to disable the dock by ramming an old destroyer, filled with explosives, into the dock gate. Beattie was chosen to command the old US destroyer Campbell-town (one of fifty ex-US destroyers exchanged in 1940 for bases in the West Indies), which was to ram the gates. He had joined the RN as a ‘special entry’ cadet in 1925; 1930, Lieutenant; 1946, Commander; 1951, Captain. He served in destroyers throughout the 1930s. In 1939, he was First Lieutenant of the destroyer Zulu, and then commanded the old destroyer Vivien, escorting convoys on the east coast of England, and in the Atlantic (MiD). In 1942, he was appointed to another command, but was transferred to Campbelltown a short time before the raid. She had been modified, with two of her four stacks removed to give a German appearance, and extra plating to protect the bridge. The raiding force, Campbell-town and several MTBs and MLs carrying commandos, made a wide detour westward before


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heading for the mouth of the Loire. Deception was complete, and the force had almost reached St Nazaire, six miles up river, before the defences were alerted. Under heavy fire, Beattie rammed his ship into the dock gates, almost to the minute. He and his remaining crew were taken off by one of the MLs, but she was sunk, and he was captured. He had a successful naval career after the war, commanding HMS Whirlwind, the Australian First Frigate Squadron, and the cruiser Birmingham. He was also Senior Naval Officer, Persian Gulf, and retired in 1960.

Beatty, David (1871–1936) British: Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO. He was the dashing leader of the Battle Cruiser Force, 1914–16, and commanded the Grand Fleet, 1916–18. Later he was First Sea Lord, 1919–27. He entered the Royal Navy in 1884; 1892, Lieutenant; 1898, Commander; 1900, Captain; 1910, Rear-Admiral; 1914, Vice-Admiral (acting), 1915 (confirmed); 1916, Admiral (acting), 1919 (confirmed); 1919, Admiral of the Fleet. Beatty spent most of his early career in the Mediterranean. Bored by peacetime routine, he volunteered for service on the Nile with Kitchener’s army which was to reconquer the Sudan, and was given command of one of three river gunboats at the start of the campaign in 1896. His dash and leadership earned him a DSO, and marked him for early promotion. He was involved ashore at the battle of Atbara in 1898, and it was his ship which took Kitchener upstream to Fashoda to meet the French force under Major Marchand (see COWAN). Beatty was promoted Commander at the remarkably early age of twenty-seven. His next appointment was as second-in-command of the battleship Barfleur on the China Station, where he was wounded during the Boxer Rising. For his services he was promoted Captain, aged twenty-nine, when the average age of captains was forty-three (much as it is today). He reached the top of the captains’ list after a series of cruiser commands, but, due to his wounds, he had not completed the required amount of sea-time for promotion to Rear-Admiral. Nonetheless, he was promoted by special order at the age of thirty-nine, the youngest admiral for a hundred years. (NELSON was thirty-eight and a half when he was promoted.) At a time when most executive officers were concerned with the technicalities of their new weapons, Beatty was more concerned with the tactics to be employed by the ships with those weapons. He was appointed by CHURCHILL as his naval secretary in 1912, and then, over the heads of many more senior officers, to command the Battle Cruiser Squadron in 1913. At the outbreak of war, he pursued an aggressive policy, despite the threat of submarines and mines, and at the Dogger Bank in January 1915, he caught the German scouting force, under HIPPER, and but for communication errors ought to have inflicted a severe defeat on them. Sixteen months later, at Jutland, the battle cruisers made the initial contact, first with Hipper’s squadron, and then with SCHEER’S High Seas Fleet, and despite losses, drew them into the arms of JELLICOE and the Grand Fleet. But


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skilful handling by Scheer, poor visibility, and a certain amount of chance, denied the British the second Trafalgar they had expected. But it may be noted that, on the following morning, Beatty’s squadron could muster six battle-worthy ships, while Hipper had only one. His time in command of the Grand Fleet was an anti-climax, though he had the satisfaction of taking the surrender of the German fleet in 1918. He went on to be 1SL for seven and a half years, longer than any 1SL before or since, and had to cope with the run-down of the Navy to satisfy the requirements of a depleted treasury and the moral exhaustion of the nation. At the Washington Conference of 1922, which limited naval armaments, he ceded parity with the USA in capital ships, but held out successfully for a cruiser force adequate for imperial needs. He foresaw the rise of Japan as a threat to the British empire, and fought unavailingly to maintain control of the naval air arm, though his position was vindicated during WW2.

Beaufort, Francis (1774–1857) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, KCB. He is best known as a hydrographer, and for inventing the wind-force scale which bears his name, and is still used today, introduced when he was captain of the Woolwich, 44, in 1805. He entered the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1787:1796, Lieutenant; 1800, Commander; 1810, Captain. After initial service in the Channel on board the Co/ossws, 74, he spent seven very active years, 1793–1800, in a succession of frigates in the Channel and Mediterranean. He obtained his promotion as reward for a very dashing action when First Lieutenant of the Phaeton, 38, in the capture of a Spanish ship under the guns of the fortress of Fuengirola, during which he was severely wounded. As both Commander and Captain, he made very accurate surveys during his voyages, latterly in the Frederickstein, 32 (captured from the Danes—hence the unusual name for a British warship). He was severely wounded again while surveying the coasts of Turkey, resulting in his leaving the sea. Appointed Hydrographer of the Navy in 1829, at an age when his present-day successors have to retire, he remained in post until 1855, initiating and overseeing the gradual extension of the Royal Navy’s world-wide surveys, which made possible the vast expansion of sea-borne trade in the middle and latter part of the nineteenth century (RearAdmiral on the retired list, 1846, and KCB, 1848).


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Belknap, George E. (1832–1903) US: Rear Admiral. He was a ship commander, scientist, and diplomat during the transition of the USN from sail to steam propulsion. He entered the USNA in 1847, and after interrupting his studies for sea duty—during which he served in anti-slaving patrols off the West African coast and in shore parties protecting US citizens during a Chilean revolution—he re-entered and completed his studies there in 1854. As a junior officer he served in a number of assignments at sea, including duty in USS Portsmouth, 1856–58. While serving in Portsmouth in the Pacific, he distinguished himself in an attack on Canton barrier forts in November 1856. In 1862 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and took command of the steam-propelled ironclad USS New Ironsides. During the US Civil War he commanded the single-turret monitor USS Canonicus during Union attacks on the Confederate Fort Fisher in December 1864 and January 1865. In addition to his many ship commands, he developed hydrographic study devices and made a number of discoveries about the ocean bottom. He was a founder of the US Naval Institute in 1873, and following his promotion to Commodore in June 1885, he was Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, 1885–86, and commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard in California, 1886–89. He advanced to Rear Admiral in 1889 and was C-in-C of the Asiatic Station, 1889–92. His final tour of duty was as President of the Board of Inspection and Survey. He retired from active duty in 1894. Following his naval service he became director of the Massachusetts Nautical Training School, and continued to be active in maritime and naval matters.

von Bellingshausen, Fabian (1778–1852) Russian: Vitse-Admiral. He was one of the earliest Antarctic explorers who can be said to have circumnavigated the Antarctic continent. His family were of German extraction, living in what is now Estonia. He joined the Imperial Russian Navy in 1788; 1816; Kapitan; 1826, Kontre-Admiral; 1831, Vitse-Admiral. He took part in the first Russian circumnavigation of the world, 1803–06, and in 1819 was given command of the Vostok and Mirny with orders to penetrate as far south as possible. In 1819 he mapped South Georgia, and in 1820 sighted the coast of Antarctica itself. After refitting in Port Jackson (Sydney), he visited New Zealand, and then the Tuamotu Archipelago, where he carried out scientific work, before heading south again. Von Bellingshausen discovered Peter I Island and Alexander Island, and explored and


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mapped Macquarie Island, and then returned to South Georgia, to complete the circumnavigation. As a Kontre-Admiral he took part in the war against the Ottoman Empire, 1828–29, and finally became military governor of the Baltic naval base of Kronstadt.

Benson, William S. (1855–1932) US: Admiral. He was the first US CNO. He was appointed to the new position in May 1915 and in November was promoted to Rear Admiral. He served as CNO until 1919. Despite the opposition of Secretary of the Navy DANIELS, who opposed centralized uniformed Navy leadership, and Navy bureau chiefs who wanted to retain direct contact with the Secretary of the Navy, Benson was able to establish a coherent organization for the management of a rapidly growing Navy. This proved to be critical in preparing the USN for entry into WW1 in April 1917. Benson entered the USNA in September 1872, and after several periods of sea duty was promoted Ensign in July 1881. His early career encompassed a wide variety of assignments, including a number of combat ships, the hydrographic office, a Fish Commission steamer, navy yards and the USNA. He was promoted to Captain in July 1909 and after several smaller commands was named Captain of the new battleship USS Utah in August 1911. In his role as CNO during WW1, Benson played a critical and politically complicated role in shaping US-British naval strategies. Following WW1 he was principal US naval advisor at the Versailles Naval Treaty negotiations, insisting on naval parity with Great Britain. During the war and its concluding peace negotiations, he reached the temporary rank of Admiral. He retired from active duty in September 1919 as a Rear Admiral, but was advanced on the retired list in June 1930 to his wartime rank of Admiral. Benson’s career spanned the Navy’s transition to steam propulsion, steel hulls, radio communications, and vastly expanded blue-water missions. After retirement he became a strong advocate of the US merchant marine, serving as chairman and then a commissioner of the United States Shipping Board, as well as a trustee of the Emergency Fleet Corporation.

Beresford, Lord Charles (1846–1919) British: Admiral Lord Beresford, GCB. ‘Charley B’ was virtually the last British naval officer to combine a naval career with a parliamentary one. He was, in public, genial and had the ‘common touch’, judiciously mixed with the gift of the blarney (he was Irish). He was a


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competent admiral afloat, but tended to be ‘agin’ authority, and his feud with Sir John FISHER (1908–09) was subversive of discipline in the extreme. He joined the Navy in 1859, and served as a Midshipman on all the seven seas; 1868, Lieutenant; 1875, Commander; 1882, Captain; 1897, Rear-Admiral; 1903, Vice-Admiral; 1906, Admiral. He joined the royal yacht in 1868, and then served in the screw frigate Galatea, under the Duke of Edinburgh. He first entered Parliament in 1874, and held one seat or another, except when he was in a senior appointment afloat, until 1916 when he was given a peerage in his own right. He served as Aide-de-Camp to the Prince of Wales on a tour of India, and then, after a year, 1877–78, as the Executive Officer of the battleship Thunderer, Beresford commanded the royal yacht Osborne, 1878–1881. In 1882 he commanded the tiny gunboat Condor at the bombardment of Alexandria, earning praise and publicity, and being promoted and receiving an MiD. (He was also offered, but refused, the position of war correspondent of the New York Herald.) In 1884 he was again in Egypt, commanding the naval brigade in the attempt to relieve General Gordon, displaying great daring, resource and bravery: he was appointed CB. In 1886, Beresford became Fourth Naval Lord of the Admiralty (it was then quite common for relatively junior officers to occupy the lesser naval positions on the Board), but proved impossible to work with. In particular, he refused to accept the ultimate authority of the First Naval Lord, and resigned after two acrimonious years. He then used his parliamentary seat to criticize the Admiralty, until he was sent to sea commanding the cruiser Undaunted. In 1897, he went as Fisher’s second-in-command in the Mediterranean, where they worked harmoniously, Beresford approving his chief’s reforms. In 1903, he became commander of the Channel Squadron, and in 1905, he took command in the Mediterranean. In 1907, he became C-in-C of the Channel Fleet, then the principal fleet. But he disliked Fisher’s reorganization to meet the growing threat of Germany, and dissented publicly, and the officer corps descended to faction fighting. In 1909, Beresford was ordered to haul down his flag. He sent a long and contentious letter to the Prime Minister, who referred it to a committee, whose report mostly vindicated Fisher. Beresford formally retired in 1911, receiving the GCB. He continued in Parliament until 1918.

Berncastle, Frank (1912–2002) British: Lieutenant Commander, DSC*. He was a Hydrographic Surveyor, whose clandestine surveys of the Normandy beaches before the Allied invasion in June 1944 were an absolutely vital part of the planning, and earned him the DSC, his second. His work is a reminder that there is more to naval warfare than the thunder of the guns. He entered the Merchant Navy training ship, HMS Worcester, and from 1928 to 1936 served with various shipping lines. In 1936 he was commissioned into the RNR as a Lieutenant, and spent two years in HMS Endeavour in New Zealand waters, checking


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Captain COOK’S work done nearly two centuries earlier. At the outbreak of war, he was appointed to HMS Wildfire for minesweeping, and earned his first DSC for his consistently high standard of accurate navigating. He was then seconded to the Combined Operations staff under MOUNTBATTEN, and devised his own specialist method of beach surveys, being particularly concerned to determine the gradient of the beach accurately, and the nature of the bottom, vital factors in knowing whether landing craft could safely beach and discharge their cargoes. He first took part in the Salerno landings of 1943, and then spent six months surveying the Normandy beaches under the enemy’s nose. After the D-Day landings, he went out to the Far East, and earned two MiDs for his activities off the Burma coast.

Berry, Edward (1768–1831) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Berry, KCB. He was one of NELSON’S ‘followers’ and his Flag Captain in Vanguard, 74, at the battle of the Nile (1798). He entered the Navy in 1779; 1794, Lieutenant; 1794, Commander; 1797, Captain; 1821, Rear-Admiral. After service in the East Indies in HUGHES’S fleet, he had still not gained his lieutenancy at the start of the French Revolutionary War, but in 1794 he was rewarded for personal bravery in boarding a French ship, and shortly afterwards joined the Agamemnon, 64, under Nelson. By 1796, they had both transferred to the Captain, 74, with Berry as First Lieutenant. While Nelson was ashore besieging Porto Ferrajo, Berry took command of the Captain, earning Nelson’s ‘fullest approbation’, and promotion. In 1797, not having been given a commander’s appointment, he served as a volunteer on board Captain, 74, at the battle of Cape St Vincent. He followed Nelson into the Vanguard, 74, and after the Nile, he was sent home in Leander, 50, with despatches, but she was taken by the Généreux, 74, one of the few French ships to have escaped from the Nile, and Berry became a prisoner. He had his revenge shortly, since after being exchanged, he took command of the Foudroyant, 80, and was part of the besieging force of Malta, where the Généreux was captured. In command of the Agamemnon, 1804–06, he was present at Trafalgar, and then took part in DUCKWORTH’S victory over a French squadron at San Domingo. He had gold medals for three general actions (Nile, Trafalgar and San Domingo), and had been present at all Hughes’s actions, the Glorious First of June and St Vincent, thus making him one of the most battle-hardened sea-officers of his time. He received the KCB in 1815, and was made a Colonel, Royal Marines, in 1819 (a means of providing a pension for deserving officers).


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Biddle, James (1783–1848) US: Commodore. He fought in the Barbary War and the War of 1812, and helped establish US commercial influence in the Caribbean and US presence in the Orient. Biddle entered the Navy as a Midshipman aboard the new frigate USS President, 44, in 1800. He was captured in 1803 in the war against the Barbary pirates and imprisoned for nearly two years. During the War of 1812 he served in the USS Wasp, 18, and again was captured, this time by the British. The British imprisoned him in Bermuda but released him during the war. He was appointed captain of the sloop-of-war USS Hornet, 5, and in 1815 he captured the British brig Penguin, 18; she was one of the last prizes of the war. At the end of the War of 1812 he was promoted to the rank of Captain, and in 1818 he commanded the sloop-of-war USS Ontario, 22. In that ship he made the second transit of a USN ship from the Atlantic around Cape Horn and into the Pacific, where he became involved in protecting US ships from pirates. While in the Pacific in Ontario he also established US territorial claims over the mouth of the Columbia River in the Northwest United States. He was appointed to command the USN West India Squadron in 1822 and was deployed to suppress pirates there. His ships included the USS Macedonian, 36, and USS Congress, 36. Biddle’s squadron captured numerous pirate vessels in the West Indies, but its ships were, in general, too large to pursue the pirates in their shallow-draft vessels. In 1830 while in command of the Mediterranean Squadron, he helped influence approval by the Senate of the first US treaty with Turkey. In 1846, as Commodore of the East India Squadron, he made the formal exchange of treaty ratifications establishing the first US legation in Canton, China; the agreement was the first US-China treaty. In 1846, in command of the USS Columbus, 74, and accompanied by the sloop-of-war USS Vincennes, 18, he made an unsuccessful attempt to open Japan to US trade. After taking brief temporary command of the Pacific Squadron in operations against Mexico, he returned to Norfolk in 1848 and died while on leave there.

Biddle, Nicholas (1750–78) American: Continental Navy Captain. He was one of the initial group of four captains appointed by the Naval Committee of the Continental Congress at the onset of the American Revolution. Biddle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began a career at sea as a cabin boy aboard a merchant ship at the age of fourteen. Later, as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy, he served in the bomb vessel Carcass, 8, during an Arctic exploration, serving with the young Horatio NELSON.


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With the onset of the American Revolution he resigned from the Royal Navy and joined the naval force of the State of Pennsylvania in August 1775. In December 1775 the Continental Congress ap pointed Biddle and three others as the first captains in the Continental Navy. His initial command was the brig Andria Doria, 14. In March 1776, under the command of Commodore Esek HOPKINS, he took part in the capture of New Providence in the Bahamas. In that action he captured several armed merchantmen and two transports carrying British Army reinforcements to America. In October 1776 he took command of the frigate Randolph, 32. In March 1778, after escaping the British blockade of Charleston, he was wounded and died when his ship exploded while engaging HMS Yarmouth, 64. Despite his young age at the time of his death, Biddle’s naval professionalism and courage immediately became an inspiration to the tiny Continental Navy. The destroyer leaderlight cruiser USS Biddle was named in his honour.

Blackwood, Henry (1770–1832) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, Bt, KCB. He was a distinguished frigate captain, who commanded NELSON’S frigates at Trafalgar, and brought home COLLINGWOOD’S official dispatch, and VILLENEUVE, the captured French C-in-C. He joined the Navy in 1781, and by 1790 was HOWE’S Signal Midshipman; 1790, Lieutenant; 1794, Commander; 1795, Captain; 1819, Rear-Admiral; 1821, Vice-Admiral. He was First Lieutenant of the Invincible, 74, at the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794, and was promoted along with all the other first lieutenants of the ships-of-theline involved. He then commanded the Megaera, a fireship; and after further promotion, commanded the Brilliant, 28, and Penelope, 36. In the former he displayed great skill in evading a superior French force: in the latter, he won great renown for his action in which, in 1800, off Malta, he brought the Guillaume Tell, 80, to action at night. For a frigate to take on a battleship single-handed was unheard of, but so skilfully was Penelope handled that at the dawn, the Frenchman was virtually dismantled, and the job was finished by two battleships: the credit belonged to Black-wood and his crew, and Nelson wrote him an effusive letter of congratulation. In 1803, he received command of the Euryalus, 36, and in the Trafalgar campaign was detailed to watch and report the movements of the French and Spanish fleet after it bolted into Ferrol. When Nelson sailed to rejoin the fleet in September, Euryalus accompanied the Victory, and Blackwood was given charge of all the British frigates, though he had hoped to have been moved into one of the battleships. After Nelson’s funeral, he took command of the Ajax, 80, which was burnt by accident in the Dardanelles, Black-wood himself only just surviving. He later served with credit in the Mediterranean, repulsing a superior French force trying to get out of Toulon in 1810. He received a baronetcy for royal service in 1814, and a KCB in the general distribution of honours at the end of the war. After the war, he became C-in-C East Indies, 1819–22, and later C-in-C at the Nore, 1827–30.


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Blake, Robert (1599–1657) English: General-at-Sea (the title given to admirals during the period of the Commonwealth, 1649–60). He was the C-in-C afloat for most of the First Dutch War, and the architect of the Dutch defeats in that war. But for the Civil Wars (1642–48), he might have remained a merchant, but he joined the Parliamentary army, and made his name as a land commander in the West Country, showing himself to be man of resource and determination. In 1649, because he was known as a staunch supporter of Parliament, and for his command abilities, he was appointed to the joint command of the Parliamentary fleet, tasked with tracking down the Royalist Prince RUPERT, who with a small squadron was harassing English trade, sup ported by the king of Portugal. Blake in turn harried Rupert, without catching him, but driving him out of European waters. Blake then captured the Scilly Isles, which were holding out for the king, and in 1652, with war with the Dutch threatening, was given sole command of the fleet. The first engagement, off the Kentish Knock (a sandbank in the Thames estuary) in 1652 was at best a partial victory for Blake, while the second, off Dungeness later that year, was tactically a draw, with the advantage to the Dutch. In February 1653 the fleets met again, with Blake supported by MONCK and Deane (two more Generals-turned-Admiral), PENN and Lawson. This time, the tables were turned, and though Marten TROMP skilfully escaped at the end of the three-day battle of Portland, it was a decisive English victory, and the Dutch lost many of the merchantmen that Tromp was convoying. The battle of the Gabbard (another Thames shoal) in June saw the same team defeat the Dutch again, though Blake was in poor health (he had been wounded at Portland), and was not at sea for the final battle of the war. The battle of the Gabbard was also of seminal importance in sea-fighting tactics, since it saw the introduction of the Fighting Instructions, and the formal use of the line of battle to maximize the use of firepower. At the Peace in 1654, he was sent to the Mediterranean to bolster English interests which had been neglected during the wars (‘showing the flag’, it would have been called three centuries later), and in 1655 at Porto Farina, he showed his teeth, bombarding Tunisian pirates who were sheltering there and destroying nine ships. In 1656, war against Spain broke out, and Blake instituted a blockade of Cadiz. In 1657, he got news of a fleet from America at Santa Cruz, in Tenerife, and there he attacked their sixteen well protected ships, destroying every one. But he died before reaching Plymouth in August 1657, before receiving the rewards for his victory.

Bligh, William (1753–1817) British: Vice-Admiral. The mutiny on HMS Bounty inthe Pacific in 1789 ensured that Bligh’s name is known world-wide. But what stamps him as a consummate seaman and navigator (and in a crisis, a leader) is his epic 3,618 mile voyage in a twenty-five-foot open boat


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across the South Pacific, with nineteen men and the minimum of provisions. The voyage lasted forty-one days, and not one man was lost during the voyage, though not all survived their privations to reach England. He was COOK’S Sailing Master in the Resolution, 1771–75; 1781, Lieutenant; 1790, Captain. In 1787 Bligh was given command of an ex-merchantman, the Bounty, 4, to make a voyage to the South Pacific to collect breadfruit plants. These were to be taken to the West Indies where, it was hoped, they would thrive and produce nourishing (cheap) food for the slaves. There is little doubt that Bligh was an autocratic tyrant of the worst sort. His own account of the voyage before the mutiny is unreliable, but that of James Morrison, a boatswain’s mate, shows that his treatment of his crew was, even by late eighteenth-century standards, appalling. The leader of the mutineers, Fletcher Christian, a Master’s Mate, was an educated man, whose father was a Fellow of a Cambridge College: the mutiny was the result of reasonable men being driven too far. Bligh’s career continued: he commanded the Director, 64, at the battle of Camperdown (1797), and was commended by NELSON for his actions in command of the Glatton, 54, at Copenhagen (1801). In 1806, he was recommended as the Governor of New South Wales, and proceeded to stir up discontent, to the extent that there was, effectively, another mutiny against his rule, and he was superseded in 1809. But the law of promotion by seniority was inexorable, and he was promoted Rear-Admiral in 1810, and Vice-Admiral in 1814, though he was not employed in either rank.

Boscawen, Edward (1711–61) British: Admiral Hon. Edward Boscawen. He was the victor of the battle of Lagos (Portugal) in 1759, the ‘Year of Victories’, when he defeated de la Clue’s fleet from Toulon. He entered the Navy, 1726; 1732, Lieutenant; 1737, Commander; 1742, Captain; 1747, Rear-Admiral; 1755, Vice-Admiral; 1758, Admiral. Boscawen’s promotion to Commander in the Leopard, 54, came thanks to Sir John NORRIS. Next year, he was given the Shoreham, 20, in the West Indies. When VERNON attacked Portobello, Shoreham was refitting but Boscawen served in the flagship as a volunteer, and was employed, under KNOWLES, in demolishing the forts. In 1741, the Shoreham was present at the unsuccessful siege of Cartagena. Boscawen served ashore, leading a large party of seamen and Royal Marines in a successful night attack on a defending battery. Later, when the British withdrew, he again, with Knowles, had the task of destroying the fortifications, and was rewarded with his next promotion. He commanded the Dreadnought, 60, 1743–44, which prompted one of his nicknames, ‘Old Dreadnought’, from the ship and his own aggressiveness. In 1747, in the Namur, 74, he was with ANSON at first battle of Finisterre, and was specially promoted, and then made C-in-C East Indies. Here, due to the ineptitude of the military engineers, a joint attack on Pondicherry was a failure. And Boscawen’s flagship sank in a hurricane: fortunately he was ashore at the


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time. He had become an MP in 1742, and in 1751 was appointed a Commissioner of the Admiralty. He held both positions until his death. In 1755, he took a squadron to North America, with orders to attack the French, despite the fact that war had not been officially declared. Off the mouth of the St Lawrence, Boscawen encountered the French Alcide, 64, and two transports. He took one transport and the warship, and the Seven Years’ War began. In 1756, as a Commissioner, Boscawen signed John BYNG’S orders before he left for the Mediterranean: he signed the order for his court-martial, and as C-in-C Portsmouth, signed the immediate order for his execution. In 1759, he was sent as C-in-C Mediterranean. The French strategy was little different from that concocted by Napoleon forty-five years later: to evade the British blockade, to join the Toulon and Brest squadrons, and to invade Britain. Boscawen, blockading Toulon, also wanted to force a fight. In trying to force the issue, some of his ships were damaged by shore batteries, and he withdrew to Gibraltar to refit, leaving the French to escape, though he ensured that they would not pass Gibraltar unobserved. When the French appeared, they had become divided, and Boscawen’s fleet was markedly superior in numbers. The French sought shelter in the neutral waters of Lagos Bay, but Boscawen disregarded the rules of neutrality: the result was the destruction of five French warships. His reward was to be made a General of Royal Marines, a sinecure post worth £3,000 per year. He was known for his care of his men, taking an unusual interest in hygiene, and the provision of fresh vegetables, but he was a strict disciplinarian, and would grant no indulgences.

Bougainville, Louis, comte de (1729–1811) French: vice-amiral. From 1766 to 1769, he made a circumnavigation of the world contemporaneous with COOK, and his record of that voyage was as influential as Cook’s Journals. He was also a fighting seaman, and presided over the French court of inquiry into the battle of Trafalgar. He trained as a scientist, and published a Treatise on Integral Calculus’ in 1751, before serving in the army. He was aidede-camp to General Montcalm in his last Canadian campaign, and was made prisoner after the fall of Montreal. Returning to France in 1761, he joined the navy, being given the rank of capitaine de vaisseau for an expedition to the Falklands, where the establishment of a settlement upset the Spanish. His circum-navigation in the Boudeuse helped to establish French interest in the southwest Pacific, which was later developed into a sphere of influence. He commanded the Guerrier, 74, in ESTAING’S squadron, and took part in the action off Grenada, and the failed attack on Savannah. Promoted chef d’escadre in 1779, he distinguished himself under GRASSE-TILLY in Chesapcake Bay (1781) and was present at the defeat at the Saintes in 1782 (being admonished afterwards).


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He continued to pursue his scientific interests, but also a naval career: he was given command of the Brest Squadron in 1790, but resigned in view of the general anarchy. After promotion to vice-amiral in 1792, he helped the king until the coup in June of that year. He was imprisoned during the Terror, but released when the Jacobins fell. He was involved with the preparation of Napoleon’s Egyptian adventure, a member of the Board of Longitude, and advised on Nicolas BAUDIN’S Australian expedition. He became a Napoleonic comte in 1808.

Boyle, Edward (1883–1967) British: Rear-Admiral Edward Boyle, VC. He was one of the earliest British submariners, and won his VC in the submarine E.14 in the Sea of Marmora during the Dardanelles campaign in 1915. He entered the Royal Navy in 1897; 1905, Lieutenant; 1915, Commander; 1920, Captain; 1931, Rear-Admiral. He joined submarines in 1904. Between then and 1914, he commanded successively one of the Holland boats, then C.4, C.29, D.2 and D.3, in which he was mentioned in despatches for patrols in the Heligoland Bight in 1914. Two days after the Allied troops landed at Cape Helles, and following the trail blazed by Holbrook and Stoker in AE.2, Boyle took E.14 through the minefields and tide-rips of the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmora, where his activities threw the Turkish supply lines into confusion (virtually all the supplies for the Turkish troops on the Dardanelles peninsula went by sea). He sank a small destroyer on his way through the Straits, and a day later sank an escorted transport. Later still he sank another small gunboat, engaged Turkish troops inside the harbour of Rodosto with rifle fire, and then sank the liner Guj Demal, carrying 6,000 troops and an artillery battery. By this time he was out of torpedoes, but he completed the patrol by forcing a small steamer ashore after a rifle battle. He was ordered to stay in the Sea of Marmora, because ‘the moral effect of your presence is invaluable’. His patrol lasted twenty-one days, and he made an uneventful dived return to the fleet. All his crew received decorations, and Boyle was specially promoted as well as receiving the VC. He also received French and Italian decorations. After WW1, he commanded HMAS Platypus, the Australian submarine depot ship, and two light cruisers, Birmingham and Carysfort, in the 1920s. His last sea command was the battleship Iron Duke, 1929–31. He was promoted Rear-Admiral in 1931, and retired immediately, but served again as Flag Officer, London, 1939–42.


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Bradford, Donald (1912–95) British: Commander, DSO, DSC**, RNR. He was a reservist, and one of the more aggressive MTB commanders in the English Channel, 1941–44. He was educated at St Cyr (the French military academy), and joined the Merchant Navy. At the start of WW2, he volunteered for all three services, but only the Navy would accept him; 1940, Sub-Lieutenant; 1941, Lieutenant; 1944, Acting Temporary Commander. He had a colourful career in South America and Spain, fighting in the Spanish Civil War: in 1940, when his ship Malvernian was attacked by aircraft and abandoned, he was picked up by a Spanish fishing vessel and interned, but later escaped. On return to Britain, he joined Coastal Forces. In 1943, commanding MGB 333, he rammed and sank an Eboat in a night action, receiving the DSC. Later that year, while commanding MTB 617 and as Senior Officer 55th MTB Squadron, he torpedoed the liner Strasbourg and sank an armed trawler (bar to DSC): and in MTB 606 he attacked a convoy and sank two armed trawlers and an E-boat, but MTB 606 had to be abandoned. On D+1, off Le Havre, four boats of the 55th, under his command, engaged and drove off a large enemy force bent on attacking the ships off the invasion beaches (second bar to DSC). In October 1944 he was awarded the DSO for his consistent leadership. At the end of the war, he commanded the RN base at Flensburg. After the war, he left the sea, and worked for Marks and Spencer.

Bridport, Lord see HOOD (I) Bristol, Mark Lambert (1868–1939) US: Admiral. He was one of the exceptionally effective line officers crucial to the development of the US blue-water Navy of the early twentieth century and to the parallel development of US naval diplomacy. He ranked fifth in the USNA class of 1887, although in conduct his record was close to the bottom of the class. His initial duty assignments were in the sailing ships of the old Navy, but in 1897 he served in the gunnery department of the then new steel battleship USS Texas at the battle of Santiago in the Spanish-American War. In 1907 he was Executive Officer of the battleship USS Connecticut, during the circumnavigation of the globe by the ‘Great White Fleet’. He was a strong advocate for reorganizing the senior Navy leadership to establish a strong executive leader with the power to advise the


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Secretary of the Navy. As the new steel Navy evolved, with its emphasis on battleships as the centrepieces of the fleet, he concentrated on the new, more powerful naval ordnance and its associated technology. Bristol was promoted to Captain and ordered to Washington in 1913. There he was assigned to plan the integration of the Navy’s new air capability into the fleet, and he became one of the Navy’s strongest advocates for the funding of naval aviation assets. In March 1916 Bristol was ordered to command of the experimental aviation ship USS North Carolina, with the title of Commander Naval Air Service. Subsequent assignments included command of the battleship USS Oklahoma in March 1918, and then command of the US naval base at Plymouth, England. He was US High Commissioner to Turkey, 1919–27, skilfully blending naval strength with statesmanship to protect US interests as the United States was growing into a world power. He was promoted to Admiral in September 1927 and commanded the Asiatic Fleet, 1927–29. In that assignment he continued to blend naval power with diplomacy. At the conclusion of his Asiatic Fleet assignment he reverted to the rank of Rear Admiral, the highest permanent rank in the USN of the time. His final tour of duty was with the General Board of the Navy Department, and he retired from active duty as a Rear Admiral in 1932.

Brock, Osmond (1869–1947) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Osmond Brock, GCB, KCMG, KCVO. He was another of the admirals who kept the wheels of the fleet turning, without ever appearing in the limelight. He joined the RN in 1882; 1889, Lieutenant; 1900, Commander; 1906, Captain; 1916, Rear-Admiral; 1919, Vice-Admiral; 1924, Admiral; 1929, Admiral of the Fleet. He served his midshipman’s time in masted vessels, including the Raleigh, the last masted flagship in the RN. He qualified in gunnery, and then served as the Executive Officer of Sir John FISHER’S flagship in the Mediterranean, 1901–02, and later was Flag Captain to Lord Charles BERESFORD. Despite (or because of) being acquainted with both, on a personal level, he seems to have avoided the repercussions of the FisherBeresford feud which did so much damage in 1908–10. During WW1 he commanded the new battle cruiser Princess Royal at the battles of Heligoland Bight (1914) and Dogger Bank (1915). At Jutland (1916), he had been promoted Rear-Admiral and flew his flag in her. His ship became responsible for passing all BEATTY’S signals when Lion’s wireless aerials were shot away. When Beatty became C-in-C, Brock became his CoS, and earned high praise from him. After, the war, he followed Beatty to the Admiralty as DCNS, and then became C-in-C Mediterranean, where his firm attitude towards the Turks, at the time of the Turko-Greek war of 1923, was especially commended in the House of Commons. He completed his career as C-in-C Portsmouth.


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Broke, Philip (1776–1841) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Philip Broke, Bt, KCB. He was one of Britain’s frigate captains in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly known for his short, brutally effective, taking of the USS Chesapeake in 1813. He joined the Navy in 1788, via the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth (the forerunner of the Britannia and the colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth); 1795, Lieutenant (earlier than allowed by the rules); 1799, Commander; 1801, Captain; 1830, Rear-Admiral. After becoming a lieutenant, he served exclusively in frigates or smaller ships. In 1799, he took command of the Dolphin, and then the Shark, 16, both on North Sea convoy duty, under DUNCAN. From 1801 he was unemployed until he was given the Druid, 32, in April 1805. He received command of the Shannon, 38, in 1806, and stayed in her until the Chesapeake action. Shannon was employed in Spitzbergen in 1807, and in run-of-the-mill activities until she was ordered to North America in 1811. When war broke out the next year, the Americans had much the best of the single-ship encounters. Broke concentrated on training his crew, with the aim of taking on any of the Americans. In June 1813, his station was off Boston, where LAWRENCE had just taken command of the Chesapeake and Broke contemplated sending a formal challenge to Lawrence, who, however, came out to fight before it was delivered. The engagement was short and conclusive, Lawrence being mortally wounded by the first broadside. Broke led his boarders and the inexperienced American crew were swiftly overcome, though Broke himself received a serious head wound, which affected him thereafter. In the wake of the American victories over the Java, Guerrière and Macedonian, this action was rapturously received at home, and Broke was made a baronet immediately, and a KCB at the end of the war: but apart from taking Shannon home, his wound prevented further sea service. The cause of his victory, a lesson the RN has tried to take to heart, was that training counts, every time. Broke had, in effect, been preparing for it for seven years.

Broome, John (Jack) (1901–85) British: Commander (acting Captain), DSC. He was the commander of the close escort of convoy PQ17 in July 1942 when it was ordered to scatter in the face of a reported threat from superior German surface forces. Twenty-three out of thirty-four merchant ships were lost, with a quarter of a million tons of supplies for Russia at a crucial time. The order was given on the personal authority of 1SL, POUND, breaking the rule of leaving the assessment of the tactical situation to the man on the spot. Broome joined Dartmouth in 1914, and during WW1 served in the battle cruiser Tiger, with Pound as his captain, and was one of those officers who were sent to Cambridge in


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1921–22 to make up for their shortened wartime schooling. There he became the art editor of Granta, the student magazine. 1923, Lieutenant; 1936, Commander; 1944, acting Captain. He joined submarines in 1925 and commanded submarines both in home waters and on the China Station. At the outbreak of WW2, he was disappointed to be told that he was too old for submarine sea command, but was given command of the old destroyer Veteran. In 1941, he became part of Admiral NOBLE’S staff in Liverpool, and then took command of HMS Keppel, commanding the 1st Escort Group. The supply line to north Russia was vital, and convoys continued to be run even in the continuous. daylight of the northern summer, but were vulnerable to German attack by air, U-boat, and heavy surface forces based in Norway. Each convoy was a major operation, involving all elements of the Home Fleet (see FRASER). PQ17 sailed from Iceland, and had reached a point well north of Murmansk, its destination, when Admiralty intelligence suggested that German heavy forces were preparing an attack. Instead of informing the escort, and leaving the local commander to make his own decision, Pound ordered the convoy to scatter, and the escort to join the covering cruiser force. The result was disastrous: the Germans did not make the expected sortie, but individual ships were picked off by their aircraft and U-boats. Broome always asked himself whether he should have disobeyed the order. In 1944, he took command of the escort carrier Begum, and his aircraft sank a U-boat in the Indian Ocean. He received the DSC. He completed his career in command of the battleship Ramillies, in 1946–47. The affair of convoy PQ17 featured in the law courts in 1970. An author named Irving was held to have libeled Broome by saying that he had deserted the convoy: after losing an appeal, Irving had to pay £40,000 damages.

Brown, Charles R. (1899–1983) US: Admiral. He commanded the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean during the Arab-Israeli War and Suez Crisis of 1956. An Egyptian attack on the Israeli access to the Red Sea and the resulting Israeli counter-attack on the Egyptian Sinai on 29 October, plus AngloFrench air strikes against Egypt to begin re-establishing control of the Suez Canal on 31 October, triggered the events. Under Brown’s aggressive leadership, elements of the Sixth Fleet were instrumental in the safe evacuation of thousands of civilians trapped in combat zones. The Sixth Fleet also was a potentially decisive factor if the Israeli strike and the Anglo-French military seizure of the Canal should escalate. Subsequently, the Sixth Fleet under Brown’s command was a powerful element in stabilizing the 1958 Lebanon crises. The impact of the Sixth Fleet during the Middle East crises of 1956 and 1958 provided a clear post-WW2 demonstration of the geopolitical benefits of a powerful naval force on the scene during volatile international situations. Brown graduated from the USNA in 1921. He earned his naval aviator’s wings in 1924 and moved into aviation assignments. He began WW2 on the staff of Admiral Ernest KING in Washington DC. He advanced to Captain in June 1942. He commanded the escort carrier USS Kalinin Bay, 1943–44, when he advanced to Rear Admiral. He


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commanded USS Hornet, an early mainstay in the US Pacific aircraft carrier forces during WW2, 1945–46. After WW2, assignments included command of a carrier division and duty at the US Naval War College, where he expanded the influence of naval aviation in the curriculum and war games. In October 1955 he was promoted to Vice Admiral and he commanded the Sixth Fleet, 1956–59. From 1959 to 1962 he was C-in-C Allied Forces Southern Europe. He retired from active duty in 1962.

Bruce, Henry (1862–1948) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Bruce, KCB, MVO. As Commodore- and AdmiralSuperintendent of Rosyth Dockyard, 1915–20, he developed this new dockyard and naval base into a most efficient and crucially important facility for the Grand Fleet. He joined the RN, via the Britannia, in 1875; 1884, Lieutenant; 1901, Commander; 1905, Captain; 1917, Rear-Admiral; 1922, Vice-Admiral. In 1901, he became the Naval Officer In Charge in Bermuda, where he gained first hand experience of running a dockyard, albeit a minor one. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he commanded the dreadnought Hercules. Although war with Germany had become ever more likely from the beginning of the century, Britain had no suitable bases on the east coast (Chatham was too far up the River Medway), and to satisfy this need, a dockyard was built from scratch at Rosyth, on the Firth of Forth. It was not ready for use until early 1915, and Bruce had to build up the workforce from nothing, while at the same time providing the facilities the fleet needed, particularly immediately after Jutland, when JELLICOE was able to report that the Grand Fleet was ready for action within forty-eight hours of the battle.

Brueys d’Aigalliers, François (1753–98) French: vice-amiral. He commanded the naval arm of Bonaparte’s great Eastern Adventure, and lost his life in the defeat at the battle of the Nile (1798). He entered the Ancien Régime’s navy in 1766; 1777, enseigne de vaisseau; 1780, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1792, capitaine de vaisseau; 1796, contre-amiral; 1798, viceamiral. His early career and promotion were normal for the period: he spent much time in the West Indies, serving in GUICHEN’S squadron, and GRASSE-TILLY’S, fighting RODNEY. He was present at every major engagement between the fleets, 1780–83. After peace was made, he commanded the West Indies’ guard-ship, and then the Poulette, 26, in the Mediterranean.


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In 1793, he was dismissed and arrested as a noble, but was reinstated in 1795, and given command of a squadron in the Adriatic, in the Guillaume Tell, 80. In 1798 he was appointed to command the squadron carrying Bonaparte to Egypt, a reflection of the lack of experienced sea-commanders produced by the politics of the Revolution. The outward journey was successful (see NELSON), but thereafter, Brueys disregarded the advice given to him, and anchored his fleet in Aboukir Bay, a few miles east of Alexandria. There he was caught, only partially prepared, by Nelson’s fleet. In a fierce action, in which the British tactics ensured that each French ship was attacked on two sides, the French fleet was effectively destroyed, and Brueys’s flagship, the mighty L’Orient, 120, caught fire and blew up. Brueys himself had been killed by a shot shortly before.

Buchanan, Franklin (1800–74) Confederate States of America Navy Admiral. He commanded the Confederate Navy ironclad Virginia (former USS Merrimac). In his early career in the USN, Buchanan served in the Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean and Caribbean. He was the first superintendent of the USNA, 1845–47. In 1852 he was given command of the steam frigate USS Susquehanna, which served as flagship for Commodore Matthew C. PERRY during his successful expedition to Japan in 1853. He was promoted to Captain in 1855 and commanded the Washington Navy Yard, 1859–61. Buchanan resigned from the USN in April 1861, but when his home state Maryland failed to secede, he tried and failed to re-enter the USN. In September 1861 he was appointed Captain in the Confederate States Navy and became Chief of the Bureau of Orders and Detail. In February 1862 he was placed in command of the Chesapeake Squadron and established his commodore’s flag aboard Virginia. In March he attacked the Union blockading force in Hampton Roads, sinking two Union frigates and three small steamers with his aggressive tactics. He was seriously wounded during the action, and he turned command of Virginia over to Lieutenant Catesby Jones. The historic action between Virginia and the ironclad USS Monitor took place the following day. In August, Buchanan was placed in command of the naval defences of Mobile Bay and promoted to Rear Admiral. Two years later, with his flag aboard the new ironclad Tennessee, his squadron fought in the battle of Mobile Bay. He again was seriously wounded, and after severe damage to Tennessee, he surrendered to Admiral FARRAGUT. He remained a Union prisoner until February 1865. He was President of Maryland Agricultural College, 1868–69, and also worked as an insurance executive following the US Civil War.


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Bucher, Lloyd M. (1927–2004) US: Commander. He was captain of the electronic surveillance ship USS Pueblo captured by North Korean naval forces on 23 January 1968. A court of inquiry recommended that Bucher be court-martialled for not fighting his ship and for not preventing the compromise of sensitive military information. Secretary of the Navy Paul Ignatius overruled the recommendation, however, and no court-martial was conducted. Among the findings of the official investigation was that there were too many federal agencies and military commands involved in the operation for effective mission control. It also was revealed that because US naval forces were so thinly spread in the theatre, there was no timely air or surface ship support available to Pueblo when she came under attack. Bucher was commissioned in 1953. Before taking command of Pueblo, he served in submarines and was assistant Operations Officer for Submarine Flotilla Seven. In his earlier duty in submarines he served as Executive Officer of USS Ronquil, Operations Officer of USS Caiman, and Weapons Officer of USS Besugo. Following the court of inquiry, Bucher reported to the Naval Post Graduate School at Monterrey, California, as a student, earning a graduate degree in business management. Also following his release from captivity and the court of inquiry, Bucher devoted major efforts to support his fellow prisoners and their families, as well as the families of those killed in the attack on Pueblo. He was orphaned at an early age and grew up in foster homes and in Boys Town, Nebraska. After enlisting in the Navy, he eventually earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska. He retired from active duty in 1973.

Bulkeley, John L. (1911–96) US: ViceAdmiral. He commanded a squadron of four 78-ft torpedo boats that evacuated US Army General Douglas MacArthur and his family from Corregidor, Philippines, in the early stages of WW2. On 11 March 1942, MacArthur and his family embarked in Bulkeley’s own boat PT-41 and were transported 600 miles through rough open-ocean waters controlled by the Japanese to Mindanao in the Philippines. From there MacArthur and family were flown to Australia. For his skill and bravery during the operation, Bulkeley was awarded the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor. The opera tion was dramatized in the book and film, They Were Expendable. During the balance of the war Bulkeley served in PT boats in the Pacific, and also in support of the Allied Normandy invasion in June 1944. During the Allied landing on the southern coast of France in August 1944, he commanded the destroyer USS Endicott, sinking two German corvettes.


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Bulkeley was born to a family with a strong naval tradition. One ancestor, Lieutenant Charles Bulkeley, was second-in-command to Captain John Paul JONES in the American Continental Navy’s Bonhomme Richard. Another ancestor, Richard Bulkeley, was a midshipman in Admiral NELSON’S HMS Victory at the battle of Trafalgar. John Bulkeley graduated from the USNA in 1933. Because of military budget constraints, only the upper half of that class was commissioned immediately. Not until March 1934 did he receive his commission. Prior to WW2 he served in USS Saratoga, USS Indianapolis, and USS Sacramento. Following that war he was CO of the destroyer USS Stribling, and from 1946 to 1948 he was assigned to the USNA. This was followed by duty as Executive Officer of the amphibious command ship USS Mount Olympus, instruction at the Armed Forces Staff College, and duties as chief of the Weapons Division of the Military Liaison Committee to the Atomic Energy Commission. He was promoted to Captain in 1952, commanded Destroyer Division 132 during the Korean War, and subsequently was CoS to Commander Cruiser Division Five. In 1956 he served on the staff of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Subsequently he commanded the fleet oiler USS Tolovana, Destroyer Squadron 12, and the Naval Weapons Base in Clarksville, Tennessee. He advanced to Rear Admiral in June 1963, and shortly after took command of the US Naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba. During that assignment he dealt with direct challenges to the base from Cuban leader Fidel Castro. He was President of the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey before retiring from active duty in 1975. He was briefly recalled to active duty in 1987 before his final retirement that same year. The Aegis missile destroyer USS Bulkeley was named in his honour.

Burke, Arleigh A. (1901–96) US: Admiral. He was a renowned WW2 destroyer officer and Cold War CNO, 1955–61. He graduated from the USNA in 1923. During his early career he served in battleships and destroyers and earned a Master of Science in Engineering at Michigan University. He earned a reputation in the WW2 Pacific theatre as an aggressive destroyer captain and destroyer division and squadron leader. While commanding Destroyer Squadron 23, known as ‘The Little Beavers’, his ships were credited with sinking one Japanese cruiser, nine destroyers, one submarine, and numerous small vessels and destroying more than twenty-five aircraft. He earned the nickname ‘31-knot Burke’ for the tempo of his operations and aggressiveness of his combat doctrine. In 1944 he was CoS to Admiral MITSCHER in aircraft carrier Task Force 58, which was involved in major carrier operations against the Japanese. He was promoted to Commodore during this assignment. At the outbreak of the Korean War he became deputy CoS to Commander US Naval Forces, Far East, and was assigned to establish Japan’s post-WW2 naval defence force. After command of Cruiser Division Five and duty in the United Nations Truce Delegation in Korea, he became the director of the Strategic Plans Division in the Office of the CNO. In that assignment he was a particularly effective staff officer in the Navy’s efforts to block Air Force and Defense Department efforts to increase air force missions and budget at the expense of the Navy. Because of animosities generated during those


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inter-service disputes, his selection to Rear Admiral was opposed by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy at the time. His promotion to that rank, however, was confirmed in September 1950. In 1955, after command of Cruiser Division Six and Destroyer Force Atlantic, and while still a Rear Admiral, Burke was selected by President EISENHOWER over eightyseven more senior admirals as CNO. He served an unprecedented three terms in that office. In August 1958, when the communist Chinese government began bombarding the islands of Quemoy and Matsu, located between mainland China and the Chinese Nationalist island of Taiwan, President Eisenhower directed Burke to intervene with US naval forces to forestall a communist Chinese invasion of the islands. Burke deployed Seventh Fleet ships to the area, helping to prevent a military takeover of the islands. As the Navy’s senior officer he fought successfully for the establishment of a submarinebased strategic missile component in the USN. The result was the development of the Navy’s Polaris-class missile submarines, which were followed by the more advanced Poseidon and Trident classes. Burke retired from active duty in 1961. In addition to his many military awards, he received the highest US civilian award, the Medal of Freedom. The Navy’s first Aegis missile destroyer was named in his honour in July 1991; it was highly unusual for a USN ship to be named for a living person. At the commissioning, Burke, then eighty-nine years old, told the ship’s crew: ‘This ship is built to fight. You’d better know how’.

Burnett, Robert (1887–1959) British: Admiral Sir Robert (‘Bob’) Burnett, GBE, KCB, DSO. As Flag Officer, Tenth Cruiser Squadron, he spent two years, 1942–44, fighting convoys through to Russia, and it was his force which, on Christmas Day 1943, repulsed the Scharnhorst, to such effect that FRASER in the Duke of York was able to intercept and destroy her. He joined the Navy in 1903; 1910, Lieutenant; 1923, Commander; 1930, Captain; 1940, Rear-Admiral; 1943, Vice-Admiral; 1946, Admiral. He was an enthusiastic athlete, and qualified in one of the RN’s minority specializations, physical training, which did not usually lead to the higher echelons of command. During WW1, he served at the engagement in Heligoland Bight in 1914, and at the Dogger Bank in 1915, and commanded the Grand Fleet destroyer Nessus until 1918. He then spent ten years in PT appointments, with a break to command HMS Wallflower, 1925–27. In the 1930s he commanded a destroyer flotilla on the China Station. In 1939, he was Commodore of the Barracks at Chatham, a vital appointment as the fleet mobilized. After special promotion to acting Rear-Admiral, he was Flag Officer of the Home Fleet minelaying force, which laid and maintained the northern barrage: and then Flag Officer Home Fleet Destroyers, all good experience for the battle to get the convoys through to Russia. In September 1942, his squadron was part of the escort to convoy PQ18, forty ships which had to be fought through, to counter the debacle of PQ17 (see POUND and BROOME). In intense attacks, lasting over four days, ten merchant ships were lost, but


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the Germans lost forty-one aircraft and three U-boats, and no ships were lost from the return convoy. On 31 December 1942, his squadron was the covering force to convoy JW51B when SHERBROOKE and his destroyers held off a superior German force, arriving in the nick of time to complete the German’s discomfiture: his flagship, HMS Sheffield, sank a German destroyer. And on 26 December 1943, with his flag now in HMS Belfast, his force turned the Scharnhorst into FRASER’S clutches. All these were classic cruiser actions. He went on to be C-in-C at the Cape, 1944–46, and C-in-C Plymouth, 1946–48.

Bush, Eric (1899–1985) British: Captain, DSO**, DSC. His decorations argue an outstanding degree of skill, bravery and devotion to duty. He went to RNC Osborne in 1912, and was one of those young men ‘whose chests were slung down the College stair at Dartmouth in ‘14’, when they were taken out of training at the outbreak of war and sent to sea—in his case at the age of fifteen; 1920, Lieutenant; 1933, Commander; 1939, Captain. As a Midshipman in Bacchante, he was awarded the DSC for service in the Gallipoli landings at Anzac Beach, and also received an MiD. He was present at Jutland in Revenge and was one of the lucky ones who were sent to Cambridge University in 1919. He then served in home waters, the East Indies and Yangtze River, 1920–32. He was the Executive Officer, HMS Devonshire, 1936, while she was involved in international policing duties during the Spanish Civil War. He was beachmaster at La Panne during the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940 (awarded the DSO). He commanded HMS Euryalus, 1941–43, which was involved in most actions in the western Mediterranean, including Malta convoys (Operation Pedestal, September 1942) (bar to DSO), and landings in Sicily and at Salerno. He commanded the ‘Sword’ Beach assault force for the Normandy Landings, and in late 1944 went out to the Eastern theatre to plan and execute the landings in the Arakan and Akyab in support of the 14th Army operations in Burma, and then the landings at Rangoon. Finally, in the days immediately after Japan’s surrender, he executed the unopposed landings in Malaya and Singapore. His final appointment, 1945–48, was in command of the boy’s shore training establishment, HMS Ganges.

Bush, George Herbert Walker (1924-) US: forty-first President (1989–93). He formed an international coalition in 1990 to reverse the conquest of Kuwait by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.


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In 1991, after a weeks-long air campaign, the US-led forces carried out a 100-hour land campaign that freed Kuwait and neutralized the Iraqi threat to other countries in the region. As part of the military operation, which included 425,000 US troops and 118,000 coalition troops, a naval force of more than 100 ships, including six aircraft carriers and two battleships, was employed in support of the US Central Command. Among the nations represented in the coalition naval forces were: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Bush served in the USN as a pilot, 1942–45. When designated a naval aviator at the age of eighteen, he was the youngest pilot in the USN. In September 1944, during his 58th combat mission, he was shot down over Chichi Jima Island in the Pacific; the US submarine USS Finback rescued him. After WW2 Bush attended Yale University, where he excelled academically and athletically. Before he entered politics, he was successful in the oil business in the state of Texas. He was elected to two terms in the House of Representatives and campaigned unsuccessfully twice for the Senate. He was appointed to the positions of Ambassador to the UN, Chief of the US Liaison Office in the People’s Republic of China, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was elected Vice President in the administration of President REAGAN, and President himself in 1989, serving one four-year term in that office. During his presidency the Soviet Union disintegrated, and in December 1989, when the security of the Panama Canal was threatened, he intervened militarily to displace Panama’s corrupt leader, Manuel Noriega.

Bushnell, David (1742–1824) US: Colonial American inventor. He designed and built the first submersible used in war. He graduated from Yale University in 1775 at the onset of the American Revolution. He developed the precursor of the modern military submarine, called Turtle, with a fellow Yale student, Phineas Pratt. The vehicle was launched in September 1776 to attach a bomb with a time fuse to the rudder area of HMS Eagle, 64, anchored in New York harbour. Hand-cranked propellers powered the submersible, and when the operator, Ezra Lee, a gunnery sergeant, was unable to penetrate the underwater copper sheathing of Eagle to attach the bomb, Bushnell’s basic plan failed. However when the bomb exploded harmlessly in the harbour, the British moved their fleet to a safer anchorage in Long Island Sound, achieving BushnelPs intent of driving the British Navy from New York harbour. Although he is sometimes referred to as the inventor of the submarine, there is evidence that a European design for a submersible similar to Bushnell’s appeared in the British Gentleman’s Magazine in 1747, and it is plausible that Bushnell came across this design in the Yale library. It appears, however, that Bushnell was the first to produce a manned submersible for use in combat. In this regard Turtle was an example of the American colonists’ extremely pragmatic approach to invention and the technology it produced.


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General WASHINGTON commissioned him in the Colonial Army, where he eventually rose to the rank of Captain and commanded the US Army Corps of Engineers at West Point, New York. After the American War of Independence he went to France, where he was unsuccessful in attempts to sell his submarine design to the French. Later he changed his name to Bush and moved to Warrenton, Georgia, where he taught religion and science at Warrenton Academy and practised medicine for twenty years.

Buzzard, Anthony (1902–72) British, RearAdmiral Sir Anthony Buzzard, Bt, CB, DSO, OBE. As Director of Naval Intelligence, 1951–54, he formulated the strategic policy of graduated nuclear deterrence, which, arguably, kept the two superpowers, the USA and USSR, from each others’ throats for forty years. He entered the RN in 1915; 1923, Lieutenant; 1935, Commander; 1941, Captain; 1951, Rear-Admiral. He qualified in gunnery in 1927, and had a series of gunnery appointments in the 1930s: teaching at the Gunnery School at Chatham, and Gunnery Officer of the battleship Barham. He earned a DSO in 1940 while commanding the destroyer Ghurka, and for sinking U-53, in February. A month later, the Kelly, under MOUNTBATTEN’S command collided with Ghurka at night. Mountbatten signalled ‘Have just been hit by torpedo or mine: am not sure which’. Buzzard’s reply was ‘Not mine, but me’. Buzzard was also Executive Officer of the battleship Rodney, just after the Bismarck chase. On promotion to Captain, he went to the Admiralty, in the Directorate of Naval Plans (which can fairly be called the RN’s ‘think tank’); while there he was member of the Joint Strategic Planning Staff, 1941–44. He commanded the aircraft carrier HMS Glory, 1944– 46, and was CoS to Flag Officer Air (Home), 1948–50. Buzzard first put forward his ideas on graduated nuclear deterrence as an alternative to the doctrine of massive retaliation which held sway until 1955. He developed his theories after he retired from the RN, and was an instigator of the Institute for Strategic Studies. As a committed Christian, he believed that there was such a thing as a morally justified war, but that it should be accompanied by the minimum amount of force. His tireless arguments in favor of his policy were not always well received, but ultimately came to be accepted.


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Byng, George (1663–1733) British: Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Torrington. As C-in-C Mediterranean he defeated a Span ish fleet at the battle of Cape Passaro in 1718, one of the few fleet actions which brought about a clear-cut and comprehensive victory until the very end of the eighteenth century. He should not be confused with his son, John BYNG, shot in 1757 for losing Minorca, nor his predecessor, Arthur HERBERT, Earl of Torrington. His great-grandson, also George Byng, Viscount Torrington, was a Vice-Admiral a century later. 1683, Lieutenant; 1688, Captain; 1703, Rear-Admiral; 1705, Vice-Admiral; 1708, Admiral; 1718, Admiral of the Fleet. His early service was in the Mediterranean and the East Indies. The year 1688 saw him at sea in DARTMOUTH’S fleet as First Lieutenant in the Defiance, 64, and following his superiors in submitting to William III. He was rewarded with promotion, and was present at the defeat at Beachy Head. After a period ashore, he went as Flag Captain to Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward RUSSELL, in the Mediterranean. Shortly after the outbreak of war in 1702, he commanded the inshore squadron which bombarded Gibraltar into submission in 1704, receiving a knight-hood: his squadron was later involved in the battle of Malaga, and at the siege of Toulon in 1707. He narrowly escaped the same fate as SHOVELL on the fleet’s return to Great Britain in October that year. In 1705 he became MP for Plymouth, remaining so until his death. In 1708 he was employed on anti-Jacobite patrols; a partial action against the French admiral Forbin was sufficient to foil the invasion attempt. Further Mediterranean service as C-in-C followed, and then from 1709 to 1721 he was an active Commissioner of the Admiralty, receiving a baronetcy in 1715. In 1717 he commanded a squadron in the Baltic, and in early 1718 he went back as Cin-C Mediterranean, where war was brewing between Spain and the Quadruple Alliance (effectively the rest of western Europe). His orders were to prevent the Spanish invading the Italian lands of the Holy Roman Empire. The Spaniards having landed troops in Sicily, when the fleets met, Byng felt justified in attacking, despite there having been no declaration of war. In the resulting chase, the Spaniards lost thirteen out of twenty-five major warships, with a further two taken and burnt shortly afterwards. Byng received a peerage in 1721 and was First Lord of the Admiralty 1727–33, dying in office.

Byng, John (1704–57) British: Admiral Hon. John Byng. He was a son of Viscount TORRINGTON (see BYNG, GEORGE). After his failure to relieve the island of Minorca, then a British base, in 1756, he was court-martialled, judged guilty of negligence, and shot on the quarterdeck of HMS


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Monarque at Ports-mouth, leading to Voltaire’s remark that the British shot their admirals from time to time ‘pour encourager les autres’. He entered the Navy in 1718; Lieutenant, 1723; Captain 1727; Rear-Admiral 1745; Vice-Admiral 1747; Admiral 1756. Byng’s early career was unremarkable. After promotion to Captain he was able, thanks to his father’s influence (he was then First Lord of the Admiralty), to pick and choose his appointments to give an easy and enjoyable life. In 1745 he commanded the North Sea Squadron, under VERNON’S overall command, and in 1746, he sat on the court-martial of Admiral MATHEWS. He was also C-in-C Mediterranean, 1747–48. Shortly after the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War (1756), Byng was sent to the Mediterranean with a small force to defend Minorca. His squadron was smaller than it should have been, but the government did not believe that the French would attack Minorca—Byng’s force was merely a precaution. When he arrived, he found that the French had already landed, and were in possession of all the island except the citadel, and had a naval force present, the equal of his own. When they engaged, Byng’s lack of combat experience was evident: his fleet received a mauling, and following a council of war, he withdrew, leaving Minorca to fall. When the news reached England, HAWKE was sent to relieve him, and Byng was sent home under arrest, charged with not doing his duty to relieve Minorca. His trial, under the Navy’s Articles of War, was conducted strictly in accordance with the law as it stood, and though the court recommended leniency, both the Admiralty and the king refused. Accordingly, he was shot, himself giving the signal for the firing squad to shoot.

Byrd, Richard E. (1888–1957) US: Admiral. He led several air and surface expeditions to the North Pole and Antarctica. He graduated from the USNA in 1912, and was designated a naval aviator and promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1918. In 1925 he commanded the naval air unit attached to the Greenland expedition led by Donald Baxter MacMillan. During that expedition he was navigator on a flight piloted by civilian aviator Floyd Bennett. Both claimed theirs was the first manned flight over the North Pole; some questioned that claim. Both were awarded a US Medal of Honor, however, for their achievement. In June 1927, one month after Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic alone, Byrd and three companions (Norwegian Bernt Balchen and two Americans, Bertrand Acosta and George Noville) flew the first transatlantic airmail from the United States to France. Despite a crash landing on the coast of Brittany, France awarded him the Legion d’Honneur for his accomplishment. Between 1928 and 1930, during his first expedition to Antarctica, he established Little America, a base on the Bay of Whales, and in November 1929 he made the first flight over the South Pole, with three other pilots. In 1930 Byrd was promoted to Rear Admiral and retired from active duty. As a civilian he led Antarctic expeditions in 1933–35 and 1939–41. The 1933–35 expedition ended in near disaster, but he was rescued when close to death at an advanced weather base. He had spent five months alone there during the Antarctic winter. During WW2 he


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assisted in cold-weather studies and planning in Washington DC. After that war he was placed in charge of all US Antarctic programmes, which included Operation High Jump in 1946–47 and Operation Deep Freeze during the International Geophysical Year spanning 1957–58. During High Jump he made sixty-four aerial mapping flights of the Antarctic coastline. He authored a number of books about his explorations, including Skyward (1928), Alone (1938) and Little America (1938). In February 1957, three weeks before his death, he received the Medal of Freedom.

Byron, John (1723–86) British: Vice-Admiral Hon. John Byron (nickname ‘Foul-weather Jack’). He can best be described as a brave but mediocre officer, who was lucky not to have been beaten by ESTAING off Grenada in 1779. He entered the Navy before 1740; 1745, Lieutenant; 1746, Commander; 1746, Captain; 1775, Rear-Admiral; 1778, Vice-Admiral. As a Midshipman, in 1740, he served in the Wager, storeship, part of ANSON’S squadron. She was wrecked, and the survivors endured great hardships before being returned to Europe in a French ship. (The countries were at war, but a civilized approach to shipwrecked survivors was taken.) Byron published an account of their privations, which his grandson, the poet Lord Byron, used as a basis for parts of Don Juan. In 1764, he was appointed to command the Dolphin, 24, the first British warship to have a copper-sheathed hull. She was ostensibly bound for the East Indies, and Byron was to be C-in-C. But on reaching Rio de Janeiro, the true purpose of the voyage was revealed: to make a voyage of discovery in the South Seas. (The crew were to receive double pay for this hazardous undertaking.) But Byron had not the temperament to be a good explorer: the voyage was finished in record time, and no appreciable discoveries were made. Furthermore, it appears that the records he brought home were falsified or exaggerated (he described seven-foot tall natives of Tierra del Fuego). In 1769, he was appointed as Governor of Newfoundland, where he spent three years, and in 1778, he was given command of a squadron for the North American station, to counter Estaing. His squadron was wretchedly fitted and equipped (see SANDWICH, 4TH EARL OF), and it was some time before he could lead a presentable force to the West Indies, where he blockaded Estaing in Martinique. When Byron left to escort an important convoy on the first leg of its homeward voyage, Estaing made a sortie and captured Grenada. When Byron returned and met the French, he was ignorant of the reinforcements which Estaing had received, and assumed that they were inferior to the British squadron, and he ordered a general chase. The result was a piecemeal action, in which individual British ships were roughly handled, and although Byron got his squadron together, the French withdrew, having had the better of it. Byron withdrew to St Christopher’s to refit, and while there was again let off the hook by Estaing, who approached the anchorage with a superior force, but then just sailed away. Byron was not employed again.


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C Calder, Robert (1745–1818) British: Admiral Sir Robert Calder, Bt. Calder has been much blamed for failing to settle with VILLENEUVE’S combined fleet some three months before Trafalgar. He entered the RN in 1759; 1762, Lieutenant (three years earlier than the regulations permitted); 1780, Captain; 1799, Rear-Admiral; 1804, Vice-Admiral; 1810, Admiral. As a Midshipman in the Active, 28, in 1762, Calder participated in the taking of the Spanish treasure ship Hermione, which yielded what were probably the largest prize awards ever to individuals: a midshipman got £1,800. Thereafter his career was not remarkable, and he served mostly in home waters. Like NELSON, he endured a long period on half-pay, 1783–93, but in 1796 JERVIS selected him as his Captain of the Fleet in the Victory, 100, and as such he fought at the battle of Cape St Vincent, and received a knighthood (see COCHRANE, LORD DUNDONALD), and shortly afterwards a baronetcy. Calder hoisted his flag as a Rear-Admiral in the Channel Fleet under ST VINCENT (as Jervis had become) in 1800. In 1805, he commanded a small squadron off Ferrol, keeping watch over a larger Franco-Spanish squadron. By the time Villeneuve returned from his West Indian detour, Calder had fifteen ships and was ordered to intercept the former, who was thought to have only sixteen ships. Calder found that he had twenty, and when they met, Villeneuve held the weather gauge. Nonetheless, Calder forced an action, and captured two Spaniards. The following day, he did not renew the fight: the French were not willing, Calder wanted to secure his prizes, and cover one badly damaged British ship, and was conscious that the squadron in Ferrol could break out and, with Villeneuve, seriously outnumber him. Calder fell back on the main fleet off Brest. On learning that his conduct of the action had been severely criticized, Calder applied for a court-martial. The court severely reprimanded him for an error of judgement. He was not employed at sea again.


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Callaghan, Daniel J. (1890–1942) US: Rear Admiral. He led a cruiser-destroyer force in a vicious night surface action against a superior Japanese force in the Pacific during WW2. The Japanese force included two battleships, a cruiser and fourteen destroyers. The action, a general melée reminiscent of NELSON’S battle at Trafalgar, was part of the three-day naval battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942. The action lasted twenty-four minutes, during which Callaghan followed Nelson’s doctrine of laying his ships alongside those of the enemy. From Callaghan’s force of five cruisers and eight destroyers all but one destroyer were sunk or damaged. The Japanese battleship Hiei was put out of action and sunk the next day; two Japanese destroyers were sunk. During the action a 14–inch shell from one of the battleships struck the bridge of his flagship and killed Callaghan. However, the attacking Japanese units, an element of what was known to the US Marines fighting on Guadalcanal as ‘The Tokyo Express’, were driven back by the outgunned US force. The mission of the Japanese force was to shell the US-held Henderson Airfield on Guadalcanal. The naval battle of Guadalcanal was a significant shift from defence to offence in the Pacific during WW2, and the desperate action of Callaghan’s outgunned ships arguably was the turning point of that battle. For his aggressive leadership and courage Callaghan, one of five US admirals killed in WW2, was posthumously awarded the US military’s highest combat award, the Medal of Honor. Callaghan was a member of the USNA class of 1911. He began his career in the armoured cruiser USS California and participated in the Marine Corps landings in Nicaragua in late 1912. In 1916 while still only a lieutenant (junior grade) he commanded the destroyer USS Truxtun. His pre-WW2 career emphasized duty in surface ships, with periodic shore duty interspersed and, following an assignment as naval aide to President Franklin ROOSEVELT, 1938–41, he took command of the cruiser USS San Francisco. He advanced to Rear Admiral in May 1941 and became CoS to Commander South Pacific Force. In October he was placed in charge of the task group protecting the Guadalcanal beachhead.

Cambell, Dennis (1907–2000) British: Rear-Admiral, CB, DSC. He was a distinguished naval test pilot, and invented the angled flight deck for aircraft carriers. He entered the RN in 1925; 1930, Lieutenant; 1942, Commander; 1948, Captain; 1957, Rear-Admiral. As a junior officer he served in the battle cruiser Repulse and the destroyers Wolfhound and Sesame. He qualified as a pilot in 1931, and commanded 803 Squadron in


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Ark Royal 1939–40: he went to Boscombe Down as a test pilot in 1942, and later was seconded to the Blackburn Company to help sort out the ‘world’s worst aircraft’, the Firebrand. He was Commander (Air), HMS G/ory, 1947, and then commanded the frigate HMS Tintagel Castle, 1948–49, and later HMS Ark Royal, 1955–56. His final appointment was as Flag Officer Flying Training, 1957–58. The idea of the angled deck was thought up and developed while he was at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, in 1951, but was given its first full application at sea in the USS Antietam. It subsequently became standard in all aircraft carriers operating fixed wing aircraft, enabling larger and more powerful aircraft to be operated safely. He was awarded the American Legion of Merit.

Campbell, Gordon (1886–1953) British: Rear-Admiral Gordon Campbell, VC, DSO**. Until the last months of WW1, a submerged submarine was virtually undetectable, unless it used its periscope incautiously: and even if that were sighted, there was no effective weapon against it. But submarines were loath to use expensive torpedoes on small craft, and anyway, achieving a hit was always problematical before effective fire control instruments were introduced. So submarines would surface near unescorted merchant ships, order the crew to abandon ship, and then sink the ship by gunfire. The British introduced decoys, Q-ships, to turn this tactic against the enemy. These were ordinary merchant ships, with a heavy concealed armament, manned by RN personnel, which would ply routes known to be regularly attacked by U-boats. When approached by a U-boat, they would stop, and the ‘panic party’ would ‘abandon ship’, leaving the gun crews and command party concealed on board. When the U-boat had been lured close enough, down would go the false bulwarks, up went the white ensign, and fire would be opened, hoping to cripple the Uboat before it could dive. Campbell joined the RN in 1900; 1907, Lieutenant; 1916, Commander; 1917, Captain; 1927, Rear-Admiral. In 1914 he was in command of the destroyer Bittern. In 1915 he volunteered for Qships and became the most effective exponent of this cat-and-mouse warfare. He commanded three Q-ships, and sank three submarines, and was awarded the VC for exceptional courage in his second action. His promotions to Commander and to Captain were both for his leadership in two Q-ship actions. In one action, he deliberately let his ship be torpedoed, but remained with his gun crews, to tempt the submarine closer, and finally decoyed the submarine into showing itself, and sank it. His final action was in command of HMS Dunraven in 1917. Submarines had become cautious, and the U-boat shelled Dunraven at long range, starting a fierce fire on board, and then torpedoed her. Campbell and his men continued to hold their fire, with ammunition exploding all round them. Unluckily for them, the U-boat made off without coming within range, and although the fire on board was extinguished, Dunraven sank while under tow.


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After the war he commanded the cadet training cruiser Cumberland, and the boys’ training ship Impregnable: he was Captain-in-Charge of Simonstown Dockyard, and his final sea appointment was in command of the battle cruiser Tiger. He retired shortly after reaching flag rank on grounds of ill health. He was recalled in 1939 by CHURCHILL personally, and given the job of fitting out Q-ships again, but the scheme had no success and was abandoned.

Carls, Rolf (1885–1945) German: General admiral. He joined the KM in 1903; 1928, Fregattenkapitan; 1930, Kapitan zur See; 1934, Konteradmiral; 1937, Vizeadmiral; 1937, Admiral; 1940, General-admiral. At the start of WW1 he was an Oberleutnant zur See serving, with DÖNITZ, in the Breslau in the Mediterranean. He was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, in May 1915. Later he served in the battleship König before joining the U-boat arm and commanding U-124, although she never carried out any operational patrols. He remained in the Reichsmarine after WWl, and was swiftly promoted. He commanded the old predreadnought Hessen, and became C-in-C Battleships in 1934 and C-in-C of German Naval Forces in Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War. He became the Fleet Commander in 1937; in 1938 he became the Commanding Admiral for the Baltic; and in 1939, C-in-C Naval Group Command East. In April 1940 he was responsible for the invasion of Denmark and Norway, which was well planned and carried out, but resulted in substantial losses to the German surface fleet (see HORTON). He then was appointed C-in-C Naval Group Command North until March 1943. He was placed on the retired list in May, but at the end of the year was nominated to succeed RAEDER, along with Donitz. After the latter’s selection, he resigned altogether to avoid possible friction in the naval high command. He was killed in an air raid in April 1945.

Carney, Robert B. (1895–1990) US: Admiral. He led the Navy into the era of nuclear propulsion. As CNO, 1953–55 he also fought hard politically to retain the ability of the Navy’s most senior officer to advise the President directly. He was a politically vigorous advocate of naval power during a turbulent post-WW2 period of US military reorganization and, as a result, was not appointed to a customary second term as CNO by President EISENHOWER Carney graduated with distinction from the USNA in 1916. In his early career, in addition to his shore assignments, he served in seven destroyers, a cruiser and three battleships. During WW1 he saw action against German U-boats in the Atlantic, and at


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the onset of WW2 he was involved in the planning, equipping and training of the US seaair forces combating German submarines in the Atlantic. In September 1942 Carney was promoted to Captain. A month later he took command of the cruiser USS Denver, which operated in Admiral HALSEY’S Third Fleet in the Pacific. Upon selection for Rear Admiral in July 1943 he became Halsey’s CoS for the South Pacific Force, which included all sea, air and ground forces in the South Pacific theatre. In 1944 he again served as his CoS when Halsey took command of the Third Fleet. Following WW2 he was promoted to Vice Admiral and served as Deputy CNO for logistics, 1945–46. In that role he argued for the retention of Japanese bases for US naval forces. He also served as Commander Second Fleet in the Mediterranean during 1950, and in November of that year he was promoted to Admiral and was appointed C-in-C US Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, a command that evolved into NATO. He retired from active duty in August 1955.

Carpenter, Alfred (1881–1955) British: Rear-Admiral Alfred Carpenter, VC. He won his VC for his conduct in command of the cruiser Vindictive at Zeebrugge in 1918. The German U-boats based at Zeebrugge and Bruges were a thorn in the side of the British, and it was decided to block the harbour entrance at Zeebrugge. Three old cruisers were turned into blockships, to be scuttled in the harbour mouth, while a landing party from Vindictive was to storm the gun emplacements on the mole. Under the command of Rear-Admiral KEYES, the operation was indeed bold, but at best only partially successful. However, it was played up for the undoubted heroism and initiative displayed, and because the public needed good news to distract them from the bad news on the Western Front, where the German March offensive was in full swing. Carpenter came from a naval family: his grandfather had been involved in the capture of USS Rattlesnake in 1814, and his father won the DSO in the third Burmese War, 1884–85. He joined the Navy in 1894; 1903, Lieutenant; 1915, Commander; 1918, Captain; 1929, Rear-Admiral. He served in the Naval Brigade in China during the Boxer Rising in 1900. Later, he qualified in navigation, and was Navigating Officer of HMS Venus with Keyes as his captain. In 1914, he was JELLICOE’S Assistant Fleet Navigating Officer in the Iron Duke. When Keyes was made Director of Plans, Carpenter joined him, and became involved in the detailed planning for the Zeebrugge raid, in which his training as a navigator was invaluable; the characteristics of meticulous attention to timing, distance, speed, etc. being crucial. He was an obvious choice as the captain of Vindictive for the raid. In the event the element of surprise was lost, and the raiding force was most hotly engaged, but Carpenter’s coolness saw his ship placed alongside the mole, although she was literally riddled with holes. As the senior surviving officer, he was invited to make recommendations for gallantry awards, but refused to make invidious distinctions, when all had behaved so


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conspicuously well. A ballot was held among the crew, and he was selected to receive the VC. In the 1920s he commanded the cruiser Carysfort, and the battleships Benbow and Marlborough. He retired shortly after promotion to flag rank.

Casabianca, Luc (1762–98) French: capitaine de vaisseau. He is best known through Felicia Hemans’s poem Casabianca (‘The boy stood on the burning deck…’), the boy being his son, and the deck being that of BRUEYS’S flagship L’Orient, 120, at the battle of the Nile, in which both Casabianca and his son perished. He was a Corsican by birth, and joined the royal navy in 1778. He served in the West Indies in the Zele, 74, taking part in three engagements, including that of Chesapeake Bay. He became a lieutenant de vaisseau in 1786, but at the time of the Revolution turned to politics, being elected to the National Convention, where he voted for the king’s arrest. He was promoted to capitaine de vaisseau in 1793, and sat on the Navy Committee. He retained his position under the Directory, and was involved in the reorganization of the navy, to which he returned in 1798. His appointment as Brueys’s flag captain was largely political: the result was fatal.

Castex, Raoul (1878–1968) French: amiral. He was a thinker and writer on naval matters of world reputation, as well as rising to high rank in the navy. He was retired in late 1939 for telling the central staff that the defences of Dunkirk, of which he had recently taken command, were inadequate, a fact borne out six months later. He entered the naval school in 1896, passing out top in 1899; 1917, capitaine de corvette; 1918, capitaine de frégate; 1923, capitaine de vaisseau; 1928, contre-amiral; 1934, vice-amiral; 1937, amiral. In 1900, as an aspirant (midshipman), while on passage to the Far East in the Caravane, he won commendation for his actions when she was wrecked in Japan. His first publication came in 1903, the result of hydrographic work in Indo-China. In the years 1904–14 he served as a navigation instructor, a ministerial aide on an overseas mission, and commanded the stokers’ school at Brest. He then qualified in gunnery, and was the Gunnery Officer of the Condorcet. In be tween, he published a series of works, many on Far Eastern affairs, and the influence of a rising Japan. His sea service in WW1 was largely in the Mediterranean: he finished the war in command of the sloop Altair. After promotion he was given the job of creating a Naval Historical Branch, and reorganizing the archives. His comments on submarine warfare


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were a major talking point at the Washington naval conference (1922). His next appointment was as an instructor at the Naval Staff College, where he developed the first naval staff course, and also a tactical course. In 1924 he commanded the battleship Jean-Bart. In 1928 he was appointed vice-chief of the naval staff. He returned to command the Naval Staff College in 1933, and between 1929 and 1935 published five volumes of Strategic Theories, and From Genghis Khan to Stalin. His naval career progressed with commands as the Prefet Maritime (C-in-C) at Brest, and of the Naval War College. His writings on such matters as the effect of air power on fleets, and the loss of IndoChina, were uncomfortably farseeing (he proposed to abandon those portions of the colonial empire which could not be protected), and did not always endear him to the authorities: hence his pessimistic assessment of the Dunkirk defences resulted in his retirement.

Chadwick, French E. (1844–1919) US: Rear Admiral. He was a catalyst for the USN’s transition to a blue-water, geopolitically significant force at the beginning of the twentieth century. He graduated fourth in his USNA class in November 1864. During the American Civil War he participated in anti-raider patrols against the Confederate States Navy, followed by a series of other sea duty assignments. In 1872 he reported as an instructor at the USNA and from 1875 to 1878 he served as Executive Officer of the side-wheeler USS Powhattan. In 1882 he became the first US naval attaché when he was assigned to the US embassy in London. During seven years in that assignment he studied and reported on developments in European navies, particularly the British Navy. This diplomatic and intelligence tour was followed by command of the new gunboat USS York-town. In 1891 Chadwick began a long series of assignments involving study and planning for new directions for the Navy. In November 1897 he was promoted to Captain and took command of the armoured cruiser USS New York. During that command he served on the Navy board that investigated the sinking of USS Maine in Havana Harbour in February 1898. His ship New York was one of the blockading ships at the harbour of Santiago in July 1898, but he missed the actual battle because of the direction taken by the Spanish ships as they sortied from the harbour. In October 1900 he was named President of the US Naval War College and in October 1903 he was promoted to Rear Admiral. After being passed over for several senior fleet commands, he ended his career as C-in-C of the South Atlantic Squadron. He retired from active duty in February 1906. As a civilian he began a prolific career as a full-time writer. His best known work was the three-volume series published from 1909 to 1911, The Relations of the United States and Spain: The Spanish-American War.


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Champlain, Samuel (1580–1635) French: explorer, cartographer and traveller. Although it is stretching the limits to include him in a list of naval personages, his exploration and visions for French Canada in the first decades of the seventeenth century provided the field on which British and French would battle by sea and land in the next century—and he crossed the Atlantic at least twentyone times, in days when such a voyage was potentially more dangerous than a moon mission in the twentieth century. He went to sea before he was fourteen, and became a soldier under Henri IV. When he was nineteen he went to the West Indies, and his connection with Canada started in 1603, when, on his first voyage of exploration, he deduced the existence of Hudson’s Bay. He explored Acadia (now Nova Scotia), and in 1608 he started the building of Quebec. He fought the Indians, discovered the lake which bears his name, and in due course made his way to Lake Huron. He became the king’s lieutenant in Quebec, and in 1629 the commandant in New France, as Lower Canada was then known. He died in Quebec, having laid the foundations of French influence which remains to this day.

Chandler, William E. (1835–1917) US: Secretary of the Navy. He provided the civilian leadership of the Navy between 1882 and 1885 during its transition from wood to steel construction and from sail to steam propulsion. He was appointed by President Chester Arthur, and in 1882 he appointed a naval officer board to recommend steps in modernizing the Navy. He fought hard to reduce extravagant spending in navy yards, particularly on the repair of wood-hulled ships that were obsolete. In 1883 he authorized the building of the steel-hulled USS Atlanta, USS Boston, USS Chicago and USS Dolphin, the first new significant combatants to join the US fleet after the American Civil War. In 1884 he established the US Naval War College, which became the intellectual centre of a revolution in US strategic naval thinking. He was a graduate of Harvard Law School and had an early career in journalism. He was a state representative in New Hampshire, 1862–64, and also served as chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party for several years. In 1887 he was appointed to fill an unexpired term in the US Senate and went on to be elected to two full terms, 1889– 1901.


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Chantry, Allan J., Jr (1883–1959) US: Rear-Admiral. He led the USN design and building programme for the four Iowa-class battleships. USS Iowa and her sister ships were the ultimate development in the type of large-gun naval ship that dominated the major fleets of the world for a century. USS Iowa and USS Missouri were built at New York Naval Shipyard and USS New Jersey and USS Wisconsin were built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. These 45,000–ton ships, with a speed of 33 knots and mounting nine 16-inch guns, all saw service in WW2. Iowa was commissioned on 22 February 1943. All four battleships were decommissioned at the end of WW2, but at least one of this class, with upgraded weapons systems, was recommissioned to fight in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. The basic design for these ships was completed under Chantry’s supervision at New York Naval Shipyard in 1938. He graduated first in the USNA class of 1906 and served early in his career in the battleship USS Wisconsin and the cruisers USS Raleigh and USS Milwaukee. He transferred to the Construction Corps in 1908 and completed a naval architecture postgraduate course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1910. He subsequently served in the Norfolk Navy Yard until 1914. Following additional naval construction assignments, he attended the US Naval War College in 1936 and, in 1939, he was named Manager Philadelphia Naval Yard. He retired from active duty in April 1946.

Chapman, Frederik (1721–1808) Swedish: naval architect and chief constructor. In the days when most shipwrights worked empirically, he was a pioneer in the application of mathematical principles and experiment to ship design. He was the son of a British officer in Swedish service, and completed an ap prenticeship in Sweden before coming to Britain to work in the dockyard at Deptford in 1741. On return to Sweden, he set up his own yard, before again coming to Britain to study mathematics. He followed this by further travels in Europe, learning the best practice in various dockyards. In 1757 he became an assistant shipwright in Karlskrona dockyard, and advanced steadily, becoming in due course the superintendent of Karlskrona yard, and chief constructor of the navy. In the 1780s he built up a fleet to enable Sweden to challenge Russia again for mastery of the Baltic. The ships he produced were the result of his experiments on hull forms and stability. They were produced in a yard which utilized standard components and prefabrication techniques, pre-dating our 20th century ‘inventions’ by 140 years. He was a prolific writer on maritime matters, beyond ship design and construction.


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Châteaurenault, François, marquis de (1637–1716) French: vice-amiral, and maréchal de France. He was one of Louis XIV’s more successful admirals, and a lieutenant of TOURVILLE. After serving in Louis’ army in Flanders, he entered the navy as lieutenant de vaisseau in 1661; 1666, capitaine de vaisseau; 1673, chef d’escadre; 1688, lieutenant-général; 1701, vice-amiral; 1703, maréchal de France. His first years at sea were spent in fighting the North African corsairs from Sally, and escorting French trade: he also successfully raided Dutch convoys in 1675, 1677 and 1678. In 1689 he was given command of the force which transported troops to Bantry Bay to support James II. There he encountered HERBERT’S fleet: the result was inconclusive, because the French did not follow up such tactical success as they had. This was due, in part, to jealousy on the part of Chateaurenault’s subordinates. Next year, he brought the Toulon squadron through the Straits of Gibraltar, evading an English force, to join Tourville in the French victory at Beachy Head, and in 1693, he was part of the force which destroyed the Anglo-Dutch Smyrna convoy off Lagos (see ROOKE). He had only moderate success under Tourville on the Spanish coast in 1695– 96, taking four Spanish ships-of-the-line, but failing to attack Barcelona. In 1701, he received the title of Captain-General the Seas and Oceans, and was ordered to escort the Spanish treasure fleet to Europe. On arrival, due to Spanish incompetence, he was unable to land the treasure as planned at Pasajes, but had to anchor in Vigo Bay. There he was attacked by Rooke, and most of the ships destroyed, though most of the treasure had been secured. In 1703 he became Governor of Brittany, and his sea-faring ended.

Chatfield, Alfred Ernle (1873–1967) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield, GCB, OM, KCMG, CVO. He was BEATTY’S Flag Captain at Jutland, and it was to him that the remark There’s something wrong with our bloody ships today’ was made, when two battle cruisers were lost in quick succession. But in the 1930s he was a successful ‘Whitehall Warrior’, fighting for adequate provision of cruisers, and for the return of control of the Fleet Air Arm to the Navy. He joined the Britannia in 1886; 1894, Lieutenant; 1903, Commander; 1909, Captain; 1920, Rear-Admiral; 1926, Vice-Admiral; 1930, Admiral; 1935, Admiral of the Fleet. Chatfield qualified in gunnery in 1895, and became the Gunnery Lieutenant of the battleship Caesar in the Mediterranean, where he was influenced by her Commander, Charles MADDEN. He was one of the younger officers whom ‘Jacky’ FISHER consulted, and admired what he achieved, though he disliked Fisher’s personal spite against those who disagreed with him. After early promotion, Chatfield was Commander


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of the Gunnery School, 1906–09. He then held two appointments as Flag Captain: first to Sir Colin Keppel (in which capacity he commanded the former liner Medina which acted as the royal yacht to take King George V to India in 1911), and then to Beatty, with whom he remained, 1913–19, first in the Battle Cruiser Force, then in the Grand Fleet, commanding successively the Lion, Iron Duke and Queen Elizabeth. At the end of the war he was briefly 4SL, then ACNS. He went as Beatty’s technical advisor to the Washington Naval Conference, 1920–21, and then, in 1922, back to sea to command the Third Cruiser Squadron in the Dardanelles, at the time of the Chanak Crisis. In 1925 he returned to the Admiralty as Controller: a difficult task at the time, with economy being the Treasury’s watchword under the ‘ten-year’ rule, which presupposed that at any time, no war would occur within ten years (the 1920s equivalent of the ‘peace dividend’ of the 1990s—and equally fallacious). After two sea appointments as C-in-C (Atlantic Fleet 1928–30, Mediterranean Fleet 1930–32), he became 1SL in 1933, remaining until 1938 (and receiving a peerage in 1937). He threatened to resign if the Fleet Air Arm was not returned to the Navy’s control, and such was his prestige that he got his way. Before the start of WW2 he was made Minister for Coordination of Defence in Chamberlain’s government, but found himself superfluous in a war situation, and so resigned in 1940.

Chauncey, Isaac (1772–1840) US: Commodore. He commanded the American naval forces on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812. Chauncey was a merchant captain at the age of nineteen and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Navy in September 1798. He initially was assigned to the USS President, 44, where he served in the West Indies in operations against the French in 1800. During the Barbary War he commanded the USS Chesapeake, 36, and USS New York, 36, in the Mediterranean, 1802–03. He was promoted to Master Commandant in May 1804 and Captain in April 1806, when he was furloughed from the Navy for merchant service. He resumed naval service as commander of the New York Naval Shipyard from 1807 to 1812. In 1812 he was elevated to Commodore and took command of the naval forces on lakes Ontario and Erie in September 1812. Initially he constructed and led a fleet of small warships on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario to counter a British fleet being built across the lake. He also commanded a small fleet constructed on Lake Erie during the same war. With a force of twenty warships he supported Army operations and achieved marginal victories against the British Navy. He was relieved of his OntarioErie command in 1814, ostensibly for not fully exploiting his victories. He commanded the Mediterranean Squadron in the USS Washington, 74, 1816–18, and concluded a treaty with Algiers during that tour. Subsequently he twice was Commander of the New York Naval Shipyard and a member and the President of the Board of Navy Commissioners. He died while serving as president of that board.


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Chernavin, Vladimir (1928–) Russian: Admiral Flota, and a Hero of the Soviet Union. As an experienced submariner, he occupied senior positions in the Northern Fleet (the main striking force of the Soviet navy during the height of the Cold War), and was C-in-C of the Navy, 1985–92, in succession to GORSHKOV. 1970, Kontre-Admiral; 1975, Vitse-Admiral; 1978, Admiral; 1983, Admiral Flota. He qualified at the Higher Naval School in 1951, and became a submariner, serving mostly in the Northern Fleet. He received his first command in 1959, and in 1964–65 qualified as a nuclear submariner, and took part in the first round-the world underwater voyage made by Russian submarines. After completing a staff course, he commanded his own nuclear submarine in 1970, and was then promoted. He became Commander of Northern Fleet Submarine Forces, 1971–72, and Deputy C-in-C of the Soviet Navy, 1972–74. Chernavin then became CoS of the Northern Fleet, 1974–77, and Commander of that fleet, 1977–81. From 1981 to 1985, he was Chief of the Main Naval Staff, until he took over from Gorshkov. He was replaced in 1992, when the old USSR was broken up to re-emerge as the CSSR under President Yeltsin.

Christie, Ralph W. (1893–1987) US: Vice Admiral. He directed the US submarine warfare campaign against the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific during WW2. In addition, his forces laid mines, supported guerrilla units in the Philippines, conducted naval scouting patrols, and retrieved downed Allied fliers. Christie was a member of the USNA class of 1915, and after brief service aboard major surface ships, including the battleship USS Neiv Jersey and the armoured cruiser USS Montana, he qualified as a submarine officer in 1917. He commanded SS-9 during WW1 in the Atlantic. Following duty in the submarine auxiliary USS Camden and a brief tour as commanding officer of the submarine SS-83, he did postgraduate work in ordnance engineering in Annapolis, Maryland, and in mechanical engineering in torpedoes at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additional commands in submarines and command of the destroyer USS Ford led to command of the submarine base at Cavite, Philippines, 1925–26. As Lieutenant Commander he continued his submarinerelated sea and shore duty and, as Commander, was navigator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, 1934–36. After duty as head of the Torpedo Section at the Bureau of Ordnance he commanded Submarine Division 15 and Submarine Squadron 20 in the Pacific. As a Captain in August 1942, Christie became Commander Eastern Australia Submarine Group. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in November 1942 and, after a brief shore duty tour, was named Commander Submarines Southwest Pacific and


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Commander Allied Naval Forces West Australia in March 1943. In that assignment he directed the highly successful US submarine campaign against Japanese merchant marine and naval forces in the Southwest Pacific. Following WW2 he commanded the Navy Base at Bremerton, Washington, and US Naval Forces in the Philippines, and was General Inspector, Western Sea Frontier. He retired from active duty as a Vice Admiral in August 1949.

Churchill, Winston (1874–1965) British: politician. Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM. First Lord of the Admiralty, 1912–15 and 1939–40. On becoming First Lord, he used Lord FISHER as his mentor, and, although the latter had retired, they kept up an extensive correspondence. It was Churchill who persuaded the government to take a stake in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. (now BP) to ensure fuel oil supplies for the fleet. Immediately before the outbreak of WW1, he authorized BATTENBERG’S decision not to de-mobilize the fleet after the annual exercises, thus ensuring that the fleet was on a war footing when war was declared. When Battenberg was forced to resign in October 1914, Fisher was recalled. Initially the relationship was harmonious, but Churchill’s habit of interfering personally in operational matters, which were strictly ISL’s responsibility, quickly destroyed their relationship, and Fisher left his post irregularly in May 1915. Shortly afterwards, Churchill was, effectively, dismissed. He was brought back to the Admiralty at the outbreak of WW2, the signal being made to the fleet ‘Winston’s back’. Most commentators have assumed that this was intended as encouragement (Churchill having been a lone political voice warning of the dangers of Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s), but to senior officers who might have served in the Admiralty as junior staff officers in 1914–15, it could have seemed an Awful Warning. In the event, the first six months of the war were fairly low-key (though less so at sea than on land or in the air), and Churchill was called to be Prime Minister before any serious political consequences were felt from the unsuccessful Norwegian campaign (April 1940). His relationship with President Franklin ROOSEVELT was enhanced by their shared experience as the political heads of their countries’ navies.

Ciliax, Otto (1891–1964) German: Admiral; holder of the Knight’s Cross. He commanded the daring and brilliantly executed ‘Channel Dash’ on 12 February 1942, when Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen escaped from Brest, and heavily escorted by E-boats and the Luftwaffe, repulsed the air and surface attacks made by the RN (see ESMONDE and PIZEY).


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He joined the KM in 1911; 1913, Leutnant zur See; 1933, Fregattenkapitan; 1935, Kapitan zur See; 1939, Konteradmiral; 1941, Vize-Admiral; 1943, Admiral. Ciliax trained as a submariner, and served in U-52, 1916–17. He had short commands of UB-96 and UC-27 in 1918. In the 1920s, he alternated service in command of torpedo boats with shore appointments, culminating in the command of the 1st half-flotilla of torpedo boats, 1926–28. In the 1930s he held a number of senior staff appointments, ashore and afloat, commanding the pocket-battleship, Admiral Scheer, 1936–38, and German fleet units operating in Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War. At the outbreak of WW2 he was in command of the Scharnhorst, and fol-lowed this by a post as CoS to Naval Group West. He then became commander of the battle fleet, 1941–42. After their foray into the North Atlantic in March 1941, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had been bottled up in Brest, where they were joined by Prinz Eugen after the sinking of the Bismarck. Hitler feared that the Allies would invade Norway, and ordered their return to Germany. Ciliax planned the operation with great care, and surprised the British, who had assumed that the ships would not attempt to pass the Dover Straits by day. Failures in British reconnaissance allowed the German force to escape Brest unseen, and they were halfway up the Channel before they were detected. After fighting off the gallant efforts of Esmonde and Pizey’s forces, all the German ships reached Kiel, though both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau received mine damage off the Dutch coast. Ciliax ended the war as the naval commander in Norway, 1943–45.

Clancy, Tom (1947–) US: author. He wrote the best-selling novel The Hunt for Red October. This fictional account of a nuclear powered US attack submarine and a Soviet naval captain who wishes to defect with his submarine to America became an international best-seller in 1984. The book subsequently became the basis of a highly successful film released in March 1990, as well as a television mini-series. Clancy’s meticulous research and vivid but authentic fictional depiction created an important window on a naval service that shuns public attention. After The Hunt for Red October, Clancy’s first novel, he authored more than ten additional best-selling novels based on national defence subjects, as well as other non-fictional works on military subjects. A number of the books that followed The Hunt for Red October have become successful films. He is a 1969 graduate of Loyola College, Baltimore, and before beginning his writing career he was an insurance agent.


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Clarence, Duke of (Prince William Henry) (1765–1837) British: Admiral of the Fleet His Majesty King William IV. He was the third of George III’s sons, went to sea at the age of fourteen, and pursued a normal career as a sea-officer (aided by ‘interest’, but not much more than many others). He served at sea as Midshipman from 1780–1783, and saw active service at the siege of Gibraltar. After a tour in Europe, he was promoted Lieutenant in 1785. Next year he was appointed to the Pegasus, 28, and shortly afterwards was promoted to Captain, in that ship, serving in the West Indies. He was a strict disciplinarian, and gave his officers a hard time, but he became friendly with NELSON who considered that he ran a well ordered ship. He was Nelson’s best man at his wedding. After returning to Britain in 1788, he commanded the Andromeda, 32, again in the West Indies. In 1790, he was appointed to the Valiant, 74, during the Nootka Sound disagreement with Spain, but the affair blew over. He was specially promoted to RearAdmiral in 1791, and that was the end of his active service. He was promoted through Vice-Admiral and Admiral to Admiral of the Fleet (1811), which blocked the promotion of worthier officers deserving the honour, and it was not until 1821 that George IV changed the rules to allow ST VINCENT to be made an Admiral of the Fleet. The Duke flew his flag at sea for the peace review at Spithead in 1814 (see BLACKWOOD), and in 1827 he became Lord High Admiral. This was intended to be a purely nominal position, but he did not see it that way, and effectively turned it into a political appointment as First Lord, with consequent disagreements with his professional Naval Lords. He was known as ‘Silly Billy’, and frequently embarrassed his friends by making inappropriate speeches, but later historians consider that he had a degree of commonsense, which he managed to conceal rather too well at the time.

Clark, Joseph J. (1893–1971) US: Admiral. He commanded aggressive aircraft carrier strike forces in the Pacific during WW2 and the Seventh Fleet during the Korean War. Clarke, part Cherokee Indian, was a member of the USNA class of 1918. His early duty included the armoured cruiser USS North Carolina and a series of destroyers, including a brief tour as commanding officer of USS Brooks. After teaching at the USNA he earned his pilot’s wings in 1925. Following advanced flight training and duty in San Diego with Utility Squadron One, he served in the aviation units of the battleships USS


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Mississippi, Pennsylvania and New York until 1928. He then became Executive Officer of Naval Air Station, Anacostia, Maryland and, 1931–33, CO of Fighting Squadron Two aboard USS Lexington. Leading up to WW2 he served in a series of shore assignments, until 1940 when he became Executive Officer of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. In that ship he participated in attacks on the Marcus and Gilbert Islands in the Pacific in 1942. He was promoted to Captain in 1942 and as CO of the escort carrier USS Suwannee, he participated in the invasion of North Africa. In 1943 he took command of the new aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which replaced the previous ship of that name, sunk in June 1942 at the battle of Midway. Clarke was promoted to Rear Admiral and took command of Carrier Division 13 in February 1944. Then as commander of Task Group 58.1 he participated in actions from February to August 1944 at Truk, the Carolines, Hollandia, Palau, the Marianas and the Bonins. In command of the same Task Group he fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and was involved in carrier strikes against the Japanese mainland. After senior commands following WW2, he was promoted to Vice Admiral in March 1951, and took command of the First Fleet, followed by the Seventh Fleet. Command of Task Force 77 in Korea followed in October 1952. Clark retired from active duty in 1953 as an Admiral. His autobiography Carrier Admiral was published in 1967. The missile frigate USS Clark was named in his honour.

Clowes, William (1856–1905) British: journalist and author, specializing in naval subjects. His seven-volume The Royal Navy: Its History from the Earliest Times is still the only comprehensive history of the Royal Navy up to 1900 (and indeed has provided much source material for British and French subjects for this book). He started to study law, but turned to journalism in 1877: after experience in the provinces, he returned to London on the staff of the Army and Navy Gazette. He went on to establish a reputation as a naval expert, acting as naval correspondent for London papers, including The Times, 1890–95. A series of anonymous articles written in 1893 were credited with having exerted influence on the naval estimates for that year. He wrote on other subjects (including ‘Black America’) and also fiction. His history of the RN took six years, 1897–1903, and was written in collaboration with, among others, MAHAN, Theodore ROOSEVELT and H.W.WILSON.


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Cochrane, Hon. Sir Alexander (1758–1832) British: Admiral Hon. Sir Alexander Cochrane, GCB. He was the uncle of Thomas Cochrane (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD), who outshone him, but although he never commanded a fleet in a major action, his career is not without interest, and is included to help to distinguish one Cochrane from another. He went to sea young; 1778, Lieutenant; 1780, Commander; 1782, Captain; 1804, Rear-Admiral; 1809, Vice-Admiral; 1819, Admiral. Cochrane received his promotion to Captain from RODNEY, but shortly after, with the peace made in 1783, he was unemployed. His first command, the Hind, 28, came in 1790. In her he had several successes against privateers at the outbreak of war in 1793. Later, commanding the Thetis, 38, in North America, he captured two French frigates acting as transports. As Captain of the Ajax, 80, he took part in operations against Quiberon Bay and Ferrol, and then in the Mediterranean, where he earned praise from Admiral KEITH for his operations in support of the army ashore in Egypt. After promotion in 1804, he commanded the blockading squadron off Ferrol, and reported the preparations for war which led to the pre-emptive strike on the Spanish treasure squadron (see MOORE). In 1805, when MISSIESSY broke out of Rochefort, Cochrane followed him to the West Indies, without ever catching up with him. He was ordered to stay there and assume command of the station. In 1806, when DUCKWORTH came out, Cochrane became his second-in-command, and his flagship, Northumberland, 74, took a prominent part in the victory of San Domingo. Cochrane received a knighthood. He stayed in the West Indies, and when Guadeloupe was captured from the French, remained as military governor until 1814. That year, he became C-in-C North America, and directed operations along the eastern seaboard, without conspicuous success. At the end of the war, he received the GCB, and was C-in-C Plymouth, 1821–23.

Cochrane, Thomas, Lord Dundonald (1775–1860) British: Admiral the Earl of Dundonald, GCB. His career was probably the most amazing of any Royal Navy officer in any period. He was bold in the extreme, outspoken, and a great captain. He commanded squadrons, but never a fleet, although he became Admiral by seniority. He was inventive and far-seeing, but naïve, which resulted in a great scandal and his being struck off the Navy List in 1814. An indirect result was that he is regarded


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as a great liberator by Chile and Peru, and is honourably regarded in Brazil and Greece. His exploits have formed the basis of many sea stories, but ‘truth is stranger than fiction’. He entered the navy in 1792; 1795, acting Lieutenant (confirmed 1796); 1800, Commander; 1801, Captain; 1831, Rear-Admiral; 1841, Vice-Admiral; 1851, Admiral. He was intended for the army, but his uncle, Alexander COCHRANE, entered him on the books of his several ships, so when Cochrane persuaded his father to let him go, he had nominally served at sea for five years. He served first in his uncle’s ship the Hind, 28, and later the Thetis, 38. His adventures began when he was appointed, in 1800, to command the brig Speedy, armed with fourteen 4–pounders (he would say he could carry her broadside in one pocket). In her he terrorized the east coast of Spain for some sixteen months, taking fifty vessels. His finest feat was the capture of the Spanish frigate El Gamo, 32, carrying 319 men. Cochrane ran the Speedy briskly alongside, so that the Spanish guns could not be depressed low enough, and with only fifty men, carried her by boarding, losing four men killed and seventeen wounded to the Spaniards’ 14 and 41. After some procrastination, Cochrane received promotion: but his request for promotion for his first lieutenant was turned down by ST VINCENT, saying that the casualty list wasn’t big enough. Cochrane’s reply, that the list was larger than that on board the Victory at the battle of Cape St Vincent, for which St Vincent had received his earldom and his second-incommand a knighthood, was not calculated to win him friends, and was typical. Finally, the Speedy was trapped by three line-of-battleships, and Cochrane made prisoner, but only after skilful and long-drawn-out manoeuvring: luckily he was exchanged within weeks. When the war restarted in 1803, St Vincent’s enmity saw him misemployed, and only when St Vincent left the Admiralty in 1805 was he was appointed to the Pallas, 32, for a cruise off the Azores, where he took a number of rich prizes, returning to Plymouth with three five-foot-high golden candlesticks at the mast-heads. During 1806, his ship operated in the Bay of Biscay, taking many merchant-men, and sending his boats twenty miles up the River Gironde to cut out the Tapageuse, 14 and three corvettes. He also fought an action with the Minerve, 40, and would have taken her, had not two other French frigates rescued her. From 1806–1814 he was an MP, using his seat (when not at sea) to protest at abuses in the Navy. In 1808, in the Impérieuse, 38, (with the crew from the Pallas, who knew a good captain when they had one) he served in the Mediterranean under COLLINGWOOD, and from January to May harassed the east coast of Spain (still an ally of France), blowing up signal stations, lighthouses and batteries, and destroying shipping. From June onwards, Spain having become a British ally, he passed up the coast, fraternizing with the Spaniards—but still destroying signal stations, etc. (which the French still occupied). Collingwood was full of praise. One of his finest actions was the defence of the Trinidad Castle at Rosas, which he held with a party of seamen and marines against thousands of French soldiers with a siege train, for a fortnight, until the capture of the rest of the town made his position untenable, and he evacuated his garrison without loss, and blew up the fortifications. In 1809, when he returned home, the Admiralty sent for him, to advise on how to destroy the French squadron blockaded by GAMBIER in the Basque Roads. Fire-ships had been suggested but Gambier considered their use inhuman. Cochrane suggested a


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plan, which was approved by the Admiralty, and he was sent to carry it out, exciting professional jealousy from his seniors (see HARVEY). Nonetheless, Gambier signified his approval, and by the use of floating bombs, Cochrane forced all but two of the French fleet ashore, where they might have been destroyed at leisure. But, under scandalous circumstances, Gambier did nothing. Cochrane and Impérieuse destroyed four ships, before Gambier ordered their retreat. On his return to Britain, Cochrane was given a knighthood, but refused to support a parliamentary vote of thanks to Gambier, who demanded a court-martial, and was, most improperly, acquitted. As a result, Cochrane’s naval career was ruined (it might have been wartime, but petty politics still prevailed), but he continued his (justified) attacks on naval abuses, yet always in an injudicious manner which enabled those with vested interests to maintain the status quo. In 1814 he became involved, unwittingly, in a fraud, and despite the fact that it was his information which led to the arrest of the perpetrator, he was tried and found guilty, imprisoned and fined. He was struck off the Navy List, stripped of his knighthood, and expelled from Parliament. Within days, his electors had returned him again, and after he had served his sentence, he returned to Parliament to vex the government. In 1817, he was asked by the Chilean government, which had declared independence from Spain, to command their ramshackle navy, to counter the strong Spanish squadron which was trying to return the country to Spanish control. In three years, he had secured not only Chile’s independence, but also that of Peru. His finest exploit was the cutting out of the frigate Esmeralda in Callao harbour, an affair characterized by typical dash, bravura and skill. Cochrane was severely wounded. In 1822, having been shabbily treated by the Chilean politicians who failed to honour promises of reward, not merely for Cochrane, but his men also, he left. He then served Brazil, 1823–25: again, he was bedevilled by politics, and his actions were more administrative than exciting, but success was achieved, and in 1825 he was able to resign. He then went to serve Greece, and was able to commence the construction of a squadron of steam warships: but as before, politics and outright knavery prevailed, and although his name created a morale effect, it couldn’t persuade the Greeks to fight, and it was CODRINGTON’S victory at Navarino which freed Greece. On return to Britain, he fought to clear his name, which was ultimately, and grudgingly, done. He was restored to the Navy List, and promoted through the ranks. He spent much time in promoting the use of the steam engine at sea, and was C-in-C West Indies 1848–51. He also proposed a ‘secret war plan’ which he had advocated from 1811—it was, in essence, the use of poison gas, and had been pronounced ‘infallible, irresistible and inhuman’. He last proposed it in the Crimean War, but again the government refused to countenance its use.


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Cochrane, Thomas John (1789–1872) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Cochrane, GCB, the third of the Admiral Cochranes at this period, and the son of Sir Alexander COCHRANE. He went to sea in 1796; 1805, Lieutenant (aged sixteen); 1805, Commander; 1806, Captain; 1841, Rear-Admiral; 1850, Vice-Admiral; 1856, Admiral; 1865, Admiral of the Fleet. His early career was all spent at sea under his father’s wing, from first-class volunteer at the age of seven, through Midshipman in the Ajax, 74, in the Channel, to Lieutenant in 1805 in the Jason, 32, on the West Indies, where his father was now C-in-C. He became Commander in the sloop Nimrod, 18, and was confirmed as Captain of the Jason, in April 1806—still barely seventeen years old. Such were the powers of patronage. Before his eighteenth birthday, he captured the French Favorite, and was mentioned in despatches. After the taking of Martinique in 1809, he was again mentioned in despatches. In 1812, he was given the Surprise, 38, and sent to North America (where his father was C-in-C). Far from being an incompetent who had been overpromoted, he was a chip off the Cochrane block: he captured the American privateer Decatur, and supported COCKBURN in his raids around Chesapeake Bay. In 1819, after four years unemployed, he took command of the Forte, 38, in North American waters, and was Governor of Newfoundland, 1825–34. He became an MP (1834) and in 1841 he was sent out to the East Indies Station as second-in-command, becoming C-in-C, 1845–47, when he was one of the first, if not the first, admiral to fly his flag in a steamer (the paddler Spiteful), the better to pursue pirates in Brunei. He was twice more mentioned in despatches, and given the KCB in 1847. He became C-in-C Portsmouth, 1852–55, responsible for fitting out and manning the fleet sent to the Baltic in 1854 at the start of the Crimean War: the latter task resulted in the Admiralty having to revert to the old system of manning ships, having just started the Continuous Service system.

Cockburn, George (1772–1853) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Cockburn, Bt, GCB. It was he who burned the White House in 1814, and carried Napoleon into exile in 1815. He was also a successful frigate commander, and friend of NELSON, who was mentioned in despatches eleven times between 1796 and 1814.


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He was entered as a Captain’s Servant in 1781, but first went to sea in 1786; 1793, Lieutenant; 1793, Commander; 1794, Captain; 1812, Rear-Admiral; 1819, Vice-Admiral; 1837, Admiral; 1851, Admiral of the Fleet. In 1793 Cockburn became Tenth Lieutenant in Victory, 100, HOOD (3)’s flagship, and within a year had risen to become her First Lieutenant, and then was promoted into the Speedy, 14. Having proved himself in command, he was made Captain in 1794, in the Meleager, 32, taking part in the landings in Corsica, and at the engagements off Leghorn and Toulon in 1795. In 1796 he served under Nelson, chivvying the French communications along the Italian coast, until Napoleon’s victory at Rivoli forced the British from the Italian ports. He transferred to the Minerve, 38, and in company with the Blanche, took the Spanish frigate Santa Sabina, 40. At this time, his First Lieutenant was Thomas HARDY. In 1797, at Gibraltar, with his ship wind-bound in port, he took command of three rowing gunboats, and sallied out to rescue, successfully, a becalmed convoy, threatened by Spanish gunboats. In the five years before the Peace of Amiens, his ship captured or sank two French frigates, two sloops (one Danish) and five privateers. In 1809, while captain of the Pompée, 80, he commanded the naval forces at the taking of Martinique, the main French base in the West Indies. He then commanded the sloop Plover, 18, and a squadron of small craft in the abortive Walcheren landings (see STRACHAN), where he was largely responsible for the capture of Flushing. Cockburn was made Rear-Admiral in 1812, and was sent to North America, where his raids caused alarm and destruction around Chesapeake Bay. Moving to North Carolina, he captured two American sloops. In 1814, during a raid up the Patuxent River, it was his decision to burn the White House. This action, at least partially in revenge for the American burning of York (Toronto), followed a policy of destroying public buildings initiated by his superior Sir Alexander COCHRANE, and was not universally approved in London. And Cockburn was unsuccessful in his attack on Baltimore (one result of which was the writing of ‘The Star-spangled Banner’). He was awarded the KCB in the general distribution of honours at the war’s end, and became C-in-C and Governor of St Helena, 1815–16, carrying Napoleon into exile in the Northumberland, 74. He then became an MP, and a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, 1819–27 and 1828–32, and as the senior naval member had the awkward task of preventing the Duke of CLARENCE from taking his appointment of Lord High Admiral too literally. It was in 1830, while First Naval Member, that he approved the setting up of HMS Excellent as the gunnery school at Portsmouth. From 1832 to 1836 he was C-in-C North America and West Indies, with his flag in the Vernon, 50, and President, 52 (this latter not the most tactful of names for a visit to the USA, since it was in 1815 that DECATUR in the USS President had been forced to surrender by a superior British force, though, in fact, the name was an old one in the RN, dating back to 1646). He returned as an MP in 1841, and promptly went back as First Naval Lord until 1846. He had advanced to GCB in 1818, and succeeded to a baronetcy in 1852.


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Codrington, Edward (1770–1851) British: Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, KCB. He won the battle of Navarino (1827), the last major battle of the sailing battleship. He entered the Navy in 1783, and served continuously at sea till 1797; 1793, Lieutenant; 1794, Commander; 1795, Captain; 1814, Rear-Admiral; 1825, Vice-Admiral; 1837, Admiral. He was present in HOWE’S flagship, Queen Charlotte, 100, at the battle of the Glorious First of June (1794) as an Officer of the Quarters, responsible for a division of guns. He commanded Orion, 74, at Trafalgar (1805), and remained in the Mediterranean till 1806. He then commanded Blake, 74, in the North Sea, and was involved in the abortive Walcheren expedition of 1809 (see STRACHAN). Still in Blake, he returned to the Mediterranean in 1810, and during 1811–12 was employed harassing the French along the northeast coast of Spain, supporting Wellington’s armies. In 1814, he was sent to North America as a commodore in the Forth, 50, and promoted. He commanded British operations in Chesapeake Bay, and later off New Orleans (KCB, 1815). After the war, he was C-in-C Mediterranean in 1826 (flag in Asia, 84) during the War of Greek Independence. With both Greeks and Turks apparently breaking armistices, it was difficult to ‘hold the ring’, and when, as part of an attempt to blockade the Turkish squadron in Navarino Bay to prevent further hostilities, Codrington’s squadron (which included a French and Russian contingent) entered the bay, a misunderstanding started a general action, in which the Turkish squadron was destroyed. The casualties on the Turkish side were said to amount to 4,000 or more, while the Allies lost 650. (There is an apocryphal story that these were not all due to Turkish gunfire—it is said that the French took an opportunity in the ‘fog of war’ to fire into the Russians, as a revenge for the retreat from Moscow.) Codrington’s actions did not suit the British government, despite the fact that Britain generally supported the Greeks (Lord Byron’s legacy, and massacres by the Turks being responsible), and he was recalled under a cloud, if not in disgrace. However, he was awarded knighthoods by France, Russia and Greece. He became MP for Devonport, 1832–39, and C-in-C Portsmouth, 1839–42.

Colbert, Jean-Baptiste (1619–83) French: Louis XIV’s Minister of Finance, and from 1669, Minister of the Marine. As part of his policies to expand French overseas trade, he saw the need for a powerful royal navy to support it. For some twenty years he successfully juggled Louis’ extravagant finances,


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and was able to finance (initially, at least), not only the military campaigns in the Low Countries and elsewhere, and the building of Versailles, but also the establishment of a powerful navy, so that, at the time of his death, the French navy consisted of 276 ships of all types. When he took over in 1669, the royal navy was little more than a name, and he had to buy warships from Sweden and the Netherlands. He set up royal dockyards at Brest and Rochefort, but had to recruit skilled labour from the north German Hanseatic League ports. To man his fleet, he set up the ‘inscription maritime’, under which young men in the coastal districts had to serve at sea either for a year in the royal navy, or two years in the merchant marine. He also initiated the ‘gardesmarines’, a practical training for young officers, from whom the future lieutenants and captains would be drawn. And he also set up an artillery school, and, most importantly, a hydrographic school. In little more than three years, due to his efforts, France possessed a navy which could take an active part in the Third Anglo-Dutch War (even if its practical efforts were of dubious value, its very existence counted in the balance), and twenty years later the French fleet could take on the English fleet at the battle of Beachy Head, and win a tactical victory.

Collar, Michael (1920–98) British: Lieutenant Commander, DSC. Although not featuring in any major actions in WW2, he may be taken as being representative of many young men, both of the regular Navy and the temporary reservists who, by 1945, comprised the great majority of junior officers in the fleet. The latter had never had anything to do with the Navy before they found themselves ‘thrown in at the deep end’ with the minimum of training. In addition to his medal, Collar earned four MiDs in the course of six and a half years continuously at sea. He joined the Navy in 1933; 1941, Lieutenant; 1949, Lieutenant Commander. At the outbreak of war Collar was serving in the old destroyer Windsor, completing his qualifications for lieutenant. In May 1940, he had to take over as First Lieutenant when his senior was suddenly taken ill. Windsor was chosen to evacuate the Dutch government, and, with his captain continuously on the bridge, Collar had to keep the ship running and fighting, and organize the reception of the ministers, their aides and baggage. He was made a Chevalier of the Order of Orange. Within two weeks, Windsor was involved in the evacuation from Dunkirk, bringing off 3,600 men, and another 600 from Boulogne. It must be remembered that, without denigrating the part played by the ‘little ships’, the majority of the 339,000 French and British troops brought off were carried in destroyers and ferries. Collar received his first MiD. In 1943 he served in the assault ship Glengyle during the invasion of Sicily, acting as beachmaster for the commando assault (second MiD), and then, while still a junior lieutenant, he became First Lieutenant of the fleet destroyer Milne, and earned a third MiD after twelve Arctic and Atlantic convoys, during which Milne sank U-289 off North Cape. He was then given command of the fleet minesweeper Ready, and in her earned his


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fourth MiD, minesweeping off the Dutch coast in 1944, and he completed his wartime career with the award of the DSC for minesweeping in the approaches to the Elbe in April/May 1945. He left the Navy in 1958.

Collingwood, Cuthbert (1748–1810) British: Vice-Admiral Baron Collingwood of Caldborne and Hethpoole. He was NEL SON’S second-in-command at the battle of Trafalgar (1805). He entered the Royal Navy in 1760; 1775, Lieutenant; 1779, Commander; 1780, Captain; 1799, Rear-Admiral; 1804, Vice-Admiral. Collingwood served in the West Indies, commanding the Mediator, 44, at the same time as Nelson, and followed a similar unpopular policy of applying the Navigation Acts strictly, to the hindrance of trade with the USA. He was continuously on active service, 1793–1810, except during the Peace of Amiens, 1802–03. He served as Flag Captain to Rear-Admiral Bowyer in Barfleur, 98, at the battle of the Glorious First of June, 1794, and commanded Excellent, 74, at the battle of St Vincent, 1797. At Trafalgar, he flew his flag in Royal Sovereign, 100, leading the leeward line, and being the first British ship to engage. He was made a baron, and awarded a life pension of £2,000 p.a. (£400,000 in 2003 money), for his services. He succeeded Nelson as C-in-C Mediterranean, until his own death. Despite the overwhelming nature of the victory of Trafalgar, this post was not a sinecure, and he was given a large fleet to control the Mediterranean. After 1807, virtually all the European coastline was closed to the British, and on the African shore, the Barbary pirates remained a menace. Nonetheless, the French fleet was contained, the ‘Spanish ulcer’ kept open, Sicily and Malta kept in British hands, or in alliance, and the Ionian Islands were regained, while British trade to the Levant was safely convoyed. He died in post, worn out by his ceaseless exertions. His problems as C-in-C were remarkably similar to those faced by CUNNINGHAM 135 years later. [His DNB entry gives his date of birth as 1750.]


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Collins, John (1899–1989) Australian, ViceAdmiral Sir John Collins, KBE, CB. He was the first graduate of the RAN College to become First Naval Member of the Australian Naval Board and CNS. He entered the RAN in the first intake of the new naval college in 1913; 1919, Lieutenant; 1932, Commander; 1937, Captain; 1947, Rear-Admiral; 1950, Vice-Admiral. He qualified with the RN in gunnery, and most of his appointments were in that specialization. After promotion to Commander, he was the Executive Officer of the new HMAS Sydney, 1935–37, and took command of her in 1939. In the Mediterranean, in 1940, Sydney participated in the sinking of the Italian destroyer Espero, and later, leading the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, engaged and sank the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni, for which he received the CB. Later, he took part in the action off Calabria. Subsequently, he commanded HMAS Shropshire in the Pacific war, and in 1944, with his broad pendant in HMAS Australia, was wounded during the battle of Leyte Gulf, when, as a commodore, he became the commander of the Australian Squadron, and also commanded a USN task group. He became First Naval Member and CNS in 1948, remaining in post until 1955.

Colville, Cecil (1861–1939) British: Admiral Hon. Sir (Stanley) Cecil Colville, GCB, GCMG, GCVO. He had no major battles to make his name, but for the first two years of WWl, he commanded, and built up from nothing, the facilities at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, which was the main base of the Grand Fleet. He joined the Britannia in 1874; 1882, Lieutenant; 1892, Commander; 1896, Captain; 1908, Rear-Admiral; 1911, Vice-Admiral; 1914, Admiral. His father being chamberlain to Queen Alexandra, he had royal connections, and served variously with the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince George (later George V), and in the royal yacht. In between he served ashore in the Zulu War of 1879; in the Nile Flotilla, 1884–85, during the abortive attempt to rescue General Gordon; and in 1896 was wounded in the Dongola campaign at the start of the reconquest of the Sudan (see BEATTY), for which he was specially promoted.


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He commanded a cruiser squadron in the Home Fleet, 1909–1911, which included the first three battle cruisers. He went on to command a battle squadron in the Home Fleet, and retired in June 1914. On the outbreak of war he offered his services, and was asked to take on the post at Scapa Flow. Although Scapa had been earmarked as the Grand Fleet’s base in the event of war with Germany, nothing had been done to provide facilities, to avoid exacerbating German sensibilities, and Colville had to build them up, while at the same time servicing the greatest fleet ever put out by Great Britain. He completed his career as C-in-C Portsmouth, 1916–19.

Conflans, Hubert, comte de (1690–1777) French: vice-amiral and maréchal de France. Although he suffered a major defeat at the hands of HAWKE in Quiberon Bay in 1759, he was a competent and successful commander of long experience, who had enjoyed previous success against the British. He entered the navy in 1706; 1727, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1734, capitaine de vaisseau; 1756, vice-amiral. He was in DUGUAY-TROUIN’S Achille, 64, when she took the Gloucester, 60, in 1709, and then saw service in the next eighteen years in Spanish waters, in the West Indies (1714), against the Sally (Morocco) pirates (1716), in the West Indies, also piratechasing (1718), at Constantinople in 1721, and back yet again to the West Indies in 1723. His first command was the Charente in the West Indies. During the War of the Austrian Succession, he had mixed fortunes. In 1744, commanding the Content, 64, with two other ships of similar force he took the Northumberland, 70: and in 1746, while commanding the Terrible, 74, took the Severn, 50, which had sacrificed herself to let her convoy escape. But having been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of St Domingo, he was captured in the Renommée, 32, by the Dover, 50, and only took up his post after the peace in 1748. In 1759 he was given command of the Brest Squadron, which was to cover an invasion of England (flag in the Soleil Royal, 80). The squadron was ill founded and poorly trained, the result of neglect and lack of finance in the intervening peace. In November, he put to sea to pick up the troop-transports, hoping to avoid Hawke, but was caught off Belle-Isle in an autumn storm by a superior force and determined adversary, losing six ships (including his flagship) and being totally unable to complete his mission.


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Connoly, Richard L. (1892–1962) US: Admiral. He led major amphibious assaults in North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Pacific during WW2. He entered the navy during the Mexican crisis of 1914 aboard the battleship USS Virginia and served in other large surface units and destroyers through WW1. Prior to WW2 he studied electrical engineering at the USNA and Columbia University, earning a Master of Science degree from Columbia in 1922. He continued in heavy combatants and returned to the Naval Academy to teach electrical engineering, 1936–38. After promotion to Captain and in command of Destroyer Division Seven and Destroyer Squadron Six, his ships were part of the escort forces for US aircraft carrier operations at the beginning of WW2. Those actions included the DOOLITTLE Tokyo raid in April 1942, which involved launching twin-engine Army B-25 bombers from the carrier USS Hornet. In July 1942 he was promoted to Rear Admiral and joined Admiral Ernest KING’S staff in Washington. Connoly’s amphibious leadership began in July 1943 as commander of Task Force 86, at the invasion of Sicily and the landings in the following September at Salerno, Italy, under British command. Subsequently he was a leader in the landings at Kwajalein, Saipan, Guam, and Lingayen Gulf, Philippines. He was promoted to Vice Admiral in December 1945 and served in major fleet commands before appointment as President of the US Naval War College, 1950–53. He retired from active duty as an Admiral in 1953.

Cook, James (1728–79) British: explorer. Cook’s voyages to the Pacific, 1768–71, 1772–75 and 1776–79 (completed in 1780 after his death), were the three greatest voyages of exploration ever made by one man. He alone was responsible for mapping accurately the south and central Pacific. He made many new (to Western society) discoveries of islands, and was the first man to circumnavigate New Zealand. He disproved the existence of a southern continent thought to lie just south of the latitude of Australia, and penetrated further south than any man previously. After apprenticeship in the North Sea coal trade, he joined the RN in 1755 as an Able Seaman in the Eagle, 60; 1757, Master; 1768, Lieutenant; 1771, Commander; 1775, Captain. Cook’s swift advancement to warrant rank was due to his captain, Sir Hugh PALLISER, who recognized his exceptional qualities. In 1757, as Master of the Pembroke, 64, Cook took part in the campaign leading to Wolfe’s capture of Quebec,


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when his skill was responsible for the fleet’s successful passage up the St Lawrence, after the French had destroyed the navigational marks. From 1763 to 1767, he was employed surveying the east coast of North America, becoming recognized as the foremost British surveyor and cartographer. He was commissioned to take command of an Admiralty-sponsored expedition to the Pacific in a converted collier, the Endeavour (properly, Endeavour Bark). The leader of the scientific party was Joseph (later Sir Joseph) Banks, FRS. The outward voyage was made via Cape Horn, and onwards to Tahiti. Thence he circumnavigated New Zealand, mapping as he went, and so home via the east coast of Australasia, Java and the Cape of Good Hope. Almost immediately, a second expedition was prepared, using two larger vessels, the Resolution and Adventure. Cook was given no specific instructions, but in his own words went with the intention of ‘making further discoveries in the South Sea’. The expedition touched at the Cape of Good Hope, then south to cross the Antarctic Circle, eastwards to New Zealand, thence south again to cross the Antarctic Circle twice more, northwards to Easter Island and on to Tahiti, the Friendly Islands, New Hebrides, New Caledonia and back to New Zealand. The final leg took them eastwards to Cape Horn, and on to the Cape of Good Hope again (discovering South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands en route), and finally back to England. Once again, due to careful dieting, he lost no men to scurvy. On return he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society, and given a sinecure appointment as captain of Greenwich Hospital. But when a third expedition was proposed, and Cook’s advice sought as to its leadership, he volunteered himself. A twopronged search for the North-west Passage was planned, with Cook searching from the western end. Resolution was refitted, and just under a year after he had returned, Cook sailed again. As before, he sailed via the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand, then swung north to Tahiti. Thence he sailed north, discovering Christmas Island and the Sandwich Islands (now known as the Hawaiian Islands) and on to the coast of North America. He sailed north up the coast of what is now British Columbia and Alaska, through the Bering Strait, into the Chukchi Sea, but unseasonably early ice prevented further penetration. The expedition returned to the Sandwich Islands, and there, during a scuffle over a stolen boat and gear, he was clubbed to death on 11 February 1779. He was buried at sea, and the expedition continued, making a second attempt on the Northwest Passage the following summer, with no more success. He was, in the words of the memorial erected by his friend and patron Palliser, ‘the ablest and most renowned Navigator this or any country hath produced’. His exploits were fully comparable to the first landing on the Moon.

Cooper, John (1832–91) US: Coxwain. He received two Medals of Honor, the highest US military decoration, during the American Civil War. At the battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864, he ignored heavy and prolonged fire from Confederate ships and shore batteries to maintain steady fire


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from his gun aboard USS Brooklyn. His actions were instrumental in the capture of the Confederate States Navy ram Tennessee and the destruction of Confederate batteries at Fort Morgan, and they resulted in the award of his first Medal of Honor. In April 1865, while a quartermaster on the staff of a Union Navy flag officer, he entered a burning ammunition facility in Mobile, Alabama, to save the life of a wounded fellow sailor, resulting in his second Medal of Honor award. Cooper, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, enlisted in the Navy in New York City.

Corbett, Julian (1854–1922) British: naval historian, Sir Julian Corbett. He was a noted strategic thinker, and wrote the first three volumes of the official naval history of WW1, but died before he could complete the remainder. He qualified as a barrister, and practised law, but became a novelist and biographer, writing short biographies of DRAKE and MONCK. In 1896, he became a war correspondent in a minor colonial expedition in Africa, which turned his thoughts to the study of war. On his return, he wrote a serious study of Drake and the Tudor Navy, and came in contact with Sir John LAUGHTON. He then decided to become a full-time historian, and in addition to his writing, in 1902 was appointed lecturer in history at the Royal Naval War College, which had just been established within the RNC, Greenwich. He edited a number of volumes for the Navy Records Society, including what has been described as the first staff history of the Trafalgar campaign. In 1911 he wrote one of his most important books, Some Principles of Maritime Strategy. At the outbreak of WW1 he volunteered to run a bureau for the compilation of a history of the war, a precursor to the present Naval Historical Branch of the MoD. In the immediate post-war years, he started to write the history, but had only got as far as completing the volume containing an account of Jutland when he died.

Cornwallis, William (1744–1819) British: Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, GCB (nicknamed ‘Billy Blue’). He was said to be the best admiral of his age who never won a major battle, but the Channel Fleet under his command in the years 1801–06 was crucial in thwarting Napoleon’s ambitions to invade Britain. He joined the Navy in 1755, under the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle; 1761, Lieutenant (three years before the regulations allowed—patronage); 1762, Commander; 1765, Captain; 1793, Rear-Admiral; 1794, Vice-Admiral; 1799, Admiral.


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He served in North America, and at the battle of Quiberon Bay. When peace came in 1763, ability and the family interest ensured his employment. He commanded two small sloops, and in 1765 took command of the Prince Edward, 44. In her, he was an early exponent of the divisional system for looking after his men, the system which remains the Royal Navy’s basis for man management today. He then spent five years in command of the Guadeloupe, 28, at home and in the Mediterranean. During this period he entered Parliament, and remained an MP on-and-off until 1807, although he never spoke in the House. Despite his politics (he opposed the Government, and argued with the First Lord, the 4th Earl of SANDWICH, while on active service), he was employed more or less continuously throughout the 1770s. He commanded the Lion, 64, in the action between BYRON and ESTAING off Granada in 1779, in which Lion was badly mauled. It was during her ensuing refit that Cornwallis met NELSON, to whom he said ‘You can always beat a Frenchman if you fight him long enough’. His next command was the Canada, 74, which was one of HOOD (3)’s squadron, and took part in three actions in the West Indies, including the Saintes, RODNEY’S victory over GRASSE-TILLY. Cornwallis was highly critical of the lack of pursuit after the battle. Political connections ensured his continuing employment, and in 1788 he was made Cin-C East Indies, as a commodore in the Crown, 74, while his brother was the GovernorGeneral of India. Cornwallis annexed the Andaman Islands, and prevented the French from supplying the rebel Tippu Sultan. When France and Britain went to war again in 1793, he at once swept up all the French ships, captured the French trading post of Chandernagore, and assisted in the capture of Pondicherry. He became one of the divisional admirals in the Channel Fleet, and in 1795, he fought a defensive action against a superior French squadron, bringing his ships off safely, and providing the intelligence which enabled BRIDPORT with the main fleet to intercept the French, and to capture three ships. In 1796, he was the subject of a court-martial which became something of a cause célèbre. It had as much to do with his politics as with naval discipline, though in strict terms he was at fault. In consequence, he was unemployed, 1796–1801. He was appointed by ST VINCENT to command the Channel Fleet in 1801, with his flag in the Ville de Paris, 110 (an unusual name for a British ship; she was named for a prize taken at the Saintes). He enjoyed excellent relations with the Board of Admiralty, and could make his dispositions without interference from London. After the Peace of Amiens, he was reappointed, but relationships with the new ministry were less happy, not least because the unlikeable GAMBIER became First Naval Lord. However, the strategy remained the same, and Cornwallis’s powerful fleet was the main check to French ambitions. MAHAN’S words sum it up ‘Those far distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which the Grand Army never looked, stood between it and the domination of the world’. After Trafalgar, he was content when he was succeeded in command by St Vincent in 1806. He had been in poor health intermittently in the previous five years (after all, he had been at sea for most of the last fifty years), and had suffered personal losses. He lived a further thirteen years, being made a GCB in 1815.


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Cornwell, John (1900–16) Boy 1st Class John Cornwell, VC. It is no disrespect to his memory to say that his VC was more taken as symbolic of all that is good and honourable in men than for outstanding personal, adrenalinpumping heroism. Cornwell always wanted to join the navy, but his parents did not approve: however, with the coming of WW1, they relented, and he joined the RN as a Boy Seaman in 1915. He was unremarkable in training, in fact he found gunnery particularly hard going. He was sent to join HMS Chester, a cruiser bought from the Greek Navy while building, joining her on 1 May 1916. Before she had time to work up, Chester was attached to Rear-Admiral Hood’s 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron, part of the Grand Fleet, on 31 May 1916. She was sent to investigate gun flashes away to the southwest, and found herself engaged by four German cruisers, whose gunnery was good. Chester was hit by seventeen shells in a short time, and her own fire control director was put out of action. Cornwell’s action station was as sight-setter of the port forward 5.5-inch gun, but before the gun could be brought into action, all the crew were killed or wounded. Upbringing and training told: Cornwell himself, although wounded, remained at his post, waiting for the orders which never came, until he was relieved. He was landed the next day and taken to hospital, but died of his wounds. His story, repeated in BEATTY’S report, caught the public imagination, and was cited then and much later as an example of devotion to duty.

Courbet, Amédée (1827–85) French: viceamiral. He played a major part in the development of French influence in Indo-China. He entered the navy from the polytechnic school in 1849; 1852, enseigne de vaisseau; 1856, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1866, capitaine de frégate; 1873, capitaine de vaisseau; 1880, contre-amiral; 1884, vice-amiral. His early service was all in eastern waters, and in 1854 he served in the Olivier, chasing pirates in the Greek Islands. In 1856 he drew up the plans for the great anchorage which Napoleon III hoped to create at Biarritz. He went on to be an instructor in the gunnery school, making improvements in equipment and gun practice. His first command was the Talisman in the West Indies, after which he returned to France to draw up a naval tactical course. His first appointment as capitaine de vaisseau was in command of the torpedo school in the Tle d’Oléron, turning him into an advocate


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for this new weapon. Courbet then spent time as a colonial governor in the New Hebrides, 1880–82, and then commanded the Trials Squadron based at Cherbourg. In 1883 he was appointed to command the China Sea Squadron, which had been reinforced after the death of capitaine de vaisseau Riviere. Courbet brought to his mission energy and boldness. He blockaded Hue and stormed the citadel, forcing the Annamese Emperor to submit (the Treaty of Hué, 1883). As the overall C-in-C, he occupied SonTay, and part of the Tonkin delta. He directed operations against the Chinese, attacked the forts at Foochow, forced the passes of the river Min and destroyed part of the Chinese fleet with his torpedo boats, before landing on Formosa and seizing Kelung, Melung and the Pescadores. Worn out by his exertions, he died in his flagship in 1885.

Cowan, Walter (1871–1956) British: Admiral Sir Walter Cowan, Bt, KCB, MVO, DSO*. He had the distinction of first winning the DSO in 1898, and winning a second in 1944 at the age of seventy-three. He joined the RN in the same term as BEATTY, in 1884; 1892, Lieutenant; 1901, Commander; 1906, Captain; 1918, Rear-Admiral; 1923, Vice-Admiral; 1927, Admiral. He suffered illness during his late teens and was invalided out of two ships, but in 1892 he volunteered for service on the west coast of Africa, then a most unhealthy spot, but which offered chances of active service. He joined the cruiser Barrosa, and took part in a punitive expedition against Nimbi. Moving to the east coast, he took part in the Mwele expedition (1896), and next year, back on the west coast, the Benin expedition. He then took command of the destroyer Boxer in the Mediterranean, but left her for service on the Nile in the expedition under Kitchener to recapture the Sudan (1898). He commanded the gunboat Sultan, and was present at the battle of Omdurman, after which he went further up the Nile to Fashoda to meet and dissuade the French force under Major Marchand which had made a remarkable march across Africa to establish French influence on the head-waters of the Nile. Cowan played a large part in the amicable resolution of the affair on the spot, though the diplomats in London and Paris took longer: all this, for a Lieutenant aged 29, was typical of the responsibility assumed by Victorian RN officers. Cowan was awarded the DSO. He remained in the Sudan in 1899, involved in the pursuit of the Khalifa, and when Kitchener was sent to South Africa for the Boer War, Cowan got himself attached to his staff, and later to Roberts’s staff (all quite unofficially). His reception at the Admiralty when he returned in 1900 was chilly, but he managed to get a good appointment. He served in destroyers under KEYES, 1901–03, and then succeeded him as commander of the flotilla, 1903–05. After promotion he continued in sea commands of cruisers. At the outbreak of WWl he commanded the pre-dreadnought Zealandia, but got himself appointed to command the crack battle cruiser Princess Royal, which suffered substantial damage at Jutland. While the ship was under repair, Cowan visited the Western Front. On return he was made Commodore Commanding the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, which involved much active service, but little action, with the enemy largely staying in port.


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At the end of the war he was awarded the KCB. He took his squadron to the Baltic, where the political situation was fluid. His task was to ‘hold the ring’ while the Bolsheviks slugged it out with the other Baltic states, and to ensure that the Germans kept to the terms of the armistice. He received a baronetcy for these services. In the 1920s he was successively Rear-Admiral, Battle Cruiser Squadron, C-in-C Scotland, and C-in-C America and West Indies, 1926–28. He retired in 1931. The outbreak of WW2 saw him pestering their Lordships to be allowed to serve (he was now sixty-eight). By dint of pulling wires, he was allowed to serve as a Commander, and joined the Commandos, under his old chief Keyes (one year younger). After service in North Africa, his unit was disbanded, so he attached himself to an Indian cavalry regiment, and was captured in 1942, fighting an Italian tank single-handed with a revolver. He was repatriated, rejoined the Commandos, and went out to serve in clandestine operations in the Dalmatian Islands, winning his second DSO. He finally retired in 1943, but was inordinately pleased to be made Honorary Colonel of the cavalry regiment with which he had fought in 1942.

Cradock, Christopher (1862–1914) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, KCVO, CB. He lost his life in the defeat by VON SPEE’S squadron off Coronel in November 1914. He entered the RN in 1875; 1885, Lieutenant; 1896, Commander; 1900, Captain; 1910, Rear-Admiral. Cradock’s early career was distinguished by much service ashore, in Egypt and the Sudan in 1884 and 1891 (MiD, 1891). He served in the royal yacht, 1894–96, which brought him promotion, and command of the despatch vessel Alacrity, on the China Station. At the outbreak of the Boxer Rising in 1900, he commanded the naval brigade ashore, displaying conspicuous gallantry at the storming of the Taku forts, which brought him instant promotion and a further MiD. At other times in his career, he won medals for saving life at sea. He had little time for theoreticians, and his contempt for those who wrote to newspapers to prove that because one nation would have six-and-a-half battleships built in three years, and another four-and-a-quarter commenced next month, unless we immediately do something we shall in ten years time be seven-eighths of a battleship behind the combined navies of the world— not forgetting Timbuctoo exactly expresses the nature of the arguments which raged during Sir John FISHER’S regime.


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At the outbreak of WW1, he commanded the 4th Cruiser Squadron in the West Indies. Although the German forces were small (only two light cruisers in the area), in the days before radar their threat was considerable, and it was no small achievement to have been able to report to the Admiralty on 14 August that ‘British trade is running as usual’. But he had to face the threat of von Spee’s squadron, which was thought to be making for Germany via the Falklands. Cradock’s force was inferior, and the initial Admiralty orders contradictory. Acting as he thought was required, he actively sought the German force. In the meantime, Fisher having taken over as 1SL, further orders told him to await reinforcements. These orders never reached him, and having achieved his aim of finding the Germans off the west coast of Chile, he duly engaged them. The German squadron was superior, and well handled. Cradock’s flagship and the cruiser Monmouth were sunk, and he died in his flagship. The shock in Britain was considerable—that the Navy should be defeated was unthinkable (see STURDEE).

Creighton, Kenelm (1882–1963) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Kenelm Creighton, KBE, MVO (Commodore RNR). He was one of the retired senior officers who became convoy commodores during WW2, whose position he described as being like an old ram leading a flock of sheep. Without them the convoy system could not have functioned, and in selecting Creighton for inclusion here, one is choosing at random a single representative of hundreds of brave and dedicated men, whose experience and actions were vital to the winning of the battle of the Atlantic and the survival of Britain. He entered the RN in 1894; 1904, Lieutenant; 1915, Commander; 1921, Captain. He was a specialist navigator, and as young lieutenant, he carried out the first surveys on the coast of North Borneo since Captain COOK. During WW1 he was BEATTY’S ‘Master of the Fleet’, the old title still retained then for the Fleet Navigating Officer. In the 1920s and early 1930s he had two battleship commands, Benbow and Royal Sovereign, but in 1934 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral and retired without flying his flag (a ‘Yellow Admiral’—the mythical squadron for such flag officers, from the days when British admirals were of the Blue, White, or Red). Between 1935 and 1939 he was an Honorary Flight-Lieutenant, RAFVR, selecting the young men who later fought the battle of Britain, but in 1939 the Admiralty recalled him in the rank of Commodore, RNR, to be a convoy commodore. The commodore had charge of the merchant ships, but was under the overall command of the escort commander, who might be a young officer of half his age and experience. After three years he had completed twenty-five convoys, Atlantic and African, being torpedoed once in the SS Avoceta: and he had a most unpleasant experience with the Vichy French authorities in North Africa, when he was commodore of a convoy repatriating French soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk. He was awarded a KBE for his services, and took up a post in Egypt as Director-General of Lights and Harbour Administration. On his way there he was torpedoed again, but survived.


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Creswell, William (1852–1933) Australian: Rear-Admiral Sir William Creswell, KCMG, RAN. He can be said to have created the RAN at the time of the formation of the Commonwealth, becoming the Director of Naval Forces in 1905. He joined the RN in 1867; 1873, Lieutenant. Thereafter he served successively/simultaneously in the naval forces of the colonies of South Australia (1885, Lieutenant; 1891, Commander), Queens-land and Victoria. In 1905 he was made Captain; 1911, Rear-Admiral, RAN. After the formation of the Commonwealth, Creswell fought for an independent naval force for the new nation, as opposed to those who thought that the British fleet should continue to act as Australia’s maritime shield, with Australia paying a contribution. The forces the colonies had contributed to the Commonwealth were decrepit, with no more than 240 personnel, and Creswell proposed a modest navy of three large destroyers, a smaller one, and four torpedo boats. His plans were ridiculed in London, but with the support of two successive prime ministers, Deakin and Fisher, Creswell ordered the first three destroyers in 1909, and shortly afterwards the battle cruiser Australia was ordered. At the outbreak of WW1, the RAN (so designated since 1911) comprised one battle cruiser, two light cruisers, with a third almost complete, one old cruiser and six destroyers. Creswell had become the First Naval member of the Naval Board in 1911, and remained so until 1919, overseeing further expansion of the RAN to include another cruiser, six more destroyers, six submarines, minesweepers and smaller craft.

Crisp, Thomas (1876–1917) British: Skipper Thomas Crisp, VC, DSC, RNR. Skipper Crisp won his VC posthumously in the Special Service Smack Nelson, in the North Sea. In 1915, after the start of the German submarine campaign against the fishing fleets in the North Sea, a number of smacks were armed with guns to act as decoys, and sent out to fish with the other trawlers. The G&E, classified as a Special Service Smack, under another CO, was successful in sinking UB-4. In 1917, after the Germans had declared unrestricted submarine warfare, the same smack, now named I’ll Try, and under Crisp’s command, was involved in a cat-and-mouse action with a U-boat, in which the U-boat was damaged and driven off, and Crisp was awarded the DSC. In August 1917, in the same trawler, now named Nelson, Crisp spotted a submarine approaching. The U-boat opened fire outside the range of Nelson’s gun, but Crisp held his fire, hoping to draw her within range. The Nelson was holed below the waterline, and Crisp himself was mortally wounded, and since his ship was sinking, ordered fire to be opened, and the rest of the crew to abandon ship. His Second Hand was his son, who wanted to take him in the boat, but Crisp refused, saying Tm done for, throw me


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overboard’. Since he was clearly beyond help, they made him as comfortable as could be, and he went down with his ship.

Cromwell, John P. (1901–43) US: Captain. He preserved the security of his mission and avoided the possibility of revealing important military plans under torture, by going down with the fatally damaged submarine in which he was embarked during WW2 in the Pacific. In November 1943 he was aboard the submarine USS Sculpin as commander of a three-submarine wolf pack. While on patrol in Japanese-controlled waters off Truk Island, Sculpin was heavily damaged by depth charges and forced to the surface, where the submarine was fatally damaged by destroyer gunfire. After telling the senior surviving officer that he possessed too much sensitive information to risk capture and torture, he stayed aboard with a small number of the crew remaining in Sculpin as she sank. Crom well took his knowledge of plans for a major US offensive and the knowledge that the US had broken the Japanese naval codes to the bottom. The circumstances of Cromwell’s actions became known in 1945 when the few surviving crew members of the sinking were freed from Japanese prison camps, and he was posthumously awarded the highest US military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Cromwell graduated from the USNA in 1924. His first duty assignment was the battleship USS Maryland, 1924–26. He qualified as a submarine officer in 1927 and, after a series of assignments related to submarines, he commanded USS 5–20, 1936–37. Subsequent assignments, including duty at the Navy’s Bureau of Ships, 1940–41, and an assignment on the staff of Commander Submarines US Pacific Fleet, 1941–42, were followed by command of Submarine Divisions 203, 44 and 43, 1942–43.

Crutchley, Victor (1893–1986) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Victor Crutchley, VC, KCB, DSC. He served almost continuously at sea, 1911–1945, and won the DSC and then the VC for bravery during the two attempts to block Ostend harbour in April/May 1918. Later, he commanded the allied forces off Guadalcanal in 1942 which were caught napping by MIKAWA’S cruisers (though Crutchley was not present). He entered the RN in 1906; 1915, Lieutenant; 1928, Commander; 1932, Captain; 1942, Rear-Admiral; 1945, Vice-Admiral. During WW1 he served in HMS Centurion at Jutland, and in 1917 volunteered as First Lieutenant of the old cruiser Brilliant, one of the blockships for the operation at Ostend on the same night as at Zeebrugge (see CARPENTER). The Ostend operation was a


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gallant failure, but Crutchley received the DSC. The crews volunteered for a repeat performance three weeks later: this time a shell killed the captain on the bridge, and Crutchley assumed command, seeing all his surviving crew into the attendant ML. The captain of this craft had been seriously wounded, so Crutchley again took command, and extricated her under heavy fire, earning the VC. From 1930 to 1933, he served in the New Zealand Division (the RNZN was not formally created until 1941) and in 1937 he took command of the battleship Warspite. In her, he took part in the second battle of Narvik in 1940, when Admiral Whitworth, with Warspite and nine destroyers, took up where Captain WARBURTON-LEE had left off, and sank eight German destroyers and one U-boat. In 1942, having taken command of the RAN Squadron, he commanded an allied cruiser squadron under Admiral TURNER’S overall command, escorting the amphibious craft in the landings on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Due to faulty reconnaissance, Mikawa’s approaching force was underestimated, and no proper dispositions were made: at the last moment, Crutchley in the cruiser Australia was called for a conference by Turner, and the result was chaotic. The Japanese inflicted a severe defeat on the allies, sinking one RAN and three USN cruisers. Crutchley was blamed in the US press, but retained NIMITZ’S confidence, and later commanded a cruiser squadron in the Seventh Fleet. His last appointment was as Flag Officer Gibraltar, 1945–47. He held US, Polish and French decorations.

Cunningham, Andrew Browne (1883–1963) British: Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, OM, KT, GCB, DSO**. He was C-in-C Mediterranean, 1939–42, winner of the battle of Matapan, 1941, and 1SL, 1943–46. He joined the Britannia in 1897; 1904, Lieutenant; 1915, Commander; 1920, Captain; 1932, Rear-Admiral; 1936, Vice-Admiral; 1941, Admiral; 1943, Admiral of the Fleet. While Sub-Lieutenant, he spent four months in last RN sail training brig Martin, becoming the last admiral to have served in sail. From 1910 to 1919 he was continuously at sea in command of destroyers, successively Vulture (1910), Roebuck (1910–11), Scorpion (1911–16) (DSO at the Dardanelles), Rattlesnake (1916), Scorpion (1916–18), Ophelia (1918), Termagant (1918–19) (and in command, Dover Patrol), Seafire (1919) (Baltic campaign in support of White Russians, two bars to DSO). He went on to be Captain (D) in Shakespeare (1922) and Wallace, 1922–24, and Captain-in-Command of the destroyer base at Port Edgar, 1924–26; He commanded the cruisers Calcutta, 1926–27 and Despatch, 1927–28 in the West Indies, and the battleship Rodney, 1929–31. (He had left her by the time of the Invergordon mutiny in September 1931.)


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His first sea-going flag appointment was in command, Mediterranean destroyer flotillas, 1934–36 (CB 1936). He became second-in-command Mediterranean Fleet, 1937–38, and then DCNS, 1938–39 (KCB 1939). He was appointed C-in-C Mediterranean Fleet just before the outbreak of WW2: in 1942 he became Head of the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington but returned to the Mediterranean as Allied Naval Commander Expeditionary Forces, 1942–43, for the landing in North Africa (Operation Torch) and Sicily (Operation Husky). When POUND resigned in 1943, CHURCHILL chose FRASER to succeed him, preferring to leave Cunningham to complete his work in the Mediterranean: but Fraser turned down the post, and Cunningham was appointed. He was created a viscount in January 1946. ‘ABC’ was a thorough-going seaman and leader, whose experience in small ships was unrivalled. The training he instigated in the Mediterranean, 1934–40, was in a large measure responsible for the ability of the fleet to survive the dark days of 1941 and early 1942, when there seemed to be a real possibility that the British would be driven out of Egypt, and effectively from the Mediterranean. Under his direction, aircraft from Illustrious effectively removed the Italian battlefleet from the order of battle for over a year, by their attack on Taranto (1940), and at Matapan, flying his flag in Warspite, he finished the task by sinking three cruisers and two destroyers. His determined attitude is best summed up by his remark, in the face of severe losses during the evacuation of the army from Crete, that it took only three years to build a ship, but three hundred to build a tradition. And as an old destroyer man, he could make the signal to his hard-driven fleet, at that same period, ‘This is no time for destroyers to be breaking down’. He also held the Distinguished Service Medal (USA), Grand Cross of the Légion d’Honneur, Medaille Militaire (France).

Currie, Robert (1905–94) British: Rear-Admiral, CB, DSC*. He was another of the escort captains on whom the successful outcome of the battle of the Atlantic depended. He was a firm believer in the over-riding necessity for thorough training: ‘As you train, so will you fight’ (one of the mottoes of the Gunnery School). He joined the RN in 1919; 1927, Lieutenant; 1939, Commander; 1945, Captain; 1954, Rear-Admiral. He qualified in gunnery in 1931, and had two gunnery appointments in cruisers in the 1930s, and at the start of WW2 was SOO to Admiral Whitworth in the battle cruiser Renown when they engaged Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off Norwayan inconclusive action, though Gneisenau was hit twice at long range. Four days later, having moved to Warspite, Currie was the planner for the second battle of Narvik, when a calculated risk was taken to send her into the fjords, and she and her escort sank one U-boat and eight German destroyers. Currie received two MiDs in this appointment.


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After a stint in the Plans Division of the Admiralty, Currie went back to sea in 1943 to command the destroyer Fame, and B6 Escort Group. During the summer, it was a quiet period, when the U-boats had been withdrawn from the Atlantic, but they returned with a new weapon, the ‘Gnat’ anti-escort torpedo, in the autumn. But it was of little avail: in the defence of convoy ON206, B6 group and B5 with air support, sank four U-boats for the loss of one merchantman. In June 1944, while defending the Normandy beaches, Fame sank U-767 in a classic action, after the U-boat had been so careless as to break radio silence. She was detected, the escorts ran down the bearing, found her, and the first salvo sank her. Currie received the DSC. He received a bar to his DSC in April 1945, when 17–242 was sunk in the Irish Sea. At the end of the war in Europe, he commanded an assault group in the unopposed reinvasion of Malaya. He had two more sea commands, including the gunnery trials ship Cumberland, and in 1954 he served in Washington on the British Joint Service Mission. He retired in 1956, and was awarded the CB.

Curtiss, Glen H. (1878–1930) US: naval aviation pioneer. He is referred to as ‘the father of naval aviation’. In November 1910 when the scout cruiser USS Birmingham was fitted with a bow platform for a takeoff, a Curtiss aircraft flown by Eugene ELY was the first to take off from a USN ship. The aircraft actually touched the water before gaining altitude and reaching shore. In January 1911 it again was a Curtiss aircraft flown by Ely that accomplished the first aircraft landing on a ship, employing an improvised wood platform on the battleship USS Pennsylvania. The arresting system consisted of ropes stretched between sandbags along the edge of the platform. He established the first military aviation school at North Island in San Diego harbour in January 1911, and the school produced Naval Aviator no. 1, Lieutenant ELLYSON. In January 1911 it was a Curtiss seaplane that achieved the first take-off from water. The event is considered to be the birth of naval aviation. It was his NC-4 in which Navy pilots made the first transatlantic flight in 1919, and his flying boats were the only US-produced aircraft employed in front line missions during WW1. He designed and built the first US Navy plane, the Triad, and during WW1, the Curtiss Airplane and Motor Company was stretched to its production limit producing flying boats and the JN-4 ‘Jenny’ primary training aircraft for US and European customers. More than 6,000 of the latter were manufactured. He began as a manufacturer of motorcycles in 1901, and it was the adaptation of his motorcycle engines to the pioneer aircraft of the time that launched his career. He was one of the founders of the Aerial Experiment Association in Hammondsport, New York, a group that produced its first aircraft in March 1908.


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Cushing, William B. (1842–74) US: Commander. He led a small crew in a steam launch on a daring night attack on the Confederate States Navy ironclad Albemarle, at Plymouth, North Carolina, during the American Civil War. Despite heavy small-arms fire during his approach along the Roanoke River on the night of 27 August 1864, he penetrated a protecting floating boom, positioned the launch and a spar torpedo alongside Albemarle, and pulled the firing lanyard. The explosion blew Cushing and his crew into the water, and the ironclad sank. Only Cushing and one seaman survived drowning or capture by swimming away from the scene while under continuous small-arms fire. With the elimination of the Confederate ironclad, Union Army forces were able to retake Plymouth, a strategically important city. Because of his bravery and combat success he became a national celebrity and was given a substantial cash award. Cushing entered the USNA in 1857, but his discipline violations resulted in his forced resignation in 1861, shortly before his class graduated. When the Civil War began in 1861 he re-entered the Navy as an acting Master’s Mate, largely through political influence. As a Lieutenant, he subsequently commanded three gunboats. After his action against Albemarle he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. In January 1865 he helped lead Union naval forces that captured Fort Fisher, North Carolina. Following the Civil War he was Executive Officer of USS Lancaster and commanding officer of USS Maumee. He was promoted to Commander in 1872 and commanded USS Wyoming, 1873–74. In September 1873 his confrontation with Spanish authorities in Cuba was credited with saving the lives of the crew of a civilian US steamer captured while supplying Cuban revolutionaries. He died while Executive Officer of the Washington Navy Yard. Five US naval vessels have carried his name, including the destroyer USS Cushing.

Cuthbertson, Charles (1906–94) British: Commander, DSC, RNR. He was commanding officer of five corvettes, frigates or destroyers throughout WW2, being involved largely in the battle of the Atlantic. His claim for inclusion here is that when the author Nicholas MONSARRAT wrote The Cruel Sea in 1951 (probably the finest story of war at sea ever written), he wrote that the major character, Lieutenant Commander Ericson, captain of the Compass Rose, ‘was based, so far as looks, achievement and reputation were concerned, on Lt. Commander Cuthbertson’. Cuthbertson trained in the Worcester, and joined the RNR and Union Castle Line in 1923; 1931, Lieutenant; 1943, Commander.


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He was Second Officer of RMS Carnarvon Castle at the outbreak of WW2. He commanded successively HMS Hibiscus, (awarded the DSC), Zinnia (which was sunk under him) and Snowflake (MiD for the defence of convoy QP11): then the old destroyer Scimitar. In 1943, he took command of Helford, a’River’-class frigate, as Senior officer of an escort group (MiD, 1945). He returned to the Union Castle Line after the war, and completed his sea-going career as Master of RMS Sandown Castle in 1948.


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D Dahlgren, John A. (1809–70), US: Rear Admiral. He developed major advances in naval ordnance. In addition to a variety of guns designed for use in small boats, he designed a relatively large naval gun shaped to accommodate the increasingly powerful explosive charges coming into use in his time. His best-known gun was a cast-iron smoothbore cannon, thick at the breech and narrower along the barrel, that fired a shell with an 11-inch diameter. This advance in naval cannon design became known as the ‘Dahlgren gun’. He entered the Navy as an acting Midshipman in 1826 and served in USS Macedonian in the US Brazilian Squadron, 1826–28. He served in the Mediterranean in USS Ontario and was assigned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1833. Subsequently, he served in sea and shore assignments until 1845, when he was assigned to the Washington Navy Yard. At the Navy Yard Dahlgren reorganized the Navy’s ordnance programme and developed new designs for naval cannons, including the ‘Dahlgren gun’. He was promoted to Commander in 1855 and commanded the training sloop USS Plymouth, 1857–58. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he was placed in command of the Washington Navy Yard and was named Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance in July 1862 with the ranks of Captain and acting Rear Admiral. During the war he distinguished himself in several major actions and also was a confidant of President LINCOLN. In February 1863 he was promoted to the permanent rank of Rear Admiral and took command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. He commanded the South Pacific Squadron, 1866–68, and returned as Chief, Bureau of Ordnance, 1868–69, and from 1869 to 1870 he commanded the Washington Navy Yard, where he died.

Dale, Richard (1756–1826) US: Commodore. He was one of the original six captains of the US Navy appointed by President WASHINGTON in March 1794; he was number five in the order of seniority. Dale began his career as a seaman in the merchant service in 1768. In early 1776 he was a Lieutenant in the navy of the state of Virginia, but in July he was appointed a Midshipman in the Continental Navy. He served in the Continental brig Lexington, 14, in


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the European waters of the eastern Atlantic and in the West Indies, and was taken prisoner by the British in 1777. He twice escaped from prison and eventually joined the crew of the Bonhomme Richard, 42, initially as Master’s Mate and subsequently First Lieutenant under John Paul JONES. He was seriously wounded in the battle between his ship and HMS Serapis, 44. Between 1779 and 1780 he served in the Alliance, 36, again under Jones, and in the ship Ariel, 20, 1780–81. He com-manded the privateer Queen of France, 28, during 1782–83. Prior to his promotion to Captain in 1794, he was a merchant captain, and he returned to merchant service after resigning his commission in a dispute with Thomas TRUXTUN in 1799. He again returned to the Navy, however, as a commodore in 1801 to blockade Tripoli with the first US overseas naval squadron, consisting of five ships, led by his flagship, the new frigate USS President, 44. With unrealistic orders, however, and a squadron not numerically sufficient to its task, the blockade he was ordered to maintain was ineffective. After being recalled, he resigned from the Navy in December 1801. As a civilian, Dale was involved in strengthening the defences of Philadelphia during the War of 1812.

Dampier, William (1651–1715) British: Captain. He was a man out of his time, harking back to the sixteenth century, when men like DRAKE were part privateer, part commissioned officer of the sovereign. Dampier was an excellent naturalist, cartographer and hydrographer, whose charts were used by his successors a century later, and he was the first Briton to set foot in Australia, in 1688. But he was also a buccaneer, and a privateer, whose life-story reads like all the boys’ seafaring adventure tales ever written. (Among other things, he found Alexander Selkirk, the original of ‘Robinson Crusoe’, on Juan Fernandez Island.) He made three circumnavigations of the globe (1679–91, twelve years in all, 1703–07, and 1708–11). He first went to sea in 1669 in the merchant service, and served briefly as an able seaman in Spragge’s flagship, the Royal Prince, in 1672, being present at the two battles of Schooneveld in 1673. In 1679 his long first voyage of circum-navigation started in the West Indies, when he joined a group of buccaneers, and with them ranged the length of the west coast of South America. In 1683 he joined another group and captured a Danish ship, an act of barefaced piracy, and in her joined another group which attacked Panama City unsuccessfully in 1685. The group broke up, and Dampier sailed in the Cygnet, roaming the Pacific, keeping a journal all the while, and landed in Australia, just west of present-day Darwin, in 1688. He returned to Britain in 1691, and published A New Voyage Round the World in 1697, which was a great success, and he met PEPYS, by now retired. The book gave him a connection with the Royal Society, and through its influence he was given a commission as a Captain, and command of the Roebuck, 12. She sailed in 1699 on a voyage of exploration to New Holland, and made many notable discoveries around New Guinea and the north coast of the Australian continent. But his ship foundered off Ascension Island during her return to Britain, and on his return Dampier


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was court-martialled for his treatment of his First Lieutenant, whom he had had imprisoned in Brazil. Dampier was judged by ROOKE to be ‘not a fit person to be employed as commander of any of Her Majesty’s ships’. So he went back to privateering, as pilot, for two more circumnavigations, first in the St George, and finally in the Duke, under Captain Woodes Rogers, who became Governor of the Bahamas, and was instrumental in suppressing the buccaneers, something of a full circle.

Dance, Nathaniel (1748–1827) British: Captain Sir Nathaniel Dance, of the Honourable East India Company. In 1804, with a force of lightly armed East Indiamen, he put to flight a French squadron under LINOIS which in theory should have overwhelmed him. He went to sea in 1759, and after serving continuously received his first command in 1787. In 1804 he was, by seniority, commodore of the company’s homeward-bound trade, which was intercepted by Linois. Dance had sixteen Indiamen, and eleven ‘country ships’ (ships which traded between China and India). Indiamen were, indeed, armed, but relatively lightly; and although they were painted to give an appearance of being heavy frigates, any experienced seaman could tell at once that they were not. Linois had a lineof-battleship (a 74), two heavy, and one light, frigates, and a gunbrig, but allowed himself to be convinced that the three extra ships in the convoy, above the number his intelligence had reported, must be warships. Dance drew his ships up in line of battle, and when Linois attempted to cut off the rear portion, Dance tacked, and made to engage. The French fired a few broadsides and turned away. Dance ordered a chase, and the French fled. After two hours, Dance resumed his course, but the ‘victory’ was his. He received a knighthood, and many financial rewards, as did his other commanders and ships’ companies.

Daniel, Edward (1837–68) British: Lieutenant Edward Daniel. He has the dubious distinction of being the only man to be awarded the VC, and then to have his name struck off the roll of winners. He joined the RN as a cadet on board the Victory in 1851, and served in the Burma War, 1852–53, on board the Winchester, 52. In 1853, as a Midshipman, he joined the Diamond, 28, (Captain Peel), and landed with him in the Crimea, when Diamond’s guns and their crews were landed to form batteries ashore to bombard Sebastopol. Daniel was Peel’s ADC (‘doggie’, the Navy would say), and accompanied him everywhere. He volunteered to bring up the ammunition wagons for Diamond’s guns when the waggoners


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refused duty under Russian fire. He was present at the battle of Inkerman, riding all over the battlefield, assisting Peel when they rescued the Duke of Cambridge who was in danger of being cut off, and he saved Peel’s life during the assault on the Redan, by applying a tourniquet to a wound in his arm. These actions gained him the VC. Daniel stayed with Peel when the latter commissioned the Shannon for service in the East Indies in 1857, and landed with him in the Naval Brigade during the Indian Mutiny. Peel became his father-figure, and in return, he was trusted by Peel, who sent him on a special mission to Cawnpore. But Peel died of wounds, and Daniel, who had already started to drink, went downhill. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1859, and was presented to Queen Victoria, but he was court-martialled in 1860 for drunkenness, and in 1861, while Lieutenant in the Victor Emanuel, 91, in the Mediterranean, was charged with ‘taking indecent liberties with 4 subordinate officers’. Unable to face the disgrace which would inevitably follow, he deserted, and his name was removed from the roll of VC winners by royal warrant. By 1863 he was living in Australia, and volunteered for service as a soldier in New Zealand, and it was as Lance Corporal Daniel that he died from a drink-related illness, in 1868.

Daniels, Josephus (1862–1948) US: Secretary of the Navy. He instituted important administrative and force changes in the Navy at the beginning of the twentieth century. He served in the office from 1913 to 1921, during the administration of President Woodrow WILSON. As the Navy’s civilian leader he quickly generated resentment in the officer corps by eliminating the traditional wine mess aboard Navy ships. He also opposed senior Navy reformers working to establish a uniformed Chief of Naval Operations. Despite concerns that his authority would be compromised, the new office of CNO was established, greatly improving Navy administration. And despite strong pacifist inclinations, he led President Wilson to a major US naval expansion, embodied in the congressional Naval Act of 1916. The expansion set in motion by that legislation resulted in the development of US naval strength that contributed to victory in WW1. The expansion also made the United States competitive with other major naval powers of the day. In shaping naval policy, Daniels frequently was at odds with British positions. During WW1, for example, Britain urged that the US construct a large destroyer fleet to defeat the submarine threat in the Atlantic. Daniels, however, envisioned a balanced build-up, including heavy surface units. Throughout his tenure as civilian head of the Navy, he emphasized the welfare of enlisted personnel. Following WW1 he was a negotiator in the naval disarmament negotiations that set the stage for WW2. Prior to his appointment as Secretary of the Navy, Daniels was the owner of the News and Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, a daily newspaper that consistently supported Democratic Party positions and politicians. Following that service he returned again to head that newspaper. In 1933 President Franklin ROOSEVELT appointed him Ambassador to Mexico, after Daniels helped get him elected president.


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Darlan, François-Xavier (1881–1942) French: amiral de la flotte. He was the professional head of the French Navy at the start of WW2, and when France fell in June 1940, supported Pétain, believing that Germany would win the war, and that the long-term interests of France lay in cooperation with Germany. In 1942 he had lost his power in metropolitan France, but was still nominally deputy Prime Minister, and was High Commissioner in North Africa. When the Allies landed in North Africa in November 1942, after initial resistance, Darlan ordered the Vichy French troops to surrender, and was appointed by the Allies as head of the French administration in North Africa, a development unwelcome to the Free French. He entered the Naval School in 1899; 1912, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1920, capitaine de frégate; 1926, capitaine de vaisseau; 1929, contre-amiral; 1932, vice-amiral; 1939, amiral de la flotte. After initial service in the Far East, he qualified in gunnery, and in 1912, served in the Jeanne-d’Arc, the training cruiser (usually a sign that an officer was destined for higher rank). During WW1 he served on the Western Front, in command of a heavy artillery battery. His post-war promotion was swift: during the 1920s he commanded the Rhine Flotilla, the sloops Chamois and Ancre, the Navigation School, and the cruisers Jeanned’Arc and Edgar Quinet. Darlan impressed Georges LEYGUES, the Navy Minister, and was a delegate at the London naval conference (1930). After a further sea command, he served a third appointment in the Navy Minister’s office. He became chef d’état-major général de la marine (equivalent to 1SL or CNO) in 1937, and became amiral de la flotte in 1939. He started a large and impressive building programme which was never completed, and made the French Navy the most effective of the country’s armed forces. During the ‘phoney war’, 1939–40, he tried to instil a more aggressive attitude into the Minister for War, but when the debacle of June 1940 occurred, he accepted office under Petain, believing that in the long term France and its navy would be best served by his staying in office. By 1942 he was vice-premier, and Petain’s nominated successor; minister for foreign affairs, defence and the interior. But Hitler evidently mistrusted him, and pressured Petain to dismiss him. He remained C-in-C of the armed forces and High Commissioner in North Africa. He was in North Africa when the Allies landed in November 1942 (having received previous intelligence), and arranged the cease-fire between the Allies and the Vichy French. EISENHOWER confirmed him as High Commissioner, which was unpopular with de Gaulle. He was murdered shortly afterwards, probably by an individual rather than by an agent of any opposition.


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Darling, Stanley (1907–2002) Australian: Captain Stan Darling, OBE, DSC**, RANVR. His three DSCs were earned in no more than nine months U-boat hunting in the English Channel, 1944–45, when he commanded HMS Loch Killin. He joined the RANR in 1925; 1929, Lieutenant; 1945, Commander, RANVR; 1952, Captain, RANVR. In 1940 he was loaned to the RN, along with many other Commonwealth naval reservists. He commanded a number of small craft, including the trawler Inch Marnock and the corvette Clarkia, on escort duties in the North Atlantic and North Sea, and in 1943 was given command of the frigate HMS Loch Killin, the first of her class, fitted with the new ‘Squid’ A/S weapon. In June 1944 he joined Frederic WALKER’S famous Second Support Group, and absorbed his ‘spirit of vicious offensive’. Three weeks after Walker’s death, in one patrol, whose purpose was to prevent U-boats from attacking the flow of supplies to Normandy, Loch Killin sank two U-boats, U-333 and U-736, and assisted in the destruction of two more. Darling was awarded a DSC, and a bar to his DSC. In April 1945, in the same waters, he sank U-1036, and was awarded a second bar to his DSC. In 1945 he returned to the Far East in command of HMS Loch Lomond. By 1948 he had returned to Australia to resume his career with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, but he remained in the RANVR, and commanded the RAN’s shore base HMAS Rushcutter. He was also an experienced and successful ocean racer.

Darrieus, Pierre (1859–1931) French: vice amiral. He was a far-sighted thinker, and also a practical engineer and man of action. In particular, he was associated with the first submersible, ZÉDÉ’S Gymnote. He entered the navy in 1876; 1881, enseigne de vaisseau; 1885, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1898, capitaine de frégate; 1906, capitaine de vaisseau; 1912, contre-amiral; 1916, viceamiral. He was very much in the mould of the RN’s torpedo and gunnery specialists of this period; men like BACON who embraced and developed technology wholeheartedly, while not losing their touch for maritime warfare. From 1885 onwards Darrieus was based at Toulon, concerned with the fixed underwater defences there. He specialized in torpedo, and devised his first inventions (a dynamo for destroyers, and an electric torpedo). After a short command of a destroyer, in 1889 he was given command of the Gymnote. She displaced only 30 tonnes, and had a fiveman crew: in her, he evolved


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practical solutions to problems of underwater vision, trim when dived, and battery propulsion (Gymnote made over 2,000 dives). In 1895 he assisted with the introduction of the next submarine, the Gustave-Zédé, and wrote several handbooks on marine engineering. In 1898 he was appointed to the Navy Minister’s staff, where he was a modernizer of the administration and schools. He commanded the cruiser Du Chayla in the Mediterranean, then the Torpedo School, then became the senior instructor at the School of Maritime Strategy and Tactics. Further commands included the old Couronne and the gunnery school, and the battleship République. He was Naval Assistant to the Navy Minister in 1912, and during WWl was employed largely in the Mediterranean, blockading the Syrian coast in 1914–15, when his 3rd squadron saved 3,000 Armenians fleeing from the Turks, and then the 2nd squadron, 1917–18, when he was the Allied commander responsible for the blockade of the Dardanelles. After the war he was naval commander in Tunis. He retired in 1921, but remained active in the Academie de Marine (Naval Institute). Many of his ideas only came to fruition much later (for example, he foresaw women in active roles at sea, as early as 1915).

Dartmouth, Earl of see LEGGE, GEORGE Davies, Richard (1886–1966) British: Vice-Admiral Richard Bell Davies, VC, CB, DSO, AFC. He was a pioneer of naval aviation in the Royal Navy, and won his VC for a ‘feat of airmanship that can seldom have been equalled for skill and gallantry’, in rescuing a shot-down comrade from behind enemy lines, in Turkey in 1915. He joined the Navy in 1901; 1908, Lieutenant; 1920, Commander; 1926, Captain; 1938, Rear-Admiral; 1941, Vice-Admiral (retired). Although on the retired list, he continued in employment for the duration of the war. In 1909 he learned to fly at his own expense. He served in the battleship Swiftsure in the Mediterranean, and the cruiser Minotaur in China, and joined the RNAS when it was first formed in July 1914. He served in Somaliland, and in Belgium, where he won the DSO for his part in an attack on German submarine bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge, completing his mission after being wounded. His VC was won during an attack on a railway junction in Thrace, now part of Greece. His comrade’s aircraft was hit, despite which he dropped his bombs on the target, then put it down on a bakedmud river-bank. Davies landed alongside in his single-seater, took up the other pilot, and with difficulty got airborne, and returned safely. He was also one of the pilots who took NASMITH and other submarine captains over the Dardanelles to show them the obstacles they faced. He was also awarded the French Croix de Guerre, and the Légion d’Honneur.


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He then commanded the Naval Air Station at Killingholme, and later was Senior Flying Officer, Grand Fleet, commanding the air units in the Campania. After briefly serving in the RAF on its formation in 1918, he reverted to naval service in 1920 and spent four years in charge of the Air Division of the Naval Staff. He was second-in-command of the battleship Royal Sovereign, and then held sea commands of the cruisers Frobisher and London, 1928–30, and the cruiser Cornwall, 1934–35. After return of the Fleet Air Arm to Admiralty control, he was the first Rear-Admiral Naval Air Stations. After promotion to Vice-Admiral, he retired, but was back at sea again in 1944, commanding HMS Pretoria Castle, an ex-liner, converted to an aircraft carrier for decklanding trials on the navalized Spitfire fighter.

Davis, William (1901–87) British: Admiral Sir William Davis, GCB, DSO*. He was a successful cruiser captain in WW2, with a gift for handling men, and a successful, if unobtrusive, senior staff officer to MOUNTBATTEN while VCNS, 1954–57. He probably had less command experience than any other C-in-C Home Fleet in this century, though he showed himself to be a most effective fighting captain. He joined the Navy in 1915, and served afloat in WW1 as a Midshipman in the dreadnought Neptune; 1922, Lieutenant; 1935, Commander; 1940, Captain; 1950, RearAdmiral; 1954, Vice-Admiral; 1958, Admiral. He specialized in torpedo, and at the start of WW2 was Executive Officer of HMS Hood, receiving an MiD while in her. After promotion in 1940 he won high praise for his staff work as Deputy Director Plans, particularly over a projected seizure of the island of Pantelleria, a project dear to CHURCHILL’S heart, but loathed by the Chiefs of Staff as an unnecessary and likely-tobe-costly diversion. Davis had to tread a narrow path between obstructing Churchill and satisfying his immediate superiors. In 1943 he took command of the cruiser Mauritius, whose crew’s morale was low, a situation made worse by what seemed punitive planning of the ship’s programme. But Davis, having a gift for team-building, turned a near-mutinous crew into an efficient ship’s company. Mauritius took part in four Allied landings, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Normandy, carrying out over 250 bombardment assignments, and then destroyed two German convoys in the Bay of Biscay in 1944. For all these operations, Davis was awarded the DSO twice, and was three times mentioned in despatches. WW2 saw an enormous increase in the amount of electrical equipment in ships, as well of the introduction of electronics. In 1946, Davis was instrumental in forming the new electrical branch, which evolved from the old torpedo branch, to fill the need for a new breed of skilled electrical rating. He became a Rear-Admiral in 1950, and Vice-Admiral in 1954, filling a series of senior staff appointments, some seagoing, including that of Flag Officer, second-incommand in the Mediterranean, where he had the job of commanding the fleet while Mountbatten dealt with the politics, especially those involving the newly formed NATO.


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From there he went to be VCNS, again under Mountbatten, in which post he imperturbably dealt with a series of crises—the ‘Buster’ Crabb affair, Suez, and the first of the series of defence cuts imposed by successive governments on the British armed services in the withdrawal from empire, all too often without any diminution in their tasks. His final appointment, in 1958, was as C-in-C Home Fleet.

Davison, F.Trubee (1896–1976) US: naval aviation pioneer. He organized a group of volunteer naval aviators in 1916 and led them to become the first US Naval Reserve aviators. The unit, eventually labelled the First Yale Unit, con sisted of twelve members, ten of whom were Yale University undergraduates. After serving in the American Ambulance Field Service in France in 1915, Davison gathered the group in anticipation of their serving as aviators in the impending US involvement in WWl. He worked stubbornly for acceptance of his unit into the Navy, and in August 1916 the US Congress passed the Naval Reserve Appropriations Act, establishing the Naval Reserve Flying Corps. The original twelve members of the unit volunteered as a group in March 1917, creating what is recognized as the beginning of the US Naval Air Reserve. Fifteen additional Yale students joined the group later in 1917. Unit members distinguished themselves in WWl, producing the only USN ace, David S. INGALLS, who served in an RAF squadron that flew the famous Sopwith Camel, the most successful WW1 fighter. Ingalls received both a British Distinguished Flying Cross and a US Distinguished Service Medal. The unit also included Albert D. Sturtevant, the first US military aviator to lose his life in aerial combat. Following the war many unit members had noteworthy careers in public service and business. Davison was seriously injured in a training crash and was not able to enter the Navy with the unit in 1917. For his unique achievement in founding the First Yale Unit, however, he was awarded the Navy Cross, and on the fiftieth anniversary of the Naval Air Reserve he was designated an honorary naval aviator. Following WW1, Davison entered private business, and he was Assistant Secretary of War for Air from February 1926 to December 1932.

Day, George (1819–76) British: Captain, VC, CB. Although the period 1815–1914 is often referred to as the Pax Britannica, Captain Day managed to collect three awards and nine different campaign medals. His VC was won in 1855, in the Sea of Azov, for a daring and dangerous reconnaissance which nearly cost him his life. He joined the Navy as a volunteer in 1833; 1845, Lieutenant; 1855, Commander.


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Day started his adventurous career early, when his first ship, the Challenger, 28, was wrecked in Patagonia: the crew got ashore, and managed to keep themselves alive for six weeks until they were rescued. Day also served under another Victorian fire-eater, Henry KEPPEL, in 1836, during the Carlist wars in Spain. Promoted to Mate in 1838, he commanded the barge of the Benbow in an assault on Tortosa in Syria in 1840, and was present at the bombardment of St Jean d’Acre. He served in the second Burma War in 1851, and ashore in South Africa during the Kaffir War of 1852, and then commanded the paddle sloop Locust, 3, in South America, earning commendations for his services in the River Plate during a war between Argentina and Uruguay. In 1854 Locust was in the Baltic under NAPIER, and distinguished herself by capturing two boats full of Russian soldiers. The next year he took command of a former Prussian gunboat bought by the Admiralty and renamed the Recruit, 8. He took her to the Mediterranean in company with her sister ship the Weser, and when the latter ran aground, Day successfully salvaged her. He went on to take part in the forcing of the Straits of Kertch, and the attack on the fort of Arabat. He considered that, if proper reconnaissance were made, it would be possible to take the southern defences of that fort, and after a gallant attempt by a French force had failed, determined to do it himself. He made two forays ashore, by night, wading through marsh for five miles, in bitter weather conditions, and on the second occasion was brought off suffering from exposure and hypothermia. For his efforts he received the VC, as well as French and Turkish awards. He later commanded the Firefly, 4, in West Africa, and the Sphinx, 6, in China, 1859– 61, earning two more campaign medals at the Taku Forts, and in the Canton River. After a career of twenty-eight years, virtually continuously on active service afloat, he was promoted Captain in 1861, but his health gave way, and he retired in 1867.

Decatur, Stephen, Jr (1779–1820) US: Commodore. He distinguished himself in naval combat during the Barbary War, 1801– 05. On the night of 16 February 1804 he sailed into Tripoli harbour and burned the 36gun frigate USS Philadelphia, which had been captured by the Tripolitans after she ran aground. NELSON described Decatur’s attack as ‘the most bold and daring act of the age’. Decatur was promoted to Captain as a result of those actions in Tripoli harbour. Subsequently he commanded a gunboat division, personally leading two boarding parties against Barbary pirates. Also during the Barbary Wars he commanded the USS Constitution, 44, and the USS Congress, 36. During the War of 1812 he commanded the USS United States, 44, in her victorious action against HMS Macedonian. While commander of the USS President, 44, in 1815, he was defeated in an action with a larger British squadron. Following the Barbary War he successfully negotiated a treaty with the leaders of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli to cease attacks on US ships and pay reparations for previous piracy. At a banquet in his honour in 1815 he proposed his famous toast: ‘Our country! In


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her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!’. In 1815 he also was appointed to the Board of Navy Commissioners. Decatur entered the Navy aged nineteen, and was the youngest officer, at twenty-four, to reach the rank of Captain in the early USN. He was killed in a duel with a fellow Navy captain, James Barron, in March 1820.

De Chair, Dudley (1864–1958) British: Admiral Sir Dudley De Chair, KCB, KCMG. He also held the DSM (USA) and the Légion d’Honneur. His most valuable work was in command of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, 1914–16. This squadron, made up of older ships and armed merchant cruisers applied the distant blockade in northern waters, which effectively prevented Germany from receiving vital supplies from overseas. He joined the RN in 1878; 1885, Lieutenant; 1897, Commander; 1902, Captain; 1912, Rear-Admiral; 1917, Vice-Admiral; 1920, Admiral. As a Midshipman, he was serving ashore in 1882 during the revolt of Arabi Pasha, when he was captured by Egyptian cavalry, and only released six weeks later when Cairo was taken. He qualified in torpedo, spending much time instructing in the school, HMS Vernon. He later served for three years as attaché in Washington. He commanded the cruisers Bacchante and Cochrane, and then became JELLICOE’S Assistant Controller, 1908–11. In 1912, he became Naval Secretary to the First Lord, CHURCHILL, but relinquished the post in June 1914, to go to sea in command of the 10th Cruiser Squadron. Their task was to maintain the blockade of Germany between the Shetlands and Norway; to use modern phraseology, a 24/7 job, in all weathers: very few ships evaded the blockade, and diplomacy was needed because of neutral sensibilities. De Chair was awarded the KCB for his services. In 1917, when commanding the third Battle Squadron, he was asked by WEMYSS to join the Board of Admiralty, but refused, because of the shabby way Jellicoe had been treated. He was promoted Admiral in 1920, and became Governor of New South Wales, 1923–30.

Decrès, Denis (1761–1820) French: vice amiral, le duc Decrès. He was, by the standards of the French revolutionary navy, an experienced officer who became Napoleon’s Navy Minister, 1801–1814, and during the 100 days in 1815.


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Decres entered the navy in 1779; 1782, enseigne de vaisseau (promoted for his conduct at the battle of the Saintes); 1786, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1793, capitaine de vaisseau; 1798, contre-amiral; 1804, vice-amiral. His early career was all in the West Indies and North America. In 1793 he received his first command, the Cybèle, and had some small successes against Mahratta pirates in the Indian Ocean. On his return to France in 1794, Decres was arrested and dismissed as a ‘noble’, but was swiftly reinstated. In 1798 he commanded the frigates attached to BRUEYS’S squadron, and took no part in the battle of the Nile (Aboukir). He succeeded in reaching Malta, and commanded the seamen ashore during the siege (see BALL). He tried to escape from there in the Guillaume Tell, 80, one of the two French battleships to escape from the Nile. But she was taken, after a most spirited defence lasting eight hours (see BLACKWOOD), and Decres became a prisoner. During his long period as Navy Minister, he showed himself to be a brilliant administrator, reorganizing the naval commands, and instituting an effective building programme, so that, by 1814, the French navy still numbered 73 shipsof-the-line. However, he was less successful in his appointment of fleet commanders, and the British stranglehold meant that little was done by the fleet. He was rewarded with an imperial dukedom in 1813. He died following an attempted assassination by his valet in 1820.

Denfeld, Louis E. (1891–1972) US: Admiral. He was the CNO during the Navy’s contentious political conflict with the Air Force, newly established as a separate military service, following WW2. The ongoing disputes over missions and funding were marked by the ‘revolt of the admirals’ in 1949. He was appointed to the Navy’s senior uniformed position in February 1947, and he fought budget and mission cuts in the face of Air Force efforts to increase its missions at the expense of the Navy. One of the points he considered crucial was the issue of the Navy’s nuclear warfare role. The centrepiece of the Navy advocated by Denfeld was the large-deck aircraft carrier, epitomized by the USS United States. This first of a class of so-called super carriers was in the early construction process, when it was cancelled by Secretary of Defense JOHNSON in April 1949. Denfeld had not been notified of the cancellation prior to its public announcement, and he immediately became more aggressive in support of naval aviation. His efforts were supported by a handful of his staff, some more and some less aggressive in their efforts. Among those who fought hard on the issue, while managing some degree of discretion, was Captain Arleigh BURKE, who eventually became CNO himself. When Denfeld unequivocally testified in Congress about the Navy’s objection to reductions in its missions and forces, Johnson reversed his decision to reappoint him for the usual second term as CNO. Johnson and President Truman in effect fired Denfeld. His positions were vindicated during the Korean War, 1950–53, and other ‘limited’ wars which followed. He was a member of the USNA class of 1912; his senior assignments during WW2 and prior to appointment as uniformed head of the Navy included: CoS for Commander


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Atlantic Fleet, Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Commander Battleship Division Nine, head of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, and C-in-C Pacific.

Dennison, Robert L. (1901–80) US: Admiral. He commanded the US naval forces in the Atlantic during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Units of that fleet, organized as Task Force 136, established and carried out the ‘naval quarantine’ ordered by President KENNEDY. After allowing an ongoing sealift of missiles and other military equipment that had been monitored by air and ground intelligence, to go on for months, the ‘quarantine’ was officially established on 22 October. In addition to monitoring movements of surface ships, Atlantic Fleet units were responsible for detecting and monitoring Soviet submarines in the area. The event was characterized by micromanagement of military missions by the President and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Although the Soviet missiles were removed, the communist regime of Cuba was secured, resulting in several decades of active efforts by that government to destabilize other governments in Latin America. Dennison also was Commander of the Atlantic Fleet during the disastrous 1960 Bay of Pigs invasion by Cuban insurgents seeking to overthrow Fidel Castro. As with the Cuban Missile Crisis, US military forces were directly managed by President Kennedy and Secretary McNamara. Between 1960 and 1963 Dennison was C-in-C of the NATO Atlantic Command and Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, in addition to Commander US Atlantic Fleet. Prior to that combined command, he commanded the battleship USS Missouri, 1947–48, was naval aide to President Truman, 1948–53, commanded Cruiser Division Four, 1953–54, directed the Strategic Plans Division of the Office of the CNO, 1954–56, commanded the First Fleet, 1956–58, was Deputy CNO for Plans and Policy, 1958–59 and was C-in-C Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean until 1960. He was a member of the USNA class of 1923 and qualified as a submarine officer in 1925. He held a Master of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University and an engineering Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Dennison retired from active duty in May 1963.

De Ruyter, Michel (1607–76) Dutch: Admiral. There is no doubt that De Ruyter was the foremost sea-commander of his day. Between 1651 and his death, he was almost continuously at sea in the service of the Dutch state. From humble beginnings, he worked his way up in the merchant service, voyaging from Greenland to the Magellan Straits. In 1641 he was given command of a small


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squadron to assist the Portuguese in their fight against Spain, but then spent the next nine years in command of merchant ships, mostly trading to the Levant and West Indies. Such voyages were rarely peaceful, since he had to contend with Algerine pirates in the Mediterranean, and run the gauntlet of Dunkirk pirates in the Channel. In 1652, at the start of the First Anglo-Dutch War, he became second-in-command to Marten TROMP, but also had a battle of his own, when his squadron assaulted Sir George AYSCUE’S squadron off Plymouth, and repulsed it. He played a significant part in all the battles of this war. In 1654 he became Vice-Admiral of Holland, and was employed in escorting Dutch trade—which involved fighting almost as a matter of course. In 1656, he commanded a fleet sent to the Baltic to keep the Sound clear for merchant ships in the war between Sweden and Poland. He then went back to the Mediterranean to conclude a treaty with the Moors, and thence to join Admiral Obdam in blockading Portugal (Holland was now fighting Portugal). In 1659 he was given command of a Dutch fleet supporting the Danes, and was made a peer of Denmark for his services after the capture of Nyborg. The start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1664 found him in the Mediterranean again, trying to pin down the pirates on the Barbary coast. He was ordered to sail to West Africa to re-take the Dutch possessions taken by HOLMES, which he did in short order. In 1666 he gained a decisive victory in the Four Days’ Fight. He was less successful six weeks later in the St James’s Day battle, but brought his ships back safely. In 1667 he led the Dutch fleet in their successful attack on the Medway, and then blockaded the south coast of England as far west as Plymouth, equally successfully. In 1672 the final phase of the Anglo-Dutch wars started, and De Ruyter, now aged sixty-five, led the Dutch fleet in four major battles. None resulted in a tactical victory for the Dutch, but as MAHAN said of first battle of Schooneveldt, ‘The affair was indecisive, if a battle can be so called in which an inferior force attacks a superior, inflicts an equal loss, and frustrates the main object of the enemy’. Strategically, De Ruyter prevented the English and French from reinforcing the French armies on shore. In 1675 he was sent to the Mediterranean, where he fought DUQUESNE twice, off Sicily. In the second engagement, off Augusta, he was wounded in the foot, and died from his wound, respected by his enemies as much as by his own countrymen.

Dewey, George (1837–1917) US: Admiral of the Navy. He commanded the victorious naval force at the battle of Manila Bay in May 1898 during the Spanish-American war. He hoisted his commodore’s flag in USS Olympia at Nagasaki, Japan, in January 1898, and a month later moved his squadron to Hong Kong. In April he sailed for Manila Bay, with orders to ‘capture…or destroy’ the Spanish force there. The Spanish, facing a more modern and more heavily-gunned squadron, chose to fight from their anchorage. At 0540 on 1 May, Dewey gave the order to Olympia’s captain: ‘You may fire when you are ready, Gridley’. By noon the Spanish


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force was completely destroyed. Two weeks after that action he was promoted to Rear Admiral, and in March 1899 he was advanced to Admiral. Dewey graduated from the USNA in 1858, and during his early career served in the Mediterranean, the West Indies, and in the Gulf of Mexico. He fought in the American Civil War battle of New Orleans in April 1862, contributing to a Union victory that was pivotal in the defeat of the Confederacy. Dewey taught at the USNA, 1867–70, and commanded the sloop USS Narragansett in the Pacific, 1870–71 and 1873–75. He advanced to Captain in September 1884. Significant shore duty assignments and additional sea duty led up to his promotion to Commodore and command of the Asiatic Squadron in 1898. He was named C-in-C of the Asiatic Squadron by President Theodore ROOSEVELT in November 1897. In March 1900 he was named President of the newly established General Board of the Navy, serving in that position until his death, just prior to US entry into WWl. In March 1903 Congress created a unique rank in USN history, promoting him to Admiral of the Navy. In 1913 he published his Autobiography of George Dewey.

De Wolf, Harry George (1903–2000) Canadian: Vice-Admiral, CBE, DSO, DSC, CD. He was one of the tiny core of pre-war officers in the RCN around whom the vast expansion in the war years took place, and was particularly noted for his command of HMCS Haida, during the latter years of WW2. He entered the RCN via the Royal Naval College of Canada, and served with the RN as a Midshipman and Sub-Lieutenant; 1926, Lieutenant; 1940, Commander; 1944, Captain; 1948, Rear-Admiral; 1956, Vice-Admiral. After specializing as a navigator (1927) he served in Canadian destroyers, and attended the RN Staff College, and again served with the RN in the Mediterranean, as Staff Officer Operations, 1st Cruiser Squadron in HMS London. He commanded HMCS St Laurent, 1939–41, and took part in the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk (1940). He commanded HMCS Haida in Eastern Atlantic waters, 1943–44. Haida was involved in the battle of the North Cape (1943) when the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was sunk. In April/June 1944, Haida sank three German destroyers and a Uboat in four separate actions. In 1945 De Wolf was in charge of the completion for service of the RCN’s two aircraft carriers, HMCS Warrior and HMCS Magnificent. He completed his career as CNS, 1956–60.


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Dönitz, Karl (1891–1980) German: GroEadmiral. He commanded the German U-boat arm throughout WW2, in all theatres of war, and became C-in-C of the DKM in 1943 on the resignation of RAEDER. Finally, he was nominated by Hitler as his successor, and became the Fiihrer of the German Reich for a fortnight after Hitler’s suicide, April-May 1945. He entered the KM in 1910; 1916, Oberleutnant Zur See; 1928, Korvetten-kapitän; 1933, Fregattenkapitän; 1935, Kapitän Zur See; 1939, Konteradmiral; 1942, Admiral; 1943, GroBadmiral. He joined the cruiser SMS Breslau in 1912, and was serving in her at the outbreak of WW1: he was nominally lent to the Turkish navy when Breslau was sold to Turkey, and saw action in the Black Sea. Dönitz was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class after an action with the Russian Imperatriza Maria. He returned to Germany in 1916 to train for service in U-boats: he was briefly Torpedo Officer of U-39, then took command of UC-25 in the Mediterranean in 1918. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Hohenzollern for a bold attack inside Augusta harbour in Sicily. He took command of UB-86 in August 1918: she was sunk under him (October 1918) and he became a PoW in England. After repatriation he formed one of the nucleus of officers for the reborn German navy: he commanded the 4th Torpedo Boat half flotilla in 1928, and the cruiser Emden, in 1934. In 1935 he was appointed Führer der U-boote, in charge of all aspects of the German undersea arm. In October 1939 he was appointed Befehlshaber (C-in-C) der U-boote. So far as Dönitz was concerned, the war against Great Britain would be won by destruction of her trade and merchant shipping, concentrating on the North Atlantic supply routes, and using ‘wolf-pack’ tactics practised before the war. Although in 1941–42 the Germans enjoyed considerable success, the odds—economically, materially and organizationally— were against them, and by the end of 1943 the battle was lost, as evidenced by the virtually unhindered build-up of Allied troops in Britain for the Normandy invasion. In January 1943 he became C-in-C of the fleet in succession to Raeder, with a policy to pursue the U-boat war to the end, as being the only way that Germany could hope to slow the Allied war effort. Although never a member of the National Socialist Party, he saw himself as a loyal servant of the German state, and unhesitatingly supported Hitler throughout the war. Consequently, when reality finally caught up with Hitler in March/April 1945, it was Donitz whom he appointed as his successor. Donitz became Reichsführer on 30 April 1945; authorized the unconditional surrender of all German forces on 7 May; and was arrested, and his provisional government dismissed, on 23 May. At the Nuremberg trials in late 1945, Donitz was charged and found guilty on counts of preparing for aggressive war and of participation in war crimes, particularly on the high seas. This latter related to the deliberate killing of survivors by U-boat crews (not a


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general practice, but it did happen). He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. From his release in 1956 to his death, he lived quietly in retirement. Both his sons were killed serving in the Kriegsmarine, and his daughter married a Uboat officer, HESSLER.

Doolittle, James (1896–1993) US: General. He led the surprise raid from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet against Tokyo and other Japanese cities in 1942. The raid was launched in April 1942, four months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The sixteen twin-engine North American B-25 Mitchell bombers, designed to operate from land runways, were launched in rough seas, at a range that barely allowed for the raid and crash landings in China after the raid. All aircraft reached their targets and most of the pilots were able to reach China. Those who were captured by the Japanese were treated harshly; some were executed. The raid had limited strategic importance but had an important psychological impact on US and Japanese military forces and civilians. The attack convinced Japanese war planners that they had to expand their geographic control in the Pacific, an effort that resulted in the pivotal Japanese defeat at the battle of Midway in June 1942. After the raid, Doolittle advanced from Lieutenant Colonel to Brigadier General and received the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor. He entered the Army Air Force during WW1, and was a pioneer in aviation development between world wars, establishing a number of flight records. He commanded the Army Air Force units at the invasion of North Africa and the Eighth Air Force at the Normandy invasion, and later in Okinawa. He was promoted to Major General in November 1942 and Lieutenant General in March 1944. He retired from active army duty in 1946 and remained active in corporate, military, and aviation affairs until his death.

Doorman, Karel (1889–1942) Dutch: Schout-by-nacht (Rear-Admiral). In 1941 he was the senior Dutch admiral afloat in the Dutch East Indies, and in face of the coming Japanese onslaught was given command of a scratch collection of warships, Dutch, American, Australian and British, to attempt to hold back the Japanese. His flagship, the cruiser De Ruyter, was sunk, and he lost his life, in the battle of the Java Sea in February 1942. He joined the Dutch Naval Institute in 1906; 1912, Luitenant ter zee; 1933, Kapitein Luitenant ter zee; 1937, Kapitein ter zee; 1940, Schout-by-nacht. After serving in the East Indies, 1910–13, he qualified as a naval aviator (1915), and commanded two naval air stations, 1917–21. His flying career seems to have been


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eventful—he is said to have survived thirty-three emergency landings. After staff training, he went to sea as Gunnery Officer of the Zeven Provinciën in 1926, but always came back to naval aviation. He held a series of sea commands throughout the 1930s; a minelayer, and two destroyers, the Witte de With, and Evertsen, and two cruisers, the Java and Sumatra. In 1938 he took command of the Naval Air Arm in the Netherlands East Indies (an entirely shore-based force), and in 1940, at the fall of Holland, became de facto C-in-C of the Dutch fleet. The Allies were totally unprepared for the Japanese assaults in December 1941, and although Doorman’s scratch force was, on paper, quite strong, it was handicapped by lack of air cover, and incompatible communications. In three days fighting, from 27 to 29 February 1942, the Allied force was virtually wiped out, Doorman’s ship being torpedoed on the first day. The RNlN named its two successive aircraft carriers after him, and he was awarded the highest Dutch military order, the Militaire Willemsorde, Third Class.

Douglas, Charles (1730?–89) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Douglas, Bt. He introduced a number of innovations in gunnery in the late eighteenth century, which were largely responsible for the Royal Navy’s superiority in gunnery in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. 1753, Lieutenant; 1759, Commander; 1761, Captain; 1787, Rear-Admiral. He commanded the Boscawen, 16, during the operations in the St Lawrence, 1759. He commanded Unicorn, 28, and later, Syren, 20, during the latter years of the Seven Years’ War, and (an indication of his capability and ‘interest’) was employed for most of the ten years of peace which followed, moving up from the Emerald, 32, to the St Albans, 64. During the Wars of the American Revolution, he was back off North America, commanding the Isis, 50, and after an abortive attempt in 1775 (thwarted by ice) he succeeded the next summer in bringing reinforcements and stores to Quebec, which was besieged by continental forces. (Baronetcy 1777). He was at the battle of Ushant (1778) in command of the Stirling Castle, 64, and supported Augustus KEPPEL in the resulting court-martial. He then commanded the Duke, 98, and it was in her that he introduced his improvements in gunnery, which were promptly accepted by the Admiralty (showing itself to be less hide-bound than is usually imagined). His particular innovations were the use of the flint-lock and goose-quill primer for firing the guns, at once more reliable and instantaneous than match or linstock; and the use of flannel instead of paper for the powder cartridge, which removed the need to worm the gun to remove the unburnt base of the cartridge after each firing, thus speeding up the rate of fire. RODNEY took him as his Captain of the Fleet (CoS) in the Formidable in 1781, and ensured that the improvements were applied in the ships of the West Indies squadron which defeated the French at the battle of the Saintes in April 1782, where a combination


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of effective gunnery and tactical innovation produced the first conclusive result from a formal sea battle for many years. Douglas was Commodore and C-in-C at Halifax, 1783.

Doyle, James H. (1897–1982) US: Vice Admiral. He was the commander at the Inchon amphibious assault during the Korean War. On 15 September 1950, a battalion of the First Marine Division landed at Wolmi-do, the heavily fortified island that guarded the entrance to Inchon harbour. Twelve hours later a combined landing force, including US Marines and Army units, plus South Korean Marines, took the town, turning the tide of the Korean War. Doyle, calling on his WW2 amphibious experience in the Pacific, hastily gathered the Navy amphibious force, which was designated Task Force 90. The fleet he commanded included more than 200 ships for the assault ordered by General MacArthur. The successful operation was credited with avoiding a military catastrophe for US, South Korean and UN military forces. The success of the landing was particularly noteworthy in amphibious warfare annals because of the technical difficulties associated with the landing area. Those difficulties included a restricted approach that was easy to mine, a tidal range of 32ft and a complete lack of the kind of beach normally required by the USN amphibious doctrine at the time. Doyle graduated from the USNA in 1919, and in 1929 earned a law degree from George Washington University. During WW2 in the Pacific he was involved in the initial US amphibious assault of the war in the Solomon Islands, and subsequently commanded the cruiser USS Pasadena. He retired from active duty in 1953, following the Korean War. After his re tirement from the Navy he entered the practice of law. The frigate USS Doyle was named in his honour.

Drake, Francis (1540?–96) English: admiral. Sir Francis Drake. He is best known for his circumnavigation of the world, 1577–80, the second recorded man to do so, and for his part in the war against Spain in the 1580s. He was primarily an adventurer, with an eye to the main chance, but his skill, daring and aggression made him an effective commander at sea. Drake learnt seamanship in the North Sea in the 1560s, and commanded a small ship in HAWKINS’S expedition to Central America in 1567. In 1572 he sailed in command of his own squadron to Nombre de Dios and the Isthmus of Panama, where he exacted revenge for the wrongs done to Hawkins’s men five years earlier, and became the first Englishman to set eyes on the Pacific Ocean.


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After taking a small part in the English campaign in Ireland in 1575, Drake prepared a squadron to attack Spanish trade in the Pacific. Since war had not been declared, this was tantamount to piracy, but it is almost certain that he had Queen Elizabeth’s tacit agreement. His voyage was successful in that he robbed the Spanish, and disrupted their Pacific trade, which carried the specie for the King of Spain’s treasury. He enriched himself in the process, as well as completing a voyage without precedent: Magellan’s voyage (1519–22), though equally hazardous in navigational terms, had at least been made through ‘friendly’ waters. Returning in 1580, he was knighted, and the Queen rejected Spanish protests about his actions. Drake was intermittently employed as Admiral of the Narrow Seas, suppressing piracy in the North Sea and English Channel. In 1585, he sailed as admiral of another expedition against the Spanish colonies on the eastern American seaboard: this was less financially successful, but still disrupted Spanish trade, at a time when King Philip was starting to build up the Armada to attack England. The expedition ended with his bringing back the colonists who had been planted in Virginia the previous year, only six weeks before the ship, commanded by GRENVILLE, which was bringing them stores, arrived. In 1587 Drake was given command of a strong squadron to make a pre-emptive strike against the preparations for the Armada. The Queen had second thoughts, and countermanded the orders, but too late; and the raid on Cadiz and the Tagus was viciously effective. In 1588, Drake was vice-admiral of the English fleet under Charles HOWARD, and led the fleet in the decisive attack off Gravelines, which finally forced the Armada to abandon its purpose. In 1594, he was ordered by the Queen to take command of a further expedition to the West Indies, with Hawkins as his vice-admiral, a reversal of their roles thirty years earlier. This time the Spaniards were prepared, and the expedition was no more than partially successful. Worn out by frustration and suffering from dysentery, Drake died at sea off Porto Bello.

Drax see PLUNKETT Ducasse, Jean-Baptiste (c.1645–1715) French: lieutenant-général. He was one of Louis XIV’s more energetic and skilful seacommanders, who also served Philip V of Spain (Louis’s ally) during the War of the Spanish Succession.


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His first years at sea were spent as a merchant trading to West Africa (and, as a sideline, fighting the Dutch); 1686, lieutenant de vaisseau in the royal navy; 1689, capitaine de frégate; 1701, chef d’escadre; 1707, lieutenant-général. He took part in a number of expeditions in the West Indies, 1689–91, with only partial success. He became Governor of Santo Domingo in 1692, and success fully raided Jamaica, and repulsed an English attack on Leogane. In 1697 he and Pointis carried out a successful raid on the Spanish port of Cartagena (now in Colombia). In 1701 he was sent to Spain to negotiate the treaty called the Asiento, which ‘stitched up’ the profitable slave trade between West Africa (a French sphere of influence) and the Spanish colonies. He was appointed Captain-General by Philip V of Spain, and, in command of the Heureux, 68, proceeded to the West Indies, where he found Benbow’s squadron off Cartagena. The ensuing action is rightly seen as a victory by the French. Ducasse wrote to Benbow after the action, Sir, I had little hope, on Monday last, but to have supped in your cabin: but it pleased God to order it otherwise. I am thankful for it. As for those cowardly captains who deserted you, hang them up; for by God, they deserve it. He commanded the van at the battle of Malaga (1704), where he was wounded. After promotion, he carried out several successful escort missions for the Spanish, ensuring the supply of specie which kept Phillip’s war-chest supplied throughout the long-drawn out war.

Duckworth, John (1748–1817) British: Admiral Sir John Duckworth, Bt, KB. In military terms he was a successful admiral; his victory off San Domingo in 1806 was, proportionately, the most complete of the Napoleonic Wars. But he was a prickly and controversial character, who displayed a cavalier disregard of regulations from time to time. He entered the navy under BOSCAWEN in 1759; 1771, Lieutenant; 1779, Commander; 1780, Captain; 1799, Rear-Admiral; 1804, Vice-Admiral; 1810, Admiral. Duckworth, aged eleven, was present at both the battles of Lagos and Quiberon Bay. In 1777 he was First Lieutenant in the Diamond, 32: in firing a salute at Rhode Island, one gun was carelessly left loaded, and the shot hit a merchantman, killing five men. A court-martial of the First Lieutenant and the gunners was ordered, but they were acquitted; under controversial circumstances a re-trial was ordered, but the officers of the court refused to convict: a third trial produced the same result. In 1779, he was present at BYRON’S action off Grenada, and shortly afterwards was promoted. At the outbreak of war in 1793 he commanded the Orion, 74, and at the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794 he was one of those singled out by HOWE for commendation, and received a gold medal. In 1798, as a commodore, he was given a


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squadron to convoy troops to Minorca, and to support the shore operations. These were successfully completed, and the General in command given the KB: Duckworth felt he deserved at least a baronetcy, but his C-in-C, ST VINCENT, felt otherwise, and he got nothing. After further promotion, he commanded the squadron blockading Cadiz in 1801. Here he had the good fortune to meet a large and rich Spanish convoy, and captured most of it: his share of the prize money was said to be £75,000. He then became C-in-C Leeward Islands, where, at the time of the Armed Neutrality (1801), he took the colonies belonging to Denmark and Sweden. This time he got a reward, the KB. In 1803, he returned to that station, where his squadron forced the surrender of the French army in San Domingo. In 1805 he was in trouble again. He was court-martialled for using the frigate Acasta, in which he returned to England, as a merchant ship, to his considerable profit. Once again, he got away with it. In November 1805, from his station off Cadiz, he chased a French squadron of equal force, but they escaped: being short of water, he made for the West Indies, and there he met them, and off San Domingo, with seven ships-of-the-line, the biggest a 74, he destroyed the five French ships-of-the-line (one of 120 guns). He got a gold medal and sundry other valuable rewards, but no official honour, which his second-and third-incommand did: once again he felt slighted. In 1807, in the Mediterranean, he was ordered to Constantinople, under contradictory and unclear orders. He penetrated the Dardanelles, and destroyed a squadron of Turkish frigates, but could not achieve the full aim, and his squadron was badly mauled on its return. But his conduct was approved by his C-in-C, COLLINGWOOD. Duckworth was a successful and popular Governor of Newfoundland, 1810–13, receiving a baronetcy in 1813. His last appointment was as C-in-C Plymouth in 1817, and he died in post.

Duerk, Alene B. (1920-) US: Rear Admiral. She was the first woman in the USN to reach the rank of Rear Admiral. During her career she advanced the professional proficiency of Navy nurses by emphasizing concentration in specialties and strict educational requirements. She was the first Nurse Corps officer assigned as Special Assistant in the office of the Secretary of the Navy, serving in that position 1966–67. She was promoted to Captain in 1967, and after duty as Chief of Nursing Service Great Lakes Naval Hospital, she served as Director Navy Nurse Corps, 1970–75. In June 1972 she was promoted to Rear Admiral. Duerk received her nurse diploma from Toledo Hospital School of Nursing in 1941, and entered the Navy Nurse Corps as a reservist in 1943. After service in a series of naval hospitals, she joined the staff of the hospital ship USS Benevolence, which was involved in the evacuation of United States and Allied prisoners of war from Tokyo at the end of WW2. After leaving active duty following WW2, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Western Reserve University. In 1951, during the Korean War, she was recalled to active duty and served in a series of increasingly important assignments in the US and


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overseas, leading to advancement to Captain and selection to head the US Navy Nurse Corps. Following retirement from active duty in 1975 she served as a member of the board of directors of United Services Life Insurance Company and the Visiting Nurses Association and Foundation of Central Florida.

Duff, Alexander (1862–1933) British: Admiral Sir Alexander Duff, GCB, GBE, KCVO. He had charge of the antisubmarine division of the naval staff in the Admiralty, 1916–17, a period when the German U-boat menace came close to destroying Britain’s ability to wage war. He went on to become ACNS with a remit which covered all aspects of undersea warfare, and his work in defeating the U-boats was recognized by promotion and the award of a knighthood (KCB, 1918.) He joined the RN in 1875; 1884, Lieutenant; 1897, Commander; 1902, Captain; 1913, Rear-Admiral; 1918, Vice-Admiral; 1921, Admiral. Duff qualified in torpedo, which then covered not only torpedoes, but all under-water weapons, and more importantly, electrical generation and distribution in ships. As a Captain, he served for three years, 1906–08, as the Naval Assistant to the Controller, which made use of his considerable technical ability. In 1914, he was a RearAdmiral in the Grand Fleet, and JELLICOE appointed him to take charge of experiments in the defence of warships against underwater weapons, which led to the introduction of the paravane. He was present at Jutland, and shortly afterwards, Jellicoe, who recognized his qualities, took him with him to the Admiralty to direct the anti-submarine war. After the war he was appointed C-in-C China, and during that appointment he was the first to recommend the establishment of a main fleet base at Singapore.

Duff, George (1764?–1805) and Norwich (1794–1862) British: Captain and Vice-Admiral, father and son. Their careers were not particularly distinguished, but the interest lies in two letters they wrote, before and after the battle of Trafalgar. Norwich, then aged eleven, was a captain’s servant (effectively a junior midshipman) aboard his father’s ship, the Mars, 74. Just before the battle, George wrote to his wife: My Dearest Sophia, I have just time to write these few lines to say that we are going into action with the Combined [fleets of France and Spain]. I hope and trust in God that we shall do our duty as becomes us, and that I


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shall have the happiness of again holding my beloved wife and children in my arms. Norwich is quite well; I have however sent him off the quarterdeck. Ever yours affectionately, George Duff He was killed in the battle, and his son had to write home: My dearest Mama, you cannot possibly imagine how unwilling I am to commence this melancholy letter, but as you must unavoidably hear of the death of poor papa, I write you these lines to ask you bear it as bravely as you can…. He died as a hero, and his memory will ever be dear to his King and country. George’s letter was clearly written in a hurry, whereas Norwich’s was written in clear copperplate, between faintly ruled lines. It was so neatly written that one imagines that someone stood over him, to see that he wrote well—probably the First Lieutenant, whose own short note to Mrs Duff was written on the reverse of Norwich’s letter. Together, they form a poignant and enduring reminder of the folly of war. George Duff: 1779, Lieutenant; 1790, Commander; 1793, Captain. He was present, under RODNEY, at the ‘moonlight battle’ off Cape St Vincent in 1780, and then at all the actions in the West Indies, 1781–82. In 1800 he was commanding the Glenmore, 36, escorting a convoy in the North Atlantic, and recaptured the British East Indiaman Calcutta from two French frigates which had just captured her. Norwich Duff: 1811, Lieutenant; 1814, Commander; 1822, Captain; 1852, RearAdmiral; 1857, Vice-Admiral. Norwich Duff was a Master’s Mate in the Active, 38, at the battle of Lissa (see HOSTE). He became Flag Lieutenant to Sir Alexander COCHRANE in North America and was promoted into the Espoir, 18, taking part in operations against Washington, Baltimore and New Orleans.

Duguay-Trouin, René (1673–1736) French: lieutenant-général. From 1691 to 1697 he pursued a successful career as a privateer captain. After entering Louis XIV’s royal navy, he continued to wage war on British trade, with considerable success. His finest (and most profitable) achievement was the capture of Rio de Janeiro in 1711. He went to sea at the age of sixteen, but by the age of eighteen had his first privateer command. In 1694 he was wounded and captured, but seduced a young English girl, who helped him to escape. Two years later he attacked a Dutch squadron, and took three ships of war and twelve merchantmen. This brought him the king’s commission as capitaine de frégate. The War of the Spanish Succession (1702–13) brought him many opportunities,


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and scarcely a year went by without a major capture: in all, he took sixteen warships and over 300 merchantmen. He was promoted capitaine de vaisseau in 1707. His attack on Rio, with a small squadron, was in revenge for the murder of a capitaine Duclerc. He received a huge ransom for the town, with five warships and sixty merchantmen taken or destroyed. The end of the war left him with little to do. His last service, after promotion to lieutenant-général in 1728, was to command a squadron ordered to bombard Tripoli, part of the unending war waged by most European navies against the North African pirates.

Duhamel du Monceau, Henri (1700–82) French: polymath and savant who made a particular study of all aspects of ship design. He was the theoretician behind the practical work of the OLLIVIER family. His first interests, as a landowner, were botany and agronomy, but MAUREPAS, recognizing his wide-ranging abilities, made him Inspector-General in 1738. He travelled widely in France, and briefly in England, reporting on and recommending the better and more economical use of facilities and materials. He took a particular interest in the dockyard at Rochefort. In 1741 he started the first school for ship design, which developed, in 1765, into the School of Naval Engineering, of which he remained director until his death. The work of the school, for which he wrote many textbooks, produced the shipwrights who built the revolutionary navy. Although their record of victories might be short compared to the British, the quality of their ships was envied by their opponents.

Dumont d’Urville, Jules (1790–1842) French: contre-amiral, chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. He was a noted geographer, hydrographer and naturalist, who made three major voyages of exploration, 1822–25, 1826–29 and 1837–40. Dumont d’Urville entered the navy in 1807; 1812, enseigne de vaisseau; 1821, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1825, capitaine de frégate, 1829, capitaine de vaisseau; 1840, contre-amiral. He took no part in any engagements in the last years of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1816 he was appointed to the Chevrette, surveying in the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. During the course of this voyage he visited the Greek island of Milos, where he saw the


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newly discovered statue of Venus. His enthusiastic report to the French ambassador at Constantinople persuaded the latter to buy the statue for France. Dumont’s first voyage was as second-in-command to Duperrey, on a round-the-world voyage in the Coquille, when, as the expedition’s naturalist, he brought back some 3,000 plants, and 11,000 insects, mostly unknown to science. The following year he was given command of the same ship, now re-named Astrolabe, to search for LAPÉROUSE. He made a wide sweep through the southwest Pacific, erected a monument to Lapérouse, and returned with another enormous haul of botanical and zoological specimens, and sixtyfive new charts of the area. But his arguments and complaints against the scientific establishment resulted in his being sidelined until, in 1837, he persuaded the authorities to send him out again in the Astrolabe. This time he circumnavigated the world again, and once more brought back an enormous amount of scientific material. Dumont was awarded a Gold Medal by the Geographic Society. He, and his wife and child, died in the first railway accident in France in 1842.

Dunbar-Nasmith, Martin see NASMITH Duncan, Adam (1731–1804) British: Admiral Viscount Duncan of Camperdown. He was the victor of the battle of Camperdown against the Dutch in 1797. This effectively disposed of the Dutch navy as a potential ally for France, and also showed the British public that the mutinies earlier that year had not destroyed the power of the fleet. He entered the Navy in 1746; 1755, Lieutenant; 1759, Commander; 1761, Captain; 1787, Rear-Admiral; 1793, Vice-Admiral; 1795, Admiral. Duncan’s early years were spent under Augustus KEPPEL’S patronage, and included much action: in the Torbay, 90, he was present at the expedition to the Basque Roads (1757), the reduction of Goree (1758) and the blockade of Brest (1759). After promotion to Captain he commanded the Valiant, 74, and took part in the reduction of Belle-Isle, and the taking of Havana (1762) (see POCOCK). Thereafter he was unemployed until 1777 (his politics didn’t suit the government). In 1777 he was appointed to the Monarch, and sat on the courtsmartial of Augustus Keppel and PALLISER, At the former, he asked so many awkward but very pertinent questions that the Admiralty tried to prevent his sitting on the latter—unsuccessfully. He was present in RODNEY’S squadron at the ‘moonlight battle’ off Cape St Vincent in 1780, which was a comprehensive defeat for the inferior Spanish fleet, and ensured the relief of Gibraltar. Duncan had no appointment as a flag officer until given the command in the North Sea in 1795. His task was to keep a close blockade on the coasts of the Low Countries. The mutiny at the Nore severely affected his fleet, though his flagship, the Venerable, 74, was


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untouched, largely through Duncan’s own example; and he maintained the blockade with one other loyal ship. Luckily, the Dutch, who were supposed to be joining the projected invasion of Ireland, were unready, and by the time they were, Duncan’s fleet was back to full strength, and the weather prevented the Dutch from sailing. When they did, it was purely a token sally, but Duncan pounced, and without bothering to form line, fell on them piecemeal and destroyed them. For this he received a viscountcy. He remained in command in the North Sea until 1801.

Dunn, Robert F. (1928–) US: Vice Admiral. He has significantly advanced the role of naval history in current military analysis and planning. He was named President of the Naval Historical Foundation in 1998. While a member of the US Naval Institute Board of Trustees, he was instrumental in the creation of the Naval Institute’s seminar programme. As chairman of the Editorial Board and member of the Board of Directors of the Naval Institute, 1987–89, he led efforts to expand the base of professional writing on naval subjects. He also was interim Press Director of the Naval Institute from May to July 1993. Dunn was a member of the USNA class of 1951. His initial Navy service was in the destroyer USS Nicholas. He was designated a naval aviator in 1953, and subsequent assignments included duty as executive officer and commanding officer of attack squadron One Hundred Forty-Six, 1966–67, when he participated in 500 combat missions during the Vietnam War. Senior assignments included command of the attack aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, 1974–76, the Navy Military Personnel Command, 1980–82, the Naval Reserve, 1982–83, and the Naval Air Forces of the Atlantic Fleet, 1983–86. He was Deputy CNO for Air Warfare before his retirement from active duty in June 1989. Dunn has a master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School and has attended the UK’s Joint Services Staff College. He is a frequent writer and speaker on naval issues. He has also served as Deputy Chairman of the National Aviation and Space Agency (NASA) Safety Advisory Panel, and serves on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards of directors.

Dunning, Edwin (1888–1917) British: Flight-Commander, DSC, RNAS. He made the first successful deck-landing on a British aircraft carrier in August 1917 (but see ELY), but was killed two days later when making his third attempt. He entered the RN via Osborne and Dartmouth in 1906; 1910, Midshipman; but he seems to have left the RN shortly thereafter. He rejoined the RNAS in Oc tober 1914; 1915, Flight-Lieutenant; 1916, Flight-Commander.


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He earned his DSC while serving in the seaplane carrier HMS Ark Royal in 1915, for performing ‘exceptionally good work as a seaplane flyer, making many long flights both for spotting and for photographing’ (London Gazette, 1915). In 1917, HMS Furious, one of John FISHER’S trio of light battle cruisers, had been fitted with a flying-off deck forward, in place of one of her 18-inch guns. Dunning, flying a Sopwith Pup (a landbased fighter), made a landing by approaching from astern, and side-slipping on to the deck as he passed the bridge. The relative wind over the deck, made by the ship’s progress through the water, and the low landing airspeed of a Pup, meant that his actual speed over the deck was little more than 10–15 m.p.h. A ‘flight-deck party’ of brother officers then rushed out to bring the aircraft to a halt. On his third attempt, his speed was too high, and he went over the bows of the ship and was drowned. But from his first attempts have come the whole development of landing aircraft on to the relatively small landing deck of an aircraft carrier (see CAMBELL).

Duperré, Victor (1775–1846) French: vice-amiral baron Duperré. In 1810 French and British forces slugged it out (there is no other suitable phrase) for control of the islands of Mauritius and Reunion, then known as île de France and île de Bourbon respectively (see ROWLEY and HAMELIN). No great battlefleets were involved, but the advantage changed from side to side with bewildering swiftness, as small squadrons of frigates and corvettes fought fierce actions afloat, landed soldiers and marines and manned batteries ashore, while ships were captured and retaken. Ultimately, Mauritius surrendered to superior British forces sent from the Cape under Vice-Admiral Bertie, but the bravery and initiative displayed on both sides was of the highest standard. The series of events has been fictionalized by O’BRIAN in The Mauritius Command. Duperré was captain of the Bellone, 40, with a small squadron under him in the series of actions from June to December 1810. He went to sea in the merchant service in 1791 and shortly afterwards transferred to the navy; 1802, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1806, capitaine de frégate; 1808, capitaine de vaisseau; 1811, contre-amiral; 1823, vice-amiral. He served in the Virginie, 40, and became a PoW when she was taken by PELLEW in 1796: he was exchanged in 1798. He commanded the corvette Pélagie, 1800–03, first escorting coastal convoys in the English Channel, then off West Africa, and in the West Indies. After a fight with an English squadron off the île de Groix while commanding the Sirène, 36, he was promoted and given command of the Bellone, 40, at Mauritius. There he succeeded in capturing three East Indiamen and other merchant-men, and was part of the squadron which successfully defended Port Louis against the British, in what might be called a rerun of the battle of the Nile, with frigates instead of line-of-battleships, and the opposite result. He then (Bellone having been badly damaged) commanded the Vénus, 40, which took the Ceylon, 32, but when Mauritius fell he became a PoW again. In 1812 he commanded


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the naval forces at Venice, defending the city against the Austrians. After supporting Napoleon in 1815, he was retired, but was reemployed in 1818, commanding in the West Indies and the Atlantic, and being in command of the blockade of Cadiz during the war with Spain in 1823. Despite his antagonism to the regime of Charles X, he was given command of the naval forces involved in the expedition to Algiers in 1830, and was made a French peer (he was already an Imperial baron). He went on to be Navy Minister, 1834–36, 1839–40 and 1840–43.

Dupetit-Thouars, Abel (1793–1864) French: vice-amiral. A nephew of Aristide DUPETIT-THOUARS, he was a noted hydrographer, and while C-in-C of the Pacific Station in the 1840s established a French protectorate over the Society Islands (Tahiti). He entered the Imperial navy as a ship’s boy in 1804, on board the Flèche, 12; 1819, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1824, capitaine de frégate; 1834, capitaine de vaisseau; 1841, contre-amiral; 1846, vice-amiral. From 1816 to 1818 he was involved in surveying on the Grand Banks. After promotion he worked with Beautemps-Beaupre on surveys around the French and Algerian coasts, and commanded the Torche and Inconstant. In 1824 he was appointed to the Chart Depot: later, commanding the Griffon, he took part in the operations against Algiers in 1830, having persuaded the navy minister to make the expedition a proper amphibious one. Between 1831 and 1834 he was involved in protecting French trade and interests in Chile and Peru, for which he was rewarded by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce. He commanded the frigate Vénus, and made a global circumnavigation, 1836–39, which was notable for the scientific observations made and samples brought back. In 1841 Dupetit-Thouars became C-in-C Pacific Station with his flag in the Reine Blanche. In 1842, after taking possession of the Marquesas, he signed a treaty with Queen Pomaré, which recognized a French protectorate over the Society Islands. After an English missionary provoked incidents, Dupetit-Thouars declared Tahiti annexed to France, but this was repudiated by the home government, which feared repercussions with Great Britain. Nonetheless he was promoted vice-amiral in 1846, and became a member of the Admiralty Board in 1848.


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Dupetit-Thouars, Aristide (1760–98) French: capitaine de vaisseau. After a brief period as a sous-lieutenant in the army, he joined the navy in 1778, and straightway found himself on board the Fendant, 74, at the battle of Ushant. His death at the battle of the Nile was heroic in the extreme. In 1786 he was made lieutenant de vaisseau; 1792, capitaine de vaisseau. In 1778 he took part in actions in West Africa, and his ship joined ESTAING in Martinique in 1779. He was present at the taking of Grenada, and in the action at Savannah, and in 1780, now in GUICHEN’S squadron, was present at all three actions with RODNEY off Dominica. In rapid succession he served in the Gloire, 36, Magnifique, 74, and Couronne, 80, and took part in the battle of the Saintes. His first command was in 1786, when he carried out surveys off Greece in the Sardine, 22. In 1792, he undertook a voyage to discover what had happened to LAPÉROUSE (the French equivalent of the British expeditions to find FRANKLIN some sixty years later). In following Laperouse’s tracks, he landed in Brazil, where he was arrested on suspicion of spying, but was able to make his way to the USA, where he tried vainly to discover the Northwest Passage. Brought back into the navy by TRUGUET, he became the captain of the Franklin, 80, and then of the Tonnant, 80. In Aboukir Bay (1798) he tried to persuade BRUEYS to go to sea to meet NELSON, without success, and he died of wounds during Tonnant’s fight against odds. He had lost successively one arm, then the other, then one leg, but had himself placed in a tub of bran, whence he continued to give orders until he died from loss of blood.

Dupuy de Lôme, Stanislas (1816–85) French: naval architect. Dupuy de Lôme was the foremost naval architect of his day, and was the first to design a warship with armour-plating. He was also a pioneer in designing submersibles. He entered the naval school at Brest in 1831, and went on to the polytechnic school in 1835, passing out as a naval engineer in 1837. In 1841 he was a sub-engineer in Toulon Dockyard, and in 1842 spent a year in England studying iron ship-building. From these studies emerged his designs for the Caton and Ariel (built 1847–49), which were the first iron ships in the French Navy. In 1847 he submitted to the Navy Ministry’s ship design committee the plans for the Napoleon, the first line-of-battleship to be designed from the


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keel up to have steam machinery as her prime mover. Dupuy de Lôme also pioneered in France the transformation of the sailing battlefleet by fitting steam machinery, and he designed vessels for the merchant marine, particularly mail steamers for the Imperial Mail line. In 1857 he was the Director of Naval Construction and Equipment in the Navy Ministry in Paris, and designed the Gloire, a wooden steam-propelled battleship with 4inch armour protection, the first ‘iron-clad’. She triggered a war scare in Britain, resulting in the building of HMS Warrior, the first modern battleship (see WATTS). Dupuy de Lôme continued development work in many fields, introducing compound steam machinery in 1867, and assisting inventors with designs for submarines. During the Franco-Prussian war he was trapped in Paris, and became interested in airships (balloons were used for communication by the besieged). He later worked with the inventor ZÉDÉ to produce one of the first practical submersibles. He has been described, justifiably, as the progenitor of modern naval architecture.

Duquesne, Abraham (c.1610–88) French: lieutenant-général (and a Vice-Admiral of Sweden). He was the best French seacommander of his period, and valued as such by Louis XIV and his ministers, but he refused to abjure his Protestant faith, and so was never made vice-amiral, nor a marshal of France. He went to sea early and by the age of eighteen had been given his first command. Having been recommended to RICHELIEU, he commanded the Neptune in SOURDIS’S squadron, and distinguished himself at the capture of the îles de Lerins (1636). In 1639 he was wounded in a fight against the Spanish off Santona. He was in MAILLÉ-BRÉZÉ’S squadron, and involved in the fights off Tarragona (1641), Cap de Gata and Cartagena (1643). He then served the Swedes in their war against Denmark, becoming a ViceAdmiral. He returned to France, and took part in the blockade of Tarragona, the taking of Rosas, and the battle of Orbitello, and then went back to Sweden to buy five warships for the royal navy. After further Mediterranean campaigns, he left the sea for some ten years, but in 1663 was given command of a squadron to demonstrate before Cadiz and Tripoli. After promotion to lieutenant-général in 1667, he joined ESTRÉES on his African voyage, and then took command of the Terrible, 70, for the war with England against the Dutch. His actions at the battle of Solebay (he was a quarrelsome man, and disliked Estrees) resulted in his supersession, but as commodore of a squadron in the Mediterranean in 1675 he beat the Spanish fleet, and a year later routed a Dutch-Spanish fleet off Augusta, when DE RUYTER was killed. That same year he destroyed a Spanish fleet in Palermo harbour. His final services were from 1680 to 1684 against the Barbary pirates and Genoa, which was supplying naval equipment to Louis XIV’s enemies. A number of his descendants distinguished themselves at sea in the French service.


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Durand de la Penne, Luigi (1914–92) Italian: Honorary Ammiraglio di Squadra, and holder of the Gold Medal for Valour (the Italian equivalent of the VC). He was the senior officer leading the attack by ‘human torpedoes’ (nicknamed ‘maiali’) on the British fleet in Alexandria in 1941, when he and his diver Bianchi successfully attacked the battleship Valiant, severely damaging her, so that the balance of naval power was radically altered. He joined the Italian Naval Reserve in 1935, and was promoted to Tenente di Vascello in 1940, transferring to the regular navy in 1941. He became a qualified diver, and was involved in two other attempts by ‘maiali’ to attack the British. The first was in 1940, when the submarine Iride was sunk by Swordfish aircraft while carrying out diving trials before an attack on HMS Eagle. De la Penne rescued seven men. Later that year he participated in an abortive attack, launched from the submarine Scire, on British fleet units in Gibraltar. His ‘maiale’ was detected and damaged, and de la Penne escaped by swimming ashore. Success came in December 1941. Three teams were launched from the Scire, and made their attacks individually. Marceglia badly damaged the Queen Elizabeth, while the third maiale’s target was supposed to be an aircraft carrier, but, not finding one, they destroyed a tanker instead. De la Penne’s maiale went out of control and dropped to the bottom, but he manhandled her into position and then surfaced. He and his diver were captured and locked in Valiants cells, but refused to indicate the nature and timing of their attack until ten minutes before the charges were due to explode. The ship was evacuated, but the damage was severe, and she was out of action for three months. He was sent to a PoW camp in India, but when Italy became a cobelligerent of the Allies in 1943 he was released, and fought against the Germans, distinguishing himself in the attack on La Spezia. At the end of the war he was a Capitano di Vascello, and in a special ceremony in 1946 he was awarded the Gold Medal for his actions in Alexandria—at the insistence of the Crown Prince of Italy, the medal was presented by Vice-Admiral Morgan, who had been the captain of the Valiant in 1941, and who happened to be present. In 1954–56 Durand de la Penne was naval attaché in Brazil, and then entered politics. On reaching retirement age he was promoted to Honorary Admiral.


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E Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1890–1969) US: thirty-fourth President (1953–61). He was the US Army five-star General and Supreme Allied Commander for the Normandy invasion in June 1944, the single largest amphibious operation of the many amphibious assaults of WW2. Eisenhower was a member of the West Point class of 1915, and his pre-WW2 assignments included service on the staffs of General Pershing in WW1 and, later, General MacArthur. In November 1942 he commanded the Allied landings in North Africa. In May 1948 he accepted the presidency of Columbia University, and in 1951 he returned to Army service to become the first commander of the new NATO. In 1952 he again returned to civilian life for a successful presidential election campaign. As President he utilized the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean to support US Middle East policy, including his controversial opposition to an Anglo-French military attempt in October 1956 to regain control of the Suez Canal after its seizure by Egypt. His bestselling book about the Allied campaign in Europe during WW2, Crusade in Europe, was published in 1948.

Ellyson, Theodore G. (1885–1928) US: Commander. He was US Naval Aviator no. 1. He helped devise the landing system for the first shipboard landing of an aircraft on 18 January 1911. His system used a series of wires arranged to catch hook-like devices on the plane’s undercarriage as the aircraft touched down on a 130-ft platform constructed on USS Pennsylvania. A technologically sophisticated adaptation of Ellyson’s idea is used in aircraft carrier landings today. After graduating with the USNA class of 1905, he served in the battleship USS Missouri and the cruisers USS Pennsylvania and USS Colorado. Duty in the submarine tender USS Rainbow and the submarine USS Shark followed. In September 1910 he advanced to Lieutenant and commanded the submarine USS Tarantula. After shore duty at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company and command of the submarine


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USS Seal, Ellyson was selected to be the first naval officer to undergo training at Glen CURTISS’S flight training school at San Diego, and reported in January 1911. His work included the development of the first seaplanes and the first catapults for launching aircraft from ships. In April 1913 he returned to sea duty in battleships. In 1915 he was an instructor at the USNA, and in May 1917 he was advanced to Lieutenant Commander. During WW1 he distinguished himself in anti-submarine warfare duty, for which he earned a Navy Cross. In July 1918 he was promoted to Commander. Subsequently he advanced in the rapidly expanding field of naval aviation, until his untimely death in a plane crash on his forty-third birthday.

Elphinstone, Hon. George Keith see KEITH, VISCOUNT GEORGE Ely, Eugene (1886–1911) US: early aviation pioneer. He accomplished the first aircraft combined take-off and landing from a US warship. He was a protégé of aircraft designer Glen CURTISS, who hired him as an exhibition pilot. Ely flew in exhibition meets and competitions, and on the morning of 18 January 1911 in the harbour of San Francisco, he landed a Curtiss-built biplane on a 130-ft long wooden platform built at the stern of the anchored cruiser USS Pennsylvania. It took three attempts before he was able to land on the ship. Ely’s plane was halted by the makeshift arresting system only three feet from the canvas barrier at the end of the platform. In the afternoon of the same day he took off from the same platform, barely skimming the water before gaining altitude. In that one day Ely demonstrated the feasibility of the aircraft carrier, a naval weapons system that would soon come of age in WW2 in the Pacific. Prior to the January 1911 combined take-off and landing, he had achieved the first take-off from a ship anchored in Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 14 November 1910. In that instance he flew from a platform erected aboard the cruiser USS Birmingham. Following his historic combined landing and take-off of January 1911, he continued his pioneering flights and air show demonstrations. He was a graduate of Iowa State University, and was also an early automobile racing driver. On 11 October 1911, Ely was killed in an air show crash at Macon, Georgia.


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Enright, Joseph F. (1910–2000) US: Captain. He is credited with the most significant single submarine sinking of WW2. As captain of the submarine USS Archer fish, on 29 November 1944 he sank the then-largest aircraft carrier in the world, the Japanese Shinano, on her maiden voyage. The Shinano, displacing more than 69,000 tons, was begun as a Yamato-class battleship and converted to an aircraft carrier after Japan’s heavy carrier losses at the battle of Midway. Enright skillfully manoeuvred on the surface for six hours, finally attacking at 1,400 yards. He fired six torpedoes, scoring four hits; eight hours later Shinano sank. Enright was awarded the Navy Cross for his victory. He graduated from the USNA in 1933, and qualified as a submariner in 1936. He served in several submarines until 1942, and, as Lieutenant Commander, he captained the submarines USS 0–10 and USS Dace. In September 1944 he took command of Archerfish. Following WW2 he commanded Submarine Division 31, 1949–50, and advanced to Captain in 1952. He commanded USS Fulton, 1953–54, and Submarine Squadron 8, 1954–55. He was CoS for Commander Submarine Force, US Atlantic Fleet, 1955–57, and commanded the cruiser USS Boston, 1959–60. His post-WW2 duties also included an assignment on the staff of the CNO. He retired from active duty in 1963, and subsequently worked on the Omega navigation system at the Northrop Corporation and the Sanders Corporation. He co-authored Shinano! The Sinking of Japan’s Secret Supership in 1987.

Ericsson, John (1803–89) Swedish: Captain. He was a captain in the Swedish Corps of Mechanical Engineers, and a prolific inventor. In particular, he was an early developer of the screw propeller, and the designer of the first practical gunturret for a sea-going ship, in the USS Monitor. He went to Britain in the late 1820s, and entered a steam locomotive in the Rainhill trials against the Rocket. In 1836 he patented an improved propeller, suitable for being driven by a steam engine in ships. In 1837 this was given a trial by the Admiralty, who rejected it (but six months later they accepted a similar screw propeller, developed by Francis Petit-Smith, who was working independently of Ericsson, with whom he exchanged information). Ericsson was taken up by the American consul in Liverpool, Captain Robert Stockton, USN, who ordered an iron, screw-propelled vessel. After a successful demonstration in Britain, she was sailed to the USA, where she had a successful career as a tug. Ericsson also went to the USA, becoming a US citizen. He designed the USS Princeton for the USN, the first screw warship to go into US service, in 1843.


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In 1861 Ericsson designed the USS Monitor, to counter the ironclads being built by the Confederacy. The Monitor was little more than a large steampropelled raft, mounting an armoured revolving turret, with two 11-inch DAHLGREN guns. Her fight with the CSS Virginia in 1862 was epoch-making, but indecisive: neither ship could make any impression on the other’s armour, but the concept had been proved. It is not unfair to say that neither of these two prime examples of Ericsson’s work was his invention: both had been suggested before: but Ericsson was the first practical development engineer who made the ideas work.

Esmonde, Eugene (1909–42) British: Lieutenant Commander, VC, DSO. He was a Fleet Air Arm pilot who took part in the chase of the Bismarck, and won his VC for his gallantry in leading the attack on the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen in February 1942, losing his life in the process. Esmonde was an airman before he became a naval officer, being commissioned into the RAF in 1928. After five years he joined Imperial Airways, and became a Captain, flying ‘C’-class flying boats on the first England-Australia mail service. In 1939 he joined the Fleet Air Arm as a Lieutenant Commander. He was serving in the Courageous when she was sunk a fortnight after the start of the war, and was CO of 825 NAS, on board the Victorious, which made the first carrierborne air attack on the Bismarck, south of the Denmark Straits. They scored one hit, which ruptured one of her oil tanks, causing her to head for Brest, and eventual destruction. Esmonde was awarded the DSO, which he received from the king on 11 February 1942, the day that Admiral CILIAX led his force out of Brest. The break-out had been forecast, but the Germans’ boldness in making the dash through the Channel by day was unexpected, and there was a British reconnaissance failure. The British reaction was too little, too late, and uncoordinated (see PUMPHREY). In appalling weather, and against overwhelming opposition (the German force had good cover from the Luftwaffe), Esmonde’s six Swordfish aircraft took off to attack the Germans off Calais. None returned, and no hits were scored, though Esmonde dropped his torpedo against the Prinz Eugen. Only five out of fifteen airfields were rescued: all received gallantry medals. Esmonde’s body was recovered a week later, and he was awarded a posthumous VC.


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Estaing, Charles, comte d’ (1729–94) French: vice-amiral. He was one of Louis XVI’s less successful admirals in the War of American Independence (1775–83): he fought one major fleet action off Grenada in 1779, which could have been a French victory, but he failed to follow up his advantage, and BYRON’S fleet lived to fight another day, though badly mauled. Estaing’s early career was wholly military: between 1745 and 1763 he rose to lieutenant-général. He distinguished himself in India, especially at Arcot, but was wounded and captured during the assault on Madras. He was paroled to the île de France (Mauritius), but broke his parole, and mounted an expedition to attack the British trading stations in the Persian Gulf, and on Sumatra. While returning to France he was again captured, and imprisoned at Portsmouth, but, again, gentlemanly conventions applied and he was released. Shortly after the Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Years’ War, he was appointed lieutenant-général in the navy, which was ill received by the officer corps. His further appointment as Governor-General of the Leeward Islands and San Domingo was equally unpopular, being exacerbated by his overbearing manner. After return to France in 1766, he filled further senior naval posts, and after promotion to vice-amiral in 1777 was given command of the French squadron sent to dsupport the American rebels. But the slowness and extreme prudence of his actions allowed the British to counter virtually all his moves. He dared not enter Long Island Sound to attack New York, and an assault on Rhode Island failed when HOOD (I)’s squadron arrived. Estaing missed an opportunity on the way south, when he could have mauled a British squadron. His next attempt, to take St Lucia, failed, but he did succeed in capturing St Vincent and Grenada. Off the latter, he fought an action (1779) against Byron, in which three British warships could have been taken, but were not. Later that year, Estaing attacked Savannah, but failed again. In 1780 he was appointed C-in-C of a combined Franco-Spanish squadron for further West Indian adventures, but it came to nothing, and instead took six weeks to sail from Cadiz to Brest. Estaing died under the guillotine in the Terror.


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Estrées, Jean, comte d’, later duc d’ (1624– 1707) French: vice-amiral and maréchal de France. He was by birth Swiss, but of a French family, and all his service was under Louis XIV. The first thirty-two years of his life were spent fighting on land, and he rose to become a lieutenant-général in 1655. He was captured in 1656 at the end of the wars with Spain, and in captivity took an interest in navigation. In 1668 he joined the navy, and took part in a campaigning season afloat in the West Indies. In 1671 he was made vice-amiral of the west, and took a squadron to the west coast of Africa with DUQUESNE as his second-in-command. At the start of the war against Holland (the British Third Dutch War), he was made C-in-C of the squadron which was to form part of the Anglo-French fleet. The French were present at (some would say, in the vicinity of) three battles, Solebay (1672), Schooneveld and the Texel (1673). None was decisive as a sea-fight, though the Dutch, in preserving their fleet, prevented Louis from over-running the country on land. Estrees was seen as being an incompetent nobleman imposed on skilful, rough sailors, but his courage was not in doubt. In 1676, in the Glorieux, he went to the West Indies, where he re-took Cayenne from the Dutch (1676) and attacked and beat a Dutch squadron off Tobago (1677): he was unable to take the island, though, but made up for it by taking Goree. Later that year, in attempting to capture Curaçao, he managed, by wilful disregard of his officers’ advice, to run the whole of his squadron ashore, losing seven ships in the process. Nonetheless, he was not dismissed, but was made a Marshal of France in 1681. His sea career concluded with a campaign in the Mediterranean against the Barbary pirates, in which he bombarded Tripoli, effecting the release of many prisoners, and Algiers.

Evans, Robley D. (1846–1912) US: Rear Admiral. He commanded America’s ‘Great White Fleet’ at the beginning of its historic global circumnavigation. Evans took the fleet of sixteen battleships from Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 16 December 1907 and sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco. In the fleet he commanded were two ensigns who achieved fame in WW2, William HALSEY and Raymond SPRUANCE. En route the fleet stopped at Trinidad, Rio de Janeiro, Punta Arenas in Chile and Callao, Peru, before reaching San Francisco in May 1908. Because of ill health he was relieved in San Francisco by Rear Admiral Charles S.Sperry.


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Evans graduated from the USNA in 1863. On his way from Washington DC to establish residency in Utah in order to secure a Naval Academy appointment from that state, Indians attacked his group twice. During the fighting he received the first of his many combat wounds. In his early career he served in the West Indies, the Asiatic Station, the European Station, and the Atlantic. He fought in America’s Civil War, receiving four wounds in an amphibious assault on Fort Fisher at Wilmington, North Carolina. In July 1898 at the battle of Santiago in the Spanish-American War, he commanded the battleship USS Iowa. During the action, Iowa seriously damaged the Spanish cruisers Maria Teresa and Oquendo, assisted in the sinking of the destroyer Pluton, and drove the cruiser Viscaya and the destroyer Furor ashore. During his career he was part of the transformation of the USN from a relatively small, sail-powered fleet to the steam-driven, steel-hulled force that became a global naval factor during the presidency of Theodore ROOSEVELT. He retired from active duty in 1910. Rudyard Kipling described Evans as ‘the man who has lived more stories than… I could invent’.

Evertsen, Johan (1600–66) Dutch: Admiral. In naming a twentieth-century frigate Evertsen, the Netherlands navy was honouring not just one man, but a whole family who served the republic in war, both at sea and on land in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Johan’s fighting career started against Dunkirk pirates in 1636, went on through the battle of the Downs in 1639; the First Anglo-Dutch War; the War in the Sound; and he was killed in the Four Days’ Fight (1666). His progress was bedevilled by the inter-provincial rivalries of the Dutch Republic, in particular that between Holland, the most powerful, and Zealand. Each republic appointed its own admirals (Evertsen was the Lieutenant-Admiral of Zealand), and the States-General, as the central governing body, usually accepted the seniority of the individual republics’ officers in making the central appointments. But Evertsen, a supporter of the House of Orange, was implacably opposed by the Pensionary De Witt, and never gained his just reward. He had expected to receive overall command of the fleet after the battle of Scheveningen, but DE WITH having assumed command of the fleet de facto, Evertsen was denied. He was also, most unfairly, blamed for the defeat at Lowestoft (1665), and it was only just before his final fight that he received due recognition as second-in-command of the whole fleet, leading the van.

Exmouth see PELLEW, EDWARD


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F Fabius, Gerhardus (1806–88) Dutch: Vice-Admiraal. He was largely responsible for the initiation of the modern Japanese navy (1855–59). After going to sea aged fifteen in the merchant service, he joined the Dutch navy as a supernumerary Midshipman in 1825; 1832, Luitenant ter Zee; 1854, Kapitein Luitenant ter Zee; 1860, Kapitein ter Zee; 1864, Schout-by-nacht (Rear-Admiral). His first naval ship was the Pallas, a training corvette, learning the new technique of steam navigation. He was given command of two gunboats in the Belgian Revolt of 1830, but found that the navy offered little scope for an ambitious young man, and he returned to the merchant service, 1837–41, commanding the Dutch East Indiaman Christina Agatha. Fabius took part in the first expedition to Bali (1844) (he was awarded the Military Order of Willem I). He received his first warship command in 1849, and later commanded the steam paddle frigate Suriname, serving in the East Indies, taking part in anti-piracy patrols. In 1853 he took command of the frigate Soembing, 6, again in the East Indies. In 1854 he made his first visit to the Dutch trading station of Decima (Nagasaki) to show the flag, so successfully that he received the Order of the Dutch Lion, and was sent out again with the Dutch Military Mission in 1855, in which he taught the Japanese steam mechanics. He also spent much time advising the Japanese on the organization and equipping of their new navy. In 1860 he commanded the steam frigate Zeeland, protecting Dutch interests during the American Civil War, and in the West Indies, where he was instrumental in brokering a treaty with Venezuela over a matter of gun-running based on the Dutch island of Curagao. In 1864, he became C-in-C East Indies. He retired in 1868 as Vice-Admiraal, having spent two years in frustrating politicking over a re-structuring of the Navy.


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Farragut, David G. (1801–70) US: Admiral. He was the first flag officer in the USN. He achieved major naval victories against the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. Farragut was a Midshipman at the age of ten and served in the USS Essex, 32, during the War of 1812. In 1815 he reported to the USS Independence, 74, where he served during the Barbary Wars. Subsequently he served in David PORTER’S ‘mosquito fleet’ in the Caribbean, again fighting pirates. In 1825, after first failing his exam for promotion, he was advanced to Lieutenant. After a series of shore and sea assignments, he commanded the USS Erie, 20, 1838–39. In 1841 he commanded the USS Delaware, 86. Another series of shore and sea assignments followed, and he was promoted to Commander in September 1841 and Captain in September 1855. At the outbreak of the American Civil War he chose to fight with the Union Navy, despite the secession of his home state, Virginia, from the Union. In January 1862 he was chosen by President LINCOLN to command the Union’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron and to lead an attack from seaward against the Confederate States port of New Orleans. Farragut, in his flagship, the screw sloop USS Hartford, achieved a series of brilliant successes, resulting in the destruction of the Confederate States squadron. In July 1862 he was appointed Rear Admiral, the first US flag officer. In August 1864, again in Hartford, he led a successful attack against the Confederate port of Mobile, Alabama. In December 1864 he was advanced to Vice Admiral and in July 1866 to Admiral. He commanded the European Squadron, 1867–68. Following his diplomatically successful European command, he returned to the United States in November 1868 and died two years later during a visit to Portsmouth Navy Yard.

Fechteler, William (1896–1967) US: Admiral. He was one of the most effective WW2 US amphibious commanders, and also was a key leader of the USN’s early, as well as its post-WW2 transitions. He graduated from the USNA in 1916. After a wide variety of sea duty, he was CoS for Commander Destroyers, Battle Force Pacific, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He was promoted to Captain in February 1942 and named Assistant Director and then Director of the Officer Personnel Division, where he led the Navy’s wartime mobilization. In August 1943 he took command of the battleship USS Indiana, participating in raids on the Marcus and Gilbert Islands in November-December of that year. He advanced to Rear Admiral in January 1944 and became Deputy Commander, Seventh Amphibious Force in the southwest Pacific. Subsequently he led numerous amphibious operations as the US increased its offensive momentum towards Japan. In


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January 1945 he was appointed Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel. In January 1946 he was promoted to Vice-Admiral and named Commander, Battleships and Cruisers, Atlantic Fleet. After subsequent senior shore assignments he was promoted to Admiral and named Commander, Atlantic Fleet in February 1950. In February 1951 he became the first NATO Supreme Allied Commander, North Atlantic. That assignment was overtaken by his selection in August 1951 as CNO, when incumbent Admiral Forrest SHERMAN died in office. Fechteler led the Navy during the last two years of the Korean War, a crucial post-WW2 transition phase. In August 1953 he was named C-in-C Allied Forces Southern Europe. He retired from active duty in July 1956.

Fegen, Edward Fogarty (1891–1940) British: Acting Captain, VC. His action, in command of the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay, in defence of a convoy against the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, was in the highest tradition of the Royal Navy. Fegen, who came from an Irish family, was the son and grandson of naval officers (his father had shown great dash and bravery in hunting slave-dhows off East Africa in the 1890s). He entered the RN in 1904, one of the earliest to enter via RNC Osborne; 1913, Lieutenant; 1927, Commander; 1940, Acting Captain. He was serving in the light cruiser Amphion when she was sunk by a mine two days after the outbreak of WW1. Thereafter, his service was in destroyers, or in training establishments for young officers and sailors. He commanded the RAN College at Jervis Bay, 1926–28, and won two medals for saving life at sea. At the outbreak of WW2 he was the Executive Officer of the cruiser Emerald, but in March 1940 took command of the former Aberdeen Commonwealth Company’s liner Jervis Bay. She had been hired a month before the outbreak of WW2, was armed with eight ancient 6-inch guns, and was employed on patrol and escort duties. In November 1940 she was the sole escort to a homeward-bound convoy when the Scheer found them. Unhesitatingly, Fegen turned his ship towards the enemy, firing as he went, though outranged by the Scheer’s 11-inch guns, while the convoy made smoke and scattered. The result was inevitable: Jervis Bay was battered and sank with 180 of her 254-man crew. Fegen went with her, but time had been gained before darkness and the convoy very largely escaped: Scheer could only catch five out of the thirty-six ships.


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Felt, Harry D. (1902–92) US: Admiral. He was the senior US naval commander in the Pacific during critical Cold War periods. In July 1958 he became C-in-C US Forces in the Pacific and Far East, and US Military Advisor to the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. During that year his naval forces were a critical deterrent during the Quemoy-Matsu crises in the Formosa Strait. Felt was a 1923 graduate of the USNA, and his early career was concentrated in surface ships. In 1929 he was designated a naval aviator and began a series of shore and sea assignments in naval aviation. In January 1942 he was promoted to Commander and took command of the USS Saratoga Air Group, covering the invasion of Guadalcanal in 1942. Planes from Felt’s air group sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryujo at the battle of the Eastern Solomons in August 1942. A series of shore assignments followed, and he advanced to Captain in July 1943. In February 1945 he took command of the escort carrier USS Chenango, participating in the Okinawa invasion. After WW2 he served with the CNO, attended the US National War College, and commanded the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D.Roosevelt. He returned to the National War College in 1949 in a staff assignment, and advanced to Rear Admiral in January 1951, when he took command of the US Middle East Force. Senior shore and afloat commands followed, and in April 1956 he was promoted to Vice Admiral and commanded the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. In September 1956 he became Vice-CNO and was promoted to Admiral. He retired from active duty in July 1964.

Field, Frederick (1871–1945) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick Field, GCB, KCMG. He was 1SL at the time of the Invergordon mutiny in 1931, and must ultimately be held responsible in some measure, though the mutiny was precipitated by what would today be called a ‘leak’ to the media, and Admiralty action to minimize the effects of the pay cuts (the direct cause of the mutiny) was pre-empted. He joined the Britannia in 1884; 1891, Lieutenant; 1902, Commander; 1907, Captain; 1919, Rear-Admiral; 1924, Vice-Admiral; 1928, Admiral. Field qualified in torpedo, and saw active service in the Boxer Rising of 1900, earning a special MiD for repairing armoured trains under fire. As a Commander, he passed two appointments ashore in torpedo duties: in the torpedo school, Vernon, and after further promotion, in command of the Devonport torpedo school, HMS Defiance. He was Superintendent of signal schools, 1912–14, and then went to command the Vernon, where he earned another commendation for designing a wireless set for small ships.


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He was Captain of HMS King George V at Jutland, earning another MiD, and then went to the Admiralty as Director of Torpedoes and Mines (a round peg in a round hole for once!). In 1919 he became 3SL, and in 1923 he commanded the Special Service squadron, with his flag in the Hood, to show the flag, which he did with marked personal success, and was rewarded with a KCMG. In 1925 he became DCNS, and in 1928 he became C-in-C Mediterranean. He returned to take over as 1SL at a time of financial crisis, and with the effects of the naval Treaty of London to be dealt with. The economies resulting from the Great Depression were felt by all government employees. They were particularly hard on the Navy’s lower deck, where two differing pay scales were in force; those on the lower scale were especially affected. The Admiralty Board had agreed to a certain level of cuts, but the government made a unilateral decision to impose greater cuts, and before the Board had time to inform the fleet, the press published the details: the mutiny in the Atlantic Fleet was the direct result. None-theless, Field completed his period as 1SL, and by the time he retired in 1933, morale had largely been restored (see KELLY). He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on retirement.

Fieldhouse, John (1928–92) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fieldhouse, GCB, GBE. He was C-in-C Fleet at the time of the Falklands War in 1982, and the Task Force Commander, exercising command from his HQ near London. This was made possible by the modern communications available. He joined the RN in 1944; 1949, Lieutenant; 1962, Commander; 1967, Captain; 1975, Rear-Admiral; 1978, Vice-Admiral; 1981, Admiral; 1985, Admiral of the Fleet. Fieldhouse qualified as a submariner in 1949, and received his first command, HMS Subtle, in 1956: after two further commands he went to study nuclear engineering at RNC Greenwich. He had a further conventional S/M command, and in 1962 became the captain of Britain’s first nuclear attack S/M, HMS Dreadnought. In 1967 he was the first Captain S/M of Britain’s Polaris Squadron, and had a further series of sea commands (including a NATO sea-going command as COMSTANAVFORLANT), and a MoD appointment as Director of Naval Warfare. He was Flag Officer, First Flotilla and the Flag Officer, Submarines. His next position was as 3SL, in which he played an important part in Britain’s decision to adopt the Trident missile system (KCB 1980). By the time he became C-in-C Fleet in 1981, he was probably Britain’s most experienced sea-commander. During the Falklands War, satellite communications enabled him to talk to his operational commanders 8,000 miles away (see WOODWARD), and his political skills enabled him to interpret events to the politicians. He, LEWIN, Leach and Halifax made a formidable team who greatly strengthened the politicians’ nerve. He went on to become 1SL in late 1982, with the task of analysing and applying the lessons of the Falklands. In particular, he had to persuade the politicians that the application of sea-power world-wide was still relevant, as opposed to the NATOarea-only outlook of the Iron Curtain era. He was able to continue to preach this gospel as


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CDS, 1985–89. He died shortly after the destruction of the Berlin wall, which marked the end of the Cold War.

Fisher, John (1841–1920) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, GCB, OM, GCVO (known universally as ‘Jacky’ Fisher). He was, without any doubt, the most influential British naval officer (and that then meant in the world) between 1875 and 1925. He modernized officers’ training and introduced improvements to the conditions of the lower deck; he introduced the dreadnought battleship; he foresaw the importance of the submarine; he prepared the RN for the coming confrontation with Germany; and he selected JELLICOE to be the ‘Admiralissimo’ of the Grand Fleet for that confrontation. On the down side, he was a self-publicist, and had favourites, to the detriment of the Navy’s efficiency. He feuded with BERESFORD, with the same result, and his relations with CHURCHILL in 1914– 15 were poor, exacerbating the errors made in the Dardanelles. He was proud to have entered the navy in 1854 by nomination by the last of NELSON’S captains then living (see PARKER, WILLIAM), and in Nelson’s flagship, Victory. As a Midshipman and Mate, he served in the Crimea and in China, being ‘blooded’ at the battle of Fatshan Creek, when he was seventeen; 1860, Lieutenant; 1869, Commander; 1874, Captain; 1891, Rear-Admiral; 1896, Vice-Admiral; 1901, Admiral; 1905, Admiral of the Fleet. He qualified in gunnery, and then served in the Warrior, the world’s first modern battleship, 1863–64. He was prominent throughout his career in the use of all the latest technology, being the first to introduce electrical means of firing guns in the Ocean in 1869. He went on to set up the RN’s first school of torpedoes and mining, HMS Vernon, which also covered all the uses of electricity. He commanded the battleship Inflexible at the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, taking command of the landing parties afterwards and restoring order in the city. In 1883 he took over the gunnery training ship Excellent, and collaborated with the journalist W.T.Stead to produce a series of articles to alert the public to the inadequate state of the Navy. The result was the 1889 Naval Defence Act (NDA), which produced a building programme (see WHITE, WILLIAM) which set Britain on the climb to the pinnacle of its naval power. Fisher went on to be DNO, where he introduced a series of modern weapons, helped by the inventive genius of men like Armstrong—at one stage Fisher considered resigning to work for an armaments firm. After promotion in 1891, he was successively 3SL (responsible for delivering the ships of the NDA programme); C in-C North America; Cin-C Mediterranean (where he concentrated on firing at long ranges, and the tactics that went with it); 2SL; C-in-C Portsmouth (so that he could put into effect the reforms in officer training he’d just introduced as 2SL) and finally 1SL in 1904. Dreadnought was his brainchild, though the concept of the all-big-gun battleship was not new. Laid down on in 1905, she was nominally completed on 21 October 1906 –a significant date—and at once rendered every other battleship obsolete.


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Fisher re-organized the fleet, paying off many colonial cruisers ‘too weak to fight and too slow to run away’. He concentrated the fleet in home waters, where the assessed threat lay. But he steamrollered his changes through, making enemies in the process, and was forced into retirement prematurely in 1910. He continued to advise the politicians, particularly Churchill, who became First Lord in 1912. When BATTENBERG was forced to retire at the outbreak of WW1, Fisher was recalled, and immediately instituted a large building programme, including many submarines. He was responsible for the immediate response to VON SPEE’S victory at Coronel, sending out STURDEE with his battle cruisers. But the Dardanelles proved his downfall. He could not cope with Churchill’s interference in operational matters: nor did he speak out when he could have done in cabinet. In the end, although he was still vigorous, age told, and since the politicians insisted on retaining the levers of power in the war, he resigned, in irregular circumstances.

Fisher, William (1875–1937) British: Admiral Sir William Fisher, GCB, GCVO. In the 1930s he held two successive commands in the Mediterranean, first as Vice-Admiral commanding the First Battle Squadron, 1930–32, when his man-management skills ensured that the morale and discipline of his men did not suffer in the aftermath of the Invergordon mutiny; and as Cin-C, 1933–36. In this post he was responsible for the fleet at the time of the major crisis induced by the Italian war against Abyssinia, and he continued the training of the fleet in night-fighting skills which bore fruit at Matapan in 1941. He entered the Navy in 1888, and as a Midshipman served in the Raleigh, the last masted flagship, on the Cape Station; 1896, Lieutenant; 1906, Commander; 1912, Captain; 1922, Rear-Admiral; 1928, Vice-Admiral; 1932, Admiral. Fisher qualified in gunnery in 1899. In 1903, while on the staff of the Gunnery School, he fell out with his captain, Percy SCOTT: fortunately his reputation was already high, and he went at the request of the C-in-C to the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet, where he took a leading part in the improvements in the fleet’s gunnery. After promotion in 1906, he immediately showed his ability to handle men, in turning the slack and discontented ship’s company of the Albemarle into a good team. In 1909 he became Flag Commander to Admiral May in the Dreadnought, responsible for the development of the fleet’s tactics. His first command, in 1912, was the battleship St Vincent, in which he remained for four and a half years, again creating an efficient fighting machine, which acquitted itself well at Jutland. JELLICOE called him to the Admiralty in 1917 to succeed Alexander DUFF in the anti-submarine division: after the war he went to the Mediterranean flagship in command and as CoS to the C-in-C, de Robeck, who praised Fisher’s staff-work during the GraecoTurkish crises in the early 1920s. After promotion in 1922, he served again in the Mediterranean, and was successively Director of Naval Intelligence, 4SL, and ACNS. In the latter post he had to cope with the detail of the Treaty of London (1930), which imposed further naval limitations, particularly on the British fleet.


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His influence on affairs in the Mediterranean was considerable in the 1920s and 1930s, at a time when the British fleet was a major stabilizing force. He completed his career as C-in-C Portsmouth, 1936–37, dying in post. It is to him, and the other flag officers like him, that the RN owes its fighting efficiency at the outbreak of WW2. They never lost sight of the need to train the fleet continuously, even in ostensibly peaceable times.

Fiske, Bradley A. (1854–1942) US: Admiral. He introduced needed improvements in gunnery, fire control, weapons technology, and the senior command organization of the USN in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was largely responsible for establishing the position of CNO. Among his more than sixty inventions were a device for lowering boats, a mechanical typewriter, an engine order telegraph, a stadimeter for measuring distances, a flashing light communications system, a shipboard phone system, an electric ammunition hoist, a telescopic gun sight, an electric semaphore, a submarine detection system, and an aerial torpedo. He graduated from the USNA in 1874 and served in a wide variety of ships and shore assignments, including major ship and fleet commands. He worked at modernizing the administration and training of the Navy through organizations such as the US Naval Institute and frequent articles in its publication, Proceedings. He was promoted to Commander in 1903, Captain in 1907, and Rear Admiral in 1911. He was in frequent conflict with Secretary of the Navy DANIELS, particularly on naval readiness issues, and retired from active duty in 1916. He was recalled the following year to work on a torpedo plane design he was developing, as well as for other brief periods, 1920–25. He served as President of the US Naval Institute from 1911–23 and wrote six books and sixty-five articles.

Fitch, Aubrey W. (1883–1978) US: Admiral. He directed air operations in the Coral Sea victory over the Japanese in May 1942. As Commander Air Task Force Pacific Fleet during that battle, Fitch’s naval aviators were a crucial element in turning back a Japanese invasion aimed at Port Moresby, New Guinea. The Japanese loss of an aircraft carrier and approximately 100 aircraft during the battle halted their advance towards Australia. Fitch graduated from the USNA in 1906. After more than twenty years of sea duty and shore assignments, he was designated a naval aviator in 1930. His subsequent duties included command of the San Diego Naval Air Station, 1929–30, the seaplane tender USS Wright, 1930–31, the Navy’s first aircraft carrier USS Langley, 1931–32, and the


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Hampton Roads Naval Air Station, 1932–35. After serving as CoS to Commander, Aircraft Battle Force, he commanded USS Lexington, Pensacola Naval Air Station, Patrol Wing Two, and was advanced to Rear Admiral in July 1940. He took command of Carrier Division One in November 1940. Prior to the Coral Sea victory he was involved in the unsuccessful attempt to relieve US forces at Wake Island in December 1941. Following the battle of the Coral Sea he was Commander, Naval Air Forces Pacific Fleet and Commander, Naval Air Forces South Pacific. In December 1943 he was promoted to Vice Admiral, and in August 1944 he was appointed Deputy CNO for Air. After duty as Superintendent of the USNA and an assignment in the office of the Under Secretary of the Navy, he retired from active duty in July 1947 as an Admiral.

Fitzroy, Robert (1805–65) British: Vice-Admiral. He was the captain of the Beagle on a voyage with Charles Darwin, which resulted in Darwin’s theory of evolution. He was also a far-sighted governor of the infant colony of New Zealand, and one of the earliest government meteorologists, if not the first. He entered the RN via the old Naval Academy at Portsmouth in 1818; 1824, Lieutenant (he was the first officer ever to achieve all first-class passes in his examination for lieutenant); 1828, Commander; 1835, Captain; 1857, Rear-Admiral; 1862, ViceAdmiral. In 1828 Fitzroy was serving in the Ganges, 84, as Flag Lieutenant to the C-in-C South America, and was given command of the Beagle, 10, which was surveying from Patagonia southward (see KING, PHILLIP). After returning in her to Britain in 1830, he sailed again, with Darwin on board as a naturalist, to continue the survey up the west coast of South America, 1831–36. He went on to run a complete chronometric survey round the world, thus establishing many secondary meridians. On return, he prepared a narrative of the voyages with Darwin, establishing himself as a competent surveyor and scientist. He was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society. He became an MP in 1841, and in 1843 was appointed Governor of New Zealand, in the tradition which had seen PHILIP appointed to New South Wales. He was recalled in 1845, after a controversial and turbulent period in office, in which he received little understanding or help from the home government. In 1848 he became Superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard, and in 1849 took command of the screw frigate Arrogant, 46. He received no further naval employment after 1850, but in 1854 became the meteorological statistician at the Board of Trade, where he established standard routines for reporting weather, and introduced the idea of forecasting from observed data. He also invented a simplified barometer. He committed suicide in a fit of depression, induced by overwork, in 1865.


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Flatley, James H., Jr (1906–58) US: Vice Admiral. He was one of a small group of naval aviators who developed the successful Navy fighter tactics contributing to the US air war victory in the Pacific. He led the fighter aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in the battle of the Coral Sea. Flying a Grumman F4F Wildcat during that battle and the F6F Hellcat later in the war, Flatley helped develop the fighter combat tactics that achieved US superiority over the more agile Japanese A6MS Zero fighter. He was much decorated for his combat successes during WW2. Following the end of that war, Flatley served in a series of aviationrelated staff and shore command assignments. In July 1952 he took command of the escort carrier USS Block Island, and in June 1952 he took command of the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain. He was head of the Special Weapons Plans Branch of the Office of the CNO, 1956–57, when he became Director Air Warfare Division. He was advanced to Rear Admiral in July 1957. He graduated from the USNA in 1929 and, after flight training, was designated a naval aviator in 1931. He retired from active duty in June 1958, and upon retirement he advanced to the rank of Vice Admiral on the basis of his exceptional combat record.

Fleming, John (1904–94) British: Instructor Rear-Admiral Sir John Fleming, KBE, DSC. He was one of the senior members of EISENHOWER’S meteorological team whose forecasts were crucial to the success of the D-Day landings in June 1944. After gaining his degree at Cambridge, he joined the RN as an Instructor Lieutenant in 1926; 1939, Instructor Commander; 1950, Instructor Captain; 1956, Instructor RearAdmiral. Fleming joined the Naval Meteorological Service in 1940. However, his duties involved more than weather forecasting: as the Fleet Met. Officer in HMS Duke of York, he had the very operational task of running the action plot which provided the raw information on which Admiral FRASER based his decisions during the battle of the North Cape (December 1943), and Fleming was awarded the DSC. Instructor Officers (‘schoolies’) were sometimes regarded as second-class citizens by their seaman contemporaries, but Fleming was one of those who changed meteorology from a primitive art to a skilful science. He ended his naval career as Director of Naval Education Services.


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Fletcher, Frank J. (1885–1973) US: Admiral. He led American carrier task forces in crucial WW2 victories in the Pacific. When Japan struck Pearl Harbor in December 1941 he was Commander, Cruiser Division Six, and following the attack he took command of Task Force 14. In February 1942 he commanded Task Force 17 and participated in the carrier strike against the Japanese in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. In the battle of the Coral Sea his Task Force 17 turned back the Japanese force moving on Port Moresby, New Guinea. He was in tactical command of the aircraft carriers USS York-town, USS Enterprise and USS Hornet in the victory at the battle of Midway in June 1942. After those successes he was promoted to Vice Admiral, and during the initial amphibious assault of Guadalcanal commanded both the amphibious and carrier forces. Following criticism of certain of his tactical decisions and the torpedoing of his flagship, USS Saratoga, he returned in August 1942 to the United States. In November he began a series of senior shore assignments. He graduated from the USNA in 1906. During WWl he commanded the destroyer USS Benham, which was involved in Atlantic anti-submarine duty. Between the two world wars his assignments included command of the submarine tender USS Rainbow, study at the US Naval War College and the Army War College, CoS to Commander, Asiatic Fleet, captain of the battleship USS New Mexico, Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, and Commander, Cruiser Division Three. He advanced to Captain in 1930, Rear Admiral in 1939, and Vice Admiral in 1942. In May 1947 he retired from active duty as an Admiral, being advanced to that rank on the basis of his combat service.

Flinders, Matthew (1774–1814) British: Captain. Flinders defined the outline of Australia, proving that New South Wales and New Holland (western Australia) were part of the same landmass, and he circumnavigated Tasmania, to prove that it was an island. He joined the RN at the age of sixteen on board the Scipio, 64; 1798, Lieutenant; 1801, Commander; 1810, Captain. He sailed with BLIGH on his second voyage, from whom he learned practical navigation and chart-making. Flinders was present at the battle of the Glorious First of June on board Bellerophon, 74. In 1795 he sailed to Australia in the Reliance, a ‘discovery vessel’: there he undertook surveys of the southeast coast, ranging from present-day Queensland to Tasmania, all in a boat smaller than a modern ocean-racing yacht. He returned to Britain in 1800, and persuaded Sir Joseph Banks, the most influential scientist in Britain, and whose interest in Australia stemmed from his voyage with COOK


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in 1769–71, that he was the man to complete the first survey of the whole Australian continent. Banks in turn persuaded the Admiralty to fit out the Investigator with Flinders in command. Between 1801 and 1803 he circumnavigated Australia, and was the first man to put that name on a map. On completion, Investigator was not in a fit state to sail home, and Flinders took passage in the Cumberland which was little better. Unaware that war had broken out again with France, it was decided to call at Mauritius (then a French possession) to try to hire a better vessel. Flinders was arrested as a spy, and detained, in fairly easy captivity, for seven years. His release had been authorized by Napoleon in 1806, but the Governor took it on himself to continue his detention. During this time he was able to complete his charts of Australia: he was permitted to leave Mauritius in early 1810. He spent the rest of his short life preparing his charts for publication, and in writing up the journals of his epic voyage.

Forbes, Charles (1880–1960) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Forbes, GCB, DSO. He was C-in-C Home Fleet in 1939, and although the fleet suffered at the hands of German aircraft, U-boats and mines during the ‘phoney war’ (September 1939-April 1940), the losses sustained by the Germans were proportionately much greater, and resulted in the emasculation of the German surface fleet, other than the Bismarck and Tirpitz, which had not then been completed. He joined the Britannia in 1894; 1901, Lieutenant; 1912, Commander; 1917, Captain; 1929, Rear-Admiral; 1934, Vice-Admiral: 1936, Admiral. He qualified in gunnery in 1902 and served at sea continuously in WW1: in the battleship Queen Elizabeth and then on the staff of JELLICOE (winning the DSO at Jutland); next, on MADDEN’S staff and finally, after promotion in 1917, in command of the cruiser Galatea. Between the wars he alternated between senior appointments afloat and in the Admiralty, and was clearly a ‘highflyer’. He was DNO, and Deputy Director of the Naval Staff College, and at sea was Flag Captain to Admiral De Robeck in the Atlantic Fleet and Admiral Watson in the Mediterranean. He became 3SL, 1931–34. After further service as second-in-command of the Mediterranean Fleet at the time of the Abyssinian Crisis (awarded the KCB), he became C-in-C Home Fleet, with the task of training the fleet for the war which was by now inevitable. When it came the fleet was prepared, but the defences of its bases were not, the result of the wishful thinking and financial restraints of the interwar years. Despite setbacks, such as the loss of the Royal Oak to the daring of PRIEN, and the loss of the aircraft carrier Glorious in less than glorious circumstances, the fleet acquitted itself well, and in the Norwegian campaign in April 1940, such losses were inflicted on the German surface fleet that Forbes was convinced that a German invasion was not a practical proposition. He was promoted Admiral of the Fleet, and made a GCB in 1940.


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His final appointment was as C-in-C Plymouth, very much an operational command, with ships and aircraft under his command targeting the U-boats entering and leaving Brest and Lorient, and the enemy shipping along the French coast. By the time he retired in 1944, British light forces had established complete command of the English Channel.

Ford, Gerald R. (1913-) US: thirty-eighth President (1974–77). He authorized his National Security Council, led by his new Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, to make a sweeping study of naval requirements. Although US naval strength continued to ebb during his administration and that of Jimmy Carter, who succeeded him as president in 1978, the report became the basis for the naval rebuilding initiated by President REAGAN and Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy LEHMAN in 1982. Ford was a graduate of the University of Michigan and Yale Law School, where he graduated in the top 25th percentile of his class. He served for twenty-five years in the House of Representatives, where he held a number of key Republican Party leadership positions. Ford was elected Vice President when Richard NIXON won the presidential election in 1969, and he served the remaining three years of that presidency when Nixon resigned during the Watergate scandal of 1974. Ford served in the USN during WW2, having joined the Naval Reserve in June 1942. He was discharged from the Navy in February 1946 as a Lieutenant Commander. Most of his active duty was associated with naval aviation, and he served as an aviation operations officer, gunnery officer, and assistant navigator in the auxiliary aircraft carrier USS Monterey from 1943 to 1945.

Forester, Cecil (1899–1966) British: author (C.S.Forester). His series of novels about the fictional British naval officer, Horatio Hornblower, set in the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, must be known to anyone living after 1935 who has made any study of British naval history. His books have also nurtured an interest in matters naval in those who do not study history. He was not the first author to write historical novels about the navy (see MARRYATT), but it is generally conceded that, except for the more recent author, Patrick O’BRIAN, no-one has approached his standard of writing, characterization and authenticity. Where Forester scores over O’Brian (and this author has a partiality for both), is that he was equally good on the twentieth century (see VIAN), and also the USN. C. Northcote Parkinson, himself a reputable historian, produced, from Forester’s texts, a spoof biography of Hornblower, which makes a very good introduction to the naval history of the period.


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Forrestal, James V. (1892–1949) US: Secretary of the Navy and the first Secretary of Defense. He preserved Navy missions in the face of powerful political efforts to radically reduce the Navy’s defence missions at the end of WW2. Subsequent to serving as Secretary of the Navy, 1944–47, he was named the first Secretary of Defense by President Truman in September 1947. President Franklin ROOSEVELT appointed him previously to the civilian leadership of the Navy in May 1944, after having made him Under Secretary of the Navy in August 1940. He fought hard and effectively against those who maintained that there was minimal or no need for a Navy or Marine Corps in the post-WW2 era of ‘atomic warfare’, often angering President Truman and many of the President’s political allies. Forrestal was educated at Dartmouth and then Princeton University, from which he withdrew for academic and financial reasons just short of graduation. He was a naval aviator during WW1 and was discharged as a Lieutenant in July 1919. He subsequently rose to the presidency of the investment-banking firm of Dillon, Read and Company before beginning his government service in the Roosevelt administration in June 1940. After being fired as Secretary of Defense by President Truman in March 1949 and suffering from physical and mental exhaustion, he committed suicide in May of that year. USS Forrestal, the first of the Navy’s post-WW2 largedeck aircraft carriers, was named in his honour in October 1955.

Franklin, John (1786–1847) British: Captain Sir John Franklin, KCH, Arctic explorer. He entered the Navy in 1801; 1810, Lieutenant; 1821, Commander; 1822, Captain. His first service was on board the Polyphemus, 74, at the battle of Copenhagen (1801). He then joined the Investigator, commanded by his cousin, FLINDERS, and specialized in astronomical observations and navigating. He left Australia in 1804, taking passage in Commodore DANCE’S East Indiaman, the Earl Camden. During the action with LINOIS, Franklin took charge of the squadron’s signalling. On his return to the UK, he joined the Bellerophon, 74, and was her signal midshipman at Trafalgar. Later in the war he was wounded during the unsuccessful attack on New Orleans in 1815. In 1818 he started his career as an Arctic explorer, in command of the hired brig Trent, under Buchan. The expedition passed by Spitzbergen, but got little further. In 1819 Franklin was sent to northern Canada, leading an expedition to map the coast from the shore side. They returned after three years and 5,550 miles on foot and by canoe, and after severe privations. He spent the next two years writing up his journals, and in 1825 set out again on a similar journey. Returning in 1827, the geographical results were better even than his earlier data, and he received a knighthood, a gold medal from the French, and an honorary degree from Oxford.


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He then reverted to naval service, commanding the Rainbow, 32, in the Mediterranean, followed by nearly seven years, 1836–43, as the popular and highly respected LieutenantGovernor of Tasmania. On his return, hearing that the Admiralty was commissioning two ships, Erebus and Terror, for a voyage to determine the exact course of the Northwest Passage, Franklin volunteered, despite his age, and the well equipped expedition set out in May 1845. The last that was heard of them was in July 1845. It was not expected to hear from them for up to three years, but the first search was begun in 1847, and thereafter a series of expeditions was mounted to find them, some funded privately by Franklin’s wife. The first news came in 1850, but it was not until 1857 that definite traces were found, and it was established that Franklin had died in 1847. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral by seniority in 1852, in the hope that he was still alive, but this was rescinded when the exact date of his death became known.

Fraser, Bruce (1888–1981) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fraser of North Cape, GCB, GBE. As C-in-C Home Fleet, he destroyed the German battleship Scharnhorst in the battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943). He was C-in-C British Pacific Fleet, 1944–46. He entered Britannia in 1902; 1908, Franklin, John Faraser, Bruce Lieutenant; 1919, Commander; 1926, Captain; 1938, Rear-Admiral; 1940, Vice-Admiral; 1944, Admiral; 1948, Admiral of the Fleet. He qualified in gunnery in 1912, and much of his career was in that specialization: staff of the gunnery school, 1913–14; gunnery officer of HMS Minerva, 1914–15 (present at Gallipoli), and Resolution, 1916–19; Fleet Gunnery Officer, Mediterranean Fleet, (1925–26). He was a prisoner of the Bolsheviks at Baku, April-November 1919. As a Captain, Fraser was successively Assistant Director Tactical Division, 1926–29; commanding HMS Effingham (flagship, East Indies Squadron), 1929–32; Director Naval Ordnance, 1933–35 (responsible for the genesis of the 14-inch turrets of the King George V battleships), and in command of HMS Glorious, 1935–37. In 1939 he became 3SL and Controller (CB, 1939 and KBE, 1941). He went on to be Second-in-Command Home Fleet (HMS Anson), June 1942 and C-in-C Home Fleet, 1943. He moved to become C-in-C Eastern Fleet, in August 1944, and C-in-C British Pacific Fleet, in November 1944. After the war he was C-in-C Portsmouth, 1947, and 1SL, September 1948. Fraser was one of the major British seacommanders of WW2. Although overshadowed by his later achievements, his period as Controller, 1939–42, was of vital importance: he was responsible for a vastly enhanced building programme, as well as repairs to both Royal and Merchant Navy ships. His relationship with the 1SL, POUND, were helped by their having worked together twice before in the Mediterranean. One of his first tasks in the Home Fleet was to restore morale, which had been badly affected by the debacle of convoy PQ 17 (see BROOME). Shortly after taking command of the Home Fleet, he was invited by CHURCHILL to succeed Pound as 1SL, but he


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declined, saying that, while he might have the confidence of his fleet, CUNNINGHAM had the confidence of the Navy. At this time, one of the Home Fleet’s main tasks was to ensure the passage of convoys to Russia, in the face of the major threat posed by the German heavy ships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. In December 1943, Fraser, in Duke of York, was at sea to provide distant cover for convoy JW55B, and received intelligence that Scharnhorst was likely to attempt an attack. A hide-and-seek action in atrocious weather over two days resulted, the end of which was the sinking of Scharnhorst. As C-in-C British Pacific Fleet, Fraser’s achievement was to build up a fleet for a different kind of sea-warfare, where the operating areas were thousands of miles from the main base facilities. Finally, as 1SL, he had to cope with the start of the Korean War, and the Iranian Crisis, and also to negotiate the initial NATO command structure, and persuade British politicians that the American preponderance recognized reality. He was a man of great determination, prepared to stand up to politicians (e.g. Churchill on more than one occasion during the war), but always approachable, and popular with his ship’s companies, and by the period 1945–50, he was held in high esteem by all the NATO partners, not least the Americans. He was created a baron, as Lord Fraser of North Cape, in 1946. He was also the recipient of decorations from France, the Netherlands, Norway and Soviet Russia.

Frobisher, Martin (1535P–94) English viceadmiral: Sir Martin Frobisher. He was an Elizabethan sea-captain who made his name as an explorer-adventurer, and who was given command of a queen’s ship in the wars against Spain. Between 1576 and 1578 he made three voyages in search of the Northwest Passage, but made little progress beyond the mouth of Hudson’s Strait, the expedition being diverted into a search for gold. He sailed as DRAKE’S vice-admiral on his partially successful 1585 expedition, and was given command of the Triumph for the Armada fight, for which service he was knighted. He went to sea again in 1592 to ‘annoy the Spanish fleet’, and again in 1594, to relieve the port of Brest, in Brittany. There he was wounded in a foray ashore, and died of his wounds.


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Fuller, Thomas (1908–94) Canadian: Captain, DSC**, RCNVR. He was a dashing MTB commander in UK waters, 1941–43, and the Mediterranean, 1943–45. Fuller was one of the thousands of young men from all corners of the British empire who came to fight the evil of Nazi Germany. He was, to say the least, unconventional. He was court-martialled three times, had no less than thirteen boats sunk under him or written off, and was involved in 135 actions. Having tried to join the RCAF twice, being told he was too old, he joined the RCNVR in 1940; 1939, Lieutenant (seniority backdated); 1946, Commander; 1951, Captain. After initial training in the UK he tried to join submarines, but was again turned down as being too old. Instead he joined Coastal Forces. He won his first DSC in command of MGB 13 for an action off Dover in May 1942, and then as a Temporary Acting Lieutenant Commander in 1943, in command of MTB 313 and 10th MTB Flotilla, won a bar to DSC for actions in the Aegean. In 1944 he was commanding the 61st MGB Flotilla operating from Vis on the Dalmatian coast. He made a specialty of capturing enemy coasting craft and taking their stores for the partisans’ use (second bar to DSC and MiD).

Fulton, Robert (1765–1815) US: marine engineer and inventor. He conducted experiments in military submarine designs and self-propelled torpedoes during the War of 1812, and demonstrated the viabi lity of steam-propelled commercial river traffic. He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and travelled to London in 1786, where he studied painting under Benjamin West. After achieving little success as a painter, he turned his attention to a variety of technological advances, including devices intended to improve canal transportation in Great Britain, and which later were incorporated in canal designs in the United States. In 1796 he wrote Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation. He then travelled to Paris, where he began to experiment with submarines, torpedoes, and a steam engine for ship propulsion. In 1804 he returned to London, where he continued his submarine and torpedo experiments for the British, with limited success. Fulton returned from Great Britain to the United States in 1806 with a British Watt steam engine. The engine was installed in the Claremont, which in 1807 sailed up the Hudson River to Albany, New York, in thirty-two hours. He designed the experimental 44-gun Demologos, the first steam-powered warship, which was launched in 1814. This implausible design incorporated twin hulls with a paddlewheel between, and the engine in one hull and the boiler and stacks in the other. Much of Fulton’s later life was spent in litigation of patents.


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Furse, Katherine (1875–1952) British: Dame Katherine Furse, DBE. She was the first Director of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), 1917–19. Although this organization was relatively small (only 7,000 personnel in 1918–19) and was disbanded after the war, the foundations she laid formed the basis for the much larger force which played a vital role in WW2 (see MATTHEWS). As a young woman she trained as a nurse, and from 1909 onwards was an enthusiastic member of the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD), which worked with the Territorial Army. In 1914 she headed the first unit to be sent to France. By 1916 she was Commandant-in-Chief of the VAD, then numbering many thousands, but in 1917 she resigned, being unable to set up the organization she felt was necessary. She was immediately offered a number of important posts, and chose to become Director of the newly formed WRNS, which she quickly built up to be an invaluable adjunct to the RN.


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G Gallery, Daniel V., Jr (1901–77) US: Rear Admiral. He led the capture of the German submarine U-505 during WW2. When captain of the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal, his anti-submarine group forced the submarine to the surface and boarded her before the crew could scuttle their boat. U-505 was the first warship captured at sea by the USN since the War of 1812. Gallery graduated in the USNA class of 1921 and served in surface ships before flight training in 1927. Subsequently he served in a torpedo squadron, on the Naval Academy faculty, and in an aviation scouting squadron. In 1935 as a Lieutenant Commander, he was named commanding officer of USS Langley, which was commissioned on 20 March 1922 as the Navy’s first aircraft carrier. Other aviation assignments followed. In September 1942 he was promoted to Captain, and in September 1943 he took command of Guadalcanal. The submarine hunter-killer group he led in that ship sank four German submarines in addition to capturing U-505. In September 1944 he reported to the staff of the Deputy CNO for Air, and in August 1945 he took command of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock. In December of that year he was promoted to Rear Admiral and named Commander, Escort Carrier Division 15. Subsequently he served in senior shore and afloat assignments until his retire ment from active duty in July 1960. He wrote nine books, and after retirement frequently spoke out on the need for a strong Navy.

Gambier, James (1756–1833) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Gambier, GCB. He was a competent captain, who progressed through his strong ‘interest’, but was promoted beyond his capabilities when given command of the Channel Fleet in 1807. He was first entered on a ship’s books by his uncle at the age of nine, and went to sea in 1770; 1777, Lieutenant; 1778, Commander; 1778, Captain; 1795, Rear-Admiral; 1799, Vice-Admiral; 1810, Admiral; 1830, Admiral of the Fleet. Gambier was connected by marriage to MIDDLETON, who in turn was related to the Secretary for War, Dundas, who was Prime Minister Pitt’s closest political ally. So his


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swift progress to Captain was unsurprising (he was captured by the French, while commander of the bombvessel Thunder, but quickly exchanged.) Like NELSON, he was unemployed from 1783 to 1793, and during that time came under the influence of the evangelical Methodists. At the outbreak of war he received command of the Defence, 74, and did not endear himself to his crew by holding frequent divine service and insisting that any women on board produce their marriage certificates. He became known as ‘dismal Jimmy’, a phrase which has come down to us today. At the battle of the Glorious First of June, his ship was the first to break through the French line, and was badly mauled. The hail from his fellow-captain in the Invincible, ‘Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth’, was not appreciated. Between 1795 and 1807 he was in and out of office as a Commissioner of the Admiralty. In 1807, he was sent to command the naval element of the expedition to Copenhagen, to prevent the Danish fleet being seized by the French. This was achieved after a three-day bombardment of Copenhagen, an act which Gambier found morally obnoxious. He was consoled with a peerage, and given command of the Channel Fleet. In 1809 the French evaded his blockade of Brest (this happened to all forces blockading any port—a wind which let the blockaded fleet out was bound to blow the blockading ships off station), but got no further than the Basque Roads, in front of Rochefort. The Admiralty sent Cochrane (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD), with fireships, to attack them in the Roads. A row ensued (see HARVEY), and although Cochrane’s attack was successful, Gambier refused to follow it up. A court-martial followed, and Gambier was acquitted by a shameless piece of politicking, but for all that, Cochrane’s action in precipitating the court-martial was not universally approved. Gambier remained in command until 1811, and was later a commissioner in the peace negotiations with the USA in 1814.

Ganteaume, Honoré (1755–1818) French: vice-amiral comte Ganteaume. He served the monarchy, the First Republic, the First Empire, and, briefly, the monarchy again. He commanded the Brest Squadron which was to have been the final part of Napoleon Ps grand design, a design which was defeated at Trafalgar before the Brest Squadron could be released. He went to sea first in 1769 on a merchant ship, under his father, and held various temporary appointments and commands on transports and fireships in the East and West Indies; 1786, souslieutenant de vaisseau; 1793, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1794, capitaine de vaisseau; 1798, contre-amiral; 1804, vice-amiral. He was taken prisoner by the British at the start of the French Revolutionary War in 1793, while commanding an east Indiaman, but was swiftly released. He commanded the Trente-et-Un Mai, 74, at the battle of the Glorious First of June (the French name for which is ‘Prairial’), and then took her to the Mediterranean, where he was present at the two fights off Toulon in 1795 (see MARTIN).


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As BRUEYS’S CoS, he was wounded at the Nile, in 1798, but escaped from L’Orient before she blew up. Ganteaume was left in command of what remained of French naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean, and took part in the unsuccessful siege of Acre (see SMITH). It was he who took Napoleon back to France in the frigate Muiron. By keeping close to the North African coast, they evaded the British cruisers (producing another of history’s tantalizing ‘what if’s’). He commanded at Brest, 1800–02, went again to the Mediterranean where he failed to raise the blockade of Alexandria, but did take the Swiftsure, 74, and then went back to Brest, 1804–06. Here he was unable to break CORNWALLIS’S blockade, and so the whole of Napoleon’s plans were thwarted. Ganteaume continued to be employed and trusted by Napoleon, becoming an Imperial comte, and Napoleon’s chamberlain. However, he did not get involved in the 100 days in 1815, and afterwards was one of those who voted for the death sentence on Marshal Ney.

Gay, George H., Jr (1917–94) US: Lieutenant. He was the sole survivor of USN Torpedo Squadron 8 during the pivotal WW2 battle of Midway against the Japanese. While in the water after his plane was shot down, he witnessed much of the US victory that was considered by many to be the turning point of WW2 in the Pacific. The other twenty-nine members of his squadron, which flew the 1930s-vintage Douglas TBD Devastator from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, perished in the squadron’s attack. From his unusual vantage point he observed the sinking of three of the four Japanese aircraft carriers destroyed in the battle, the first decisive defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy since 1592. After rescue by a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina seaplane crew, he flew with Torpedo Squadron Eleven during the Guadalcanal campaign of August 1942-February 1943, and later was a Navy flight instructor. He entered the Navy in 1941 after graduation from the Texas A&M University Reserve Officer Training Corps. In June 1942 he was assigned to Torpedo Squadron Eight. Following WW2 he continued to serve as a naval reservist into the 1950s. He also became a commercial airline pilot, flying with Trans World Airlines for thirty years. His book, Sole Survivor, was published in 1986. After Gay died, his ashes were spread over the Pacific Ocean area where Torpedo Squadron Eight was lost, symbolically reuniting him with his squadron mates.

Geddes, Eric (1875–1937) British: temporary honorary Vice-Admiral Sir Eric Geddes, GCB, GBE. He was a noted administrator who was brought into the Civil Service during WW1, and later became


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Controller of the Navy, and then First Lord. In the aftermath of the war, he was responsible for the ‘Geddes axe’, which substantially reduced the number of career officers in the RN. As a young man he worked in the USA as a brakesman on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He started his career in railway management in India, but returned to Britain in 1906 and made his way in the North Eastern Railway, of which he was Deputy General Manager by 1914. In 1915 he was head-hunted to be Deputy Director-General of Munitions Supply, where he won the confidence of Lloyd George (at that time still only Minister of Munitions, but already the real leader of the government). Geddes became in quick succession, Director-General of Transportation of the BEF, and later Inspector-General of Transportation in all theatres of war; then, in May 1917, Controller of the Navy (with the rank of Vice-Admiral—he was a Major-General in the Army at the same time!). In July 1917 he became an MP, and before he had any time to make his mark as Controller, he became First Lord of the Admiralty. As such, he was responsible for sacking JELLICOE in a manner reminiscent of late-twentieth century politics (he did it on Christmas Eve, knowing that there would be no newspapers the next day), and appointing the more pliant WEMYSS. Nonetheless, when BEATTY succeeded Wemyss, he realized that Geddes’s positive qualities outweighed any negative ones, and he asked Lloyd George to retain him as First Lord. But Lloyd George had other tasks in mind, and Geddes left the Admiralty in 1919. In 1921 he chaired a national committee to reduce government expenditure. One action was to reduce the inordinately large number of young officers who had been recruited for full careers in the years immediately before and during the war. This caused much heart-searching at the time, but later provided a pool of trained officers at the outbreak of WW2.

Gensoul, Marcel-Bruno (1880–1973) French: amiral. He was C-in-C at Oran (Algeria) in 1940 when the British admiral, SOMERVILLE, commanding Force H, after trying unsuccessfully to persuade Gensoul and his squadron to throw in his lot with Great Britain to continue the fight against Nazi Germany, ordered fire to be opened on the French, resulting in some 1,600 French casualties, an action which still rankles. He entered the navy in 1898; 1911, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1922, capitaine de frégate; 1927, capitaine de vaisseau; 1932, contre-amiral; 1937, vice-amiral; 1940, amiral. He specialized in torpedoes (like the RN, this included all things electrical). His first command came in 1917, the destroyer Fanfare, and in the late 1920s he commanded the battleships Bretagne and Provence. As a flag officer, he commanded 3rd Light Squadron, 1934–36, and the Atlantic Squadron, 1938.


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At Oran, Gensoul’s attitude was that the Vichy Government was the legitimate government of France, and his duty required him to carry out their orders, which were to stay where he was and to remain neutral. Furthermore, he maintained that France would never let its fleet fall into German hands. Like many Frenchmen, he was angered by British actions—seen as being ‘against’ France-immediately following the armistice between France and Germany in June 1940, and thought it likely that Britain would be defeated in a matter of weeks.

Girard, Stephen (1750–1831) US: financier. He was essential in establishing the financial credibility of the new United States of America in the early nineteenth century. While making a crucial contribution to the financial viability of the nation, he also recognized the importance of a strong navy to the prosperity of the US. Girard, who was born in France, settled in Philadelphia in June 1776. He had gone to sea at an early age, and while learning the ways of the sea also learned the ways of ocean commerce. During the American Revolution he profited from both ocean commerce and privateering. Following the American Revolution he became one of the country’s first millionaires. Between 1801 and 1805 he urged an aggressive US naval policy against the Barbary pirates and any other sea-based interference with his maritime trading. During the War of 1812 he outfitted privateers, and actually prevented the bankruptcy of the new nation with a personal loan of $7 million to the government. Through his energy and business acumen he became the richest man in the US, a philanthropist, and in the opinion of many, the person who saved the US from financial disaster during the War of 1812.

Godfroy, Robert (1885–1981) French: vice-amiral. He was in command of the French squadron in the eastern Mediterranean in June 1940, when France signed an armistice with Germany, and had the same difficult decision to make as his confrère GENSOUL at Oran. He entered the Navy in 1901; 1913, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1924, capitaine de frégate; 1931, capitaine de vaisseau; 1936, contre-amiral; 1940, vice-amiral. He became a naval aviator in the 1920s, and commanded two cruisers, Duquesne and Foch during the 1930s. On achieving flag rank, he became DCNS. He went back to sea in command of the 4th Cruiser Division in 1937, and was promoted vice-amiral three days before the armistice. By the terms of the Armistice, the French fleet was to return to French ports, though ships in colonial ports could remain there. DARLAN assured the British that the fleet would not be allowed to fall into German hands, but the British felt unable to accept his


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assurance, and feared that the Germans might seize the ships. Therefore the various British commanders were ordered to offer French ships in their commands three choices: to join with Great Britain to continue the war against Germany; or to be interned in a British port or the French West Indies; or to scuttle their ships. In Alexandria, CUNNINGHAM and God-froy enjoyed good relations, and it seemed that Godfroy would accept the option of scuttling his ships in Alexandria, but the British actions under SOMERVILLE at Oran made him change his mind. After a stand-off, Cunningham appealed directly to the French crews, who in turn persuaded Godfroy to accept immobilization, and repatriation to France of most of the crews. Godfroy remained in Alexandria in his flagship, the cruiser Duquesne, until the armistice with Italy in 1943, when he felt he could join the Free French. However, he was removed ignominiously from his command, and it was not until 1955 that this injustice was corrected.

Goldsworthy, Leon (1909–94) Australian: Lieutenant Commander, GC, DSC, GM, RANVR. He was an early pioneer of Rendering Mines Safe techniques, specializing in underwater work, who disarmed many mines under hazardous circumstances, for which he was awarded first the George Medal, and then the George Cross. He had wanted to join the RAN as a regular officer before the war, but was refused because he was too short; 1941, Sub-Lieutenant, RANVR; 1941, Lieutenant. Goldsworthy went to England, where he joined the Vernon and the secret section specializing in mine recovery and disarming. The secrecy was necessary to prevent the enemy discovering that a counter-measure had been devised to their weapon, and then devising some counter to the counter-measure. He was awarded the GC for a series of incidents between June 1943 and April 1944, in which he rendered safe four land-mines, three magnetic mines and one acoustic mine. During the clearance of Cherbourg (1944) he made safe the first German ‘K’ type mine, being awarded the DSC. In 1944 he went out to the Pacific as an Acting Lieutenant Commander to work on Japanese mines with the USN.

Goodenough, William (1867–1945) British: Admiral Sir William Goodenough, GCB, MVO. He was the first captain of the new college at Dartmouth, 1905–07, and on 31 May 1916, as Commodore of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron (LCS), his ship made the first sighting report of the German High Seas Fleet, coming to the support of their scouting forces, which told JELLICOE that the day for which the Royal Navy had been waiting was indeed there.


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He joined the RN in 1880; 1889, Lieutenant; 1900, Commander; 1905, Captain; 1916, Rear-Admiral; 1920, Vice-Admiral; 1925, Admiral. As a Lieutenant he served in the royal yacht, and HMS Surprise, the C-in-C Mediterranean’s yacht (better described as a despatch vessel). Later, after three years as Executive Officer of the battleships Resolution and Formidable, he was promoted in 1905, and immediately given command of the RNC Dartmouth, with the task of implementing a totally new system of officer entry and training. After further sea appointments, he was appointed Commodore of the 2nd LCS, and instituted a rigorous programme of training, so that his captains would read his intentions without a plethora of signals. His squadron was present at the action in the Heligoland Bight in August 1914, and also in an abortive action off Scarborough, when a signalling error (by BEATTY’S flagship) caused him to break off a potentially favourable engagement. They were also present at the Dogger Bank in 1915, and in the night action after the main battle at Jutland, his ship, Southampton, engaged and sank the German Frauenlob, suffering considerable damage and casualties herself. He commanded the 2nd Battle Squadron for the rest of the war. At the end of the war he received the KCB, and became C-in-C Africa Station. His final appointment, 1924–27, was as C-in-C the Nore.

Gorshkov, Sergey (1910–88) Russian: Admiral Flota. He was the most influential Russian admiral of the Cold War period, who presided over a huge expansion of the Soviet navy, turning it from a primarily defensive force to an instrument of world power-projection. He graduated from the naval school in 1931; by 1939 he was commanding a Pacific Fleet destroyer brigade; 1941, Kontr Admiral (aged no more than thirty-one—not even NELSON or BEATTY were promoted as young as that); 1944, Vitse Admiral; 1955, Admiral; 1962, Admiral Flota; in 1967, he was specially promoted to a new rank of Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. Most of his service was in the Black Sea Fleet. He commanded a destroyer brigade, 1939–40, and the Azov Flotilla, 1941–42 and 1943–44. He moved to command the Danube Flotilla 1944–45, and was then a squadron commander in the Black Sea Fleet, 1945–48, CoS to the Black Sea Fleet, 1948–51, and its commander 1951–55. In 1955 he became First Deputy C-in-C of the Navy, and the following year, C-in-C of the Navy and First Deputy Minister of Defence, which post he held for thirty years. When he retired in 1985, the fleet comprised sixty-four ballistic missile S/Ms, fifty guided missile S/Ms, sixty-seven attack S/Ms, all nuclear-powered; four aircraft carriers, forty cruisers and 268 destroyers and frigates, plus all their ancillary craft.


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Grant, Ulysses S. (1822–85) US: eighteenth President (1869–77). He was involved in critical joint Army-Navy operations as commander of the Union army during the last two years of the American Civil War. Among the most noteworthy was the battle of Mobile Bay, where Grant ordered an army attack in June 1864 against Confederate forts. The ground offensive of Grant’s army units was coordinated with the attack by Admiral FARRAGUT in August of that year. He also demonstrated his understanding of the significance of riverine warfare as he drove the Union army towards victory over the Confederacy. He was an 1843 graduate of the US Military Academy. As a young officer he served in combat during the Mexican War, and also served in California and the Oregon Territory. His two-volume work, Personal Memoirs of U.S.Grant, was published in 1885.

Grantham, Guy (1900–92) British: Admiral Sir Guy Grantham, GCB, CBE, DSO. He was C-in-C Mediterranean during the Suez operation (1956), and was twice passed over when he might have become 1SL. He joined the RN in 1918; 1922, Lieutenant; 1933, Commander; 1937, Captain; 1947, Rear-Admiral; 1950, Vice-Admiral; 1957, Admiral. As a junior officer he served briefly in the royal yacht: after qualifying in submarines he served in HMS/M M1 (1922). He also served in Hood and at RNC Dartmouth. He went on to command the submarines L.56 and Regent. After further promotion he became CoS to POUND in the Mediterranean, and then, when Pound became 1SL, his Naval Assistant (usually an appointment which marked an officer as a coming man). During WW2 he commanded a succession of cruisers: Phoebe (1940–41) (DSO for his part in the evacuation of the army from Greece); Naiad (1942)—she was sunk under him on 11 March; on 14 March he took command of Cleopatra as Flag Captain to RearAdmiral VIAN, and on 22 March took part in the second battle of Sirte when four light cruisers beat off an Italian battlefleet comprising a battleship and heavy cruisers. (C.S.FORESTER’S The Ship—another candidate for the best sea fiction of WW2— describes this battle.) Late in 1942 he took command of the aircraft carrier Indomitable, supporting the landings in Sicily. In 1944 he became Director of Plans, and attended the Quebec, Yalta and Potsdam conferences (CBE).


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After the war he was Flag Officer Submarines and VCNS (the effective head of naval operations), and in 1953 he was appointed C-in-C Mediterranean. As such, he and his staff were responsible for Operation Musketeer (the Suez landings)—professionally successful, but politically disastrous. In 1955 MOUNTBATTEN was chosen as 1SL rather than Grantham, who became Cin-C Portsmouth. Sir Charles Lambe was chosen as 1SL when Mountbatten became CDS. Grantham retired in 1959, and became the Governor-General of Malta, the first naval officer to hold the post since 1809 (see BALL).

Grasse-Tilly, François, comte de (1722– 88) (usually referred to in British histories as ‘de Grasse’) French: lieutenant-général. His battle in Chesapeake Bay against Lord GRAVES, although navally indecisive, settled the fate of Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown, and so was indirectly a major cause of the United States’ success in achieving independence from Great Britain. He served in the navy of the Knights of Malta, 1734–37, then reverted to the French navy; 1743, enseigne de vaisseau; 1754, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1762, capitaine de vaisseau; 1781, lieutenant-général. He was present on board the Diamant, 50, at the battle of Cap Sicie in 1744, and then went to the West Indies in the Castor, 26, which helped to take a British corvette off Nova Scotia. He was wounded and made prisoner in 1747 while serving on board the Gloire, 40, at the battle of Cap Ortegal (first Finisterre), when LA JONQUIÈRE was beaten by ANSON. He was released at the peace, and served throughout the Seven Years’ War: however, he was not present at any of the major fleet actions. He gained a reputation as a good shiphandler and tactician in three commands in the early 1770s, and was made a chef d’escadre in ORVILLIERS’S squadron at the battle of Ushant in 1778. He was a subordinate commander in GUICHEN’S squadron, and acquitted himself well in the three indecisive fights with RODNEY off Dominica in 1780. After promotion in 1781, he hoisted his flag in the Ville-de-Paris, 104, and, avoiding the British blockading squadron, reached Martinique, and then took Tobago. On receipt of a plea from WASHINGTON, he showed uncharacteristic speed and decision, and took his fleet north to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, arriving just before Graves, who had


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been joined by HOOD (3). The resulting battle was indecisive tactically, but the end result was that the British withdrew, leaving the French in control of Chesapeake Bay. Grasse-Tilly took the fleet back to Martinique, and seized St Kitts and Montserrat, but in April 1782, on his way to join the Spanish for an attack on Jamaica, he met Rodney’s fleet, and was defeated, his flagship and his person being captured.

Gravely, Samuel L., Jr (1922-) US: Vice Admiral. He became the first African-American admiral in the USN. He enlisted in the Navy as a seaman recruit in September 1942, at a time when segregation still existed, and began his career after Navy technical training as a fireman apprentice. In 1943 he entered the Navy’s V-12 WW2 officer’s training programme and then attended the University of California at Los Angeles and midshipman’s school at Columbia University, earning his commission as an Ensign in December 1944. His initial assignment was in the submarine chaser FC-1264, operating off the US east coast. He was released from active duty in April 1946 and completed his undergraduate degree in history at Virginia Union University in 1948, while remaining in the Naval Reserve. He was recalled to active duty as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in 1949 to serve as a recruiter, and in 1955 he transferred from the Reserve to the regular Navy. He subsequently served in the battleship USS Iowa, the cruiser USS Toledo, and the amphibious assault ship USS Seminole. He was commanding officer of the destroyer escort USS Falgout and the destroyers USS Theodore E. Chandler, USS Taussig and USS Jouett. In July 1971 he was advanced to the rank of Rear Admiral, and in September 1976 he took command of the Third Fleet as a Vice Admiral. From 1978–80 he was director of the Defense Communications Agency. Gravely retired from active duty in August 1980.

Graves, Samuel (1713–87) British: Admiral. He is best known (or rather, is scarcely remembered) as the Admiral commanding the North American Squadron 1774–76, at the outbreak of the American Revolution, whose lack of decisiveness was a factor in the British defeat. He should not be confused with his cousin, Lord Thomas GRAVES, another Rear-Admiral commanding in American waters, who effectively lost the battle of Chesapeake Bay in 1781. His early career was unremarkable; 1730, Lieutenant; 1744, Captain; 1762, RearAdmiral; 1770, Vice-Admiral. Graves received his first commission at the relatively late age of twenty-seven. The War of the Austrian Succession provided plenty of opportunity for sea service, and he


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advanced swiftly, serving throughout the war in command of a succession of small ships. At the start of the Seven Years’ War he had a number of commands, and commanded the Duke, 90, at the battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. He owed his appointment to command the North American Squadron to the patronage of the 4th Earl of SANDWICH. His orders were to enforce the Boston Port Act, effectively a form of blockade to punish the city of Boston after the notor ious ‘tea-party’. But he had too few ships to maintain it, and to patrol the whole coastline from the St Lawrence to Florida. He was short of men, too, and impressing Americans, even though still nominally subjects of King George, was never going to be popular, or productive. His forces were involved in the Lexington-Concord disaster in 1775, and Graves was loud in his threats of a naval demonstration to discourage the rebels, but his orders to his captains were more conciliatory. Throughout his command, he received scant support, either in material or firm guidance, from the authorities at home, and his relationships with the military commanders were poor. Nor did he achieve any worthwhile results in preventing supplies reaching the rebels. Finally, after complaints from patriots and General Burgoyne, he was recalled in 1776. He sought a court-martial to clear his name, but since the Admiralty (officially) placed no blame on him, this was refused. He wrote a justification of his conduct, which was never published, and it must be considered that he was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Graves, Thomas (1725?–1802) British: Admiral Lord Graves (cousin of Samuel GRAVES). The result of the action that took place between his fleet and that of GRASSE-TILLY in Chcsapeake Bay in September 1781 sealed the fate of Cornwallis’s army, and ultimately forced Britain to recognize the independence of the USA. He entered the Navy before 1740; 1743, Lieutenant; 1754, Commander; 1755, Captain; 1779, Rear-Admiral; 1787, Vice-Admiral; 1794, Admiral. He was present at the unsuccessful expedition against Cartagena in 1741, and at MATHEWS’S action off Toulon; he took part in the expedition against L’Orient in 1746, and in ANSON’S victory off Finisterre. While commanding the Sheerness, 20, he encountered, at night, a large French ship, which was taken to be a French line-of-battleship, and accordingly avoided. It was later judged that she had been an Indiaman, and should have been attacked. Graves was courtmartialled and reprimanded for an error of judgement. He continued in command of a series of ships throughout the period 1763–79. In 1780 he went out to the American Station with reinforcements, and became C-in-C. His force was adequate to counter the small French squadron based in Rhode Island, but was smaller than the combined French fleet, when Grasse-Tilly came up from the West Indies, and entered Chesapeake Bay. Graves sailed from New York, assuming that only the French Rhode Island Squadron had gone south, and was astonished, and unnerved, to find a much larger French fleet in Chesapeake Bay. The action that resulted was tactically inconclusive, but the French remained in control of the bay, while Graves retired to New


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York. Subsequently, he embarked troops and went south again, but it was too late: Cornwallis’s army surrendered. Graves has been blamed for not occupying Chesapeake Bay earlier, but the strategic assessment made by the British high command was that Grasse-Tilly would attack New York, so Graves stayed in the north. Essentially, he had too few assets to counter the potential threat. It is significant that no great blame was laid on Graves at the time. He sailed to Jamaica, and was sent home commanding a squadron of prizes and ships due for refit; ‘the craziest squadron that has ever put to sea’. They were caught in a tempest, and Graves’s flagship, the Ramillies, 74, was battered to a wreck and had to be scuttled. Graves escaped in a merchant ship. In 1788 he became C-in-C Plymouth, and was later second-in-command to HOWE, in the battle of the Glorious First of June, with his flag in the Royal Sovereign, 100. He was wounded, but received a peerage and a pension. He had no further appointment thereafter.

Graves, Thomas (1747?–1814) British: Admiral Sir Thomas Graves, KB. The Graves form another confusing family in British naval history. This Thomas was a nephew of both Lord GRAVES and Samuel GRAVES. He had three brothers who also rose to admiral’s rank, though none flew their flag at sea. His career was not particularly distinguished, but is given to help to disentangle one Graves from another. During the Seven Years’ War he served with his uncle, Samuel; 1765, Lieutenant; 1779, Commander; 1781, Captain; 1801, Rear-Admiral; 1805, Vice-Admiral; 1812, Admiral. In 1773 he served in the Racehorse, 8, on the same Arctic expedition as the young NELSON. He served in his uncle’s flagship, Preston, 50, in America. In 1775 he commanded the schooner Diana, 6, employed on the prevention of smuggling. She was attacked by 2,000 insurgents in the Charles River at Boston, ran aground and was burnt. After further service in America, Graves was promoted in 1779. In 1781 he was given command of the Bedford, 74, and in her fought at the Chesapeake, and under HOOD (3) at St Kitts, and under RODNEY at the Saintes, where Bedford distinguished herself as being one of the ships which broke the French line. Later in 1782 he took command of the Magicienne, 32, and in her fought a hard action with the French Sybille, both ships being reduced to wrecks, with neither able to close and board. Magicienne reached Jamaica, but the Sybille was taken by the Hussar later. Graves had no employment from 1783 to 1800, but after a brief period as captain of the Cumberland, 74, was promoted in 1801, and as such was third-in-command to Hyde PARKER at Copenhagen, and, with his flag in Defiance, 74, was second to Nelson in the actual fight, for which he received a KB. He commanded a squadron watching Rochefort in 1805, but allowed MISSIESSY to escape, and was not employed again; this was his last sea-going service.


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Gravina, Federico (1756–1806) Spanish: vice-almirante. He was the commander of the Spanish part of the combined fleet at Trafalgar (15 out of 33 ships), an experienced and competent commander. He was wounded in the battle, and died six months later after gangrene set in. He was of noble Sicilian birth, whose father was also a Spanish grandee, so there was no difficulty about his joining the Spanish service. He went to sea in 1768, and by 1779 was a capitan de navio, commanding one of the bombarding ships at the great siege of Gibraltar. In 1789, he was promoted to commodore, and in 1790 was given the task of organizing the Spanish fleet for a confrontation with Britain over Nootka Sound (on Vancouver Island), but the matter was settled diplomatically. In 1793 he was a contraalmirante, second-in-command of the Spanish fleet, and assisted HOOD (3) at Toulon, being made Military Governor. In 1804, now a vice-almirante, he was sent as Spanish ambassador to France, and concluded the agreement with DECRÈS by which the Spanish fleet was put at Napoleon’s disposal. On returning to Spain he was made C-in-C and given the job of putting it into effect. At Cadiz he was supposed to provide fifteen ships, but could prepare no more than six, one reason being that an outbreak of yellow fever in Spain had reduced the manpower available. However, when VILLENEUVE appeared in April 1805, he joined him in the sortie to the West Indies, and on the fleet’s return to Europe, it was the Spanish squadron which bore the brunt of the fighting with CALDER off Ferrol, losing two ships. By dint of great exertions, for which Gravina deserves credit, he was able to muster fifteen ships when Villeneuve put to sea for the final battle at Trafalgar. On 21 October, with his flag in the Principe de Asturias, 112, Gravina was in the rear of the line. His ship was partially dismasted by engagements with more than one British ship, including the Dreadnought, 74, one of whose broadsides shattered Gravina’s arm. He remained on deck though, to take eleven Spanish ships out of the battle, back to Cadiz.

Greig, Samuel (1735–88) Russian: Admiral. Although born in Scotland, and having learnt his business as a sea-officer in the RN, he took service under Catherine II (Catherine the Great), and led the Russian fleet to victory against the Turks at Chesme in 1770, and successfully in actions against the Swedes in 1788. After early voyages in the merchant service, he entered the RN as a Master’s Mate in 1756/57, and served under Augustus KEPPEL and HAWKE, being present at Quiberon Bay in 1759. When the war ended he was an acting Lieutenant, but with little hope of being confirmed, or of getting an appointment without influence. So in 1764 he resigned from the RN, and entered Russian service in the rank of Captain.


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In 1770, as Flag Captain to Admiral Orlov, he took part in the two-day battle of Chesme, the second day of which was entirely under his control, and resulted in the destruction of the Turkish fleet. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral and took part in several more engagements before peace was signed in 1774. In 1775 he became ViceAdmiral, and KNOWLES having returned to Britain, became Catherine’s principal naval advisor. He persuaded his fellow-Scot, Gascoigne, of the Carron Iron Works, and the inventor of the carronade, to come to Kronstadt to organize the supply of ordnance and ironwork for the Russian fleet, and generally improved facilities at Kronstadt (much as the Royal Dockyards in Britain were being improved at the same time). (It was later noted that the walls of Kronstadt, built by a Scot, were responsible for keeping out another Scot, Sir Charles NAPIER, seventy-five years later.) Although devoted to the Empress, he remained a Briton at heart, and during the Armed Neutrality (1780) made it clear that if the Empress acted against British interests, he would resign his commission. Nonetheless, he was promoted to Admiral in 1782. In 1788, while Greig was preparing a squadron for service in the Mediterranean (war with Turkey having broken out again), the Swedes decided to try a preemptive strike. But Greig mustered the Baltic fleet, and after an indecisive battle at Hogland, managed to blockade them in Sveaborg and burnt the Prins Gustav Adolf which had run aground. Before he could take any further action, he contracted a fever, which proved fatal.

Grenville (or Greynvile), Richard (1541?– 91) English sea-captain. A high-tempered Elizabethan gentleman, who adventured to sea from time to time, but who had not been born and bred a seaman in the mould of DRAKE or HAWKINS. His fame through the centuries rests on his last fight against overwhelming odds, which can be described, cynically, as a celebrated English failure. In 1585 he commanded a squadron of seven ships for his kinsman Sir Walter Raleigh, which planted the first colony of Virginia. However, on his return the following year with back-up supplies, he found that Drake had evacuated the colony shortly before. At the time of the Armada, he was ashore, organizing the defences in the West Country for the government. In 1591 he sailed in command of the Revenge, Drake’s flagship in the Armada fight, in a squadron of queen’s ships under Lord Thomas HOWARD, on a mission to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet off the Azores. However, King Philip ordered out a superior


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squadron to meet and escort the treasure fleet. Howard received ad vance warning, and with his crews badly depleted by disease, chose discretion when the Spaniards appeared. For reasons now unclear, Grenville delayed sailing (Tennyson’s heroic verse should not be considered historically accurate), and then chose to fight his way through, although he could probably have evaded the enemy. After an heroic fight, with just twenty of his ship’s company of 150 alive, and himself wounded, he was taken on board a Spanish ship, where he died, Although his courage and that of his ship’s company is undoubted, his professional peers considered that his ‘wilful rashness’ (which was another way of saying ‘bloodymindedness’) had been the cause of the loss of his ship, his men and his own life.

Gretton, Peter (1912–92) British: Vice-Admiral, KCB, OBE, DSO**, DSC. He was one of the great escort force commanders who defeated the German U-boat campaign in the battle of the Atlantic (1940–43). RNC Dartmouth, 1926; 1934, Lieutenant; 1942, Commander; 1948, Captain; 1958, Rear-Admiral; 1961, Vice-Admiral. He was awarded the DSC for actions ashore with landing parties during the Arab revolt in Palestine (1936). After teaching at RNC Dartmouth, 1937–39, he was First Lieutenant of HMS Vega (1939) and Cossack (1940) (MiD). He commanded the old destroyers Sabre (Atlantic convoys) and Wolverine (1942) (sank Italian submarine Dagabur by ramming during Operation Pedestal [Malta convoy]: awarded DSO.) After promotion, he took over HMS Duncan and Escort Group B7, 1942–44. Group B7’s major battle was in April/ May 1943, in defence of convoy ONS5: during this action, the group lost twelve ships in the convoy, but collectively sank six U-boats, and two others sank themselves in a collision (awarded bar to DSO). This action and others forced DÖNITZ to withdraw the U-boats from the North Atlantic. When they returned in Autumn 1943, in one period in October/ November, Duncan and the group crossed the Atlantic five times, escorting five convoys: they sank three U-boats, and lost no ships (awarded second bar to DSO). These actions, and others like them, were responsible for the Allies’ ability to build up forces and stores for the Normandy invasion in 1944. After WW2 Gretton commanded the cruiser Gambia, 1952–53, and the naval task force for Operation Grapple, the British ‘H’-bomb tests, 1956–57. He was appointed Flag Officer Sea Training, 1960–61. As FOSTand building on his wartime escort experience, he stamped his imprint on the Sea Training organization, so that his principles were still being applied forty years later. His final appointment was as VCNS, 1961–63.


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Greynvile see GRENVILLE Gromov, Felix (1937–) Russian: Admiral. He was a gunnery officer, and became C-in-C of the Russian Navy in 1992, in succession to CHERNAVIN. He graduated from his Higher Naval School in 1959. His first appointment was in the Pacific Fleet as head of the Engineering department of a ship. (The Soviet Navy’s officer structure was more akin to that of the USN than the RN, in that USN ‘line’ officers may have charge of engineering departments. The RN employs specialist engineers.) He then progressed steadily from being a gunnery officer, to Executive Officer of a destroyer, to command of a destroyer. His next appointments were as CoS of a ship formation, then as commander of that formation. He finally commanded a Pacific Fleet cruiser, having served in that fleet continuously, 1967–76. He served briefly at the Leningrad Naval Base in 1977, and returned to the Pacific Fleet as first, CoS, and then commander of a squadron (1981–84). He then became First Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet (1987) and its Commander, 1988. In 1992, he became First Deputy Commander of the Navy, and four months later, he succeeded Chernavin as C-in-C of the Russian Navy. In that position he made many visits overseas, and was generally more ‘visible’ than most of his predecessors, marking a change in Russia’s relationships with the rest of the world.

Guichen, Luc, comte de (1712–90) French: lieutenant-général. He served Louis XV and XVI well, and was accounted the best French tactician of his time, but his actions were nearly always defensive. He entered the navy in 1730; 1746, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1756, capitaine de vaisseau; 1776, chef d’escadre; 1779, lieutenant-général. In 1748, commanding the Sirène, 32, he fought two successful actions off Santo Domingo, but played no major part during the Seven Years’ War. He commanded the Ville-de-Paris, 100, at the indecisive battle of Ushant (1778), and in 1780, with his flag in the Couronne, 80, he took a fleet to the West Indies, where he fought three indecisive actions against RODNEY off Dominica, and returned to Spain, shepherding a large convoy. After an abortive attempt to mount a joint Franco-Spanish expedition in early 1781, Guichen left Brest with a large fleet, and larger convoy, for the West Indies, but allowed his fleet to remain to leeward of the convoy, which was snapped up by KEMPENFELT. In 1782, after successfully escorting reinforcements to the West Indies,


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he prepared an assault on Gibraltar from Cadiz, but once again, Spanish inertia nullified his efforts, and HOWE was able to relieve Gibraltar. Guichen retired when peace was made in 1783.

Guillemard, Robert (c.1780–?) French: sergent in the 16th Infantry. There is strong evidence that it was he who shot and killed NELSON at Trafalgar, but it is not absolutely conclusive, and is confused by some known falsehoods. Modern ballistic research makes it virtually certain that the fatal shot was fired from the mizzen-top of the Redoutable, 74. A regimental history of the 16th Regiment contains a passage which is said to be Guillemard’s own description of how he and five others had been ordered to the mizzen-top to replace the topmen who had been killed, and of how he had seen and recognized Nelson. He fired (but apparently without taking specific aim), and saw Nelson fall, and considered that he could have been the only man to have fired the shot. The confusion and doubt arise from a book said to be the memoirs of Guillemard, published in 1825, which recounts the facts stated above, but goes on to add further adventures, including his being present when VILLENEUVE was killed: whereas it is a fact that Villeneuve committed suicide. Later, the true author confessed that the story was made up, but certainly Guillemard was in the top, and fired at Victory. In the absence of any other claims, there is a very strong probability that Guillemard fired the fatal shot.

Gwinner, Clive (1908–98) British: Commander, DSO*, DSC. Having been a submariner himself, he became a ruthless submarine hunter in the Atlantic, as his medal tally shows: he also earned three MiDs. He entered Dartmouth in 1922; 1929, Lieutenant; 1943, Commander. He became a qualified submariner, serving in L53 and L26, but left the Navy in 1933. He returned just before the outbreak of WW2, and in 1940 was commanding an ex-USN four-stacker, HMS Clare. His next command was another ex-US ship, the Lulworth, and in her he sank the Italian submarine Pietro Calvi, south of the Azores, earning the DSO. He then commanded the sloop Woodcock, in the Second Support Group, commanded by Captain ‘Johnny’ WALKER In her, he destroyed the U-226, and was awarded the DSC. After promotion in 1943, he was given command of his own escort group, the 1st, in HMS Affleck. In a three-day period in February 1944, he destroyed U-91 and U-358, earning a bar to his DSO. The latter action involved a hunt of thirty-eight hours, the longest then recorded.


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A month later, Affleck destroyed U-392, in company with US aircraft and the destroyer Vanoc, and during the D-Day landings, his group ranged the Western Approaches, to keep out U-boats from Lorient and Brest. In the course of these operations U-1191 was destroyed, and Gwinner was awarded his second and third MiDs.


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H Hall, W.Reginald (1870–1943) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, KCMG, CB (universally known as ‘Blinker’). From December 1914 until the end of WW1 he was Director of the Intelligence Division, and his department made an enormous contribution to the winning of the war. (His father had been the first Director in 1882.) He joined the Navy in 1884; 1890, Lieutenant; 1901, Commander; 1905, Captain; 1917, Rear-Admiral. He was a gunnery specialist, who as Executive Officer of the battleship Magnificent put into effect advanced ideas for the welfare of his men. He was the Captain of RNC Osborne, and of the cruiser Natal, which became the most efficient gunnery ship in the fleet. As captain of the new battle cruiser Queen Mary, he introduced a number of seemingly revolutionary conditions of service for the lower deck: these improvements resulted in an extremely happy ship, and were rapidly adopted throughout the fleet. But it was in intelligence that he made his mark, using every technological advance possible, deceiving the enemy by various ruses, and initiating the art (or science) of interception and decryption of enemy communications. Room 40, in the Old Admiralty Building, became the centre of intelligence, and it was there that the notorious Zimmermann telegram, the contents of which precipitated the entry of the USA into the war, was decrypted. (In 1979, when this author worked in the Building, a facsimile of the original was still framed on the wall.) The then American ambassador in London wrote of him ‘The man is a genius—a clear case of genius. All other secret service men are amateurs by comparison’. But he received scant recognition from the naval authorities— his knighthood came at the recommendation of other government departments. Although he made friends widely, he was not on the best of terms with WEMYSS, the 1SL. He was retired in December 1918, and went into politics, with only moderate success.

Halsey, William F., Jr (1882–1959) US: Fleet Admiral. He was one of the most successful of the aggressive US carrier admirals who wrested the initiative from the Japanese Navy during WW2. In December 1941, at


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the war’s onset, he was Commander, Aircraft Battle Force and Commander, Carrier Division Two, having been advanced to Vice Admiral in June 1940. He immediately began offensive strikes, first against the Marshall and Gilbert Islands and then against Marcus and Wake Islands in early 1942. In April 1942 he was named Commander, Carriers Pacific. That same month, with Task Force 16, he launched the bombing raid from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, led by Army Lieutenant Colonel DOOLITTLE, against Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Halsey became Commander South Pacific Force. Following support of the US amphibious offensive in the Solomon Islands he was promoted to Admiral in November 1942. He continued to lead carrier forces in aggressive offensive operations in the Pacific and was named Commander, Third Fleet in June 1944. He led the aircraft carrier task force responsible for the defence of the naval units used to begin the liberation of the Philippines in October 1944. He was criticized—despite sinking four Japanese carriers—for leaving the Leyte amphibious landing area unprotected during the battle of Leyte Gulf in November of that year. He also was criticized when several of his smaller ships were lost in typhoons that might have been avoided. In May 1945 his units provided the air cover for the invasion of Okinawa. In December 1945 he was promoted to Fleet Admiral. He was a member of the USNA Class of 1904, and prior to WW2 he served in a wide variety of afloat and shore assignments. He was designated a naval aviator in May 1935, at the age of fifty-two. He was commanding officer of USS Saratoga, 1935–37, and advanced to Rear Admiral in March 1938. He was Commander, Carrier Division Two, 1938–39, and Commander, Carrier Division One, 1939–40. He retired from active duty in March 1947 and his memoirs, Admiral Halsey’s Story, appeared later that year.

Hamelin, Jacques (1768–1839) French: contre-amiral baron Hamelin. He was the senior of the two French commodores at Port Louis, Mauritius, during the stirring months of August and September 1810 (see DUPERRÉ and ROWLEY). After three voyages in a merchantman, he joined the navy in 1793 as a quartermaster; 1793, enseigne de vaisseau; 1794, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1796, capitaine de frégate; 1803, capitaine de vaisseau; 1811, contre-amiral. He served on the lower deck in the Mediterranean in TRUGUET’S squadron in 1793, and after promotion (due partly to his ability, but also to the replacement of the former officers of the royal navy by supporters of the Revolution) was present in the Proserpine, 40, at the battle of the Glorious First of June. He was wounded while serving in the Minerve, 38, which with two other frigates took the British Berwick, 74, which had been dismasted. Hamelin then served in the Berwick, taken into French service, in Richery’s squadron, harassing British settlements in Newfoundland. After commands of sloops and corvettes on escort duties, he took command of the Naturaliste in Nicolas BAUDIN’S expedition, 1800–03. He came to Napoleon’s notice as a commander of the Boulogne Flotilla during the preparations for the invasion of


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England, and in 1806 took command of the Vénus, 40, as commodore of a squadron of four frigates and two corvettes. He attacked the HEIC’s factory at Tapanooly, in Sumatra, and took the Ceylon, 32, before taking command of the defence of Port Louis, when he repulsed an attack by a similar number of British frigates under Pym: his line was at anchor, and the British force was beaten off by a combination of skill and good fortune. However, when Bertie’s force arrived two months later, he had to surrender, but was soon exchanged. He then served under MISSIESSY in the Scheldt (1812–14), and in the post-war years he continued to serve; as Inspector of Personnel and Materiel in 1832, and Director of the Chart depot in 1833.

Hamilton, Edward (1772–1851) British: Admiral Sir Edward Hamilton, Bt, KCB. He is celebrated for the recapture of the British frigate Hermione, 36, from the Spaniards. Her crew had mutinied and murdered their tyrannical captain, PIGOT, and surrendered the ship to the Spanish authorities in La Guaira (now in Venezuela). He went to sea with his father at the age of five, in the Hector, 74, for two years, but returned to school and joined properly in 1787; 1793, Lieutenant; 1796, Commander; 1797, Captain; 1821, Rear-Admiral; 1837, Vice-Admiral; 1846, Admiral. As a lieutenant he served in the Mediterranean, at the siege of Bastia, and later in the Victory, 100, under HOOD (3) and JERVIS. He was promoted into the Comet, fireship, and sent to the West Indies. There he was swiftly promoted to Captain, and given the Surprise, 28, employed on convoy work, and in cruising against the enemy’s trade. In eighteen months he took or destroyed some eighty vessels, enriching himself on the prize money. In 1799 he was sent to watch for the Hermione, which after her capture had been more powerfully armed and crewed, and whose existence in those waters was taken as a reproach to the Royal Navy. Hamilton sent in a challenge which was not acknowledged, and so determined to cut her out. Hermione was anchored under the guns of two forts, and the attack was detected early on, but it was pressed home with the utmost determination and gallantry: the larger Spanish crew were over-powered, the cables were cut and, with no wind, the boats towed her out—all under continuous fire. The Spaniards lost 119 killed and ninety-seven wounded; the British twelve wounded (Hamilton being one, and seriously). For this feat (‘unparalleled in the annals of the navy’, according to the DNB), he was knighted and received many other rewards. While returning to the UK, the packet in which he was travelling was captured by a French privateer, but he was speedily exchanged, and was next appointed to the Trent, 36, for service on the north coast of France. He was dismissed the service for having excessively punished her gunner and his mates for gross disobedience. It was suggested that his wounds had affected his judgement, and he was reinstated.


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From 1806 until 1819, he was captain of the royal yacht Mary, and then the Prince Regent, and then advanced by seniority inexorably to Admiral. He was made KCB in 1815 and a baronet in 1818.

Hammann, Charles H. (1892–1919) US: Ensign. He was the only USN pilot to earn the Medal of Honor, the highest US military award, during WW1. In August 1918 he and two fellow pilots engaged a superior enemy force of landplanes. When one of his fellow Navy pilots was shot down, Hammann landed his single-place Italian Macchi M-5 seaplane fighter in the Adriatic alongside the downed aircraft. Despite the presence of enemy aircraft, he picked up Ensign George Ludlow. With exceptional flying skill and with Ludlow clinging to the struts of his aircraft, he returned safely to his base. Hammann enlisted in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps at the onset of WW1 and died in an accident at Langley Field, Virginia, in June 1919. The destroyer escort USS Hammann and the destroyer USS Hammann were named in his honour.

Harding, Israel (1833–1917) British: Chief Gunner, VC. Mr Harding won his VC at the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, while serving in the battleship HMS Alexandra. He entered the Navy in 1849 as an Ordinary Seaman. After service in the Arrogant, 46, he qualified as a Seaman Gunner, and by 1855 was a Gunner’s Mate (Petty Officer) in the Cressy, 80, and took part in the bombardment of Sveaborg. His later service included a commission in the Gladiator on the South American Station, when he won a Brazilian order for his services in fighting a fire in the arsenal in Rio de Janeiro in 1871, and he served in the Ashanti war in 1878. At Alexandria, the British fleet came under heavy and accurate fire from the Egyptian shore batteries, and one shell penetrated several bulkheads and rolled along the deck, coming to rest immediately alongside the main magazine hatch. Hearing the commotion, Mr Harding, the ship’s gunner (a warrant officer), rushed up from the magazine, and unhesitatingly lifted the shell, and doused it in a tub of water, extinguishing the fuze. His action undoubtedly saved the ship, since had it exploded, it would have taken the magazine, containing 25 tons of gunpowder, with it. He retired in 1885, but returned to the Navy in WW1, despite being over eighty. He served in minesweepers, and was injured when a mine exploded under his ship.


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Hardy, Thomas (1769–1839) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy, GCB. He was NELSON’S Flag Captain at the battle of Trafalgar, and was present at his death. It is to Hardy, or more correctly, to his wife, that we owe the preservation of HMS Victory. Hardy entered the Navy in 1781, but after less than a year returned to school, though he continued to be borne on the books of HM ships, to earn seniority. He then spent three or four years in the merchant service. (It was peacetime, and naval billets hard to come by, unless one had serious ‘interest’.) In 1793 he was made Lieutenant; 1797, Commander; 1798, Captain; 1825, Rear-Admiral; 1837, Vice-Admiral. Hardy was serving in the Minerve, 38, in 1796, in which Nelson hoisted his broad pendant, and distinguished himself almost immediately during the encounter with the Spanish Sabina, 44 (see SAUMAREZ). When the Sabina surrendered, Hardy was sent as part of the prize crew; but on the approach of the superior Spanish squadron he so diverted the Spaniards that the Minerve was able to escape. Hardy became a prisoner, but was quickly exchanged. Shortly afterwards, while Minerve was being chased by the Spanish fleet, Hardy jumped overboard to save a man. Nelson said, ‘By God, I’ll not lose Hardy’, and lowered a boat to pick them up. The Spaniards, suspecting a ruse, slowed and Hardy was recovered. Minerve was present at the battle of St Vincent, and shortly afterwards Hardy commanded the ship’s boats in cutting out the French Mutine, 16, and was promoted Commander into her. In 1798 the Mutine was part of Nelson’s fleet at the battle of the Nile, after which Hardy was promoted to take BERRY’S place as Nelson’s Flag Captain. He was Nelson’s Flag Captain again in 1801, in the San Josef, 114, and the St George, 98, and it was Hardy who personally took soundings all round the Danish ships during the night before the battle of Copenhagen, although he did not go with Nelson to the Elephant for the battle. In 1803, Hardy commanded the Amphion, taking Nelson out to join the Mediterranean fleet, and became his Flag Captain, taking command of the Victory, 100, throughout the long blockade of Toulon, the chase after VILLENEUVE to the West Indies and back, and finally the battle of Trafalgar. Nelson and Hardy were walking together when Nelson was fatally shot by GUILLEMARD. And Hardy attended his dying admiral as the battle ceased. Given their long and close association, it is not surprising that Nelson, an emotional man, knowing that death was near, should have said, as a farewell, ‘Kiss me, Hardy’. Hardy was rewarded with a baronetcy, and took command of the Triumph, 74, on the North America Station, 1808–09, and later of the Barfleur, 98, at Lisbon, when he was made a commodore in the Portuguese navy. He went again to North America in the Ramillies, 74, 1812–15. Off New London he took a prize, said to be loaded with provisions, but Hardy was suspicious, and instead of taking her alongside, ordered her to be secured alongside another prize. His suspicions were well founded: the prize was a floating bomb, and exploded with considerable loss of life and both prizes (cf. USS Cole at Aden). After the war (KCB, 1815) he was C-in-C South America, 1819–24, where he earned great credit for his diplomacy during the various wars of Independence (see


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COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD), and later held various minor sea commands, 1826–27. He was 1SL, 1831–34. When it was proposed that the Victory, now sixty-six years old, should be broken up, it was Lady Hardy, herself the daughter of an admiral, who said ‘You cannot let this happen’, and persuaded him to keep her as a receiving ship, and the C-in-C’s flagship at Portsmouth. Hardy finished his career as the Governor of Greenwich Hospital.

Hart, Raymond (1913–99) British: Captain, CBE, DSO, DSC*. He was one of the captains in GRETTON’S B7 Escort Group, whose actions around convoy ONS 5 (April-May 1943) were largely responsible for DÖNITZ’S decision to withdraw the U-boats from the north Atlantic. This was the turning point in the battle of the Atlantic, and meant that the build up of forces for the second front in Europe proceeded with minimum hindrance. Hart went to sea in the merchant marine in 1929, joining the RNR in 1933. He opted to join the RN in 1937; 1937, Lieutenant; 1947, Commander; 1953, Captain. He joined the destroyer Hasty in 1939, and in 1940 led the boarding party which prevented the scuttling of the SS Morea, a German blockade runner. Hasty served in the Norwegian campaign, and in the Mediterranean, being present at the engagement off Calabria and the sinking by HMAS Sydney of the Bartolomeo Colleoni. In 1941 Hart won the DSC as First Lieutenant of the Hasty for his bravery in rescuing survivors from the Dainty off Tobruk. His ship then participated in the battle of Cape Matapan, and the evacuation of Crete. In two years he had amassed as much battle experience as most do in a lifetime. In 1942 he took command of the twenty-year-old destroyer Vidette, in Gretton’s group. The battle round ONS 5 lasted ten days, and Vidette sank U-125 and U-531. In all, six U-boats were sunk and two others were lost in collision, for the loss of twelve merchantmen; all in atrocious weather. Hart received a bar to his DSC. Later that year Vidette sank U-282 and Hart received an MiD. In 1944 he commanded another destroyer, Havelock, part of a group which sank U-767 off Normandy while under accurate fire from shore batteries. He then commanded the frigate Conn leading his own escort group. In March 1945 they sank three U-boats and Hart won the DSO. After WW2 he commanded the frigates Relentless and Undine (the latter as Captain [F]). His final appointment was as Commodore Naval Drafting, which earned him the CBE.


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Harvey, Eliab (1758–1830) British: Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, GCB. He was particularly known as the captain of the Temeraire, 98, at Trafalgar, and also for his outburst in front of GAMBIER in the Basque Roads in 1809, which resulted in his dismissal. He entered the Navy in 1771; 1779, Lieutenant; 1782, Commander; 1783, Captain; 1805, Rear-Admiral; 1809, dismissed; 1810, reinstated; 1811, Vice-Admiral; 1819, Admiral. His early career was unremarkable; he inherited a fortune when his brother died in 1779, and became a man-about-town and gambler: he also became an MP. He had just achieved captain’s rank at the end of the War of American Independence. At the start of the French Revolutionary War he commanded the Santa Margarita, 38, in the West Indies, when Martinique and Guadeloupe were taken, and later the Valiant, 74, also in the West Indies, whence he was invalided home. After a period commanding the Sea Fencibles (a home defence force), he commanded the Triumph, 74, until the Peace of Amiens. When war broke out again in 1803, Harvey took command of the Temeraire, which followed Victory through the Franco-Spanish line at Trafalgar, earning from COLLINGWOOD the words ‘Nothing could be finer: I have no words to express my admiration’. After Trafalgar, he was promoted, and became second-in-command of the Channel Squadron under JERVIS and, later, Gambier. At the Basque Roads, in 1809, when Cochrane (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD) was sent out to improvise an attack, Harvey was so incensed by what he took as a slight on his (and the fleet’s) abilities that he expressed himself most improperly to his C-in-C on Gambier’s quarterdeck (one can be sympathetic to a bold man, but Gambier was in receipt of Admiralty orders, and had little room for manoeuvre). In consequence, he was courtmartialled and dismissed the service, but re-instated next year in recognition of his ‘long and meritorious service’. However, he was never re-employed, though he received the KCB in 1815, and GCB in 1825. He had remained an MP for much of this period (1802–12, and 1820–30), so it is possible that there was an element of political reward in the awards.

Harwood, Henry (1888–1950) British: Admiral Sir Henry Harwood, KCB, OBE. He was the victor of the battle of the River Plate in December 1939, the first serious check to Hitler’s war aims. He entered the RN in 1902; 1909, Lieutenant; 1921, Commander; 1928, Captain; 1939, Rear-Admiral; 1943, Vice-Admiral; 1945, Admiral.


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He specialized in torpedo in 1911, and during WWl he had a series of sea appointments, without seeing the enemy, but for which he was awarded the OBE. After the war the majority of his career was in staff appointments. He had two commands, the destroyer Warwick and her flotilla, 1929–30, and the cruiser London, 1932–34. In 1936, Harwood was appointed Commodore of the South Atlantic Division, consisting of the light cruisers Ajax and HMNZS Achilles. At the outbreak of war he was reinforced by the heavy cruiser Exeter, and when the pattern of reported sinkings suggested that the German ‘pocket battleship’ Graf Spee had left the Indian Ocean, he correctly deduced that she would head for the River Plate, where trade routes converged. In the ensuing engagement, he split his force to attack the enemy from two directions: the ploy worked, though the Exeter suffered heavily. The Graf Spee suffered a number of casualties, though her fighting capacity was not greatly impaired, and LANGSDORFF took her into neutral Montevideo, leaving the British force waiting outside. In the meantime, HMS Cumberland came to replace the crippled Exeter. Harwood fully expected Langsdorff to come out to fight again, and was surprised (if not somewhat relieved) when she scuttled herself. Harwood was promoted to Rear-Admiral on the spot and awarded the KCB. On his return, he went to the Admiralty as ACNS. His work so impressed CHURCHILL, that when CUNNINGHAM left the Mediterranean in mid-1942, Churchill had no hesitation in appointing Harwood, although still only a Rear-Admiral, to replace him. After El Alamein, the Mediterranean Fleet’s main task was to support the 8th Army in its drive along the North African coast. As often as not, it was the Navy which occupied ports evacuated by the enemy, before the army arrived. Unfortunately, Harwood’s health gave way, and he was invalided home, where he occupied a lessdemanding flag officer’s post in Orkney, before retiring at the end of the war.

Hasson, Esther V. (1867–1942) US: Navy Nurse. She was the first superintendent of the US Navy Nurse Corps. She was one of the original twenty nurses, referred to as ‘the sacred twenty’, recruited in 1908, and she served as superintendent from August 1908 to January 1911. She established high professional standards and a strict code of conduct for the Navy Nurse Corps. She resigned in January 1911 during a controversy with the Navy’s Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. By the time of her resignation, the Navy Nurse Corps had grown to eighty-five qualified nurses. She was an 1897 graduate of the Connecticut Training School for Nurses in New Haven, Connecticut. Prior to her service in the Navy, she served as a contract nurse in 1898 with the US Army in the Spanish-American War. In June 1917 she became an Army Reserve nurse and served in Europe during WW1.


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Hattendorf, John B. (1941-) US: naval history professor and author. He is a leading author/co-author or editor/co-editor of more than twenty books on maritime subjects, including British Naval Documents, 1204– 1960; The Limitations of Military Power, Maritime Strategy and the Balance of Power: Britain and America in the Twentieth Century, and America and the Sea: A Maritime History. He has a bachelor’s degree from Kenyon College, a master’s degree from Brown University, and a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University. He was commissioned as an Ensign in the Naval Reserve from the USN Officer Candidate School in February 1965, and served in the destroyers USS O’Brien, 1965–67, USS Purdy, 1969–71, and USS Fiske, 1971–72. In 1972–73 he was assigned to the US Naval War College as an instructor, research associate and research assistant to the President, becoming a Lieutenant. He returned to civilian status as a Lieutenant and became an assistant and then an associate professor at the War College, 1977–81. He was named a professor of naval history there in 1983. Hattendorf became the Ernest J.King Professor of Maritime History at the War College in 1984 and Director, Advanced Research Department in 1988.

Hawke, Edward (1705–81) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Hawke. He was an aggressive sea-commander, second only to NELSON. Hawke’s decisive victory at Quiberon Bay in November 1759 set the seal on that ‘Year of Victories’: in strategic terms, it was a Trafalgar forty years early. Later, he was a more than competent First Lord of the Admiralty. He went to sea in 1720; 1729, Lieutenant; 1733, Commander; 1734, Captain; 1747, Rear-Admiral; 1748, Vice-Admiral; 1757, Admiral; 1768, Admiral of the Fleet. After a brief period commanding small ships, Hawke was on half-pay until war started in 1739. He spent nearly four years commanding the decrepit Portland, 50, on trade protection duties in the West Indies, and was then given the Berwick, 70, in time to join MATHEWS’S fleet for the battle of Toulon, where Hawke was the only British captain to distinguish himself, leaving the line to engage the enemy at pistol-shot range, a tactic which he was to enjoin on his captains when he later commanded squadrons or fleets. After three squadron commands in the Mediterranean, he received a shore post in Plymouth. But due to the illness of a senior officer, he took command of the Western Squadron temporarily, and in October 1747, as a result of good intelligence and excellent tactical dispositions, his squadron fell in with a strong French squadron under Letanduere, and effectively destroyed it, capturing six ships. Hawke was knighted, and also became anMP. Shortly after the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War in 1756, he was sent to the Mediterranean where he relieved John BYNG, after the debacle of Minorca. The memoirs of Captain Hervey reveal that Hawke took his captains into his confidence as


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Nelson would do forty years later. But the French were unwilling to fight, and Hawke returned to Britain. In 1759 Hawke was given command of the Western Squadron, instituting a rigorous blockade of Brest, and training the fleet in seamanship and gunnery. He was careful to maintain the health of his seamen, which would otherwise have limited the effectiveness of the blockade. In November, while he was briefly driven offstation by the weather, the French under the comte de CONFLANS escaped, and headed for the Golfe de Morbihan to pick up a troop convoy for an invasion of England. Hawke pursued them, and in a full gale, and with darkness approaching, chased them into the confines of Quiberon Bay, where by a combination of superior seamanship and gunnery, six out of the twenty-one French ships were destroyed, rendering the French fleet impotent for the rest of the war. In 1766 he became First Lord of the Admiralty, but ill health forced his resignation in 1771. He was created a baron in 1776.

Hawkins (or Hawkyns), John (1532–95) English: Sir John Hawkins, Elizabethan naval commander and administrator. A West Countryman, bred to the sea, Hawkins started as a merchant, trading to the West Indies and Spanish Central America—notably in slaves. In 1567, at St Juan de Lua (Ulloa), now Vera Cruz, he was attacked by a superior Spanish force, and barely escaped, losing many men, and a substantial fortune. In 1572 he succeeded his father-in-law as Treasurer of the Navy, and later Comptroller as well. He was responsible for the building and upkeep of the queen’s ships, and made many improvements to their seaworthiness and handiness. He was not without his enemies, who alleged that he feathered his own nest at the expense of the queen and the fleet. In this he was no worse than most public officials of the age, but the fleet he cared for was well found and proved itself in 1588. In the Armada campaign he was one of Charles HOWARD’S council and commanded the inshore squadron in the Victory: he was knighted by Howard after the action off the Isle of Wight. In 1594 he sailed again on an expedition to the West Indies with DRAKE, during which he died. In his will, he said For all the faults or offences which I may have committed against Her Majesty, I do give unto her 2,000/ (if she will take it) for that she hath in her possession a far greater sum of mine which I do release unto her. There is little doubt that, in business and state affairs, he had sailed extremely close to the wind throughout most of his life.


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Hawkyns see HAWKINS Hayward, Thomas B. (1924–) US: Admiral. He proposed a Cold War naval structure and strategy in a white paper, ‘The Future of US Sea Power’ during his service as CNO, 1978–82. Hayward described the Navy in a broad strategic perspective, and he claimed that, as a result of the naval cuts of President Carter, the United States had a ‘one-and-a-half ocean navy for a three ocean commitment’. His concept of US naval needs was strongly counter to the defence policies of the Carter administration, which saw the Navy almost exclusively as a logistic support force for NATO. The ideas in Hayward’s white paper evolved into a broad maritime strategy that was the basis for a naval build-up during the coming administration of Ronald REAGAN. To further his emphasis on the Navy’s strategic roles, he established a Strategic Studies Group at the US Naval War College. As part of his effort to strengthen the Navy’s combat capabilities he was a strong supporter of the development of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter to replace the aging McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom as the Navy’s front-line fighter aircraft. Hayward was a member of the USNA class of 1948-A, which was accelerated to graduate in June 1947, and he was designated a naval aviator in July 1950. He was an aircraft carrier based fighter pilot during the Korean War, flying 146 combat missions during that conflict. He commanded the carrier USS America, and, as a senior flag officer, he was named Commander, Seventh Fleet in June 1975 and Commander, Pacific Fleet, 1976–78. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in July 1971, Vice Admiral in April 1973, and Admiral in August 1976. He retired from active duty in 1982 and became a business development consultant.

Heath, Leopold (1817–1907) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Leopold Heath, KCB. He also became a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur (France) and was awarded the 5th class of the Order of Medjidieh (Turkey). His career was typical of many British officers in the mid-Victorian years: nothing outstanding, but steady service in all parts of the empire, maintaining the Royal Navy’s undoubted dominance. He was also a gunnery specialist, and a member of the Ordnance Select Committee, responsible for the introduction of bigger, rifled, guns in the late 1860s. He entered the Navy in 1830; 1839, Lieutenant; 1847, Commander; 1854, Captain; 1871, Rear-Admiral.


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After qualifying in gunnery, Heath went to the Far East in 1843, in the Iris and was engaged in the subjection of Borneo, earning an MiD with the landing parties. He remained on the coast of Borneo, in temporary command of the Wolf, 18, during which time he discovered coalmines on Labuan. He then spent two unhealthy years, 1850–52, on the west coast of Africa, commanding the Niger, 14, suppressing the slave trade. In 1853 Niger went to the Crimea and Heath was one of the beachmasters for the landing at Eupatoria. He then took possession of Balaclava harbour, and organized the berthing of ships and landing stores. His next action was to land most of his ship’s company to man one of the siege batteries, taking charge himself. He was promoted and took command of the Sanspareil, 81, for the last bombardment of Sebastopol. He commanded the Devonport Gunnery School, then spent four years on the Ordnance Select Committee, before being appointed Commodore of the East Indies squadron, in the Octavia, 39. Here he saw active service again, taking charge of the naval part of the expedition against King Theodore of Abyssinia in 1868. This involved a massive logistic lift, and the provision of all supplies for the army, including fresh water, produced in substantial quantities by the new-fangled condensers in the squadron’s engine-rooms. Some 37,000 tons of water were produced. For his services he received the formal thanks of Parliament and was made a KCB. On completion of his three years in command of the squadron he was promoted to Rear-Admiral. He was invited to join the Board of Admiralty, but declined, because he would have been required to seek election as an MP, and he had no wish to get involved in party politics.

van Heemskerk, Jacob (1567–1607) Dutch Admiral. He was the first of the great Dutch commanders in the seventeenth century, which saw Dutch seapower at its peak in Europe, as the Republic struggled to achieve economic and political independence from Spain. He first came to prominence in 1595, in Willem Barends’s expedition to find the Northeast Passage, as a means of bypassing Spain on the passage to the trading riches of the East. They lost their ship in the ice, and wintered on Novaya Zemlya in terrible conditions. The following summer, they took to the ship’s boats, and after Barends’s death, van Heemskerk brought the remainder of the crew back to Delft. In 1607 the Dutch Republic set out its first fleet, and van Heemskerk was given command. His aim was to attack the Spanish fleet which was preying on Dutch trade. He found the Spaniards at anchor off Gibraltar, and attacked them where they were, doubling his ships on each Spaniard. The Dutch won a resounding victory, not unlike that of


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NELSON at the Nile nearly 200 years later, the Spaniards losing thirteen out of twentyone ships; but van Heemskerk was killed early in the action.

Hegdahl, Douglas B. (1946-) US: Seaman Apprentice. He provided unique support to his fellow prisoners during the Vietnam War. In April 1967 he was captured after being knocked overboard from the cruiser USS Canberra in the Tonkin Gulf by the blast from an 8-inch gun. He was picked up by fishermen in international waters, turned over to the North Vietnamese military, and held at the infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison maintained by the North Vietnamese government. At one point during a ‘contest’ among the US prisoners, almost all of whom were aviators, Hegdahl won the ‘low slow’ award for the person who bailed out of his craft at the lowest altitude and slowest speed: 12 feet at 15 knots. When the North Vietnamese decided to release some prisoners for propaganda purposes, the prisoners maintained as part of their own code of conduct that none of them would accept release until all were freed. It was decided, however, that Hegdahl, the youngest among them, should accept early release in order to tell the story of the brutal torture of the US military captives. Before his release in August 1969, Hegdahl memorized more than 200 names of American PoWs and basic information about each one. Some of the PoWs whose names he memorized had been presumed dead by the US govern ment, and North Vietnamese officials were surprised when these names were included in negotiations for the release of PoWs at the end of the war. It is believed that those lives were saved because of their inclusion on Hegdahl’s memorized list. Upon returning to the United States he devoted his time and his own money personally to contact as many of the next-of-kin as possible. At reunions of the PoWs, Hegdahl is treated with a special affection, and twenty years after his release he was still able to recite every name and the accompanying data he memorized while a prisoner.

Hein, Piet (1578–1629) Dutch: Admiral. Brought up as a fisherman, who developed into a trader, Hein had suffered at the hands of the Spaniards before VAN HEEMSKERK’S victory in Gibraltar Bay. When war broke out again in 1619 he started a personal and not unsuccessful privateering war against Spain, and in 1623 sailed as vice-admiral under Willekens to attack San Salvador in what is now Brazil. Against substantial odds Hein took or sank fifteen Spanish ships: four years later he returned to San Salvador, again in Spanish hands, as admiral of his own fleet, and repeated his earlier feat, capturing twenty-two ships this time. His expeditionary voyages in 1624–27 had had as aim the capture of the


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annual Spanish treasure fleet, but each year the Spaniards had eluded him. However, in 1628 he trapped the Spanish flota in Matanzas Bay, Cuba, and captured all the treasure which the Spaniards had not been able to carry away. As well as damaging the Spanish economy, the bullion enabled the Dutch to continue their war against Spain. The next year Hein was persuaded to come out of retirement to lead an attack on the pirates of Dunkirk, but on the first voyage, in his usual impetuous fashion, he attacked three pirate vessels on his own, and was killed.

Henderson, Reginald (1881–1939) British: Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, GCB. As a staff officer under Alexander DUFF in the Admiralty in 1916–17, he proved that the number of ocean shipping movements in and out of British ports was far less than was believed, and that the resources and organization for running convoys were manageable. Within weeks, convoys were introduced, and the U-boat menace to Allied shipping (but British particularly) was contained. This saved Britain from near-starvation, and enabled the US army to be transported to Europe safely in late 1917. The Prime Minister, David Lloyd-George, in his memoirs, implied that he was responsible for knocking Admiralty heads together to introduce convoys, but JELLICOE had signed the order for their introduction three days before Lloyd George ‘descended upon the Admiralty’. Henderson entered the RN in 1894; 1902, Lieutenant; 1913, Commander; 1917, Captain; 1929, Rear-Admiral; 1934, Vice-Admiral; 1939, Admiral. He qualified in gunnery in 1905, and in 1914 became the Executive Officer of the super-dreadnought Erin, and served in her at Jutland. Shortly afterwards he went to the Anti-Submarine Division of the Admiralty, with responsibility for the convoy system already in force for the essential coal trade to France (the Germans occupied those parts of France where most of the collieries were situated). It was his questioning mind which refuted the accepted wisdom that convoys wouldn’t work in the steam age (they had in the age of sail). He commanded the aircraft carrier Furious, 1926–28, and flew his flag afloat in HMS Courageous as the first Rear-Admiral, Aircraft Carriers, 1931–33. During this time he developed tactics for the use of carrier task forces. He became 3SL and Controller in 1934, responsible for the build up of the fleet in the looming face of another war with Germany, and it was under his aegis that the fleet carriers of the Illustrious class, with their armoured hangars which were so effective, were laid down. He received a KCB in 1936, and advanced to GCB in 1939, but died prematurely in mid-1939.


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Hennessey, Sydney (1903–94) British: Captain, OBE. He was one of the ‘unsung heroes’ of the hydrographic service whose work was absolutely vital to the use of ports to keep the Allied armies in Europe supplied, 1944–45. He joined the RN as a Boy Seaman in 1920, and rose to Leading Seaman by 1925, when he was selected to become an officer; 1928, Lieutenant; 1943, Commander; 1953, acting Captain. His first ship as an officer was the survey vessel Endeavour, and surveying became his specialization. Between 1930 and 1939 he served all over the world the Hennessey Shoals in the Red Sea bear his name. He served in the Mediterranean, where he was awarded an MiD, and commanded an all-wooden oceanographic sailing ship, the RRS Mercator, before taking command of HMS Scott in 1943. Scott was in the thick of it from 6 June 1944, surveying and marking swept channels to the beaches: marking wrecks, and setting out the moorings for the ‘Mulberry’ artificial harbours; all this often under fire. The accuracy of the surveys was helped by the then new device, later known as the Decca Navigator. After D-Day Scott moved to Cherbourg to survey the landing site for the fuel pipeline PLUTO, and then up to the Scheldt, to mark the entrance channels to Antwerp, the Allies forward port for the invasion of Germany. For all this, Hennessey was awarded the OBE. After the war he held two more commands, and then, as an acting Captain, was loaned to the Indian navy, in charge of the marine survey of India, and later as Chief Hydrographer.

Herbert, Arthur (1648–1716) British: Admiral of the Fleet, the Earl of Torrington. One of James II’s senior admirals, he jibbed at the lifting of restrictions on Roman Catholics. He offered his services to William of Orange, and commanded the Dutch fleet in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and the combined English/Dutch fleet at the battle of Beachy Head in 1690. After this defeat by the French, he was the first to make use of the phrase ‘a fleet in being’, in the sense that strategists have used it ever since. At the age of fifteen he went to sea with Sir Robert HOLMES; 1666, Lieutenant; and almost immediately Captain; 1678, Vice-Admiral; 1680, Admiral; 1689, Admiral of the Fleet. He fought through the second and third Dutch wars with distinction, and in between, in the Mediterranean, against the Algerine pirates, when he received a pistol bullet in the face which remained in him for the rest of his life. At a time when there was a distinction


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between ‘Gentlemen’ and ‘Tarpaulins’, he seems to have combined the characteristics of both. In the late 1670s he was involved in the defence of Tangier, which brought him into conflict with PEPYS. Pepys had a political civil servant’s approach to life, and did not appreciate the day-to-day requirements of active service. While in Tangier, Herbert was the first to see the possibilities of Gibraltar as a naval base. He was a Commissioner of the Admiralty 1683–84, but fell out with James II over the repealing of the Test Act, and was invited by William of Orange to join him. He was appointed Admiral of the Dutch fleet in the hope of minimizing any opposition, because of his standing with the English fleet. After William’s accession, Herbert became effectively First Lord, but was also the fleet commander in the war when James, supported by Louis XIV of France, tried to regain his throne. He fought an inconclusive action in Bantry Bay in 1689, and in 1690, after a direct order from Queen Mary, attacked the French with an inferior force off Beachy Head, and suf fered a tactical defeat, although the fleet remained ready to prevent a French invasion.

Hessler, Giinter (1909–68) German: Fregattenkapitan, and holder of the Knight’s Cross. He was a very successful U-boat commander, who was lucky enough to get out of the U-boat service in 1941. He entered the German Navy in 1927:1931, Leutnant zur See; 1941, Fregattenkapitän. Hessler served in torpedo boats (small destroyers) and the old battleship Schlesien in the 1930s. He joined the submarine service in 1940, and after basic training was given command of the new U-107, without any previous submarine service. In her, he carried out three patrols. His second, operating off the west coast of Africa, was the most successful in terms of tonnage sunk; over 86,000 tons of Allied shipping sunk in a patrol which lasted more than three months. In his three patrols he sank a total of 118,000 tons of shipping. He left U-107 in December 1941, and spent the rest of the war as a staff officer in the U-boat HQ. He married DÖNITZ’S daughter in 1937. At the war’s end he spent a year as a PoW, and in 1947–51 co-authored a three-volume History of the U-boat War in the Atlantic for the RN.

Hewes, Joseph (1730–79) American: political leader during the American Revolution. He was the first civilian head of the Continental Navy.


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He was a successful merchant and maritime shipper in Philadelphia before moving to North Carolina around 1760. He was a representative from North Carolina to the First Continental Congress, 1774–77, and as a member of the naval committee of that body, he was an effective advocate of the building of a Continental Navy. The committee’s early efforts resulted in the authorization to build four ships, the beginning of a navy. As a southerner, Hewes’s support of a navy was particularly important, since many southerners felt that a navy primarily would benefit the northeastern states. While a member of the naval committee, he also was instrumental in the commissioning in December 1775 of John Paul JONES as a Lieutenant in the Continental Navy. When the marine committee succeeded the naval committee in December 1775, he was named chairman, making him the first civilian head of an American navy. He was a member of the North Carolina State House of Commons, 1778–79. Hewes was elected to the second Congressional Congress in Philadelphia but died in November 1779, shortly after it convened. He was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, and the destroyer escort USS Joseph Hewes was named in his honour.

Hewett, Henry K. (1887–1972) US: Admiral. He commanded US and Allied naval forces in the Mediterranean during WW2, pioneering amphibious doctrine used later on D-Day in Normandy. In April 1942 he commanded the US Atlantic Amphibious Force and directed the assaults in North Africa in November, when he was advanced to Vice Admiral. In February 1943 he took command of the Eighth Fleet and in July and September directed the Allied landings in Sicily and Salerno, Italy. In July 1944 he took command of the Allied naval forces involved in the August invasion of southern France. Hewett graduated from the USNA in 1907. His early career included duty in the battleships USS Missouri, USS Connecticut and USS Florida, the destroyer USS Flusser, and the Naval Academy faculty. In December 1913 he was promoted to Lieutenant. In July 1916 he commanded the patrol craft Eagle and in July 1917 he was advanced to Lieutenant Commander and subsequently advanced to Commander in July 1918. Following a variety of shore and sea assignments, including two destroyer commands, he attended the US War College, 1928–29, and was promoted to Captain in June 1932. In addition to other senior officer assignments he commanded the cruiser USS Indianapolis, 1936–37. He advanced to Rear Admiral in December 1939 and served in senior sea and shore assignments, 1939–41. He was promoted to Admiral in April 1945 and in August was named Commander, US Naval Forces in Europe. He was assigned special duties at the US Naval War College, 1946–47, and served on the United Nations Military Staff Committee, 1947–49. He retired from active duty in March 1949.


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Higgins, Andrew Jackson (1886–1952) US: designer and builder of WW2 amphibious landing craft used by the United States and its allies. Higgins created the globally ubiquitous LCVP (landing craft, vehicle and personnel) that was the smallboat foundation of US WW2 amphibious operations. The 36-ft craft was designed to carry between 35 and 40 fully equipped infantrymen or a jeep and trailer. The boats mostly were constructed of plywood, were propelled by a single diesel engine, and were mass-produced in assembly lines scattered in the area of New Orleans. Higgins’s company employed up to 30,000 workers. The LCVP’s unique design included its shallow draft, protected propeller and ‘spoon’ bow, which generally allowed it to offload troops and equipment quickly over a steel bow ramp without broaching, and then retract safely from the beach. In addition to the LCVP, Higgins developed designs for a larger steel tank landing craft and torpedo boats, but the LCVP and its variants, the LCP and LCPL, remained the core of the Navy’s over-the-beach landing capability through the Korean War. It is estimated that his company produced more than 20,000 boats that were used in thousands of large and small amphibious operations. Higgins was an outspoken, self-taught designer and builder who struggled for years before finally winning major contracts for his landing craft. During his struggle he confronted the rigid bureaucracy of the Navy’s Bureau of Ships and the unyielding opposition of Fleet Admiral Ernest KING to the Navy’s acceptance of the LCVP.

von Hipper, Franz (1863–1932) German: Admiral Baron von Hipper. He was the commander of the German battle cruiser force at Jutland, and the last C-in-C of the High Seas Fleet. He was a thoroughgoing seaman, who never held a shore staff appointment. He joined the new KM in 1881; 1888, Oberleutnant zur See; 1905, KorvettenKapitän; 1907, Fregatten-Kapitan; 1911, Kommodore; 1912, Konteradmiral. He circumnavigated the world in the training frigate Leipzig, but after 1890 he never served outside the North Sea. He qualified in torpedo in 1891, and in 1894, while serving in the battleship Worth, he caught the eye of Prince Heinrich of Prussia, his captain (see HOHENZOLLERN), and was given command of a division of torpedo boats. He served in the German royal yacht, Hohenzollern, 1901–03, and then in command of a full division of destroyers, building up his reputation for handling formations of fast craft. In 1905 he took command of the new cruiser Leipzig and then the older armoured cruiser Friedrich Karl. Sea service continued, commanding the new Gneisenau, after further promotion. By 1911 he was CoS to the admiral commanding the cruiser force, and in


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1912 he was promoted to Konteradmiral, with his flag in the Koln, commanding the High Seas Fleet destroyers. In 1913 he was appointed to command the scouting forces of the High Seas Fleet, with his flag in the battle cruiser Seydlitz, and later had RAEDER as his CoS. The actions in the Heligoland Bight and at the Dogger Bank were disappointing, and the loss of the Blucher a blow. Before the battle of Jutland he transferred his flag to the new battle cruiser Lützow. At that battle his squadron performed successfully, being responsible for the sinking of three of BEATTY’S ships, though his own flagship was lost, and he had to transfer to the Moltke. Although, tactically, the Germans could make a justifiable claim to have ‘won’ the battle, the practical result was that the North Sea effectively remained closed to their fleet for the remainder of the war. Two small-scale sweeps were carried out, but no major British forces were encountered. The end of the war came in ignominy for the High Seas Fleet, which Hipper had taken over in August 1918. Signs of discontent had been apparent in mid-1917, but the rumour that the fleet was to make a last suicidal sweep caused widespread mutiny, which the authorities were totally unable to counter. Hipper himself was out of sympathy with the new regime, and so retired after handing over to Konteradmiral Meurer, who had the unhappy duty of surrendering the fleet to the British.

Hohenzollern, Heinrich (1862–1929) German: GroBadmiral Prince Heinrich of Prussia. He was a professional naval officer, the brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and did a great deal to make the new KM socially respectable. In a militaristic country, as Germany was in that period, this was of importance, in attracting young men of good quality to the navy. He commanded the High Seas Fleet, 1906–09. He joined the navy in 1877, and, although his rapid promotion owed much to his royal blood, he was well regarded by his contemporaries. He had close ties with Great Britain (he was made an honorary Admiral of the Fleet in the Royal Navy), and he fell out with VON TIRPITZ in 1909 over the latter’s plans to build a navy to rival Great Britain’s. He was therefore ‘kicked upstairs’ to a post created for him, as Inspector-General of the Navy. The Kaiser’s influence ensured that he was employed in 1914, but in a lesser role, commanding German naval forces in the Baltic. In WW1, as in WW2, Swedish iron ore was necessary to Germany, and its safe transport was vital: the threat came from the Russian navy, and later from British submarines, but Sweden’s neutrality meant that the ships were only vulnerable for a short part of their passage. Heinrich’s main preoccupation was with the Russians, and the support of the German armies in what are now Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The Russian mining offensive meant that the Gulf of Finland, leading to St Petersburg, was effectively a no-go area, and the major operation in the area was operation ‘Albion’, in 1917, after the start of the Russian Revolution, when units of the High Seas Fleet were sent into the Baltic as the army advanced.


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The end came for Heinrich on 5 November 1918, after the first mutinies in the German fleet. He left his post, but he was allowed to continue to live in Germany under the new Weimar Republic.

Holland, John P. (1841–1914) US: inventor. He developed the USN’s first submarine. He planned his first submarine while a teacher in Patterson, New Jersey, and launched it in 1877. It was 14ft long, driven by a 4hp engine and had a crew of one. He began the serious development of a military submarine as a project funded by the anti-British Fenian Brotherhood, in which his brother Michael was active. The result of this effort was launched in 1881. After various other designs, he entered and won a Navy submarine design competition in 1888, but no building contract resulted. In 1896 he won another Navy competition and formed the Holland Motor Torpedo Boat Company, which eventually was sold to the Electric Boat Company, and which grew into the leading producer of modern USN submarines. In 1898 Holland VI was successfully tested in New York Harbour, but despite the strong recommendation of Secretary of the Navy Theodore ROOSEVELT, the Navy delayed development. After modifications, the Navy bought Holland VI in April 1900 for $150,000, about half the design cost. This submarine was 53ft long, had a 45hp engine and a crew of fifteen. Holland VI was renamed USS Holland, and became the USN’s first commissioned submarine. The use of horizontal diving planes and water ballast were among Holland’s important developments. Eventually he sold submarine designs to the British, Japanese and Russian navies, but he died a poor man.

Holloway, James L. III (1922–) US: Admiral. He resisted naval cuts during the Cold War as CNO from 1974 to 1978. When he followed Admiral ZUMWALT as the Navy’s leader, he inherited a shrinking Navy of 490 ships. Simultaneously the administration of President Carter was pursuing a diminished Navy role and size. Holloway strongly resisted administration efforts to shift Navy strategy away from large-deck aircraft carriers to a smaller fleet with limited missions. One of his most important achievements as the Navy’s uniformed leader was sustaining congressional funding for a fourth Nimitzclass carrier, despite the contrary efforts of the Carter administration. At considerable political risk, he prepared ‘Sea Plan 2000’ at the end of his term. His plan advocated a balanced and forwarddeployed US fleet. That plan became the foundation for the major naval build-up during the administration of President REAGAN,1981–89.


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Holloway was a member of the USNA class of 1942, and during WW2 he served in the destroyer USS Bennion, participating in major Pacific combat operations. He was designated a naval aviator in January 1946 and served with distinction during the Korean and Vietnam wars. His commands included the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, 1965–67, the Sixth Fleet’s Carrier Striking Force in the Mediterranean, 1970–72, and the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific, 1972–73. He retired from active duty in 1978.

Holmes, Robert (1622–92) English: Admiral Sir Robert Holmes. After fighting under PRINCE RUPERT on both land and sea in the Civil Wars and during the Commonwealth period, he commanded two expeditions to West Africa: in the second, 1663–64, he captured the Dutch settlements on the Guinea coast (retaken by DE RUYTER after the English squadron had returned), which was the proximate cause of the Second Dutch War (1664–67). In that war he achieved particular success in August 1666, with ‘Holmes’s Bonfire’, a daring raid on Dutch shipping, in which 160 ships were destroyed (so PEPYS’S diary records) as well as naval stores on shore. The Third Dutch War was started when Holmes attacked a Dutch convoy in the Channel, but although he was an experienced sea-commander, he held no major command in that war, probably on account of his uncertain temper and unreliability. But in later life, Pepys made use of his experience, despite the fact that in earlier life it would seem that Holmes made a pass at Pepys’s wife.

Hood 1. Alexander (1727–1814) British: Admiral Viscount Bridport. The Hoods are a confusing family, navally. Between 1775 and 1815, there were two pairs, Samuel and Alexander, and their cousins, Alexander and Samuel. All are noticed here, with a view to distinguishing who was who. (Even the Admiralty, at the time, mixed them up occasionally!) This Alexander was the younger brother of Samuel, Viscount HOOD (3). From 1797 to 1800 Hood maintained so rigorous a blockade of Brest that the main French fleet was unable, except on one occasion, to put to sea: nor, when it did, did it do so to any purpose. In 1741 he entered the Navy; 1746, Lieutenant; 1756, Commander; 1756, Captain; 1780, Rear-Admiral; 1787, Vice-Admiral; 1794, Admiral. Hood was commissioned shortly before the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the War of the Austrian Succession, and was unemployed in the following seven years of peace. But in 1755 he was appointed to the Prince, 90, under Captain SAUNDERS, and so


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impressed him that within a year he had made him a Commander in the Merlin, 10, and when Saunders was promoted to Rear-Admiral, three months later, he took Hood as his Flag Captain to the Mediterranean. In 1759 Hood took command of the Minerva, 32, and was present on the fringes of HAWKE’S crushing victory in Quiberon Bay. Shortly afterwards Minerva took the Warwick, a former British 60-gun ship which had been captured and taken into the French navy, a very creditable action. In 1777 he commanded the Robust, 74, and was in PALLISER’S division at the battle of Ushant. At the subsequent court-martial, supporting Palliser, he gave evidence that he had caused the ship’s log to be altered, giving rise to the expression ‘to hood’ meaning to commit perjury. In 1780, with his flag in the Queen, 98, he was part of the fleet which relieved Gibraltar, under HOWE. In the years of peace, 1783–93, he became an MP, but at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War he became third-in-command to Howe, and as such took part in the battle of the Glorious First of June, receiving a peerage as a reward. In 1795 he gained a partial victory over the French, under VILLARET DE JOYEUSE, and the following year he failed to intercept the attempted French invasion of Ireland, which luckily failed through its own ineffectiveness. When the naval mutiny broke out at Spithead in May 1797, it seemed, after the first disobedience, that the Admiralty and Bridport (as he now was), had satis fied the mutineers, but it required Howe’s presence to persuade the men to return to their duty. Thereafter, Hood put into effect the Admiralty blockade policy which prevented the French fleet playing any major part in the war, though its very existence remained a threat until Trafalgar. But it was Hood, and ST VINCENT and CORNWALLIS, who commanded the fleets which in MAHAN’S words, referring to Napoleon’s Grand Army, ‘stood between it and the dominion of the world’.

2. Alexander (1758–98) British: Captain. He was the elder of the younger generation of Hoods, and died in action, commanding the Mars, 74, against the French Hercule, 74. He is included here to help distinguish one Hood from another. He joined the RN in 1767; 1777, Lieutenant; 1781, Commander; 1781 Captain. He served at first in his cousin Samuel’s ship, Romney, 50, and in 1772 he was one of COOK’S midshipmen on board the Resolution during his second voyage. He was made Commander by RODNEY, and almost immediately made Flag Captain to his cousin, now Sir Samuel HOOD (4). While war was brewing, 1790–93, he commanded the frigate Hebe, 38, and then the Audatious, 74, but had to leave her through ill health. In 1797 he took command of the Mars, only to be involved in the Spithead mutiny after only three months in command, being one of the captains who were turned out of their ships by the mutineers. However, a year later Mars was the only one of a squadron of three ships which was able to engage a French line-of-battleship, the Hercule, anchored close inshore off Brest, having just come from Lorient. Hood anchored close alongside the Frenchman, and a sanguinary battle


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ensued, Hood receiving a fatal wound early in the action, though he lived long enough to receive the French captain’s sword. Another Hood brother of this generation, Arthur, older than Alexander, also died as a Lieutenant on board the Pomona, 18, in 1775.

3. Samuel (1724–1816) British: Admiral Vsicount Hood, GCB. Hood, although he never won a major sea-battle as a fleet commander, was considered by his contemporaries and juniors to be without peer, an opinion shared by NELSON who enjoyed his patronage and had served under him in the West Indies, 1782–83. Hood served at sea in four wars, from 1741 to 1795, and was still in post as the Governor of Greenwich Hospital when he died. Among the young men whom he trained were HOTHAM, Samuel HOOD (4) the younger, CORNWALLIS, SAUMAREZ and COCKBURN. He and his younger brother (see HOOD (I)) went to sea in 1741; 1746, Lieutenant; 1754, Commander; 1756, Captain; 1780, Rear-Admiral; 1787, Vice-Admiral; 1794, Admiral. Much of his early service was in frigates and sloops. His marriage in 1749 to the daughter of a prominent Portsmouth alderman brought him valuable ‘interest’, and he was employed in the peace, 1748–54, in the Portsmouth guard ship. In 1754 he commanded the Jamaica, 14, on the North American Station, and distinguished himself in an action off Louisbourg. After further promotion Hood held a series of temporary commands: in the Antelope, 50, he chased and destroyed the French Aquilon, 50, and captured two other ships. Later he commanded the Vestal, 32, and in her, after a threehour fight, captured the French Bellona, 32, being especially presented to the King by ANSON afterwards. Also in Vestal, under the command of RODNEY, he took part in the successful dispersal of the French invasion squadrons at Le Havre in 1759. He ended the war in the Mediterranean, and again, helped by his ‘interest’, was employed in the peace which followed, becoming Commodore and C-in-C of the North American Station. From 1771 to 1777 he commanded the Portsmouth guardship, and in 1778 was appointed Admiralty Commissioner at Portsmouth Dockyard. Here again he caught the king’s eye, who was impressed by the efficiency of Hood’s administration, and consulted him about sending his son Prince William (later the Duke of CLARENCE, and King William IV) to sea. Hood received a baronetcy. SANDWICH was finding it difficult to find a second-in-command for Rodney in the West Indies, and remembering that Hood had served with him, offered the appointment. It was not an entirely successful combination (Rodney is supposed to have said to a previous second-in-command ‘the painful task of thinking belongs to me, to you obedience to signals and orders’), and Hood had a great deal to learn. Hood (who, unusually, cared little for prize money) believed that Rodney made his dispositions more to safeguard captures than to defeat the French, and 1781 was an unsuccessful season for the British in the West Indies. It was even worse in North America, where Rodney sent


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Hood with a powerful squadron to reinforce Lord GRAVES. In Chesapeake Bay, the British never properly came to grips with the French squadron, the French remained in control of the Bay, and Cornwallis was forced to surrender at Yorktown, effectively ensuring the continuance of the United States of America. In early 1782, in Rodney’s absence, Hood challenged GRASSE-TILLY, despite an inferiority in numbers, and fought a masterly action off St Kitts (a reverse of the Nile— the British, at anchor, fought off the French), which was highly commended throughout the Navy. And when Rodney returned, Hood’s squadron formed the rear at the battle of the Saintes, following the admiral in breaking the French line. But Hood was very critical of Rodney’s failure to pursue the beaten French. Later that year, having been created a baron, he met Nelson, then captain of the Albemarle, and extended his patronage to him, obtaining the command of the Boreas for him in 1783. Politics occupied him in the first years of peace, but in 1788 he became a Commissioner of the Admiralty Board, remaining one until 1795. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War (1793) Hood became C-in-C Mediterranean, with Nelson as one of his captains. His chance came when disaffected royalists offered to surrender Toulon and the fleet to him. He seized the opportunity boldly, but had not the resources to follow it up: the French reacted forcefully (a young artillery captain named Bonaparte made his name), and the British had to evacuate, taking only four ships with them, after ineffectually trying to burn the rest. A year later, having been promoted Admiral, he had a major disagreement with the First Lord, and was dismissed, but was given a viscountcy. He was remembered at the war’s end in 1815, being made GCB. His career was long, but no more than reasonably successful: why did Nelson describe him as ‘the greatest sea-officer I ever knew’? The answer seems to have been sheer professionalism: among other factors, he continually trained his fleets and squadrons, leaving a legacy which remains to this day.

4. Samuel (1762–1814) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, Bt, KB. He was the youngest of the four Hoods, and, as captain of the Zealous, 74, was one of NELSON’S ‘band of brothers’ who destroyed the French fleet at the Nile in 1798. He entered the Navy in 1776; 1781, Lieutenant; 1782, Commander; 1788, Captain; 1807, Rear-Admiral; 1811, Vice-Admiral. His early service was under the wing of one or other of his cousins. He was present at the battle of Ushant, 1778, and in the West Indies, at most of the actions with GRASSETILLY’S fleet, 1780–82. Family influence saw him promoted early, and also helped him to employment in the peace, 1783–93. As captain of the Juno, 32, in Jamaica, he rescued three men from a wreck: when the boat’s crew seemed unwilling to attempt the rescue, he leapt into the boat, saying ‘I never in my life gave a sailor an order I was not ready to execute myself’. In the same ship, in the Mediterranean, he entered Toulon in the dark in January 1794, unaware that the


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British had evacuated the port. Luckily he realized the error in time, and the Juno escaped. He took command of the Zealous in 1796, and was present at the repulse which Nelson suffered at Santa Cruz. After the Nile, Zealous attempted to pursue the few French ships which escaped, but was recalled. In 1800 he moved to the Courageux, 74, and then the Venerable, 74, and under SAUMAREZ played a distinguished part in the two actions off Algeciras. In 1802 he became C-in-C of the Leeward Islands Station, where his forces captured Dutch and French possessions and captured many French privateers, to the great benefit of British trade. In 1805 he was commanding a squadron of six ships-of-the-line off Rochefort, when they encountered a French squadron of five large frigates and two brigs, loaded with troops for the West Indies. Four of the frigates were taken, but Hood lost his right arm below the elbow. In 1807, with his flag in the Centaur, 74, he took the island of Madeira, and then served, again under Saumarez, in the Baltic. Here, now in the Implacable, 74, he took the Russian Sewolod, 74, earning rewards from the Swedes. In 1809 he was secondin-command of the fleet which evacuated Sir John Moore’s army from Corunna. His career ended in the East Indies, where he was C-in-C, 1812–14. The naval war was virtually over out there: and illness cut short his life at Madras.

Hopkins, Esek (1718–1802) American: Continental Navy Commodore. He was the only C-in-C of the Continental Navy. The Continental Congress appointed him to that position in December 1775, and in January 1776 he took command of the American fleet of eight ships. He was named largely through the influence of his brother Stephen HOPKINS, who was Governor of Rhode Island. Departing from his basic orders to seek the enemy off the Atlantic coasts of the Carolinas and Virginia, he led a successful amphibious assault against the lightly defended British possessions of Nassau and the Bahamas. His failure to lend naval support to the southern states inflamed the ongoing feeling of those states that the Continental Navy was established for the benefit of the American Northeast. He was dismissed from the service in January 1778 because of his failure to follow the orders of his civilian superiors, a poorly led encounter with HMS Glasgow, and his failure to escape the British blockade of Narragansett Bay. He was a merchant captain and a British privateer during the Seven Years’ War. As captain of the brig Sally in 1764–65, Hopkins was involved in the slave trade between the west coast of Africa and the West Indies.


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Hopkins, Stephen (1707–85) American: Governor of the Colonial State of Rhode Island (1754–64). He was head of the naval committee of the Continental Congress, which officially authorized the first American navy in October 1775. He helped frame the earliest regulations of that navy and also was instrumental in having his brother, Esek HOPKINS, named C-in-C of the eight-ship American ‘fleet’. He was born in the town of Scituate and in 1742 moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he was a surveyor and merchant. He served in the Continental Congress, 1774–76, and there became one of the most outspoken advocates for American independence. In March 1764 he became the first chancellor of Rhode Island College, which became Brown University. He was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and was a member of the committee that prepared the Colonial Articles of Confederation in 1777.

Hopper, Grace (1906–92) US: Rear-Admiral. She was the leader of the USN’s transition into the computer age. She was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College in 1928 and held master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics from Yale University. She entered the USN as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in December 1943 and was assigned to work on the Navy’s first computers. After WW2 she returned to civilian life where she worked on pioneering computer projects. As a civilian she maintained her Navy link as a reserve officer, and retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Commander in 1966. In August 1967 she was recalled to active duty and advanced to Captain in 1973. She subsequently retired from active duty for a second time in 1986 as a Rear Admiral. At the time of her second retirement she was, at age seventy-one, the Navy’s oldest officer on active duty. During her civilian and naval careers she received many awards for her achievements as a pioneer in the development of computer applications. Perhaps the most unusual was her award from the Data Processing Management Association as their 1969 ‘Man of the Year’. She accepted the title with her typically dry humour: ‘When I was made the Man of the Year, I was the Man of the Year’. The guided missile destroyer USS Grace Hopper was named in her honour.


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Hornby, Geoffrey (1825–95) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby, GCB. ‘Jacky’ FISHER described him as ‘the finest admiral afloat since NELSON’, but Hornby never had a chance to prove himself, other than in the field of diplomacy. He entered the Navy in 1837; 1845, Lieutenant; 1850, Commander; 1852, Captain; 1869, Rear-Admiral; 1875, Vice-Admiral; 1879, Admiral; 1888, Admiral of the Fleet. He owed his swift promotion to Captain to unashamed nepotism: his father, ViceAdmiral Phipps Hornby, promoted him to Commander while he was his Flag Lieutenant, and later managed to scrounge (the word is deliberately chosen) a nomination from the First Lord to promote him to Captain. Hornby was present at the bombardment of Acre (1840), when British and French interests clashed in the Levant, and then spent two exciting years chasing slavers on the east coast of Africa. Political pull had made him an early captain, but a change of government denied him a command during the Crimean War. His first command was the corvette Tribune, 31, where he exercised his diplomatic skill in a brush with the USA over the San Juan islands (now part of Washington state) in 1859. In 1865 he became a commodore, commanding the anti-slavery patrols on the west coast of Africa, and his first flag appointment was to command the ‘Flying Squadron’ sent round the world in 1869–70, to keep the skill of sail handling alive, and to demonstrate the RN’s ability to reinforce any colonial outpost. This was not so reactionary as it might sound: until the introduction of the compound engine, and the general provision of coaling stations (both not generally available until the mid-1880s), the British empire relied on sail for defence and trade. Hornby became C-in-C Channel Fleet, 1871–74, and then Second Naval Lord, at a time when economy prevailed over the need for new ships. He next became C-in-C Mediterranean, during the confrontation between Britain and Russia over the Turkish Question. The presence of his squadron in the Sea of Marmora, and his diplomatic skill, helped to defuse the situation, and he received the KCB (though privately he expressed the view that it would be better for all the inhabitants if the British took over the Ottoman empire as they had the Mughal empire in India). His final appointment was as C-in-C Portsmouth, 1882–85. Another Russo-British confrontation saw him appointed to command a sea-going fleet, but the crisis passed, and he retired, although he remained an ‘elder statesman’.


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Horton, Max (1883–1951) British: Admiral Sir Max Horton, GCB, DSO**. As C-in-C Western Approaches, 1942–45, he was the architect of victory in the battle of the Atlantic. He entered the Navy in 1898; 1905, Lieutenant; 1914, Commander; 1920, Captain; 1932, Rear-Admiral; 1936, Vice-Admiral; 1941, Admiral. He was an early entrant to the submarine service, receiving his first command, the A.1, in 1905. Except for two years, 1910–12, he commanded submarines from 1905 to 1920. In August 1914, in E.9 he penetrated Heligoland harbour, and then sank the old cruiser Hela, the first warship to be sunk by a British submarine, and a destroyer, winning his first DSO. Horton then took £.9 into the Baltic, where he sank two destroyers, damaged a cruiser, and generally disrupted the flow of essential Swedish iron ore to Germany. He stayed in the Baltic for a year, winning three Russian medals and the French Legion d’Honneur, and then took command of the new submarine J.6. He later commanded M.1, the submarine monitor which mounted a single 12-inch gun. In the 1920s he first commanded a squadron of submarines in the Baltic, when Britain was trying to ensure the independence of the newly created Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and then commanded the flotilla of steam-driven ‘K’ class submarines. These were inherently dangerous boats, designed to fulfil a tactical role, operating with a battlefleet, for which the submarine was not well suited. He later commanded the battleship Resolution. In 1937 he was given command of the Reserve Fleet, usually considered to be a deadend job, but Horton, who saw war as inevitable, determined that the Reserve Fleet should be ready for war. It was. In January 1940, he became Flag Officer, Submarines, and it was his dispositions in April 1940 which resulted in the infliction of such heavy losses on the German forces invading Norway. When it came to antisubmarine warfare, he was a firm believer in the necessity for good sea-air cooperation, and his appointment as C-in-C Western Approaches in late 1942, as ‘poacher-turned-gamekeeper’, ensured that the battle of the Atlantic would be won. He introduced the concept of support groups which could augment close escorts, making use of escort carriers to provide air cover. And he ensured that all forces involved were properly trained (see STEPHENSON). In 1943, with new equipment (radar, long-range aircraft) he was able to take the war to the enemy, and at the end of the year DÖNITZ was forced to concede defeat. He received decorations from the USA, France, Norway and Holland, and at his death was given a state funeral.


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Hoste, William (1780–1828) British: Captain Sir William Hoste, Bt, KCB. He was one of NELSON’S protégés, and a dashing frigate captain, whose victory at Lissa (in the Adriatic) in 1811, was considered to be as brilliant in its way as Trafalgar. He entered the RN in 1793, on board the Agamemnon, 64, under Nelson, whom he followed from ship to ship, being present at the actions off Toulon in 1795 (see HOTHAM and MARTIN), and at the battle of Cape St Vincent (see Nelson and JERVIS); 1798. Lieutenant; 1798, Commander; 1802, Captain. From 1802 onwards, Hoste commanded a succession of frigates, mostly in the Mediterranean. He was given command of the Amphion, 36, by Nelson, a week before Trafalgar, and was sent on a mission to Algiers, thus missing the battle. He was deeply affected by Nelson’s death In 1808, Hoste was sent by COLLINGWOOD to the Adriatic. There, operating independently most of the time, he virtually stopped the coasting trade. In 18 months, he took or destroyed 218 vessels, besides destroying signal stations and cutting out gunboats. In 1810, his squadron was augmented, and he stepped up his activities. In March 1811, he met the French squadron under Dubourdieu off Lissa: Hoste had three frigates and a sloop, the French had three 40 gun frigates, and three Venetian frigates. The battle resulted in the destruction of two French and two Venetian frigates. On returning to Britain in 1811, Hoste was given a choice of ships and stations, and took the new Bacchante, 38, and returned to the Adriatic. Under Sir Thomas Fremantle, he carried on as previously, disrupting trade and harrying French communications. On one occasion he took eight gunboats and 18 merchantmen, and on another, seven and 17. In December 1813, Hoste was sent to assist the Austrians in their attack on Cattaro, which fell as soon as Hoste’s seamen had exercised their skill in swaying up a battery of guns on to the top of a height commanding the town. A few days later, his men did the same at Ragusa. This continuous activity, in all weathers, undermined his health, and he was invalided home. In 1814, he received a baronetcy, and a year later, the KCB. His only other service was a nominal command of the Royal Sovereign, yacht, from 1825 to his death.


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Hotham, William (1736–1813) British, Admiral Lord Hotham. He was an officer of moderate ability, physically brave, good in a subordinate position, but lack ing in decisiveness. As a result, he bungled two encounters with the French in 1795, which might have pre-empted NELSON’S victory at the Nile (see MARTIN). Hotham entered the Navy via the old Naval Academy in 1751; 1755, Lieutenant; 1756, Commander; 1757, Captain; 1787, Rear-Admiral; 1790, Vice-Admiral; 1797, Admiral. All his lieutenant’s service was in a succession of ships under Sir Edward HAWKE, at the start of the Seven Years’ War. Hawke promoted him to Commander, and while in command of the Syren, 20, he captured a French 26-gun privateer, which earned him promotion to Captain. And while commanding the Melampe, 36, he took the French Danaë, 40, in 1759. He remained a frigate captain to the end of the war in 1763, being successful in taking prizes and destroying privateers in the Biscay region. He became a commodore, in the Preston, 50, at the start of the American War of Independence, and was in the West Indies or off North America until 1780. That summer, he took his flagship, the Vengeance, 74, home to refit, escorting an important convoy. French intelligence was good, and LA MOTTE-PICQUET intercepted the convoy with a superior force. Hotham could only do what BROOME had to do 162 years later with convoy PQ17, and order the convoy to scatter, while he tried to engage the French. The French avoided his small force, and captured most of the convoy. In February 1793 Hotham was appointed second-in-command to Lord HOOD (3) in the Mediterranean: when Hood was sent home Hotham succeeded him as C-in-C. Twice, when MARTIN, the French admiral, was forced, by orders from Paris, to go to sea against his better judgement, Hotham failed to follow up partial successes. In the first action (where the fleets were numerically similar, but the French crews were untrained), two French line-of-battleships were taken, but Nelson, then in the Agamemnon, believed that the victory could have been ‘such a day as the annals of England have never produced’. Four months later, this time with a numerically superior fleet, Hotham again failed to capitalize on an initial success. This time Nelson referred to it as a’miserable action’. Hotham was relieved by JERVIS, and not employed again, but received a peerage in 1797.


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Howard, Charles (1536–1624) English: Lord Howard of Effingham, later Earl of Nottingham. He was Elizabeth I’s Lord High Admiral, and the architect of the defeat of the Spanish Armada (July 1588). He probably first served at sea in the reign of Queen Mary, but by virtue of his rank he was prominent at court from the start of Elizabeth’s reign. His first appointment in command at sea was in 1570, and he was appointed Lord Admiral of England in 1585. He was specifically appointed C-in-C of the ‘navy and army prepared to the seas against Spain’ in December 1587 with his flag in the Ark Raleigh (otherwise Ark Royal). In the preparations against Spain he consulted his council of war (the Naval Staff of the day), in which the counsels of DRAKE and HAWKINS were prominent. During the action against the Armada, Howard took the lead, though his ‘hitand-run’ tactics were later criticized as being unduly cautious: but Raleigh approved, saying that he was better advised than a great many malignant fools were that found fault with his demeanour…. so that had he entangled himself with those great and powerful vessels, he had greatly endangered this kingdom of England…. But our admiral knew his advantage and held it; which had he not done, he had not been worthy to have held his head. In the aftermath of the battle, Howard personally paid for the care of the wounded— indeed he had partially paid to keep the fleet in readiness before the action, when the cost-conscious queen had ordered it to stand down. He commanded at sea in the successful ‘commando raid’ on Cadiz in 1596, though the fruits of the expedition were less than had been hoped: and he continued as one of the great officers of state under James I, until persuaded to give up in 1619—at the age of eighty-three.

Howard, Thomas (1561–1626), English: admiral. Earl of Suffolk. He was one of the later Elizabethan sea-captains, who lived through to the dark days of the Jacobean navy, though he was not responsible for its decline. He was a volunteer in the Armada fight, and so distinguished himself at Gravelines that he was knighted by Lord HOWARD (no immediate relation) then and there, and given command of a warship. In 1591 he was admiral of the squadron sent out to the Azores to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet (see GRENVILLE), but brought his weaker squadron safely away when faced by a superior Spanish force: not exactly glorious, in the light of the Armada battle only three years earlier, but he was far from his base, his stores were depleted, and his


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crews in poor health. He was later employed in the third expedition to Cadiz in 1596, and in 1597 was vice-admiral of a fleet sent to the Azores. Although neither of these expeditions was particularly successful, they are indicative of the beginnings of a ‘blue water’ policy for England.

Howard-Johnston, C. see JOHNSTON, c. Howe, Richard (1726–99) British, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Howe, better known as ‘Black Dick’. He was the victor of the battle of the Glorious First of June (one of the first sea fights, before WW2, to which no convenient place name could be attached), and was called out of retirement to resolve the Spithead mutiny of 1797. Like his contemporary HOOD (I), he spent some sixty years as a professional sea officer—he was sixty-eight when he won the ‘Glorious First’—but he made his name as a bold and brave captain: it was his ship, the Magnanime, 74, which led the fleet into Quiberon Bay in 1759. He went to sea in 1739, and was in the Severn, one of the ships of ANSON’S circumnavigation which never reached the Pacific, but did at least come home; 1745, Lieutenant; 1746, Captain; 1770, Rear-Admiral; 1776, Vice-Admiral; 1782, Admiral; 1796, Admiral of the Fleet. Howe had his first command, of the sloop Baltimore, 14, off the coast of Scotland, in operations to contain the Jacobites. In 1746 he became Flag Captain to Rear-Admiral KNOWLES in the West Indies. Howe had ‘interest’ and received a series of commands in the years of peace, 1748–56, and in 1755 was commanding the Dunkirk, 60, under BOSCAWEN, in North American waters. In the Gulf of St Lawrence, Dunkirk


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encountered the French Alcide, and fired the first shots of the Seven Years’ War (the Alcide was unready for action, and surrendered). For the rest of the war Howe served in the Channel, in Dunkirk and then Magnanime (a captured French ship, and a fast sailer). In her he raided Cherbourg, where the destruction wrought rendered the port useless for the rest of the war. At Quiberon Bay, the Heros struck to him, but was wrecked the next day. He went on to be commodore of the squadron blockading the Basque Roads, and Flag Captain (effectively the ‘minder’) to the Duke of York, King George III’s brother, who had been made an ‘instant’ captain at the age of twenty-three, and a rear-admiral at the age of twenty-five! In the meantime Howe had become an MP, and inherited an Irish peerage (so could continue as an MP). At the war’s end (1763) he became an Admiralty Commissioner for two years, and then pursued his political career for twelve years (but still, by the inexorable rules of seniority, was promoted). In 1776 he was appointed C-in-C North America, with wide powers as a peace commissioner. Neither he nor his brother, the land commander, were successful, although it may be fairly said that the government at home gave him less than adequate support, being unduly concerned by the depredations of John Paul JONES and others. Howe ‘retired, hurt’ in 1778, and had to wait for a change of government at home before being appointed C-in-C Channel, an Admiral, and a British peer in 1782. He became First Lord of the Admiralty, 1783–88. He was C-in-C Channel again at the start of the French Revolutionary War in 1793, and instituted an open blockade of Brest, with only frigates close to the coast. In spring 1794 he sailed with the fleet to escort the outward convoys, and to intercept the French grain convoy. After seeing the convoys on their way, he returned to Brest to find the French, under VILLARETJOYEUSE, gone. Howe went in search of the French, and found them on 28 May, some 200 miles west of Ushant. After several days manoeuvring, battle was joined on 1 June, and superior British gunnery and seamanship won the day, though Howe was criticized for not doing more to pursue a beaten enemy. He remained nominally C-in-C until 1797 (being promoted again in 1796), though the actual command was left to Alexander HOOD (I). Howe’s final service was to resolve the Spithead mutiny of 1797. The main reason was that the seaman’s pay had fallen behind the cost of living in wartime: there were other causes, but they were relatively minor. Howe was trusted by both sides, and when the government caved in, as it did, he was able to persuade the men to accept the deal.

Hudson, Roland (1909–98) British: Lieutenant-Commander, DSO, DSC. In 1940 he commanded the first makeshift vessel for sweeping magnetic mines. He joined Dartmouth in 1922, and after promotion to Lieutenant specialized in navigation (he made a voyage in a merchant ship from Finland to Australia under sail in 1933). In 1939, as a Lieutenant Commander, he volunteered for special duties, and was appointed to command the Borde, an ex-collier fitted with an enormous electro-magnet in her hold, in the hope of exploding magnetic mines a sufficient distance in front of the


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ship (see OUVRY). CHURCHILL described her as ‘the most valuable ship in the Navy’: she was certainly unusual—anything iron was likely to leap around, forks and spoons clung to each other, and watchsprings became tangled. Life on board was apt to be exciting, but she was effective, exploding twenty-three mines. Hudson was awarded the DSO. Later he was appointed Navigator of HMS Exeter, and was captured after she was sunk in the battle of the Java Sea in 1942. His strong Christian faith enabled him to survive the privations, and he was awarded the DSC after the war.

Hughes, Edward (1720?–94) British: Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, KB. He is particularly known for his series of five battles in Indian waters with SUFFREN, 1782–83. He entered the Navy in 1735; 1740, Lieutenant; 1748, Captain; 1778, Rear-Admiral; 1780, Vice-Admiral; 1793, Admiral. His early career included service with KNOWLES under VERNON at Porto Bello (1739), and he served in the Dunkirk, 60, at the battle of Toulon in 1744 in LESTOCK’S squadron (MATHEWS). He obtained his promotion to Captain after an engagement between his ship, the Warwick, 60, and the Spanish Glorioso, 70. Warwick’s consort, the Lark, 44, hung back from the fight, leaving Warwick to bear the brunt of the action. Lark’s captain was court-martialled, and Hughes received command in his stead. During the Seven Years’ War, 1756–63, commanding the Somerset, 64, Hughes took part in the capture of the French Canadian port of Louisbourg (a thorn in the side of the American colonists), and of Quebec. In 1773 he went out to the East Indies as C-in-C, as commodore in the Salisbury, 50, for four inactive years (though he laid the foundations of a fortune). After a brief respite at home, 1777–79, he was sent out again as a Rear-Admiral with six ships-of-the line (the conflict between the French and British in India was escalating). For the first two years his force was far superior to any other, and in 1782 he captured Trincomalee, in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from the Dutch. Immediately afterwards, Suffren’s squadron appeared, and in the next sixteen months the squadrons met five times, at Sadras, Providien, Negapatam, Trincomalee and Cuddalore. None was decisive, although tactically the French may be said to have had the better of it—only cowardice and incompetence on the part of some of Suffren’s captains prevented greater success on their part. But Hughes’s and his captains’ seamanship prevented worse happening to the British. Hughes returned to Britain with a fortune said to be worth £40,000 a year (in today’s money, say £40,000,000), and was not re-employed.


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Hull, Isaak (1773–1843) US: Commodore. He led the first US naval victory of the War of 1812. In August 1812 he commanded the USS Constitution, 44, in a successful single-ship action against HMS Guerrière, 38. In thirty minutes Hull took advantage of his ship’s heavier armament, his seamanship, and the sturdy construction of Constitution to reduce his opponent to a virtually defenceless condition. Following the battle, Constitution became known as ‘Old Ironsides’, and she is preserved as a historic ship in Boston harbour. Hull delivered a much needed victory to the young USN, and became an instant hero. His action served notice of the lethal capabilities of the US heavy frigates. He began his career in the American merchant service. In 1798 he reported to USS Constitution as Fourth Lieutenant. He distinguished himself in combat during the Quasi War with France and the Barbary War, and was promoted to Captain in 1806. He was appointed to command USS Constitution in 1810. In 1815 he became one of the first members of the Board of Navy Commissioners, and in 1820 he commanded the Pacific Station. Subsequently he commanded the Washington Navy Yard and the Mediterranean Station before retiring in 1841. Hull’s career was marked by several accusations of financial mismanagement and personal controversies. He was, however, never found guilty of official wrong-doing. At the end of his career he suffered from ill health, and he died in February 1843 while on leave.

Humphreys, Joshua (1751–1838) US: naval ship designer and builder. He emerged as the premier naval ship designer between 1794 and 1801. He became the initial US naval ship contractor in 1794 when selected by the first US Secretary of War, Henry KNOX, to build six frigates for the young USN. His innovative designs resulted in the so-called heavy frigates that became the foundation of the USN after the American Revolution. One of the most important innovations was the addition of a spardeck, which created a frigate that approached the firepower of a small ship-of-the-line. And another important feature of his designs was an inverted cantilever support for the hull to support the weight of the ship’s guns, which was greater than that of the conventional frigates of the time. The Humphreys-designed ships, such as the 44gun USS Constitution, built in 1797 and still technically in commission in the USN, were important factors in the successes of the Navy during the War of 1812.

Hutchins, Johnnie D. (1922–43) US:


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Seaman First Class. He saved his ship, shipmates, and hundreds of troops with extraordinary courage during an Allied amphibious assault at Lae, New Guinea, in the early stages of WW2 in the Pacific. On 4 September 1943 his landing ship tank (LST) was part of General Douglas MacArthur’s VII Amphibious Force off the east coast of New Guinea. His ship LST-473 was transporting hundreds of members of Australia’s famed 9th Division as part of the first significant Allied amphibious operation of the war. The operation was being conducted without Allied air cover or shore bombardment. As his ship approached the beach under heavy fire from shore batteries and air attack from twelve Japanese torpedo bombers and fifteen dive-bombers, two 500-pound bombs struck the ship, knocking the helmsman from his station and engulfing the bridge in flames. As two torpedoes headed for his ship, Hutchins, who was seriously wounded, seized the ship’s wheel and steered his ship out of their path. He died at the wheel. For saving his ship, her crew and the embarked Australian troops, Hutchins posthumously was awarded the highest US military recognition, the Medal of Honor. The destroyer escort USS Johnnie Hutchins was named in his honour.

Huxtable, Edward J. (1913–85) US: Captain. He made dummy torpedo and bombing runs in his unarmed Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber for two hours to help distract a powerful Japanese naval force advancing on US landing beaches at Leyte Gulf, Philippines, during WW2. At the time of his extraordinary action he was Air Group Commander of Composite Squadron VC-10, consisting of thirty Avengers and Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters on board the escort carrier USS Gambier Bay. On 25 October 1944 a Japanese force of four battleships, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and eleven destroyers steaming towards the invasion beaches of Leyte surprised a US group, designated Taffy 3, of six light aircraft carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts, commanded by Rear Admiral Clifton SPRAGUE. During the ensuing battle off Samar Island the US ships and aircraft fought so ferociously and inflicted enough damage to cause the Japanese ships to retire. Gambier Bay and another light carrier were sunk, and the other escort carriers were heavily damaged; three US destroyers were sunk. The Leyte invasion, however, was saved. Huxtable was a member of the USNA class of 1936, and he served in the cruiser USS Quincy and the destroyer USS Truxtun before being designated a naval aviator. He served in the USS Ranger and USS Yorktown air groups before leading Gambier Bay’s Avengers and Wildcats with the rank of Commander. Following the Leyte Gulf action he became Air Group Commander in the escort carrier USS Fanshaw Bay. Huxtable was promoted to Captain and retired from active duty in 1949.


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I Ingalls, David S. (1899–1985) US: Rear Admiral. He became the USN’s first ace at age nineteen. While attached to a British fighter squadron and flying a Sopwith Camel, the most successful fighter aircraft in WW1, he shot down five German planes and one German observation balloon within little more than a month. During the war he flew sixty-three combat missions. Ingalls was a member of the First Yale Unit, a group of volunteer college students that is recognized as having begun the US Naval Air Reserve. After WW1 he earned a law degree from Harvard in 1923, served in the Ohio legislature, 1926–29, and was Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aviation, 1929–32. He returned to active duty during WW2 and led the development of the Naval Air Transport Service. He retired from active duty in 1945 as a Rear Admiral. Following his WW2 service he was a senior executive of Pan American Airlines, where he promoted aviation safety. He also was publisher of the Cindnnati Times-Star and vice-chairman of the Taft Broadcasting Company.

von Ingenohl, Frederich (alt. Friedrich) (1857–1933) German: Admiral. Von Ingenohl was the commander of the High Seas Fleet at the outbreak of WW1, but was dismissed at the Kaiser’s whim, and because of the fleet’s lack of success at sea. 1909, Konter-Admiral; 1913, Admiral. Von Ingenohl had commanded the East Asiatic Squadron in 1909–10, and was appointed to command the High Seas Fleet in 1913. German naval strategy at the start of WW1 consisted of attempting a series of raids on British merchant shipping and imperial outposts with the detached squadrons and ships (see VON SPEE), while the High Seas Fleet was kept as a fleet in being. It was hoped that the British would attempt to penetrate Heligoland Bight in force, in which case the fleet might sortie. But the British maintained a distant blockade, and the High Seas Fleet was reduced to pinprick raids on British coastal towns, with little, if any, military value. The nearest that both sides came to an action was in December 1914, when JELLICOE sent one British squadron down to support BEATTY, after intelligence suggested that the Germans were about to attempt


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such a raid. Although the destroyer screens made contact, the weather prevented the main bodies from finding one another. The reverses in the Heligoland Bight in August 1914, von Spee’s defeat at the Falklands, and VON HIPPER’S lack of success at the Dogger Bank were all held against von Ingenohl. His position was further undermined by VON TIRPITZ’S active politicking against him. His dismissal came in early 1915, at the Kaiser’s instigation. In public, the Kaiser was the ‘All-Highest’, the ‘War-Lord’, and the highest direction of the war lay in his hands. But it is certain that, had the naval staff wished, they could have opposed the change. Von Ingenohl served the remainder of the war in a minor command of submarines in the Baltic.

Ingram, Osmond K. (1887–1917) US: Gunner’s Mate First Class. He was the first USN enlisted man to be killed in WW1. While serving in the destroyer USS Cassin during an attack on a German submarine off the coast of Ireland on 15 October 1917, he saw a torpedo track heading for his ship. The torpedo was headed for the after section of Cassin, where depth charges were mounted on the deck. Ingram ran toward the depth charges to release them before the torpedo struck. The torpedo hit before he could release the depth charges, and the explosion killed him. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest US military award, for extraordinary heroism in his attempt to save his shipmates and minimize damage to his ship. The destroyer USS Osmond Ingram was named in his honour.

Isakov, Ivan (1894–1967) Russian: Admiral Flota and Hero of the Soviet Union. He was Chief of the Main Naval Staff, 1941–42, until he was wounded. He served in the tsarist navy as a Warrant Officer during WW1, and in the early 1920s, in the newly re-constituted Soviet Navy, he commanded destroyers in the VolgaCaspian Flotilla, the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet. In 1933 he commanded the first ships which made the passage of the Baltic-White Sea canal to create the nucleus of the Northern Fleet. This became Russia’s primary striking fleet in the 1950s, when the Soviet Union began its major expansion as a ‘blue water’ fleet, to project power, rather than to be primarily a defensive weapon. Isakov was CoS, and then Commander of the Baltic Fleet, 1937–38, and then a People’s Commissar of the Navy, while holding the post of Chief of the Voroshilov Naval Academy. In 1939 he visited the USA as head of a mission to see if the USA


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would build warships for the Soviet Union—this at the time of the first expansion of the Soviet Fleet, started in 1938. The mission was unsuccessful. At the end of WW2 he became Deputy C-in-C and CoS, USSR Naval Forces under KUZNETSOV and Yumashev (1946–50). After effectively completing his naval career in 1950, he was employed on an important study to absorb the maritime lessons of WW2. He also became a Deputy Minister of the Merchant Fleet (at a time when the Soviet Union was beginning to expand its merchant fleet greatly, to the detriment of the merchant navies of other Western nations). He also served on an oceanographic committee of the Academy of Sciences.

Isherwood, Benjamin F. (1822–1915) US: Commodore. He led the Navy’s transition from sail to steam propulsion during the US Civil War. In May 1844 he received a direct commission in the Navy’s new Engineer Corps and several months later reported for duty at the Pensacola Navy Yard in Florida. In January 1846 he was assigned to the Navy’s first screw-propeller ship, USS Princeton. In August 1847 he was assigned to lighthouse duty, and in August 1849 he was promoted to Chief Engineer. After a wide variety of sea and shore assignments, he was named the Navy’s engineerin-chief in March 1861. Among his achievements in that capacity was the design of steam engines for forty-six side-wheelers and seventy-nine screw-propeller steamships. He also designed engines for numerous river gunboats and coastal blockade vessels employed by the Union in the American Civil War. Despite delaying tactics by his many detractors, he was selected as the Chief of the Navy’s new Bureau of Steam Engineering in March of 1863, with the naval rank of Commodore. Isherwood’s insistence on navy yard construction of steam engines generated political enemies, including Admiral David Dixon PORTER, and his assignment as head of the Bureau of Steam Engineering was terminated prematurely. He then devoted several years to the design of efficient screw propellers for the Navy and subsequently served on a series of Navy boards. He retired from active duty in 1884, but continued his technical writing despite deteriorating health.

Ito, Sukeyaki (1843–1914) Japanese: Taisho (Admiral). He was the victor at the battle of the Yalu in the Sino-Japanese war, 1894–5. This was the first fleet action between iron and steel, steampowered warships. He entered the Japanese Navy in 1868. 1871, Tai-I; 1876, Chu-sa; 1882, Tai-sa; 1886, Sho-sho; 1892, Chu-sho; 1898, Tai-sho.


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He advanced swiftly in the western-style navy that the new modern Japan created between 1872 and 1900, and from 1868 to 1884 he served continuously at sea, gaining his first command, the old wooden steamboat Daiichi Teibo, in 1871. Other ships he commanded were Kasuga, 1872; Azuma, 1872–5; Nisshin, 1875–6, and again 1877–8; Hiei, three times, 1879–81, 1881–2, and 1883–4. He visited Britain for six months in 1885, and held a number of shore appointments, 1889–93. He took command of the fleet in 1893, and commenced a training programme to improve its efficiency. The Sino-Japanese war was over Korea, and command of the sea was vital for both sides. For Japan, the sea was the sole means of transporting troops to the scene of combat, while the Chinese also had to use the sea, since road and rail communications into Korea were lacking. In September 1894, after covering a landing near the Yalu river, the Chinese fleet was intercepted by the Japanese fleet. Strategically, the Chinese admiral, Ting, might have refused battle, since his mission had been achieved, but the Japanese were between him and his base, and there would have been the matter of ‘face’. On paper, the Chinese fleet was the stronger, but it was poorly trained and supplied. Ito’s fleet had nothing more powerful than armoured cruisers, but they were properly trained, and the firepower of their smaller weapons played havoc with the lesser Chinese ships. Ito’s fleet fought in line, while the Chinese adopted an arrowhead formation, possibly anticipating being able to ram. But Ito out-manoeuvred Ting and, when darkness fell, the Chinese had lost two cruisers. Ito preferred not to risk a night action, and the Chinese managed to slip away. Although the result was scarcely a Trafalgar (the Chinese ships were virtually out of ammunition, and their destruction might have been completed in a short time), Ito’s fleet was able to establish complete control of the Yellow Sea and adjacent waters, leading to China’s ultimate defeat. Ito went on to be Chief of the Navy General Staff in 1895.


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J Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845) US: General and seventh President (1829–37). He repulsed the 50-ship British amphibious attack on New Orleans as a Major General in January 1815. Owing to a lack of communications, the assault was mounted two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812. As President, he perceived the Navy’s role to be limited to commerce protection. He virtually halted the Navy’s building programme for the ships-of-the-line authorized by the Naval Act of 1821. He was, however, not reluctant to use the navy in a punitive role in response to depredations against US citizens, such as the naval raid on Quallah Battoo, Sumatra, in February 1832. Following this politically controversial naval action, Jackson praised the naval commander, Captain John Downes, for punishing a ‘band of lawless pirates’. In a less aggressive manner, Jackson employed the diplomatic skills of the commander of the US Mediterranean Squadron, Commodore BIDDLE, to establish a commercial treaty with Turkey. Throughout his two presidential terms he continuously employed the Navy as a peacetime instrument for expanding US trade.

Jackson, Henry (1855–1929) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Jackson, GCB, KCVO. He was not only 1SL during WW1, but earlier in his career had been in the very forefront of the development of radio. At a time when gunnery and torpedo officers were becoming technicians, he was distinguished by his scientific approach to his interests. He entered the Navy via Britannia in 1868; 1877, Lieutenant; 1890, Commander; 1896, Captain; 1906, Rear-Admiral; 1911, Vice-Admiral; 1914, Admiral; 1919, Admiral of the Fleet. In 1878, he was appointed to the corvette Active, and served ashore in South Africa during the Zulu War. In 1881 he qualified in torpedo (which then covered the rudimentary electrics in use at sea), and started his lifelong interest in the development of all things electrical. He later spent three years commanding the torpedo trials ship Vesuvius, and after promotion started to take an interest in wireless telegraphy. His opportunities for experiment were limited (he spent three years as the Executive Officer


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of the battleship Edinburgh), but in 1895 he was given command of HMS Defiance, the torpedo school at Devonport, where he initiated the earliest practical trials in the use of wireless at sea. It is no exaggeration to say that he was neck-and-neck with Marconi in his experiments, and had it not been for the normal course of naval appointments which sent him as naval attaché to Paris in 1897, it could well have been his name which is remembered rather than Marconi’s. After that, he had further technical appointments, and his achievements in radio were recognized by his election as an FRS in 1901. He became Controller of the Navy in 1905, responsible for the start of the dreadnought building programme which led to the arms race with Germany. In 1908–10 he commanded a cruiser squadron in the Mediterranean, and then commanded the Naval War College. In 1913 he was made Chief of the War Staff, a new appointment (before 1912 the RN had only a rudimentary central staff, but the improved communications, which he had done so much to create, meant that central direction became feasible). At the outbreak of WW1 he was in poor health, but when Lord FISHER ‘resigned’ in 1915 he had recovered, and was appointed 1SL as the best available Admiral, without upsetting other vital commands. Although he worked well with the First Lord and was a good administrator, he was slow and cautious, as befitted his scientific background, leaving the control of operations to his successor as Chief of the War Staff, Oliver. After Jutland, and in the face of criticism from JELLICOE, a press campaign forced him and the First Lord from office. At the end of the war he became the first chairman of the Radio Research Council.

Jane, Fred (1865–1916) British: author and compiler of data on warships. He produced the first All the World’s Fighting Ships, now known worldwide merely as ‘Jane’s’, and edited successive annual editions until his death. He tried to join the Army, but failed, and took up black-and-white drawing for the illustrated papers of the period, progressing to book illustrating, and writing novels. But the sea was his prime interest, and he had been collecting and collating information from the late 1880s. He persuaded Sampson Low that a book about warships would be a commercial proposition, and his first volume was published in 1898. It consisted of line drawings and silhouettes of warships rather than photographs, together with details of their armaments, overall dimensions, scale of armour and speed capabilities. It also had its text in four languages: English, French, German and Italian. As editor, Jane considered and commented on the fighting value of ships, and the role of navies in an overall strategic context. His perception of the likely changes which would result from technical developments was well ahead of contemporary thought. By 1903 the silhouettes had been augmented by photographs, which were quite good by the printing standards of the time, and the information had been amplified to contain most of what will be found today. Sampson Low published succeeding volumes until 1974. Today’s publication, just one of a series of defence industry reference books, is


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published by an autonomous organization, Jane’s Information Group Ltd, but its editor’s comments still carry weight in the maritime world, and the frequent cry of officers of the watch, in British warships at least, when another warship appears on the horizon, is ‘Where’s the Jane’s?’.

Janvrin, Hugh Richard (1915–93) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Janvrin, KCB, DSC. A naval aviator from 1938 onwards, Janvrin was, as DCNS and 5SL (whose remit covered naval aviation), responsible for the continuance of an effective naval air arm in the RN in the wake of the government decision of 1966 to cancel the next generation of fleet carriers. He entered BRNC Dartmouth in 1929; 1937, Lieutenant; 1947, Commander; 1955, Captain; 1964, Rear-Admiral; 1967, Vice-Admiral. In 1938 Janvrin was ‘press-ganged’ into becoming an Observer, when the Fleet Air Arm was expanding in the face of the threat of war. The observer’s job was to navigate the aircraft, make enemy reports, spot fall of shot, transmit and receive signals if a telegraphist was not carried. Serving as an Observer in 814 Squadron, Janvrin took part in the raid on Taranto in November 1940, which totally altered the balance of sea-power in the Mediterranean, and provided a blue-print for the Japanese at Pearl Harbor (awarded DSC). After WW2 he commanded the destroyer Broadsword, 1951–53, and the 2nd Frigate Squadron in HMS Grenville, 1957–58; he also commanded the aircraft carrier Victorious, 1959–61. Later he was Flag Officer Aircraft Carriers, 1964–66. In between sea appointments he had had a series of increasingly important staff appointments in the Admiralty and later Ministry of Defence, and so was an experienced ‘Whitehall warrior’, as well as a most professional naval aviator. He became 5SL shortly before the 1966 defence review, in which the cancellation of the navy’s strike carriers provoked the resignation of the Navy minister, and 1SL. Janvrin stayed to fight the Navy’s corner, so successfully that the ‘through-deck cruisers’ (small aircraft carriers by another name) of the Invincible class were authorized. He received the KCB in 1969 and retired in 1971.

Jauréguiberry, Jean (1815–87) French: vice-amiral, and later Minister for the Navy. He fought with distinction in South America, the Crimea, Indo-China, China and the Franco-Prussian war. He entered the naval college in 1831; 1839, enseigne de vaisseau; 1845, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1856, capitaine de frégate; 1860, capitaine de vaisseau; 1869, contre-amiral; 1871, vice-amiral.


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He served at the blockade of Antwerp, 1831, and received his first command, the cutter Louise, while still an aspirant (Midshipman) in South America. At the end of the 1830s he became interested in the possibilities of steam propulsion, and followed this up in 1844, while serving in the steamship Titan. In 1854, at the start of the Crimean War, he commanded the gunboat Grenade, and distinguished himself at Eupatoria, and Kinburn, and in the raids in the Sea of Azov. This earned him promotion, and he took part prominently in the operations in Indo-China in 1858–60. In 1860 he took command of the Meurthe, and took part in the Allied expedition to Peking (Beijing), earning three MiDs. In 1863 he took command of the Normandie, one of the French Navy’s first armoured warships. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 he was employed ashore, commanding the defences of Carentan, and then a division in the Army of the Loire, in which he fought at Orleans and Villepion: after promotion to vice-amiral he commanded a corps at the battle of Le Mans. After the war he filled a number of senior posts ashore and afloat, including command of the Experimental and Trials Squadron in the battleship Richelieu, 1876–77. He was Navy Minister twice, 1879–80 and 1882–83. He took particular interest in improving the conditions of service for the lower deck, and caused a storm in a teacup by providing barrelorgans on board ships for the sailors’ entertainment. In 1883 he resigned in protest at the law which proscribed the royal family, which included de JOINVILLE.

Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826) US: third President (1801–09). He established US ability to defend its national interests at sea. On 20 May 1801 during the War with Tripoli he ordered a naval squadron of three frigates and one schooner to deal with the Tripolitan acts of piracy against US ships. After modest initial success the squadron was unable to maintain the desired blockade against Tripoli and returned home in 1802. A second squadron under Commodore Richard Morris had no greater success and returned to the United States in 1803 to a court of inquiry that censured Morris. Next, Jefferson sent a squadron under Commodore PREBLE, which, thanks to bold actions by Captain BAINBRIDGE and then-Lieutenant DECATUR, forced Tripoli to release US hostages and sign a peace treaty assuring the end of Tripoli’s attacks on US merchant ships. During Jefferson’s second term as President, he increasingly was confronted with the challenge of protecting US merchant seamen from both Great Britain and France.


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Jellicoe, John (1859–1935) British: Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe of Scapa Flow, GCB, OM, GCVO. He was C-in-C of the Grand Fleet, 1914–16, and 1SL, 1916–17. At the battle of Jutland (1916), the ‘German Fleet assaulted its jailer, but remained in jail’, as an American journalist put it. He entered the RN in 1872, and as a Midshipman was involved in the landing of British forces ashore at Gallipoli in 1877, during the Russo-Turkish War; 1880, Lieutenant; 1891, Commander; 1897, Captain; 1907, Rear-Admiral; 1910, Vice-Admiral; 1914, Admiral; 1919, Admiral of the Fleet. Jellicoe was again involved ashore in the operations in Egypt after the bombardment of Alexandria during Arabi Pasha’s revolt (1882). After qualifying in gunnery, he was selected by ‘Jacky’ FISHER (then commanding the gunnery school) as one of his staff, and when Fisher went back to sea he took Jellicoe with him as his personal staff officer, a relationship which bore fruit at the start of the next century. After a spell at the Admiralty under Fisher (then DNO), at the time of the great awakening of the Victorian navy (the Naval Defence Act, 1889, being the catalyst), he was promoted, and the C-in-C Mediterranean, Admiral TRYON, particularly asked for Jellicoe to be second-in-command of his flagship, the ill fated Victoria. At the time of the collision (see TRYON) Jellicoe was laid up with Malta fever, and merely had time to hurry from his cabin, walk along the horizontal ship’s side, and plunge into the water. After recuperating, he returned to the Mediterranean as Executive Officer of the new fleet flagship. He then went out to the China Station as Flag Captain to the C-in-C, and was involved in the Boxer Rising, being severely wounded. After this he commenced a series of appointments in the Admiralty or at sea which led to his being earmarked for the highest command before the outbreak of war in 1914. He was successively Naval Assistant to the Controller, Captain of the armoured cruiser Drake, and DNO (for which he was specially selected by Fisher). He became second-in-command of the Atlantic Fleet in 1907, when the fleet was starting to carry out battle-practice firings at ranges of five miles, in place of one mile, the norm in 1900. He then became Controller and 3SL under Fisher, responsible for the building programme of the new dreadnought fleet, in a time of political difficulty. Although the threat of Germany was recognized, the Liberal government had a social programme to follow, and funds were not available to provide the base and dockyard facilities needed for the new ships. He went back to sea in 1910 in the Atlantic Fleet, and in 1912 became 2SL, responsible for all personnel matters. At the outbreak of WW1 he took over as C-in-C of the Grand Fleet, and immediately instituted the blockade of Germany, which ultimately played no small part in her defeat. Many expected there would be a second Trafalgar in the North Sea shortly after the outbreak of war, but the German fleet (quite correctly, in both strategic and tactical terms) would not oblige, and the threat posed by the submarine and the mine soon forced a rethink. But the great battle did ultimately come, on 31 May 1916 off Jutland, and Jellicoe’s tactical decisions were all correct, but poor visibility,


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ineffective British shells and poor communications, combined with skilful German manoeuvring, produced a less-than-satisfactory outcome. Despite greater losses in men and material, the Grand Fleet could have reengaged the Germans on 1 June. The Germans could not have done the same, nor did they make any further serious attempt to do so. In December 1916, Jellicoe became 1SL, with the major task of combating the successful German U-boat campaign. This was ultimately done under his aegis by Alexander DUFF, William FISHER and HENDERSON, but he and GEDDES, Lloyd George’s new First Lord of the Admiralty (Jellicoe’s political superior), could not work harmoniously, and so Jellicoe was dismissed, to be replaced by the more tractable WEMYSS. Jellicoe was rewarded with a viscountcy, and at the end of the war was sent on an empire-wide tour to determine the naval requirements of the empire in the peace after the ‘war to end all wars’. This resulted in the formation of the Royal Indian Navy and the first steps towards the creation of the RNZN, but the government would not (politically and economically could not) accept his recommendation for a strong Pacific Fleet. He completed his career as a most successful Governor-General of New Zealand (1920–24) and was rewarded with an earldom.

Jeremiah, David E. (1934–) US: Admiral. In October 1985 he commanded the Navy battle group assigned to intercept and capture the hijackers of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro. To carry out the mission he launched six Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighters, two Grumman KA-6D Intruder aerial tankers and two Grumman E-2C Hawkeye radar surveillance aircraft. The commercial EgyptAir aircraft carrying the hijackers to Tunisia was intercepted and forced to land at Sigonella, Italy. The hijackers were arrested by Italian authorities, who subsequently released them. Jeremiah earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in Financial Management from George Washington University. His senior active-duty assignments included command of the Pacific Fleet, 1987–91, and duty as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War of January-February 1991. He retired from active duty in February 1994 and became active with civilian organizations involved in strategic and technological issues. In March 1999 the Central Intelligence Agency appointed him to study the suspected loss of US nuclear weapons technology to China.


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Jerram, Martyn (1858–1933) British: Admiral Sir Martyn Jerram, GCMG, KCB. He was an all-purpose Admiral who had had much to do with the training of seamen in the years leading up to WW1, in which he was a station C-in-C, and later a divisional commander in the Grand Fleet. He entered the RN as a Navigating Midshipman in 1871; he transferred to the executive branch, 1879; 1881, Lieutenant; 1894, Commander; 1899, Captain; 1908, RearAdmiral; 1913, Vice-Admiral; 1917, Admiral. He served two spells in the training sloop Seaflower, 1879–81 and 1882–83: he then commanded the first Australian torpedo boat on her passage to the then colony of Victoria, making the 12,000-mile passage virtually unescorted. From the cruiser Conquest he landed in command of a battalion of seamen for a punitive expedition in East Africa, in 1891. In 1892 he became First Lieutenant of the Ruby in the Training Squadron, and then became Executive Officer of the training cruiser Northampton, and commanded the Curaçao, Northampton’s seagoing tender, 1894–99. He then commanded the Boscawen, the training ship at Portland, 1899–1902. After three years of battleship command he came ashore again to command the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham. After promotion to flag rank, he was second-in-command, Mediterranean, and then Cin-C China. At the outbreak of war he had to contend with VON SPEE’S powerful squadron, whose whereabouts was unknown: he had to escort Australian troops to Europe, and mop up the German colonies in the Pacific. All these tasks were completed safely, though his forces were too extended to have coped with von Spee, had the latter stayed in the east. Jerram returned home in 1915 to command the 2nd BS in the Grand Fleet, and as such his flagship led the line at Jutland. JELLICOE commended him in his report, but Jerram was criticized by armchair critics, and when BEATTY, who was his junior, received command of the Fleet, he went to the Admiralty for ‘special service’. After the war, he was president of the committee which set naval rates of pay, and then president of a permanent Welfare Committee, which looked after sailors’ conditions of service.

Jervis, John (1735–1823) British: Admiral of the Fleet the Earl of St Vincent, GCB. His fame rests on his victory over the Spanish fleet at the battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797, at which NELSON first came to prominence. As a boost to national morale the battle can be compared to El Alamein in


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1942. Jervis was a hard taskmaster, and spent much time on training the ships and fleets he commanded. He also took great care of the health of his seamen. He went to sea as an Able Seaman in the Gloucester, 50, in 1749; 1755, Lieutenant; 1759, Commander; 1760, Captain; 1787, Rear-Admiral; 1793, Vice-Admiral; 1795, Admiral; 1821, Admiral of the Fleet. As a Lieutenant, he served under SAUNDERS in a succession of ships, and was promoted by him to be First Lieutenant of the flagship, Neptune, 90, on the North American Station. Here he was made Commander of the Porcupine, 16, and took part in Wolfe’s assault on Quebec, which broke the power of France in North America. He was quickly promoted into the Gosport, 44, and spent the rest of the war on convoy duty. The Seven Years’ War, more than any other eighteenth-century conflict, saw Britain’s trade increase, and convoy duty, though unexciting (most of the time) was (as in WW2) vital to Britain’s interests. Peace in 1763 meant no employment, but in 1769 Jervis commanded the Alarm, 32, serving in the Mediterranean. He then spent time on half-pay, travelling extensively in France and Russia. He commanded the Foudroyant, 80, at Portsmouth, 1775–78, and later in the Grand Fleet under Augustus KEPPEL, being present at the battle of Ushant in 1778, and supporting him in the ensuing court-martial. In 1782, still in Foudroyant, he fought and captured the French Pegase, 74, having only five men wounded (himself included). From 1783 to 1794 he was an MP, speaking on naval matters, emphasizing the Navy’s essential role in the nation’s safety, and inveighing against the corruption and inefficiency in the administration of both the Navy and the dockyards. In 1793 he was given command of an expedition to the West Indies (flag in the Boyne, 90). This was initially successful, but the French counter-attacked successfully; the British were decimated by disease, and Jervis came home with a tarnished reputation. However, he was given command of the Mediterranean in 1795 after HOTHAM’S failure, and found himself with a major task on his hands. His fleet was inadequate, stretched to the limit by its tasks: the French had to be blockaded in Toulon, British trade had to be escorted, the Austrians and, initially, the Spanish supported. When Spain made peace with France, and then declared war on England, the job became even harder, with the rising young general Napoleon carrying all before him against the Austrians and Sardinians, denying the fleet the forward bases needed to blockade Toulon successfully. At the end of 1796 the British had to withdraw from the Mediterranean: lack of numbers and inadequate stores at Gibraltar forced the fleet back to the Tagus. But in early 1797 the Spanish fleet was making passage from Cartagena to Cadiz, and had to pass Jervis’s fleet to reach its destination. The British had been reinforced to fifteen sail, the Spaniards had twenty-seven, but were woefully under-trained. The British were able to divide the Spanish fleet, and Nelson’s action in wearing his ship out of the line to prevent the Spanish from joining up again was crucial. The resulting melée saw only four Spanish ships taken, but in Jervis’s words, the Spanish fleet was ‘palsied from that hour’. His reward was a barony, later increased to an earldom, and a life pension of £3,000 per year. St Vincent, as he now became, expected the highest standards from his officers and men, and was regarded as a martinet. In the aftermath of the fleet mutinies, he was implacable in imposing his will on the fleet, and although there were minor out-breaks, they were put down with the utmost rigour. He instituted the custom of berthing the


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Royal Marines aft, between the officers and the rest of the crew, to prevent any sudden uprisings. He imposed his will on his subordinate flag officers as well, sacking two summarily, to which the Admiralty objected. In 1800 he came home ill, transferring command to KEITH. But after a period recuperating at home, he acceded to a government request to take over the Channel Fleet, saying: ‘The King and Government require it, and the discipline of the British Navy demands it. It is of no consequence whether I die ashore or afloat. The die is cast’. The period 1800–01 saw a rigorous blockade maintained on Brest. PELLEW wrote ‘We make noth ing now of a six months cruise. We have only had six days in port in the last six months’, and Nelson said ‘he has taught us to keep the seamen healthy without going into port’. In 1801 he became First Lord, with the intention of rooting out corruption in naval and dockyard administration. Vested interests so hindered him that he was perpetually at odds with the Navy Board, to the detriment of the fleet’s efficiency, and his economies were resisted tooth and nail. Finally, Addington’s ministry fell, and with it, St Vincent. He retired, but lived for twenty years more, being made a GCB in 1815, and Admiral of the Fleet in 1821. More than anything else, his legacy was the sense of duty and purpose with which Royal Naval officers were, and are, imbued; and a feeling of confidence which enabled their fleets to undertake any task.

John, Caspar (1903–84) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Caspar John, GCB. He was one of the founders of the Fleet Air Arm in the inter-war years, and became the first naval aviator to be 1SL, 1960–63. His family background was unconventional for a professional naval officer, his father being the bohemian artist Augustus John, but a school prize of a copy of Jane’s Fighting Ships decided his career, and he joined RNC Osborne in 1916; 1925, Lieutenant; 1936, Commander; 1941, Captain; 1951, Rear-Admiral; 1954, Vice-Admiral; 1957, Admiral; 1962, Admiral of the Fleet. As a young cadet he had met Lord FISHER, who advised him to ‘look forward, not backward’, so when he became a Lieutenant, he applied to train as a pilot, which was deemed an incorrect career move. But he became passionate about flying, owning his own light aircraft. He served in the aircraft carrier Hermes on the China Station, and in Courageous in the Mediterranean, where he practised night flying from an aircraft carrier, calling for new techniques. In 1937 he went to the Admiralty as a staff officer in the Naval Air Division, and saw the Navy wrest control of the Fleet Air Arm from the dead hand of the RAF. After eighteen months in the cruiser York, 1939–40, he spent time in the Ministry of Aircraft Production: with that background, he was appointed as naval air attaché in the British Embassy in Washington, where his task was to procure American aircraft (e.g. the Avenger and the Corsair) for the FAA which lacked adequate aircraft, largely due to the prewar internecine battles between the RAF and the RN. While there he met Igor Sikorski, and this led to the start of the RN’s use of helicopters.


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In 1944–46 he commanded two carriers, the Pretoria Castle and the Ocean. His first flag appointment, in 1951, was commanding the Heavy Squadron (aircraft carriers and battleships). He became Flag Officer Air (Home) in 1954, coping with the problems of the introduction of the first jet fighters into squadron service, and received the KCB in 1956. He became VCNS under MOUNTBATTEN. From there he was promoted to 1SL.

Johnson, Lyndon B. (1908–73) US: thirty-sixth President (1963–69). He initiated US military action against the North Vietnamese in August 1964. His action was made possible by the Tonkin Gulf resolution, passed by the Congress on 7 August 1964. That act changed the US military role in Vietnam from advisor to active combat participant. It was precipitated by North Vietnamese torpedo boat attacks against USN ships in international waters on 2 and 5 August. Several of the torpedo boats were sunk by US naval air and surface units, and the war between US and South Vietnamese forces against Viet Cong guerillas and regular North Vietnamese military units escalated gradually to the point that 500,000 US troops were in Vietnam by 1968. The US military effort was managed by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who had little appreciation for established military doctrine or the uniformed leaders of the armed forces. Anti-war groups, media opposition to US military efforts, and opposition within his own political party constrained Johnson’s leadership. He had assumed the presidency in November 1963 when President KENNEDY was assassinated, and in 1968 he refused to run for a second presidential term. Before becoming President he was a member of the House of Representatives and the Senate and was Kennedy’s Vice President, 1961–63. He served briefly in the Naval Reserve in the Pacific during WW2, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Johnston, Clarence (1903–96) British: Rear-Admiral ‘Johnny’ (he hated the name Clarence) Howard-Johnston, DSO, DSC. He was one of the RN’s A/S experts in the inter-war years, at a time when the specialization was considered a back-water, and there was complacency about the efficacy of Asdic (sonar). He made use of his knowledge as a highly effective escort captain in the Atlantic, and as a trainer of other escorts and director of Admiralty A/S policy. He entered the Navy in 1917; 1925, Lieutenant; 1937, Commander; 1943, Captain; 1953, Rear-Admiral. He served in the gunboat Tarantula on the Yang-tze river, and specialized in A/S in 1931, serving in destroyers and at HMS Osprey, the A/S school at Portland, where he developed the TART (Towed Asdic Repeater Target), used for training until the early


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1960s. His first command was the destroyer Viscount, and he then was lent to the Royal Hellenic Navy, receiving a Greek decoration for his service there. In 1939 he was serving in the Admiralty, but was taken away from his desk in 1940 to organize A/S operations off the Norwegian fjords, which turned into organizing the evacuation of troops from Andalsnes and Molde, for which he received the DSC. A month later he was sent to demolish the port facilities at St Malo, which was achieved despite French opposition, receiving an MiD. He then commanded HMS Malcolm on North Atlantic convoy duty (MiD), and in her he sank U-651, receiving the DSO. In 1942 he went to the training staff ashore in Liverpool, and then was Director of the A/S Division in the Admiralty. In 1945 he commanded the Cruiser Bermuda, and later the Torpedo &C AntiSubmarine school at Portsmouth, HMS Vernon. There he had the traumatic experience of having to organize the search for the submarine Affray, in which his son was serving. She was found, but there were no survivors. After promotion in 1953 he served on the NATO staff before retiring.

Joinville, François, Prince de (1819–1900) French: vice-amiral. He was the third son of King Louis-Philippe, but made a career in the navy at least partly on his own merits (although given a fairly hefty initial shove by influence). He was a noted proponent of new technology, favouring the introduction of steam and the new generation of ships designed by DUPUY DE LÔME, and was a prolific and influential writer. He joined the navy in 1831; 1836, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1838, capitaine de corvette; 1839, capitaine de vaisseau; 1843, contre-amiral; 1845, vice-amiral. He distinguished himself in command of the Créole in the attack on St Juan d’Ulloa in 1838, and in the following landings at Vera Cruz, where he commanded the advance guard, and was one of the first into the town. After promotion to capitaine de vaisseau in 1839, he took command of the Belle-Poule and of the squadron sent to St Helena to bring back the Emperor Napoleon’s corpse. In 1843 he became a member of the Admiralty council, and an active suppor ter of Dupuy de Lome’s ship project which resulted in the Napoleon, completed in 1852, the first line-of-battle ship in which steam was intended as the prime mover, with sail as an auxiliary. In 1844, during a crisis with Morocco, he was given command of a squadron and bombarded Tangier and Mogador, so that the Emperor of Morocco sued for peace. Joinville was promoted, and in 1846 was made C-in-C of the Mediterranean Squadron. He left France after the 1848 revolution, but returned to fight in the Franco-Prussian war, enlisting under a false name in the army, but he was discovered and discharged. After being elected to the assembly in 1871, he was restored to his naval rank, and presided over the tribunal which tried Marshal Bazaine. A final political twist saw him struck off the navy list in 1886.


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Jones, John Paul (1747–92) US: Commodore. He became the best-known Continental Navy hero of the American Revolution, establishing traditions of heroism and aggressive combat doctrine that carried forward to the US Navy. Christened John Paul in Scotland, he became a captain in the British merchant service at the age of twenty-one. In 1773, after a fatal altercation with a crew member in Tobago, he fled to Virginia and assumed the name Paul Jones. When the American Revolution began in 1775 he was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the Continental Navy under the name John Paul Jones, and quickly earned a reputation as an aggressive naval leader. In May 1776 he took command of the Continental sloop Providence, 12, which became an effective commerce raider, and in August 1776 he received a captain’s commission from the Continental Congress. In July 1777 he took command of the sloop-of-war Ranger, 18, conducting audacious raids against ports of the British Isles and capturing the sloop-of-war HMS Drake, 20, off Ireland’s coast. In France in 1778 he sought a larger ship, writing: ‘I wish to have no Connection with any Ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way’. At that time he predicted that the American navy would become ‘the wonder and Envy of the World’. Eventually he was given an aged French East Indiaman, which he named Bonhomme Richard in honour of one of his important political supporters, Benjamin Franklin. On 23 September 1779 in his poor-sailing, 42-gun frigate, he defeated the 44-gun frigate HMS Serapis. When asked during the combat by his opposing captain if he had struck his colours, Jones is reported to have shouted, ‘I have not yet begun to fight’. In 1787 the American Congress awarded him a gold medal, the only honour of its kind awarded. After the American Revolution he supervised the construction of the 74-gun ship-of-theline, USS America, which was turned over to the French. In 1788 he accepted a commission as a Rear Admiral in the Russian Navy and fought several engagements against the Ottoman Turks. In 1790 he moved to Paris, and in 1792 was named US Consul to Algiers. He died before beginning that assignment and was buried in France with virtually no ceremony. His body was moved with considerable naval ceremony in 1913 to the USNA campus in Annapolis, Maryland.

Joy, C.Turner (1895–1956) US: Admiral. He was Commander, US Naval Forces Far East during the 1950–51 stages of the Korean War. The aggressive naval gunfire and naval tactical air support of his forces were major factors in the ability of United Nations units to halt and drive North Korean and Chinese forces back to the 38th parallel. He also organized the naval portion of the amphibious landing at Inchon, Korea, in September 1950. In addition, he was the senior United Nations delegate to the armistice negotiations that ended the war. He graduated from the USNA in 1916 and began his career in the battleship USS Pennsylvania. After subsequent shore and sea assignments he commanded the destroyer


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USS Litchfield, 1933–35. Following additional assignments he joined the staff of Scouting Force Pacific Fleet in February 1941. After advancement to Captain in 1942, he commanded the cruiser USS Louisville, 1942–43. In August 1943 he headed the Navy’s Pacific Plans Division. He was advanced to Rear Admiral in April 1944 and in May took over Cruiser Division Six, participating in the Marianas, Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa operations of 1945. In June 1945 he was appointed Commander Amphibious Group Two, and in September he took command of Task Force 73. After serving as the commanding officer of Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Virginia, he was promoted to Vice Admiral in August 1949 and named Commander of Naval Forces Far East. He was superintendent of the USNA, 1952–54, and retired from active duty in June 1954 as an Admiral. His book, How Communists Negotiate, was published in 1955. The destroyer USS Turner Joy was named in his honour.

Juan de Austria (1547–78) (Don John of Austria) Spanish: admiral. He was the victor of the battle of Lepanto in October 1571, one of the most significant sea fights of all time, in which a European fleet defeated the Ottoman fleet under Ali Pasha. It was also the last significant seafight between oared vessels. Don John was the illegitimate half-brother of King Phillip II of Spain, who acknowledged him, and started him on a military career. He fought against the Barbary pirates, and also on land, where Phillip gave him the task of putting down the revolt of the Moriscos in southern Spain. Since the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman empire had been expanding westward. It had suffered a major check during Suleiman’s siege of Vienna in 1529, but remained a menace, and especially so at sea in the Mediterranean. In 1570 the Turks sought to conquer the Venetian colony of Cyprus, and Venice formed a Holy League with the Papacy and Spain in 1571. Don John was given command of the allied armada (with experienced subordinates, including SANTA-CRUZ and Doria the younger). He found the Ottoman fleet in the Gulf of Patras, and a day-long engagement followed. The fleets were fairly evenly matched, though Don John’s fleet had greater artillery power in its galleasses. The main engagements were between rowed galleys, using the old ram and board tactics, which had been seen in those waters since the battle of Salamis (480BC). The result was a comprehensive defeat of the Turks, whose fleet was virtually destroyed. The Ottoman empire’s power was not totally broken, but it showed that they could be defeated, and the Turkish navy, though swiftly rebuilt, was never a significant threat again.


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Jubelin, Andre (1906–86) French: amiral. He fought an active war with the Free French forces both as a fighter pilot and a convoy escort commander. He entered the Naval School in 1925; 1935, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1941, capitaine de corvette; 1944, capitaine de frégate; 1946, capitaine de vaisseau; 1952, contre-amiral; 1958, vice-amiral; 1960, vice-amiral d’escadre; 1963 amiral. After service in the aircraft carrier Béarn and a destroyer, he qualified as a pilot in 1930, and then after further destroyer service, he qualified in gunnery in 1932. He served as Squadron Gunnery Officer of the 5th Destroyer Division, and commanded a coastal battery before WW2. In June 1940, at the time of the Franco-German armistice, he was in Saigon, as Gunnery Officer of the cruiser La MottePicquet. In November 1940 he absconded to Singapore, flying a training aircraft, and thence returned to London to join the Free French. He took command of the old battleship Courbet in Portsmouth briefly—she shot down three enemy aircraft during the heavy raids on Portsmouth in early 1941—and then, as a seaplane pilot, was given the task of creating and organizing a Free French naval air arm. He formed a fighter squadron, and flew seventy-two missions, being credited with destroying four enemy aircraft. He was then given command of the escort Savorga-deBrazza, and carried out twenty-seven convoy escort runs in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, in the course of which his ship shot down two Focke-Wulf Condors, and was credited with two probable U-boat sinkings. In 1944 he took the light cruiser Triomphant to the Far East, and participated in the restoration of French control in Indo-China, particularly distinguishing himself at Haiphong. By the end of the war he had received ten citations (MiD). After commanding the aircraft carrier Arromanches in Indo-China, he was further promoted, and commanded the Mediterranean Squadron in 1960. After his final promotion he was C-inC Mediterranean, 1963–65.


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K Kauffman, Draper L. (1911–79) US: Rear Admiral. He created the USN Underwater Demolition Teams of WW2. These teams of so-called ‘navy frogmen’ evolved into the post-WW2 elite USN SEAL assault teams. Kauffman was a 1933 graduate of the USNA but was denied a commission when he failed to meet the eyesight requirements. After civilian employment with the United States Steamship Company, service in the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps in France in 1940, and service as a Sub-Lieutenant in the British RNVR, 1940–41, with duties as a bomb and mine disposal officer, he was commissioned in the US Naval Reserve in November 1941. As a Lieutenant Commander he organized the first US Navy UDT units and planned and led underwater demolition operations throughout the WW2 Pacific amphibious assaults and at the Allied D-Day landings at Normandy. Kauffman transferred from the Naval Reserve to the regular US Navy in 1946. In 1955 he was named Aide to the Secretary of the Navy, Thomas S. Gates Jr, and he advanced to Rear Admiral in 1962. His assignments as a senior officer included duty as Chief of the Strategic Plans at Policy Division on the staff of CNO, 1962–65. He also was Commandant of the USNA, 1965–68 and was named Commander of US Naval Forces in the Philippines in 1968. He retired from active duty in 1973.

Keats, Richard (1757–1834) British: Admiral Sir Richard Keats, KB. After seven years as a frigate captain, he became one of NELSON’S captains: who said ‘I esteem his person alone as equal to one French 74’. He joined the Navy in 1770, serving on the North American station; 1777, Lieutenant; 1782, Commander; 1789, Captain; 1807, Rear-Admiral. Keats served at the battle of Ushant (1778). He then joined the Prince George, 90, where he began a life-long friendship with the future Duke of CLARENCE (later King William IV). Keats saw action at Gibraltar in 1780 and 1781, and then went to the Lion, 64, in North America. From her he was promoted into the Bonetta, 14, till 1785. He then spent four years on half-pay in France (living was cheaper there), but in 1789 he was promoted Captain, at the insistence of the Duke of Clarence.


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In 1794 he received command of the Galatea, 36, employed under PELLEW and WARREN on the coast of France. In 1796 he outfought the heavier French Andromaque, 40, driving her ashore and burning her: in 1798, now in the Boadicea, 38, it was his early information which enabled Warren to intercept Hoche’s attempted invasion of Ireland. In 1801 he moved up to the Superb, 74, in which he fought at Algeciras. The FrancoSpanish fleet (ten of the line) was well ahead of SAUMAREZ’S squadron (five ships), and Keats, in the lead, was ordered to engage the rear of the enemy to delay them. The Superb, making 10–11 knots, caught up with the Real Carlos, 112, in the dark. Her first broadside, at a range of 300 yards, did immense damage, not only to the Real Carlos, but also the San Hermenegildo, 112, beyond her. Each Spaniard thought the other was their enemy, and the end result was the destruction of both. Superb then engaged the St Antoine, 74, and forced her to strike. Superb was part of Nelson’s fleet which chased VILLENEUVE to the West Indies and back in 1805, but she greatly needed a refit on her return, and so missed Trafalgar. But she participated in DUCKWORTH’S victory at San Domingo in 1806. In 1808 Keats hoisted his flag in his old Superb, in Danish waters. He enabled a whole Spanish army division, serving unwillingly in northern Europe, to escape to Sweden, whence they were taken back to Spain (by courtesy of the RN), and Keats received a knighthood. He continued to serve afloat until 1812, when his health gave way. At the end of the war he became Governor of Greenwich Hospital.

Keith, Viscount George (1746–1823) British: Admiral, KCB. He succeeded ST VINCENT as C-in-C Mediterranean in 1798 (he deprecated strongly NELSON’S ‘insubordination’ after the Nile). He was C-in-C North Sea, 1803–07 (responsible for the fleet dispositions in the face of Napoleon’s invasion threat 1803–05), and C-in-C Channel Fleet, 1812–14 and 1815 (he made the dispositions which prevented Napoleon fleeing to the USA in June/July 1815 after Waterloo). He was the intermediary in the arrangements for Napoleon’s exile to St Helena. He went to sea, under the family name of Elphinstone, in 1761, and learned seamanship partly in an East Indiaman, the Triton, 1766–68; 1770, Lieutenant; 1772, Commander (his swift promotion was due to family ‘interest’); 1775, Captain; 1794, Rear-Admiral; 1795, Vice-Admiral; 1801, Admiral. He was an MP, 1768–75, and again 1781–1801, though he steadfastly refused to play a political role while on active service. In the War of American Independence as Captain of the Perseus, 20, he commanded the marines and seamen ashore at the capture of Charleston, 1780. In 1781, commanding the Warwick, 50, he took the Dutch Rotterdam, 50. Back in American waters, in 1782, his squadron took the French frigate Aigle, of Captain LATOUCHE-TRÉVILLE.


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In 1793 he was given command of Robust, 74, being present throughout the taking and subsequent evacuation of Toulon, where once again he commanded the ‘naval brigades’ ashore. For his services he was knighted and promoted. Flying his flag in Monarch, 74, Keith commanded the squadron which captured the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch in 1795, and next year compelled the surrender of a powerful but inferior Dutch force without a shot being fired. In 1797 he was sent to deal with the ringleaders of the mutiny at the Nore and at Plymouth. In 1798 he took over the Mediterranean Fleet from St Vincent, and missed an opportunity in 1799 to bring the French Brest Squadron to action during its incursion into the Mediterranean. His fleet laid successful siege to Malta in 1800–01, and later transported Abercrombie’s force to Egypt to expel the French army left behind after the battle of the Nile. He was given an Irish peerage in 1795 (he could thus remain an MP), transferred to the English peerage in 1801, given a baronetcy in 1803, raised to a viscountcy in 1814 and finally made GCB in 1815. Having served almost continuously at sea, 1772–83 and 1793–1814, he was a competent and well regarded commander (though St Vincent’s rather grudging comment was ‘You will never find an officer, native of that country [Scotland] figure in supreme command, they are only fit for drudgery. Lord Keith is by far the best I ever met with by land or sea’.); and being a C-in-C for some ten years his share of prize money was considerable, to the extent that he was considered to have been the richest naval officer when he retired. As a real life character, he features in Patrick O’BRIAN’S series of Aubrey/ Maturin novels.

Kelly, John (1871–1936), British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Kelly, GCB, GCVO. The Invergordon mutiny of 1931 was a traumatic experience for the Royal Navy, and for Great Britain as a whole. John Kelly was the admiral sent to restore the fleet’s morale and efficiency, which he did with conspicuous success. He entered the RN in 1884; 1893, Lieutenant; 1904, Commander; 1911, Captain; 1921, Rear-Admiral; 1926, Vice-Admiral; 1930, Admiral; 1936, Admiral of the Fleet. As a lieutenant he served for six years continuously on the Australia Station, and then qualified in gunnery. At the outbreak of WWl he commanded the light cruiser Dublin in the Mediterranean. He, and his brother Howard commanding the Gloucester, were the only two senior officers who emerged from the unhappy Goeben episode with enhanced reputations (see MILNE). He spent all of WW1 afloat in command of cruisers, and after promotion in 1921 spent time in command of a detachment in Turkish waters, 1922–23. He was 4SL, 1924–26, second-in-command in the Mediterranean, 1927–29, and Admiral commanding Reserves, 1929–30: seeing this as a dead-end job (which it usually was), he applied to retire, but was refused. The Invergordon mutiny, in September 1931, when crews of the Home Fleet refused duty, was due to reductions in pay, enforced as a result of the economic crisis of 1929–30


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which led to the Great Depression. The best that can be said is that the Admiralty handled the affair very poorly (see FIELD): and in the C-in-C’s absence sick, the second-incommand Vice-Admiral Tomlinson was made a scapegoat. Kelly was sent as a nononsense admiral to pick up the pieces. He was rewarded with the GCVO, an unusual award, since the Victorian Order is in the personal gift of the sovereign, but it marks the personal interest which King George V took in his fleet, as a professional naval officer. Subsequently Kelly was C-in-C Portsmouth, 1934–36, and was specially promoted to Admiral of the Fleet for one day before he retired.

Kelso, Frank (1933–) US: Admiral. He commanded the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, 1985–86, when in October 1985 Sixth Fleet aircraft intercepted the EgyptAir airliner carrying the terrorist hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. The airliner was forced to land in Italy, where the terrorists were taken into custody and later released by Italian authorities. In March 1986 units of his Sixth Fleet destroyed Libyan air and naval units and ground missile sites attempting to interfere with US naval exercises in the Gulf of Sidra. Kelso was CNO, 1990–94. During that assignment controversy arose over allegations by a female naval aviator, Lieutenant Paula Coughlin, of sexual harassment at the 1991 convention of the Tailhook Association, an organization comprised of active-duty and retired US naval aviators. The controversy destroyed many naval careers, including those of numerous officers who later were determined not to be guilty of wrongdoing. Kelso graduated from the USNA in 1956 and attended submarine school in 1958. After serving in the submarine USS Sabalo he underwent nuclear power training in 1960. After several shore and sea assignments he was Commanding Officer US Naval Nuclear Power School, 1969–71, and then he took command of the submarine USS Finback in 1971. After subsequent staff and command assignments, including command of the submarine USS Bluefish, he was advanced to Rear Admiral in February 1980, Vice Admiral in February 1985 and Admiral in 1986. His assignments prior to selection as CNO included Director Strategic Submarine Division in the Office of CNO, Director Office of Program Appraisal in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, Commander Sixth Fleet-Commander Naval Striking Force and Support Forces Southern Europe, C-inC Atlantic Fleet and Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, C-in-C US Atlantic Command in 1988.


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Kempenfelt, Richard (1718–82) British: Rear-Admiral. It is his misfortune to be remembered as the admiral who lost his life when the Royal George sank at Spithead, but he executed an extremely successful action at GUICHEN’S expense, and also introduced a new and more effective code of signals. His date of entry is uncertain; 1740, Lieutenant; 1756, Commander; 1757, Captain; 1780, Rear-Admiral. He fought under VERNON, by whom he was promoted, at Porto Bello in 1739. In the Seven Years’ War, Kempenfelt was in the East Indies commanding the Elizabeth, 64, under POCOCK, and took part in three of the actions against D’ACHÉ. He was instrumental in raising the siege of Madras, and was also present at the taking of Manila in 1761. In 1781, with his flag in the Victory, 100, he was given command of a squadron of twelve line-of-battleships, and ordered to intercept a French squadron and convoy bound for the West Indies. Intelligence said that the French force was no more than seven ships: they proved to be nineteen, which was too much for Kempenfelt’s force. But Guichen made a major tactical blunder, by forming his line of battle to meet the English attack to leeward of the convoy. Kempenfelt was thus enabled to attack it and Guichen was powerless to protect it. Kempenfelt took twenty prizes and sank two or three more. Virtually all his service as a captain had been as Flag Captain to an admiral, so he was well aware of the failings of the current system of signals. During the period 1778–80, while he was Captain of the Fleet of the Grand Fleet, he devised a new system, which was later taken up by HOWE.

Kennedy, John F. (1917–1963) US: thirty fifth President (1961–63). He used a naval ‘quarantine’ to enforce removal of Soviet missiles from Castro’s Cuba in October 1961. Kennedy used Atlantic fleet units to monitor, interdict and turn back merchant ships carrying Soviet missiles to Cuba. Units from that fleet also were employed in the tracking of Soviet submarines in the operational area. The use of naval units in the Cuban Missile Crisis was, in the view of many Navy leaders, characterized by micromanagement by the President and his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, causing tensions with the CNO, Admiral ANDERSON. Similar tensions previously occurred when the President and his Secretary of Defense rejected Navy advice and allowed the April 1961 Bay of Pigs amphibious assault against Castro to proceed without tactical air cover. Kennedy enlisted in the Navy in 1941 and served in the rank of Lieutenant as a torpedo boat commander in the Pacific during WW2. He was cited for leading his crew


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back to safety from behind Japanese lines after his boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in August 1943. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963. Before his election as President he had served in the House of Representatives and Senate. His was the author of Why England Slept, written while he was still in college and published in 1940, and Profiles in Courage, published in 1956.

Keppel, Hon. Augustus (1725–86) British: Admiral Viscount Keppel. He was one of the ‘political’ admirals of the eighteenth century, but nonetheless an experienced and competent sea-commander. The only major battle in which he commanded (flag in Victory, 100) was the inconclusive fight off Ushant in 1778. He went to sea at the age of ten, and was in Centurion on ANSON’S world voyage 1740–44; 1742, acting Lieutenant; 1744, Lieutenant; having ‘interest’ (he was the son of a duke) 1744, Commander; 1744, Captain; 1762, Rear-Admiral; 1770, Vice-Admiral; 1778, Admiral. He was appointed successively to command Wolf, Greyhound and Sapphire, all sloops or frigates, and in 1745, Maidstone, 50. In June 1747 he ran her aground off Belle-Isle, and was captured by the French, but quickly paroled. ‘Interest’ ensured his employment in the period of peace post-1748, and he was appointed as Commodore to Centurion, 50, and sent to negotiate (with limited success) with the Dey of Algiers. In 1754 he became Commodore of the North American Station, where he cooperated with General Braddock in the undeclared war against the French. In home waters again, he commanded Swiftsure, 70, and Torbay, 74. He was a member of the court-martial which condemned John BYNG, and, as an MP, unavailingly raised the matter of the sentence in the House of Commons. Torbay was part of HAWKE’S fleet at the battle of Quiberon Bay, 1759, and in 1761, Keppel was in the force under POCOCK, which captured Havana. Two of his brothers were present in the land forces, and the three brothers are estimated to have cleared £75,000 in prize money between them. Keppel was an MP continuously from 1755 to 1782. He was briefly a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, 1765–66. In politics he was a Whig, and so in opposition for most of the period, but despite poor relations with the 4th Earl of SANDWICH, First Lord 1771–82, he received the command of the Grand Fleet in 1778. He succeeded in bringing the French fleet under ORVILLIERS to action, but the action was inconclusive, like so many when the line was paramount, with no ship losses on either side. Five months after the battle, a mischievous newspaper report cast a slur on PALLISER, third in command. The upshot was that Keppel was court-martialled, but acquitted honourably, while a second court-martial on Palliser acquitted him far less creditably. A Commissioner of the Admiralty again in 1782, he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Keppel at the same time.


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A change of government in 1783 saw him become First Lord briefly, before he was succeeded by HOWE. He then retired but, in poor health, died three years later.

Keppel, Henry (1809–1904) British: Admiral of the Fleet the Hon. Sir Henry Keppel, GCB. Sometimes referred to as Queen Victoria’s ‘beloved little admiral’, he was a well connected, fire-eating naval officer who seemed to turn up wherever there was action. He was fortunate in that his connections ensured almost continuous employment during peacetime. He joined the Navy via the old Naval College at Portsmouth in 1822; 1828, Lieutenant; 1833, Commander; 1837, Captain; 1756, Rear-Admiral; 1864, Vice-Admiral; 1869, Admiral; 1877, Admiral of the Fleet. He first went to sea in the Tweed, 28, at the Cape of Good Hope. After promotion in 1828 he served on the West Indies, and then the East Indies Station, returning home in 1833. He then commanded the brig Childers, 16, on the coasts of Spain during the Carlist wars. In 1837 he commanded the Dido, 18, on the China Station, being present at the taking of Shanghai in the first China War (or Opium War), and then went down to join ‘Rajah’ Brooke, in rooting pirates out of the rivers of Sarawak. On his return home his ship called at Portsmouth and received orders to proceed directly to Sheerness. His wife (whom he hadn’t seen for four years) being only ten miles away, he made the Master wear his uniform to take the ship up-channel to Sheerness, while he enjoyed a leisurely three-day drive in a post chaise (with his wife) to rejoin the ship. Keppel returned to Brooke and the Far East for four more years, 1847–51, in the Maeander, 44. In 1853 he commanded the St Jean d’Acre, 101, and took her to the Baltic for the first year of the Crimean War: in 1855 he transferred to the Rodney, 92, in the Black Sea, and took command of the naval brigade manning the batteries besieging Sebastopol. In 1856 he took the frigate Raleigh, 50, out to the Far East, but she was wrecked near Hong Kong. However, he took part in boat actions at Canton and Fat-shan Creek, and was awarded the KCB and promoted. He became a member of Queen Victoria’s household, 1858–60, and then had four C-in-C appointments: the Cape of Good Hope (1860); Southeast Coast of America (1861); China (1867–69); and Plymouth (1872–75). He was finally promoted to Admiral of the Fleet, and became an intimate of the Prince of Wales, and a figure in London society.

Key, Astley (1821–88) British: Admiral Sir Astley Cooper Key, GCB. He was First Naval Lord, 1879–85, at a time when the Royal Navy was starting to make effective use of the new technology with


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which it had been tinkering for twenty years. He was also a thinking admiral at a time when the RN was not obviously over-endowed with such men, being an FRS, FRGS and DCL. He entered the Navy in 1833; 1842, Lieutenant; 1845, Commander; 1850, Captain; 1866, Rear-Admiral; 1873, Vice-Admiral; 1878, Admiral. In 1843 he went out to the east coast of South America, to the paddle frigate Gorgon, 6. In 1844, in a storm, she parted her cables and drove ashore, well above the normal high-water mark, and Key, though only the junior Lieutenant, was prominent in applying science to refloat her. Later that year, in the engagement at Obligado, he was wounded and specially promoted. (By coincidence, so was this author’s great-great grandfather, who was the Gorgow’s Master, on the same occasion.) Key went on to command the Amphion, 36, in the Baltic, 1854–55, when he was prominent in the bombardments of Bomarsund and Sveaborg, receiving the CB. He then went out to the East Indies, commanding the Sanspareil, 81, landing his Royal Marines to take part in suppressing the Indian Mutiny. Immediately afterwards he took the ship on to China, where he commanded a naval brigade at the taking of Canton, and where he personally seized the Chinese governor, who was trying to escape in disguise. He was Captain of the Excellent, the gunnery school, where the brightest brains in the Navy were to be found, 1863–6, and then became the first Director of Naval Ordnance, a post of considerable influence. He was the first Admiral President of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, 1873–76, being himself responsible for setting it up, and determining its aims. After two years, 1876–78, when he was C-in-C North America, he became First Naval Lord in 1879. This period saw the general introduction of steel for naval ships, the reintroduction of breechloading guns, the use of cordite in place of gunpowder (and the introduction of marmalade on to the ration-scale for sailors, seen by old salts as a retrograde step).

Keyes, Roger (1872–1945) British: Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Keyes, GCB, KCVO, CMG, DSO. Keyes was an aggressive commander in WW1, who led from the front. In WW2 he behaved like an old war-horse who hears the sound of battle again and wants to be in the action: but like old war-horses, he had to be put out to grass again, though he had a grandstand view of one last battle. He joined the RN in 1885; 1893, Lieutenant; 1900, Commander (by special promotion for his actions during the Boxer Rising in China); 1905, Captain; 1917, Rear-Admiral; 1921, Vice-Admiral; 1926, Admiral; 1930, Admiral of the Fleet. After early service on the Cape of Good Hope Station, on anti-slavery patrols off East Africa, and on the Southeast Coast of America Station, he held a series of destroyer commands: Opossum, Hart, Bat and Sprightly. It was during his time in Hart that he earned promotion for his part in the relief of the diplomatic legations in Peking (Beijing). In 1910, he became Inspecting Captain of Submarines, in succession to BACON, and developed an enthusiasm for the new arm, becoming Commodore, Submarines in 1912.


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At the outbreak of WW1 he instigated offensive use of his submarines in the Heligoland Bight, in concert with TYRWHITT’S light forces. Up till then the submarine had been seen as a defensive weapon. In 1915 he was sent as CoS to Admiral Carden, commanding the naval forces attempting to force the Dardanelles. He earned CHURCHILL’S gratitude by his support for the campaign, and received two MiDs, the DSO, and the CMG. In 1916 he commanded the battleship Centurion in the Grand Fleet, and then one of the battle squadrons. In 1917 he went to the Admiralty as Director of Plans, where he was concerned about the apparent ease with which German U-boats penetrated the supposedly impassable Dover mine barrage. WEMYSS, the new 1SL, appointed him to command at Dover, to put his plans into operation. The result was the two raids on Zeebrugge and Ostende (see CARPENTER), intended to bottle the U-boats up in their pens. Neither achieved their aim, but they raised national morale at a time when things looked very black on the Western Front. In the post-war years, he commanded the Battle Cruiser Fleet, was DCNS, and then became C-in-C Mediterranean. He hoped to become 1SL, but MADDEN believed (almost certainly rightly) that Keyes would have been a political liability at a time of financial economy: so he completed his career as C-in-C Portsmouth, 1929–31. In retirement he became an MP, supporting Churchill in his ‘wilderness years’. He also was a powerful voice in Parliament for the return of control of the Fleet Air Arm to the Admiralty. In 1940, after Churchill became Prime Minister, Keyes was made Head of Combined Operations, but his personality and seniority did not make for good relations with the other chiefs of staff. Keyes was eased out in favour of MOUNTBATTEN, a move which he resented. In 1944 he was sent to the USA on a lecture tour to explain Britain’s part in the war to Americans and Canadians. The USN invited him to sea, and he was present on board the USS Appalachian during the invasion of Leyte. During the action, he inhaled smoke which affected his lungs, and contributed to his death in December 1945.

Kidd, Isaac C., Jr (1919–99) US: Admiral. He played significant roles in major naval events including WW2 and the Korean, Vietnam and Cold wars. He was a member of staff for two CNOs and was cited for his performance in the aftermath of the sinking of the submarine USS Thresher; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Tonkin Gulf incidents at the beginning of the Vietnam War; the Dominican Republic Crisis; and the major USN reorganization of the 1960s. Kidd graduated from the USNA in 1941, and twenty-three of his forty years of service were served at sea, including duty in destroyers and cruisers. He commanded the destroyer-minesweeper USS Ellyson, 1952–53, the destroyer USS Barry, 1956–58, a destroyer division and two different destroyer squadrons, 1961–62. After senior staff assignments he advanced to Rear Admiral in 1965. He commanded Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla Twelve, 1968–69, and after advancement to Vice Admiral, the First Fleet, 1969– 70 and Sixth Fleet, 1970–71. In 1971 he advanced to Admiral and became Chief of Naval Materiel, serving as the USN’s top procurement officer. In 1975 he was named NATO


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Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic and US Commander in Chief Atlantic. He retired from active duty in 1978.

Kimmel, Husband E. (1882–1968) US: Admiral. He was C-in-C Pacific Fleet at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. He was blamed by many for that fleet’s lack of preparedness before the attack. On 17 December Vice Admiral W.S.Pye relieved him, and quickly Pye was replaced in turn by Admiral NIMITZ. Others pointed out that Kimmel had received no information that would be cause for him to alter his fleet’s normal training schedule, and that he was a scapegoat for the politicians who actually were responsible for the Pearl Harbor disaster. He graduated from the USNA in 1904, and the early emphasis of his career was in naval ordnance and gunnery. His assignments included duty as commander of two Pacific Fleet destroyer divisions, aide to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin ROOSEVELT in 1915, commanding officer of the battleship USS New York, 1933–34, and commander of Cruisers Battle Force and Cruiser Division Nine, 1939–41. In November 1937 he was promoted to Rear Admiral, and in July 1938 he was named Commander Cruiser Division Seven. In February 1941 he was jumped over forty-six senior officers and appointed Cin-C US Fleet and Pacific Fleet, with the rank of Admiral. He retired from active duty in March 1942 as a Rear Admiral, and fought to clear his name through a series on inquiries lasting until 1946. His book, Admiral Kimmel’s Story, published in 1955, defended his performance of duty leading up to the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack. The Congress posthumously restored him to his wartime rank of Admiral in 2000.

King, Ernest J. (1878–1956) US: Fleet Admiral. He was the five-star Commander US Fleet and CNO during WW2. He was considered a tough, no-nonsense leader and was the senior architect of US naval strategy following the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941. King was the principal naval advisor to President Franklin ROOSEVELT and played a prominent role on the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Allies’ two-ocean war against the Axis powers. He was a member of the USNA class of 1901, and his early career involved a wide variety of assignments, including sea duty in the Caribbean, Atlantic and Mediterranean. As a Captain in 1922 he qualified as a submarine officer and commanded Submarine Group Two, 1922–23, and the Submarine Base-Submarines and Mine Depot, at New London, Connecticut, 1923–26. Subsequently he commanded the aircraft tender USS Wright and was senior aide to Commander Aircraft Squadrons Scouting Fleet, 1926–27.


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King was designated a naval aviator in May 1927, at the age of forty-eight, and served in aviation assignments, including command of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, until attending the senior course at the US Naval War College, 1932–33. He advanced to Rear Admiral in April 1933 and Vice Admiral in January 1938. In February 1941 he became C-in-C Atlantic Fleet and advanced to Admiral. He was appointed C-in-C United States Fleet and CNO in March 1942 and advanced to five-star rank in December 1944. He retired from active duty in December 1945, and in 1952 he published his memoirs, Fleet Admiral King.

King, Phillip (1791–1856) British/Australian: Rear-Admiral (retired). He was the first native-born Australian to reach flag rank in the RN or RAN. He was also a noted hydrographer, who surveyed in detail much of the coast of the Australian continent, particularly the northwest, carrying on where FLINDERS (a friend of his family) had left off. He joined the RN in 1807; 1814, Lieutenant; 1821, Commander; 1830, Captain; 1855, Rear-Admiral (retired). He served in the North Sea and the Mediterranean as a junior officer during the last years of the war with France, but it seems that he was recommended by Flinders to the then Hydrographer for training. In 1817 he returned to Australia, and carried out four voyages of survey and exploration, 1817–21. In 1826 he sailed from Britain in command of the Adventure 10, in company with the Beagle, 10, for surveys in Patgonia. The last half of the survey was done with FITZROY, who had taken command of the Beagle when her captain committed suicide. The remainder of his life was spent as a pastoralist in New South Wales, though he maintained an interest in surveying, both on land and at sea.

Kinkaid, Thomas C. (1888–1972) US: Admiral. He led major naval forces in the Pacific during WW2. In the battle of Leyte Gulf, as Commander, Allied Naval Forces South Pacific and the Seventh Fleet, he deployed surface ships that destroyed a Japanese force attempting to pass through Surigao Strait in November 1944. Also during the Leyte Gulf actions a small element of Kinkaid’s fleet was able to turn back a powerful Japanese force in the battle off Samar. In that action a group of six small escort aircraft carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts commanded by Rear Admiral Clifton SPRAGUE turned back a Japanese force of four battleships, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and eleven destroyers. Kinkaid was a member of the USNA class of 1908. Following early assignments at sea and ashore, which included an assignment with the British Admiralty, 1917–18, he


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commanded the destroyer USS Isherwood, 1924–25. Following staff and US Naval War College assignments he commanded the cruiser USS Indianapolis, 1937–38. After diplomatic assignments in Rome and Belgrade, 1939–41, he commanded Destroyer Squadron Eight, conducting convoy escort duty in the Atlantic in 1941. In November 1941 he was advanced to Rear Admiral and commanded Cruiser Division Six in the Pacific. In that and subsequent assignments he led US naval forces in actions including Rabaul, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands, the Aleutian Islands, New Guinea, and the Philippines. In June 1943 he advanced to Vice Admiral and in April 1943 was made Admiral. After commanding the US Eastern Sea Frontier and the Sixteenth Fleet, which was redesignated the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, he retired from active duty in May 1950.

Kirk, Alan G. (1888–1963) US: Admiral. He led US naval elements of the WW2 Normandy amphibious assault, which was under overall British naval command, in June 1944. His early career was focused on surface ships and gunnery, with relatively few shore assignments. He was commanding officer of the destroyer USS Schenk, 1931–32, and the cruiser USS Milwaukee, 1936–37. Following duty on senior fleet staffs, 1937–39, he became naval attaché in Britain in 1939. In November 1941 he was promoted to Rear Admiral while in command of Destroyer Squadron Seven. After further senior staff assignments he was appointed commander of Amphibious Force US Atlantic Fleet, and led Task Force 85 during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. After D-Day he had senior assignments in the European thea-tre and was promoted to Vice Admiral in July 1945. After serving on the Navy’s General Board, he retired from active duty as a full Admiral in March 1946. He was US Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, 1946–47, the Soviet Union, 1949–52, and Nationalist China, 1962–63.

Knowles, Charles (1704?–77) British, Admiral Sir Charles Knowles, Bt. His contemporaries referred to him as the ‘second father of the Russian Navy’. He went to sea in 1718; 1730, Lieutenant (he had spent time ashore as well, getting a technical education far beyond the norm for the period); 1732, Commander; 1737, Captain; 1747, Rear-Admiral; 1755, Vice-Admiral; 1758, Admiral.


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He took part in VERNON’S capture of Porto Bello, being given the job of destroying the fortifications, which he did very effectively. He took part in several other actions in the West Indies, acting as the fleet’s engineer and surveyor, being particularly adept at blowing up castles. In 1747 Knowles became C-in-C at Jamaica. His squadron fought an inconclusive engagement against the Spaniards, which had considerable repercussions since it occurred after the peace had been signed (although the news had not reached the West Indies). The Spanish Government sued him for £32,000, which he had to pay himself (in present money, say £32 million). The action also resulted in courts-martial on the admiral and four of his captains. Knowles was reprimanded, as were two of the captains, and a series of duels resulted, with one captain being killed. Knowles went on to be Governor of Jamaica, but managed to antagonize the established residents, and resigned in 1756. He was second-in-command to HAWKE in the abortive expedition against Rochefort in 1758. The public outcry afterwards provoked Knowles into a published justification, which was attacked intemperately by the Scottish novelist Tobias Smollett (who had served with him fifteen years before), and this led to Smollett’s conviction for libel. Although promoted to Admiral in 1758, Knowles was never again employed by the Admiralty, and in 1771 he entered the service of Catherine the Great of Russia. After successfully building up a flotilla in Moldavia which defeated the Turks, he returned to improving the dockyard at Kronstadt, and to re-organizing the Russian fleet. He installed a steam engine (built in Scotland) to empty the dry dock, some twenty years before this was first done in Britain. He seems to have been a prickly character, filled with a sense of self-importance justified perhaps by his technical ability, though less so by his power of command.

Knox, Henry (1750–1806) US: Continental and US Secretary of War. He was responsible for naval affairs until a secretary of the navy was appointed for the new nation in 1798. In March 1794 President WASHINGTON signed a congressional act authorizing ‘a Naval Armament’. The law authorized four 44-gun and two 36-gun frigates. Knox was responsible for the design and construction of the ships. Based on the designs of Joshua HUMPHREYS, he began construction of frigates that exceeded the intent of the Congress and his country’s maritime industrial base. However, he established the design and construction standards that led to the powerful frigates that characterized the USN in the War of 1812 and beyond. Before becoming Secretary of War, he rose to the rank of Major General and fought in many major battles of the American Revolution.


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Knox, William F. (‘Frank’) (1874–1944) US: Secretary of the Navy. He served as civilian head of the Navy prior to and during WW2. During his tenure as Secretary of the Navy he led the unprecedented US naval build-up that produced the 1,000-ship-plus Navy, a crucial element of the Allied victories over Germany and Japan in May and August 1945. A Republican, he was appointed Secretary of the Navy in an effort to achieve bipartisan political unity by Democratic President Franklin ROOSEVELT. He served in that position from 1940 to 1944, providing the astute political and organizational leadership of the global naval force that led to the Allied victory over the Axis powers. Knox served in the ‘Rough Riders’ cavalry unit of President-to-be Theodore ROOSEVELT during the Spanish-American War and as an Army artillery officer in France during WW1. He was the owner of several newspapers, and in 1930 he became the publisher of the Chicago Daily News. Knox was the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in that party’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1936. He was known as a strong administrator who left professional naval matters to the service’s uniformed leadership. The destroyer USS Frank Knox was named in his honour.

Koga, Mineichi (1885–1944) Japanese: Tai-sho (Admiral) (Admiral of the Fleet [posthumously]). He succeeded YAMAMOTO as C-in-C of the Combined Fleet, when the latter was killed in action. He tried to restore Japanese naval and air power which had been badly damaged in 1942–43, but was unable to match the brute naval force that the Americans were able to bring to bear. He entered the navy in 1906; 1912, Tai-I; 1922, Chu-sa; 1927, Tai-sa; 1932, Sho-sho; 1936, Chu-sho; 1942, Tai-sho. In 1914 he was present at the taking of Tsingtao, the German base in north China. He then qualified as a gunnery specialist, and in 1920 went to France for two years. He returned there as naval attaché, 1926–28. He was Executive Officer of the cruiser Kitakami, 1922–23, and commanded the cruiser Aoba and battleship Ise, each for one year. His first flag appointments were on the naval general staff, 1932–35. There followed two sea commands, and then he became vice-chief of the naval general staff. From 1939 to 1942 he held sea command again, without any serious sea-fighting. As C-in-C of the Combined Fleet, he does not appear to have tried to counter the American submarine campaign which was strangling Japan, but concentrated on trying to engineer a climactic sea battle. He was unable to counter the steady advance of the US forces, and in moving the fleet base from Palau, under American assault, his aircraft disappeared, and his body was never found.


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Kolchak, Alexander (1873–1920) Russian: Vitse-Admiral. He was an Arctic explorer, and a rising star in the tsarist navy. He had moderate success in the Baltic, 1914–16, and better success in the Black Sea, 1916–17. He was briefly the head of a White Russian government in Siberia in 1919. He graduated from the Navy School in 1894; 1900, Leitenant; 1906, Kapitan II ranga; 1914, Kapitan I ranga; 1916, Kontre-Admiral; 1916, Vitse-Admiral. His first polar expedition, under Baron Toll, was to the north coast of Siberia, 1900– 02. The baron did not return with the main party, and when he became overdue Kolchak was sent back to rescue him. Traces were found, but no more, and it had to be assumed that the party had perished. In 1904 Kolchak was ill in Port Arthur when it fell to the Japanese, and was then appointed to the newly formed General Staff, which he and a number of others had advocated, as part of a programme to rebuild the navy after the disasters of the Russo-Japanese war. In 1908, after the programme was stalled, he set off on another Arctic expedition, but was recalled when the programme was reactivated. At the start of WW1 Kolchak was Flag Captain for Operations in the Baltic Fleet, and was involved in minelaying operations. In 1916 he was C-in-C Black Sea Fleet, and achieved fair success, stopping the Turkish coal trade along the southern shores of the sea which provided Constantinople with fuel. When the Russian Revolution broke out in March 1917 Kolchak kept control of his fleet and still pursued the war, but by June the situation was impossible, and he resigned. He then visited Britain and the USA, and returned to Siberia via Shanghai. In Omsk he set up a Western Siberian government, partially supported by military forces from Britain and other European nations. But the Bolsheviks had too strong a hold, and his government collapsed, and he was captured and executed.

Kondo, Nobutake (1886–1953) Japanese: Tai-sho (Admiral). It was his aircraft which sank HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse (see PHILLIPS, TOM), and his fleet which was involved in the vital struggle for the island of Guadalcanal, 1942–43. He entered the IJN in 1907; 1913, Tai-I; 1923, Chu-sa; 1927, Tai-sa; 1933, Sho-sho; 1937, Chu-sho; 1943, Tai-sho. He qualified in gunnery in 1914, and served as Gunnery Officer of the old cruiser Akitsushima before being sent to Europe in 1920, where he spent two years in Germany as Japanese naval representative overseeing the provisions of the Versailles treaty. His first command was the new cruiser Kako in 1929, and later the battleship Kongo. (As remarked elsewhere, IJN officers had comparatively short times in command of any one ship - rarely more than twelve months.) His first flag appointments were to courses, as CoS, and on the Imperial General HQ staff, but in 1938 he took command of the Fifth Fleet, and in 1941 of the Second Fleet,


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operating in the South China Sea. After the sinking of the British capital ships, his force played a prominent part in the six-month long campaign round Guadalcanal, in the So lomon Islands, in which the US halted the tide of Japanese expansion. The naval highpoints were a series of battles: the Eastern Solomons, when Kondo lost a light aircraft carrier but the USS Enterprise was badly damaged; then the battle of Santa Cruz, a tactical victory for Kondo, with KINKAID’S USS Hornet sunk and USS Enterprise severely damaged, though Kondo’s carriers were damaged; and the naval battle of Guadalcanal, a three-day series of engagements in which the Japanese lost two battleships, after which Kondo withdrew his forces, leaving only TANAKA to carry on the sea-fight. His last appointment was in command of the China Seas Fleet, 1943–45.

Kretschmer, Otto (1912–98) German: Flotillenadmiral, holder of the Knight’s Cross, with oak leaves and swords. He was one of the most successful U-boat commanders until his capture in 1941. He sank a total of forty-seven ships (274,333 tons) and damaged five more. He entered the DKM in 1930; 1934, Leutnant zur See; 1939, Kapitanleutnant; 1941, Korvettenkapitan; 1944 Fregatten-kapitän. After returning from captivity in 1947 he left the navy but rejoined in 1955. After initial training he joined the U-boat arm in 1936 and took command of U-35 for a patrol in Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War. In September 1937 he took command of U-23 and carried out eight patrols in her from September 1939 to April 1940, winning two Iron Crosses, the second for sinking the British destroyer Daring. In April 1940 he took command of U-99 and entered the battle of the Atlantic, where he enhanced his reputation, being successively awarded three higher grades of the Iron Cross. He specialized in the night attack, on the surface, against ships in convoy (a trimmed-down submarine was virtually invisible, and the escorts then had no radar), making a point of sinking his targets with just one torpedo. In November/December 1940 he sank three armed merchant cruisers of the Northern Patrol. His eighth patrol in U-99 was his last. In early March 1941 he had taken part, with PRIEN, in the attack on convoy OB293, and had been repulsed by the escort. Nine days later he attacked a homeward-bound convoy, and on completion, with no torpedoes remaining, was evading astern of the convoy, when he was caught by the destroyer Walker, and depth-charged to the surface. Only three men were lost, and Kretschmer spent the rest of the war in a Canadian PoW camp. When he rejoined the Bundesmarine in 1955 he commanded the First Escort Squadron, and then the Amphibious Squadron. He also held a number of NATO staff appointments, before retiring with the rank of Flotillenadmiral.


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Kummetz, Oskar (1891–1980) German: General admiral. He commanded the German striking force which was intended to destroy British convoy JW51B off north Russia in December 1942, but was outfought by SHERBROOKE and BURNETT. The result was that Hitler ordered the German surface fleet to be scrapped. This did not happen, but it took no further part in WW2, and RAEDER resigned. Kummetz entered the KM in 1910; 1936, Kapitän zur See; 1940, Konteradmiral; 1942, Vizeadmiral; 1943, Admiral; 1944, Generaladmiral. During WW1 he served as Oberleutnant zur See in the battleship Posen, and commanded the torpedo boat G.10. He specialized in torpedoes, and was type commander of torpedo boats, 1934–37, and CoS of the Baltic Division of the Fleet, and then of the Fleet, 1937–39. In 1940 he commanded the battlegroup tasked with capturing Oslo, and the Norwegian royal family, but his flagship Blucher was sunk, and he had to swim ashore, though overall the operation succeeded. In 1942 he took command of the battle cruiser group based in northern Norway. At the end of 1942, with the situation round Stalingrad serious, the Germans needed to hinder the flow of supplies to Russia, and Kummetz’s group was ordered to mount an operation, but the orders were qualified ‘caution to be exercised, even against enemies of equal strength’, and ‘undesirable for the capital ships to take any great risks’. The German plan was admirable, and ought to have succeeded, but was not pressed home in the face of Sherbrooke’s determined resistance. Despite this debacle, and the ensuing row at Hitler’s headquarters, Kummetz remained in command, was subsequently promoted, and held the Baltic command from 1944 to the war’s end.

Kurita, Takeo (1889–1977) Japanese: Chu-sho (Vice-Admiral). He commanded the 1st Striking Force at the battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, and allowed the strikes by the aircraft from Clifton SPRAGUE’S escort carriers to divert him from his target, the unprotected assault craft off the beaches of Leyte. Kurita entered the IJN in 1909; 1916, Tai-I; 1927, Chu-sa; 1932, Tai-sa; 1938, Shosho; 1942, Chu-sho. In 1918 he qualified in torpedo, and during the 1920s alternated postings to the torpedo school with destroyer commands (he spent four and a half years in command of destroyers, and a further four years commanding destroyer flotillas). He also commanded the battleship Kongo, 1937–38. He took part in the invasion of the East Indies, 1941–42, commanding the 7th Cruiser Squadron, and in June 1942 at the battle of Midway in close support to the aircraft carrier force, his force suffered heavily, losing the cruiser Mikuma. In August 1943 he took


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command of the Second Fleet, and carried out operations against Guadalcanal and participated in the Central Solomons campaign and the battle of Philippine Sea. In the series of actions which made up the battle of Leyte Gulf, on 24–25 October 1944, he led the main Japanese strike force in the battle of the Sibuyan Sea and the battle off Samar. His force included the world’s two biggest battleships, Yamato and Musashi. They were detected as they approached, heavily attacked by aircraft from HALSEY’S Third Fleet and Musashi was sunk. But Halsey fell for the Japanese decoy plan, and left the landing area to pursue Ozawa’s force. The landing area was left wide open, but the attacks by Clifton SPRAGUE’S aircraft were so aggressive that Kurita assumed that he faced the whole US fleet, and withdrew. His decision was probably influenced by the total American air superiority.

Kuznetsov, Nikolay (1904–74) Russian: Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. Like many senior officers in the Soviet armed forces, his career see-sawed with political changes. He was C-in-C of the Navy, 1939–45, and as such attended the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Kuznetsov joined the navy as a Seaman in 1919 and qualified as an officer in 1926. By 1934 he was a Captain, commanding the cruiser Tchervonaya-Ukraïna. He went as naval attaché to Spain, 1936–37, and became the senior naval advisor to the Spanish Republican navy: he also organized the distribution of Soviet merchant shipping bringing aid to the Republicans. He then became C-in-C Pacific Fleet, 1938–39, and C-in-C of the Navy throughout WW2. In 1946–7, he was Minister of the Navy as well as C-in-C. Kuznetsov was an advocate of building a large surface fleet, but the war prevented this ever being carried out, nor was the capability and funding available after the war. In 1948 there occurred the ‘Purge of the Admirals’, and he was demoted to Vitse-Admiral, and sent back to be C-inC Pacific Fleet again. In 1951 he again became Minister of the Navy, and (1953–56) was also First Deputy Minister of Defence, and was promoted to Admiral Flota in 1955. In 1956 he was replaced by GORSHKOV, and once more demoted to Vitse-Admiral. In 1988 he was posthumously rehabilitated and his rank as Admiral Flota restored.


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L La Bourdonnais, Bertrand de (1699–1752) French: capitaine de frégate. More of a mercantile administrator than a naval officer, he held rank in the French navy, and seriously discommoded the British in the struggle for India during the War of the Austrian Succession. He went to sea at the age of nine. At eighteen he became a lieutenant in the Compagnie des Indes’ service (the French East India Company); by 1723 he was promoted capitaine, and, based on Pondichery, attacked and took Mahe, the capital of the Seychelles, for which operation he designed a primitive landing-craft. After several successful trading ventures he returned to France in 1733, served Portugal briefly, and then in 1734 was made Governor-General of the îles de France and de Bourbon (now Mauritius and Reunion). In Mauritius he created a base, sitting astride the trade routes to India and the Far East, from which French warships and privateers were able to harry the British to such effect that when the British finally did capture the island in 1810, there was no thought of returning it to France in the post-war settlement. In 1740 he was given a naval commission and ordered to assist Dupleix in India. With five makeshift warships he relieved Mahé and then occupied the rest of the Seychelles and the island of Rodriguez. In 1746, in the Achille, 70, with seven armed merchantmen, he held off the ineffectual efforts of Commodore Peyton who had a superior force of one 60-gun, three 50-gun and two other vessels, and took Madras, one of Britain’s main bases in India. He fell out with Dupleix, went back to Mauritius, took a convoy to Martinique, and was captured by the British. On his return to France he was put in the Bastille as a result of charges brought by Dupleix, but was exonerated. He died shortly afterwards.

Lacaze, Marie-Jean (1860–1955) French: vice-amiral. In the years immediately before WW1 he planned Anglo-French cooperation, and pushed hard for new construction and equipment for the fleet.


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He joined the navy via the école navale in 1877; 1882, enseigne de vaisseau; 1886, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1899, capitaine de frégate; 1906, capitaine de vaisseau; 1911, contre-amiral; 1917, vice-amiral. He won a life-saving medal in 1879, and commanded a naval brigade ashore in Madagascar in 1884. He qualified in torpedo in 1887, and commanded a torpedo boat at Cherbourg and later a sloop in Senegal. In 1894 he was sent to Fiume to learn the workings of the WHITEHEAD torpedo, and in 1898 he had two appointments as assistant to the Navy Minister, and to the chef d’état-major (CNS). His first major command was the cruiser Chasseloup-Laubat in 1899. In 1902 he was CoS to amiral Ponty, and was largely responsible for the construction of the naval base at Bizerta. Another cruiser command, the Du Chayla, and an appointment as delegate to the naval conference at The Hague were followed by another CoS post in the Mediterranean and command of the battleship Massena. In 1911 he became naval assistant to Delcasse, the Navy Minister. In 1915 Lacaze himself became Navy Minister, and being a man of drive gave some impetus to the conduct of the French naval war, in particular the antisubmarine battle. He saw to the arming of merchantmen, instituted convoys, inaugurated an embryo interallied command structure and restarted new construction halted in 1914, ordering ships from Japan and Britain as well as France. He also pressed for the development of naval aviation, and created a publicity organization to let the French people know that they had an active navy. But his efforts were hindered by weak governments and he resigned in 1917, not being prepared to put up with the attacks of the extreme left. He became naval commander at Toulon, where he oversaw the creation of an American base. He retired from active service in 1922, but continued to serve many institutions, in particular the Naval Institute, of which he became Permanent Secretary in 1932.

La Galissonnière, Roland (1693–1756) French: lieutenant-général, le marquis de la Galissonnière. He was the admiral whose action against John BYNG in 1756, although indecisive tactically, ensured that Minorca fell to the French. He entered the navy in 1710; 1712, enseigne de vaisseau; 1727, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1738, capitaine de vaisseau; 1755, lieutenant-général. Most of his early career was passed in a time of comparative peace in Europe, but in 1745 he was in command of the Gloire, 40, one of Roquefeuil’s squadron which landed the Stuart pretender, Prince Charles Edward, in Scotland. In 1747 he became Governor of Canada, and made determined efforts to develop the economy and to encourage settlement. He returned to France in 1749. His next naval appointment was as Director of the central Chart Depot, where he was able to organize a number of expeditions to make astronomic observations.


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After a two-year appointment to the Sage, in command of the training squadron, he was given command of the squadron at Toulon and sent to escort the troops which were to capture Port Mahon and the island of Minorca. The landings were safely made, though La Galissonniere allowed five British ships to slip through his fingers. But the battle a month later with Byng’s squadron, an engagement in which neither side seemed to try very hard, was sufficient to ensure that Minorca stayed in French hands for the rest of the war.

La Jonquiere, Pierre-Jacques de (1685– 1752) French: chef d’escadre. He was an experienced captain in Louis XV’s navy, who had the misfortune to fall in with ANSON’S superior squadron in May 1747 off Cape Finisterre, while commanding an escort and convoy bound for Canada. He put up a spirited defence, and though defeated and made a prisoner, his convoy escaped. He went to sea in 1697, in the coastguard, serving in the Mediterranean; 1703, enseigne de vaisseau; 1720, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1731, capitaine de vaisseau; 1746, chef d’escadre. He commanded a number of small ships during the War of the Spanish Succession, and was present at the siege of Barcelona in 1706. In 1710 he voyaged to Spitzbergen: a year later he was with DUGUAY-TROUIN at Rio. From 1720 to 1730, commanding first the Thétis and then the Vénus, he spent time in the West Indies, suppressing piracy. During the War of the Austrian Succession, he commanded the Terrible, 74, as Flag Captain to Admiral de Court in the action off Toulon in February 1744, which led to Admiral MATHEWS being cashiered. In 1746 he commanded the Northumberland, 70, which had been taken from the British in an action in 1744, in an expedition led by the Duc d’Anville to recapture Louisbourg. After d’Anville’s death and the suicide of his successor, Tournel, the command devolved on La Jonquiere: but the troops had been decimated by smallpox and scurvy, and he had no option but to return to France. Next year he was appointed Governor of Quebec, and, now a commodore commanding the Sérieux, 74, took the escort and convoy carrying troops and stores to resupply the colony. His force was intercepted by Anson, and in a running fight the French squadron was routed, with twelve out of its fourteen ships being taken. La Jonquiere was wounded and captured, but released the next year when peace was made.


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La Motte-Picquet, Toussaint (1720–91) French: lieutenant-général. In a career spanning fifty-two years of service, he took part in thirtyfour expeditions, and was wounded six times. To have survived the last in the eighteenth century was quite an achievement. His one marked success came in 1781 when, with a strong squadron, he caught a homeward-bound British convoy, which was carrying RODNEY’S spoils from the taking of St Eustatius, and captured twenty-two of the thirty ships convoyed, although the light escort got away. Thus the riches of a Dutch island fell into their French allies’ hands: it may be doubted that the Dutch got much back. He entered the navy in 1735; 1757, lieutenant de vaisseau in 1757; 1764, capitaine de vaisseau; 1778, chef d’escadre; 1782, lieutenant-général. In his first twenty-two years of service he served in all the theatres of war, without taking part in any major engagement. In 1764, in the Malicieuse, 32, he led a campaign against those perpetual thorns in European merchants’ sides, the Sallee pirates. In 1776 he acted as advisor to the Navy minister, Sartine, in reorganizing naval administration. He was present at the battle of Ushant (1778), commanding the Saint-Esprit, 80. Following the battle he cruised off the British coast, taking thirteen prizes in one month. Back in the West Indies in 1779, he took part in ÉSTAING’S actions off Grenada and at Savannah, and then in a smart action off Martinique with Hyde PARKER, saved half of an important convoy from falling into British hands. After promotion in 1782 his last actions were at the siege of Gibraltar, and an engagement with HOWE off Cape Spartel.

Langsdorff, Hans (1894–1939) German: Kapitan zur See. Langsdorff was the captain of the Panzerschiff (‘pocket-battleship’) Graf Spee, scuttled after an encounter with HARWOOD’S cruiser squadron at the battle of the River Plate in December 1939. He entered the KM in 1912; 1915, Leutnant zur See; 1922, KapitänLeutnant; 1930, Korvetten-Kapitän; 1935, Fregatten-Kapitän; 1937, Kapitän zur See. During WW1 Langsdorff was present at the battle of Jutland in the battleship Grosser Kurfürst, winning the Iron Cross. Thereafter he served in minesweepers. From 1927 to 1930 he commanded a squadron of torpedo boats in the Baltic. From 1931 to 1934 he was in an administrative position in the Ministry of Defence. Returning to the mainstream navy, Langsdorff was CoS to Admiral Boehme, in the Graf Spee, in Spanish waters, 1936–37. He took command of Graf Spee in 1938, and in August 1939, in anticipation of the war, was sent out into the Atlantic, ready to raid British merchant shipping.


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At the outbreak of WW2 he carried out a successful series of raids on shipping in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean, sinking nine merchant ships and taking their captains prisoner (the crews were allowed to take to their boats). Commodore Harwood, anticipating that Langsdorff would head for the shipping concentration point off the River Plate, positioned his squadron and duly intercepted Graf Spee. Langsdorff believed that the smoke and masts he saw were a convoy of merchantmen, and closed to attack (his orders forbade him to engage warships). In gunnery terms, Langsdorff’s ship should have been a match for the British squadron, and indeed so severely damaged the Exeter that she had to withdraw. But Graf Spee had also been damaged, and withdrew to neutral Montevideo, where, by stretching international law, she was given seventy-two hours to effect repairs. After that period, and believing that he would face a much superior force on putting to sea, Langsdorff determined to scuttle his ship: which he did, in international waters off Montevideo. He then committed suicide ashore.

Lapérouse, Jean, comte de (1741–88) French: chef d’escadre. He was both a successful fighting captain and an intrepid explorer. Quite by coincidence, he arrived off Botany Bay only five days after PHILLIP and the First Fleet had arrived, but colonization was not his purpose, and after refitting he sailed off, and was lost shortly afterwards. He entered the navy in 1756; 1764, ensigne de vaisseau; 1777, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1780, capitaine de vaisseau; 1786, chef d’escadre. He was in the Formidable, 80, at the battle of Les Cardinaux (Quiberon Bay), where he was wounded and captured, but quickly released. After taking part in Ternay’s expedition against the British fisheries off Newfoundland, in 1771 he went out to the Indian Ocean. There he commanded the sloop Seine, in which he made a comprehensive cruise, fighting a Mahratta squadron off Bombay (Mumbai), and taking part in the defence of Mahe. After returning to France he submitted a report to the minister setting out a policy to be followed in the East Indies, which foreshadowed that pursued by SUFFREN four years later. Commanding the Amazone, 26, he was present in the West Indies in 1779 and captured the British Ariel, 20, and a privateer. In 1780 he moved up to the Astree, 32, and fought a successful action against a British convoy off Cape Breton. He then commanded the Sceptre, 74, and led a destructive expedition against the British trading settlements in Hudson’s Bay (helped by the total ineptitude of the British governors). He showed great humanity in leaving the garrisons with sufficient weapons and food to ensure their survival. He was then chosen by the king to lead a great expedition to the Pacific. He left France in 1785 commanding the Boussole, with the Astrolabe, and reached the Pacific by doubling Cape Horn. Thence he visited Chile, Easter Island, Hawaii and Alaska, and


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retraced his steps south to Monterey. He crossed the Pacific to Macao, and then became the first European to enter the Sea of Japan, leaving it via the strait which now bears his name between Sakhalin and Hokkaido. He reached Kamchatka, and then turned south, via Samoa, to reach Botany Bay. Thence he sailed northeast to reach New Caledonia, but his ships were both wrecked, with no survivors, in a cyclone. The wreck of the Astrolabe was only discovered in 1826, and the Boussole not until 1964.

Latouche-Tréville, Louis, comte de (1745– 1804) French: vice-amiral. He was a successful captain and admiral, who, while preparing the invasion flotillas at Boulogne in 1801, repulsed NELSON. He would have commanded the combined fleet at Trafalgar, but died on board the Bucentaure in 1804. He entered the navy in 1758; 1768, enseigne de vaisseau; he then became a member of the King’s Musketeers, and in 1769 was a cavalry captain, reverting to naval service in 1772; 1774, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1780, capitaine de vaisseau; 1793, contre-amiral; 1803, vice-amiral. He served in his father’s ship, the Dragon, at the battle of Quiberon Bay (1759), and then, in the 1760s, served in a succession of ships in the Mediterranean and West Indies. In 1780 he took command of the Hermione, 32, and was present at two engagements with the British. He later commanded the Aigle, 40, which, with the Gloire, 32, engaged and so damaged the Hector, a French 74 taken at the Saintes, that she later sank. One week later the tables were turned and Latouche-Treville surrendered his ship to KEITH in the Delaware River, becoming a PoW. He served the new republic at sea in 1793, but was imprisoned, and then released: however, his political past kept him out of employment until Napoleon came to power. He commanded at Brest, then at Boulogne, where he prevented all Nelson’s attempts to strike at the invasion flotillas being prepared. In 1803 he executed a successful operation in Santo Domingo, and then was appointed C-in-C of the Mediterranean Squadron, where he initiated a training programme designed to restore readiness and morale. But he died in August 1804, to be succeeded by VILLENEUVE.

Laughton, John (1830–1915) British: Professor Sir John Laughton. He was the first man to make a serious study of naval history, and to teach its application to strategic studies. He was slightly older than


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MAHAN and CORBETT, the two other great naval thinkers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He graduated in mathematics from Cambridge, and in 1853 entered the RN as an Instructor, whose job was primarily to teach the junior officers. He served in the Crimean War, 1854–56, and in the Second China War, 1856–58. In 1866 he was appointed to the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, where he contributed textbooks on oceanography and hydrographic surveying. In 1873 he moved, with the college, to Greenwich, where he became known to wider academic circles, with his seminal lecture to the RUSI, ‘The scientific study of naval history’ (1874). In 1885 he became Professor of Modern History at Kings College, London, holding the chair until 1912. He and Mahan corresponded frequently, working as equals, Mahan acknowledging Laughton as the pre-eminent historian, while Laughton considered Mahan to be without peer as the strategic thinker. In 1893 he was instrumental in forming the Navy Records Society, becoming its secretary and a major contributor to its publications. He was the mentor of most, if not all, of the thinking Victorian admirals, such as Colomb, Bridge and HORNBY. His strength was that he had practical experience of the sea and of sea warfare: and he brought the analytical, logical mind of a mathematician to the study of history.

Lawrence, James (1781–1813) US: Captain. He was one of the US naval heroes of the War of 1812. As captain of the brig USS Hornet, 20, in 1813, he defeated the British brig Peacock, 18, off the coast of British Guiana. As a result of that victory he was promoted to Captain and named to command the USS Chesapeake, 44. In June 1813 he rashly accepted the challenge of Captain Philip BROKE of HMS Shannon, 38. Although outgunning his adversary, Lawrence and his untrained crew were badly overmatched against their well drilled and experienced opponents. The battle lasted only fifteen minutes; Chesapeake was captured and Lawrence was fatally wounded. As he was carried below he spoke the phrase that became an inspirational rallying cry for the US Navy: ‘Don’t give up the ship’. Lawrence entered the Navy as a Mid-shipman in 1798 and as a Lieutenant in February 1804 he distinguished himself during Captain Stephen DECATUR’S bold destruction of USS Philadelphia, which had been captured by Barbary pirates.

Leahy, William D. (1875–1959) US: Fleet Admiral. He advised two US presidents on crucial naval and diplomatic matters during WW2 and the Cold War.


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He was an 1897 graduate of the USNA, and his early career focused on surface ship duty. He was promoted to Captain in 1918 and commanded the cruiser USS St Louis, Mine Squadron One, and the battleship USS New Mexico. He advanced to Rear Admiral and became Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, 1927–31. Subsequent senior assignments included command of the destroyers in the Scouting Force, US Fleet, 1931–33 and Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, 1933–35. He advanced to Vice Admiral in 1935 and commanded Battleships Battle Force and in 1936 was named C-in-C Battle Force as a full Admiral. He was CNO, 1937–39, and retired from active duty at the mandatory retirement age of sixty-four. He was appointed Governor of Puerto Rico in September 1939 and Ambassador to Vichy France in November 1940. Leahy was recalled to active duty in July 1942 as President Franklin ROOSEVELT’S CoS. During WW2 he was chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the senior member of the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff. He was promoted to Fleet Admiral in December 1944. Leahy was a senior Cold War advisor to President Truman and resigned from active duty a second time in March 1949. In 1950 he published his wartime memoirs, I Was There.

Lee-Barber, John (1905–90) British: Rear-Admiral, CB, DSO% Polish Cross for Valour. He was one of the band of outstanding destroyer captains of WW2, commanding Griffin in home waters and the Mediterranean, 1939–42, and Opportune, 1942–44. He passed through Osborne and Dart-mouth, 1919–23; 1927, Lieutenant; 1941, Commander; 1947, Captain; 1957, Rear-Admiral. He became a professional destroyer man, serving in the Wessex (1927), Wakeful (1928) and Vimiera (1929); he was then First Lieutenant of the Yangtze river gunboat Falcon, 1932–33. He commanded the destroyers Witch (1937) and Ardent (1938). During the abortive Norwegian campaign (April 1940) Griffin captured the German trawler Polaris, with a wealth of cryptographic material invaluable to the intelligence authorities; she assisted in the evacuation of troops from Namsos (MiD for Lee-Barber), and within a month was involved in evacuating Polish troops from France (DSO). In the Mediterranean she assisted in sinking the Italian submarine Lafole (October 1940) and despite damage was involved at Matapan, and later the evacuation of the army from Crete (bar to DSO) (see CUNNINGHAM). Opportune was a Home Fleet destroyer, involved in the sinking of Scharnhorst in 1943 (MiD). After the war, Lee-Barber commanded St James and Agincourt, and the destroyer depot ship Woolwich. His final appointment was as Admiral Superintendent Malta, 1957–59 (CB 1959).


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Legge, George (1648–91) English: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Dartmouth. He had the misfortune to be personally loyal to James II (see YORK, DUKE OF), at the time of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ in 1688. He disapproved of the king’s actions, but having been given command of the fleet to prevent William of Orange’s fleet from landing the invasion force, his honour demanded that he make the effort, despite the majority of his captains being, if not actually in favour of William, extremely lukewarm in their support of James. Legge came of a well connected family, both in court circles and navally. He went to sea in 1665 with Sir Edward Spragge, his cousin, as his Lieutenant; 1667, Captain; 1683, Admiral; 1688, Admiral of the Fleet. He fought in the second and third Dutch wars, commanding the Fairfax, 52, under HOLMES in 1672, and the Royal Katharine, 84, under PRINCE RUPERT in 1673, at all three battles that summer. Between 1673 and 1683 he filled a number of posts in the military establishment, and became Lord Dartmouth in 1682. In 1683 he sailed as Admiral of the squadron sent to evacuate Tangier, which had been passed to England in 1661, but which was a drain on the state’s resources (the first example of ‘withdrawal from empire’). PEPYS was of the party, and recorded the events in a second diary. Dartmouth was well rewarded for his efficiency. In 1688, after James had antagonized the nation by his open support for Catholicism, and William was preparing to invade England, Dartmouth was given command of the fleet to prevent any Dutch ships approaching the British coast. His experience of handling a fleet in war conditions was small, and he relied heavily on the council of war, as was the custom. The captains who comprised it mostly supported William, and their counsel persuaded Dartmouth into action which was ‘too little, too late’. After William had landed, but before James’s flight and abdication, Dartmouth’s correspondence with James showed the confusion of his feelings. He took an oath of allegiance to the new King William, but was accused of treason on extremely flimsy evidence, and died in the Tower.

Lehman, John F. (1942–) US: Secretary of the Navy. He served as Secretary of the Navy, 1981–87, during the presidency of Ronald REAGAN. He led the rebuilding of the Navy towards a 600-ship force, a level considered by US naval leaders at the time to be the minimum force required to carry out the Navy’s missions. His relationships with many members of the Congress and many of the USN’s senior admirals often were contentious. The Navy never reached the 600-ship level and began a steady decline in numbers after the Reagan presidency. In addition to the important numerical expansion of the Navy during his tenure, there were important advances in the quality of the force. Among the most


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important was the addition of the Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruisers, with their quantum advances in missile and battle-management capabilities. Prior to being the Secretary of the Navy, Lehman served on the National Security Council and was Deputy Director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1975–77. After resigning as Navy Secretary he became an investment banker and author on the subject of military and naval strategy. His books include Command of the Seas (1988), Making War (1999), and On Seas of Glory (2001). Lehman was a US Naval Reserve aviator and retired with the rank of Captain. He graduated from St Joseph’s College with a BS in International Relations and earned degrees in law from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in international relations from University of Pennsylvania.

Lestock, Richard (1679?–1747) British: Admiral. He was second-in-command to MATHEWS at the battle of Toulon in 1744, and by his deliberate obtuseness turned an unsatisfactory action into a disgrace. He was courtmartialled and acquitted, equally disgracefully. He joined the Navy in the 1690s; 1701, Lieutenant; 1706, Captain; 1742, RearAdmiral; 1743, Vice-Admiral; 1746, Admiral. He served in SHOVELL’S flagship at the battle of Malaga (1704), and in 1706 took command of the Fowey, 32, but in her, in 1709, was captured after a creditable resistance against two 40-gun frigates. He was exchanged, and courtmartialled and honourably acquitted on his return. In 1718 he was George BYNG’S second captain (CoS) at the battle of Cape Passaro. He continued to have frequent employment, and in 1732 was appointed Commodore and C-in-C at Jamaica, but before he could properly take up his appointment he was recalled without reason given. Subsequently, junior officers were promoted over his head (at a time when seniority was all). However, he was appointed Commodore again in 1739, under VERNON in the West Indies. In 1742, Lestock was second-in-command in the Mediterranean, and when his admiral, Haddock, was invalided, Lestock assumed temporary command, hoping it would be made permanent. His chagrin, when told that Mathews had been made C-in-C, was considerable, nor did Mathews make any attempt to soothe his feelings. As a result, when, off Toulon in 1744, the British fleet met the Franco-Spanish fleet, Lestock deliberately obeyed Mathews’s admittedly confusing signals to the letter, and by keeping strictly to the line-of-battle, never engaged the enemy. He was acquitted at the subsequent court-martial, since, in the strictest of terms, he had obeyed orders punctiliously. In 1746 he was appointed to command an expedition to Quebec, which was diverted to Lorient, in Brittany. The expedition was a fiasco, but that was not Lestock’s fault—the fleet had played their part.


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Levy, Uriah P. (1792–1862) US: Commodore. He was a leader in navy discipline reforms. Levy, who was the first Jew to achieve flag rank in the USN, was among those who succeeded in eliminating flogging in the Navy. He also established an apprentice programme that significantly improved the professionalism of USN seamen. He began his career at sea at the age of ten, with a two-year apprenticeship in the merchant service, and entered the Navy in 1812 as a sailing master. He served in the storeship Alert and the sloop USS Argus, 18, but was captured in 1813 and remained in Dartmoor Prison until the end of 1814. From 1815 to 1816 he was assigned to the Philadelphia Naval Station and in 1816 he was assigned to the USS Franklin, 74, where he was promoted to Lieutenant in 1817. After a series of assignments at sea and a number of courts-martial, several of which were rooted in religious prejudice, he was promoted to Captain in 1844. An extended period of inactive naval service followed, during which he pursued a brief but successful business career in New York City. In 1858, at the age of sixty-six, he was returned to active service with command of USS Macedonian. In January 1860 he was advanced to Commodore and took command of the Mediterranean Squadron. In the latter part of 1861 he was assigned to court-martial duty in Washington DC; the assignment was ended prematurely with his death the following year.

Lewin, Terence (1920–99) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin of Greenwich, KG, GCB, LVO, DSC. At the culmination of a long and distinguished career in the Royal Navy, Lord Lewin was CDS at the time of the Falklands War in 1982. It was he who determined the Rules of Engagement under which the British forces operated, a significant factor while political efforts were still being made to broker a peace deal: and it was he who stiffened the backbone of the politicians when setbacks and serious casualties occurred. He also ensured that the views of the fighting man on the spot were taken into account when political decisions were being taken, something made possible for the first time by modern communications. He entered the Royal Navy in 1939; 1941, Lieutenant; 1952, Commander; 1958, Captain; 1969, Rear-Admiral; 1970, Vice-Admiral; 1973, Admiral; 1979, Admiral of the Fleet. He worked his way up from Sub-Lieutenant to First Lieutenant in HMS Ashanti, 1942–45; he took part in three Russian convoys (MiD), and Operation Pedestal to relieve Malta in August 1942. Later that year Ashanti was back on Russian convoy duties, and Lewin won the DSC for his part in the attempts to bring the damaged destroyer Somali home. He received two further MiDs for his part in actions in the English Channel approaches in 1944.


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After early promotion in 1952, he commanded HMS Corunna, and was Executive Officer of HMY Britannia (an appointment he tried to turn down, but was told ‘You Have Been Selected’). From 1958 to 1969 he held a series of MoD appointments, and sea commands as Captain of the Dartmouth Training Squadron, and the aircraft carrier Hermes. As a flag officer, he filled a succession of the Navy’s senior appointments: VCNS (1971), C-in-C Fleet (with its attendant NATO appointments as CinCHAN and CINCEASTLANT) (1973), C-in-C Naval Home Command (1975) and finally 1SL, 1977–79. As CDS he instituted a change in the terms of reference for that post so that CDS became the principal military advisor to the government, and not merely chairman of an inter-service committee. So the Falklands War became the first campaign fought by all the British services in which the government had coordinated professional advice from one person only, and any conflicting requirements of the different arms were resolved by a serviceman rather than a politician. He was created a baron, and a Knight of the Garter, the first person to receive the Garter for purely naval services since HOWE in 1797.

Leygues, Georges (1857–1933) French: Minister for the Navy. As Minister of the Navy for eight years, 1925–33, Leygues was responsible for re-creating an effective French navy in the inter-war years. Leygues was a lawyer by profession, but entered politics as a député in 1885. Thereafter he was rarely out of government office, being Minister for Education (twice), Minister for the Colonies, and Interior Minister, before becoming Minister for the Navy in 1917. While in office he concentrated on a building programme of light craft for antisubmarine warfare. In his second term of office for the navy, after an initial setback, he succeeded in getting through parliament successive annual building programmes, which saw nine cruisers, twenty-seven destroyers, fifty-five submarines, and other vessels added to the order of battle. As a result, the French navy in 1939 was without doubt the best prepared of their services for war. Leygues also re-organized the administrative structure, recruitment, and the conditions of service of the lower deck. He died in office, one of the best navy ministers that France has ever had.

Lincoln, Abraham (1809–65) US: sixteenth President (1861–65). He led the US Civil War transformation of a navy designed for commerce protection to the Union force focused on blockade and riverine warfare. One of Lincoln’s first appointments of the war was a retired navy captain, thirtynine year-old Gustavus Fox, who brought energy and forward thinking on such


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developments as the ironclad ship to the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon WELLES. With the team of Welles and Fox, Lincoln created a civilian naval leadership with both political and naval expertise. At the onset of war Lincoln declared a naval blockade of the Confederacy, a mission that proved to be an ongoing legal and operational challenge to the Union Navy. With the defeat of the Confederacy, Lincoln summed up the Union Navy’s contribution to the Union victory: ‘They have been present…. not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been’. Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, at the beginning of his second presidential term.

Lind, James (1716–94) British: physician and medical researcher. It was he who first carried out systematic research into the causes and means of prevention of scurvy. Scurvy was the scourge of sea-goers making long voyages until the end of the eighteenth century. When ANSON circumnavigated the globe, he lost 1,400 out of 2,000 men: of these, only four were lost to enemy action. Most of the rest succumbed to scurvy. Lind became a naval surgeon in 1739, and served throughout the War of Austrian Succession. At the end of the war he went ashore to gain a formal qualification in medicine, and in 1754 he published ‘A treatise on the scurvy’, the first ever written by a medical man who had had the opportunity to observe the disease, as it occurred. He discovered by experiment that citrus fruits, green stuffs and onions were effective as preventives and cures for the disease (the identification of vitamin C had to wait until the twentieth century): failing these, lemon juice was almost as effective. These facts had been discovered, empirically, long before, but the knowledge had never been scientifically analysed, nor published. Despite this, it was forty years before the Admiralty officially woke up to the fact that the health of the Navy would be immeasurably improved by the regular provision of fruit and greens, and arranged the provision of lemon juice. Ships could then stay longer at sea, and so the British could maintain more effective blockades throughout the Napoleonic Wars. The later provision of lime juice was due to the pressure of the West Indian planters, although limes were less effective than lemons. Lind became the physician at the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar in 1758 and remained there until his death. He also discovered that steam generated by salt water was fresh, so opening the way to the provision of distillers on board ships: and he published other useful publications on tropical medicine.


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Linois, Charles (1761–1848) contre-amiral (honorary vice-amiral) le comte Linois. He was an ardent supporter of Napoleon, which seems to have been the only reason for his continued employment, since he was, with one exception, largely unsuccessful at sea. Linois entered naval service as a volunteer in April 1776; 1789, lieutenant de port; 1795, capitaine de vaisseau; 1799, contre-amiral. In 1791, he joined the Atalante, 36, and spent a long commission in the Indian Ocean. Returning to Brest in March 1794, now commanding the Atalante, Linois was ordered by VILLARET DE JOYEUSE to scout ahead of the grain convoy which Van Stabel was escorting from the United States, and was chased by the Swiftsure, 74. After a creditable defence, he surrendered and became a prisoner. Freed in March 1795 and promoted, he commanded the Formidable, 80, in Villaret de Joyeuse’s squadron, but was wounded and captured at the engagement off the île de Groix (June 1795). In March 1796 he commanded the Nestor during the abortive Irish expedition. He became CoS to the Brest Division, and was promoted contre-amiral in 1799, serving with Bruix in the Mediterranean. As second-in-command of GANTEAUME’S squadron in the Formidable, he took part in the attack on Elba (May 1801) and then sailed with a small squadron for Cadiz. On the way, his ships captured the Speedy (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD). On 6 July 1801 he fought a British squadron under SAUMAREZ in Algeciras Bay, during which the British Hannibal, 74, ran aground and was taken. Another battle took place on 13 July in the same waters, but the FrancoSpanish suffered heavily, losing three line-of-battleships. Appointed naval force commander in the Indian Ocean in December 1803, he preyed on British trade in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, taking several prizes, but permitting a large convoy of East Indiamen to escape (see DANCE), and failing to press home an advantage at Vizagapatnam. (Napoleon’s comments were acerbic.) While returning to France he imprudently attacked WARREN’S squadron off Cape Verde and was wounded and taken prisoner. He was created an Imperial Count in October 1810, but only returned to France in April 1814, when he was appointed Governor of Guadeloupe. In June 1815 he declared for Napoleon, but had to surrender to the British and was arraigned before a French military tribunal for insubordination at the end of the Hundred Days. After acquittal in March 1816, he was allowed to retire. He was made an honorary vice-amiral in May 1825.


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Linton, John (1905–43) British: Commander John (Tubby’) Linton, VC, DSO, DSC. He was a most professional submarine commanding officer, whose VC was awarded posthumously after the loss of HMS Turbulent. He entered the RN via RNC Osborne and Dartmouth in 1918, being one of the last to go through Osborne before all training was transferred to Dartmouth; 1928, Lieutenant; 1941, Commander. He joined submarines in 1927, and except for two years, 1936–38, served in submarines continuously until his death, spending eight years in command (1933–36 and 1938–43). He served in the submarines L.22 and Oberon, then as First Lieutenant in H.43 and Oswald. After completing the submarine CO’s course (the ‘perisher’), he commanded L.21 and Snapper. At the outbreak of war he was commanding Pandora in the Far East. The ‘P’ class was unsuitable for operation in home waters or the Mediterranean, but ‘needs must’, and Pandora operated in the Mediterranean from mid-1940. His first sinking was the Vichy French sloop Rigault de Genouilly off Algiers, after the Oran action. By mid-1941, Linton had completed eleven patrols, and won the DSC for sinking two Italian supply ships in one attack. After promotion, he might have expected a staff appointment, but he chose to stay in command of his new boat, Turbulent. He was an aggressive commander, always seeking targets, and pressing home his attacks to close range. He sank 100,000 tons of enemy shipping, including the destroyer Pessagno, and destroyed three trains (by gunfire). In 1942 he was awarded the DSO for his courage and skill. His last patrol was his twenty-first, and the odds against his survival were mounting. He had previously reconnoitred the Italian base of Maddalena in northern Sardinia, and when the Italians announced that a submarine had been sunk in a controlled minefield at the entrance, and when Turbulent failed to return, it was assumed that she had been lost there. Linton’s posthumous VC was awarded for his continuing pressure on the enemy, in circumstances requiring continuous, cold courage, rather than for a single moment of hotblooded action. His son also joined the submarine service, and was lost in HMS Affray.

Liu Huaqing (1916?–?) Chinese: General in the People’s Liberation Army Navy; Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party. For much of the period we are considering, China had no national navy, and no naval interface with the outside world. But the end of the nineteenth century saw the start of a navy, which was involved, with little success, in the war with Japan in 1893. Nor was the navy any more successful in the long-running war with Japan, 1931–45. But, as China


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starts to make its presence felt in the world, both economically and politically, we feel it worthwhile to draw our readers’ attention to the fact that China is starting to build a ‘blue water’ navy: she possesses nuclear-powered ballistic missile and attack submarines: rumours have spoken of an aircraft carrier, though the programme seems to have been delayed undefinitely. The Chinese navy has always been subordinate to the army—hence its cumbersome title—but in the 1980s under prime minister Deng Xiaoping a more outward-looking maritime strategy evolved, and Liu Huaqing was brought in to put it into effect. Detailed information is not easily come by in China, but it is known that Liu studied in Russia, under GORSHKOV in the 1950s. He was made Commander of the Navy, 1982– 88, and went on to be Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commision, 1989–97 (the equivalent of Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, in Western terms, and a position of influence). He retired in 1998. The result has been a considerable expansion of China’s naval forces. The ships being built are not just for coast defence, but are deep-water warships, and China seems to be developing techniques for long-distance operations. They have a long way to go, but Liu may perhaps be compared to COLBERT.

Lombard-Hobson, Samuel (1913–2000) British: Captain, CVO, OBE. Sam Lombard-Hobson served in convoy escorts, 1939–1943: he was Nicholas MONSARRAT’S captain in the sloop Guillemot, and provided the view of the Royal Navy’s professional officers in The Cruel Sea (see CUTHBERTSON). Monsarrat said of him: ‘almost the naval officer of fiction; correct, resourceful, unfoolable, his handling of the ship a perpetual delight to watch’. RNC 1926; 1936, Lieutenant; 1949, Commander; 1953, Captain. He received three MiDs for his service afloat in WW2: as first lieutenant of the destroyer Whitshed, 1939–41; for an ac tion against E-boats when commanding Guillemot in March 1942; and in October 1943, when commanding the destroyer Rockwood, for towing the cruiser Carlisle 300 miles to Alexandria after she had been damaged off Rhodes. He was Executive Officer of HMS Newcastle in the Korean War, and was awarded the OBE. He completed his career by commanding HMS Apollo, 1957–58, and became naval attaché in Rome, 1960–62 (CVO).


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Lucas, Charles (1837–1914) British: Captain Charles Lucas, VC. He was the first member of the RN to be awarded the Victoria Cross, in the action off Bomarsund in the Baltic, during the Crimean War. He joined the RN in 1848 and became a Mate (Sub-Lieutenant in today’s ranks) in 1853. He served in the Vanguard, 78, in the Burma War, 1852–53, and in 1854 was in HMS Hecla, 6, a steam paddle sloop. During the bombardment of Bomarsund, a live shell landed on Hecla’s upper deck, with the fuse still burning. Without hesitation Lucas picked it up and threw it overboard, where it exploded before hitting the water, with minimal damage to the ship, and only two men wounded. He was given immediate promotion to Lieutenant, and received his VC from Queen Victoria at the first investiture in 1857. He was promoted Commander in 1862, and was the Executive Officer of the Liffey, 39. He was subsequently promoted to Captain in 1867, but was not employed in that rank. He retired in 1873.

Luce, Stephen B. (1827–1917) US: Rear Admiral. He emphasized professional education for US naval officers and was a leader in developing strategic naval thinking in the early twentieth century. He began his career in 1841 as a Midshipman, and after a series of sea duty assignments he entered the USNA, graduating in 1847. He then served in the sloop USS Vandalia until 1852. Following a brief assignment working on astronomical observations in Washington DC, and additional sea duty, his service included the Home Squadron in the West Indies, a year on the Naval Academy faculty, and duty in the steam frigate USS Wabash. In 1863 he wrote the textbook, Seamanship, and commanded the schoolship, USS Macedonian. During the Civil War he served in a Union ironclad, a gunboat, and at the USNA as head of the seamanship department. Luce returned to the USNA as Commandant of Midshipmen, 1865–68. He was instrumental in establishing the New York State Maritime School in 1875, which led to similar institutions in five additional states. Following a variety of shore and afloat assignments, including ship commands, he was instrumental in founding the US Naval War College and served as its first President, 1884–85. One of the members of the initial faculty there was then-Captain A.T.MAHAN, who succeeded Luce as President. In June 1885 he was advanced to Rear Admiral and in October 1886 he took command of the North Atlantic Squadron. He retired from active duty in 1889 but returned for special active-duty assignments during the presidency of Theodore ROOSEVELT, including the Board of Naval Reorganization in 1909.


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von Luckner, Felix (1881–1966) German: Kapitan-Leutnant Graf von Luckner. He commanded the German raider Seeadler in an amazingly daring and successful voyage, 1916–17. Von Luckner came from a landed family, but ran away to sea, signing on before the mast, in 1897. He made several voyages in sail, to Australia and North America, and passed his Mate’s exam in 1903. He made a voyage as Mate of the Petropolis, but then settled down to run a navigation school. In 1911 he joined the Naval Reserve as a Leutnant zur See, and was called to fulltime service in 1913, serving in the gunboat Panther on the West African coast. Promoted to Kapitän-Leutnant, von Luckner commanded the raider Seeadler, a converted sailing ship. The problem for German raiders was fuel—a sailing ship had no such worries. Leaving Germany in December 1916, he fooled the British blockade and embarked on a successful raid, taking fourteen merchant ships (eleven sail, three steam), mostly between Brazil and West Africa and then in the Pacific. In August 1917 Seeadler was stranded on Mopelia Island. With some of his crew, von Luckner voyaged 2,800 miles in twenty-eight days to Fiji, a voyage almost as remarkable as BLIGH’S. He and his crew were taken to New Zealand, for imprisonment, but von Luckner and several of them escaped, took a coasting scow, the Moa, and were 600 miles out in the Pacific before they were recaptured.

Lütjens, Gunther (1889–1941) German: Konteradmiral. Lütjens was the admiral commanding the squadron consisting of the battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in their abortive Atlantic raid in 1941 which resulted in the Bismarck’s destruction, and Lutjens’s death. He entered the KM in 1907; 1940, Konteradmiral. In 1913–14 he commanded the destroyers G-169 and G-172, and during WW1 spent most of his time in command of a flotilla operating on the Flanders coast, taking part in a number of engagements with British and French destroyers. At the end of WWl he went into the shipping business, returning to the navy in 1923. He served in the 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla, 1923–25, and by 1936, in the rank of Kapitan zur See, he was head of personnel for the DKM. During WW2 Lütjens commanded the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on their foray into the Norwegian Sea during the Norwegian campaign in 1940 when they were engaged by the battle cruiser Renown, and Gneisenau damaged, and he later commanded their breakout on to the Atlantic trade routes in January-February 1941. They failed to attack two home-bound convoys which had a battleship escort, but had some success among the outward-bound merchant ships which had dispersed from their convoys. However, when their movements were known, they returned to Brest.


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Three months later Lütjens took Bismarck and Prinz Eugen to sea from Gdynia for a three-month sortie on to the trade routes. The German High Command’s aim was for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to join them when they reached the open Atlantic. Had they done so, the consequences would have been extremely serious for Britain, and it would have taken all her naval resources to counter such a squadron. When the break-out occurred in May 1941, the ships’ movements became known as soon as they passed Sweden, but thereafter the British had only intermittent contact until Lütjens encountered Vice-Admiral Holland’s squadron off Iceland: in the short engagement which followed, HMS Hood was sunk, but Bismarck received damage. However, she shook off the shadowing cruisers, but Liitjens then made a mistake which cost him his life, by transmitting a report of his action with the Hood and Prince of Wales. As a result, Admiral TOVEY with the rest of the Home Fleet, were able to intercept, and after Bismarck’s steering had been damaged by aircraft from HMS Ark Royal, the end was inevitable.

Lyster, Lumley (1888–1957) British: Admiral Sir Lumley Lyster, KCB, CVO, CBE, DSO. As Flag Officer Aircraft Carriers in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1940–41, he was responsible for the overall planning for the raid on Taranto, by aircraft from Illustrious and Eagle, which shattered the Italian battlefleet. He entered the Navy in 1901; 1909, Lieutenant; 1921, Commander; 1928, Captain; 1939, Rear-Admiral; 1942, Vice-Admiral; 1945, Admiral (retired list). By specialization he was a gunnery officer. During WW1 he served at Gallipoli, and with the Italian fleet, and earned a DSO (1919) for his services as Gunnery Officer of the cruiser Cassandra. Between the wars he commanded the cruiser Danae and the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, and the gunnery school at Chatham (in which capacity he commanded the gun-carriage crew at King George V’s funeral—a surprisingly physically demanding duty, requiring one to march in an unnatural posture, at an unnatural pace, for many miles). Command of the Mediterranean Fleet’s aircraft carriers was his first flag appointment, and in conjunction with the captain of Illustrious, the attack on Taranto was conceived as part of CUNNINGHAM’S programme of aggressive measures designed to reinforce British maritime supremacy in the minds of the Italians. The rest of his career was involved with the Fleet Air Arm: 1941–42, 5SL and Chief of Naval Air Services; Flag Officer Aircraft Carriers, Home Fleet, 1942–43; and Flag Officer Carrier Training, 1943–45.


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M MacDonough, Thomas (1783–1825) US: Commodore. He defeated a British squadron at the crucial battle of Lake Champlain during the War of 1812. He entered the Navy as a Midshipman in 1800 and fought under Commodore DECATUR during the dramatic burning of the captured USS Philadelphia in the Barbary War. He commanded a small US squadron from his flagship, the corvette USS Saratoga, 26, in the battle of Lake Champlain. His victory there on 11 September 1814 was instrumental in preventing British forces from moving south from Canada into the United States. In 1824 he assumed command of USS Constitution, venerated in the United States Navy as ‘Old Ironsides’. He commanded the frigate USS Guerriere, 44, 1818–20, and the USS Ohio, 74, which was laid up in reserve, 1820–24. He commanded the Mediterranean Squadron, 1824–25. He was known to be a student of the tactics of NELSON. He died at sea on his way home after resigning his commission because of ill health.

Madden, Charles (1862–1935) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Madden, Bt, GCVO, KCMG. He was a thorough-going professional naval officer, described by Sir John FISHER in 1904 as ‘one of the five best brains in the navy below the rank of admiral’ (which might be expressed cynically without the last phrase). He served as JELLICOE’S CoS throughout his period in the Grand Fleet, and went on to command the fleet himself, and became 1SL, 1927–30. He joined the Britannia in 1875; 1884, Lieutenant; 1896, Commander; 1901, Captain; 1911, Rear-Admiral; 1916, Vice-Admiral; 1919, Admiral; 1924, Admiral of the Fleet. He qualified in torpedo in 1885, spending seven and a half years, in three appointments on the staff of the torpedo school, HMS Vernon, before promotion to Captain. He spent a year on the Ship Design Committee which produced the Dreadnought and Invincible, and then two years working for Fisher as his Naval Assistant. In 1907–08 he commanded Dreadnought herself.


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From 1911 onwards Madden spent eleven years continuously at sea in flag appointments, earning high praise from Jellicoe, who referred to his ‘special gift for organization’ and said that ‘his judgement was never at fault’. When Jellicoe went to the Admiralty, Madden became second-in-command of the Grand Fleet, and at the end of the war assumed command of the Atlantic Fleet, 1919–22. He received a baronetcy and a grant of £10,000 for his war services. As ISL, 1927–30, he came under pressure from the politicians, with whom he worked uneasily, to restrict Britain’s cruiser-building programme in the face of American opposition. (Britain was still seen as a potential enemy of the USA, which had accepted reluctantly Britain’s demand to retain seventy cruisers in the Washington Treaty of 1922.) Although the validity of the Admiralty’s calculations of the number of hulls needed to perform all the given tasks was never challenged politically, Madden felt obliged to concede: and economic circumstances soon made the larger programme impossible. But it left Britain with much more leeway to make up when re-arming seven years later in the face of Nazi Germany.

Madison, James (1751–1836) US: fourth President (1809–17). He led the three-decades-old US nation through difficult international crises during his presidency. In the face of seizures of US ships and sailors at sea, he unsuccessfully attempted to employ trade embargoes to force Great Britain and France to end those practices. Initially, France made pretenses at ending the seizures, and in June 1812 the US declared war on Britain. Madison succeeded in mobilizing sufficient military force to achieve some successes at sea and in the field. At the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, which ended the war, there was no clear military victor, and no boundaries changed nor penalties assessed. It was clear, however, that the noteworthy US naval victories and the victory at the battle of New Orleans established the United States as a durable international entity. One of the most significant results of the war was the accompanying rise in US patriotism. Madison was among the framers of the US Constitution, and was the author of a number of the Federalist Papers. Before he was elected President he helped frame the constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, was a member of the Continental Congress, and was President JEFFERSON’S Secretary of State.

Mahan, Alfred Thayer (1840–1914) US: Rear Admiral. He defined maritime power and played a unique role in the emergence of US naval power at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.


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He entered the USNA in 1856 at the age of sixteen and graduated second in the class of 1859. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1861 and followed a normal early career pattern of alternate sea and shore duty, advancing to Lieutenant Commander in 1865 and Commander in 1871. He commanded the side-wheel steamer USS Wasp, 1873–74, and the steam sloop USS Wachusett, 1883–85. In 1885 he gave a series of lectures at the new US Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, marking a turn towards an intellectual path that had a powerful impact on the way sea-power was viewed by the United States. He served two tours as President of the Naval War College, 1886–89 and 1892–93. He commanded the cruiser USS Chicago, 1893–95, and after a brief return to the Naval War College, he retired from active duty in 1896 as a Captain. Mahan was recalled to active duty in 1898 to serve on the Naval War Board during the Spanish-American War. During that assignment he advised the US Secretary of the Navy on naval strategy and tactics. He also was a close advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and future President Theodore ROOSEVELT at the time when the US battleship navy was developing. He transferred to the Navy retired list as a Rear Admiral in 1906. Mahan wrote twenty books; the best known is The Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660–1783, published in 1890, and republished in many languages. In 1897 he published The Life of Nelson: the Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain, considered to be a definitive biography of NELSON.

Maillé-Brézé, Armand, duc de Fronsac (1619–46) French: in his short life, he showed himself to be a dashing sea-commander in the war against Spain (1638–59). As the nephew of the Cardinal RICHELIEU, he had a head start. At the age of seventeen he was made Superintendent and High Master of Navigation and Trade, and when nineteen, was also made High Master of the Galleys, posts he did not treat as sinecures, though he was lucky in the officers (mostly Bretons) who acted as his ‘minders’. Operating in the Mediterranean, he captured Villefranche, and neutralized the Genoese forces. In 1640, commanding the Western Fleet off Cadiz, he engaged with limited success the escort to a Spanish convoy, and in 1642, taking a force of twenty ships from Brest into the Mediterranean, his fleet supported the Army of Catalonia to good effect, allowing the French to capture Perpignan, and take control of Roussillon. Later that year he concentrated a large fleet off Barcelona, and fought a two-day battle with the Spanish, who refused combat on the third day. In 1643 he inflicted a sharp defeat on the Spanish off Cap de Gata, which gave the French control of the western Mediterranean. In 1646, during a campaign to drive the Spanish out of Tuscany, he engaged the Spanish squadron in his usual impetuous fashion, and was cut in two by a cannon-ball, upon which his second-in-command withdrew.


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Mallory, Stephen R. (1813–73) Confederate States of America Secretary of the Navy. He developed a naval strategy for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. He was appointed Secretary in February 1861, and with a limited industrial base and virtually no ships or funding, he succeeded in mounting a naval strategy based primarily on commerce raiding and blockade breaking. He was, however, unable to counter the naval preponderance built up during the war by the Union. One of the most noteworthy achievements of his leadership was the development of effective ironclad ships for the undersized Confederate Navy. The best known example of this radical technological development in ship design, pioneered by Great Britain and France, was the CSS Virginia. Prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, he served as Chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee in the US Senate. Following the war he was imprisoned for a year and subsequently returned to Florida, where he practised law.


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Manley, John (1733–83) US: Continental Navy Commodore. He was one of the original captains of the lightly armed, seven-ship fleet gathered by General WASHINGTON in 1775. In command of the armed schooner Lee in November-December 1775 he captured nine British ships, including the ordnance brig Nancy, which was loaded with arms, munitions and military equipment that quickly were diverted to Washington’s meagrely equipped army. For his achievement Washington named him Commodore of his tiny fleet. He subsequently commanded the Continental Navy’s 6-gun schooner Hancock. In April 1776 he was placed in command of the 32-gun Continental frigate, also named Hancock, and in June of that year he captured the British frigate Fox, 28. A month later HMS Rainbow, 44, and her consort the Victor, 18, captured him and his ship. It was the first of two occasions he was captured by the British. After an exchange of prisoners that followed his second capture, he became a privateer. In 1782 he was returned to Navy duty and placed in command of the Dutchbuilt frigate Deane, 32. His capture of the British brig Baille in January 1783 was one of the last actions of the war. Manley began his career at sea in the merchant marine and was the master of a merchant ship when recruited by Washington. The destroyer USS Manley was named in his honour.

Mansfield, John (1893–1949) British: Vice-Admiral Sir John Mansfield, KCB, DSO, DSC. For two years, 1941–43, he was Admiral NOBLE’S CoS in the Western Approaches command, responsible for setting up and then running the new combined sea-air organization which was crucial to Britain’s survival in the battle of the Atlantic. He entered the Navy in 1906 via the RNC at Osborne and Dartmouth; 1915, Lieutenant; 1929, Commander; 1933, Captain; 1944, Rear-Admiral; 1946, Vice-Admiral. At the start of WW1 he was a Sub-Lieutenant in the cruiser Warrior, but luckily left her before she was sunk at Jutland. Instead, he went into submarines, winning the DSC in 1917, and commanding his own submarine before he was twenty-four. He commanded a division of destroyers in the Mediterranean Fleet and was Executive Officer of the aircraft carrier Courageous, 1929–33. He commanded the cruiser Norfolk in the East Indies just before WW2, and then her sister ship Devonshire, which evacuated the Norwegian royal family from Norway in 1940. After two non-stop years in her, he became CoS for the Western Approaches command: by the time he left the battle of the Atlantic was in a fair way to being won.


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As a Rear-Admiral he commanded a cruiser squadron, flying his flag in the Orion, and received the DSO for his services in support of the US Fifth Army, the landings at Anzio, and later the landings in the south of France. He went on to command the British naval forces in the liberation of Greece, a particularly difficult task, given the political circumstances, carried out with complete success. In 1946 he became Admiral (Submarines), the head of his old service, but ill health forced his retirement in 1948, before his full potential in higher command could be realized.

Marryatt, Frederick (1792–1848) British: Captain, CB. After stirring times as a young officer in the Napoleonic Wars, Marryatt turned to writing stories about the Navy of those wars, with considerable success. After trying several times to run away to sea, he joined the Navy in 1806, on board the Impérieuse, 40, under Cochrane (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD); 1812, Lieutenant; 1815, Commander; 1825, Captain. His time in the Impérieuse was full of action, which he later described in his novels. Marryatt was present at the defence of the castle of Trinidad, and at the action in the Basque Roads. He served in several other ships before being commissioned in 1812, but his health had been undermined by fever contracted on the Walcheren expedition of 1809 (see STRACHAN), and he was twice invalided home. He was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Humane Society, and held several certificates, for saving over a dozen people at sea, usually by jumping overboard himself; and he was made FRS in 1819 for his adaptation of POPHAM’S signal code for use by the merchant marine (the forerunner of today’s International Code). He was lucky to obtain a command in 1820, of the Beaver, 10, which was employed patrolling the seas off St Helena to prevent Napoleon’s escaping. In 1822 he commissioned the Larne, 20, and took part in the first Burmese war, becoming the senior naval officer at Rangoon in 1824: next year he commanded a naval expedition up the Bassein River, where his forces captured the town and the magazines. For his services he was promoted to Captain and made a CB. Marryatt commanded the Ariadne, 20, 1828–30, but in 1829, his first novel, Frank Mildmay, was published, for which he was paid the enormous sum of £400. The book was a story of naval life, full of dash and daring, and he went on to write several more. They are still eminently readable. He also wrote more serious works, in particular a pamphlet, written in 1822, advocating the cessation of impressment as a means of manning the Navy in wartime.


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Martin, Pierre (1752–1820) French: vice amiral comte Martin. He was one of those officers who were promoted from comparative obscurity after the Revolution in 1789. The highlight of his career came with the taking of the British Berwick, 74, in 1795. He joined the navy in 1764, and his early career was spent as a ‘pilot’, the equivalent of a ‘Master’ in the RN. Between 1788 and 1791, while based in Senegal, he surveyed the Bissau Archipelago. In 1792, as a result of the removal of many of the old officer corps, he was promoted to lieutenant de vaisseau, and returned to France in command of the Espoir, 14, on anti-piracy duties. Until then, this had been his sole experience in command, but in early 1793 he became a capitaine de vaisseau, and nine months later contre-amiral. He was put in charge at Toulon, after the town had been re-taken (see HOOD (3)), and re-organized the dockyard. At sea, he tried to recover Corsica, under attack by the English, and he succeeded in capturing a Sicilian (Neapolitan) frigate and two British corvettes, and the Berwick, 74. Berwick had lost all three masts through poor seamanship, and had been left behind by the fleet, while being juryrigged. While making her way after the fleet, she was caught by Martin’s whole force, and surrendered. There were two subsequent actions off the coast of Provence, between Martin’s fleet and HOTHAM’S: neither was decisive, although the French lost two 74-gun ships in the first, and one in the second. Thereafter his career was unremarkable, He was made a comte by Napoleon, but then was held responsible for the debacle in the Basque Roads (see coCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD and GAMBIER). However, it was accepted that all his actions had been to save ALLEMAND’S ships. He retired in 1814, but came out of retirement for Napoleon in 1815, before lapsing into obscurity once more.

Mason, Frank (1900–88) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Frank Mason, KCB. He was Engineer-in-Chief (E-in-C) of the Fleet, 1953–57. As Deputy E-in-C and E-in-C, he and his staffs ensured that the engineering lessons of WW2, in which the RN’s limitations had been shown up, were applied to the new generation of ships designed to fight in the nuclear age. He joined the RN in 1918 as an executive branch cadet, but volunteered to train as an engineer officer, (E), under the FISHER-SELBORNE scheme, which was intended to allow engineers access to all the higher appointments in the Navy. But this scheme was cancelled in the ‘great betrayal’ of 1923, and engineers were confined strictly to


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engineering appointments, which resulted in a lack of engineering know-how among senior officers in operational appointments. In 1923 he became Lieutenant (E); 1934, Commander (E); Captain (E); 1950, RearAdmiral (E); 1953, Vice-Admiral (E). In 1928 Mason joined the newest battleship, Rodney, where he was instrumental in turning her novel 16-inch guns into a reliable weapons system. He went on to qualify in ordnance engineering, and except for two periods, 1933–34 and 1937–39, when he was Senior Engineer of the Rodney, and Chief Engineer of the new cruiser Galatea, all his appointments, until he reached flag rank, were in ordnance engineering. In 1949 he was the first Engineer officer to attend the Imperial Defence College, where the course was designed to fit officers for the highest ranks in the armed services. During his time as E-in-C he was particularly concerned with the scheme to reverse the effects of the ‘great betrayal’. In the new scheme, the officer corps of the RN was combined into one general list, instead of the executive branch (who, in their own eyes, had inherited the earth—or the sea) and others. This was introduced in 1956, so for his last year he was able to remove the suffix (E) from his rank.

Mathews, Thomas (1676–1751) British: Vice-Admiral. In 1744 he commanded the fleet in the Mediterranean, and engaged a Franco-Spanish fleet off Toulon in confused circumstances (Britain was at war with Spain, but not—officially—with France). The result was a discreditable draw (tactically), and a strategic defeat. Mathews, LESTOCK, and several captains were court-martialled. He entered the Navy in about 1690; 1699, Lieutenant; 1703, Captain; 1742, ViceAdmiral. As captain of the Chester, 50, in 1709, he was present at the action with DUGUAYTROUIN’S squadron, when the Chester captured the Gloire, 38. After a period of about seven years ashore (1711–18), he commanded the Kent, 70, and played a prominent role in HERBERT’S victory over the Spanish at Cape Passaro. He was in the East Indies, 1722–24, trying, without much success, to suppress piracy, and then settled down to a life as a country squire. However, in 1736, he became the resident Commissioner at Chatham, and at the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession, obtained flag rank, jumping to Vice-Admiral, and became C-in-C Mediterranean, 1742, with a diplomatic mission to fulfil as well. Mathews’s diplomatic duties prevented him from learning to command a fleet, a situation exacerbated by the fact that he and his second-in-command, Rear-Admiral Lestock, were at loggerheads, the result of disagreements at Chatham. When the combined Franco-Spanish fleet sailed from Toulon in 1744, Mathews was in the offing, and his duty was to prevent the combined fleet from leaving the Mediterranean (with a view to covering an invasion to be launched from Dunkirk). His conduct of the battle was indecisive and confusing, not helped by Lestock’s deliberate obtuseness and the misconduct of several captains (though HAWKE’S actions were highly creditable). The enemy escaped, Mathews appeared paralysed with indecision, and


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the enemy were able to carry out their intention (which was, in fact, to support Spanish troops in Italy). The courts-martial which resulted saw a number of captains cashiered, but Lestock was acquitted. Mathews was then tried, found guilty on a number of charges and dismissed the service.

Matthews, Vera (1888–1959) British: Dame Vera Matthews, DBE. She was the Director of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) from its re-formation in 1939 throughout WW2. At its peak, the WRNS comprised nearly 20 per cent of the RN’s strength, with Wrens serving as boats’ crews, communicators and semiskilled maintenance ratings, relieving an equal number of men for service afloat. She was the daughter of Sir John LAUGHTON, and offered her services to the Admiralty at the outbreak of WW1, but was told there was no requirement for women— nor would there be. But in 1917, on learning that the Admiralty was to form the WRNS for duties ashore, she immediately volunteered, and was sent on the first officers’ course, and spent the rest of the war recruiting and training Wrens. In February 1939, after the Admiralty had decided to re-form the WRNS, she was appointed Director, and formed, organized and led the WRNS throughout the war. Wrens did not serve as part of ships’ companies afloat, though they did go to sea for trials of equipment they had worked on, and they served in all theatres of war, frequently finding themselves under fire. Dame Vera retired in 1946, having ensured that the WRNS had the highest reputation of all the women’s forces. She also helped the Netherlands in the training of their equivalent, the MARVA.

Maurepas, Jean-Frédéric, comte de (1701– 81) French: Minister of the Navy and Colonies under Louis XV, 1723–49. Although considered something of a dilettante, he nonetheless built up the French navy, which had been neglected at the end of Louis XIV’s reign, so that, although successes were few in the mid-century wars against Britain, the navy gave a respectable account of itself. He was the son of a previous minister, and obtained his position by nepotism at the age of fifteen, so an Admiralty Council administered the navy from 1715 to 1723. But when he took over, Maurepas saw that the country’s prosperity depended on trade, and that trade needed a powerful navy to ensure its safety. The French East India Company was successfully re-floated in 1719, and trade increased rapidly. Making the best use of


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what resources there were, Maurepas instituted a ship-building programme which produced a fleet of sixty-four ships-of-the-line and frigates by 1743, as against thirty-one in 1721. He also instituted the policy by which the navy was to be driven for the next century and more: that of the ‘mission’. There was to be no attempt to obtain mastery of the seas, in the British fashion, but the fleet would be given a series of missions, and squadrons formed accordingly: one result was that battles were likely to be indecisive, since the French would not fight for the sake of fighting, but would withdraw if the given mission were to be prejudiced by the battle. At the end of the war of the Austrian Succession, Maurepas finally succeeded in getting rid of the squadron of galleys, and drew up a plan to revitalize the navy after the losses of the war. Unfortunately, he fell foul of Madame de Pompadour, the power behind the throne, and was sacked. In 1774 Louis XVI recalled him to be Prime Minister—not a successful appointment.

Maury, Matthew F. (1806–73) US: Commander and Confederate States of America Navy Commander. He was known in the USN as the ‘Pathfinder of the Seas’. He entered the Navy as a Midshipman in 1825 and served at sea until he suffered a permanent leg injury. In 1842 he was named Superintendent of the Depot of Charts and Instruments, which evolved into the US Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office. His book A New Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Navigation was published in 1836. In 1847 he published Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic, which was based on ship’s logs and which claimed that following its wind and current charts could significantly reduce Atlantic Ocean transit times. In 1855 he produced a pioneering work on oceanography, The Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology. Maury also predicted the feasibility of a transatlantic telegraph cable, which became a reality in 1866. A Virginian, Maury resigned from the USN in April 1861 at the onset of the American Civil War, and was appointed a Commander in the Confederate Navy. He worked on the development of an electric torpedo for the Confederacy, and also served as a Confederate diplomat in Great Britain during the Civil War. Following the Civil War he served in the administration of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico. In 1868 he returned to the United States and was Professor of Meteorology at Virginia Military Institute until his death.

Mauz, Henry H., Jr (1936-) US: Admiral. He was one of the principal naval commanders of the Gulf War. He commanded the Seventh Fleet, 1988–90, and the US Naval Forces, Central Command at


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the time of the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, August 1990-February 1991. During the latter half of 1990 he led the initial build-up of naval forces in the Persian Gulf theatre and the commencement of the naval blockade of Iraq. Mauz was a member of the USNA class of 1959. He served several tours in Vietnam and attended the US Naval War College and the US Air Force Command and Staff College. As commander of the USS America Battle Group, he was involved in the successful surface and air actions against Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi, in the Gulf of Sidra in 1986. Mauz served as a Deputy CNO, 1991–92. He was advanced to Admiral in August 1992 and was C-in-C Atlantic Fleet, 1992–94. He retired from active duty in November 1994. He holds an advanced degree from the Navy Postgraduate School and a master’s in business administration from Auburn University.

Mayo, Henry T. (1856–1937) US: Admiral. He controlled all US naval units in the Atlantic theatre at the beginning of US involvement in WW1. His command expanded in 1919 to become the US Fleet, encompassing naval units of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Caribbean. Mayo graduated from the USNA in 1876. His early career included a variety of sea duty and shore assignments, and spanned the Navy’s transition from sail to steam propulsion and from wood to steel construction. He was advanced to Captain in 1908, and subsequent duties included Secretary to the Lighthouse Board, 1908–09, command of the armoured cruiser USS California, 1909–10, and command of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 1911–13. In June 1913, while assigned to the Navy Department in Washington DC, he was advanced to Rear Admiral. In December 1913 he took command of the Fourth Division, Atlantic Fleet. His firm handling of the Tampico Incident in April 1914, when Mexican authorities arrested a working party of eight Navy enlisted men ashore from USS Dolphin, attracted public and official attention in the United States and beyond. In June 1914 he advanced to Vice Admiral and became Deputy Commander of the Atlantic Fleet. In June 1916 he was named to command of the Atlantic Fleet with the rank of Admiral. In June 1919 he reverted to Rear Admiral to serve on the General Board, and he retired from active duty in December of the following year. He was governor of the Philadelphia Naval Home, 1924–28, and in 1930 was advanced to Admiral on the retired list.


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McAfee, Mildred H. (Horton) (1900–94) US: Captain. She was the first female officer in the US Naval Reserve, officially labelled Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (‘WAVES’). She was sworn in as a Lieutenant Commander and ‘an officer and a gentleman’ on 3 August 1942, becoming the Navy’s first female line officer. She served as the first Director of the WAVES from 1942–46, and during that period the Navy’s female reserve force grew to 80,000 officers and enlisted women in a wide variety of military specialties. Her exceptional organizational and leadership qualities were widely recognized by the most senior civilian and uniformed male leadership of the Navy, and she was promoted to Captain in November 1943. Although the women reservists were not assigned to combat zones, seven officers and sixty enlisted women died during their WW2 service. Before the end of WW2, McAfee began advocating the retention of women in the Naval Reserve in peacetime. Her achievements and those of the WAVES she led were part of the Navy’s transition to fuller participation of women in that service. A 1920 graduate of Vassar College, she was elected President of Wellesley College in 1936 and returned to that position in February 1946.

McCain 1. John S. (1884–1945) US: Admiral. He was one of the leading aircraft carrier task force admirals during WW2 in the Pacific. In August 1944 he commanded Second Fast Carrier Force, Pacific and Task Group 38.1 in the Philippines theatre, and subsequently commanded Task Force 38 in carrier strikes against Japanese home islands in the final months of the war. He was a 1906 graduate of the USNA. He served in a variety of Asiatic Station ships, and while on the staff of the Cavite Naval Yard in 1908 he joined the ‘Great White Fleet’, circling the globe. After a series of shore and sea assignments, he was briefly commander of the cargo ship USS Sirius in 1926 and Executive Officer of the battleship New Mexico, 1927–28. He attended the US Naval War College, 1928–29, and commanded the ammunition ship USS Nitro, 1931–33. In August 1936, at the age of fifty-two, he was designated a naval aviator. After command of Panama’s Coco Solo airbase he commanded the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, 1937–39. From 1939 to 1941 he commanded the Naval Air Station, San Diego. In February 1941 he advanced to Rear Admiral and took command of the Scouting Force aircraft and the Fleet Patrol wings based on the US west coast. In May 1942 he took command of all South Pacific land-based navy planes, and in November he was


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named the first Deputy CNO (Air): in 1943 he was promoted to Vice Admiral. When he died in September 1945 he was posthumously advanced to Admiral.

2. John S., Jr (1911–81) US: Admiral. He was C-in-C Pacific, 1968–72, during the second half of the Vietnam War. He graduated from the USNA in 1931, and after initial sea duty he underwent submarine qualification in 1933. After a series of sea and shore assignments he commanded the submarine USS Gunnel during the North African amphibious landing in November 1942 and off the Japanese coast, 1943–44. He commanded the submarine USS Dentuda for one war patrol in the East China Sea. Subsequent assignments included duty at the Bureau of Naval Personnel; Commander, Submarine Divisions 71 and 51; Executive Officer of USS St Paul; Director, Undersea Warfare Research and Development; Commander, Submarine Squadron Six. From 1955 to 1963 he served in a series of Navy Department assignments that were deeply involved in defending Navy missions and force strength. Between 1954 and 1958 he commanded the amphibious attack transport USS Monrovia and the cruiser USS Albany. He advanced to Rear Admiral in 1958 and between 1958 and 1962 he held senior amphibious commands. He was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1963 and commanded the Amphibious Force, 1963–65. In 1965 he commanded Task Force 124 during the US intervention in the political upheaval in the Dominican Republic. He then served as Vice Chairman of the US Military Mission to the United Nations and Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier. He was advanced to Admiral in 1967, when he was appointed C-in-C US Naval Forces Europe and subsequently C-in-C Pacific, 1968–72, retiring from active duty in November 1972.

3. John S., III (1936–) US: Senator. He was the object of world-wide media attention after becoming a North Vietnamese PoW. McCain, the son and grandson of admirals, was shot down in his McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk over Hanoi during an attack from the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany in October 1967. He was seriously injured and remained a prisoner for five and a half years. He was a 1958 graduate of the USNA, and after his release from North Vietnam in 1973 he attended the US Naval War College, 1973–74. He was director of the Navy Senate Liaison Office, 1977–81, and retired from active duty in 1981 as a Lieutenant Commander. He subsequently served two terms as a Republican member of the House of


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Representatives, 1983–87. He was elected as a Republican from the state of Arizona to the Senate, to serve a six-year term beginning January 1987. He was re-elected to the Senate for additional terms in 1993 and 1999. In the three campaigns he was elected by votes of 60 per cent, 69 per cent and 78 per cent. In 2000 he unsuccessfully competed for the Republican nomination for the presidential campaign. His book, Faith of My Fathers, was published in 1999.

McGonagle, William (1925–99) US: Captain. He commanded the intelligence ship USS Liberty when Israeli aircraft and naval units attacked her in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean on 8–9 June 1967. He was seriously wounded but continued to take measures to protect his crew and refused to relinquish his command during the more than seventeen hours his ship was under attack. The attack, which occurred during an ArabIsraeli war, killed thirty-four of Liberty’s crew and wounded 171. For ‘the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty’ during the controversial attack, he was awarded the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor. McGonagle enlisted in the Navy in 1944. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California and a commission as Ensign from the university’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps in 1947. After initial service in the destroyer USS Knox and the minesweeper USS Partridge, 1947–50, he served in the minesweeper USS Kite during Korean War minesweeping operations. From 1951 to 1966 he served in a variety of assignments including command of the fleet tug USS Mataco and the salvage ship USS Reclaimer. He was appointed to command the Liberty in 1966. After recovering from his wounds, he was promoted to Captain in 1967 and com manded the ammunition ship USS Kilauea and the University of Oklahoma NROTC unit. He retired from active duty in 1974.

McGowan, Samuel (1870–1935) US: Rear Admiral. He led in the development of the USN’s modern supply systems. After earning an undergraduate and law degree from the University of South Carolina and pursuing an early career as a journalist, he entered the Navy as an Assistant Paymaster in March 1894. He subsequently served in a series of sea-duty assignments, including the battleships USS Minnesota, USS Michigan and USS Alabama. Following subsequent shore-duty assignments he was the Fleet Paymaster for the ‘Great White Fleet’ sent on an around-the-world cruise by President Theodore ROOSEVELT, 1907– 09. Using lessons learned during that experience, and following assignments that included duty as Paymaster for the battleships USS Wyoming, USS Connecticut and USS


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Arkansas, McGowan developed the Navy’s WW1 wartime supply system. One of his most important supply advances was the development of the Navy’s own supply and store ships. In 1919, as Paymaster General, he led the change in name of the Pay Corps to the Supply Corps, effecting a conceptual change that matched the growing supply demands of the post-WW1 Navy. He retired from active duty with the rank of Rear Admiral in December 1920. The destroyer USS McGowan was named in his honour.

McKenna, Reginald (1863–1943) British: politician, and First Lord of the Admiralty, 1908–12. It was he who was responsible for the parliamentary approval of the ‘dreadnought’ building programme, 1909–1912, which ensured British supremacy in numbers at the outset of WW1. He and Admiral Sir John FISHER made a formidable team. He was a Liberal MP, 1895–1918, and was in office as a minister continuously from 1907 to 1918. As First Lord, he supported Fisher’s building programme, but had to battle in cabinet against the ‘economisers’, Lloyd-George and CHURCHILL. He believed that war between France and Germany was inevitable and that Britain would not be able to avoid being sucked in, so in 1909 he proposed that Great Britain lay down six dreadnoughts per year for three years. A public campaign (‘We want eight, and we won’t wait’) supported this, but it required a threat of resignation from McKenna to force a compromise: four to be laid down, with four contingent upon need being shown (which it was). Five more followed in each of the two succeeding years. A further cabinet disagreement over the Agadir Crisis of 1911 resulted in McKenna leaving the Admiralty, to be succeeded by Churchill. From 1915 to late 1916 he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, but found it impossible to work with Lloyd George.

Medina-Sidonia, Alonso, Duque de (1550– 1615) Spanish: almirante. He commanded the Great Armada in 1588, and despite its failure continued in royal employment till he died. As a great Spanish nobleman, he was expected to be able to undertake any task given to him by the king. In 1588 he was made Capitan-General de Andalusia, and then, after the death of SANTA-CRUZ and despite his great reluctance, expressed to King Phillip II (quite apart from anything else, he knew that he would be sea-sick), commander of the Armada being prepared for the invasion of England. Despite DRAKE’S raid the year before, the Armada was as ready as the technology and resources available could make it. Phillip issued Medina-Sidonia with detailed but ambiguous instructions; and in his


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second-in-command Recalde he had an experienced seaman. After an initial setback, the Armada sailed from Corunna in July, and, tactically, made a successful passage up the English channel: the Ar mada retained its compact formation, though harried throughout by the English. Losses on both sides were slight, though English morale remained higher than the Spanish. Taking his captain’s advice, Medina-Sidonia anchored off Gravelines, rather than off the English coast, as the king had ordered, and there the English fleet engaged them, dispersed them with fireships, and drove them into the North Sea before they could carry out their purpose of escorting Parma’s troops to England. An unfavourable wind, lack of stores and ammunition, and poor morale forced the Spanish to give up the enterprise, and the Armada made its way back to Spain by rounding Scotland: in all, some sixty-three out of 130 ships were lost. But Phillip seems not to have blamed Medina-Sidonia. He retained his post as Capitan-General, and, during Charles HOWARD’S raid on Cadiz in 1596, organized the removal of goods from ships the English were set to plunder, so that the Spanish losses were much reduced.

Melville, Herman (1818–91) US: author. He enhanced US interest in the sea with fictional writing based on psychological themes. Although his early novels were popular, he did not achieve the pinnacle of his reputation until the 1920s. His novel Moby Dick, about the hunt for a white whale, was published in 1851 and became an enduring literary classic. His novel White Jacket, published in 1850, was severely critical of abuses in the USN. The book’s description of floggings was instrumental in action by the Congress banning that punishment in the USN. Jack Chase, the leader of the foretop in the novel, reappeared as other characters in later Melville novels. Melville shipped as a cabin boy in a Liverpool-bound ship in 1839, and in 1841 he shipped in the whaling vessel Acushnet to the Pacific. He deserted in the Marquesas Islands, where he lived briefly among the native cannibals. When his life was in danger in the Marquesas, he escaped to Tahiti in an Australian trader. In Tahiti he was briefly imprisoned before working as a farm labourer. From Tahiti he sailed to Hawaii, where in 1843 he enlisted in the USN, serving in the frigate USS United States. In 1844 he began writing fiction, based on his experiences.

Mennes, John (1599–1671) English: Vice Admiral Sir John Mennes (sometimes ‘Minnes’, and not to be confused with his contemporary, MYNGS). He was another contemporary of BATTEN, PENN and PEPYS on the Restoration Navy Board, and, as with the others, Pepys was usually scathing of his abilities.


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Mennes was a captain by 1626, and was much at sea in the years before the Civil Wars. During the wars he fought on land, but in 1645 he went back to sea to command the king’s navy. He stayed a Royalist throughout the Commonwealth, acting as RUPERT’S rear-admiral in the early 1650s, and then acting as a Royalist agent abroad until the Restoration. At the Restoration he was commissioned as Captain and then ViceAdmiral, and made C-in-C in the Downs and Narrow Seas, 1661–62. In 1661 he was made Controller of the Navy Board, for which post he was ill fitted: finance was not his strong suit, and at a time when government finance was erratic and spasmodic, a competent controller was essential, and Mennes often drove Pepys to despair. However, Pepys recognized that he was a man of integrity, if out of his depth. He effectively surrendered the controllership in 1667.

Merrill, Aaron S. (1890–1961) US: Vice-Admiral. He led Task Force 68 and Task Force 39 in the critical surface actions leading to the US victory in the Solomon Islands campaign during WW2 in the Pacific. In 1943 Task Force 68 sank two Japanese destroyers and in November Task Force 39 sank a Japanese cruiser and drove the Japanese away from the invasion beaches in the area of Bougainville in the battle of Empress Augusta Bay. One of the Navy units under his command in that battle was Destroyer Division 45, under the command of then-Captain Arleigh BURKE. Merrill graduated from the USNA in 1912 and served in a variety of large and small surface combatant ships through WWl. He served in Naval Intelligence, 1927–29, and commanded the destroyer USS Williams, 1929–32. He was aide to an Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1933–34, and served in the cruiser USS Pensacola, 1934–35. Between 1936 and 1938 he commanded Destroyer Division Eight and was naval attaché at Santiago, Chile. After subsequent sea and shore assignments he commanded the battleship USS Indiana, 1942–43, and in February 1943 he advanced to Rear Admiral and was named to command Cruiser Division Twelve. He served in senior shore assignments from 1943 to 1947, when he retired from active duty.

Metcalf, Joseph, III (1927–) US: Vice-Admiral. He was the operational commander for the US military intervention in Grenada in October/November 1983. Called Operation Urgent Fury, this combined Navy, Marine, Army and Air Force assault dislodged the island’s Marxist government in the midst of a violent power struggle. The small but strategically critical island’s left-wing regime had been rapidly aligning itself with Cuba. Doubts over the safety of US medical


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students, and the imminent completion of a militarily capable airport were the twin catalysts for the US action. Metcalf as Commander, Second Fleet, led elements of the Navy’s Amphibious Squadron Four, the Marines’ 8th Division, the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Air Force C-13 aerial tankers and the aircraft carrier USS Independence Battle Group in a successful rescue of the students and the restoration of Sir Eric Gairy, Grenada’s first prime minister. The hastily assembled force was opposed by approximately 1,200 military and paramilitary forces of Grenada’s People’s Revolutionary Government, augmented by a small number of Cuban military and paramilitary personnel and 600 militarily trained and armed Cuban construction workers. In addition forty-nine Soviet, sixteen East German, fourteen Bulgarian, and four Libyan personnel were in Grenada at the time. In a controversial decision Metcalf excluded all media from the operation until the island was militarily secured. His decision was quietly appreciated by many of the military leaders concerned with the safety of their personnel and the medical students, and was roundly criticized by the media. Metcalf graduated from the USNA in 1951 and rose to his senior rank with a wide variety of surface Navy related assignments. He retired in November 1987 as a Vice Admiral.

Meyer, Wayne (1926–) US: Rear Admiral. He was the Navy’s programme leader for the Aegis phased array system of target acquisition and missile control in cruisers and destroyers. In a thirteen-year span of senior engineering commands, culminating as Deputy Commander of the Weapons and Combat Systems, Naval Sea Systems Command and Ordnance Officer of the Navy, 1983–85, he led in the design of the weapons system that was the basis of the Ticonderoga-class missile cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyers. Meyer entered the Navy as a seaman apprentice in 1943 and was commissioned as an Ensign in the Naval Reserve in 1946. His early service included duty in destroyers, cruisers and other surface vessels, as well as assignments to technical schools. In the course of his career he earned undergraduate degrees in radar/ communications engineering, electronics engineering, ordnance/fire control engineering and an advanced degree in astro nautics and aeronautics. He retired from active duty in December 1985.

Middleton, Charles (1726–1813) British: Admiral Lord Barham. At the age of seventy-nine he masterminded the Trafalgar campaign in his capacity as First Lord. He had also been a most effective administrator as Controller from 1778 to 1790.


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His career consisted of two parts, with a gap of twelve years (1763–75), during which he farmed his small estate, bought with prize money acquired during the Seven Years’ War. He entered the RN in 1741; 1745, Lieutenant; 1759, Captain. Following the peace in 1748 he was unemployed until 1753, then spent ten years at sea. His only significant active service was as First Lieutenant of the Anson, 60, at BOSCAWEN’S action off Louisburg in 1759. As a sea-officer, he seems to have been almost a caricature eighteenth-century martinet, but his service in command of the Emerald, 28, in the West Indies, 1760–61, brought him prize money and a presentation from the local merchants. In 1763, marriage, the acquisition of relative wealth, and a predisposition to seasickness caused him to ‘swallow the anchor’, but in 1775 he took command of the guardship at the Nore, fairly close to his home. In 1778 he was appointed Controller, a Navy Board appointment, thanks to family and personal connections. Nothing in his previous career suggested that he would be a particularly suitable appointment, but he showed himself to be a most capable administrator, master of all aspects of his department’s work, and something of a workaholic. Operationally, the last five years of the American War of Independence were arguably Britain’s least successful years in the eighteenth century, with France, Spain and Holland ranged against her, but during this time Middleton laid the fleet’s foundations for the French Revolutionary War which followed. He re-organized the logistics of all British forces overseas: he was responsible for the general introduction of coppering ships’ bottoms, and of the carronade: and he instituted a major ship-building programme, adding twelve ships-of-the-line to the fleet in seven years. He was rewarded with a baronetcy (1781) and further promotion; 1787, RearAdmiral (the Controller was usually no more than a Captain); 1793, Vice-Admiral; 1795, Admiral. During this period he worked well with the 4th Earl of SANDWICH, and later William Pitt, but less well with HOWE, and he resigned in 1790, largely because he could not carry through the reforms he thought necessary. He was recalled in 1794 to be Third Naval Commissioner of the Admiralty Board, and became First Naval Commissioner in 1795, but resigned over a matter of principle in flag officers’ appointments. Now aged sixty-nine, he retired to his farm, but in early 1805, he was recalled to head a Commission for Revising and Digesting the Civil Affairs of the Navy. Almost immediately Melville had to resign as First Lord, and Middleton took over, becoming at once deeply and personally involved in the planning to counter the French invasion threat. In the aftermath of Trafalgar he was created a baron, becoming Lord Barham. On Pitt’s death he resigned with the rest of the government, and finally retired.

Miers, Anthony (1906–85) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Anthony Miers, VC, KBE, DSO*, CB. He was a submariner: distinguished, bold, courageous, controversial, a man out of the ordinary in everything he did—and universally known as ‘Crap’ Miers: to speak of ‘Sir Anthony Miers’ would draw a blank response from anyone in the RN.


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He joined the Navy in 1924, and one of his training officers observed that he would either get the VC or a courtmartial. He got both, the latter in 1933 for striking a rating: but he was always ready with his fists, and even when a senior captain would invite sublieutenants, after dinner, to hit him, and then go three rounds with him, both participants in mess undress uniform. In 1930 he became a Lieutenant; 1941, Commander; 1946, Captain; 1956, RearAdmiral. He joined submarines in 1929 and learnt his trade in the big seaplanecarrying submarine M2. His first command was L.54, 1936–37. After some time in surface ships, he had a staff appointment at the outbreak of WW2, earning an MiD (1940). That year he took command of the new submarine Torbay, and in her spent two aggressive years, carrying the war to the enemy on all possible occasions (he was a man who was determined to win at all costs). He received two DSOs and another MiD, and finally the VC in 1943, for taking Torbay into the well protected harbour of Corfu, remaining there for seventeen hours, and sinking two transports. There is little doubt that in 1941 he did order the machine-gunning of German soldiers on a raft, under circumstances that are not precisely clear, but he never hid the fact. He became submarine liaison officer to the American Pacific Fleet in 1942 (receiving the Legion of Merit), and then Commander S/M of the British 8th S/M Flotilla in Perth, Australia, for the remainder of the war. In 1946 he learnt to fly, before taking command of a Naval Air Station, and later the aircraft carrier Theseus, 1954–5. He also commanded the S/M depot ship Forth and the 1st S/M Squadron. In 1956 he became Flag Officer Middle East, in which he was involved in the Suez landings, and in the maintenance of the Cyprus Patrol at the time of the EOKA insurrection.

Mikawa, Gunichi (1888–1981) Japanese: Chu-sho (Vice-Admiral). He defeated an Allied force under Rear-Admiral CRUTCHLEY at the battle of Savo Island in 1942. He joined the IJN in 1910; 1916, Tai-I; 1926, Chu-sa; 1930, Tai-sa; 1936, Sho-sho; 1940, Chu-sho. He specialized in navigation, and served as the navigating officer of a number of elderly cruisers. He also spent two years in France, 1918–20, and later served as naval attaché in Paris in 1930. During 1926–27, he was aide to Admirals Abo and Takarabe, on the naval general staff. His first command was the auxiliary Hayatomo in 1931: between 1934 and 1936 he commanded the heavy cruisers Aoba and Chokai and the battleship Kirishima. After a number of lesser flag commands, in July 1942 he took command of the 8th Fleet, based at Rabaul. On hearing of the American landings on Guadalcanal he took his force of seven cruisers and attacked the Allied covering force, taking them by surprise, and sinking one Australian and three USN cruisers and a destroyer. The attack was a model of boldness and initiative: the allied forces were disorganized (Crutchley and his flagship had been called away by his superior, Admiral TURNER). But Mikawa failed to follow up by


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attacking the virtually undefended transports, believing that he would risk exposing his ships to air attack. Mikawa held further commands in the southern area before retiring in May 1945.

Milne, Archibald (1855–1938) British: Admiral Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne, Bt, GCVO, KCB. In 1914, he was C-in-C Mediterranean, and has been anathematized (not too strong a word) ever since by naval historians as ‘the man who let the Goeben [see SOUCHON] get away in August 1914, thus indirectly bringing Turkey in with the Germans’, with all the implications of the Dardanelles’ debacle being laid at his door. This is oversimplistic, and he was given unqualified approval by the Admiralty for his actions. He entered the Navy in 1869; 1876, Lieutenant; 1884, Commander; 1891, Captain; 1904, Rear-Admiral; 1908, Vice-Admiral; 1911, Admiral. He spent much time as a junior officer on campaign ashore, being wounded at the battle of Ulundi (1879) after the British defeat at Isandlahwa in the Zulu War. In 1882, in Egypt, he was present at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. He spent eight of the next eighteen years in the royal yachts, ending up in 1904 as Flag Officer Royal Yachts. In between he held a series of good sea-going posts, mostly in flagships where, being under the immediate eye of the admiral, provided that your copybook stayed unblotted, the odds on your promotion would be pretty short. In addition to being popular with the royal family (GCVO 1912), he was reputed a competent officer, and his advancement up the flag list accompanied a series of sea commands in the variously named Atlantic, Channel and Home Fleets, 1905–10. But he backed BERESFORD in the FISHER-Beresford feud (Fisher called him ‘that backstairs cad’), and was unemployed, 1910–12. In 1914 he had a powerful squadron in the Mediterranean, but the best appreciations were that the Goeben would either try to escape to the west, or attack the transports carrying the French army from North Africa—the likelihood of her making for Turkey was barely considered, nor was there evidence to suggest that it should have been. In the event, Goeben did head east, evading the four armoured cruisers of the 1st Cruiser Squadron under Admiral Troubridge. But it was not clear that war had been declared, and although George BYNG had defeated the Spanish in the same waters in 1718 without benefit of a formal declaration of war, it ill behoves armchair critics to suggest that Troubridge should have attacked regardless. In the aftermath of the Goeben’s escape, a detailed investigation exonerated both Milne and Troubridge. The fact that Milne was not re-employed was not an implied criticism: there was no suitable post for an officer of his seniority—and anyway, Fisher was 1SL.


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Missiessy, Édouard (1756–1837) French: vice-amiral, le comte de Missiessy. At the Revolution in 1789, he was promoted faster than would have previously been the case, but he showed himself to be a competent admiral. His part in the Trafalgar campaign was less effective than it might have been, thanks to VILLENEUVE’S lateness. He entered the navy in 1766; 1777, enseigne de vaisseau; 1781, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1792, capitaine de vaisseau; 1793, contre-amiral; 1809, vice-amiral. His early fighting experience was on board the Vaillant, 64, under ESTAING in the West Indies and on the coasts of America. In 1783, towards the end of the war, he commanded a sloop, the Pygmée, captured by the British, and he was briefly a PoW. During the ten years of peace which followed, he served in the Baltic, introduced a new code of signals, and published a textbook on cargo-stowage. In 1793 he was arrested and imprisoned as a noble, but escaped to Italy. He returned in 1795, and was re-employed as assistant director of ship construction in Paris. In late 1804 he was given command of the Rochefort Squadron for Napoleon’s great enterprise. He carried his part out to the letter, slipping the British blockade, and reaching the West Indies. There he relieved French colonies, and captured or held to ransom British ones. But he received orders to return to France before he could rendez-vous with Villeneuve (who had been unable to break out of Toulon on schedule). He was (unreasonably) censured for his actions, but returned to active service commanding the squadron based in the Scheldt. There his actions were responsible for the repulse of the British expedition to Walcheren in 1809 (see STRACHAN). He became a count of the Empire in 1811, and in 1814 held Antwerp against the Allies. He transferred his allegiance to the Bourbon monarchy, and remained loyal during the 100 days in 1815. In the post-war period he was Préfet Maritime (local C-in-C) at Toulon, and a member of the Admiralty Council.

Mitscher, Marc A. (1887–1947) US: Admiral. He commanded USN task forces against Japan during WW2 in the Pacific. He was a part of the early development of aviation in the USN. He commanded the aircraft carrier USS Hornet during the battle of Midway in 1942, and was in charge of the US aircraft in the Solomon Islands theatre in 1943. He commanded the aircraft carrier elements of the Fifth Fleet during the attack on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in 1943. Mitscher commanded the US carrier force in the battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944. The battle, referred to as the ‘Marianas turkey shoot’, has been called the greatest carrier battle of WW2. During the first day of combat 373 Japanese planes were shot down. In addition the US pilots sank one carrier, damaged another, and sank two fleet oilers. After the US air strikes, many of the pilots were returning to their carriers at night, damaged and virtually out of fuel. Mitscher ordered the carriers to turn on all of their


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lights to facilitate the pilots’ finding their ships and their landings. He was credited with saving many lives by his astonishing decision. During the remainder of the war in the Pacific, Mitscher’s carrier task forces were instrumental in many additional victories. He graduated from the USNA in 1910, and his early assignments were concentrated in surface ships. He was designated Naval Aviator no. 33 in June 1916, and subsequent duty focused on naval aviation. In addition to Hornet, he commanded two naval air stations and several air units. He was promoted to Admiral in 1946 and was C-in-C Atlantic Fleet at the time of his death.

Moffett, William A. (1869–1933) US: Rear Admiral. He was among the early apostles of naval aviation. He was the first chief of the USN’s Bureau of Aeronautics, and as the head of that new Navy bureau, he became a vigorous advocate for the development of aircraft carriers and the technological developments needed for effective carrier operations at sea. He graduated from the USNA in 1890. His first assignment was in the screw steamer USS Pensacola, 1890–91. His subsequent assignments included duty in the cruisers USS Baltimore, USS Chicago and USS Charleston. Additional afloat duty included the battleships USS Kentucky, USS Maine and USS Arkansas. He was promoted to Commander in March 1914 and to Captain in 1916. During WW1 he was Commandant of the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, where he introduced major improvements in naval training. He was captain of the battleship USS Mississippi, 1918–20 and, after promotion to Rear Admiral in July 1921, he became chief of the new Bureau of Aeronautics. He served three successive four-year tours in that assignment, firmly establishing aviation as a major specialty in the Navy. While heading the Bureau of Aeronautics he accumulated the required 100 hours of flight time to qualify as a naval observer. He attended the London Naval Conference of 1930 and died in the crash of the airship Akron in 1933.

Momsen, Charles B. (1896–1967) US: Vice Admiral. He invented the Momsen Lung, a device that facilitated safe ascent from considerable ocean depths. In addition, he commanded both submarines and surface ships with great distinction during WW2. He graduated from the USNA in 1919 and served in battleships before qualifying as a submarine officer in 1921. Prior to WW2 he commanded three submarines and subsequently served in the Submarine Safety Test Unit from 1929 to 1932. During that duty he invented the Momsen Lung, frequently risking his life in deepwater testing of his device. Following a variety of assignments, including command of the cargo ship USS


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Sirius, he commanded Submarine Squadron Two, 1943–45. In that assignment he helped solve the faulty performance of his torpedoes, a problem that plagued the USN in early WW2, and led highly successful war patrols against the Japanese in the Pacific. During June-December 1944 he was assigned to the Office of the CNO. He then commanded the battleship USS South Dakota in numerous successful combat actions in the Pacific, 1944–45, including the first naval bombardment of the main Japanese island of Honshu. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in late 1945. After assignments that included command of the Naval Operating Base, Guam, and duty as Assistant CNO for Undersea Warfare, he commanded the Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet, 1951–53. After two years as Commandant, First Naval District he was commander of Joint Task Force Seven, 1954– 55. When he retired from active duty in September 1955 he was advanced to Vice Admiral on the basis of his combat service.

Monck, George (1608–70) English: General-at-Sea, the Duke of Albemarle. He is best known as a soldier, and as the man who with his army was instrumental in restoring Charles II to the throne in 1660. But he served briefly at sea under the Commonwealth, and later commanded the fleet during the Second Dutch War. He became a soldier at the age of seventeen, serving in Spain and France, and later in the Dutch service. By 1640 he was a Lieutenant-Colonel, back in the king’s service fighting the Scots. He served the king at the outbreak of the Civil Wars, was captured, and held in the Tower of London. With the wars over and the king a prisoner of Parliament, he took service in the Parliamentary army, to suppress a revolt in Ireland, and served the Commonwealth thereafter. In 1652 he was appointed a General-at-Sea, and served throughout the First Dutch War. He was called from the fleet to assist in restoring order in the capital after the Great Fire of London (1666), and in 1667 was ordered to augment the defences of the Thames and Medway to prevent any incursions by the Dutch. His plans may have been adequate, but their execution was not, and the Dutch under DE RUYTER humiliated the English. Monck, however, escaped censure. His first sea-fights were those off Portland and the Gabbard in 1653, where, although nominally equally in command with BLAKE, he was really learning an admiral’s business, but in the final battle of that war, Scheveningen, Monck was in sole command, and gained a decisive victory. In the Second Dutch War he was recalled to take command after the king had refused to let the DUKE OF YORK, as heir to the throne, return to sea after Lowestoft, and the 1st Earl of SANDWICH was in disgrace for the business of the Bergen prizes. So Monck and PRINCE RUPERT were joint commanders in 1666 for the Four Days’ Fight and the St James’s Day Fight. In both these fights, the English employed the tactics of the line with some success. The aftermath of these battles was less successful, with recriminations flying in Holland and England (PEPYS, as Sandwich’s protégé, was particularly


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outspoken about Monck). But Monck had shown that, to exercise successful command at sea, it was not absolutely essential to be a seaman born and bred. Skill in organization, leadership, and a sense for war-fighting and physical bravery were all part of the essential mix.

Monsarrat, Nicholas (1910–79) British: Lieutenant Commander, RNVR. He wrote The Cruel Sea, probably the finest novel of war at sea in any language. He obtained a degree in law, and published his first novel in 1934. In 1940 he volunteered to join the RNVR; 1941, Lieutenant; 1943, acting Lieutenant Commander. He served exclusively in convoy escorts, on the east coast of Britain, then in the North Atlantic, rising to command a corvette, HMS Shearwater, and later the frigate HMS Ettrick (MiD). While serving he wrote three books describing his experiences, Three Corvettes, and in 1951 published The Cruel Sea, an account of the battle of the Atlantic, told as fiction. Its unexaggerated realism made it an instant best-seller (see CUTHBERTSON and LOMBARD-HOBSON), and it has not yet been bettered.

Montagu, George (1750–1829) British Admiral, Sir George Montagu, GCB. He is sometimes loosely described as the man who could have stopped the French Revolutionary War in its tracks, but didn’t. In 1794, as a Rear-Admiral, he was tasked with intercepting the French grain fleet, the non-arrival of which might have caused the fall of the revolutionary government. While HOWE was engaging the covering French battle fleet, the convoy eluded Montagu and arrived safely. However, this is too simplistic.


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He entered the Navy via the old Naval Academy at Portsmouth in 1763; 1771, Lieutenant, appointed to his father’s flagship; 1773, Commander (blatant nepotism); 1774, Captain (ditto), 1794, Rear-Admiral, 1795, Vice-Admiral; 1801, Admiral. He showed himself to be a competent frigate captain, winning two single ship actions, in 1779 and 1780, and went on to command a third-rate in 1790. Newly promoted in April 1794, and third-in-command of Howe’s Grand Fleet, he took a squadron to escort an outward-bound convoy to Cape Finisterre, with orders to cruise to the westward until 20 May, with intent to intercept the grain convoy. Despite staying on station longer, and making a number of captures, he failed to find the French grain ships, and returned to Plymouth. He was ordered out again, without knowing of Howe’s battle on 1 June, nor of his intentions. Off Brest he met the returning, much-mauled French fleet, but judging that they were superior in force (as they were, numerically), rather than engaging them, he tried to draw them back towards Howe. But the French refused to be drawn and returned to Brest, and the grain ships also made port safely. There were no recriminations and Montagu was promoted in the normal course through the flag list. There had clearly been some official doubts as to his conduct in 1794, because at one time ST VINCENT refused to employ him, but that was apparently resolved, and he spent five and a half successful years as C-in-C Portsmouth (1803–09), reaching the top of the admiral’s list, and being appointed GCB in 1815 at the end of the war.

Montagu, John see SANDWICH, 4TH EARL OF Montmorency, Henri, duc de (1595–1632) French: amiral de France et de Bretagne. As a member of one of the older noble families of France, he was a godson and protégé of Henri IV. In 1612 (Montmorency being then seventeen) Louis XIII made him admiral of France and Brittany and Viceroy of Canada. He supported his king through the troubled years of Marie de Medici’s regency, and took his position as admiral seriously, setting himself to organise a maritime administration with an embryo technical committee and secretariat, features which were later tried by RICHELIEU and put into practice by COLBERT. In 1624 he set up a navy Council, not unlike the English Navy Board, but he fell foul of Richelieu, the ambitious centralizer, who had him stripped of his positions and took them on himself. Montmorency had shown an aptitude for war, and had taken part in campaigns on land in the south of France. In 1625 he took command of a squadron of Dutchbuilt vessels and


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routed the Huguenot squadron from La Rochelle, paving the way for the fall of the town. After being stripped of his admiralcy he fought ashore, and in 1630 won a victory at Avigliana in Piedmont, and was made a Marshal of France. He then conspired against Richelieu, was beaten in the battle of Castelnaudry, where he was wounded, captured, and afterwards executed.

Moore, Graham (1764–1843) British: Admiral Sir Graham Moore, GCB, GCMG, (and the brother of Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, killed at Corunna in 1809). He commanded a small frigate squadron which in 1804 (and before war had been declared) took a Spanish squadron, laden with treasure to the value of $3,500,000, which was condemned as prize, making him an extremely rich man. He entered the Navy in 1777; 1782, Lieutenant; 1790, Commander; 1794, Captain; 1812, Rear-Admiral; 1819, Vice-Admiral; 1837, Admiral. Moore’s early career was not remarkable, other than for the continuous seatime which naval officers did during the French wars. As captain of the Syren, 24, and later Melampus, 42, between 1794 and 1800, he spent most of his time in home waters in STRACHAN’S and WARREN’S squadrons, harrying French trade and protecting British trade against privateers. Melampus took part in the action of 1798, in which Warren defeated Bompart’s squadron which was attempting an invasion of Ireland, and shortly afterwards Moore took the French Résolue, of equal force (though unable to use her damaged main-deck guns), but carrying 500 men on board. When war broke out once again between Britain and France in 1803, he was appointed to the Indefatigable, 46, under CORNWALLIS, off Brest. He was detached with three other frigates to intercept a Spanish treasure squadron off Cadiz: intelligence said that the specie was intended for France. Moore made a peaceful approach, but the Spanish admiral refused to yield to a nominally equal squadron, and a sharp fight followed. Three of the Spanish ships were captured, and the fourth blew up. Moore continued at sea throughout the war: he commanded the Marlborough, 74, under Strachan at Walcheren in 1809, where he blew up the arsenal and sea-defences of Flushing. He was briefly C-in-C in the Baltic in 1812. In the postwar years he was a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, 1815–19, C-in-C Mediterranean, 1820–23, and C-in-C Plymouth, 1839–42.


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Moorer, Thomas H. (1912–2004) US: Admiral. He was the only US naval officer in history to have served as both CNO and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was C-in-C Pacific Fleet, 1964–65, during the beginning of the Vietnam War. He was a member of the USNA class of 1933 and was designated a naval aviator in 1936. His early career included assignments with fighter, bombing and patrol squadrons. In February 1942 during WW2 in the Pacific, he was shot down and wounded in the Arafura Sea. When the freighter that picked him up with his crew was sunk, he navigated their lifeboat to an island where they were rescued. He commanded Bombing Squadron 132 stationed in Key West, Florida, during the battle of the Atlantic. He advanced to Captain in 1950 and subsequently served in a variety of senior staff and command assignments, including command of the seaplane tender USS Salisbury Sound. He was advanced to Rear Admiral in July 1957, and his assignments included duty as Director, Long Range Objectives Group on the staff of the CNO and command of Carrier Division Six in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. After ad vancement to Vice Admiral in June 1964 he was C-in-C Pacific Fleet, and Commander of the NATO and US Atlantic Command. He served as CNO, 1967–70, and was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1970–74. He retired from active duty in July 1974, and as a civilian continued to speak out on national issues and against cuts in US naval forces.

Moreell, Ben (1892–1978) US: Admiral. He founded the ‘Seabees’, famed naval construction battalions of WW2. He graduated from Washington University with a civil engineering degree in 1913 and entered the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps in 1917 as a Lieutenant, Junior Grade. He underwent his naval indoctrination at the USNA and served in the public works department at the Punta Delgada Naval Base in the Azores during WW1. He was plant engineer at the Squantum Destroyer and Submarine Base in Massachusetts, 1919–20. During the following decade-and-a-half he served in a wide variety of engineering assignments that included duty as public works officer, plant engineer, design manager, and project manager of shipbuilding and repair facilities. He was Project Manager in the Bureau of Yards and Docks and Public Works Officer at the Pearl Harbor Navy base, 1935–37. In December 1937 he was advanced to Rear Admiral and appointed Chief of Bureau and Chief of Civil Engineers. In December 1941 he established the US Naval Construction Battalions. That organization quickly grew to a WW2 force of 250,000 construction and engineering specialists, with a reputation for being able to join in combat action when necessary. By the end of the war Moreell’s construction battalions


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were located at more than 900 installations around the world. He was promoted to Vice Admiral in February 1944 and Admiral in June 1946. He was the first staff corps officer to achieve that rank.

Morison, Samuel Eliot (1887–1976) US: Rear Admiral. He was a noted naval historian and author who wrote or edited more than twenty-five books on maritime subjects. His Admiral of the Ocean Sea and John Paul Jones: A Sailor’s Biography, won Pulitzer Prizes. Morison held bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. He served briefly in the US Army in WW1 and was commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve in May 1942, when he was assigned to write the naval history of WW2. As part of that assignment he was provided with an unusual set of orders that authorized him to travel virtually anywhere in the world for his material. He sailed in eight warships, including a coastguard cutter, destroyer, light cruiser, heavy cruiser, battleship and torpedo boats. He advanced to Commander in 1944 and Captain in late 1945. Following WW2 he wrote the fifteen-volume History of US Naval Operations in World War II, which was published as the abridged one-volume The Two-Ocean War in 1963. He retired from active duty with the rank of Rear Admiral in the US Naval Reserve in August 1951. He was a member of the Harvard faculty for more than fifty years, and the guided-missile frigate USS Samuel Eliot Morison was named in his honour.

Morris, Robert (1734–1806) American: Continental Navy Commssioner. He was a Philadelphia capitalist who advocated a strong navy during the American Revolutionary War. He was born in Liverpool, England, and at the age of thirteen settled in Oxford, Maryland. During December 1776, when other members of the Continental Congress fled from Washington DC to Baltimore to escape the British Army of General Cornwallis, he remained and virtually ran the infant American Navy. He was appointed the first Secretary of Marine when that office was created on 18 February 1781 and held the position until November 1784, a low point for the struggling Continental Navy. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety in 1775, member of the Continental Congress, 1775–78, and, although he held out hope for a reconciliation with Britain, he eventually was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Morris also was Superintendent of Finance under the Articles of Confederation, 1781–84, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and served in the Senate, 1789–95.


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He founded the Bank of North America, the first government-backed bank of the United States, and declined an offer from George WASHINGTON to serve as his Secretary of the Treasury. In addition to the crucial role he played in the establishment of a Continental Navy, he is credited with being a critical factor in financing the Continental Army, frequently relying on his personal credit to pay for military supplies. Much of Morris’s fortune was dissipated in land speculation, and he was imprisoned for debt, 1798–1801, and died in poverty and obscurity.

Mountagu (or Montagu), Edward see SANDWICH, IST EARL OF Mountbatten, Louis (1900–79) British: Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO. He was the younger son of Admiral Prince Louis of BATTENBERG. His father’s ousting from the post of 1SL at the start of WW1 had a powerful effect on the young Mountbatten, who determined to fill the position himself. To his juniors, and those who served in the ranks under him, he was a charismatic leader. To his equals, and fellow commanders, he was a self-publicist, not without ability, but his nickname Tricky Dickie’ says it all (he was known to his intimates as Dickie). He entered the RN in 1913 via Osborne and Dartmouth; 1922, Lieutenant; 1932, Commander; 1937, Captain; (1942, acting Vice-Admiral/Lieutenant-General/ Air Marshal); (1943, acting Admiral); 1946, Rear-Admiral; 1949, Vice-Admiral; 1953, Admiral; 1956, Admiral of the Fleet. He served briefly in the Grand Fleet, 1916–17, and was one of the young officers who spent eight months at Cambridge University after the war. He qualified in signals in 1923, and spent the years 1927–32 in signals appointments. In 1934 he commanded the destroyer Daring in the Mediterranean, and in 1936 went to the Admiralty to serve in the Naval Air Division. In 1939 he took command of the new destroyer Kelly, as Captain (D) 5th Destroyer Flotilla, where he earned a reputation for bravery and daring rashness, but as a poor ship handler. The flotilla served with the Home Fleet, 1939–41, during which time Mountbatten earned more than one MiD and the DSO. CHURCHILL approved his attacking spirit, but his naval superiors thought him unnecessarily hard on ships. Later in 1941, off Crete, Kelly succumbed to the attacks of German dive-bombers. This period of Mountbatten’s life was later turned into an inspiring film of faction, In Which We Serve, by Noel Coward. (For a long time it was shown to new entrants to Dartmouth on their first night there.) In late 1941 Churchill selected Mountbatten to become Advisor on Combined Operations to the Chiefs of Staff, and six months later to become Chief of Combined


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Operations, as an acting Vice-Admiral, etc. His organization was blamed for the debacle at Dieppe, though many of the decisions which caused it were not his. In the long term, his organization contributed to the success of the Normandy landings in 1944. In 1943 he was made Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, again raising the hackles of senior, more experienced commanders, in particular SOMERVILLE, but navally his command was now a backwater, with all the emphasis on the USN’s drive across the Pacific to defeat Japan. In the aftermath of the war, Mountbatten had to clear up in Southeast Asia, and his left-wing views did not endear him to the returning colonial powers, though in the long term his ideas have prevailed. In Britain’s case, the independence of India, and its partition, was decided and Mountbatten was appointed as the last Viceroy to oversee the transition. In 1948 he returned to the RN as a Rear-Admiral, and advanced smoothly through command of a cruiser squadron to second-in-command, Mediterranean Fleet, then to 4SL, then back to the Mediterranean as C-in-C and the NATO appointment of CINCAFMED. Finally, in 1955, he attained his ambition, becoming 1SL. He had to justify naval expenditure (which had not shrunk as much as expected after WW2, due to the Cold War and the Korean War) during a range of defence cuts. By and large he succeeded, setting the shape of the RN in the early post-colonial years. He went on to be CDS for six years, 1959–65, with the task of unifying and streamlining the British Defence Organization. He did not complete the task, and he certainly alienated many of the single-service chiefs, but the work he set in train has served Britain well for the last forty years. He became something of an ‘elder statesman’ until he was murdered by the IRA in a singularly pointless act of terrorism.

Müller, Karl von (1873–1923) German: Kapitän zur See. He commanded the light cruiser Emden in a highly successful raiding career at the outbreak of WW1, until she was caught by HMAS Sydney off the Cocos Islands. A landing party from the ship under the First Lieutenant, von Mücke, made a remarkable return to Germany. Von Müller joined the KM in 1891; 1894, Leutnant zur See; 1903, Kapitän-leutnant; 1908, Korvettenkapitän; 1914, Fregattenkapitän. At the outbreak of WW1, Emden was at the German base at Tsingtao. Von Miiller rejoined VON SPEE, but was ordered to operate separately in the Indian Ocean, taking supplies where he could. For three months he evaded the hunting forces (mostly British, but also French, Russian and Japanese): he sank two warships (one Russian, one French) and fifteen merchant ships: he captured five more, retaining them as supply ships, and a further two which he released to take the crews of his prizes to freedom. He bombarded Madras and Penang, and altogether caused the British a major headache: the sailings of the Australian and New Zealand troop convoys were delayed while he was on the loose. His final act was to attempt to destroy the cable and wireless relay station on Cocos Island. But the operators got a warning signal away, and the cruiser HMAS Sydney


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intercepted it. Emden was caught with many of her crew ashore, and was driven ashore, and burnt. Von Miiller was captured and became a PoW in Malta. He suffered from malaria, and was repatriated to Germany, via Holland, in 1918.

Murray, Leonard (1896–1971) Canadian: Rear-Admiral, CB, CBE. Murray was one of the tiny band of professionals in the RCN between the wars, and had reached the rank of Captain in 1938. He went on to become the only Canadian to command an Allied theatre of war during WW2. He entered the RCN (first class of the Royal Canadian Naval College) 1911, and spent three years of WW1 as Mid-shipman and Sub-Lieutenant in Canadian and West Indian waters, in RCN and RN ships; 1917, Lieutenant; 1929, Commander; 1938, Captain; 1941, Rear-Admiral. In 1917 he served in HMS Agincourt in the Grand Fleet. He subsequently qualified as a navigator with the RN, and served in HMCS Aurora. He commanded HMCS Saguenay, 1932–34, and in 1939 became Director of Operations and Training, and later DCNS. In 1940 he took up the RCN’s senior seagoing command as Commodore Commanding Halifax Force (broad pendant in HMCS Assiniboine). From June 1941 he became Commodore Commanding Newfoundland Force, a mixed RCN/RN force of some fifty ships operating from St John’s. After a move to Halifax in 1942, he became Commander-in-Chief Canadian Northwest Atlantic with authority over all naval and air forces, including USN, within his area. By this time the RCN had expanded, to become by the end of the war the third largest navy in the world, and Murray’s contribution to the Allies’ success in the battle of the Atlantic was considerable. Unhappily his career ended ‘not with a bang, but a whimper’. On VE day there were riots in Halifax, which involved RCN personnel, and Murray was held responsible, and ordered to haul down his flag. Subsequently he moved to the UK, and became a barrister.

Muselier, Émile (1882–1965) French: vice-amiral. A most experienced sea-going commander, he was General de Gaulle’s commander of the Free French Naval Forces from 1940 onwards. He entered the naval college in 1899, and spent a commission in the Far East, 1902– 05, partly on the hydrographic survey of Indo-China; 1912, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1922, capitaine de frégate; 1926, capitaine de vaisseau; 1933, contre-amiral; 1939, vice-amiral. After qualifying in gunnery in 1907, his career was largely bound up with that specialization. He was the junior officers’ instructor at the gunnery school, and in 1912 became gunnery officer of the armoured cruiser Edgar-Quinet. He spent the first two


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years of WW1 on the Western Front as a company commander in the marines, and then commanded a naval artillery battery, for which he earned two citations (MiD). Immediately after the war, commanding the sloop Scarpe, he took part in the operations in the Black Sea, and displayed conspicuous leadership qualities during the mutinies which affected the French squadron—his ship was untouched. He went on to command the destroyer Ouragan, 1925–26, the armoured cruiser Ernest-Renan, 1927– 28, and the battleship Bretagne, 1931–32. After promotion in 1933 he held a series of senior naval appointments ashore in North Africa, and commanded the second cruiser division with his flag in the Suffren. He was promoted to vice-amiral in 1939 and almost immediately retired, but joined General de Gaulle in London in July 1940, and set about creating the Free French Naval Forces, of which he was made C-in-C. His relationship with de Gaulle was tempestuous, and he was in and out of appointments (and favour) frequently, finally retiring in 1946. He later wrote two books in which he gave a blow-byblow description of his relationship with de Gaulle.

Myngs, Christopher (1625–66) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Christopher Myngs. He was a professional sea-officer of the Commonwealth and Restoration navies; one of the ‘tarpaulins’. He lost his life at the Four Days’ Fight against the Dutch in 1666. After learning his trade in coasters, he was Lieutenant in the Elizabeth in 1652, and after her captain was killed in an engagement with a Dutch ship, Myngs was promoted Captain in his place, and fought in the some of the battles of the First Dutch War. He continued to serve the Commonwealth well, being spoken of as being ‘of much valour, and has shown it again and again in several engagements and by the prizes he has taken’. He was in command of the Marston Moor, 54, in Jamaica at the Restoration, and seems to have made the transition without any fuss (his ship was renamed the York). In 1665 he was appointed a Vice-Admiral, and fought at the battle of Lowestoft, for which he was knighted. In 1665–66 he commanded the ‘winter guard’ (it was still customary to lay up the main fleet in winter), and ‘by sending ships out constantly to cruise about, he hath kept this coast very free from all the enemy’s men-of-war’. In 1666 he flew his flag in the Victory, 82, and at the start of the Four Days’ Fight was off to the west with PRINCE RUPERT’S squadron. On the fourth day, their squadron was able to join the fight, and in a particularly fierce engagement, Myngs was mortally wounded. PEPYS attended his funeral and, in one of the most moving passages in his diary, recorded how a dozen of Myngs’s crew volunteered to man a fireship to exact revenge for their admiral’s death.


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N Nagumo, Chuichi (1887–1944) Japanese: Chu-sho (Vice-Admiral—Admiral, post-humously). He commanded the First Naval Air Fleet which carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941), and which lost the battle of Midway (1942) (see FLETCHER and SPRUANCE). He was a most experienced commander, but lacked an appreciation of the full potential of air power. He joined the IJN in 1908; 1914, Tai-I; 1924, Chu-sa; 1929, Tai-sa; 1935, Sho-sho; 1939, Chu-sho. He was a more experienced sea-commander than most other Japanese admirals, having held two destroyer commands while a Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander. As a Commander he was sent to Europe and the USA to learn from other navies, and then held two more commands, of elderly gunboats, the Saga and Uji, in 1926–27. As a Captain, he commanded the cruiser Naka, 1929–30, the 11th Destroyer Division, 1931– 32, the cruiser Takao, 1933–34, followed by the battleship Yamashiro. In April 1941 he hoisted his flag in the carrier Akagi, and carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. This smashing blow to the US Pacific Fleet might have been more destructive had he chosen to launch a third wave of aircraft, which might have caught the American aircraft carriers on their return to base, and so altered the course of the Pacific war. But he did not, nor was he blamed for not so doing at the time. His force went on to attack British installations around the Indian Ocean, sinking two cruisers and the old aircraft carrier Hermes, and then returned to participate in the battle of Midway, where four of his aircraft carriers were sunk. It is generally held that it was an error of judgement on his part which led to the Japanese defeat. He went on to hold high sea command during the Guadalcanal fighting, where his forces inflicted, but also received, severe losses. In 1944 he was given command of the defences of Saipan in the Mariana Islands, but chose to commit suicide when it became plain that he would be responsible for another Japanese defeat.


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Nakhimov, Pavel (1802–55) Russian: Vitse-Admiral. He commanded the Russian Black Sea Fleet which destroyed the Turkish squadron under Osman Pasha at Sinope in 1853, thereby precipitating the Crimean War. In that war he was the Military Governor of Sebastopol, and was responsible for its defence. He entered the navy from the Marine Academy in 1818; 1822, Leitenant; 1827, Kapitan; 1845, Kontre-Admiral; 1852, Vitse Admiral. Nakhimov served on board the frigate Kreiser during a circumnavigation of the world, 1822–25, and in the Azov, 74, at the battle of Navarino. He was promoted for his services at the battle, and appointed to command a captured Turkish corvette, renamed Navarino. He remained in the Dardanelles till the end of the Russo-Turkish war in 1829. In 1853 he attacked a much weaker Turkish squadron in Sinope (today in Bulgaria), and despite a gallant resistance by the Turks, totally destroyed them. As C-in-C, he had the duty to obey orders from St Petersburg to scuttle his fleet to prevent the Allied fleets from attempting to enter the port of Sebastopol. And as Military Governor of Sebastopol, he so effectively organized the defences that they were able to hold out against the somewhat inept Allied besiegers for eighteen months. He was killed while inspecting the defences on Malakov Hill.

Nanda, Sardarilal (1915–) Indian: Admiral Sardarilal Nanda, PV, PVSM, AVSM. He was the Indian Navy’s CNS during the Second Indo-Pakistan War (1971), which resulted in a substantial Indian naval victory (against a weaker enemy). He joined the RINVR in 1941; 1942, Lieutenant; 1950, Commander; 1954, Captain; 1962 (acting), 1964 (confirmed) Rear-Admiral; 1968, Vice-Admiral; 1970, Admiral. He served as First Lieutenant of the cruiser Delhi, 1948–49, and commanded the destroyer Ranjit, 1951–53, and later a frigate squadron, and the cruiser Mysore. His shore appointments included Director of Personnel Services, 1949–51, and Chief of Personnel, 1954–57: he was later Director General Bombay Dockyard Expansion Scheme, and completed the Imperial Defence Course in London, and then became Chief of Material at Naval HQ. In 1962 he became DCNS, visiting the Soviet Union at the start of collaboration between the two navies: in 1964 he went to Mazagon Dock Ltd, Bombay, where he oversaw the Indian Leander frigate project successfully. In 1966 he became Flag Officer Commanding Indian Fleet, with his flag in the aircraft carrier Vikrant.


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In 1970 he became CNS. The 1971 Indo-Pakistan War saw the Pakistani navy made ineffective (though its submarine arm achieved some success), by Indian naval air power and the successful use of Russian-made ‘Styx’ missiles: as a result, the IN had complete control over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

Napier, Charles (1786–1860) British: Admiral Sir Charles Napier, KCB. He commanded the Baltic Fleet at the start of the Crimean War, promising, but not achieving, great things. But his earlier career had been successful, particularly in Portuguese service, although he was always an eccentric. He joined the Navy in 1799; 1805, Lieutenant; 1805, Commander; 1809, Captain; 1846, Rear-Admiral; 1853, Vice-Admiral; 1858, Admiral. As a Lieutenant he served under HOSTE and WARREN, and he earned distinction while commanding the brig Recruit, 18, in the West Indies, 1808–09. In 1809, while awaiting an appointment as a Captain, he went to Spain, and took part in Wellington’s victory at Busaco, and the subsequent retirement to the Lines of Torres Vedras (and thereafter esteemed himself as good a general as any). He then commanded the Thames, 32, and Euryalus, 36: in the former he harried enemy trade on the west coast of Italy, taking over eighty prizes; in the latter he operated on the south coast of France, taking another twenty-two. In 1814 he went to America, taking part in operations against Alexandria VA, and Baltimore. In 1829 Napier took command of the Galatea, 36, which was fitted with manpowered paddles: they were actually quite successful, compared to using sweeps, or towing by ships’ boats, but were immediately overtaken by the use of steam. In 1833 he took service under Dona Maria of Portugal, for the civil war against Dom Miguel. Napier defeated the latter’s fleet off Cape St Vincent, becoming a Portuguese viscount, and admiral. He went on to conduct a successful land campaign. In 1839 Napier reverted to British service, commanding the Powerful, 84, in the Mediterranean. As a commodore with a small squadron, he drove the Egyptians (in revolt against their Turkish overlords) from Beirut, but at the bombardment of Acre in 1840, Napier disobeyed his C-in-C’s orders, thereby jeopardizing the action. And later, again operating independently, he signed an unauthorized convention at Alexandria, which needed much diplomacy to rectify. However, he became C-in-C Channel Fleet, 1846–49, but then wrote a somewhat offensive book, The Navy, Its Past and Present. In 1854 (aged sixty-eight), amid great expectations, he was appointed to command the expedition to the Baltic, but the fortresses of Kronstadt and Helsingfors remained inviolable, and Napier was relieved, blaming everyone but himself. (He had earlier said; ‘Most men over sixty are too old for dash and enterprise’.)


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Narbeth, John (1863–1944) British: naval architect, J.H.Narbeth CB, CBE, MVO. He was the Senior Constructor responsible for the detailed design of the battleship Dreadnought, the ship whose name became synonymous with power at sea for half-a-century (though his superior, the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Phillip Watts, actually signed off the drawings, and would have been held responsible if the ship had not been the triumphant success that she was). He started as a shipwright apprentice in Pembroke Dockyard in 1877, and was selected to do a course of training at the RNC, Greenwich. In due course he became an Assistant Constructor in the RCNC. Under Sir William WHITE he was involved in the detailed design of the last pre-dreadnoughts, the King Edward VIIs (the ‘Wobbly Eight’), and the Lord Nelsons. He became a Chief Constructor in 1912, and Assistant Director of Naval Construction in 1919, and was involved in the planning and design of the first aircraft carriers, Hermes, Courageous and Glorious.

Nasmith, Martin (1883–1965) British: Admiral Sir Martin Dunbar-Nasmith, VC, KCB, KCMG. He was the third submarine captain to earn the VC in the Dardanelles campaign in 1915. He carried out three patrols inside the Sea of Marmora, but it was his first which captured everyone’s imagination, outdoing even the patrols by BOYLE and Holbrook. He sank eleven ships, and twice appeared off Constantinople, causing panic among the population He joined the Navy with Boyle in 1897, served in the same ship as a Mid-shipman, and joined submarines with him in 1904; 1905, Lieutenant; 1915, Commander; 1916, Captain; 1928, Rear-Admiral; 1932, Vice-Admiral; 1936, Admiral. He commanded various submarines in the years before the war, but it was in E.11 that he received Commodore KEYES’S order, ‘Go and run amok in the Marmora’. He had previously persuaded a pilot friend to fly him over the Dardanelles, and he conferred with Boyle before setting out. Transiting the Straits was comparatively uneventful, but his actions in the Marmora were like a boys’ adventure story. He chased a paddle-steamer ashore (to save torpedoes) and then engaged cavalry ashore with rifle fire. Torpedoes which missed were normally set to sink at the end of their run, and were lost. Nasmith had them set to float, and personally recovered at least one, which involved swimming to the torpedo, and disarming the pistol, before pushing it back into the tube. Off Constantinople, he conducted an interview with an Amer-ican journalist before sinking the ship in which the latter was sailing.


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On returning through the Dardanelles, he had kept two torpedoes for a battleship he hoped to find in the narrows: it wasn’t there, so he coolly turned back to sink a transport he had passed earlier. Then, in the narrowest part of the Straits, a mine became entangled with one of the forward hydroplanes: he could not surface within range of the Turkish guns, so he towed the mine for 11 miles, and finally cleared it by surfacing stern-first. All this brought him a VC and immediate promotion to Commander. His two later patrols sank (mostly) or disabled a battleship, a destroyer, a gunboat, six transports, and thirty-two assorted sailing and steam coasters. As a Captain he held a series of important commands, including that of the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, 1926–28. He had added Dunbar- to his name on his marriage in 1920. In 1928 he became Admiral (Submarines), the pinnacle of a submariner’s profession. He went on to become C-in-C East Indies, then 2SL, then C-in-C Plymouth, 1938–41. His final appointment was to relieve Boyle as Flag Officer, London, 1942–46.

Nelson, Horatio (1758–1805) British: Vice-Admiral Viscount Nelson, KB. He was, unquestionably, Britain’s greatest sea officer, a fact which was recognized during his lifetime. His two smashing victories over the French fleet, at the Nile (Aboukir Bay) and Trafalgar, confirmed beyond doubt a British mastery of the world’s oceans which lasted for 100 years. He entered the Navy in 1771; 1777, Lieutenant; 1778, Commander; 1779, Captain; 1797, Rear-Admiral; 1801, Vice-Admiral. He owed his start in the Navy to his uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling, later a Commissioner, and Comptroller of the Navy, but he regarded Captain William Locker, under whom he served in the Lowestoffe, 32, 1777–78, as his mentor. Part of his midshipman’s time was spent making two voyages to the West Indies in a merchantman, and in a brief and unsuccessful Arctic expedition: later he served in the Seahorse, 20, in the East Indies, where he contracted malaria, which recurred throughout his life. The Lowestoffe took him to the West Indies, where the C-in-C, Sir Peter PARKER, took him into his flagship as First Lieutenant, and soon promoted him into the brig Badger, and six months later to Captain, in the Hinchinbrooke, 28. In her, he took part in an unsuccessful attempt to invade and control what is now Nicaragua, resulting in Nelson being invalided home with malaria and dysentery. His next command was the Albemarle, 28, 1781–83, on convoy duty in the Baltic and across the Atlantic and on the North America Station where he first met Admiral Lord HOOD (3) and Prince William, later the Duke of CLARENCE. With the peace came unemployment, and he spent time in France (see BALL). Then, thanks to Hood, he commanded the Boreas, 28, in the West Indies, 1784–87, where his efforts to enforce the Navigation Acts, which inhibited the long-standing trade with the former American colonies, made him unpopular. Nelson, then as always, was motivated by what he saw as his duty, to be done without fear or favour. In 1787 he returned to England, and a period of half-pay.


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At the start of the French Revolutionary War in 1793, Nelson took command of the Agamemnon, 64, always his favourite ship, and participated in the blockade of Toulon, and made his first visit to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1794 he was wounded and lost the sight of his right eye at Calvi, in Corsica, while directing operations ashore. In 1795 the Agamemnon took part in both HOTHAM’S actions, and early in 1796 Nelson was appointed a Commodore. In June he transferred to the Captain, 74, and in February 1797 took a very prominent part in JERVIS’S victory at Cape St Vincent, where, by manoeuvring Captain out of the line of battle, he kept the divided Spanish fleet apart, enabling the rest of the fleet to come up. Nelson himself took the surrender of two firstrates. He received a knighthood, and shortly afterwards was promoted in the normal course, becoming a public figure. Later that year he hoisted his flag in the Theseus, 74, of Captain Miller. She was a happy ship, unaffected by the great mutiny, thanks to both Miller and Nelson, both of them humane men in a not-particularly-humane world (see PIGOT). In July 1797 Nelson over-reached himself and was repulsed by the Spanish at Santa Cruz in the Canaries, losing his right arm in the process (his life was saved by his stepson Josiah Nisbet, a Lieutenant in the Theseus). But as ever, duty called, and within six months he was back in the Mediterranean, under Jervis, to command a squadron watching Toulon. In May the French broke out, and Nelson searched back and forth the length of the Mediterranean, on one occasion unknowingly passing through the French fleet at night. He correctly deduced their destination as Egypt, but reached there first and not finding them, cast back, so it was not until 31 July 1798 that he caught up with them again. On 1 August he defeated BRUEYS in Aboukir Bay, being wounded in the process, but receiving a peerage. He returned to Naples and the adulation of all, especially Emma Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador. All 1799 was spent on the affairs of Naples, contrary to ST VINCENT’S and KEITH’S orders. Naples was invaded by the French, and evacuated but later recovered. Nelson was responsible for the execution of Admiral Caracciolo, a dissident who had supported the French, in an act which has always been held against him. After returning to Britain in 1800 he was appointed second-in-command to Admiral Hyde PARKER, to dissuade the Danes from supporting Napoleon, and thus denying Britain access to the vital naval stores from the Baltic. The resulting battle of Copenhagen was a slogging match of no tactical significance (though strategically important), but his refusal to obey Parker’s recall (‘I really do not see the signal’) showed his readiness to take action and responsibility for the situation as he read it. Later in 1801 he commanded naval forces in the Dover Straits, countering the threat of Napoleon’s first invasion attempt (see LATOUCHE-TRÉVILLE). At the outbreak of war again in 1803, he was appointed C-in-C Mediterranean (flag in the Victory, 100), and spent all 1804 blockading Toulon. In 1805 Napoleon set in motion his grand design to combine all the French and Spanish squadrons (Spain having joined France against Britain). Nelson, wishing to force a battle on the French, was content to let VILLENEUVE escape, and pursued him to the West Indies. There, bad intelligence prevented an encounter, and the pursuit returned to Europe, where Villeneuve met CALDER off Ferrol, and then went to ground in Cadiz. After returning briefly to Britain, Nelson resumed his command off Cadiz. When the Franco-Spanish fleet emerged on 20 October, the British were prepared, and on 21 October, with the combined fleet returning


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to Cadiz, Nelson’s fleet attacked in two columns, a tactical innovation. The resultant battle of Trafalgar, known by the nearest head-land on the Spanish coast, was a total victory, the Franco-Spanish fleet losing sixteen ships, with four more captured, out of thirty-three engaged. It was the end of the French hope of achieving anything at sea, and marked the start of Britain’s mastery of the world’s oceans. During the battle Nelson was shot by a marksman in the French Redoutable, 74, (see GUILLEMARD), and died some four hours later: among his last words were, ‘Thank God I have done my duty’. His body was brought home to Britain, and he was given a state funeral in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Nepean, Evan (1751–1822) British: Sir Evan Nepean, Bt. He was Secretary of the Admiralty, 1795–1804, and a Commissioner, 1804–06. All the Admiralty orders in the first period, for the disposition of the fleets under JERVIS, CORNWALLIS and NELSON, appeared over his signature. He entered the Navy as a clerk, but by 1776 he was a purser in the sloop Falcon, 14, on the coast of North America. In 1780 he became purser of the Foudroyant, 80, under the then-Captain Jervis. His next step was to become an admiral’s secretary: from there, he moved to become a civil servant, and in 1794 he became the Under Secretary for War. In 1795 he moved to the Admiralty, where he was an industrious and efficient Secretary, in the period when the Royal Navy was re-establishing its mastery over the French, which had arguably slipped at the end of the War of the American Revolution. He probably owed his position to Jervis’s influence, and it is quite likely that he was able to return the compliment when Jervis was appointed to the Mediterranean. He concluded his career as Governor of Bombay from 1812 to 1819.

Nicholson, Samuel (1743–1811) US: Continental Navy and USN Captain. He was one of the original six captains of the USN appointed by President WASHINGTON in 1794. He was number two in the order of seniority and served during the turbulent and often controversial birth of the USN. Nicholson supervised the construction in Boston of the 44-gun USS Constitution, launched in 1797. The ship was one of the original three frigates funded and constructed for the USN during the presidency of John ADAMS. In addition to successful operations against the British during the American Revolution, he served in the infant USN during the Quasi War with France, 1799–1801. During the latter war, Nicholson was in disfavour with the first Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin STODDERT, for devoting time to prize court proceedings while US merchant ships off the southern coast of the United States were left unprotected from French and British interference for a month. The


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destroyer USS Nicholson was named in honour of Nicholson and four other family members; the five represented service in the American Revolution, the Quasi War with France, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War.

Nimitz, Chester W. (1885–1966) US: Fleet Admiral. He was C-in-C Pacific during WW2. Along with General Douglas MacArthur, he is considered to be one of the two military leaders most responsible for the Allied victory in the Pacific during that war. Nimitz led the sweeping US naval offensive from the Solomon Islands in 1942 to the north and west and ultimately to the Japanese Islands in 1944. He graduated from the USNA in 1905, and his early assignments included duty in a battleship and a cruiser and command, as an Ensign, of the gunboat USS Panay in the Philippines area in 1907. Following command of Panay, and while still an Ensign, he commanded the destroyer USS Decatur, which ran aground. Following a court-martial reprimand in 1908, he underwent submarine training in 1909 and commanded the submarine USS Plunger. He subsequently advanced to Lieutenant, skipping the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade, and commanded the submarine USS Narwhal and the Atlantic Fleet’s Third Submarine Division. During assignments that included staff duty and command of Submarine Division 14 and the submarine tender USS Chicago, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1917 and Commander in 1921. During subsequent assignments he was promoted to Captain in September 1927 and command of the cruiser USS Augusta from 1933 to 1935, Cruiser Division Two in 1938, and Battleship Division One, 1938–39. Nimitz was promoted to Rear Admiral in July 1938. In December 1941 he was promoted to Admiral, again skipping a rank, and was named C-in-C Pacific Fleet. In April 1942 he was named C-in-C Pacific Ocean Areas, and in that role he shaped the transition from defence to offense in the Pacific war against Japan. In 1944 he advanced to the five-star rank of Fleet Admiral. Following WW2 he was CNO, 1945–47, and a strong defender of the efficacy of naval forces in the political arguments over the shaping of the post-WW2 US military. After retirement from active duty in 1947 he continued to speak out on the importance of a strong Navy during the administration of President Truman, which generally did not favour the Navy. He served as an ambassador to the United Nations and was a regent of the University of California. The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was named in his honour.


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Nitze, Paul H. (1907–) US: Secretary of the Navy. He served in that position from 1963 to 1967, during the presidency of Lyndon JOHNSON. A principal focus in that position was to address quality-of-life issues for Navy personnel and their families. Among his many reforms were the establishment of the Personnel Policy Board, increased command responsibility, and pay and targeted personnel bonuses to encourage retention. In various other positions, including Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1967–69, member of the US delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, 1969–73, Assistant Secretary of Defense, 1973– 76, and the chief US negotiator of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, 1981– 84, he was a principal architect of US Cold War strategy. An honours graduate of Harvard University, he was a highly successful investment banker before entering government service in 1941. After various government positions he was appointed Deputy Director of the State Department policy planning staff in 1949, and the following year he became Director of that staff. In that office he was a major force in increasing US expenditures to counter the military build-up of the Soviet Union. Following subsequent non-government foreign policy positions, he was appointed an Assistant Secretary of Defense in 1961 and then Secretary of the Navy in 1963 by President KENNEDY. After serving as Secretary of the Navy he was Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1967–69 and became President REAGAN’S principal negotiator for the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The Aegis destroyer USS Nitze is named in his honour.

Nixon, Richard M. (1913–94) US: thirty-seventh President (1969–74). He was President during a turbulent era that had farreaching impact on the US military. One of the most far-reaching actions of his presidency was ending the military draft and establishing the all-volunteer military force. Other noteworthy events of his five years in office included the end of the Vietnam War, improved diplomatic relations with China and the Soviet Union, and the landing on the moon by US astronauts in 1969. In August 1974, when he faced impeachment over the Watergate political scandal, he became the first US president to resign from that office. Following his resignation, President Gerald Ford issued a blanket pardon for him. He graduated from Whittier College in 1934 and earned a law degree from Duke University in 1937. He served as a ground officer in the US Naval Air Transport Command in the Pacific during WW2, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He served two terms in the House of Representatives, 1947–51, and the Senate, 1950–52, when he was selected by the Republican Party as its vice presidential candidate. He was


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Vice President, 1952–60, during the presidency of Dwight EISENHOWER, and was defeated by Senator John KENNEDY in the presidential election of 1960. He also was defeated in the 1962 campaign for Governor of California, before being elected President in 1968 by a narrow margin, and re-elected President in 1972 by one of the largest margins in US history. His book RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, was published in 1978.

Noble, Percy (1880–1955) British: Admiral Sir Percy Noble, GBE, KCB, CVO. He was the first half of the team which won the battle of the Atlantic, being C-in-C Western Approaches, 1941–42 (see HORTON). He joined the RN via the Britannia in 1894; as a Midshipman his captain reported that he was ‘dull and lazy’, but as a Sub-Lieutenant he was a member of the guard of honour for Queen Victoria’s funeral, and it is said that he made the suggestion that the frightened horses on the gun-carriage be replaced by sailors (but see also BATTENBERG). 1902, Lieutenant; 1913, Commander; 1918, Captain; 1929, Rear-Admiral; 1936, Vice-Admiral; 1939, Admiral. Noble commanded the destroyer Ribble, 1907–08, then specialized in signals, and served as First Lieutenant of the royal yacht Victoria and Albert, 1912–13. He was Executive Officer of the cruiser Achilles in the Grand Fleet, 1914–17, and then of the Courageous. As a Captain he commanded the cruisers Calliope and Calcutta, and the battleship Barham, and the Boys’ Training Establishments at Shotley and Gosport. His first Admiralty posting was as Director Naval Operations, 1928–29. As a flag officer Noble commanded the Second Cruiser Squadron in the Home Fleet, 1932–35, then became 4SL, when he was able to introduce a marriage allowance for officers (KCB 1936). In 1937 he became C-in-C China, with the difficult task of maintaining Britain’s rights in the face of Japanese aggression during their war with China. His work in Liverpool, 1941–42, lay mainly in organization. Resources for the battle were few, but the training he initiated (see STEPHENSON), and the escort group organization he introduced, created the weapon with which Horton, Frederic WALKER, GRETTON and others finally mastered the U-boat menace. He took particular care to liaise with RAF Coastal Command, an indispensable part of the British armoury. Noble spent the remainder of the war as Head of the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington, where his tact and sound sense were appreciated as the emphasis swung to the Pacific war. He played a substantial part in gaining US acceptance of the British Pacific Fleet as a significant player in the final act against Japan.


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Norris, John (1660–1749) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Norris. Although he never commanded in any major battle, he was an active sea-officer and commander for some seventy-three years. He entered the Navy in about 1672, one of the first King’s Letter Boys; 1689, Lieutenant; 1690, Captain; 1707, Rear-Admiral; 1708, Vice-Admiral; 1710, Admiral. At the 1688 revolution, he supported the future William III and became a follower of SHOVELL, serving under him in Irish waters in the Edgar, 70, and Monck, 60. He commanded a fireship at the defeat by the French at Beachy Head, and a year later was employed similarly in the Spy under RUSSELL at Barfleur and La Hogue, the British counterstrokes. In 1693 he was commanding the Sheerness, 32, in Shovell’s squadron, which was unable to save the Smyrna convoy from TOURVILLE’S force. Norris earned praise for successfully shepherding away the remnants. He commanded three further ships of force in the Mediterranean, 1694–97. In 1697 he was given a squadron to recapture the trading posts in Hudson’s Bay, taken by the French, but instead stayed in Newfoundland to protect it from a possible French attack, constrained to do so by a council of war. On return home, a court of inquiry was held, but he was exonerated through the influence of his patron Russell (then 1SL). He served under ROOKE at Cadiz (1702) and commanded the Orford, 70, and led the van squadron at the battle of Malaga (1704). In 1705 he was captain of the Britannia, 100, at Barcelona, for which he received a knighthood and a grant of 1,000 guineas. In 1707 he flew his flag in the Torbay, 80, under Shovell, and by luck or skill avoided being wrecked with the majority of the fleet in the Scillies. He served again in the Mediterranean and the Baltic, before being appointed C-in-C Mediterranean (1710). In 1714 he was sent again to the Baltic to protect British interests (which now included those of Hanover) in the Great Northern War, with Britain ranged with Denmark and Russia against Sweden. Norris served as deputy to Tsar PETER THE GREAT, but in 1718 the situation was reversed, and Norris was sent to support the Swedes against the tsar. In 1718 he became a Commissioner of the Admiralty and remained one until 1730. He was at sea again in 1721, at a time of tension with Spain, and in 1734 was made Admiral of the Fleet to command a fleet in support of Portugal against Spain. At the outbreak of war in 1739 he went to sea again as C-in-C Channel, but the first years of this war were something of a ‘phoney war’ in home waters. In 1743, as advisor on naval matters to the government, he warned of a French threat, but was disregarded. When the French did appear, he was sent to sea, but foul weather prevented a meeting of the fleets. When the government detached some of his ships to the Mediterranean, he resigned, thus ending his career.


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O O’Brian, Patrick (1915–2000) British: author of the ‘Jack Aubrey’ series of novels about the Royal Navy in the NELSON era. O’Brian is generally considered to be the finest exponent of this genre, which may be said to have started with MARRYATT (but see FORESTER). He was born with the name of Russ, but changed his name in 1945, taking his second Christian name as his first. He served briefly as a Pilot Officer in the RAF in 1934, but had started to write before then. He made a living as a writer of short stories, and during the war, being medically unfit for active service, drove an ambulance in London’s Blitz. After the war he moved to the south of France where he lived for the rest of his life, writing. His first real sea novel was published in 1956, The Golden Ocean, an account of ANSON’S voyage, and established the pattern of a hero, and ‘second hero’, which he followed in the ‘Aubrey’ series. These started with Master and Commander in 1967, and were initially more popular in the USA than in Britain, but gradually, as the series progressed, became more and more accepted throughout the English-speaking world. His novels are accurate in detail and in social overtones. They cannot be called ‘history’, but give a valid picture of the Royal Navy at the apogee of its power, being largely based on true exploits of many of the names found in this book, for example Master and Commander is based on Cochrane (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD). The series ends with Jack Aubrey flying his flag as a Rear-Admiral of the Blue.

O’Hare, Edward H. (1914–43) US: Lieutenant Commander. He was the USN’s first fighter pilot ace of WW2. In February 1942 he was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Lexington during a strike against the Japanese-held island of Rabaul. Flying his Grumman F4F Wildcat he was at one point the only fighter plane between a Japanese formation of nine twin-engine Mitsubishi G4M Betty bombers and his ship. He shot down five of the planes in minutes,


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blunting the Japanese attack and presumably saving Lexington. For his skill and courage he was awarded the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor. O’Hare was a member of the USNA class of 1937 and served initially in the battleship USS New Mexico. In May 1939 he earned his wings as a naval aviator and was assigned to fighter squadron VF-3 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga and later the carrier USS Enterprise, where he served under another noted naval aviator, then-Commander James THATCH. O’Hare was killed while flying a Grumman TBF Avenger in an action testing new night-flying tactics in the battle for the Gilbert Islands during the ‘Marianas Turkey Shoot’ in 1943. A Japanese bomber presumably shot him down, although there is evidence that he could have been the victim of friendly fire during that action. The destroyer USS O’Hare and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport were named in his honour.

O’Kane, Richard H. (1911–94) US: Rear-Admiral. He was one of the most successful WW2 submarine officers in the Pacific. As Executive Officer of the submarine USS Wahoo from May 1942 to July 1943, he participated in the sinking of sixteen Japanese ships, totalling more than 45,000 tons. In 1943 and 1944 he commanded USS Tang during five war patrols, carrying out rescue duty for downed flyers and sinking twenty-four enemy ships, totalling 93,800 tons. During the battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, Tang was sunk by one of its own malfunctioning torpedoes, and O’Kane was captured and imprisoned for the duration of the war. He was a member of the USNA class of 1934 and initially served in the cruiser USS Chester and the destroyer USS Pruitt before attending submarine school in 1938. Before WW2 he served in the submarine USS Argonaut, 1938–42. Following WW2 he commanded the submarine tender USS Pelias and Pacific reserve ships at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, 1946–48. He commanded Submarine Division Two, 1949– 50, and attended the Armed Forces Staff College, 1950–51. From 1951 to 1953 he taught at the Submarine School, New London, Connecticut, and after promotion to Captain served as commanding officer of the submarine tender USS Sperry, 1953–54. Subsequently he commanded Submarine Squadron Seven and was assigned to the Ships Characteristics Board in Washington DC, from 1956 to 1957. He retired from active duty as a Rear-Admiral in July 1957.

Oktyabrskiy, Fillip (1899–1969) Russian: Admiral Flota, Hero of the Soviet Union. He had operational commands from beginning to end of WW2, mostly in the Black Sea.


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He joined the navy in 1918, having taken part in the October Revolution (hence his name—he was born Ivanov). During the 1920s he was a political officer in the navy, but later passed through a higher naval school. He commanded MTB units in the Baltic and Pacific Fleets, 1928–39, and then became Commander of the Amur River Flotilla in 1939. (He commanded it again, 1943–44, possibly as a rest between more demanding appointments.) He commanded the Black Sea Fleet, 1941–43, and directed the defence of the major ports of Odessa and Sebastopol, both of which ultimately fell to the Germans, Odessa after a two and a half month siege in October 1941, and Sebastopol in July 1942. He again commanded the Black Sea Fleet, 1944–48. After WW2, he was First Deputy Commander of the Navy, 1948–52, and Chief of the Nakhimov Higher Naval School, 1957–60.

Oldendorf, Jesse B. (1887–1974) US: Admiral. He commanded a squadron of battleships that carried out one of the most successful surface actions of WW2 in the Pacific. In October 1944 he was ordered by Admiral KINKAID to deploy his six ships across the Surigao Strait. In the action, during which Oldenforf successfully ‘capped the T’, two Japanese battleships and two Japanese destroyers were sunk at the cost of a single hit on a US destroyer. In a historical twist, US battleships that had been put out of action in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were involved in Oldendorf’s victory. The Surigao Strait action was the last naval battle between surface ships fighting in a line formation. Oldendorf graduated from the USNA in 1909. His pre-WW2 career included a variety of sea and shore assignments. After promotion to Captain in 1939 he commanded the cruiser USS Houston, 1939–41. From 1941 to 1942 he served on the US Naval War College staff. In February 1942 he advanced to Rear Admiral and commanded the ArubaCuragao Caribbean Defense Sector. After additional senior staff and command assignments, he commanded Cruiser Division Four, leading fire support task groups in the Pacific. He advanced to Vice Admiral in December 1944 and commanded Battleship Squadron One and Battleship Division Four, providing fire support at Lingayen Gulf in early 1945. He commanded a special surface ship striking force based at Okinawa, and was wounded in a Japanese torpedo attack in August 1945. From 1945 to 1948 he commanded first the Eleventh Naval District and then the Western Sea Frontier. He retired from active duty as Admiral in September 1948.


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Ollivier, Blaise (1701–46) French: engineer and master shipwright. He and his two sons were notable shipbuilders for most of the eighteenth century, and were in a great measure responsible for the high reputation French warships had, not least among their British opponents. He was apprenticed in the dockyard service in 1716, and worked at Toulon, Rochefort and Brest, becoming known as a designer and builder of particularly handy ships. In 1737 he was sent by MAUREPAS to study shipbuilding in Holland and Britain, and on return began to apply the lessons learned. In due course his principles and standards were adopted throughout the French dockyards. He was not merely a shipbuilder, but an engineer, and was responsible for constructing batteries, ironworks, building docks, and for rebuilding the magazines at Brest after the destructive fires in 1742. Unhappily, he died young.

Orvilliers, Louis, comte d’ (1710–92) French: lieutenant-général. In 1778 he commanded the French fleet in the battle of Ushant, an indecisive battle, the only major engagement in European waters during the Wars of the American Revolution. He entered the navy in 1719; 1743, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1754, capitaine de vaisseau; 1764, chef d’escadre; 1777, lieutenant-général. He was present at the battle of Toulon in 1744, and his first command, in 1754, was the Nymphe, 26: his subsequent commands of the Belliqueux, 64, and Guerrier, 74, brought him no particular distinction. In 1772 he commanded the Alexandre, 64, which was a sea-training ship for officers and seamen, an advanced idea for the period. In 1777 he took command of the fleet at Brest, with his flag in the Bretagne, 110. In July 1778, Augustus KEPPEL was out, seeking an engagement. Orvilliers seems to have had no pre-determined aim, his instructions from Paris being unclear, but he indicated that he would not refuse a battle unless the enemy proved to be too superior. The fleets met 100 miles west of Ushant, and both sides claimed the resulting action as a success, if not a victory, neither losing a ship. In both fleets, the actions of subordinate commanders were held to have inhibited greater success. Next year, the Spanish having declared war on Britain, Orvilliers was given command of the combined fleets, for an invasion of England. The plan was similar to that for the Great Armada two centuries earlier, except that the troops were to come from Le Havre. But the dilatoriness of the Spaniards, bad preparation and the crippling effects of illness


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in the French fleet all combined to make the event a fiasco, and absolutely nothing was achieved. This lack of success caused his resignation later that year.

Ouvry, John (1896–1992) British: Commander, DSO. He was a sea-mining specialist who, in 1939, was the first to render safe and dismantle a German magnetic mine of the type which had closed the port of London and halted all east coast shipping. CHURCHILL ordered that one must be recovered at all costs. He joined the Royal Navy in 1909 and, as a Midshipman in the battle cruiser Tiger was present at the battles of the Dogger Bank and Jutland. As a Sub-Lieutenant he was the Mining Officer in the minelaying cruiser Inconstant, which earned a high reputation for doing that job; 1918, Lieutenant; 1941, Commander. He qualified in torpedo in the Vernon and in 1923 became a mining instructor in the torpedo school. After serving as the Torpedo Officer in the Benbow, he became an instructor in HMS Defiance, the Devonport Torpedo School, and later was loaned to the RAN to run their Torpedo School in HMAS Flinders. In 1932 he returned to the UK to work on the development of British mines. He was not in the mould of great seacaptains, and was content to be a ‘backroom boy’, but by 1939 there was no-one with greater knowledge of mines of all types, so when two German magnetic mines were dropped onto mud flats in the Thames Estuary in November 1939, he was sent for, and in forty nerve-wracking minutes disarmed the first mine, for which he was awarded the DSO. Many considered he should have received the VC, but the official explanation was that a VC had to be earned ‘in the face of the enemy’: to which the riposte was that a 1,000-pound mine constituted a pretty fair enemy. He was promoted, but remained a ‘back-room boy’ for the remainder of his career.


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P Palliser, Hugh (1723–96), British: Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, Bt. A ‘political’ admiral of the mid-eighteenth century, Palliser was nonetheless an experienced sea-officer. He entered the Navy in 1735 in his uncle’s ship Aldborough, 20. 1741, Lieutenant; July 1746, Commander; November 1746, Captain; 1775, Rear-Admiral; 1778, ViceAdmiral. Palliser was present at the battle off Toulon, 1744, in Essex, 64. He and other officers accused their captain, Norris, of cowardice: the latter fled before his courtmartial could take place. Palliser commanded Captain, 70, and Sutherland, 50, in the West Indies. In the latter he was wounded severely: after sick-leave, he commanded Sheerness, 24, in the East Indies under BOSCAWEN. He was employed at sea throughout the Seven Years’ War, taking part in the capture of Quebec (1759) under SAUNDERS. He was GovernorGeneral of Newfoundland, 1764–69, employing COOK, whose talents he valued highly, to survey the coasts of Newfoundland and the mouth of the St Lawrence. He was Controller of the Navy, 1770–75, receiving a baronetcy in 1773. He became a Commissioner of the Admiralty in 1775, and in 1778 was appointed third-in-command of the Grand Fleet, in HMS Formidable, 90, under Augustus KEPPEL, while remaining a Commissioner. At the battle of Ushant (July 1778), he was dilatory in responding to signals, but Keppel made no adverse comment in his report to the Admiralty. Five months later a newspaper claimed that the inconclusive result of the battle was due to Palliser’s failings. When Keppel refused to issue a contradiction, Palliser sought Keppel’s court-martial, using his position as Commissioner to pack the court. Keppel was acquitted, the court declaring the charges ‘malicious and ill-founded’. Palliser then demanded his own courtmartial, to clear his name. He was acquitted, though not unanimously, and retired shortly afterwards. It seems that he was a capable and brave officer, whose wound had made him irascible: but a man who had served with distinction under such demanding chiefs as Boscawen, ANSON and Saunders, and who championed Cook, cannot have been all bad. Somewhat ironically, in the 1950s the Royal Navy named two frigates of the same class Keppel and Palliser.


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Parker, Douglas (1919–2000) British: Rear-Admiral Douglas Parker, CB, DSO, DSC, AFC. As a young Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot, he was described by his C-in-C VIAN as ‘an outstanding leader… whose enthusiasm…and utter disregard of intense anti-aircraft fire in his desire to get to grips with the enemy, were an inspiration to all’. He went on to become a most able peacetime naval officer and ship’s captain. He trained as a chartered surveyor, but joined the RNVR in 1940; 1943, Lieutenant; in 1946 he transferred to the RN; 1954, Commander; 1959, Captain; 1969, Rear-Admiral. Parker’s first operational flying was in the Mediterranean on Malta convoys, when he shot down his first enemy aircraft. He took part in the North African landings in November 1942, and at Salerno nine months later. In 1944 he took command of 1845 NAS, equipped with the new Corsair fighter, which Parker had test-flown for the RN. They were sent out to the Pacific in 1945, where he transferred to command of 1842 Squadron, in HMS Formidable. They attacked airfields in the Sakishima Gunto, and on one sweep sank a destroyer and a large freighter. For his leadership and achievements he was awarded the DSO and then the DSC. In 1946 he became a test pilot, receiving the AFC after testing sixty-four different types of aircraft. After serving as the First Lieutenant of St Austell Bay and commanding a squadron of jet Sea Hawks, he commanded the destroyer Cavendish in 1954. As a Captain, he commanded the aircraft carrier Hermes, 1967–69. His final appointment was in the MoD as ACNS (Operations and Air), 1969–71.

Parker, Hyde (1739–1807) British: Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, Bt. It is confusing enough trying to disentangle the assorted Parkers who were more or less contemporaries of one another: it is made worse by the fact that there were three Hyde Parkers in the same period, and a fourth later (all being sons one of another). This is the second, who was NELSON’S superior at Copenhagen (1801), whose signal to withdraw produced the ‘blind eye’ incident. He went to sea in 1751; 1758, Lieutenant; 1762, Commander; 1763, Captain; 1793, Rear-Admiral; 1796, Vice-Admiral. In 1775 he was appointed to the Phoenix, 44, on the North American Station under HOWE. In her, commanding a small squadron, he executed a neat action to prevent the Americans passing supplies down the North River (against defences designed by Benjamin Franklin), and received a knighthood. In 1778 his ship participated in the successful action at Savannah, but was wrecked while returning to Jamaica. In 1781, commanding the Latona, 38, he served under his father at the inconclusive action against the Dutch on the Dogger Bank. He had little employment in the gap 1783–93 (he succeeded to his father’s baronetcy in 1782) but in 1793 was sent to the Mediterranean, where he took part in most of the


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actions under HOOD (3) and HOTHAM. In 1796 he became C-in-C Jamaica, where his cruisers took many prizes, enriching their crews—and the Admiral. In 1800 he was given command of the squadron to persuade the Baltic nations of the Armed Neutrality to resist Napoleon’s ordinances, with Nelson as his second-incommand. Parker refused to follow Nelson’s suggestion that they by-pass Copenhagen, to strike directly at Russia, the leader of the confederation, but agreed to let him take part of the fleet to batter the Danes into submission. So while Nelson’s ships wore down the stubborn Danes, Parker remained at anchor two miles away. Even after the victory, he still would not penetrate further into the Baltic, being nervous about his lines of communication. It has never been suggested that timidity was the cause of his inaction: rather, old age, and lack of vision. He was superseded shortly afterwards by Nelson, and was not employed further.

Parker, Peter (1721–1811) British: Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Peter Parker, Bt. In addition to the three Hyde Parkers in the period (c.1725–1854) there were a number of other Parkers. His career was not particularly distinguished, but he was responsible for the early advancement of NELSON. His early career is not correctly recorded, but he seems to have been at the battle of Toulon in 1744; 1747, Captain; 1777, Rear-Admiral; 1779, Vice-Admiral; 1787, Admiral; 1799, Admiral of the Fleet. Parker served without particular distinction throughout the Seven Years’ War, and was knighted (for no discernible reason) in 1772. In 1775 he was made a commodore, and escorted a squadron carrying troops to support a loyalist rising in South Carolina, but was delayed by storms. He decided to attempt an attack with ships alone, and was repulsed, losing the Actaeon, 28, which grounded and had to be abandoned. His failure was due more to the resolve of the Americans than any lack of competence on Parker’s part. In 1777 he became C-in-C at Jamaica, where he made NELSON a Commander, setting him on the first steps of the promotion ladder. After returning home in 1782 he never served at sea again, though he was C-in-C Portsmouth, 1794–96. He had received a baronetcy in 1783, and was an MP from 1784 to 1790. He was made Admiral of the Fleet (seniority) on HOWE’S death, and was chief mourner at Nelson’s funeral. His son Christopher rose to be a Vice-Admiral, and Christopher’s son was killed as a captain in 1814.

Parker, William (1781–1866) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Parker, GCB. He was the last of NELSON’S captains to remain on the active list, and nominated ‘Jacky’ FISHER for his cadetship in 1854.


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He entered the RN in 1793 and was present at the battle of the Glorious First of June; 1799, Lieutenant; 1799, Commander; in 1799, serving in the West Indies, he was made acting Captain of the Volage, 24, (aged only eighteen); 1801, Captain; 1830, RearAdmiral; 1841, Vice-Admiral; 1851, Admiral; 1863, Admiral of the Fleet. On one occasion, in 1801, a courtmartial had to be convened, and by law, all postCaptains in the port had to sit on it. But also by law, persons under the age of twenty-one could not sit in judgement. Solution: send him to sea. He was lucky enough to be employed during the Peace of Amiens in Alarm, 24, and in 1803 was moved to Amazon, 38, which he commanded for nine years. She was one of the few frigates Nelson had in his chase after VILLENEUVE, but remained in the West Indies when the French were chased back to Europe. In 1806, under WARREN, Parker was involved in the taking of Marengo, 74, and Belle Poule, 40, the latter striking to the Amazon. He was then employed continuously on Spanish coasts, supporting Wellington’s army; unexciting but vital work. He went ashore in 1812 and refused further employment until 1827, when he was offered command at the Cape of Good Hope as a commodore. He refused the offer, saying that he held that no senior officer could properly command a fleet or squadron until he had commanded a line-of-battleship. He was appointed to the Warspite, 76, and made senior officer on the coast of Greece prior to the battle of Navarino. In 1830 he commanded the royal yacht Prince Regent, and was promoted. In 1831 he was awarded the KCB for his work protecting British interests during the Portuguese Civil War, and then became one of the Naval Lords of the Admiralty, 1834– 41. In 1841, he was appointed C-in-C China, and working with the impetuous General Gough captured Amoy, Ningpo, Woosung and Shanghai. Honours and promotion followed—he received the GCB in 1842, and a baronetcy and substantial pension in 1844. In 1845 he became C-in-C Mediterranean, and in 1846 took command of the Channel Fleet as well to cope with further troubles in Portugal. He was asked to become First Naval Lord, but turned down the appointment. The year 1848 was the year of revolutions in Europe, but the Mediterranean Fleet ensured that British interests were unaffected. Under him, the smartness of the Mediterranean Fleet became a byword—sailors spoke of ‘what was done in old Billy Parker’s time’ till the end of sail. In 1853 he was chairman of the committee enquiring into the manning of the Royal Navy. The basic structure he introduced lasted the RN for 120 years. He crowned his career with promotion to Admiral of the Fleet in 1863.

Parry, William (1790–1855) British: Rear-Admiral Sir William Parry, Arctic explorer and hydrographer. He entered the Navy in 1803; 1810, Lieutenant; 1820, Commander; 1821, Captain; 1852, Rear-Admiral. As a young Lieutenant he spent three years in the Alexandria, 32, protecting the Spitzbergen whale fisheries. There he made himself proficient in navigation and hydrographic surveying, particularly in extreme latitudes. Between 1818 and 1827 he made five expeditions to the Arctic. In the first (1818) he commanded the hired brig


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Alexander, in John ROSS’S expedition. In 1819–20 he commanded his own expedition in the bomb-vessel Hecla, 10, he and his crew receiving a prize for being the first to cross the meridian of 110°W, north of the Arctic Circle. In 1821–23 he went again in the similar bomb-vessel Fury, the Hecla in company, and spent two winters in the ice, and he made a fourth voyage with the same ships, 1824–25. Finally he tried to reach the North Pole by sledging across the ice from Spitzbergen, but failed, although they reached the farthest north men had done at that time, at 82°45’N. In the intervals 1825–26 and 1827–29 he was the Hydrographer of the Navy, re ceiving a knighthood. He then resigned and took up a position in Australia, but later returned and was Controller of the steam department of the Navy, 1837–46, and Superintendent of Haslar Hospital (the Royal Navy’s main hospital) 1846–52. He published detailed journals of his voyages, which are an invaluable source of information on early Arctic exploration.

Parsons, Charles (1854–1931) British: engineer and scientist. Sir Charles Parsons, OM, KCB. His development of the steam turbine provided the power for the warships of the twentieth century: he was also responsible for developments in the field of optics. The unofficial appearance of Parsons’s launch Turbinia at the 1897 review of the Royal Navy, where she outstripped every vessel sent to chase her, was an inspired piece of publicity, and forced the Admiralty to recognize that a new mode of propulsion had appeared. The turbine offered higher power/weight ratios and much less vibration compared to the ponderous reciprocating machinery then used to drive the world’s shipping, whether warships or merchant ships. Reciprocating steam engines were, in any case, reaching their limit of development. Parsons had started by developing the turbine for use in land-based electricity generation, and only turned to marine propulsion in 1894. By 1905 the Admiralty had totally accepted the turbine, and thereafter virtually all British warships from destroyers and upwards were turbine-powered, and other navies swiftly followed suit. The turbine also enabled higher powers to be developed in ships’ machinery leading to enhanced performance. He was rewarded with a KCB in 1911, at the height of the ‘Dreadnought’ building programme.

Patou, André (1910–) French: amiral. He played a very active part in the running war, 1940–44, up and down the English Channel as captain of the Free French destroyer Combattante. Her reputation


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among her British consorts in the 1st Destroyer Flotilla was of extreme aggression, with a penchant for opening fire first and challenging afterwards. He joined the naval school in 1929; 1931, enseigne de vaisseau 2; 1939, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1943, capitaine de corvette; 1944, capitaine de frégate; 1950, capitaine de vaisseau; 1956, contre-amiral; 1959, vice-amiral d’escadre; 1965, amiral. After qualifying in gunnery he joined the cruiser Tourville in 1940 in the eastern Mediterranean. Following the Franco-German armistice he joined the Free French forces, and was appointed to the Triomphant, serving in the Atlantic and Pacific, where she had the task of evacuating the inhabitants of French possessions threatened by the Japanese advance. He returned to Britain in 1943 and took command of the Combattante, a British ‘Hunt’-class destroyer manned by the Free French, which more than lived up to her name. The ‘Battle of the Narrow Seas’ was a vital part of the preparation for D-Day, and the fact that no soldier was lost to enemy maritime action on 5/6 June was a direct result of the Allies’ successful campaign. Combattante took part in many actions, in which three enemy ships were sunk and seven severely damaged. On D-Day she formed part of the bombarding force, and on 14 June took General de Gaulle to the landing beaches. From 1944 onwards Patou’s career became a steady progression up the naval ladder to the very top. He commanded the light cruiser Malin, 1946–47, and the aircraft carrier Arromanches, and the carrier group in Indo-China, 1953–54. He later held two sea appointments, the 1st Escort Flotilla (1956–60), and the Squadron itself, 1963–65. His final appointment was as chef d’état-major (CNS), 1968–70.

Paul, Chevalier (1598–1667) French: chefd’escadre and lieutenant-général. A man of exceptional boldness and skill, he joined the navy of the order of the Knights of Malta in 1612. He distinguished himself in an action against two Turkish galleys, taking command of the ship after his captain was killed: he sank one Turk and captured the other. After confirmation in his command, he carried out a series of raids on the Ottoman trade in the eastern Mediterranean. In 1637 he was made a Chevalier of the Order of Malta, despite being illegitimate, and was recommended to RICHELIEU who was recruiting an officer corps for his fleet. He was made capitaine de vaisseau, and given command of the Neptune in Brest. He joined de SOURDIS’S squadron, and played a vital part in the battle of Guetaria (1638) when the Spanish fleet was almost totally destroyed. He was active in the Mediterranean, 1644–45, as captain of the Grand-Anglois, and a year later served under MAILLÉBRÉZÉ, for whom he conducted the landing at Talamonia in Tuscany, and then put two enemy frigates out of action at the battle of Orbitello. Next year he attempted a surprise attack on Naples, and it took all his audacity to extricate his squadron from an action in which they were vastly inferior. Two years later, off Castelamare, he destroyed five Spanish ships and five galleys. In 1650 he was ennobled and promoted to chef d’escadre, with his pendant in the Reine. He continued to fight in the Mediterranean against the Spanish, being badly


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wounded off Barcelona in 1655. From 1659 to his retirement in 1666 he was almost continuously involved in protecting trade against the Barbary corsairs. In 1664 he gained an overwhelming victory against an Algerian squadron off Cherchell, which went some way to make up for the unsuccessful landing at Djidjelli by the duc de Beaufort.

Peary, Robert Erwin (1856–1920) US: Rear Admiral. He led an expedition in 1909 that is generally accepted to be the first group to reach the North Pole. He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers in October 1881. He was a construction project superintendent in Key West, Florida, 1882–83, and conducted canal survey work in Nicaragua, 1883–84. In 1885 he took leave for his initial Arctic exploration in Greenland and subsequently returned to survey work in Nicaragua, 1887–88, and engineering assignments in New York City, New York and Philadelphia, 1888–91. Taking military leave again he led a dog sled expedition across Greenland, 1891–92. After extended leave he briefly returned to naval duty in 1903 at the Bureau of Yards and Docks in Washington DC. Finally in 1909 he led the expedition to the North Pole, recognized by most as the first expedition to the earth’s northernmost point. In recognition of his achievements Peary was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1911 and retired from active duty. In the course of his explorations, which included seven polar expeditions, he increased general knowledge of the Inuit Eskimos and established a system of Arctic travel. He was a graduate of Bowdoin College in 1877 and served in the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1879–81. In 1913 he became active in the advancement of aviation, and in 1917 he was named Chairman of the National Committee of Coast Defense by Air. His book Northward over the ‘Great Ice’ was published in 1898; he subsequently published The North Pole in 1910, and Secrets of Polar Travel in 1917.

Pellew, Edward (1757–1833) British: Admiral Viscount Exmouth, GCB. He was a dashing and highly successful frigate captain, and as an Admiral, best known for the bombardment of Algiers in 1816, which was supposed to discourage permanently the Algerine pirates. Pellew joined the Navy in 1770; 1778, Lieutenant; 1780, Commander; 1782, Captain; 1804, Rear-Admiral; 1808, Vice-Admiral; 1815, Admiral. As a Midshipman he quarrelled with his captain, and was left ashore at Marseilles and told to return to England as best he could. He served in North America during the Revolution, and while still a Midshipman took command of the Carleton, 12, a schooner on Lake Champlain, during an action in which his two senior officers were disabled, and


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in which his own courage saved the day. Later, while serving ashore, he was taken prisoner at the surrender at Saratoga. In 1780 his ship the Apollo, 32, engaged a French privateer and his captain was killed: again, Pellew took command, and drove the enemy ashore. For this action he was promoted, and in 1782, while commanding the Pelican, 16, he engaged and drove ashore three French privateers, earning promotion again. During the peace of 1783–93 he was offered employment in the Russian navy, but refused. On the outbreak of war again he was given the Nymphe, 36, and captured the French Cléopâtre, 36, the first single-ship action of the war, which earned him a knighthood and some £4,000 in prize money (say £400,000 today). In the Arethusa, 38, in Sir John Borlase WARREN’S squadron, he took the more powerful La Pomone, 44 (more prize money) and later, commanding his own squadron, participated in more successful actions. He then commanded the Indefatigable, 44: while in her he saved, by his personal exertions, the lives of the entire crew of the transport Dutton, wrecked in Plymouth Sound, and was made a baronet. His next exploit was the destruction of the Droits de l’Homme, 74, in Audierne Bay, a remarkable feat in that frigates usually did not even try to take on a ship-of-the-line. In 1799 he was given command of the Impetueux, 74, whose crew were reportedly on the verge of mutiny. When the mutiny did break out, Pellew, confronted by the mutineers, seized the ringleader and the mutiny collapsed (Pellew was a big, powerful man). ST VINCENT said that this was the greatest service that Pellew had ever rendered. In 1804 Pellew was appointed C-in-C East Indies: he won an altercation with the Admiralty over the limits of his command (the result of a political disagreement), and successfully forced a convoy system on the Calcutta merchants to limit the French depredations. Pellew was known as someone who was careful of his men, and measures he took to ameliorate the harsher aspects of naval discipline were applied throughout the service. In 1808 he became C-in-C in the North Sea, and in 1811 C-in-C Mediterranean, where he stayed till the end of the war, when he was made Admiral, a baron, and GCB. When Napoleon escaped in 1815, Exmouth (as he had become) was sent back to the Mediterranean with orders to obtain the release of all British subjects held by the various potentates along the North African coast. This was done, but the Dey of Algiers refused a further ‘request’ that he forswear the enslavement of Christians. The government ordered that force be used to impose its will, and in 1816 Exmouth, with a small force of six lineof-battleships and some minor vessels, and helped by a small Dutch squadron, battered the town of Algiers into submission. 3,000 slaves were released, and Exmouth was advanced to viscount, and received awards from Spain, Naples, the Netherlands and Sardinia. His final appointment was as C-in-C Plymouth. C.S.FORESTER is reputed to have used his career, and some of his exploits, as a model for his ‘Hornblower’ character.


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Penn, William (1621–70) English: Admiral Sir William Penn. He was a colleague of PEPYS on the Navy Board, 1660–67, for whom Pepys never had a good word. But he was an experienced fighting seaman, and an effective administrator when under pressure. When young he had been apprenticed to BATTEN, and had served during the Civil Wars as rear-admiral and vice-admiral of the squadron patrolling the Irish Sea. During the Commonwealth, he was BLAKE’S vice-admiral in the campaigns of 1652 and 1653. In 1654 he commanded the expedition to the West Indies which resulted in the accession of Jamaica to the British empire, but he was disgraced on his return (it seems that Cromwell expected more of the venture). Penn, disgruntled, made overtures to the exiled Royalists, but nothing resulted. He was knighted by Henry Cromwell, and when MONCK initiated moves to restore the king, Penn was charged with preparing the fleet. He accompanied the fleet, under the 1st Earl of SANDWICH, and ingratiated himself with JAMES, DUKE OF YORK, to whom he presented a paper on naval administration which formed the basis of the Navy’s organization in the early years of the Restoration. Penn became a Commissioner of the Navy Board, and was particularly active at the outbreak of the Second Dutch War, for which he earned the praises of Prince RUPERT and Monck. He also served at sea during that war, being James’s Flag Captain at the battle of Lowestoft, and commanding a fleet in 1666. It was Penn’s son, also William, the Quaker, who founded the colony of Pennsylvania, part of the cost being met by monies owed to his father as Commissioner of Victualling to the Navy, 1667–69.

Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703) English: naval administrator. Best known for his diary, which only covered the period 1660–1669, Pepys was a figure of considerable influence in the governments of Charles II and James II, both as a naval administrator and as a civil servant. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge. A relative, Edward MOUNTAGU, a Councillor of State in CromwelPs Protectorate, became his patron, and Pepys became his secretary, and later a clerk in the Exchequer (today’s Treasury). In 1658 he underwent successful surgery to remove a gallstone—one of the earliest of such operations. In 1660 he accompanied Mountagu in the fleet which brought Charles II back to England at the Restoration, and Pepys received the post of Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board. (The Navy Board built, manned, stored and victualled the fleet: the Admiralty


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operated the fleet. The two were combined in 1832.) As such, he had as colleagues BATTEN, MENNES and PENN, and was usually highly critical of them. To an extent, this was justified—Pepys was an excellent administrator—but the others were men of action, and there was an element of jealousy of their earlier achievements. In 1673 he became Secretary to the Admiralty, enjoying the patronage of JAMES, DUKE OF YORK (later James II), and he effectively ran the Royal Navy during the Third Dutch War (1672–74). In 1679 he was driven from office at the time of the ‘Popish Plot’, but returned to power under James II (1685–88). He left office when James fled. Pepys was a master of detail. His regulations and reforms created a basis for the administration of the Royal Navy (much of his work still survives; his structure for the officer corps in all its essentials remains today). He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society (President 1684–86) with a catholic interest in scientific matters, and a knowledgeable musician; he was an MP for much of the period 1673–87. His library remains at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Percival, John (1779–1862) US: Captain. He fought in three wars: the Quasi War with France, the War of 1812 with Great Britain, and the Mexican War, and was instrumental in extending the peacetime global reach of the USN as it approached the middle of the nineteenth century. After serving in the merchant marine, he entered the Navy as a sailing master in 1809 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1814. His service during the War of 1812 included participation in the capture of the British tender Eagle and the capture of the brig HMS Epervier, 18, by the ship sloop USS Peacock, 18, in April 1814. After a series of assignments in the Pacific, Caribbean, and Boston Navy Yard, during which he advanced to Master in 1832 and Captain in 1841, he was named to supervise repairs and then command the USS Constitution, 44, in October 1843. During that command, 1843–46, he took Constitution around the world, actively involving himself in diplomatic matters and particularly the protection of US ocean trade in Southeast Asia. In one incident in Cochin China (now Vietnam) in May 1845, he used armed intervention in an attempt to free a French bishop held by local authorities. His efforts were not immediately successful. The missionary was eventually released, however, and the French government credited Percival with saving his life. PercivaPs circumnavigation of the world in Constitution was the first such voyage by a USN ship, and it anticipated the 1907–09 global circumnavigation of ‘The Great White Fleet’ during the presidential administration of Theodore ROOSEVELT. Three months after the end of Percival’s around-the-world assignment in 1846, he was placed in an ‘awaiting orders’ status. Following a series of controversies concerning his behaviour during Constitution’s circumnavigation, he retired from active duty in September 1855.


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Perry, Matthew C. (1794–1858) US: Commodore. He was an important factor in the technological development of the Navy and the expansion of US trade and global influence. He entered the Navy in 1809 as a Midshipman at the age of fifteen. During his early career, including the War of 1812, he served in a variety of ships and was wounded during a chase of HMS Belvidera in June 1812. He was Executive Officer of the ship-ofthe-line USS North Carolina, 1824–27. He briefly commanded the frigate USS Brandywine in 1833 and commanded the first steamdriven ship in the USN, USS Fulton, in 1837 after being advanced to Captain. As a strong advocate for the conversion of the USN to steam propulsion, he drafted the administrative structure for the engineers needed to operate and maintain those engines; it was the beginning of the USN’s engineering corps. Later Perry led reforms to improve recruitment and training of seamen, reducing reliance on non-US sailors, and helped establish a naval academy to train prospective officers. During later phases of the Mexican War in 1847, he commanded the US fleet’s Gulf Squadron in a number of seaborne attacks, including the capture of Vera Cruz. In 1853 Perry led an American squadron of four ships into Tokyo Bay and began negotiations that led to the opening of Japan to US trade. He is considered by many to be the person who made the most significant contribution toward opening Japan to Western trade. He retired from active duty in 1855. He was the younger brother of Oliver Hazard PERRY.

Perry, Oliver Hazard (1785–1819) US: Master Commandant. He was the victor against the British at the bloody battle of Lake Erie in September 1813, during the War of 1812. In an action in which his force heavily outgunned the British, Perry achieved a complete victory. At the end of that strategically important battle he scribbled a hasty report to US General William H. Harrison. The opening words of the report became famous in USN annals: ‘We have met the enemy; and they are ours’. Perry, who studied the tactics of Admiral NELSON, followed the doctrine he applied at the battle of Trafalgar by urging his captains to seek close-in action with the enemy’s ships. Perry began his naval career as a Midshipman aged fourteen in the frigate USS General Green, 28. He served in successful actions against French shipping in the West Indies during the Quasi War with France and participated in a blockade of Tripoli in the frigate USS Adams, 28, in 1802. He then served in the frigates USS Constellation, 36, and the USS Constitution, 44, and commanded the schooner USS Nautilus, 12, 1804–06. He commanded a group of gunboats, 1807–09, and then commanded the schooner USS Revenge, 12, 1809–11. In Revenge in 1810, Perry recaptured a US ship off the coast of Florida that had been taken by the Spanish. Before receiving his orders to Lake Erie in February 1813, he again commanded a group of gunboats. In August 1812 he was


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promoted to Master and Commandant. Following the War of 1812 he served in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, where he died of yellow fever. Oliver Hazard Perry was the older brother of Matthew C.PERRY. An entire class of frigates was named after him in the late twentieth century.

Peter the Great (1672–1725) Russian: Tsar and Emperor. As part of his policy of expanding Russian influence and wealth through trade, he created the first Russian national navy, and played an active part in its creation at all levels. At the start of Peter’s reign, Russia’s sole seaport was Archangel, on the White Sea, icebound for most of the winter. The Baltic was dominated by Sweden: so Peter started the Northern War against Sweden, which continued until 1721. He accompanied his embassies to European countries, often incognito, and sometimes in the guise of a carpenter, to work, or gain experience and information, in Dutch and English shipyards. He also invited skilled artisans, and master shipwrights and naval officers to enter his service. In the south, he allied himself with Venice and others to attack the Ottoman empire, to gain access to the Black Sea: again, a fleet was needed, and so Peter created shipyards (including the Voronezh yard), built ships and ultimately defeated the Turks at Azov in 1696, marking the start of the Russian navy. In 1699 the threat of the Russian fleet was enough to cause the Turks to surrender Kerch and the coastline around the Sea of Azov to Russia (though twelve years later the land was lost again). The Tsar also created the educational infrastructure for a navy, starting the Nautical School in 1698, and a Nautical School of Mathematics and the Sciences in 1700. In 1700 the first Russian flagship was launched, the Predestination, 58, to Peter’s own design. In 1702, Peter personally took part in an attack on Swedish warships off the mouth of the River Neva. The Northern War was largely won on land, but sea victories such as Gangut, Osel Island and Grengam all helped to put pressure on Sweden. After the treaty of Nistadt, Peter turned his attention to the south, this time to Persia and the lands around the Caspian Sea, and in 1722–23 his fleets and armies took Baku and other towns, thus opening up the southern trade routes. Peter was a ‘hands-on’ ruler. He personally fought, and commanded, at sea. He personally set up the organization of the fleet and its infrastructure. He personally designed and supervised the building of ships. One wonders where he found the time to rule Russia in between.


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Peters, Frederick (1889–1942) Canadian: Acting Captain Frederick Peters, VC, DSO, DSC*, RN. He was a Canadian by birth, and much of his life was spent in Canada, but he was a regular RN officer, who won the DSO and one DSC in WW1, and the DSC and a posthumous VC in WW2. He joined the Britannia in 1904; 1912, Lieutenant; 1939, Commander; 1942, acting Captain. After service in destroyers on the China Station, 1910–1913, he resigned, to earn more money as an officer in the merchant ships of Canadian Pacific Railways. But in 1914 he rejoined immediately, and won the DSO at the battle of the Dogger Bank, as First Lieutenant of the destroyer Meteor, and the DSC in 1918 while commanding the sloop Polyanthus. Despite being offered a good position in the post-war Navy, he resigned again in 1920 and returned to Canada, and then went to the Gold Coast to grow cocoa. He rejoined again in 1939, and was given command of the A/S trawler Thirlmere in which he earned another DSC. In 1940 he was given the job of running a training school for special agents: his staff included Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, who later became notorious as Russian spies. Peters disliked this job, and returned to sea in 1942. During the North African landings he was given the specific task, in an ex-US coastguard cutter renamed the Walney, of penetrating the harbour of Oran to land parties of US Rangers who would seize port installations and prevent their sabotage by the Vichy French. Walney was pinpointed by searchlights as soon as she broke the boom, and subjected to a hail of fire (only Peters survived of the seventeen on her bridge), but he took her alongside a French warship, where the Rangers stormed on board. Walney sank, but Peters reached shore on a Carley raft with a few crewmembers. He was imprisoned by the French, but released shortly, when Oran fell to the Allies. He was killed five days after his exploit at Oran, when the aircraft carrying him home crashed on take-off from Gibraltar.

Pett, Phineas (1570–1647) English: ship-wright. He was a son of Peter Pett, Master Shipwright of Deptford. The Petts were an extended family, and Phineas had two half-brothers who were master shipwrights, and a third who was described as a ship-builder. One nephew was a master shipwright, as were two of Phineas’s sons. Phineas occupied a number of posts in the Royal Dockyard at Chatham, progressing ultimately to being a Commissioner of the Navy. He designed and built the Sovereign of


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the Seas, 1,522 tons, the first 100-gun ship, which cost an astronomical £40,833 (£13 million at 2003 prices) at her completion in 1638. His career was dogged by controversy, with his designs being criticized by his contemporaries, and he was investigated for peculation on more than one occasion. There were several other Phineas Petts: two sons, and two grandsons, and one great nephew. The latter was a Commissioner at Chatham, 1685–89, while one grandson was Master Shipwright at Chatham in the 1670s.

Philip (or Phillip), Arthur (1738–1814) British: Admiral. He was the first governor of New South Wales, 1788–92, whose leadership set the fledgling colony on its feet. He served a brief apprenticeship in a merchant ship, the Fortune; 1761, Lieutenant; 1779, Commander; 1781, Captain; 1801, Rear-Admiral; 1809, Vice-Admiral; 1814, Admiral. He was present at the siege of Havana (1762) in the Stirling Castle, 70. Philip served in the Portuguese Navy from 1774 to 1777, but returned to the RN at the start of War of American Independence. He commanded the Basilisk, 14 (1779) and Ariadne, 64 (1781–84). In 1786 he was appointed as Governor-elect of the new penal colony to be set up in Terra Australis, possibly for his knowledge of farming as much as anything else—he had farmed (his wife, previously a widow, brought money to her second marriage) during his periods on half-pay, 1764–74 and 1784–86. On returning to England in 1793 he settled in Bath, but returned to active service in 1796. He came ashore at the end of 1797, and was appointed Commander of the Hampshire Sea Fencibles (a home defence force) (1798). He was given overall command of all Sea Fencibles, 1803–05. His naval career was, perhaps, no more than ordinary, but his governorship of New South Wales showed him to be a man of foresight and dogged perseverance, coupled to commonsense and nononsense leadership. In his final retirement, he kept up his interest in ‘his’ colony.

Phillimore, Richard (1864–1940) British: Admiral Sir Richard Phillimore, GCB, KCMG, MVO. He commanded the battle cruiser Inflexible at the battle of the Falklands in 1914, and later, as Flag Officer Commanding Aircraft in the Grand Fleet in 1918, played a major part in the early development of aircraft carriers, with his flag in the Furious.


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He entered the Navy in 1878; 1884, Lieutenant; 1899, Commander; 1904, Captain; 1915, Rear-Admiral; 1920, Vice-Admiral; 1924, Admiral. He was involved with landing parties during the Boxer Rising (1900) and in 1904 in Somaliland (now Somalia). At the outbreak of WW1 he was CoS to Admiral MILNE. When the latter came home Phillimore went immediately to the Inflexible, whose gunfire, with that of the Invincible, destroyed VON SPEE’S force. After this Inflexible went to the Mediterranean and took part in the landings at Gallipoli, being severely damaged by gunfire and a mine, so that she was in danger of sinking, but Phillimore managed to get her to Tenedos and then to Malta. While she was under repair he acted as beachmaster at Gallipoli (MiD). After promotion he was sent as head of the naval mission to Russia, being present on board the Russian flagship at the bombardment of Varna (1916). He returned to command the 1st Battle Cruiser Squadron in the Grand Fleet in the general change round which occurred when JELLICOE was moved to the Admiralty, and in November 1917 took part in one of the last offensive actions for surface forces in the war. His final post was as C-in-C Plymouth. Among his contemporaries he was reputed to be quite without fear, a characteristic which he showed in the hunting field throughout his life.

Phillip see PHILIP Phillips, George (1904–95) British: Captain, DSO, GM. Apart from being a successful submarine commander and leader, he earned the gratitude of thousands of submarine bridge watch-keepers for his development of the Ursula foul-weather suit. He entered RNC in 1918; 1927, Lieutenant; 1939, Commander; 1944, Captain. He entered the submarine service in 1926, and served in the submarine L.20 in China, and L.71 in home waters, and was First Lieutenant of Otway in the Mediterranean. After passing his command exams, he was captain of H.34 and L71. At the outbreak of war in 1939 he was in command of the Ursula. Originally designed to be unarmed training boats, the ‘U’-class craft were given six torpedo tubes and a 3-inch gun, becoming most useful and very handy submarines. In December 1939, off the Elbe, he attacked the damaged cruiser Leipzig and her six escorting destroyers, sinking two of the latter. For this he was awarded the DSO, and specially promoted. While Commander (S/M) in Blyth, in 1941, when there was an explosion on board the Norwegian submarine B1, he entered the boat, and led the rescue of the crew, and was awarded the GM. In 1943 he took command of the 10th Submarine Flotilla, which had earned a legendary name for itself in operating from Malta to attack the Afrika Korps’s supply


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lines. Its successes were great (see WANKLYN), but so were the losses, and the stress of operating from a besieged Malta required all Phillips’s qualities of leadership. In 1947 he commanded the 5th Submarine Squadron in Portsmouth before retiring. He was ‘prisoner’s friend’ at the court-martial of the captain of HMS Seal, which had surrendered in 1940 after being mined in the Kattegat, the only British warship to surrender in WW2. The captain was acquitted.

Phillips, Tom (1888–1941) British: Rear-Admiral (acting Admiral) Sir Tom Phillips, KCB. He was the admiral commanding Force ‘Z’, the Prince of Wales and Repulse, when they were overwhelmed and sunk by the Japanese on 10 December 1941 (see KONDO). He joined the RN in 1903, one of the last to go through the old Britannia; 1908, Lieutenant; 1921, Commander; 1928, Captain; 1939, Rear-Admiral; 1940, acting ViceAdmiral; 1941, acting Admiral. He qualified in navigation, and served in the old cruiser Bacchante at the Dardanelles, and then in the Lancaster, in the Far East for the rest of WW1. His appointments between the wars alternated between important staff appointments and sea commands. He served in the Plans Division of the Admiralty as a desk officer, 1921–23, assistant Director, 1930–32, and as Director, 1935–38. He thus knew the Admiralty inside and out, and had been involved in the development of plans and strategy for over fifteen years. He had also commanded a sloop, a destroyer flotilla, and the cruiser Hawkins, and had served on the Mediterranean Fleet staff under POUND. In 1938 he was appointed to command the Home Fleet destroyers. At the outbreak of WW2 he was selected by Pound to be DCNS—effectively the man who ran the Navy’s operations on a day-to-day basis. Initially he worked well with CHURCHILL, but he advised against the Greek diversion in 1941, and thereafter they had little contact. Having himself recommended the formation of a strong Eastern Fleet, but using the older ‘R’-class battleships, in October 1941 he was given the command of fewer, though faster, ships, all that could be spared. Force ‘Z’ would have had a carrier, but misfortune delayed her, and the ships arrived in Singapore on 2 December 1941 with minimal air support available. When the Japanese invaded Malaya on 8 December, Phillips was faced with a dilemma. It was unthinkable to sit in Singapore doing nothing, but air cover was unlikely. He took a considered risk, and sailed, hoping to evade detection before reaching the enemy’s operating area. He was detected, and turned back, since to go on meant certain destruction of the only major allied naval force in the southwest Pacific. His ships were caught, by chance, by a strike force of Japanese aircraft, and in barely two hours were sunk, and he died in the Prince of Wales. Armchair critics have argued over his actions, almost as much as over JELLICOE’S at Jutland, but it is clear that he was a victim of Britain’s overstretch at this stage of the war.


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Phipps, Peter (1908–89) New Zealand: Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Phipps, KBE, DSC*. He was the first New Zealander to reach the rank of vice-admiral in the RNZN, and to be the CNS of the RNZN. He joined the RNVR (New Zealand Division) as a bank clerk in 1928; 1930, SubLieutenant; 1934, Lieutenant; 1945, Commander; 1952, Captain; 1960, Rear-Admiral; 1966, Vice-Admiral (on retirement). He came to Britain in 1940, and commanded the Bay, a trawler employed on convoy escort duties in the English Channel (DSC, 1941). In 1942 he took the trawler Scarba out to New Zealand, and in 1943 took command of the Moa, a minesweeper, operating in the Solomon Islands. There the Moa and Kiwi jointly sank the Japanese submarine I-1, and Phipps received a bar to his DSC. He went on to command the minesweeping flotilla, continuing to operate in the same area, cooperating with US forces there. At the war’s end, he transferred to the RNZN as a professional naval officer. He commanded the training base Philomel in Auckland, where in 1947 he had to confront a mutiny of sailors impatient for demobilization, and was then Executive Officer of the cruiser Bellona. He was in the UK on course, and serving in a senior position in the Admiralty, 1953–55, and then took command successively of the cruisers Bellona and Royalist. In 1957 he became the first New Zealand naval officer to be appointed to the Naval Board, as second naval member, and in 1960 became CNS and first naval member. He went on to become CDS, setting up a new unified defence administration.

Pigot, Hugh (1769–97) British: Captain. He was both cause and victim of one of the most notorious mutinies in the Royal Navy. He first went to sea with his father, an admiral, in 1782, and served as a Mid-shipman in the West Indies, 1783–89; 1790, Lieutenant; 1794, Commander; 1794, Captain. Pigot served in the Colossus, 74, and London, 90, under Captain KEATS, from whom, one might have thought, he would have learnt man-management. In 1794 he commanded the Swan, 14, and then the Success, 32. In 1797 he was transferred to the Hermione, 32, still in the West Indies. He was known to be a harsh and overbearing disciplinarian, and his crew contained many Irishmen and foreigners. Although the mutinies at Spithead and the Nore were now past, he seems to have continued to behave with excessive, if not pathological, harshness. On 21 September 1797, while reefing topsails, he shouted that the last two men off the yards would be flogged, and in the scramble to avoid being last, two men fell to their death. Pigot’s reaction was to have the corpses thrown overboard, without any form of ceremony.


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That night the crew mutinied, killing Pigot and all the commissioned officers, took the Hermione into the Spanish colonial port of La Guayra, and handed her over. She was later recaptured by Sir Edward HAMILTON. Many of the mutineers who returned to Great Britain were tried and hanged.

Piper, Peter (1913–95) British: Lieutenant Commander, DSO, DSC**, RNR. He was the first Royal Naval Reserve officer to be awarded the DSC in WW2, and the first to command a submarine. He was proof that a reserve officer could be equally as good as a career naval officer. He first went to sea as a merchant marine cadet in 1929, and joined the RNR in 1932. He volunteered for submarines during his annual training in 1937, and in 1939 he joined the Ursula as Navigating Officer, with George PHILLIPS as his captain. Piper won his first DSC in December 1939, and in 1941 he was asked to go as First Lieutenant in Unbeaten, a considerable compliment for a reserve officer. In her he won two further DSCs, for successful and aggressive patrols (which were the hallmark of the 10th S/M Flotilla), and for the sinking of U.374. After completing the command course, he commanded Unsparing for fourteen patrols, operating especially in the Aegean Sea. On one occasion he sank a German troopship, and returning the next day, sank an escort also packed with troops. On another occasion he scored four hits with four torpedoes. For all these patrols he was awarded the DSO.

Pizey, Mark (1899–1993) British: Admiral Sir Mark Pizey, GBE, CB, DSO*. Pizey was a destroyer captain with a distin guished record in WW2, mostly gained when he was in HMS Campbell commanding the 21st Destroyer Flotilla on the east coast of England, 1941–42. He entered as a cadet from the Merchant Navy training ship HMS Conway in 1916, and was present at the battle of Jutland in HMS Revenge; 1920, Lieutenant; 1933, Commander; 1939, Captain; 1948, Rear-Admiral; 1951, Vice-Admiral; 1954, Admiral. At the end of the war he was one of the young officers who were sent to Cambridge University for eight months to complete their education. Pizey filled two appointments in destroyers, in Violent and as First Lieutenant of the Winchester, and went on to two destroyer commands, the old Torrid, and the nearly new Boreas, a sign that he was marked out for early promotion. In 1933 he became Executive Officer of the new destroyer depot-ship Woolwich, and then had another destroyer command, HMS Fortune. From the outbreak of WW2, for five years he was continuously at sea: first in the armed merchant cruiser Ausonia, and in the Campbell, 1941–42, receiving two MiDs and the DSO. His flotilla was also involved


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in the abortive attempt to prevent the passage of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen up channel in 1942, making their torpedo attack at a range of only 3,000 yards under very heavy fire, though without success (awarded the CB). As CoS to Rear-Admiral BURNETT, Pizey was involved in the actions around Russian convoy PQ18, which followed the debacle of convoy PQ17. PQ18 involved one of the hardest actions of the Arctic war, and although thirteen ships were lost, the enemy lost three U-boats and forty-one aircraft. In 1951 he was seconded to the Indian Navy as C-in-C, and as Chairman of the Indian Chiefs of Staff (KBE, 1953). He was C-in-C Plymouth 1955–58 (GBE, 1958).

Place, Basil (1921–94) British: Rear-Admiral, VC, CB, DSC. He was one of the small band of submariners who volunteered for work in midget submarines. He commanded X-7 in her successful attack (September 1943) on the German battleship Tirpitz in Kaa Fjord in northern Norway. Tirpitz was a continuing menace to the Allied convoy route to North Russia. Place’s craft, with a crew of four, was towed across the North Sea by another submarine, and after penetrating three nets, laid two explosive charges under the Tirpitz. X-7 was unable to get clear before the explosions and was damaged and sank, only Place and one other escaping. He was captured, but was later awarded the VC. RNC Dartmouth 1934; 1942, Lieutenant; 1952, Commander; 1958, Captain; 1968, Rear-Admiral. He served in the submarines Urge, Una, and the Polish Sokol (awarded Polish Krzyz Walecznych) in the Mediterranean, and later was First Lieutenant of Unbeaten (awarded DSC). After the war Place qualified as a pilot, and served as a squadron commander in the aircraft carrier Glory. After promotion in 1952 he commanded the frigate Tumult, and was Executive Officer of Theseus at Suez (1956), and commanded the destroyer Corunna. As a Captain, he commanded Rothesay and 6th Frigate Squadron, 1962–63, and the aircraft carrier Albion.

Plunkett (or Drax), Reginald (1880–1967) British: Admiral Sir Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, KCB, DSO. He was one of the new generation of naval officers who realized the value of an effective staff, and made a


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serious study of their profession. It is no exaggeration to say that before 1910 admirals in the Royal Navy received little or no formal training for higher command. It was expected that they would have absorbed the functions of command, as if by osmosis, during their career at sea. He joined the Navy in 1894; 1901, Lieutenant; 1913, Commander; 1916, Captain; 1928, Rear-Admiral; 1932, Vice-Admiral; 1936, Admiral. At his own request he attended the Army Staff College at Camberley, and was then one of the first students on the Naval Staff Course in 1912. Next year, with others, he cofounded The Naval Review, which became (and remains) the Royal Navy’s professional journal. Plunkett was selected by BEATTY as his War Staff Officer in Lion, being present at the action in the Heligoland Bight in 1914, and the battles of the Dogger Bank (1915) and Jutland (1916) (MiD). He finished the war in command of the cruiser Blanche, minelaying off the German coasts (awarded the DSO). Between the wars he became the first Director of the Naval Staff College, where he did much to make staff-work respected. He commanded HMS Marlborough, and in 1928, a battle squadron. He was C-in-C West Indies, 1932–34, being particularly concerned to foster good relations with the USN, and later C-in-C Plymouth, 1935–38. He was C-in-C at the Nore, 1939–41, in the front line of Britain’s defences, particularly minesweeping. After retirement in 1941 he served in his local Home Guard as a Private, but went back to sea as a convoy commodore, 1943–45, gaining the distinction of never losing any ships from his convoys.

Pocock, George (1706–92) British: Admiral Sir George Pocock, KB. His major feat of arms was the capture of Havana in 1762, as a result of which he became extremely rich. He went to sea in 1718 with his uncle in the Superbe, 64, and was present at the battle of Cape Passaro; 1725, Lieutenant; 1734, Commander; 1738, Captain; 1755, RearAdmiral; 1756, Vice-Admiral; 1761, Admiral. He continued in employment during the years of peace, 1720–39 (his uncle by marriage was George BYNG). In 1747, following the death of his commodore, he became C-in-C West Indies, and received a letter from HAWKE, who had just defeated ÉTANDUÈRE, alerting him to the arrival of the French convoy: Pocock’s squadron snapped up thirty of them. In 1755 he became second-in-command in the East Indies, and in 1756, the C-in-C. As C-in-C he fought three inconclusive actions with the French under ACHÉ DE SERQUIGNY. The French were handled skilfully, and Pocock followed the rules as laid down in the Fighting Instructions, so that the outcome was never decisive, although in the third action the casualties on both sides were quite high. But the British remained in control. In 1762 Pocock was given command of the expedition to capture Havana. The losses due to sickness were great, and the Spanish resistance determined, but finally the British


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succeeded and the city fell, and twelve Spanish ships-of-the-line surrendered. Pocock’s share of the prize money was over £122,000, making him a multimillionaire in today’s terms. On return home, he resigned, probably in a fit of pique, partly because a junior officer had been appointed First Lord. But the more likely cause was the prospect of a peace without employment, and a large fortune to enjoy.

von Pohl, Hugo (1855–1916) German: Admiral. Von Pohl was CNS at the outbreak of WW1, and succeeded VON INGENOHL in January 1915, being in turn replaced by SCHEER in early 1916, shortly before his death. Leutnant zur See, 1871; 1874, Oberleutnant zur See; 1900, Kapitan zur See; 1905, Kommodore; 1909, Vize-Admiral. German strategy for the High Seas Fleet in the first two years of WW1 was essentially defensive: in pre-war exercises they had practised what might happen if the British maintained a distant blockade, but assumed that the British would at least keep light forces close in to Heligo land: if these were attacked, that might draw the Grand Fleet down from Scapa. Von Ingenohl had been relatively unenterprising, but von Pohl did make several sweeps into the southern North Sea, yet never near enough to come within striking distance of the Grand Fleet. However, he did approve of the submarine campaign against British trade, although in the early part of the war it was restricted, with both sides following the rules laid down at the 1909 Treaty of Paris. But von Pohl was a sick man, dying of cancer, and only a month before he died he was replaced by Scheer.

de Poincy, Phillippe (1584–1660) French: chef d’escadre. His seafaring career started as a knight of the Order of Malta, where he made a name on board their galleys, fighting against the Turks. By the 1620s he was serving in the French royal navy, and was active in the operations against the Protestants in the mid-1620s. He commanded a ship at the battle of the Pertuis Bretonne in 1625, and took part in the defence of the île de Ré, and in the battles around La Rochelle in 1628. After ten years or more ashore he became a commodore in the Mediterranean in 1637, on board the Fortune, and fought the Spaniards, and took part in the recapture of the îles de Lérins (small islands off Cannes).


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After returning to Brittany he was instrumental in improving the facilities at Brest, which RICHELIEU wished to turn into a major port, and then in 1638 was made captaingeneral of the Islands of America (the French West Indies), arriving there in 1639. His work there was more administrative than naval, but he introduced sugar-growing, which laid the foundations for the trade wars with Britain which followed in the next century.

Poindexter, John M. (1936–) US: Vice-Admiral. He was Military Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs when the Iran-Contra political controversy began in November 1986, during the presidency of Ronald REAGAN. He was one of three principal targets of the congressional investigations and subsequent legal actions. In April 1990 in the controversy’s aftermath, he was found guilty on five charges, despite consistently maintaining his innocence. In November 1991 the conviction was reversed on appeal. He graduated from the USNA in 1958, standing number one in his class. His initial duty assignments included destroyers and staff duty in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense. He was a Burke Scholar at California Institute of Technology, 1961–64, where he earned a doctorate in nuclear physics. Before his appointment in the Reagan administration in October 1983, his duty included senior staff assignments as well as command of the guided-missile cruiser USS England, 1971–74. He also was Executive Assistant to the CNO, 1976–78. He commanded Destroyer Squadron 31 in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and South Pacific, 1978–80, and was Deputy Chief of Naval Education and Training and CoS for Commander, Naval Education and Training, 1978–80. Between 1981 and 1983 he was on the staff of the military assistant to the President. He advanced to Rear Admiral in 1980 and to Vice Admiral in 1985. He retired from active duty in December 1987 and entered private business.

Pollen, Arthur (1866–1937) British: inventor. He studied gunnery and proposed improvements to gunnery fire-control systems which, had they been adopted, might have produced a decisive result at Jutland. He was a businessman and a self-taught inventor (his degree was in history), and from 1900 onwards he studied gunnery, sharing his results with John FISHER, JELLICOE and Percy SCOTT. He was particularly concerned with the pro duction of a system to predict accurate ranges and bearings for the guns, when both firing ship and enemy were altering course and speed. Pollen’s system, after some setbacks, was effective, but he was frustrated by the supporters of an alternative, cheaper but less accurate system. Fisher and Scott had retired, and the new 1SL, Sir Arthur WILSON, supported the cheaper alternative. As a result the RN had an inferior fire-control system at the outbreak of


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WW1, and the initial hitting rates of the Grand Fleet were less than they should have been. During WW1 Pollen became a naval journalist, and representative of Great Britain abroad. After the war he was to some extent vindicated, in that his advice was sought for the new systems introduced between the wars, and he was given a handsome financial award for his inventions.

Popham, Home (1762–1820) Rear-Admiral Sir Home Popham, KCB. He was, to quote a contemporary, ‘a damned cunning fellow’, who was an excellent hydrographic surveyor and scientist, and adapted a code of signals, based on HOWE’S signal book, which was used by the Navy for many years (it was used to send NELSON’S ‘England expects’ signal at Trafalgar). But he always seemed to be in trouble. He joined the Navy in 1778, later than most of his contemporaries; 1783, Lieutenant; 1794, Commander; 1795, Captain; 1814, Rear-Admiral. After promotion to Lieutenant he was employed surveying on the coast of Kaffraria (now a part of the Transkei), 1783–86, but was on half-pay for the rest of the peace, 1786–93. From 1787 onwards he made commercial voyages to the east on his own behalf and for others: he was well regarded by the HEIC, and surveyed Pulau Penang off the coast of Malaya, which became a great entrepôt. However, on his return to Europe in 1793 his ship was intercepted by the RN and condemned for, apparently, trading in contravention of the HEIC’s charter. After a twelve-year lawsuit he received about onethird of the value of his loss. He went to Flanders in 1793, where he rendered services to the army which caused the ‘Grand Old Duke of York’ to recommend his promotion, first to Commander, and then to Captain. During the invasion scare in 1798 he set out a plan for the Sea Fencibles (a maritime ‘Home Guard’), and commanded a district. In 1800, commanding the Romney, 50, and a small squadron, he took troops from the Cape to the Red Sea to cooperate with British forces in Egypt, and to make a commercial treaty with the Arabs at Jeddah. This was achieved, but on returning home in 1803, he was investigated, in scandalous circumstances, for having over-expended money on the Romney’s refit at Calcutta. It emerged that there was no truth in the allegation, which had


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been made on unsubstantiated evidence by the Secretary of the Admiralty, who hoped to curry favour with ST VINCENT, then in the middle of a crusade against dockyard peculation. In 1806, as a commodore, he commanded the naval half of a joint expedition to retake the Cape of Good Hope, which was carried out with the minimum of fuss. He then, without approval from London, but with the agreement of his military commander, attempted to take the provinces of Montevideo (now Uruguay) and Buenos Ayres (now Argentina), then Spanish colonies. The immediate landings were successful, but the colonists, while eager to throw off Spanish rule, did not fancy substituting a British one. The result was a humiliating surrender by the military ashore, and Popham’s recall. He was court-martialled and reprimanded, but his career was unaffected. In 1812 he commanded the Venerable, 74, harassing the French on the north coast of Spain, and he finished his career as C-in-C at Jamaica, 1817–20, having been made a KCB in the general distribution of honours at the war’s end in 1815.

Porter, David (1780–1843) US: Commodore. He was noted for a series of successful actions against the British during the War of 1812. While in command of the frigate USS Essex, 32, 1811–14, he captured ten prizes in the Atlantic and then took Essex into the Pacific, where she became the first USN ship to enter that ocean. In March 1814 HMS Phoebe, 38, and her accompanying sloop-of-war captured him and Essex off Valparaiso, Chile. Shortly after his capture he was paroled back to the US. He entered the Navy as a Midshipman in April 1798. During the naval war with France he served in USS Constellation during her single-ship action and victory over the French Insurgente in February 1789. He was captured during the Barbary War, when the ship in which he was serving as First Lieutenant, the frigate USS Philadelphia, 36, ran aground and was taken by Tripolitan pirates. He remained a prisoner until the end of that war. Following the War of 1812 he was one of three Navy captains appointed to a Board of Navy Commissioners created by the Congress in 1815. In 1822 he commanded a squadron that suppressed Caribbean pirates, but in 1825 he was court-martialled for his heavy-handed reaction to an incident in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. He was found guilty and was suspended from active duty. Amid a public outcry over his treatment, he resigned his commission in 1826 and became C-in-C of the new Mexican navy, where his son, David Dixon PORTER, began his naval career. He left the Mexican navy in 1829 and served in US diplomatic assignments in Algiers and Turkey. His book, Journal of a Cruise Made to the Padfic Ocean, was published in 1815.


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Porter, David Dixon (1813–1891) US: Admiral. He was active in major cam-paigns during the American Civil War, including FARRAGUT’S attack on New Orleans in 1862 and General GRANT’S successful assault on Vicksburg in 1863. He led the naval portion of a successful Army-Navy attack on Fort Fisher in 1865, the key to the strategic port of Wilmington, North Carolina. He served briefly in the Mexican navy, then entered the USN as a Midshipman in 1829. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1841, and his early assignments included duty in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. After combat during the Mexican War, he took command of the side-wheel gunboat USS Spitfire in 1847. Following an interruption in his naval career for merchant service and a subsequent series of senior commands, he took command of the sidewheeler USS Powhattan in April 1861. In August of that year he was promoted to Commander, by-passing the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Then, skipping the ranks of Captain and Commodore, he was advanced to acting Rear Admiral in October 1862 and placed in command of the Union’s Mississippi Squadron. His effective support of the Union Army continued during the Civil War, and at one point he commanded a fleet of sixty vessels, the largest of the USN to that point. From 1865 to 1869 he was Superintendent of the USNA, where he revised the curriculum. He advanced to Vice Admiral in July 1866 and became the senior Navy officer with the rank of Admiral in 1870. After much of the approximately 700-ship Union Navy was scrapped, he spent considerable time on special duty in Washington DC. He was the founding president of the US Naval Institute in 1873 and was a prolific naval writer. His works included Memoir of Commodore David Porter, published in 1875, and Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War, 1885. He died while head of the Navy’s board of inspection. He was the son of Commodore PORTER

Pound, Dudley (1877–1943) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound, GCB, OM, GCVO. He was 1SL, 1939–43, and as is usual, is more blamed for the things which went wrong than given credit for successes. He was also Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which added to his load. But until the end of 1942 at least, CHURCHILL regarded him as his ‘sheet anchor to windward’. He joined the Navy in 1891 and spent two years as a Midshipman under sail; 1898, Lieutenant; 1909, Commander; 1914, Captain; 1926, Rear-Admiral; 1931, Vice-Admiral; 1935, Admiral. After qualifying in torpedo in 1901, he had two appointments as Torpedo Officer of a flagship (1901–08), which helped his promotion chances, and a further appointment to the battleship Queen, and the Directorate of Naval Ordnance, 1908–11. Pound then


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served successively in the dreadnought Superb, at the Royal Naval War College, and in the dreadnought St Vincent. At the end of 1914 he served briefly at the Admiralty on John FISHER’S personal staff, and then went back to the Grand Fleet as captain of the Co/ossws, commanding her at Jutland. Thereafter Pound rose steadily through a progression of posts designed to fit him for the highest levels of command. He spent two years, 1917–19, in the Plans Division of the Admiralty, and was its Director, 1923–25. He commanded the battle cruiser Repulse, 1920–23, and the Battle Cruiser Squadron, 1929–31. He was ACNS, 1926–29, and 2SL, 1932–35. In 1935 he went to the Mediterranean, briefly as CoS to William FISHER, then succeeding him as C-in-C. He continued Fisher’s training, particularly in night action (in the days before radar one spent as much time watching for one’s own side as for the enemy), and between them they handed on to CUNNINGHAM a superb weapon. He was recalled early, in June 1939, to relieve the dying BACKHOUSE as 1SL. Some of the early mishaps (the losses of first Courageous and then Glorious) were scarcely his fault, but two particular later debacles may be laid at his door: the failure to hinder the passage of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen, and the destruction of convoy PQ17. But he worked well with Churchill and could curb his more extravagant ideas, and under him, the foundations were laid for a successful conclusion to the naval war, with the correct resources being allocated for each phase, so far as was possible. In 1943, worn out (delegation was not his forte) and ill, he was persuaded to resign, and died shortly thereafter.

Preble, Edward (1761–1807) US: Commodore. He was one of the leading US naval commanders of the Barbary War. He served in the Massachusetts State Navy during the American Revolution and was captured in 1781 by the British after fighting in several actions. Between the American Revolution and the Quasi War with France, he sailed in the merchant marine and was for a time prisoner of the Barbary pirates. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the USN and took command of the cutter USS Pickering, 14, in January 1799, and later that year he captured the more powerful French privateer L’Egypte Conquise. He was promoted to Captain in May 1799 and subsequently became the first commander of the frigate USS Essex, 32. When Essex, under Preble, convoyed US merchantmen to the East Indies she became the first USN ship to sail in those waters. Following a period of ill health he was Captain of the frigate USS Constitution, 44, and in 1804 during the Barbary War he commanded a US squadron in the Mediterranean. Despite an active command in the Mediterranean, including negotiating a peace settlement with Morocco and both blockade and bombardments against Tripoli, he was relieved of his Mediterranean command amid political controversy. His career was cut short when he died while assigned to supervise the construction of new gunboats. He is credited with being a major factor in shaping the careers of noted US naval officers DECATUR, BAINBRIDGE, RODGERS, HULL and David PORTER, collectively known as ‘Preble’s Boys’. The destroyer USS Preble was named in his honour.


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Price, John (1914–95) British: Lieutenant Commander, DSC**, RNVR. He was one of the aggressive breed of young men who fought and won the battle of the Narrow Seas, with very little sea-going experience to teach them. As a young man he served five years as an apprentice (cadet) in the merchant marine, but went no further. He joined the RNVR as a seaman and was commissioned in 1941. By June 1942 he had his first command, MGB 21, and won his first DSC in a ferocious encounter with German E-boats attacking a convoy in the North Sea. While commanding MGB 122 he was wounded, and received an MiD, for an attack which sank two enemy minesweepers. He became senior officer of his flotilla, now in MGB 455, and took part in the D-Day landings. His second DSC came for an action off the Scheldt in late June 1944, after which he was promoted Lieutenant Commander. He earned his third DSC two months later for a persistent attack against two more heavily armed German escort ships. He sank one, had to withdraw under very heavy fire, and then returned for a further successful attack.

Prien, Günther (1908–41) German: Korvettenkapitän. He was one of the great German U-boat commanders of WW2. His most famous exploit was to penetrate the British fleet base at Scapa Flow, to sink the battleship Royal Oak. He entered the navy in 1931; 1933, Leutnant zur See; 1937, Oberleutnant zur See; 1939, Kapitänleutnant; 1941, Korvettenkapitän. His first sea-going experience was in the merchant marine. After his initial training he transferred to the U-boat arm in 1935, and had his first experience under operational conditions during the Spanish Civil War, in U-26. He received his first (and only) command, U-47, in 1938, and stayed in her until he died when she was sunk in the Atlantic in March 1941. His feat in penetrating Scapa Flow (Orkney Islands) was one of great daring and skill, since the base was protected, and the tidal currents are strong and treacherous. As a result, the British Home Fleet was forced to retire to the west coast of Scotland until the defences could be improved. Prien received the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves. During the next eighteen months he carried out nine further patrols, sinking a total of thirty-one ships totalling 191,918 tons, and damaging eight more. On his final patrol he sighted the outbound convoy OB293 and called in other U-boats, but the escort was alert. While on the surface, the normal mode of attack by night, U-47 was caught by the destroyer Wolverine. Prien dived, but was shadowed, and depth-charged to destruction.


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Pumphrey, Edward (1910–94) British: Captain, DSO**, DSC. He was one of the small band of regular RN officers who provided the initial leadership and example for Coastal Forces, and one of the most decorated officers to have served in them. It was his force of MTBs which boldly but unsuccessfully attacked the German Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen in their ‘Channel dash’ from Brest to Germany in 1942 (see CILIAX). Pumphrey entered RNC Dartmouth, 1924; 1933, Lieutenant; 1943, Commander; 1952, Captain. He commanded 6th MTB Flotilla at Dover 1941 (DSC and two MiDs for three actions in each of which his force sank enemy ships.) In February 1942, at twenty minutes notice, he took his flotilla to sea to attack the Scharnhorst’s heavily escorted squadron, getting to within 3,000 yards under intense fire (awarded DSO). Although the German break-out had been forecast, when it came the British were caught unawares, and only redeemed themselves by the personal bravery of men like Pumphrey and ESMONDE: but the Germans got through, though Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen played no further effective part in the war. As an MTB captain Pumphrey was known for being cool and calculating under the stress of high-speed action, and for knowing when the risks outweighed the gain. He commanded the destroyer Brocklesby during the abortive Dieppe raid (1942) (bar to DSO), and Goathland in another action (April 1943) in which a German warship was sunk (second bar to DSO). In 1944 he went out to the Indian Ocean, where he received two more MiDs for operations in Burma. He completed his career in command of the frigate Cardigan Bay and the 4th Frigate Squadron in the Far East, 1954–56.


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R Raborn, William F., Jr (1905–90) US: Vice-Admiral. He was the first director of the USN’s Fleet Ballistic Missile Program, the effort that led to the solid-fuel Polaris submarine missile system. A Polaris missile was fired successfully from the submerged USS George Washington on 20 July 1960, and the first Polaris missile patrol began on 15 November 1960. Raborn graduated from the USNA in 1928 and was designated a naval aviator in 1934. He served in a variety of surface ships, aircraft carriers and aviation-related assignments, 1928–40. Between 1940 and 1942 he served at the Aviation Gunnery School, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and from 1943–45 he was Executive Officer in the aircraft carrier USS Hancock, participating in carrier operations in the Pacific, at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He was CoS for Carrier Division Two and Task Force 38, 1945–47. In 1946 he advanced to Captain. He was Operations Officer for Commander Naval Air West Coast, 1947–49, and commanded the anti-submarine carrier USS Bairoko, 1950–51. After staff and shore assignments he commanded the carrier USS Bennington, 1954–55. Following duty as Assistant CoS to Commander, Atlantic Fleet, he was advanced to Rear Admiral in December 1955. He then began work on the submarine missile programme as Director of the Navy’s Special Projects Office, which evolved into the Fleet Bal listic Missile Program. In January 1960 he was promoted to Vice Admiral, and in 1962 he was named Deputy CNO for Development. He retired from active duty in September 1963 and served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1965–66.

Radford, Arthur W. (1896–1973) US: Admiral. He pioneered the development of US naval aviation before WW2 and was a well known US carrier task force admiral during WW2 in the Pacific. He graduated from the USNA in 1916 and served in surface ships before becoming a naval aviator in 1920. After sea and shore duty associated with naval aviation, he commanded the prestigious Fighting One-B squadron, 1929–30. Before WW2 he served in increasingly responsible aviation assignments, advancing to Captain in January 1942 and Rear Admiral in July 1943, when he became Commander, Carrier Division 11.


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In 1943 he led carrier forces against Japanese-held Wake Island and the Gilbert Islands. He was CoS for Pacific Fleet Air Force, 1943–44. After duty as Assistant CNO for Air he commanded Carrier Division Six and led Task Group 58.1 in the Iwo Jima and Okinawa amphibious assaults in 1945. In September 1945 he became Fleet Air Commander, and in January 1946 he advanced to Vice Admiral and became Deputy CNO for Air. He advanced to Admiral and served as Vice CNO, 1948–49, and was appointed Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff—the first naval officer named to that position—by President EISENHOWER, serving two terms, 1953–57. Radford was a strong advocate for naval aviation during post-WW2 political efforts to cut US naval aviation capabilities. In 1954 he unsuccessfully advocated US military assistance to the French in Vietnam. He retired from active duty in 1957.

Raeder, Erich (1876–1960) German: GroEadmiral. He was Chief of the Admiralty, later C-in-C of the Navy, 1928–43, and Hitler’s chief naval advisor for the majority of the war. By 1943 Hitler no longer took his advice and he resigned. He had always advocated a balanced navy, with a powerful surface fleet, a naval air arm, and submarines: and the failure of the German surface forces to make any appreciable impact reduced his influence. His resignation was accepted without recriminations, and Raeder retired to private life. He was not involved in the assassination attempt on Hitler in June 1944, though early reports included his name among the conspirators. After the war he was tried at Nuremberg for conducting naval warfare contrary to the rules of civilized warfare, and sentenced to life imprisonment, though he was released in 1955. He joined the KM in 1894; 1897, Oberfahnrich zur See; 1912, Korvettenkapitan; 1918, Fregattenkapitan; 1922, Konteradmiral; 1925, Vizeadmiral; 1939, GroEadmiral. As a junior officer he spent two years in the Far East in the Deutschland, and then two years in home waters before going to the Naval War College at Kiel in 1903. From 1906 to 1908 he served in the Naval Public Information Service in Berlin, and then became the Navigating Officer of the cruiser Yorck. In 1910, he went, reluctantly, as Navigating Officer of the royal yacht, SMS Hohenzollern. In 1912 he went back to the Yorck as CSO to the Admiral commanding Scouting Forces, and this was the post he filled for most of WW1. As VON HIPPER’S CSO he was present at the action in the Heligoland Bight in 1914, and at the battles of the Dogger Bank and Jutland (or Skaggerak, to give its German name). In 1918 he was given command of the cruiser Köln. Raeder was one of the small officer corps allowed to Germany under the Treaty of Versailles, and had much to do with the consequent reorganization. By 1922 he was Inspector of Naval Education, and in 1924 he went back to sea in command of the light forces in the North Sea. In 1925 he was commander of the Baltic Naval District. In 1928, following the resignation of Admiral Zenker, the result of a financial scandal, he became head of the navy. As such, he initiated plans to get round the naval provisions of the Versailles treaty. The fall of the Weimar republic and the rise to power of Hitler had little initial effect on the navy, which was theoretically responsible to the president, and not the


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chancellor. Raeder admired Hitler for what he was trying to do for Germany’s position in the world, though he did not support his domestic policies. His efforts to build a balanced fleet were opposed by Göring, but a considerable start had been made by 1939 (including an aircraft carrier), and Hitler promoted him. But the war came five years too early for his plans, and the German surface forces were never more than a thorn, though a not inconsiderable one, in the British side. The final break came after the battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942, when a superior German force allowed itself to be repulsed by SHERBROOKE’S destroyers. Raeder retired, until he was arrested at the end of the war. His conviction at the Nuremberg trials related to one specific U-boat incident, for which, as ultimate head of the navy, he was adjudged to be responsible.

Ramage, Lawson P. (1902–90) US: Vice-Admiral. He was among the highly effective USN submarine commanders of WW2 in the Pacific. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest US military award, for his attack on a Japanese convoy while in command of USS Parche in July 1944. In the attack Ramage, in the company of the submarine USS Steelhead, executed a brilliant surface attack against the convoy, sinking two ships and assisting in the sinking of a third. He graduated from the USNA in 1931 and served in destroyers and a cruiser before attending submarine school in 1935. His early career included submarine war patrols in the Pacific during WW2, and after promotion to Lieutenant Commander in June 1942, he assumed command of the submarine USS Trout. His command tours in Trout and Parche were followed by a staff assignment with Commander, Submarine Force Pacific, command of Submarine Division Two, a staff assignment with Commander, Submarines Atlantic Fleet, command of Submarine Squadron Six and command of the attack cargo ship USS Rankin. After US Naval War College studies and further staff assignments, he advanced to Rear Admiral in July 1956. Subsequent assignments included duty with the CNO, command of Cruiser Division Two and assignment as Deputy Commander of Atlantic Fleet Submarines. He advanced to Vice Admiral in July 1963, and after a year as Deputy CNO he commanded the First Fleet and was Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet, 1964–66. He served as Commander, Military Sea Transportation Service until his retirement from active duty in 1970. The destroyer USS Ramage is named in his honour.

Ramsay, Bertram (1883–1945) British: Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, KCB, KBE, MVO. He had the task of bringing the British army back from Dunkirk in 1940, and of launching it back into Europe in 1944.


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He entered the Navy in 1897; 1904, Lieutenant; 1916, Commander; 1923, Captain; 1935, Rear-Admiral; 1939, Vice-Admiral; 1942, acting Admiral (confirmed 1944). His first active service was in Somaliland, 1903–04 (MiD). He served in the first commission of HMS Dreadnought and then qualified as a signals specialist. He later was one of the earliest to undergo a course for staff officers at the War College (1913–14), and half of WW1 was spent as a staff officer. He commanded a small monitor, M.25, off the Belgian coast, 1915–16, and then the destroyer Broke in the Dover patrol (MiD for the Ostend operation in 1918-see CRUTCHLEY). After WW1 he held a series of important appointments: flag commander to JELLICOE on his Empire voyage, 1919–21; command of the cruiser Kent in China, 1929–31, and the battleship Royal Sovereign, 1933–35. He was also the naval staff officer at the Imperial Defence College, the most important and influential ‘teaching’ position in the RN. His first flag appointment was as CoS to Admiral BACKHOUSE, but their working relationship was unhappy. Backhouse was a centralizer who would not devolve, and Ramsay felt he had no job, so asked to be relieved. He retired in 1938. Ten days before WW2 he was recalled to be FOIC, Dover, making use of his WW1 experience, and so it fell on him to organize Operation Dynamo in May 1940, to evacuate the BEF and a substantial number of French troops. For this successful feat he was awarded the KCB. In 1942 he joined General EISENHOWER to start planning a return to Europe: when the Allies’ efforts were diverted to the Mediterranean, Ramsay went with Eisenhower, becoming deputy naval C-in-C for the North African landings. Subsequently he commanded the Eastern Task Force for the Sicily landings (KBE, 1943). He was then appointed allied naval C-in-C of the expeditionary force. The naval planning, which ensured that no soldier was lost to enemy action on the way across to the Normandy beaches, was his responsibility, as was the build-up of material for the final defeat of the German armies in France. He was killed in an air accident in January 1945.

de Razilly, Isaac (1587–1636) French: chef d’escadre. He was one of RICHELIEU’S trusted advisors on maritime and naval matters, and was responsible for the formation of the New France Company, an instrument of trade and colonization akin to the English Honourable East India Company. He went to sea in 1605, and took part in the expedition to Brazil, and later came to prominence in 1621 at the siege of St Martin on the île de Ré, where he commanded the Saint-Louis and a squadron of thirteen other ships, with which he captured more than thirty enemy vessels. He was made a capitaine de vaisseau in 1623, and a year later, chef d’escadre, and as such was sent to Morocco to negotiate for the return of Christian slaves. He was wounded at the siege of La Rochelle in 1625, and in 1626 wrote for Richelieu a seminal paper on maritime trade and overseas colonization, which became the foundation for French policy in these matters. In 1629, 1630 and 1631 he led three


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punitive expeditions against Sallee, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, ending with a peace treaty in 1632. The last four years of his life were spent in Nova Scotia (Acadia), establishing a French colony, and repulsing the neighbouring English colonists.

Read, Albert C. (1887–1967) US: Rear-Admiral. He commanded the first transatlantic aircraft flight in May 1919. The flight in a USN Curtis NC seaplane, designated NC-4, with Read and five crewmen, left Trepassy, Newfoundland, on 16 May 1919. Two other Navy sea-planes, NC-1 and NC-3, were part of the group, designated Seaplane Division One. Both NC-1 and NC-3 became lost in heavy fog and were landed in the open ocean; one plane with its crew was picked up by a steamer, and one ‘sailed’ over 200 miles of open sea to the Azores. After stopping and being fogbound for several days in the Azores, Read and NC-4 finally landed in Lisbon harbour on 27 May and were greeted enthusiastically by ships and forts of the harbour. After determining that the crews of the other two aircraft of the flight were safe, Read and his men were welcomed by Portuguese and USN officials aboard the cruiser USS Rochester. A special medal was struck by the Congress in 1929 to recognize the achievement of Read, his crew, and Commander TOWERS, who was in command of Sea-plane Division One. The NC-4 had a wingspan of 126ft and was powered by four Liberty 400hp engines. Read graduated from the USNA in 1906 and after soloing in 1915, he was designated Naval Aviator no. 24. As a Captain he commanded the seaplane tender USS Ajax and the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, and during WW2 he was chief of Air Technical Training and Commander Fleet Air, Norfolk, Virginia. He retired from active duty in September 1946.

Reagan, Ronald (1911–2004) US: fortieth President (1981–89). He increased defence spending by 35 per cent and initiated a rebuilding of the USN during the Cold War. His administration’s goal was to reverse the steady decline in the size and readiness of the US military that had taken place during previous administrations. For the Navy this goal translated into the creation of a 600-ship force, shaped around 15 aircraft carrier battle groups, 4 battleship surface action groups, 250 surface combat ships, 100 attack submarines, 40 ballistic-missile submarines and sufficient amphibious ships to lift two full US Marine brigades. The reconstituted naval force that this represented would have the ability to strategically project US military power during the Cold War. The 600-ship goal was almost reached before the end of his administration, and among the immediate byproducts of the rebuilding programme was a


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significant improvement in naval readiness and morale. Many geopolitical experts point out that Reagan’s naval buildup was a significant factor in the economic and military collapse of the Soviet Union. The renewal of naval strength after years of budget cuts by previous administrations was led within the administration by Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy, John LEHMAN. Reagan graduated from Eureka College in Illinois in 1932. He joined the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps in April 1937 and was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the Officers’ Reserve Corps in May of the same year. During WW2 he served in public affairs-related activities and reached the rank of Captain before his commission in the Officers’ Reserve Corps was ended after the war. He was elected for his first term by an extremely large margin over Jimmy Carter in 1980 and an even larger margin over Walter Mondale in 1984 for his second term. Before entering politics he had a successful career as an actor. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was named in his honour.

Reeves, Joseph M. (1872–1948) US: Admiral. He initiated a surprise attack against the Panama Canal during fleet training manoeuvres in 1929. This mock attack presaged the fast carrier task forces of WW2 in the Pacific, as well as the successful Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. Reeves, an early apostle of the offensive use of aircraft carriers, graduated from the USNA in 1894. His early service included the battleship USS Oregon at the SpanishAmerican War battle of San tiago in July 1898. Following a series of afloat and shore assignments, he commanded the collier USS Jupiter, 1913–14. Subsequently he commanded the cruiser USS St Louis, and the battleship USS Oregon, 1915–16. Between 1917 and 1925 his assignments included command of the battleships USS Maine, USS Kansas and USS North Dakota. In 1925, at the age of fifty-three, he qualified as a naval aviation observer. In the autumn of 1925 he became Commander, Aircraft Squadrons Battle Fleet, with his flag in the USN’s first aircraft carrier, USS Langley. In 1927 he advanced to Rear Admiral and continued to develop Navy carrier doctrine in senior shore and afloat assignments. In 1933 he advanced to Admiral, skipping the rank of Vice Admiral, and became Commander, Battle Force. He retired with the permanent rank of Rear Admiral in December 1936 and was recalled to active duty in May 1940 to serve in the office of the Secretary of the Navy. In March of the same year he was appointed Lend-Lease Liaison Officer for the Navy. He subsequently served in other senior staff positions and was advanced to Vice Admiral in February 1942 and Admiral in July of the same year. He retired from active duty a second time in 1946.


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Reich, Eli T. (1913–99) US: Vice Admiral. He led the only WW2 sinking of a battleship by an American submarine. He commanded the submarine USS Sealion II, and just after midnight on 21 November 1944 he scored three torpedo hits on the Kongo, one of the battleships involved in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He sank a Japanese destroyer in the same action. In the four-torpedo spread fired at Kongo, each weapon carried the name of one of the four crew members killed when the original Sealion was bombed and scuttled at Cavite in the Philippines in December 1941. Reich graduated from the USNA in 1935, and he narrowly escaped from Corregidor before US forces there surren-dered in 1942. He was Executive Officer of the submarine USS Lapon in 1943 and in March 1944 assumed command of Sealion. He was awarded three Navy Crosses for his exceptionally effective submarine patrols. During WW2 he also served on the staff of Commander, Submarine Force Pacific. Following WW2 he served in the office of the CNO and studied at the US Armed Forces Staff College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He was subsequently Assistant Chief of Staff at the Bureau of Naval Weapons and commanded a Pacific anti-submarine warfare group during the Vietnam War. Reich advanced to Rear Admiral in February 1965 and to Vice Admiral in June 1970. He retired from active duty in 1973.

Reid, Samuel C. (1783–1861) US: privateer. He took twenty-four British prizes as captain of the 7-gun privateer General Armstrong, out of New York harbour, during the War of 1812. In arguably his most strategically important action, Reid led his ship in action against a British force in the Portuguese Azores in September 1814. The three British ships he faced mounted a total of 136 guns and represented a force of 1,000 men. Reid had so secured his ship in Fayal harbour that the British ships could not get within gun range, and so attempted to cut her out. Reid’s ninety men held off an attack by 180 men in four boats, killing thirty, and wounding eighty-six: but next day, when the British ships were able to get within range, and with his ship already damaged by the British boat-guns, Reid scuttled her. His action delayed the departure of the British force for a planned invasion of New Orleans and created time for US General Andrew Jackson to strengthen the defences of that strategically crucial port. As a result, the British attack against New Orleans, when finally mounted, was thwarted. He became a national celebrity for his bold action in the Azores. Reid was the son of a British naval officer captured during the American Revolutionary War. He went to sea in the merchant service when eleven years old and


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spent six months in prison after a French privateer captured his ship. At twenty years of age he was captain of the brig Merchant. After his career as a privateer, Reid became harbourmaster of the port of New York, where he established professional qualifications for the harbour pilots, installed a lightship at the approach to New York harbour, and developed an innovative maritime signalling system and a mechanical telegraph for land communications.

Richelieu, Armand (1585–1642) French: Cardinal Richelieu, born Armand Jean du Plessis. As Prime Minister to Louis XIII, he saw the need for a strong navy to support France’s pursuit of trade and overseas colonies, and it was he who laid the foundations of such a navy, followed within twenty years by COLBERT. He became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1616, a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in 1622, and head of the royal council, effectively Prime Minister, in 1624. After consolidating Louis’s position as undoubted head of state, he saw that France must look outward, as well as inward to Europe, and that overseas trade and colonies were a necessary part of a modern state. And these needed a navy to support them, as he saw from the example of the Dutch, and from the fact that, in 1625, the King of France had to employ a Dutch-English squadron to put down the maritime revolt by Soubise, centred on the île de Ré. He was unable to do much more than set in place the infrastructure for a royal navy, but the fact-finding enquiries he instituted formed the basis for the developments twenty years later under Colbert and Louis XIV.

Richmond, Herbert (1871–1946) British: Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond, KCB. He combined the role of professional naval officer, commanding ships and fleets, with that of profound thinker about navies in world politics. He completed his career as master of a Cambridge College. He joined the Britannia in 1885; 1993, Lieutenant; 1903, Commander; 1908, Captain; 1920, Rear-Admiral; 1925, Vice-Admiral; 1930, Admiral. Richmond qualified as a torpedo officer, and served several appointments as such, and in the naval ordnance department: in addition to his interest in history, politics and policies, he had a first-class technical brain. In 1909 he commanded HMS Dreadnought, as Flag Captain to C-in-C Home Fleet, and in 1912 became one of the original members of the naval war staff, as assistant Director of the Operations Division. He found himself underused at the outbreak of war (both BAT-TENBERG and John FISHER were ‘old dogs’ who wouldn’t learn ‘new tricks’), and was glad to go, finally, to the Grand Fleet,


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commanding the Conqueror. He returned to the Admiralty in 1918 to be Director of Training and Staff Duties, but again found himself frustrated. In 1920 Richmond was appointed to command the Naval War College, where senior officers studied the higher direction of war. He had a free hand to direct their studies, and also time to publish several works of naval history. He became C-in-C East Indies, 1923–25, and then, despite disagreements with the Admiralty over naval policy in an era of arms limitation (he was a fervent advocate of the small battleship), he was appointed as Commandant of the newly formed Imperial Defence College, a triservice staff college for high-flying potential senior officers. After further disagreements with the Admiralty, Richmond retired, but in 1933 was elected to a chair of imperial and naval history at Cambridge, and in 1935 was elected Master of Downing College. He was a co-founder of the Naval Review, and a prolific writer and lecturer. His book, Sea Power in a Modern World (1933), was most influential.

Rickover, Hyman G. (1900–86) US: Admiral. He led the development of nuclear propulsion in the USN. He was born in Makow, Russia, emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of six, and graduated from the USNA in 1922. He received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University in 1929. His early assignments included a destroyer, a battleship, and submarine training at New London, Connecticut, in 1930. After several submarine tours, he was Inspector of Naval Materiel at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 1933–35. Between 1935 and 1937 he served as engineering officer in the battleship USS New Mexico and commanded the minesweeper USS Finch. He was designated as an engineering duty specialist in 1937 and became Assistant Planning Officer at the Cavite Naval Yard, Philippines. From 1939 to 1945 he was head of the electrical section at the Bureau of Ships. Following a series of engineering-related assignments, he became an assistant director of operations on the US atomic bomb project, and in 1948 he became head of the Nuclear Power Division of the Bureau of Ships and the US Atomic Energy Commission. In January 1955 the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, signalled ‘Underway on nuclear power’, with Admiral Rickover aboard as an observer. Later he unsuccessfully advocated nuclear propulsion for all US naval ships. He was a controversial figure because of his abrasive personality and exacting personnel standards for the Navy’s nuclear-power-qualified personnel. He wrote several books on the importance of quality education and the weaknesses he perceived in US education, including Education and Freedom in 1959 and American Education: A National Failure in 1963. He advanced to Rear Admiral in 1953 and Vice Admiral in 1958 and received many awards for his scientific achievements, including the Enrico Fermi Award 1965 and the Medal of Freedom 1980. He was promoted to Admiral and retired from active duty in December 1973. The submarine USS Hyman G.Rickover is named in his honour.


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Riou, Edward (1758?–1801) British: Captain. He was a celebrated frigate captain, and was killed at the battle of Copenhagen. He joined the Navy in 1770 and served on board the Discovery and Resolution in COOK’S third voyage; 1780, Lieutenant; 1790, Commander; 1791, Captain. After some time on half-pay during the peace, he was appointed in 1789 to command the Guardian, carrying convicts and stores to Australia. During the voyage, while attempting to close an iceberg to fill up with water, the ship grounded and was got off with difficulty in a sinking condition. Riou sent most of the crew off in boats in an attempt to reach the Cape of Good Hope (which they did): in the meantime he and the remainder endeavoured to save the ship, not made easier by the uncertain temper of the convicts. Riou’s tact and seamanship skills got the ship to Table Bay, where she was abandoned. Riou was swiftly promoted. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War, he commanded the Rose, 28, in the West Indies under JERVIS, and later the Beaulieu, 40. In 1799 he commissioned the Amazon, 36, which was sent to the Baltic under Hyde PARKER. At Copenhagen, NELSON gave him charge of the frigates (much as he did to BLACK-WOOD at Trafalgar) with freedom to act as he saw fit. When three British battleships grounded on their way into position, Riou put his lightly built and lightly armed frigates into the gap, opposite the Tre Kronor battery. They were much mauled, but prevented the batteries from firing on the main fleet units. Riou was killed, Nelson writing that ‘the country has sustained an irreparable loss’.

Rochefort, Joseph J. (1898–1976) US: Captain. He was a key figure in breaking the Japanese naval code during WW2. That achievement by Rochefort and his staff was a crucial element in the US victory at the battle of Midway in June 1942, considered to be the turning point of WW2 in the Pacific. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in April 1918, and after serving in the enlisted ranks was commissioned as Ensign upon graduation from Stevens Engineering Institute, New Jersey, in 1919. In 1925, while serving in the battleship USS Arizona, he was ordered to Washington DC, where the Navy maintained a one-officer cryptoanalysis office. After a subsequent series of sea duty and intelligence assignments that included assignments in destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and Japanese language training, he was appointed officer in charge of the Combat Intelligence Unit at the Navy headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941. That office, operating under the head of the Pacific Naval Intelligence staff, Lieutenant Commander Edward Layton, became a principal source of intelligence for Admiral NIMITZ. Their success in breaking coded Japanese naval messages was an ongoing factor in Navy victories in the Pacific. Because of his unorthodox military manner and disagreements with assessments made by the Navy intelligence staff in Washington DC, Rochefort eventually was reassigned to meaningless duties until his retirement. He was promoted to Commander in April 1941,


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Captain in August 1944, and retired from active duty in January 1947. In October 1950 he was recalled to active duty and subsequently served on the staff of Commander, Pacific Fleet and then the staff of the US Naval War College until March 1953, when he retired from active duty for the second time. His crucial intelligence accomplishments were not recognized until 1986, when posthumously he was awarded the President’s National Defense Service Medal for his contribution to the US victory at the battle of Midway.

Rodgers, John (1772–1838) US: Commodore. He was a founding member in 1815 of the Board of Navy Commissioners. He became the President of that group and from 1815 to 1837—with brief exceptions during those years—was the dominant voice in the United States on naval matters. He entered the merchant marine aged thirteen, and the Navy in March 1798, as a Lieutenant. He earned distinction during the Quasi War with France in the February 1799 victory of the frigate USS Constellation, 36, over the French L’Insurgente, 40, in the Caribbean. In March he advanced to Captain and was placed in command of the renamed USS Insurgent. After duty as commander of the ship sloop USS Maryland, 20, he was discharged from the Navy in October 1801. In August 1802 he was recalled to take command of the frigate USS John Adams, 28, and he fought effectively against the Barbary pirates. After staff assignments he commanded the Mediterranean Squadron, 1805–07. His leadership and combat skills continued to be demonstrated during the War of 1812 and up to his appointment to the Board of Navy Commissioners in 1815. His service on that board was interrupted briefly for service as Secretary of the Navy in 1823 and as captain of the USS North Carolina, 74, in the Mediterranean, 1825–27. In the latter assignment he was responsible for the diplomatic relations leading to a trade agreement between the United States and Turkey. He retired from the board and active duty in May 1837. The destroyer USS John Rodgers is named in honour of the John Rodgers family, which produced many distinguished members of the Navy.

Rodney, George (1718?–92) British: Admiral Lord Rodney. He fought as a captain or flag officer through three wars, winning two smashing victories, one against the Spanish, and the other against the French under GRASSE-TILLY. He is credited, though this is arguable, with being the first to employ the tactic of breaking the line, which provided a means of obtaining a decision in place of the inconclusive battles which resulted when line was opposed to line. His 1782 victory off the Saintes marked a strategic turning point in the War of American Independence:


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America might be lost, but Rodney’s victory ensured that the rest of the British empire stayed intact. He went to sea in 1732; 1740, Lieutenant; 1742, Captain; 1759, Rear-Admiral; 1762, Vice-Admiral; 1778, Admiral. In 1740, he served in MATHEWS’S flagship, Namur, 90, and gained distinction in a daring ‘commando’ raid to destroy stockpiles of arms and ammunition in Genoa. He was promoted direct to Captain. After commands of the Sheerness, 24, and Ludlow Castle, 44, in 1745 Rodney was given the Eagle, 60, a new ship, and in her did well for himself, both in reputation and the matter of prizes. He missed the first battle of Finisterre, but fell in with a French convoy which yielded greater prize money. Eagle was present at the second battle of Finisterre, under HAWKE, where she suffered badly through the shirking of the Kent, whose captain was afterwards court-martialled. In 1750 he became a commodore, and Governor of Newfoundland, whose fisheries were of vital importance to both the American colonies and Great Britain. In 1759 he commanded a force which successfully disrupted French preparations for invasion, then afoot in Le Havre. He also became an MP, and served, intermittently (often at great expense—votes had to be bought) till 1782. He was made C-in-C West Indies in 1761, and captured many of the French sugar islands. At the war’s end he was made a baronet, and became Governor of Greenwich Hospital, a sinecure post, but was back in the West Indies, 1771–74. When war with France broke out again in 1778, Rodney was in France for his financial health, and was only able to return by the generosity of a French nobleman, who paid his debts. In 1780 he was again made C-in-C West Indies (a case of ‘horses for courses’) and given the task first of delivering a relief convoy to Gibraltar. This was accomplished, and on the way he first captured a Spanish convoy, and then met and defeated the Spanish fleet under Langara in the ‘moonlight battle’ off Cape St Vincent. This was the first fleet night action. His first season in the West Indies was unremarkable: although the French were in force under de GUICHEN, the only engagement was undecided. And Rodney’s high-handedness and less-than-total cooperation with his neighbouring C-in-C Arbuthnot on the North American station, did nothing to help the situation in America, where 1781 saw the drawn battle of Chesapeake Bay, which resulted in Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown. But next year, in April 1782, the French and British fleets met off the Saintes, and a fortunate wind-shift enabled Rodney, in the Formidable, 90, to break the French line, and in the resulting melée seven French ships-of-the-line were captured, though HOOD (3) thought the follow-up should have been more determined. This was Rodney’s last service afloat.

Rooke, George (1650?–1709) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke. His name is primarily associated with the taking of Gibraltar in 1704. Rooke, RUSSELL, Narborough and SHOVELL were the fleet


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commanders in the wars against Louis XIV’s France which stretched over twenty-five years, from 1688 to 1713, though fleet actions ceased after the battle of Malaga in 1704. He went to sea late, at the age of nineteen; 1672, Lieutenant; 1673, Captain; 1690, Rear-Admiral; 1692, Vice-Admiral; 1693, Admiral; 1696, Admiral of the Fleet. He took part in the battles of the Third Dutch War, earning praise for bringing home the Royal Prince, damaged at the second battle of Schooneveldt, 1673. He was promoted, but his ship was paid off in the ensuing peace. His father successfully importuned PEPYS to give him a command, and Rooke spent the next few years in the Mediterranean under Narborough and HERBERT. At the revolution of 1688, Rooke was at sea in DARTMOUTH’S fleet, and followed his senior officer’s example in making little effort to come to grips with William’s fleet. He commanded the Deptford at the battle of Bantry Bay under Herbert, and after promotion participated in the operations off Ireland to counter James IPs attempts to regain the throne. He was at the battle of Beachy Head, and two years later, after appointment as extra Commissioner of the Navy Board, was at Barfleur and La Hogue, where he was instrumental in destroying twelve French ships-of-the-line. For this he received a knighthood. In 1693 he went in command of the escort for an important convoy to the Mediterranean, and was effectively ambushed off Lagos by TOURVILLE’S combined French squadrons from Brest and Toulon: he fought a good defensive action, but the losses among the convoy were severe. Nonetheless, Rooke was promoted at the king’s behest: he found Rooke an unbiased advisor, untainted by political considerations, although he was an MP for twenty years. For the rest of the war Rooke alternated between sea command and the Admiralty. At the start of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1702, Rooke was sent to attack Cadiz in a combined operation. This was abortive, but learning that the Spanish treasure fleet had put into Vigo, with Shovell he mounted a successful attack which largely destroyed the French and Spanish squadron, though the Spaniards managed to get most of the treasure away. In 1703 he published his Sailing and Fighting Instructions, which formed the basis of tactical doctrine for the rest of the century, and in 1704 he was once again in the Mediterranean. An attack on Barcelona failed for lack of support ashore, but he transferred his forces to Gibraltar, and in a combined operation with the Dutch, forced the surrender of the garrison after a three-day siege. Shortly afterwards the battle of Malaga was fought as the French under TOULOUSE tried to recapture Gibraltar. The battle, tactically, was indecisive, but the French made no further attempt on Gibraltar.

Roope, Gerald (1905–40) British: Lieutenant-Commander Gerald Roope, VC. He won a posthumous VC for his action in the destroyer Glowworm during the Norwegian campaign in April 1940. The details of this action did not become known until after the war’s end. He entered the RN in 1918; 1927, Lieutenant; 1935, Lieutenant Commander.


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He was typical of the breed of dashing destroyer captains who served the RN during WW2. His ship’s company nicknamed him ‘Old ‘Ardover’, from his habit of immediate and violent alterations of course on receipt of any order. After being First Lieutenant of a minesweeper and the destroyer Boreas, he commanded the Vidette, and took command of the Glowworm in 1938. In 1940, while escorting the battle cruiser Renown, he lost a man overboard at night, and turned back to find him. In so doing he lost touch with Renown, and at daybreak encountered another destroyer who at first identified herself as Swedish, but turned out to be German, shortly to be joined by another. The weather was appalling, and Glowworm lost two more men overboard, when the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper appeared (all the German ships were carrying troops to land in Norway). The Hipper’s gunnery was excellent, but Roope determined to attack and, despite being hit frequently, closed, launched his first salvo of torpedoes, which missed, and a second, and then determined to ram, which he did, badly damaging the Hipper. Glowworm was now in a sinking condition, and Roope ordered his crew to abandon ship. The Germans stopped to pick up survivors, and although Roope reached the Hipper’s side, he could not hold on to a rope thrown to him, and drowned.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1882–1945) US: thirty-second President (1932–45). He was instrumental in bringing the USN to a level that formed the core of US WW2 power and politically led the rapid naval expansion that was an essential element of the Allied victory in that war. He was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913–20, following in the footsteps of his distant cousin, Theodore ROOSEVELT, in that office. During the post-WW1 period he formed many friendships with senior USN leaders. Roosevelt’s familiarity with naval matters was important, as aviation and other newly emphasized aspects of naval warfare, such as amphibious assaults against heavily defended shores, emerged. He designated $238 million for emergency naval and merchant ship construction in 1932, his first year as President, laying the groundwork for the fleet that successfully fought a two-ocean war. In 1940, in order to meet the Nazi submarine threat in the Atlantic prior to the US entry into WW2, he used a presidential executive order to make fifty reserve fleet destroyers available to Great Britain. The destroyers were exchanged for a long-term naval base lease in Bermuda that was maintained until 1995. He won election to the New York State Senate in 1910 and was elected governor of that state in 1928. He died in office in April 1945, before seeing the final defeat of the Axis powers. Roosevelt coined the phrase ‘a date which will live in infamy’ to describe the 7 December 1941 attack on the US by Japan.


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Roosevelt, Theodore (1858–1919) US: twenty-sixth President (1901–09). He was a pivotal force in the transition of the USN from a coastal and riverine force to a blue-water fleet of international importance. He was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1897–98, during the Spanish-American War. He played a role in precipitating the battle of Manila Bay by taking advantage of the absence of the Secretary of the Navy to send orders to Commodore DEWEY to prepare for an attack on Spanish naval forces at Manila Bay. While Assistant Secretary of the Navy he also formed a close working relationship with Rear Admiral MAHAN, who was articulating global concepts of sea power that were moving the United States towards a powerful blue-water Navy. During the Spanish-American War he led the US Army’s First Volunteer Cavalry as a Lieutenant Colonel in an action at San Juan Hill in Cuba. His leadership of that unit, which became known as The Rough Riders’, gathered considerable public attention and established Roosevelt as a war hero. Roosevelt dispatched the ‘Great White Fleet’ on an around-the-world cruise in 1907. In addition to colliers and some smaller vessels, the fleet consisted of the sixteen battleships USS Connecticut, USS Georgia, USS Illinois, USS Kansas, USS Kearsarge, USS Kentucky, USS Louisiana, USS Minnesota, USS Missouri, USS Nebraska, USS New Jersey, USS Ohio, USS Rhode Island, USS Vermont, USS Virginia and USS Wisconsin. The westerly circumnavigation of that fleet did much to elevate the United States as a global power. He also strongly supported the building of the Panama Canal, which became an important enabling factor in the rising US maritime power of his time. He also argued that Great Britain after WW1 should have the most powerful navy in the world. Roosevelt became President while serving as Vice President under William McKinley, who was assassinated in September 1901, only months after being elected to a second presidential term. In 1904 Roosevelt ran for president and was elected in his own right. He was also a naval historian of repute (he contributed the chapter on the War of 1812 in CLOWES’S The Royal Navy).

Rosendahl, Charles E. (1892–1977) US: Vice Admiral. He pioneered the use of lighter-than-air craft in the Navy. He graduated from the USNA in 1914 and served in various sea assignments before lighter-than-air training at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey, in 1923. As a Lieutenant Commander he was navigator in the airship USS Shenandoah and was one of the surviving officers when she crashed in September 1925. During 1926–29 he commanded the airship USS Los Angeles with collateral duty as Commander, Rigid Airship Training and Experimental Squadron at Lakehurst. In 1931, in command of the


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airship USS Akron, he made a highly publicized transAmerican flight. He was in command of the Lakehurst Naval Air Station when the German zeppelin Hindenburg crashed there in 1937. During WW2 he led in the development of the Navy’s lighter-than-air ships in antisubmarine warfare. In 1942 he was in command of the cruiser USS Minneapolis at the battle of Guadalcanal, and in May 1943 he was promoted to Rear Admiral and named Chief of Airship Training and Experimentation. In September of 1943 he assumed additional duty as a special assistant in the office of the CNO. During his career Rosendahl was arguably the leading advocate of incorporating lighter-than-air craft into US Navy planning. He advanced to Vice Admiral and retired from active duty in November 1946.

Roskill, Stephen (1903–82) British: Captain, CBE, DSC. He was a successful RN gunnery officer, who was invalided out before he could achieve flag rank, and who went on to become an influential naval historian. He entered the Navy via Osborne and Dartmouth in 1916; 1925, Lieutenant; 1938, Commander; 1944, Captain. He qualified in gunnery in 1927, and was gunnery officer of the aircraft carrier Eagle and the battleship Warspite. In 1939 he was appointed to the Admiralty in the Training and Staff Division (the division responsible for producing staff requirements for new weapons, etc.) where he successfully argued for the adoption of the 20mm Oerlikon gun as the standard close-range weapon (it remained so for over forty years). He argued too much, perhaps, and was sent in 1941 as Executive Officer of HMNZS Leander, something of a ‘punishment draft’, but he made a success of it, and was later appointed as her captain. He was Britain’s chief observer at the Bikini atomic bomb tests in 1946, but in 1948 was invalided out of the Navy with gun-deafness. Instead, he became the official naval historian, and wrote the three-volume history of the RN in WW2 (published 1954–61). He went on to write many other books of naval history, including a biography of BEATTY, all illuminated by his ability to see matters with a seaman’s eye, but also with a historian’s rigour in the matter of facts. He received many literary awards, including a D.Litt. from Oxford.

Ross, James (1800–62) British: Rear-Admiral Sir James Clark Ross, FRS. There were two Ross’s, uncle and nephew, both of whom were rear-admirals and arctic explorers. James was the nephew, and was


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involved in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. He was the first man to discover and reach the magnetic North Pole. He entered the Navy under his uncle in 1812; 1822, Lieutenant; 1827, Commander; 1834, Captain; 1856, Rear-Admiral (though he never flew his flag afloat). His wartime service was uneventful, being in small ships commanded by his uncle in the Baltic and the North Sea. In 1814–15 they were in the Actaeon, 16, surveying in the White Sea. In 1818 Ross went with his uncle into the Isabella, a hired whaler for the voyage with PARRY to discover the Northwest Passage. James Ross then went with Parry in his two expeditions in 1819–20 and 1822–23, and again in HMS Fury with him in 1824–25 and 1826–27. In 1829 he again served with his uncle in the Arctic seas north of Canada, and it was in 1831 that he discovered the magnetic North Pole. He went back to the area again, in command of an expedition to rescue some whalers in 1836, and in 1838 was employed on a magnetic survey of the UK. In 1839 he went south to the Antarctic, in the Erebus, 16, and Terror, 10 (before they were fitted with steam engines). They were away four years, in which time he lost only one man. Ross was knighted, and received a gold medal from the geographical societies of London and Paris. He commanded one further voyage, in 1848–49, in search of FRANKLIN, which was unsuccessful.

Ross, John (1777–1856) British: Rear-Admiral Sir John Ross, CB. He was the older of the two Rosses, and his experience was all in Arctic exploration, after an extremely active wartime career. His later years were marred by a feud with Sir John BARROW. He was on the books of naval ships from the age of nine, but actually entered the navy in 1790, in the Impregnable, 98. His captain recommended him to go to sea in the merchant service (it was peacetime), but kept his name on the ship’s books. Ross did so, voyaging to the West Indies and the Baltic, and joining the East India Company. He returned to the RN in 1799, and served in Sir James SAUMAREZ’S ships, 1803–12; 1805, Lieutenant; 1812, Commander; 1818, Captain; 1851, Rear-Admiral. He was severely wounded in 1805, while cutting out a Spanish vessel in Bilbao, and was wounded thirteen times in various skirmishes, and was captured, apparently, three times. He was also seconded to serve with the Swedish navy, while Saumarez was in the Baltic, being awarded a Swedish knighthood. He commanded small ships in the Baltic and North Sea, 1812–15, and in 1818 took command of an expedition to discover the North West Passage, with PARRY. They rediscovered Baffin’s Bay, but Ross reported that further passage was barred by a range of mountains. These turned out to have been a mirage, but it was not until Parry was sent on another expedition that this was proved, and Ross’s reputation tarnished. In 1829 he commanded a further, privately funded, expedition with his nephew which produced a major survey of the northern coasts of Canada. They spent four years in the


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ice, and discovered the magnetic North Pole. Ross was knighted, appointed CB, and received gold medals from the geographical societies of London and Paris. He then spent six years as consul in Stockholm, but took umbrage when he was not consulted about FRANKLIN’S 1845 expedition. One result was a pamphleteering war between Ross and Barrow, who was scathing about Ross’s achievements. In 1847 Ross recommended that a search for Franklin be made, but was turned down. In 1849 he raised funds privately and set out, but was unsuccessful. The Admiralty refused to put him in charge of an official expedition (he was now seventy-five) and Ross responded with another ‘exposé’, his personal feelings clouding his professional judgement.

Rowley, Josias (1765–1842) British: Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, Bt, GCB, GCMG. He was the British commander in the southern Indian Ocean in 1810, when a series of actions of fluctuating fortune finally saw Mauritius, long a thorn in the side of British trade to the east, taken from the French (see DUPERRÉ and HAMELIN). He entered the Navy in 1778 (officially from 1777); 1783, Lieutenant; 1794, Commander; 1795, Captain; 1814, Rear-Admiral; 1825, Vice-Admiral; 1841, Admiral. His first major action was as a Captain commanding the Raisonnable, 74, in CALDER’S action off Finisterre before Trafalgar. He then went to the Cape under Home POPHAM, and took part in the abortive expedition to Buenos Aires in 1806. He was still in the Raisonnable in 1809 as senior officer of the British squadron based on the small island of Rodriguez, some 80 miles east of Mauritius. He concerted a plan to use the small garrison and his ships to take the island of Reunion, a similar distance west of Mauritius, which was achieved with minimum loss. Rowley, having shifted his flag into the Boadicea, 38, then heard of Captain Pym’s plan to attack Port Louis in Mauritius, but arrived too late to prevent the debacle which ensued. He had more success in recapturing the Africaine, 38, which the French had taken, and there then followed a stand-off, with each side considering itself as having insufficient force to attack with a reasonable degree of success. During this time Rowley was able to take the French Vénus, and to recapture the Ceylon, the latter’s prize. After Bertie’s capture of Mauritius, Rowley was sent home with the despatches, and received a baronetcy, and command of the America, 74, in the Mediterranean. After the war he was C-in-C on the coasts of Ireland, 1818–21, and C-in-C Mediterranean, 1833–37: the gap between the appointments indicates the number of admirals all jostling for the few peacetime appointments. Rowley received the GCMG, an indication of the seriousness of the diplomatic duties undertaken in the Mediterranean.


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Rozhdestvensky, Zinovi (1848–1909) Russian: Kontre Admiral. He was defeated at the battle of Tsushima (1905), by TOGO. He entered the Imperial Russian Navy in 1865, and served in the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78. In the aftermath of that war he was seconded to build up a Bulgarian Navy, as another counter to Turkish aspirations in the Black Sea. He served as the Russian naval attaché in London, and in 1901, as a Kapitan I ranga, was Gunnery Officer of the Baltic Fleet. In 1902 he came to the tsar’s notice and was promoted Kontre Admiral in 1904. After the dispersal of the Russian Pacific Fleet after the battle of the Yellow Sea (see TOGO), Rozhdestvensky was ordered to take the Baltic Fleet to the Pacific to recover the situation. Warships of this period relied heavily on base facilities, and required frequent maintenance. The Russians would have neither en route to the Far East, and the British refused coaling facilities. The voyage took over seven months, and started disastrously when the Russians fired on a British fishing fleet in the North Sea, thinking them to be Japanese torpedo boats (though how they were supposed to have got there passes comprehension). Shortage of coal meant that the final leg of the voyage, to Vladivostok, had to be made through the Sea of Japan, and there Togo lay in wait. The fleets met on 27 May 1905 and were not unevenly matched, but the Japanese were well worked-up, and well maintained, the Russians were not. Superior speed allowed Togo to ‘cross the Russians’ T’, and the end result was that all of Rozhdestvensky’s eight battleships were sunk, or captured: of the remainder of the fleet only one cruiser and two destroyers reached Vladivostok. Rozhdestvensky himself was wounded and made prisoner. Having suffered defeat on land as well, Russia had no option but to capitulate, and Japan became the preeminent Far East power. After his release, Rozhdestvensky was not employed again.

Rupert, Prince (Prince Rupert of the Rhine) (1619–82) English: Admiral, and Duke of Cumberland (though rarely known by that title). He is mostly remembered as the dashing Cavalier cavalry commander of the English Civil Wars, but his service at sea was longer than his military career. He commanded successfully against the Dutch, 1665–67, but less so in 1672–73. He went on to be a Commissioner of the Admiralty, 1672–79, becoming effectively the chairman when the king was absent. In later terms, he was First Lord of the Admiralty, and as such worked with PEPYS, who was then Secretary of the Admiralty. He went to sea in 1648, after the end of the Civil Wars on land, and between 1649 and 1653 commanded a royalist squadron, officially in the name of his cousin-once-removed, King Charles II, then a boy in exile. Without a proper base, he roamed the sea from


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Ireland to the West Indies and back to France, supporting himself by taking prizes, in circumstances which came close to outright piracy. In naval terms, little was achieved, but he helped to keep his king afloat financially, and he kept the Commonwealth Navy on its toes. After the Restoration (1660) it was not until 1664 that Rupert received a commission as Captain, and command of a squadron destined for Africa in the wake of HOLMES and DE RUYTER. The expedition never came off, but before the war broke out next year he was made an Admiral, and in 1666, Admiral of the Fleet. He commanded a squadron under the Duke of YORK at the victory off Lowestoft in 1665, and was in joint command with MONCK at the St James’s Day battle in 1666. He also played a major part in the last day of the Four Days’ Fight that year. In the Third Dutch War he commanded at all three battles in 1673, when he was frustrated by De Ruyter’s skill.

Russell, Edward (1653–1727) English: Admiral of the Fleet the Earl of Orford. His great success was the defeat of the French under TOURVILLE, at the battles of Barfleur and La Hogue in 1692, which effectively ended any hope of James II’s return to the throne with Louis XIV’s support. In 1671 he was made Lieutenant; 1672, Captain; 1689, Admiral. Russell served in the Third Dutch War as Captain of the Phoenix, 42, and in the Swallow, 40, under Prince RUPERT. At the end of the war he was Captain of the Reserve, 42, under Narborough in the Mediterranean. He actively conspired to bring William of Orange to claim the throne of England in the name of his wife, James II’s daughter: and he came in William’s fleet as a private person. He was rewarded with promotion to Admiral of the Blue, and then conspired against his superior, TORRINGTON (HERBERT), and was in some measure responsible for the order which persuaded Torrington to fight the disastrous battle of Beachy Head. Russell was given overall command in the next year, but could not bring the French to action, and even started an intrigue to bring James back, but in 1692, negotiations having collapsed, he had no alternative but to fight. When the fleets met, the Anglo-Dutch fleet was superior in numbers to Tourville’s, and was better handled, although the French fought well. In the aftermath, Russell was charged with not doing enough (it is difficult to see what more he could have done, but possibly his potential treachery was known), and was removed from command. Nonetheless, he was made First Lord of the Admiralty in 1694, and took a fleet to the Mediterranean to put a check on French territorial aggrandizement, which he successfully achieved. He remained as First Lord until 1699, being granted a peerage in 1697. He was later First Lord under Queen Anne and George I, 1709–10, and 1714–17.


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S St Vincent see JERVIS Sampson, William T. (1840–1902) US: Rear Admiral. He was a key figure in the USN’s transition from a coastal force to a fleet built around steam-powered steel battleships. He headed the naval court of inquiry that claimed that the battleship USS Maine was sunk in Havana harbour on 15 February 1898 by external means. This finding accelerated the media outcry leading to the SpanishAmerican War. He commanded the fleet that blockaded six Spanish warships in Santiago, Cuba. On 3 July 1898, while Sampson was patrolling east of Santiago, the Spanish ships made a dash to sea. By the time Sampson returned to Santiago, a squadron led by Commodore Winfield SCHLEY had annihilated the Spanish force. A highly charged public dispute followed about who was responsible for the victory. Sampson graduated first in his class at the USNA in 1861, and his early service included sea duty in US coastal waters, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean and two Naval Academy teaching assignments. In 1874 he advanced to Commander, and subsequent assignments included command of the training ship USS Mayflower and the screw sloop USS Swatara on the Asiatic Station, 1889–92. His varied career also included assignments as Assistant Superintendent of the US Naval Observatory, 1882– 84, command of the North Atlantic Squadron, 1898–99, and command of the Boston Navy Yard, 1899–1901. He advanced to Captain in 1899, Commodore in 1898, and Rear Admiral in 1899, and retired from active duty in February 1902. He was President of the US Naval Institute from 1898–1902, playing a significant role in that institution’s formative years.


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Samson, Charles (1883–1931) British: Air Commodore, CMG, DSO*, AFC. He was one of the great pioneers of naval aviation, being one of the first four RN officers selected for training as pilots in 1911. When the RAF was created in 1918, he transferred into that service. He joined the Britannia in 1896; 1904, Lieutenant; 1914, Commander. He took part in the suppression of gunrunning in the Persian Gulf, 1909–10, but from 1911 onwards his life was totally involved with the air. He made the first flight in the RN from a ship underway (the old battleship Hibernia) in 1912 (the USN making the first flight in 1911—see ELY) and with Short designed a seaplane. He was a pioneer in the use of wireless in aircraft, and in bombing. After commanding the Naval Wing of the RFC, he took a squadron to France in 1914, where, in an unorthodox manner, he carried out land operations using improvised mobile artillery, and bombed the Zeppelin sheds at Dusseldorf and Cologne (awarded the DSO). In 1915 his squadron was moved to the Dardanelles, and after withdrawal, he was given command of the Ben-my-Chree, a converted seaplane-carrier, raiding up and down the coast of the Levant. In 1917 he was given command of the air group at Great Yarmouth, responsible for anti-Zeppelin and anti-submarine patrols in the southern North Sea. His group destroyed five Zeppelins, and he devised the system of towing a lighter behind a destroyer, as a means of enabling higher performance fighter aircraft to be carried to within striking range of the enemy. He nearly lost his own life on the first occasion this was tried. He continued to wear a beard in the RAF, and led a pioneering flight from Egypt to the Cape in 1926.

Sanders, William (1883–1917) New Zealand: Lieutenant Commander William Sanders, VC, DSO, RNR. He won his awards, the DSO posthumously, for actions in command of Q-ships against U-boats in 1917. He went to sea in the merchant marine in New Zealand in about 1898 as a cabin boy, and by 1910 was first mate of a sailing ship. He then qualified in steam with an extramaster’s ticket, and at the outbreak of WWl was a third mate with the Union Steamship Co. of New Zealand. He applied to join the RNR in 1914, but was not called upon until 1916, after he had made several trooping voyages. He was commissioned in 1916 as a Sub-Lieutenant, RNR, and after a few months minesweeping, applied to serve in the Q-ships, which acted as decoys to lure U-boats within range of their hidden guns. Many were sailing ships, and


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so his experience in sail was invaluable. After surviving two unsuccessful U-boat attacks while second-in-command of the brigantine Helgoland, he was promoted to act ing Lieutenant, and took command of the Prize, a topsail schooner. In April 1917 she met U-93, and after a nerve-wracking twenty-five minutes of shelling by the U-boat, Sanders’s crew were able to open fire, hitting U-93 on the conning tower, and leaving her in, as they thought, a sinking condition. Sanders was awarded the VC for his inspiring leadership and bravery in the action, and promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Prize fought another action in June 1917, but by August 1917 her cover had been ‘blown’, and her appearance was known to U-boats. When she met U48, Prize’s gunfire did not sink the U-boat, which submerged and then torpedoed her, with the loss of all her crew.

Sandwich, 1st Earl of (1625–72) British: Admiral the Earl of Sandwich. As plain Edward Montagu, he was a friend of the Protector, Cromwell, and after his death was active in restoring King Charles II to the throne, taking the fleet to the Netherlands to bring the king home triumphantly. He later commanded squadrons in the second and third Dutch wars, losing his life at the battle of Solebay. He was a relative and patron of PEPYS, who owed his start as a government servant entirely to Sandwich. Montagu became an ‘instant admiral’. He was a neighbour and friend of Cromwell, and having fought as a foot-soldier in the first civil war, with no more than moderate distinction, he was appointed as joint General-at-Sea with BLAKE in 1656. (Cronyism is not new.) He was loyal to both Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, but when the latter fell, was prepared to support the king as a means of preventing anarchy (and with an eye to the main chance). Accordingly, in May 1660 he took the fleet to Holland, while MONCK’S army secured London. When the king took up the reins of government, Montagu was made an earl, and was able to give his young cousin, Samuel Pepys, a position on the Navy Board. At the battle of Lowestoft (1665) he commanded the Blue Squadron, and was responsible for breaking the Dutch line, the key to the English victory. Later that year Sandwich commanded the fleet in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Dutch East India fleet in neutral Bergen. But he did succeed in capturing nine of them a month later in the open sea. He then acted foolishly in allowing the commanders to seize the prize goods before they had been condemned, and was threatened with impeachment. He was sent abroad as Ambassador to Madrid until the affair blew over. At the outbreak of the Third Dutch War in 1672, he again commanded the Blue Squadron. The Duke of YORK, in command, refused Sandwich’s advice, and the Dutch caught the combined Franco-British fleet at a disadvantage. It was only Sandwich’s obstinate courage, and that of his squadron, which prevented a rout. His flagship, the Royal James, 100, had fought off several fireships, but succumbed to one ultimately, and exploded with great loss of life, including that of the admiral.


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Sandwich, 4th Earl of (1718–92) British: First Lord of the Admiralty, 1748–51, 1763–65 and 1771–82. He was a politician at a time when British politics was probably more corrupt than at any time before or since, and many of the British naval failures in the American War of Independence can be laid at his door. He is also credited with the ‘invention’ of the sandwich (a slice of meat between two bread slices), the comfort of many a middle-watchkeeper. He entered politics in 1739, when he came of age. He attached himself to the Duke of Bedford, under whom he was appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty in 1744: in the duke’s absence, he was the nominal head, and in 1748, when the duke became Secretary of State (Foreign Secretary), he became First Lord, though he left ANSON to do the work. At this time, he seems to have taken a serious interest in the work, and the correction of many abuses in the dockyards was carried out in his name, though the work was probably Anson’s. Political infighting saw him sacked in 1751. He went back to the Admiralty, 1763–65, and again, 1771–82, in Lord North’s ministry. During these years he used the enormous powers of patronage he held for his party’s benefit. Corruption and peculation were rife in the dockyards. Although this could not be laid directly at his door, the whole system over which he presided was rotten, as were many of the ships sent to sea, and their equipment. His reputation was such that many competent senior officers refused to accept appointments while he was First Lord. However, it was during this time that the whole fleet was coppered, greatly improving performance and sea-keeping qualities, and he was personally popular with his subordinates, and prompt in attending to business. He helped to ensure that COOK’S ships were properly fitted out in 1778, so that Cook named the islands now properly known as the Hawaiian Islands as the Sandwich Islands.

Santa-Cruz, Alvaro, Marques de (1526–88) Spanish admiral. He was the most successful Spanish admiral of his day. Apart from her activities in the New World, Spain’s maritime activities were concentrated on the struggle to take over Portugal, and in countering the spread of the Ottoman empire. Santa-Cruz commanded the rearguard at Lepanto (see JUAN DE AUSTRIA), and played a crucial role in the battle. In 1582 he defeated the French off the Azores, and four years later Phillip II put him in charge of the preparations for the Great Armada to be sent against England. He was undismayed by DRAKE’S raid in 1587, and re-stocked the arsenals for the great enterprise, but he died in the spring of 1588, only months before the Armada sailed.


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Sato, Tetsutaro (1866–1942) Japanese: Chu-sho (Vice-Admiral). He was an influential thinker and writer on naval affairs, particularly as they affected Japan’s position in the Pacific. He entered the IJN in 1887; 1892, Tai-I; 1902, Chu-sa; 1907, Tai-sa; 1912, Shosho; 1916, Chu-sho. He was sent to Britain for two years, 1899–1901, followed by nine months in the USA. There followed three appointments as Executive Officer, and in 1903 he was appointed to the staff of the Second Fleet, and was present at the battle of Tsushima in 1905 (see TOGO). He interspersed sea commands (the cruisers Soya and Aso), with appointments at the naval college. His only sea appointment as a flag officer was as CoS of the 1st Fleet briefly, 1913–14. He was the director of the naval staff college for five years, 1915–20, and his career ended as C-in-C of the Maizuru naval district, 1920–21 and as a member of the Admiralty Board, 1921–22. He later became a senator in the upper house of the Japanese parliament At a time when the preponderant Army faction was pushing for expansion ashore in Asia, Sato saw that Japan, as an island, must ultimately rely on sea-power for security, and he advocated expansion through the South Pacific. He realized that this might bring conflict with America, but thought that Japan, limited by treaty to 60 per cent of America’s naval force, would hold its own, since America had to split its navy between two oceans. To make doubly sure, he recommended that, in the event of a USA-Japanese war, the Japanese should seek a decisive battle, like Tsushima had been, and as the British believed would occur in the North Sea.

Saumarez, James (1757–1836) British: Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Bt, KB. His major exploit was the battle off Algeciras in 1801, but he was also C-in-C in the Baltic, 1808–13, where his forces had an influence on the outcome of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 which is not usually recognized. As was often the custom, he was entered on the books of a ship at the age of ten, but did not go to sea until his schooling was completed, in 1770. He received his lieutenancy from Sir Peter PARKER, 1776; 1781, Commander; 1782, Captain; 1801, Rear-Admiral; 1807, Vice-Admiral; 1814, Admiral. In 1781 he was commanding the Tisiphone, 20, under KEMPENFELT, and participated with him in the action in which they snapped up a convoy from under GUICHEN’S nose. Saumarez was then sent ahead to warn RODNEY of Guichen’s approach, and was given command of the Russell, 74, and in her took a distinguished share in the battle of the Saintes. In 1793 he took command of the Crescent, 36, and in her fought and beat the Réunion, 36, which had been making sorties from Cherbourg to snap up prizes, and then bolting back again. In 1795 he moved to the Orion, 74, in which he took part in the battle of


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Cape St Vincent, and also the Nile. In 1800 he was appointed to the Caesar, the first 84gun two-decker, and remained in her when made Rear-Admiral. He was given a squadron with which to blockade Cadiz when he learnt of a small French force, under LINOIS, sheltering in Algeciras Bay, and determined to attack. The French were covered by heavy shore batteries, but Saumarez intended that, by laying his ships alongside the French, the batteries’ fire would be nullified. Unfortunately, the wind fell, one British 74, the Hannibal, ran aground and was pounded into surrender, and the whole attack was a fiasco. Saumarez retired to Gibraltar to refit his battered ships, and six days later reemerged, and caught the now reinforced Franco-Spanish squadron, destroying two Spanish three-deckers, and taking a French 74, and driving the rest back into Cadiz. Saumarez commanded in the Channel Islands, 1803–07, and then became second-incommand of the fleet off Brest: he applied to be superseded in 1808 (reading between the lines, he didn’t see eye-to-eye with GAMBIER). He was given the Baltic command to support the Swedes against the Danes and Russians. Later, when Napoleon turned on Russia, his fleet totally denied the French the ability to supply the flank of their northern army by sea. His final appointment was as C-in-C Plymouth, 1824–27.

Saunders, Charles (1713?–75) British: Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, KB. The expulsion in 1759 of the French authorities from Lower Canada, and thus the accession of Canada to the British empire, was due to the squadron under Saunders, and the army under General Wolfe. Between them, they carried out one of the most successful combined operations of the eighteenth century. Saunders entered the Navy in 1727; 1734, Lieutenant; 1741, Commander; 1741, Captain; 1756, Rear-Admiral; 1759, Vice-Admiral; 1770, Admiral. He was one of ANSON’S lieutenants in the Centurion, and was promoted to command of one of the minor vessels, the Trial. When they reached Juan Fernandez, only four other men as well as Saunders were fit to work the ship. Trial was scuttled as being unseaworthy and Saunders was then promoted Captain to command a Spanish frigate taken as a prize. He was sent home in advance of Anson from Macao. His promotions to Commander and Captain were confirmed, and he later took command of the Gloucester, 50, in which he took a Spanish treasure ship, netting some £30,000 or more for himself (at least £3,000,000 in today’s money). In 1747 Saunders was appointed to the Yarmouth, 64, and in her took part in HAWKE’S victory over the French at the second battle of Finisterre. Saunders became an MP, and in 1754, Treasurer of Greenwich Hospital, a lucrative sinecure. In 1755 he became a member of the Board of Admiralty, as Controller, but in 1756 returned to active service as second-in-command in the Mediterranean. In 1759 Saunders was recalled and given a powerful force of twenty-two ships-of-the-line, to escort the troops under Wolfe to the St Lawrence, and between them, they executed a series of successful combined operations which resulted in the fall of Quebec. He was knighted for his services in 1761, and was appointed First Lord, which caused jealousy


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among his naval superiors. He therefore resigned, and although later offered command in the Mediterranean, refused it, and effectively retired.

Saunt, Gerald (1906–93) British: Commander Gerald Saunt, DSO, DSC, RN. He was one of the small band of pre-war Royal Navy pilots, and commanded 826 Squadron at the battle of Cape Matapan in 1941, for which he was awarded the DSO. He entered the Royal Navy 1924; 1930, Lieutenant; 1942, Commander. He qualified as a pilot in 1931, when the RAF controlled the Fleet Air Arm and the majority of pilots were RAF personnel. He served in both Courageous and Glorious, two of the Royal Navy’s first generation of fleet carriers. In 1940 he was in command of 826 Squadron, bombing road and rail communications in northern Europe in support of the Dunkirk evacuation. Following Dunkirk, the squadron was involved in escorting convoys in the North Sea, and in carrying out night attacks on targets in Holland, Belgium and France—all this in Swordfish aircraft, designed as a seaborne torpedo reconnaissance aircraft. The squadron re-equipped with Albacore aircraft (marginally better than the Swordfish), and embarked in HMS Formidable. En route to the Mediterranean they operated against Italian forces in Mogadishu and Massawa, and in support of the army in the Western Desert (awarded the DSC). At Matapan, Saunt personally led two strikes, one of which damaged the cruiser Pola (see also TORRENS-SPENS), so that the Italians, unaware of the proximity of CUNNINGHAM and the British fleet, sent two other cruisers back to escort her. All three were summarily sunk by gunfire, along with two destroyers. Saunt’s DSO was awarded as much for his part in raising the efficiency of his squadron, as for his leadership in the air. Injury prevented his serving further at sea, and he was invalided from the Navy in 1949.

Scatchard, John (1910–90) British, ViceAdmiral John (‘Black Jack’) Scatchard, CB, DSC**. His nickname, by which he was known at all levels, stemmed from his time in command of destroyers during WW2, when


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he earned three DSCs as a junior Lieutenant Commander. In 1923 he joined Dartmouth; 1933, Lieutenant; 1946, Commander; 1951, Captain; 1961, Rear-Admiral; 1964, Vice-Admiral. At the beginning of WW2, Scatchard was First Lieutenant of the destroyer Kashmir in Lord Louis MOUNTBATTEN’S squadron. After the loss of Kelly and Kashmir off Crete in 1941, he was given command of the ‘Hunt’-class destroyer Garth, and took part in the unsuccessful raid on Dieppe in 1942, in an interval between escorting convoys along the English east coast. He earned his first DSC for these operations, and shortly afterwards fought a successful night battle with German E-boats, sinking one and damaging others, off Yarmouth. Having cut his teeth in an escort destroyer, he was given command of a new fleet destroyer, Termagant, and in the Mediterranean earned a second DSC for the destruction of U-453. Shortly afterwards, he earned a third for the destruction of two Axis destroyers in two separate actions in the Aegean: and Termagant ended the war in the Far East, taking part in several offensive actions against Japanese shore installations. Scatchard was Commandant of the Joint Services Staff College (appointed CB, 1963), where his views were influential in the creation, by Mountbatten, of a unified central staff for defence. In his final appointment, as second-in-command of the Far East Fleet, he was noted for his ability accurately to sum up the state of morale and efficiency of a ship and her crew from the shortest of visits.

Scheer, Reinhardt (1863–1928) German: Admiral. He commanded the High Seas Fleet at the battle of Jutland in May 1916 (see BEATTY and JELLICOE). The battle is known in Germany as the battle of the Skaggerak. Scheer joined the KM in 1879; 1882, Leutnant zur See; 1904, Fregattenkapitan; 1905, Kapitan zur See; 1910, Konteradmiral; 1913, Vizeadmiral; 1916, Admiral. He specialized in torpedoes in the 1890s, and rose to high command very swiftly—his British counterparts, even Beatty and Jellicoe, spending ten years as Captain before reaching flag rank. His first flag appointment was as CoS to the High Seas Fleet in 1910. At the outbreak of WW1 he commanded the Second Battle Squadron (the most modern predreadnoughts), and agreed with his seniors’ decision not to make any attempt to interfere with the passage of the BEF to France in August 1914, describing it as a ‘totally impossible demand’. He advocated greater use being made of submarines to take the war to the British. He became commander of the High Seas Fleet in January 1916, and at once planned a more aggressive strategy to counter the British distant blockade. He hoped, by making tip-and-run raids (themselves mere pinpricks) to draw the British fleet, or better, a part of


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it, into a trap, and to meet them on as nearly equal terms as possible, and hope to inflict casualties to whittle way their numerical superiority. The battle of Jutland resulted from one such sortie, but the British Room 40 (see HALL) was aware of his intentions, and the entire British battlefleet came out. Both Jellicoe and Scheer handled their fleets well (with the communications then in use, this was quite an achievement), and the High Seas Fleet and VON HIPPER’S Scouting Group inflicted heavy casualties on the British, but the strategic situation remained unchanged. Scheer supported the unrestricted submarine campaign, and two further halfhearted sorties were made by the fleet, without any battle resulting. In mid-1918, Scheer became CNS, but by that time the war was effectively lost. He ordered one last offensive sortie to salvage the Navy’s honour, but the fleet mutinied (there had been unrest since 1917), and one of the Kaiser’s last acts before abdicating was to dismiss Scheer on 9 November 1918.

Schepke, Joachim (1912–41) German: Kapitänleutnant, holder of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves. He was a successful German U-Boat commander in the battle of the Atlantic. He lost his life when U-100 became the first submarine to be sunk after being detected by radar. In 1930, he entered the BDM; 1934, Leutnant zur See; 1939, Kapitänleutnant. After initial training in the cruiser Deutschland, he joined the U-boat arm in 1935. His first command was the training boat U-3, and his first operational boat (January 1940), U19. In her he carried out five patrols, being awarded the Iron Cross. In May 1940 he took command of the new U-100, and was based at Lorient (Brittany) after the fall of France. In his six patrols in U-100, he sank twenty-eight ships, totalling 140,000 tons of (at that time) virtually irreplaceable merchant shipping. However, on the sixth patrol, while attempting the normal U-boat tactic of making a surfaced attack at night, he was detected on the primitive radar of HMS Vanoc, and was rammed and depthcharged to destruction by the destroyer Walker. Only six men survived: Schepke was not among them.

Schley, Winfield Scott (1839–1911) US: Rear Admiral. He commanded the US squadron that crushed a Spanish naval force at the battle of Santiago on 3 July 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Following the battle he was involved in a bitter dispute with his senior, Rear Admiral SAMPSON, over who should receive major credit for the victory. Sampson was temporarily absent from Santiago while patrolling to the east of that port when the battle took place. Schley graduated from the USNA in 1860, and his early career included assignments during the US Civil War in the basically coastal and riverine Union Navy. He


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commanded the screw steamer USS Essex, 1876–79, and a rescue force that saved an Arctic expedition in 1884. He was chief of the Bureau of Engineering and Recruiting, 1884–89, and advanced to Captain in 1888. He commanded the cruiser USS Baltimore in the Pacific, 1889–92, and was involved in major diplomatic crises with Chile during that assignment. He was a lighthouse inspector, 1892–95, and commanded the armoured cruiser USS New York, 1895–98. In February 1898 he advanced to Commodore and was placed in command of the Flying Squadron of ships based at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and it was that force that Schley took into action at the battle of Santiago. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in August 1899. Following the Spanish-American War he served on the Puerto Rico Commission and commanded the South Atlantic Squadron. Schley co-authored a book about an Arctic mission, The Rescue of Greely, in 1895. He retired in 1901 and wrote Forty Years Under the Flag, published in 1904.

Scott, Norman (1889–1942) US: Rear-Admiral. He was one of the two admirals who led US cruiser-destroyer task forces defending US Marines on Guadalcanal during the early stages of WW2 in the Pacific. Scott was killed along with the commander of the cruiser-destroyer task group, Rear Admiral CALLAGHAN, during a successful surface action against a superior Japanese force at the naval battle of Guadalcanal, 12–15 November 1942. One of the most noteworthy achievements of Scott during the October/November 1942 actions of the Guadalcanal campaign occurred at the battle of Cape Esperance on 11–12 October. During that action Scott ‘crossed the T’ by crossing the head of a Japanese column of three cruisers and two destroyers with a US column of four cruisers and five destroyers. His manoeuvre contributed to the sinking of an enemy cruiser and destroyer and the damage of a cruiser, against the loss of one destroyer and damage to two of his cruisers. Scott graduated from the USNA in 1911 and served in a battleship, fleet tenders, and destroyers before and during WW1. Between that war and WW2, he served in a variety of surface ship and shore assignments, and commanded the cruiser USS Pensacola, 1939–42. In May 1942 he commanded Task Force 18 in the Pacific and later Task Force 64 during the campaign for Guadalcanal. He was posthumously awarded the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor, for his courage and effectiveness during the Guadalcanal campaign. The destroyer USS Scott was named in his honour.

Scott, Percy (1853–1924) British: Admiral Sir Percy Scott, Bt, KCB, KCVO. At the turn of the twentieth century, Scott meant just one thing—naval gunnery. He was a prolific inventor, and as Inspector of


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Target Practice was responsible for transforming naval gunnery from firing at short ranges to the ranges of ten miles and more of which the new guns were capable. He was not an easy colleague, being opinionated and not one to suffer fools gladly—whatever their seniority. Luckily, Sir John FISHER supported him. He entered the RN in 1866; 1875, Lieutenant; 1886, Commander; 1893, Captain; 1905, Rear-Admiral; 1908, Vice-Admiral; 1913, Admiral. He served under Commodore HEATH in the East Indies, and later on the west coast of Africa, 1874–77, being involved in several operations ashore, and earning an MiD in the Congo. He qualified in gunnery in 1878, and was Gunnery Officer of the Inconstant at the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882 (Arabi Pasha’s revolt). He earned another MiD for his work in improvising gun-mountings for the army. He filled gunnery staff appointments, 1882–86, and became the Training Commander at the gunnery school, HMS Excellent, 1890–93, creating an establishment second-tonone in the business of training sailors for their prime purpose, fighting the guns of their ship. (HMS Excellent was always the butt of jokes in the RN [the author writes as one of the ‘opposition’], but they were always tinged with envy. Gunnery officers had a distinct style, and most of the senior officers of the RN from 1900 to 1960 were gunnery officers.) Scott was a member of the Ordnance Committee, 1893–96, and next commanded HMS Scylla in the Mediterranean, where he introduced a number of improvements in equipment designed to improve the hitting rates of his gunlayers. He then commanded HMS Terrible. She was diverted to the Cape of Good Hope at the outbreak of the Second Boer War (1899–1903), and Scott achieved prominence by designing and having built suitable gun-carriages for heavy naval ordnance to accompany the naval brigades, particularly in the relief of Ladysmith. He received the CB. Terrible continued to China, just in time for the Boxer Rising, where Scott did the same again, receiving the CVO on his return, and being appointed to command HMS Excellent. On attaining flag rank, after two years as Inspector of Target Practice, he received command of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, but fell out with his C-in-C, BERESFORD, over an ‘insubordinate’ signal concerning the relative importance of painting ship and gunnery practice. This was his last sea appointment, but he received the KCB in 1910, and substantial monetary grants for his inventions. During WW1 he was recalled for special service, involving the creation of a fleet of merchant ships converted to look like battleships, solving gunnery problems, and also the submarine war. In 1916 he created the AntiAircraft Corps for the defence of London against Zeppelin and, later, bomber aircraft raids. After the war he propounded the theory that the day of the battleship was over, but his inventions, particularly the use of the ‘director’ system for centralized aiming, had brought it to its peak.


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Scott, Robert (1868–1912) British: Captain Robert Scott, CVO, Royal Navy. He was the last of the naval polar explorers to catch the public’s imagination. He made two major expeditions to the Antarctic, dying during the return from his successful attempt to reach the South Pole. However, he was unsuccessful in that the Norwegian Amundsen reached the Pole first, though the overall scientific results of Scott’s expedition were significant. Scott joined the RN in 1880; 1889, Lieutenant; 1900, Commander; 1904, Captain. He qualified in torpedo in 1893 and his naval career was unremarkable until he was selected to lead the National Antarctic expedition in 1901, in the converted whaler Discovery. The aim of this expedition was to explore the Antarctic continent, in particular South Victoria Land, and the great Ross Ice Barrier. The expedition lasted from 1901 to 1904, and made significant scientific discoveries. Scott himself made two major sledge journeys. On return he was awarded the CVO (having tactfully named part of the continent King Edward VII Land). He returned to his naval career, commanding the Victorious, the Essex and the Bulwark, before being appointed Naval Assistant to 2SL, which indicated that he was highly thought of. In 1909 he announced plans for another expedition to the Antarctic, and that he would attempt to reach the Pole (Shackleton had reached 88°23’S that year). This time the expedition ship was the Terra Nova, and she sailed in June 1910. The march to the Pole started in November 1911, after depots of stores had been established. But Amundsen’s party reached the Pole on 14 December, Scott on 18 January 1912. Scott’s return was hampered by appalling weather, and his party all perished at the end of March, after exhibiting extreme heroism. Scott’s diaries and records of the march survived, but it was not until January 1913 that the fate of the party became known in Great Britain. Since then Scott has been revered, with his companions, particularly Captain Oates, as the epitome of heroism in adversity, though there is also a school of thought which considers him to have been foolhardy, ill prepared and a poor leader: modern research, though, has shown that it was the unpredictable Antarctic weather which defeated him.

Seeley, William (1840–1914) US: Ordinary Seaman William Seeley, VC. He was the first American citizen to win the VC, during the assault on the forts at Shimonoseki in Japan, while serving in HMS Euryalus, 51, in 1864. He seems to have joined the Royal Navy in 1860, probably from a merchant ship (at a time when it was an offence for a US citizen to enlist in the British armed forces), in


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HMS Imperieuse, 41, on the China Station. He transferred to the Eur-yalus, when she relieved the former ship as flagship. The opening up of Japan to Western trade and ideas was resisted by many Japanese, and the actions at Kagoshima, in 1863, and Shimonoseki, resulted from local warlords preventing the passage of ships into the Inland Sea. An international squadron was sent to open the passage, and after bombarding the forts, a landing party was sent to spike the guns and dismantle the forts. In the course of this, the party was attacked by a strong Japanese force, which was repulsed, and then took refuge behind a strong earthwork and palisade. Seeley displayed conspicuous bravery in making a daring reconnaissance, and then taking part in the assault despite being wounded. He received his VC in Portsmouth in 1865, at a ceremony attended by former VCs, all his shipmates, and all the pomp and ceremony possible. Thereafter he left the RN, and returned home to the USA.

Selborne, Lord (1859–1942) British: politician. Born William Palmer, in 1895 he succeeded his father as the Earl of Selborne, and under that name he was First Lord of the Admiralty for five momentous years (1900– 05). During that time, working with Admiral Sir John FISHER, first when he was 2SL (responsible for all personnel matters), and then when he was 1SL, between them they hauled the RN into the twentieth century. Selborne gave his name to the entry scheme for officers which gave them a wider education than previously. Fisher provided the dynamism, but the idea was as much Selborne’s as Fisher’s. A college at Osborne was added to the newly built college at Dartmouth for the scheme, which widened the field of selection, and aimed to remove the invidious distinctions between the branches—engineers having been regarded as distinctly ‘below the salt’. The scheme, modified over the years, certainly made a difference, but another half century elapsed before non seaman officers could reach the highest ranks, and at the start of the twenty-first century, no one other than a seaman specialist has yet held operational command at sea, nor become 1SL. In 1905 the threat of the German navy was just beginning to be appreciated, and measures were taken to meet it, all costing money, which the Treasury was unwilling to find. Fisher’s wholesale scrapping of obsolete colonial gunboats helped to fund the provision of water-tube boilers. The introduction of W/T (in which the RN was well in the forefront), the use of fuel oil (initially as a supplement to coal) and the introduction of submarines, were all decisions taken by Selborne’s Board. He also oversaw the creation of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and the Royal Fleet Reserve (irreverently known as Selborne’s Light Horse), both of which provided personnel for the enormous expansion of the RN in WW1 and WW2.


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Semmes, Raphael (1809–77) Confederate States of America: Rear Admiral. He was one of the most aggressive and successful Confederate naval raiders of the US Civil War. During his early career he served in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean, 1826–31. He studied at the Norfolk Naval School, 1831–32. Following a variety of assignments ashore and at sea, he served in the Mexican-American War, 1846–48. During that war he commanded the brig USS Somers, 10, which was lost in a storm only months after his taking command. He was assigned to the office of the Instructor of Provisions and Clothing, 1848–49. During subsequent assignments he advanced to Commander in September 1855. Semmes resigned his commission in the USN in February 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War, and joined the Confederate Navy with the rank of Commander. He was promoted to Captain in 1862 and quickly became known for his daring raids on Union merchant shipping in the Confederate ship Alabama. He suffered a crushing defeat in the English Channel in a single-ship action with the Union’s USS Kearsarge. Semmes advanced to Rear Admiral in the Confederate Navy in February 1865. He surrendered with the Army of Tennessee in April 1865 and took up the practice of law in Mobile, Alabama. He wrote Service Afloat and Ashore during the Mexican War, published in 1851, and Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico, published in 1852. He also wrote The Cruise of the Alabama and Sumter, published in 1864, and Memoirs of Service Afloat During the War Between the States, which appeared in 1869.

Seppings, Robert (1767–1840) British: master shipwright and naval architect, Sir Robert Seppings, FRS. His work, in particular the use of diagonal bracing in ships’ structures, produced stronger and more seaworthy ships, and enabled the size of line-of-battleships to be increased by some 25 per cent, compared to SLADE’S Victory. He was an apprentice of the Master Shipwright at Plymouth, 1782–89, and by 1797 was the assistant to the Master Shipwright. In 1804, he became Master Shipwright at Chatham, where he developed his ideas on ship construction in the years up to 1811. Seppings had had little mathematical training, and in 1814 BARROW convened a meeting of scientists to consider Seppings’s work. They verified it, as did Baron Dupin in France. Seppings became Surveyor of the Navy in 1813, and among the other improvements he made were the rounded bow and stern form, which were stronger and allowed more guns to be carried to fire ahead and astern. He was replaced in 1832 as a consequence of the actions of the First Lord, during a controversy between the shipwrights and seamen over the design of warships. But


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Seppings’s work was recognized by the House of Commons Finance Committee as being such as to ‘confer a lasting benefit on the British nation’.

Sharp, Ulysses S.G., Jr (1906–2001) US: Admiral. He commanded US naval forces in the Pacific at the onset of the Vietnam War. As C-in-C Pacific in August 1964 he launched the retaliatory strikes against North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Tonkin Gulf. He graduated from the USNA in 1927 and served in a battleship, an aircraft carrier, several destroyers and at the Bureau of Ships prior to WW2. From 1942 to 1943 he commanded the destroyer-minesweeper USS Hogan. From 1943 to 1944 he commanded the destroyer USS Boyd during combat operations throughout the Pacific, including the battle of the Philippine Sea. From 1944 to 1948 he served on the staffs of four commanders of the Pacific Fleet Cruiser-Destroyer Force. Following command of the Fleet Sonar School in San Diego, California, 1948–49, he attended the US Naval War College, 1949–50 and commanded Destroyer Squadron Five in 1950. Also in 1950 he was planning officer for Commander, Seventh Fleet leading up to the amphibious landing at Inchon during the Korean War. Subsequent service included a staff assignment for the Second Fleet, command of the cruiser USS Macon, and duties as deputy CoS for the Pacific Fleet. After advancement to Rear Admiral, he commanded Cruiser Division Five, and following duty in the office of the CNO, he commanded the Pacific Fleet cruisers and destroyers. He advanced to Vice Admiral in April 1960 and after a few months as commander of the First Fleet, he was appointed a Deputy CNO, playing a significant role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. In September 1963 he advanced to Admiral and was named C-in-C Pacific Fleet. He retired from active duty in August 1968.

Shchedrin, Grigoriy (1912–?) Russian: Vitse-Admiral, Hero of the Soviet Union. He was one of the most successful Soviet submarine commanders in the Northern Fleet during WW2. He first went to sea in the merchant marine, and entered the navy in 1937. By 1942 he was in command of the submarine S-56, and in that year took her, and four others, from their Pacific base to northern Russia via the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In the fifteen months from March 1943 he made eight patrols, sinking a destroyer, three transports, two tankers and smaller craft. For these exploits he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union. In the 1960s he was responsible for the acceptance into service of the new ‘H’-class, the first Soviet SSBNs: he was also Commander, Submarines, Pacific Fleet, in 1964. He retired in 1973.


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Shepard, Alan (1923–98) US: Rear Admiral. He was the first US astronaut in space. On 15 May 1961 he made a suborbital flight of fifteen minutes in a vehicle named Freedom 7, reaching an altitude of 115 miles during the flight. A 1944 graduate of the USNA, he served in destroyers during the latter stages of WW2 in the Pacific, seeing action in the Philippine and Okinawa campaigns. He was designated a naval aviator in 1947 and served in several fighter squadrons before becoming a test pilot in 1951. Shepard graduated from the US Naval War College in 1958, and in April 1959 was selected as one of the original seven astronauts in the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Mercury Program. In 1963 he was named Chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA. Between 31 January and 9 February 1971 he commanded the Apollo 14 flight that landed on the moon. He logged 216hrs 57mins in space, including 9hrs 17mins on the surface of the moon. Following his successful Apollo 14 mission, he returned to his duties as Chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA. From September to December 1971 Shepard served as a delegate to the 26th United Nations General Assembly session. He retired from NASA and the Navy in August 1974 to enter private business. He co-wrote a book, Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon, published in 1994.

Sherbrooke, Robert (1901–72) British: Rear-Admiral Robert Sherbrooke, VC, CB, DSO. He won his VC in a classic destroyer action in the Barents Sea in December 1942, in defence of a convoy to Russia. Five small destroyers drove off a superior German force consisting of the heavy cruiser Hipper, the pocket battleship Lutzow and six bigger destroyers, and the convoy escaped unscathed. Sherbrooke was the son and grandson of naval officers, and directly descended from Lord ST VINCENT. He joined the Navy in 1913; 1921, Lieutenant; 1935, Commander; 1942, Captain; 1951, Rear-Admiral. Virtually all his early experience was in battleships, but in 1937 he took command of the old destroyer Vanoc at Gibraltar, and was involved in protecting British interests locally during the Spanish Civil War. In 1939 he took command of the destroyer Cossack, and won the DSO at the second battle of Narvik. In November 1942 he took command of the new 17th Destroyer Flotilla, and a month later the four ships and the older Achates formed the close escort to convoy JW51B. The German plan was to draw off the escort with Hipper and three destroyers, while the Lutzow and her escort attacked the convoy. Sherbrooke’s plan was to hold off the enemy by threatening torpedo attack (three of his destroyers were only armed with WW1-vintage 4-inch guns due to a shortage of modern weapons), while the convoy escaped behind a smokescreen into darkness, or until Admiral BURNETT’S covering force could come up.


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Both plans worked, the German one only up to a point. The four modern ‘O’-class destroyers drove off Hipper and her destroyers four times, while Achates laid the smokescreen, but for some unaccountable reason the Lutzow group failed to attack the convoy, which lay at its mercy. Lack of sea-experience, and doubts engendered by confusing directives from the high command played their part in discouraging Admiral KUMMETZ and Captain Stange, but some part of the German lack of resolve must be put down to the moral superiority established by the RN. Sherbrooke’s ship Onslow was hit and the bridge showered with splinters, one severely wounding him, and blinding him in one eye, and Achates was sunk. But when Burnett’s force arrived, the Germans withdrew, their failure occasioning an outburst of fury from Hitler, and RAEDER’S resignation. Sherbrooke continued to serve, commanding the aircraft carrier Indefatigable in 1951. He retired, medically unfit, in 1954.

Sherman, Forrest G. (1896–1951) US: Admiral. He was a key figure in shaping US naval strategy in the Pacific during WW2 and in naval reorganization following that war. He graduated from the USNA in 1918 and began his career with WW1 convoy escort duty in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Assignments in fighter and scouting squadrons followed flight training in 1922. He attended the US Naval War College, 1926–27, and after varied naval aviation assignments he became Director, Aviation Ordnance Section, Bureau of Aeronautics, 1933–36. Subsequent sea duty and staff assignments led to assignment to the CNO’s War Plans Division, 1940–42. In February 1942 he moved to the US Fleet staff and the Joint Strategic Committee. Following promotion to Captain he commanded the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, participating in the Guadalcanal amphibious assault in August 1942. In October, following the sinking of Wasp, he became CoS to Commander, Air Force Pacific Fleet. Subsequently, as a Rear Admiral, he was named Deputy CoS to C-in-C Pacific Fleet, Admiral NIMITZ, and served as a principal naval war planner in the Pacific. After a brief period as Commander, Carrier Division One, he advanced to Vice Admiral and became Deputy CNO in 1945, working effectively to establish Navy missions during the military service reorganization. From 1948 to 1949 he commanded US naval forces in the Mediterranean, and in October 1949 he became CNO. As the Navy’s senior officer he advocated nuclear power for the Navy’s ships. He died in 1951, while CNO. The destroyer USS Forrest Sherman was named in his honour.


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Shovell, Cloudesley (1650–1707) English: Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell. He and ROOKE were the two chief fleet commanders during the wars to contain Louis XIV, 1688–1713. Their particular contribution to British maritime supremacy in the eighteenth century was their creation and training of a disciplined fleet rather than the collection of individual ships of the mid-seventeenth century. He died when his flagship, the Association, was wrecked on the Scilly Isles, due to navigational errors arising from the inability to calculate longitude exactly. The resulting determination to solve the problem led to the setting up of the Board of Longitude in 1714. He first went to sea with Sir Christopher MYNGS in 1663, and after his death in the Four Days’ Fight (1666) was befriended by Sir John Narborough. Under him he fought at the battle of Solebay (1672) and was commissioned; 1673, Lieutenant; 1677, Captain; 1690, Rear-Admiral; 1694, Vice-Admiral; 1702, Admiral. He took part in the campaign in the Mediterranean against the corsairs in Tripoli, who were a menace to European and American traders for the best part of two centuries. Shovell particularly distin-guished himself in a boat action in Tripoli Harbour in 1675, receiving PEPYS’S commendation and money and a medal from the king (though he got into Pepys’s bad books later). He commanded several ships in the Mediterranean, being much involved in the affairs of Tangier. At the 1688 revolution, he was with DARTMOUTH’S fleet, and like Rooke, followed the former’s submission to William III. He fought at Bantry Bay in 1689, in command of the Edgar, 70, and was afterwards knighted for his bravery. He became a Rear-Admiral one month after Rooke, and commanded a squadron in Irish waters, thus missing the battle of Beachy Head. He took a prominent part at the battle of Barfleur two years later, being wounded. He held administrative posts, 1693–1707, successively on the Navy Board and in the Victualling Department, and was a member of the Commission of the Lord High Admiral, and was also an MP from time to time. At the start of the War of the Spanish Succession, Shovell arrived too late for the action at Vigo (see ROOKE), but had the job of mopping up afterwards. In 1703 he commanded a joint Anglo-Dutch fleet operating (without much success) in the Mediterranean, and in the next year he commanded the van of the Anglo-Dutch fleet under Rooke at the battle of Malaga. In 1705 he was in sole command in the Mediterranean, and oversaw the successful siege of Barcelona: an attempt, two years later, to capture Toulon, nearly succeeded, but lack of drive in the commanders ashore allowed the French to regain the initiative, and the allied troops were withdrawn. It was while bringing the fleet home afterwards that the Association was lost. It seems certain that Shovell escaped, but was murdered by wreckers on the beach.


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Sigsbee, Charles D. (1845–1923) US: Rear-Admiral. He was captain of USS Maine when she exploded and sank in Havana harbour in 1898. During the following inquiry he argued that the ship had been sunk by a Spanish mine, and ‘Remember the Maine’ became the rallying cry for vocal advocates of war with Spain, including then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore ROOSEVELT. Subsequent investigations have cast doubt on the source of the explosion. Sigsbee graduated from the USNA in 1863. He served in the coastal and riverine forces of the Union Navy during the American Civil War, serving with distinction in several important actions against Confederate forces. Following the Civil War, sea duty and tours as instructor at the Naval Academy were combined with several assignments in the Navy’s Hydro-graphic Office. He also commanded two training ships and the screw sloop USS Kearsarge, 1885–86. After a tour as Chief Hydrographic Officer, 1893–97, he commanded the battleship USS Maine from April 1897 until her sinking in February 1898. After successful sea duty during the Spanish-American War, Sigsbee commanded the battleship USS Texas. He advanced to Rear Admiral in 1903, and following senior command and staff assignments, including command of the squadron that returned the remains of John Paul JONES to the USA. He retired from active duty in January 1907.

Sims, William S. (1858–1936) US: Admiral. He advocated the big-gun ‘dreadnought’ as the centrepiece of naval warfare at the end of the nineteenth century and was the senior US naval leader in the European theatre during WW1. He supported President Theodore ROOSEVELT’S emphasis on the battleship over a more balanced mix of naval combatants advocated by others, including Rear Admiral MAHAN. He was responsible for improvements in the accuracy of naval gunfire, including the introduction of the ‘continuous aim’ method developed by British Captain Percy SCOTT. Sims graduated from the USNA in 1880, and early assignments at sea were punctuated with a school ship teaching assignment and diplomatic tours in Madrid, Paris, and St Petersburg. During those tours he learned about European navies and combined his duties with intelligence work. While still a Commander, he commanded the battleship USS Minnesota, 1909–11 and advanced to Captain in 1911. He was a student and instructor at the US Naval War College, 1911–13, and he commanded the Atlantic Destroyer Flotilla, 1913–15. From 1916 to 1917 he commanded the battleship USS Nevada. Sims briefly was President of the US Naval War College in 1917, and in March of that year he advanced to Rear Admiral. He commanded destroyers, tenders and auxiliaries for a month, and after advancement in April 1917 to Vice Admiral, was Commander, US Naval Forces in European Waters, with additional duty as naval attaché in London. He established the use of convoys to combat WW1 submarine warfare. In December 1918 he advanced to Admiral, but in April 1919, after his WW1 command ended, he reverted to


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Rear Admiral and returned to head the Naval War College for a second time. He retired from active duty in 1922 as a Rear Admiral, and became an advocate of naval aviation. Despite his outspoken criticism of the wartime administration of the Navy, he was recalled to active duty in 1925 on naval aviation matters, and subsequently retired as an Admiral in 1930.

Skram, Peder (c.1503–81) Danish: Admiral. He was the first Nordic sea-commander to see and utilize the possibilities of the sailing ‘battleship’. He started his career as a soldier, and in the late 1520s entered the service of King Frederick I, who had seized the Danish-Norwegian throne in 1523. In 1532, despite his lack of sea-experience, he was appointed admiral of a squadron sent to Norwegian waters to defeat the forces of Christian II’s supporters. In this he was successful. In 1535 he commanded a combined Danish-Swedish-Prussian fleet at the battle of Bornholm, and defeated the Hanseatic fleet. This was the first Scandinavian sea-fight (indeed, one of the earliest world-wide) involving only sailing vessels armed with ‘shipsmashing’ guns. The victory enabled Skram to transport an army to the island of Zeeland, which captured Copenhagen, and Malmo on the Swedish mainland, breaking the power of the Hansa, and marking the decline of the north German cities of the Hanseatic league. After retiring in 1555, he came out of retirement to command a joint Danish, north German and Polish fleet against the Swedes in the Seven Years’ War of the North (1563– 70). He retired again after an evenly matched battle in late 1563.

Slade, Thomas (c.1710–71) British: master shipwright, Sir Thomas Slade. He was the designer of HMS Victory, and a notable ship designer of his period. In 1742 he was naval overseer for contract built ships. From 1750 onwards he had a rapid succession of appointments: 1750, Assistant Master Shipwright, Woolwich; 1750, Master Shipwright, Ply-mouth; 1752, Master Shipwright, Woolwich; 1752, Master Shipwright, Chatham; 1753, Master Shipwright, Deptford. He became Surveyor of the Navy, 1755–71, jointly with W.Bately, though Slade was the senior. It was no accident that Victory was NELSON’S flagship at Trafalgar: she remained popular among flag officers for nearly forty years, and wore the flags of, among many others, Augustus KEPPEL, RODNEY, HOOD (I), JERVIS and SAUMAREZ. Nor was Victory the only successful design from his hands: many of the 74-gun shipsof-the-line in the fleet in the 1790s were from his design, and proved long-lasting.


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Sloat, John D. (1781–1867) US: Rear-Admiral. He commanded the naval force that occupied Monterey and San Francisco in the state of California, in June 1846. He thus claimed California for the United States and took a crucial step in completing westward continental expansion. Sloat entered the Navy as a Midshipman in 1800 and served briefly in the West Indies in action during the Quasi War with France. In February 1801 he was discharged because of naval cutbacks. After merchant service as a captain, he reentered the Navy as a sailing master at the onset of the War of 1812. He served in the frigate USS United States, 44, during the capture of the HMS Macedonian, 38, in October 1812. For most of the war, however, he and United States remained blockaded in Connecticut. After the war Sloat served in New York, 1816–20, and in Portsmouth, 1820–21. After subsequent tours of sea duty he commanded the schooner USS Grampus, 10, operating against pirates in the Caribbean for two years. He advanced to Master Commandant in 1826, and after additional shore duty in New York, he commanded the sloop USS St Louis, operating off the coast of Peru during a revolution there. In late 1831 he began a third shore command in New York, and at the end of that tour in 1837 was promoted to Captain. He commanded the Portsmouth Navy Yard, 1840–43. In August 1844 he assumed command of the Pacific Fleet, operating off the west coast of Mexico and California. In July 1846 he returned to a series of shore duty assignments and was placed on the Navy’s reserve list in September 1855. He retired from active duty in December 1861 and while in that status advanced to Commodore the following July and to Rear Admiral in August 1866.

Smith, (William) Sidney (1764–1840) British: Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, GCB. He is best known for his defence of Acre, now in Israel, where Napoleon received his first check on land. He entered the Navy in 1777; 1780, Lieutenant; 1782, Commander; 1783, Captain; 1789–90, in Swedish service; 1805, Rear-Admiral; 1810, Vice-Admiral, 1821, Admiral. His midshipman’s time was busy: in the Unicorn, 20, he was present at the taking of the American frigate Raleigh, and a year later at the taking or destroying of three French frigates in Cancale Bay. He then served in the Sandwich, 98, RODNEY’S flagship in the ‘moonlight battle’ off Cape St Vincent, and his three actions with GUICHEN. Smith was given his Lieutenant’s commission by Rodney, and joined the Alcide, 74, being present at the battle of Chesapeake Bay, the operations off St Kitts, and the battle of the Saintes. Shortly afterwards he was given command of the Fury, 14, and a year later the Alcmène, 32.


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During the peace, 1783–93, Smith spent two years in France, and travelled in Morocco: he then went to Sweden, where he served irregularly with the Swedish Navy during the war with Russia (1788–90), receiving a Swedish knighthood. He then went to Constantinople (Istanbul), and on the outbreak of war in 1793 bought, at his own expense, a small ship, in which he took forty British sea-men to join Lord HOOD (3)’s fleet at Toulon. When Toulon had to be evacuated, Smith volunteered to burn the French ships which could not be towed away, but the job was bodged. There was a feeling that Smith was, to use a twentieth-century phrase, ‘all mouth and no trousers’, though this is undoubtedly unfair: the assistance of the Spanish and Neapolitans was positively counterproductive. In 1794 he was given command of the Diamond, 38, and a flotilla of small craft, and showed what he could do, by capturing or destroying large numbers of enemy vessels, and completely stopping the coasting trade in the English Channel. However, he overreached himself in cutting out a privateer lugger at Le Havre. The operation was successful, but the wind dropped, the tide turned, and the vessel was recaptured: Smith spent two uncomfortable years in a French prison. From this he escaped with the aid of a French Royalist officer (and, it is said, a lady-friend). In 1798 Smith was given command of the Tigre, 80, and sent to the eastern Mediterranean, where he proceeded to put NELSON’S nose out of joint, by assuming an independent commander’s powers, to which he was not entitled. In 1799, after hearing that Napoleon, leading the French army marooned in Egypt after Nelson’s victory at the Nile, had captured Jaffa on his way north, he resolved to stop him if he could, and accompanied by the Theseus, 74, hastened to Acre, where he took over the defences: superiority at sea enabled him to capture the artillery train intended for the siege. Instead the guns were turned on the French. After two months and an abortive assault, the siege was raised, and Smith was duly given the credit he richly deserved. (Napoleon deserted his army, and managed to reach France.) In 1806, Smith hoisted his flag in the Pompee, under COLLINGWOOD in the Mediterranean, and carried out a successful campaign ashore in Calabria, though at the expense of warring with the army he was supposed to be supporting almost as much as he harried the enemy. In 1809 he went out as C-in-C South America, but quarrelled with the British ambassador in Brazil, and was recalled. He ended the war as second-in-command in the Mediterranean under PELLEW, but ill health then ended his service. He was vainglorious (as Nelson became), and undoubtedly put people’s backs up by his exaggerated sense of his own importance, but he could be an inspiring and effective leader of men. He received the KCB at the end of the war, and the GCB in 1838.

Somerville, James (1882–1949) British: Admiral of the Fleet, GCB, GBE, DSO. He was a major British sea-commander in WW2. He commanded Force H, an independent striking force operating mostly in the Mediterranean, 1940–42, and was also involved in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in 1941.


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He entered Britannia in 1897; 1904, Lieutenant; 1915, Commander; 1921, Captain; 1933, Rear-Admiral; 1937, Vice-Admiral; 1942, Admiral; 1945, Admiral of the Fleet. He qualified as torpedo officer and W/ T specialist, 1907. He held various appointments as W/T officer, 1907–1915, including staff of Vice-Admiral de Robeck, Cin-C Eastern Mediterranean Squadron (DSO for services during the Gallipoli campaign). His first sea appointment in command was the battleship Benbow, 1922–24. He commanded Barham, Warspite and Norfolk, 1927–33, and was a member of the team investigating lower deck complaints in the aftermath of the Invergordon mutiny (1931). As Rear-Admiral (D) Mediterranean Fleet, 1936–38, he was heavily involved in naval policing of the Spanish Civil War. He became C-in-C East Indies, 1938, but was invalided home with suspected tuberculosis, and placed on the retired list in July 1939 (with a well earned KCB as consolation). Within three days of the outbreak of WW2 he was back at the Admiralty and assisted Vice-Admiral RAMSAY during the Dunkirk evacuation. He commanded Force H (Ark Royal, Renown, Sheffield [and others at various times]) 1940–42, and became C-in-C Eastern Fleet, 1942–44. (On arrival he signalled ‘So this is the Eastern Fleet. Well, there’s many a good tune played on an old fiddle’.) He remained nominally on the retired list, 1939–44, but was restored to the active list in 1944. He headed the British Admiralty Delegation to Washington from 1944 to 1946. He finally retired in 1946. Somerville was one of the earliest specialists in wireless telegraphy, and most of his service up to the rank of captain was in that capacity. In 1929 he was appointed to the staff of the Imperial Defence College, then, as now, an indication of being marked out for higher rank. His diplomatic skills were sorely tested during the Spanish Civil War, and it is now suggested that they deserted him in 1940 when he was charged with neutralizing the French Fleet in Oran, after the fall of France. He conducted negotiations with the French commander, vice-amiral GENSOUL, via an intermediary, and it is now suggested that a face-to-face meeting (even communicating via an interpreter) might just have tipped the scales. As it was, the French refused the terms offered, and in the only partially successful (from the British point of view) action which followed, 1,600 French sailors were killed. The whole unhappy episode (including actions in UK ports, Alexandria, and later at Dakar) has been a continuing source of contention. Somerville’s offensive actions against the Italians in 1940–41 effectively neutralized the Italian fleet. It was the actions of Ark Royal’s aircraft which doomed the Bismarck, and Force H then carried out two successful Malta convoys. The Eastern Fleet suffered serious losses within a month of Somerville’s hoisting his flag, and was forced to with-draw to East Africa, but under Somerville’s leadership gradually regained control of the Indian Ocean and took the initiative in early 1944. The last six months of his command were made difficult by disagreements with MOUNTBATTEN, Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command. Somerville’s final appointment, to Washington, involved successful negotiations with the USN over facilities and operational opportunities for the British Pacific Fleet.


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Souchon, Wilhelm (1864–1946) German: Admiral. As the Rear-Admiral command ing the German Mediterranean Squadron in 1914, he fired the first shots of the war at sea in WW1, and his actions, in taking his squadron to safety in Turkish waters, were instrumental in bringing Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers. 1913, Konter Admiral; 1917, Vize Admiral; 1918, Admiral. At the outbreak of WW1 his squadron consisted of the battle cruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau. His instructions were to join the Austro-Hungarian and Italian fleets with a view to interrupting the passage of French army units from Africa. However, the Italians declared their neutrality, and after bombarding French bases in Tunisia, Souchon made a feint towards the Adriatic, and then headed for the Dardanelles. A British cruiser squadron found him, but turned away, misinterpreting their orders (see MILNE), and Souchon reached Turkey unscathed. The German squadron was incorporated in the Turkish fleet, and Souchon assumed command of the whole. In October 1914 he bombarded Odessa, thus starting war between Turkey and Russia, and also with Britain and France. However, he was unable to carry out more than pinprick raids, and the Russians generally retained control of the Black Sea (see KOLCHAK). In 1917, Souchon returned home and commanded a battle squadron of the High Seas Fleet, and in 1918 took command of the Baltic Station, and Kiel Naval Base. He was unable to contain the late-October mutinies, and was removed from power by the mutineers.

de Sourdis, Henri (1594–1645) French: archbishop and admiral—an interesting combination. The church militant had featured in the Middle Ages, but de Sourdis was a late flowering example of the breed. He owed his start in the church to being a godson of Henri IV, but he had been in holy orders for at least ten years before he was made bishop in 1623. He became Archbishop of Bordeaux in 1629. He had already displayed his penchant for war, taking charge of the artillery and commissariat at the siege of La Rochelle. His maritime career started in 1636 and was short, but full of incident. That year he was nominated as Louis XIII’s principal advisor on the royal navy, and put his advice into practice against the Spaniards, whom he beat off Menton, and a year later recaptured the îles de Lérins, which the Spaniards had occupied and fortified. In 1638 he was promoted to lieutenant-général, and took command of the western fleet, gaining a brilliant victory against a Spanish fleet at Guetaria. In the following two


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years he undertook cruises both in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, which paralysed all movement up and down the Spanish coasts. In 1641 he blockaded Tarragona, taking several prizes and beating off another Spanish squadron. Later that year he failed to prevent Tarragona being resupplied, and was recalled in disgrace by RICHELIEU. He left the sea, and went back to his archdiocese.

von Spee, Maximilian, Graf (1861–1914) German: Vize-admiral Graf von Spee. At the outbreak of WW1 he commanded the German East Asiatic Squadron, based at Tsingtao in north China. He caused substantial disruption to British activities in the Pacific, before making his way to the coast of South America, where he defeated a British squadron at Coronel, before himself being defeated at the Falkland Islands. In 1877 he entered the KM; 1884, Leutnant zur See; 1912, Kontre-admiral; 1913, Vize-admiral. In 1884 he served in the Möwe, on a voyage of imperial expansion down the coast of West Africa, during which treaties were signed with local chiefs in Togo and the Cameroons, leading to the establishment of German colonies. He was also present in 1897 when Prince Heinrich took possession of the treaty port of Tsingtao in China, of which Germany had taken a 99-year lease. From 1900 to 1910 von Spee held a series of appointments as Kapitän zur See, commanding the cruiser Hela, the minelayer Pelikan, and the pre-dreadnought battleship Wittelsbach. In 1912 he took command of the powerful East Asiatic Squadron. At the outbreak of WW1 he was in the Carolines. His position was untenable, with half the world between his force and home. Von Spee determined to cause as much trouble as possible, but realized that the chances of his squadron reaching home were minimal, since there were no fuelling facilities available to him. He allowed VON MÜLLER in the Emden to conduct his own campaign, while he headed ultimately for the west coast of South America. In the meantime, the British were scouring the Pacific for him, in an uncoordinated manner. CRADOCK’S squadron, sent from the South Atlantic, found him off Coronel in Chile, and was effectively destroyed. Von Spee determined, against the advice of his staff, to try to seize coal in the Falkland Islands. But CHURCHILL and Lord FISHER had acted swiftly on hearing the news of Coronel, and sent out STURDEE with two battle cruisers, which outmatched von Spee’s two heavy cruisers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Both were sunk, von Spee going down with his flagship. Both his sons died also, one in the Gneisenau, the other in the Nurnburg.


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Speed, Keith (1934–) British: Lieutenant Commander Sir Keith Speed, RNR, MP. He was the last political head of the Royal Navy as an individual service, the direct descendant of such men as ANSON, the 4th Earl SANDWICH, ST VINCENT, SELBORNE and GEDDES. He joined the RN in 1948, but even at Dartmouth he showed great interest in politics, and he left the RN in 1956 as a Sub-Lieutenant. He remained in the Royal Naval Reserve until 1979. He became an MP in 1968, and occupied junior ministerial posts, 1970–74. With the return of Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1979, he was made Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence for the Royal Navy, a far cry from the title and prestige of First Lord of the Admiralty, who until the 1960s had usually been a member of the cabinet, but the post was still that of the political head of the RN, although under the overall direction of the defence minister. In 1981 the government proposed a series of drastic cuts to Britain’s defence capabilities, which were seen as bearing particularly harshly on the RN, and Speed spoke his mind, more as a naval officer than a politician, and was dismissed for his pains. His dismissal triggered a further political integration of the British armed forces, and the abolition of individual ministers for each service.

Sprague, Clifton A.F. (1896–1955) US: Vice Admiral. He commanded a task unit of small escort aircraft carriers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts in the WW2 battle off Samar Island in the Pacific on 25 October 1944. Sprague’s light force employed astonishingly aggressive tactics to drive off a Japanese force of battleships, cruisers and destroyers, averting a potential disaster on the amphibious landing beaches of Leyte in the Philippines. Although two US escort carriers, two destroyers and a destroyer escort were sunk, Sprague and the aggressive captains of his task force achieved a pivotal strategic victory by preventing the Japanese force from wiping out the otherwise unprotected landing force at Leyte. Sprague graduated from the USNA in 1918, and his early service included destroyers and the battleship USS Tennessee. After flight training, 1919–20, he served with scouting and bombing squadrons. Following a series of naval aviation assignments, he commanded Patrol Squadron Eight, 1931–33, and the aviation auxiliary ships USS Patoka, 1939–40, and USS Tangier from 1940 through the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941. From 1942 to 1943 he was CoS for Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier. He commanded the Naval Air Center and Naval Air Station Seattle, Washington, from April to October 1943, and in November he took command of the new aircraft carrier


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USS Wasp, participating in the Wake and Marcus Islands raids, the Saipan invasion, and the battle of the Philippine Sea. After advancement to Rear Admiral he commanded Carrier Division 25, supporting the amphibious assault on Moratai and Task Unit 77.4.3 at the battle off Samar Island in 1944. As commander of Carrier Division Six and commander of Support Carrier Units, he participated in the Iwo Jima and Okinawa invasions. Following WW2 he continued in senior naval aviation assignments until his final tour as Commandant, Seventeenth Naval District and the Alaskan Sea Frontier. He retired from active duty and advanced to Vice Admiral in November 1951.

Sprague, Thomas L. (1894–1972) US: Vice Admiral. He was one of the aircraft carrier admirals who led the USN offensive against Japan in the Pacific during WW2. As commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, he participated in the Marshal-Truk Islands operations in early 1944, as US naval efforts in the Pacific gained offensive momentum. In March of 1944 he advanced to Rear Admiral and briefly commanded Fleet Air Operations. In July 1944 he was appointed Commander, Carrier Division 22 and participated in the successful operations at Guam and Morotai Islands in August-September 1944. As Commander, Task Group 77.4, he participated in the amphibious assault at Leyte Gulf, Philippines, in October 1944. After a brief command of Pacific training carriers, he became Commander, Carrier Division 3 in March 1945 and participated in the invasion of Okinawa and the final air campaign against the Japanese home islands. Much of Sprague’s WW2 service in the Pacific was with small aircraft carriers, usually built on merchant ship hulls. These smaller, slower and more vulnerable ships were used to augment the fast carriers, such as Intrepid, that were the centrepieces of the US offensive operations sweeping through the Pacific in 1944–45. After duty at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, including two years as chief, 1947–49, he advanced to Vice Admiral in August 1949 and was named Commander, Air Force Pacific Fleet. Command of the First Fleet was added to his Air Force Pacific Fleet command in 1950. He retired from active duty in 1952. He was recalled to active duty to serve from 1956 to 1957, during the negotiations with the Philippines concerning the US military presence in that country.

Spruance, Raymond A. (1886–1969) US: Admiral. He was a principal architect of the naval strategy that led to victory in the Pacific during WW2. He was the junior admiral under Admiral FLETCHER at the pivotal battle of Midway in June 1942, and commanded the powerful Fifth Fleet that spearheaded the offensive Pacific operations leading to the Allied victory in that theatre.


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Spruance graduated from the USNA in 1906 and immediately began his career in the surface Navy. This early service included duty in the battleship USS Minnesota as part of the global circumnavigation of The Great White Fleet’, 1907–09. As a Lieutenant, Junior Grade, he commanded the destroyer USS Bainbridge, 1913–14. During WW1 he had both sea-duty and shore assignments, and from 1919 to 1921 he commanded the destroyer USS Aaron Ward and then another destroyer, USS Percival. In addition to his other pre-WW2 commands, he had three separate assignments at the Naval War College as a student and instructor. He was promoted to Captain in June 1932 and Rear Admiral in December 1939. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Spruance was in command of Cruiser Division Five based at Pearl Harbor. After participating in the raids on the Gilbert, Marshall, Wake and Marcus Islands and Tokyo in early 1942, he replaced Admiral HALSEY, who was ill, in the force being assembled to defend Midway. Following the Midway victory, he was named CoS to the Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral NIMITZ. In May 1943 he advanced to Vice Admiral and commanded amphibious assaults in the central Pacific during that year. He advanced to Admiral in March 1944 and became commander of the Fifth Fleet. In that position, he planned and executed the assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, in addition to other offensive operations. Following WW2 he became C-in-C Pacific Fleet in November 1945, and was named President of the US Naval War College in February 1946, retiring from that assignment and active duty in July 1948. He was US Ambassador to the Philippines, 1952–53. The destroyer USS Spruance was named in his honour.

Stannard, Richard (1902–77) British: Captain Richard Stannard, VC, DSO, RNR. He was a professional Merchant Navy officer who earned his VC for exceptional leadership and bravery while commanding the A/S trawler Arab off Namsos during the abortive Norwegian campaign in April 1940. He went to sea in the Port Line in 1918, and had advanced to Second Officer in the Orient Line by 1938; 1932, Lieutenant, RNR; 1947, Commander RNR; 1952, Captain, RNR. The British forces found out the hard way that operations in the face of determined air attack were not feasible. Arab was part of a force patrolling the fjords in northern Norway while British and French troops were evacuated from Nam-sos: she ferried stores, carried soldiers, put out an ammunition fire on a vital jetty. Stannard landed anti-aircraft guns, and set them up ashore, and beat off divebombing attacks. His ship survived thirty-five air attacks in five days, and shot down an incompetent German bomber which came too close. Stannard also earned an MiD later in 1940, and the DSO while commanding the destroyer Vimy on Atlantic escort duties. After the war he rose to the top of his profession in the Merchant Navy, ending as the Marine Superintendent of the P&O Orient Lines of Australia.


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Stark, Harold R. (1880–1972) US: Admiral. He led the naval build-up prior to US participation in WW2, including the initial build-up of anti-submarine forces in the undeclared campaign in 1941 against Germany’s accelerating Atlantic U-boat offensive. He was CNO from August 1939 until March 1942, when Admiral Ernest KING relieved him. Stark graduated from the USNA in 1903. His initial assignments were in the surface Navy and included torpedo boats, destroyers, cruisers and the battleship USS Minnesota during the 1907–09 global circumnavigation of ‘The Great White Fleet’. He commanded the ammunition ship USS Nitro, 1924–25 and the battleship USS West Virginia, 1933– 34. He advanced to Rear Admiral in November 1934 and was Chief, Bureau of Ordnance, 1934–37. He commanded Cruiser Division Three, 1937–38 and the Battle Force cruisers, 1938–39. Stark advanced to Admiral when he was named CNO in August 1939. In April 1942 he became Commander, US Naval Forces Europe. In October 1943 he was given the additional assignment of Commander, Twelfth Fleet. During his latter assignments, he was a participant in the Allies’ Atlantic Charter Conference of August 1941, which led to the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Stark’s career was clouded by the possibility that he shared responsibility for the USN’s lack of readiness when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Investigating committees cleared him, however, of responsibility in that matter. He retired from active duty in April 1946. The destroyer USS Stark was named in his honour.

Stayner, Richard (?–1662) English: Admiral Sir Richard Stayner. He was a senior captain in the Commonwealth Navy, and a professional sailor, rather than a soldierturned-sailor. Little is known of his early career, but he seems to have served in the Parliamentary Navy during the Civil Wars. By the time of the First Dutch War he was a captain, and commanded the Foresight, 50, under BLAKE at the battle of Portland (1652). He was present in the same ship at the Gabbard. At the end of the war, he went with Blake to the Mediterranean in 1654 to participate in the blockade of Cadiz, and while Blake took the main fleet elsewhere, he was left with a small squadron, with which he intercepted the Spanish treasure fleet, and effectively destroyed it. This caused enormous loss to the Spaniards in treasure, though less gain to the English, since two of the four major Spanish ships caught fire and sank with their treasure, a third ran on the rocks while escaping and sank, and only the fourth remained in English hands. He later played a major part in the destruction of the enemy fleet at Santa Cruz, for which he received a Cromwellian knighthood.


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In 1660 he was Rear-Admiral of the fleet sent to bring the king back and was knighted again—a Cromwellian knighthood didn’t count at King Charles’s court.

Steichen, Edward (1879–1973) US: Captain. He was a world-renowned commercial photographer who chronicled the USN’s exploits during WW2. Although retired from his civilian career as a photographer, he volunteered for WW2 service at the age of sixty-two. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander in early 1942, and his initial assignment was to provide a photographic view of naval aviation to assist the recruitment of naval aviators. He began with a small group of skilled photographers, but as the war progressed his work and his team expanded to create a pictorial record of four years of naval war. He focused dramatically on the emotional, humaninterest aspects of those events. His unique and evocative representation of naval warfare ended with coverage of the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945 aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Steichen advanced to Commander in 1943 and was released from naval service as a Captain in October 1945. During WW1 he was chief of the US Army Air Corps photographic division, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before returning to civilian life at the end of that conflict. At the end of WW2 he became director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. He supervised production of the Navy film The Fighting Lady (which was used as a motivator by the RN as well as the USN) and produced two Museum of Modern Art photographic exhibitions about WW2, ‘Road to Victory’ and ‘Power in the Pacific’.

Steiner, Ottokar (1916–98) British: Rear-Admiral, CB. While in command of HMS Centaur in January 1964, he was responsible for a classic police action in what was then Tanganyika. He joined the Navy in 1935; 1939, Lieutenant; 1950, Commander; 1956, Captain; 1966, Rear-Admiral. Steiner served throughout WW2, receiving two MiDs, and after the war commanded HMS Saintes and the 3rd Destroyer Squadron, 1958–60. Shortly after the granting of independence to Britain’s former East African colonies, there were military mutinies, fomented by communist agitators, which threatened to unseat the newly elected leaders. In particular, the capital of Tanganyika, Dar-es-Salaam, had seen soldiers looting and killing. As a precautionary measure, the C-in-C Middle East decided to move forces to protect British nationals. The newly commissioned small fleet carrier Centaur was then off Aden, at the start of a work-up. Within thirteen and a half hours she had embarked a full commando of Royal Marines, their vehicles and some


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armoured cars and two large RAF helicopters, while still retaining some of her strike and A/S capability. Three days later, she arrived off Dar-esSalaam, twelve hours after the new president, Julius Nyerere, had formally sought Britain’s help. Within twenty-four hours an assault was launched which was successful in every respect, the mutineers at three locations, one 340 miles away, being disarmed with only two casualties resulting—two mutineers. It was a classic action in which speed, surprise and overwhelming force, allied to lightning planning, brought success, with the minimum of political backlash. Steiner’s final appointment was as Assistant CDS. In retirement he was chairman of the Whitbread Round-the-World Race Committee, 1972–82, when such races were in their infancy.

Stephenson, Gilbert (1878–1972) British: Vice-Admiral Sir Gilbert Stephenson, KBE, CB, CMG. He was known during WW2 as the ‘Terror of Tobermory’, for his single-minded approach to the workup of escorts for the battle of the Atlantic. There can be no doubt that he personally made a major contribution to that victory. He entered the Navy in 1892; 1901, Lieutenant; 1912, Commander; 1919, Captain; 1929, Rear-Admiral (retired); 1934, Vice-Admiral (retired); 1939, Commodore, RNR. As a young officer, serving in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1901, Stephenson came to the notice of Admiral Sir John FISHER, who promoted him to command the destroyer Scourge at the age of twenty-three. He later qualified in torpedo, and served ashore as an instructor in the Vernon, and afloat as torpedo officer of the cruisers Monmouth and Black Prince, and the battleship Duncan. At the outbreak of WW1 he was serving in the Admiralty Intelligence Division, but got himself sent to the Dardanelles, and thence to Crete where, as Commander, Crete Patrols, he earned the title of the ‘Uncrowned King of Crete’. He then served in the Adriatic, where he set up the Otranto barrage to hinder the movements of German and Austrian U-boats. After the war he was Director of the Anti-Submarine Division in the Admiralty, and commanded the cruiser Dauntless and the battleship Revenge. His last appointment was as Commodore of the naval barracks in Portsmouth. In 1929 he was promoted to RearAdmiral, and retired: he was probably too unconventional for the Navy of the inter-war years. At the start of WW2 he was recalled as a convoy commodore, but only made two or three voyages before being selected to take charge of a base for training (‘working-up’) the many ships, largely manned by raw young sailors and officers, needed to escort convoys. The base was set up at Tobermory, in western Scotland, and Stephenson threw the whole force of his personality into the task. He saw it as being first to instil spirit into the crews; second, discipline, of the sort which enables a man to continue with a job in the most hopeless circumstances; third, to ensure efficient administration, so that ships’ companies never thought they were being messed about; and only last, fighting technique. A total of 911 ships went through the mill in four and a half years.


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Stevens, John (1916–91) British: Captain, DSO*, DSC. He was another of the COs of the 10th S/M Flotilla in 1942–43, completing twenty-three war patrols in HMS Unruffled, a name which completely matched his own temperament. He joined the RN in 1929, and his early experience of the spit and polish in battleships resulted in his joining submarines in 1937; 1938, Lieutenant; 1952, Commander; 1958, Captain. At the start of WW2 he was torpedo officer in HMS Triumph, which struck a mine, while on the surface, blowing off the outer ends of her torpedo tubes, luckily without causing sympathetic detonation of the torpedoes inside. While she was under repair, he became liaison officer to the French submarine Circe, where his ginger beard and ample girth earned him the nickname of ‘Henri Huit’. He then became First Lieutenant of the Thunderbolt (the salvaged and renamed Thetis, which had sunk with much loss of life on her trials in 1938) and was awarded the DSC when she sank the Italian S/M Tarantini off the mouth of the Gironde. He completed the CO’s course, and took command of HMS/M P.46, shortly to be renamed Unruffled, CHURCHILL having decreed that for reasons of morale submarines should be named rather than merely numbered. During his twentythree patrols he sank 40,000 tons of enemy shipping, including the cruiser Regolo, and was twice awarded the DSO. In the post-war world he achieved promotion to Captain, but he was never a thruster, and progressed no further. However, his equable temperament made him an excellent captain of a S/M squadron: in his case, he had fifteen boats in the 1st S/M Squadron, and fifteen individual COs to guide and counsel, and this author can confirm the skill with which he did so. Having previously chaired a committee investigating free ascent escapes from submarines, he encouraged the instructors in the escape tower to push the depth limits for free escape from submarines, finally getting down to 600 feet.

Stewart, Charles (1778–1869) US: Rear-Admiral. He was distinguished in combat during the Quasi War with France and the War of 1812. After merchant marine service he joined the Navy as a Lieutenant in 1798, serving in the frigate USS United States, 44, during successful actions against French privateers in the Caribbean. In 1800 he commanded the schooner USS Experiment, 10, again in successful actions against French privateers in the Caribbean. He commanded the brig USS Syren, 10, 1803–05, participating in the destruction of the frigate USS Philadelphia in Tripoli harbour in February 1804. Philadelphia ran aground and was captured by Tripolitan pirates during the Barbary War. Stewart also captured two Tripolitan warships in the action. He advanced to Master Commander in 1804 and to Captain in 1806. After shore duty and a three-year furlough, he commanded the brigs USS Argus, 18, and USS


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Hornet, 18, during the War of 1812. He commanded the frigate USS Constellation, 36, the frigate USS Constitution, 44, and the USS Franklin, 74, 1813–18. He commanded the Mediterranean Squadron, 1818–20 and the Pacific Squadron, 1821–24. Following several shore assignments he commanded the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 1837–41. After advancing to Commodore he commanded the Home Squadron, 1842–43. Following several senior shore assignments he was placed on the reserve list in 1855. He served as an advisor to President LINCOLN but declined an offer to return to active duty during the American Civil War. In July 1862 he was promoted to Rear Admiral on the retired list, becoming the first officer to be so promoted on that list.

Stockdale, James B. (1923-) US: Vice-Admiral. He was the senior US military prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In 1976 Stockdale was awarded the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor. The citation ended with a recognition of his ‘valiant leadership and extraordinary courage in a hostile environment’ during his eight years of captivity. He was shot down in his Douglas A-4 Skyhawk in September 1965, and despite repeated torture and four years of solitary confinement during his captivity, he remained an inspirational leader for his fellow prisoners. He was released in February 1973. Stockdale graduated from the USNA in 1946 and he was designated a naval aviator in September 1950. In addition to his deployments as a fighter pilot and squadron and air wing commander, his shore duty assignments included service as a test pilot and a test pilot instructor. His final tour of active duty was as President of the US Naval War College from 1976 to 1979. In addition to the Medal of Honor, his military awards include two Purple Hearts, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Distinguished Service Medals and four Silver Star Medals. After retirement from active duty in 1979, he has been a college professor, President of the Citadel College, a senior research fellow and an independent candidate for Vice President of the United States. Among the books he has written are In Love and War, published in 1984, and A Vietnam Experience: Ten Years of Reflection, published in 1985.

Stoddert, Benjamin (1751–1813) US: merchant and government official. He was the first US Secretary of the Navy. Following the establishment of the Department of the Navy in April 1798, President John ADAMS appointed him Secretary of the Navy, and he served from May 1798 to March 1801. During his tenure the Navy budget expanded rapidly, and its fleet increased to fifteen frigates and more than thirty smaller ships. He commenced the planning for six 74-gun ships-of-the-line, four of which (USS Independence, USS Franklin, USS Washington and


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USS Columbus) eventually were constructed after the War of 1812. Also during his tenure, the United States successfully fought the undeclared Quasi War with France, 1797–1801. He organized the recruitment of officers and seamen for the Navy, established the basis of a naval ship construction and repair infrastructure, and reestablished the US Marine Corps—disbanded in 1783 after the American Revolution— in 1798. Prior to his service as Secretary of the Navy, he had fought in George WASHINGTON’S Continental Army as a cavalry officer and was Secretary of the Board of War in the infant American government. The destroyer USS Benjamin Stoddert was named in his honour.

Strachan, Richard (1760–1828) British: Admiral Sir Richard Strachan, Bt, GCB. He was a successful frigate captain in the 1790s, and a squadron under his command captured four of the French ships which had escaped from Trafalgar. But he is best remembered for the doggerel verse describing the abortive Walcheren expedition of 1809: Great Chatham, with his sabre drawn, Stood waiting for Sir Richard Strachan. Sir Richard, longing to be at ‘em Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham. He joined the Navy in 1772, under the patronage of an uncle. Most of his early service was in the East Indies, North America, on the coast of Africa, and in the West Indies; 1779, Lieutenant; 1783, Commander; 1783, Captain; 1805, Rear-Admiral; 1810, ViceAdmiral; 1821, Admiral. In 1783 he was present at the first two fights between HUGHES and SUFFREN, earning promotion to Commander. He then spent sixteen years commanding frigates. In 1791, when Britain and France were not at war, Strachan, commanding the Phoenix, 36, in Indian waters, was sent to investigate the French frigate Résolue, 32, which was escorting a convoy suspected of carrying supplies for Tipu Sultan, in rebellion against British interests. The Résolue resisted, and an action ensued, the Frenchman striking to Strachan. In 1794, Strachan, commanding the Concorde, 36, was one of WARREN’S squadron which engaged a similar French force, and L’Engageante, 36, struck to Concorde. (Readers who remember the argument over the naming of the Concorde airliner in the 1970s may be amused that in this case, the British retained the French form of the name when the frigate was taken by the Magnificent in 1783.) In 1796 Strachan himself commanded a small frigate squadron, which executed much damage to the convoys of military stores passing along the French coast. In November 1805, commanding the Caesar, 80, and three other line-of-battleships and four frigates, he met Dumanoir with four ships which had been at Trafalgar, but had managed to get away. After a short action, all four were taken, and Strachan and his


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ships’ companies were included in the general distribution of honours which followed Trafalgar, Strachan becoming a KB, and receiving a pension of £1,000 a year. In 1809 he was given the naval command of the Walcheren expedition, which achieved nothing militarily, but lost a lot of lives to disease. Chatham was the land commander, and he and Strachan vilified each other in pamphlets. Strachan was not employed again, but was advanced to GCB at the war’s end.

Struble, Arthur D. (1894–1983) US: Admiral. He was the naval commander for the Inchon landings in September 1950 during the Korean War. As Commander, Joint Task Force Seven, he planned and led a hastily gathered US-British naval force that successfully carried out one of the most difficult amphibious assaults in history. He graduated from the USNA in 1915, and early service focused on the surface Navy, including duty in cruisers and destroyers. He commanded the cruiser USS Trenton, 1941– 42. He directed the Central Division Office of the CNO, 1942–43, advancing to Rear Admiral in that assignment. As CoS for the Western Naval Task Force, he was a principal planner of the Normandy invasion in June 1944. From 1944 to 1945 he commanded Amphibious Group Two in the Philippines invasion and from 1945 to 1946 he directed Western Pacific minesweeping operations. In June 1946 he became the Pacific Fleet Amphibious commander. In April 1948 he advanced to Vice Admiral, serving as a Deputy CNO and Naval Deputy on the US Joint Chiefs of Staff until May 1950, when he became Commander, Seventh Fleet. In addition to his role in the Inchon landings in September of that year, he was the naval leader for the amphibious landings at Wonsan in October and the support of the Marine withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir area in November and December. From 1951 to 1952 he commanded the First Fleet and served again with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was the naval representative on the US Military Staff Committee at the United Nations, 1953–55, and retired from active duty in June 1956, after serving as Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier.

Stump, Felix (1894–1972) US: Admiral. He was a principal US military leader during the Cold War. His senior commands between 1953 and his retirement included Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, Commander in Chief, Pacific, and US Military advisor to the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). He graduated from the USNA in 1917 and served in a gunboat, cruiser, and battleship before earning his naval aviator’s wings in 1920. As a Lieutenant he commanded the Experimental and Test Squadron at the Naval Air Station at Hampton Roads, Virginia,


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1920–22. Following subsequent naval aviation-related duties, he commanded the aircraft carrier USS Langley in 1941. In 1942 he advanced to Captain and became operations and intelligence officer for the Asiatic Fleet. After a brief assignment as air officer for Commander, Western Sea Frontier, he commanded the carrier USS Lexington in February 1943. After actions at Tarawa, Wake, Gilbert, and Kwajalein Islands, where Lexington was damaged by a torpedo, he advanced to Rear Admiral and commanded Carrier Division 24, an escort carrier group supporting landings at the Marianas and Leyte. In command of Task Force Unit 77.4.2 he participated in actions at Mindoro, Lingayen Gulf and Okinawa. He was Chief, Naval Air Technical Training, 1945–48, and after advancing to Vice Admiral was Commander, Air Force Atlantic Fleet, 1948–50. From 1951 to 1953 he commanded the Second Fleet. In 1953 he became Commander-inChief Pacific and Commander, Pacific Fleet. Major events that he dealt with during his final assignments included the end of the Korean War, the French defeat in Vietnam, and heightened tension with China over Taiwan. Stump retired from active duty in August 1958. The destroyer USS Stump was named in his honour.

Sturdee, Frederick (Doveton) (1859–1925) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Doveton Sturdee, Bt, GCB, KCMG, CVO. He was the victor of the battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914, which destroyed VON SPEE’S squadron. He entered the Navy via the Britannia in 1871; 1880, Lieutenant; 1893, Commander; 1899, Captain; 1908, Rear-Admiral; 1913, Vice-Admiral; 1917, Admiral; 1921, Admiral of the Fleet. He had a brilliant brain, passing out top as a cadet, passing all his courses with firstclass passes, and twice being awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal United Services Institute. In 1882 he was present at the bombardment of Alexandria, and then qualified in torpedo: from 1889 to 1893, he was continuously in command of torpedo boats, and then spent four years in the Admiralty as the torpedo specialist in the ordnance department. Sturdee then commanded the torpedo cruiser Porpoise on the Australia Station, 1897– 99, taking command of British forces at Samoa at a time of tension between Germany and the USA, when his diplomatic handling of the situation resulted in the award of the CMG. From 1905 to 1908 he was BERESFORD’S CoS, and then held a series of commands of cruiser squadrons. Just before WW1 he relieved Henry JACKSON as chief of the war staff, under BATTENBERG, but when the latter was ousted for Lord FISHER, Fisher sent Sturdee to sea with a scratch squadron of superior battle cruisers to catch von Spee and avenge CRADOCK’S defeat at Coronel. In this he was entirely successful, though in its timing it was a close-run thing. It was what the British public expected of its Navy, and Sturdee was rewarded appropriately (though not until over a year later—there was an element of the Fisher-Beresford feud remaining).


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From 1915 to 1917 he commanded a battle squadron in the Grand Fleet, being present at Jutland. He was C-in-C the Nore, 1917–21. In retirement he was instrumental in preserving HMS Victory, NELSON’S flagship, which might well have been broken up in 1922. She remains at Portsmouth today.

Sueter, Murray (1872–1960) British: Rear-Admiral Sir Murray Sueter, CB. He was largely responsible for the formation of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914, and for its development until, on the formation of the Royal Air Force in 1918, it was larger than the Royal Flying Corps. He joined the Navy via Britannia in 1886; 1894, Lieutenant; 1903, Commander; 1909, Captain; 1920, Rear-Admiral. He qualified in torpedo (then the branch for officers interested in all the latest technology) in 1896. In 1902 he was appointed to the Hazard, the first submarine depot ship, under BACON’S command, and displayed great courage in entering the submarine A1 after a battery explosion to save life. He then went as Assistant DNO. He commanded the cruiser Barham in the Mediterranean, then returned to DNO’s department. In 1909 he started to interest himself in aerial matters, making many recommendations during the construction of the Navy’s first (unsuccessful) airship (named the Mayfly—it didn’t, but that was not Sueter’s fault). In 1912 he became Director of the newly formed Air Department, and it was his enthusiasm which saw the seaplane develop as an effective weapon: he was also responsible for the development of the ‘blimp’, the nonrigid airship, which proved an effective anti-submarine weapon in both WW1 and (in the hands of the USN) in WW2. With Lieutenant Hyde-Thompson he also designed the first effective aircraft torpedo-dropping gear, achieving the first success in sinking a Turkish supply ship. He also initiated the development and use of the armoured car, and a halftrack version (from which came the tank). He was appointed Commodore in 1915, and made superintendent of aircraft production, but after an argument with the Board, was sent to command RNAS units in southern Italy (a naval equivalent of the salt mines), and while there wrote direct to the king complaining of the lack of recognition given to his department’s work in the development of the tank. This incurred their lordships’ displeasure, and he was relieved of his command, and had no further naval employment, though he was belatedly promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1920. He was later much involved in the development of air mail services within the empire, became an MP, and wrote a number of books: in one, he particularly advocated the development of independent air power. He was knighted in 1934.


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Suffren de Saint-Tropez, Pierre (1729–88) French: vice-amiral. His campaign in Indian waters (1782–83) in which he fought HUGHES five times showed him to be a master tactician, and a skilful commander who maintained his squadron on a distant station with scant resources. CASTEX described him as ‘one of the three names which serve as beacons in the history of the sailing navy’ (the other two being NELSON and DE RUYTER). He entered the navy in 1743 (like many others, through the Order of the Knights of Malta); 1756, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1772, capitaine de vaisseau; 1782, chef d’escadre; 1784, vice-amiral. He had his baptism of fire at the battle of Toulon (1744), and had the misfortune to be made prisoner when his ship, the Monarque, 74, was taken at the second battle of Finisterre (1747). He was present when John BYNG’S squadron was repulsed by LA GALISSONNIÈRE off Minorca in 1756. In 1759 he suffered capture again, when the Océan, 80, flagship of Commodore de la Clue, was burned at Lagos. He commanded the Fantasque, 64, in ESTAING’S squadron in American waters, 1777–79. He showed boldness and offensive spirit at Newport, where he forced five British ships to be burned, and he was present at the taking of Grenada and the near victory over BYRON: nor did he hesitate to criticize his superior’s lack of boldness which let the British off the hook. In 1781 he was given a squadron of five ships and sent to the East Indies, with orders to take the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope before the British. En route, he surprised the British squadron sent for the same purpose, in the Cape Verde Islands, and severely mauled them, though not without loss. But he got to the Cape before they did, and forestalled their intention. In the East Indies, he and Hughes fought a series of five engagements in eighteen months: none was decisive at sea, though Suffren usually had the weaker force. He succeeded in taking Trincomalee, after the fourth fight, but could not hold it. He overwintered in Sumatra, and on the way back to his operating area off India captured the Coventry, 28, and destroyed a convoy of fifty ships. Their final battle, Cuddalore, (which took place after peace had been concluded in Europe), was a strategic victory for Suffren, in that the British withdrew, and Cuddalore remained in French hands. He was made vice-amiral in 1784, but died before he could serve at sea in that rank.

Synnot, Anthony (1922–2001) Australian: Admiral Sir Anthony Synnot, KBE, AO. He became head of the Australian armed forces in 1979, and was responsible for starting a programme to improve their equipment capability, to enable Australia to play a significant military role as a regional leader.


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He joined the RAN in 1939, and trained in the UK; 1942, Lieutenant; 1954, Commander; 1960, Captain; 1970, Rear-Admiral; 1976, Vice-Admiral; 1979, Admiral. He served on board RN and RAN ships during WW2, mostly in the European theatre of war, in particular on board HMAS Stuart at the battle of Matapan (see WALLER), and during the hectic fighting at the time of the evacuation of Crete. He qualified in gunnery in 1945. As a Lieutenant Commander (1950), and after a mission to Malaya (as it was), his report laid the foundations for Australian naval involvement in the area: later, he was seconded to command the Royal Malaysian Navy, 1962–65. He commanded the destroyers Warramunga and Vampire, and after promotion in 1960, commanded the aircraft carriers Sydney (1966) and Melbourne (1967). From 1970 he was, successively, Chief of Naval Personnel, DCNS, and Commander of the Fleet. In 1974 he became Director, Joint Staff in the Defence Department, and was prominent in the relief operations after Darwin was devastated by cyclone Tracy. In 1976 he became CNS, and began an overhaul of the Naval Office in Canberra, and the Navy’s command and control structure: he also oversaw the introduction of the RAN’s new guided missile frigates. Finally, in 1979, he became the youngest-ever Head of the Defence Force Staff. Here he advocated a strong national military capability, a policy of deterrence, and cooperation with Australia’s overseas allies. He was particularly noted for his persuasion of the government to upgrade the RAAF’s capability.


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T Tabarly, Éric (1931–98) French: capitaine de vaisseau. His exploits as a solo yachtsman and team racer in yachts have had an enormous influence on the public perception of the sea and its part in world affairs and history, not just in France, but throughout the Western world. He entered the navy on the lower deck in 1953, and in due course became a naval aviator, qualifying as a petty officer pilot, and flying operationally in IndoChina. He was commissioned as enseigne in 1959, and later specialized as a marine commando, but then started on his career in ocean racing which made him known world-wide; 1966, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1982, capitaine de frégate, 1988, capitaine de vaisseau. In 1966 he was seconded to the Ministry for Youth and Sports, but rejoined the navy in 1971, on the staff of the Inspector of Physical Education and Sport. He left the navy in 1985 to concentrate on his career in ocean racing, and was promoted capitaine de vaisseau in the reserve in 1988. He disappeared in the Irish Sea in 1998.

Takagi, Takeo (1892–1944) Japanese: Chu-sho (Vice-Admiral) (Admiral [posthumous]). He commanded the naval forces covering the invasion of Java, and defeated Admiral DOORMAN’S scratch cruiser force (February 1942) and then commanded the carrier task force in the battle of the Coral Sea (1942). He joined the navy in 1911; 1917, Tai-I; 1928, Chu-sa; 1932, Tai-sa; 1938, Sho-sho; 1942, Chu-sho. After his initial training, he specialized in torpedo, then qualified as a submariner, and had two submarine commands, Ro28, and Ro-68. After promotion to Commander, he was sent to Europe and the USA, and then became an instructor at the naval college. As a Captain, he commanded the cruiser Takao and the battleship Mutsu. He took command of the Fifth Fleet in June 1941, and led it in the invasion of the Philippines: two months later his forces crushed the allied squadron under Doorman, but two months later, in the Coral Sea, the first battle where the opposing fleets were out of sight of each other, and struck at each other with aircraft, he won a tactical victory by


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sinking the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, but strategically, the battle was a US victory, because the Japanese did not press on to invade New Guinea. He later commanded the Sixth Fleet, but died in 1944 during the invasion of Saipan, and was posthumously promoted to Admiral.

Talbot, Silas (1751–1813) US: Captain. He served in the Continental and US Navies. He was one of the original six captains of the USN appointed by President WASHINGTON in June 1794. He was third in the order of seniority. Talbot earned a reputation in combat in the Continental Army, where he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Based on his combat successes and previous experience in the merchant marine, the Continental Congress appointed him a Captain in the Continental Navy in September 1779. After a string of brilliant captures, he himself was captured by the British in November 1780 and imprisoned in England until December 1781. He was a member of the New York State Assembly, 1792–93 and the US House of Representatives, 1793–95. He returned to active service during the Quasi War with France, commanding the USS Constitution, 44, and a squadron in the Caribbean. Following a dispute over seniority with Captain Thomas TRUXTUN, he resigned his commission in September 1801. The destroyer escort USS Talbot was named in his honour.

Tanaka, Raizo (1892–1969) Japanese: Chu-sho (Vice-Admiral). As leader of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, fighting in the Solomon Islands in 1942, he established the ‘Tokyo Express’, a series of daring runs to supply the Japanese forces struggling with the US Marines on Guadalcanal. He entered the IJN in 1913; 1919, Tai-I; 1930, Chu-sa; 1935, Tai-sa; 1941, Sho-sho; 1944, Chu-sho. He specialized in torpedo in 1919, and in the 1920s served as torpedo officer in the destroyer Shiokaze and the light cruiser Yura. His first command was the destroyer Tachikaze, 1930–31, and then the Ushio, 1931–32. He commanded the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, 1937, the light cruiser Jintsu, 1937–38, and the battleship Kongo, 1939–41. In December 1941 Tanaka was back in destroyers, and took part in the battle of the Java Sea in February 1942. From August to December 1942, in command of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, he took part in a series of re-supply missions for the Japanese troops ashore on Guadalcanal, most of which were nullified by US air superiority. But on 30 November, while landing supplies, he beat off a superior US force, sinking one heavy


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cruiser and damaging three others with the deadly ‘long lance’ torpedoes. Twelve days later he was less lucky, being injured, and having his flagship sunk under him. Tanaka had often expressed the view, unpopular with his superiors, that the effort put into holding Guadalcanal was not worthwhile. His wounds were made an excuse for sidelining him, and he ended the war commanding forces ashore in Burma.

Tattnall, Josiah (1795–1871) US and Confederate States of America: Commodore. He achieved distinction in the USN in three wars before becoming the senior officer in the Confederate States Navy. He entered the USN as a Midshipman in January 1812. After participating in a failed attempt at the battle of Bladensburg in August 1814 to stop British forces advancing on Washington, and in the Barbary War actions of Stephen DECATUR, he was promoted to Lieutenant in April 1818. He subsequently served in the frigate USS Macedonian, 38, in the Pacific Squadron and in the schooner USS Jackall, 3, in the Caribbean. After additional sea duty and survey work in the Caribbean, he commanded the schooner USS Grampus, 10, in the West Indies. Following further assignments marked by success in combat, he commanded the steampowered USS Spitfire. Tattnall advanced to Captain in February 1850, and in October 1857 was appointed to command the Asiatic Station as a Commodore. While in that assignment, and despite the USA’s status as a neutral power, he rendered assistance in 1859 to British naval units during their combat with Chinese forces at the mouth of the Pei-Ho River, coining the phrase: ‘Blood is thicker than water’. In February 1861 he resigned his commission in the USN and accepted a commission as Captain in the Confederate Navy. With the wounding of Franklin BUCHANAN, he assumed the senior leadership of the Confederate naval defences against the vastly superior Union Navy. Following the end of the American Civil War, he lived in Canada, but after four years he returned to Georgia, where he was inspector of the Port of Savannah.

Taussig, Joseph K. (1877–1947) US: Vice-Admiral. He was an outspoken naval analyst and author who predicted war in the Pacific between the US and Japan. His service prior to WW2 included command of the cruiser USS Cleveland, senior staff assignments, and advancement to Rear Admiral in January 1932, and was marked by a dispute with Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin ROOSEVELT. His pre-WW2 career also included assignments as a student and staff member at the US Naval War College, assignments that led to his development as a


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naval strategist and prolific writer on naval strategy and policy. Taussig’s dispute with Roosevelt adversely affected his career, and in April 1940, after testifying before Congress that war with Japan was inevitable, he was officially reprimanded. Roosevelt, by then President, withdrew the reprimand on the day after Taussig’s son was wounded aboard the battleship USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. Taussig graduated from the USNA in 1899, and his early career in surface combatant ships included combat as a naval cadet at the battle of Santiago in July 1898 and wounds suffered during armed conflict near Tientsin, China, in June 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. Following a series of assignments ashore and afloat, he commanded the destroyer USS Ammen, 1911–12, and after duty at the Bureau of Navigation, 1912–15, commanded the destroyer USS Wadsworth and Destroyer Division Six, 1915–16. During WW1 he commanded Destroyer Division Eight, based at Queenstown, Ireland. He retired as a Vice Admiral in September 1941.

Taylor, David W. (1864–1940) US: Rear-Admiral. He led the development of modern naval ship design and construction. He graduated from the USNA in 1885, and after becoming Assistant Naval Constructor in 1886, he went on to additional naval design and engineering studies at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England, 1886–81. From 1888 to 1889 he was assigned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and after two years at the Navy’s Bureau of Construction and Repairs, returned for an additional two-year tour at Philadelphia. In December 1891 he was designated a naval constructor and in March 1901 he advanced to Captain. Following the design of the Navy’s first experimental ship model basin, he was named Chief Naval Constructor and Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repairs. Prior to WW1 he led the design and construction programmes involved in the build-up of the Navy for that war. Following WW1 he was involved in the design of the Navy’s cuRTiss-built NC flying boats. In 1916 he advanced to Rear Admiral. After retirement from active duty in 1923, he was President of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1925–27. The Navy’s ship model basin, located at Carderock, Maryland, which was completed in 1940, was named in his honour.

Taylor, Rodney (1940–2002) Australian: Vice-Admiral ‘Rod’ Taylor, AO. As Australian CNS, 1994–97, he had to implement the Government’s defence reform programme, coincident with the introduction of a twoocean policy, which saw the RAN’s development of bases in Western Australia for the Indian Ocean.


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He was one of the last to enter the RAN as a thirteen year-old, via the RAN college; 1961, Lieutenant; 1974, Commander; 1981, Captain; 1990, Rear-Admiral; 1994, ViceAdmiral. Much of his professional training was done with the RN, but his service coincided with the RAN moving out of the shadow of the RN, to stand on its own feet as an increasingly powerful regional navy. During his service the RAN started to extend its operations beyond the Far East, as an instrument of Australian national policy, rather than British imperial policy. After service in HMAS Quiberon and Anzac, he specialized in navigation and served in HMAS Brisbane off Vietnam (MiD). He commanded the destroyer Vampire and after promotion to Captain, Torrens and the Third Australian Destroyer Squadron. As Commodore, he became the first Commodore Flotillas, the senior sea-going post in the RAN in 1989. He was Assistant Chief of Defence Force (Operations) in 1991, playing a key role in Australia’s contribution to the Gulf War. He went on to be DCNS, 1992–94, and in 1994 became CNS (retitled Chief of Navy, 1997). He had to fight hard to maintain the correct priorities for the combat elements of the Defence Force, and to preserve the ethos of the individual services in the face of ‘efficiency’ measures which he saw as being at the expense of effectiveness. Many of his concerns were over-ridden, but he has been vindicated by the quiet dropping of some of the more contentious measures in the last few years. He was awarded the AM in 1989, and AO in 1992. He also received a Singaporean decoration.

von Tegetthoff, Wilhelm (1827–71) AustroHungarian: Admiral. He was the victor of the battle of Lissa (1866), against the newly created Italian navy. This, though decisive, set the navies of the world off down a blind alley, by encoura ging them to look at the ram as a decisive weapon for ships of the steam age. His naval career started in the naval academy at Venice in 1845 (the Venetian state then belonged to the Habsburg empire). His first command was the steamer Taurus, in 1854: during this command he gained the patronage of the Emperor’s brother, Maximilian. Other commands followed, and in 1864 Tegetthoff commanded a joint Austro-Prussian squadron in the North Sea in the Bismarck-engineered war against Denmark. There was an indecisive action off Heligoland, but the Danes had to lift their blockade of Hamburg. Two years later, during the AustroPrussian War, Tegetthoff commanded the Austrian fleet in the Adriatic. The newly unified Italy had joined Prussia, and possessed a modern fleet. The Austrian squadron was a mixture of old wooden ships and make-shift ironclads. Tegetthoff’s orders forbade him seeking action, but the Italians came to him, trusting in their matériel superiority. The fleets met off Lissa (now the island of Vis). Tegetthoff’s tactics were to close and ram, relying on superior training. In this he


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succeeded, largely due to steering-gear damage in the Italian Re d’Italia, which enabled the Austrian Erzhog Ferdinand Max to hit her at full speed. Another Italian ship caught fire and was destroyed, and the Italians withdrew. However, defeats on land resulted in the Austrians losing control of most of the north Adriatic coastline, with the Austriancontrolled Republic of Venice joining Italy. Von Tegetthoff later became Inspector General of the navy, and tried to build it up, but the Austro-Hungarian empire was declining, and money was never available.

Tenny son-d’Eyncourt, Eustace (1868– 1951) British: naval architect. Sir Eustace Tennyson-d’Eyncourt, Bt, KCB. He was Director of Naval Construction, 1912–24, and was responsible for introducing into service some fifteen capital ships and fifty-three cruisers, and for the design of the successful rigid airships such as R.3S, which made the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic from east to west in 1919. He was also an influential member of the committee which introduced the tank to land warfare. He started work in 1886 at the Elswick offices of Armstrong Whitworth, working exclusively on warships, but in 1898 moved to Fairfields to expand his knowledge of merchant shipbuilding. In 1902 he went back to Armstrongs to take charge of the design office. The Armstrong-built cruiser Hamidieh so impressed the Turkish Navy that D’Eyncourt was invited to report on the state of their navy. The state was such as to require a great deal of tact in his report, and he was rewarded with a Turkish order. In 1912 CHURCHILL decided that a comparatively young man was needed as DNC, and D’Eyncourt was brought in. In addition to HMS Hood and the Repulse and Renown, he also set out the basic layout and characteristics of the first proper aircraft carriers, characteristics which are retained to this day. After the Washington Conference of 1922, which sought to set limits on the size and number of warships, he was responsible for the distinctive, and effective, pair of battleships, Nelson and Rodney. After retiring as DNC he continued in private practice, designing merchant ships—in particular the heavy lift ‘Bel’ ships. He also received awards from France and the USA.

Thaon di Revel, Paolo (1859–1948) Italian: ammiraglio di armata conte Thaon di Revel. He was CNS at the outbreak of WW1, and again, 1917–19. He commanded the Italian naval forces at Venice, 1915–17. He entered the navy in 1873; 1909, contr’ammiraglio; 1913, vice-ammiraglio; 1918, ammiraglio; 1920 ammiraglio di armata.


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He commanded the 2nd division of the navy during the Turkish-Italian war, 1911–12, taking part in a bombardment of the Dardanelles forts, and in 1913 became CNS. Although Italy and AustriaHungary had been members of the Triple Alliance before WW1, Italy did not join in with them in the war against Russia, France and Great Britain. After considering the possible outcomes, and deciding the balance of advantages, Italy declared war against Austria-Hungary and Germany. Revel would not commit the Italian battlefleet in the confined waters of the Adriatic unless he could be sure of enticing the Austrian fleet out to a major engagement. But the Austrians preferred the ‘fleet in being’ concept, and would not be enticed. There were also internal conflicts between Revel and his navy minister, Corsi: the latter wished to take a more hands-on approach to operations (cf. CHURCHILL and John FISHER). In late 1915, Revel resigned, and went to command the forces at Venice, but was called back again in February 1917, assuming operational command of the fleet from Abruzzi. He still pursued a careful policy: nor would he permit a joint Allied command in the Mediterranean (which might have meant a non-Italian commanding in the Adriatic). As a result the Adriatic remained a naval backwater, though there were skirmishes up and down the Dalmatian coast, and Austrian and German U-boats operating from Fiume seemed able to enter and leave the Adriatic at will, despite the barrage across the southern part (see DÖNITZ and COWAN). After the war, Revel was Mussolini’s navy minister, 1922–25, and received the title Duca del Mare (Duke of the Sea). He remained an influence on Italian naval strategy until 1943.

Thatch, James S. (1905–81) US: Admiral. He developed the successful fighter tactics used against Japanese aircraft early in WW2. During the Cold War he led the development of anti-submarine warfare doctrine that integrated naval air, surface and subsurface elements into effective hunterkiller groups that checked the Soviet Union’s growing submarine force. He graduated from the USNA in 1927 and initially served in battleships. He became a naval aviator in 1930, was assigned to Fighter Squadron One, 1930–32, and was a test pilot, 1932–34. Subsequent duty included assignments to patrol and scouting squadrons, and while commander of Fighter Squadron Three in the Pacific, his aerial tactics were successfully demonstrated against the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero by squadron member Lieutenant O’HARE, flying the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The tactic became known as the Thatch weave’. After shooting down six Zeros during the battle of Midway, Thatch served in a series of senior staff assignments. Thatch advanced to Captain in March 1945, and he became director of training for the Chief of Naval Air Training, 1947–49. During the Korean War he commanded the escort aircraft carrier USS Sicily and he was CoS to Commander, Carrier Division 17. He commanded the carrier USS Franklin D.Roosevelt, 1953–54, and command of the Sixth Naval District naval air stations followed. He advanced to Rear Admiral in 1955, and his subsequent duties included command of Carrier Division 16. He advanced to Vice


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Admiral in January 1960 and took command of the Pacific Fleet anti-submarine forces. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the US ‘naval quarantine’, the effectiveness of Thatch’s anti-submarine doctrine became evident. He was Deputy CNO for Air, 1963– 65 and advanced to Admiral in March 1965, serving as C-in-C US Naval Forces Europe. He retired from active duty in May 1967.

Thompson, Percival (1874–1950) British: Vice-Admiral, CB, CMG. He was the first head of the New Zealand naval forces, later the RNZN, and the first to take a New Zealand ship on active service overseas. He was later CNS of the RAN. He joined the RN in 1887; 1894, Lieutenant; 1905, Commander; 1913, Captain; 1923, Rear-Admiral; 1928, Vice-Admiral. Much of his service as a Commander was spent in the Admiralty’s Naval Intelligence Department, which was virtually the only naval staff at that time. In 1913 the New Zealand government decided to start a naval training programme as the first step towards their own navy. Thompson was appointed as their naval advisor, and to command the old cruiser Philomel which was to be New Zealand’s first ship. He took up his post in 1914, and had just taken Philomel to sea for the first time when war broke out, and the ship was transferred back to RN control. Philomel was involved in the taking of German Samoa, and escorting the New Zealand troops to the Middle East, and was then used in the Persian Gulf. Thompson took her back to New Zealand in 1917, being awarded the CMG. Thompson reverted to advising the New Zealand government, preparing schemes for the more permanent creation of a New Zealand navy, which were taken up by JELLICOE during his post-war mission studying imperial defence. More practically, he had to organize minesweeping after the German raider Wolf had visited New Zealand waters. After returning to Britain in 1919, he commanded the super-dreadnought Erin, and was CNS of the Australian Naval Board, 1923–26. He then commanded the 3rd Battle Squadron in the Atlantic Fleet, and the Reserve Fleet, retiring in 1932.

Thorold, Anthony (1903–99) British: Captain Sir Anthony Thorold, Bt, OBE, DSC*. For two of the busiest years of the war at sea in WW2, he was the Staff Officer (Operations) (SOO) for Force H. This force was an independent force, under direct control of the Admiralty (today it would be called a Task Group) and usually consisted of an aircraft carrier, a battleship or battle cruiser, a cruiser, and sundry destroyers. It was called into existence in 1940 at the fall of France, primarily to fill the vacuum left in the western Mediterranean, but it operated in the Atlantic and


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Indian Oceans as well. Its successive commanders, SOMERVILLE, Syfret, Burrough and Willis were the driving force, but it was the SOO who made sure it all actually happened, so the OBE and DSC which Thorold was awarded were well merited and hardearned. He joined the Navy in 1916; 1926, Lieutenant; 1940, Commander; 1948, Captain. He qualified as a navigation specialist, and saw service in China and in the Persian Gulf, and in the Mediterranean, where, as SOO (it was usual for the SOO to be a navigation specialist) of the 3rd Cruiser Squadron in HMS Arethusa, he was deeply involved in protecting British interests and citizens in the Spanish Civil War. He went to Force H in 1941, just after the sinking of the Bismarck. During his time in Force H, they escorted Malta convoys, operations to fly Spitfires to Malta, the occupation of Madagascar, the North African landings in November 1942, the Invasion of Sicily in 1943, and the landings at Salerno: a non-stop series of operations which drove men and ships hard—the men harder than the ships. If one battleship was damaged or needed a refit, that ship went into dry-dock, but the staff transferred to another ship and the task went on. After Force H, he first took command of HMCS New Glasgow, and then HMS Cygnet, on north Atlantic and Arctic convoys. In her, and as Senior Officer of the 7th Escort Group, he earned another DSC in sinking U-425 off Kola Inlet. After WW2 he commanded the Navigation School HMS Dryad.

von Tirpitz, Alfred (1849–1930) German: GroEadmiral. He was the German Secretary of State for the Navy from 1898 to 1916, and as such was responsible for creating the modern German navy for Kaiser Wilhelm II. He remained in power for the first two years of WW1, and must carry the responsibility for the ultimate introduction of unrestricted submarine warfare, contrary to the international agreements reached in 1909. He joined the Prussian navy in 1865; 1871 (the year the new German empire was formed, and the Prussian navy became the core of the new KM), Leutnant; 1895, Konter Admiral; 1903, Admiral; 1911, GroEadmiral. Between 1877 and 1888 he was much concerned with the development of the torpedo, encouraging the development of the Schwartzkopf version, as a ‘homegrown’ weapon, supply of which could be guaranteed. He also saw that, if the submarine could be developed into a practical vessel, the torpedo would be its ideal weapon. He had a brief command of an old battleship, and in 1892 became CoS of the Baltic naval command. He commanded the East Asiatic Squadron, 1896–97, during which time Germany completed a treaty with China which gave her a Treaty Port at Kiautschou. In 1897 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State at the Imperial Admiralty, and started his life’s work to build up the German navy to rival Britain’s. With the Kaiser’s enthusiastic support, Tirpitz pushed successive navy laws through the Reichstag in 1898, 1900, 1908 and 1912. The effect was counterproductive, since the British, particularly, but not solely, influenced by John FISHER, responded by raising their game, leading to the naval arms race which was one of the catalysts of WW1. Despite the resources given to it, the


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German programme never succeeded in matching the British, who entered WW1 with some forty-nine capital ships as opposed to the Germans’ twenty-nine. Tirpitz remained an advocate of the submarine, and on becoming C-in-C of the KM (effectively 1SL, or CNO) in 1914 wished to introduce unrestricted submarine warfare, but was frustrated by the politicians. This led to his resignation in 1916 (he never really expected it to be accepted). After WW1, he wrote his Memoirs (1919), and became a right-wing politician.

Togo, Heihachiro (1848–1934) Japanese: Tai-sho (Admiral). He was one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the victor of the battle of Tsushima in 1905, which confirmed Japan as a major naval power, and signalled the end of serious Russian seapower for half a century. He was educated as a samurai, and, aged only fifteen, served as a gunner in the forts when the British bombarded Kagoshima in 1863. In 1866 he joined the Satsuma navy and fought as a junior officer in an action against the Shogun’s fleet. The Meiji Restoration in 1868 saw the inauguration of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and Togo was selected in 1871 to go to Britain to train. This took place in HMS Worcester, a training ship primarily for the merchant marine. By the end of his training, he had taught himself to think in a Western fashion; 1879, Sho-sa; 1885, Chu-sa; 1886, Tai-sa; 1895, Sho-sho; 1898, Chusho; 1904 Tai-sho. He then supervised the building, on the Thames, of the ironclad Fuso, completed in 1877. In 1880 he was appointed to the royal yacht Jingei. In 1882, serving in the Amagi, he took part in the expedition to Korea, and commanded the Amagi’s landing party. In 1884, now in command of the Amagi, he took part in a combined expedition (British, American, German and Japanese) to China, again adding to his experience. In 1885 he was made supervisor for the building of the first home-built warships, and took command of the Yamato on completion in 1886. In 1893, in command of the cruiser Naniwa, he was sent to Hawaii to protect Japanese interests during a rising against the government. In 1894, still commanding the Naniwa, he fired the first shots in the Sino-Japanese war (before a formal declaration of war). He was present at the battle of the Yalu, and later at the taking of Wei-Hai-Wei, when the Chinese fleet surrendered. While peace was being negotiated, Togo commanded a squadron sent to seize Taiwan, a mission successfully accomplished, and bringing him honours. In 1896 he became Chairman of the Naval College. In 1900 he was made C-in-C of the fleet, and took part in the international force which suppressed the Boxer Rising. The aftermath of this saw Russia and Japan on a collision course, and Japan prepared for war. In 1904 a pre-emptive strike was planned and Togo led the main fleet to attack the Russians in Port Arthur. The strike was no Pearl Harbor, and five months of fighting ensued before the battle of the Yellow Sea resulted in the destruction of the bulk of the Russian squadron. All now depended on the ‘Second Pacific Squadron’ sailing from the Baltic under Admiral ROZHDESTVENSKY. Togo positioned his fleet to intercept the Russians when


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they arrived, heading for Vladivostok. The result was a massive defeat and almost total destruction of the Russian fleet, which lost 4,830 men: Japanese losses were 117. From 1905 to 1909 Togo was Chief of the Naval General Staff. When the USA’s ‘Great White Fleet’ made its visit to Japan in 1908, he foresaw that there must inevitably be a clash, and started planning accordingly. It is no great exaggeration to say that the end result, thirty-three years later, was Pearl Harbor.

Torrens-Spens, Michael (1914–2001) British: Captain, DSO, DSC, AFC. He was one of the select band of naval aviators who, at Taranto in 1940, changed the face of naval warfare by the effective destruction of the Italian battlefleet. He also had the distinction of having held commissions in the Navy, the Army, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. He entered the Navy in 1927; 1936, Lieutenant; 1945, Commander; 1952, Captain. After qualifying as a pilot he served in the aircraft carriers Furious and Glorious, and then joined Illustrious. At Taranto, his aircraft was one of the second wave, and his torpedo was one of three which sank the Littorio. In February 1941, when Illustrious was badly damaged by the Stukas of Fliegerkorps X, he was one of only three survivors from the wardroom, where he had been having lunch. Shortly afterwards, and now based ashore in Crete, his aircraft was the one which found the Italian cruiser Pola, and torpedoed her, precipitating the battle of Matapan, in which CUNNINGHAM destroyed much of what was left of the Italian surface fleet. Torrens-Spens was well known for ‘forcing himself to press home his attacks to a suicidal degree’. As a captain in the Admiralty, he was responsible for the gestation of the ‘Buccaneer’, the most successful strike aircraft of its generation, and commanded the destroyer Delight and the aircraft carrier Albion. He retired in 1961.

Torrington, Earl of see HERBERT, ARTHUR Torrington, Viscount see BYNG, GEORGE


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Totushek, John B. (1944-) US: Vice Admiral. He was the first Naval Reserve flag officer to serve on active duty in the rank of Vice Admiral. He was commissioned from the University of Minnesota Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps in June 1966. In June 1968 he was designated a naval aviator and began his career as a pilot in fighter squadrons flying the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom. In 1973 he resigned his regular Navy commission and entered the Naval Reserve. As a reservist he commanded three aviation combat training squadrons and several Atlantic Fleet air support commands. He was advanced to Rear Admiral in 1994. He commanded the Atlantic Fleet Logistics Task Force, 1994–96, and Naval Reserve Readiness Command, Region Eight, 1995–97, and was Deputy Director Naval Air Warfare, 1996– 97. In October 1997 he was returned to active duty to serve as Commander Naval Reserve Force and Director of the Naval Reserve. At the time, he was Vice President of McKenzie Construction Corporation. He advanced to Vice Admiral in June 2001 and retired from active duty in 2003.

Toulouse, Louis de Bourbon, comte de (1678–1737) French: amiral de France. He was an illegitimate, but acknowledged, son of Louis XIV, and commanded the French fleet at the battle of (Velez) Malaga in 1704. His progression through the ranks was simple: he started at the top, being made amiral de France at the age of five, although it must be admitted that since 1669 the post had been reduced solely to one of administrative and judicial functions. Nonetheless, he took his appointments seriously, which brought him into conflict from time to time with Pontchartrain, the navy minister. His only sea appointment prior to 1704 was the largely ceremonial one of conveying Philippe V of Spain, his half-nephew, to Italy and Sicily. In 1704 he was given command of the fleet mustered at Brest, and led it to the Mediterranean, where he met ROOKE’S fleet off Malaga. The battle created a lot of sound and fury, though losses on both sides were light, and the British withdrew, short of ammunition, to cover Gibraltar. Toulouse failed to follow up, though exhorted to by his most experienced divisional commander, Relingues.


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Tourville, Anne-Hilarion, comte de (1642– 1701) French: vice-amiral and maréchal de France. He was a vastly experienced sea-captain and commander, whose victory over the combined AngloDutch fleet at Beachy Head in 1690 was the first major battle unequivocally won by the French fleet against the English. Unfortunately for France, the fruits of that victory were squandered in 1692 at Barfleur and La Hogue (see RUSSELL). His first sea experience was with the Knights of Malta. In the years after 1661 he made several cruises against the Barbary corsairs, being wounded in one action while capturing a Tripolitan ship. In 1662, in the Greek Islands, he took four Turks, and sank another. In 1667 he became a capitaine de vaisseau in the French navy, and over the next five years was continuously involved in the Mediterranean; 1675, chef d’escadre; 1682, lieutenant-général, 1690, vice-amiral, 1693, maréchal de France. In 1672 he commanded the Sage, 50, under d’ESTREES, at the battle of Solebay, and the next year commanded the Sans Pareil, 58, in the three battles against the Dutch that summer. 1675 saw him back in the Mediterranean, fighting the Spanish, and being promoted for his part in the taking of Augusta. In 1679, once again in the Sans Pareil, he was shipwrecked on Belle-Isle, en route from Toulon to Brest. He then became one of COLBERT’S advisors, taking a particular interest in ship construction and the training of young officers. After promotion in 1682 he spent the next six years in the Mediterranean. 1689 saw him back in the Channel, and in 1690, with his flag in the Soleil-Royal, 106, he met TORRINGTON’S HERBERT’S Anglo-Dutch fleet off Beachy Head, and beat them. Although the Allies lost only one small ship, their losses in men were far higher, they had to scuttle a number of ships following battle damage, and they withdrew to the Thames, leaving Tourville master of the Channel. But the French did not follow up their success with an invasion until 1692, when Tourville was given an inadequate fleet, in a badly prepared expedition. Off Barfleur, they met Russell, and the tables were turned. Few ships were sunk in the battle, but many were lost afterwards, including the badly mauled Soleil-Royal which ran aground off Cherbourg, where the British burned her. Twelve more ships took refuge in the Bay of La Hogue, and were destroyed by British raiding parties. In consequence, Louis XIV lost interest in his navy, but Tourville’s career continued successfully. In 1693 he initiated the ‘guerre de course’ against British trade (thereafter a feature of French maritime policy), successfully raiding the British Smyrna convoy, causing great loss (see ROOKE). His last sea-going campaign was in the Mediterranean in 1794. He was undoubtedly one of the best French admirals of all time.


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Tovey, John (1885–1971) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Tovey, GCB, KBE, DSO. He was the C-in-C Home Fleet who hunted down the Bismarck in 1941. He joined the RN in 1900; 1906, Lieutenant; 1916, Commander; 1923, Captain; 1935, Rear-Admiral; 1939, Vice-Admiral; 1942, Admiral; 1943, Admiral of the Fleet. As a Midshipman he had been ‘doggie’ (gofer, in late-twentieth century parlance) to Admiral WILSON, who later asked for him as a Lieutenant in his flagship. So he was picked out early. At Jutland in 1916 he commanded the destroyer Onslow, and won the DSO for his leadership, fearlessness, aggressiveness and initiative. Onslow was badly damaged, but his torpedo sank the crippled Wiesbaden, and another single-handed (foolhardy) attack caused a German battleship squadron to turn away. He also earned four MiDs in the last two years of the war. For the remainder of WW1 and afterwards, he continued to serve in command of destroyers, but also had some arduous shore appointments: in the Admiralty Operations Division, as Assistant Director of the Tactical School, and as Naval Assistant to 2SL; all of which marked him as bound for higher command. After the Invergordon mutiny, he was appointed to Rodney, and quickly turned her into an efficient and happy ship, though he did not always agree with his C-in-C, Admiral KELLY, who wrote: ‘Captain Tovey shares one characteristic with me. In myself, I call it tenacity of purpose; in Captain Tovey I can only describe it as sheer bloody obstinacy’. This tenacity of purpose was needed in 1941. Tovey had been Rear-Admiral (D) in the Mediterranean Fleet, and then second-in-command to CUNNINGHAM, but had no opportunity to lead his ships in action. The nearest he came to it was the brief engagement off Calabria in 1940, when the Italians turned away behind smoke. He moved to the Home Fleet in late 1940. The Bismarck chase required tough decisions, especially after the shattering news of the loss of the Hood, and the nail-biting thirty-one hours when Bismarck was ‘lost’. But he called the shots correctly, including the decision to wait overnight before engaging, to help to minimize British casualties. He was awarded the KBE. After the action, when CHURCHILL wished to court-martial Admiral WAKE-WALKER and Captain Leach for not being more aggressive after the loss of the Hood, Tovey told him he would resign his command to act as ‘accused’s friend’, and nothing more was heard. He also fought, unsuccessfully, to persuade the Admiralty not to run convoys to Russia in the long days of summer: the disaster to convoy PQ17 was an indirect result: and he fell out with Churchill over the need to give priority for long-range aircraft to convoy escort duties rather than bombing Germany. In June 1943 he moved to be C-in-C at the Nore, still in the front line, but less demanding than being at sea. He had been awarded the GCB for his service in the Home Fleet. He retired in 1946.


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Towers, John H. (1885–1955) US: Admiral. He was a pioneer in naval aviation, leading in its development from inception to full maturity in WW2. A member of the USNA class of 1906, Towers’s initial assignments were in battleships, including a global circumnavigation as part of the ‘Great White Fleet’, 1907– 09. In 1911, with instruction from Glenn CURTISS, he became US Naval Aviator no. 3. He established the Navy’s first aviation facility near Annapolis, Maryland, in September 1911, and in 1913 he commanded the first aviation unit involved in US fleet training manoeuvres. During WW1 he was assistant naval attaché in London and subsequently he continued to lead in the accelerating development of naval aviation, commanding a variety of units and ships. From 1931 to 1933 and 1936 to 1937 he was CoS to the commanders of the aircraft carriers of the Navy’s Battle Force. Between those tours he was assigned to the US Naval War College and the Naval Torpedo Station. He commanded the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, 1937–38, and was Assistant Chief, Bureau of Aeronautics, 1938–39. He advanced to Rear Admiral in 1939 and Vice Admiral in 1942, when he became Commander, Air Force Pacific Fleet. In that command—and later as Deputy C-in-C Pacific Fleet, Commander, Second Fast Carrier Force, Commander, Task Force 38, Commander, Fifth Fleet and Commander, Pacific Fleet—he pioneered in the administration, logistics and aviation combat doctrine that led to the US victory in the Pacific in WW2. After participating in the Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, he retired from active duty in December 1947. The destroyer USS Towers was named in his honour.

Trewavas, Joseph (1835–1905) British: Able Seaman, VC. He won his VC in the Sea of Azov in 1855. Born a fisherman, he joined the Navy in 1853, and was rated Able Seaman in the battleship Agamemnon, 91. He was part of the naval brigade ashore in the batteries before Sebastopol, and at the battle of Inkerman. He was lent to the Beagle, 4, and was part of what the army would have called ‘the forlorn hope’ in an attempt to cut the pontoon bridge across the Genitchi Strait. Strategically, this was a vital link in the Russian supply route into Sebastopol. The attempt was made in a small gig, with covering fire from a small paddle steamer. The approaches were lined with Russian soldiers, who were thoroughly alert. Under a fierce fire, the gig reached the bridge, and Trewavas jumped on it and started to hew at the ropes holding the pontoons. Despite the fact that the Russians were only eighty yards


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away, he was not hit until the job was completed, receiving a wound in the shoulder, though the paddle steamer supporting them was riddled. He was awarded the VC. He spent another seven years in the Navy, serving in the screw corvette Pelorus on the East Indies Station, where he served ashore in Burma during the Indian Mutiny, 1857, and in New Zealand during the Maori Wars (1860). On leaving the Navy in 1862, he went back to fishing, owning his own boat, which he named the Agamemnon.

Tromp, Cornelis (1620–91) Dutch: Admiral. He was the son of Marten TROMP, and fought in all three Anglo-Dutch wars, and also commanded the Danish fleet against the Swedes in 1676. He received his first command in 1648, and during the First Anglo-Dutch War fought a successful action in the Mediterranean off Leghorn under Van Galen. The latter was killed in the action, and Tromp led the squadron home, to find that his father had just been killed. In recognition of his father’s services, and also of his own merits, he was promoted Rear-Admiral in 1654. Between the first two wars he was again employed in the Mediterranean. In 1665 he was much involved in the recriminations after the disastrous battle of Lowestoft, after which command was given to DE RUYTER, much to Tromp’s disgust. He played a conspicuous part in the Four Days’ Fight, securing the surrender of the Royal Prince and Sir George AYSCUE. However, in the St James’s Day Fight three weeks later, he hung back from the main action, possibly because he and De Ruyter were at loggerheads over a disputed decision at the earlier battle. In the resultant disputes, Tromp took a high-handed line, but was disciplined and dismissed. After the fall of De Witt and the accession of William of Orange, and under threat from the French, Tromp was recalled and reconciled with De Ruyter for the last battles of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. At the Texel, he had a personal ‘fire-fight’ with Spragge until the latter’s death. In 1674, as the war continued against the French alone, he was involved in a number of successful raids around the mouth of the Loire, and in 1675, such was his reputation, he was received in London by King Charles II and made a baronet. His final sea service was in the pay of the king of Denmark, for whom he manned and armed a fleet (largely Dutch). He defeated a Swedish squadron off Oland and also conducted some successful combined operations in Schonen. His service with the Danes ended on a sour note, but at home William of Orange confirmed him as Admiral of the Dutch fleet after De Ruyter’s death, and in 1691, after William had taken the English throne, he nominated Tromp to the command of the combined Anglo-Dutch fleet, but Tromp died before he could hoist his flag.


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Tromp, Marten (1597–1653) Dutch: Admiral. He was a fighting admiral, who had learned his trade from the bottom up. In 1639 he finally broke the power of Spain at sea in the battle of the Downs (the area immediately east of the British coast, between Dover and the North Foreland), and he led the Dutch fleet in the First Dutch War with England (1652–54), being killed in 1653 at the battle off Scheveningen. He first went to sea with his father at the age of nine, and in 1607 was present at VAN HEEMSKERK’S victory over the Spanish in Gibraltar Bay, at which his father was killed. He was made Lieutenant in 1622; Captain, 1624. He was with HEIN when he was killed in 1629: in the immediate aftermath he proposed a series of reforms to the Dutch navy, which were rejected, and Tromp resigned his commission. In 1637, after Van Dorp’s failure at Dunkirk, Tromp was recalled, made Admiral, and swiftly put his reforms into effect, so that when the Spaniards prepared a great armada to attack the Netherlands in 1639, the Dutch were prepared. After a two-day running fight up-channel, the Spaniards anchored in the Downs, watched over by an English squadron, there to ensure that the laws of neutrality were maintained. A stalemate ensued for a month, until in the end Tromp provoked the Spaniards into firing the first shot. In the battle that followed the Spanish fleet was effectively destroyed, losing forty-nine out of sixty-seven ships. Tromp was rewarded with knighthoods from France and England, and more practical rewards at home. The First Dutch War between England and the Netherlands had a number of causes, but trading rivalry played a large part, and the war was fought entirely at sea, with Tromp as the Dutch Admiral, against BLAKE and MONCK. The first encounter, off Dover, was inconclusive: the second, off Portland, was a Dutch victory: the third, off Dungeness, can be described as a draw, with advantage to the English: the fourth, off the Gabbard shoal, was an English victory, and in the fifth, Tromp was killed.

Truguet, Laurent, comte (1752–1839) French: amiral. Initially an officer of the pre-revolutionary royal navy, he served the Revolution as Minister of the Navy, and later served the first Empire, and the restored monarchy. He entered the navy in 1765; 1779, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1784, major de vaisseau; 1792, capitaine de vaisseau; 1792, contre-amiral; 1795, vice-amiral; 1831, amiral. In 1773, Truguet joined the Hector, 74, in ESTAING’S squadron which was sent to American waters in 1778. He participated in the attack on St Lucia, and saved Estaing’s life during the action at Savannah in 1779. After promotion to major de vaisseau, he


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commanded the survey brig, Tarleton, 14, charting the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora and the mouths of the Nile, 1785–86. He embraced the new order, and was swiftly promoted to the flag list in 1792, with his flag in the Tonnant, 80, commanding the Toulon squadron with which he attacked Nice and Oneglia, but failed at Cagliari. The result was dismissal and imprisonment. (It is interesting to speculate what might have happened had he been at Toulon in 1793 when the Royalists surrendered the town to the British.) But the overthrow of the Jacobins saw him restored to the flag list, promoted, and made Minister of the Navy, 1795–97. He organized the Irish expedition of 1796 which failed, and in consequence he recalled some of the ancien régime’s officers, to restore order to a navy whose efficiency the Revolution had so drastically affected. Being considered a moderate, he was replaced in 1797, but went as Ambassador to Spain, and became a Counsellor of State in 1801. He commanded the Brest squadron in 1803, but being opposed to Napoleon’s declaring himself emperor, he was again disgraced. He was called back to command the Rochefort squadron after the debacle (from the point of view of both sides) in the Basque Roads (1809). He continued to serve the empire until he was captured in Holland in 1813. He was made a comte by the restored Bourbons in 1814, and a peer of France in 1819. His influence on naval affairs in the period 1820–30 was considerable.

Truxtun, Thomas (1755–1822) US: Commodore. He led the fledgling USN during the undeclared Quasi War with France. He was one of the original six captains of the USN appointed by President WASHINGTON in 1794. He was sixth in the order of seniority. Truxtun began a profitable merchant marine career at the age of twelve. Following the conclusion of the American Revolution, during which he was a successful privateer, he accepted his Navy appointment and supervised the construction of the 36-gun frigate USS Constellation. After brief convoy duty he deployed to the West Indies, and in February 1799 he captured the French L’Insurgente, 40, in a ninety-minute action. Although rated as a 36-gun frigate, it is believed that Truxtun had increased his ship’s armament to 48 guns at the time of the action with L’Insurgente. A year later, while in command of a ten-ship squadron, he defeated the French La Vengeance, 54, in a fivehour battle, but because he lost his mainmast, he was unable to take possession of her following the battle. In 1801, in command of the frigate USS President, 44, he again commanded a squadron in the Caribbean. In early 1801 he took command of the frigate USS Chesapeake, 36, and a squadron preparing for deployment against the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean. Because of a conflict over seniority with fellow officer Silas TALBOT, however, he resigned his commission. The nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser USS Truxtun was named in his honour.


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Tryon, George (1832–93) British: Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, KCB. He is primarily known as the admiral who caused the collision between his flagship, the Victoria, and the Camperdown, in 1893, which resulted in great loss of life (see JELLICOE). But he was also a tactical innovator and thinker, at a time of great developments, and it has been cogently argued that his death set back British battlefleet tactics by years, and indirectly led to the tactical draw at Jutland twentythree years later. Up to his death, his career had been marked by rapid promotion, through a series of successful appointments, and he must have been a potential 1SL. He joined the Navy relatively late, at the age of sixteen; 1854, Lieutenant; 1860, Commander; 1866, Captain; 1884, Rear-Admiral; 1891, Vice-Admiral. He served under Cochrane (see COCHRANE, THOMAS, LORD DUNDONALD), as a Midshipman, and in the Crimean War, where he served ashore in the naval brigade. He earned very early promotion to Commander, and was appointed as the Executive Officer of the revolutionary new armoured frigate Warrior (with John FISHER as her Gunnery Officer). He followed this with command of the gunvessel Surprise in the Mediterranean. He then served as director of transports for the Abyssinian expedition of 1868, earning praise from all sides, and next became secretary to the First Lord. He commanded the steam frigate Raleigh, 1874–77, and in 1877 was a member of the committee revising the fleet’s signalling to take account of the tactics which were now possible with an all-steam navy. Tryon next commanded the battleship Monarch, and in 1881 was praised by the Foreign Office for his handling of affairs at Tunis. He then became Secretary of the Admiralty, and was instrumental in setting up the Naval Intelligence Department, the first step towards the creation of a modern naval staff. His first appointment as a flag officer was C-in-C Australia, 1884–87, where he set up a coordinated scheme for colonial defence, some thirteen years before the independent colonies formed the Commonwealth. He then spent three years as Superintendent of Reserves, and as such commanded one of the fleets in the annual manoeuvres, when he was able to innovate and shake his captains out of the tactical lethargy which had beset the RN since Trafalgar. His final appointment was as C-in-C Mediterranean, and it was while manoeuvring the fleet that he made a fatal miscalculation: such was his prestige that no-one dared to question the manoeuvre. The collision sank his flagship, and Tryon was lost with his ship and 371 other men.

Turner, Richmond Kelly (1885–1961) US: Admiral. He was the leading US amphibious commander of the WW2 offensive in the Pacific. He graduated from the USNA in 1908, and spent most of his early career in surface warships in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. During WWl, 1916–19, he served in the


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battleships USS Pennsylvania, USS Michigan and USS Mississippi. From 1919 to 1922 he served at the Washington Naval Yard. He was Gunnery Officer of the battleship USS California in the Pacific and also for the Scouting Fleet in the Atlantic, 1922–24. After command of the destroyer USS Mervine and duty in the Bureau of Ordnance, he earned his naval aviator’s wings at the age of fortytwo. Aviation and US Naval War College assignments led to command of the cruiser USS Astoria, 1938–40. While working on war planning in Washington he advanced to Rear Admiral in January 1941, and following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, he became Assistant CoS to Commander-inChief US Fleet. In June 1942 he became commander of the Navy’s South Pacific amphibious forces. He then commanded the amphi bious assaults at Guadalcanal, Russell, New Georgia, Rendova, Gilbert, Marshall, Marianas, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa Islands. In March 1944 he advanced to Vice Admiral and was named Commander Amphibious Forces Pacific. In May 1945 he advanced to Admiral, and at the end of the Pacific war he was responsible for the amphibious planning for the invasion of Japan. During his WW2 assignments Turner developed an amphibious doctrine that was a principal ingredient of the successful US offensive in the Pacific. After brief assignments with the Navy’s General Board and as the US representative to the United Nations Military Staff Committee, he retired from active duty in July 1947. The cruiser USS Richmond K.Turner was named in his honour.

Tyrwhitt, Reginald (1870–1951) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt, Bt, GCB, DSO. He commanded the Harwich Destroyer Force from August 1914 to November 1918, being involved in all the small ship actions in the narrow seas. He joined the Britannia in 1883; 1892, Lieutenant; 1903, Commander; 1908, Captain; 1919, Rear-Admiral; 1925, Vice-Admiral; 1929, Admiral. His first destroyer command, HMS Hart, came in 1896, and thereafter most of his sea appointments were in destroyers. He commanded the Waveney, Attentive and Skirmisher (these two latter ships were described as scouts, but were more like destroyer leaders). In 1908 he became Captain (D) of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, in the Topaze. He then had two cruiser commands in the Mediterranean, but in 1912 he went back to command the Bellona and the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla. In 1914 he was appointed Commodore (D) in charge of all the destroyers in the Home Fleet, training his ships and crews for the inevitable war. He was also a strong supporter of the fledgling Royal Naval Air Service. On 5 August 1914 his ships were the first to engage the enemy, sinking the minelayer Konigin Luise; and twenty-three days later jointly were responsible for sinking three German cruisers in the Heligoland Bight. At Jutland, although he had put to sea on his own initiative on learning that the German fleet was at sea on 31 May 1916, he was recalled by the Admiralty, and although he sailed again later, he was too late to take part in the battle or its aftermath. He received


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the DSO in 1916 for the aggressive leadership he displayed, which rubbed off onto most of those under him. In 1918 his forces accepted the surrender of the German U-boats. He had further sea and shore commands after the war, as Flag Officer, Gibraltar; Admiral Superintendent of Rosyth Dockyard; and of the 3rd Cruiser Squadron. He was C-in-C China, 1927–29, with the difficult task of protecting the International Settlement at Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War. This was his last sea appointment.


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U Unwin, Edward (1864–1950) British: Captain Edward Unwin, VC, CMG. He received one of five VCs awarded to crew members of the converted collier River Clyde at the Dardanelles landings on 25 April 1915. He went to sea via the merchant marine training ship Conway, serving in sail and the P&O. In 1895 he transferred to the Royal Navy (one of the original ‘hungry hundred’), and served in the punitive expedition to Benin in 1897, and in South Africa in the Boer War. He was promoted Commander on his retirement in 1909. Recalled in 1914, he became JELLICOE’S Fleet Coaling Officer, and later commanded the old Hussar, converted as a communications centre for C-in-C Mediterranean. He used his specialist knowledge to design the conversion of the River Clyde to a makeshift landing ship (assault), and was put in command (as acting Captain) for the landings. After the initial grounding, currents made it difficult to position the lighters which formed the pontoons to get the troops ashore, so Unwin swam ashore, towing the first lighter after him, and acted as a human bollard, waist-deep in water, while the troops rushed over him, all under murderous (in the exact sense of the word) machine-gun fire. Exhausted and numb, he was resuscitated, but went back to the lighters, and was wounded three times. Later still, despite his own wounds, he rescued seven or eight wounded men, lying in the water off the beach. Physical exhaustion finally forced him to stop. After hospitalization in Great Britain, he returned to the Dardanelles, commanding the cruiser Endymion, and was beachmaster for the Allied landings at Suvla in August 1915, and also for the evacuation at the end of the year, being awarded the CMG. As the last craft were leaving the beaches, a man fell overboard, and Unwin jumped in to rescue him. After briefly commanding the cruiser Amethyst in the South Atlantic, he was Principal Naval Transport Officer in Egypt, receiving an Egyptian honour, and was appointed Commodore, in charge of all naval transport in the eastern Mediterranean. He retired again in 1920.


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V Vancouver, George (1758–98) British: Captain. Vancouver carried on where COOK left off, and made some of the earliest surveys on the northwest coast of North America. He entered the Royal Navy as an Able Seaman in 1771, in Cook’s ship Discovery; 1780, Lieutenant; 1790, Commander; 1794, Captain. He took part in Cook’s second and third voyages, at the end of which he had risen to become a commissioned officer. In 1781 he was appointed to the Fame, 74, and was engaged at the battle of the Saintes (1782). In 1789 his captain recommended him as second-in-command of a new expedition to the South Seas. For this purpose he was supervising the fitting out of a new Discovery, when the affair of Nootka Sound blew up with Spain. When it died down, it was decided to send an officer to take back formally the disputed territory, and Vancouver, now a Commander, was sent, in the Discovery. He sailed in April 1791, via the Cape of Good Hope, southwest Australia and New Zealand, before turning northeast. In New Zealand, on a chart Cook had marked ‘Nobody knows what’, he completed the survey, and wrote ‘Somebody knows what’. After taking back the disputed territory, he circumnavigated the island which now bears his name, and in the two following years surveyed the coast from San Francisco northwards. The voyage was marred by the insubordination of one of his young officers, Lord Camelford, who considered himself Vancouver’s social superior. Vancouver was not prepared to stand for such conduct, and treated Camelford with excessive (though not undeserved) severity. On return to Great Britain in 1795, he prepared his charts and journals, but died before they were published.

van Heemskerk, Jacob see under H


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Vaudreuil, Louis, marquis de 1. (1691– 1763) French: lieutenant-général. He was born in French Canada, and entered the navy in 1707: he saw action off the Azores in 1709, but most of his career was in the relative peace which existed between France and Britain (in particular) between 1713 and 1742. He became a capitaine de vaisseau in 1738, and commanded the Aquilon, 48, at the battle of Toulon. In 1747 he was in command of the Intrépide, 74, at the second battle of Finisterre (see HAWKE). He remained to support his chef d’escadre, Étanduère, in the Tonnant, when they were escaping after the battle was lost, fighting off three British ships and making good their return to Brest, Intrépide towing the Tonnant. He became a chef d’escadre himself in 1748, and lieutenant-général in 1753. During the Seven Years’ War he commanded the base at Rochefort. 2. (1724–1802) French: lieutenant-gén-éral. He bore exactly the same full names as his father (see VAUDREUIL (I)). He had a long career at sea, ending as second-in-command to GRASSE-TILLY, taking over when the latter was captured at the Saintes in 1782. He went to sea in 1740, serving in Canada and Louisiana, and was present with his father at the battle of Toulon in 1744; 1754, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1765, capitaine de vaisseau; 1779, chef d’escadre; 1782, lieutenant-général. In 1759, commanding the Aréthuse, 36, on convoy escort, he was forced to surrender by three British frigates. In 1776 he became the director of construction at Rochefort, and then took command of the Fendant, 74, in which he fought at the battle of Ushant. One year later he took a squadron to seize Senegal, and then joined ESTAING in the West Indies, where he distinguished himself at the action off Grenada, and took part, under GUICHEN, in the three actions with RODNEY off Dominica. In 1781 he was back in France, and given command of the Triomphant, 84, as part of the escort to the massive convoy sent to the West Indies in December 1781 under Guichen’s command. The convoy fell in with KEMPENFELT’S squadron, with disastrous results: the escort was badly positioned, and the British had a free run at the convoy. Only Triomphant, one other ship and five transports reached their destination. At the Saintes, he extricated the French fleet after the defeat, and tried to organize a counterstroke against Jamaica, but the peace prevented it. He was court-martialled on return to France, on trumped-up charges brought by Grasse-Tilly, but was acquitted. He emigrated from France during the Revolution, but returned when the Directory took power in 1794.


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Vernon, Edward (1684–1757) British: Admiral Edward Vernon. The fact that he never received any honours indicates that he was an awkward cuss. An MP for many years, he used his position to attack anyone whose views offended him, usually in an outspoken manner which ensured that the offence was returned. He is known for having introduced the watering of the seaman’s rum ration, thereafter known as ‘grog’, from his nickname ‘Old Grog’, derived from the grogram boatcloak he wore. But he was also a competent and experienced practitioner of combined operations (when he didn’t quarrel with his Army counterpart), and an early and forceful exponent of the ‘blue water’ school of strategy followed by Britain for much of the eighteenth century. As a junior officer he experienced a successful combined operation (Copenhagen, 1700) and an unsuccessful one (Cadiz, 1702); 1702, Lieutenant; 1706, Captain; 1739, Vice-Admiral; 1745, Admiral. He served under SHOVELL in his flagship Barfleur at the battle of Malaga, and spent the years 1706–11 at sea, mostly in the West Indies, commanding the Jersey, 50. But from 1712 onwards his Whig sympathies ensured that he was unemployed in a time of Tory ascendancy. George I’s accession brought political change, and from 1716 to 1721, Vernon held a series of commands at sea, including three years as Commodore Commanding in the West Indies. On return, he entered Parliament, remaining an MP on and off until his death. He held another short command in 1726–27, though he did not achieve his flag, to which his seniority might have entitled him, and he stayed on half-pay from 1729 to 1739, speaking passionately in Parliament about maritime matters. In 1739, at the start of the War of Jenkins’s Ear (or the War of Austrian Succession, as it became), he importuned the government for a command in the West Indies, and was given a small squa-dron and made a Vice-Admiral. His first attack on the Spanish, at Porto Bello in November 1739, was a model combined operation, and he became the hero of the hour. The rest of his period in command was an anti-climax, with failures at Cartagena, Santiago (Cuba) and Panama, due to disease and to Vernon’s poor relations with the land commander. Despite this, he remained popular at home, although his criticisms of the conduct of the war did not endear him to the government. He was also an ‘expert witness’ at MATHEWS’S trial after the indecisive action off Toulon. When the Jacobite rising started in 1745, Vernon was given the command in the Channel, and his dispositions ensured that the French could not reinforce the Pretender, but he argued continuously with the Admiralty, and was relieved of his command. The next year he published all his correspondence with the Admiralty, and was dismissed from the flag list at the king’s command.


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Vian, Philip (1894–1968) British: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Vian, GCB, KBE, DSO. He was probably the finest fighting sea-officer in the RN in WW2, but has also been described as ‘unbelievably rude, hot-tempered and frequently needlessly offensive—but in some ways he was a genius’. He joined the Navy via Osborne and Dartmouth in 1907; 1916, Lieutenant; 1929, Commander; 1934, Captain; 1941, Rear-Admiral; 1945, Vice-Admiral; 1948, Admiral; 1952, Admiral of the Fleet. At the outbreak of WW1 he was in an old battleship, the Lord Nelson, but taking advantage of acquaintance with Lord FISHER, he got himself transferred to a Grand Fleet destroyer, and served at Jutland, and then was First Lieutenant of the destroyers Ossory and Sorceress. After WW1 he qualified in gunnery, and served with the RAN for two years, and in the Mediterranean Fleet and on the China Station. After three years in the Admiralty, 1929–33, he had a series of destroyer commands, and was Flag Captain in the 3rd Cruiser Squadron, protecting British and neutral trade during the Spanish Civil War. Except for a one-month visit to Russia in 1941, he was continuously in command at sea throughout WW2. His first exploit, in 1940, commanding the destroyer Cossack, was to intercept the German supply ship Altmark, carrying Merchant Navy prisoners taken by the Graf Spee. The phrases ‘the Navy’s here’, and ‘Vian of the Cossack’ were on everyone’s lips after this. In 1941, with the rest of his squadron, he intercepted Bismarck on his own initiative, and delivered an unsuccessful torpedo attack, but maintained contact until the Home Fleet came up. After promotion in 1941, with his flag in Nigeria, he destroyed the coal mines in Spitzbergen (a soft target, but a possible asset to the Germans), and returning, penetrated the Norwegian leads, and sank the German cruiser Bremse. His next command was the 15th Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean (flag in Naiad, later sunk under him), where he fought the two engagements in the Gulf of Sirte (see C.S.FORESTER’S The Ship for a magnificent factional account of the second). Vian was awarded the KBE. He went on to command successively the amphibious forces for the landing in Sicily, a squadron of escort carriers providing air support for the Salerno landings, and then the Eastern (British) Task Force for the Normandy landings. Later in 1944 he took command of the First Aircraft Carrier Squadron in the British Pacific Fleet, operating against the Ryuku Islands and Okinawa. In 1945 he became 5SL, responsible for Naval Aviation, but his plain speaking won him few friends. In 1948 he went back to sea as C-in-C Home Fleet (flag in Implacable), and was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on hauling down his flag in 1952.


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Villaret de Joyeuse, Louis, comte (1748– 1812) French: vice-amiral. He was generally seen as a good and skilful commander, who had the misfortune to reach flag rank at a time when the French navy was poorly manned and equipped. When young he was member of the king’s bodyguard, but was dismissed after killing his man in a duel. Instead he joined the navy as a volunteer; 1784, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1792, capitaine de vaisseau; 1793, contre-amiral; 1795, vice-amiral. As a lieutenant de frégate in 1778 he was given a small command, the Dauphine, in the Indian Ocean. In 1781 he took command successively of the Pulvériseur, Bellone and Naiade, 20, and was engaged in SUFFREN’S squadron’s fights with HUGHES. In April 1783, in the latter, he fought a most creditable three-hour engagement, broadside-tobroadside, with the Sceptre, 64, ending in his surrender. In 1790 he commanded the Prudente at St Domingo, and was promoted in 1792, a result of lack of senior officers of the old order at the start of the Revolution. His promotion to contre-amiral in 1793 was for the same reason. Despite his lack of experience in command of a squadron, let alone a fleet, his action with HOWE on 1 June 1794 allowed the essential grain convoy to reach Brest, although he lost eight ships. Next year, after further promotion, he fought BRIDPORT off the île de Groix, and was let down by the lack of discipline and training. He was appointed to command the expedition to Ireland in 1796, but disapproved of the plans and was replaced. He became a moderate parliamentary deputy, was proscribed, and deported, but escaped. The rest of his career was largely as a colonial governor, 1802–09, in Martinique and St Lucia, which he had to surrender to the British. After being in disfavour, he became Governor of Venice, where he died.

Villeneuve, Pierre (1763–1806) French: vice-amiral, the loser of the battle of Trafalgar. Six months after his surrender, he committed suicide in France after being released on parole. As a young aspirant (Midshipman), he fought in the West Indies under GRASSETILLY in the Marseillais, 74, and was present at all the major actions; 1786, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1793, capitaine de vaisseau; 1796, contre-amiral; 1804, viceamiral. He became a captain without having had command of a small ship, contrary to the normal practice in the French navy, as in the RN. He was dismissed for being a member of the nobility, but was reemployed in 1795, and promoted to flag rank in 1796, again without any previous sea-going command experience. He led a division from Toulon to Brest to take part in the Irish expedition of that year, but arrived too late.


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In 1798 he commanded a division of BRUEYS’S fleet on the Egyptian expedition, but his ships were at the un-engaged end of the French line, and he made no attempt to come to his chief’s aid, but escaped with two ships-of-the-line and two frigates, which reached Malta, where they were blockaded and he was made prisoner when BALL took the island in 1800. Nonetheless, he remained an active admiral, commanding at Taranto in 1801, and then the West Indies Squadron in 1803, such was the lack of experienced and more competent admirals in the French fleet. After promotion in 1804, he was given the naval command in Napoleon’s great strategic plan for the invasion of England. He was to take the Toulon squadron, join up with a Spanish squadron from Cadiz, and draw the British off to the West Indies, where he would be joined by other squadrons from Lorient and Rochefort. The combined fleet would then re-cross the Atlantic, sweep away the British Western Squadron blockading Brest, and enable Napoleon’s invasion flotillas to deliver the Grande Armee to the beaches of Britain. Despite MISSIESSY’S successful escape from Rochefort, he never met up with Villeneuve, and both squadrons returned to Europe, Missiessy to Rochefort, and Villeneuve, after an inconclusive action with CALDER off Ferrol, retired to Cadiz, once again to be blockaded by NELSON’S fleet. In October 1805 he put to sea with the combined fleet (see GRAVINA), under firm orders from Paris, and in the knowledge that he was to be relieved. The result was the catastrophe of Trafalgar, in which the combined fleet lost seventeen ships out of thirtythree engaged, the British losing none in the battle. His flagship, the Bucentaure, 80, was taken, and he himself made prisoner.

Vinson, Carl (1883–1981) US: member of congressional House of Representatives. He was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs for eight years and chairman of the Committee on Armed Services for seven years, serving continuously in the Congress from November 1914 to January 1965. He served with four Democratic and four Republican presidents, and in his highly influential congressional committee positions, he was a consistent advocate for a strong navy. His advocacy was particularly important during the post-WW2 military reorganization. Among his most important actions during that period was his opposition, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, to the elimination of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force as individual military services. In the face of heavy political pressure, he fought hard and successfully to preserve the separate military services. The navy’s third nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was named in his honour.

von Ingenohl, etc. see under I, or other capital letter


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W Wager, Charles (1666–1743) British: Admiral Sir Charles Wager. After gaining substantial experience as a fighting captain in the wars against Louis XIV, he spent some twenty-seven years in administrative posts on the Navy Board and the Admiralty, interspersed with occasional sea-duty. Although his reputation suffered an eclipse later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he was sufficiently remembered in the twentieth to have two destroyers named for him. His early sea-going seems to have been with a New England sea-captain named Hull; 1690, Lieutenant; 1692, Captain; 1709, Rear-Admiral; 1716, Vice-Admiral; 1731, Admiral. He started to make his mark in 1702, being given command of detached squadrons from time to time. He was present at the taking of Gibraltar, but not at the battle of Malaga which followed. He was present at the taking of Barcelona in 1705. In 1707 he was made Commodore, and C-in-C West Indies. There he dealt the Spanish a severe blow by his attack on their treasure fleet off Cartagena, sinking their flagship and capturing another, and thereby enriching himself. He was also effective in protecting British trade, and for his services was knighted in 1709. Thereafter he became an MP, sitting in the Commons for most of the rest of his life. At the Hanoverian succession in 1714, being a Whig, he was a member of the ruling party, and in line for preferment. For three years he was the Controller of the Navy, responsible for the maintenance of the dockyards and the fleet, and then a Commissioner of the Admiralty, being First Lord, 1733–42. The years 1713–39 were supposedly years of peace, when Britain prospered under Prime Minister Walpole. But the fleet remained a major instrument of British policy, and Wager went to sea in 1726 to the Baltic to keep the peace between Sweden and Russia, proving to be an able diplomat as well as a seaofficer. In 1727 trouble was brewing between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar (ceded to Britain in 1713), and Wager was sent in command of the fleet whose purpose, ultimately successful, was to discourage Spanish ambitions. He was Walpole’s trusted advisor on all matters maritime. He was also responsible for selecting VERNON for the initial command in the West Indies at the start of the next war.


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Wake-Walker, William (1888–1945) British: Admiral Sir William Wake-Walker, KCB, CBE (a grandson of Sir Baldwin Wake WALKER). During WW2 it was his cruiser squadron which first reported the Bismarck in the Denmark Strait. Subsequently, as Controller, he was responsible for the shipbuilding programme which produced the thousands of landing craft which were needed for the Allied landings in Europe. He joined the RN via the Britannia in 1903; 1908, Lieutenant; 1920, Commander; 1927, Captain; 1939, Rear-Admiral; 1942, Vice-Admiral; 1945, Admiral. He qualified in torpedo, and much of the rest of his career was involved with underwater weapons, particularly mines. He received an OBE for his WW1 service, which had been in the cruiser Cochrane, ashore in the Vernon, and as torpedo officer of the battleship Ramillies. He commanded the cruisers Castor and Dragon in the 1930s, and was Director of Torpedoes and Mining in the Admiralty, 1935–37. In October 1939 he became responsible for countermeasures to the magnetic mine (see OUVRY): in 1940, at the time of the evacuation of Dunkirk, he was sent to command the ‘sea-going-ships and vessels off the Belgian coast’, and was responsible for the control of the ‘little ships’ which brought home 330,000 men of the BEF and the French army. Wake-Walker returned to sea in command of the 1st Cruiser Squadron in HMS Norfolk in 1941, and after the first sighting of the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen shadowed them, and it was the Dorsetshire of his squadron which delivered the coup de grace to Bismarck. He became Third Sea Lord and Controller in 1942 (KCB 1943). With the opening of a second front drawing near, the provision of landing craft was a critical feature of planning, which he oversaw. In 1945 he was selected to become C-in-C Mediterranean, but died before taking up the post.

Walker, (William) Baldwin (1802–76) British: Admiral Sir Baldwin Wake Walker, Bt, KCB. As Surveyor of the Navy (1848–60), it was his decision to build HMS Warrior, the first iron-hulled, armour-plated, steam-propelled warship. He went to sea in 1812; 1820, Lieutenant; 1834, Commander; 1838, Captain; 1858, Rear-Admiral; 1865, Vice-Admiral; 1870, Admiral. He managed to be employed throughout the 1820s, and saw action at Kastro Morea (Greece) in 1828, receiving honours from France and Greece. He then served briefly in the Turkish navy, commanding the Turkish squadron at the reduction of St Jean d’Acre


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(1840). He received the KCB, and awards from Austria, Prussia and Russia. Returning to the RN, he commanded the Queen, 110, in home waters and the Constance, 50, in the Pacific. His time as Surveyor saw the RN accept the steam engine as the prime mover for all warships, although sails were retained for at least twenty years longer because steamships lacked endurance, and coaling stations were few and far between. And the problems associated with the use of iron (such as compasscorrection, and anti-fouling paint) were overcome during his time. As a result, when the French came to build the Gloire and her sisters, wooden, armour-plated, steam battleships, more powerful than any individual unit in the British fleet at the time, the RN was able to trump Napoleon IIFs hand (see Punch magazine for 18 March 1861) with the Warrior and her successors. He was created a baronet in 1856, and was C-in-C at the Cape, 1861–64.

Walker, Frederic (1896–1944) British: Captain ‘Johnny’ Walker, CB, DSO***. Although there were many distinguished submarine hunters in the north Atlantic in 1939–45, none were so dedicated and successful as Johnny Walker. (His second Christian name was indeed John, but the nickname Johnny derived from the brand of whisky.) The escort groups under his direct command sank a total of twenty-one U-boats in the north Atlantic between 1941 and 1944. He entered the RN in 1909, winning the King’s Medal at Dartmouth; 1918, Lieutenant; 1931, Commander; 1942, Captain. He served at sea throughout WW1, and in the post-war years became one of the RN’s first anti-submarine specialists—not considered a career-enhancing move: after all, so the unthinking talk went, this newfangled asdic meant that any submarine approaching a force would be detected and destroyed, leaving the battleships to get on with the important business. He served as Fleet Anti-Submarine Officer in the Home Fleet, and Mediterranean Fleet, 1928–31. (The other Fleet staff officers were of Commander’s rank, Walker was only a Lieutenant Commander: it is not now clear whether this was an appreciation of his qualities, or a reflection of the importance given to A/S work.) However, he was promoted Commander in 1931, though he had only two minor sea commands. From 1937 to 1940 he was the Training Commander at HMS Osprey, the RN’s A/S training base at Portland, Dorset. He was seconded to Admiral RAMSAY’S staff for the evacuation from Dunkirk, and earned an MiD. In October 1941 he took command of the sloop Stork as Senior Officer, 36th Escort Group. In December 1941, escorting convoy HG76, his group sank four U-boats in five days: in April 1942 they sank another, and he was promoted shortly thereafter. After a brief period in command of the escort base in Liverpool, he returned to sea in June 1943 in HMS Starling (a sister ship to the Stork), in command of the 2nd Escort Group. The period which followed saw the U-boat menace mastered, due partly to improvements in asdic (sonar), and the introduction of long-range anti-submarine aircraft, but particularly


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to the skill and determination and tactical innovation of the commanders, and in particular to Walker, whose example was outstanding, as witness the decorations he received. He also, most unusually, was awarded two additional years seniority as a Captain, but he never lived to be able to take advantage of it, since he died of a stroke, brought on by the continuous overwork that went with the responsibilities of command.

Waller, Hector (1900–42) Australian, Captain, DSO*, RAN. He earned a reputation as a fighting seaman in the Mediterranean in 1940–41, being described by CUNNINGHAM as the finest sea-captain he had ever known. He joined the RAN in 1914; 1921, Lieutenant; 1934, Commander; 1940, Captain. Like all RAN officers of this period, he served much of his time with the RN. He qualified in signals, and was Executive Officer of the RAN College, 1934–36. He commanded HMS Brazen in the Mediterranean, 1937–39, and at the outbreak of WW2 took command of HMAS Stuart and what was known as the ‘scrap-iron’ flotilla, old destroyers of the ‘V’ and ‘W’ class. While there was peace in eastern waters, the RAN contributed a substantial portion of its strength to RN operations, in particular in the Mediterranean (see COLLINS). Waller’s flotilla operated as part of Cunningham’s fleet, and Waller earned a DSO in 1940, followed by two MiDs for work supporting the army in North Africa and in Greece, and a bar to the DSO at the battle of Matapan. He took command of the cruiser Perth in October 1941, and was lost when she was sunk in the Sunda Strait in the aftermath of the battle of the Java Sea in March 1942 (see DOORMAN). Waller received another, posthumous, MiD.

Walsh, Don (1931–) US: Captain. He was the officer in charge during recordbreaking deep-ocean explorations in January 1960. He and Swiss civilian engineer Jacques Picard dived to a depth of nearly seven miles in the Challenger Deep near Guam in the Pacific Ocean. The vehicle for the history-making descent was the Navy bathyscaphe Trieste. The selfpropelled Trieste had a unique gasolinefilled hull designed to withstand the im-mense pressures of up to eight tons per square inch during the deepest part of the dive. The bathyscaphe’s state-of-the-


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art instrumentation allowed the two scientists to advance deep ocean oceanography, monitoring such factors as light penetration, water temperature, currents, and marine life. He entered the Navy in 1948, serving initially as a torpedo plane crewmember. Following his initial duty, Walsh entered the USNA, graduating in the class of 1954. Between 1967 and 1968 he earned advanced degrees from Texas A&M University and San Diego State University, including a doctorate from the former. Most of his fourteen years at sea, which included the Korean and Vietnam Wars, was in submarines. He commanded the Trieste, 1959–62, qualifying as the Navy’s first deep-submersible pilot in 1959. Following the record-breaking descent in 1960, he piloted six different manned submersible operations, and participated in numerous other manned deep-diving projects. He was a member of the US Naval Institute editorial board, 1974–75, and he retired from active duty in 1975. He went on to be Dean of Marine Programs at the University of Southern California, and in 1983, he established his own consulting business in ocean sciences. In addition, he has worked with the US National Aviation and Space Agency on linking space programmes to the study of the world’s oceans. As an arctic explorer he has participated in a number of expeditions to both North and South Poles.

Wanklyn, Malcolm (1911–42) British: Lieutenant Commander, VC, DSO**. He was one of the legendary band of submarine captains of the 10th S/M Squadron, operating from Malta against the Axis supply lines to North Africa, 1940–42, and his successes made him a household name. Without doubt, the interdiction of the enemy supply lines by the 10th Squadron had a major effect on the war in North Africa. When he was lost, the Admiralty announcement said The ship and her company are gone, but the example and inspiration remain’. He joined the RN in 1925; 1933, Lieutenant; 1941, Lieutenant Commander. He joined submarines in 1934. He was First Lieutenant of three S/Ms before passing his CO’s course (the ‘perisher’) in 1939. After seven months in command of the old H.50, he was appointed to command the new Upholder in August 1940. His first five patrols in 1941 were mostly unsuccessful, and his Captain S/M expressed doubts about his abilities, but on the sixth patrol he got his eye in, and sank three transports, winning the DSO. On the seventh he attacked a heavily escorted troop convoy, sinking the liner Conte Rosso, and enduring heavy depth charge attacks before getting away. This was the event which won him the VC. In the rest of her short career, Upholder made thirty-six attacks, twenty-three of them successful, sinking 140,000 tons of Axis shipping, including a destroyer, two submarines and over a dozen more merchant vessels. In one attack he sank two 20,000-ton troopships with one salvo. In April 1942 he sailed for his last patrol before taking Upholder home for refit, but failed to return, although the first part of the mission, to land an agent, was successfully carried out. Upholder was sunk, with all hands, by an Italian torpedo boat off Tripoli.


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Warburton-Lee, Bernard (1895–1940) British: Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee, VC, RN. He won his posthumous VC at Narvik in 1940, for ‘gallantry, enterprise and daring in command’, in the best traditions of the RN. He joined the RN in 1908, passing through the Osborne/Dartmouth system; 1917, Lieutenant; 1930, Commander; 1936, Captain. He was a destroyer man through and through, having been First Lieutenant of Mischief and Wrestler during WW1. In the 1920s and 1930s he commanded successively Tuscan, Stirling, Walpole, Vanessa and Witch. From 1936 to 1939 he was Flag Captain to Flag Officer, Reserve Fleet, Admiral HORTON, not a post likely to lead to higher command. In 1939 he was appointed to command HMS Hardy and the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla. In April 1940 Warburton-Lee was ordered to take his flotilla to Narvik, ‘to make certain that no enemy troops land’. But before he got there he was told that the Germans had forestalled the British, and that he should sink their transports. Arriving off Narvik, he was told that the Germans were there in force with six destroyers (there were actually ten) and a U-boat. He decided to ‘seize the golden moment’ and attack with his five destroyers. Their initial two attacks left two German destroyers sunk or sinking, as well as several merchant ships. Some of his ships still having torpedoes remaining, he decided on a third attack, but on the way out of the fjord met five more German destroyers. A running fight ensued, but a shell hit the Hardy’s bridge, and another cut her main steam pipe. She was beached, and Warburton-Lee, badly injured, was ferried ashore on a stretcher, but died of his injuries. In all, the British lost two destroyers, but the Germans lost two, with five more damaged, and seven merchant ships sunk.

Ward, Norvelle G. (1912–) US: Rear-Admiral. He directed riverine and coastal operations in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. He was named Chief, Naval Advisory Group in May 1965 and Commander, Naval Forces Vietnam in April 1966. In these assignments, which lasted to May 1967, he led the development of naval doctrine and tactics in a form of warfare that the Navy had not seriously been involved with since the American Civil War. He graduated from the USNA in 1935 and served in the cruiser USS Salt Lake City before undergoing submarine train ing, 1937–38. After duty in submarines as a junior officer, he became Executive Officer of the submarine USS Seadragon in October 1939. Despite damage to Seadragon in a Japanese air attack on Cavite in December 1941, and the faulty torpedoes that plagued the Navy early in WW2, she carried out war patrols until October 1942. After staff assignments and duty as Executive Officer in the submarine USS Gato, he commanded the submarine USS Guardfish, conducting highly successful war patrols until October 1944. He served in staff positions, 1944–45, and then


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commanded the submarine USS Irex, 1946–47. Further staff duty was followed by command of the destroyer USS Yarnall, June-December 1951, during the Korean War. He attended the US Armed Forces Staff College, 1952–53, and was advanced to Captain in 1954. Subsequent assignments included command of the oiler USS Nantahala and Submarine Squadron Five, followed by a senior planning assignment in the Office of the CNO. In August 1963 he advanced to Rear Admiral and began his Vietnam assignments. He commanded Service Group Three in the Seventh Fleet, 1967–68. Following command of the Caribbean Sea Frontier and the Tenth Naval District, he retired from active duty in August 1973.

Warren, John Borlase (1753–1822) British: Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, Bt, GCB, GCH. He was a successful frigate captain at the start of the French Revolutionary War, and also was instrumental in defeating the French attempt to invade Ireland in 1798. He was intended for the church, and went to Cambridge University: but concurrent with keeping his terms there, he entered the RN in 1771; 1778, Lieutenant; 1779, Commander; 1781, Captain; 1799, Rear-Admiral; 1805, Vice-Admiral; 1810, Admiral. He managed to stay at Cambridge to take his degree while at the same time being a Midshipman. As a result, he was formally posted as a deserter from one ship (and there are not many admirals who have that unworthy distinction), and he also had an MA degree (and there were few, if any, admirals until the 1980s who had that distinction). Warren remained on half-pay from 1783 to 1793, but in 1793 he took command of the Flora, 36, operating off Brest and in the Channel Islands. In 1794 he was made commodore of another squadron of frigates on the same duty: it was this squadron which captured three out of four French frigates (see PELLEW) which were harassing British trade. He then commanded the Pomona, 44 (one of the French frigates he had just captured) to escort and support the French royalists attempting to raise a revolt in the Vendée. The landing was successful, but the revolt fizzled out and was cruelly suppressed. During 1796 his squadron virtually halted the French coasting trade round the Brittany peninsula. Next year he was moved to command the Canada, 74, in the Channel Fleet. He was at sea during the Spithead mutinies, and his ship was unaffected. In 1798 he received intelligence from Captain KEATS of the sailing of the French expedition to Ireland. Warren pursued them, with a superior force, and so disposed his squadron that out of one French line-of-battleship and eight frigates, only two frigates returned to France. Although the Canada was not directly engaged, Warren was deservedly rewarded. While commanding a small squadron in 1806, he took the French Marengo, 74, and the Belle Poule, 40, but that was the last action he saw. He was C-in-C North America, 1813–14.


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Washington, George (1732–99) US: first President (1789–97). He recognized the importance of a navy to America’s survival as a nation. As military commanderin-chief during the American War of Independence, and later as the first US president, he pushed the regionally dominated political leadership of his country to establish and maintain a navy. At the outset of the war he was confronted by British blockades that threatened to choke off military supplies to the ill equipped Continental Army. Initially he was forced to rely on privateers and the French navy. The schooner Hannah, commissioned by Washington in the fall of 1775, is believed by many to be the first ship to sail under the authority of the Continental Congress. In the following months eleven more small vessels were commissioned in the Boston area, resulting in the taking of more than fifty prizes. In October 1775 the Congress officially established a Continental Navy, and Esek HOPKINS was named to command the tiny force; Abraham WHIPPLE, Dudley Saltonstall and Nicholas BIDDLE were commissioned as Captains. Washington consistently supported legislation to build a small Navy, and in March 1794, he appointed the first USN Captains: John BARRY, Samuel NICHOLSON, SilaS TALBOT, Joshua BARNEY, Richard DALE and Thomas TRUXTUN. In April 1795 he signed the authorization to build the 44-gun frigates USS United States and USS Constitution and the 36-gun frigate USS Constellation, the first ships of a permanent USN. One of the byproducts of that decision was the establishment of a US shipbuilding infrastructure of naval shipyards.

Watkins, James D. (1927–) US: Admiral. He was a major factor in shifting US naval strategy during the Cold War from the limited missions ‘swing strategy’ established during the presidency of Jimmy Carter to an offensive forward-deployed naval policy developed during the following administration of Ronald REAGAN. This new forward-deployed role was articulated in the Navy’s publication The Maritime Strategy. While CNO during the Reagan administration, Watkins actively supported the 600-ship Navy concept of Secretary of the Navy LEHMAN, a policy many believed to be instrumental in precipitating the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although the high point for the Navy during the period was 588 ships, its expanded role in the nation’s overall defence continued to be accepted in future administrations, even during periods of budget cuts. Among the major accomplishments associated with his terms as CNO were the integration of the Tomahawk missile system into Navy surface ships, the initiation of the Trident missile system into its submarine strategic missile capability, increased reliance on Naval Reserve forces to carry out Navy missions, and the improved cost-effectiveness of the Navy’s industrial facilities. Watkins graduated from the USNA in 1949, and he served in surface ships prior to attending submarine school from January to June 1951. He commanded the submarine


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USS Snook, 1964–66, and Cruiser-Destroyer Group One, 1973–75. His senior assignments included Commander, Sixth Fleet, 1978–79, Vice CNO, 1979–81, Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet, 1981–82, and CNO, 1982–86. Watkins was promoted to Admiral in September 1979 and retired from active duty in July 1986. Following retirement he became active in oceanographic and other science-technology areas, and he served as Secretary of Energy, 1989–92 in the administration of President BUSH.

Watts, Isaac (1797–1876) British: naval architect. He was the designer of HMS Warrior. Comparatively little is known about Watts, but as the chief constructor responsible for the design of the world’s first modern battleship, combining as she did an iron hull, armour plate, and steam machinery, he is worthy of a place in any survey of naval history. He studied at the School of Naval Architecture in Portsmouth Dockyard, and rose to become Master Shipwright at Sheerness by 1847. In 1848 he went to the Admiralty as Assistant Surveyor (the senior naval architect). In 1859 he became Chief Constructor, and with his assistant Joseph Large, designed an armoured screw frigate to meet the Admiralty’s requirement to counter the French ships of the Gloire class designed by DUPUY DE LÔME. Other private shipbuilders were invited to improve on Watts’s design, without success, and the resulting ship, reclassified in due course as a battleship, became the Royal Navy’s ‘ultimate deterrent’ of the 1860s, initiating a period of rapid technological change. Watts retired in 1863.

Weddigen, Otto (1882–1915) German: Kapitan-Leutnant: holder of the ‘Pour le Merite’. He was a celebrated German U-boat commander in the early days of WW1. He entered the KM in 1901; 1912, Kapitan-Leutnant. After service in the German far eastern base of Tsingtao, he became a very early submariner in 1908. He took command of U-9 in 1911, and it was in her that he made his first patrols in WW1. He scored an early success in September 1914 when he torpedoed the old British cruiser Aboukir, on patrol off the Dutch coast: her consorts Cressy and Hogue stopped to pick up survivors, and Weddigen picked them off too. Three weeks later he sank the cruiser Hawke off the northeast coast of Scotland. These exploits proved that the submarine was not just a defensive weapon, as had been generally thought before the war, and they engendered a healthy respect for the U-boats which showed itself in the tactics on both sides thereafter.


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Weddigen took command of a new boat, the U-29, at the beginning of 1915, and sank four merchantmen, totalling some 12,300 tons, in his first month, but in March 1915, while attempting an attack on the Grand Fleet, which was out on a sweep, U-29 was rammed by HMS Dreadnought. The following quote is from the diary of a young officer in HMS Lancaster, which was part of the screen: Dreadnought sighted sub 1 point on stbd. bow, immediately a/c [altered course] towards 8t increased to full speed endeavouring to ram. Submarine’s periscope only showing. Sub. zigzagged in her flight but was shortly rammed and sunk by the Dreadnought. Her bows came up as she sank showing the number U.29. No survivors were picked up. This submarine had just before fired at and narrowly missed the Neptune.

Weinberger, Caspar W. (1917–) US: Secretary of Defense. He played a key role in the rebuilding of the USN and in important naval events during the presidency of Ronald REAGAN. He served as Secretary of Defense, 1981–87, and during that time led the fight to increase the Department of Defense budget. Between 1981 and 1985 he corrected serious military budget deficiencies, including those affecting the Navy. In the final years of his tenure he managed to stave off major defence cutbacks. Among his most important achievements were a significant pay increase for the armed forces, more realistic deployment cycles for Navy ships and squadrons, significant new strategic submarine weapons capability, and a higher degree of respect for the uniformed military from the executive branch of government. Among the military crises involving the Navy with which he dealt were the increased belligerence by Libya in the Gulf of Sidra, the armed US intervention in the major political crisis on the Caribbean island of Grenada, and the lethal missile attack by Iraq on the destroyer USS Stark, which killed thirty-seven Navy men. During the Falklands conflict between Great Britain and Argentina, he took the lead in providing significant support for the British. At his direction the United States provided aircraft fuel, military equipment and intelligence. Prior to his appointment as Secretary of Defense, Weinberger had been Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, 1969–70, Director of the congressional Office of Management and Budget, 1970–72, and Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, 1973–75. Following his resignation as head of the Department of Defense, he became Chairman of Forbes magazine. During WW2 he rose from Private to Captain, seeing action in the South Pacific and duty on General Douglas MacArthur’s intelligence staff.


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Welles, Gideon (1802–78) US: Secretary of the Navy, 1861–69. President LINCOLN relied on Welles, a former Connecticut newspaper editor, for his civilian leadership of the Union Navy during the American Civil War. At the outset of that conflict, Welles persuaded Lincoln, despite political pressures from financiers in the US northeast, not to issue letters of marque to potential Union privateers. He also recognized the burgeoning industrial might of the Union as a major strategic advantage over the Confederacy, and led the transition to steam power and iron construction for naval ships. He also led the development of the Union’s powerful riverine forces that were crucial in joint operations with the Union Army, as well as blockade vessels that severely limited the Confederacy’s war effort along 3,500 miles of coastline. To supplement the naval building programme, he authorized the purchase of significant numbers of ships from the US merchant marine for the Union Navy. In 1864 he initiated construction of the 5,000-ton, 376-foot ironclad ram, USS Dunderberg. Although the ship was sold to a foreign navy, its radical design presaged the dreadnoughts to come at the turn of the nineteenth century. Following the Civil War and during the early stages of the presidency of Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, Welles also anticipated the transition of the USN from a primarily coastal, riverine force to a blue-water instrument of global expansion. Prior to his service as Secretary of the Navy, Welles served in the state legislature of Connecticut and as the Navy’s Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing.

Wemyss, Rosslyn (1864–1933) British: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Wester Wemyss, GCB, CMG, MVO. He was a somewhat unlikely 1SL in the last year of WW1, and in its immediate aftermath. He joined the Britannia in 1877 (in the same term as the future King George V); 1887, Lieutenant; 1898, Commander; 1902, Captain; 1911, Rear-Admiral; 1915, Vice-Admiral; 1919, Admiral; 1919, Admiral of the Fleet. In 1901 he was Executive Officer of HMS Ophir, the Orient Line steamer commissioned to take the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary) on their tour of the empire. He was the first captain of RNC Osborne, an important post, since the RN has (since 1903, anyway) paid great attention to the training of its officers. In the FISHER-BERESFORD dispute (1908–09) he maintained neutrality, although he had served with Beresford and admired him, and had fallen out with Fisher. The latter had offered Wemyss the coveted appointment of Naval Secretary (then, as now, a position of influence, and an indication that the officer might expect promotion),


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on the understanding that he did exactly what Fisher wanted. Instead, Wemyss took command of the cruiser Suffolk, and later the battleship Albion. In 1914 he commanded a cruiser squadron, away from the main fleet, and saw himself as sidelined: but he was sent to act as Senior Naval Officer at Mudros for the Dardanelles operations, and was promoted. He was then sent as C-in-C East Indies, which covered the naval operations supporting the army in Mesopotamia and Arabia. In September 1917 he was recalled to the Admiralty and appointed deputy 1SL as an acting Admiral, a somewhat surpris ing appointment, since he had never had staff experience. More surprisingly, when JELLICOE was ousted in December 1917, Wemyss was appointed instead. His strong point was his ability to work harmoniously with others, and an ability to decentralize, which Jellicoe lacked. Wemyss’s relations with the First Lord, and BEATTY (commanding the Grand Fleet) were good. Much of the success which occurred during Wemyss’s tenure of office stemmed from work initiated by Jellicoe, but Wemyss deserves a share of any praise. He was responsible for the naval side of the armistice at the end of the war, and was somewhat grudgingly and belatedly created a baron for his services.

Westmacott, Herbert (1921–95) New Zealand: Commander ‘Percy’ Westmacott, DSO, DSC*. Born and bred in New Zealand, his service was all with the Royal Navy, and his decorations were all won in submarines, particularly in the specialist world of midget submarines. He joined the Royal Navy in 1934; 1941, Lieutenant; 1955, Commander. He qualified in submarines at the start of the war. He was First Lieutenant of Unshaken in 1942 when, one night as she surfaced in rough weather, she rolled so extremely that her captain and two lookouts were washed overboard and lost. Westmacott had to take charge and return to Gibraltar. Later, with a new CO, she carried out successful patrols, sinking six enemy vessels, and capturing the Italian S/ M Ciro Menotti, for which he was awarded the DSC. In 1944 he joined X-craft (midget S/Ms) and commanded X-24 on a mission to sink a floating dock inside Bergen harbour. The dock was sunk and X-24 returned safely. Westmacott was awarded the DSO. In 1945 he commanded the larger XE-5 in an operation to cut Japanese telegraph cables, which were cryptographically secure, to force them to use radio, the Allies having broken the radio codes. While under tow to the site, the tow broke and XE-5 plunged well below her designed maximum depth, dragged down by the wire. Luckily the tow was slipped, and she popped up like a cork. Westmacott decided to continue, and XE-5 was three days underwater at the site, before retiring to be towed back. The cable was put out of action, and Westmacott was awarded a bar to the DSC. Apart from ramming the battleship Nelson in thick fog, the remainder of his career was uneventful: he commanded the destroyer Opossum and the 4th Submarine Squadron in Sydney. After retiring he returned to New Zealand.


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Whipple, Abraham (1733–1819) US: Commodore. He was one of the original four captains of the American Continental Navy appointed by General WASHINGTON during the American Revolution. He is credited with firing the first shot at sea during that war, while in command of the 24-gun converted merchantman Columbus. He participated in a raid on the British-controlled Bahamas Islands in 1776, and also operated successfully off the New England coast during that year. In 1778 he took command of the new 28-gun frigate Providence, and eluded British blockaders to carry dispatches to France and naval stores to the United States in return. In subsequent operations in command of a small squadron off the North American coast, he captured eleven vessels in a convoy off Newfoundland. He was captured on 12 May 1780 after a failed attempt to defend Charleston against an overwhelming British armynavy force. The defeat at Charleston, South Carolina, was considered by many to be the worst American military setback of the Revolution. After his capture he was given permanent parole by the British. Earlier in his career, when he received a note from the captain of a British frigate, referring to Whipple’s role in the burning of the schooner HMS Gaspee and promising to hang him for his actions, Whipple reputedly replied: ‘Sir, Always catch a man before you hang him’. Prior to the American War of Independence he captained the colonial privateer Gamecock during the French and Indian War and was credited with capturing twenty-three French ships. As a shipmaster following the American Revolution, he sailed the first US-flag vessel into the River Thames in England in 1784.

White, Richard (1908–95) British; Captain, DSO**. He was at sea virtually continuously, 1939–45, in command of destroyers, earning three DSOs, three MiDs and a Greek decoration. He was a most unassuming man, as this author can testify. He was the captain of the RNC, 1951–53, and none of his cadets had any idea of his superb war service, which had recently been augmented off Korea. He joined Dartmouth in 1921; 1930, Lieutenant; 1941, Commander; 1945, Captain. White’s first command was the destroyer Antelope, employed on convoy escort duties at the start of the war. In February 1940 he won his first DSO for the destruction of U-41. Later that year he earned a bar to his DSO for the destruction of U-31. He was promoted and appointed to command HMS Beagle and the 4th Escort Group; a year later he took command of HMS Zulu. He received an MiD when Zulu, with other escorts, sank U-372, but he had the misfortune to lose his ship in the ill fated combined operation against Tobruk in September 1942, which was a costly failure, the Mediterranean Fleet losing two fleet destroyers and an anti-aircraft cruiser. After service as a liaison officer to the Greek navy, he was present at the D-Day landings in HMS Despatch. He finished the war in command of the new destroyer Terpsichore, which took part in the final stages of the


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war against Japan, bombarding the Japanese mainland, and being present at the surrender in Tokyo Bay. He was promoted Captain in 1945, and briefly commanded the battleship King George V. In 1949 he was back at sea again as Captain (D) in HMS Cossack, commanding the 8th Destroyer Squadron, in the Far East. White earned another MiD for Cossack’s activities, particularly her shore bombardments in Korea.

White, William (1845–1913) British: naval constructor. As Director of Naval Construction, 1886–1903, White was responsible for the design and construction of forty-eight battleships, from the Royal Sovereigns, laid down in 1889, to the King Edward VIIIs, laid down in 1902 (though these last were nominally the responsibility of his successor). These formed a homogeneous fleet with similar characteristics, and were the apogee of the pre-dreadnought battleship. He entered the dockyard service in 1859 (using blotting paper in his boots to give himself the required height). After completing an apprenticeship he became personal secretary to the then Chief Constructor, E.J.Reed, and his successor Nathaniel Barnaby. From 1872 to 1882 he played a leading part in the design of most Admiralty-designed warships. In 1880 it was his paper which resulted in the formation of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors in 1883. He left Admiralty service in 1882 to become the manager of the warship building branch of Armstrong’s, at Elswick, on the Tyne, but after only three years was persuaded back to the Admiralty, to become Director of Naval Construction. His ships were distinguished by high freeboard, barbette mountings for the main armament, wide distribution of armour with a curved protective deck, and good seakeeping qualities. His career ended unhappily with an accident to the royal yacht Victoria and Albert while she was being built: although it was not directly White’s fault, he took responsibility, and retired. He disapproved of the dreadnought concept, parti cularly that of the dreadnought-cruiser, or battle cruiser.

Whitehead, Robert (1823–1905) British: inventor and developer of the self-propelled torpedo. After training as a draughtsman, he went to work in Europe, first at Marseilles, then in Milan. In 1856 he went to work for a company in Fiume, building the engines for the Austro-Hungarian fleet. In 1864, he was approached by an Austro-Hungarian officer, Fregattenkapitan de Luppis, who had invented a ‘fireship’, a small surface craft, driven by clockwork, and directed by ropes from shore. Whitehead was fired by the idea, but realized the impracticability of the rope steering, and the undesirability of a surface craft. He designed a compressed-air-powered


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selfsteering torpedo, which would run at a set depth under water, to explode in a ship’s most vulnerable place. Trials for the Austrian navy in 1866 were successful enough to encourage further work, and the British C-in-C Mediterranean paid a visit and reported favourably. Trials in UK waters took place in 1870 and were successful, and the RN bought its first torpedoes in 1871. Development continued, both in Fiume (where Whitehead established his own factory), and at Woolwich Arsenal, and the torpedo became the weapon which enabled the submarine to develop into the capital ship of the late twentieth century. Its first use was in 1877, when the British cruiser Shah fired one at the Peruvian ironclad Huascar (it missed). The first successful use was in 1881, in the Chilean Revolutionary War, when the gunboats Almirante Condell and Almirante Lynch sank the ironclad Blanco Encalada. Whitehead’s two main innovations were the depth-keeping gear (long known as ‘the secret’), and the use of the gyro for steering (introduced in the 1890s), on which his son, John, worked as well. In 1891 he built a factory for the manufacture of torpedoes in England, at Weymouth.

Wilkes, Charles (1798–1877) US: Rear Admiral. He precipitated the ‘Trent Affair’ on 8 November 1861 during the American Civil War. As commanding officer of USS San Jacinto, he intercepted a British mail packet and arrested two Confederate States of America diplomatic representatives, John Slidell and James Mason. The diplomatic crisis between the US and Britain that resulted eventually cooled, and President LINCOLN released the two diplomats. Wilkes was appointed a Midshipman in 1818 and his early duties included service in the Baltic and Mediterranean, as well as studies in marine surveys. Early in his career he was court-martialled and reprimanded for mistreating his men. As a Lieutenant Commander and head of the Navy’s Depot of Charts and Instruments, he commanded a small squadron sent in 1838 to chart waters in portions of the Antarctic, Pacific, and the coastal waters of the state of Oregon. It is estimated that during his assignment he sailed 85,000 miles, and charted the waters off 280 islands, 1,500 miles of Antarctic shoreline, and 800 miles along off the coast of Oregon. This peacetime assignment helped establish the United States as a contributor to advances in marine sciences. Wilkes’s survey work in the Pacific, however, was marred by the murder of two of his officers in the Fiji Islands, followed by his lethal retaliation against the Fiji islanders. He advanced to Commander in 1843 and Captain in 1855. He also was court-martialled and found guilty of insubordination in 1864 and suspended from the service for one year. Despite his outspoken nature and controversial actions, he ultimately was promoted to Rear Admiral on the Navy’s retired list in 1866.


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Wilkinson, Thomas (1898–1942) British: Temporary Lieutenant Thomas Wilkinson, VC, RNR. His medal was awarded posthumously, and four years later, for an action in the Java Sea in early 1942. Wilkinson started his seafaring in a sailing sloop owned by his father, and became a quartermaster in a troopship in WW1. After the war he sat his professional exams and became a Master in 1936, commanding small merchant ships in the Far East. He was commissioned into the RNR in 1940, and was given command of the Li Wo, a river steamer, which had been requisitioned as an auxiliary patrol vessel, armed with one old 4-inch gun and two machine guns. In February 1942, with the fall of Singapore imminent, she left Singapore for Batavia (Djakarta). She had only thirteen rounds of practice ammunition for her gun, and some machine-gun rounds, and her crew was a mixture, including survivors from the Prince of Wales and Repulse. In the first twenty-four hours she with-stood four air attacks, one by fifty-two aircraft (she was highly manoeuvrable, and Wilkinson a skilled ship-handler), and then sighted two Japanese troop convoys, escorted by destroyers and a heavy cruiser. Wilkinson mustered his crew, and said that he intended to try to do as much damage as possible, rather than try to escape. His scratch gun’s crew hit and set on fire one transport, so that its crew abandoned it, and the Li Wo twisted and turned to such effect that she withstood the enemy for an hour. Finally, as she turned to ram, she was hit at pointblank range and sank. Only ten men were saved and made prisoner. Wilkinson went down with his ship, but the full tale of his heroism did not emerge until the prisoners returned home in 1945.

Williams, Arthur (1909–99) British: Captain, DSC**. ‘Slogger’ Williams was another of the successful breed of submarine hunters who kept the Atlantic supply lines open throughout the war. It was a war of attrition, ultimately won by the Allies, and the cost in lives to the German submarine arm was, proportionately, much worse than the losses incurred by either side on the Western Front in WW1. History has not been kind to the generals who fought that war, but it is rare to find any suggestion that DÖNITZ should have called off his campaign. Williams’s training and service until 1938 was in the merchant marine, but in 1938 he joined the RN as a Lieutenant, one of the ‘hungry hundred’ RNR officers who were recruited to the RN when it became clear that war with Nazi Germany was inevitable; 1945, Commander; 1956, Captain. He became an A/S specialist, and showed his skill in the old destroyer Wanderer when she sank U-401 in August 1941. When Captain Orpen moved to the more modern Hesperus, Williams accompanied him, and stayed when Orpen was relieved by Macintyre, and won his first DSC in 1942, just after promotion to Lieutenant Commander. A year later the sinking of U-357 brought another DSC. He then went to


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train A/S teams ashore before being given his own command, HMS Bulldog, and in her he sank U-719 off the aptly named Bloody Foreland in June 1944 to earn his third DSC. His final command during the war was of the frigate Tavy, and in command of the 20th Escort Group, on the Russian convoy run.

Williams, David (1911–95) British: Rear Admiral David Williams, CB, DSC. The credit and glory in sea warfare usually goes to the captain on the bridge, or the man at the gun. Williams was an engineer, one of the heroes who made their ship go, never knowing when a torpedo might come in through the ship’s side, giving them little chance of survival. He won one DSC and four MiDs during WW2, during which he was almost continuously at sea in charge of a ship’s machinery. He entered the Navy in 1929; 1933, Lieutenant (E); 1945, Commander (E); 1955, Captain (E); 1963, Rear-Admiral. After service in the battleships Nelson and Barham, and a period training artificers ashore, he got his first charge job in 1939, in the destroyer Hasty. While he was in her she captured a German blockade runner, took part in the Norwegian campaign, and then had two years in the Mediterranean when, like all other destroyers, she was driven to the limit, and was only kept running by the professional skill and leadership of Williams and men like him. Hasty was present at the fleet action off Calabria in July 1940, and was with HMAS Sydney when she sank the Bartolomeo Colleoni. She escorted convoys to Malta, and with her sister ship Havoc sank the Italian submarine Berillo. She was at the battle of Matapan (after which Williams received his DSC), and she was involved in evacuating the army from Greece and Crete (during which CUNNINGHAM signalled ‘This is no time for destroyers to be breaking down’). She made seventeen high-speed overnight trips to run stores and reinforcements into Tobruk, and then, with Hotspur, sank U-79. She was present at the second battle of Sirte (see VIAN), but then her luck ran out, and her bows were blown off by an E-boat on another Malta convoy. Williams said: Tortunately the artificer on watch slammed the throttle shut, otherwise we could have well sailed under. As it was, Hotspur came alongside, so we didn’t even get our feet wet’. Three weeks later he joined the new aircraft carrier Implacable as Senior Engineer. She took part in air strikes against targets in Norway, then went to join the British Pacific Fleet. In July 1945 Implacable suffered a major turbine defect which would normally have required a dockyard to repair: but the ship was wanted, and so ship’s staff, in conditions of extreme heat and discomfort, did the job in six days, and Implacable was able to take her place with the US Third Fleet. In 1945 he re-qualified in air engineering, and spent the rest of his career in that field. He became one of the first engineer officers to take command of a naval establishment, in 1959.


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Williams, James Elliot (1930–99) US: Chief Boatswain’s Mate. He is believed to be the USN’s most highly decorated enlisted person. His decorations included the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor, as well as the Navy Cross, Silver Star medal, two Navy-Marine Corps Medals, Legion of Merit with Combat V, two Bronze Star medals with Combat V, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V, two Purple Heart medals and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm. On 31 October 1966 during the Vietnam War, he was a First-Class Boatswain’s Mate, boat captain of a heavily armed PBR riverine patrol boat and patrol leader. The twoboat patrol he was leading intercepted a North Vietnamese battalion attempting to cross the Mekong River. Although outnumbered and under constant and heavy fire from enemy boats and the shore, his boats were credited with damaging or destroying more than sixty enemy craft and inflicting exceptionally heavy casualties on the enemy during a three-hour battle. For his heroism during that action, during which he was wounded, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Although it was customary for Medal of Honor recipients to be taken out of combat, he chose to remain with his unit in the Mekong Delta. Williams was representative of the lesser known US riverine forces that suffered 33 per cent casualties in combat during the Vietnam War. He enlisted in the Navy with forged parental permission in 1947 at the age of sixteen. During the Korean War he served as a Boat Coxswain in the destroyer USS Douglas H.Fox, inserting both US and South Korean raiders behind enemy lines. The guided missile-destroyer USS James E.Williams was named in his honour.

Wilson, Arthur (1842–1921) British: Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Arthur Wilson, Bt, VC, GCB, OM, GCVO. CHURCHILL said ‘He was the most selfless man I have ever met or read of…everything was duty’. He was 1SL in succession to John FISHER, 1910–11, but disagreed with Churchill over the creation of a naval staff, and was retired three months early. Nonetheless, Churchill recalled him in 1914 to act as a special advisor. He joined the Navy in 1855; 1861, Lieutenant; 1873, Commander; 1880, Captain; 1895, Rear-Admiral; 1901, Vice-Admiral; 1905, Admiral; 1907, Admiral of the Fleet. He served briefly in the Black Sea at the end of the Crimean War, and then in China where, as a Midshipman, he commanded a gun in the naval brigade at Canton and the Taku Forts. He qualified in gunnery at HMS Excellent in 1865, where he became friendly with Fisher, with whom he served, or followed, on several occasions. In 1876 he became chief instructor in the Vernon, the newly independent torpedo school (Wilson had been one of the special committee to evaluate the WHITEHEAD torpedo in 1870). He commanded the experimental torpedo boat depot ship Hecla, 1880–85, and after the bombardment of Alexandria he improvised an armoured train. In 1884 he landed with the


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naval brigade in the Sudan, and fought at the battle of El Teb, where he earned the VC, breaking his sword in the fight. Wilson was Assistant Director of Torpedoes in the Admiralty, 1887–90, and captain of the Vernon, 1890–92. His first flag appointment was as Controller and 3rd Naval Lord. Wilson was a centralizer and a poor delegator, not good at communicating with the rest of the Admiralty Board, and he was justly criticized when matters went wrong. But he showed himself to be a brilliant fleet commander in his next appointment, commanding the Channel Squadron. This became the Home Fleet, and Wilson remained in command until 1907. He then retired, but was recalled to become 1SL when Fisher was retired in 1910. Wilson was selected because he was untainted by the Fisher-BERESFORD dispute, but the faults he had shown as Controller remained, and were magnified. He refused to countenance the creation of a naval staff, and kept any war plans that there may have been locked in his own brain. Finally, the Prime Minister forced the issue—the Navy must have a staff on the lines of the Army—and Wilson had to go. At the outbreak of WW1 he became a special advisor, but when Fisher returned he insisted that Wilson had no place (Fisher took advice from no-one). When Fisher decamped in May 1915, Churchill suggested that Wilson be recalled as 1SL, but JELLICOE made it clear that the fleet would not accept him, so Wilson remained as special advisor till the war ended.

Wilson, Herbert (1866–1940) British: author and advocate of sea-power. At the start of the twenty-first century he is not much remembered, but his book Ironclads in Action (1896) (foreword by MAHAN) was a powerful instrument in persuading the British of the need to maintain a powerful navy if they wanted to keep their empire. In 1908–09 he was a prominent instigator of the ‘We want eight [dreadnoughts] and we won’t wait’ campaign which pressured the Liberal government into stepping up the building rate of battleships. He was also a major contributor to CLOWES’S The Royal Navy, which remains the best history of the RN up to 1900. In the 1930s he went on to warn his countrymen of the dangers of air power.

Wilson, Woodrow T. (1856–1924) US: twenty-eighth President (1913–21). He led the United States through the radical naval changes brought about by WW1. Wilson appointed a fellow pacifist, Josephus DANIELS, as the Secretary of the Navy, and Daniels appointed thirty-one year-old Franklin ROOSEVELT as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The unlikely Daniels-Roosevelt combination managed the Navy through


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such major new challenges as unrestricted submarine warfare and the massive transatlantic logistical supply requirements of the US-British war effort. The successful US naval efforts of WW1 included construction of a fleet of antisubmarine destroyers primarily under overall Royal Navy command, the use of convoys to protect merchant ships from submarine attacks in the Atlantic, and assembly of a merchant fleet to sustain the US-British war effort. Among the other significant achievements of Wilson’s presidency was the improvement of naval training for a force that expanded from 269,000 to more than 500,000 during the war. One of the glaring naval deficiencies of his presidency was the failure to provide the funding required for rapid development of naval aviation. As a result the United States ended WW1 roughly five years behind Great Britain in the development of aircraft carriers. Prior to WW1, Wilson actively supported the enlargement of the Navy as an instrument of peace. Following the war, his primary concentration was on gaining acceptance for the League of Nations, which he was not able to achieve in the US Congress. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

Winter, Jan (1750–1812) (sometimes written De Winter) Dutch: Vice-Admiraal. He was an officer in the Dutch service who commanded the fleet which was defeated at Camperdown by DUNCAN. He went on to serve Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire, and was rewarded by being made an Imperial Count. After serving in the Dutch artillery in Guyana, he joined the navy in 1778; 1780, Luitenant ter Zee; in 1787 he took refuge in France and became a brigadier-general in the French army. In 1795 he returned to the Netherlands, and became vice-Admiraal commanding the fleet of the Batavian republic. In 1797, in circumstances which are not precisely clear, he took the fleet to sea, either to seek a fight with the British, or more likely to make for Brest to back up the French invasion of Ireland. But Duncan was ready for him, and the fleets met off the Texel. A hard-fought engagement followed, with Winter’s own flagship, Vrijheid, 74, being engaged by Duncan’s, the Venerable, 74. Winter was obliged to strike his flag, and became a PoW until exchanged in 1799. On return to the Netherlands he resumed his senior positions, and became a supporter of Louis Bonaparte when the latter was placed on the Dutch throne by his brother. In 1810 he became vice-amiral in the Imperial navy.

de With, Cornelis (1599–1658) Dutch: Admiraal. De With was a hot-tempered man, whose temperament suited the scrappy melées which were the form of most sea-fights in the First Dutch War (1652–54). He


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managed to quarrel with virtually everyone with whom he came in contact, but his courage and perseverance were undoubted. He went to sea in 1616, becoming a Lieutenant in 1620: HEIN chose him as his Flag Captain in 1628, but de With managed to alienate most other captains, and was not further employed. When Marten TROMP became Admiral in 1637, de With was made Vice-Admiral, and by his aggressive actions played the major part in bringing the Spanish fleet to action at the Downs (1639). At the battle of the Kentish Knock (October 1652), BLAKE took de With (who had been made admiral) by surprise, and although he fought with his usual tenacity, the Dutch fleet retired. In August 1653 at the battle of Scheveningen, in which Tromp lost his life, de With made every effort to support his old rival, but on this occasion the English fleet was markedly superior, and the result was a bad defeat for the Dutch. In 1658 the Dutch went to aid the Danes, who were at war with Sweden, and de With was made Vice-Admiral again. As usual, he went ‘bald-headed’ for the Swedish Admiral, and was assailed on all sides. His ship the Brederode (which had been Tromp’s flagship) grounded, and he was captured, and died of wounds on board a Swedish ship.

Woodward, John (1931–) British: Admiral Sir John ‘Sandy’ Woodward, GBE, KCB. He was the battle-group commander whose forces supported and made possible the retaking of the Falkland Islands after the Argentinian invasion in 1982. He entered the RNC in 1946; 1954, Lieutenant; 1967, Commander; 1972, Captain; 1981, Rear-Admiral; 1984, Vice-Admiral; 1987, Admiral. He qualified as a submariner (a ‘pressed man’—he did not volunteer) in 1953. He commanded the submarines Tireless and Grampus before taking charge of the submarine COs’ qualifying course, responsible for teaching and examining all potential COs in the art and skill of attacking an enemy. He went on to command the SSN, HMS Warspite. After promotion he was appointed to the Directorate of Plans in MoD, then as Captain, Submarine Sea Training, 1974–75; next, to command HMS Sheffield, 1975–77. He went back as the Director of Plans in 1978, one of the most influential positions for a captain in the RN. On promotion to flag rank, he commanded one third of the surface fleet. In April 1982 his flotilla was at Gibraltar when Argentina invaded the Falklands, and Woodward, as the nearest flag officer, took command of the battle group which escorted the amphibious force to re-take the islands. Although the overall command of the whole task force rested with Admiral FIELDHOUSE, Woodward dealt with the day-by-day fighting dispositions of the three forces (battle group, amphibious group and support group). There-after, he completed his career as C-in-C Fleet, 1987–89, and C-in-C Naval Home Command, 1989–91.


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Wouk, Herman (1915–) US: novelist. He wrote The Caine Mutiny, Winds of War and War and Remembrance, all of which dealt with WW2. He served in the USN during WW2 in the Pacific in the destroyer-minesweepers USS Zane and USS Southard, in which he was Executive Officer. In 1952 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Caine Mutiny, a story set in the same type of ship in which he served. The book was made into a theatre production The Caine Mutiny Court Martial in 1953 and a film in 1954. The Winds of War appeared in 1971 and was set in the years leading to WW2; War and Remembrance appeared in 1978, and its story involves the war itself. The former work was adapted as a network television series in 1983 and the latter in 1986. Wouk’s works reached millions of people, illuminating the moral dilemmas involved with war, as well as the sacrifices of the ordinary people who answer the call to defend their country in war. Of his Navy experience, he wrote: ‘I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans’. During his career he wrote more than a dozen major books and a number of film and stage scripts. He is a 1934 graduate of Columbia University.

Wright, Jerauld (1898–1995) US: Admiral. He was C-in-C Atlantic Fleet and Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic during the height of the Cold War. After graduating from the USNA in 1917 he served in surface ships. He was naval aide to two US presidents, and preWW2 assignments included senior staff and afloat assignments. In June 1942 he advanced to Captain and was assigned to the Allied staff of General EISENHOWER for the November 1942 North African amphibious assault. Anticipating that invasion he was ‘co-commander’ of a British submarine that smuggled US General Mark Clark into North Africa for negotiations with the French forces there. During 1943 Wright served on the staff of the Allied Mediterranean commander, Admiral CUNNINGHAM. In December 1943 he took command of the cruiser USS Santa Fe and fought in engagements in the Marshall Islands, New Guinea, the Marianas, Palau, and Leyte Gulf. In October 1944 he advanced to Rear Admiral and became Commander, Amphibious Group Five for the invasion of Okinawa. As Commander, Cruiser Division Six, he oversaw the details of the Japanese surrender ending WW2 in 1945. After duty with the CNO he commanded the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, 1948–50, and in September 1950 he advanced to Vice Admiral and became a senior US naval representative to NATO. Subsequently he was C-in-C US Forces Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. After promotion to Admiral in 1954, and serving as C-in-C Atlantic Fleet and Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic for an unprecedented six-year term, he retired from active duty in 1960. Following retirement he was Ambassador to Taiwan and served with the Central Intelligence Agency.


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Y Yamaguchi, Tamon (1892–1942) Japanese: Sho-sho (Rear-Admiral). He is usually thought to have been Japan’s most able carrier admiral in WW2, and a likely successor to YAMAMOTO. He entered the navy in 1912; 1918, Tai-I; 1928, Chu-sa; 1932, Tai-sa; 1938, Sho-sho. He spent two years in the USA, 1921–23, and later returned as naval attaché, 1934–36. He was a member of the Japanese delegation to the London conference in 1930. As Captain, he commanded the old cruiser Isuzu and the battleship Ise. In 1940 he took command of an air corps in China, and later that year took command of the 2nd Carrier Division, under NAGUMO. Yamaguchi thus had little air experience, but had a broad background, although the amount of sea-time he had completed, compared to, say, an RN rear-admiral, was comparatively small. His squadron took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and six months later, at the battle of Midway, aircraft from his flagship, the Hiryu, badly damaged the American carrier USS Yorktown, but she in turn was damaged by American dive-bombers, and was abandoned twenty-four hours later, and sank. Yamaguchi chose to go down with his ship. He was posthumously promoted to Chu-sho (Vice-Admiral).

Yamamoto, Isoroku (1884–1943) Japanese: Tai-sho (Admiral), posthumously promoted to Admiral of the Fleet. He became a convinced protagonist of naval air power in the 1920s, and as C-in-C of the Japanese Combined Fleet he was the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. His family name at birth was Takano, but he was adopted into the Yamamoto family in 1914. He passed out of the naval academy in 1904, and as a Chu-I (Sub-Lieutenant) served in the cruiser Nisshin at the battle of Tsushima in 1905, being badly wounded in the leg and hand. He was commended by TOGO, which was of help in his career; 1923, Tai-sa; 1929, Sho-sho; 1934, Chu-sho; 1940, Tai-sho. He was a student and admirer of Western culture and technology. In 1910 he was appointed to the Naval College, then as Gunnery Officer of the battleship Niitaka. He spent two years, 1919–21, in America.


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After the Washington Treaty (1922), the Japanese navy was divided into the ‘fleet’ faction and the ‘treaty’ faction. Togo was of the former, Yamamoto the latter. The ‘fleet’ faction stood for expansion, and a powerful fleet, aimed at achieving Japanese dominance in the Far East. The ‘treaty’ faction thought that war with America was unthinkable, and so accepted the status quo represented by the Washington Treaty, which allowed Japan three battleships for every five US or British. In 1924 Yamamoto was appointed Executive Officer of Kasumigaura air base, where he learned to fly, and became convinced of the potential of naval aviation. In 1925, now a Captain, he was appointed as attaché in Washington, where he studied American thought processes by playing bridge. In 1928 he was given command of the aircraft carrier Akagi, and in 1930 attended the London naval conference. In 1930 Yamamoto became Director of the navy’s Aeronautics Department, building up the naval air arm. In 1933 he returned to sea as commander of the First Air Division. Much of the late 1930s was taken up with turbulent Japanese politics. The fleet faction was in the ascendant, but Yamamoto was the carrier expert whom they couldn’t ignore, and he was made Chief of Naval Air Forces in 1935. In February 1936 there was a military revolt, halted only by the personal intervention of the emperor. The moderates formed a government and Yamamoto became deputy Navy Minister. In 1939 he became commander of the Combined Fleet, and said ‘I can run wild for six months, but after that…’. He had seen the USA’s industrial muscle, and realized that Japan’s only hope was a preemptive strike to so weaken the US that they could be persuaded to the negotiating table. Japan’s government was armyled, and saw power in terms of land conquered, but Yamamoto realized that the US Pacific Fleet would be the decider, and could only be struck by air, which meant aircraft carriers. His plans had to be forced through against army resistance, and from other admirals, and he threatened resignation to get his way. After success at Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto knew that the task was uncompleted, because the carriers were untouched, so he attacked Midway, to lure the US carriers out (see FLETCHER). But the US was forewarned, and NAGUMO, in tactical command, failed to carry out effective reconnaissance. The result was a disaster, with the Japanese losing four fleet carriers. After that, the end was inevitable as the US out-built the Japanese in carriers and battleships and US submarines gradually strangled Japan. Yamamoto was killed making a risky frontline flight, details of which were intercepted by the Americans, who ambushed his aircraft over Bougainville in April 1943.

Yarnell, Harry E. (1875–1959) US: Admiral. He warned US naval leaders of the probability of a Japanese air attack against the US military at Pearl Harbor. The battleship-oriented naval leadership of his time, however, refused to heed his warnings.


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Yarnell graduated from the USNA in 1897. During his early career he saw combat in the battleship USS Oregon in the Spanish-American War, fought in the Philippine Insurrections and the Boxer Rebellion, and served in a variety of ships. After serving in the battleship USS Connecticut in the ‘Great White Fleet’ that circumnavigated the globe, 1907–09, he attended the US Naval War College, 1914–15, and subsequently commanded the patrol craft USS Nashville and the US forces based at Gibraltar. He was aide to the US European naval commander during WW1. At the end of that war, he served in the office of the CNO. Between 1920 and 1921 he commanded two Atlantic Fleet destroyer squadrons and was CoS to Commander, Atlantic Destroyer Squadrons. In February 1922 be began flying instruction, and from 1924 to 1926 he commanded Aircraft Squadrons US Battle Fleet, and subsequently lectured on naval aviation at the US Naval War College. Between 1927 and 1928 he commanded the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. In 1928 he advanced to Rear Admiral and became Chief of the Bureau of Engineering with additional duty as advisor at the London naval conference in 1930. During fleet exercises in 1932 he demonstrated the vulnerability of Pearl Harbor to attack by carrierbased aircraft. In 1936 he became C-in-C Asiatic Fleet as a full Admiral, skipping the rank of Vice Admiral. During that assignment he warned of a probable attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He reverted to Rear Admiral and retired from active duty in November 1939. In 1941 he was recalled to active duty for senior staff assignments in Washington, and was advanced to the rank of Admiral by congressional legislation in 1942. He retired for a second time in December 1944, with the rank of Admiral.

Yarrow, Alfred (1842–1932) British: marine engineer and shipbuilder, Sir Alfred Yarrow, Bt. Yarrow’s three-drum watertube boiler or its development was the standard power source for British warships (and for other nations) from 1910 to 1945. And Yarrow’s shipyard at Scotstoun on the Clyde was a major shipbuilder for the RN and many other navies, particularly of destroyers. It remains a specialist naval shipbuilder today. He opened his first shipyard on the Thames, in partnership, in 1866, building his first torpedo boat in 1876, for Argentina. Thereafter his firm specialized in building smaller naval craft, destroyers in particular. Rising costs, particularly of labour, led to the transfer of the shipbuilding business to the Clyde in 1907. Under Yarrow’s leadership, new materials were developed leading to greater strength for lower weight, and the firm also specialized in prefabrication, so that craft could be built in Scotland, knocked down, and transported overseas for re-assembly. At the outbreak of WW1 he came out of retirement to work with Lord FISHER in carrying out the increased building programme of the war years. He was rewarded with a baronetcy in 1916.


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York, James, Duke of (1633–1701) British: Lord High Admiral. James was the brother of King Charles II, and as Lord High Admiral took an active part in the administration of the king’s navy, showing himself to be a competent administrator, and a brave fighting admiral. He was made Lord High Admiral by his brother before the fleet arrived to carry the royal party back to England and the restoration of the monarchy (1660). PEPYS, whose patron James later became, spoke well of his abilities, and his attention to his duties. But he was unable to rectify any of the abuses then rife in the navy and the dockyards, the more so because money was very short. At the start of the Dutch War in 1665, James took personal command of the fleet, and sailed to blockade the Dutch. After a month the English were driven off by bad weather, and the Dutch sortied under Obdam. The battle of Lowestoft which resulted was an English victory (see Cornelis TROMP), but might have been greater had it been pressed home. However, at the instance of Sir William Coventry, the Secretary of the Admiralty, James was not permitted to take command at sea again in this war. But he did take command again in the Third Dutch War, winning the battle of Southwold against DE RUYTER’S fleet. His position as Charles’s heir and Lord High Admiral was compromised by his espousal of the Roman Catholic religion, and he was forced from office in 1679. On his accession to the throne in 1685, he was unable to take the interest in naval affairs that he had, but Pepys regarded himself very much as James’s man, and kept the king informed of naval events. In the end, it was the effective defection of the fleet (see LEGGE) which sealed James’s fate when William of Orange came to claim the English throne on behalf of his wife. Exiled in France, James did not give up hope of reclaiming his throne, and the French victory at Beachy Head (see TOURVILLE and HERBERT) gave him hope. But he is said to have watched the battle of Barfleur from the shore (see RUSSELL) and realized that the French defeat marked the end of any such hope.

Young, Edward (1913–2003) British: Temporary Commander, DSO, DSC*, RNVR. He was the first ‘amateur’ sailor of the RNVR to achieve command of a submarine, and, as can be seen from his awards, was a successful one. It had been a tenet of the pre-war Navy that one could only become an adequate submarine CO after years of experience, but Young (and others) showed that this was not so. It also showed that the RN was a superb training machine. Before WW2 he had been in publishing, working for Penguin Books, the British pioneer of paperback publishing—he designed the Penguin logo. Being a keen yachtsman, he joined the RNVR, and volunteered for submarines because they received extra training in celestial navigation, which would be of value to him in his future sailing.


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He became a Lieutenant in 1941, and was serving in HMS Umpire, when she was rammed and sunk by her escorting trawler. Young was one of twelve, out of thirty, who escaped, and the nightmares the incident provoked lasted until he was able to write it out in his book One of Our Submarines. He served as First Lieutenant in HMS/M Saracen, earning a DSC, and in 1943 completed the submarine COs’ course. After a brief command of an exUSN submarine, supplied under lend-lease and used for training, he took command of the newly built Storm, and took her to the Far East after one short patrol off Norway. Operating as part of the 8th S/M Flotilla from Colombo and Trincomalee and later Fremantle, he carried out nine war patrols, making three torpedo sinkings and seven gun sinkings, as well as a number of small coasting schooners carrying valuable nickel ore, and three clandestine operations. For all these he received the DSO and a bar to his DSC. Storm’s last patrol (38 days) was the longest ever carried out by an ‘S’ class S/M—they were small boats, originally intended for European waters. He was promoted to Commander two weeks before the end of the war and briefly appointed as Commander S/M of the 7th S/M Squadron. After the war he returned to a successful career in publishing.


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Z Zédé, Gustave (1825–91) French: naval engineer and ship constructor. He was DUPUY DE LÔME’S assistant, and designed the first practical submersible, the Gymnote, completed in 1888. The son of a naval engineer, and brother of a naval officer who rose to be vice-amiral, he entered the Polytechnic in 1843, but in 1845 opted to become a marine engineer. After qualifying in 1847 he served in the first French screw frigate, the Isly, to study her performance, and then in 1852, as a protégé of Dupuy de Lome, went to the new steam line-of-battleship Montebello. He was also involved in merchant ship construction, visiting England in connection with the purchase of steam vessels for the Eastern Mediterranean trade, and to inspect woodworking machinery in the dockyards. Later he returned to England to buy a specialized ship for deep-sea cable laying. In 1864 he was appointed chief of naval construction as the principal assistant to Dupuy de Lome. During the siege of Paris (1870–71) he built one of the first dirigible balloons which he fitted with an electric motor (later using it in his submarine). He became interested in torpedoes, and visited WHITEHEAD at Fiume. Later he was badly injured by an explosion while experimenting with a gunpowder engine for torpedoes. In 1889 he was appointed senior constructor at Cherbourg, but left shortly to take a post in private industry. There he was able to follow up Dupuy de Lome’s ideas for a submersible, which was built at Toulon, and developed by Daveluy and DARRIEUS. Although not an effective weapon itself, it worked, and formed the prototype of more successful boats, developed by Laubeuf.

Zumwalt, Elmo, Jr (1920–2000) US: Admiral. He led important naval personnel reforms during the social unrest of the 1970s. He was the youngest US naval officer to achieve the rank of Rear Admiral and the youngest to be appointed CNO. He graduated from the USNA in 1942, and initial assignments during WW2 included participation in operations at Guadalcanal, the Aleutian Islands, Saipan, Tinian, Palau, Leyte, Surigao Strait, Mindoro, Lingayan Gulf, Mindanao, and Borneo. Following WW2


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he was a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps instructor and commander of the destroyer escort USS Tills. He was Navigator in the battleship USS Wisconsin, 1951–52, during the Korean War. Later assignments included study at the US Naval War College, tours at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, command of the destroyer USS Arnold J.Isbell, command of the guided-missile frigate USS Dewey, and study at the National War College, 1961–62. In July 1961 he advanced to Captain and in June 1962 began assignments on the staffs of the Assistant Secretary of Defense and later Secretary of the Navy NITZE. In July 1965, at the age of forty-four, he advanced to Rear Admiral and took command of Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla Seven. In 1967 he assumed direction of the Navy’s Systems Analysis Division. He served as Commander, US Naval Forces Vietnam and Chief, Naval Advisory Group Vietnam from 1968–70, advancing to Vice Admiral shortly after that dual assignment began. During his Vietnam assignment he led an innovative and effective riverine force operating primarily in the Mekong Delta. He was selected in 1970, aged forty-nine, as the Navy’s youngest CNO and advanced to Admiral. During his tenure as the Navy’s head he enacted many changes in personnel practices, many of which were controversial. He retired from active duty in July 1974. His book On Watch was published in 1976 and the book he co-authored with his son, My Father, My Son, appeared in 1986.


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