From midshipman to rear-admiral

Front matter

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Photo. I. M Stcinberj;.

Contents

I

II III

IV

Chapter I Boyhood

I WAS born in Lyons, New York, on June 13, 1854. My father was tlie Rev. William Allen Fiske of the Episcopal Church. He was a very handsome man, a fact which the ladies of his congregations never permitted him to forget. He was vain of his handsomeness, but I think that was the only fault his magnanimous soul possessed. The main object of his life was to do something for some one else, especially for some one who was poor or sick. He was much interested in my progress through the navy ; but his interest was not so much in my promotion or in my getting assignments to pleasant stations, as in my conduct and in the way in which I was regarded by my brother-officers.

My mother was the daughter of Colonel John Bradley, who had resigned from the army when he was a captain, and who became later a colonel on the staff of the Governor of New York. She was a woman of great force of character, and she always had extraordinary influence over me. From the time when I began to go to school until she died the mainspring of all my ambitions was to please her. As a boy I took the greatest pleasure in her companionship, and we always read books together. During all the periods when I was separated from her I wrote to her every Sunday. At the end of May 1, 1898, after the Battle of Manila, I remembered, just as I was going to turn in, that it was Sunday, and I had not written to her, So I sat down at once and wrote to her.

The first thing I remember clearly is being in a train that was going somewhere. I seem to have been going somewhere during a great part of my life ever since. On the first occasion that I remember I was going with my father and mother and little sister from Lyons to Cleveland, Ohio. My father had been called to the rectorship of Grace Church, Cleveland.

We lived in Cleveland from January, 1860, to January, 1866, and I have always remembered Cleveland with the greatest pleasure. It was called the Forest City, and the people declared it the most beautiful city in the United States. This was before the prosperity of Cleveland set in, and covered the city with smoke and dirt. Euclid Avenue was especially beautiful. One side of the avenue was lined with magnificent residences, and the other with residences of the plainer kind. One side was called the ''nabob side," and the other side was called the ''bob side." We lived on the bob side.

During the first year that we were in Cleveland I went to a private school, which was a sort of a military school, in which the boys were organized into a company, wore a uniform, and were called the Anderson Cadets. I was the smallest boy in the company, and carried a wooden gun. The other boys carried real guns. The head of the school, Mr. Stevenson, was an Englishman, and so he tried to teach us foot-ball. I took part in one game. As I recollect it, my participation in the game lasted about a minute. I do not remember anything after this, until I was picked up from the ground and led off the field, crying. The ball had struck me in the face, and knocked me down so hard that my head struck the ground before any other part of me did.

Mr. Stevenson's wife was a German, and was his assistant in his school. She was an excellent teacher so far as thoroughness and knowledge were concerned ; and though her methods were far from gentle, and all the boys were afraid of her, we had a good deal of respect for her. One evening when she and Mr. Stevenson were

BOYHOOD 5

calling on the minister and his wife, and we were sitting in my father's study, I tried to open a drawer in his desk by means of my little finger inserted in the keyhole, but gave up the attempt. Seeing this, Mrs. Stevenson exclaimed :

''Why did you pull out your finger without doing what you started to do?"

"It hurt," I said.

''What if it did hurt?" she exclaimed. ^'You 'II never amount to a^ny thing if you are afraid to do things that hurt." I think she was right.

My mother's brother was a midshipman at the Naval Academy at Annapolis when we went to Cleveland. Shortly afterward he visited us, and I was so carried away with the splendor of his uniform and the stories he told me about his naval life that I determined to be a naval officer and to prepare myself for the Naval Academy. This was a fortunate thing for my parents, because it made it easy for them to get me to do anything, or not to do anything, as they might wish. If I did not learn my lessons well, they would say I would never get into the Naval Academy; if I showed a tendency to be babyish or lazy, they would say I would never make a good naval officer, etc.

Not very long after my uncle 's visit I remember being in a carriage with my mother and another lady, and that they both began to cry after some man had looked into the carriage-window and told them something. I did not understand what it was at the time, but I found out later that what he told them was that Fort Sumter had been fired on. They knew, of course, that this meant war between the North and the South. About a year after this I remember a telegram being handed to my mother from her father, which read, "Our brave John fell while nobly performing his duty. ' ' He was killed on board the U. S. Ship Richmond while passing the forts below New Orleans. He was aid to Captain Alden, and was standing on the bridge with his hand to his cap in military salute, when he was struck with a bullet in the forehead. My mother was never quite the same afterward.

My father was called to the rectorship of St. Paul's Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, in the latter part of 1865, and we went there in the early part of 1866. Cincinnati in those days was very much larger than Cleveland, but it was not nearly so pleasant a place for a boy to live in. It was too large for boys' games, because there were so many people in the streets ; playing ball and shinny was very difficult, and so was snowballing in the winter time.

The last three years of my life in Cincinnati I spent at Hughes High School; I believe that during the last year Mr. Taft was at Woodward High School. These two high schools were great rivals, each one considering itself better than the other.

I remember one day at dinner that my father said that a friend of his had made an invention. In reply to a question of mine, he explained what an invention was. It seemed to me a very splendid thing, and so after dinner I sat by the window in the parlor and tried to invent something. But after trying for about half an hour, I gave up the attempt, because I came to the conclusion that everything had been invented already.

Sometime after this, while I was supposed to be listening to one of my father's sermons, but was really thinking about Robinson Crusoe's difficulties in getting fresh water, an idea occurred to me with startling force, that if he had boiled some salt water and let the steam rise up under an inverted tin cone, which had a gutter turned up on the inside, around the bottom, the steam would have condensed on the tin and run down as water into the gutter, and Robinson Crusoe could have drawn it off later. I could not get rid of the idea for a long while ; I made pictures of it, and talked to people about it, but it finally faded out of my mind. Of course my idea was in substance the same as that of all modern methods of evaporating salt water. One thing that drove it out of my mind was another idea, which was for improving

BOYHOOD 7

sleeve-buttons. The sleeve-buttons I wore were so made that to put them into my cuffs, or take them out, was difficult; and I got up a sleeve-button which was in two pieces, one put in at the top of the buttonholes and the other at the bottom, and the two parts then clamped together. The so-called ''separable sleeve-button," which was the same thing, came out about ten years afterward, and had a great vogue during many years.

During all the years in Cleveland and Cincinnati that followed my uncle 's visit I kept the Naval Academy constantly before my eyes. But as the time approached at which, if at all, I could get an appointment, the difficulties of securing an appointment became gradually so clear as to indicate that I probably could not get one. The only two alternatives I considered were the ministry and the law, with a slight inclination toward the law, but a feeling that in the end I would probably go into the ministry. However, through his friend, the Hon. George H. Pendleton, who was a vestryman in his church, my father secured from the Hon. P. W. Strader a promise that, in case he got elected, I should receive the appointment. Strader was declared elected, but the election was disputed. When the time came to make the appointment, the election had not been decided, but Strader gave me the appointment, nevertheless. So I went to Annapolis with my mother, and presented myself for examination.

I had little doubt that I could pass the mental examination, but I did not believe that I could pass the physical, and neither did my mother. I had always been a delicate child, and I had tried to increase my strength by gjmmasium exercises. I overexerted myself at these, and the family doctor, who afterward became the highly distinguished Dr. Barthalow, told my parents that I must stop them, and that I had already injured my heart. The navy doctors examined me carefully, however, and to my intense joy passed me.

Chapter II

I TOOK the oath of allegiance to the United States and entered the Naval Academy as a cadet midshipman in the afternoon of September 24, 1870. That night I slept in my room on the fourth floor of what was called the ''New Building." I had always been a timid boy, especially in the dark, and I remember the feeling of gratification that I had when, after turning out the light in my room, I saw a very pleasant illumination coming in from the hall outside through the glass transom over the door.

One hundred and sixteen boys entered in the class, and these boys ceased to be boys immediately after they entered. It was part of the discipline of the Naval Academy to impress the cadet midshipmen with the idea that they were no longer irresponsible boys, but had become responsible men, and officers of the Government. Each one was called ''Mister," and was encouraged to feel that it devolved upon him to be honorable, straightforward, and courageous. Lying was considered the worse sin, with the possible exception of cowardice. The discipline was exceedingly strict, being identical with that of West Point except in so far as it was modified by requirements that were purely naval ; but it was just ; and, in a measure, kindly.

Each cadet midshipman lived with a room-mate in a comfortable room, which they were required to keep in order, though not to scrub. The two occupants of a room took turns in being superintendent of the room and having the responsibility for its cleanliness. Each man made his own bed, but the superintendent of the room swept out the room.

The members of the class were divided into ''sections," about twelve in a section. During the first month they were arranged alphabetically, but after that they were arranged for each study according to their proficiency in that study the month before. At the end of the first month the standings of all the cadet midshipmen in the various studies were published on the bulletin-board. As no member of the fourth class (usually called the "plebe" class) really believed that he would be able to pass the examinations, but realized that he might, the intense interest with which we flocked to the bulletin-board, to see how we stood may easily be imagined. The first arrangement I looked at was that under grammar. I went up and down the list of the class, but to my horror, I could not find my name. Finally, when I was almost in despair, I found my name actually at the top ! My relief was inexpressible, especially as I saw my name near the top of all the lists that showed the relative standings in the other studies.

Shortly after this, while we were at supper formation (that is, in the formation in which all midshipmen were placed and mustered before supper), there was a little crowding as we turned ''left face" into line. The midshipman on my right stepped on my foot. I said, "Get off my foot," and he said, "You 're a liar." This was an insult of so grave a character that I at once challenged him to fight. The challenge was accepted, and on the following day we selected our seconds and agreed upon a referee; in the evening we had a fight. He was somewhat bigger and heavier than I was; so that after the fight had been going on about twenty minutes, I was delighted when the superintendent of the floor broke into the room and stopped the fight. This fight was the beginning of a long friendship between Dorn and me, which has lasted to the present day. I was his "best man" when he w^as married, and he has given me many proofs during many years of his friendship and affection. In those days hazing of plebes was an institution liberally patronized. The hazing was done by the third class, the class immediately above; but it had the approval of the entire academy and the not very great opposition of the officers, although the latter tried to prevent acts of a cruel or insulting character. As Jim Fiske's name was known by everybody in the United States at that time, I was immediately labeled ''Jim Fiske." The name has stuck to me among my classmates and naval friends ever since. The different members of the class were hazed in different ways. For some reason I got off very easily; all I had to do was to strike an attitude and assume an expression of face supposed to be that of an idiot. "Whenever a third classman met me he would say, ''Jim Fiske, strike your attitude," and I would immediately personify an idiot as best I could. My room-mate was hazed a good deal; for some reason the third classmen liked to haze him. Various indignities of a minor kind were heaped upon him. For instance, every day when he went out of the mess-hall at half past one, after dinner, he was met by a third classman named Upshur, who would say to him:

''Good afternoon, Mr. Craig."

Craig would say:

"Good afternoon, sir."

"How do you feel, Mr. Craig?"

"Pretty well, thank you."

"Why, Mr. Craig, you don't look at all well. You had better go to bed. You go upstairs and undress and go to bed, and I '11 be up there in a few minutes and count your pulse."

So Craig would have to go to bed and get entirely undressed. In a few minutes Upshur would come in and feel his pulse. Then he would say:

"You seem to be a good deal better now, Mr. Craig; you may get up."

The hazing kept up for two or three months, until finally, one Sunday afternoon, something precipitated a fight between the two classes. I do not remember what the circumstance was, but it happened on the plebe-class floor. Hurry-up calls were sent out for reinforcements, and in a few minutes the greater part of both classes were engaged in a rough-and-tumble fight. As the plebes were more than twice the third class in number, and only a year younger in average age, the result was a complete triumph for the plebes. The third class acknowledged this straightforwardly, and agreed to stop the hazing at once. This elevated tremendously our standing — a standing which we had achieved by force of arms. But of course we were still plebes, and had to say ''sir" to all the upper classmen, to show due humility toward them in all ways, and to realize that, despite our valor on the field of battle, we were really a despicable lot.

The semiannual examination resulted in "bilging" more than half the class. The unfortunates had to resign and go home, leaving only about fifty in the class.

We were very busily occupied indeed. We were aroused by the reveille of drum and fife at half past six in the winter months, and at six at other times. From then until ten o'clock at night we did all things in obedience to bugle-calls at stated times. Recitations, study hours, meals, and drills followed one another in precise succession, the only leisure in the day-time being from about five until half past six, between afternoon drill and supper-time. The evenings were spent in study until half past nine. From half past nine until ten the members of each class were free to roam about the corridors of their own floor; but at ten o'clock all lights had to be out, and every man must be in bed. Then the superintendent of the floor would go to each room to see if both occupants were in bed, in which case he would say, "Good night." The occupants of each bed would say, "Good night, sir," and then the superintendent would go out and close the door.

The annual examinations, in the latter part of May, closed the academic year. In my class I was posted number one at first ; but some subsequent calculations, which I have never quite understood, based on the fact that certain other midshipmen failed to pass, made Weggman number one and me number two.

We started on our practice cruise in the early part of June, and came back to Annapolis in the latter part of September. We were on the cruise nearly four months, and it was the most unpleasant four months I have ever experienced. We were embarked in two ships, the old Constellation, famous from the War of 1798, and the Saratoga. The Saratoga was much the smaller of the two, and I was one of the sixty midshipmen in the Saratoga. We slept in hammocks, a thing of which I did not at all approve, for the reason that I would have nightmare about once in three nights. One has to lie on his back for the most part in a hammock, because he cannot lie out straight ; and if one has any tendency toward nightmare, the hammock aggravates it greatly. The nightmares that I suffered while sleeping doubled up on my back in my hammock were sometimes quite distressing. One night I found myself lying on the deck, very much bewildered, and two of my classmates kneeling by me. They said I had held the sheet up in front of my face, and had apparently become very much frightened at it, and then had thrown myself out of my hammock, screaming.

In port we had to get up at five o'clock in the morning and entertain ourselves as best we could on the wet decks, which were being scrubbed down, until eight o'clock, when we had breakfast. We had three meals a day, but the only thing on the bill of fare that I can remember was dried apples. I think we had them for every meal, but I may be wrong about that. I remember very clearly, however, that when we were nearly out of dried apples, we went into some port, and the paymaster went ashore to get more provisions. The midshipmen had to haul on the ropes which hoisted the new provisions on board, and we watched with intense interest the marks on the barrels to see what they contained. All contained dried apples.

The sixty midshipmen had a wash-room away forward on the berth-deck, which had nine stationary wash-basins. There was no ventilation, and I remember sixty more or less seasick midshipmen trying to wash themselves in nine wash-basins, and not making any very determined efforts to keep good humored. The experience was very good, doubtless, but none of us has ever looked back on it with pleasure. At sea we had to stand watches both night and day, and we had nothing to eat after our supper of dried apples at five o'clock until eight o'clock the next morning. During the early part of the cruise, before we got over being seasick, we spent most of our time lying on the spar-deck in attitudes of dejection, varied by trips to the lee side to relieve our stomachic disquietude, and by jeers at our comrades when they were making these trips. We had study hour's and recitations every day. I remember that we were called by the bugle, and that the tune was "Not for Joe." We had to haul on the big ropes that moved the sails and yards, alongside of the colored servants, and the officer of the deck would call out to us continually, ''Haul away, gentlemen."

No vessel like the Saratoga now sails the seas. There are sailing ships, of course, still on the ocean, but they are very different from the Saratoga. The Saratoga was a man-of-war in the same sense that the proudest battleship is now, and her routine was carried on with just as much rigor and precision. The man-of-warsman of that day has also passed away, and so in a less degree has the naval officer of that day. Although the ships carried guns, and although it was realized that the guns were the things which would decide, and always had decided battles, yet the gunnery of that day was so simple, in comparison with the seamanship of that day, that a naval officer's reputation depended almost wholly on his ability in handling ships under sail. The amount of time devoted to gunnery drills was not more than an hour a day on the average, and usually much less, while the whole time at sea had to be devoted to the handling of the ship.

The Saratoga and the Constellation had no steam power ; they depended wholly on their sails for their propulsion. A few of the cruising ships of the navy had steam power; but captains ordinarily used it for going into and out of port only, and did virtually all of their cruising under sail. This condition continued until after 1890, though with a gradually increasing tendency to discard sails. Yet every naval battle of the Civil War, even that between the Kearsarge and the Alabama, had been fought under steam alone ! The reversion of the navy to sail power after the Civil War would seem an amazing thing, did we not realize that a profound conviction settled upon the people of the United States after that war that it would be the last war, and that the only use for the navy was to ''show the flag" in foreign ports.

The two ''practice ships" went back to Annapolis just before the first of October, when the new academic year began. We were all delighted to get ashore, and I have never had such a feeling of enjoying real luxury as when I then stretched myself out in a flat bed in a quiet room.

The next academic year, my third-class year, passed uneventfully for me. The first two months of the year passed rather eventfully for four of my class, because they indulged in hazing to such a degree that they were court-martialed and dismissed. The rest of the year is a blank space in my memory: I cannot remember a single event or incident. At the end of the academic year Weggman again was number one, and I was number two. At the beginning of the year I was elected secretary and treasurer of the class ; a position to which I was reelected in each of the two following years.

My second-class academic year began in October. The second-class year was usually considered the most difficult year, and it was so in our case. At the end of that year Peters was number one, I was number two, and Weggman, who had fallen behind a great deal this year, stood number three.

The events of my second-class year that stand out the most clearly in my memory are my fight with Michelson and the trip of the midshipmen to Washington to take part in the parade on Grant's second inauguration, March 4, 1873.

My fight with Michelson was caused by what I thought to be an affront to my ofiScial dignity. I was a ''double diamond," or sergeant, as was Michelson; but one evening, due to the absence of the cadet petty officer of his company, which was the first company, it devolved upon Michelson to give the order ' ' right dress ' ' after we went left face into line. While we were gradually easing back or moving backward in order to form a straight line, Michelson sang out, ''Dress back, Mr. Fiske."

So I met him after dinner and challenged him to fight, a challenge that he accepted with promptness and apparently with pleasure.

Michelson was a real genius. He was said to study less than any other man in the class and to occupy most of his time in scientific experiments ; but he always stood near the head of the class. Besides, he was a lightweight athlete in a moderate way, and took extra lessons in fencing and boxing. These were arts of which at that time I was ignorant, as we were not taught them until our first-class year. Michelson made some experiments on the velocity of light in 1876 that gave him world-wide fame. He resigned a few years later, and became one of the foremost physical scientists in the world. The fame of Professor A. A. Michelson is bright in the minds of the scientific men of every country, and his name will be known long after the names of many men who are eminent now have passed into oblivion.

The details of the fight were very carefully arranged; in fact the arranging of the details took more time than did the fight itself. That I had not the slightest chance became evident in about one minute; but I hammered away the best I could until the referees saw that I could n 't see out of either eye and declared that the fight was finished. I was put on the sick list by the surgeon for "contusions," and I stayed on the sick list for eight days.

The battalion of midshipmen were called at half-past four on the morning of March 4, 1873, and put into an early train — a very cold train — for Washington. After reaching Washington, we formed and marched through the city to some house. We then broke ranks and went into the house to get warm. I was color-sergeant of the battalion, and I remember that I had a very hard time struggling along against the cold wind and the dust that it raised. While we were in this house a rumor was brought in that the West Point Cadets were not going to wear their overcoats. As it would be very disgraceful for us to wear ours in those circumstances, we decided instantly that we would not wear them. The rumor had just as much basis as most rumors have; but the news of our not going to wear our overcoats reached the West Pointers promptly, and so they had to discard theirs. The result was that the cadets of both academies passed an extremely miserable day. During the march of our battalion from the railway station I had so much difficulty in carrying the flag against the wind, that two colorcorporals in the rear rank had to push me along. So the officer in charge put Bowyer temporarily in my place, and put me in the rear rank in Bowyer 's place. Bowyer was a large and very strong man, and he carried the flag with little trouble.

I began my last year with the unfortunate idea that both Weggman and Peters were ahead of me for the first three years, and that I might just as well "take it easy." I did take it easy, and I have been sorry for it ever since. I became devoted to dancing, and I took much more interest in the pretty Annapolis girls than I did in my drills and studies. As one of the cadet officers, I sat at a special table near the exit of the mess-hall; but it was strictly against orders to leave it without permission. One afternoon I made an engagement with a young lady to meet her at a quarter-past one next day, and at the appointed time