Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-05-15
TAKES BUREAU POSITION.
ADMIRAL BRowNS0N HEAD OF
NAVIGATION.
A Varied Naval Career In The Past
In An Kinds of Service Adventures
Began When Midshipman.
FORMER SUPERINTENDENT OF
NAVAL ACADEMY.


to assume his duties as chief Of the
Bureau of Navigation.
Rear-Admiral I3rownson, says
William T.. Curtis, in the Washington
Star, comes as near being the ideal
OF what a naval officer should be as
any man in the service. lie has
brains, nerve. Judgment, polish, cul-
ture, tact and all the other qualities
of sailor and gentleman. He is
fighter by instinct, and his instincts
are remarkably accurate. His adj
mirers in the service say that he has
never made a professional mistake,
and can be relied upon TO do the
proper thing under any circumstances
in a battle or hurricane, a banquet or
ball.
Brownson comes from Lyons, n.
y, where he was born in 1915. He
graduated at the Naval Academy, and
in '65 was commissioned along with
several other first-class men who have
also distinguished themselves in the
service Goodrich, Dickens, Davis,
Train. Bradford, Thomas, Mead,
stockton, and others. He married
Isabel King Roberts in ~, aud has
three children-two daughters and a
son, who edits newspaper at OK
uard, Cal. Brownson is endowed with
more worldly goods than is custo-
mary for sailor, and has n hand
some residence on the Hudson river
near Yonkers. He has seen all kinds
of service, has been tried in all lines
of duty; he has done scientific work
for the coast survey was in the hy-
geographic Office for four years; was
commandant of cadets at the Naval
Academy for four years and superin-
tendent of that institution from '02
until '06, when he was assigned to the
command of the division of armo red
cruisers, and took them around to the
oher side of the world, where he sue
ceeded the late Admiral Train in COM
mand of the Asiatic fleet.
Brownson'g adventures began early.
When he was a midshipman in the old
Mohegan, on the Pacific station, two
or three years after he graduated. he
had scrap with gang of pirates
that was quite as exciting and sensa-
tional as any chapter in yellow fiction.
The MOhegan was cruising near Nazat-
Ian, Mexico, when the citizens OF laai
port appealed to Captain Lowe, her
commander, for protection against a
freebooter. who was killing innocent
citizens, looting unprotected towns
and committing depredations of the
greatest barbarity all along the coast.
Captain Lowe promised to look after
the pirates and soon located them
somewhere in a cluster of tropical
lagoons almost inaccessible because of
dense tropical vegetation. The pirate
had worked his vessel into a snug
asylum where he considered himself
perfectly safe from all intruders; and
there he proposed to remain in seclu-
sion until the American man-of- war
had left the Mexican coast. But he
made mistake in his calculations.
When Captain Lowe discovered the
snug harbor of the PIRATES he detailed
Midshipman Brownson, with boat S
crew. TO hunt them down. When
Brownson reached their refuge the
pirate schooner was as silent as a
tombstone; nor was there the faintest
sound of the presence of human be-
ings about the place. She looked as
if she had been abandoned, but the
moment the Yankee sailors clambered
over the side of the vessel they were
attacked by volley from the limbs
of the trees and other dense vcgeta-
tion around them. The pirates, find
ing that they were pursued, had
arranged this ambush, and climbed
the trees, where they could command
the deck of their schooner.
Realizing that he could not capture
the culprits under such advantages,
Brownson's resourceful mind instant
ly conceived n plan that was equally
effective and much safer. He ordered
his men below decks to escape the
calling fire that was pouring down
upon them, and in n few moments
started dozen or more fires in the
hold of the vessel. As soon as they
were fairly ablaze he gathered uI
his dead aud wounded, hu rried then
| into his boat and got away from the
scene as rapidly as possible. Before
he was out of hearing the vessel was
a mass of flames and the pirates were
| marooned in the swamp without am
muuition or food OF anything except
the clothes they had ON. All theii
supplies and the booty they hat
brought away from their looting ex
peditions were consumed with tn,
ship, and the local -authorities wer,
able to capture or kill .all of them
/ The people of Mazatian expressed
their gratitude by presenting Brown
son with a silver service which bears
an appropriate inscription. Midship
| man Wainwright and one or tw,
other sailors were killed and severa
wounded.
/ A few months before the war agains
Spain was declared Admiral Brown
| son, then a member of the board of in
| spection and survey, was sent I,
| France, Italy aud Germany to lool
into the shipbuilding situation Their
| and ascertain il there were any.vessel
completed, or half completed, tha
could bs purchased for the use of tn
| United States, or, at least, kept ou
OF the hands of Spain. He did hi
work secretly aud successfully an,
| received the thanks of the Depart
ment. During the war he commands
| the Yankee, converted cruiser, man
ned by the New York Naval Reserves
While superintendent Of the Nava
| Academy Admiral Brownson's polio,
was to reduce the number of rule
aud regulations and to place the ca
diets more and more upon their honor
| He abolished mauy rules and put i
force his theory that the first duty G
Il cadet is to be n gentleman. He ais
endeavored to elevate the standard Q
responsibility among the cadet officer
with gratifying success.