Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1910-10-03
MILDLY CHEVALlER A HERO
Last Years Graduate OF Naval Academ v
Saves Lives OF Is Sailors

Saves Lives OF Is Sailors
Midshipman Godfrsd Dec. Cheva-
lier, who is attached to duty on the
u. s. s. New Hampshire, now in
/ New York harbor, was taken from the
water Saturday night in an uncon-
scious condition, and is now in the
ships hospital.
( 1t is reported that Midshipman
/ Chevaller personally saved the lives
of fifteen sailors of the New Hamp-
shire when the tender they were on
was swamped in the harbor of New
York Saturday night, and the midship-
man was taken from the water in an
exhausted condition as the result of
his heroic effort.
Midshipman Chevalier is a graduate
of last years class at the Naval Acad-
envy and was a favorite with his
CLASSMATES. Because of an unfor-
tunate circumstance it was thought
about the mid-year he would be
obliged to leave the service. The
trouble, however, was amicably ad-
justed, and with the happy result
that the navy has made no mistake
in retaining Midshipman Chevaler in
the service. His home is in Med
ford, Mass.
! The New Hampshire, with her sis
tiers of the Atlantic fleet, is anchored
in the Hudson off the upper part of
New York city, having arrived at
New York last week after target
practice off Hampton Roads. The
sailors are being given shore liberty
after the trying ordeal of target
practice, and it was while $50 of them
were returning in tender on Satur-
day afternoon to the New Hampshire
that the tender swamped and about
forty are supposed to have
been drowned. In the rescue Mid
shipman Chevaler saved fifteen men.
There was one young fellow, tall
and slim with curly black hair and
the shoulders of an athlete with
whom everybody on the New Hamp-
shire, from captain to water tender,
sympathized yesterday. He was Mid
shipman Godfred DeCarcellu Chevalier
who had been in command of the bat
tleship's steamer No 2, the one or
dered to go to the foot of West 158th
street Saturday night to bring back
the liberty party to the ship
Several hours after the accident
Chevalier's nerves so frayed by the
shock and his own responsibility in it
that his speech was incoherent. All
night he was under the care of a sur
geon and only by the use of sedatives
could he be induced to sleep. He
awoke from his stupor but was obliged
to keep his berth all day yesterday.
Midshipman Chevalier must face
court-martial, such is the rule of the
service and must answer to his own
responsibility in the accident that
cost the lives of the sailors. Yet
with all this weight of official inqui-
sition before him, Midshipman Cheva-
lier is admired by every officer and
man of the second battleship division.
There was not one who did not say
good word or him yesterday whenever
the fatality of the night before was
mentioned.
'The youngster behaved splendid
ly," Rear Admiral Vreeland said to
the reporters. "I'm told that he
alone rescued twenty men,
Give Midshipman Chevaier every
bit of credit that you can," said Cap
tain Rodgers. He behaved as an
officer in the service should; nobody
could have done more than he
The midshipman's mother, who had
come down from her home in Massa-
chusetts to visit her son, was with
him on the New Hampshire all Sat-
urday afternoon. When the officer of
the deck ordered Chevalier to go
ashore after the liberty party he took
his mother in the steamer with him
and bade her farewell while the sail
ing launch was filling with the sail
ors. The midsbpman's mother had
not left him ten minutes when she
saw the eighty odd men under his
charge foundering in the water and
realized that responsibility had sudden
ly dropped upon his head.
The younger men of Rear Admiral
Vreeland's division said yesterday
| that nobody of the class of 1910 at
Annapolis had been more popular than
Chevalier. In his four years at the
Academy he had held a record as a
! good athlete, particularly in the dis
tance runs. Chevalier entered the
Academy from Medford, Mass. The
1910 volume of the Lucky Bag, +"
the Academy annual, cites among
Chevalier's honors in the Academy his
membership in the Buzzards and Four
Battons societies, and says that un-
/ der the nicknames of Chevy, -
Darb" and Casey" he held as high,
records in hop triumphs with the
| girls as on the track.