Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-19

ventiveness and ingenuity to &c
abroad was not needed. Only within
the past twelve months has his advice
to organization, submarine bases
and methods of operation been carried
into effect.
Now we have a submarine training
ship and floating base. the Columbia
ice in Capt. A. w. Grant. Less than a
month ago the Navy Department au-
thorized submarine station at New
London, where the builders of sub
marines maintain their own station.
Long forgotten in the department
archives these recommendations made
by Lowe have lain. But the force of
have wrought the changes he urged.
How did he know, SO early, all of
which he wrote?
Because he was trained fighting man,
experienced and intensively educated in
his profession.
Born in Liverpool December II, 1898,
John Lowe, the son of John Lowe. who
also was the son of John Lowe-both Of
the two latter being wardens of famous
old st. Pauls parish in that maritime
city-spent his childhood as a Blue Coat
boy, charge Of the Blue Coat Hospital.
His father died in the boys infancy, and
the widow, being without funds, placed
young John there. Later. her fortunes
improving, she migrated with her small
family to Columbus, Ohio There young
John secured a common school education,
and was learning steam engineering when
the war broke out.
The record shows that he was the
fifteenth man in Ohio to enlist in the
Union army. The I'd Ohio Infantry was
his regiment. and it went at once to
Washington, with the result that 1t par
ticipated in the first battle of Bull Run,
While he was recovering his home
friend, Representative Samuel Sunset
Cox, procured for him a warrant as a
third assistant engineer in the navy.
Throughout the war he served as an en-
many engagements and on many perilous
enterprises, for he had a fondness for
volunteering for hazardous duty.
Following the war he went to the
Asiatic station, where he participated
with brilliancy in the Korean expedi-
ton. a brisk and perilous undertaking
now almost forgotten in naval annals.
When, in 1884. the Greedy relief expe-
dition was forming he got himself de-
tailed as chief engineer of the Bear.
and it was he, in command OF de-
tachment from the Bear, that found the
Long, and was directed to the nearby
camp in which the few sick and worn
explorers were facing death. without
exception. most efficient and capable
are the words that Commander Cater
Rear AdmiraD Winfield Scott Schley,
commander of the expedition, used IN
his final report commenting on the
services of Lowe.
The Spanish-American war found him
a bit advanced in years, but with his
youthful spirit surviving and his enter
prise not the least dulled by the years
that had passed. He did valiant serV-
ice in that war.
And then, with the lessons of the war
fresh in his mind. and with keen pro-
fessional instinct. he threw himself
into the study of the submarine and
spared neither himself nor his vocabu-
larry in trying to impress the subma-
rine needs of the navy upon the re-
sponsible powers of the government.
By operation of law and calendar he
was retired on his sixty-second birth
day, December II. 1910. but in 1901. so
the record runs. he participated volun-
tarily in a decisive experiment in a
submarine boat in Peconic bay, where
he and six others lay beneath the sur
face for fifteen hours.
1t is not John loves fault that the
United States is not better equipped for