The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-01-17
ADMIRAL DEWEY, HERO OF
MANILA BAY AND RANKING
NAVAL OFFICER, IS DEAD
uccumbs After Brief Illness of Arterio Sceleross and
General Breakdown Due to Old Age-Grade Dies
With President Sorrowful.

vessels and all the land batteries with
| out the loss Of a man on the Ameri-
can side.
Upon his triumphant return to the
United States he was feted by tho ma
ton. His admirers presented him
with a beautiful home in the National
/ capital. Congress gave him an en-
graved sword, and raised him from
the rank Of commodore to rear-ad-
miral and then to the full rank Of
the Admiral of the Navy.
| Admiral Dewey was the third
American to reach that pinnacle of
naval rank, Farragut was the first
| and Porter the second. It was under
| Farragut that Dewey received his
| first baptism in war.
Valuable as the training Of An
| napolis was, it was poor schooling
| beside that Of serving under .Farragut
in time of war;" Admiral Dewey once
said. whenever I have been in a
difficult situation or in the midst of
| such confusion Of details that the
simplet and right thing to do seemed
| hay, have often asked myself,
what would FarragutS do?' In the
lscourse of preparations for Manila
Bay, I often asked myself this ques-
ton. and confess ! was thinking of
him the night we entered the bay and
with the conviction that I was doing
precisely what he would have DONE !"
George Dewey was born in the shad-
ow of Verm ont's state capitol at Mont
pelfer, on the day following Christmas
in 1897. At the age Of II, he reached
| the. crossroads Of his career: one road
led to West Point, the other to An
napolis. Young Dewey favored the
former, but IS. e#
There was no vacancy for West
Point from Vermont" explained the
admiral in reviewing his life. "Other-
wise I might have gone into Manila
bay on an army transport instead Of
on. the Olympia. But it happened that
there was vacancy at Annapolis, so
entered. the navy"
At the. outbreak of the Civil war.
Dewey was % years old. He was COM
missioned lieutenant and guided the
Mississippi as its executive officer in
Farragut's historic dash past New Or
leans and it's forts. He was not so
successful at Port Hudson. Farragut
won through, but Dewey and the Mis-
(%issippi ran aground under the guns of
the forts. The ship was set af1re and
during the transfer of the crew under
fire, the young officer lived five years
in an hour
From the close of the Civil War
until the opening of the Spanish Am
erican, the life of the American ma
val officer was made up of routine
duty at sea and ashore. During this
period, the future admiral cruised; :,
taught class at Annapolis; surveyed
lower California and part of the west
coast OF Mexico; carried supplies to
the survivors OF. the siege OF Paris;
performed the duty at Boston Navy
yard and the naval torpedo station at
Newport; inspected lighthouses and
served as naval secretary on the
Lighthouse board; spent two years
travelling on a sick leave in search
Of health; four years as chief of the
Bureau Of Equipment; and at the age
Of So was serving as president Of the
Board Of Inspection and Survey with
the rank Of Commodore. It was in
this important naval office that he
presided at the trials of all the bat
stleships, except the Oregon, which
were to demolish the Spanish squad
ron at Santiago. I.
Shortly after his return from Man
lila Bay, Admiral Dewey found him
self in the fire of popular criticism
over the "gift house incident" Amer
lean citizens had raised 100000 by
public subscription as testimonial
to the hero of Manila and they pre-
sented him with house in Wash
ington, Dewey who had been
widower since 1872, had just married
Mrs Mildred Mclean Hazen of Wash
ington, and he turned over the gift
house to her, Shortly afterward the
Admiral. and Mrs. Dewey left the gift
house and lived in the wife's former
In 1900, Admiral Dewey was seri-
ously talked of as a candidate for the
Republican nomination as President.
but the ADMIRAL preferred to remain
in the naval ranks rather than to seek
such venture In craftsmanship. His
admirers have since often spoken Of
him as the man who could have been
a President If he had wished.
Early in 1914, Admiral Dewey again
became conspicuous in the current
news by revival of the long standing
controversy with Admiral Won Died.
erichs of the German navy regarding
the conduct Of the German squadron
during the blockade Of Manila Bay, /
16 years before. In his autobiography,
Admiral Dewey criticised Won Died
erichs for failing to observe the neu-
trality laws and told how shot was
fred across the bows Of one of the
German ships to impress it with the
fact that the American navy had es-
tablished blockade and would coun-
tenance no undue activity on the part
of the German ships, suspected at the
time as friendly to Spain.
"A difference Of opinion about in
ternational law had been adjusted
said Dewey, without adding to the
sum Of President McKinley's wor-
RES
Dewey was always a great student
of history; he knew every naval cam
paign that had been waged from the
days OF ancient Greece and Rome. had
analysed them and knew why defeat
or victory had come from certain
movements and this without doubt
was one Of the factors that contrib
uted to his own success in warfare.
One of the finest estimates of Adj
miral Dewey's character is contained
in a tribute rendered to him by his
old-tiE:e shfpn.Ate, Admiral Sampson.
who was fighting the Spaniards in the
Caribbean while Dewey was lying in
Manila Bay, resting on the laurels he
he6 won IL the famous battle o. the |
First of May. Sampson said:
/" The service knows Dewey az an