 Cluverius served at the Naval Academy on court martial duty and as commander of the torpedo boat USS Talbot. He became commander of the gunboat USS Alvarado in June 1901 and then the USS Sandoval in October. He joined the torpedo boat USS Stockton in 1902. The next year he was promoted to lieutenant and was posted to the battleship USS Maine, the namesake of the ship whose sinking he had survived in 1898, as an engineering officer. He was involved with the 1904 sea trials of the cruisers USS Colorado and USS West Virginia before becoming senior engineer of the monitor USS Arkansas. In 1908 he became senior engineer of the newly commissioned USS Mississippi.
