Reginald R . Belknap Rear Admiral Reginald Rowan Belknap ( 26 June 1871 – 30 March 1959 ) was an officer in the United States Navy . He served in the Spanish - American War , Boxer Rebellion , Philippine - American War , and World War I . He gained distinction in 1909 for his relief work in Italy after the 1908 Messina earthquake and tsunami and for his work in command of the first offensive mining campaign in U . S . Navy history , the laying of the North Sea Mine Barrage in 1918 . He was also a published author , an inventor , a member of many professional and social organizations , and an active member of the Episcopal Church , and he played a role in the selection of Amelia Earhart as the first female pilot to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean . Early life . Belknap was born in Malden , Massachusetts , on 26 June 1871 , the son of U . S . Navy Commander ( later Rear Admiral ) George E . Belknap and the former Frances Georgiana Prescott . Naval career . Early career . Belknap was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland , from the 1st Congressional District of Arkansas by United States Secretary of the Navy William C . Whitney . He entered the academy as a naval cadet on 5 September 1887 and graduated with distinction on 5 June 1891 . His first assignment was to the protected cruiser , the flagship of Rear Admiral John G . Walker , in both the North Atlantic Squadron and the South Atlantic Squadron between 10 June 1891 and 30 April 1893 . He was promoted to ensign on 1 July 1893 . From 31 July 1893 to 4 December 1894 , Belknap served aboard the flagship of the Asiatic Squadron , the protected cruiser . After spending the winter of 1894 – 1895 at Tientsin , China , Belknap was attached to the Asiatic Squadron gunboat and , with the commander of the United States Marine Corps detachment from " Baltimore " , Captain George F . Elliott , was assigned to the American Legation at Peking , China , from 6 December 1894 to 17 May 1895 . From 22 May 1895 to 27 July 1896 he was a watch officer aboard the gunboat , after which he commanded " Yorktown " s Marine detachment at the American Legation at Seoul , Korea , from 12 May to 17 July 1896 . Returning to the United States , Belknap was on the staff of the Naval War College at Newport , Rhode Island , from 1 October 1896 to 5 October 1897 , the day the new gunboat was commissioned . He reported for duty aboard " Newport " that day . " Newport " then undertook hydrographic studies of Greytown Harbor and Roads in Nicaragua in support of the work of the Nicaragua Canal Commission . Spanish - American War . On 2 April 1898 , " Newport " joined the North Atlantic Squadron in anticipation of war breaking out with Spain . When the Spanish - American War began on 25 April 1898 , " Newport " was assigned to blockade duty at Mariel on the north coast of Cuba with Belknap aboard . On 14 May 1898 , Belknap became the secretary on the personal staff of Commodore George C . Remey , commander of the naval base at Key West , Florida . He remained on this duty through the end of the war in August 1898 , successively aboard the monitor , the auxiliary cruiser , the gunboat , and the sloop - of - war as each ship served as Remeys flagship . The naval base moved to Hampton Roads , Virginia , on 18 August 1898 and was disbanded on 25 August 1898 . 1898 - 1900 . Belknap next served on the gunboat from 19 to 29 September 1898 and on the battleship from 1 October 1898 to 13 January 1899 . From 16 January to 31 October 1899 , he was aboard the auxiliary cruiser , cruising along the United States West Coast and to the Falkland Islands and Samoa , where she carried the Joint High Commission of the United States , Great Britain , and Germany . He was promoted to lieutenant , junior grade , on 3 March 1899 while aboard " Badger " . His next tour was aboard the gunboat from 1 November 1899 to 10 March 1900 , during which she made a surveying cruise . Asiatic Squadron . From 1 April 1900 until 1901 , Belknap had a second tour on the staff of George C . Remey – by now a rear admiral and the commander of the Asiatic Squadron – serving as aide with the duties of secretary aboard Remeys flagship , the armored cruiser . During this tour , he took part in the Philippine - American War , served off the Taku Forts during operations in China in the summer of 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion , was promoted to lieutenant on 2 July 1900 , and visited New Zealand and Australia on the occasion of the opening of Australias First Commonwealth Parliament by The Prince George and Princess Victoria Mary of Teck , the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York , in May 1901 . 1902 - 1917 . From 1902 to 1904 , Belknap had duty in the Navys Bureau of Navigation . He served aboard the battleship from 1904 to 1905 , and from 1905 to 1906 he was navigator and later executive officer of the battleship . He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 8 July 1905 . From 1907 to 1910 , he was the United States naval attaché to Germany at Berlin , and from 1908 to 1909 also was naval attaché to Italy at Rome and naval attaché to Austria - Hungary at Vienna . Following a devastating earthquake and tsunami at Messina , Italy , on 28 December 1908 , he became the director of the American Red Cross relief ship effort that responded to the disaster and oversaw the construction of 16 , 000 homes at nine different locations in the vicinity of Messina and Reggio di Calabria . In 1910 , he served as special ambassador and naval aide to former President Theodore Roosevelt at the funeral of King Edward VII in the United Kingdom . From 1910 to 1911 , Belknap was executive officer of the battleship , and he was promoted to commander in 1911 . He was assistant to the chief of the Navys Bureau of Navigation from 1912 to 1913 and attended the Naval War College as a student from 1913 to 1914 . In 1914 , Belknap was aboard the armored cruiser as a naval aide and then was assistant to the naval attaché at Berlin , serving as an observer of the first three months of World War I there from August to October 1914 before becoming commanding officer of the minelayer on 12 December 1914 . Relinquishing command of " San Francisco " on 16 December 1915 , he became commander of the United States Atlantic Fleet s Mining and Minesweeping Division . Insurrection at Santiago de Cuba . In early 1917 , Belknap became involved in an insurrection in Oriente Province in Cuba , where supporters of the Liberal Party who opposed the 1916 reelection of the Conservative Partys Mario García Menocal as President of Cuba took control . Belknaps squadron was in the harbor at Santiago de Cuba and , as senior American naval officer there , Belknap attempted to negotiate a local settlement between the two sides to avoid the loss of life and damage to property in the city if open fighting were to break out there . After meetings aboard USS " San Francisco " , he succeeded in brokering an agreement on 1 March 1917 which the United States Government ratified the next day , but Menocals central government rejected the agreement and its troops advanced on Santiago de Cuba . On 7 March , Belknap decreed that Menocals forces would not be allowed to enter the city and , at the request of Liberal officials , sent 400 officers and men from his squadron ashore the next day to patrol the city . By mid - March , however , the compromise Belknap had brokered had collapsed , and the commander - in - chief of the Atlantic Fleet , Admiral Henry Thomas Mayo , reprimanded him for exceeding his authority in demanding that Menocals forces not enter Santiago de Cuba . On 25 March , the Americans patrolling the city were withdrawn to their ships and Menocals troops took control of Santiago de Cuba , with Belknap lamenting that " our Government has made up its mind to let the Cuban Government put the insurrection down irregardless [ sic ] of losses as a good precedent . It will discourage other revolutions to have this one fail . " World War I . Belknap was still in command of the Mining and Minesweeping Division when the United States entered World War I in April 1917 . He transferred to duty in the Plans Section of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations that year . In 1918 , promoted to captain , he invented and patented a collapsible antisubmarine net and in the spring became commander of Mine Squadron One , which was tasked with laying the North Sea Mine Barrage , a primarily American effort to end use of the North Sea by German submarine s as a transit route between Germany and the Atlantic Ocean by laying a dense minefield between the Orkney Islands and Norway . After taking command , Belknap organized and trained the squadron , which was made up of ten large ships capable of carrying a combined total of 6 , 000 naval mine s . Under Belknaps command , Mine Squadron One deployed to its bases in Scotland at Inverness and Invergordon in May 1918 . He personally conducted the activities of the squadron during its first foray into the North Sea on 2 June 1918 , beginning the first offensive mining campaign in the history of the U . S . Navy and one of the largest U . S . Navy contributions to the Allied naval effort during the war . He commanded the squadron on nine more excursions , the last of them in the last week of October 1918 , by which time it had laid 56 , 611 Mark 6 " antenna " mines in 13 groups , with each group consisting of rows of mines 134 nautical miles ( 248 km ) across set at three preset depths of between 10 feet ( 3 meters ) and 260 feet ( 79 meters ) , covering an area of 6 , 000 square miles . The British Royal Navy also contributed , laying 16 , 652 additional mines along the flanks of the American minefield . The war ended on 11 November 1918 before Mine Squadron One could finish a complete antisubmarine barrier , but the Barrage nonetheless is credited with sinking at least three German submarines and perhaps three more , as well as damaging three or four others . It also had a large psychological effect on German submarine crews , one of which mutinied when ordered to pass through the Barrage . In 1925 , Admiral Henry Thomas Mayo , who had been the commander - in - chief of the Atlantic Fleet in 1918 , said : " The Navy and our country owe to Captain Belknap a debt which can hardly be over - estimated ; for it was the knowledge and experience acquired and the doctrine and methods established in the Mine Force under command of Commander [ sic ] Belknap that enabled the Navy to , first , fit out improvised by very efficient minelaying vessels and , second , to operate them under war conditions in a manner which brought commendation from all . " Later career . From 17 March to 11 April 1919 , Belknap was the third of three officers to serve as Acting President of the Naval War College while the colleges academic activities were shut down for World War I and its immediate aftermath . In 1919 and 1920 he was commanding officer of Destroyer Submarine Base Squantum at Squantum , Massachusetts . He then returned to the Naval War College as the chairman of its Strategy Department from 1921 to 1923 . Upon the commissioning of the new battleship on 30 August 1923 , he became her first commanding officer . Relinquishing command of " Colorado " in 1925 , Belknap became commanding officer of the receiving ship at San Francisco , California . In 1926 he moved on to his final tour , in which he was commanding officer of Naval Training Station Norfolk in Norfolk , Virginia . Belknap was transferred to the retired list on 26 June 1926 , but remained on active duty , and on 3 May 1927 was promoted to rear admiral by an act of the United States Congress for his World War I service . He relinquished command of the training station on 30 June 1927 and entered retirement . Honors and awards . In 1919 , Belknap received the Distinguished Service Medal for his achievements in the North Sea Mine Barrage effort the previous year . He also received the Spanish Campaign Medal , the World War I Victory Medal , and the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal during his career . In 1920 , Belgium made him an Officer of the Order of Leopold and France made him an Officer of the Legion of Honor . He received various medals for his 1909 relief work at Messina and Reggio di Calabria , including the American Red Cross Gold Medal . Retirement . Belknap had a long and active retirement and was a member of many military orders and societies . He was elected a Hereditary Companion of the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States on 17 November 1937 and servied as the Orders national commander - in - chief from 15 October 1947 to 9 October 1951 . He was also a member of the Naval Order of the United States and served as its Commander General from 1931 to 1937 . He was Commander of the New York Chapter of the Military Order of the World War from 1931 to 1935 and served as the Orders national vice commander - in - chief from 1933 to 1936 and national commander - in - chief from 1936 to 1937 . He served as commander - general of the Naval Order of the United States from 1932 to 1937 and as President of the Naval Academy Graduates Association of New York in 1943 . In 1897 he became an hereditary companion of the Military Order of Foreign Wars and became a Veteran companion after his service in the Spanish - American War . From 1927 to 1928 , Belknap was executive chairman of the Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary , celebrated in 1930 . He also served as chairman of the Army Day Committee in New York City from 1934 to 1946 . Active in the Episcopal Church , Belknap was a vestryman and the warden of Trinity Church in New York City and a member of the board of managers of the Seamen ' s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey . He was treasurer , burser , and registrar of the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1929 to 1950 , manager of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in 1934 and a delegate to the convention from 1937 to 1949 , president of the American Church Union in 1937 , chairman of the executive committee and treasurer of Bundles for America , chairman of the executive committee of the Layman ' s National Committee from 1945 to 1950 , a trustee of the Cathedral of St . John the Divine from 1941 to 1953 , and a trustee of Leake and Watts Children ' s Home . He was also a member of the Church Club of New York . Belknap was a member of the Founders and Patriots of America , the Colonial Order of the Acorn , the New York Yacht Club , the New York Society of Naval and Military Officers of the World War , the Union Club of the City of New York , the Century Association , and the Army and Navy Club of Washington , D . C . He was vice president of the Aerospace Club of New England . Belknap also was a very active member of the National Aeronautic Association in Boston . When Amy Phipps Guest offered to sponsor the first solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean , publisher George P . Putnam joined the search for a female aviator to undertake the journey . When Putnam asked Boston public relations specialist Harold Railey if he had any contacts in Boston who could suggest a candidate , Railey contacted his friend Belknap , who suggested " a young social worker who flies , " Amelia Earhart . Earhart went on to achieve fame by becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1928 . Published works . In 1910 , G . P . Putnams Sons in New York City published Belknaps account of his 1909 relief work in Italy , " American House Building in Messina and Reggio " . In 1920 , the United States Naval Institute in Annapolis , Maryand , published his book " The Yankee Mining Squadron " about the North Sea Mine Barrage operations he commanded during World War I . Belknap also wrote " Introduction to the Life and Letters of Rear Admiral George Collier Remey , U . S . N . , 1841 – 1928 " , published in Washington , D . C . , in 1940 . Personal life . Belknap married the former Julia Pomeroy Averill ( 2 July 1875 – 13 April 1971 ) on 3 or 31 March 1900 ( sources differ ) . They had seven children : Averill Belknap ( 2 March 1903 – 29 January 1994 ) , Frances Georgiana Belknap ( 12 June 1904 – 30 April 1996 ) , Emilia Field Belknap ( 6 August 1906 – 15 July 1982 ) , Rexane Belknap ( 1912 – 1922 ) , Mary Rowan Belknap ( 1917 – ? ) , Barberie Ann Belknap ( 1922 – 1977 ) , and Marshall S . Edgar Belknap ( 1931 – 1931 ) . Averill Belknap married Andrew Robert Mack ( January 18 , 1896 – June 10 , 1977 ) , a U . S . Navy officer who eventually attained the rank of rear admiral . Their son Robert Belknap Mack also became a U . S . Navy officer and reached the rank of lieutenant commander before he was lost at sea on 24 September 1957 . Emilia Belknap married Leonard Baker Cresswell ( July 18 , 1901 – April 25 , 1966 ) , a United States Marine Corps officer who eventually attained the rank of major general . Death . Reginald Belknap died in West Haven , Connecticut , on 30 March 1959 . He is buried with his wife and near his father and mother at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington , Virginia . The rear of Reginald and Julia Belknaps headstone is etched in memory of their grandson , Lieutenant Commander Robert Belknap Mack . Namesake . The U . S . Navy guided - missile frigate ( later guided - missile cruiser ) ( later CG - 26 ) , was co - named for Reginald Belknap and his father , Rear Admiral George E . Belknap . Reginald Belknaps daughter Mary Rowan Belknap Howard visited the ship at Gaeta , Italy , in 1994 while " Belknap " was flagship of the United States Sixth Fleet .