Wat Tyler Cluverius Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on 12 December 1874,[1] the son of Wat Tyler Cluverius Sr., and his wife Martha Lewis née Manning. He attended Tulane University before being appointed to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, which he entered on 20 May 1892.[2]
In those days, naval cadets—the rank of midshipman would not exist for a few more years—by law had to serve for two years before they were eligible to take the examinations for the rank of ensign.[3] Therefore, after graduation from the Naval Academy in June 1896, Cluverius was posted to the cruiserUSS Columbia.[2] In 1897 joined the crew of USS Maine. He was on board on 15 February 1898 when the ship suffered an explosion in Havana Harbor.[1] Cluverius made his way out, splashing through water up to waist deep in the darkness, his path obstructed by wreckage. He joined other survivors on deck, and was rescued by SS City of Washington.[4] He was one of only 89 survivors, of whom 18 were officers.[5]
Senior officers of Mine Squadron One, in the North Sea, September 1918. Cluverius is front left.
In 1899, he became engaged to Hannah Walker Sampson, the daughter of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson. The families knew each other well, and Cluverius was an usher at the wedding of Hannah's sister Olive.[6] On 5 April 1900, they were married in a ceremony at the Boston Navy Yard.[2] Their marriage produced two daughters, Elizabeth (Betty) and Martha, and a son, Wat Tyler Cluverius III. Not only did their son become a naval officer, but both daughters married naval officers, John S. Crenshaw and William Sterling Parsons respectively.[7][8] Both sons in law later became admirals.[9]
Cluverius served at the Naval Academy on court martial duty and as commander of the torpedo boatUSS Talbot. He became commander of the gunboat USS Alvarado in June 1901 and then 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 battleshipUSS 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 monitorUSS Arkansas. In 1908 he became senior engineer of the newly commissioned USS Mississippi.[2]
Secretary of the Navy Curtis D. Wilbur and his aide, Captain Wat Tyler Cluverius Jr., 25 February 1926
Cluverius, now a lieutenant commander, was posted to the battleship USS North Dakota in March 1914.[2] From July to October 1914, he took part in the United States occupation of Veracruz, commanding a battalion of bluejackets that was landed from North Dakota.[10] After returning to the ship he became its executive officer until July 1915, when he became commander of USS Dubuque. He was then posted back to the Naval Academy as an engineering instructor.[2]
In November 1917, Cluverius became responsible for the conversion of the steamer SS Massachusetts to a minelayer. The ship was commissioned on 7 December 1917, and renamed USS Shawmut on 7 January 1918. She steamed to Britain in June 1918 and spent the rest of World War I laying the anti-submarine mine barrage across the North Sea. Shawmut laid 2,970 anchored mines before returning to the United States in December 1918,.[11] He was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal "for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility as Commanding Officer of the USS Shawmut, engaged in laying mines in the North Sea."[12] He also became an Officer of the French Legion of Honor, and Officer of the Belgian Order of Leopold and a Commander of the Norwegian Order of St. Olav.[2]
Rear Admiral Cluverius (third from left) with his staff on the deck of his flagship USS Arkansas in Kiel, Germany, 9 July 1930
Cluverius commanded the cruiser USS Baltimore from February until June 1919, when he became Commandant of Midshipmen at the Naval Academy, a post he held until 1921, when he left to attend the Naval War College.[1] After graduating in 1922, he became Chief of Staff of Commander Base Force, Pacific Fleet. He commanded the cruiser USS Seattle from June to December 1923, when, following the usual pattern of sea duty alternating with shore duty, he was posted to the office of the Chief of Naval Operations. He became aide to the Secretary of the Navy, Curtis D. Wilbur.[2]
Cluverius was commandant of the Ninth Naval District from 1932 to 1935. As such, he was the US Navy representative at the Century of ProgressWorld's Fair in Chicago from 1933 to 1934. His last sea command was the Base Force, United States Fleet, from 1935 to 1937. In June 1937 he became Commandant Fourth Naval District and Philadelphia Navy Yard, a post he held until his retirement on 1 January 1939.[2] He was decorated with Order of the Crown of Italy for his service in connection with aid for transatlantic flight of Italo Balbo.[15]
Later life
In retirement, Cluverius became president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in succession to Rear Admiral Ralph Earle, a Naval Academy classmate who died in February 1939. Cluverius announced that his priority would be to complete the building program envisaged by his predecessor. He began with a footbridge which was named in Earle's memory.[16]
Cluverius returned to active duty during World War II as secretary of the Naval office of Public Information and as a member of the Navy Board of Production Awards. In this capacity he was involved in the conferring of Army-Navy "E" Awards. In 1943, Worcester was chosen as one of the colleges in the V-12 Navy College Training Program.[17] He returned to Worcester in 1945 after the war ended. In 1951, he oversaw the establishment of an ROTC unit on the campus.[18]
On 28 October 1952, Cluverius was returning by train from a Navy reunion in Philadelphia when he became so seriously ill that when the train stopped in New Haven he was taken to hospital, where he died.[19] The last surviving officer of USS Maine, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, with his wife Hannah, who died on 20 January 1938.[8] He was survived by his two daughters and his son.[9][20]
Decorations
Here is the ribbon bar of Rear admiral Wat Tyler Cluverius:[21]
Ancell, R. Manning; Miller, Christine (1996). The Biographical Dictionary of World War II Generals and Flag Officers: The US Armed Forces. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN0-313-29546-8. OCLC33862161.
Beals, Victor (September 1973). "Comment and Discussion". United States Naval Institute Proceedings.
Buell, Thomas B. (1980). Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN1-55750-092-4. OCLC5799946.
Christman, Albert B. (1998). Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN1-55750-120-3. OCLC38257982.
Navy Biographies Branch (30 November 1956), Rear Admiral Wat Tyler Cluverius, Washington, DC((citation)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)