GEORGE K. BOWER, ENS, USN

George Bower '68

Date of birth: April 10, 1848

Age: 21

Naval Academy Register

George Kremer Bower was admitted to the Naval Academy from Pennsylvania on September 26, 1864 at age 16 years 5 months.

Loss

George was lost on January 24, 1870 when USS Oneida was sunk following a collision with a British merchant steamer while departing Yokohama harbor, Japan. One hundred twenty-four other officers and men were also lost.

A detailed account of the event is available here.

He has a memory marker in Pennsylvania.

From researcher Kathy Franz: "George's father Thomas during his lifetime was a farmer, a deputy sheriff, a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, and a deputy assessor at the Internal Revenue Service. George's four brothers were: Frederick, who became an attorney; Charles, a physician; and brothers William Harvey and Edwin who both worked for railroads."

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 28 September, 1864. Graduated 2 June, 1868. Lost on board the Oneida, 24 January, 1870.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.