HAROLD E. MACLELLAN, LCDR, USN
Harold Maclellan '18
Lucky Bag
From the 1918 Lucky Bag:
HAROLD EARLE MacLELLAN
Westerly, Rhode Island
"Mac"
MAC is the recognized home-breaker of the Academy. Scarcely a week passes but what some poor unfortunate laments the fact that Mac and his machinations have rent in twain, so to speak, what otherwise might have been a happy union. Curiously enough, though, despite his abilities he is not entirely secure, or at least thinks he is not, in his own affairs of the heart. Perhaps he is in the position of a criminal who suspects everybody else of his own crime.
In an athletic way Mac is noticeably among those present. Lacrosse is his field in particular, and he also shone with brilliancy in one track meet—the extent of his wanderings afield.
You wouldn't accuse him of being from New England, but it's true. He used to be a moving picture operator as a diversion, we understand, in the fishing village of Providence. Mac is bashful about his professional abilities, however, for he allowed us to suffer all plebe summer with the focusing of Ernest Feet.
Mac was never built for a log book, and consequently regards a P-work on Problem 3, Gun N, as the worst kind of a nightmare, particularly as he usually has the luck to find a mistake, or more accurately, mistakes, in the first approximation some time about the end of the period. In subjects not requiring so much concentration and exactness, though, Mac is well able to hold his own.
We only hope he can hold on to his happy, care-free ways—other things will take care of themselves.
"Look here, now, you yokel—————"
Buzzed; Lacrosse Squad (4, 3, 1); Lacrosse Numerals (4, 3, 1) Track Squad (2)
The Class of 1918 was graduated on June 28, 1917 due to World War I.
HAROLD EARLE MacLELLAN
Westerly, Rhode Island
"Mac"
MAC is the recognized home-breaker of the Academy. Scarcely a week passes but what some poor unfortunate laments the fact that Mac and his machinations have rent in twain, so to speak, what otherwise might have been a happy union. Curiously enough, though, despite his abilities he is not entirely secure, or at least thinks he is not, in his own affairs of the heart. Perhaps he is in the position of a criminal who suspects everybody else of his own crime.
In an athletic way Mac is noticeably among those present. Lacrosse is his field in particular, and he also shone with brilliancy in one track meet—the extent of his wanderings afield.
You wouldn't accuse him of being from New England, but it's true. He used to be a moving picture operator as a diversion, we understand, in the fishing village of Providence. Mac is bashful about his professional abilities, however, for he allowed us to suffer all plebe summer with the focusing of Ernest Feet.
Mac was never built for a log book, and consequently regards a P-work on Problem 3, Gun N, as the worst kind of a nightmare, particularly as he usually has the luck to find a mistake, or more accurately, mistakes, in the first approximation some time about the end of the period. In subjects not requiring so much concentration and exactness, though, Mac is well able to hold his own.
We only hope he can hold on to his happy, care-free ways—other things will take care of themselves.
"Look here, now, you yokel—————"
Buzzed; Lacrosse Squad (4, 3, 1); Lacrosse Numerals (4, 3, 1) Track Squad (2)
The Class of 1918 was graduated on June 28, 1917 due to World War I.
Loss
Harold was lost when the airship USS Akron (ZRS 4) crashed off the coast of New Jersey on April 4, 1933. He was the airship's navigator and gunnery officer.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Harold moved to Rhode Island in 1899. He graduated from Westerly high school and worked in the Westerly Sun Office as an apprentice. George H. Utter, editor of the Sun and a member of Congress, urged him to prepare for examination for Annapolis. Congressman Peter G. Gerry nominated Harold to the Academy.
In June 1921, Harold took command of USS K 3 (SS 34) for summer practice at Cape Cod.
His father Alexander C., who was born in Scotland, was a granite cutter. His mother was Ella, sister Ethel, and brothers Alexander and Lewis.
From Arlington National Cemetery.net:
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey, April 4, 1933 – The body of Lieutenant Commander H. E. MacLellan, navigator and gunnery officer of the Akron was picked up tonight by Coast Guard cutter 213 about thirty miles off Atlantic City, and taken to the Coast Guard Base at Cape May, New Jersey. It was the first body recovered.
Commander MacLellan, who would have been 38 years old in July, lived in Westerly, Rhode Island, and was graduated from the Naval Academy in the Class of 1917. He was unmarried.
Instructions that all bodies recovered be sent to the Atlantic City Hospital for identification and to await disposition were issued by Lieutenant Commander W. W. Davies, senior medical officer at Lakehurst, and in conformity with these instructions, Commander MacLellan body’s was sent to the hospital later in the night.
Members of the crew of the cutter said they found considerable wreckage from the airship floating at the spot where the body was discovered.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Photographs
From the 1918 Lucky Bag
From the Daily News on April 5, 1933
From The Edmonton Bulletin on April 20, 1933
From The Boston Globe on April 5, 1933
Video
Akron's executive officer, LCDR Herbert V. Wiley '15, one of only three survivors, was filmed shortly after the crash:
Related Articles
William Moffett '90, Fred Berry '08, Henry Cecil '10, Frank McCord '11, Joseph Severyns '20, George Calnan '20, Richard Cross, Jr. '21, Herbert Wescoat '23, Robert Sayre '24, Charles Callaway '24, Hammond Dugan '24, Charles Miller '25, Charles Redfield '26, Wilfred Bushnell '26, and Cyrus Clendening '27 were also lost aboard Akron.
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.
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Harold is one of 14 members of the Class of 1918 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
