WILLIAM F. STEWART, LCDR, USN

William Stewart '61

Date of birth: June 30, 1840

Age: 29

Naval Academy Register

William Francis Stewart was admitted to the Naval Academy from Pennsylvania on September 22, 1857 at age 17 years 3 months.

William "Frank" Stewart from the 1911 Lucky Bag, on the 50th anniversary of the graduation of the Class of 1861.

Loss

William 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. He was the executive officer.

A detailed account of the event is available here.

Other Information

"Frank" is remembered as having a "beautiful black beard" as a Firstie in the 1911 Lucky Bag as part of the article "The Academy Fifty Years Ago".

He is buried in Pennsylvania.

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Acting Midshipman, 23 September, 1857. Midshipman, 1 June, 1861. Lieutenant, 16 July, 1862. Lieutenant Commander, 25 July, 1866. Lost in the Oneida, 21 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.