DARWIN R. MERRITT, ENS, USN
Darwin Merritt '95
Lucky Bag
From the 1895 Lucky Bag:
Merritt
Red Oak, Iowa
Substitute N. A. Football Team, 1893. N. A. Team, 1894. Class F. B. Team, 1893, 1894. Silver Medal Target Practice, 1893.
Merritt
Red Oak, Iowa
Substitute N. A. Football Team, 1893. N. A. Team, 1894. Class F. B. Team, 1893, 1894. Silver Medal Target Practice, 1893.
Loss
Darwin was lost on February 15, 1898 when USS Maine (Armored Cruiser No. 1) was destroyed in an explosion in Havana Harbor, Cuba.
Photographs
Photo scanned and provided by Jennifer Bryan, Ph.D., Head of Special Collections & Archives/Archivist at the Naval Academy's Nimitz Library
"This portrait is from the book THE "MAINE": AN ACCOUNT OF HER DESTRUCTION IN HAVANA HARBOR by Capt. Charles D. Sigsbee (New York: The Centry Co., 1899), facing p. 96."
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Darwin was born and raised in Red Oak, Iowa. His father William was a farmer, the postmaster for Red Oak, a Universalist preacher, and several other occupations. His mother was Pluma; his brothers were William and Edwin; and his sisters were Anna and Cornelia “Nellie.” His mother died in 1889, his father in 1922, and they are buried in the Red Oak Cemetery, as well. His brothers became doctors.
Darwin was appointed to the Naval Academy by Congressman Thomas Bowman. After graduation, Darwin was on the Amphitrite.
His brother Will enlisted in Troop B, First U. S. Volunteer Cavalry “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders” and was sent to Santiago. He wrote his father “I am in the best of spirits and feel that a load has been lifted from my mind. I will now have a chance to at least in a small way avenge the death of Darwin.”
Darwin’s friend and roommate at Western Normal College in Shenandoah, Iowa, was Dr. Laird. Darwin sent him an excellent photograph of himself after graduating from the Naval Academy, and they kept up their correspondence.
The chaplain of the Maine, Father Chadwick, sent Darwin’s father two crosses of polished brass made from the metal work of the vessel.
Darwin’s body was the only one exhumed from the sunken Maine by the crew raising her thirteen years later in 1911. He was found on the berth deck of the vessel. They searched in vain for his Navy class ring. The El Mundo newspaper in Havana later reported that they had the ring, and it was eventually returned to Darwin’s family. It was in perfect condition – gold with an onyx setting with the inside inscription: Darwin R. Merritt, class ’95, U. S. N. A.
Darwin’s body was brought to the United States on the armored cruiser North Carolina with Secretary of War Stimson on board. His funeral was in late August with naval officers from San Francisco, United States troops from Des Moines, and details of the state militia present. Judge Horace E. Deemer of Red Oak, justice of the supreme court of Iowa, delivered the funeral oration.
The VFW Post #2265 in Red Oak was named for Darwin.
He is buried in Iowa.
He is listed on the killed in action panel in the front of Memorial Hall under the heading "MAINE EXPLOSION 1898."
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.
January 1896
January 1897
January 1898
Memorial
Darwin's classmates erected a plaque in his honor in Memorial Hall. (It gives his rank as "Asst. Engineer U.S. Navy".)
Rank
Darwin was an "Assistant Engineer with relative rank of Ensign" per the 1898 Officer Register. The operational loss panel for his class lists him as an Ensign.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
