FRIEND W. JENKINS, LTJG, USN
Friend Jenkins '86
Friend William Jenkins was admitted to the Naval Academy from Pennsylvania on September 28, 1882 at age 17 years 3 months.
Loss
Friend was lost on February 15, 1898 when his ship, USS Maine (Armored Cruiser No. 1) was destroyed by an explosion in Havana, Cuba.
Photographs
Photo scanned and provided by Jennifer Bryan, Ph.D., Head of Special Collections & Archives/Archivist at the Naval Academy's Nimitz Library
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Born in Allegheny City, Friend was appointed to the Naval Academy by Representative Thomas B. Bayne of Pennsylvania.
Friend served on the Galena, Kearsage, and Swatara. He next served on the coast survey and then the gunboat Bennington. From June 1893, to September 1895, he was on ordnance duty at the Naval Proving Grounds, Indian Head, Maryland. On September 18, 1895, he was ordered to the Maine.
The Camp Friend W. Jenkins No. 16, Service Men of Spanish War, was established in Allegheny in March 1902.
Friend's father was a flour merchant. His brothers were Ernest, Jay Richard and Jenks who became a civil engineer. Ernest died at 4 months old in December 1875. Jay ran a grocery store called “The Old Tea House” and then became a real estate broker. He died in January 1905. Friend's sisters were Julia Hannah and Jane Salonia. Julia married a gold miner Charles Crawford, and she died in San Francisco of accidental gas asphyxiation on March 3, 1904. Friend's parents also adopted his cousin Florence (Mrs. Hinton Spalding) after the death in 1913 of her mother Helen (Mrs. Dean Moore Jenkins).
Friend is buried in Pennsylvania. He is listed on the killed in action panel in the front of Memorial Hall under the heading "MAINE EXPLOSION 1898."
Career
From the Naval History and Heritage Command:
Naval Cadet, 28 September, 1882. Ensign, 1 July, 1888. Lieutenant, Junior Grade, 5 January, 1897. Drowned 15 February, 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.
February 1887
January 1888
January 1889
January 1890
January 1891
January 1892
January 1893
July 1894
January 1895
January 1896
January 1897
January 1898
Namesake
Jenkins Road aboard Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren is named for him.
Memorial
Friend's classmates erected a plaque in his honor in Memorial Hall. It reads in part: "He spoke evil of no man."
Related Articles
Darwin Merritt '95 and John Blandin '82 were also aboard Maine when she was destroyed.
Memorial Hall Error
Friend was a Lieutenant junior grade; he was promoted over a year prior to his death. Memorial Hall lists him as an Ensign.
Friend is one of 2 members of the Class of 1886 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.
