JAMES C. HULL, ENS, USN

James Hull '68

Date of birth: 1847

Age: ~22

Naval Academy Register

James Cooper Hull was admitted to the Naval Academy from New York on September 27, 1861 at age 14 years 6 months.

Loss

James 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.

Other Information

From the Marysville Daily Appeal, 24 March 1870, via the records of the US Naval Academy Alumni Association:

The Officers of the Oneida. Below we give sketches of some of the officers who perished in the ill-fated Oneida:
MIDSHIPMAN J. C. HULL was born and bred in New York and entered the service in 1861. He is widely known throughout the service and has a large acquaintance in this city. He was known while in the Naval Academy for his geniality and his kindness, and these qualities, beyond all others, are appreciated in the naval service. Mr. Hull was the friend of every one and every one was his friend. In anecdote he was copious, in his studies persevering and thorough, and in professional knowledge apt and seamanlike. He clung to the navy, and with it were all his hopes. He will long be remembered.

From researcher Kathy Franz: "James Hull's address in 1868 was 249 Greenwich Street, New York City."

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 24 July, 1863. Graduated June, 1868. Lost in 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.