LEROY M. GARRETT, CDR, USN

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Leroy Garrett '79

Date of birth: May 22, 1857

Date of death: November 21, 1906

Age: 49

Naval Academy Register

Leroy Mason Garrett was admitted to the Naval Academy from New York on September 16, 1875 at age 18 years 0 months.

Naval Academy Photo Album

1879 Garrett 1.jpg

Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1879 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.

Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.

1879 Garrett 1.jpg

Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1879 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.

Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.

Biography & Loss

From The United States Army and Navy Journal on December 1, 1906:

A despatch from Honolulu announces that Lieut. Comdr. Leroy M. Garrett, USN, commanding the US fish commission steamer Albatross, was washed overboard from that ship on Nov. 21, while she was five hundred miles northwest of Honolulu. … Commander Garrett was a native of New York and was graduated from the US Naval Academy, which he entered in 1875. He was known as an efficient officer and in high standing in the world of science, and was intensely interested in fish studies of the deep sea. He was on the Alert of the Atlantic Station from 1879-1881, and joined the fish commission steamer Albatross in 1883, serving on her to 1885. He spent the winters on the Albatross, and the summers on geological survey. Among other assignments he served on the Iroquois and Adams on the Pacific Station, 1885-8; commanded the coast survey steamer Endeavor, 1888-9; special longitude duty, 1889-90; on the San Francisco, Pacific Station, December, 1890, to June, 1893; commanding coast survey steamer Endeavor, October, 1893-6; U.S.S. Armenia, 1808, and was on the Marblehead, Jan. 17, 1899, to 1901. He subsequently served on the Iowa and Maine, and he was assigned to command the Albatross in December, 1902. His death was the sad ending of a successful scientific trip of professors interested in the inhabitants of the deep sea. No one made a more thorough study of these fish than did Commander Garrett. Many fine specimens were obtained by the deep sea dredge that the Albatross carries. Some of the fish were brought up from a depth of two miles. Part of the record of the trip of the Albatross was the report that she had sighted an island that arose out of the ocean before those on board. Prof. H. Heath declares that he saw the island grow up in the midst of the Aleutian Islands at about the time San Francisco was shaken by the earthquake last April.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

In the mid-1860s when Leroy was about 7 years old, his father Samuel, a farmer, and his two young brothers Charles and Eddie died. When Leroy was 13, he lived with his mother Esther and sister Helen at the home of Roswell and Sabrina Barker in Plattsburgh, New York.

In February 1896, Leroy was scheduled to speak at the next meeting of the Plattsburgh Institute.

In June 1900, he was flag lieutenant stationed on the U. S. Flagship Iowa moored in Bremerton, Washington.

He was survived by his mother. He has a memory marker in Arlington National Cemetery.

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Cadet Midshipman, 18 September, 1875. Graduated 10 June, 1881. Ensign, Junior Grade, 3 March, 1883. Ensign, 26 June, 1884. Lieutenant, Junior Grade, 19 February, 1891. Lieutenant, 21 May, 1895.

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.

January 1880
Cadet Midshipman, Alert
July 1881
Midshipman, Platsburg, New York
January 1882
Midshipman, Alliance
January 1883
Midshipman, Special Duty, Smithsonian Institution
January 1884
Ensign (j.g.), Fish Commission steamer Albatross
February 1885
Ensign, Fish Commission steamer Albatross
January 1886
Ensign, Iroquois

Others at this command:
February 1887
Ensign, Adams
January 1888
Ensign, Adams
January 1889
Ensign, commanding officer, Coast Survey steamer Endeavor
January 1890
Ensign, Special longitude duty
January 1891
Ensign, San Francisco
January 1892
Lieutenant (j.g.), San Francisco

Others at this command:

Others at or embarked at this command:
CDR Henry Nichols '65 (Board of Inspection and Survey, San Francisco)
January 1893
Lieutenant (j.g.), San Francisco
July 1894
Lieutenant (j.g.), commanding officer, Steamer Endeavor

Others at this command:
January 1895
Lieutenant (j.g.), commanding officer, Steamer Endeavor

Others at this command:
January 1896
Lieutenant, commanding officer, Steamer Endeavor

Others at this command:
January 1897
Lieutenant, Albatross
January 1898
Lieutenant, Albatross
January 1899
Lieutenant, Navy Yard, New York
January 1900
Lieutenant, Marblehead
January 1901
Lieutenant, Iowa
January 1902
Lieutenant Commander, Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
January 1903
Lieutenant Commander, Maine

January 1904
Lieutenant Commander, Maine

Others at this command:
January 1905
Lieutenant Commander, commanding officer, Albatross
July 1906
Commander, commanding officer, Albatross

Memorial Hall Error

Leroy is listed in Memorial Hall as a LCDR. In the Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps of July 1906 he was listed as the most junior Commander in the entire Navy. (#121 of 121, but also the 231st most senior officer in the service).


Class of 1879

Leroy is one of 4 members of the Class of 1879 on Virtual Memorial Hall.

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