CASPAR GOODRICH, LT, USN
Caspar Goodrich '01
Lucky Bag
From the 1901 Lucky Bag:
Biography & Loss
From Wikipedia:
Caspar Goodrich, son of Rear Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich, was born in Italy. Goodrich was appointed a midshipman from Connecticut on 7 September 1897. He was designated a Naval Cadet 10 June 1901 and reported to Lancaster for duty. From 1903 to 1905 Goodrich served in Maine, Cleveland, and Chicago. Assigned to Georgia on the Atlantic Station in June 1906, Goodrich was killed 15 July 1907. He was the command officer of the after superimposed 8" gun turret when a flare back caused 104 lbs. of powder to explode behind the starboard gun. Ten men were killed, including Goodrich. Eleven men were injured.
From Together We Served:
- 1901-1903, USS Lancaster (1858) (Screw Sloop)
- 1903-1903, USS Maine (BB-10)
- 1903-1904, USS Cleveland (C-19)
- 1904-1906, USS Chicago (CA-14)
- 1904-1906, CINCPACFLT
Caspar is buried in New Jersey.
Namesake
USS Goodrich (DD 831) was named for Caspar and his father; the ship was sponsored by his mother.
Related Articles
Faulkner Goldthwaite '07 and James Cruse '07 were also lost in this explosion.
Memorial
A plaque in Memorial Hall in honor of Caspar and the nine other officers and men lost was erected by "their shipmates on the Georgia and sympathizing friends on the U.S.S. New Jersey."
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 1902
Naval Cadet, Lancaster
January 1903
Midshipman, Maine
Others at this command: LCDR Leroy Garrett '79, LT Albert Beecher '84, LT William Moffett '90, and LTjg Jonas Holden '96
January 1904
Ensign, Cleveland
January 1905
Ensign, Chicago
July 1906
Lieutenant, Chicago
July 1907
Lieutenant, Georgia
Others at this command: MIDN Faulkner Goldthwaite '07 and MIDN James Cruse '07
Class of 1901
Caspar is one of 4 members of the Class of 1901 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
