SIGNED SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR/WWI NAVY HERO ADMIRAL BATTLESHIP USNA FOOTBALL COACH

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INVREF#CL5-57
Here’s a US Navy Document Signed by Two World War I Era Admirals FRANK DUNN BERRIEN (1877 – 1951) REAR ADMIRAL, U.S. NAVY 13th HEAD FOOTBALL COACH FOR THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND FOR 3 SEASONS 1908-1910, WWI CAPTAIN OF THE USS NICHOLSON FIGHTING IN THE ACTION OF NOV. 17, 1917 -0 A NAVAL BATTLE BETWEEN A GERMAN U-BOAT and TWO US DESTROYERS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC, POST-WAR CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE US PACIFIC FLEET & COMMANDER OF THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LEXINGTON 1928-1930, -AND- THOMAS WASHINGTON (1865 – 1954) 4-STAR REAR ADMIRAL, U.S. NAVY WWI CAPTAIN COMMANDING THE BATTLESHIP FLORIDA (BB-30), SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR LT ON THE BATTLESHIP INDIANA (BB-1) DEFEAT THE SPANISH FLEET UNDER ADMIRAL CERVERA ON 3 JULY 1898 IN THE BATTLE OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA REAR ADMIRAL and CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF NAVIGATION IN 1918 & COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ASIATIC FLEET 1919-1925 HERE’S A 1920 NAVY DEPARTMENT DOCUMENT SIGNED BY WASHINGTON and BERRIEN ON “BUREAU OF NAVIGATION” LETTERHEAD TO LIEUTENANT COMMANDER ELLSWORTH DAVIS. SUBJECT DESPATCH ORDERS OF JAN. 31, 1920 REVOKED; CONTINUE DUTY ON BOARD USS MCDERMUTT. NOTE: ELLSWORTH DAVIS [1892-1946] was an American naval officer. He served on the U.S.S. Florida as a signal officer, official uniform inspector and flag lieutenant. During the U.S. occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico on April 1914, Davis led a company onshore and overtook the town's postal service building. In addition to his service on the U.S.S. Florida, Davis served in the Mediterranean and off of the U.S. Atlantic Coast on the Brooklyn and the Fairfax. He was commanding officer of the USS Fairfax from 1934 to 1936. The Fairfax was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during the World War I, later transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Richmond (G88), as a Town class destroyer. The Fairfax took part in the Presidential Review taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt in San Diego in March 1933, and then sailed for the East coast, where she continued her reserve training duty. She also patrolled in Cuban waters, and in the summers of 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940 sailed out of Annapolis training midshipmen of the Naval Academy. Between October 1935 and March 1937, she served with the Special Service Squadron out of Coco Solo and Balboa, Canal Zone, operating primarily on the Atlantic side of the Canal Zone. The document measures 8” x 10½” and is in very fine+ condition. > BIOGRAPHY of ADMIRAL BERRIEN Frank Dunn Berrien (August 17, 1877 – January 31, 1951) was an American football coach and United States Navy officer. He was the 13th head football coach for the United States Naval Academy located in Annapolis, Maryland and he held that position for three seasons, from 1908 until 1910. His coaching record at Navy was 21–5–3. As captain of the USS Nicholson he fought in the action of 17 November 1917. He later commanded the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. Berrien graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Class of 1900. He retired as a U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. Berrien was the 13th head college football coach for the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen located in Annapolis, Maryland and he held that position for three seasons, from 1908 until 1910. His coaching record at United States Naval Academy was 21 wins, 5 losses, and 3 ties. As of the conclusion of the 2007 season, this ranks him tenth at United States Naval Academy in total wins and fifth at United States Naval Academy in winning percentage (.776). As captain of the USS Nicholson he fought in the Action of 17 November 1917 and was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the highest U.S. Navy award. It out ranked the Navy Cross untill 1942. The Action of 17 November 1917 was a naval battle of the First World War. The action was fought between a German U-boat and two United States Navy destroyers in the North Atlantic Ocean. Other Comments: Awards and Citations Navy Distinguished Service Medal Awarded for actions during the World War I The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Captain (then Commander) Frank Dunn Berrien, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. NICHOLSON, engaged in the important, exacting, and hazardous duty of patrolling the waters infested with enemy submarines and mines, in escorting and protecting vitally important convoys of troops and supplies through these waters, and in offensive and defensive action, vigorously and unremittingly prosecuted against all forms of enemy naval activity; and especially for an engagement on 17 November 1917, in association with the U.S.S. Fanning, with the German Submarine U-58, as a result of which the submarine was forced to come to the surface and surrender. General Orders: Authority: Navy Book of Distinguished Service Action Date: 17 November, 1917 Service: Navy Rank: acting Captain, rank of Commander Company: Commanding Officer Division: U.S.S. Nicholson> BERRIEN and THE NAVAL ACTION OF 17 NOVEMBER 1917 The action of 17 November 1917 was a naval battle of the First World War. The action was fought between a German U-boat and two United States Navy destroyers in the North Atlantic Ocean.Action Based in Queenstown, Ireland, USS Fanning and her sister destroyer USS Nicholson patrolled the eastern waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Their mission was to escort convoys and rescue survivors of sunken merchant ships as well as to seek out and destroy German U-boats. While escorting the eight vessel convoy OQ-20 eastbound, the two destroyers made contact with an enemy submarine. With Arthur S. Carpender commanding, at 4:10 on 17 November 1917, Coxswain Daniel David Loomis of the Fanning sighted U-58, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Gustav Amberger, when the U-boat had surfaced to extend her periscope. The German submarine lined up for a shot at the British merchant steamer SS Welshman and almost immediately Officer of the Deck Lieutenant William O. Henry ordered the destroyer to make circles and engage. At 4:00 Fanning dropped three depth charges, scoring a hit which shook up the U-boat well. Then USS Nicholson joined in the fighting, commanded by Frank Berrien, and dropped another depth charge herself. The Americans spotted U-58 when it surfaced, and Fanning fired three shots with her stern gun. Nicholson struck the U-boat with at least one shot from her bow gun. The Germans unsuccessfully returned fire and surrendered at around 4:30. American fire had hit the submarine near its diving planes, making the sub unmanueverable. Kapitänleutnant Amberger ordered the ballast tanks blown and the submarine went up. Charges also knocked out the main generator aboard the Fanning. If U-58 had surfaced in a battle ready position, Fanning would have surely been attacked and possibly sunk. The German submariners surrendered and Fanning maneuvered to take prisoners. That ended the action with an American victory. The Fanning and Nicholson's sinking of U-58 was one of only a few engagements of World War I in which U.S. Navy warships sank an enemy submarine. Also the first time U.S. ships sank a submarine in combat. Lieutenant William O. Henry and Coxswain Daniel Lommis both received a Navy Cross for their actions during their encounter with U-58. Fanning and Nicholson continued the war escorting and patrolling the North Atlantic, making several more inconclusive contacts with German submarines. Thirty-eight of the 40 crew members of the U-58 survived to become prisoners of war in the United States. > BIOGRAPHY of ADMIRAL WASHINGTON Thomas Washington (6 June 1865 – 15 December 1954) was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War I.Early life and career Born at Goldsboro, North Carolina, Washington was appointed to the United States Naval Academy on 17 May 1883. He graduated on 10 June 1887 and, after the required two years of sea duty during which he served on the European Station in the sloops Enterprise and Lancaster, was commissioned ensign in 1889. Over the ensuing three years, he briefly served in U.S. Coast Survey Ship Endeavor, followed by a tour in the gunboat Alliance to the far east. He was assigned to the office of the Navy's Judge Advocate General in 1892. Subsequently, after duty on several trial boards for general courts martial at the Norfolk and Washington Navy Yards, he was assigned to a succession of ships—Montgomery (C-9), Terror (BM-4) and Patterson (DD-36)—before joining the battleship Indiana (BB-1) in early 1898. He was on this ship when she helped to defeat the Spanish Fleet under Admiral Cervera on 3 July 1898 in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. His younger brother and naval cadet, Pope Washington, was one of the survivors of the explosion of the Maine. After a second tour of duty ashore in the office of the Judge Advocate General, Washington served on the General Board. Ordered thence to the Asiatic Station, he joined the staff of Rear Admiral Robley D. "Fighting Bob" Evans, the Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet, on 29 October 1902. Quartered on the battleship Illinois (BB-7), the Asiatic Fleet's flagship, he remained on Evans' staff until detached on 1 June 1904. Special duty at the Bureau of Navigation followed his return from the Orient and preceded his assuming command of dispatch boat Dolphin (PG-24), the vessel which was then serving as the Secretary of the Navy's yacht. Washington next put in another tour with the Bureau of Navigation for duty before returning to sea in 1912 to command, in turn, the gunboat Yorktown and cruisers Charleston (C-22) and Denver (C-14) over the next two years.World War I On 20 April 1914, Washington—by then a captain—assumed the duties of Hydrographer of the Navy. World War I broke out in Europe less than four months after Washington assumed the Hydrographer's duties, depriving the United States of its external sources of oceanographic and hydrographic information. Washington and his small staff responded by independently gathering the necessary data for use by the United States Navy and Merchant Marine. Relieved as hydrographer on 23 June 1916, Washington was given command of the battleship Florida (BB-30). A few months after the United States entered the war in the spring of 1917, Florida crossed the Atlantic with Battleship Division Nine to operate with the British Grand Fleet. The manner in which he carried out this assignment won Washington the Distinguished Service Medal for "exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility."Post-war service On 22 November 1918, eleven days after the Armistice, he assumed command of Flagship Division 3, Battleship Force 1, Atlantic Fleet, flying his "flag" alternately in yachts Aramis (SP-418) and Nokomis (SP-609). He subsequently commanded Divisions 2 and 4, successively, of the Atlantic Fleet. Detached from this duty on 9 August, he assumed the post of Chief of the Bureau of Navigation on 11 August, with the accompanying rank of rear admiral. Less than a year later, Washington received orders to duty as Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet (CINCAF). He broke his flag in armored cruiser Huron (CA-9) on 11 October 1923 and commanded the Fleet until 14 October 1925. During his tour, the Asiatic Fleet provided support for the United States Army's round-the-world flight in the spring of 1924. Operating from the Kurils to Calcutta, the destroyer squadrons of the Fleet sailed on plane-guard stations, transported supplies and spare parts, and provided radio bearings and communications services for the planes, and thus contributed greatly to the success of the flight. Relieved as CINCAF on 14 October 1925, Washington became Commandant of the Naval Operating Base, San Francisco, California, on 19 November 1925, and filled the billet until his retirement on 6 June 1929.Last years and legacy In the 1930s Washington was the Governor of the Philadelphia Naval Home. Advanced on the retired list to the full rank of admiral on 16 July 1942, Washington died at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland on December 15, 1954. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, Virginia and his grave can be found in section 3, site 1738.Namesake The oceanographic research ship USNS Thomas Washington (T-AGOR-10) was named for him. PROVENANCE OF PURCHASE HISTORY ORIGIN Proud member of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club (UACC), The Ephemera Society of America, the Manuscript Society & the American Political Items Collectors (APIC) (member name: John Lissandrello). I subscribe to each organizations' code of ethics and authenticity is guaranteed. ~Providing quality service & historical memorabilia online for over 20 years.