OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (SAMPSON.) 



471 



of the forts. He had the watch on the turret 

 roof on the night of Jan. 15, 1865, when the 

 Patapsco ran into a torpedo that hurled her into 

 the air, and a moment later she sank to the bot- 

 tom of the harbor with most of her officers and 

 men. Sampson, in jumping to the boarding-net- 

 ting, was caught by his foot in a mesh, and was 

 dragged down by the sinking ship. Instead of 

 struggling frantically, and thereby tying himself 

 more tightly, he coolly waited his chances, care- 

 fully slipped his foot from its entanglement, and 

 was saved. " The day afterward," says Mahan, 

 " he was as unaffectedly, and without effort im- 

 perturbed, as though nothing remarkable had oc- 

 curred." His next assignment was to the Colo- 

 rado, the flagship on the European station, on 

 which he remained until 1867, meanwhile becom- 

 ing lieutenant-commander in July, 1866. He then 

 returned to the Naval Academy, where he was 

 made assistant in the department of physics, and 

 in 1869, during the temporary absence of his 

 chief, was head of the department. In 1871 he 

 had special duty on the Congress, and later he 

 served on that vessel on the European station. 

 He was promoted commander in August, 1874, 

 and for a time had the Alert. In the autumn of 

 1874, for a third time he was sent to the acad- 

 emy, and for four years he was at the head of 

 the department of physics. At the close of his 

 term he went to Separation, Wyo., with the party 

 under Simon Newcomb, to observe the total 

 eclipse of the sun, July 29, 1878. From 1879 to 

 1882 he commanded the Swatara on the Asiatic 

 station, and then returned to Washington, where 

 he was made assistant superintendent of the 

 Naval Observatory. His interest in astronomy 

 was considerable, and his associates say that he 

 spent night after night at the telescope. In 1884 

 he represented the United States in the Interna- 

 tional Prime-Meridian Council, held in Washing- 

 ton, which had for its object the fixing upon a 

 common prime meridian and a common system of 

 time. From 1885 to 1886 he was superintendent 

 of the torpedo station at Newport, and he there 

 became familiar with the practical manufacture 

 of high explosives. During this time he was also 

 a member of the Board of Fortifications and Other 

 Defenses for the Coast. In 1886 he was one of 

 the representatives of the United States at the 

 Intel-national Marine Conference in Washington. 

 In September, 1886, he returned to the Naval 

 Academy as superintendent, and for four years 

 he had entire charge of its work. His conspicu- 

 ous .fitness for that place was recognized, espe- 

 cially following the incumbency of Admiral Fran- 

 cis M. Ramsey, who had introduced radical and 

 much needed reforms; but he brought to bear 

 upon his work there " the same calm certainty 

 of plan and action which afterward disposed of 

 the Spaniards at Santiago." Prof. Ira N. Hollis 

 has written : " His services in improving the state 

 of training at the Naval Academy can not be over- 

 estimated. There were few officers in his squad- 

 ron (in 1898) who had not met him or served 

 with him in some capacity. It would be difficult 

 to fix the great value of this association during 

 a period when the navy was stripping off its 

 sails and putting on its armor." In his first 

 report as superintendent, he maintained that a 

 practise-ship should be a steam-vessel fitted with 

 the very latest appliances, and not an obsolete 

 sailing vessel or antiquated steam craft. He had 

 long insisted that the studies of the line and 

 engineer corps should be specialized at the end 

 of the third academic year, and in 1889 Congress 

 acted upon his recommendations. The senior 

 class was separated into divisions every year, 



and appropriate courses of study were assigned. 

 The work in the succeeding two years of sea 

 duty was also made distinct for line and. engineer 

 officers. Target-practise and trials in naval and 

 torpedo tactics were introduced. A better state 

 of discipline was reached, for he would never 

 unbend in matters of discipline, and work at the 

 academy began to move with the machine-like 

 precision and regularity for which Sampson was 

 always known. In his history of the Naval 

 Academy, Park Benjamin says: "When Com- 

 mander Sampson's tour of duty at the Naval 

 Academy ended there remained little for any one 

 else to do, save to keep the standard of efficiency 

 unimpaired." He was promoted captain in 

 March, 1889, and received command of the San 

 Francisco, the first modern steel cruiser, pioneer 

 of the new navy when it was placed in commis- 

 sion, which he then had for two years on the 

 Pacific station. In 1892 he returned to Washing- 

 ton, and was made superintendent of the naval 

 gun factory, and a year later was made chief of 

 the Bureau of Ordnance, which place he held 

 until 1897. Although the building of the gun 

 factory was begun while Sampson was at sea, it 

 was still incomplete when he was placed in 

 charge of it, and under his supervision impor- 

 tant improvements were made. Every gun built 

 for the navy from 1893 until the beginning of 

 the Spanish War was designed and construct- 

 ed under his supervision. When made chief 

 of the Bureau of Ordnance he continued the 

 policy of keeping large reserve supplies of ammu- 

 nition, for the reason, as he wrote in one of his 

 reports, " not only because at any moment an 

 emergency may arise, making them urgently nec- 

 essary, but also to prevent the scattering of the 

 skilled labor which has developed this manufac- 

 ture, and keep occupied plants which were estab- 

 lished solely to meet the Government demands." 

 The general adoption of hard-faced armor by 

 naval vessels occurred during his administration 

 of the Bureau of Ordnance; and he introduced 

 the soft cap for armor-piercing projectiles; the 

 use of electric power for operating turrets and 

 ammunition hoists; telescopic sights, and many 

 other important details. It was also during his 

 administration that the smokeless powder was 

 perfected by experiments at the torpedo station 

 in Newport and in the naval proving-grounds, 

 where in rapid-fire guns its ballistic effects and 

 keeping qualities proved equa 1 to powder accepted 

 abroad as satisfactory. In 1895 smokeless powder 

 for 6-pounder rapid-fire guns was by his direction 

 put on board ship. As chief of the Bureau of Ord- 

 nance he was also a member of the Advisory 

 Board, and the Board of Construction for Build- 

 ing Vessels from 1892 to 1897, and according to 

 Mr. Stayton, " while he had much to do with 

 the general design of all the ships constructed in 

 that period, he had absolute individual charge of 

 the distribution of the battery armor, the turrets, 

 and the barbettes, which enabled him to carry 

 out his idea of giving to our ships an all-round 

 fire, enabling them to be almost as strong when 

 fighting bows-on as when fighting broadside-on, 

 and in this connection the design and arrange- 

 ment of the batterie's of absolutely every vessel 

 engaged at Santiago (except the Gloucester) was 

 Sampson's personal work. He is also entitled 

 to the credit for the preparation of a new drill 

 book and the establishment of a system of target- 

 practise, which included not only drilling of 

 crews, but also the drill and training necessary 

 for bringing individual vessels together. In sub- 

 stance, therefore, it was Sampson who designed 

 and built the guns; designed and built the projec- 



