Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/573

Rh He was graduated from the Naval Academy at the beginning of the Civil War, and was a lieutenant when peace was declared.

There were few of the younger officers in the navy who had so good a record, and one incident of his service reflects unbounded credit on his coolness and nerve. He was the senior officer on the monitor "Patapsco," under command of Lieutenant-Commander S. P. Quackenbush, January 15, 1865, when the "Patapsco" was blown up in Charleston harbor by a torpedo and sank in fifteen seconds. On the evening of the 15th the "Patapsco" and the "Lehigh" were sent up the channel to drag for torpedoes, and, if possible, to learn the nature and positions of any obstructions placed in the channel by the Confederates. Sampson was on top of the turret, and the "Patapsco" was drifting slowly up the harbor, when the explosion came. "My first impression, on hearing the report," he said in his official report, "was that a shot had struck the overhang just below the water; but the column of smoke and water which immediately shot upward convinced me of the real nature of the explosion. The order to start the pumps was immediately given by you down through the turret. So impracticable did the execution of the order appear the next instant, that I did not repeat it. You immediately afterwards gave the order to man the boats. Although these orders were given in rapid succession, only the officer of the deck, who stepped from the turret into the boat, and one man had time to obey the last order before the boat was afloat at the davits. Owing to the wise precaution of having the picket boats near at hand, all those who were on deck at the time were saved. None escaped from below, except the engineer and firemen on watch, and one man who passed through from the berth-deck into the fire-room and up the hatch. … From my position on the ridge rope round the turret, while conning the vessel, I was not able to avail myself of your order to man the boats. I was soon picked up by one of the picket launches, and immediately ordered the officer in command to pull up the harbor in the hope of picking up others." In his report to the Secretary of the Navy, the commanding officer said, "The cool intrepidity displayed by Lieutenant Sampson, my executive officer, deserves the highest praise."

Sampson is known throughout the service for just such qualities as he displayed aboard the "Patapsco." He is not an affable man; but he is always the gentleman, and he is as unassuming as he is sagacious and brave. The chiefs of bureaus in the Navy Department are entitled by courtesy to the rank of commodore, but Sampson never availed himself of the privilege. When he was at the head of the Bureau of Ordnance, strangers entering his office would frequently address him as "Commodore." "Captain, if you please," was his invariable response, spoken modestly and simply. He never cared for honors which he had not fairly won.

Commodore Winfield Scott Schley, commanding the Flying Squadron, has shown his bravery and his indomitable pluck in times of peace as well as war. He was born in Maryland, and when the Civil War broke out had just been graduated from the Naval Academy. Throughout the war he was actively in service, engaged in numerous encounters and skirmishes, in all of which he acquitted himself like a genuine fighting American seaman. He is one of the few officers of the navy who saw actual service during the long period of peace between Appomattox and the outbreak of the war with Spain.