Lucien Young
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Lucien Young (31 March 1852 – 2 October 1912) was an admiral of the United States Navy. His active-duty career included service in the Spanish-American War.
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[edit] Early life and career
Young was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on 31 March 1852. He was appointed a midshipman on 21 June 1869 and served in the practice ships Dale, Savannah, and Constellation before graduating from the United States Naval Academy on 31 May 1873.
Ordered to Alaska on 23 July 1873, Young, as a passed midshipman, was commended for extraordinary heroism when he saved the life of a seaman who had been knocked overboard.
Young was detached from Alaska at Lisbon, Portugal, and soon joined Hartford. Commissioned ensign on 16 July 1874, he joined Powhatan—on the North Atlantic Station—on 10 December of the following year.
[edit] Wreck of the USS Huron
Subsequently ordered to USS Huron, he served in that ship until her tragic grounding off Nags Head, N.C., on 24 November 1877.
The ship, en route to Cuban waters for survey duty, foundered shortly after 01:00 on the 24th. Ensign Young and an enlisted man—Seaman Antonio Williams—struggled ashore through the tumbling surf and gained the beach. Not receiving much assistance from an apparently apathetic group of bystanders, Young sent a horseman off at a gallop for a life-saving depot seven miles away while he, himself, although bruised and barefoot, walked four miles to yet another station, and, apparently finding it unmanned, broke in and got out mortar lines and powder for a Lyle gun.
The sheriff of the locality then took Williams and Young to a point abreast the wreck. By the time they arrived, however, the 34 survivors had already reached shore.
For his indefatigable efforts, Young received a commendation from the Secretary of the Navy; was awarded a gold medal by act of Congress from the Life-Saving service of the United States; was made an honorary member of the Kentucky legislature; and received advancement to the rate of master.
[edit] Sea and shore-based assignments, 1870s-1880s
Ordered to Portsmouth on 17 March 1878, he arrived in Le Havre, France, in time to take charge of a detail of men to serve at the Universal Exposition in Paris, France. Following that duty, he served in Portsmouth with the Training Squadron until he was detached from that ship on 5 April 1880.
Young's next tour of duty was ashore, in the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting; and, while there, he served for a time as naval aide to the Secretary of the Navy. Master Young then served successive tours of sea duty in the monitor Montauk and the training ship Minnesota. Next came service as executive officer of Onward and, finally, a tour holding the same office in Shenandoah. While in the latter, Young took part in the landings in Panama to protect American interests in the spring of 1885.
A series of assignments ashore followed: Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, R.I.; at the Naval War College at Newport; at the Bureau of Navigation, and at the office of Naval War Records—the activity then compiling the monumental documentary collection, the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies.
Young next returned to sea, serving successive tours in Detroit, Boston, Yorktown, and Alert.
[edit] Spanish-American War
Given command of Hist, Lieutenant Young placed that ship in commission and, during the Spanish-American War, took part in two engagements off Manzanillo, Cuba, and in the cutting of the cable between Cape Cruz and Manzanillo from late June 1898 to mid-August. Relieved of command of Hist in February 1899, Young received promotion to lieutenant commander on 3 March and became Captain of the Port of Havana on 22 August of the same year. In the spring of 1900, he became Commandant, Naval Station, Havana.
[edit] Explosion of the USS Bennington
Following his duty in Cuba, Young became lighthouse inspector in the 9th Naval District and served in that capacity into 1904. In March 1904, he was given command of Bennington (Gunboat No. 4) and was in command of that ship at the time of her boiler explosion in the summer of the following year. At San Diego on 21 July 1905, Bennington was preparing to get underway for sea; Commander Young and the ship's surgeon, F. E. Peck, were returning to the ship in a boat and were not far from the anchorage when the explosion occurred at 10:30. Young hurried back to the ship, took command, ordered her watertight compartments closed and her magazines flooded, and then secured the services of an Army tugboat nearby. For this accident, he was court-martialed, but was vindicated.[1]
[edit] Later assignments
Young later was assigned to duty at the Mare Island Navy Yard and was there at the time of the San Francisco earthquake and fire, and did much relief work.[2] Ultimately he became Captain of the Yard there before becoming Commandant of the Naval Station, Pensacola, and of the 8th Naval District. His area of command was later extended to include the 7th Naval District. He was appointed Rear Admiral in 1910.
[edit] Last years and legacy
Rear Admiral Young died at New York, N.Y., on 2 October 1912.
In 1942, the destroyer USS Young (DD-580) was named in his honor.
[edit] Works
- Simple Elements of Navigation (1898; second edition, 1898)
- The Real Hawaii (1899)
[edit] References
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
