ARCHIBALD O. HARRINGTON, ENS, USN

Archibald Harrington '20

Date of birth: June 11, 1896

Date of death: September 25, 1922

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1920 Lucky Bag:

Archibald Orme Harrington

Freeport, New York

"Arch" "Harry" "Prince Ham"

ALTHOUGH Harrington has lived in New York since quite small, he is still true to the State of his birth, Georgia. He is proud of her, and has admitted only one imperfection—that being her border on the north. Not withstanding his name, he isn't a bad fellow. His intense desire to be a man led him to smoke a cigar, much to his regret, at Old Point Youngster cruise. By doing so, he earned the title of "Prince Hamlin." One other time he has tried to be hard, but the sight of a Plebe, likewise burning oil, convinced him that he did not really want to do so—after which he gave away the remainder of his plug and decided to be a good boy.

The "Prince" is a dense sleeper. A Baby Ben and a Jimmy Legs together have never succeeded in getting him turned out before late blast. And if in the future his wife should desire to make him truly happy, she need only have a radiator convenient for him to lounge on between reveille and breakfast, or better still, not to make him turn out till thirty seconds before breakfast.

In seamanship he is remarkable. Even during his Youngster year he was able to suggest to a lieutenant commander that during a dense fog a ship should use a stadimeter freely. There was only one thing he didn't know—how to get an anchor to the bottom in eighty fathoms

"Arch" has worked hard at track, and has never dragged—the future holds much for him.

Honors: One Stripe; Track Numerals.

The Class of 1920 was graduated in June 1919 due to World War I. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Archibald Orme Harrington

Freeport, New York

"Arch" "Harry" "Prince Ham"

ALTHOUGH Harrington has lived in New York since quite small, he is still true to the State of his birth, Georgia. He is proud of her, and has admitted only one imperfection—that being her border on the north. Not withstanding his name, he isn't a bad fellow. His intense desire to be a man led him to smoke a cigar, much to his regret, at Old Point Youngster cruise. By doing so, he earned the title of "Prince Hamlin." One other time he has tried to be hard, but the sight of a Plebe, likewise burning oil, convinced him that he did not really want to do so—after which he gave away the remainder of his plug and decided to be a good boy.

The "Prince" is a dense sleeper. A Baby Ben and a Jimmy Legs together have never succeeded in getting him turned out before late blast. And if in the future his wife should desire to make him truly happy, she need only have a radiator convenient for him to lounge on between reveille and breakfast, or better still, not to make him turn out till thirty seconds before breakfast.

In seamanship he is remarkable. Even during his Youngster year he was able to suggest to a lieutenant commander that during a dense fog a ship should use a stadimeter freely. There was only one thing he didn't know—how to get an anchor to the bottom in eighty fathoms

"Arch" has worked hard at track, and has never dragged—the future holds much for him.

Honors: One Stripe; Track Numerals.

The Class of 1920 was graduated in June 1919 due to World War I. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

Archibald was lost on September 25, 1922 when the seaplane he was piloting crashed into Pensacola Bay. He was a student at the time and the only person aboard the plane.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

When Archibald was four years old, his mother, Jane (Orme,) died unexpectedly on June 29, 1900, after a short operation in Atlanta, Georgia. She never recovered from the ether. His father William H. was a wealthy cotton broker and had sailed just two days earlier on the Germanic on a business trip to Europe. They had only been married for seven years and were currently living with Jane’s sister Julia and brother Joseph.
Archibald’s father died on October 29, 1906, and was buried next to his first wife, Sara “Annie” (Zachny.) She had died in 1887. Their children were Alfred, John M., Frank, and William H, Jr.
John M. became an attorney in Manhattan, and in 1900, he was living with his brothers Alfred, a physician, Frank, a bank clerk, and William, Jr., a clerk for a wholesale company. John later married and had three sons; they lived at 231 Pine Street, in Freeport/Nassau, Long Island, New York. John appeared for the government in the torpedo litigation with the E. W. Bliss Company in the early 1920s. The litigation was about a former Michigan Senator Charles A. Towne paving the way with Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels to remove penalties for late delivery of torpedoes and to release new contracts to the Bliss Company.
After his father’s death, Archibald attended New York City schools and the Pratt Institute. He lived with John’s family until he was nominated to the Naval Academy by Representative Frederick C. Hicks.

He is mentioned without any details in this family genealogy.

Archibald is buried in Georgia.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

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.