AUGUSTUS S. MULVANITY, LTJG, USN
Augustus Mulvanity '23
Lucky Bag
From the 1923 Lucky Bag:
Augustus Shea Mulvanity
Nashua, New Hampshire
"Gus" "Mid" "Irish" "Profanity"
IN English, dear reader, it's " Blessington." "Oh yes, you say that is a French name, don't you?" You might as well believe it because French (Canadian) comes second nature to him.
Mul has names but he's not particular which you use except once,—ask the fellow he crowned with the Springfield. However you're not the next because he has an inexhaustible store of good nature, evident at all times.
There are reasons why Mul isn't among the Elite scholastically. As a result he possesses off-hand, far above the average, stores of general information on any subject. He's at home in a discussion of heolithic Culture or French Romance of the nth century. He disagrees with H. G. Wells at times and adds at others.
Mul isn't a stellar athlete but when it comes to catch-as-catch-can rough-houses, his favorite sport, next to heaving his wicked line, though he may start at the bottom he'll eventually gain the top.
Log Staff (4); Class Football (4); Class Water Polo (2, 1).
Augustus Shea Mulvanity
Nashua, New Hampshire
"Gus" "Mid" "Irish" "Profanity"
IN English, dear reader, it's " Blessington." "Oh yes, you say that is a French name, don't you?" You might as well believe it because French (Canadian) comes second nature to him.
Mul has names but he's not particular which you use except once,—ask the fellow he crowned with the Springfield. However you're not the next because he has an inexhaustible store of good nature, evident at all times.
There are reasons why Mul isn't among the Elite scholastically. As a result he possesses off-hand, far above the average, stores of general information on any subject. He's at home in a discussion of heolithic Culture or French Romance of the nth century. He disagrees with H. G. Wells at times and adds at others.
Mul isn't a stellar athlete but when it comes to catch-as-catch-can rough-houses, his favorite sport, next to heaving his wicked line, though he may start at the bottom he'll eventually gain the top.
Log Staff (4); Class Football (4); Class Water Polo (2, 1).
Loss
Augustus was lost on June 10, 1930 when the ship he was aboard, SS Fairfax, collided with the tanker SS Pinthis. Fairfax caught fire and caused the death of 27 people aboard, including Augustus, his wife, and his young daughter. Pinthis sank with the loss of all twenty crew.
Other Information
From Find A Grave:
Nashua Telegraph Jun 16, 1930 front page and page 2
Impressive and solemn services with full military rites accorded an officer who died in the service of his country were given the remains of Lieutenant Augustus Shea Mulvanity, United States Navy, and 20 month old daughter Eileen, who with Mrs. Mulvanity were among the victims of the Fairfax disaster off Scituate, Tuesday night, yesterday afternoon. The body of the wife, Mrs. Lucille Buckley Mulvanity had not been recovered as yet from the sea at the scene of the disaster. Rev. Matthew Creamer, permanent rector of the church gave a short eulogy in which he praised the bravery of Lieutenant Mulvanity in his brave effort to save his wife and child and asked the congregation to rise and say three "Our Fathers" for the recovery of the body of Mrs. Mulvanity, to offer some little consolation to the grief stricken parents of the girl.
The Chattanooga Daily Times on June 14 reported that he had saved J. V. Eubank, quartermaster of the Fairfax, by throwing him a life preserver. Eubank made his way to a life raft, and "called to Mulvanity to join him, but the lieutenant, struggling to keep his family together, called out that he preferred to remain where he was in the hope they would be picked up. The Mulvanitys later drowned."
The Boston Globe reported on June 12 that he was on the way to Norfolk for duty at the Navy Yard.
Augustus and Lucille had married in June 1924. He was survived by his parents.
Silver Lifesaving Medal
The February 1934 Bureau of Navigation Bulletin reported the Treasury Department (presumably via the Coast Guard) had awarded him the Silver Lifesaving Medal.
In recognition of his action in rescuing from drowning the quartermaster of the S.S Fairfex when on 10 June 1030 that vessel was in collision with the oil tanker Pinthus in Massachusetts Bay. Lieutenant Mulvanity lost his life in the disaster.
From the Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 145 (November 22, 1930):
For calm deportment, self-sacrifice, and disregard of personal danger under unusual and trying circumstances while a passenger on board the Steamship Fairfax, which was in collision with the Oil Tanker Pinthis. Mulvanity rendered great assistance in calming passengers, rendering first aid, and in saving the Quartermaster of the Fairfax, J. V. Eubank, from drowning, despite the loss of his entire family in the catastrophe.
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.
July 1924
September 1924
November 1924
January 1925
March 1925
July 1925
October 1925
January 1926
October 1926
January 1927
April 1927
October 1927
January 1928
April 1928
July 1928
October 1928
January 1929
April 1929
July 1929
October 1929
January 1930
April 1930
Note
Though the ship he was aboard was obviously not a warship, it seems it was teeming with members of the naval service. Nearly every issue of the Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin in 1930 included commendations for servicemen men aboard.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
