BENNET I. RILEY, MIDN, USN

Bennet Riley '56

Date of birth: 1835

Age: ~19

Loss

Bennet Israel Riley was lost sometime after September 28, 1854 when USS Albany (1846) went missing between Aspinwall (now Colón, Panama) and New York.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

On March 31, 1853, Bennet was on the St Lawrence and was to be sent home. His father died on June 9, and Bennet arrived at the Astor Hotel in New York City on September 2.
On January 14, 1854, Bennet was on the Albany which left St. Thomas on December 27, 1853. The Albany arrived on January 19 at San Juan from Aspinwall. She next went to Kingston, Havana, and the United States. She left Pensacola on June 29.

He was the son of Bennet C. Riley, who was once military governor of California.

He has a memory marker in New York.

Letters

From the Buffalo History Museum, Bennet Riley Papers, Mss. A00-375 Folder 5:

VALPARISO
U. S. Frigate St. Lawrence
March 31st 1853
My dear Father:
I commence this letter for two reasons. The first is because there are strong prospects of my returning home (via Cape Horn) and the other in answer to your letter of the 4th of July 1852 which I received by a sailing vessel from Honolulu to which place it had been forwarded. This morning I was surveyed by a board of officers to see wether [sic] I would be able to do duty in this squadron or not, I have not heard their decision yet but Dr. Tinslar says I will be condemned – I will keep this letter open as long as I can however in order to let you know their decision – and if possible to tell you at what port in the U. S. you may expect me to arrive at as I wish you dear father to try and get me a leave of absence to be left at the Navy Yard that I shall report at and also to leave a letter telling me where you reside as I will be perfectly in the dark on that subject. The reason I ask you to have a leave ready for me is because I would have to go to the Naval Hospital if I have none.
As dearest Mother will of course read this you must tell her not to be at all alarmed at my coming home on the sick-ticket that it is this changeful climate that drives me home, and I also requested to be surveyed for that purpose. We have had a very hard time aboard ship since yesterday morning we have had a pretty heavy blow from the No which has kicked up a very heavy sea and our ship has been pitching and rolling worse than if she had been at sea. Two or three vessels have sunk at their anchors others have dragged ashore. I have not heard of any loss of life however.
I see in the papers that a bill for your relief had passed the Senate & House I am glad that you have at last succeeded dear father as I think they kept you long enough in trying to get it passed. I am happy to hear that Miss Maria Whitaker has received some of my letters. I do not think however I will trouble her with any more as she does not see fit to answer them. Besides I do not like the description Mother gives of her not as regards beauty. It seems also that Miss Carolina Thayer was offended at the rough and inelegant manner of the note I addressed to her in answer to a remark she made with regard to marriage. So I think I had better not write any more letters to young ladies unless relatives. I am afraid the Buffalo girls will be disappointed if they expect me to be a gallant, as I must say, I am at present no admirer of the female sex that is the married ones. I suppose if I live however that I must of course fall in love and retract all I have said of them. I received a letter from cousin Lewis Waters by this last mail. Our old ship the “Iowa” has been in here. She is under Peruvian colors and they have so altered her that she does not look like the fine old ship that we doubled Cape Horn in. There has been two fires ashore since we have been in here and all the Men of War (of which there were two or three Englishmen, the same number of Frenchmen, one Brazilian & ourselves) sent their Boats & Engines and I am happy to say (for the credit of this ship & of our Navy) that the old St. Lawrence’s men behaved better and as much good as any other Man of War’s crew there.
I have now learned that I have been condemned and will come home in the Am. Ship “Warren” bound to New York. I expect to arrive there some time in July. I must now close hoping that God will allow me to see my dear parents & relatives before many months have passed. Give my love to mother, Aunt Susan and Brothers & Sisters. Respects to all friends, and believe me as ever
Your affectionate Son
B I Riley
Second letter:
U. S. Sloop of War Albany
Aspinwall Navy Bay
January 14, 1854
My dear Mother
I intended to have written to you from La Grayra [La Guaira, Venezuela] but missed the vessel which was to take my letter so I will copy some of it in this. You have an account of my travellings up to reaching St. Thomas by Pamelia’s letter so I will commence from that date. We left St Thomas on the 27th of December 1853 our departure being hastened by the cholera spreading very largely over that place. The U. S. Frigate “Columbia” which lay very close to us having the small pox on board also, so to keep disease out of our ship we put to sea not without many misgivings and fears that we had remained even there too long and sickness might appear after we got out but God in his infinite mercy stretched a protecting hand over our ship and shielded me from that fell disease. I have heretofore imagined that I would be very much alarmed on being brought into contact almost with the Cholera but at St. Thomas I with two or three other officers passed through the infected district and although it was a painful sight to see the poor people scared to death running around like mad and frantically crying out for help from the Cholera then suddenly seized with cramps probably from fear fall down but in all manner of positions and forms still calling (some in a moaning and entreating others in a loud and imperative manner) for help and when help was extended to them they would not avail themselves of it but lay down where they were and die. I say although a painful sight still it did not intimidate me in the least but nevertheless I thank our Heavenly Father that he has preserved me in health. They keep fires of Tar &e burning all round the sickly district. The average number of deaths per day while we were there was from sixty to seventy and up to four o’clock on the morning we left there had been 54 deaths the preceeding night so you see the disease has been very fatal considering that the population is only ten thousand of which number, by the by, five eights are black, one eighth white and the remainder two eighths is composed of mulattoes and guadxxxs. The principal language spoken is English although the Island belongs to the Danes. As we stood out of the harbor we had a fine view of the respective Castles of Blue Beard and Black Beard the former of these worthies you know is celebrated in Fairy Stories for having so many wives none of whom where [sic] able to please him. If we had staid in port long enough I should have visited them and no doubt they would have afforded me a great deal of pleasure. We arrived at La Grayra on Sunday New Year’s Day after a very pleasant run from St Thomas we found we would have to anchor about a mile from shore and as there is no harbor there we were rolling and tossing about worse than if we had been at sea. We also found that on account of the place being so exposed to the sea the landing was very difficult and sometimes dangerous. A few days only before we arrived there was a sad catastrophe happened. A boat belonging to a German vessel laying there was sent ashore after the Captain of that vessel they went ashore and in landing the surf took the boat turned it over and not a man was seen to rise again. They were probably taken by the undertow and carried out to sea and very likely drowned by sharks. The second day after we arrived I came very near sharing the same fate I was sent ashore in one of our boats after the American Consular Agent and in attempting to land the boat crew did not obey my orders promptly being rather scared and so the boat got around in spite of me and came very near turning turtle and spilling Poor Pil. but fortunately she did nothing more than allowing a little water to come in and wet me which was not very unpleasant considering the weather was so warm. The land about this place is very high and much broken up by mountains and valleys. The town contains about six thousand inhabitants of whom two thirds are of the half breed that is a mixture between Spaniards, Negroes, and Indians and the remainder are of tainted Spanish blood. It is a very miserable place. The houses are mostly low squalid and dirty the streets narrow dirty and very poorly paved. There is a large fort here in fact that part of the town which faces the sea is completely walled round, but they have not more than twenty small guns to their name and little or no powder with no money to buy it with. Being aid to Capt. [James T.] Gerry, I went with him aboard their Man of War here to pay an official visit (it is customary there to fire a salute but always on the departure of the visitors and not until the boat that contains them is clear of the guns) but these fellows fired as soon as we shoved off and in consequence filled Capt. Gerry’s face and my back with powder and two or three large burning wads fell into the boat. It was a miracle that none of us were hurt but such fortunately was the case. As I intend writing to Pamelia you will find some more news from me by getting her to read her letter to you. I supposed I will not be far out of the way now in offering my congratulations to Mrs. Stevenson upon an accession to her family. Jany 13th The steamer from New York has not yet arrived but we have late news by the ones from New Orleans. As I intend starting tomorrow with the Capt for Gorgona via Panama Rail Road I must now close. Give my love to all the dear ones at home and believe me as ever dear mother
Your affectionate Son
Bennet
P.S. Direct your letters by the Steamer that leaves in February and March to Havana care of the American Consul xxx.

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Acting Midshipman, 27 December, 1850. Midshipman, 14 July, 1852. Lost in the Albany, 28 September, 1854.

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.