HAILE C. T. NYE, LT, USN

Haile Nye '70

Date of birth: October 14, 1850

Age: 34

Naval Academy Register

Haile Collins T. Nye was admitted to the Naval Academy from Ohio on July 28, 1866 at age 15 years 9 months.

Naval Academy Photo Album

Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1869 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.

Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.

Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1869 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.

Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.

Loss

Haile died of "Oryoa fever" on July 30, 1885 in Peru.

Biographies

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Haile’s father Arius was a well-known attorney and judge in Marietta, Ohio, who died July 27, 1865. His mother Caroline moved to Brooklyn, New York, after her husband’s death and received a naval pension of $25/month after Haile’s death.
Beginning in 1870, Haile’s first ships were California, Narragansett, and Supply to France. From August 14 to October 16, 1872, he kept a logbook as the USS Kansas sailed from Key West to Nova Scotia. His logbook from December 2, 1872 to September 30, 1873, was written when he was on the USS Richmond commanded by Captain Thomas Pattison. This cruise went from the Delaware coast to Key West, Jamaica, Cuba, Rio de Janeiro, and the Strait of Magellan. The logbooks are currently housed in the New York Public Library.
The next four years, Haile was on Richmond, Colorado, the steamer Endeavor, Thomas R. Gedney, and on Pensacola. In 1878 he was assigned to the Asiatic Station and served on board the USS Monocacy.
In 1880, Haile was listed with his mother, sister Minna, a schoolteacher, and brother Theodore, an attorney, in Brooklyn. In July 1881, he had a three month leave in Japan. Returning to New York, he was stationed at the Navy Yard, and then in 1883 on Shenandoah in the Pacific Station. In 1883 and 1884 while stationed at the Navy Yard, he lived with his brother Theodore in Brooklyn. In July 1885, Haile was in Peru as an attaché of the American Legation and was to bring back the body of Captain Seth Ledyard Phelps. Unfortunately, Haile died of the same fever after being ill for six weeks.
Minister Charles Buck knew that Captain Phelps and Haile spent much time in the mountain valley where the disease was prevalent. San Bartolome was seemingly very pure, and the sky was clear. They spent many consecutive days “bathing in the mountain waters, hunting by day and sleeping in a box-car at night.” Some blamed the recently built railroad for turning up the dirt that released the disease. Minister Buck wrote that Haile “met the end with the calmness of a hero. I feel assured the service has lost in him a patriotic and gallant and a very promising officer.” Haile was buried in Peru.
Haile’s mother was Caroline (Sisson). Her lineage can be traced back to George Sisson who was born in 1682 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
The Nye lineage in the United States traces back to Jonathan born in 1649 in Sandwich, Massachusetts. His father Benjamin came to Lynn, Massachusetts, from Bidlenden, County Kent, in 1635. Haile’s grandmother was Minerva (Tupper) Nye. Her father, Haile’s great-grandfather Benjamin Tupper was a general in the Revolutionary War. He cofounded the Ohio Company of Associates in 1788. They founded Campus Martius which became Marietta, Ohio.
Haile had several half-siblings: Arius, Dudley, William, George, Harriet, and Virginia. Virginia married Henry Ford in 1862 and died in October 1865.

From "A Genealogy of the Nye Family:"

LIEUTENANT HAILE C. T. NYE, born at Marietta, Ohio, October 14, 1850. He early evinced a desire to go to sea and as a boy was unusually enterprising and courageous. He entered the Naval Academy from his native district in 1866, graduating in 1870. His first service was on the North Atlantic Station, soon after going to Europe on the "Supply" with stores for the French.
While attached to the "Kansas" he was engaged for some time in the canal survey in Nicaragua, and also on the coast survey for nearly three years. In this period he, together with Lieutenant Hunsicker, rescued Lieutenant Franklin from drowning off the coast of Massachusetts. While in Japan he made an extended walking tour, visiting many places, never before visited by any white person, among which was an ascension of the volcano Fusiyama. Soon after his arrival on the Pacific Station he was offered the post of naval attaché by the late Mr. Phelps, and had been there nearly a year at the time of his death. He spoke, read, and wrote the Japanese and Spanish languages and also had some knowledge of French and German. In the death of Lieutenant Nye the service lost one of its most accomplished officers and one greatly beloved. He was detailed by the United States Government to bring the remains of Minister Phelps to this country, but his distinguished career was cut short by his untimely death at Lima, Peru, July 30, 1885.

Haile has a memory marker in Ohio.