HORACE N. CRABB, LT, USN

Horace Crabb '47

Date of birth: unknown

Age: 36

Loss

Horace's died of liver disease on March 10, 1861, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was married; the funeral was at the home of his father-in-law.

This site on his father, "Captain Horatio Nelson Crabb" has death record information for Horace; the place and date of death match, as does the rank. (The Captain also died in 1857, not 1861.) Horace was 36; his date of birth was about 1828. He was buried the day after he died in Philadelphia.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Serving on the Cyane from July 1846 to October 5, 1847, Horace was sent home by Commander S. F. Dupont because of sickness from exposure. Dupont wrote: “It gives me pleasure to state that I have ever found him subordinate and efficient as an officer. He has had for periods of time, charge of a watch at sea, in which duties he always acquitted himself with credit. In the cutting out of a Mexican brig from the Harbour of Guaymas, he performed good service with the launch’s gun, while lying between the brig and the shore, showing skill and gallantry.” The brig was the Condor, and the Pittsburgh newspaper entitled the story “A Brilliant Affair of our Gallant Navy.”
In March 1848, Horace was in the hospital in Pensacola with what he called “ship’s fever” and later traveled home to Philadelphia. In July that year, he was residing in Lawrence and Westminster, Massachusetts, for his health. He served shortly on the ship Relief in 1850, but he was still ill having been ten years at sea.
Because of ill health again while on the Walker, he was transferred to the Ohio in August 1856. He made a mistake while onboard that ship by mixing drink with opiates so that he could sleep. The next morning, he was charged with drunkenness, and in his letter of February 21, 1857, he said that he was guilty of this” disgraceful crime” and had “nothing to offer in extenuation of my crime except thoughtlessness.” He begged for leniency, especially since having his young wife Martha to support, and he wrote: “I solemnly before my God swear never again to indulge myself in any kind of intoxicating liquors whatsoever.” He was notified on March 26 of the sentence of the court martial: “To be suspended from duty for three years on half pay and a public reprimand from the Secretary of the Navy.”
In May 1858, he offered his services as there was a call for officers, but it would be February 1859 before he was reinstated. He had neuralgia and rheumatism at the time but reported for duty in April on the Portsmouth.
In October 1860, Horace was sent home for illness and arrived there in December. He died the next March and was buried in Ronaldson’s Cemetery in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this cemetery was obliterated in 1950 with all burials moved to Forest Hills Memorial Park in Huntingdon Valley. However, there is no current listing for Horace there. The old cemetery is now the Frank Palumbo Recreation Center and playground.

His father — Captain Crabb from above — was a Marine officer; he had three brothers and a sister. This site also gives his middle name as Nelson. A more clear layout of the family tree is available here; note the spelling of the last name as "Crabbe." Some other information may be gleaned from RootsWeb.

He was born in, and appointed to the Naval Academy from, Pennsylvania.

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 19 October, 1841. Passed Midshipman, 10 August, 1847. Master, 14 September, 1855. Lieutenant, 15 September, 1855. Died 10 March, 1861.

He was a midshipman aboard the sloop Cyane (1837) in 1846; the ship had "sailed from Norfolk August 10, 1845 to relieve the Levant, was at Monterey July 7, 1846, at the taking possession of California."

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.