LEROY M. GARRETT, CDR, USN
Leroy Garrett '79
Leroy Mason Garrett was admitted to the Naval Academy from New York on September 16, 1875 at age 18 years 0 months.
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 1879 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 1879 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.
Biography & Loss
From The United States Army and Navy Journal on December 1, 1906:
A despatch from Honolulu announces that Lieut. Comdr. Leroy M. Garrett, USN, commanding the US fish commission steamer Albatross, was washed overboard from that ship on Nov. 21, while she was five hundred miles northwest of Honolulu. … Commander Garrett was a native of New York and was graduated from the US Naval Academy, which he entered in 1875. He was known as an efficient officer and in high standing in the world of science, and was intensely interested in fish studies of the deep sea. He was on the Alert of the Atlantic Station from 1879-1881, and joined the fish commission steamer Albatross in 1883, serving on her to 1885. He spent the winters on the Albatross, and the summers on geological survey. Among other assignments he served on the Iroquois and Adams on the Pacific Station, 1885-8; commanded the coast survey steamer Endeavor, 1888-9; special longitude duty, 1889-90; on the San Francisco, Pacific Station, December, 1890, to June, 1893; commanding coast survey steamer Endeavor, October, 1893-6; U.S.S. Armenia, 1808, and was on the Marblehead, Jan. 17, 1899, to 1901. He subsequently served on the Iowa and Maine, and he was assigned to command the Albatross in December, 1902. His death was the sad ending of a successful scientific trip of professors interested in the inhabitants of the deep sea. No one made a more thorough study of these fish than did Commander Garrett. Many fine specimens were obtained by the deep sea dredge that the Albatross carries. Some of the fish were brought up from a depth of two miles. Part of the record of the trip of the Albatross was the report that she had sighted an island that arose out of the ocean before those on board. Prof. H. Heath declares that he saw the island grow up in the midst of the Aleutian Islands at about the time San Francisco was shaken by the earthquake last April.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
In the mid-1860s when Leroy was about 7 years old, his father Samuel, a farmer, and his two young brothers Charles and Eddie died. When Leroy was 13, he lived with his mother Esther and sister Helen at the home of Roswell and Sabrina Barker in Plattsburgh, New York.
In February 1896, Leroy was scheduled to speak at the next meeting of the Plattsburgh Institute.
In June 1900, he was flag lieutenant stationed on the U. S. Flagship Iowa moored in Bremerton, Washington.
He was survived by his mother. He has a memory marker in Arlington National Cemetery.
Career
From the Naval History and Heritage Command:
Cadet Midshipman, 18 September, 1875. Graduated 10 June, 1881. Ensign, Junior Grade, 3 March, 1883. Ensign, 26 June, 1884. Lieutenant, Junior Grade, 19 February, 1891. Lieutenant, 21 May, 1895.
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.
January 1880
July 1881
January 1882
January 1883
January 1884
February 1885
February 1887
January 1888
January 1889
January 1890
January 1891
January 1892
January 1893
July 1894
January 1895
January 1896
January 1897
January 1898
January 1899
January 1900
January 1901
January 1902
January 1903
January 1905
July 1906
Memorial Hall Error
Leroy is listed in Memorial Hall as a LCDR. In the Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps of July 1906 he was listed as the most junior Commander in the entire Navy. (#121 of 121, but also the 231st most senior officer in the service).
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
