James Harvey Tomb-- Part 1: U.S. Navy and U.S. Merchant Marine

In my Running the Blockade:  Civil War Navy blog I have been writing about a Confederate naval officer by the name of James Hamilton Tomb, who had quite a career in submersibles and torpedoes as well as the Brazilian Navy.  While looking for information on him, I came across the names of two more U.S. naval officers with the last name of Tomb who I thought perhaps were the sons of him.

It turns out that they were.  But since their service was not in the Civil War, I will write about them in this blog.

From Wikipedia.

JAMES HARVEY TOMB  (September 2, 1876 - September 23, 1946)

Served as Superintendent of the New York of the New York State Merchant Marine Academy and was appointed the first Superintendent of the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1942.  He was also a U.S. Navy officer for 27 years.

He was a USNA graduate and an excellent marksman.  During World War I, he commanded the destroyer USS Hull in 1907 and USS Chauncey from 1908 to 1909.  Of interest to my War of 1812 readers, both of these destroyers were named after War of 1812 naval heroes, Isaac Hull and Isaac Chauncey.

During World War I, he commanded the former coastal liner Aroostook during the laying of the North Sea Mine Barrage that bottled up the German fleet.

--Cooter