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135-552: In 1741 while returning from his second voyage at sea during the Great Northern Expedition , Danish-born Russian explorer Vitus Bering made the first European discovery of most of the Aleutian Islands, including Kiska. Georg Wilhelm Steller , a naturalist - physician aboard Bering's ship, wrote: On 25 October 1741 we had very clear weather and sunshine, but even so it hailed at various times in

270-607: A Baltimore socialite he had met while at the Naval Academy. They had become engaged in January 1903. She was living at West Point, New York , with her sister Florence, who had married an Army officer, Walter D. Smith . King and Egerton were married in a ceremony in the West Point Cadet Chapel on 10 October 1905. They had six daughters, Claire, Elizabeth, Florence, Martha, Eleanor and Mildred; and

405-708: A destroyer . He received his first command, the destroyer USS  Terry on 30 April 1914, participating in the United States occupation of Veracruz , escorting a mule transport from Galveston, Texas . He then moved on to his second command, a more modern destroyer, the USS ; Cassin on 18 July 1914. He also served as an aide-de-camp to the commander of the Atlantic Fleet destroyer flotilla, Captain William S. Sims . In December 1915, King joined

540-520: A naval cadet on 18 August 1897. He acquired the nickname "Rey", the Spanish word for "king". During the summer breaks, naval cadets served on ships to accustom them to life at sea. While still at the Naval Academy, King served on the cruiser USS  San Francisco during the Spanish–American War . During his senior year at the academy, he attained the rank of cadet lieutenant commander,

675-477: A brief interlude overseeing the salvage of USS  S-4 , for which he was awarded a gold star to his Distinguished Service Medal. He then became Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics under Moffett. The two quarreled over certain elements of Bureau policy, and King was replaced by Commander John Henry Towers and transferred to command of Naval Station Norfolk . On 20 June 1930, King became captain of

810-515: A connection with North America remained unanswered. This prompted Bering to propose a second Kamchatka expedition. They had originally planned to make one journey in a small boat to survey the coast of the rivers Lena and Yenisei. The expedition was originally under the control of Bering. Bering's main goal was to discover a passage or strait between America and Asia. During Bering's first expedition he did not complete this goal. Bering's deputy and successor, Alexi Chirkov or Aleksei Chirikov ,

945-669: A heavy drinker, he gave up hard liquor for the duration of the war in March 1941. In April 1941, King was summoned to Hyde Park, New York , where Roosevelt informed him of an upcoming conference with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , Winston Churchill , at Argentia . He went to Hyde Park again in July to make further arrangements. King found the old Texas to be unsuitable as a flagship, and on 24 April he switched to

1080-508: A joint general staff, but in the face of opposition from King, he backed down on the idea of an executive head of the services. Instead, Marshall pressed for a senior officer to act as a JCS spokesperson and a liaison between the JCS and the President. He nominated Leahy for the post, hoping that a naval officer would be more acceptable to King. King remained opposed, but Roosevelt was convinced of

1215-409: A law ( 10 USC Sec. 5942 ) requiring commanders of all aircraft carriers , seaplane tenders , and aviation shore establishments be qualified naval aviators or naval aviation observers . King therefore reported to Naval Air Station Pensacola , Florida, for aviator training in January 1927. He was the only captain in his class of twenty; although it also included Commander Richmond K. Turner , most of

1350-594: A lifetime membership of the United States Naval Institute . Due to the expansion of the navy, officers like King who had served three years at sea as an ensign became eligible for promotion to lieutenant ; only the few who failed to pass the examinations were promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) . This involved traveling to Washington, D.C. , for ten days of physical examinations and tests of his professional knowledge in May 1906. The final hurdle

1485-529: A mid-ocean meeting point, where they met escorts from the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy . The United States was now engaged in an undeclared war, although they were still restricted by the Neutrality Acts of the 1930s . On 31 October, the destroyer USS  Reuben James became the first U.S. warship to be sunk by a German U-boat . In response to this and other incidents, Congress amended

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1620-710: A mistake in appointing him. King had Willson retired in August 1942 due to heart conduction and replaced him with Edwards. When Turner went to the South Pacific for the Guadalcanal campaign , he was succeeded by Rear Admiral Charles M. Cooke Jr. . Although he was now based at the Navy Department in Washington, D.C., King wanted to be able to put to sea himself at any time. For his flagship, he selected

1755-644: A piece of Chinese silk in a "cellar" that was found on the island. Steller also first recorded the Steller's jay that bears his name, as well as having a sea cow, Steller's Sea Cow , named after him. Chirikov and the St. Paul headed back to Russia in October with news of the land they had found. Bering's ship was battered by storms, and in November his ship was wrecked on the shore of Bering Island , which many of

1890-634: A position with the Pennsylvania Railroad workshops, but returned to Lorain a year later. When King was eleven years old, the family moved to Cleveland , where his father was a foreman at the Valley Railway workshops, and King was educated at the Fowler School. He decided to go to work rather than high school, and took a position with a company that made typesetting machines. When it closed he went to work for his father. After

2025-634: A possible land bridge between northeastern Asia and the North America, a point of great relevance in contemporary discussion about the origins of humanity, among other matters. The common origin of humans was generally accepted, but it posed the problem of the origins of human settlements in the New World . To resolve the question of a land bridge, Peter the Great sent in 1719 the geodesists Iwan Jewreinow (1694–1724) and Fjodor Luschin (died 1727) to

2160-403: A request for $ 300 million to carry out the program. Edison was impressed, and wrote to Roosevelt, recommending that King be appointed CINCUS, but Roosevelt did not make the appointment, influenced by King's heavy drinking. The CNO, Admiral Harold R. Stark , considered King's talent for command was being wasted on the general board. In September 1940, Stark summoned King to his office, along with

2295-498: A result of the brief "friendly fire" engagement between U.S. and Canadian forces, 28 Americans and four Canadians were killed. There were an additional 130 casualties from trench foot . The destroyer USS  Abner Read hit a mine, resulting in 87 casualties. That night the Imperial Japanese Navy warships, thinking they were engaged by Americans, shelled and attempted to torpedo the island of Little Kiska where

2430-508: A separate campaign concurrent with the Japanese plan for the Battle of Midway . The Japanese captured the sole inhabitants of the island: a small United States Navy Weather Detachment consisting of ten men, including a lieutenant, along with their dog. (One member of the detachment escaped for 50 days. Starving, thin, and extremely cold, he eventually surrendered to the Japanese.) The next day

2565-583: A single ship landing. Starting in 1775, Kiska, the Aleutian Islands, and mainland Alaska became fur trading outposts for the Russian-American Company managed by Grigory Shelekhov . In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska with the Russian Empire . Kiska was included in the purchase. The Japanese No. 3 Special Landing Party and 500 marines went ashore at Kiska on June 6, 1942, as

2700-595: A son, Ernest Joseph King Jr. Mattie considered educated women to be vulgar. She took little interest in King's naval career, and confined her activities to her children and domestic affairs. King's next assignment was as a gunnery officer on the battleship USS  Alabama . King became a critic of shipboard organization, which was largely unchanged since the days of sail. He published his thoughts in Some Ideas About Organization on Board Ship in

2835-609: A special assignment: to improve the anti-aircraft defenses of the fleet. Experiments with radio-controlled drones making passes at ships in February 1939 had shown that they were very difficult to shoot down. Aircraft were flying faster and carrying bigger bombs, posing a greater threat to the fleet, which would soon be confirmed in combat. King looked over the plans for each type of ship and made recommendations as to what kind of guns could be installed, where they should be located, and what should be removed to make way for them. He prepared

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2970-530: A storm hit and the submarine suddenly rose to the surface. After an attempt to tow it failed, King made the difficult decision to sink it again. Eventually the divers succeeded in raising it and getting it to the New York Navy Yard . In 1925, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett , Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics , asked King if he would consider a transfer to naval aviation . King was unable to accept

3105-531: A submarine division, flying his commodore 's pennant from USS  S-20 . He never earned his Submarine Warfare insignia (dolphins), although he proposed and designed the now-familiar dolphin insignia. On 4 September 1923, he took over command of the Naval Submarine Base at New London . From September 1925 to July 1926, King directed the salvage of USS  S-51 , earning the first of his three Navy Distinguished Service Medals . The task

3240-843: A year, the family returned to Lorain, and King entered Lorain High School . He graduated as valedictorian in the Class of 1897; his commencement speech was titled "Uses of Adversity". The school was a small one; there were only thirteen classmates in his year. King secured an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland , from his local Congressman, Winfield Scott Kerr , after passing physical and written examinations in Mansfield, Ohio , ahead of thirty other applicants. He entered Annapolis as

3375-582: Is also a part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR) and contains the largest colony of least auklets (over 1,160,000 birds) and crested auklets . Research biologists from Memorial University of Newfoundland have been studying the impact of introduced Norway rats on the seabirds of Kiska since 2001. Much of the aftermath of World War II is still evident in Kiska. The slow erosion processes on

3510-475: Is traditional and habitual for us to be inadequately prepared. This is the combined result of a number of factors, the character of which is only indicated: democracy, which tends to make everyone believe that he knows it all; the preponderance (inherent in democracy) of people whose real interest is in their own welfare as individuals; the glorification of our own victories in war and the corresponding ignorance of our defeats (and disgraces) and of their basic causes;

3645-542: The United States Naval Institute Proceedings , which won a prize for best essay in 1909. "The writer fully realizes the possible opposition," he wrote, "for if there is anything more characteristic of the navy than its fighting ability, it is its inertia to change, or conservatism, or the clinging to things that are old because they are old." In addition to a gold medal, the prize came with $ 500 (equivalent to $ 17,000 in 2023) and

3780-786: The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS), which held its first meeting in Washington, D.C., on 23 January 1942. To parallel the British chiefs, the Americans formed the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), which held its first meeting on 9 February 1942. The Joint Chiefs of Staff initially consisted of Stark, King, General George C. Marshall , the Chief of Staff of the United States Army , and Lieutenant General Henry H. Arnold ,

3915-588: The First Kamchatka Expedition (1725 to 1731). The Second Kamchatka Expedition lasted roughly from 1733 to 1743 and later was called the Great Northern Expedition due to the immense scale of its achievements. The goal was to find and map the eastern reaches of Siberia , and hopefully the western shores of North America . Peter I had a vision for the 18th-century Russian Navy to map a Northern Sea Route from Europe to

4050-725: The Montana class while he was on the General Board on the grounds that they were too big to fit through the Panama Canal . Aircraft carriers were another matter; King strongly opposed Roosevelt's proposal in August 1942 to defer the Midway -class aircraft carriers on the grounds that they would consume too many resources and were unlikely to be completed until after the war. Eventually Roosevelt authorized them, but his forecast proved correct. However King gave way to Roosevelt on

4185-797: The Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island . He then became the navigator of the survey ship USS  Eagle , which conducted surveys of Cienfuegos Bay in Cuba. An eye injury resulted in his being sent to the Brooklyn Naval Hospital . When he recovered, he was ordered to report to the battleship USS  Illinois , which was berthed in Brooklyn . The Illinois was the flagship of Rear Admiral Arent S. Crowninshield , and King got to know Crowninshield's staff well. The staff offered him an assignment on

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4320-584: The Pacific Fleet on the same day. Legend has it that King said: "When they get into trouble, they call for the sons-of-bitches." John L. McCrea , Roosevelt's naval aide, asked King if he actually had said it. King replied that he had not, but would have if he had thought of it. The abbreviation CINCUS (pronounced "sink-us") seemed inappropriate after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , and on 12 March 1942 King officially changed it to COMINCH. Stark

4455-703: The Philippines campaign . It was noted that this would exacerbate the national labor shortage and adversely affect the munitions industry, and drastic measures might be required if the Army ran into more manpower difficulties, as indeed occurred. When war was declared on Germany, an attack on coastal shipping by U-boats was anticipated, as this was what had happened in World War I. On 12 December 1941, German U-boat commander, Vizeadmiral Karl Dönitz , ordered an attack, codenamed Operation Paukenschlag ("Roll of

4590-798: The SS ; Delphine , a luxury yacht formerly owned by the family of Horace Dodge , which King renamed USS Dauntless . King lived on board Dauntless , which spent most of the war at anchor at the Washington Navy Yard . When the American chiefs of staff, which included King and Stark, met with the British Chiefs of Staff Committee at the Arcadia Conference in Washington, D.C., from 24 December 1941 to 14 January 1942, they agreed to merge their organizations to form

4725-466: The St. Paul set sail from Petropavlovsk . Six days later they lost sight of each other in a thick fog, but both vessels continued to sail east. On July 15, Chirikov sighted land, probably the west side of Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. He sent a group of men ashore in a long boat, making them the first Europeans to land on the northwestern coast of North America . When

4860-604: The USS  S-4 . He qualified as a naval aviator in 1927, and was captain of the aircraft carrier USS  Lexington . He then served as Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics . Following a period on the Navy's General Board , he became commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet in February 1941. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , King was appointed as COMINCH, and in March 1942, he succeeded Admiral Harold R. Stark as CNO, holding these two positions for

4995-506: The aircraft carrier USS  Lexington —then one of the largest aircraft carriers in the world—which he commanded for the next two years. When not on duty, he enjoyed drinking, partying and socializing with his junior officers. He ignored complaints that some of his officers rented a secluded farmhouse where prohibition and blue laws were flouted. He enjoyed the company of women and had many affairs. Women avoided sitting next to him at dinner parties if they did not want to be groped under

5130-529: The destroyer USS  Terry in the occupation of Veracruz . During World War I , he served on the staff of Vice Admiral Henry T. Mayo , the commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet . After the war, King was the head of the Naval Postgraduate School and commanded submarine divisions . He directed the salvage of the submarine USS  S-51 , earning the first of his three Navy Distinguished Service Medals , and later that of

5265-485: The tundra have had little effect on the bomb craters still visible both from the ground and in satellite images on the hills surrounding the harbor. Numerous equipment dumps, tunnels (some concrete-lined), Japanese gun emplacements, shipwrecks , and other war relics can be found, all untouched since 1943. In 1983, a memorial plaque was placed on Kiska by the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment , inscribed: To

5400-483: The 13th Infantry Brigade from the 6th Canadian Infantry Division ), with supporting units including two artillery units from the 7th US Infantry Division, 95 ships including three battleships and a heavy cruiser, and 168 aircraft landed on Kiska , only to find the island completely abandoned. Despite the lack of Japanese presence, Allied casualties during this invasion nevertheless numbered close to 200, either from bad weather, Japanese booby traps or friendly fire . As

5535-601: The Aleutians, but to prevent a U.S. operation across the Kuril Islands . The U.S. Navy began operations to deny Kiska supply which would lead to the Battle of the Komandorski Islands . During October 1942, American forces undertook seven bombing missions over Kiska, though two were aborted due to weather. Following the winter, Attu was recaptured, and bombing of Kiska resumed until a larger American force

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5670-584: The Annapolis class of 1902 were being sent home from the Asiatic Fleet , he sought and obtained an audience with Rear Admiral Charles J. Train . Train agreed that King was entitled to go home and arranged for him to travel on the former hospital ship USS  Solace , which departed on 27 June. On returning to the United States, King rejoined his fiancée, Martha Rankin ("Mattie") Egerton,

5805-569: The Army declared a blackout of coastal cities on 18 May. The Germans had broken the American and British codes and sometimes lay in wait. Meanwhile, the German Navy added an extra wheel to its Enigma machines in April and the Allies lost the ability to decrypt its signals for ten months. The first requirement of an effective anti-submarine campaign was anti-submarine escorts. In 1940, when he

5940-642: The Atlantic Fleet." He was promoted to commander on 1 July 1917 and captain on 21 September 1918. After the war King adopted his signature manner of wearing his uniform with a breast-pocket handkerchief below his ribbons. Officers serving alongside the Royal Navy did this in emulation of the British Admiral David Beatty , the commander of the British Grand Fleet . King was the last to continue this tradition. After

6075-659: The Atlantic. On 17 December 1940, King raised his flag as Commander, Patrol Force (as the Atlantic Squadron had been renamed on 1 November) on the battleship USS  Texas in Norfolk, Virginia . When he examined the war plan in the safe, he found it was for a war with Mexico. His first order, issued three days later, was to place the Patrol Force on a war footing. He astonished subordinates by stating that

6210-467: The Bureau of Ships protested. By March 1944, it was estimated that the Navy would reach its manpower ceiling by August, and would require 340,000 more sailors by the end of the year for ships under construction, which included nine Essex -class aircraft carriers. On 2 July, King asked the Joint Chiefs to approve an increase of 390,000 men. The Army did not object, as it was more than 300,000 over its own personnel ceiling, and needed assault shipping for

6345-509: The CNO, Admiral William H. Standley , who sought to assert the power of the CNO over the bureau chiefs, was more tempestuous. With the help of Leahy and Swanson, King managed to block Standley's proposals. King appeared before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee , chaired by Congressman William A. Ayres , where he was questioned about the Bureau of Aeronautics's contractual arrangements with Pratt and Whitney . Although warned by his staff that an forthright answer could strain

6480-414: The CNO. Knox died from a heart attack on 28 April 1944, and Roosevelt nominated Forrestal as his replacement. As Under Secretary of the Navy, Forrestal was familiar with naval issues, and he had a good track record managing the navy's procurement program. He was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, but King and Forrestal clashed. The Navy had always thought in terms of ships, but more were on order than

6615-407: The Chief of the United States Army Air Corps . In his role as a member of the CCS and JCS, King became engaged in the formulation of grand strategy , which came to occupy the majority of his time. Roosevelt's Executive Order 8984 made COMINCH the commander of the operational forces of the navy, and "directly responsible, under the general direction of the Secretary of the Navy, to the President of

6750-541: The Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz , and offered King the command of the Atlantic Squadron . Nimitz explained that while King had been a vice admiral in his last seagoing command, he would only be a rear admiral for this one. King replied that he did not care, and accepted the position. However, his assumption of command was delayed for a month by a hernia operation, and then several more weeks while he accompanied Edison's successor, Frank Knox , on another inspection tour, this time of bases in

6885-440: The Germans withdrew their submarines from the western Atlantic. This emboldened Roosevelt to take further steps. He declared a National Emergency on 27 May. On 19 July, King issued orders creating Task Force 1, with the mission of escorting convoys to Iceland, which had been occupied by the U.S. Marines . Nominally, the convoys were American, but ships of any nationality were free to join. From 1 September, convoys were escorted to

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7020-415: The Japanese captured Attu Island . The military importance of this frozen, difficult-to-supply island was questionable, but the psychological impact upon the Americans of losing U.S. soil to a foreign enemy for the first time since the War of 1812 was tangible. During the winter of 1942–43, the Japanese reinforced and fortified the islands—not necessarily to prepare for an island-hopping operation across

7155-493: The Japanese soldiers were waiting to embark. Admiral Ernest King reported to the secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox , that the only things that remained on the island were dogs and freshly brewed coffee . Knox asked for an explanation and King responded, "The Japanese are very clever. Their dogs can brew coffee." In 1985 the Japanese occupation site on the island was designated a National Historic Landmark and part of Aleutian Islands World War II National Monument . The island

7290-408: The Navy Department, ordered a restructure on 28 May. It was opposed by Knox and the Under Secretary of the Navy , James V. Forrestal , who saw it a challenge to their authority, and by the bureau chiefs, who feared a loss of their autonomy. Most importantly, it was opposed by Roosevelt, who, on 12 June, ordered Knox to cancel everything King had done. Roosevelt did assent to King's proposal to create

7425-477: The Navy had personnel to crew them. The fleet grew faster than expected because plans assumed losses on the scale of 1942, but in fact they were much fewer. With the Navy now dominated by aviators and submariners, the easiest target for ship cancellations were the battleships. In May 1942, King had indefinitely deferred construction of five battleships, including all the Montana class , in favor of more aircraft carriers and cruisers. King had opposed construction of

7560-485: The Navy's aircraft carriers, and Commander, Aircraft, Base Force, a rear admiral who commanded the seaplane squadrons. King hoped to get the former assignment, but this was opposed by Standley, and at the conclusion of his term as bureau chief in 1936, King became Commander, Aircraft, Base Force, at Naval Air Station North Island , California. He survived the crash of his Douglas XP3D transport on 8 February 1937. Leahy succeeded Standley as CNO on 1 January 1937. King

7695-421: The Neutrality Acts in November, allowing merchant ships to be armed and to deliver goods to British ports. With the United States declaration of war on Germany on 11 December, the Atlantic Fleet was officially at war. On 20 December, King became CINCUS. Ten days later he hoisted his flag on USS  Vixen and was succeeded as CINCLANT by Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll . Nimitz became the Commander in Chief of

7830-497: The Pacific as COMINCH, but this was not possible because as a member of the JCS, King had to remain in Washington, D.C. The following year, Knox tried to have Horne, who dealt with most of the CNO work like preparing budgets and appearing before Congress, appointed as CNO. This too failed, as it required executive action by Roosevelt, and King elevated Edwards over Horne's head to the new position of deputy COMINCH and deputy CNO on 1 October 1944. Cooke replaced Edwards as chief of staff to

7965-400: The Pacific. This far-reaching endeavour was sponsored by the Admiralty College in Saint Petersburg . With over 3,000 people directly and indirectly involved, the Second Kamchatka Expedition was one of the largest such projects in history. Its cost, completely financed by the Russian state, reached an estimated 1.5 million rubles, an enormous sum for the time; roughly one sixth of the income of

8100-410: The Russian Senate to the Admiralty ordering the preparation of the undertaking, and the commissioning of Vitus Bering as its commander. Another Ukase on June 2, 1732, obligated the Russian Academy of Sciences to prepare instructions for the scientific component of the journey. A further Ukase on December 27, 1732, concerned the organization and the formal commissioning of the expedition. The expedition

8235-457: The Russian state in 1724. The achievements of the expedition included the European discovery of Alaska , the Aleutian Islands , the Commander Islands , Bering Island , as well as a detailed cartographic assessment of the northern and north-eastern coast of Russia and the Kuril Islands . It definitively refuted the legend of a land mass in the north Pacific, and did ethnographic, historic, and scientific research into Siberia and Kamchatka. When

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8370-523: The Sino-Russian border city of Kyakhta in Transbaikal and visited the mines near Argun . They then returned to Irkutsk for the winter. In the meantime, Müller located and investigated area archives and made copies and transcriptions, while Gmelin studied plants he had collected over the course of the summer. Their next destination was Yakutsk , where the participants in the academic component were to meet with Bering and were then meant to travel on to Kamchatka together. After their departure from Irkutsk,

8505-422: The St. Paul with Vitus Bering , Georg Wilhelm Steller was a naturalist by trade and contributed an considerable amount to the scientific observation and recording on the expedition. In his time on the journey, he sampled and recorded many plant and bird species that Europeans had never been exposed to. He was the first European to encounter and document the Aleut people. In June 1741, the ships St. Peter and

8640-414: The United States was already at war with Germany. In January 1941 King issued Atlantic Fleet directive CINCLANT Serial 053 , encouraging officers to delegate and avoid micromanagement, which is still cited widely in today's armed forces. The Patrol Force was designated the Atlantic Fleet on 1 February 1941. King was promoted to admiral and became the Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANT). Formerly

8775-542: The United States." There was considerable overlap between the roles of COMINCH and CNO, and on Stark's advice, Roosevelt combined the duties of the two with Executive Order 9096. On 26 March, King succeeded Stark as CNO, becoming the only officer to hold this combined command. On the same date, Horne became the Vice Chief of Naval Operations. Although King was both COMINCH and CNO, the two offices remained separate and distinct. Stark became Commander, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe . Edwards, Cooke and Horne remained with King for

8910-434: The academic group departed on August 8, 1733. In addition to the academy members Gmelin , Müller and Croyère , the group also included the Russian students Stepan Krasheninnikov , Alexei Grolanov, Luka Ivanov, Wassili Tretjakov and Fyodor Popov, the translator (also a student) Ilya Jaontov, the geodesists Andrei Krassilnikov, Moisei Uschakov, Nikifor Tschekin and Alexandr Ivanov, the instrument maker Stepan Ovsjanikov, and

9045-426: The academy as an adjunct for astronomy. In 1727 he was promoted to professor and was sent on a three-year exploration survey of Arkhangelsk and the Kola Peninsula , giving him some experience in exploration expeditions. The participants in the academic portion of the expedition were answerable not to its leader Bering, but to the Academy of Sciences. Each of the professors received a precise commission in regard to

9180-418: The accomplishment of their research program. The directions given to Croyère and his geodesists were written by his brother Joseph Nicolas. Gmelin wrote the instruction for his own research work in natural history. He received further instructions from the anatomist Johannes Georg Duvernoi (1691–1759), who had been part of the teaching faculty in Tübingen. Among other things, Duvernoi wanted to find out whether

9315-476: The afternoon. We were surprised in the morning to discover a large tall island at 51° to the north of us. Prior to European contact, Kiska Island had been densely populated by native peoples for thousands of years. Kiska, and the other Rat Islands, were reached by independent Russian traders in the 1750s. After the initial exploitation of the sea otter population, Russians rarely visited the island as interest shifted further east. Years would frequently pass without

9450-424: The base was dangerously vulnerable to aerial attack, although he was taken no more seriously until 7 December 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the base . King hoped to be appointed CNO or Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (CINCUS), but on 1 July 1939, he reverted to his permanent rank of rear admiral and was posted to the General Board , an elephants' graveyard where senior officers spent

9585-475: The chemical composition of curative waters. At the urging of his former teacher Georg Bernhard Bilfinger (1693–1750), Gmelin had moved to Russia with him in 1727. There he received a teaching post in chemistry and natural history in 1731. The academy chose the German historian and geographer Gerhard Friedrich Müller (1705–1783) to head the geographic and historical studies. Müller had studied in Rinteln and Leipzig and had gone to Saint Petersburg in 1725 on

9720-454: The class were ensigns or lieutenants. King received his wings as Naval Aviator No. 3368 on 26 May 1927 and resumed command of Wright . Between 1926 and 1936 King flew an average of 150 hours annually. For a time, he frequently flew solo, flying to Annapolis for weekend visits with his family, but his solo flying was eliminated by a naval regulation prohibiting them for aviators aged 50 or over. King commanded Wright until 1929, except for

9855-641: The construction of a cinder cone about 98 feet (30 m) high at Sirius Point on the north flank of Kiska Volcano, 1.9 miles (3.1 km) from the summit of the main cone ( Anchorage Daily News , January 30, 1962). A second eruption that produced a lava flow was reported to have occurred on March 18, 1964 ( Bulletin of Volcanic Eruptions , 1964). Since then, the volcano has emitted steam and ash plumes, as well as smaller lava flows. Great Northern Expedition The Great Northern Expedition ( Russian : Великая Северная экспедиция ) or Second Kamchatka Expedition ( Russian : Вторая Камчатская экспедиция )

9990-514: The core of the academy in its first decades. One of their tasks was to organize and eventually accompany scientific expeditions to then-unexplored parts of the empire . During Peter's lifetime, the German doctor Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt (1685–1735) traveled from 1720 to 1727 to western and central Siberia. This was the beginning of investigation in geography, mineralogy, botany, zoology, ethnography, and philology there, as well as an opening-up of

10125-399: The crew had perished during the voyage. Bering was among the crew to fall sick with scurvy and died on December 8, 1741. The stranded crew wintered on the island, with 28 crew members dying. When weather improved, the 46 survivors built a 40-foot (12 m) boat from the wreckage and set sail for Petropavlovsk in August 1742. Bering's crew reached the shore of Kamchatka in 1742, carrying word of

10260-453: The crew thought to be the coast of Kamchatka. Steller attempted to treat the crew's scurvy with local leaves and berries he had gathered, but officers dismissed him. Steller and his assistant were some of the few voyagers who did not suffer from scurvy. On the return journey, with only 12 members of the crew able to move and the rigging rapidly failing, the expedition was shipwrecked on what later became known as Bering Island . Almost half of

10395-669: The cruiser USS  Augusta once it had completed an overhaul. So it was that in August it was the Augusta that took Roosevelt to the Atlantic Conference , where King and British Admiral Sir Percy Noble worked out the details for the United States Navy escorting convoys halfway across the Atlantic. Rather than risk a conflict with the United States on the eve of the invasion of the Soviet Union ,

10530-882: The cruiser USS  Cincinnati , which was headed overseas, bound for the Far East via the Suez Canal . King was promoted to ensign on 7 June 1903, having taken his examination while the Cincinnati was in Europe. The Cincinnati spent several weeks at anchor in Manila Bay , where it conducted target practice. In February 1904 it sailed to Korea, where the Russo-Japanese War had broken out. It remained in Korean waters until October, when it went to China. It

10665-616: The drums" or "drumbeat"). The following day, King issued a warning to all Atlantic commands of an impending German U-boat attack. This did not occur immediately, because the U-boats had been withdrawn from the Western Atlantic and priority was accorded to operations in the Mediterranean. Some use was made of this respite to lay a defensive naval minefield and erect protective harbor anti-submarine nets and booms . Only

10800-505: The duration of the war, but more junior officers were brought in for periods of up to a year and then returned to sea duty. When King turned 64 on 23 November 1942, King wrote Roosevelt to say he had reached mandatory retirement age. Roosevelt replied with a note saying: "So what, old top? I may send you a birthday present." (The present was a framed photograph.) Stark left the JCS in March 1942 when King succeeded him as CNO, reducing its membership to three until July 1942. Marshall advocated

10935-857: The duration of the war. He also commanded the Tenth Fleet , which played an important role in the fight against the German U-boats in the Second Battle of the Atlantic . He participated in the top-level Allied World War II conferences , and took the lead in formulating the strategy of the Pacific War . In December 1944, he became the second admiral to be promoted to the new rank of fleet admiral. He left active duty in December 1945 and died in Kittery, Maine , in 1956. Ernest Joseph King

11070-696: The easternmost reaches of his empire. The expedition was unsuccessful, at least as to the land bridge question. In 1724, Peter gave the same task to another expedition, the First Kamchatka expedition . This undertaking, lasting from 1728 to 1730, was led by the Danish-born Russian captain Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681–1741), an officer in the Russian imperial navy since 1704. In the ship St. Gabriel , which had been built at

11205-418: The expedition failed to round the north-east tip of Asia, the dream of an economically viable Northeast passage , sought since the 16th century, was at an end. Systematic exploration and scientific discovery in the eastern part of Asia was at the initiative of Tsar Peter the Great (1672–1725). In December 1725, the institution was inaugurated with celebrations. Young, mostly German-speaking scholars formed

11340-555: The expedition was due not only to his desire to have access to historical sources through the expedition, but to spend some time away from Saint Petersburg. It was while engaged in this trip that he developed his concept of Ethnography . On the suggestion of the astronomer Joseph Nicolas Delisle (1688–1768), the Academy of Sciences entrusted the job of astronomical and geographic metrology to Delisle's younger brother, Louis de l'Isle de la Croyère (1690–1741). Louis had been working at

11475-585: The expedition. The sea otter pelts they brought, soon judged to be the finest fur in the world, would spark Russian settlement in Alaska . Ernest King Ernest Joseph King (23 November 1878 – 25 June 1956) was a fleet admiral in the United States Navy who served as Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) during World War II . He

11610-434: The first group failed to return, he sent a second, which also vanished. Chirikov weighed anchor and moved on. On roughly July 16, 1741, Bering and the crew of St. Peter sighted a towering peak on the Alaska mainland, Mount Saint Elias . Bering was anxious to return to Russia and turned westward. He later anchored his vessel off Kayak Island while crew members went ashore to explore and find water. Georg Wilhelm Steller ,

11745-542: The highest naval cadet ranking at that time. He graduated in June 1901, ranked fourth in his class of sixty-seven. The graduation address was given by the Vice President of the United States , Theodore Roosevelt , who handed out the diplomas. Graduates like King who went into the Navy had to serve for two years at sea before being commissioned as ensigns . King took a short course in torpedo design and operation at

11880-404: The history of all the cities the expedition would visit and collecting information about the languages of the groups they would meet along the way. The painters Johann Christian Berckhan (died 1751) and Johann Wilhelm Lürsenius (died around 1770), both of whom were part of the academic component, got special instructions. The academy directed all the researchers to prepare reports about the state and

12015-423: The inability of the average individual (the man in the street) to understand the cause and effect not only in foreign but domestic affairs, as well as his lack of interest in such matters. Added to these elements is the manner in which our representative (republican) form of government has developed as to put a premium on mediocrity and to emphasize the defects of the electorate already mentioned. Aware that Moffett

12150-537: The island is relocated closer to Russia and China, but the island's topography is replicated near-exactly, with elements of the game designed around it, instead of vice versa. Kiska Volcano (Qisxan Kamgii in Aleut) is an active stratovolcano , 5.3 by 4.0 mi (8.5 by 6.4 km) in diameter at its base and 4,006 feet (1,221 m) high, located on the northern end of Kiska Island. On January 24, 1962, an explosive eruption occurred, accompanied by lava extrusion and

12285-515: The issue of escort carriers ; while he believed that nothing smaller than the Essex -class aircraft carrier would be useful in the Pacific war, he accepted Roosevelt's argument that it was important to get new aircraft carriers in commission quickly. In 1943, with the war against the U-boats being won, King canceled 200 of the 1,000 destroyer escorts on order, but backed off canceling another 200 when

12420-415: The life of Edison's father starring Spencer Tracy . "I understand", Walsh told King, referring to a popular myth, "that you shave with a blowtorch." King replied that this was an exaggeration. Walsh liked the story so much he told everyone he met, and eventually had Tiffany & Co. make a scale model of a blowtorch, which he presented to King. When they returned to Washington, D.C., Edison gave King

12555-500: The long-range Type IX and some Type VII submarines could reach the Western Atlantic, so only six to eight U-boats were on station of the East coast between January and June 1942. The carnage began on 12 January, when a British steamer was sunk 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) off Cape Cod by U-123 . By the end of the month, U-boats had sunk thirteen ships totaling 95,000 gross register tons (270,000  m ). Few of

12690-419: The men of Amphibious Task Force 9 who fell here August 1943 placed here August 1983 by 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment. In September 1989, divers from the United States Navy rescue and salvage ship USS  Safeguard  (ARS-50) surveyed the wreck of the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine Ro-65 , which sank in the harbor at Kiska with the loss of 19 lives on November 3, 1942. On August 22, 2007,

12825-465: The merchant ships were armed and those that were, were no match for the U-boats. Each U-boat carried fourteen torpedoes , including some of the new electric model , which left no air bubbles in its wake, and had a deck gun capable of sinking many merchant ships. There was no seaboard blackout, as this was a politically sensitive issue—coastal cities resisted, citing the loss of tourism revenue. Waterfront lights and signs switched off on 18 April 1942, and

12960-602: The merits of the proposal. On 21 July 1942, Leahy was appointed Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy and became the fourth member of the JCS. As the senior officer, Leahy chaired its meetings, but he did not exercise any command authority. King and Marshall retained their direct access to the President. King had thirty-two official meetings with Roosevelt at the White House in 1942, but only eight in 1943, nine in 1944 and just one in 1945. Roosevelt

13095-631: The new Secretary of the Navy , recommended King, having been impressed by work in the salvage of the S-51 and S-4 . King became Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, and was promoted to rear admiral on 26 April 1933. As bureau chief, King worked closely with Leahy, who was now the chief of the Bureau of Navigation , to increase the number of naval aviators. Together they established the Aviation Cadet Training Program to recruit college graduates as aviators. His relationship with

13230-480: The offer at that time due to the salvage of S-51 , and he wanted command of a cruiser, which Leahy was unable to offer. King then accepted Moffett's offer, although he still hoped for a cruiser. He assumed command of the aircraft tender USS  Wright , with additional duties as senior aide on the staff of Commander, Air Squadrons, Atlantic Fleet. That year, the United States Congress passed

13365-456: The officer in charge of discipline at Bancroft Hall . King returned to sea duty in 1909, as flag secretary to Rear Admiral Hugo Osterhaus . After a year, Osterhaus was transferred to shore duty, and King joined the engineering department of the battleship USS  New Hampshire . He soon became the engineering officer. After a year on New Hampshire , Osterhaus returned to sea duty and King became his flag secretary once more. Fellow officers on

13500-468: The outlet of the Kamchatka River , Bering made two voyages northeast in successive years (1728 and 1729), and at one point reached 67 degrees north, from which point the coast no longer extended north. He failed to reach North America in either trip, due to adverse weather. Despite the new knowledge about the northeast coast of Siberia, Bering's report led to divisive debate, because the question of

13635-426: The painters Johann Christian Berckhan and Johann Wilhelm Lürsenius. Two soldiers accompanied them for their protection, together with a corporal and a drummer. The group used horses as land transportation and barges on water. The academic component's travel route took them first to Novgorod , Kazan , Jekaterinburg and Tyumen to Tobolsk , where they arrived in January 1734. In May, Gmelin and Müller separated from

13770-419: The peoples of Siberia could move their ears, whether their uvulas were simple, or split into two or three parts, whether Siberian males had milk in their breasts, etc. The physicist Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782) authored instructions intended for Croyère and Gmelin about the carrying out of series of physical observations. The historian Müller drafted his own plan of work. His chief goals consisted of researching

13905-479: The post of Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Aviation (DCNO (Air)), but in a note to Knox in August 1943 he wrote: "Tell Ernie once more: No reorganizing of the Navy Dept. set-up during the war. Let's win it first." With King reporting directly to Roosevelt and only under his "general supervision", Knox saw King as a threat to his authority. He attempted to remove King in 1942 by suggesting he assume command in

14040-482: The recommendation of a colleague. He became an extraordinary professor in 1730, and a year later was promoted to full professor. He researched Russian history intensively, resulting in the publication in 1732 of the first volume of the Collected History of Russia . Because of Müller's haughty bearing as the chancellor's secretary, there was frequent friction between him and his colleagues. His participation in

14175-482: The region to trade. Messerschmidt's Expedition was the first in a long series of scientific explorations of Siberia. Shortly before his death in February 1725, the Tsar signed an Ukase (decree) authorizing a second great expedition to the east. Over the course of his life, Peter had met many times with German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). At their final meeting at Bad Pyrmont in 1716, Leibniz spoke of

14310-427: The relationship with the sole supplier of certain engines the Navy needed, King confirmed to the committee that Pratt and Whitney was making profits of up to 45 percent. As a result, the 1934 Vinson–Trammell Act contained a provision limiting profits on government aviation contracts to 10 percent. In 1936, there were only two seagoing aviation flag billets: Commander, Aircraft, Battle Force, a vice admiral who commanded

14445-472: The rest of the group, who were put under Croyères' leadership, and travelled until December 1734 to the Irtysh River , and then onwards to Semipalatinsk , Kusnezk near Tomsk , and then onto Yeniseysk . Passing through Krasnoyarsk and Udinsk , they reached Irkutsk in March 1735. They left a portion of their baggage train there and began to survey the area around Lake Baikal . They studied trade in

14580-527: The results of the expedition in Russian and Latin. The academic component of the expedition was provided with many astronomical, geodesic, and physical measuring instruments to pursue its research. The governor of Siberia and the various local authorities were ordered to provide the researchers all the aid they required. The two Pacific divisions of the expedition, led by Martin Spanberg and Vitus Bering , left St. Petersburg in February and April 1733, while

14715-553: The sea route from Okhotsk to Japan and China. The academic portion of the expedition was led by three professors from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Johann Georg Gmelin (1709–1755) was responsible for research into the plant and animal world as well as the mineral characteristics of the regions to be explored. Gmelin was a natural philosopher and botanist from Württemberg , who had studied in Tübingen and had researched

14850-416: The securing of Russian sovereignty in the eastern parts of Asia. The conditions for this gigantic project proved to very favourable. Empress Anna (1693–1740), reigning from 1730, wanted to continue Peter the Great's territorial and economic expansion of the empire. The empress issued an Ukase issued on April 17, 1732, ordering a new expedition. This was followed on May 2 and 15, 1732 by two further Ukases from

14985-416: The ship's naturalist and physician, hiked around the island and documented the plants and wildlife. Steller kept a diary that has detailed accounts of their voyage from 1741-1742. It details the hardships and different situations that the crew and himself went through. He notes in his manuscripts of signs of native Kamchatkans and that the crew left them an iron kettle, a pound of tobacco, a Chinese pipe, and

15120-730: The staff included Dudley Knox as fleet gunnery officer and Harry E. Yarnell as fleet engineering officer. King returned to shore duty at Annapolis in May 1912 as executive officer of the Naval Engineering Experiment Station. While there, he served as the secretary-treasurer of the Naval Institute, editing and publishing papers in the Proceedings . He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 July 1913. When war with Mexico threatened in 1913, King went to Washington, D.C., to lobby for command of

15255-579: The staff of Vice Admiral Henry T. Mayo , the Commander in Chief , of the Atlantic Fleet. After the United States entered World War I , King went to the UK as part of Mayo's staff. He was a frequent visitor to the Royal Navy and occasionally saw action as an observer on board British ships. He was awarded the Navy Cross "for distinguished service in the line of his profession as assistant chief of staff of

15390-528: The submarine USS  Grunion , which disappeared with a crew of 70 during World War II, was found in 1,000 metres (3,281 ft) of water off Kiska. There were no alterations to the landscape since World War II including the traces of the war. Unexploded ammunition is scattered throughout the landscape. Renamed "Skira", the island was used as the setting for the Codemasters video game Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising . The fictionalized version of

15525-614: The table. King once told a friend: "You ought to be very suspicious of anyone who won't take a drink or doesn't like women." In 1932, King attended the Naval War College . In a war college thesis entitled "The Influence of National Policy on Strategy", King identified Great Britain and Japan as the United States's most likely adversaries. He expounded on the theory that America's weakness was representative democracy : Historically, despite Washington's (and others') experienced and cogent advice to make due preparations for war, it

15660-631: The time remaining before retirement. A series of extraordinary events would alter this outcome. In March, April and May 1940, King accompanied the Secretary of the Navy, Charles Edison , Edison's naval aide, Captain Morton L. Deyo , and Edison's friend Arthur Walsh on a six-week tour of naval bases in the Pacific. En route they stopped in Hollywood to preview Edison, the Man , a biographical film about

15795-564: The two scholars journeyed along the icy Angara River to Ilimsk , where they celebrated Easter. When the Lena River was free from ice, they resumed their voyage, travelling downstream with boats. They reached Yakutsk in September 1736. Almost all the members of the two Pacific divisions of the expedition had gathered there in the meantime, and as a result, Gmelin and Müller experienced difficulties in locating accommodation. Though aboard

15930-578: The war ended in November 1918, King became head of the Naval Postgraduate School in Annapolis. He bought a house there, where his family lived from then on. With Captains Dudley Knox and William S. Pye , King prepared a report on naval training that recommended changes to naval training and career paths, which gained wide circulation when he published it in the Proceedings . Most of the report's recommendations were accepted and eventually became policy. In 1921, King heard that Rear Admiral Henry B. Wilson , an officer whose stance on naval education he disliked,

16065-410: Was a demanding one: S-51 lay on the bottom with a large gash on the side in 130 feet (40 m) of water near Block Island , and navy salvage divers were not accustomed to working below 90 feet (27 m). The submarine was raised by sealing compartments and forcing the water out of them with compressed air. Eight pontoon floats were added to make it buoyant again. Just as they were ready to raise it,

16200-464: Was a member of the General Board, King had recommended copying the 327-foot (100 m) Treasury-class cutter as an anti-submarine escort. As commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet he had pressed Stark to secure such craft, but Stark replied that the President did not approve. Roosevelt, who had been involved in the development of the submarine chaser , a much smaller vessel, during World War I, believed that small craft would be sufficient to deal with

16335-530: Was allocated to defeat the expected Japanese garrison of 5,200 men. The Japanese, aware of the loss of Attu and the impending arrival of the larger Allied force, successfully removed their troops on July 28 under the cover of fog, without being detected by the Allies. On August 15, 1943, an invasion force consisting of 34,426 Allied troops, including elements of the US 7th Infantry Division , 4th Infantry Regiment, 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment , 5,300 Canadians (mainly

16470-523: Was an appearance before the selection board, which drew attention to his record of punishments for drinking and insubordination, before congratulating King on his promotion, which became effective on 7 June 1906. Duty afloat alternated with duty ashore, so King's next assignment was at Annapolis, where he taught ordnance, gunnery and seamanship. This posting reunited him with Mattie, who had been living with her family in Baltimore. After two years he became

16605-539: Was back in Manila for more target practice in February and March 1905 before returning to China. In June 1906, it escorted the Russian cruisers Oleg , Aurora and Zhemchug , survivors of the Battle of Tsushima , into Manila Bay, where they were interned. Bouts of heavy drinking led to King being put under hatches , and a forthright and arrogant attitude bordering on insubordination led to adverse comments in his fitness reports. When he heard heard that members of

16740-614: Was born in Lorain, Ohio , on 23 November 1878, the second child of James Clydesdale King, a Scottish immigrant from Bridge of Weir , Renfrewshire , and his wife Elizabeth (Bessie) née Keam, an immigrant from Plymouth , England. His father initially worked as a bridge builder, but moved to Lorain, where he worked in a railway repair shop. He had an older brother who died in infancy, two younger brothers and two younger sisters: Maude (who died aged seven), Mildred, Norman and Percy. The family moved to Uhrichsville, Ohio , when his father took

16875-634: Was designated navigator of the expedition, as he was a Russian naval officer who had attended school for mathematics and navigation. The central goals in Bering's vision for the new expedition was the survey of the northern coast of the Russian Empire; the expansion of the port of Okhotsk as the gateway to the Pacific Ocean; the search for a sea route to North America and Japan; the opening of access to Siberian natural resources; and finally,

17010-600: Was due to retire in mid-1933, King lobbied for his job. In this he was aided by Winder R. Harris , the managing editor of The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, and Senator Harry F. Byrd , who wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on his behalf. The position became available earlier than expected after Moffett died in the crash of the airship USS  Akron on 4 April 1933. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Admiral William V. Pratt , listed King as his fourth choice, after Rear Admirals Joseph M. Reeves , Harry E. Yarnell and John Halligan Jr. , but Claude A. Swanson ,

17145-462: Was not above micromanaging the navy. For example, in early 1942 he sent explicit instructions to Admiral Thomas C. Hart , the commander of the Asiatic Fleet , detailing how he wanted surveillance patrols run. Roosevelt granted Marshall broad authority to reorganize the War Department , but King's authority was more constrained. King, acting on a suggestion from Roosevelt that he "streamline"

17280-549: Was one of the largest exploration enterprises in history, mapping most of the Arctic coast of Siberia and some parts of the North American coastline, greatly reducing "white areas" on maps. It was conceived by Russian Emperor Peter the Great , but implemented by Russian Empresses Anna and Elizabeth . The main organiser and leader of the expedition was Vitus Bering , who earlier had been commissioned by Peter I to lead

17415-402: Was promoted to vice admiral on 29 January 1938 on becoming Commander, Aircraft, Battle Force – at the time one of only three vice admiral billets in the U.S. Navy. He flew his flag on the aircraft carrier USS  Saratoga . Among his accomplishments was to corroborate Yarnell's 1932 war game findings in 1938 by staging his own successful simulated naval air raid on Pearl Harbor , showing that

17550-592: Was regarded as boring and was avoided by ambitious officers. After a year, King again approached Leahy about securing command of a destroyer division or flotilla and again was told that nothing was available. Leahy then suggested that if King was interested in submarines , he could offer him command of a submarine division. King accepted. King attended a short training course at the Submarine School in New London, Connecticut , before taking command of

17685-760: Was reluctant to part with Ingersoll as his chief of staff, but King insisted that he was needed as CINCLANT. He offered Rear Admiral Russell Willson , the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and Rear Admiral Frederick J. Horne , from the General Board, as replacements. Stark chose Horne, and King then took Willson as his own chief of staff. Rear Admiral Richard S. Edwards , who had served King as Commander, Submarines, Atlantic Fleet, became his deputy chief of staff. For assistant chiefs of staff, King selected Rear Admirals Richmond K. Turner and Willis A. Lee . King did not get along with Willson; their personalities were too different, and later admitted that he had made

17820-607: Was seen as a possible alternative to the land transport used in Russia's trade with China. From " Joao-da-Gama-Land ", Bering's group was to set out farther east to the coast of North America. The second Pacific division was under the command of the Danish-born Russian captain Martin Spanberg (d. 1761), who had accompanied Bering on the First Kamchatka Expedition, and had been charged with exploring

17955-524: Was separated into three groups, each with further subdivisions. The mission of the northern group was to measure and chart the northern coast of Russia between Archangelsk on the White Sea and the Anadyr River in eastern Siberia. The completion of this mission set the foundations for determining the status of the north east passage as a possible connection between Europe and the Pacific Ocean. It

18090-505: Was the U.S. Navy's second-most senior officer in World War ;II after Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy , who served as Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief . He directed the United States Navy's operations, planning, and administration and was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combined Chiefs of Staff . King graduated fourth in the United States Naval Academy class of 1901. He received his first command in 1914, of

18225-518: Was to become the Superintendent of the Naval Academy . King approached Captain William D. Leahy about an early return to sea duty. Leahy told him he was too junior for a seagoing captain's command, and that nothing was available. After some discussion, King eventually accepted command of USS  Bridge , a stores ship . Although auxiliaries like Bridge served a vital role, such a command

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