US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

72 Ampbibiarzs Came To Conqaev
Plain speaking in official reports was the practice, and the most important
element leading to improvement of the Navy. For example,
of all the classesof ships in the Fleet, the submarines are the worst inherently
for the purposes required. Their design appears to be obsolete and fmlty, and
they are not reliable.’e
In the years ahead, submarines could and would be improved, although
it took a good bit of doing.
Lieutenant Commander Turner fitted into this pattern of the 1924 Navy
perfectly. He loved to work and he loved competition. He had an innate
desire to excel.
THE MERVINE (DD-322 )
Turner’s new command, the Mervine, was named for a naval officer who
served on active duty until he was 71,. his last command being the Gulf
Squadron in the early days of the Civil War. Rear Admiral Mervine’s most
famous exploit was his landing, when a captain, as the head of a detachment
at Monterery, Upper California, on 7 July 1847 and, under the orders of
Commodore John D. Sloat, taking possession of that place and “California,”
in the name of the United States.
The Mervizze was one of the later numbers of the World War I destroyer
building program, actually having been built in 1919 and 1920 and com-
missioned on 28 February 1921, She mounted four 4-inch 50-caliber guns,
one 3-inch 23-caliber gun, and had twelve 2 l-inch torpedo tubes in four nests
of three each. Her normal displacement was 1,21 J tons, and she had Curtis
geared turbines, which theoretically would provide a speed of 35 knots.
The Mertiine was assigned to Destroyer Division 35 of Destroyer Squadron
12 of the Destroyer Squadrons, Pacific Fleet. Rear Admiral Frank H. Scho-
field, Class of 1890, was in command of the Destroyer Squadrons. Captain
John G. Church, Class of 1900, was the boss man of the 20 destroyers in
Squadron 12.
Destroyer Division 35, in that 1924 mid-summer did not have a regularly
detailed division commander when Lieutenant Commander Turner reported,
although the Robert Smith (DD-324), was designated divisicn flagship.
The senior Commanding Officer in the division, Commander John N.
Ferguson, Class of 1905, was not in her, but was in the Seifridge (DD-320).
~ Ibid., para. 114.