US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

40 Amphibians Came To Conqner
destroyer. Ensign Turner had requested duty in “one of the ships of the
Pacific Torpedo Flotilla” on 19 September 191 I.*”’
During this period, 1908–1913, in the life of a developing and growing
Navy, torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers had considerable allure
for young officers. These small, cramped, and speedy crafts (22-29 knots)
offered the opportunity to officers in their first five years of seagoing duty to
be heads of departments and commanding oficers-instead of far down on
the totem pole of major shipboard responsibility. Past Midshipman Turner
served six months in the Preble (TBD- 12 ) in 1909. Ensign Turner in March
and April 1912 served in the diminutive 155-ton Daoi~ (TB- 12 ) in a tempor-
ary duty status. Commencing in June 1912 he served a year as Executive
0f3icer and, at the end of his sea cruise, and, for a brief nine weeks, in command
of the much larger Stewart (TBD-13 ) .“O
The llavi~ was only 50 paces (148 feet) long and had but 1,750 horse-
power in her Lilliputian engines to provide her with 23 knots. The Preble
and Stewart were a hundred feet longer, displaced 420 tons and needed all
their 7,OOO horsepower to make 28–29 knots. The torpedo boats normally
had an ensign and a past midshipman aboard while the larger torpedo boat
destroyers required two commissioned officers and one past midshipman to
keep them operating now and then.
It was during this 191 2–1913 period that Ensign Turner’s fitness reports
showed that his eyes and interests had begun to turn to the broader aspects
of a naval officer’s self-training. He wrote: “I have read books by Mahan,
Darriens, Knapp and Logan.” ‘“
Gradually over the next few years Ensign Turner read all of Mahan’s
main works and listed this fact in the appropriate place in his fitness report.
His commanding officers in the torpedo boat destroyers, only a class or two
senior to him, were duly impressed and continued to sprinkle a generous
quota of 4.o’s on his fitness reports and always reported him “forceful, active,
and painstaking,” three useful characteristics for the naval officer.
MAKING A SERVICE REPUTATION 1913-1925
The 12 years from 1913 to 1925 saw Lieutenant (junior grade) Turner
‘@CHBUNAV, letter 6312–15, 3 Oct. 1911.
‘0 (a) BUNAV Orders, 6312-19, 21 Mar. 1912 and 6322-19, 11 Jun. 1912; (b) SECNAV,
N-31-H, 29 Jul. 1913.
m Fitness Reports, 1912, 1913.