Washington Chambers

Captain Washington Chambers 

1856-1934

The morning of September 11, 2010 was warming up at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard a mile or so south of downtown San Diego.  The eleventh ship in the Navy’s Lewis and Clark (T-AKE) class of dry cargo/ammunitions replenishment ships hung high and dry over our heads, its red hull shining in the sun.  The T-AKE class are named in honor of legendary pioneers and explorers.  The first ship was named after Lewis and Clark who led the Corp of Discovery across the American wilderness to the Pacific Ocean.  Their Native American guide Sacagawea was honored with the second ship.  Astronaut Alan Shepard, polar explorer Richard Byrd, Aeronautist Amelia Earhart, and Matthew Perry who opened trading with Japan are among the honorees who have lent their names to a T-AKE class ship.  After an hour of speeches, the new ship’s sponsor, Loretta A. Penn, swung the champagne bottle at the prow, the last stop was released … and nothing happened.  The crowd of thousands stared upward, trying to detect any movement of the giant ship as the M.C. advised “Be patient.”

Washington Irving Chambers graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1876.  His early career as a young naval officer included many sea and shore assignments.  Serving in the Office of Naval Intelligence, he commanded the Loch Garry on the Greely Relief Expedition to the Arctic which rescued a group of stranded Army explorers.  In 1884, he joined the facility of the Naval War College where he studied the application of new technology in modern warships.   In 1902, he commanded the gunboat Frolic and, later, the battleship USS Louisiana.  In 1909, he was ordered to Washington to be Assistant Aide for Material to the Secretary of the Navy.  His duties included dealing with the new burgeoning field of aviation.  At a 1910 airshow in Baltimore, Chambers proposed the idea of an airplane taking off and landing on a ship.  The Wright Brothers and the Glenn Curtis, the leaders of American aviation at the time, said the idea was too dangerous.  Nonetheless, Chambers convinced pilot Eugene Ely to give it try.   On November 14, 1910, Ely took off from the newly-added deck of the USS Birmingham in a Curtis Pusher.     Two months later, Ely landed and took off from the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco bay.  These flights proved the potential of ship-based aviation which opened the doors to development of the aircraft carrier. Captain Chambers went on to invent the naval catapult which made sea-based takeoff a reality.

Ely takes off from the USS Birmingham

Soon it was clear that the giant ship was moving ever so slowly.  By the time this had registered with the crowd, it was already moving pretty fast and accelerating all the time. The ship’s horn sounded, the balloons and streamers rose into the air, and the crowd cheered as the USNS Washington Chambers plowed stern-first into San Diego Bay.

Question of the Day: What was the name of the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier?