Stephen Luce

Born in Albany, New York, to Dr. Vinal Luce and Charlotte Bleecker, Luce entered the Navy on October 19, 1841, at the age of 14. He was instructed at the Naval School in Philadelphia until 1845, when the United States Naval Academy opened in Annapolis. He graduated from the Academy in 1848 and was warranted as a passed midshipman to date from August 10, 1847. He was promoted to lieutenant on September 15, 1855.

In 1854, Luce married Elizabeth Henley, a grand-niece of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, wife of George Washington. Their children included daughter Caroline (1857–1933), who became the wife of Montgomery M. Macomb, later a brigadier general in the United States Army.^[1]

Luce served with the Atlantic Ocean / East Coast blockade squadron during the American Civil War (1861-1865), and commanded the ironclad monitor Nantucket at the siege of Charleston, South Carolina. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1862. He was assigned to the U.S. Naval Academy, which was moved to Newport, Rhode Island, from January 1862 to October 1863. In 1862, while serving as head of the Department of Seamanship, he prepared one of the first seamanship textbooks. During the war, he also commanded the naval vessels USS Sonoma, USS Canadaigua, and USS Pontiac.^[2]

He was promoted to full commander in 1866.

After the Civil War, Luce organized the Navy's apprentice training program to prepare naval seamen and petty officers for fleet duty. From 1869 to 1872, he commanded the sloop-of-war USS Juniata which was assigned to the Mediterranean Sea Fleet. He was promoted to captain in December 1872 and served as the captain of the yard at the Boston Navy Yard (at Charlestown, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Boston), until 1875. He commanded the USS Hartford from November 1875 to August 1877. From August to December 1877, Luce was the Navy's inspector of training ships, then from January 1878 to February 1881, he commanded the training ship USS Minnesota.

From July to September 1884, Luce commanded the North Atlantic Squadron with the USS Tennessee as his flagship. From June 1886 to February 1889, Luce again commanded the North Atlantic Squadron with the USS Richmond this time as his flagship.

Luce helped start the United States Naval Institute in October 1873; he would serve as the Institute's president from 1887 to 1898.

In 1881, Luce was promoted to commodore, and commanded the U.S. Navy Training Squadron in Newport from April 1881 to June 1884.^[3]

While in command of the Training Squadron, Luce developed and implemented the apprentice training program—the first formal program for training American enlisted sailors. Luce's plan was to have bright and healthy young men, 14 to 17 years old, serve a three-year apprenticeship with the Training Squadron during which they received an academic education and hands-on seamanship training.

The "boys" were typically enlisted around 14 or 15 and typically served until 21, when they could extend their service in the Navy. Previously, the Navy had taken recruits with no prior experience; all training of enlisted sailors was "on the job". Many recruits lacked the discipline and skills necessary to be useful. The program ended when the United States entered the First World War in April 1917 and began to train sailors far more rapidly as the Navy expanded.

Based on Luce's urgings and exhaustive reports, the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, was established on October 6, 1884. Luce served as its first president. In 1885, he was promoted to rear admiral, and the next year handed off the presidency to Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan.

The wooden-hulled, steam-powered sloop-of-war Richmond, was Luce's last assignment at sea. Having reached the mandatory retirement age of 62, he retired from the Navy on March 25, 1889.

Luce returned to the War College in 1901 and served for nearly a further decade as a faculty member. He retired in November 1910 at the age of 83.^[2]

Luce belonged to several military societies. In 1894, Luce joined the Aztec Club of 1847, a military society of U.S. Army and Navy officers who had served during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, and served as its vice president from 1909 until 1910 and as its president from 1910 to 1911.

He joined the Military Order of Foreign Wars (MOFW) and became the founding commander of the Rhode Island Commandery of the MOFW in 1900. He was also a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (insignia number 13,113) and the Naval Order of the United States.

In 1901, he was elected to the board of directors of the Redwood Library in Newport.^[4]

An active member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Luce served as a vestryman of two Newport churches: All Saints Memorial Chapel and St. John's Episcopal Church, where he also served as a warden.

Luce died on July 28, 1917^[2] and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.^[5][6]

In 1863, David Van Nostrand published Luce's textbook Seamanship, intended for use at the Naval Academy. A later edition appeared in 1905.

In December 1891, The North American Review published Luce's paper "The Benefits of War".

Luce also edited The Patriotic and Naval Songster (1883).^[7]

Reference – U.S. Navy Register, 1899. p. 70.

• Civil War Campaign Medal
• Spanish Campaign Medal

Three warships have been named USS Luce in his honor.

The Naval Academy and the Naval War College have buildings named Luce Hall in his honor.

The auditorium at the erstwhile Naval Training Center, constructed in 1941 in San Diego, California, was named for Luce.^[8] The library at the State University of New York Maritime College in the borough of The Bronx, New York City, is the Stephen B. Luce Library.^[9]

There is a memorial stained-glass window at the St. John's Episcopal Church in Newport in Luce's honor.

There is a descriptive historical plaque in honor of Luce at the corner of Kay Street and Rhode Island Avenue in Newport.

•   This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• John A. S. Grenville and George Berkeley Young, Politics, Strategy, and American Diplomacy: Studies in Foreign Policy, 1873–1917 (1966) pp 1–38, on "The Admiral and politics: Stephan B. Luce and the foundation of the modern American Navy".

•   Media related to Stephen Luce at Wikimedia Commons