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Note: On Lake Michigan in about 1700, there was the L'Anse band of Chippewa Indians, of which one was to become the Grandmother of Harry J. De Voto. A Frenchmen married her, and her daughter, when grown, met Louis De Voto from Genoa, Italy. They had a nice happy family of six, four boys annd two girls. We are interested only in one, Harry De Voto, although all the other found a place in the world. Harry was born in 1884 at Baraga, Michigan, and lived there while still an infant. When Harry was five, they moved to Chicago, his father being superintendent of Wolfe and Company. They stayed in Chicago for about three years but when Harry was eight they permenantly settled in a typical one horse town called Mansfield in Indiana. I have visited it three or four times and it is built around a mill which gets its power from the river that has been damed. I should say about one hundred farmers make up the place. It still had its old covered bridge over the river when I was last there in 1935. Getting back to our story, Harry's father opened a stone quarry nearby to furnish blocks for the Union Station in Indianapolis, using about four hundred men. This soon failed and he started contracting, Harry helping him on different jobs.
Harry went to the Jacksontownship school and graduated from the tenth grade, as there were no more grades. After his school days were over he did farm work until he was sixteen, then he made a big desicion. He joined the Navy.
It was in September 1902 when he enlisted and he has never regretted it once in his life. He was sent to the training station at Newport, Rhode Island. He was trained on one of the four square riggers left, the old U.S.S. Alliance. He trained on this sloop-of-war for one year and then they took a cruise to Queenstown, Ireland. This was his first look at Europe and it astonished him quite a deal. Then a rough passage to Kingston, Jamaica. It was terribly hot there and all were glad when they left. It took 38 days to finish the last leg of their journey which was Hampton Roads. He was ordered to shore duty for a year but soon was back at sea again on the destroyer Truxton. He was made Quartermaster Third Class on this ship. Two years later his enlistment expired.
His home called him, but after one month and twenty days of sitting around he grew restless and enlisted for the second time.
In 1907 aboard the U.S.S. Cleveland, he started his longest cruise of his career, sailing around the world. Their first port of call, the Rock of Gibraltar. Here they played baseball for the high officials of England. Of course they won, 2-1. Harry was the pitcher and manager of the team. While at the Rock he noticed up above the line of forts on the jagged cliffs, that were scores of monkeys and apes. No one knew how they got there. The town of Gibraltar had one main street at the time. They soon proceeded on through the Mediterranean Sea, down the Seuz Canal, and into the Red Sea. They stopped along the way to fuel and see the sights. The next port was Ceylon, India, then to Singapore, but soon journeyed on to the Phillipines. He sailed all around the main island and it was hot there also. Half the trip was over and so, on to Shanghai, China and up the Yangtze River for eight hundred miles, stopping at various ports. On the way up the river he saw the Great Wall of China showing itself for miles. After descending the river they voyaged to Peking were he visited all the temples and other places of interest. He visited too many ports to write about now. Of course they had to visit China's neighbor, Japan. They were treated swell by all the people they met. In Japan at this time baseball was just being introduced and they soon played two colleges, beating them both by a wide margin. At Tokyo a banquet was given in their honor. All too soon they had to leave for north Japan at Nagasaki and Hakadate. Then to Port Arthur right after the Russo-Japanese War. In a little shop he bought a gun, sword and canteen for his family. We still have the canteen, it is 32 years old. They left Russia and sailed to North Borneo and then back to the Philippines. The journey was now fast drawing to and end and from the Philippines to Guam to San Francisco after two years and eleven months in foreign ports. He was now Chief Boatswain Mate.
After a thirty day furlough he went to the guney school at Washington, DC. Harry graduated in September 1911 and was transfered to the battleship Louisiana. He was an outstanding ballplayer at the time and his team were the champs of the fleet for 1912-1913.
In company with the battleship Michigan and Cruiser Chester they occupied Vera Cruz in 1914. They were sent to protect American interests. Early in the morning at 2:30 they landed a battalion of infantry composed of sailors and marines at the inner breakwater and immediately went into action against Mexican soldiers and naval cadets, also snipers. My father was in charge of a three inch field piece and took their position in an old theater, firing at the Naval Academy and other places. There was little action during the day, except from snipers. Early next moring the Chester shelled the city from the bay and the Mexican army retreated into the hills, turning off the water supply. During the shelling a monument in the square was hit. It was a large bronze eagel on top of a sixty foot column. Now a shell knocked the eagle clean off the top of its perch and landed right side up in the street. After everything died down marshal law was enforced and the people came back; all the children yelled, "Chester muchee muchee boom boom." Few were killed and wounded but he came out of it untouched. The marines took over so they went back to the States.
Not much later aboard the cruiser Tennessee, they went to Turkey to protect American interest, but did no fighting. They stayed there for about eight months and then returned home with refugees.
Then we entered the World War in 1917 and my father was appointed an officer and served on the Louisiana as a troop ship out of New York to France. He saw a few German U-boats, but wasn't sunk. He completed two crossings, then to Linhaven, Virginia, at the time a German sub scare was on and they believed that a sub was in the vicinty, but proved wrong, so they proceeded on as scheduled.
Transferred to Hampton Roads as an instructor of apprentice seamen and was in charge of school regiments for six months. For the first time in his life he became in command of a sea-going tug as a tender to the fleet.
As it does to most men, it happened to him also, he was in love. The fine young maid was Lillian Mae Semore and after two months of wooing they were married on March 12, 1917. They have had three children, Harry John, Jr, Daniel Semore, and yours truly, John Edwin DeVoto.
As the war ended he was awarded the Victory Medal and a medal for Good Conduct. To get this medal you had to go twelve years without being on report. His second command came very soon when he took over the U.S.S. Southport, a steamer taken over during the war. It was about 750 tons, 225 feet long, and made a good speed of 18 knots. It was an ambulance ships for the wounded that were brought back and the transports. She met them and took wounded to various hospitals on the east coast. Harry put it out of naval service at Boston, Massachusetts. She was returned to her owners.
Chief Boatswain DeVoto reported to Bayridge, South Brooklyn, for further orders. Ordered to U.S.S. Handcock and the ship ordered to Scapia Flow. They brought back two German ships, one a battleship and a cruiser that had been raised after being sunk. The two captured ships proceeded under their own power and were brought back for experimental purposes.
Transferred to Norfolk Navy Yard for shore duty and then to the U.S.S. Maryland, one of first big sixteen inch gunships. They made a cruise to Rio De Janeiro for a big fair. While on route they crossed the equator at 37* 30'W at 8:00 AM of the 29th day of August, AD 1922. Well, most of your have heard of a Neptune Party, but don't know all about it. I will tell you everything that happened at this one, as told to me by my father, "As we approached the line at eight at night, Father Neptune and daughter, Royal Clerk, Royal Deputy, Royal doctors and dentists, Royal police, Royal Bears and Davy Jones boarded the ship over the bow in various costumes and all the crew assembled on the quater deck in spotlighters. Father Neptune and party were introduced to the crew and issued to all landlubbers a subpoena. My offense was Disloyalty: trying to obtain favor in His Majesty's eyes to the discomfiture of his brother landlubbers, and Inconstancy; having once been found awake at the movies. After all were issued Father Neptune and party departed back over the bow. Next morning at eight the fun started. First the highest officer and so down the rank it went. Your charge read by Davy Jones, Clerk and punishment passed. You had to lay on a mess table flat on your back while a bucket of hot macaroni was placed on your belly and rolled over to spread it. You were dressed in whites, white shoes, white hat and service ribbons, full uniform during the whole thing. This was all in a continuous operation. Next the Royal Dentist took over for tooth pulling. The forceps were blacksmith's tongs and his hypo was a big grease gun full of vinegar, salt, pepper, lard, oil and graphite. When you opened your mouth they shot about a quart of this down you and all over your uniform. You were instantly turned over to the Royal Barbars who cut your hair with wire cutters and shaved you with a huge razor. The lather was flour, paste, water, and maybe a little cement. Each chair had an electric shock and its back faced a big pool full of water lined by about twenty Royal bears. Your were dumped backwards into it with the help of the electric shock. Instantly all these Royal bears jumped on you and proceeded to dunk you. When you finally were thrown out of the pool you were half-drowned. You landed in front of a row of about sixty Royal policemen armed with short clubs. They beat and clubbed about all the rest of the life in you out. As you staggered to the end of the line you were then a shellback of the sea and a certificate was handed to you. If able you got cleaned up and laughed at the other poor devils."
After the Neptune Party was over they proceeded on to Rio where they held a boat race against the other nations. There were English, Italian, and many others. The Maryland's race boat won by three lengths, cockswain by Harry DeVoto. The English were second. The battleship Hood was there at the time. After a big celebration they left to return home. On the home trip a speed run was tried for and a record made between Rio and New York. The Maryland did on the average for the trip a speed of 19 knots.
The first time he was stationed outside of the States on shore duty was in Guantanamo, Cuba. The family also went, but I was still an infant at the time. His duty was to be in charge of the receiving barracks. He was first on the Kittery, a German steamer running from Norfolk to Cuba. Stayed at Cuba one year and eight days and Harry was transferred to the U.S.S. Wright, an aircraft tender and from that to the U.S.S. Whittney, a tender for destroyers. Soon his shore duty came up and was stationed at Philadelphia and the family moved to Pitman, New Jersey from our home in Norfolk, VA. After three years of shore duty he was transferred to the U.S.S. Wyoming, a training ship for the Midshipmen. They took a three month cruise to Plymouth, England to Villin Frank in France where there was a little trouble over a beer check. The midshipmen said, "charge it to the War Debt" and had a fight and the sheriff shot one of them, but didn't kill him. Then to Naples, Italy, were he shook hands with the dictator Il Duce and visited the old city of Pompei and Mount Visuvious. He was again put on shore duty after the cruise and three years later he retired from active duty at the same place he started, Philadelphia Navy Yard. He was in the Navy for 35 years and two months.
He tried to settle down but he got restless to be at sea after only two months at home. He then got a position as an Instructor of Seamenship for the Merchant Marine on the training ship, the Annapolis. They were in the big hurricane in New England and lost their rudder during it. They anchored with two anchors Greensport, Long Island running full speed ahead against a 102 mile an hour wind. During the hurrincane the ship's dog was blown overboard off the stern by the wind but the current running in the opposite way carried him midship on the leeside. His barking attracted the crew's attention and a man was lowered on a rope and rescued him. They repaired the ship and returned to the Navy base. The Merchant Marine got a new ship for them called the U.S.S. Seneca. With this new ship they left for a 7,500 mile cruise in the West Indies which took about two months. An exciting mishap occurred while on route home. While trying to find a light most ships stir clear of because of the swift currents and reefs they missed it and still sailed on. The ship's (?) woke Chief Boatswain DeVoto up and he rushed to the deck to find the waves breaking over the leeside and almost dead ahead was a cliff of coral. He rushed to the bridge and told them and they turned about a hard starboard and proceeded to turn search lights on the coral reef. They were so close they could see the crabs in the coral. As soon as they were clear of the reef they slowed down so as not to hit another reef. They found out by charts and throwing the leads that they were in about four fathoms of water and the ship drew six fathoms. They thought any minute would be their last. When they reached deep water they increased their speed. After that ordeal the captain slept on the bridge.
I can not better sum up Lt Harry J. DeVoto any better than to say he is ready to serve his country if it needs him again.
Jack DeVoto His final retirement came as Lieut. Commander after 42 years of service. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. MLD
He is listed in the Congressionl Record of the House in 1919 on page 8141 as being temporarily promoted from boatswain to cheif boatswain in the Navy from the 1st day of September 1919. It does not say why it is temportary or for how long. MFee
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