Commodore William D. Whiting

Death of Commodore Whiting

Funeral Will Be Held Wednesday with Military Honors

New York, March 19, 1894 - (Special) - Commodore William D. Whiting, who was injured by a cable car in January, died this morning of Bright's disease.

He will be buried with military honors. The funeral is to be held at Trinity Chapel, in West Twenty-fifth street, Wednesday morning at 10:30.

The Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix will officiate, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Mend of Newark.

The honorary pallbearers will be Rear Admiral Bancroft Gherardi, John M. B. Clitz, and Alexander C. Rhind, Capt. August P. Cooce, Capt. Edward M. Shepard, and Surgeon Lucian G. Heniberger.

Six sailors from the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be the active pallbearers, and the escort will consist of a company of marines and the Marine Band.

The interment will be at Bellevue [Belleville], N.J. [His wife was buried alongside him in 1889.]

Civil War Union Naval Officer.

Entering the United States Navy on March 1, 1841, as a midshipman, William D. Whiting, was serving on the sloop Levant on July 7, 1846 when the American flag was first raised on the Pacific Coast at the capture of Monterey, California.

He then attended the United States Naval Academy from 1847 to 1848 and was graduated.

He was promoted to Lieutenant on September 14, 1855, and was serving on the steam frigate "Niagara" when the first Atlantic cable was laid in 1857.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, he served as the executive officer of the sloop USS Vandalia at the capture of Port Royal in 1861, and commanded the steamer USS Wyandotte on the South Atlantic blockade and in the Potomac flotilla.

He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in July, 1862 and participated in the attacks on the defenses of Charleston while aboard the gunboat USS Ottawa.

From 1864 to 1865 he commanded the USS Savannah, in the Eastern Gulf station. He held a succession of commander after the end of the war.

On July 25, 1866, he received his commission as Commander and was aboard the steamer USS Tioga, off the coast of Maine and in the Gulf.

He was based at the New York Navy Yard, in Brooklyn, New York from 1867 to 1869 and from 1871 to 1872.

In the North Atlantic, between 1869 and 1870, he commanded the sloop "USS Saratoga" and the monitor USS Miantonomoh (one of the last monitors built for the United States Navy).

He was promoted to Captain, August 19, 1872, and commanded the steam sloop USS Worcester, which was the flagship of the North Atlantic squadron from 1871 to 1875.

During the first year of that cruise, he took out contributions of food and clothing from the American people for the relief of the French sufferers in the Franco-Prussian war.

As there was no way to transport these contributions to the needed districts in the east of France, the stores were taken to Liverpool and London, where a favorable market realized a much larger sum of money than the actual cost of these stores in the United States.

The American relief committee in France urged that the money was more needed than contributions in any other form.

He was present at New Orleans during the political turmoil created by the overthrow of the Packard government. There he won the confidence of the citizens by the wise measures he initiated to stem the unrest.

On June 11, 1878, he was appointed Chief of Bureau of Navigation with the rank of Commodore.

Failing health and almost total blindness resulting from exposure incidental to his naval service compelled him to be relieved from this duty October 12, 1881. He was placed on the retired list, with the rank of Commodore, by special Act of Congress.

(bio by: Shirley Stanton)

William D. Whiting was born in Lancaster, Worcester County, Mass., on May 26, 1823. He died in New York, N.Y., on March 19, 1894.

Sources

Chicago Tribune March 20, 1894

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