William Levery
William was born in Pennsylvania on the 3rd of June, 1879 and unfortunately there is not much information about William other than his enlistment into the US Navy in about 1896. The only other piece of his story that we know is that his actions as an Apprentice First Class during the Spanish-American War earned him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
On board the U.S.S. Marblehead during the operation of cutting the cable leading from Cienfuegos, Cuba, 11 May 1898. Facing the heavy fire of the enemy, Levery displayed extraordinary bravery and coolness throughout this action.
Now, I could just end the episode right there but that wouldn’t be nice so I will do a brief overview of his job and ship. William is listed as being an Apprentice First Class and while this seems like a plain title, from what I can find this title is one of three US Navy ratings created in 1898 when the US Navy Hospital Corps was signed into law by President McKinley. The three ratings were Hospital Apprentice, Hospital Apprentice First Class, and Hospital Steward. By today’s structures, William would have been a Petty Officer Third Class, the fourth enlisted rate in the Navy (similar to an Army Specialist, Marine Corporal, or Air Force Senior Airman) and a Hospital Corpsman Third Class. I am not an expert on the Navy’s rank and job structure so if you are and I royally messed that up, please let me know!
Moving on to the ship that William was on and has been mentioned previously in other citations. There have been three ships named the USS Marblehead and William was on the second one (C-11), which was made in Marblehead, Massachusetts, beginning in September of 1888. She was completed on the 11th of May 1892, commissioned two years later, and was a Montgomery-class unprotected cruiser, the last of her class to be in service. The Marblehead left Key West, Florida at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War and she began shelling enemy vessels and fortifications off of Cienfuegos, Cuba on the 29th of April, 1898. Along with the USS Nashville, she was part of the blockading squadron that participated in cutting the undersea telegraph cable leading to Cienfuegos. She would then go on to capture the lower part of Guantanamo Bay on the 7th of June and supported a Marine landing there three days later. Before leaving Cuban waters on the 2nd of September, she, along with her crew, assisted with the clearing of 27 contact mines in the Bay, earning three crew members Medals of Honor.
The USS Marblehead was briefly decommissioned in 1900 but was then recommissioned two years later and was devoted to training and protocol missions before being decommissioned again in 1906. She sat in the Mare Island Navy Yard in California until being loaned to the California Naval Militia as a training ship and then was turned over to the Oregon Naval Militia for the same purpose in 1916. She was placed into full commission for the last time on the 6th of April, 1917 and was ordered to the Pacific Patrol Force, specifically searching for German raiders during World War 1. She wrapped up the remainder of the War in the Caribbean on escort and patrol duty and returned to Mare Island on the 17th of February, 1919. She was decommissioned for the last time on the 21st of August and was sold for scrap two years later.
Since this isn’t a podcast on Naval ships, we can return to William Levery, to which I unfortunately have no further information about. There is no recorded date or place of death or burial and remains one of 340 recipients of the Medal of Honor to be considered lost to history.
