LOUIS J. GULLIVER, JR., LT, USN
Louis Gulliver, Jr. '36
Lucky Bag
From the 1936 Lucky Bag:
Louis Joseph Gulliver, Jr.
Gloucester, Massachusetts
"Louie"
Here is a man who was a true son of the sea from the start. Doctor hails from Gloucester and good Old Ironsides and he has that salty air truly instilled in him. His standing deck watches on wooden ships may have had some influence in developing the man too for he, e'en as you and I, has had some trouble with academics. However, a minute or two of Louie's kid stuff provides a wonderful relaxation for any man. He is a man who can talk out of the side of his mouth and still you Khan hear him. Louie's jovial smile and common horse sense combined with an ability to take life easy will enable him to succeed and to run a full course. He has made a host of friends while here at the Academy and will no doubt succeed well in any venture he enters.
Track 2; Class Water Polo 3; One Stripe
Louis Joseph Gulliver, Jr.
Gloucester, Massachusetts
"Louie"
Here is a man who was a true son of the sea from the start. Doctor hails from Gloucester and good Old Ironsides and he has that salty air truly instilled in him. His standing deck watches on wooden ships may have had some influence in developing the man too for he, e'en as you and I, has had some trouble with academics. However, a minute or two of Louie's kid stuff provides a wonderful relaxation for any man. He is a man who can talk out of the side of his mouth and still you Khan hear him. Louie's jovial smile and common horse sense combined with an ability to take life easy will enable him to succeed and to run a full course. He has made a host of friends while here at the Academy and will no doubt succeed well in any venture he enters.
Track 2; Class Water Polo 3; One Stripe
Loss
Louis was lost when USS Asheville (PG 21) was sunk by Japanese surface forces on March 3, 1942. There was only one known survivor of the sinking.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Louis graduated from Gloucester High School in 1930. Nickname “Lou”. Most Distinctive Characteristic – Height. Ambition – To be an Admiral of the Seven Seas. Honors – 1st Lieutenant Battalion Adjutant 4; Wakefield Competitive Drill 3; Command of Prize Squad 3; Roosevelt Club Vice-President 4. “I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.”
His father (’07) was a retired Navy commander who wrote newspaper articles in 1942.
From the Class of 1936's "Golden Lucky Bag," published in 1986 (via Marianne Bradley, daughter of LCDR John Ellis '36, USN (Ret.)):
Louis' first duty after graduation was in the cruiser Raleigh assigned to Squadron Forty-T [sic?] in the Mediterranean where the ship rescued hundreds of Americans and foreign nationals who were caught in Spain during the civil war raging there. In 1938, Louis was ordered to the Naval Supply School in Philadelphia but on completion of the course elected not to transfer to the Supply Corps.
Transferred to the Asiatic Fleet, he was assigned to the coastal gunboat Asheville, a 1600-ton ship built in 1917 as a coal burner but converted to fuel oil in 1922. She carried three 4-inch guns, her maximum speed was 12 knots, and her complement 185.
Until mid-1941, Asheville was on station in Chinese waters protecting U.S. lives and interests. When ships of the Asiatic Fleet were withdrawn from China, she was based in Manila as a part of the defense force composed of miscellaneous, obsolescent small ships better suited for World War I than for fighting the Japanese Navy.
On 10 December 1941, in the wake of the Japanese attacks, Asheville was ordered to sail for the Netherlands East Indies in company with her sister gunboat, Tulsa, and two minesweepers. The small squadron spent Christmas Day at Surabaya and eventually arrived safely in Tjilatjap, Java. By 1 March 1942, with powerful Japanese task forces virtually dominating the waters of the Southwest Pacific, the invasion of Java was imminent.
Further fighting would serve no useful purpose, and orders were given to Asheville to sail for Exmouth Gulf, Australia, in company with four merchant ships and Tulsa. The order came too late. With her engines breaking down, Asheville could not keep up with the other vessels and gradually fell astern. On 3 March, Tulsa picked up a message that Asheville was under attack.
The little gunboat, along with the destroyer Pillsbury and the Australian gunboat Yarra, was destroyed by a Japanese carrier task force. Louis, and his classmate, Jack Hays were lost with the ship. The only survivor was an enlisted man who later died in P.O.W. camp.
Louis was survived by his father, Commander Louis J. Gulliver (USNA '07); and two sisters: Grace, the wife of Rear Admiral Wells Thompson (USNA '28) who resides in Seattle, Washington; and Mrs. Gail Gulliver of Pebble Beach, California.
His parents were listed as next of kin.
Louis is remembered at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Photographs
From his high school yearbook
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together, or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
July 1938
January 1939
LT John Welch '23 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)\
LT Dudley Morton '30 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)\
LTjg Edward Allen '31 (Naval Aircraft Factory)
2LT John Maclaughlin, Jr. '38 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)\
2LT Douglas Keeler '38 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)\
2LT Dorrance Radcliffe '38 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
October 1939
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