Background
Mayo was born in Burlington, Vermont, 8 December 1856.
Mayo was born in Burlington, Vermont, 8 December 1856.
Mayo graduated from the Naval Academy in 1876 and was assigned to the Pacific Station.
He rose in rank from commander in 1905 to captain in 1908, and during this period commanded the cruisers Albany and California. In 1913 Rear Admiral Mayo was assigned to the Navy Department as personnel aide to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels; thereafter came command of the Fourth Division, Atlantic Fleet. In April 1914, Mayo became the center of the "Tampico Incident" when Mexican authorities arrested a boat's crew unwarrantedly. Mayo demanded disciplinary action against those responsible, a public apology, and a twenty-one gun salute to the U.S. flag. The latter request was refused by the Mexican government; President Wilson fully backed his naval commander, afterwards ordering the occupation of Veracruz. In 1915 Mayo was promoted to the grade of vice admiral, and on June 16, 1916, appointed commander in chief, Atlantic Fleet, with the rank of admiral.
President Wilson sent Mayo to Europe in August 1917 "to go over and find a way to break up the hornet s nest and not to try to kill individual hornets over a fortyacre lot." Mayo relayed the president's homely analogy concerning the German submarine menace to the first lord of the Admiralty, Sir Eric Geddes, by informing him "you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs, and . . . war is made up of taking risks." At the root of this obtuse language lay the president's conviction that the Allies ought to convoy" merchant shipping.
Mayo was not impressed by Admiral Jellicoe's proposal to sink eighty-three old battleships and cruisers filled with concrete in the Helgoland Bight in order to pen up the German fleet in its North Sea lairs. In general, Mayo was disappointed over the nature of his discussions in London, feeling that too much time was being frittered away on generalities. Upon his return to Washington, the admiral recommended emphasis on production of antisubmarine forces rather than improvement of existing naval equipment. In particular, Mayo favored a North Sea mine barrage from Scotland to Norway; the General Board agreed in October 1917 that this was "the only big thing the combined navies could do."
After the war, Mayo was entrusted with command of the redesignated U.S. Fleet, a position that he held from January to June 30, 1919. Mayo died on February 23, 1937, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His single-mindedness and almost self-obliterating devotion to the navy greatly facilitated its efficiency during the war. Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King characterized Mayo as "the best, the ablest, and the most competent of all the flag officers of the United States Navy down to the end of World War I."