Austin Knight Melvin

Background

Austin Melvin Knight, the son of Charles Sanford and Cordelia (Cutter) Knight, was born on December 16, 1854 in Ware, Massachusetts, United States.

Education

Knight was appointed to the Naval Academy from Florida in 1869 and graduated in 1873.

Career

Knight served for three years in the Pacific on the Tuscarora, Kearsarge, Palos, and Saco and then returned to the Naval Academy as an instructor in English, history, and law. From 1878 to 1883 he served in the European and South Atlantic squadrons on the Quinnebaug and Galena. His leaning toward the scientific work of the navy resulted in his being assigned in 1883 to the ordnance proving ground at Annapolis, of which he was in charge from 1885 to 1889. For three years he was again on sea duty and in 1892 became instructor in physics and chemistry at the Naval Academy. He served on the Lancaster and Castine, South Atlantic Station, from 1895 to 1897.

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War he was a lieutenant on the monitor Puritan, and did blockade duty off the north coast of Cuba and took part in the expedition for the occupation of Puerto Rico. Becoming head of the department of seamanship at the Naval Academy in 1898, he served in that capacity until 1901. While here he decided to supply something more modern than Luce's Seamanship, which had been the chief work on that subject since the Civil War but did not give adequate instruction in the maneuvering of ships propelled entirely by steam. As a result he published in 1901 Modern Seamanship.

His next cruises were in command of the Yankton surveying the south coast of Cuba (1901 - 1903), and in command of the Castine (1903 - 1904). During the years 1904 to 1907 he was president of a special board on naval ordnance, and of the joint army and navy board on smokeless powder. Promoted to the rank of captain in 1907, he was in command of the armored cruiser Washington for two years, during which time the Pacific fleet visited Samoa and was entertained by the native chiefs with characteristic ceremonies. In 1911 he was appointed rear admiral, and from 1913 to 1917 he was president of the Naval War College.

In April 1917 he was sent to command the Asiatic fleet, with the rank of full admiral, and was in charge during the first part of American operations at Vladivostok and in Siberia. According to Ackerman and Dennis (post), Admiral Knight, General William S. Graves, commanding the United States troops in Siberia, and Roland S. Morris, ambassador to Japan, sent a report to President Wilson in October 1918 which he is said to have characterized as "the most convincing document" he had read on the Russian situation. It proposed that small American forces should be sent to the Ural front, accompanied by other Allied detachments, to assist the Czecho-Slovaks and give moral support to anti-Bolshevist forces; but the War Department, believing in concentrating all its energies on the western front in France, disapproved the suggestion.

On December 9, 1918, Knight was relieved of his command because he was soon to reach retiring age. He was placed on the retired list, December 16, but continued on active duty till February of the next year. His ten years of retirement were spent mostly in Annapolis and Washington.

Achievements

• Austin Melvin Knight was recognized for his military service in the United States Navy during Spanish–American War, World War I and Siberian Intervention. He was also noted for his textbook "Modern Seamanship" (1901), a guide to ship handling and safety. Knight was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for meritorious service as commander in chief of the Asiatic Fleet during Allied naval operations at Vladivostok, Siberia and was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun by the government of Japan.

Works

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  • The Story of the Great War: History of the European War from Official Sources, Volume 5

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The Story of the Great War: History of the European War from Official Sources, Volume 6

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The Story Of The Great War ..., Volume 8

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • The Story Of The Great War ..., Volume 9

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • The Story of the Great war; the Complete Historical Records of Events to Date Volume 4

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • The Story of the Great War: History of the European War From Official Sources; Volume 2

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Story of the Great War: History of the European War from Official Sources, Volume 1

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Modern Seamanship

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Story of the Great War ..., Volume 7

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Address by Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight, U. S. N., June 7th, 1916, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Address by Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight, U....)

Connections

Knight was married twice: in 1878, to Alice Phinney Tobey, of Milwaukee, who died the next year, and in 1886, to Elizabeth Harwood Welsh, of Annapolis, who died in 1911.

Father:

Charles Sanford Knight

Mother:

Cordelia (Cutter) Knight

Spouse:

Elizabeth Harwood Welsh

Spouse:

Alice Phinney Tobey

References

• The Foreign Policies of Soviet Russia
• Trailing the Bolsheviki: Twelve Thousand Miles With the Allies in Siberia (Classic Reprint)
• America's Siberian Adventure 1918-1920
• The Records of Living Officers of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps: Compiled From Official Sources (Classic Reprint)