Background
Charles Frederick was born in Bath, Maine, on October 14, 1866. He was the son of John Hughes, of English birth, and Lucy Maria Delano, of New England ancestry. He was the second child in a family of four sons and one daughter.
Charles Frederick was born in Bath, Maine, on October 14, 1866. He was the son of John Hughes, of English birth, and Lucy Maria Delano, of New England ancestry. He was the second child in a family of four sons and one daughter.
After attending public school at Bath, he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy and graduated in 1888.
After education in his ensuing ten years of almost continuous sea service, as well as later in his career, he showed an outstanding mastery of seamanship, no doubt in part a heritage of his early Maine contacts with ships and sailors. As a junior lieutenant he was in the monitor Monterey which crossed the Pacific and joined Dewey's forces in the final operations against Manila. Thereafter he spent a year in charge of the branch Hydrographic Office at Philadelphia, served as gunnery officer in the Massachusetts, then in the Bureau of Equipment.
From 1906 to 1909 he was navigator and later executive of the armored cruiser Washington, which in 1906 escorted President Theodore Roosevelt to Panama and in 1907 was sent to the Fulton Celebration at Bordeaux. While he was executive the ship won the battle efficiency pennant. Made commander in January 1910, Hughes was next assigned to command the scout cruiser Birmingham, which, after the Titanic disaster in April 1912, initiated the first ice patrol in the North Atlantic. In the autumn of this year, commanding the cruiser Des Moines on a special mission to Vera Cruz during the Felix Diaz revolt, Hughes with notable initiative and skill took his ship at night into the darkened harbor, where he was in position to protect American nationals and influence the Mexican forces against hostilities in the port. From January 1913 to September 1914 he was chief of staff to Admiral Charles Johnston Badger, in command of the Atlantic Fleet, and shared in the fleet activities incident to the occupation of Vera Cruz. Promoted captain in July 1914, he served two years on the Navy General Board and then, from October 1916 to August 1918, commanded the New York, flag of the American battleships under Admiral Rodman which formed the 6th Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea.
On one occasion, while leading the squadron into Scapa Flow, the New York actually ran down a German submarine, probably sinking the enemy but suffering damage to her own hull and losing two blades of her starboard propeller. As she was steaming for drydock at reduced speed, another submarine fired three torpedoes at her, which were avoided by skillful maneuvering. Hughes was made rear admiral (temporary) in 1918, receiving the permanent rank in 1921. In 1920-21 he commanded various divisions of the Atlantic Fleet; then between September 1921 and January 1923, Division VII of the Pacific Fleet; and finally, after the general fleet reorganization, Division IV of the Battle Fleet.
He attended the War College from July 1923 to June 1924, and was then made director of fleet training, directing the bombing tests and sinking of the Washington under the terms of the Arms Limitation Treaty of 1922. On October 14, 1925, he hoisted his flag in the California as commander-in-chief of the Battle Fleet with the rank of admiral, and in September 1926, he assumed command of the United States Fleet. A year later he was detached to become chief of naval operations, the highest office in the naval service, and remained in this post until September 1930, when he resigned. He was retired for age November 1, 1930, with special commendation from President Hoover and Secretary of the Navy Charles F. Adams.
After his retirement he lived at Chevy Chase, Md. He died there after two months' illness and was buried in Arlington.
He was a man of vigorous personality, well over six feet in height, notably successful in relations with personnel.
He was married on January 31, 1898, to Caroline Russell Clark, daughter of Rear Admiral Charles E. Clark, and had one child, Louisa Russell, who became the wife of Otto Nimitz, of the United States navy.
