John Jay Almy was born on April 24, 1815 in Newport, Rhode Island, United States, the son of Samuel and Phebe Almy. Losing his parents at an early age, he was allowed by his guardian, an elder brother, to follow his boyish bent, which led him while still a child into the navy.
Almy was warranted midshipman at fourteen and served his apprenticeship in the Concord on the Mediterranean Station (1830-1832), and in the next twenty years cruised over half the globe in ships of the old sailing navy. He served as lieutenant on the Ohio during the Mexican War, and commanded the Fulton off Nicaragua in 1857, when the filibuster, General Walker, surrendered to Admiral Paulding.
Though denied the honor of participating in notable engagements during the Civil War, he was assigned the equally important, arduous, and exacting service of maintaining the blockade of Confederate ports. He not only performed this service with high efficiency but wrote of it in fresh, incisive language. In his official reports and in a narrative of later years, the sea-worn life of the blockading cruisers is vividly described. That the months of hardship off the gale-swept coasts were lightened by hours of thrilling triumph is also shown by Almy's record.
While commanding the Connecticut in 1864, he captured four noted blockade-runners and destroyed four others. The captured vessels were adjudged worth $1, 063, 352. 49, or more than four percent of the adjudicated value of the prizes taken during the war. In his career following the conflict, Almy personally substantiated the claim that naval officers are the real diplomats of the State Department.
Serving on distant stations, in the successive grades of captain, commodore, and rear admiral, he cultivated and won by tactful services and courtesies the friendship of the rulers and peoples of Brazil and Hawaii. While commanding the Pacific Squadron in 1873, he landed a body of seamen in Panama during a violent revolution, maintained order, and kept the railroad across the Isthmus running until the end of hostilities. For these services he was thanked by the business men and the corps of foreign consuls of Panama.
Retiring in 1877, he set the record of the longest sea service, twenty-seven years and ten months, of any officer since the founding of the navy. He passed the years of his retirement and died in Washington, D. C.
Rear Admiral Almy received the thanks of the Panama Railroad Company, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and all of the Consuls and the foreign merchants at Panama for the services rendered by the two United States vessels, Pensacola and Benica during the revolution in Panama in 1871. In 1875 his Majesty King Kalakaua of the Hawaiian Islands presented Rear Admiral Almy with the insignia of the Order of Kamehameha I in appreciation of the courtesies and attentions bestowed upon his Majesty during his visit to the United States, the King and his suite having been conveyed to and from the islands in the United States ships under command of the Rear Admiral.
Almy was a typical seaman in appearance; he was a gentleman of the finest tact and courtesy.
Quotes from others about the person
"Lieutenant Commander Almy performed his part of the work exceedingly well, and is an officer who can be relied upon at all times. "
Almy was married twice. His first wife was Sarah Gardner Almy. By his first marriage, he had five children. His second wife was Alida Gardner Almy.
