From Torpedoes to Aviation: Washington Irving Chambers and Technological Innovation in the New Navy, 1876-1913 (review)

The latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were times of rapid technological change for navies throughout the world. In the United States, Congress and the executive branch gave birth during the 1880s to a "New American Navy," an institution that grew in size, power, and prestige over the ensuing decades. One naval officer who both witnessed and contributed to this transformation was Washington Irving Chambers, the subject of Steven K. Stein's From Torpedoes to Aviation.

Stein's biography, based largely on Chambers's papers at the Library of Congress, provides a comprehensive look at the life and times of an important naval reformer. Stein argues that while Chambers was in many ways typical of the numerous Progressive Era naval officers who promoted technological innovation, professionalization, and administrative efficiency, he was one of the few to make lasting contributions in both the technical and bureaucratic realms. According to Stein, Chambers deserves the same careful study as better-known and more confrontational reformers like Bradley Fiske and William Sims.

Chambers began his career in an era of American naval austerity. After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1876, he served on several different Civil War-era vessels before reporting for shore duty at the newly established Office of Naval Intelligence in 1883. The young officer barely had time to unpack before the Navy Department detached him, first to participate in an arctic relief expedition and later to survey a possible canal route through Nicaragua. Chambers's hard work during these assignments earned him praise from his superiors and enhanced his professional reputation. After a tour at the New York Navy Yard, Chambers returned to sea duty in 1889, serving for the first time in modern warships. Three years later he joined the faculty of the Naval War College, where he ardently defended the college against its critics.

Chambers's fervent support of the War College nearly led to a court-martial against him, and the Navy Department cut his tour there short. He then served on a new cruiser, as a member of the Armor Factory Board, and at the Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island. Chambers failed to see action during the Spanish-American War, but later gained combat experience in the Philippines. His performance in that theater, along with his reputation as a hard-working and technically savvy officer, landed him a coveted billet as a staff officer to the General Board in 1904. During his time with the board, Chambers advocated the construction of all-big-gun battleships, and several years later he took command of his own battleship. After serving in command just six months, however, Chambers made a fateful decision to accept a job as an assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. Shortly thereafter, the secretary placed him in charge of the department's aviation correspondence.

Chambers quickly became an enthusiastic proponent of naval aviation. He arranged the first take-off from and landing on an American warship, selected the first generation of naval pilots, and purchased the service's first aircraft. But Chambers's devotion to naval aviation led him to postpone further sea duty, and in 1913 he was "plucked" for retirement. Ironically, Chambers's forced retirement resulted, in part, from the "deliberate, personal, and vindictive" machinations of fellow reformer Bradley Fiske (p. 187).

Stein's study of Chambers's career is both interesting and informative, but the book suffers from one regrettable defect. For a scholarly work, the citations of primary sources located in the U.S. National Archives are often inadequate. While the author takes care to cite the record groups in which documents are located, his endnotes rarely indicate the subgroups and series for these documents. Despite this shortcoming, From Torpedoes to Aviation is a welcome addition to the historical literature on the New American...