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Contact Info
Home Town Humboldt Bay
Last Address Naval Academy Cemetery Section 2, Lot 222B
Date of Passing Apr 12, 1928
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Edmund BeardsleyUnderwood
Commandant (and therefore acting-Governor) of American Samoa
Captain Underwood was in command of the USS Colorado (August 1908) when the 13,680 ton armored cruiser ran ashore at Double Bluff in Puget Sound, twenty five miles north of Seattle. In 1910 Captain Underwood was "Elected for Retirement" by the Elimination Board.
He was retired with the rank of Commodore, 15 November, 1910.
Other Comments:
Edmund Beardsley Underwood (1853–April 12, 1928) was a Captain in the United States Navy. Born in California, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1873. He was Commandant (and therefore acting-Governor) of American Samoa from May 5, 1903 to January 30, 1905. He retired in 1910 as Commodore.
Capt. Edmund B. Underwood was at the time of his retirement the commanding officer of the receiving ship Independence (1814) at the Mare Island Navy Yard. Capt. Underwood was born in California, but was appointed to the naval service on June 26, 1869 at large. He served on the monitor USS Miantonomoh (BM-5) during the Spanish War.
The 13,680 ton armored cruiser Colorado ran ashore at Double Bluff in Puget Sound, twenty five miles north of Seattle.
Chain of Command Under command of Captain Edmund B Underwood
Other Memories USS Colorado
The 13,680 ton armored cruiser Colorado ran ashore at Double Bluff in Puget Sound, twenty five miles north of Seattle, at 10 o'clock on the morning of August 15 while proceeding from the Puget Sound Navy Yard to San Francisco under command of Captain Edmund B Underwood. Double Bluff, where the accident occurred is not along the Pacific shore of the State of Washington, but is a precipitous place on the southern shore of Whidby Island almost directly opposite Point No Point in the tortuous reach of water extending northward from the city of Seattle toward the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, which offers a broad roadway westward from Port Townsend to the sea. The Colorado had been undergoing her annual repairs at the Puget Sound yard, and was on her way toward San Francisco preparatory to sailing with the seven other armored cruisers of Rear Admiral Dayton's Pacific fleet for Hawaii and Samoa on August 24.
There was very little fog in the sound until Point No Point was reached. Suddenly, the forward lookout shouted an alarm, and almost instantly there came the shock of the cruiser grounding. The engines were reversed but failed to move the vessel and the accident was then reported by wireless to the Bremerton Navy Yard. The naval tug Navajo and the revenue cutter Arcata were dispatched respectively from the Bremerton yard and Port Townsend to aid the cruiser, which was ordered back to the yard for examination and repairs. The cruiser was floated late in the afternoon and upon her return to Bremerton was found to be so badly injured that she could not be repaired in time to leave San Francisco on August 24 on the Samoan voyage. A dispatch to the Navy Department from Captain John A Rodgers, commandant of the Puget Sound yard, stated that her plates were dented in three or four places on the starboard side, and the starboard docking keel was considerably damaged. The repairs which were immediately ordered are expected to require about thirty days for completion, and when completed the Colorado will resume her place in the first division of the armored cruiser fleet, with the West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. She will probably meet the other ships at Honolulu about October 1 after their return to that port from Samoa. (from a 1908 book, in the public domain).
Colorado was commissioned in 1905 as a Pennsylvania-class armored cruiser, and served during World War I as a convoy escort, (having been renamed as Pueblo to free up the name) and then later as a transport for returning American servicemen. Obsolete well before the end of the war, she was retained as a receiving ship until scrapped in 1930.
