Footnotes to Long Island History
Admiral
Randall, Native Son
by
Thomas R. Bayles
A
native son of Brookhaven town who stood at the top of the United States Merchant
Marine was Rear Admiral Albert B. Randall USNR. Commandant of the U.S. Maritime
Service and retired Commodore
of the Fleet of the United Sates Lines . He was the only merchant marine
officer ever to hold the rank of rear admiral in the United States Naval Reserve
He died
in November, 1945, at the age of 66 and was buried with full military honors in
Arlington National Cemetery thus ending the career of this great Long Islander
who descended from Stephen Randall one of the first settlers of Middle Island.
Born at Brookhaven
Born on
September 10, 1879 at Brookhaven, he was the son of William F. Randall a native
of Middle Island and Sarah S. Smith of Brookhaven. They moved to Bridgeport
Conn., soon after the birth of their son and it was there that Albert received
his education and later at Vermont academy.
This
veteran mariner was as salty as the language of his hard swearing parrot,
Barnacle Bill. He had lived on by and for the sea since he was 13, when he sailed before
the mast on a voyage around the horn which his mother hoped in vain would cure
him of his appetite for the sea
When he
was 17 he enlisted as an ordinary seamen on the bark Obed Baxter, whose
skipper Leander B. Sweeney was a first cousin of Albert's and also a native of
Brookhaven. He saw much service in Asiatic waters during the next few years and
served on the army transports, "Burnside," "Sedgwick" and "Kilpatrick" as ship's
officer, to and from the Philippines and the West Indies. In 1901 he joined the
Navy Auxiliary Service and was assigned as third officer on the "Ajax." He was
promoted several times to more responsible posts and received his master's
license in 1905 and his first command in 1907.
During
World War 1 he was called into service under the Naval Reserve commission he had
held since 1902 and became a commodore of convoys. He was returning on the
"President Lincoln" after Commanding a
52 ship convoy safely across when the ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German
submarine. Captain Randall took to a life boat and escaped capture by removing
his tell tale uniform and when the U boat commander hailed the boat and
demanded to know where the captain was, the captain shouted, " he went
down with the ship." Captain Randall distinguished himself in the convoy
service during the war.
Old
Navy men still talk of the feat that won Admiral Randall his captains four stripes
in 1904. As chief officer of the nay collier "Caesar," he was assigned the
seemingly impossible task of towing the dry-dock "Dewey" from Baltimore to the
Philippines Islands a distance of 12,000 miles. The dry-dock was 500 feet long
with square ends and was almost unmanageable on the tow. It broke loose frequently
and there were days when the log showed miles lost rather than gained, but Admiral
Randall got the Dewey to its destination in 6 months and 10 days. Recommended
for promotion to captain the 25 year old Randall looked too young to the admiral
in charge of the navies colliery branch. Six months later he returned from a
voyage to the tropics with a full beard, appeared again before the admiral, got
his four stripes and shaved his beard off the next day.
Commanded Luxury
Liners
In 1921
he became master of the S. S. America and later on in the same year took
command of the "George Washington," and during the next 15 years Captain Randall
commanded many of the finest luxury liners including the "Republic" the "Manhattan"
and the Famous "Leviathan." He was finally promoted to commodore of the fleet
aboard the flagship, "Manhattan." Although he had served in the Merchant Marine
he had remained in the Naval Reserve and was ranking commander at the time of
his retirement in 1939. His retirement
was brief, however, and with the beginning of the activities leading up to the Second
World War he was called to active service and again commissioned Rear Admiral
and assigned to the position of executive officer of the seamen's service for
the Port of New York. In April 1942, he was promoted Commandant of the United States Maritime Service with
headquarters in Washington.
Among
the many rescues performed during Admiral Randall's long career was one in 1920
in which he acquired the nickname of "Rescue Randall" as a result of
his feat in transferring 274 passengers
from the sinking "Powhatan," which he then brought safely back into port at
Halifax. In 1922 he rescued six men from the schooner "Rhein deMers," which was
foundering with her rudder and sails gone off Newfoundland and with mountainous seas raging.
Again two
years later he went to the aid of a Coast Guard cutter that had been blown
helpless out to sea in an October gale off Nantucket and took off the eight
members of her crew.
Cited
by Roosevelt
His
acts of heroism and his brilliant career as commander of great American ships
promoted the president of the United States to send him the following letter
upon his retirement in 1939:
My Dear
Captain Randall:
I take
the occasion of your retirement to congratulate you on a long and distinguished
career. Your long years of service have been marked by many exploits requiring
the highest qualities of seamanship and command. As commodore of the United
States Lines you commanded the greatest vessels in American Merchant Marine and
proved yourself worthy in all respects of the prominent position that you held.
Your
career may well be the inspiration of American youth as we enter a we phase and
era of expansion. Your services with the armed forces of the United States as
well as with the Merchant Marine, illustrate the inter-dependence of the Navy
and the Merchant Marine for the eventual well being of your country.
Very
sincerely yours
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
President of the United States