Exploring a Fleck of History
R. Alan Lewis
President, Ground Zero Books, Ltd.
Booksellers are full of stories. We have many. One of our favorites involves a three-volume set entitled Carter’s Medals of the British Army. We had two volumes of the set and were contacted by a dealer in Spain who had a copy of the volume we were missing. The issue was whether he would buy our two volumes or we would buy his single volume. As many of you know, we are very careful in our descriptions of our items, so we informed our Spanish compadre that our two volumes had a rather large and ornate bookplate inside the front cover of each book. He replied that his copy also had a similar bookplate. Intrigued, we mentioned that our bookplate was that of James Ashbury. We were astounded when he confirmed that he had the missing volume for that set. This was too good a story not to drive us to purchase his single volume. Based upon subsequent research, we believe that the James Ashbury who owned this set was possibly the same James Ashbury who sailed the Cambria to New York to compete in the first America’s Cup of 1871. The son of a Manchester wheelwright who had invented a railway carriage, James Ashbury was not content to have fortune. He was eager for social recognition and in particular recognition from the high society, which explains his membership in numerous British yacht clubs, such as the Royal Harwich and Royal Thames Yacht Clubs. In 1868, Ashbury appointed Michael Ratsey to build a 188-ton schooner christened Cambria after the Cambrian Railway, a company in which James had some interest. As the United States defended the America’s Cup the next year, it appears sadly that Ashbury, and his ship, did not win this historic first encounter.
The Internet is a wonderful tool. We recently used to in researching a copy of a Naval Academy Manual of Athletic Requirements by W. A. Richardson published in 1927. It appears to have been an update of a similar manual initially published in 1920, with a second edition in 1922. It contains three photos of Midshipman F. E. Fleck, Jr., front, back and side that appear to have been taken during a physical examination. These show a lot of skin, and the cheeks are quiet visible on both the front and back views. As one would expect of midshipman, the pictures depict a fine physical specimen. We wondered what sort of career Midshipman Fleck later had, and were astounded with what we were able to discover in a few days of innovative and effective use of our research knowledge and Internet tools. Our virtual tour of Fleck’s career took us from Annapolis to Pearl Harbor, to Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.
Our journey was not logical or chronological in terms of his career. First we determined that Fleck, with the rank of Captain, commanded the USS Salamonie from 4 September 1954 until 1 February 1956. The USS Salamonie (AO-26) was a Cimarron-class fleet replenishment oiler, named for the Salamonie River in Indiana. Salamonie was laid down on 5 February 1940 under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 13) as Esso Columbia by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newport News, Virginia.; launched on 18 September 1940; sponsored by Mrs. Eugene Holman; designated for US Navy use on 20 November 1940; and commissioned on 28 April 1941. During the period of Fleck’s command the ship had deployments with the US 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. We then searched and located a website dedicated to this ship (http://salamonie.homestead.com). Unfortunately, an exchange of e-mails yielded no additional information on Captain Fleck.
Undeterred, and in fact feeling challenged, we proceeded to try several search engines. Not surprisingly, we got some different ‘hits’ from basically the same searches. We were particularly pleased with the results from Bing, although we initially thought we would get references to a type of cherry and to Bob Hope’s Road movie buddy. We found the text of a dispatch from the Commanding Officer, USS Henly to CINCPAC, dated December 15, 1941 on the Subject of “Offensive measures during air raid on Pearl Harbor, T.H., December 7, 1941.” In this dispatch the following statements are made:
“Lieutenant F. E. Fleck, Jr., U.S.N., was commanding officer of the Henley at the time the air raid commenced. The manner in which he got the ship underway and fought the enemy during the sortie of the Henley is worthy of special commendation. The seamanlike manner in which he picked up his Captain and Executive Officer at sea is greatly appreciated.” What a time for the senior officers to be ashore!
Our search then took us to Wikipedia to learn more about the ship. We found out that: USS Henley (DD-391), a Bagley-class destroyer, was the 2nd ship of the United States Navy to be named for Captain Robert Henley, an officer in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France, the War of 1812 and the Second Barbary War. She departed San Diego 14 April 1941 to join the Fleet at Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941, Henley was moored in Bast Loch with battle stations manned, a green sailor having sounded General Quarters instead of Quarters for Muster. This fortunate mistake gave Henley under the command of Lieutenant Francis E. Fleck, Jr., the opportunity to fire the first destroyer shots as the initial wave of enemy planes swooped in. A bomb exploded 150 yards off her port bow as she slipped her chain from the buoy, and, as she cleared, she received a signal that a submarine was in the harbor. Henley maneuvered through the smoke, fire, and confusion and sped out of the channel. Her gunners shot down one dive bomber with her .50 cal. guns and shared credit for another. Commanded by a junior lieutenant—both her commanding officer and executive officer were ashore when the attack began—Henley dropped depth charges on a sonar contact, possibly a midget submarine, outside the harbor, and continued to blaze away at the enemy with her guns.
Clearly Lieutenant Fleck was a hero the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, as were many others who rose to the occasion that fateful day. His copy of the Manual of Athletic Requirements had become a tangible connection not only to how naval officers were trained between the two World Wars, but also to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is possible, but unlikely, that this copy was on the USS Henley with Lieutenant Fleck when the fleet was attacked.
While, there were still gaps in our knowledge of the career of F. E. Fleck, Jr., we knew what happened to the ships. The USS Salamonie was decommissioned in 1968. The heroic USS Henley had perhaps a fate more fitting a combatant vessel. “On 3 October 1943 Henley was steaming with Reid and Smith on an offensive sweep off Finschafen when her skipper sighted two torpedoes heading for her. Split-second maneuvering permitted Henley to evade those two torpedoes; but a third was immediately sighted, closing too fast and too near to be avoided. Henley was struck on the port side, with the torpedo exploding in the number 1 fire-room, destroying her boilers, breaking her keel, and displacing her bow about 30 degrees from the longitudinal axis of the ship.
At 18:29, with all her crew having abandoned ship, Henley went down, stern first. Her companion DD’s searched for the sub, then returned to rescue Henley’s survivors, who had lashed their life-rafts together and were using flashlights as signals. Eighteen officers and 225 men were rescued, with 1 officer and 14 men missing.”
Based upon the information we had accumulated, we contacted the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association and submitted a general information request. Their response filled in some key gaps.
“RADM Francis Edward Fleck, USN (Ret.) was a graduate in the class of 1934. He was married to Isabelle Fleck.
He died in Waynesboro, PA on 7-12-1990 of cancer.
He received several medals during his career: Navy Commendation Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Silver Star Medal, and Bronze Star Medal.”
We may continue doing research, with the National Archives or with some naval historians we are acquainted with (and have provided diverse items to), but there is only so much time one can (or should) spend on individual items. It is nice to know that this green lieutenant who had a day of heroism at Pearl Harbor also had what it took to enjoy a distinguished lifetime career in the Navy, rising to flag rank.
We tell you this story for several reasons. First and foremost, we believe the story of F. E. Fleck, Jr., a hero of Pearl Harbor, should not be forgotten. Second, we believe that the saga of our filling in the gaps based on three photos and a name written in a book should tell you that what our website says about us is real—we are historians as well as booksellers, we love our work, we respect our stock, and we seek to provide unparalleled service to our customers. Lastly, if anyone reading this has additional information of Rear Admiral Fleck, we would love to learn it so we can improve our description of the Manual of Athletic Requirements.
Not a lot of wry comments and word play in this month’s column—we will try to catch up next month. As always, we include in our columns the opportunity for you to request a ten percent discount on any item purchased from our website. As we explained in our e-mail announcing the May column, when we use third parties to complete sales, they charge a fee. By offering you a discount when you buy directly from us, we are passing along our savings to you.
We hope that you have enjoyed this “fleck” of history and discourse on our research efforts!
