Uproarious Davises
Sirs: The adjective which you used (TIME, Jan.
1) to describe our mother, Hilda Davis, wife
of the noted bandleader, our father, Meyer
Davis, has thrown our household into an
uproar.
Couldn't you have said "blondish," "slimmish," or even "youngish"; but "fluttery,"
never!
Because she believes everything she reads in TIME, she has been fluttering ever since. GARRY DAVIS EMERY DAVIS MEYER DAVIS, JR. MARJORIE DAVIS
Philadelphia, Pa.
— Let blondish, slimmish, youngish Hilda Davis flutter no more.—ED.
Admiral's Stars
Sirs:
In your obit of able Admiral Nicholson, under Milestones (TIME, Jan. 1) you say that he "was one of the two naval men in history to rise from the ranks to wear an admiral's four stars. (The other: John Paul Jones.)"
Whether or not JPJ was ever a four-star admiral in the American Navy, I don't know, but I am certain he was never an enlisted man, nor did he ever serve "before the mast" in the merchant service, whence, by the way, came most of our naval commanders in the Revolution.
In 1759, John Paul, aged twelve, having been bound over to one James Younger, a shipowner, sailed from Whitehaven, in England, in the brig Friendship, as a master's apprentice; he was thus in very much the same status as a midshipman, or more nearly a merchant marine cadet of today. Engaging in the West Indies and American colony trade, he served until 1764, when he became a second officer, the next year first officer of one of the Younger ships. Released from his indenture in 1766, he became, at slightly under 21 years of age, captain of the John. He retired from this command and came ashore in Virginia, where he caught up with the name of Jones, and remained until the American Revolution called him to become one of the founders of the American Navy. . . .
CAMPBELL H. BROWN
Major, Marine Corps, retired Nashville, Tenn.
Sirs:
John Paul Jones was never an admiral in the United States Navy nor did he rise from the ranks.
At the outbreak of the American Revolution he was a planter in Virginia and in December, 1775, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the newly-organized naval service. The highest rank he ever obtained in the U. S. Navy was that of captain.
However, he was made a rear admiral in the Russian Navy by Catherine the Great, a rank which he held from 1788 to 1791.
ALAN L. INGLING, U.S.N.A. '34 Washington, D. C.
>Thanks to Readers Brown and Ingling for setting straight the naval record of John Paul Jones. But the Dictionary of American Biography says: "The outbreak of the Revolution found Jones unemployed, living partly on the generosity of strangers."—ED.
Sirs: ... Of Rear Admiral Nicholson you state, "he was one of two naval men in history to rise from the ranks to wear an admiral's four stars." Rear Admiral Nehemiah Mayo Dyer—Captain of the Baltimore during the Spanish-American War, also rose from the ranks to that of rear admiral.
He was promoted to that rank for spectacular service at the battle of Manila Bay.
Won't you give him his due along with Admiral Nicholson & John Paul Jones? . . .
MARGARITA F. LAVENDAR Melrose, Mass.
Sirs: