Talk:Oscar Walter Farenholt

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Date of birth?[edit]

Was Farenholt really born in 1843? The article implies some inconsistency. He left school and ran away to sea when he was twelve years old, and enlisted in the US Navy in 1861 after three years of service in the merchant marine. I remember reading several years ago an article that he wrote shortly before he died, in which he stated that he had lied twice when he enlisted: first was about his age, and second about his birthplace (the Navy was not accepting enlistees from Texas at the time, so he said that he was born in Germany). He spent the rest of his career trying to straighten out the records. The article was printed in the US Naval Institute Proceedings sometime back in the 1920s, and I can't lay my hands on it right now. Someone with access to the Proceedings may be able to tell me if what I remember is correct, or if it is merely another example of the fog descending on my brain. PKKloeppel (talk) 15:04, 13 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The item for Farenholt in Who's Who in America (1910 edition) gives his date of birth as May 2, 1845. On the strength of that testimony to the residual clarity of my mind, I have adjusted the year of birth throughout the article.

The same source says that his first commissioned rank was Ensign, not Command ensign, so I have altered that statement, incidentally removing a red link. PKKloeppel (talk) 22:47, 18 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Red link: Command ensign[edit]

I have another question. Did the rank "Command ensign" really exist? I have never heard of it, and I suspect that it was an honorific applied to an ensign occupying a billet usually reserved for masters. It would be like the former "lieutenant commanding," used before the rank of lieutenant commander was established. I may be wrong, as I am not familiar with Navy practice after the Civil War. PKKloeppel (talk) 16:00, 13 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Neutrality laws of the 1930s ???[edit]

At the end of the paragraph regarding the Spanish-American war, there is a sentence referring to neutrality laws, but where the reference is to the neutrality laws not of that time, but of the 1930s ? What's that all about ? Please investigate and correct... --46.212.156.97 (talk) 22:54, 25 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]