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Photo # 80-G-1034138:  Admiral William V. Pratt during a shipboard ceremony, circa 1929

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- UNITED STATES --

Admiral William V. Pratt, USN (1869-1957) --
5th Chief of Naval Operations, 17 September 1930 - 30 June 1933

William Veazie Pratt was born in Belfast, Maine, on 28 February 1869. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1889, he served in several cruisers and gunboats, visiting Europe, South America and Asia. During 1895-97, Ensign Pratt had the first of three instructor tours at the Naval Academy. He was assigned to the gunboat Mayflower during the Spanish-American War and to the cruiser Newark afterwards. While in the latter, he returned to Asiatic waters, where he saw action in the Philippines Insurrection. A second Naval Academy session followed in 1900-1902, after which he served in the North Atlantic Fleet flagship Kearsarge.

Lieutenant Commander Pratt's final Naval Academy tour took place in 1905-1908. He then was Executive Officer of the cruisers Saint Louis and California. Promoted to the rank of Commander in 1910, Pratt was an instructor at the Naval War College in 1911-1913 and spent the next two years in the Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla, much of that as Commanding Officer of its flagship, the scout cruiser Birmingham. Captain Pratt was assigned to the Army in Panama and at the Army War College in 1915-1917. During the First World War he served in Washington, D.C., where as Assistant Chief of Naval Operations in 1918, he played a very important role in running the wartime Navy.

Pratt was at sea in 1919-1921 as Commanding Officer of the battleship New York and as Commander Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet. Following promotion to Rear Admiral in mid-1921, he was a member of the General Board in Washington, D.C., and served as a technical advisor during the negotiations that led to the Washington Naval Limitations Treaty of February 1922. He commanded a battleship division in 1923-1925 and was President of the court of inquiry that examined the 8 September 1923 Honda Point disaster. Assignments followed to the General Board and as President of the Naval War College. In 1927 he returned to sea as Commander Battleship Divisions, Battle Fleet. A year later, he became Commander Battle Fleet in the rank of Admiral and in 1929-1930 was Commander in Chief United States Fleet.

Admiral Pratt's work with the U.S. Fleet was interrupted in early 1930 by a trip to England to participate in the London conference that further limited the size of the World's major navies. He became Chief of Naval Operations in September 1930 and spent nearly three years in that post, during a time when Depression-era demands for economy made it very difficult to maintain the Navy's size and readiness. Retired at the beginning of July 1933, Pratt lived thereafter in Maine and New York City. During the World War II years he wrote a regular column for a nationally-circulated magazine and spent several months on active Navy Department duty in 1941 studying measures to counter the German submarine threat. Admiral William V. Pratt died on 25 November 1957.

USS William V. Pratt (DLG-13, later DDG-44) was named in honor of Admiral Pratt.

This page features selected views of Admiral William V. Pratt.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 55466

Rear Admiral William V. Pratt, USN


Photographed circa the mid-1920s.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 57KB; 595 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 77489

Vice Admiral William V. Pratt, USN
,
Commander Battleships, Battle Force

Photograph dated January 1928.

The original photograph is in the Admiral William V. Pratt Papers, held by the Naval Historical Center, 1973.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 61KB; 520 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-1034138

Admiral William V. Pratt, USN
,
Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet

Wearing Special Full Dress uniform during a shipboard ceremony, circa 1929.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 75861

Admiral William V. Pratt, USN
,
Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet

Is welcomed to Hawaii, at Honolulu on 16 July 1930.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral William V. Pratt.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 70KB; 580 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 55469

Admiral William V. Pratt, USN


Photographed while serving as Chief of Naval Operations, circa 1930-1933.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 68KB; 565 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 77034-KN (color)

Admiral William V. Pratt, USN,
Chief of Naval Operations, 1930-1933

Portrait painted by C.A. Slade.

Courtesy of the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, 1973.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 59KB; 595 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 72334

Lieutenant Commander William V. Pratt, USN
(left)

Supervises sailors working on board USS Saint Louis (Cruiser # 20), circa 1908-1910.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral William V. Pratt.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 87KB; 640 x 675 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 75768

USS Bruce (DD-329)


Officers on the ship's open bridge, during engineering, gunnery and torpedo exercises in early 1921.
Those present are (from left to right):
Commander Henry C. Gearing, Jr., Commanding Officer, USS Bruce;
Captain William V. Pratt, Commander, Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet;
Lieutenant Homer L. Grosskopf, Executive Officer, USS Bruce; and
Captain Franck Taylor Evans, Chief of Staff, Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet.
Note pelorus at right and cigarettes and pipes in use.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral William V. Pratt.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 75877

Admiral William V. Pratt, USN
,
Commander in Chief, Battle Fleet (left);
with
Rear Admiral Joseph M. Reeves, USN,
Commander, Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet (center);
and
Captain Frank R. McCrary, USN,
Commanding Officer, Naval Air Station, San Diego (right)

At Naval Air Station, North Island, San Diego, California, on 27 December 1928.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral William V. Pratt.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 565 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 75853

Admiral William V. Pratt, USN
,
Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (left)
with
Admiral Louis McCoy Nulton, USN,
Commander in Chief, Battle Fleet

Wearing Special Full Dress uniforms, with swords, while attending a ceremony on board one of the U.S. Fleet's battleships, circa 1930.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral William V. Pratt.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 70KB; 595 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 75852

Admiral William V. Pratt, USN
,
Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (front, center);

Attends a ceremony with other officers and two civilian gentlemen, circa 1930.
Among the others present are (in second row, left to right):
Lieutenant Charles W.A. Campbell, Aide to Admiral Pratt;
Vice Admiral Lucius A. Bostwick, Commander, Battleship Divisions, Battle Fleet (with beard); and
Admiral Louis McCoy Nulton, Commander in Chief, Battle Fleet (partially cropped out of the view);
Note microphone for radio station WNYC, in the foreground.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral William V. Pratt.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 525 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 74761

London Naval Conference, 1930


Members of the United States delegation on board the passenger liner George Washington, while en route to the conference, January 1930.
Those present are (from left to right):
Admiral William V. Pratt, USN;
Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson;
Senator David A. Reed;
George Washington's Master; and
Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral William V. Pratt.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 570 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 4 August 2002