The Texas Steer (U. S. S. Texas), Vol. 1, No. 11, Ed. 1 Saturday, June 29, 1929 Page: 1 of 4
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Battleship Texas Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.
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Captain Defrees and Commander Beauregard to Leave Texas.
W HEN the Texas returns from it's visit in Maine and makes the home port for it's annual over-
haul we are to lose two officers whom we have learned to respect and love.
For approximately two years 'now the destinies of the Texas, the care and conteutment of her
crew, our efficiency as a fighting unit of our country's Naval forces, our morale, our happiness and
even our very lives, have been in the hands of these two men.
There are few on the Texas today (and those few will never know) who do not realize to what
degree our Captain and his Executive Officer are responsible for that little thrill of pride we all
have when we answer the old question of our friends ashore-"what ship?"U. S. S. Philadelphi
ia In this floating world of ours with it's daily tasks, it's aims, it's problems, and the complexi-
ties attendant on a routine involving the health and happiness of fourteen hundred officers and men, performing varied
duties, visiting many ports in this and other countries flying the flag of the Commander in Chief; the matter of adminis-
tration is a task requiring more- ttran usual ability and the nicest judgement.
How well this task has been accomplished is evidenced on every hand for the Texas has fulfilled it's mission smoothly,
efficiently and well.
It isn't the custom of good sailormen to rob the dictionary of all the complementary adjectives it possesses when they bid
goodbye to their shipmates, be they officers or men; so let it suffice to say that if Captain Defrees and Commander Beauregard
are sorry to leave the ship, they don't feel any worse about it than we do-There may be better skippers and execs in the
Navy, but if so,-we have never sailed with them.Those of us who are interested
Captain, J. R. DEFREES
U S. S. TEXASin such matters have observed while on the Texas that it takes but two words to run
a battleship efficiently. One is "yes" and the other "no"-followed by a complete
silence. Some of us may have wondered occasionally when Captain Defrees was
utilizing his vocabulary for our benifit, just how much thought might lie behind
these two monosyllables of his. If so, it may have occurred to us that both words
require judgement and courage; and when "No" was the word employed it has been
but little less than marvellous how often subsequent events have demonstrated that
"no" was the right word to use, under the circumstances that prevailed at the time.
While this article does not contemplate a character sketch of these superior
officers of ours who are also our friends, it might be permissible to include in it's scope
some mention of the fact that if silence is golden, speech is silver, and in our Executive
Officer it possesses the hall mark, "stirling". President Hoover found occasion to use
it to his advantage and if Captain Defrees confines his "yes" or "no" to English,
Commander Beauregard can say "yes" in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian,
whistle it or (for all we know) play it on the ukelele.
It doesn't do to get sad when the time arrives for those officers to leave, with
whom we have sailed many wide waters. If that were the custom the ships of our
navy would put to sea in an ocean of tears.-Who knows, some day some of us may
be going down to Panama under Admiral Defrees and Captain Beauregard-I hope
I'll be aboard.
Captain Defrees goes to take command of the Naval Torpedo Station at New-
port and Commander Beauregard will be officer in charge of the department of
modern languages at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. The best wishes of every
officer and man on the Texas goes with them.1 5cT icLc~<o~cGcc c c~ccc'- ccZ2-a
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Texas (Battleship). The Texas Steer (U. S. S. Texas), Vol. 1, No. 11, Ed. 1 Saturday, June 29, 1929, newspaper, June 29, 1929; United States. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1161653/m1/1/?q=%22~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.