Richardson Clover

United States naval officer, hydrographer (1846–1919)

Richardson Clover (July 11, 1846 – October 14, 1919) was an officer of the United States Navy. An 1867 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he was a noted hydrographer, served as Director of Naval Intelligence, and commanded the gunboat Bancroft during the Spanish–American War. He was socially prominent in Washington, D. C., and served as US Naval Attaché to Great Britain. He commanded the Wisconsin on the Asiatic Station and served as president of the Board of Inspection and Survey. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1907 and retired in 1908.

Clover was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, son of Lewis Peter Clover and Sarah Ann Ackerman Clover. His father was an artist who later became an Episcopal minister, serving congregations in Virginia, New Jersey, Illinois, and New York. Richardson Clover was appointed to the United States Naval Academy from Missouri in July 1863 and graduated in 1867. His first posting was to the frigate Susquehanna. Clover had a varied career in the service including several hydrographic assignments. He served on the Coast Survey steamer Hassler on the Pacific coast 1874–77, and had a brief assignment to the Naval Hydrographic Office. He was again assigned to the Coast Survey in 1881, first in the Washington office and then commanding the schooner Palinurus surveying Long Island Sound. He supervised construction of the steamer USC&GS Carlile P. Patterson and became her first commander. Under Clover, the Patterson sailed to California by way of the Straits of Magellan and subsequently made surveys in southeastern Alaska in 1885, covering the north shore of Dixon Entrance (except for Cordova Bay), and Clarence Strait as far north as Union Bay. He remained in charge of the Patterson and the Southeast Alaska survey until he was relieved by A. S Snow in March 1886. Following a year's leave accompanying his marriage, Clover was posted to the torpedo station at Newport and then attended the Naval War College from September 1887 until January 1888. Subsequently, he was posted as navigator on the Pensacola, then as executive officer on the Dolphin from December 1888 to December 1889. During this period Dolphin completed her round the world cruise. Clover served on the Phythian Board on the reorganization of the Navy. Subsequently, he was posted to the cruiser Chicago, serving as executive officer under Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, author of The Influence of Sea Power upon History. In December 1895, he was appointed to the Board revising Naval Regulations. Subsequently, he commanded the Dolphin in 1896 7. Clover was appointed Chief Intelligence Officer of the Office of Naval Intelligence from November 1897 to May 1898 and then again from October 1898 to February 1900. While on his first term as Chief Intelligence Officer, then Cmdr. Clover was also member of the War and Strategy Board established by the Secretary of the Navy John D. Long to provide him with operational and strategic advice. Also on that board was Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. In the period leading up to the Spanish–American War, Clover organized intelligence gathering efforts to establish the location, condition, and order of battle of the Spanish naval forces. These efforts included espionage as well as the more usual compilation of information from open and diplomatic channels. However, when the war started, Clover left his position to take an active combat position as commanding officer of the gunboat Bancroft from May to September 1898. After his stint on the Bancroft Clover resumed his duties as Chief Intelligence Officer until February 1900, then was reassigned as the Naval Attaché at the U. S. Embassy in London from April 1900 to June 1903 He was promoted to captain on April 11, 1902. After a short hiatus at home he became the commanding officer of the battleship Wisconsin from January 1904 to December 1905, while for most of this time also serving as Chief of Staff of the Asiatic Fleet. Then after a one year hiatus he became a member, then the president of the Board of Inspection and Survey from February 1907 to July 1908, during which he was promoted to rear admiral. He retired on July 11, 1908. Clover died on October 14, 1919, aboard a Union Pacific train, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming while en route from San Francisco, California to Washington, D. C. The Clovers had two daughters, Beatrice Miller Clover and Mary Eudora Miller Clover. Beatrice married Thomas Holcomb, who served as Commandant of the United States Marine Corps during the early part of World War II. Mary Eudora Miller Clover never married and died October 11, 1954, in San Francisco.

Clover Bay and Clover Passage in the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska, are named for him. Clover Deep, an undersea valley at 37N, 137 W off the coast of California, was named for him in 1895. The name changed to Glover Deep as the result of a transcription error, and neither name is in current use.