ROOSEVELT SAVED BAGLEY FOR THE NAVY
When Bagley came up for graduation at the end of the four-years’ course the doctors thought they discovered an irregular movement of the heart, and recommended that he be dropped. Bagley took his case to Theodore Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy.
Roosevelt, looking at him through his glasses with a quick, critical glance, said,—
“You are Bagley, the football player, are you not?”
Bagley said he was.
“Well, you are to stay in the navy while I am here. The service needs more men just like you.”
Then Bagley went on his two-years’ cruise, and when he came back he was passed through without question.
Captain Cook, Admiral Schley’s chief-of-staff on the “Brooklyn,” Captain Clark, of the “Oregon,” and Commander Davis were room-mates in the famous class of Crowninshield, Taylor, and Evans. The “Brooklyn” and the “Oregon,” commanded by classmates and room-mates, fought almost side by side down the desperate flight to the westward, the “Oregon” farther inland, but both thundering their iron missiles on the “Colon” as she struggled to her doom.
It is an interesting fact that Captain Clark, then holding the title of acting ensign, but really a midshipman, was the first one to communicate with the captain of the ram “Tennessee” when she was captured at Mobile Bay, while it was Captain Cook who received the surrender of the “Cristobal Colon.” The third member of this trio was retired several years ago or he would have had a command in the same action. The affection which these youngsters bore one for the other was very much like that which existed between Captains Evans and Taylor.