Admiral Dewey made his home in Washington after his wife’s death. He was fond of horseback exercise, being never without a thoroughbred animal, and he treated them with a considerate kindness that was characteristic of the man.
Admiral Dewey was an early riser, and spent most of his time in the public service. He was temperate to the degree of abstemiousness. He was Life President of the Metropolitan Club, of Washington, member of the University Club, of New York, and for some time a member of the Somerset Club, of Boston. During his earlier residence in Washington, he was a member of the Maryland Hunting Club, but later his active public service prevented him indulging his taste for gunning.
Admiral Dewey’s son said of him: “Father has always been an extremely active man. He has been a lifelong student of everything connected with the sea. He is a constant reader, but in his studies he seldom goes outside of nautical science, or some collateral branch, such as Naval History. He made a study of harbors, too, and is a thorough geographer. I attribute his success at Manila in part to his knowledge of the harbor. He undoubtedly knew just what he was doing and where he was going when he made that midnight dash which seems to be so amazing to people who don’t know him. He knows how to navigate; he never carried a pilot all the time he was captain. He did his own navigating.
“Then, too, father had every confidence in his men, and the feeling was reciprocal, which was another strong element that contributed to his success. He knew what they could do. The cardinal principle of my father has been: ‘Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well.’”
This was the keynote of the life of George Dewey, whose name in a day was placed with those of John Paul Jones, Decatur, Farragut, and others who have shone in Naval History.
Transcriber’s Notes
Except as described under Changes below, this e-text uses the language used in the source document. Inconsistent spelling, capitalisation, spacing and hyphenation, unusual, obsolete and archaic language, etc. have been retained, also in proper, geographical and ships’ names. Accents have not been added or corrected. Differences in wording between the Lists of Illustrations and the captions in the text have not been rectified.
Chapter numbering: in the first book chapters are numbered I through XV (which has been corrected to XIV) in the Table of Contents, and I through XIV in the text. The remainder of the chapters (including those in the second book) are not numbered. This oddity has been retained in this e-text.
Page numbering: this e-text uses prefixes I and II in the page numbers for the first and second book.