PART I.
The Tuckers — Birth of John Randolph Tucker. Boyhood — Appointed a Midshipman in the United States Navy — First Cruise — "The Roaring Lads of the Brandywine" — Passes Examination for Promotion — Appointed a Past Midshipman — Promoted to the Rank of Lieutenant — Marriage — Mexican War. Capture of Tobasco — Commands United States Bomb-Brig Stromboli — Made a Commander — Commands United States Receiving Ship Pennsylvania — Ordnance Officer at the Norfolk Navy Yard — Resigns on the Secession of Virginia
During the first years of the present century John Tucker, of the Island of Bermuda, came to Virginia, where resided many of his kinsmen, a branch of the Tucker family having settled in Virginia prior to the War of the Revolution. The family has produced a number of gifted men who have been honorably prominent in the political and social life of the State, but no member of it has been more distinguished or more esteemed than the subject of the present sketch.
John Randolph Tucker was born on the 31st day of January, 1812, at Alexandria, near Washington, on the Virginia side of the Potomac river, in which city his father had made his home and had there married Miss Susan Douglas, the daughter of Dr. Charles Douglas, an English physician, who emigrated to America soon after the Revolution.
Young Tucker received his early education in the good private schools of his native city, which he continued to attend until he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman on the 1st of June, 1826, being then in the fifteenth year of his age.
The profession upon which he entered was one for which he was by nature peculiarly adapted, and to the end of his days he loved the sea and all that was connected with the life of a sailor. It has been said of a great admiral that he could perform with his own hands the duties of every station on board a ship-of-war, from seaman-gunner to admiral, and the same may be, without exaggeration, said of Tucker.
He was fortunate in beginning his naval career on the Mediterranean Station, where he made his first cruise in the frigate Brandywine. Before the establishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis the best school for training a cadet in the etiquette, spirit and, perhaps, even in the seamanship of the service, was a smart frigate of the Mediterranean Squadron. If we may trust the traditions which have been handed down to us in song and story about "the roaring lads of the Brandywine," the training on board the ship in which Tucker first served was well calculated to develop all that was dashing and daring in the young gentlemen of her steerage mess.
After six years' service as a midshipman, Tucker passed the requisite examination for promotion, but he had to wait for his turn to fill a vacancy, and, consequently, was not promoted to the rank of lieutenant until the 20th of December, 1837. As a lieutenant, he made a good deck officer and a very excellent executive or first-lieutenant. In the latter capacity he served on board the bomb-brig Stromboli, in the Gulf of Mexico, during the war between Mexico and the United States. The Stromboli was actively employed, and Tucker participated in the capture of Tobasco and other naval operations against the enemy. During the latter part of the war Tucker succeeded to the command of the Stromboli as Lieutenant-Commanding, retaining the command until the cessation of hostilities.