Sigsbee
CHARLES DWIGHT, an American naval officer; born in Albany, N. Y., Jan. 16, 1845; was graduated at the United States Naval Academy in 1863; served in the Gulf blockading squadron during the latter part of the Civil War; and participated in the battle of Mobile Bay. After the war he commanded a Coast Survey vessel, and served for several years in the hydrographic office of the Navy Department at Washington. He invented a deep-sea sounding apparatus and was permitted to accept the Order of the Red Eagle from the Emperor of Germany in recognition of his services in superintending its construction abroad. As captain he was assigned to the command of the battleship "Maine" in 1897. During the Spanish-American War he commanded the auxiliary cruiser "St. Paul," which rendered excellent service as a naval scout. The deepest valley in the Gulf of Mexico is named "Sigsbee's Deep," after Captain Sigsbee, and the scientific name of Sigsbeia murrhina is given to one of the rarest species of deep-sea fauna. It was Sigsbee, too, who discovered near the Morro light, many beautiful specimens of the pentacrini, or sea lilies. In 1898 Captain Sigsbee was given command of the battleship "Texas," and in 1900 became chief of the bureau of naval intelligence. In 1903 he was commander of the navy yard at League Island, Pa. He was commander of the S. Atlantic Squadron, 1904-1905; of the N.
Atlantic Fleet, 1905-1906. He retired in 1907. He was the author of "Deep-Sea Sounding and Dredging," "Personal Narrative of the Battleship Maine," etc.