USS Beatty (DD-640)

In the spring of 1892, Beatty returned to duty afloat, serving briefly in Ranger before being ordered to the monitor Miantonomah . After torpedo instruction, the young officer, by then a lieutenant, served in the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius ; and spent the next few years alternating between duty ashore at the Naval Academy and afloat, in Monongahela . Reporting to the gunboat Adams in the summer of 1897, he became that ship's executive officer in October and served in that capacity until transferred to the monitor Monterey in March 1898. The following spring, Beatty became the executive officer of gunboat Wheeling

Shore duty at the Washington Navy Yard preceded a tour in charge of the Department of Yards and Docks in the Navy Department from 13 February 1901 to 21 January 1902. Two commands followed in succession: first, the nautical school ship Saratoga and then Gloucester , before he became Commander, Naval Base, Culebra, Puerto Rico, in February 1904, with additional duty commanding Gloucester .

After a brief tour first as assistant inspector and later as the inspector of the 9th Light House District, headquartered at Chicago, Ill., Beatty spent the next decade alternating between ordnance duty ashore and service afloat, commanding in turn the cruisers Columbia and Charleston and the battleship Wisconsin . His shore duty included a tour as Assistant Superintendent of the Naval Gun Factory, Washington Navy Yard; one in the Bureau of Ordnance as a member of the board on sights; and, ultimately, a stint as Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard and Superintendent of the Naval Gun Factory. While holding the latter post from 1905 to 1907, Beatty was instrumental in the development of an electric range finder.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Beatty I (DD-640)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.