USS Beale (DD-471)

Edward Fitzgerald Beale, born in Washington, D.C., on 4 February 1822, was appointed to the Naval School at Philadelphia on 14 December 1836, and received his warrant as a passed midshipman on 1 July 1842. In July 1846, while he was serving in the frigate Congress in California waters, war between the United States and Mexico erupted. Beale went ashore at recently captured San Diego as part of a small force sent to guide Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny's 1st Dragoons to that port. The two forces succeeded in the rendezvous; but, on the return trip, fought sharp battles on 7 and 8 December and ended up surrounded by a larger Mexican force. Beale and Kit Carson volunteered to slip through the Mexican lines to summon help from the San Diego garrison. Beale reached San Diego 27 hours later, and Carson came in the following morning. A relief column of 200 men went out, rescued Kearny's force, and escorted it back to San Diego. In February 1847, Beale, in company with Kit Carson and a small troop, set out overland across the North American continent and delivered his despatches to Washington in June of that year. In 1848 and 1849, he made six journeys between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Promoted to master on 1 August 1849 and to lieutenant on 28 February 1850, Beale resigned on 5 March 1852 to accept an appointment as superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada. In the ensuing years, he conducted a number of surveys of railroad and wagon routes in the far west. He became Surveyor General of California in 1861 and at the end of the Civil War, retired to his ranch near the present day site of Bakersfield, Calif. In 1876, President Grant appointed him minister to the Austro Hungarian Empire; and, after holding that office for about a year, Beale returned to retirement. Edward Beale died in Washington on 22 April 1893.

II (DD-471: displacement 2,050; length 376'6"; beam 39'8"; draft 17'9"; speed 35.2 knots; complement 329; armament 5 5-inch, 4 1.1-inch, 6 20 millimeter, 10 21-inch torpedo tubes, 6 depth charge projectors, 2 depth charge tracks; class Fletcher )

The second Beale (DD-471) was laid down on 19 December 1941 at Staten Island, N.Y., by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 24 August 1942; sponsored by Miss Nancy Beale; and commissioned on 23 December 1942 at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., Cmdr. Joe B. Cochran in command. Early in January 1943, Beale began shakedown training off the coast of New England. Later that month, she continued that training in the West Indies near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In mid-February, the destroyer returned north to New York for a month of post-shakedown repairs. She returned to sea on 15 March and headed back to the West Indies where she served as antisubmarine escort and plane guard for the recently commissioned aircraft carrier Essex (CV-9) during her shakedown training near Trinidad. Beale completed another repair period at the New York Navy Yard between 10 and 21 March and then embarked upon the long voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Steaming by way of Norfolk, Va., she arrived at Cristobal in the Canal Zone on 22 April and transited the canal on the 28th.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Beale II (DD-471)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.