USS Corry (DD-817)

William Merrill Corry was born on 5 October 1889, to William M. and Sarah E. (neé Wiggins) Corry in Quincy, Fla. The young officer attended and graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. (June 1906–3 June 1910), and on 7 July began five years of service in Kansas (Battleship No. 21).

Kansas deployed with the Second Battleship Division to European waters on 15 November 1910, and visited Cherbourg, France, and Portland, England, before returning via Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to Hampton Roads, Va. Corry’s sea experience continued as Kansas set a course for Europe again the following year (8 May–13 July 1911) and visited Copenhagen, Denmark, Stockholm, Sweden, Kronstadt, Russia, and Kiel, Germany, where Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German High Seas Fleet welcomed the Americans. The increasingly seasoned officer gained more tactical expertise while Kansas took part in fleet exercises stretching from Provincetown, Mass., southward to the Virginia capes before she entered the Norfolk Navy Yard, Va., for an overhaul on 3 November 1911.

Early in 1912, Corry began several months of maneuvers on board Kansas from Guantánamo Bay and then gained more diplomatic and leadership skills when his ship returned to Hampton Roads. There she served as one of the vessels of two divisions of battleships that, together with President William H. Taft on board his yacht Mayflower , welcomed the German squadron commanded by Vizeadmiral Hubert von Rebuer-Pachswitz which comprised battlecruiser Moltke and light cruisers Bremen and Stettin , and the Germans visited there before moving on to New York City (28 May–8 June and 8–13 June, respectively).

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Corry III (DD-817)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.