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<title>Edwin Taylor Pollock</title>
<authors>Wikipedia</authors>
<publisher>wikipedia.org</publisher>
<publishedplace>network</publishedplace>
<publishedyear>2010</publishedyear>
<edition></edition>
<category>1943 deaths</category>
<section id="36884" fatherid="0" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="1">
Edwin Taylor Pollock (October 25, 1870 June 6, 1943) was a career officer in the United States Navy, serving in both the Spanish-American War and World War I. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of Captain. Like many naval officers, his name was often abbreviated using initials: E. T. Pollock.
As a young ensign, Pollock served on board the USS New York during the Spanish-American War. After the war, he gradually rose through the ranks and served on many ships, including doing important research into wireless communication. Less than a week before World War I, he won a race against a fellow officer to be the one to officially sign over the U.S. Virgin Islands from the Danish and serve as the territory's first acting-governor. During the war, he was promoted to captain and successfully transferred 60,000 American soldiers to France, for which he was awarded a Navy Cross. Afterward, he was made the eighth Naval Governor of American Samoa and then the superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, before retiring in 1927.

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<section id="36885" fatherid="0" title="Early career" lv="" priority="-2" level="1">
Originally from Mount Gilead, Ohio, Pollock attended the United States Naval Academy and, as a cadet, was assigned to the USS Lancaster and the USS Monocacy.;  He graduated with a rank of ensign in 1893.
After graduation, Pollock returned to Ohio and married Beatrice E. Law Hale on December 5. Two weeks later, he was assigned to the cruiser USS New York during its initial shake-down. He was subsequently assigned to the gunboat USS Machias for an expedition to China. He remained in China for two and a half years as part of the Asiatic Squadron, transferring eventually to the USS Detroit before returning home in 1897. On his return home, the Spanish-American War was heating up and he was reassigned to the USS New York, to see service in Cuba and Puerto Rico, eventually taking part in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
In January 1900, he was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the USS Alliance. Over the following year, he would serve on the USS Dolphin and the USS Buffalo.;  On board the Buffalo, he returned to the Asiatic Squadron near China and was finally transferred to the USS Brooklyn, the squadron's flagship. He remained on board the Brooklyn, until its return home in May 1902. After a brief leave, Pollock was assigned to the USS Chesapeake (as the watch and division officer), a position he held for more than a year. He was subsequently transferred to the USS Cincinnati, serving for another year, and then to Cavite Naval Base.;  At Cavite, he was promoted to lieutenant commander in February 1906.; 
His first duty as a lieutenant commander was on the USS Alabama, as the navigator. In 1910, Pollock was reassigned to the USS Massachusetts, where he was promoted to commander in March 1911.
On his promotion, Pollock commanded the USS Virginia and the USS Kearsarge, before being transferred to the United States Naval Observatory.;  During his command of the Kearsarge, Pollock briefly commanded the USS Salem for a world-record setting wireless experiment. For this experiment, the Salem was outfitted with 16 different wireless telegraph technologies and sailed to Gibraltar, with Pollock commanding. On arrival, they tested these technologies and set a world-record for longest wireless telegraph distance, , using a "Poulsen Apparatus", based on principles by Valdemar Poulsen. Experiments were also conducted to determine wireless characteristics during inclement weather and during both the day and night. In 1916, he was put in command of the USS Alabama, the ship on which he previously was the navigator.

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<section id="36886" fatherid="0" title="U.S. Virgin Islands" lv="" priority="3" level="1">
Oliver was unable to travel immediately to the Islands and the honor of being the first Acting Governor of the United States Virgin Islands was decided in an unusual way. Both Pollock, commanding the USS Hancock, and B. B. Blerer's USS Olympia were dispatched to the Islands in a race. The commander of the ship that arrived first would officiate at the transfer ceremony and be Acting Governor. Pollock arrived first and the transfer ceremony took place on March 31, 1917 on Saint Thomas. Blerer officiated at a smaller ceremony on Saint Croix. Present for the handover was the crew of the KDM Valkyrien and the former island legislature. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, less than a week after securing the islands. Oliver was confirmed by Congress on April 20 and relieved Pollock as Governor.
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<section id="36887" fatherid="0" title="World War I" lv="" priority="4" level="1">
During the war, Pollock was appointed as Captain on the USS George Washington, a German cruise liner which was repossessed by the United States military for use as a transport ship. She was rechristened George Washington in September 1917 and Pollock was given her command on October 1, 1917. That December, she set out with her first load of troops. During the war, Pollock successfully transported 60,00 American soldiers to France in 18 round trips. In 1918, the George Washington was tasked to deliver President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference, though Pollock would not make the trip. He was reassigned on September 29, 1918.
While on board the George Washington, Pollock and Chaplain Paul F. Bloomhardt edited a daily newspaper. After the war, stories from the paper were assembled and published in 1919 by J. J. Little -anddocsymbol- Ives co. as Hatchet of the United States Ship "George Washington". A short review of the work by Outlook magazine called the book "readable" and "admirably illustrated". It "abounds in clever bits of fun, queer and notable incidents, and sound and patriotic editorials."
After the war, he was eventually reassigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, to serve in the Pacific fleet. On November 10, 1920, Pollock was awarded a Navy Cross for his services during the war.

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<section id="36888" fatherid="0" title="American Samoa" lv="" priority="5" level="1">
|Map of American SamoaOn November 30, 1921, Pollock was transferred from command of the Oklahoma to become the Military Governor of American Samoa. Events both personal and political led to a previous Governor Terhune's suicide on November 3, 1920 and  the appointment of Governor Waldo Evans to conduct a court of inquiry into the situation and to restore order.  Pollock succeeded Waldo A. Evans who had successfully restored the government and productivity of the islands after a period of unrest. At this time, American Samoa was administered by a team of twelve officers and a Governor, with a total population of approximately 8,000 people. The islands were primarily important due to the excellent harbor at Pago Pago.
Beginning in 1920, a Mau movement, from the Samoan word for "opposition", was forming in American Samoa in protest of several Naval government policies which natives (and some non-natives) found heavy-handed. The movement itself may have been inspired by a different and older Mau movement in nearby Western Samoa, against the German and then New Zealand colonial powers. Some of the initial grievances of the movement included the quality of roads in the territory, a marriage law which largely forbade natives from marrying non-natives, and a justice system which discriminated against locals in part because laws were not often available in Samoan. In addition, the United States Navy also prohibited an assembly of Samoan chiefs, who the movement considered the real government of the territory. Surprisingly, the movement grew to include several prominent officers of Governor Warren Jay Terhune's staff, including his executive officer. It culminated in a proclamation by Samuel S. Ripley, an American Samoan from an afakasi or mixed-blood Samoan family, with large communal property in the islands, that he was the leader of a legitimate successor government to pre-1899 Samoa. Evans also met with the high chiefs and secured their assent to continued Naval government. Ripley, who had traveled to Washington to meet with Secretary of the Navy Edwin C. Denby, was not permitted by Evans to enter the port at American Samoa  and returned to exile in California, where he became the mayor of Richmond.
After being appointed as Governor, Pollock's continued the colonization work started by his predecessor. Prior to traveling to the territory, he met with Ripley in San Francisco, California. Although Ripley maintained that American "occupation" of Samoa was usurpation, he agreed to allow Pollock to govern unfettered and to provide him with copies of his letters. Almost immediately after arriving on the island, Pollock and Secretary of Native Affairs S. D. Hall met with representatives of the Mau, becoming the first governor to do so. Shortly afterwards, some members of the Mau disbanded, though the moment would continue in some form for another thirteen years.
Pollock's remaining time as governor was less eventful. In May 1923, he discovered while exploring Tonga a turtle which had been branded by Captain Cook on his expedition there in 1773. The turtle was known to have lived more than 150 years. He was ordered home on July 26, 1923.

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<section id="36889" fatherid="0" title="United States Naval Observatory" lv="" priority="6" level="1">
On August 22, 1924, Mars came within  of Earth. The US Naval Observatory made no formal observations of the planet, but Pollock and the son of astronomer Asaph Hall ceremonially re-enacted Hall's 1877 discoveries of the Phobos and Deimos on the original  telescope which was used for his initial observations. They also made observations to calculate the masses of the two moons.
On January 24, 1925, Pollock commanded the dirigible USS Los Angeles on a flight from Lakehurst, New Jersey to photograph a solar eclipse from an altitude of . This was the first time an eclipse had been photographed from the air.

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<section id="36890" fatherid="0" title="After retirement" lv="" priority="-7" level="1">
Pollock retired from service in 1927 and was replaced as superintendent by Captain Charles F. Freeman. In 1930, Pollock and his wife purchased a summer home in Jamestown, Rhode Island, remaining also in Washington, DC. In 1932, he was made a director of the Jamestown Historical Society.  He also became interested in genealogy and published several works on his family's history through the 1930s. He died in 1943 after a long illness and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
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<section id="36891" fatherid="0" title="Works" lv="" priority="-8" level="1">
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<section id="36892" fatherid="0" title="References" lv="" priority="-9" level="1">
Category:1870 births
Category:1943 deaths
Category:Governors of American Samoa
Category:Governors of the United States Virgin Islands
Category:People from Morrow County, Ohio
Category:United States Navy officers
Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
Category:United States Naval Academy graduates
Category:Recipients of the Navy Cross

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