The Gallant Young: Heroism, Audacity, And Controversy Of A Kentucky Naval Officer (Part Three)
By: Joe D. Friday Jr.
Note: This is the third part of an ongoing multi-part series that will be presented once a month until completion. For further context of this story, please read the previous part in this series.
In March 1881, Young asked the recently appointed Secretary of the Navy, William Hunt, to give him command of the ship to be used in the Lady Franklin Bay arctic expedition that was being planned and outfitted. The expedition was part of an international mission to study the arctic and gather weather data that would help further the science of meteorology.40 For the project, eleven nations established fourteen weather observation stations near the arctic circle. The U.S. manned two of these; one at Point Barrow, Alaska, and the other on Ellesmere Island at Lady Franklin Bay near the northern tip of Greenland.41 Hunt seemed prone to oblige Young, but because the expedition was being conducted by the U.S. Army, he did not have the authority to assign Young to the command.42 Young’s political friends took an interest in things, and an Indiana congressman named William Calkins introduced a house bill in Congress to fund a navy-led arctic expedition with Lucien Young specifically named as commander of the venture.43 While the army’s expedition, led by Adolphus Greely, had a budget of $25,000, Calkins’s proposed naval expedition would have had a $150,000 budget. The bill died in committee after receiving a flood of negative reviews in the national press.44 It might have been fortunate that Young was kept out of the Army’s arctic venture, as the ship assigned to the expedition, a chartered merchant sealing vessel named Proteus, was later stranded and crushed in the ice fields during its attempt to resupply Greely’s party. Due to the frozen seas, Greely and his men were marooned for three years on Ellesmere Island. They nearly starved to death, and of the twenty-four men who began the expedition, only six including Greely survived.45
Young continued to cultivate political relationships, and in July 1882, the Lexington Courier-Journal reported that he took a group of friends, members of Congress, their wives, and other ladies sailing on the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay aboard the presidential yacht, Speedwell, and that “the affair was another triumph for Lucien Young.”46
In August 1882, Young had a short assignment to the ironclad Montauk for an experimental cruise in the Atlantic, he then transferred to the training ship, Minnesota. He was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade on March 3, 1883, and to full Lieutenant on May 1, 1884. He transferred to USS Onward for a short term, and then to USS Shenandoah in October of 1884.47
Near the end of January 1885, newspapers across Kentucky reported that Young, still assigned to Shenandoah and stationed in Chile, had invested heavily in silver mines and railroads there, and that he had written in a letter to his brother that he had cleared over $1 million from his investments.48 If the reports are accurate, such an enormous windfall must have made him one of the wealthiest officers in the navy and surely had a significant effect on him.
Young and Shenandoah went to Panama in April 1885 when rebels threatened an uprising. At that time, Panama was still a province of Colombia. The rebels burned the city of Colón and caused substantial damage to American-owned properties. U.S. marines and sailors from Shenandoah, including Young, landed at the request of the Colombian government.49 U.S. forces occupied both Colón and Panama City, guarding the railroads until Colombia could gain control of the situation. Young’s participation surely must have affected his views on U.S. colonialism and the role of the Navy in projecting American power. In October 1886, Young was detached from Shenandoah and ordered home to await further orders.50
Young then began a series of career development schools and assignments. First, he attended the torpedo service school at Newport, Rhode Island. Then, in August 1887 he began studies at the Naval War College, also in Newport. After completing his instruction there in December, he went to Washington, D.C. for assignment to the Bureau of Navigation. Young told friends he was happy with the duty there, although it was reported that he asked for assignment to a European station.51
Young’s time in Washington was not without its benefits and highlights.52 Young made regular trips to Kentucky to visit his brother and mother. He also took time to enjoy his social life. His name appeared often in the society news. The Lexington-Herald Leader wrote of Lucien Young in Washington society and said the following:
“Lieutenant Lucien Young has the notable distinction of being the bravest man in the service…. In society the gallant Lieutenant is a leading favorite. He is fond of the ladies and equally popular among his brother officers. Physically a giant even in his cadet days, he is still considered the perfection of masculine physique. With good looks, even temper, and that indifference to physical danger that always marks the hero, [it] is no wonder that Lieutenant Young is the idol of his friends.”53
In May 1888, Young served as a judge of horse races at Washington’s Ivy City Racetrack.54 His interest in horse racing was deeply rooted in his Kentucky upbringing, and newspapers reported that he was a horse breeder and owned a large stable of thoroughbreds, some of which were remarkably successful.55
On October 3, 1889, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Pennsylvania Congressman Alfred Harmer requested the Secretary of the Navy to appoint Lucien Young as commander of the training ship Saratoga.56 The Secretary denied Harmer’s request. But it appears that Young or others were continually working behind the scenes to promote him for higher things. While attached to the Navigation Bureau, Young authored an instruction manual titled “Simple Elements of Navigation.”57 That would ordinarily go without much notice, but again, the Kentucky papers gave Young unusual praise.58 At least one other paper, however, ridiculed Young and his publication, calling it “Prehistoric Navigation.”59 It seems Young was always making news, even for the most modest of things.
Life in Washington had its drama for Young, too. On October 28, 1889, he met some acquaintances for an afternoon drink at the Marble saloon. Two men who were there with him got into an intense argument over some unpaid debts. One man pulled a knife. The other man produced a pistol and shot the first man as Young and several others watched in astonishment.60 Then, in January 1891, Young got into a scrape of one-upmanship with an Italian diplomat. Young needed to get a signature on some papers, and tried for several days, but could not reach the man at the Italian embassy. Finally, Young went to the diplomat’s club, but the man was offended that a naval officer would go there for business. The two men exchanged harsh words before Young threw the papers in the diplomat’s face. This resulted in other State Department personnel getting involved to calm things down. It was a case of Young’s pride taking offense at insult, and Lucien Young was no man to back down from anyone, as the record shows.61 Within a week, Young received orders to report for sea on board USS Boston in the Pacific squadron. Whether this transfer was an informal reprimand and a way to get Young out of Washington or not isn’t clear, but it turned out to be another significant twist of fate for the brash and ambitious officer’s career.
Note: Please stay tuned for next month when part four will continue this multi-part series.
Notes
40 “Surrounded By Ice: The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition,” Army Heritage Center Foundation Website, https://www.armyheritage.org/soldier-stories-information/surrounded-by-ice-the-lady-franklin-bayexpedition/, (Accessed November 7, 2025).
41Andrew C.A. Jampolar, “Disaster At Lady Franklin Bay,” Naval History Magazine 24 (August 2010) no. 4, U.S. Naval Institute website: http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2010-08/disaster-lady-franklinbay, (Accessed November 7, 2025).
42 “Lucien Young to William H. Hunt, March 11, 1881,” Officers Letters to The Secretary Of The Navy By Officers Assigned to Ships, Stations, And Navy Bureaus, Navy Officers Letters 1802-1884. National Archives And Records Administration, Record Group 45. NARA Catalog No. 718927. pp. 1-4.
43 The Weekly Kentucky Yeoman, May 20, 1882, p. 2.
44 The Meridian Daily Republican, (Meridian, Conn.), May 24, 1882, p. 2.
45 “Surrounded By Ice: The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition.”
46 The Courier-Journal, July 14, 1882, p. 2.
47 Abstracts of Service Records of Naval Officers, 50.
48 “Lucien Young’s Luck.” The Kentucky Journal, ( Newport, Ky.), January 24, 1885, p. 2.
49 Sandra W. Meditiz, Dennis M. Hanratty, Ed., Panama A Country Study, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, U.S. Government Printing Office, 20-21.
50 Abstracts of Service Records of Naval Officers, 50.
51 Abstracts of Service Records of Naval Officers, 50.
52 “Kentucky Notes,” Maysville Daily Republican, (Maysville, Ky.), March 9, 1887, p. 2.
53 “Lieutenant Lucien Young,” Lexington Herald-Leader, December 10, 1889, p. 2.
54 “Washington Races,” The Evening World, (New York, N.Y.), May 2, 1888, p. 1.
55 “A Lover of Horses,” The Critic And Record, (Washington, D.C.), October 18, 1888, p. 4.
56 The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 3, 1889, p. 1.
57 Lucien Young, Simple Elements Of Navigation, U.S. Navy, 1890, Archives.org, Website: https://archive.org/details/simpleelementsof00younrich/mode/2up, (Accessed November 7, 2025).
58 Kentucky Advocate, (Danville, Ky.), May 2, 1890, p. 5.
59 “Forthcoming Attractions,” The National Tribune, (Washington, D.C.), October 16, 1890, p. 6.
60 “Two Bullets,” The Washington Post, October 29. 1889, p. 1.
61 “A Supercilious Diplomat,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 17, 1891, p. 4.