Career US Naval Officer whose gun crew fired the first American shots in WW I, striking a German U-Boat on April 19, 1917.
Bruce Ware was a native of Massachusetts and a member of the Mayflower Society, whose family ancestry traced back to John Alden and Miles Standish. Graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1907 when he was 19, his first sea duty was on the armored cruiser, USS Washington, which at the time of his last assignment as aide to Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the 3rd Naval District and the Brooklyn Navy Yard nearly thirty years later, had been renamed USS Seattle and was the receiving and training ship for the yard. On March 31, 1908, at San Francisco, Calif. he was married to Nannie Denton Norris by the Rev. J. S. Thomas. It was on his next assignment on the USS West Virginia that he wrote a handy book for the men of the navy engineering corps that saw 500,000 copies sold. Ware revised the manual and turned over publication rights to the Navy during the First World War. At around that time, he obtained a master of arts degree from Columbia University in New York.
In recognition of his engineering proficiency, Ware was assigned as engineering officer on the USS Buffalo. In 1911, as executive officer on the gunboat Helena of the Asiatic Fleet, he assumed his post when the ship was high and dry in the sand with the seasonal falling of the Yangtze River in China. Ware was able to refloat the Helena but the sand had injured her metal valve gears and main bearing. If this wasn't enough, the Chinese fleet had gone rebel in the days after the ouster of the Last Emperor, and they would not cooperate with repairs on the "Yanqui" ship. The captain sent Ware ashore, where after much maneuvering, he commandeered a machine shop and foundry where the engines of the gunboat were rebuilt.
With his success in the Asiatic Fleet and the excellence of his engineering textbook, Ware was ordered to take special instruction at the Naval Academy and Columbia. Following this he was ordered to the battleship, USS Maine, namesake of the ship destroyed in Havana's harbor. Maine was at a shipyard for overhaul and had partially sunk at the dock, flooding her engine room. Again, Ware came to the rescue, salvaging the situation and enabling the overhaul to be completed. After that he was assigned to the USS Connecticut briefly and then to the dreadnought USS Texas in 1915, where he was assistant engineering officer. Under Ward's direction, Texas won the red "E" and the battle efficiency pennant.
Although an engineering officer, he was given additional duty in command of the starboard aft guns, where he stood No. 1 in "spotting". One of his accomplishments was hitting a target at nightfall during torpedo defense maneuvers, bringing Texas up to the 18% score she needed. During World War I as a lieutenant, Ware was assigned as part of the naval armed guard aboard the SS Mongolia and in command of the stern gun crew. The steamer Mongolia was a merchant ship launched on July 25th 1903. Following Germany's declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare on January 31st 1917 and announcement that, “All ships would be sunk without warning, within a designated war zone around Britain and France in the Atlantic and around France and Italy in the Mediterranean", on March 17, 1917, Mongolia was chartered as an Army transport and received a self-defense armament of three 6-inch (150 mm) deck guns manned by U.S. Navy gun crews. The stern gun commanded by Lt. Ware was nicknamed "Teddy" after former President Theodore Roosevelt" by its crew.
On April 6, 1917, the USAT (US Army transport) Mongolia stood out for London carrying supplies. As Ware recalled decades later in an interview,
"We were just leaving New York Harbor when word reached us that Congress had declared war. On the way over we had daily gun practice and some ill luck with our 6-inch fixed ammunition. By the time we reached the submarine zone, our two bow guns had damaged bores and were not firing true. It was at dawn on the morning of the 19th of April, the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, that we sighted the U-boat coming at us off the bow. Realizing that our forward guns were unreliable, we swung the Mongolia hard to starboard. The submarine, delighted to see us offering a broadside target for its torpedo, also swung around, coming into the range of our port guns. Our first shot caught the sub square on the conning tower beneath the periscope. There was a splash and when the water cleared away, there was no more submarine."
Ware's gun fired on the submarine wrecking the periscope and conning tower and forcing the boat to dive. While it is unknown whether the shot was lethal, it marked the first encounter of an American ship with a U-boat. Today, the gun which engaged the submarine is on display at Gosport Park, City of Portsmouth, Virginia and forms part of the Naval History and Heritage Command artifact collection. This is a multi-faceted artifact, it was the gun used in the first armed action by the United States Navy in World War I; but it also symbolizes the impact of new technologies on the rules of warfare and maritime law.
Following the war, promoted to lieutenant commander, he was an instructor at the Naval Academy. He graduated from the Naval War College program and later the Army War College. Assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard as outside superintendent he increased the work force from 2,100 to 3,100 and implemented costs savings that amounted to $400,000. In the late 1920's, he was assigned to the transport USS Gold Star, then conveying thousands of US Marines to strife-torn China. Ware again demonstrated his diplomacy skills in Japan, where there was tension against the United States following "too aggressive relief measures" by Rear Admiral Joseph Straus' relief expedition following an earthquake there. For three years since, Imperial Japan had refused vessels of the Asiatic Fleet entrance to its ports. Ware succeeded in securing an invitation for Gold Star to dock in Nagasaki.
In 1932, Ware's ten months as executive officer of the battleship USS West Virginia helped make that ship first in gunnery, first in battle efficiency and second in engineering, as a result of which, her captain, Cyrus W. Cole was advanced to rear admiral. In 1933, Rear Admiral William C. Watts was forced to withdraw as commander of Minecraft Battle Forces in the Pacific Fleet due to illness. Commander Ware jumped in and filled his billet for three months while Watts recuperated in the hospital. Ware retired from active duty in the Navy in May 1935 and was advanced to Captain the following month, following his last duty as aide to Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the Third Naval District at New York and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Captain Ware was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and the French Legion of Honor for his actions commanding the Mongolia gun crew. Additionally he was awarded the Cuban Pacification Medal, the Mexico Service Medal and the Yangtze Service Medal.
Residing for several months with his wife, Nannie at Admiral Stirling's residence at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Ware studied to obtain his insurance broker's license. Eventually the couple moved to San Diego, Calif. where he worked in the insurance business and pursued his two favorite pastimes: fishing and stamp collecting. Ware was very proud of his fishing tackle collection and boasted that when President Franklin D. Roosevelt went fishing with his friend Vincent Astor, he borrowed tackle from Ware and used a boat that he designed.
As Ware said in an interview on his retirement to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, I love the Navy. It's been my life. But I want to be free. From now on, I'm my own boss. Whenever I want to go fishing or to the ballgame, I'll go." Sadly, Bruce Ware did not live long to enjoy his retirement, passing away the month before his 51st birthday after a short illness at the naval hospital in San Diego.
He was survived by his wife, daughter Nancy who married a navy officer, and son, Bruce R. Ware III, who was stationed on the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans when his father died and who later retired as a rear admiral following decorated service in WW II and Korea.
Bruce Ware was a native of Massachusetts and a member of the Mayflower Society, whose family ancestry traced back to John Alden and Miles Standish. Graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1907 when he was 19, his first sea duty was on the armored cruiser, USS Washington, which at the time of his last assignment as aide to Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the 3rd Naval District and the Brooklyn Navy Yard nearly thirty years later, had been renamed USS Seattle and was the receiving and training ship for the yard. On March 31, 1908, at San Francisco, Calif. he was married to Nannie Denton Norris by the Rev. J. S. Thomas. It was on his next assignment on the USS West Virginia that he wrote a handy book for the men of the navy engineering corps that saw 500,000 copies sold. Ware revised the manual and turned over publication rights to the Navy during the First World War. At around that time, he obtained a master of arts degree from Columbia University in New York.
In recognition of his engineering proficiency, Ware was assigned as engineering officer on the USS Buffalo. In 1911, as executive officer on the gunboat Helena of the Asiatic Fleet, he assumed his post when the ship was high and dry in the sand with the seasonal falling of the Yangtze River in China. Ware was able to refloat the Helena but the sand had injured her metal valve gears and main bearing. If this wasn't enough, the Chinese fleet had gone rebel in the days after the ouster of the Last Emperor, and they would not cooperate with repairs on the "Yanqui" ship. The captain sent Ware ashore, where after much maneuvering, he commandeered a machine shop and foundry where the engines of the gunboat were rebuilt.
With his success in the Asiatic Fleet and the excellence of his engineering textbook, Ware was ordered to take special instruction at the Naval Academy and Columbia. Following this he was ordered to the battleship, USS Maine, namesake of the ship destroyed in Havana's harbor. Maine was at a shipyard for overhaul and had partially sunk at the dock, flooding her engine room. Again, Ware came to the rescue, salvaging the situation and enabling the overhaul to be completed. After that he was assigned to the USS Connecticut briefly and then to the dreadnought USS Texas in 1915, where he was assistant engineering officer. Under Ward's direction, Texas won the red "E" and the battle efficiency pennant.
Although an engineering officer, he was given additional duty in command of the starboard aft guns, where he stood No. 1 in "spotting". One of his accomplishments was hitting a target at nightfall during torpedo defense maneuvers, bringing Texas up to the 18% score she needed. During World War I as a lieutenant, Ware was assigned as part of the naval armed guard aboard the SS Mongolia and in command of the stern gun crew. The steamer Mongolia was a merchant ship launched on July 25th 1903. Following Germany's declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare on January 31st 1917 and announcement that, “All ships would be sunk without warning, within a designated war zone around Britain and France in the Atlantic and around France and Italy in the Mediterranean", on March 17, 1917, Mongolia was chartered as an Army transport and received a self-defense armament of three 6-inch (150 mm) deck guns manned by U.S. Navy gun crews. The stern gun commanded by Lt. Ware was nicknamed "Teddy" after former President Theodore Roosevelt" by its crew.
On April 6, 1917, the USAT (US Army transport) Mongolia stood out for London carrying supplies. As Ware recalled decades later in an interview,
"We were just leaving New York Harbor when word reached us that Congress had declared war. On the way over we had daily gun practice and some ill luck with our 6-inch fixed ammunition. By the time we reached the submarine zone, our two bow guns had damaged bores and were not firing true. It was at dawn on the morning of the 19th of April, the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, that we sighted the U-boat coming at us off the bow. Realizing that our forward guns were unreliable, we swung the Mongolia hard to starboard. The submarine, delighted to see us offering a broadside target for its torpedo, also swung around, coming into the range of our port guns. Our first shot caught the sub square on the conning tower beneath the periscope. There was a splash and when the water cleared away, there was no more submarine."
Ware's gun fired on the submarine wrecking the periscope and conning tower and forcing the boat to dive. While it is unknown whether the shot was lethal, it marked the first encounter of an American ship with a U-boat. Today, the gun which engaged the submarine is on display at Gosport Park, City of Portsmouth, Virginia and forms part of the Naval History and Heritage Command artifact collection. This is a multi-faceted artifact, it was the gun used in the first armed action by the United States Navy in World War I; but it also symbolizes the impact of new technologies on the rules of warfare and maritime law.
Following the war, promoted to lieutenant commander, he was an instructor at the Naval Academy. He graduated from the Naval War College program and later the Army War College. Assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard as outside superintendent he increased the work force from 2,100 to 3,100 and implemented costs savings that amounted to $400,000. In the late 1920's, he was assigned to the transport USS Gold Star, then conveying thousands of US Marines to strife-torn China. Ware again demonstrated his diplomacy skills in Japan, where there was tension against the United States following "too aggressive relief measures" by Rear Admiral Joseph Straus' relief expedition following an earthquake there. For three years since, Imperial Japan had refused vessels of the Asiatic Fleet entrance to its ports. Ware succeeded in securing an invitation for Gold Star to dock in Nagasaki.
In 1932, Ware's ten months as executive officer of the battleship USS West Virginia helped make that ship first in gunnery, first in battle efficiency and second in engineering, as a result of which, her captain, Cyrus W. Cole was advanced to rear admiral. In 1933, Rear Admiral William C. Watts was forced to withdraw as commander of Minecraft Battle Forces in the Pacific Fleet due to illness. Commander Ware jumped in and filled his billet for three months while Watts recuperated in the hospital. Ware retired from active duty in the Navy in May 1935 and was advanced to Captain the following month, following his last duty as aide to Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the Third Naval District at New York and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Captain Ware was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and the French Legion of Honor for his actions commanding the Mongolia gun crew. Additionally he was awarded the Cuban Pacification Medal, the Mexico Service Medal and the Yangtze Service Medal.
Residing for several months with his wife, Nannie at Admiral Stirling's residence at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Ware studied to obtain his insurance broker's license. Eventually the couple moved to San Diego, Calif. where he worked in the insurance business and pursued his two favorite pastimes: fishing and stamp collecting. Ware was very proud of his fishing tackle collection and boasted that when President Franklin D. Roosevelt went fishing with his friend Vincent Astor, he borrowed tackle from Ware and used a boat that he designed.
As Ware said in an interview on his retirement to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, I love the Navy. It's been my life. But I want to be free. From now on, I'm my own boss. Whenever I want to go fishing or to the ballgame, I'll go." Sadly, Bruce Ware did not live long to enjoy his retirement, passing away the month before his 51st birthday after a short illness at the naval hospital in San Diego.
He was survived by his wife, daughter Nancy who married a navy officer, and son, Bruce R. Ware III, who was stationed on the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans when his father died and who later retired as a rear admiral following decorated service in WW II and Korea.
Career US Naval Officer whose gun crew fired the first American shots in WW I, striking a German U-Boat on April 19, 1917.
Bruce Ware was a native of Massachusetts and a member of the Mayflower Society, whose family ancestry traced back to John Alden and Miles Standish. Graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1907 when he was 19, his first sea duty was on the armored cruiser, USS Washington, which at the time of his last assignment as aide to Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the 3rd Naval District and the Brooklyn Navy Yard nearly thirty years later, had been renamed USS Seattle and was the receiving and training ship for the yard. On March 31, 1908, at San Francisco, Calif. he was married to Nannie Denton Norris by the Rev. J. S. Thomas. It was on his next assignment on the USS West Virginia that he wrote a handy book for the men of the navy engineering corps that saw 500,000 copies sold. Ware revised the manual and turned over publication rights to the Navy during the First World War. At around that time, he obtained a master of arts degree from Columbia University in New York.
In recognition of his engineering proficiency, Ware was assigned as engineering officer on the USS Buffalo. In 1911, as executive officer on the gunboat Helena of the Asiatic Fleet, he assumed his post when the ship was high and dry in the sand with the seasonal falling of the Yangtze River in China. Ware was able to refloat the Helena but the sand had injured her metal valve gears and main bearing. If this wasn't enough, the Chinese fleet had gone rebel in the days after the ouster of the Last Emperor, and they would not cooperate with repairs on the "Yanqui" ship. The captain sent Ware ashore, where after much maneuvering, he commandeered a machine shop and foundry where the engines of the gunboat were rebuilt.
With his success in the Asiatic Fleet and the excellence of his engineering textbook, Ware was ordered to take special instruction at the Naval Academy and Columbia. Following this he was ordered to the battleship, USS Maine, namesake of the ship destroyed in Havana's harbor. Maine was at a shipyard for overhaul and had partially sunk at the dock, flooding her engine room. Again, Ware came to the rescue, salvaging the situation and enabling the overhaul to be completed. After that he was assigned to the USS Connecticut briefly and then to the dreadnought USS Texas in 1915, where he was assistant engineering officer. Under Ward's direction, Texas won the red "E" and the battle efficiency pennant.
Although an engineering officer, he was given additional duty in command of the starboard aft guns, where he stood No. 1 in "spotting". One of his accomplishments was hitting a target at nightfall during torpedo defense maneuvers, bringing Texas up to the 18% score she needed. During World War I as a lieutenant, Ware was assigned as part of the naval armed guard aboard the SS Mongolia and in command of the stern gun crew. The steamer Mongolia was a merchant ship launched on July 25th 1903. Following Germany's declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare on January 31st 1917 and announcement that, “All ships would be sunk without warning, within a designated war zone around Britain and France in the Atlantic and around France and Italy in the Mediterranean", on March 17, 1917, Mongolia was chartered as an Army transport and received a self-defense armament of three 6-inch (150 mm) deck guns manned by U.S. Navy gun crews. The stern gun commanded by Lt. Ware was nicknamed "Teddy" after former President Theodore Roosevelt" by its crew.
On April 6, 1917, the USAT (US Army transport) Mongolia stood out for London carrying supplies. As Ware recalled decades later in an interview,
"We were just leaving New York Harbor when word reached us that Congress had declared war. On the way over we had daily gun practice and some ill luck with our 6-inch fixed ammunition. By the time we reached the submarine zone, our two bow guns had damaged bores and were not firing true. It was at dawn on the morning of the 19th of April, the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, that we sighted the U-boat coming at us off the bow. Realizing that our forward guns were unreliable, we swung the Mongolia hard to starboard. The submarine, delighted to see us offering a broadside target for its torpedo, also swung around, coming into the range of our port guns. Our first shot caught the sub square on the conning tower beneath the periscope. There was a splash and when the water cleared away, there was no more submarine."
Ware's gun fired on the submarine wrecking the periscope and conning tower and forcing the boat to dive. While it is unknown whether the shot was lethal, it marked the first encounter of an American ship with a U-boat. Today, the gun which engaged the submarine is on display at Gosport Park, City of Portsmouth, Virginia and forms part of the Naval History and Heritage Command artifact collection. This is a multi-faceted artifact, it was the gun used in the first armed action by the United States Navy in World War I; but it also symbolizes the impact of new technologies on the rules of warfare and maritime law.
Following the war, promoted to lieutenant commander, he was an instructor at the Naval Academy. He graduated from the Naval War College program and later the Army War College. Assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard as outside superintendent he increased the work force from 2,100 to 3,100 and implemented costs savings that amounted to $400,000. In the late 1920's, he was assigned to the transport USS Gold Star, then conveying thousands of US Marines to strife-torn China. Ware again demonstrated his diplomacy skills in Japan, where there was tension against the United States following "too aggressive relief measures" by Rear Admiral Joseph Straus' relief expedition following an earthquake there. For three years since, Imperial Japan had refused vessels of the Asiatic Fleet entrance to its ports. Ware succeeded in securing an invitation for Gold Star to dock in Nagasaki.
In 1932, Ware's ten months as executive officer of the battleship USS West Virginia helped make that ship first in gunnery, first in battle efficiency and second in engineering, as a result of which, her captain, Cyrus W. Cole was advanced to rear admiral. In 1933, Rear Admiral William C. Watts was forced to withdraw as commander of Minecraft Battle Forces in the Pacific Fleet due to illness. Commander Ware jumped in and filled his billet for three months while Watts recuperated in the hospital. Ware retired from active duty in the Navy in May 1935 and was advanced to Captain the following month, following his last duty as aide to Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the Third Naval District at New York and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Captain Ware was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and the French Legion of Honor for his actions commanding the Mongolia gun crew. Additionally he was awarded the Cuban Pacification Medal, the Mexico Service Medal and the Yangtze Service Medal.
Residing for several months with his wife, Nannie at Admiral Stirling's residence at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Ware studied to obtain his insurance broker's license. Eventually the couple moved to San Diego, Calif. where he worked in the insurance business and pursued his two favorite pastimes: fishing and stamp collecting. Ware was very proud of his fishing tackle collection and boasted that when President Franklin D. Roosevelt went fishing with his friend Vincent Astor, he borrowed tackle from Ware and used a boat that he designed.
As Ware said in an interview on his retirement to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, I love the Navy. It's been my life. But I want to be free. From now on, I'm my own boss. Whenever I want to go fishing or to the ballgame, I'll go." Sadly, Bruce Ware did not live long to enjoy his retirement, passing away the month before his 51st birthday after a short illness at the naval hospital in San Diego.
He was survived by his wife, daughter Nancy who married a navy officer, and son, Bruce R. Ware III, who was stationed on the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans when his father died and who later retired as a rear admiral following decorated service in WW II and Korea.
Bruce Ware was a native of Massachusetts and a member of the Mayflower Society, whose family ancestry traced back to John Alden and Miles Standish. Graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1907 when he was 19, his first sea duty was on the armored cruiser, USS Washington, which at the time of his last assignment as aide to Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the 3rd Naval District and the Brooklyn Navy Yard nearly thirty years later, had been renamed USS Seattle and was the receiving and training ship for the yard. On March 31, 1908, at San Francisco, Calif. he was married to Nannie Denton Norris by the Rev. J. S. Thomas. It was on his next assignment on the USS West Virginia that he wrote a handy book for the men of the navy engineering corps that saw 500,000 copies sold. Ware revised the manual and turned over publication rights to the Navy during the First World War. At around that time, he obtained a master of arts degree from Columbia University in New York.
In recognition of his engineering proficiency, Ware was assigned as engineering officer on the USS Buffalo. In 1911, as executive officer on the gunboat Helena of the Asiatic Fleet, he assumed his post when the ship was high and dry in the sand with the seasonal falling of the Yangtze River in China. Ware was able to refloat the Helena but the sand had injured her metal valve gears and main bearing. If this wasn't enough, the Chinese fleet had gone rebel in the days after the ouster of the Last Emperor, and they would not cooperate with repairs on the "Yanqui" ship. The captain sent Ware ashore, where after much maneuvering, he commandeered a machine shop and foundry where the engines of the gunboat were rebuilt.
With his success in the Asiatic Fleet and the excellence of his engineering textbook, Ware was ordered to take special instruction at the Naval Academy and Columbia. Following this he was ordered to the battleship, USS Maine, namesake of the ship destroyed in Havana's harbor. Maine was at a shipyard for overhaul and had partially sunk at the dock, flooding her engine room. Again, Ware came to the rescue, salvaging the situation and enabling the overhaul to be completed. After that he was assigned to the USS Connecticut briefly and then to the dreadnought USS Texas in 1915, where he was assistant engineering officer. Under Ward's direction, Texas won the red "E" and the battle efficiency pennant.
Although an engineering officer, he was given additional duty in command of the starboard aft guns, where he stood No. 1 in "spotting". One of his accomplishments was hitting a target at nightfall during torpedo defense maneuvers, bringing Texas up to the 18% score she needed. During World War I as a lieutenant, Ware was assigned as part of the naval armed guard aboard the SS Mongolia and in command of the stern gun crew. The steamer Mongolia was a merchant ship launched on July 25th 1903. Following Germany's declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare on January 31st 1917 and announcement that, “All ships would be sunk without warning, within a designated war zone around Britain and France in the Atlantic and around France and Italy in the Mediterranean", on March 17, 1917, Mongolia was chartered as an Army transport and received a self-defense armament of three 6-inch (150 mm) deck guns manned by U.S. Navy gun crews. The stern gun commanded by Lt. Ware was nicknamed "Teddy" after former President Theodore Roosevelt" by its crew.
On April 6, 1917, the USAT (US Army transport) Mongolia stood out for London carrying supplies. As Ware recalled decades later in an interview,
"We were just leaving New York Harbor when word reached us that Congress had declared war. On the way over we had daily gun practice and some ill luck with our 6-inch fixed ammunition. By the time we reached the submarine zone, our two bow guns had damaged bores and were not firing true. It was at dawn on the morning of the 19th of April, the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, that we sighted the U-boat coming at us off the bow. Realizing that our forward guns were unreliable, we swung the Mongolia hard to starboard. The submarine, delighted to see us offering a broadside target for its torpedo, also swung around, coming into the range of our port guns. Our first shot caught the sub square on the conning tower beneath the periscope. There was a splash and when the water cleared away, there was no more submarine."
Ware's gun fired on the submarine wrecking the periscope and conning tower and forcing the boat to dive. While it is unknown whether the shot was lethal, it marked the first encounter of an American ship with a U-boat. Today, the gun which engaged the submarine is on display at Gosport Park, City of Portsmouth, Virginia and forms part of the Naval History and Heritage Command artifact collection. This is a multi-faceted artifact, it was the gun used in the first armed action by the United States Navy in World War I; but it also symbolizes the impact of new technologies on the rules of warfare and maritime law.
Following the war, promoted to lieutenant commander, he was an instructor at the Naval Academy. He graduated from the Naval War College program and later the Army War College. Assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard as outside superintendent he increased the work force from 2,100 to 3,100 and implemented costs savings that amounted to $400,000. In the late 1920's, he was assigned to the transport USS Gold Star, then conveying thousands of US Marines to strife-torn China. Ware again demonstrated his diplomacy skills in Japan, where there was tension against the United States following "too aggressive relief measures" by Rear Admiral Joseph Straus' relief expedition following an earthquake there. For three years since, Imperial Japan had refused vessels of the Asiatic Fleet entrance to its ports. Ware succeeded in securing an invitation for Gold Star to dock in Nagasaki.
In 1932, Ware's ten months as executive officer of the battleship USS West Virginia helped make that ship first in gunnery, first in battle efficiency and second in engineering, as a result of which, her captain, Cyrus W. Cole was advanced to rear admiral. In 1933, Rear Admiral William C. Watts was forced to withdraw as commander of Minecraft Battle Forces in the Pacific Fleet due to illness. Commander Ware jumped in and filled his billet for three months while Watts recuperated in the hospital. Ware retired from active duty in the Navy in May 1935 and was advanced to Captain the following month, following his last duty as aide to Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the Third Naval District at New York and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Captain Ware was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and the French Legion of Honor for his actions commanding the Mongolia gun crew. Additionally he was awarded the Cuban Pacification Medal, the Mexico Service Medal and the Yangtze Service Medal.
Residing for several months with his wife, Nannie at Admiral Stirling's residence at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Ware studied to obtain his insurance broker's license. Eventually the couple moved to San Diego, Calif. where he worked in the insurance business and pursued his two favorite pastimes: fishing and stamp collecting. Ware was very proud of his fishing tackle collection and boasted that when President Franklin D. Roosevelt went fishing with his friend Vincent Astor, he borrowed tackle from Ware and used a boat that he designed.
As Ware said in an interview on his retirement to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, I love the Navy. It's been my life. But I want to be free. From now on, I'm my own boss. Whenever I want to go fishing or to the ballgame, I'll go." Sadly, Bruce Ware did not live long to enjoy his retirement, passing away the month before his 51st birthday after a short illness at the naval hospital in San Diego.
He was survived by his wife, daughter Nancy who married a navy officer, and son, Bruce R. Ware III, who was stationed on the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans when his father died and who later retired as a rear admiral following decorated service in WW II and Korea.
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