Charles Francis Adams III
Another son of John Quincy Adams II, Charles Francis Adams III was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1866. Like many of the Adams family, Charles was educated at Harvard, where he graduated with honors in 1888, later taking his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1892. The following year he was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Boston while keeping an eye out for other business opportunities. He also honored the family tradition of political activity, elected to office as the Mayor of Quincy in 1896, holding office until 1897. He also served with the Massachusetts Historical Society.
While holding office as President of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1903, the dilapidated condition of USS Constitution, one of the original six frigates of the United States Navy, was brought to his attention. Congress had authorized restoration of the ship in 1900, using funds to be privately raised. When the funding drives were unsuccessful, Charles lobbied Congress to restore the ship to active duty. The Secretary of the Navy announced plans to take the venerable ship out to sea and sink it as target practice. A storm of public protest over such an ignominious fate for Old Ironsides forced the navy to back down.
Charles’ eye for business opportunities and the prestige of the Adams name led him to serving on the corporate boards of more than 40 companies during the first two decades of the twentieth century, including some of the largest in the nation. Charles was an officer of numerous banks in Boston and New York, and several railroads, including the New York, New Haven, and Hartford. He was also an officer of the Harvard Corporation, as were several of his uncles and cousins at one time or another. From 1929 until 1933 he served the Hoover Administration as Secretary of the Navy, a role which led him to help negotiate the London Naval Treaty in 1930.
Besides being an expert in naval affairs, Charles was an accomplished sailor himself, and skippered the America’s Cup yacht Resolute to a successful defense of its title in 1920. After his retirement from business and political life he won the three top yachting races of the time, the King’s Cup; the Astor Cup; and the Puritan Cup, during the same sailing season in 1939, making him one of the most widely respected racing yachtsmen in the world. He used his notoriety as a successful sailor to lobby for further restoration of USS Constitution, which underwent a full restoration and conversion to a museum ship in 1925.
By negotiating parity with the British fleet at the meetings which led to the London Naval Treaty, Charles ensured that the United States Navy entered the Second World War with a two ocean fleet, which was essential to the eventual allied victory. As Secretary of the Navy he also oversaw the expansion of naval aviation and the submarine fleet, both key to the American strategy in the Pacific during World War II. Charles Francis Adams III died in 1954 and was buried in Quincy’s Mount Wollaston Cemetery, the final resting place of many of his family. USS Charles F. Adams was named for him by the US Navy in 1960.