Rear Admiral Lucien J. Ker, USCG, Retired

Admiral Ker died in Savannah, Georgia on 28 March 1965, seven years short of completing his half-century as a member of The American Society of Naval Engi- neers He joined the Coast Guard in 1903. During his active career of 43 years his wanderings, ashore and at sea, camed him over the waters of the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Bering Sea. His wanderings brought him into contact with fire, earthquakes, rum-runners, hurricanes, belligerent Germans, and one escaped convict.

Educated in two engineering schools, Tulane University and Webb Institute, graduating from the latter, the Captain began his life of engineering as a s h i p y d hull worker. He worked in several shipyards before joining the Coast Guard.

While employed by the William R. Trigg shipyard of Richmond, Virginia, he helped to build the cutters Mohawk and Tuscarera. Then in 1903 he joined the Coast Guard as a second assistant engineer.

1906, he was aboard the cutter Perry during the San Francisco earthquake. All hands and the cook were called ashore at this time to assist the stricken popu- lace and to prevent pillaging. In the interval of time between the beginning of World War I and the entry of

the United States, a German raider captured the British Freighter Appm, out- bound from Dakar, Africa, and brought it into the Port of Newport News, for asylum. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the ship must be returned to the British, but when the German prize-crew were notified that they must surrender the ship, the Commanding Officer of the ship, Lieutenant Berg, refused, threatening that the ship would never be surrendered.

The task of taking the Appan then fell to the crew of the cutter Yamacraw, one d whom was Captain Ker. Much breath was held as the Coast Guard boarding party advanced on the German ship. The Germans, after noting the determined expressions of the Coast Guardsmen swarming over the side of their ship, sur- rendered quietly.

As the engineering officer of the cutter Pamlico, he was part of the fire and rescue party that went ashore in New Bern, North Carolina when fire destroyed practically all of the negro district {here, in the disasterous blaze of December, ’22. For their part in extinguishing fires, rescuing people from burning buildings, patrolling the town, and distributing food and clothing, the grateful citizens of the town passed a resolution of thanks which they presented in tablet form to the crew of the cutter. Two years later, he was in command of Base Eight, a Coast Guard small boat

base in Norfolk, Virginia. During his command there, during prohibition, his boats made many seizures from the colorful “rummies” of that era. His command, which was instrumental also in the breaking-up of the Norfolk narcotics-smuggling gang, has a record of a conviction for every single seizure.

In 1904, while stationed aboard the cutter Perry, the professional counterfeiter, murderer and jail breaker Wendt escaped from the Federal Penetentiary at Mc- Neil Island. A call went out from the warden to the cutter for assistance in capturing Wendt. For three days, the Coast Guard crew tracked him through the thickets of Oregon Grape and salal of the island. On the fourth day, the cutter- crew found him, and he was captured without the firing of a shot. On the same cruise, his cutter, the Perry, captured 4 Jap sealers for illegal sealing; brought them back to trial and conviction.

At midnight, on August 31, 1941, Headquarters told him, he might retire. They also hinted that he would be more than welcome to stay and direct the war-boomed engineering activity for the Fifth Naval District. The Captain, still lean and healthy at the age of 63, lodred ahead three months; saw war looming, and the next mom- ing, hung his hat on the coat tree as usual.

Admiral Ker married Rosa Gibbs, of Savannah, Georgia, in 1915. She and one daughter, Mrs. Louise Ker Corbell survive him. He was a member of the Engineers Club of Hampton Roads, as well as tho Amencan Society of Naval Engineers.

504 Naval Enpineen Journal. June I965