Franklin Jeremiah Drake (4 March 1846 – 30 January 1929) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. He fought in the American Civil War and the United States expedition to Korea.
Drake was a descendant of the Royal Navys Admiral Sir Bernard Drake (c. 1537–1586).
Naval career
Drake was born on 4 March 1846 at Yates in Orleans County, New York. During the Civil War, he joined the Union Navy on 23 February 1863 at the age of sixteen. Drake served as an enlisted man in the North Atlantic Squadron, participating aboard the sloop-of-war in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America and in hunting Confederate privateers. Appointed a midshipman by competitive examination from New York's 31st congressional district, he entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland on 24 July 1863. He performed duty aboard the steamer in 1865 and participated in practice cruises aboard the frigate and the sloop-of-war in 1867 before graduating on 2 June 1868. He was promoted to ensign on 19 April 1869.
Drake initially performed duty in the West Indies in 1868, then served aboard the gunboat from 1868 to 1869 and aboard the steamer in 1869 and was promoted to ensign on 19 April 1869. He temporarily transferred to the United States Army from 1869 to 1870 for training and service as a signals officer, was promoted to master on 12 July 1870, and returned to Navy service as fleet signal officer of the Asiatic Squadron aboard the squadrons flagship, the screw frigate , from 1870 to 1871. In 1871, he served aboard the screw sloop-of-war in the Asiatic Squadron and commanded Company B in the land assault on Korean fortifications at Seoul during the American expedition to Korea of that year, and was commended for his actions by the commander of the landing force, Commander Lewis Kimberly.
Drake was aboard the sidewheel gunboat in 1872, was promoted to lieutenant on 15 November 1872, and returned for a second tour aboard USS Colorado from 1872 to 1873. He was at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1873, and later that year was aboard the monitor in the North Atlantic Squadron. He served aboard the sloop-of-war in the Pacific Squadron from in 1874, transferring to the steamer of the same squadron later that year.
In 1875, Drake reported for duty aboard , the receiving ship at the Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California. From 1875 to 1876, he was a member of the navy yards ordnance department. From 1876 to 1878, he served aboard the United States Coast Survey steamer Hassler on surveying duty along the northwest coast of the United States and in 1878 was aboard the sidewheel steam frigate in the North Atlantic Squadron.
From 1878 to 1881, Drake was on special service aboard the screw sloop-of-war while she made a voyage around the world. During the voyage, he led a surveying expedition to Liberia in 1879 which mapped out the headwaters of the Saint John River and in the spring of 1880 conducted a reconnaissance of the Congo River during which he concluded a treaty with tribal chiefs along the south shore of the river between its mouth and its lower falls.
After returning to the United States, Drake was assigned to the New York Navy Yard at Brooklyn, New York, from 1881 to 1882, then had special duty from 1883 to 1885 on the first Advisory Board and as inspector of materiel in the U.S. Navys construction of its first steel ships. He went to sea, serving in the European Squadron from 1885 to 1887, first aboard the screw steamer in 1885 and then on the screw corvette from 1886 to 1887. He returned to the United States aboard Pensacola in 1888 and that year took up duties as inspector of construction for , the U.S. Navys first torpedo boat. From 1889 to 1891 he was inspector of construction for the Howell Automobile Torpedo, and in 1892 he had special duty at the Bureau of Ordnance for upcoming the World's Columbian Exhibition. In 1893 he was assistant inspector of construction for the new protected cruiser , then being built at Columbian Iron Works in Baltimore, Maryland. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 October 1893.