ALBERT SMITH BARKER
BARKER, ALBERT SMITH, naval officer, and rear admiral in the United States navy, was born in Hanson, Massachusetts, March 31, 1843. His parents were Josiah and Eliza Barker, and on the paternal side he is a descendant of Robert Barker, one of the settlers of Plymouth in the decade between 1630 and 1640. At the age of sixteen young Barker received appointment from his state, to the United States naval academy at Annapolis, and was ordered into active service in May, 1861, being immediately assigned to duty on the steam frigate Mississippi, of the West Gulf blockading squadron. He remained aboard this vessel until its destruction in 1863, while attempting to pass Port Hudson. In the meantime he had taken part in the bombardment and passage of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and Chalmette, and in the capture of New Orleans, and had been promoted to ensign. After the Mississippi was destroyed he joined the steam-sloop Monongahela, took part in the siege of Port Hudson, in the engagement near Donaldsonville, and guerilla fighting generally until the river was opened.
He was commissioned as lieutenant, February 22, 1864, and after a series of assignments, was transferred to the flagship Powhatan, of the Pacific squadron, and witnessed the bombardment of the batteries at Callao by the Spanish fleet under Admiral Nunez. His commission as lieutenant-commander was dated July 25, 1866; and he saw service respectively on the South Atlantic station, the European station, and at the Torpedo station, between that time and the year 1874. While at the latter station, he fired shells filled with dynamite from twenty-four pound howitzers, using the ordinary powder cartridge, being as far as is known the first to fire dynamite in shells on the American continent.
On December 3, 1882, he was ordered to command the Enterprise, and while on this vessel he ran a line of deep sea soundings around the world, the casts being taken at intervals of about one hundred miles. The line between New Zealand and Magellan Straits was made on latitude 47° to 52° South. During this voyage he
