Robert Webster Cary

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Commander [then Ensign] Robert Webster Cary, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the occasion of an explosion on board the U.S.S. SAN DIEGO, 21 January 1915. Lieutenant Commander Cary, U.S. Navy, an observer on duty in the firerooms of the U.S.S. San Diego, commenced to take the half-hourly readings of the steam pressure at every boiler. He had read the steam and air pressure on No. 2 boiler and was just stepping through the electric watertight door into No. 1 fireroom when the boilers in No. 2 fireroom exploded. Ensign Cary stopped and held open the doors which were being closed electrically from the bridge, and yelled to the men in No. 2 fireroom to escape through these doors, which three of them did. Ensign Cary’s action undoubtedly saved the lives of these men. He held the doors probably a minute with the escaping steam from the ruptured boilers around him. His example of coolness did much to keep the men in No. 1 fireroom at their posts hauling fires, although five boilers in their immediate vicinity had exploded and boilers Nos. 1 and 3 apparently had no water in them and were likely to explode any instant. When these fires were hauled under Nos. 1 and 3 boilers, Ensign Cary directed the men in this fireroom into the bunker, for they well knew the danger of these two boilers exploding. During the entire time Ensign Cary was cool and collected and showed an abundance of nerve under the most trying circumstances. His action on this occasion was above and beyond the call of duty.

The Navy Cross is awarded to Lieutenant Robert Webster Cary, U.S. Navy, for extraordinary heroism on 7th of November, 1918, when the depth charges on the stern of the U.S.S. Sampson broke adrift in a heavy gale and were thrown about in such a manner as to involve danger of serious damage to the ship and the possibility of an explosion in case the safety fork of one of the depth charges should work loose. Lieutenant Gary, executive officer of the ship, accompanied by several enlisted men, secured the depth charges, working on the fantail when heavy seas were breaking over it, adding the danger of being washed overboard to that connected with the possible explosion of the depth charges.