Pillsbury, John E. - Rear Admiral

ADMIRAL PILLSBURY DEAD.

Naval Authority on Hydrographic and Geodetic Work.

Rear Admiral John E. Pillsbury, retired, died suddenly yesterday at his home in Washington, D. C. He was 73 years old and until his retirement in July, 1909, was regarded as one of the authorities of the navy's hydrographic and geodetic work.

Rear Admiral Pillsbury was born in Lowell, Mass. When only 14 years old, he was appointed a page in the House of Representatives at Washington. President Lincoln appointed him to Annapolis. He served four years on the Minnesota and at the Charleston Navy Yard, and then was assigned to the flagship Colorado of the Asiatic squadron.

As a lieutenant he studied torpedo experiments at the Newport station and later was transferred to the hydrographic office. He established the axis of the Gulf stream in the Straits of Florida and off Cape Hatteras and determined many of the laws by which its flow was governed.

During the Spanish-American war he was in command of the dynamite steamer Vesuvius. In 1902 he was promoted to Captain and in 1908 was made Chief of the Bureau of Navigation and promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral.

The New York Times, New York, NY 31 Dec 1919