While continuing my trawl for all things to do with Captain Charles Hansford Kendall USN (1904-1949), I found (courtesy of the Social Register, Philadelphia, 1949) that “Kendall Capt Chas H-USN” died in a Naval Hospital ( (Philadelphia’s swizzy Art Deco-styled US Naval Hospital, demolished in 2001) on 26th August 1949.
I also found his (brief) obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Sunday 29th August 1949 edition, p.26):
Capt. Charles H. Kendall
Capt. Charles H. Kendall, of 923 Old Manoa rd., Penfield, an experimental officer at the Lakehurst (N. J.) Naval Air Station, died Friday at Philadelphia Naval Hospital. He was 45. Captain Kendall commanded a division of destroyers in the Pacific during the Second World War and was graduated in 1928 from the U. S. Naval Academy. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Boudinot Oberge Kendall, formerly of Haverford; two sons, Charles, Jr.. 10, and John, 6. Funeral services will be held tomorrow at the Lakehurst station.
The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky had a little extra to add in its 28th August 1949 issue (p.20):
Naval Officer Dies.
Philadelphia, Aug. 27 (AP) Capt. Charles H. Kendall (U.S.N.), 46, died at Philadelphia Naval Hospital yesterday after a period of hospitalization. His widow, the former Miss Boudinot Oberge of Haverford, Pa., said he had command of a division of destroyers in the Pacific during World War II.
(The same basic story – apparently from Associated Press – also appears in the Asbury Park Press, N.J., 28th August 1949, p.2.) All of which is broadly what I expected (though I must admit that the “period of hospitalization” mentioned is somewhat intriguing).
Ukmyh Kipzy Puern
However, the interesting thing of the day was that while idly looking for Naval Hospitals, I then stumbled upon this image, which I simply had no choice but to share with you:
“Ukmyh Kipzy Puern” – what kind of language is that?, you may (very reasonably) ask. Well, this was the front cover of the monthly magazine of the U.S Naval Cable Censor Office, San Francisco, California. Written in Bently’s Telegraphic Code (you can download the 1921 version here), this telegraphically encodes the real title – “The Monthly Gob“. (Of course it does.) Remember, if a word was more than five letters long, it was charged as two words.
The catalogue notes add “The cartoon, and the face mask drawn in upper right, may reflect countermeasures against the 1918-19 influenza epidemic”. So it seems relatively little has changed in a century or so, hohum. :-/
Seems suspicious, the wording of the obituary. namely the elevated position as a divisional (destroyer) commander in the pacific during WW2. Temporary Captain Kendall was promoted from Lt. Comander in August ’44 to Captain a small Fletcher class (workhorse) destroyer the Wedderburn, for escort duties around Guam. He was relieved in May ’45 and presumably then RTA’d. It is now imperitive that we seek to establish the nature of his role in experiments out of Lakehurst naval AIR station NJ post war. Something bad must’ve happened to put him in the navy hospital down in Phily; balloon hard landing kept mum from the snoops perhaps. Go get em partner!
His wife Boudinot was was out of Haverford PA, she married Charles in ’38, then they got a dream posting to Hawaii in 1940. Alas it was not to last..vis a vis those oft quoted far reaching misspelled words of Gerry Feltus TORO TORO TORO.
The magazine might have been titled “The Monthly Gob” but PUERN stands
for Sailor(s) in Bentley’s Complete Phrase and Table Code. Gob is not included in in the code but might have been encoded as GUFHA MUNYX ATZEH.
The beauty of Bentley’s Code (first published in 1906) was that it was the first to restrict all of its code words to five letters, thus allowing…
“Any two Code Words herein (having 5 letters in each) can be joined together, either before or after one another, and be telegraphed as ONE WORD of 10 letters: The user therefore compiles his own Phrases verbatim, if those in the code are not applicable, with a minimum saving of 50 per cent.”
Pretty weird what? here we have a twenty five year career matelot, Naval Academy graduate; varied service history including WW2 ships master and commander plus a pioneering high altitude experimental balloonist to boot yet, not a single snap of our good Captain Kendall in uniform survives him. Some conveniently missing pieces perhaps.
It looks like: The Second Battle of the Marne. Deployed 8 US divisions.
Something is Latin. Puere. Oculus. The battle was nearby – Verden.
VERDEN = signature below. EVzrdizn. (- Z) = Vrdin. (+ E) = VERDIEN.
Z = O. (O -oculus) = eye = H -AH. (two eyes = eye eye = H, AH, H, AH).
The sailor does not have 1 eye. 2 eyes have in the date- Oct.18 (Octaf. Octava).
There was a big attack on the Germans in October. After which the war ended.
Sailor means water. Marne river.
MARNA = UKMYH. (MARNU) (number 1 = A, Y) (number 5 = H, N) = AH – AH -H.
Say AH – AH -H.
The eye means = take a good look. take a good look. otherwise you will be blind as an ant. 🙂 and don’t look for girls.
NP: So the online bio search for US navy officer stops at ‘Bi’ with my agricultural gizmo but you should get to the K’s on your fancy set up. Neither Lakehurst NJ Naval base or town cemeteries have a record for Charles Kendall. However, you’re sure to find record of him in the local extensive historical societ’s town museum. Promoted as being the Airship Capital of the World and dedicated to the dirigible experiments it includes a display of artifacts from days past as well as stuff from the Hindenberg crash site of 1937. I guess they’d have the standard range of tastfully decorated duralumin airframe ‘H’ beams from the thirties to tempt your average age of flight souvenir hunter. Should that be in your line, it could well fit in nicely with any intended craft beer tasting sojourn to the region. Call em up first on (Tel: 732 6578864).
There’s reference to y’man Chuck Kendall, free balloonist in a Palgrave Macmillan publication ‘Airships in Int. Affairs 1890-1940’ by John Duggan & Henry Cord Mayer (US Navy WW2) A steal at €80.
John Sanders: I have some good sources on (then-Lieutenant) Charles Kendall’s Gordon Bennett balloon race exploits, so I think I’ll probably save my £80. 🙂