Ships
- USS San Francisco (CA-38) Captain, 10 February 1934 – 12 June 1935
Royal E. Ingersoll was a career officer of the United States Navy whose service stretched from the battleship fleet of the early twentieth century to high command in the Second World War. He was born on 20 June 1883 in Washington, D.C., the son of a rear admiral who already wore the family name in the service. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1905 and was commissioned in the line.
The years after graduation took him through sea duty and through the schools and staff billets that trained officers between the wars. He came of age as the fleet moved from coal to oil and as cruisers gained a larger place beside the battle line. By the early 1930s he was a captain ready for a major ship of his own.
On 10 February 1934 he commissioned USS San Francisco (CA-38) at the Mare Island Navy Yard. She was a new heavy cruiser, armed with nine eight-inch guns, and he was her first commanding officer. Through the rest of 1934 and into 1935 he took her through trials, shakedown, and her first work with the fleet, setting the routines of a ship that had just joined the Navy.
He had USS San Francisco (CA-38) until 12 June 1935. On that day William Lewis Beck relieved him and assumed command. Ingersoll’s later flag rank belonged to other assignments and was not another command of this ship.
After he left the cruiser he returned to senior duty ashore. In the late 1930s he served in war-plans work in the Navy Department and rose to rear admiral while the service prepared for the chance of war in both oceans. That planning dealt with how to divide the fleet, protect shipping, and sustain a long fight far from American bases.
In January 1942 he became Commander in Chief of the United States Atlantic Fleet. Promoted to admiral that year, he held the Atlantic command until the autumn of 1944. Under him the fleet escorted convoys, pressed the campaign against submarines, and carried troops and supplies for the fighting in North Africa and Europe, while guarding the Atlantic approaches to the Americas.
In November 1944 he became Commander of the Western Sea Frontier, responsible for the defense and the wartime traffic of the Pacific coast as the fighting moved deep into the western Pacific. He left active duty in 1946. Royal E. Ingersoll died on 20 May 1976.