Ships
- USS Perkins (DD-377) Captain, 4 June 1940 – 12 October 1941
Timothy Francis Wellings (10 December 1898–July 1969) was a United States Navy officer born in Boston, Massachusetts, who graduated from the Naval Academy with the class of 1921 and commanded the destroyer Perkins (DD-377) from June 1940 to October 1941. He was one of four brothers who each rose to rear admiral. He became a captain in June 1942, took command of the old battleship Wyoming, then serving as a gunnery training ship in Chesapeake Bay, in September 1944, and retired as a rear admiral. He died at Redondo Beach, California.
He was born in Boston on 10 December 1898, according to uboat.net. His brother Joseph, born in Boston on 23 April 1903, is described in the Naval War College's collection of his papers as the son of John A. and Bridget G. Sullivan Wellings and as "one of four brothers, all of whom became rear admirals in the U.S. Navy." Joseph attended the Samuel Adams School, Boston Latin School and English High School before the Academy, and a page on the destroyer Strong, which Joseph commanded, names the four as Augustus Joseph, Timothy Francis, Joseph Harold and Albert Aloysius. The Register of Commissioned Officers for 1944 lists an Augustus Joseph, a Timothy Francis and an Albert Aloysius Wellings. The sources examined here describe nothing of Timothy's own childhood or school.
The 1921 Lucky Bag (the Academy yearbook) gives his home as Boston and calls him both "Gus" and "Ted." "WHEN we first knew Gus his attitude toward the other sex was decidedly cold," it begins, "but since he has developed into a man he has lost his boyish ideas and directed the most careful attention to at least one girl." "Ted refuses to be enticed by sweet-scented notes and boxes of candy. It is a rare thing to see him drag to a N.A. hop. Vague rumors are heard about his mysterious trips to town on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. There are suspicions, but we dare not express them." In academics, the writers say, he "steadily climbed the ladder of success": "Each year he gets more savvy," and "First Class year found him a really savvy man." On the First Class cruise he was "practically at home" and "gained prominence as a ball player," and "baseball and extra duty occupied most of his time." They add that "if a certain letter doesn't arrive on time he raves, but always with a smile." The page in the digitized copy ends in the middle of a sentence ("If you want your spirits boosted 100% call on him; a cure for that"), so the close of the sketch is not available.
The Navy Directories follow his career. As a lieutenant (junior grade) he was in the destroyer Overton from 1923 to 1925 and in the Brooks from 1926 to 1927. In 1928 he was an instructor at the Naval Academy, and in 1929 he was at the Naval War College at Newport. From 1930 to 1932 he was aide and flag lieutenant on the staff of the commander of Training Squadron One of the Fleet Base Force. From 1932 to 1935 he was at the Navy's postgraduate school at Annapolis; the directories do not name his course. In 1937 and 1938, now a lieutenant commander (uboat.net gives 3 June 1937), he was in the battleship Idaho, and from 1938 to 1939 he was again at the Naval Academy.
On 4 June 1940, aged forty-one, he took command of the Perkins, a destroyer of the Mahan class, homeported at San Diego. The ship's history says that she was assigned first to Destroyers, Scouting Force and then to Destroyers, Battle Force, and that she "operated in the eastern Pacific prior to World War II." Wellings was relieved on 12 October 1941, according to uboat.net, eight weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; on 7 December the ship was at Mare Island for overhaul. Uboat.net gives his date of rank as commander as 1 January 1942 and as temporary captain 21 June 1942. The sources examined here do not say what he did between October 1941 and September 1944.
On 9 September 1944, at forty-five, he took command of the Wyoming (AG-17). The old battleship had been a gunnery training ship since 1941; she was refitted at Norfolk from 12 January to 3 April 1944, lost her remaining 12-inch turrets, took twin 5-inch mounts and new fire control radar, and resumed training on 10 April. In November 1944, the Navy's history says, she trained 133 officers and 1,329 men in antiaircraft gunnery, and in that month fired 3,033 5-inch and 849 3-inch shells, as well as large numbers of 40-millimeter, 20-millimeter and .30-caliber rounds. The history does not name the captain in this period, and the sources examined here do not say how long he remained or whether he was in command when the ship went north to Casco Bay in July 1945 to serve the experimental task force for countering kamikazes.
His brother Joseph, by contrast, commanded the Strong when she was torpedoed and sunk off New Georgia on the night of 4–5 July 1943, according to the Naval War College's note on his papers, and stayed with her as she went down. Nothing of Timothy's own wartime experience beyond the two commands is recorded in the sources examined here.
The Register of Commissioned Officers for 1950 lists a Timothy Wellings as a captain, and the 1957 Register lists one of the same service number as a retired rear admiral. The sources examined here do not give the date of his retirement or his later assignments. Uboat.net says he died in July 1969 at Redondo Beach, California, at seventy. The sources examined here do not record a marriage, children, an obituary or the place of burial.