Walter S. Crosley

Walter Selywn Crosley (30 October 1871 – 6 January 1939) was an American naval officer. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy on 2 June 1893. During the Spanish–American War, he distinguished himself by taking the USS Leyden (1865) into the Nipe Bay through a narrow channel that was supposedly mined. Under musket fire from shore, he discovered the Spanish gunboat Jorge Juan and engaged in a heated action until the remainder of the squadron came up and sank the enemy ship. Later, during the Puerto Rican Campaign, Crosley supported American troops with broadsides from USS Leyden at the Battle of Fajardo.

Crosley served as assistant naval attaché in Russia and received the Navy Cross for conducting a party of Americans out of Russia under difficult and trying conditions in April 1917. He served as Navy hydrographer, commanded organizations in the operating forces and naval districts, and was a member of the Navy General Board. Crosley retired on 1 November 1935 and died in Baltimore, Maryland in 1939.

Namesake
In 1944, the destroyer escort USS Crosley (DE-226) was named in honor of R.Adm. Crosley, sponsored by his widow, Mrs. W. S. Crosley.