E 727 
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 Copy 1 
 
 ADOLPH MAEIX. 
 
 T> Ui-o^ 4. '■ 
 
 Reprinted from 
 
 Publications of the 
 
 Ambbican Jewish Histobical Sociktt, 
 
 No. 28, 1922. 
 
X 
 
 ADOLPH MAEIX. 
 
 Adolph Marix, whose investigations following the sinking 
 of the Maine in Havana harbor, Cuba, February 15, 1898, 
 directly caused the declaration of war with Spain, was born 
 in Dresden, Saxony, May 10, 1848. He was brought to this 
 country in infancy when his parents, Dr. Henry and Frederica 
 Marix, emigrated for political reasons, the family settling in 
 Iowa. The father was a professor of languages in Eussia and 
 after coming to this country was employed in the State and 
 Treasury Departments of the Government as a translator of 
 languages. Dr. Marix made a specialty of translating articles 
 into English from continental newspapers for the information 
 of President Lincoln during the Civil War, and his acquaint- 
 ance with Lincoln enabled him to obtain the appointment of 
 his son to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
 Md., in the fall of 1864. Young Marix graduated from the 
 Academy with the class of 1868, at the age of twenty. His 
 advancement in the Navy followed rapidly. In 1869 he was 
 promoted to the rank of ensign and in the following year was 
 assigned to special duty on the U. S. .8. Congress, in connec- 
 tion with a Polar expedition. The same year he became 
 master and two years later lieutenant, after which he was 
 assigned to the office of the Judge-Advocate-General, there 
 gaining the experience that helped him later in 1898 when 
 he became Judge Advocate of the Maine disaster Board of 
 Inquiry. In 1893 he was promoted again and assigned to 
 the Maine, when she was one of the new ships which were 
 the pride of the navy, becoming her first executive officer. He 
 served with the ill-fated battleship from the time she was 
 first put in commission until January, 1898, just a few weeks 
 before she was blown up in Havana harbor. In the same year 
 he was put in command of the U. 8. S. Scorpion, and pro- 
 moted to the rank of commander. During the Spanish- 
 American War he was advanced two numbers by an Act of 
 
3 
 
 Congress for eminent and conspicuous conduct in battle. He 
 was supervisor of naval auxiliaries and president of the board 
 which tried various types of submarines^ selecting the one 
 adopted by the Kavy Department, and then was chairman of 
 the Lighthouse Board until his retirement for age. On July 
 4, 1908, he was appointed Eear Admiral by President Taft, 
 one of his close friends, a friendship which was cemented 
 while he was a naval attache at the Philippine Islands at the 
 time when Mr, Taft was Governor-General. When Com- 
 mander Marix was promoted to the rank of Eear Admiral he 
 became the first Jew of that rank, practically the highest in 
 the United States Navy. In April, 1910, on attaining the age 
 of sixty- two years Admiral Marix was retired from active 
 service under the provisions of an Act of Congress. In his 
 career of forty-five years in the Navy twenty-four years were 
 spent upon the sea. 
 
 Admiral Marix was recognized as the foremost expert in 
 the United States Navy on all matters relating to naval and 
 maritime law. He had been appointed on numerous occasions 
 to positions requiring tact and ability and was considered an 
 officer of great force, character and individuality, a rigid 
 disciplinarian, a man of quick decision, and his career was 
 one of the most brilliant in the naval service. 
 
 In private life his manner of speech was quiet, deliberate 
 and unmarked by haste or heat. He was a member of the 
 Army and Navy Club of Washington and a corresponding 
 member of the American Jewish Historical Society, and after 
 his retirement manifested a considerable interest in Jewish 
 communal affairs, and also in the welfare of the " black Jews " 
 known as Falashas, living in the mountainous regions of 
 Abyssinia. 
 
 Admiral Marix died on July 11, 1919, in Gloucester, ]\Iass., 
 at the age of seventy-one and his remains are interred in the 
 National Cemetery at Arlington, Va. 
 
 Mahk J. Katz. 
 
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