Neptune's Needle

U.S. naval officer and philanthropist. He was drawn early to the sea and at age ten ran away to be a cabin boy. After his return two years later, he was apprenticed for four or five years to a Philadelphia ship owner to learn navigation and other maritime skills. By age eighteen he had made several profitable voyages as a mate from Philadelphia to the West Indies.

In 1811 Levy purchased a one-third share in a new schooner, which he then commanded on behalf of his partners and himself. Shortly afterward the crew mutinied and stole the vessel. Levy pursued the mutineers, brought them to court, and saw them convicted of piracy.

The War of 1812 was just starting, and Levy, an experienced mariner, but without a ship, entered the U.S. Navy on 21 October 1812 as a sailing master, the rank just below lieutenant. He was one of five or six Jewish officers in the navy at that time.

Levy served first aboard the Alert in New York Harbor but was detached from it in January 1813. After a period of leave in Philadelphia, he was ordered to the brig Argus, reporting aboard on 11 May as a "supernumerary," or extra, sailing master.

From his promotion to lieutenant in 1817 until mid-1827, Levy served aboard several vessels, each for a period of a few months to two years. He left each ship after some petty altercation had blown into a major quarrel.

After 1827, Levy was not given another duty assignment for eleven years. He had become wealthy from real estate investments in New York and did not need continuous navy assignments to support himself.

In 1837 Levy was promoted to commander and the next year was assigned to command the sloop Vandalia. By now he was much interested in humane treatment for sailors and the abolition of flogging, and he wrote many letters and pamphlets urging this. During his fourteen months in command he made the Vandalia into an efficient, effective ship with minimal use of the lash. However, an incident in which he sentenced a boy to having his trousers pulled down and a spot of tar and some feathers put on his buttocks, in lieu of a flogging, was viewed as "scandalous" by other officers and resulted in Levy's sixth court-martial. He was found guilty, relieved from command, and sentenced to be dismissed from the navy. His dismissal was later remitted by President John Tyler (1790-1862).

Following this incident Levy was not given another assignment for over eighteen years. After much effort, he was reinstated in 1858 and assigned to command the sloop Macedonian, bound for the Mediterranean. This was his last duty except for a few months in charge of the court-martial at Washington. He died at his home in New York.

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Peter Richards