TFH 4/17: Ship's Cook 3d Class Jesse Whitfield Covington, USN

In 1918, the Medal of Honor was awarded for acts of supreme bravery that were both combat and non-combat related. During World War I, the Bainbridge-class destroyer USS Stewart (DD-13) served with the United States Navy in the Atlantic during the United States' short involvement in the conflict.

On April 17, 1918 she entered Quiberon Bay in France as the explosive cargo of an American steam ship, the Florence H., detonated. Multiple boxes of smokeless powder lay floating amid burning wreckage, placing both survivors and their would-be rescuers at great peril.

Jesse Whitfield Covington had been born September 16, 1899 in Egypt, Tennessee. The 18-year old ship's cook saw a survivor struggling in the water amid the boxes of powder that continued to explode. Ignoring the danger to himself, he dove in the water.


From Medal of Honor Citations for World War I:


COVINGTON, JESSE WHITFIELD


Rank and organization: Ship's Cook Third Class, U.S. Navy. Place and date: At sea aboard the U.S.S. Stewart, 17 April 1918. Entered service at: California. Born: 16 September 1889, Haywood, Tenn. G.O. No.: 403, 1918. Citation: For extraordinary heroism following internal explosion of the Florence H. The sea in the vicinity of wreckage was covered by a mass of boxes of smokeless powder, which were repeatedly exploding. Jesse W. Covington, of the U.S.S. Stewart, plunged overboard to rescue a survivor who was surrounded by powder boxes and too exhausted to help himself, fully realizing that similar powder boxes in the vicinity were continually exploding and that he was thereby risking his life in saving the life of this man.

All told, the Stewart and her crew saved nine men from the conflagration. Jesse Covington passed away on November 21, 1966 at age 77 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth, VA.