William Wirt Kimball

Kimball, William Wirt, 1848-1930, American naval officer, b. Paris, Maine, grad. Annapolis, 1869. One of the first to serve on torpedo boats, he did much in the 1880s to develop magazine and machine guns, and he designed armored cars. In the 90s he did important work in the development of the submarine, and in the Spanish-American War, having organized the navy's first torpedo-boat flotilla, he commanded the Atlantic torpedo-boat flotilla. Kimball was made rear admiral in 1908, and in 1909 he commanded the expeditionary forces sent to Nicaragua. He retired from active duty in 1910.