 Cluverius served at the Naval Academy on court martial duty and as commander of the torpedo boat USS Talbot . He became commander of the gunboat USS Alvarado in June 1901 and then the USS Sandoval in October . He joined the torpedo boat USS Stockton in 1902 . The next year he was promoted to lieutenant and was posted to the battleship USS Maine , the namesake of the ship whose sinking he had survived in 1898 , as an engineering officer . He was involved with the 1904 sea trials of the cruisers USS Colorado and USS West Virginia before becoming senior engineer of the monitor USS Arkansas . In 1908 he became senior engineer of the newly commissioned USS Mississippi . 
