He was a son of
Henry Smith Craven, a
United States Navy officer and engineer and the grandson of his namesake,
Thomas Tingey Craven (1808–1887) and great-grandson of
Commodore Thomas Tingey (1750–1829). Craven graduated from the
United States Naval Academy in 1896. His first assignment after graduation was to the newly commissioned battleship
USS Massachusetts (BB-2), where he served as a naval cadet. (Prior to the first world war, graduates of the naval academy were required to serve two years at sea prior to being commissioned.) Craven was commissioned as an ensign on 6 May 1898. During the
Spanish–American War he served on the collier
USS Scindia which delivered coal to recently captured
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in June 1898. He married Antoinette Merritt in 1901. In 1908, Craven was stationed aboard the
battleship assigned duties as the ship's
gunnery officer. From 1915 to 1916, he was a student and instructor at the
Naval War College. In 1916, Thomas T. Craven was given command of the
gunboat which he commanded throughout World War I until 1918. In 1919 while serving as the director of
Naval Aviation, Tingey ordered the , a
collier, to be converted into the
U.S. Navy's first dedicated
aircraft carrier which was renamed, . In the aftermath of the
Honda Point Disaster in September 1923, Admiral Tingey defended Captain
Edward H. Watson, Commanding Officer of
Destroyer Squadron 11, during the
courts martial proceedings. During the remainder of his naval career, Craven commanded
Destroyer Squadron 15, was the
Director of Naval Communications, commanded
Great Lakes Naval Training Station, the
Yangtze Patrol in China,
Battleship Division One and served as the
Commandant of the
Thirteenth Naval District in
Bremerton, Washington. He was promoted to rear admiral on 15 February 1928 and retired from active duty on 1 August 1937, having reached the age of sixty-four. Following the United States' entrance into World War II, Craven was recalled to active duty and promoted to vice admiral on 16 June 1942, serving as superintendent of the
New York Maritime Academy at
Fort Schuyler, NY until 1946, when he was succeeded by Vice Admiral
Herbert F. Leary. After retirement, Tingey lived in
Weston, Massachusetts. He died at the St. Albans Naval Hospital in
Queens, New York City and was buried at the
Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. ==References==