author
Edward W. (Edward Wilson) Very
1847–1910
A naval officer with a talent for clear technical writing, he is best remembered for the signal flare gun and “Very lights” that carried his name. His book on the world’s fleets reflects a practical mind shaped by service, engineering, and ordnance work in the late 19th-century U.S. Navy.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Belfast, Maine, on October 26, 1847, Edward Wilson Very graduated from the United States Naval Academy and went on to a varied career in the U.S. Navy. He served in engineering, naval ordnance, artillery, and signal posts, and also commanded a gunboat off Japan.
Very became widely known for developing and popularizing the single-shot flare pistol associated with the “Very light,” a signaling system that made his name familiar well beyond naval circles. That background helps explain the authority behind his writing on warships, weapons, and naval technology.
As an author, he is associated with Navies of the World, a detailed survey of the fleets, armament, armor, and naval developments of major nations in the late 1800s. He died on March 1, 1910. No suitable confirmed portrait image was found from the sources reviewed during this search.