[1][2] Chauncey Thomas, as captain, commanded the US Fish Commission steamer, Albatross during a scientific expedition in the Hawaiian Islands and southern Pacific in 1902.

[3] Born in Barryville, New York and raised in Pennsylvania, Thomas served aboard multiple ships as a junior officer.

[4][5] He did participate in several engagements during the Philippine–American War while serving as executive officer aboard the gunboat Yorktown.

[5] For 27 months, he was commanding officer of the gunboat Bennington, which cruised in the eastern Pacific along the coasts of North and South America Alaskan ports in the summer of 1903 and the coast of Central America the following fall and winter.

[5] In 1895, Chauncey Thomas purchased the property known as Hitching Post Hill, an early 19th-century horse farm in Prince George's County, Maryland.