[3] Berwind was appointed to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in July 1865 by President Abraham Lincoln, and graduated in June 1869 as a midshipman.

While in the Navy, he served during the Franco-Prussian War and as an ensign, met the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, who became a lifelong friend of Berwind.

Berwind worked closely with J. P. Morgan in the consolidation, reorganization, integration, and expansion of his coal mining operations.

Berwind, along with Widener, was a director of International Mercantile Marine Company which owned the White Star Line and, subsequently, the RMS Titanic.

[4] After a funeral held at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York, he was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, along with his wife, in a mausoleum (modeled after the Tower of the Winds in Athens) that was designed by Horace Trumbauer, the architect of The Elms, his summer home in Newport, Rhode Island.