Senate Bill S. 76 February 10, 1845
28th CONGRESS, [92]
Session.
[SENATE.]
IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
FEBRUARY 10, 1845.
submitted, and ordered to be printed.
Mr. BAYARD submitted the following REPORT:
[To accompany bill S. 76.]
The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred Senate bill No. 76, providing for the establishment of a naval school, submit the following report:
The bill in question proposes the establishment of a naval school, and for that purpose to employ a ship of the United States, in connexion with Fort Norfolk, on Elizabeth river, in the State of Virginia. The object is not to form an expensive establishment in any respect resembling the military academy at West Point, but merely to employ the existing means of instruction belonging to the service in a more effectual manner, and in some measure to insure, on the part of those who are admitted into the navy, the desired attributes of physical and intellectual strength and of moral worth. If the plan is adopted, the present annual charge upon the naval establishment for the instruction of midshipmen will be sufficient for the support of the school, while the advantage gained in point of instruction will, in the opinion of the committee, be very great.
In order properly to understand and appreciate the measure, it will be necessary to contrast it with the existing mode of admission into the navy, and of instruction subsequently received. Under the existing laws and regulations of the department, the appointment of midshipmen is made by the Secretary, without any check whatever upon the exercise of his discretion, and is the result, for the most part, of personal or political influence. The regulations require that the individual shall not be less than fourteen nor more than twenty years of age, and his first order is for sea service. The learning required is a slight knowledge of the principles of English grammar and of the elements of arithmetic and geography; and these attainments are not closely scrutinized. There is no provision for ascertaining either his physical condition or his mental and moral culture; but his fitness is presumed, from the fact of his recommendation by some political or personal friend. Instances have occurred, in which boys, who have been thought by their acquaintances to be good for nothing else, have yet been thought good enough for a service which, in its perils and its responsibilities, requires high qualities of physical and intellectual vigor, as well as moral worth. His scientific instruction commences at sea or in a foreign port, amidst the noise and distraction of a crowded ship, and the interruptions of the various calls of duty. Having been five years in the service, three of which must have been passed in active duty at sea, and
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having attained the age of twenty years, the midshipman may be examined for promotion. To prepare for this examination, he spends a few months at the naval asylum in Philadelphia, where a school has been established for that purpose. This meager course of instruction furnishes the sum of his attainments. Such are the provisions, for the training of this important branch of officers - the future commanders of a service in which they are to bear with honor the flag of the nation, in peace and in war, at home and, abroad, on the high seas and in the ports of foreign nations - the armed ambassadors of the country, who must be able to fight and to negotiate, and whose, duties require that, they should be familiar not only with naval tactics and the whole circle of nautical science, but with the principle of international law. The object of the bill under consideration is to provide, in some measure, a remedy for these defects.
The materials of a ship may be collected, and the ship built, in a few months; but the training of an officer is the work of years, and must be commenced at an early period of life. The science and skill of the officer is part of the military wealth of the country; and if it be necessary and proper to provide a supply of timber and naval stores, to build ships, to cast cannon, to form depots of arms and munitions of war, it is not less so to train and to support a sufficient number of compete officers.
The Constitution of the United States has given to Congress, in express terms, the power" to provide and maintain, a navy;", and there is no longer any doubt in the popular mind or among statesmen as to the policy of using the power. The protection of the commerce, and the preservation of the security and honor of the country, depend upon it.
Assuming that the present scale of the establishment, both in its personnel and its materiel, is such as is commensurate with the wants and dignity of the nation, it is obviously necessary, in order to maintain it, that some provision should be made for its periodical renovation. The personnel of the navy may be divided into the officers and men, the latter branch of which is recruited from the merchant service and from the school of apprentices. The officers may be divided into the civil and military branches of the service, and the military branch may be again divided into the com missioned and warrant officers. The commissioned officers of the military branch are the captains, commanders, and lieutenants. Of these, there are 68 captains, 96 commanders, and 328 lieutenants. This class of commissioned officers is recruited from the midshipmen, who belong to the class of warrant officers. The proviso of the naval appropriation act of August 4, 1842, limits the number of midshipmen as a class, embracing the passed and other midshipmen, to 451; and there are at present 159 passed midshipmen and 314 midshipmen, being an excess of twenty-two beyond the number limited by that act.. The number of commissioned officers in the military branch (namely, of captains, commanders, and lieu tenants) is 492, and the number of passed and other midshipmen 473- making a totality of 965; which suffers, taking the experience of the last three years, an annual diminution in its different grades, from death, resignation, and dismission, of about thirty. At the expiration, therefore, of another year, this totality will be reduced below the number limited by the provision of the act of August 4, 1842. Admitting, then, that the scale prescribed by that act is the proper one for a peace establishment, it is time to provide for its maintenance, by prescribing the mode m which the class of midshipmen shall be recruited and kept full.
3
Whether the respective number of officers in each of these: grades be wisely adjusted, is a question that depends upon the view which is taken of the wants of the service and of the claims of the officers to promotion, which is the great incentive of the profession. It has been well observed, by the British commissioners, in their report of March, 1840, that, "in a fluctuating and uncertain establishment, the continued fear of reduction would operate to check the energies of those holding employment therein, as their anxieties might be more directed to their individual position than to a satisfactory discharge of their duties.” In relation to the matter of promotion, it may be remarked, that the present junior commander on the Register had been in service, at the time of his promotion, more than twenty-six years, of which period he had been for more than sixteen years a lieutenant; and that a midshipman now entering the service would not, under the present establishment, in the regular order of promotion, probably attain the rank of commander under thirty years. It is not, therefore, unreasonable to assume that there will be no material change in the number of officers. prescribed by that act. The annual appointments, then, necessary to be made, in order to keep the different grades of these officers full, according to the scale of the present peace establishment, are as has been stated, about thirty. There is no want of applicants for admission into the service, and an important point is to devise some mode of selection, from among the numerous candidates, which may secure the best moral and physical attributes. The bill proposes, for this purpose, to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to select, at stated periods of eighteen months, which have reference to the course of instruction, sixty individuals from the applicants, who shall form the class of candidates for admission info the navy. The individuals selected are hot to be less than thirteen nor more than fifteen year of age, and are to be examined, under regulations of the department, as to their physical condition and moral cultivation. If found to be possessed of the requisite qualifications, they are then to be admitted into the naval school. At this school they are to be instructed in suitable studies for the period of eighteen months, and at the end of that time are to be examined by a board, composed of the professors of the school and of competent officers appointed by the Secretary, and classed according to their perspective merit. As yet, they are only candidates for admission into the navy and from this class, thus instructed, the oldest of whom will not be more than sixteen and a half years old, and the youngest not less than fourteen and a half years it is proposed, in the order of their merit, to appoint the number of midshipmen necessary to supply the wants of the service. For the purpose, of subsistence while attending the school, it is proposed to allow the one-haIf the pay of midshipmen waiting orders. After the appointment of the requisite number of midshipmen, there will be no further occasion for the services of the rest of the class, and they will merely retire from the school, to pursue such vocations in life as their parents or guardians may indicate, having derived the benefit of instruction for eighteen months, in branches of knowledge which may be useful to them throng life. Immediately receiving his warrant, the young midshipman is to be sent to sea, to be employed in active duty for the period of three years. On his arrival in the United States, he is to return to the naval school, and prosecute his studies for another period of eighteen months ; at the expiration of which, he will undergo an examination, when if found qualified, he will rank as a passed midshipman, and may, when
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occasion offers, be promoted to the rank of a commissioned officer. It will be perceived that the change which is proposed in the existing regulations is in the mode of appointing midshipmen, and in the method of their instruction - the object being in the first instance to insure, as far as can be done, the appointment of such only as are fit for the service; and, in the second instance, to provide a more enlarged course of study and instruction, under more favorable circumstances than he now enjoys. The term of sea service required prior to examination for promotion is the same under both systems.
It remains only to say a few words in relation to the organization of the school, its course of instruction, and the expense of the establishment.
For its organization, it will require the following officers, which the service will supply:
Captain or commander, as superintendent.
Commander or lieutenant, as instructor in naval tactics, seamanship, gunnery, &c.
Lieutenants-two or three lieutenants, as assistants to the instructor in naval tactics, seamanship, gunnery, &c.
Boatswain for the school ship, who will instruct in the use and conversion of ropes, rigging, and in the sailor's art.
Gunner for the school ship, to instruct in the equipment of guns and fitting all things necessary to the gunner's department on board ship.
Carpenter for the school ship, to instruct in the repair of masts, yards, rudders, and to construct models for illustration.
For the civil establishment of the school
Two professors of mathematics.
A teacher of French.
A teacher of Spanish.
A teacher of drawing.
A professor of engineering or general knowledge, and four assistants.
The course of instruction would embrace, in the first eighteen months, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, surveying and navigation, nautical astronomy, analytical geometry, with the collateral studies of the French and Spanish languages, drawing, grammar, geography, and history, and an initiation to seamanship.
The course of instruction for the last eighteen months, after three years sea service, and preparatory to examination for promotion, would embrace the following studies: Descriptive geometry, differential and integral calculus, mechanics, the theory and application of steam power, hydrography, optics, electricity and magnetism, astronomy, gunnery, and pyrotechny, naval architecture, naval tactics, with the application of the principles of mechanical philosophy to the various operations of seamanship, moral science, international and military law.
The expense of the establishment will be less than the amount now expended for the purpose of instruction. The amount now expended is
something over thirty thousand dollars, as follows:
22 professors of mathematics, at $1,200 - $26,400
and contingent allowances - 2,500
3 teachers of languages, at $500 1,500
30,400
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It is proposed to abolish all the professorships, except such as are necessary for and attached to the school, and to appropriate the sum now expended for them to the establishment and support of the school.
The expenses of the school, as a charge on the naval establishment, would consist only of the pay of the candidates for admission and of the pay of the civil branch of the school, as follows :
60 candidates for admission, at $150
$9,000
2 professors of mathematics, at $1,400
2,800
1 teacher of French, at $800
800
1 teacher of Spanish, at $800
800
l teacher of drawing, at $800
800
1 professor of engineering or general knowledge, at $1,400
1,400
4 assistants, at $800 •
3,200
18,800
The employment of the naval officers who will be attached to the school adds nothing to the expense of the establishment, since there is no addition made to the number of officers, and they would receive their pay whether so employed or not. Upon the whole, it is apparent that, using the means which are furnished by the ordinary peace establishment of the navy, the school can be established and supported without any additional expenditure, by abolishing the professorships in the service generally, and· employing for its support the amount now expended in the present imperfect system of instruction.
A BILL providing for the establishment of a naval school.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a naval school shall be established, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, on board of a vessel of the United States, in connexion with Fort Norfolk, on Elizabeth river, in the State of Virginia, as a shore station. The Secretary of the Navy shall prescribe the course of study, and the rules and regulations for its government and discipline; he shall assign to the said school such officers and other persons belonging to the naval service, and employ such professors and teachers, as may be proper for conducting the same. The said school shall be devoted to the instruction of midshipmen, and of such candidates for admission into the navy as are authorized by law.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, from the applicants for admission into the navy, sixty individuals shall be selected by the Secretary of the Navy, once in every term of eighteen months, at such time as shall be established by a regulation of the Navy Department, who shall compose the class of candidates for admission into the navy. The individuals thus selected shall not be less than thirteen nor more than fifteen years of age and shall, before admission into the said school, be examined, under regulations as shall be prescribed by the Navy Department, both as to their physical condition and mental cultivation. If any one, so selected in the first instance, shall be rejected upon such examination, his place shall be supplied by a new selection. At the expiration of the period of eighteen
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months from the time of their admission as pupils into the said school, the said candidates for admission into the navy shall be examined by a board, composed of the professors of the said school and of competent officers, appointed for that purpose by the Secretary of the Navy, and shall be classed according to their respective merit; and the said Secretary of the Navy shall thereupon appoint, from the list of candidates thus examined, according to the order of merit in which they stand in the report of the said board, as many midshipmen as may be necessary to fill. the vacancies which have occurred in that grade of officers. The rest of the said class of candidates shall be discharged from further attendance upon the said school, and shall have no further claim or hold upon the service.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the midshipmen appointed in conformity with the provisions of the foregoing section shall, immediately after receiving their warrants, be ordered for sea service, and, having per formed active duty at sea for three years, shall return to the said school, and continue subject to its discipline and instruction for the term of eighteen months. At the expiration of that period, the said midshipmen shall be again examined by a board, constituted as provided in the foregoing section, and, if found duly qualified, he shall be ranked as passed midshipmen. But if, upon such examination, any midshipman shall be rejected by, the said board, he may remain at the said school, and be examined with the next class, when, if he be found qualified, he, shall take rank with that class; but if he shall be again rejected by the said board, he shall be dismissed from the service.
SEc. 4. And be ii further. enacted, That the officers and all other persons appertaining to the naval service, who shall be engaged in conducting the ,said School, shall receive the same pay as when on duty at sea. The midshipmen attending the said school as pupils shall receive the same pay as midshipmen waiting orders; and the candidates for admission into the navy, who have, been received as pupils therein, shall be entitled to one half of the pay bf midshipmen waiting orders. The pay of the professors employed in the. said school shall be at the rate of fourteen hundred dollars per annum, and of assistant professors and teachers at the rate of eight hundred dollars per annum.
SEC. 5. And be further enacted, That, from and after the passage of this act, there shall be no professors of mathematics employed in the naval service, but such as are necessary for the said school, and attached thereto; and that the annual amount now expended in the pay and support of professors of mathematics and teachers in the said service be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to the establishment and support of the said school, including the pay allowed by the provisions of this bill to the class of candidates for admission into the navy, such pay being allowed for subsistence in lieu of rations.
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