Second Department, Mathematics, in seven branches—Arithmetic and Algebra, Geometry, plane and solid, Trigonometry, Mensuration, Descriptive Geometry, Analytical Geometry, and the Differential and Integral Calculus.
Third Department, in four branches—Astronomy, Practical Astronomy, Navigation, and Surveying.
Fourth Department, in eight branches—Mechanics of Solids, Mechanics of Liquids, Pneumatics, Acoustics, Electricity, Heat, Chemistry, and the Steam-Engine.
Fifth Deportment, in seven branches—English Grammar, Descriptive Geography, Physical Geography, Outlines of History, Rhetoric, Ethics, and Political Science.
Sixth Department—the French Language.
Seventh Department—the Spanish Language.
Eighth Department—Drawing and Draughting.
These studies are distributed into four annual courses for the four regular classes, each class being subdivided into convenient sections, usually according to the relative standing of the members. During the last year the first class, of 36 cadets, has been graded into three sections; the second class, of 59 cadets, into five sections; the third class into six sections; and the fourth class, during the first term, with 176 cadets, into fourteen sections, and in the second term, with 156 cadets, into twelve sections—each section receiving separate instruction.
The more difficult portions of the several branches may be reserved for the higher sections of the classes, and it is frequently the fact that in certain branches no instruction whatever is given to the lowest sections. Deviation from the general rule for the admission of cadets only in the month of September has made the formation of “Intermediate Classes” necessary, so that there are now two divisions of the second class and two divisions of the third class. By this means the number of sections is increased, the labors of instruction augmented, and much inconvenience in other respects created. The demands of the times have also introduced other irregularities into the course, hurrying the more forward sections through their studies and detailing them into active service at the close of the third year, with or without a graduating examination, while the lower sections are retained through the whole four years.
The Commandant of Midshipmen and the several professors are each at the head of a special department, with such assistants as may be necessary. The professors, instructors, and assistants are responsible for the regular and orderly conduct of their respectiveclasses and sections while under instruction, and must report all want of preparation, absence, or misconduct. Daily notes are taken of the progress and relative merit of each pupil in each of his studies. The assistants must make weekly reports of such notes to the heads of their departments, who in turn report to the Superintendent, recommending such transfers as should be made from one section to another. The scale of daily merit in each study embraces seven grades, with corresponding values designated by numbers, as follows:—Thorough, (4.0)—Very Good, (3.5)—Good, (3.0)—Tolerable, (2.5)—Indifferent, (2.0)—Bad, (1.0)—Complete Failure, (0.) The average standing for the week in each study accompanies the report. Monthly reports are drawn up by the Academic Board for each month in the academic year, showing the relative standing of the members of each class in their different studies, and also their conduct or demerits. These reports are based upon the weekly reports and upon the results of the examinations, when such are held within the month, and are posted for public inspection. The examination weeks are considered of equal weight with those of the month.
The examinations are held by the Academic Board in the months of February and June, and are sufficiently thorough to enable the Board to decide upon the proficiency and relative merits of the members of the several classes. After each June examination a “general merit-roll” is formed for each class, for which purpose a maximum number or value is assigned to each of the principal branches in the several departments. The total amount of these maxima throughout the course is 1,000, and they are distributed among the departments and branches, for the different classes, as follows:—In the first year, to mathematics, 20—grammar and rhetoric, 10—geography, 10—history and composition, 10—drawing, 10—conduct, 5—total, 65;—In the second year, to seamanship, 20—mathematics, 35—grammar and rhetoric, 15—history and composition, 10—French, 30—drawing, 25—conduct, 15—total, 150;—In the third year, to seamanship, 40—gunnery, 20—infantry tactics, 25—howitzer drill, 20—mathematics, 45—general astronomy, 25—practical astronomy, navigation, and surveying, 15—mechanics, 30—physics, 25—moral science and international law, 20—French, 40—conduct, 30—total, 335;—In the fourth year, to seamanship, 100—gunnery, 60—naval tactics, 30—practical astronomy, navigation, and surveying, 75—physics, 30—steam-engine, 35—moral science and international law, 20—Spanish, 50—conduct, 50—total, 450. The minima values are fixed at one-third of the corresponding maxima.
The “general merit-roll” includes only such as pass a satisfactory examination in all the principal branches of their class and have not exceeding 200 demerits recorded against them. In the formation of the roll, the individual having the highest standing in any branch for the year receives the corresponding maximum number, while the one who has the lowest standing receives the corresponding minimum. The intermediate members of the class receive numbers proceeding by equal differences from the maximum to the minimum, in the order of their relative merit as fixed by their “class merit-rolls.” The gradation for conduct is determined by allowing the maximum number to such as have no demerits, and for others diminishing that maximum by 1/300 part for every demerit recorded against them. All the numbers thus assigned to the several members for the different branches of study and for conduct are then added together, and the members are arranged in each class according to the aggregates thus obtained. For the graduating class a “graduating merit-roll” is formed by adding the aggregate numbers of each member upon the several “general merit-rolls” for the four years and arranging the order of the members according to these new aggregates. The highest number reached upon the “graduating merit-roll,” by any one of the class just graduating, was 859.
If any student at any examination fails to pass a satisfactory examination in any principal branch, or has recorded against him more than 200 demerits since the commencement of the academic year, a report is made of the case to the Secretary of the Navy, showing the habits of study, aptitude for study and for sea duties, and his general habits and conduct, and upon his decision the student is dismissed, or upon recommendation of the Academic Board, allowed to continue at the Academy for further trial.
The final graduating examination is held by a special Board and occurs, by a recent regulation, not less than one year after the close of the course. This examination embraces seamanship and naval tactics, practical gunnery, navigation, and management of steam-engines, and the standing in these branches is combined to determine the relative merits of the candidates. In assigning numbers, 1,000 is considered the maximum and 333 the minimum for such as are considered qualified for promotion, and the Board assigns such numbers within these limits as will fairly express the relative qualifications of the members of the class. The numbers thus assigned, when added to the numbers already assigned on the “graduating merit-roll,” determine the standing of the graduates as ensigns; the highest number taking precedence.
Text-Books. Studies of the past Year.
The method of teaching as at present pursued is almost wholly by means of text-books and recitations. A series of lectures is delivered in connection with the recitations in Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. Without underrating the office of the text-book, the success of the French Polytechnic method of teaching even the higher Mathematics by lectures, collateral study, and examination, and the experience of all schools, of the power of the human voice and of the human eye to win, hold, and harmonize attention should not be lost to this institution, many of whose pupils need the influence of such a method to vitalize their powers of thinking and to bring within their grasp the general principle or doctrine of the subjects taught.
The division of the classes into small sections of 12-14 midshipmen each, of nearly equal standing, tends to secure the personal and thorough instruction of each and all. The attempt was made, by furnishing prepared blanks to the several departments, to ascertain the character and actual amount of the studies and exercises accomplished by the several sections during the eight months of study of the year 1863-4. The returns made are not complete, but it appears that the English studies of the lowest class (in 12-14 sections) have consisted of one lesson a week in Spelling and Derivation, four in Bullion’s English Grammar, four during the first term in Cornell’s Geography, and during the second term in General History, with daily exercises in Composition and the exercise of the Voice; in Mathematics, five lessons a week during the first term in Greenleaf’s Common School Arithmetic, and during the second term in Davies’ University Algebra. In the upper sections, the Algebra was commenced within the first term and more or less nearly finished at the close of the year. The highest section had also five lessons a week for three weeks in Davies’ Elementary Geometry (5 books) and instruction twice a week in Drawing. The space in the several textbooks actually gone over varied considerably in the different sections. It will be seen, therefore, that the studies of this class, with the exception of Algebra and Geometry, are simply those of every common school, and yet the lower section is reported as having succeeded but “imperfectly” in Grammar, and “very imperfectly” in Algebra. It is also to be stated that a part of the class had received eight weeks additional preparatory instruction during August and September, 1863.
In the third class, of six sections, there were three lessons perweek, during the first term, in American History, and during the second term in Rhetoric. The lower section prepared six English compositions each term—the highest section, weekly compositions through the second term. All the sections prepared three lessons weekly in French during the first term and four lessons during the second, but with very unequal progress. In Mathematics, (five lessons per week,) Algebra was completed by the lower sections and reviewed by the higher in the first four or five weeks, when Elementary Geometry was taken up by all, and completed in the first term by the highest section. In the second term, Elementary Geometry for three weeks by the lowest section, and Trigonometry for the rest of the term—in the highest section, Trigonometry for ten weeks, Mensuration two weeks, and Analytical Geometry commenced, for three weeks. The first section had also three lessons a week in Marine and Topographical Drawing, and during the first term one lesson a week in Seamanship.
In the second class, of five sections, during the first term, five lessons a week in Analytical Geometry, replaced in the highest section by the Differential and Integral Calculus for five weeks; four lessons a week in Statics, to which the first section added Dynamics, three weeks; five lessons a week in Surveying, three weeks in each term, with practical exercises. The lowest sections had also four lessons a week in French, and the first section weekly lessons in Seamanship and Infantry Tactics, and two lessons a week in Gunnery. In the second term, five lessons a week in Dynamics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics and Acoustics, with twelve lectures, Surveying, three weeks, and Astronomy, ten weeks. Two lessons a week in Wayland’s Moral Science. The first section had also two lessons a week in Gunnery.
The first class, consisting of the three more advanced sections of the second class, and in its third year of study, during the first term were pursuing chiefly second class studies, having five lessons a week in Physics, including Statics, Dynamics, Hydrostatics, Acoustics, Magnetism, and Electricity, with sixteen lectures; four lessons a week in Theory and Practice of Navigation (six weeks) and General Astronomy (eleven weeks;) two lessons a week in Seamanship, and two in Gunnery, Naval Light Artillery, and Field Fortifications. In the second term, four lessons a week in Heat and Chemistry, with nine lectures; three in Wayland’s Ethics and Kent’s Constitution of U.S., and International Law; three in the Theory and Practice of Navigation; two in Seamanship; and one in Gunnery, &c. Two lessons a week were given through the year in Spanish, by means of the French.
In addition to the daily lessons of each class are the general practical exercises by divisions, by the higher classes on shore embracing daily exercises in Fencing, three exercises weekly in Infantry Drill, Howitzer Drill once a week, the Great Gun Drill upon the Practice Ships twice weekly in favorable weather, and a certain amount of Target Practice by the first class. The younger classes on the school-ships have also their special drills. Special instruction is given them in boating, and the numerous cutters and launches belonging to the ships afford ample opportunity for recreation and practice of this kind at suitable times. The use of the “Rainbow,” a schooner-rigged craft of 15-20 tons, is also not unfrequently allowed to pleasure parties made up from the cadets. Weekly bathing is enjoined and practiced throughout the year as a sanitary regulation, but the absence of the cadets from port during the summer months, while on the cruise, prevents the attainment of that knowledge and skill in the art of swimming, which seem to the Visitors so essential a requisite.
The general results of the examinations and exercises as observed by the Visitors, may be stated as in general very favorable. The examinations of the classes were made by sections and conducted by the individual professors of the departments, with great fairness and impartiality, without any purpose of embarrassing the pupils, and for the single object of eliciting the extent, accuracy, and vividness of the pupil’s knowledge of the topic. Written lists of questions were furnished to the cadets on entering the examination rooms, which were usually answered in writing upon the blackboard, with opportunity for oral explanation. The difference in the proficiency shown by the higher and lower sections, in all except the first class, was very strongly marked. In the written answers, the writing was fair and legible, and the spelling and composition very creditable—revealing in these respects an immense improvement upon the entrance examination papers of the same cadets. The Visitors would suggest that in future examinations there should be more of paper, even if there should be less of blackboard work, and that a portion of the questions should be handed in on slips by the Visitors and answered in writing with ink, in presence of the Board, by every member of the section present.
The practical professional exercises of the cadets upon the parade ground and on board ship, embracing all the different branches of shore and ship duty, (including a harbor cruise on board the Practice Steamer,) and designed to exemplify the proficiency of the classes in seamanship, gunnery, and naval and infantry tactics, wereperformed in the most satisfactory manner, justifying the professional pride manifestly felt by those taking part in them. Moreover, these exercises, instead of being executed under the direction, as heretofore, of the respective Academic officers in command, were conducted under the charge wholly of officers appointed from the midshipmen themselves.
Physical Training.
The unavoidable exposures and risks of the naval service require not only a sound mind—a mind well informed, quick, and accurate in its operations, but a sound body—a body supple, athletic, and tough to resist the rapid alternations and continuous exposures of wet and cold weather. Although careful and continuous training can do much to develope and strengthen the qualities referred to, the records of the Academy and of the service, as well as the present appearance of many of the cadets, show that sufficient regard has not been paid to vigor and elasticity of physical constitution, in the original appointment, or the entrance medical examination. The regular military drill and evolutions, the small arm and other exercises, in which the whole corps participates, the professional practice in gunnery and seamanship, all help to supply these deficiencies. There is still room for more careful scrutiny for inherited tendencies and hidden defects, in the entrance medical examination, as well as in the regular course of naval education, for a well arranged system of gymnastic exercises and athletic games, to give suppleness to the joints, steadiness to the nerves, hardness to the bones, and elasticity to the sinews. Such games and sports as the young universally accept with eagerness and pursue with unflagging interest, should be systematically introduced. Ample time, room, and encouragement by rank, prizes, and publicity, should be given to make a fondness and indulgence in such games as cricket, football, leaping, boating, &c., the habit of every member of the lower classes at least. An hour a day devoted to these healthful sports, even if taken from the study and class-room,—even more, if taken from the idle lounging, or the listless walk, or vulgar scuffling, will give at once health and strength, increased capacity for study, and valuable social qualities and manly virtues—all results of emphatically the highest professional value.
As part of the physical training of naval cadets, the expansion of the chest and the culture of the vocal organs should receive more special attention than the word of command on parade, and the questions and answers in the examination would indicate they had received. A clear, full, decisive voice is an element of influence onthe deck at all times, and of power in the hour of danger, as well as on the field or in the senate chamber.
The first beginning of habits, secret or open, which waste the vigor of the mind and body, should be watched with professional skill as well as parental interest, and those cadets in whom such indulgencies have grown into habits, should be cut off from the institution and service without hesitation and without reprieve.
Domestic and Sanitary Arrangements.
The institution is peculiarly fortunate in having had for years a Commissary who understands his business and gives universal satisfaction to all concerned. The neatness of the kitchen, the supply, preparation, and serving of the food, the geniality, good order, and enjoyment of the mess-hours, and the fact that no complaint reached the Visitors from any one of the 450 boys, blessed with good health and plenty of physical exercise, makes the record of this department an exception to similar departments in other large collegiate institutions. This comes from having the right man in the right place.
The hospital arrangements on shipboard and on shore, although not as large and quiet as would be desirable or as would be provided specially in permanent quarters, are sufficient for the demands on their accommodations. The location of the institution and the judicious arrangement and management of the Academy as to cleanliness, exercise, and diet, as well as the presence of a surgeon and two assistants on the Academic staff, and numerous attendants for hospital service, would seem to act as a preventive of accidents and disease, the mean daily percentage of sick on ship and shore from Oct. 1st to May 31st being returned at a little more than three per cent. out of an average attendance of 447 midshipmen. In calling for the annual reports to the Department of the medical condition of the institution, the Visitors were informed that a duplicate copy or abstract was not retained. Such copy or abstract would be highly convenient, and would seem to be even necessary, if it is deemed advisable to have a periodical inspection of the sanitary condition and requirements of the school.
Religious Observances and Instruction.
The regulations require that the students shall be assembled in the chapel for prayers daily, fifteen minutes before the breakfast hour, and that divine service shall be held on Sunday, which officers and students are expected to attend, unless excused on the ground of conscientious scruples, declared in writing by the former, and by the parents or guardians of the latter. These daily and Sundayexercises are conducted by the regular Chaplain of the institution. He is at the present time assisted in these and other such voluntary religious labors by three other chaplains of the Navy, who are now in residence as assistant professors. There are four Bible classes composed of cadets, and over one-eighth of the members are communicants in the different denominations of Newport. The student who brings, in his moral culture from home, religious convictions and habits, can easily preserve and strengthen them here, and no amount of instruction in the institution can compensate for the neglect of parental example and teaching in this respect. The absence of the religious element in the character and training of youth is a fundamental defect, and no institution of learning, special or general, can safely, for any length of time, dispense with appropriate and adequate means of religious instruction and a practical recognition of religious obligations, consistent with due regard to the religious convictions of individuals and the equal rights of all religious denominations. Such individual convictions and denominational rights can be best respected, not by ignoring the subjects themselves, but by selecting the chaplain from time to time so as to represent different religious denominations, and in all cases, in reference to his ability to be useful as chaplain in this institution.
The reading of the Sabbath, and one of the exercises of Monday morning might be so arranged as to harmonize with the religious observances and uses of Sunday, and the whole be made to unfold and enforce the great, definite, and unchanging obligations of every human being to his fellow-men, to his country, and to God.
As part of the religious and moral instruction of the Academy, more at least should be attempted to prevent, and if these unfortunately exist, to eradicate certain vulgar and vicious habits, whose beginnings are small, but which ultimately take complete possession of the individual. Although the Visitors can not, from their own knowledge, speak of its existence, they have had too many assurances from those who did know, to have any doubt of the prevalence of the vulgar and immoral practice of profanity, and that several of those addicted to it are among the youngest members of their classes, who came here entirely pure in this respect. The medical and police experience of the institution detects the occasional existence of other tastes and habits more directly affecting the health and morality of their victims, and which should and doubtless do receive the considerate and vigilant attention of the authorities, especially of the Chaplain, Surgeon and Superintendent.
Discipline.
The Superintendent is charged with and held responsible for the good order and discipline of the Academy, and it is made the duty of every officer, professor, and instructor, having knowledge of any violation of law or regulation, or of any crime, irregularity, neglect, or other improper conduct, of which any student or any other one has been guilty, to report the same without delay to the Superintendent. Offenses are defined with great minuteness and precision, and the circle of punishments embraces demerits on the roll of conduct, private and public reprimand, confinement to Academy grounds, to room, or to guard-room, and withdrawal on necessity, or dismission. In the administration of discipline, the Superintendent is clothed with much power, which is exercised by the present incumbent with great discretion and the happiest results. The private memorandum and letter book of this officer, respecting every case of discipline during the year, was placed before the Visitors, and they can bear willing testimony to the preventive admonition and parental regard with which he has exercised his authority.
Demerits, to be considered in making up the conduct-rolls, are assigned for all offenses. Such delinquencies as are not deemed deserving of severer punishment are grouped into four classes, which count ten, eight, six, four, and two demerits respectively, besides a miscellaneous class counting from one to ten demerits according to circumstances. Thetotaldemerits of each cadet is expressed by the sum of all demerits standing against him on record for the year, increased for the third class by one-sixth, for the second class by one third, and for the first class by one-half.
No punishment of any kind can be inflicted by other authority than that of the Superintendent. Report is read at evening parade of all demerits and other punishments that have been inflicted during the day, and opportunity is always given for excuse or explanation. Full record is made of every case of discipline, and a monthly conduct-roll is publicly posted showing the number of demerits against each cadet. It is evident that this conduct-roll does not fairly represent the character and conduct of the cadets, as a large number of demerits may be gained by numerous minor offenses, which involve neither immorality nor lawlessness, while a cadet who has been guilty of most flagrant acts of vice and disobedience may still be charged with but few demerits. Yet the conduct-roll has but a subordinate influence in determining the general merit-rolls, and in the question of dismissal the fuller record of punishments, aswell as the demerit-roll, has its weight in determining the action of authorities.
Financial Affairs.
All money appropriated for the support of the Naval Academy is drawn for by the Paymaster and by him deposited with the Sub-Treasurer in Boston. The Paymaster draws upon him, from time to time, to make his disbursements.
The principal heads of expenditure for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1864, are as follows:—
The total of all expenditures from 1st July, 1863, to May 31st, 1864; is reported at $383,419.41.
From the pay of the midshipmen, which is $500 per annum, $100 are reserved yearly to be paid upon graduation, though this sum is sometimes diminished by unavoidable circumstances. There is also deducted from their pay, the amount of board—at present $16.50 per month—and $3.00 per month for washing. The aggregate of these sums is paid monthly by the Paymaster to the Commissary. Articles of clothing for the midshipmen are provided under contract by the Storekeeper with the approval of the Commandant. All other articles for their use are purchased by the Storekeeper, from funds provided by the Paymaster, at prices sanctioned by the Commandant.
The midshipmen receive such articles as they desire upon requisition approved by the Commandant, and no other articles are permitted to be sold to them than those which the Storekeeper is authorized to have. Each midshipman has a pass-book in which his purchases are entered, and regular report is made by the Storekeeper to the Paymaster, who charges against each the aggregate amount of his purchases. On the 30th April, 1864, the amount of balances still due to the midshipmen was $44,579.93, the aggregate of indebtedness by them being only $111.90. The amounts to the credit of the members of the graduating class vary from $180 to $400.
The accounts of the Commissary are examined quarterly by a committee of three officers appointed by the Superintendent, to whom they make report. The Visitors deemed at their duty to gobehind the reports of this committee, and deputed one of their number to examine personally the original accounts of the Commissary and Storekeeper. As the result of this examination, which was conducted with the most rigid scrutiny, it is but justice to state that they found the accounts correct in all their details, and the prices of all articles as low as they can be purchased at wholesale in the city of New York, and the Visitors consider the financial affairs of the Academy as conducted with commendable skill and fidelity.
While the Visitors bear willing testimony to the fidelity with which the financial affairs of the Academy, as well as the departments of subsistence, discipline, and instruction, are and have been administered, they can not but express their disappointment at the very small number of officers of the lowest rank which the institution has contributed to the naval service. With an aggregate annual expenditure of several hundred thousand dollars, the aggregate number of graduates, since the opening of the four years’ course, in 1851, including the three classes of 1858, ’59 and ’60, which were ordered into active service in 1862 and ’63, before completing their studies, is but 269, or at the rate of less than 22 each year, at an expense to the country of over $12,000 for each graduate. If the 93 who entered the service with only two or three years’ residence had completed their course, the aggregate expense for each graduate would have exceeded $15,000. This, as it appears to the Visitors, small result, is due mainly to the want of care in selecting candidates, and the very low standard of general scholarship required for entering the Academy. The experience of this institution is the same as that of others of the same character; any mode of selection which does not test in advance the natural aptitude and preparation for the special studies of the course, and exclude rigorously all who are found deficient, will burden the institution with a number of students which will have to be thrown off after months and sometimes years of struggling to incorporate them into the regular classes and to the manifest injury, in the meantime, of the scholarship and character of the institution. While a nomination by patronage, and a pass examination have a direct tendency to reduce the average ability of the selected candidates to the minimum required, a competitive examination raises the general average to the maximum ability of all who apply.
Graduating Class of 1864.
The present graduating class (consisting after the final examination of 31) at the close of its third year has completed the whole courseprescribed, excepting that the Calculus has been omitted and that Surveying has been limited to instruction in Harbor and Coast Surveying, from Bowditch. Steam and the Steam-engine have received fuller attention from this than any preceding class, embracing six weeks of theory and practice on board of the steamer Marblehead—altogether too little attention for a department so important. Two summer cruises have been made by this class—both coast cruises—the first on board the John Adams, from June 6th to Sept. 30th, 1862; the second from 16th June to 25th Sept., 1864, in which the following vessels were united, viz.: Flagship Macedonian, sloop of war Marion, screw steamer Marblehead, and the yacht America. Upon these cruises the midshipmen were practiced in all the regular duties attaching to the posts of lieutenant and master, taking by turns upon themselves the working of the ship, in the different vessels; making and calculating observations for determining the ship’s position, going through all possible manoeuvres and performing the duties incident to the management of ships in action, in heavy weather, or in the many emergencies which arise requiring superior skill in seamanship. They were engaged in instructing the crews in gunnery, in infantry and sword-drill, and in drill of the battery. They were also detailed for actual boat service, and for the transferring of howitzers and marines from ship to shore. During the last cruise Meyer’s code of signals was used by the graduating class as signal officers, in communicating from vessel to vessel in the fleet, and instruction was also given in the Naval Code of signals, and in Navigation throughout the cruise to all cadets on board. In addition to these cruises the yacht America, in charge of cadets of this class, as commanding officers, has been engaged in the performance of despatch-boat duty, and also special “coast picket duty” in search for the Tallahassee.
The experience of this class—made up of three advanced sections of what is now the second class (the graduating class of 1865,) would seem to indicate, that under a system of appointment that should admit from the start only those who had maturity of mind and requisite scholarship, the professional studies of the Academy might be completed in three years. This is one year longer than the course of the French Naval School at Brest, the entrance examination of which would exclude most of the graduates of our Academy.
The Visitors close their report with the following suggestions, as the results of their examinations and conferences, in reference to thefurther development of the Naval Academy and the extension of nautical education generally, for the consideration of the Department.
I. Until the pupils of the Naval Academy have gone through the theoretical and practical course of instruction provided in this institution expressly to qualify them to act as Midshipmen, the Visitors recommend that they be designated asNaval Cadets—simplycandidatesfor the lowest official rank in the Navy—and that no cadet be rated as midshipman, no matter how well up he may be in his studies, until he has had at least eighteen months of professional practice afloat, towards which time the actual time at sea of each experimental cruise shall be credited.
II. As the most direct blow to the hindrances which practically exclude a large portion of the youth of the country, no matter how strong may be their predilection or great their acquired fitness for the naval service, from even a chance of being admitted to this national school;—as the most effectual preventive of the disappointments now experienced by individuals and families in the failure of many appointees to pass the entrance examination, or to meet even the low requirements of the first year’s course;—as the only effectual way of ridding the institution of the low average ability and attainments which characterize the lower sections of every class, and of bringing up the talent and scholarship and conduct of the whole corps to the average of the first two sections;—as a sure guaranty against the early resignation of officers educated at the public expense for a life service in the Navy, and of a progressive and honorable career as long as life and health last;—as a powerful attraction to draw to this department of the public service a fair share of the best talent and loftiest ambition of the youth of the country, and as a stimulus to their best efforts for self and school improvement for this purpose—the Visitors recommend the immediate abandonment of the custom of selecting candidates for admission by individual patronage, in consideration of neighborhood, relationship, or party connection, or the better motives of the poverty or the public service of parents, and that all appointments be hereafter made in consideration of the personal merit of the applicant, ascertained by a public competitive examination, conducted before an impartial tribunal, constituted as shall be prescribed by law. Admission, sought and obtained in this way, will be honorable to the successful candidates, a source of pride to the neighborhood and State from which they come, a reward to the teachers who have prepared them, and a stimulus to the industry and good conduct of their comrades athome. The classes of the Academy, replenished every year by new recruits, all of whom have sought the service from personal choice and won their place by personal merit founded on natural aptitude and vigor of mind and acquired knowledge, and who regard the diligent improvement of these opportunities of professional study and practice as the true road to honorable promotion hereafter, to be gained by farther industry and devotion—will at once have an average ability and scholarship equal to that now attained by only five or six out of every one hundred, and a large proportion of the cases of discipline, the “dead weights,” the reëxaminations, and the failures from inability, distaste, or want of preparatory knowledge, will forever disappear from the records of the Academy.
These suggestions have not the merit of originality nor the objections of novelty. The principle recommended has stood the test of seventy years’ trial in France in naval and similar public schools, and is now in successful operation in England, as well as in most of the military schools of Europe. It has been again and again urged by thoughtful friends of this institution and of our other national school at West Point, as the most effectual remedy for the evils complained of. The Academic Board of this Academy, in answer to a request from a committee in 1858 for its opinion on this point, replied:—“The Academic Board has long been of the opinion that the present system of appointing midshipmen without care in their selection, was undermining the very existence of the institution. The records of the Academy show that scarcely more than one-fourth of those admitted graduate. The fault lies with the appointing power, which has not kept the institution supplied with the proper material, and the Board has been powerless in applying a remedy. It has done all in its power by recommending a higher standard of proficiency.” The Visitors for 1862, in the Report of their examinations, remark:—“After a careful examination of the subject, the Board has been forced to the conclusion that the selection of candidates has not been made with sufficient reference to the wants of the public service, but has been and continues to be regarded as a portion of the patronage of the members of Congress making the nominations. The evil does not stop here; for in many cases, after they have been appointed without regard to talents or fitness, and have obtained admission to the institution, and subsequently have been found incapable to pursue the studies of the class to which they belong, the influence of the same member of Congress originally nominating them is successfully used to continue them at the institution, in obtaining authority for them to recommence their studies by joining a lower class; thus retainingthose wanting in talents and fitness, to the exclusion of others of suitable qualifications that might be presented. An institution like this, in which the students are educated and supported by the government, ought to have them selected from the highest and most promising youths of the country.”27
The same general principle, selection by merit, ascertained by the same general method, competitive examination, conducted on such conditions as Congress shall authorize or prescribe, has been recommended for appointments to the kindred national institution—the Military Academy at West Point—with the view of removing the same hindrances and remedying the same defects in the practical working of that school. That eminent military teacher and administrator, General Thayer, under whom the Academy, notwithstanding many hindrances and defects, attained its highest development, recommended the adoption of this principle at the outset of his administration, after having seen its successful operation in the military schools of France; and he has recently, after the lapse of nearly fifty years, all of them spent in actual experience or observation of the practical results of a different principle, renewed the recommendation in a communication to the Secretary of War. He has, within the present year, declared his belief that the adoption at the start, and the continuous recognition of this principle, the selection of candidates for admission on the ground of personal merit and aptitude for the special purposes of the institution, in appointments to the Military Academy, would have more than doubled its usefulness, would have avoided most of the difficulties of administration which it has encountered, would have prevented the popular prejudices which demagogues and disappointed parents and Congressmen have fostered, and would have gained for it a larger measure of the popular favor.
The Visitors of the Military Academy for 1863, in their Reportto the Secretary of War, go into an extended discussion of the advantages and objections to this principle and mode of making appointments. To this document reference is made as embodying the convictions of this Board as to the probable working of the same principle in admissions to the Naval Academy.
III. In connection with a change in the mode of appointment, the Visitors would commend to the consideration of the Department a revision of the conditions as to the age, bodily vigor, and general knowledge of candidates. The old system of training naval officers, by placing boys at the early age of twelve or fourteen years on shipboard in the daily and constant practice of the routine of the ship, when accompanied with the parental oversight of the captain as to conduct, and with regular and progressive instruction in the science and art of his profession, on ship and shore, by the teacher of mathematics and navigation—has produced many capable commanders, out of the larger number who have been ruined for the want of proper supervision and instruction, or grown up into men of mere routine. Some of the brightest names in the records of our own and of the English naval service had no other education or training than this. But these are the exceptions, and their success was as much due to opportunity and original genius, as to their early and continuous ship experience. That system of training officers is, however, everywhere abandoned, and the present aim of every naval power in the world is to seek out young men having a fondness for sea-life, with a generous ambition for naval distinction, with an aptitude for the sciences which qualify and adorn the naval officer, with vigor of body to bear the inevitable exposures of the service, and with a large amount of general knowledge, and then subject them to a special course of professional study and practice in a naval school. For every stage of promotion, additional knowledge as well as professional experience, tested by successive rigid examinations, are required. The experience of this class of schools indicates that those original qualities and acquired qualifications deemed indispensable in candidates for the proper mastery of a thorough course of naval instruction, can not often be found in young men under eighteen years of age.
IV. With an advance in the average age, maturity of mind, and preparatory attainments of the cadets on admission, the Visitors believe a revision and readjustment of the subjects and course of instruction can be advantageously made, which in connection with the new schools of naval construction, and of marine engineering, would greatly extend the range, depth, and practical value of the education of the naval officer, without prolonging the time nowdevoted to its acquisition. If the Academy can be relieved of the large amount of merely elementary general education which every graduate of the common schools of the country ought to have received, and which in a few years every aspirant to the privileges of this school would contrive to get, if the law made its acquisition necessary as a preliminary to a competitive examination—then the whole general scientific course could be mastered in two years, with a large amount of military and naval tactics, as well as of practical seamanship in the two summer cruises. At this point the Visitors recommend to the consideration of the Department the establishment of the following departments, or schools, in each of which the course of instruction shall be far more comprehensive and thorough than is now practicable where the branches constitute parts of a single course:—
First.—Of Navigation and Seamanship.
Second.—Of Naval Ordnance and Practical Gunnery.
Third.—Of Hydrography, Marine Surveying, Astronomical Observations, Construction of Charts, &c.
Fourth.—Of Drawing, Naval Designs, Construction of Ships, Naval Machinery, Docks, &c.
Fifth.—Of Steam and Marine Engineering.
Sixth.—Of Naval History and Strategy, International Law—especially of belligerents and neutrals—and the Law of the Sea, Consular Duties, &c.
Seventh.—Of Modern Languages.
Into each of these schools let the cadets be drafted, the choice to be determined by their own predilection or comparative fitness, at the close of the second year, and after completing such number of these courses, not less than four, as may be prescribed, let them have the privilege of an examination.
Each of these departments or schools might be opened to a certain number of candidates, on competitive examination, from each State—no matter where they may have received their education—and permission might be given to officers of any rank to review and extend their knowledge of either of these departments with the more advanced text-books and means of instruction. By this arrangement the service will secure the highest development of any special aptitude, preparation, or experience—and will more frequently get “the right man in the right place.”
The importance of these great departments of the naval service, and of special preparation for them, is fully appreciated by the Academic Board, but any attempt to give this preparation to all the members of the present classes, with such unequal and deficient preparatoryknowledge and with such diverse aptitudes for particular branches, would be futile. The attempt to teach as much as is now done, under the circumstances, only produces confused and unsatisfactory results with a large portion of the class. The remedy for this state of things seems to the Visitors to be in:—
1. More thorough preparation, higher average ability, and greater maturity of mind on the part of the cadets.
2. A thorough scientific course up to a certain point, for all the cadets, to occupy two years.
3. The requiring of linguistic training (in one or more modern languages,) only of those who show some aptitude or previous preparation for the same.
4. An option of two or three of the above courses, and a thorough proficiency in those selected before being permitted to pass as midshipman.
5. And finally continuation of study as well as of practice after graduation in the directions for which there is a demonstrated fitness and ability.
V. The Visitors deem it desirable to concentrate in and around the Naval Academy the largest amount and the highest quality of teaching ability, naval experience, and the apparatus and opportunities of practice of every kind connected with the naval service. But they would also commend to the consideration of the Department the encouragement of Naval Institutes, or temporary courses of instruction, at suitable seasons of the year, in some of the great departments of naval education specified in the foregoing classification—for the benefit of officers on furlough, or connected with the National Dockyards and Depositories, especially those in the neighborhood of large collegiate institutions, on the request of a certain number of such officers. Private naval architects and shipmasters might also be invited to attend these Institutes. Something of this kind should be provided, especially if continued study and examination is required by law and regulation at every stage of promotion in the naval service.
VI. The absence of elementary naval schools and of any regular instruction in navigation, the want of nationality and the low condition of the seaman-class generally, prevents any considerable demonstration or recognition of that nautical taste and aptitude for sea-life in the great mass of the population, which ought to be the basis of all special nautical training. To remedy this state of things, to develope and cultivate, where it exists, a desire for a maritime career, to provide at once a supply of intelligent, hardy, and well-trained seamen, mates, and masters, for the national aswell as for the commercial marine, in time of peace as well as in the emergencies of a sudden Or a great war, the Visitors recommend the inauguration, under the auspices of the Naval Department, of a system of navigation schools and naval instruction, in addition to and in connection with our present system of naval apprenticeship, commensurate with the demands of the service, the country, and the age. As the basis of this system, they recommend the immediate offer of pecuniary aid to encourage the establishment of a class of navigation schools in all the large seaports of the country, subject to thorough national inspection in order to secure uniformity and efficiency. They do not deem it necessary to consider here the organization, management, and instruction of this class of schools, farther than to present the outline of a system.
1. The schools which they contemplate, are not to be government schools—although they will be aided and inspected by the Naval Department. Their original establishment, buildings, material, equipment, and immediate management will belong to the local Board of Trade or Commerce representing the shipping and commercial interests of the communities in which they are located. Through such Board, the State or municipal authorities, or individuals, can extend pecuniary aid for the original outfit or annual support.
2. The objects aimed at in the internal constitution of the schools and classes, will be thorough instruction in navigation, seamanship, and kindred branches through:—First—Evening classes for adults, (seamen, mates, or masters,) who can not attend regularly on account of absence from port or engagements by day, in which the instruction will necessarily be elementary and fragmentary;Second—A junior department or division, in which instruction in arithmetic, drawing, commercial geography, and statistics, will be given, as well as in navigation, the use of instruments, calculation of observations, keeping a log-book, journal, &c.;Third—A senior department, in which a thorough course of mathematics, navigation, nautical astronomy, steam and steam navigation, &c., will be given, with facilities for acquiring one or more of the languages of the nations with which we have large commercial dealings.
3. The extension of any government aid should be based on the condition that suitable buildings and material equipment are furnished and kept in repair and working order by the local Board, or committee of the same, charged with the immediate management of the school; and such aid shall be subject to reduction and withdrawal for the succeeding year on the recommendation of the Department inspectors. For the first year the only condition should be the actual payment, from other sources, of an equal amount forthe annual expense of the school, subject to the disposal of the local Board. For the second and subsequent years, the sum paid by the government shall be appropriated in portions;First—a specific sum to the principal teacher and assistants according to the grade of certificated qualification each may hold;Second—a specific sum to the managers of each school for the annual expense of the same, according the average daily or evening attendance of the whole number enrolled in each class or division for a specified period of time in each year;Third—a specific sum to the managers of each school according to the number of pupils who shall complete certain specified courses of study to the satisfaction of the inspectors upon examination by them;Fourth—a specified sum in prizes, in the form of chronometers, sextants, text-books in navigation, &c., to be competed for by all the pupils of each division of a school;Fifth—a specified sum in aid of such professional experience as can be secured for the younger members of the school, as is now given to naval apprentices. All payments by the government should be so made as to secure and reward the services of able and faithful teachers, the regular, punctual, and prolonged attendance of pupils to the completion of each course which they enter, and the liberal coöperation of the local municipal authorities and the commercial and shipping portions of the community in which the school is located. Without such coöperation the whole plan will fail. The school need not be free—but let the instruction be good, practical, and cheap, and its possessor be sure of a lucrative employment, and then there will be a demand for it.
And why should not the national government enter upon this or a better devised system of training its own seamen, and advancing its naval and commercial interests? All maritime nations, either directly and exclusively by the central government, or through local boards of trade and commerce, have aimed to protect the lives and property of citizens engaged in commerce and navigation, by providing not only for the erection of light houses, buoys, and other material safeguards, but also by an adequate supply of competent pilots and mariners, duly trained and commissioned. Our own government has recognized its duty in all these respects, and in the recent enormous expansion and peculiar risks of the steam-marine, has established a system of inspection which is intended to reach every engine used for the propulsion of every vessel of any class in all waters subject to national law. Surely the same policy which permits and justifies this interference of the national arm and the application of the national resources to build light-houses, erect buoys, register the names, tonnage, and ownership of vessels;which commissions pilots, inspects steam-boilers, surveys harbors, makes observations of the stars, the currents of the ocean and the prevalent directions of the winds in different seasons and latitudes; constructs and circulates maps and charts, and does all these things for the protection of commerce and for the use of the navy, will, in behalf of the same great interests, when satisfied that they are jeopardized by present neglect, see and be assured that the masters, mates, and seamen, who have all the precious lives and enormous properties embarked in commerce in their keeping, are properly trained in the science and art of navigation.
The liberal educational policy of the national government which has set apart over one hundred millions of acres of the national domain for educational purposes, which if the right of inspection into its application had been asserted and exercised, would have amounted ere this time to a permanent fund of over five hundred millions of dollars—and which has more recently appropriated over six hundred thousand acres of public land for the establishment of agricultural and scientific schools;—the similar policy of the State governments, that holds all property subject to taxation for the support of schools, and that authorizes the most munificent appropriations for free public schools in all of the large cities, which are also the great seaports of the country—all justify the belief that a system of education for this large class of the community, once fairly entered upon by the national government, will be cheerfully and liberally responded to and sustained.
In England the same necessity which exists in this country—the reluctance of young people in good circumstances, to enter the maritime service—the low state of the professional as well as general education of her seaman-class—the enormous amount of property and the large number of lives directly interested in commerce and navigation—the reliance for properly manning the national vessels in the sudden emergency of war, on the commercial marine—the representative character which mariners bear, of the religion, manners, and civilization generally of the country, to all nations which they visit—the desire for the elevation of this large class of the population in intelligence, morality, and physical well-being, for its own sake as well as for the happiness, safety, and glory of the whole country—has prompted the government to organize a system of nautical education, not only for officers, gunners, architects, shipwrights, engineers, seamen, and boys employed directly in the national service, but for the masters, mates, sailors, and boys in her large commercial marine. Prior to 1853, the whole reliance of that country for the professional education of masters and mates was their registrationafter an examination in the mere mechanical knowledge of navigation and seamanship. To obtain this knowledge, reliance was placed on the economic law of supply and demand, and in this case as in others of an intellectual and moral nature, the least demand was made by those in the greatest want. Only here and there, in the great seaport towns, individuals poorly qualified in most instances, opened schools and classes of navigation, in which instruction of the most elementary and mechanical character was given without system, to a very small number, and without supervision or responsibility. In 1853, after the great International Exhibition had demonstrated the superiority of France and other continental nations, in the scientific as well as artistic training of their industrial classes, the English Government constituted a Department of Art and Science to administer a large appropriation (amounting annually to nearly a half-million of dollars) so as to extend encouragement to local institutions of practical science scattered in all the principal centers of population, and acting in every department of industry, all subject to the visits of government inspectors. To this Department of Science and Art was assigned the extension of pecuniary encouragement to, and the inspection of a class of schools which had been instituted by the Mercantile Marine Department of the (governmental) Board of Trade, in connection with local boards of commerce and trade, for the benefit of the navigation interests of the country. These schools in 1863 had increased to eighteen—each in an important seaport—each under the management of a local committee—each having a fair attendance of boys, seamen, mates, and masters, who all paid small fees. The system is still in its infancy, but continues to enjoy the confidence of the government and of the large commercial houses.
Nor is this system of governmental aid and inspection of marine and navigation schools, confined to England. In all the continental states in which the commerce is large enough to require the aid of government in any form for its protection, as well as for the indirect advantage of the navy, this class of schools exists—and in some the national policy in this respect is most comprehensive and thorough. In France, the government in its gigantic efforts within the last twenty-five years to establish a navy which in the number, design, construction, and armament of its vessels, in the scientific and professional knowledge of the officers, and the practical intelligence of her seaman, should be equal to that of any other nation—has included the whole commercial marine in its operations. Encouragement is given to private shipyards, architects, and founderies; and the system of maritime “inscription” or enrollment isso thorough that there is not a master nor an engineer in the commercial service who has not served at least two years in the national dockyards, founderies, or ships, and enjoyed opportunities of professional study, as well as practice, of the most scientific character.
VII. To give unity, stability, thoroughness, and general efficiency to the inspection and operations of the large system of naval education contemplated in the foregoing suggestions, the Visitors recommend the appointment of a Council or Board of Naval Education, in the constitution of which the great features of such a system should be represented, viz.:—(1.) Experience and success in naval command. (2.) Experience in large commercial and maritime affairs. (3.) Success in naval construction. (4.) Success in the instruction and discipline of educational institutions. (5.) A new infusion every year of the popular element, by the appointment from year to year of one or more public-spirited citizens from different sections of the country to attend the local examinations of applicants for admission, and the annual examinations of the several institutions.
To this Board should be assigned the duty of (1.) Frequent personal inspection and examination at other than stated periods. (2.) The thorough examination by themselves, and in connection with the professors, of the several classes in their daily recitations. (3.) The examination by themselves, or by competent experts, of all candidates for admission, of which as far as practicable, the written answers of the candidates should be preserved, and a written report in detail should be filed away for reference.
The language used in the law under which the present Board of Visitors are appointed—“for the purpose ofwitnessingthe examination of the several classes”—if taken literally, would certainly justify the practice adopted by this, and as far as they can learn, by previous Boards. At all events, the constitution of this and previous Boards, composed as it is of members a majority of whom have had no experience in school examinations—who have had no acquaintance with this institution before their present appointment—and who are together for but a short period of time, is very inadequate for any purpose of thorough personal examination. They must be satisfied in the main to receive statements on trust, and to receive and communicate only general impressions. All the duties devolving upon the Board of Visitors as at present organized, could be far more efficiently and successfully performed in connection with the other duties of the Council of Naval Education, here suggested.
VIII. With a programme of studies so extensive as that now laiddown or as herein proposed, in which each study is, or should be arranged with reference to what has gone before, as well as to what is to follow, the professor of each department and the teacher of each branch and section, should be kept closely to his portion, each cadet should master thoroughly every step in the succession, no professor should encroach upon the time of another, no teacher should be allowed to pass his pupils indifferently prepared into the succeeding section or branch. Even if no change be made in the present programme this course is essential to the success of the school, and to secure this an Inspector of Studies should be appointed, who should report frequently to the Academic Board all and every infraction of the programme, so that it may be ascertained whether the cause of failure be in the programme, or the class, or the teacher; and the remedy at once applied. Both the special and general duties of the Commandant preclude the constant and minute inspection referred to, and to the professor of no one department can these duties be properly assigned. While there is a superior executive officer who has in charge the external administration of the affairs of the Academy, there is no corresponding officer, as in the opinion of the Visitors there should be, to preside over the vital matters of instruction and training.
IX. The appointment of professors and assistants is a subject from its importance at all times, and from its immediate bearing upon the welfare of the school, deserving of mature consideration. The efficiency and thoroughness of instruction, the spirit of diligent study and the enthusiastic love of it among the midshipmen, depend to a great degree, upon the fitness of the instructor for his post and the method and manner of teaching which he employs. Though there may be some reason for limiting their appointment to the graduates of the Academy, yet the present course of instruction has by no means in view the training of future teachers, nor has it yet reached its full development. The success and advancement of the institution would seem to require the employment of the best educational talent, and none other, to be obtained wherever it can be found. Whenever any vacancy is to be filled, or new appointments to be made, the Visitors recommend that due notice of the same be given, and that the credentials of all applicants be referred to a competent board, and the applicants themselves whose credentials are satisfactory, be subjected to an open, competitive examination.
X. In conclusion, the Visitors recommend that greater publicity be given to all the documents which set forth the objectand operations of the Naval Academy, the mode and conditions of nominating midshipmen, the name of the person responsible for a nomination, the requisitions and results of each entrance as well as of all annual examinations, with specimens of the questions asked and answers given, so far as the same were written or printed. They would respectfully urge that the Official Register of the Academy, with the above and other information deemed necessary by the Department, be sent not only to every member of Congress, but to the libraries of all principal High Schools, public and private, and all institutions where candidates are prepared, that both teachers and pupils may know what the Department requires as preliminary to the special professional training provided in this Academy for any branch of the naval service of the country, and especially how deplorably deficient a large proportion of the candidates are found to be, on only a moderately strict but impartial examination. To this Register might be appended the official report of the Bureau charged with its supervision, or of any Board of Visitors, or Special Examiners, appointed by the Department.
With the best permanent accommodations and equipment of the Academy that can be made at Annapolis or elsewhere—with schools or courses of scientific and practical instruction for every branch of the service, and for every stage of promotion—with a teaching staff so numerous and so diversified as to secure the advantage of special attainment and qualifications to each branch of study—with entire control of the pupil’s time—with hospital accommodations and medical services for the sick—with chaplains for religious observances and the moral culture of all—with regular alternations of physical exercise and intellectual labor, and the stimulus of an honorable distinction before and after graduation—the Visitors think it not unreasonable to expect from an institution so provided for, the highest results, especially as the government has it in its power to select for admission, without regard to the social or political status of parents, from among the entire youth of the country, those who are best fitted by their physical and mental endowment and preliminary education, as well as by their aptitude for special studies and predilection for the naval service, for which those studies are a preparation.
All which is respectfully submitted.