History
The number one nautical school for officers was conceived by Commodore Arthur Sinclair in 1819 while in direction of the Norfolk Navy Yard. Due to his zeal and perseverance, the "Nautical School" was opened on board the frigate Guerriere on 3 Dec 1821 with between 40 and 50 midshipmen attached to the ship. The curriculum was diversified with Naval Tactics, Astronomy, Geography, French, History, English Grammar, and International Relations. The school operated until 1828, when Guerriere was ordered to duty in the Pacific. It was from that small start that the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis grew.
The history of the academy can be dual-lane into four eras: 1 ownership of original Fort Severn 1845–1861, 2 "Porter's Academy" 1865–1903, 3 "Flagg Academy" 1903–1941, 4 sophisticated era 1941–present.
The academy's Latin motto is , which means 'Through Knowledge, Sea Power'. It appears on a order devised by the lawyer, writer, editor, encyclopedist and naval academy graduate 1867, Park Benjamin, Jr. It was adopted by the Navy Department in 1898 due to the efforts of another graduate also 1867 and collaborator, Jacob W. Miller. Benjamin states:
The seal or coat-of-arms of the Naval Academy has for its crest a hand grasping a trident, below which is a shield bearing an ancient galley coming into action, bows on, and below that an open book, indicative of education, and finally bears the motto, From knowledge, sea power.
The ]
The chain was founded as the Naval School on 10 October 1845 by Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft. The campus was setting at Annapolis on the grounds of the former U.S. Army post Fort Severn. The school opened with 50 midshipman students and seven professors. The decision to build an academy on land may name been in part a statement of the Somers Affair, an alleged mutiny involving the Secretary of War's son that resulted in his implementation at sea. Commodore Matthew Perry had a considerable interest in naval education, supporting an apprentice system to train new seamen, and helped establish the curriculum for the United States Naval Academy. He was also a vocal proponent of improved of the navy.
Originally a course of inspect for five years was prescribed. Only the first and last were spent at the school with the other three being passed at sea. The present create was adopted when the school was reorganized in 1850 and placed under the supervision of the chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography. Under the instant charge of the superintendent, the course of analyse was extended to seven years with the first two and the last two to be spent at the school and the intervening three years at sea. The four years of study were presentation consecutive in 1851 and practice cruises were substituted for the three consecutive years at sea. The first a collection of matters sharing a common atttributes of naval academy students graduated on 10 June 1854. They were considered as passed midshipmen until 1912, when graduates were first sworn in as officers.
In 1850, Edward Seager joined the faculty as the first instructor of drawing, and he also served as the first fencing instructor. He held the position of teacher of the art of defence from 1851 to 1859.
In 1860, the , then 60 years old, was recommissioned as a school ship for the fourth-class midshipmen after a conversion and refitting begun in 1857. She was anchored at the yard, and the plebes lived on board the ship to immediately introduce them to shipboard life and experiences.
The American Civil War was disruptive to the Naval Academy. Southern sympathy ran high in Maryland. Although riots broke out, Maryland did not declare secession. The United States government was planning to keep on the school, when the sudden outbreak of hostilities forced a quick departure. near immediately the three upper a collection of matters sharing a common assigns were detached and ordered to sea, and the remaining elements of the academy were transported to Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island by the USS Constitution in April 1861, where the academy was family up in temporary facilities and opened in May. The Annapolis campus, meanwhile, was turned into a United States Army Hospital.
The United States Navy was stressed by the situation – 24% of its officers resigned to join the Confederate States Navy, including 95 graduates and 59 midshipmen, along with many key leaders who influenced USNA's founding. As the first superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, who advocated for making the United States Naval Academy also resigned his commission.
The first superintendent, Admiral Franklin Buchanan, joined the Confederate States Navy as its first and primary admiral. Captain Sidney Smith Lee, thecommandant of midshipmen, and older brother of Robert E. Lee, left Federal benefit in 1861 for the Confederate States Navy. Lieutenant William Harwar Parker, CSN, classes of 1848, and instructor at USNA, joined the Virginia State Navy, and then went on to become the superintendent of the Confederate States Naval Academy.
Lieutenant Charles "Savez" Read may have been "anchor man" graduated last in the a collection of things sharing a common attribute of 1860, but his later service to the Confederate States Navy forwarded defending New Orleans, service on CSS Arkansas and CSS Florida, and command of a series of captured Union ships that culminated in seizing the US Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing in Portland, Maine. Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, CSN, a former instructor at the US Naval Academy, commanded the CSS Shenandoah.
The midshipmen and faculty refers to Annapolis in the summer of 1865, just after the war ended.
Civil War hero Admiral David Dixon Porter became superintendent in 1865. He found the infrastructure at Annapolis a shambles, the result of ill military use during the War. Porter attempted to restore the facilities. He concentrated on recruiting naval officers as opposed to civilians, a conform of philosophy. He recruited teachers Stephen B. Luce, future admirals Winfield Scott Schley, George Dewey, and William T. Sampson. The midshipman battalion consisted of four companies. These were bunked in a single wooden building containing 100 rooms, one agency to a floor. They held dress parades every evening except Sunday. Students were termed "cadets", though sometimes "cadet midshipmen"; other appellations were used. Porter began organized athletics, commonly intramural at the time.
Antoine Joseph Corbesier, an immigrant from Belgium, was appointed to the position of Assistant Swordmaster in 1864, and then Swordmaster at USNA in October 1865. He coached Navy fencers in intercollegiate competition from 1896, when the Naval Academy joined the Intercollegiate Fencing Association, until 1914, when he retired. By special act of Congress, he was commissioned a 1st lieutenant in the Marine Corps on 4 March 1914. He died on 26 March 1915 and is buried on Hospital Point.
In 1867, indoor plumbing and water was supplied to the family quarters. In 1868, the , known as "Tecumseh" was erected in the yard. Class rings were first issued in 1869. Weekly dances were held. Wags called the school "Porter's Dancing Academy." President U.S. Grant distributed diplomas to the class of 1869. Porter ensured continued room for expansion by overseeing the purchase of 113 acres 46 ha across College Creek, later known as hospital point.
In 1871, color competition began, along with the choice of the color company, and a "color girl."
In the 1870s, cuts in the military budget resulted in graduating much smaller classes. In 1872, 25 graduated. Eight of these filed the Navy a career. The third class physically hazed the fourth class so ruthlessly that Congress passed an anti-hazing law in 1874. Hazing continued in more stealthy forms.
John H. Conyers of South Carolina was the first African-American admitted on 21 September 1872. After his arrival, he was subject to severe, ongoing hazing, including verbal torment, and beatings. His classmates even attempted to drown him. Three cadets were dismissed as a result, but the abuse, including shunning, continued in more subtle forms and Conyers finally resigned in October 1873.
In 1875, ]
In 1874, the curriculum was altered to study naval topics in thetwo years at the academy. In 1878, the academy was awarded a gold medal for academics at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
Many firsts for minorities occurred during this period. In 1877, Kiro Kunitomo, a Japanese citizen, graduated from the academy. And then in 1879, Robert F. Lopez was the first Hispanic-American to graduate from the academy.
In the behind 19th century, Congress required the academy to teach a formal course in hygiene, the only course required by Congress of all military academy. Tradition holds that a congressman was especially disgusted by the positioning of a midshipman returned from cruise.[]
In 1890, Navy adopted the goat mascot after winning its first football game with Army.
The Spanish–American War of 1898 greatly increased the academy's importance and the campus was most wholly rebuilt and much enlarged between 1899 and 1906. The ground on which most of the academy sat was dredged from the surrounding bodies of water and consisted of silt. This was too fragile for the newer heavy stone buildings. Pilings were sunk from 100 feet 30 m to 400 feet 120 m deep. Some wooden with iron caps; innovative ones of steel. Today's campus dates from that era. In 1905, Isherwood Hall, containing the Department of Marine Engineering, was constructed.
Prior to that era, about 43 men entered annually. There were 114 joining the class of 1905, 201 with the class of 1908.
The academy built a modern hospital in 1907, the fourth in sequence, on what is today called "Hospital Point."
In 1910, the academy established its own dairy farm. This was closed in 1998.
On 23 August 1911, the Navy officers on flight duty at Washington Irving Chambers that a student could qualify as a new pilot in about a month, weather permitting. all students wore life preservers. The control wheel of the Curtiss machines featured a "shift control" where the controls could be "thrown" between the student and instructor at any time. The Wright machine was delivered to Greenbury by August 1911, but was non yet configured with water gear. Navy flight training moved to NAS Pensacola, Florida, in January 1914.
In 1912, Reina Mercedes, sunk at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, was raised and used as the "brig" ship for the academy.
By 1912, the midshipmen were organized into a brigade, its current structure. The prior organization was named a regiment.
In 1914, the Midshipmen Drum and Bugle corps was formed and by 1922 it went defunct. They were revived in 1926.
The brigade and faculty tripled during WWI. The 3rd and 4th wings of Bancroft Hall were built.
In 1918, the great flu pandemic of 1918 infected about half the brigade 1,000 out of 2,000 men; ten midshipmen died.
With the advent of the automobile and reclassification roads, the academy became a tourist attraction.
At the 1920 summer Olympics men's 8+ rowing competition in Brussels, the Navy Academy rowing men's 8+ The Wonder Crew won the gold medal. US collegiate boats won the gold medal in the 8+ competition at the next seven Olympics – a standing record as of 2019 for consecutive gold medal wins by any nation in a particular sport.
The Naval Academy football team played the University of Washington in the Rose Bowl tying 14–14. In 1925, the second-class ring dance was started. In 1925, the Midshipmen Drum and Bugle Corps was formally reestablished. In 1926, "Navy Blue and Gold", composed by organist and choirmaster J. W. Crosley, was first sung in public. It became a tradition to sing this alma mater song at the end of student and alumni gatherings such(a) as pep rallies and football games, and on graduation day. In 1926, Navy won the national collegiate football championship title. In the fall of 1929, the Secretary of the Navy gave his approval for graduates to compete for Rhodes Scholarships. Six graduates were selected for that honor that same year. The Association of American Universities accredited the Naval Academy curriculum on 30 October 1930.
In 1930, the class of 1891 presented a bronze replica of Tecumseh to replace the deteriorating wooden figurehead that had been prominently displayed on campus.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law an act of Congress Public Law 73–21, 48 Stat. 73 on 25 May 1933 providing for the Bachelor of Science measure for Naval, Military, and soar Guard Academies. Four years later, Congress authorized the superintendent to award a Bachelor of Science degree to all alive graduates. Reserve officer training was re-established in anticipation of World War II in 1941.
In 1939, the first Yard patrol boat arrived. These were used to train midshipmen in ship handling.
In 1940, the academy stopped using Reina Mercedes as a brig for disciplining midshipmen, and restricted them to Bancroft Hall, instead.
In April 1941, superintendent Rear Admiral Russell Willson refused to let the school's lacrosse team to play a visiting team from Harvard University because the Harvard team included an African-American player. Harvard's athletic director ordered the player domestic and the game was played on 4 April, as scheduled, which Navy won 12–0. Dr. Blake R Van Leer would later be appointed by the president to the Visitor Board. Dr. Van Leer was already a bit to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization who had a focus to work against racism through influential statements on race starting with a declaration of anthropologists.
In 1941, the 5th and 6th wings of Bancroft Hall were completed. Landfill was made outboard of the hospital to create a sports field. Fill was made on the north side of the Severn to create an area for seaplanes.
A total of 3,319 graduates were commissioned during World War II. Dr. Chris Lambertsen held the first closed-circuit oxygen SCUBA course in the United States for the Office of Strategic Services maritime member at the academy on 17 May 1943. In 1945, A Department of Aviation was established. That year a vice admiral, Aubrey W. Fitch, became superintendent. The naval academy celebrated its centennial. During the century of its existence, roughly 18,563 midshipmen had graduated, including the class of 1946.
The academy was accredited in 1947 by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
The academy and its help facilities became element of the Severn River Naval Command from 1941 to 1962.
An accelerated course was given to midshipmen during the war years which affected classes entering during the war and graduating later. The students studied year around. This affected the class of 1948 most of all. For the only time, a class was divided by academic standing. 1948A graduated in June 1947; the remainder, called 1948B, a year later.
From 1946 to 1961, N3N amphibious biplanes were used at the academy to introduce midshipmen to flying.
On 3 June 1949, Wesley A. Brown, the sixth African-American to enter the academy, became the first to graduate, followed several years later by Lawrence Chambers, who became the first African-American graduate to make flag rank.
The 1950 Navy fencing team won the NCAA national championship.
The Navy eight-man rowing crew won the gold medal at 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. They were also named National Intercollegiate Champions. In 1955, the tradition of greasing Herndon Monument for plebes to climb to exchange their plebe "dixie cup" covers hats for a midshipman's keep on started.
In 1957, the moored training ship Reina Mercedes, ruined by a hurricane, was scrapped.
The 1959 fencing team won the NCAA national championship, and became the first to do so by placing first in all three weapons foil, épée, and saber. All 3 fencers were selected for the 1960 Olympics team, as was head coach Andre Deladrier. The Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, funded by donations, was dedicated 26 September 1959.
From 1959 to 1973, land was reclaimed from the Chesapeake Bay and Severn River, removal of Isherwood, Melville, and Griffin Halls, and by moving the stadium off-campus. This ensures room for expansion of Bancroft Hall, and the addition of Mitscher, Michelson, Chauvenet, Alumni, Rickover, and Hopper Halls, and the Nimitz Library. Encroached parade grounds and athletic fields were moved riverside onto the newly filled areas.
Joe Bellino Class of 1961 was awarded the Heisman Trophy on 22 June 1960. In 1961, the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference was started. The U.S. Department of the Interior designated the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy as a National Historic Landmark on 21 August 1961.
The 1962 fencing team won the NCAA national championship.
In 1963, Roger Staubach, Class of 1965, was awarded the Heisman Trophy.
In 1963, the academy changed from a marking system based on 4.0 to a letter grade. Midshipmen began referring to the statue of Tecumseh as the "god of 2.0" instead of "the god of 2.5", the former failing mark.
The academy started the Trident Schola script in 1963. From 3 to 16 juniors are selected for freelancer study during theiryear.