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57
The world of 1873 was free from major wars. The m°st recent conflagration had been the Franco-Prussian ^ar of 1870, a disastrous defeat for the Third French Empire. Three years later, the Republic of France had ^ost paid off its heavy indemnity to the new German Tfnpire, and German troops had withdrawn to the r°ntiers of Alsace and Lorraine. Covertly, the French "erc preparing for another form of repayment, revenge, ls 'hey reorganized their Army and fortified the fron- tlers of their former provinces. At the same time, a ^ly-united Germany, led by Emperor Wilhelm I, was Elding the armies of the German states into what ''°uld become the vaunted German war machine.
The new Germany had more to fear than a revitalis'd France. To the east was Russia, whose Tsar ‘cholas I was bent on improving his own massive,
peacetime army of three-quarters of a million men. To the west, Victorian England, with the world’s strongest navy, had four years earlier shortened the lifeline of empire to India with the opening of the Suez Canal. Spain, backward among the European powers, was undergoing republican revolution in Catalonia and sporadic revolts in Cuba. Turkey, the ally of England and France in the Crimean War of the 1850s, and the world’s fourth-ranking naval power, continued to watch warily the machinations of Tsar Nicholas.
Colonialism was still very much a way of international life as the European powers eyed unexplored and undeveloped portions of Africa, and sought to expand their interests in Asia. Even as periodic revolts flared in Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine, tacitly supported by Great Britain, kept adventurers out of the
Western Hemisphere. France’s attempt to place Maximilian on the throne of Mexico during the Civil War had served as an example that no foreign power wished to emulate.
The world, then, was not at war, but neither could it be said to be at peace. Each nation pursued its own aims, sometimes in consort and sometimes at odds with its neighbors.
The reunited United States of America, by virtue of its population of almost 40 million, its area of over three million square miles, divided into 37 States and ten Territories, and its seemingly unlimited natural resources, was an international power to be reckoned with. Yet, in contrast to the European powers, its military forces were minimal.
Me!” theme of the Revolution had not been exPu”C from the American character and, in fact, there
America’s small regular Army was engaged in protecting the Western frontiers from displaced and unhappy Indians and, in the Southwest, with policing the long Mexican border. The Navy, ranked by many as the world’s strongest at the end of the Civil War, had slipped to seventh or eighth place and seemed to have little prospect of modernizing either its vessels or its weaponry. U. S. foreign policy was based on support by Great Britain in a crisis; in return, there had been occasions when America supported British interests. Sometimes such support had been open, as in antislavery operations off Africa’s west coast, and sometimes less visible, as in the ports of China when U. S.-British interests were mutual. The recent settlement of the Alabama claims had done much to improve relations with England, and the jingoists on both sides of the
Atlantic had lowered their voices. What internation* problems America had were in its own hemisphc* Border difficulties with Mexican revolutionaries an® guerrillas kept units of the Army’s cavalry busy. The* was a revolution against Colombia by its satrap sta'; of Panama. In Central America, a revolt rocked :'r; tiny republic of Honduras. The death of Hawaii’s kinf in December 1872 prompted demands on the part certain news media for the annexation of the Sanded Islands, which were widely regarded as a rightful P,tl of the United States.
There were also pleas from a faction in Santo ^ mingo for annexation of that struggling Caribbe*' republic. These pleas went unheeded by Preside01 Ulysses S. Grant who, in his Second Inaugural onJ March 1873, set a national tone of calm confidence* he cited the need of guaranteeing the civil rights0, freed slaves and called for leniency to rebellious ^ dians. He also noted that the United States had 1,1 overseas aspirations and thus maintained the smal^1 peacetime military forces of all the world powers.
Within the nation, eight years after Appomatt00 memories of the Civil War were still fresh. The ReCOt struction period with its "carpetbaggers” and wags” was drawing to a close, and with few excepd°f' Federal occupation troops had withdrawn from sou1 ern areas. In northeast California, the Army fougb1 short but bloody summer war with the Modoc India11 In September, there was financial chaos and panic0' Wall Street when the Northern Pacific Railroad cea- _ operations, and the U. S. Treasury withdrew its bank$ funds from the houses of financial giants Jay C°°, and Henry Clews Company. This caused the Ami)11'’1' Navy Journal to warn all officers of the Services aga111 "becoming involved in the stock market.” Toward1 end of the year, trouble came from an unexpc1' quarter when the Virginias affair, of which more be said later, nearly led to war with Spain. The react1* to the Spanish outrage suggested that, despite an apP\ ent national mood of isolationism, reinforced by odic Presidential statements, the "Don’t Tread
(C|t
ll *
many Americans who considered that, ultimately! u . destiny lay beyond America’s boundaries and sn ^ In the expanding United States, its small and ajU Navy occupied little governmental and public * tion. This Navy was not a victim of anti-mil‘tJ although there are hints of it in Congressional hear - of a century ago. Rather, the Navy was the vicj1 ^ a general lack of interest, both officially and >n public media. . ^
The greatest weakness of the Navy in 1873 the next 15 years, lay not in numbers of ships
lts lack of a modernization program to keep pace with inventions and techniques of war. In Europe, the ,eet* of Great Britain, France, and Russia vied for lr°nclad supremacy, and the development of new weap- °ns forged ahead. In the United States, the Adminis- M°n and the Congress were willing to watch the |Navy grow more obsolescent year by year with very 1 e thought given to the future. As long as the Navy c°uld carry out specific overseas assignments, most of l^'ch were completely unplanned, there appeared to no need to spend greater amounts of money for future.
Hit;
irmg the Civil War would continue to be the
Mb,
Certain Congressmen argued that the Navy had been lately successful in a variety of missions in the ^reat "War Between the States.” Would it not be ^ a *y able to ready itself for any future struggle? It ^ Uu be 13 more years before modern U. S. cruisers d show the flag overseas. Until then, the steam jnj ts and sloops-of-war that had been designed before
nffi °ne c^e S. Navy. With a strength of 1,900 ^ and 8,500 men, sailing and steaming in 38 ^ going ships, this Navy operated in slow and steady °n >n an organization that had changed little since
the formation of the Navy Department in 1798. Its operations were handicapped by slow communications; for, excepting a cable route to Europe and the few telegraph lines at home, all messages to and from the Department were by mail. The result was that reaction to events at home or abroad was often too little, and generally too late.
Chart 1 depicts the organization of the Navy Department one hundred years ago. The Secretary, George M. Robeson, had been a member of President Grant’s first administration and would remain in the second term. Although provision had been made in 1861 for an Assistant Secretary, the office had been vacant since 1869. In the absence of the Secretary, the senior bureau chief, each of whom had flag rank or the staff corps equivalent, acted in his behalf. The Department was physically located in the State-War-Navy Building, adjacent to the White House and now occupied by units of the President’s Executive Office. Command and control of the Navy Fleets was executed directly by the Secretary or Acting Secretary. There was no Office of Naval Operations; it would be another 42 years before the first Chief of Naval Operations was ap-
pointed. Legal affairs were conducted by the Naval Solicitor who worked in the Department of Justice. Seven years later, Congress would re-establish the title of Judge Advocate General and the post would be filled by a naval or marine Officer within the Navy Department.
The Navy List for 1873 showed 63 wooden steamers, 48 ironclad steamers, 29 sailing ships, and 25 tugs and yardcraft. Of these, 46 were listed in full commission for sea service, of which 38 were in the seagoing category. Active ships were divided among six stations (fleets), each covering a section of the world. Chart 2 shows assignments to fleets. Normally rotations occurred every two or three years as ships returned for decommissioning and refitting. All ships were designated as first-, second-, third-, or fourth-rate, depending on displacement and armament. In 1873, there were
only five "first-raters” on the Navy List, and only °f; of these, the steam frigate Wabash, which served ** flagship of the European Fleet, was commissioned.
The workhorse of the fleets was the propeller-driv® steam sloop-of-war, designated as a second- or third-tf1' ship. Most of these ships were constructed prior to during the Civil War. All depended on sails for cruis^f and on steam for maneuvering in close waters or tact1' cal situations. The USS Hartford, Admiral Farragu1’ famous Civil War flagship, was typical of these ship5 Built at the Boston Navy Yard and commissioned111 1858, she displaced 2,900 tons, mounted 20 guns (t*'° 100-pounder Parrott rifles and 18 9-inch smoothb^ guns), was 225 feet long, bark-rigged, and propel driven. Other steam sloops, such as the USS Michi^' the only U. S. warship on the Great Lakes, used pad^ wheel propulsion. There were also a few small gul1 boats, fourth-raters, used in shallow waters such as $
piitiese ■
Va,. r>vers, where they were forerunners of the
Patrol of 1920.
an<j ^ S*0oPs of war such as the Hartford were wooden
He arrnored- The ironclads on the Navy List at this
H.tu^Cre °f the monitor type, either single- or dou-
'n fujjrette<d. Only one ship, the USS Terror, was listed
PbitrjtCornmission. A smaller ironclad, the USS Am-
^jorit^35 ass'fine(^t0 diary at the Naval Academy. The
Hnts ^ fhe monitors were single-turret improve-
che original USS Monitor, victor of the Battle
XmPt0n ^-oads in 1862. The USS Canonicus, ordered
typical of the ironclads. Listed as a
Tth
a(faj ,Ssioned in late 1873 as a result of the Vireinius ’ Was ■ - - - - •
'gth
o0thba single rotating turret containing two r6ve °re 15-inch guns. Her steam engineering plant
fater> she displaced 550 tons, was 225 feet in Snf’ a crew of 100 officers and men, and
di
Tk C1
Of Hrio , SS ®ma^a> a second-rate sloop of war, had
'Jl)t'rat]()rj>ln8*c propeller. Designed for smooth water H it0tic|S’jhe monitors could not be classed as seago-
changes from their predecessors. The units
j. ships commissioned after the Civil War,
a uu.1* - **
cruises
bVetl t(i^ un speed and firepower, with little thought . P^tcction. As such, these U. S. ships did not
gi rdiC(j1Ve ^eets had been designed for long
ironclads of 1873. This fact was well known abroad and would become more evident as the years went by. In February 1873, a correspondent for the London Engineer wrote, "One of the most important facts that we learn from U. S. naval appropriations is that the United States has definitely decided to abandon any pretenses that they might previously have entertained of ranking as a first class naval power.” The writer then expounded at length on the dangers inherent in such a policy, especially to a power with the worldwide commercial interests of the United States.
Although in Washington there seemed to be remarkably few naval personnel in 1873, the same cannot be said for the whole Shore Establishment, particularly in relation to the size of the active fleets. Chart 3 portrays this part of the Navy, the backbone of which were the Navy Yards, eight in number, seven on the East Coast and one in California. Each of these Yards, normally commanded by a flag officer, had a substantial staff of officers and administrative civilians. We can be
sure that each had its watchdogs in Congress, vy>n£ for appropriations locally in a manner quite similar t° the present day. Here in the Navy Yards, warships w#c built, repaired, and berthed when in reserve. Each 0 the Navy Department bureaus played a part in rhe Yards’ operations and finances. The Bureau of Vards and Docks was allotted $800,000 for the year 1873 t0 maintain the eight Yards. Another $3,500,000 was ap propriated for the repair and preservation of the Acer Besides Yard labor, ship’s force work and money f°( repairs when deployed was included in this item.
At each Yard, there was normally a receiving ship> where personnel administration and training were carried out. Many today will recall receiving ship5 such as the USS Seattle at New York or the old Bostoft at Goat Island in San Francisco. In 1873, these ship5 were an integral part of the Yard organization.
Chart 3 shows two separate activities in the Washington area, the Hydrographic Office and the Nava Observatory. These were busy and forward-looking elements of the Navy and one hundred years ago wefe
of relatively greater prominence than today. The Observatory, looking skyward on its hill in suburban Washington, was commanded by Rear Admiral B. F. Sands, and was one of the leading scientific institutions of the expanding nation.
At Newport, Rhode Island, the Naval Torpedo Station on Goat Island was the location for both manufacturing of torpedoes and instruction in their use. An annual budget of $71,000 was allocated for manufacture of this relatively new weapon. Discussions of the Navy by military analysts of the time usually mentioned in complimentary terms its progress in torpedo weaponry, but this progress was slow. Those officers assigned to duty at the Torpedo Station were designated as the Torpedo Corps of the Navy, and the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance was active in keeping the student body up to strength. In his 1873 report, Captain W. N. Jeffers, the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, made note of the fact that only one commanding officer had availed himself of the opportunity for torpedo instruction. Captain Jeffers also stated that apparently most commanding officers prefer to learn secondhand from their juniors.
Under Marine Brigadier General Jacob Zeilin, its seventh commandant, the U. S. Marine Corps of 1873 was composed of 92 officers and 2,331 enlisted men.
Its basic missions remained as they had been since its official founding—even before the Navy of which it was a part. The Corps was scattered around the nation in barracks at each Yard and Station, and in Marine detachments on most of the cruising ships of the fleets. Each of the Fleet Commanders had a Marine officer on his staff as Fleet Marine officer, and, on first-rate and second-rate ships, Marines stood guard duty, formed the backbone of the ship’s landing force, and probably irritated sailors, for life was lived in close quarters in those "major combatants” boasting Marine detachments a century ago.
On occasion, when two or more ships were concentrated, Marine detachments would form together for ceremonies or landing operations. In the Inaugural Parade of 4 March 1873, a full battalion was mustered by bringing men from the New York, Philadelphia, and Norfolk barracks to augment the two companies stationed at "Eighth and Eye” in Washington, the home of the Marine Corps. This barracks served as a base for Marine recruiting and training, provided a residence for the Commandant, and was the home of the Marine Band which, even in 1873, was known as "The President’s Own.”
—
1873—The Best Was Yet to Be 63
In his annual report, General Zeilin noted that "the public seemed to regard the band of the Corps as a national band, and that its services were called for on
all occasions of public ceremony, both civil and military in Washington.” He then recommended that the band be placed on a more "respectable” footing with regard to organization and pay. The total budget for the Marine Corps was slightly over one million dollars. With each annual appropriation request came questions from a few members of Congress on the necessity for having a Marine Corps. The year 1873 was no exception, although it would be some years before serious efforts were made to eliminate the Corps.
The 1873 Naval Register showed the names of 1,892 officers on active duty and 252 on the retired list. There were 39 active duty flag officers and 79 on the retired rolls, a number greater than any other rank on the retired list. This indicates a basic fact in officers’ careers at this time. Promotion was completely by seniority coupled with professional examinations. Death, physical disability, and disciplinary action were the means of selection out. There was security, but no real peacetime opportunity for the officer to excel and rise rapidly to the top. Only war could skyrocket an officer’s career.
Heading the Navy List was Admiral David Dixon Porter, a Civil War leader and hero who, at the age of 60, was the accepted leader of the Navy in his post of Special Duty at the Department. The Army and Navy Journal of 4 January 1873 devoted a full column to President Grant’s New Year’s Day Reception at the White House, when all Army and Navy officers in the area donned full dress and called in a body on their Commander-in-Chief. Admiral Porter led the Navy
contingent while General William Tecumseh Sherman led the Army to what the Journal described as a magnificent affair. If there was policy to be made in the Navy Department, Admiral Porter’s views were solicited. His words were widely quoted—such as his statement about this time on the unready condition of the Navy—"It would be much better to have no Navy at all than one like the present, half armed and with only half speed, unless we inform the world that out establishment is intended only for times of peace and to protect missionaries against the South Sea savages and Eastern fanatics. One such ship as the British ironclad Invincible could put our fleet hors de combat in a short time.”
The Admiral was to remain on active duty until his death some 20 years later and, in 1889, would hoist his four-star flag in the new cruiser Boston in command of the fleet which took part in the Washington Inaugural Centennial at New York City. By 1889, ^ Navy was on its way to modernization and a fleet of seagoing battleships.
There was one Vice Admiral on the active list, Stephen C. Rowan, also of Civil War fame. He commanded the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which even then was coveted by the industrial interests of the city.
Junior to these two distinguished officers, the Navy list runs chronologically through 12 rear admirals and four commodores to John L. Worden, Superintendent of the Naval Academy, who had been skipper of the Monitor, "the cheesebox on a raft,” at the Battle of Hampton Roads. The admirals’ average age was 60 and the commodores about 57. It was difficult to predict the exact age at which one could expect to attain t certain rank. The Civil War had brought quick promotion; the post-Civil War period brought virtual stagnation. The founder of the Naval War College some 13 years later, Stephen B. Luce, was in 1873 a seniof commander, having just relinquished command of the USS Juniata, a third-rate sloop of war. George Dewey was a new commander, serving as executive officer of the Torpedo Corps at Newport, R. I. The great strateg1# and author, Alfred Mahan, was a lieutenant command# on leave of absence, a status which in 1873 was readily granted, provided one did not object to going on hal pay. The victor of Santiago, William Sampson, was ah0 a lieutenant commander serving in the USS Congress on the European station, while his rival, the controversy Winfield Scott Schley, held a similar rank in the 1$ Benicia on the North Pacific station. "Fighting h°^ Evans, who would lead President Theodore RooseveltJ Great White Fleet around South America in 1907, ^ an instructor in Seamanship and Tactics at the U- ' Naval Academy. Bradley Fiske, who was instrument ^ in establishing the present Office of the Chief of Nmr
1873—The Best Was Yet to Be 65
]
ranks were adequate for the time, as were pay scales in the lower ranks. In the senior grades most were enjoying the benefits of rapid Civil War promotion.
In the lower ranks there was worry about the future, from both personal and professional viewpoints. These worries about the future of their profession and the inadequacies of the aging fleet were primary reasons for the founding of our present Naval Institute.
When a man shipped "before the mast” one hundred years ago in a U. S. steamer or sailing ship, he joined a force of 7,500 enlisted men, who in many ways were a forgotten part of the Navy. These were the days of "Wooden Ships and Iron Men,” particularly when talking of the career men.
The annual report of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting for 1873 was less than a page in length.
operations, was a first classman at the Academy.
Rear admirals were paid $6,000 annually while on ^duty and $5,000 while ashore. Captains drew $4,500 at sea and $3,500 ashore. A cadet midshipman at the ^eademy was the recipient of $500 per year. A warrant °fficer drew $1,800 per year while at sea provided he tad 12 years in grade. In 1873, warrant officer designa- tlQns were boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and sail- ^ker. The rank of chief warrant officer would appear taer. The rank of master, with one hundred on the ^dve list, was the step between ensign and lieutenant, and would later be replaced by lieutenant, junior grade.
The Navy staff corps were listed in the following Orderof seniority; Medical Corps, Pay Corps, Engineer ^°rps, Chaplains, Professors of Mathematics, Secretaries, ^aval Constructors, and Civil Engineers. For pay pur- P°ses the staff corps had equivalent ranks with the line,
officers were always addressed by their staff titles, tatfgeon, Pay Director, Professor, Chief Engineer, etc. There were strong feelings between staff and line of °ne hundred years ago. The status of the Engineer Corps was of particular note, for this largest of the staff corps, was vital to any modernization of the Navy.
1873, the senior officers of the fleets were sail- ^taded and there was no doubt in their minds that Cngineers were technicians first and foremost. They w°uld depend on an engineer’s advice, but saw little Use in understanding his profession. Complete reliance °n steam would not come for almost 20 years with 'ta designs of the first battleships, and more time *°uld elapse before Line and Engineer Corps would ^ combined.
The naval officers of 1873 were primarily career- ^'nded professionals whose pay scales in the upper
Recruiting for the year had not been good and the Navy had a current strength of only 7,500, although recruiting was expected to improve with the arrival of cold weather in the fall. There was no regular system of recruit training, and generally new men were found in the vicinity of each Navy Yard as a ship was about to commission. These were processed through the receiving ship where basic training was given. Ships on overseas stations had considerable latitude in recruiting locally to fill out their allowances. As a result, there were many foreign nationals on the muster rolls, including more than a few who could not speak English.
Secretary Robeson’s report of 1873 makes no comment on enlisted personnel. This could indicate that there were no problems and hence no need to comment. Or it could indicate that there were real morale problems, continuing difficulties in recruiting, and in many ships a high desertion rate. The Navy of 1873 was a hard Navy, particularly for the enlisted man.
Cruises were long, food was generally less than appetizing, water was often in short supply, and liberty in foreign ports was given sparingly. A letter to the Amy and Navy Journal in August tells many of the problems of the "lower deck” one hundred years ago. The writer, an anonymous seaman, and probably one of a very few who could write, complains of lack of liberty on five of the ships of the North Atlantic Fleet and relates the high desertion rate to this treatment. The USS Worcester is cited as a prime example. The ship had returned from nine months in the Caribbean where practically none of the crew had been ashore, although "the officers regaled themselves socially in ports where just such commodities as men-of-warsmen need are plentiful and cheap.” The writer then notes that there is small wonder that one-third of the Worcester's crew deserted when the ship reached Norfolk. The Worcester was probably an extreme case, but there can be little
doubt that the life of the 1873 Navy man was grim in comparison to his present-day counterpart.
One problem which drew the personal attention of Admiral Porter, and was slowly alleviated, was the system of selling uniforms to recruits on board the receiving ship where they enlisted. Normally the new man ended up owing the government money, which he might take months to repay. Another morale problem peculiar to the steamers on distant stations was the use of deck seamen as coal passers in the firerooms. Relying on sail as a primary means of propulsion, these ships had minimal engineering forces, and required deck force help whenever prolonged steaming was necessary. This duty was detested by the seamen, particularly since no monetary allowance was given them for work clothes. One hundred years later, I saw parallels to this in hard-pressed destroyers where, on occasion, deck force help had to be drafted to keep engineering plants operating.
recreation for the young gentlemen who have scare1
battalion to Washington for the day. A dawn art
\id'
Sleeping arrangements were crowded in these sloops of war and even worse in the monitors. Hammocks were slung in every available space, ventilation was poor, and the monitors particularly were wet, topside and below, whenever the weather kicked up. Messing arrangements were archaic. Each division of the ship had its own mess or messes, normally 18 or 20 men, which meant a separate cook, caterer, equipment and all sorts of opportunities for confusion in the galley. There could be chicanery, competition, and at times open combat between rival cooks and messmen. It would be another 20 years before this system gave way to the present General Mess concept, and another 60-odd before cafeteria feeding in specially designated mess compartments became universal.
Pay for enlisted personnel was low. The highest salary of $51.50 per month went to the flagship bandmaster. A third class boy or apprentice earned $9.50 monthly. In short, "Jack Tar” of 1873 was a rather neglected, tough, and not normally a career-minded sailor.
The U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, had in 1873 recently passed its first quarter-century of serving as the school for aspiring officers. The report of the annual Board of Visitors for the year states in part, "The Board is glad to believe that any prejudices against the Academy which may have formerly existed have passed away, or if they still exist, it is only in cases where the real facts are not understood.” The Academy appeared to be secure as a vital element of the Navy and, with few exceptions, all line officers of junior captain rank and below were graduates. The student body of this year was composed of 227 cadet midshipmen in four classes and 35 cadet engineers in two classes. The annual practice cruise for the first and
'hr
tro
fo,
Of
Oy
third classes was made in the venerable frigate lation for a period of 14 weeks, with visits to East Coupons as far north as Newport, R. I. The cadet engin^ cruised in the small steamer USS Fortune, which, ai'lC' running aground off Greenbury Point on depart^ visited ports and Navy Yards from Norfolk to Boston where the embryo engineers inspected industrial at0'1' ties of all types.
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parade, and many unhappy and footsore Middies
Otherwise, looking at the Academy of 1873
d>!
ods of education at all levels throughout the cou In the Naval Institute’s 75th year, Cap1
hope of improvement, with stagnation in promo11
tet*
on the part of the government. Professionally our
Organized athletics and social activity were mini®131 There was considerable hazing by upper classmen. ^ phasis was on rigid discipline. The Board of Visit01’ complimented the Superintendent, Commodore J^f Worden, on dealing firmly with the "petty” barbari511” committed by a few midshipmen.
The cadet midshipmen did have some pleasure. ^ of the few social notes in the Amy and NavyJournd0 February described the Annual Ball held in late Jana3" 1873 at which President Grant was the honored ga^ He sat in a large box emblazoned with the words Nation’s Choice” and for his visit the "plebes” had1'’ privileges of the upper classes. The society writer ufg\ the authorities "never to do away with this deligbc
an hour of their own and are so often confined
quarters.”
Another event of the year which caused press ment was the appearance of the Cadet-Midship1^ Battalion for President Grant’s second inauguration llli 4 March. Evidently the Naval Academy authorities 1)1 not recommend sending the battalion to Washing11’1 The cadet midshipmen wanted to go, for it mean1 change of routine. The Inaugural Committee hnJ persuaded Secretary Robeson to intercede and order1
a march in bitter cold winds without overcoats (bet30' the West Pointers were not wearing theirs), andsep3r|( tion of the battalion from its commissary railroad 0 turned the day into what we might now call a sn3 There were colds and flu, minimal liberty after1
finally returned to cadet quarters late that night.
realize that the aims and goals have not change13^ the intervening century. They were being exeoaV then. They are being executed today. The mannri ^ execution has changed significantly, but so have m0
G. V. Stewart, U. S. Navy, wrote in the Proceed"1^^ "Seventy-five years ago our Navy found itself in 3. j( period of routine and overly familiar duties, with h1^
with no building and with comparatively little m1
1873—The Best Was Yet to Be 67
Was marking time.” Without questioning the above thesis, a look at some of the fleet operations of the year ®ows that it was not a dull life for many. In 1873, it was truly a case of "joining the Navy and seeing the world,” f°r the majority of ships were deployed in the true sense the word. This "deployed status,” a term we use today, v°uld last for as long as two or three years on the overseas stations.
From the isolated and often fever-ridden harbor of Key West, the ships of the North Atlantic fleet watched developments in the constantly changing Caribbean area, simmering from heat and politics. Although the title of this fleet might indicate duty °n our East Coast, much of the time was spent in the Caribbean where sporadic revolts in Spain’s colonies and former colonies could threaten American lives and interests. In Key West in March, the only commissioned monitor with the fleet, the Terror, was finally declared unfit for service and towed north when all efforts to rid her of fever and vermin had failed in the tropical climate. Shortly thereafter, the USS Richmond made a visit to Guantanamo Bay after effecting the release of American seamen being held in Santiago, Cuba, for trial. The USS Wyoming made a cruise to Havana with the new American Consul General on Hoard and followed this by a voyage around the entire island. On a similar mission, we note that the new H. S. minister to Mexico took passage for Vera Cruz ffom New Orleans in the USS Canandaigua. U. S. diplomats do not travel in our men-of-war as frequently or ^ publicly in the present day.
The three ships of the South Atlantic fleet operated al°ng South America’s east coast using Rio de Janeiro as a base. The USS Wasp, a small paddle steamer whose tonnage did not even appear in the Navy Register, underwent extensive repairs in Montevideo and then embarked the fleet commander for a lengthy cruise UP the River Plate to Paraguay, returning via the Argentinian capital city of Buenos Aires.
In the North Pacific, activity for the first part of the year centered on Hawaii where the flagship Cali- fornia with the Benicia had been sent early in the year. Asides representing the United States at the state fu- jtofal of the recently deceased King, these ships would e present in the event of political unrest. Although lf would be 25 years before annexation, some of the Ptoss in the United States were calling the islands "a P1C(to of the United States.” Other activity of this fleet mduded extensive surveys of the west coast of Mexico, a cruise by the flagship up the inland passage to ltlca, Alaska, with a stop at the Royal Navy’s Es- Su'mault station near Victoria, British Columbia.
The two sloops of war on the South Pacific station °Perated from Valparaiso, Chile, and Callao, Peru. On
two occasions in the year, landing forces went ashore in Panama City, where revolts against the Colombian government took place.
The Navy maintained its most effective and ready fleets in the Mediterranean and Western Pacific. As the year began, the only first-rater in commission, the Wabash, was serving as flagship of the European fleet. The logs of the Wabash and the other four steamers in the fleet remind one very much of Sixth Fleet port visit schedules today, although most cruising was done independently and there was rarely an opportunity for squadron exercises at sea. Villefranche-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, until recently homeport for the present Sixth Fleet flagship, was an interim base where the fleet would occasionally concentrate. Ports from Constantinople and Beirut to Northern Europe were visited by ships of the fleet in 1873, with emphasis on Spanish ports in late summer, where a major revolution against the monarchy was being carried out in Catalonia province.
In the Western Pacific, the Asiatic fleet operated primarily along the coast of China where American commercial enterprises were slowly expanding. An occasional visit was made to the East Indies and the ports of British India. At Yokohama, Japan, repair facilities were available. Twenty years before, Commodore Matthew Perry’s "black ships” of the Asiatic fleet had been in that port for the signing of the treaty that opened Japan. In the intervening years, great steps forward were being made, and many writers were noting Japan’s place in Asia as one analogous to that of England in Europe.
Chart 4 shows a typical deployment of the fleets for 1873. Dated 1 July, it indicates that 27 of the 38 active ships were on distant duty or at sea. Concern about a ship’s time in her homeport does not seem to have been evident a century ago, at least to have been a matter of official concern.
These fleet operations for 1873 were generally routine, carried out at a slow pace, and very largely at the discretion of the various fleet commanders. Communications were slow, in most cases as fast as the swiftest clipper or mail steamer, although the cable route to Europe was in operation. Then, as the year drew to a close, the Navy was called into partial mobilization as a war scare with Spain developed. The spark that almost ignited a war 25 years before the Battle of Santiago, was the Virginias massacre. For several years Cuba had been the scene of sporadic fighting between revolutionaries and Spanish garrisons. The steamer Virginias, a merchantman flying U. S. colors but manned by Cuban revolutionaries, was captured on the high seas by a Spanish warship on 31 October. Escorted back to Santiago, the ship’s captain and some
50 revolutionaries were shot when they landed. ' United States protested vigorously and followed [| j by a naval concentration at Key West. The fact ■ the ship was captured on the high seas caused emot>( to intensify, fanned liberally by segments of the p1 Slow communications and the preoccupation of $F! with revolt in Catalonia kept the crisis from V into war. In December, the Virginias was taken to West and surrendered to U. S. authorities. Althoe;
this ended the immediate threat of war, the fleet »
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centration at Key West continued into early 1874 w a force of some 20 ships under Rear Admiral Commanding U. S. Naval Force, North Atlantic' tion, was assembled for a month of maneuvers, result of the Virginias affair was a series of article foreign analysts on the relative strengths of the U1’1'' States and Spain. British sources gave the United $lJ' the ultimate victory, but not until they had depl°r‘ the condition of the U. S. fleet without a single "b#' side ironclad” available. Significant modern^1 funds would not be appropriated by Congress fbf| other ten years, and in the meantime the Navy del# lized the recalled ships, and the fleet of 1874 be# older and weaker than the fleet of 1873. Eve*1 Chilean Navy would soon boast an ironclad that cl> outshoot any ship on our Navy list for the next 15 f In April 1873, the mystery of the missing *■. Navy steamer Polaris was solved when the Tigress brought survivors home from the Arctic. Polaris had been sent north in 1871 on an expint1; voyage into the Arctic and had not been heard since. With the rescue of a few survivors, the was immediately chartered by the Navy to returl\ search of any remaining Polaris personnel, but1 in the meantime had been rescued by British and taken to Dundee, Scotland. In this early exp#1 j into the unknown Arctic, the Polaris was crusnc Greenland ice in the winter of 1871-1872. 0n^> ship’s captain, Commander C. F. Hall, was lost. . his command, the steamer had penetrated to 82° 16' North, and scientific results of the exp^ j would gain world renown after the rescue of su Among the ships sent out to search for the when she was first overdue had been the Juniata ^ which a steam launch, commanded by the ex#^ officer, Lieutenant Commander George cruised farther north from Cape York in a vain • ,
for those who were later rescued. DeLong w°u later years lead another expedition into the The games of hide and seek in the Arctic 1° J Navy men risked their lives freely, were markedf total lack of any improvement in long distant
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Chart 4 Location of ships on July 1, 1873
NORTH ATLANTIC STATION
USS Worcester^ F)(2) | At Key West |
USS Powhatan(2) | At Boston |
USS Richmond^2) | En route Pacific |
USS Canandaigua(2) | At Aspinwall |
USS Wyoming^) | En route Norfolk |
USS Shawmut(5) | At Norfolk |
USS Nipsic(3) | At New York (Decomm) |
USS Saugus(4) | At Savannah |
SOUTH ATLANTIC STATION | |
USS Lancaster(Y)(2) | At Rio de Janeiro |
USS Ticonderoga(2) | En route Montevideo |
USS Wasp(4) | At Montevideo |
NORTH PACIFIC STATION | |
USS Saranac(F)(2) | At San Francisco |
USS Benicia( 2) | West Coast of Mexico |
USS Narragansett(3) | West Coast of Mexico |
SOUTH PACIFIC STATION | |
USS Omaha{F) (2) | At Guayaquil |
USS Pensacola(2) | At Callao |
USS Tuscarora(3) | Cable survey |
USS Ontvard{Storeship) | At Callao |
ASIATIC | STATION |
USS Hartford^F)(2) | At Shanghai |
USS Lackawanna^2) | At Shanghai |
USS Iroquois | At Shanghai |
USS Monocacy(5) | At Shanghai |
USS Ashuelot(3) | At Tienstin |
USS Yantic(i) | At Nagasaki |
USS Saco(l) | At Taku Bar |
USS Palos(4) | At Shanghai |
USS Idaho( Storeship) | At Yokosuka |
EUROPEAN STATION | |
USS Wabash{F)(l) | At Messina |
USS Congress( 2) | At sea, Irish Sea |
USS Brooklyn^2) | En route New York |
USS Shenandoah(2) | At Barcelona |
USS Wachusett(5) | At Trieste |
USS Plymouth^3) | En route home |
USS Alaska(l) | En route from New York |
munications, no better than in the days of c° t as far as the Polaris and the searching ships *cfC
1873—The Best Was Yet to Be 69
Ccrned. Yet, radio was only a few years away. A real ^nefit of the Polaris operation and search efforts was 4c experience in cold weather operations given to a number of naval officers, thus paving the way for future scientific cruises into ice-choked polar waters.
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In tropical climes, the Navy was playing an impor- tant role in the search for a canal route to join the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Surveys were being conducted over two routes, across the Isthmus of Panama, Jnd through the new republic of Nicaragua. The former route was surveyed by Lieutenant Commander T 0. Selfridge to make use of the Atrato River which would require a canal of 28 miles costing between $50 and$60 million. Cost estimates were not complete for the other route, making use of Lake Nicaragua, with 60 "dies of canal construction. Today this route is still favored for a second trans-oceanic canal. The Panama r°utc, somewhat modified, was completed in 1914 aftor the initial failure of the French company under I-kLesseps.
The Navy of 1873 had many deficiences but among lts greatest was the lack of any organization to plan f°r the future. In the Navy Department there was no Organization for research and development and no ttioney was provided for experimentation except what each Bureau Chief might be able to find to pursue a Particular project. Nevertheless, there were programs Moving forward in several Bureaus, programs which ^oiild be of great value to the future.
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. One of the most active was the Bureau of Naviga- tl0n where a number of projects of general marine ‘nterest were being carried out. The errors in compasses °w‘ng to the iron in ships’ hulls were being investigated ^me detail. The new Laurent Octant to improve In^t'al nav'8at‘on at night was adopted in this year. ^ another BuNav program the Hydrographic Office ^as directing several surveys including both coasts of HCx,co and a Pacific cable route initially as far as N°n°lulu. Preparations were also being made by the aval Observatory under BuNav for detailed observa- in °fr the forthcoming transit of the planet Venus
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e bureau of Ordnance had funds allocated for q/ 0vement of powder charges, with the DuPont rauy of Wilmington, Delaware, as the contractor.
Painting showing the capture of the steamer Virginius, a U. S. merchantman manned by Cuban revolutionaries, on the high seas by a Spanish warship.
Some work was being done on the Gatling rapid-fire gun for use in small ships and with landing parties. In 1873, the Bureau Chief did not think that this gun would ever supplant existing light shipboard guns or boat howitzers. In the field of torpedoes, the Torpedo Corps at Newport were commencing the evaluation of two different weapons, the Lay and Ericsson torpedoes. Procedures for the evaluation were very different from today, but each of these weapons had vocal proponents and competition was quite parallel to the recent competition between the models of the Mark 48 antisubmarine torpedo. Newport’s Torpedo Station did much work in both evaluations, almost one hundred years apart in time. Admiral Porter on his own initiative entered the torpedo arena when he designed a torpedo boat to be built at the New York Yard. The ship was to be partially submersible, 173 feet in length, and would use steam for normal power, but be equipped with portable masts and sails for cruising. Foreign sources were greatly interested in this craft and, on at least one occasion, unauthorized persons were "apprehended” in a secure area of the Yard where the craft was under construction.
There was a shortage of qualified doctors in the Navy of 1873. The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery was working on the organization of a school at its Naval Laboratory in the New York Yard where candidates for appointments as Navy Surgeons could learn enough to qualify in their examinations. The Navy Surgeon General’s plea for this school in his annual report is being echoed today in the plans of the Department of Defense for a Military Medical Academy.
A significant project of the Bureau of Steam Engineering was supervision of the construction of steam engines for six sloops of war, previously authorized by Congress, and in various stages of construction. The engines were being fabricated by five different manufacturers, each with his own design. There appeared to be no worry about the spare parts situation when these ships were commissioned. Five different plants for a class of six ships would be a fleet supply officer’s nightmare today. Another program was the prevention of internal corrosion in boilers. Shortly after the Civil War, the Navy Department, against the advice of the Bureau of Engineering, embarked on a program of substituting twin-bladed propellers for four-bladed types in the
sloops-of-war. This was done to make the ships better sailers. In his 1873 report, the Engineer in Chief bitterly protested this program and pointed out the great advantage of a four-bladed propeller when the ship is steaming, and the very small difference in drag when the ship is under sail with the propeller uncoupled. We must note that the sail vs. steam controversy was far from settled in 1873. One hundred years later we have propulsion controversies also: twin-screw vs. singlescrew destroyer types; steam vs. nuclear power; steam vs. gas turbines. There are advocates for all with radical and conservative viewpoints, quite parallel to those arguments in 1873.
All of the programs that have been mentioned were relatively short term. A basic reason was that the Navy of 1873 was completely busy carrying out the day- to-day requirements of manning and operating an aging fleet within Congressional appropriations and with little public support. But in 1873 there were a few who were looking beyond the immediate—otherwise our Naval Institute would not have been formed. That the Institute was formed at the Naval Academy seems logical, since here the Academy instructors spent their full time thinking and teaching, researching and passing on their ideas to their charges, the cadet midshipmen and cadet engineers.
In what areas were those who formed and joined the Naval Institute in 1873 thinking ahead? The first several numbers of what is now the Naval Institute Proceedings contained reports or papers on a variety of subjects, practically all of which addressed shortcomings in this Navy of 100 years ago.
As an example, the initial report to the Institute under the Presidency of Admiral Porter, was made by newly promoted Captain Stephen B. Luce on "The Manning of the Navy and Merchant Marine.” His paper, emphasizing the vital importance of enlisted men at sea in warships and merchantmen, pointed out shortcomings in the current Navy training methods and recommended the addition of "1,000 boys” in a training status. These personnel would be quartered in three special schoolships for a fixed period of time before going to their designated active ships. This proposal was a forerunner of the present naval training station concept.
At a later Institute meeting, Captain W. N. Jeffers discussed the poor armament of the 1873 sloops-of-war. and the need for breech-loading rifles of larger caliber in future ships. In the imaginative field, Lieutenant Theodorus Mason submitted a paper in which he envisaged the Navy of 1903, revitalized after a defeat by a European power in 1880, and containing a fleet of first class ironclads armed with 12-inch and 13-inch breech-loading rifles. There would be no American
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defeat in 1880, but there would be a substantial ^ of ironclads in 1903 armed with breech-loading r>^ in turrets, the battleships of the early 20th century- Early in 1874, an interesting report by Commode Foxhall Parker addressed the subject of tactics ^ signals. The writer analyzed the concentration of U-- fleets at Key West when war with Spain over d* Virginius affair was anticipated. Twelve seagoi^ steamers, several monitors, and some auxiliary ship5 were gathered in this largest concentration since ^ Civil War. The writer, formerly the Navy’s signal o$ cer, covers tactical formations and signals for this fk£l with recommendations for modifications to the Iw Signal Book of the future. A sidelight on this operati0® was the writer’s discussion of fleet speeds. Apparent in the Key West concentration, operations under steal® could never be conducted at a fleet speed of gre;|[l'
Yes, 1873 was essentially a routine year for the Navy, a Navy which did not in its capabilities justice to the size and stature of the nation it repff sented around the world. There would be many ®of£ routine years ahead, and the strength of the Na'l would decline further, even as the nation grew phf cally, industrially, and economically. A modernizatio®' rebuilding program would not begin for another t£® years, and then this program would be bitterly oppo5f as each successive Appropriation Act came before ^ Congress. However, there were incidents and events i® 1873 which were not routine for the Navy. Of all the5®' the one for which the year will be remembered a® should be remembered was the formation of the N®'1 Institute at Annapolis. In this event, many seeds t;1 a modern Navy of the future were implanted, and tl'" future must have looked anything but bright to th”f professionals who wore the Blue and Gold of °nJ hundred years ago. Today we use the terms "hardwatf and "software” freely. In 1873, only the former th®1 had meaning. Yet it was in the software field—tflt the founding of the United States Naval Institute-1^ the Navy of that year made its greatest advance.
A 1937 Naval Academy graduate. Rear Admiral Wadleigh served during World War II on board the Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier Yortlf,,‘ (CV-5) and several cruisers. His commands at sea included the John R. Pierce (DD-753), the USS Grand Canyon (AD-28), the USS field (CLG-7), Escort Squadron 16 and Cruiser Destroyer Flotillas Foth ' Twelve. When selected for flag rank he was Acting Director of t'" Communications and later became Director of Operations, Defense tY' munications System. At the time of his retirement in July 1971 t*c Commander, Training Command, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. At present he ^ ^ in Annapolis, Maryland, doing free lance writing, and working as a cons11 ant with Analytic Advisory Group, Inc., of McLean, Virginia.