p46  From Knowledge, Seapower

The unprecedented growth of the U. S. Navy in ships and personnel during the present war has involved a tremendous program of training. Vessels and aircraft of many types have been added by the thousands to a fleet that has become the largest and most powerful naval force in the world's history.

One of the greatest problems has been to produce sufficient numbers of young, seagoing officers to meet the rapid schedule of expansion that has enabled the Navy to maintain the timetable of its grand strategy against our enemies in both the Atlantic and Pacific. The full resources of the Naval Academy have been geared to this program of training to supply both regular and reserve officers to the naval service.

The increased demands upon the facilities of the Academy have been met with a measure of efficiency and competence that reflects the experience gained in a century of progress in naval education at Annapolis. Outwardly, there is little evidence of the greatly increased tempo of work and study. But within the imposing buildings of the Academy the wheels of organization are turning with powerful momentum like the turbine of a great battle­ship.

The regular course at the Academy — usually covering four years, with a summer cruise of three months each year — has been  p47 condensed to three years. The annual summer cruise for the upper classes has been eliminated although local cruises are taken in small craft. This has enabled the Academy to enter additional numbers of midshipmen in the regular course; thus ensuring that larger numbers of graduates will join the fleet in less time than formerly. There are 1,086 midshipmen in the centennial class that will be graduated in June 1945.

The Academy also houses one of the six Naval Reserve Midshipmen's Schools which, since their establishment in 1940, have sent nearly 42,000 deck and engineering officers into service with commissions in the Naval Reserve. The Reserve Midshipmen's School at Annapolis graduated its eleventh group, totaling 243, in April, 1945. It has produced, in all, more than 3,500 reserve officers.

In addition, the Postgraduate School of the Naval Academy is training both regular and reserve officers in advanced subjects. In the centennial year of the Academy this school has approximately 500 students, about half of whom are reserve officers.

In order to do its full part in the great training program, the Naval Academy has enlarged its facilities since the beginning of the war. Two new wings have been added to Bancroft Hall, the large midshipmen's dormitory. A new classroom building, War Hall, named in honor of the first Commandant of Midshipmen, has been erected. •About thirty acres of land have been added to the grounds by purchase, or by reclamation from the Severn River.

The appearance of the Naval Academy today is the result of an extensive rebuilding program that was undertaken at the turn of the century. This involved a complete rearrangement of the grounds and the construction of buildings which, by 1910, represented an investment of $10,000,000. Additions and improvements to the establishment since then have brought the government's investment in the institution to a total of about $29,000,000.

 p48  The Naval Academy now covers •nearly 2,000 acres, including the Naval Hospital, cemetery, reflect range, golf course, and athletic fields. The Academy also owns a dairy farm of •865 acres at Gambrills, Maryland, •about 13 miles from Annapolis.

The new arrangement of the Academy, prepared in 1899 by Ernest Flagg of New York, established the Chapel as the center of a symmetrical plan which provided sites for living quarters for midshipmen, drill fields, ship basins, and accommodations for academic, scientific, and professional departments. The Academy's lib of some 106,000 volumes is housed in Mahan Hall, named in honor of the great naval historian, Alfred Thayer Mahan. It is the center of what is known as the "academic group." Mahan Hall also contains an auditorium where midshipmen attend lectures and entertainments. Its corridors and rooms hold an important collection of flags of great historical value as well as portraits of the superintendents of the Academy, memorial tablets, busts of naval heroes, and other objects of interest.

Two wings on either side of Mahan Hall complete the academic group. One of these, Maury Hall, was named for the great oceanographer, Matthew Fontaine Maury. It houses the Departments of Mathematics, English, History, and Government. The other is Sampson Hall, named in honor of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, one of the leading figures in the Spanish-American War. Sampson Hall is devoted to chemistry, physics, and electricity, including radio.

In Isherwood, Melville, and Griffin Hallsist Department of Marine Engineering. Griffin Hall also houses the Department of Electrical Engineering. These buildings are named for engineers-in‑chief of the Navy during the Civil, Spanish, and World Wars.

The Department of Ordnance and Gunnery is in Dahlgren Hall, named in honor of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, pioneer in the development of large caliber naval guns. This building, also  p49 used as an armory, is the scene of regimental dances and the annual graduation exercises.

Bancroft Hall, named for former Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, has four floors that cover •some forty acres. It contains everything necessary to meet the essential living requirements of the midshipmen, including kitchens, recreational hall, and medical and dental facilities.

The name of Commodore Thomas Macdonough, who commanded our victorious naval forces on Lake Champlain in 1814, has been given to the building that houses the Department of Physical Training. Here midshipmen who will later command our Navy's ships undergo the program of hard conditioning that fits them physically for their future careers as naval officers. Macdonough Hall contains a large gymnasium drill floor, two swimming pools, squash and handball courts, and facilities for wrestling, boxing, and fencing.

Ample facilities are also provided for outdoor athletics. Football and track events are staged at Thompson Stadium, which will accommodate 18,000 spectators. Baseball, lacrosse, and soccer are played at Lawrence Field, which seats 7,700. There are numerous tennis courts and, across the Severn, a golf course.

The Department of Seamanship and Navigation and the Department of Foreign Languages housed in Luce Hall, which was named for Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce, author of a celebrated textbook on "Seamanship," who was one of the early graduates of the old naval school. From classroom work in Luce Hall midshipmen go out in various types of small boats, patrol boats, and airplanes to pursue the practical side of their study of seaman­ship and navigation. During their summer cruises in peacetime, they continue these studies aboard large vessels of the Navy.

In the basement of the beautiful Chapel, far below its •200‑foot dome, is the crypt that contains the body of John Paul Jones. The  p50 remains of the great Revolutionary War hero were brought to the United States in 1905 from France, where they had rested in an unknown burial place for more than a hundred years. Now they are interred in an inspiring and impressive sarcophagus of black and white marble surrounded by eight monolithic columns. Inscribed in a circle in the marble floor are the names of the seven ships commanded by Jones during the Revolution. They were the Serapis, Alliance, Alfred, Bonhomme Richard, Ariel, Providence, and Ranger. In the floor in front of the sarcophagus is an inscription which reads: "John Paul Jones, 1747‑1792; U. S. Navy, 1775‑1783. He gave our navy its earliest traditions of heroism and victory. Erected by the Congress, A.D. 1912."

One of the most interesting buildings in the yard of the Academy is the Museum, which contains famous ship models and articles of historic interest from the Revolutionary period to the present. Familiar to every visitor to Annapolis is the bronze replica of the figurehead of the Delaware, which was scuttled at the Norfolk Navy Yard during the Civil War. The original figurehead, salvaged from the wreck after the war, was sent to the Naval Academy. After 60 years of exposure to the weather it began to disintegrate. The Class of 1891 presented the present bronze replica to the Academy in 1930. It is the figure of an Indian, Tamenend, who was chief of the Delaware Indians. Midshipmen call it Tecumseh, and refer to it as the "God of 2.5." Tecumseh received his nickname as a result of the tradition established some years ago among midshipmen of saluting him on the way to class in the hope of scoring at least a passing mark of 2.5 out of a possible perfect mark of 4.

The educational policy of the Naval Academy is similar to that of engineering colleges which stress the fundamentals in the sciences. To achieve this the Academy devotes 22 per cent of its curriculum to professional subjects; 50 per cent to mathematics and the sciences — pure and applied; and 28 per cent to so‑called  p51 cultural studies. There are eight academic departments: Seamanship and Navigation; Ordnance and Gunnery; Marine Engineering; Mathematics; Electrical Engineering; English, History, and Government; Foreign Languages; and Hygiene. For graduation a midshipman must build up a total of approximately 119 semester hours of credit for recitations. Additional time must be devoted to delators and practical instruction.

The body of midshipmen at the Academy is organized as a brigade, which consists of two regiments made up of three battalions of four companies each. Midshipmen of the First Class, or senior class, act as officers of the brigade, although each battalion and company is supervised by a commissioned officer of the Navy. The strict rules pertaining to the daily routine of life at the Academy are rigidly enforced for the purpose of developing in each midshipman the highest possible standards of uprightness, truth, honor, loyalty, and patriotism.

A midshipman's day from reveille at 6:15 A.M. to "lights out" at 10 P.M. is completely filled with class recitations, laboratory work, physical conditioning, and study. Only a brief period each day is allowed for pure relaxation. On week ends ample time is available to make trips or receive guests at the Academy.

After a 30‑minute breakfast, midshipmen make up their own beds and sweep and dust their rooms in preparation for inspection. With the exception of a period of an hour and twenty minutes at midday for lunch and recreation, their time is taken up with classes until 4:35 o'clock in the afternoon. From then until the 6:45 muster for inspection and dinner they are allowed to follow their festivity extracurricular activities such as athletics or sailing. The period from 7:50 to 9:45 in the evening is reserved for study in their rooms. The notes of the bugle sounding taps come at 10 P.M.

On Sunday all midshipmen are required to attend some form  p52 of divine worship, either in the Chapel or at a church of their own choice in town.

The pay of a midshipman is $65 a month. Out of this he must pay for his uniforms, his textbooks and equipment, toilet articles and other personal things, and extracurricular activities which furnish him recreation. He must also lay aside enough money to provide himself with a complete wardrobe of officer's uniforms and equipment upon graduation. The balance of his pay he may spend on his annual summer leave.

In addition to his pay of $780 a year a midshipman is credited with 85 cents a day as a ration allowance for his food. On entering the Academy he must deposit $100 as the first payment on a total of $350, which represents the cost of his first outfit of clothing, books, etc. The balance of $250 is deducted in installments from his monthly salary of $65.

On graduation from the Academy a midshipman is commissioned as a probationary ensign in the Line of the United States Navy. As such he receives pay and allowances of $2,052 per year. After seven years of satisfactory service he may be given a permanent commission as ensign. A certain number of Naval Academy graduates are commissioned as second lieutenants in the Marine Corps.

Since it is in the best interests of the service that every officer be able to perform equally well the duties required of his rank, the Naval Academy emphasizes uniformity of preparation for command. Therefore, it is interested neither in giving special attention to the development of students of exceptional promise nor in carrying along those who cannot keep up to standard. It admits and retains only those young men who can maintain a standing deemed essential to a successful career in the naval service.

The United States Naval Academy observes its centennial in one on the morning of crucial periods in the history of the nation it serves. The dark clouds of war were rapidly gathering over the young  p53 republic when the institution at Annapolis was founded a hundred years ago and its roots planted firmly in "traditions of heroism and victory." Its sons who have served and fought since then have themselves become merged with those traditions. Those of the second hundred years — some midshipmen now, some yet unborn — will honor those traditions in peace or war, in the service of the greatest seapower on earth.

"Ex Scientia Tridens."

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