How an Asylum and a Mutiny Brought About the Naval Academy

Midshipmen gather at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. U.S. Navy

When President John Quincy Adams stood before Congress on Dec. 6, 1825, to deliver his first annual message (now known as the State of the Union Address), he reiterated a point of contention between Congress and America’s Navy. “The want of a naval school of instruction, corresponding with the Military Academy at West Point, for the formation of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with daily increasing aggravation,” he firmly stated.

The history of the United States Navy up to that time was brief, but nonetheless storied. It had begun as the Continental Navy during the American Revolution, and was dissolved by Congress in 1785 two years after signing The Treaty of Paris. The Navy was resurrected in 1794 after President George Washington agitated for it due to the problem of pirates in the Caribbean and along the African coast. The Navy would swell under the administrations of John Adams with the Quasi-War with France, Thomas Jefferson with the Barbary Wars, and James Madison with the War of 1812.

A young midshipman of the United States Navy, circa 1868. Public Domain

From these conflicts arose the beginnings of the U.S. Navy’s illustrious and daring history. During that two-decade period, the chain of command was understood, discipline was stern but fair, and morale among sailors and officers was high.

Sailors graduated from midshipmen to officers by way of experience. It was, for lack of a better term, on-the-job training. Young boys, often seen above and belowdecks, were midshipmen, learning the ways of the ship, being taught by veteran sailors, and fighting their way—literally and figuratively—toward promotion.

Slowly, but surely, this method began to run aground. It was a problem that had reached the attention of the pinnacle of American power.

Look to the Chaplains

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point was established by Congress in 1802. Naval education, however, would remain hodgepodge at best.

On Jan. 25, 1802, less than two months before the West Point legislation passed, President Thomas Jefferson published his “Naval regulations issued by the command of the President of the United States of America,” which, among other things, defined naval duties from midshipmen to officers. Since the U.S. Navy didn’t receive a school like that of the U.S. Army, Jefferson attempted to supplement this shortcoming by virtue of chaplains. Jefferson required that chaplains “perform the duty of a school-master; and to that end he shall instruct the midshipmen and volunteers, in writing, arithmetic and navigation, and in whatsoever may contribute to render them proficient.”

A chaplain, although typically well educated, hardly seemed the right choice for a maritime professor. Several chaplains started naval schools in Washington, New York City, Boston, and Norfolk, but this chaplain-based education fell short for various reasons: Midshipmen were not required to attend classes, schedules between schooling and duties often conflicted; there lacked a standard curriculum; and there were nary enough chaplains to play the role of “school-master.”

Sharing the Asylum

In 1833, the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia was built “to provide an honorable and comfortable home … for old, disabled, and decrepit officers and men of the Navy and Marine Corps.” Due to the extensive need for properly trained sailors, it soon doubled as a naval school to prepare midshipmen for their examinations. When the first class of approximately a dozen midshipmen arrived, it was noted that the rooms provided were “damp, cold, cheerless, and unhealthy.”

The main building of the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia. Public Domain

According to Rear Adm. Samuel Franklin, this was an improvement compared to his onboard lodgings as a midshipmen, recalling “Our mess-room, which was our bedroom also, was about large enough fairly to accommodate two people, yet twelve of us were huddled together in this apartment like so many pigs in a pen.”

When it came to his traditional naval education, Franklin admitted in his memoirs that “the whole system of Naval education in those days was rough and crude.”

Rough and crude, however, had been the accepted method for decades in the Navy. Young boys and teenagers, just as Franklin had been, were typically the pupils of this type of education. It was not always the harsh traditional curriculum that was the problem, but often the pupils themselves. These young men often came without recommendation or proper evaluation.

A Mutinous Turning Point

The problem of these kinds of seaman was never more publicly displayed than in 1842 aboard the brig, USS Somers. Philip Spencer, a 19-year-old delinquent and son of Secretary of War John Spencer, had been serving as a midshipman for several months before joining the recently commissioned Somers in August 1842. Three months later, Spencer, along with two others, began plotting a mutiny. They had conspired with 20 other crew members to murder the officers and become pirates. Their conspiracy was leaked, the three sailors were arrested and clapped in irons.

The spirit of insubordination was now permeating through the lower ranks. The longer Spencer and his two co-conspirators remained on board, the more susceptible the ship was to mutiny. Cmdr. Alexander MacKenzie asked his officers to deliberate on the best course of action. The next day the officers replied, “We are convinced that in the existing state of things it will be impossible to carry the prisoners to the United States. We think the safety, our lives and honor to the flag entrusted to our charge, requires that the prisoners be put to death, as the course best calculated to make a salutary impression upon the rest of the crew.”

The three were hanged and buried at sea that same day, Dec. 1, 1842. A Naval General Court Martial was held from Feb. 1 to April 1, 1843, which acquitted MacKenzie of any wrongdoing. The Somers Affair, of which it would become known, created ripples throughout the Navy, Congress, and the general public. The need for a naval version of West Point became more pronounced.

The Right Secretary

In 1844, Commodore Charles Stewart, who oversaw the investigation into the Somers Affair, issued a report to the secretary of the Navy recommending the establishment of a naval school that focused on international law, linguistics, mathematics, and the latest method of power: the steam engine. Luckily, the school at the Naval Asylum had been a success, especially once the mathematician William Chauvenet, took over. The need was evident, the students were eager, and the professors were ready, including English professor, Chaplain George Jones. A proper location and Congressional funding were different matters.

When James K. Polk became president in 1845, he appointed the historian George Bancroft as his secretary of the Navy. Bancroft only served in this position for 18 months, but he knew precisely what he wished to accomplish.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft. Public Domain

Bancroft and Chauvenet discussed the curriculum plan that Chauvenet had formulated. The course required two-year course for midshipmen who already had four years at sea. This met some opposition and compromises needed to be made: Upon review by the Navy’s board of examiners, a two-year course at a naval school, followed by three years of service at sea, with the final year aboard the school’s practice ship, were required before a midshipman could take his promotion exam. By 1850, the Naval School was reorganized into a four-year academic program with summer training cruises.

Furthermore, a location was secured, without requiring Congressional appropriation, which could have created political opposition. Bancroft believed the location needed to be away from the temptations of a large city, therefore Philadelphia was out of the question. In June, he identified Annapolis, Maryland, where Fort Severn was located, as the perfect spot. Fort Severn, stationed along the Chesapeake Bay, was built on 10 acres in 1808 as a deterrent to invading armies.

Preparing the Academy

While Bancroft coordinated with Secretary of War William Marcy to transfer the fort to the Navy, he sent Henry Lockwood, one of the professors at the Naval Asylum School, to study the organization and curriculum of West Point. On Aug. 15, 1845, with presidential approval, the Department of War officially transferred Fort Severn over to the U.S. Navy.

U.S. Naval Academy waterfront at Annapolis, Md., in the late 1860s. Public Domain

When Lockwood returned with his report, it was agreed that the new naval school should follow in the footsteps of West Point regarding curriculum and application standards for becoming an acting midshipman. Applicants had to be between 13 and 16, in good health, with no deformities, capable of reading and writing, as well as being familiar with math and geography. Seemingly in direct reference to the Somers Affair, it was also required that “Every applicant for admission to the school must be of good moral character.”

It was during this week in history, on Oct. 10, 1845, that the Naval School at Annapolis—without Congressional funding—opened its doors to its first class of students. In 1850, the school’s name was officially changed to the United States Naval Academy. The first class in 1845 was composed of 50 midshipmen. The Academy now boasts more than 4,000 students each year. Additionally, the 10-acre location has expanded to 338 acres.

As for the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia, its name was changed in 1889 to the Naval Home. Witnessing extensive growth itself, the location was moved to Gulfport, Mississippi, in 1976, and is now called the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

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