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 Fort Norfolk Naval Academy

Fort Norfolk History - 1845

On February 10, 1845 Senator Richard Henry Bayard from Delaware submitted a report and an accompany bill S. 76. He was part of the Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred Senate bill No. 76, providing for the establishment of a naval school, submitted a report.

The bill proposed the establishment of a naval school, and also purposed to employ a ship of the United States, in connexion with Fort Norfolk, on Elizabeth river, in the State of Virginia. The object was not to form an expensive establishment in any respect resembling the mili­tary academy at West Point, but merely to employ the existing means of instruction belonging to the service in a more effectual manner, and in some measure to insure, on the part of those who are admitted into the navy, the desired attributes of physical and intellectual strength and of moral worth. They believed that if the plan had been adopted, the annual charge upon the naval establishment for the instruction of midshipmen would have been sufficient for the support of the school, while the advantage gained in point of instruction would have been, in the opinion of the committee, been very great.

The bill proposed to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to select, at stated periods of eighteen months, sixty individuals from the applicants, who shall form the class of candidates for admission info the navy. The individuals selected were hot to be less than thirteen nor more than fifteen year of age. If found to be possessed of the requisite qualifications, they would then to be admitted into the naval school. At this school they are to be instructed in suitable studies for the period of eighteen months, and at the end of that time are to be examined by a board, composed of the professors of the school and of competent officers appointed by the Secretary, and classed according to their perspective merit. As yet, they would only candidates for admission into the navy and from this class, thus instructed, in the order of their merit, to appoint the number of midshipmen necessary to supply the wants of the service. After the appointment of the requisite number of midshipmen, there would be no further occasion for the services of the rest of the class, and they would merely retire from the school, to pursue such vocations in life as their parents or guardians may indicate, having derived the benefit of instruction for eighteen months, in branches of knowledge which may be useful to them throng life. Immediately after receiving his warrant, the young midshipman would be sent to sea, employed in active duty for the period of three years. On his arrival in the United States, he would return to the naval school, and prosecute his studies for another period of eighteen months ; at the expiration of which, he would undergo an examination, when if found qualified, he would rank as a passed midshipman, and may, when occasion offered, be promoted to the rank of a commissioned officer.

The proposed organization of the school, its course of instruction, and the expense of the establishment.

For its organization, it would require the following officers,:

Captain or commander, as superintendent.

Commander or lieutenant, as instructor in naval tactics, seamanship, gunnery, &c.

Lieutenants-two or three lieutenants, as assistants to the instructor in naval tactics, seamanship, gunnery, &c.

Boatswain for the school ship, who will instruct in the use and conversion of ropes, rigging, and in the sailor's art.

Gunner for the school ship, to instruct in the equipment of guns and fitting all things necessary to the gunner's department on board ship.

Carpenter for the school ship, to instruct in the repair of masts, yards, rudders, and to construct models for illustration.

For the civil establishment of the school­
Two professors of mathematics.
A teacher of French.
A teacher of Spanish.
A teacher of drawing.
A professor of engineering or general knowledge, and four assistants.

The course of instruction would embrace, in the first eighteen months, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, surveying and navigation, nautical astronomy, analytical geometry, with the collateral studies of the French and Spanish languages, drawing, grammar, geography, and history, and an initiation to seamanship.

The course of instruction for the last eighteen months, after three years sea service, and preparatory to examination for promotion, would embrace the following studies: Descriptive geometry, differential and integral calculus, mechanics, the theory and application of steam power, hydrography, optics, electricity and magnetism, astronomy, gunnery, and pyrotechny, naval architecture, naval tactics, with the application of the principles of mechanical philosophy to the various operations of seamanship, moral science, international and military law.

W. P. S. Sanger, the same engineer who produced the 1844 rendering of Fort Norfolk, drew up a plan for the academy(see above).  Sanger's drawing indicates that the facility was designed to accommodate 400 students along with a commandant and a faculty of eight naval officers.  Six new buildings were to be constructed along with a new wharf and boat shed.  The fact that Sanger superimposed the proposed academy buildings on the existing earthworks indicates the Navy’s intent to demolish a part of the fort and its existing buildings.

The proposed bill did not become Law, and the proposal never passed the planning stage.

Through the efforts of the Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, the Naval School was established without Congressional funding, at a 10-acre Army post named Fort Severn in Annapolis, Maryland, on October 10, 1845, with a class of 50 midshipmen and seven professors. The curriculum included mathematics and navigation, gunnery and steam, chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French.

In 1850 the Naval School became the United States Naval Academy. A new curriculum went into effect requiring midshipmen to study at the Academy for four years and to train aboard ships each summer. That format is the basis of a far more advanced and sophisticated curriculum at the Naval Academy today. As the U.S. Navy grew over the years, the Academy expanded. The campus of 10 acres increased to 338. The original student body of 50 midshipmen grew to a brigade size of 4,000. Modern granite buildings replaced the old wooden structures of Fort Severn.

In 1845, the Navy returned Fort Norfolk to the War Department.   

 

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Source of Information

W. P. S. Sanger, "Plan of Fort Norfolk, March 1844", National Archives, College Park, MD - Cartographic (RDSC), Record Group 71: Records of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, 1784 - 1963, Series: Bureau of Yards and Docks Plans of Navy Facilities, 1815 - 1966, 557-3-2.

College Of WILLIAM & MARY, "A CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN OF FORT NORFOLK, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA", November 1995, prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District under Contract No. DACW65-94-Q-0075, 23.

Richard Henry Bayard, "Report to accompany Senate bill No. 76, providing for the establishment of a naval school", Febraury 10,1845, 1 - 6

"A BRIEF HISTORY OF USNA", https://www.usna.edu/USNAHistory/ , as of April 22, 2020

OQMG Wilkinson to Bancroft, December 13, 1845.