The Visitors find the Naval Academy, subordinate to the direct supervision of the Department, under the immediate government of a Superintendent, Commodore George S. Blake, who is held responsible for its discipline and management. He is assisted as chief executive officer by the Commandant of Midshipmen, Commander Donald M. Fairfax, who resides in the Academy building on shore, and is also head of the department of Seamanship, Naval Gunnery, and Naval and Infantry Tactics. The Commandant is assisted in the different departments of his duty on ship and shore by three senior assistants and eleven assistants, nine of the latter being of the rank of lieutenant, and the remainder lieutenant-commanders. Two of the senior assistants have charge of the Practice-ships Marion and Macedonian, and also assist in instruction; six of the assistants are engaged in executive duty on board the School-ships Constitution and Santee, while the others, as well as these, are charged with certain branches of instruction in the department of which the Commandant is chief.
There are also attached to the Academic Staff one Professor of Astronomy, Navigation, and Surveying; two Professors of Mathematics, with six assistants in the same department; one Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, with two assistants; one Professor of Ethics and English Studies, with nine assistants; one Professor of the French language, with an assistant; one Professor of the Spanish language; one Professor of Drawing and Draughting, with an assistant; one Sword-master, with an assistant; and one Librarian, who acts also as assistant in Mathematics, and Ethics and English studies. The officers not attached to the Academic Staff include a Paymaster, a Surgeon, with two assistants, a Chaplain, (with three, who are engaged as instructors,) a Commissary, Storekeeper, Secretary, Treasurer, and clerks to the Superintendent and Commandant.
The Academic Board is composed of the Superintendent, the officers in charge of the Practice and School-ships, and the professors, except that the professors of French, Spanish, and Drawing take part only upon matters pertaining to their own departments. The Board is required to conduct and regulate all examinations of candidates and students, preparing the necessary papers and reports in connection therewith, to prescribe the order and times of instruction, to recommend text-books for the approval of the Naval Department, and books, instruments, and other necessary material for instruction, to recommend at pleasure the restoration or farther trial of students that have been dismissed or found deficient in scholarship, to grant certificates of graduation, and to report from time to time, on the system of studies and instruction pursued, and propose such improvements as experience may suggest.
Buildings and Material Equipment.
The material arrangements for the accommodation of the Academy, for the lodging, subsistence, and comfort of the pupils in health and sickness, and for study and instruction, both scientific and professional, although made on a sudden emergency, for temporary occupancy, and for a smaller number, are far from being insufficient in extent, or particularly objectionable, when compared with similar arrangements for other great schools. The main building on shore is of wood, originally intended to lodge and board a large number of guests, and as adapted to the uses of the Academy, accommodates about half of the classes as well as most boarding schools provide for their pupils. The arrangements are not as convenient or as safe from fire as those at Annapolis; but they are too good to be complained of, even if they do require a strict observance of regulations, or special organization and diligence to protect from fire, which would carry mourning into many homes. Good discipline and good recitations, and a large amount of military and naval knowledge are secured under the difficulties such as they are, which the Department, be they great or small, will, doubtless, remove at the earliest possible moment. In any permanent or temporary arrangement, on ship or shore, while the privacy and comfort of separate lodgings for pupils should as far as practicable be secured, the Visitors recommend that convenient halls be provided, properly ventilated, warmed and lighted, and supplied with the best dictionaries, encyclopedias, and naval histories and biographies—to be occupied for study at certain hours by such pupils as have not acquired the power of concentrating attention, and the habit of solitary study—a power and habit of the highest importance, but very rarely attained. The same rooms might be open to the pupils at certain hours every day for the purpose of reading naval histories and biographies, and for consulting the encyclopedias and other books of reference. The formation of right habits of study and the habit and mode of reading such books to the best advantage should be made a matter of special and frequent inculcation by the head of each department of study.
The lack of suitable buildings for lodging, subsistence, and study, for a portion of the pupils, is supplied by an extension of the School-ship System, first inaugurated on board of the “Plymouth,” at Annapolis, in 1849, in our system, although always the main feature in the French system of naval education. The old “Constitution” and the “Santee,” properly moored in the harbor of Newport and adapted, are used for the residence and study of the younger classes, which are in this way brought more readily into the daily routine of the school and the service without the vulgar annoyances, to which the youngest classes are almost universally subjected, when lodged in the immediate neighborhood of the next older class. If School-ships are to constitute a permanent, integral feature of the Academy, the details of arrangements for separate lodging and class study require additional attention. For the present, recitations are attended in suitable buildings on Goat Island, near which the ships are moored and reached by covered passages. On this island is sufficient room for all sorts of athletic sports, military drill, and target practice.
The “Macedonian” and “Marion” are used for practice in the evolution of guns and other naval tactics by the several classes. To these are added, at least for the purposes of the summer cruise, the screw steamer “Marblehead” and the yacht “America.”
Number of Pupils—Entrance Examination.
The number of pupils belonging to the Naval Academy in the year closing June, 1864, was 458, distributed into four classes, generally according to the period of their connection with the institution, with a staff of 57 officers and instructors. This is an astonishing development of the Academy in respect to pupils, as well as in the number of the teaching staff, and equipment for professional training, since Oct. 10th, 1845, when the Academy found a location at Fort Severn in Annapolis, or since January 1st, 1846, when it was reported to have 36 midshipmen and six professors and instructors, including the Superintendent. To judge of the progressive development of the institution, and of the results of the annual examination which they were appointed to witness, the Visitors deemed it necessary to ascertain the average condition of each class as to age and attainments, at the time of becoming connected with the Academy, and with the general results of the entrance examination—this examination being the only check on the admission of unqualified candidates—no previous examination being held in the districts or States from which they come.
By law and regulations governing the admission of candidates into the Academy, the maximum number of pupils is limited to 526, viz., two for every Congressional district or territory, appointed on the nomination of the member or delegate, from actual residents of the district, if such nomination is made to fill a vacancy duly notified, prior to the first day of July in any year, and if not so made, by the Secretary of the Navy; and twenty-five more appointed by the President, two for and from the District of Columbia, ten from the country at large, ten from the sons of officers of the army and navy, and three from the enlisted boys of the navy. All candidates who receive notice of their provisional appointment must present themselves to the Superintendent for examination between the 20th and 31st of July, or September in case of second appointments. The examination is twofold; first, before a medical board, consisting of the surgeon resident and two other medical officers designated by the Department; and second, before the Academic Board. The candidate must be found, according to the law of 1864, to be between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years—of good moral character—physically sound, well formed, and of robust constitution—and pass a satisfactory examination in reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography and English grammar.