United States Naval Observatory

“ This is the ancestor of today’s Pilot Chart.
The United States instigated an international conference in 1853 to interest other nations in a system of exchanging nautical information. The plan, which was Maury’s, was enthusiastically adopted by other maritime nations. In 1854 the Depot was redesignated the “U.S. Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office.” At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Maury, a native of Virginia, regretfully resigned from his lifelong career in the U. S. Navy and accepted a commission in the Confederate Navy because his family and kin lived in the South. ”

“ There are other observatories at Calcutta, Rhodesia, Feldkirch, Louvain, Oudenbosch (Holland) , Puebla (Mexico) , Havana, Woodstock and other Jesuit colleges in the United States; these are attracting notice principally by their seismographical reports. The most conspicuous of all these North American observatories is that of Georgetown which was founded in 1842-43, about the same time as the Naval Observatory. ”

“ In the meanwhile scientific work is distributed to different departments, and the Department of the Navy can conduct the Observatory, as is the case in Great Britain and France, as well as another department, even though the work of the Observatory and the Nautical Almanac are not exclusively, and perhaps not chiefly, of concern to the Navy. The stars—so long as they are not annexed—may logically belong to the department having to do with foreign affairs, but in this world logic is of less concern than making the best of existing circumstances. ”

“ Nothing effective can be done for the Navy once war has begun, and the result of the war, if the combatants are otherwise equally matched, will depend upon which power has prepared best in time of peace. The United States Navy is the best guaranty the Nation has that its honor and interest will not be neglected; and in addition it offers by far the best insurance for peace that can by human ingenuity be devised.
I call attention to the report of the official Board of Visitors to the Naval Academy at Annapolis which has been forwarded to the Congress. ”

“ The progress of the navy was so great in arranging for the home coast-defense aerial service that Secretary Daniels agreed to establish air coast-patrol stations in Europe, and it was not long before our naval aviators were rendering signal service both along the French and the British coasts. There is the understanding that the United States has already [Pg 233] taken the lead in naval aviation, not in quantity, to be sure, but in quality and efficiency, as to which the presence of foreign experts studying our new improvements may be regarded as confirmatory evidence. ”

“ The invention of the Monitor revolutionized naval warfare, and set European nations to building the ponderous iron-clad navies of the present day. The United States Government soon contracted for twenty single-turret monitors, and four double-turreted ones with fifteen-inch guns. ”

“ It is not the loss of a product of ships that is to be deplored, but the loss of a product of men.
The Old Method of Handling a Ship’s Bowsprit.
From an old engraving.
The building of the new navy actually began, one may say, when Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt appointed a board of naval officers, with Rear-admiral John Rodgers at its head, “to determine the requirements of a new navy.” These officers considered the matter jointly for a proper time, and then reported that the United States should have twenty-one battle-ships—ships fit to meet the best floating forts of the world ”

“ Offshore navigation may be needed if a team is inserted by going from a larger vessel to their small boat. This type of navigation is confirmed by experienced naval personnel on board the larger vessel. Conventional navigation methods are suitable for conducting boat operations inshore and along streams or in small lakes. During infiltration operations in large lakes and large rivers, supplementary navigation equipment may be required. This is especially true when operations are conducted at night or during other limited visibility. ”

“ To quote my American naval friend again, both navies have many things that are different—in ships, guns, engines, executive system, victualling—and each may feel a natural pride in its own things. There is undoubtedly much in each navy the other can profit by, but the United States Navy is bearing in mind that everything new the British Navy has to offer it has been tried and proved by long and hard experience, while all the new things it is able to offer the British Navy have only been put to peace-time tests. ”

“ These observatories proved to be very strong and serviceable. They remained in use for a number of years with occasional slight repairs, were transported many thousand miles and set up in a great number of places in Europe, Asia, North and South America. They were designed by Mr. J. A. Rogers, and constructed at the Washington Navy Yard. Upon arriving at a point where observations were to be made, after obtaining the necessary permits from the local authorities, a suitable location for the observatory was the first consideration. ”

“ It needs aircraft development, which is being provided under the five-year program. It needs submarines as soon as the department decides upon the best type of construction. It needs airplane carriers and a material addition to its force of cruisers. We can plan for the future and begin a moderate building program.
This country has put away the Old World policy of competitive armaments. It can never be relieved of the responsibility of adequate national defense. We have one treaty secured by an unprecedented attitude of generosity on our part for a limitation in naval armament. ”

“ When the American people in their national character understand any thing they never do it by halves. Their National Observatory is furnished with a most splendid set of instruments. There is but one observatory in the world superior to it in this respect. ”

“ The Navy of the United States is in a greater state of efficiency and is more powerful than it has ever been before, but in the emulation which exists between different countries in respect to the increase of naval and military armaments this condition is not a permanent one. In view of the many improvements and increases by foreign Governments the slightest halt on our part in respect to new construction throws us back and reduces us from a naval power of the first rank and places us among the nations of the second rank. ”

“ It is certainly true that a man-of-war, of whatever power, would be useless or worse than useless if her officers and men did not understand her wonderfully complicated construction nor know how to handle her. The officers of the United States navy are given this important instruction at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the rank and file of the men of the navy, those who fill the positions of seamen and petty officers, are trained at the station in Coaster's Island Harbor, near Newport, R.I., and in the training-ships when cruising. ”

“ Four years later the navy of the United States consisted of six hundred and seventy-one vessels. No nation of the world had such a naval power. The stern lessons of the great war had taught shipbuilders that wooden ships were a thing of the past. The little "Monitor" had by one afternoon's battle proved to all the sovereigns of Europe that their massive ships were useless. And all this had been done by a people grappling in deadly strife with an enemy in their very dwellings. The world's history contains no more wonderful story of energy and invention. ”

“ In every war there comes forward the inventor with the submarine boat, and he always finds a few brave men ready to risk their lives in the floating coffin. Somewhere in Charleston Harbor to-day lies a submarine boat, enclosing the skeletons of eight men, who went out in it to break the blockade of the port during the civil war. And although there are to-day several types of submarine boat, each of which is claimed to make practicable the navigation of the ocean's depths, yet (p. 134) it is doubtful whether any of them are much safer than Bushnell's primitive "turtle." ”

“ It is not the policy of the United States to maintain a large navy, but its reputation, honor, and prosperity require that such naval vessels as it possesses shall be the best which human ingenuity can devise and modern artificers construct. ”

“ The young nation was living literally up to Washington's rule of avoiding entanglements abroad, and its people looked with suspicion on the naval branch of the service which had rendered such a good account of itself in the war with Great Britain. They feared to build and man ships lest possession of a navy might prove an incentive to war. And so when war did come—war, not with Europe, but with our nearest neighbor—the United States had little floating force to join in it. ”

“ Attention is called to the first and very important report of the board of visitors to the Naval Observatory. I earnestly commend its recommendations to careful consideration. This board was created by act of Congress in March last. I believe its visitations will be found valuable in making the the best institutions of the land. It appears that no other observatory in the world has the expenditure of so much money, but also that its results are not commensurate with those of some other observatories the expenditures of which are less. ”

“ As a result of these conflicting reports, two American fleets were reduced to impotence. The "flying squadron" of fast cruisers under Commodore Schley was kept for weeks at moorings in Hampton Roads ready to be dispatched for protection of our northern coasts, while the squadron of battle-ships under Admiral Sampson was made to steam hither and yon in the Caribbean Sea looking for an enemy's fleet which much of the time lay snugly on the other side of the Atlantic. Accordingly, up to June 15, the results of naval operations in West Indian waters were almost nil. ”

“ But if we desire to build ships for present usefulness instead of naval reminders of the days that are past, we must have a Department organized for the work, supplied with all the talent and ingenuity our country affords, prepared to take advantage of the experience of other nations, systematized so that all effort shall unite and lead in one direction, and fully imbued with the conviction that war vessels, though new, are useless unless they combine all that the ingenuity of man has up to this day brought forth relating to their construction. ”

“ The upper deck was the main living quarters. There were several small rooms on each side of the corridor down the center; at the extreme nose was the control room, and at the extreme stern was the observatory. The observatory was equipped with a small but exceedingly powerful telectroscope, developed from those the Nigrans had left on one of the deserted planets Sol had captured in return for the loss of Pluto to the Black Star. The arc commanded by the instrument was not great, but it was easy to turn the ship about, and most of their observations could be made without trouble. ”

“ The establishment of a naval academy, furnishing the means of theoretic instruction to the youths who devote their lives to the service of their country upon the ocean, still solicits the sanction of the Legislature. Practical seamanship and the art of navigation may be acquired on the cruises of the squadrons which from time to time are dispatched to distant seas, but a competent knowledge even of the art of ship building, the higher mathematics, and astronomy ”

“ Public favour brings in its train material resources. It is represented by individual enterprise, and finds expression in an ample liberality. The first regular observatory in the Southern Hemisphere was founded at Paramatta by Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane in 1821. The Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope was completed in 1829. Similar establishments were set to work by the East India Company at Madras, Bombay, and St. Helena, during the first third of the nineteenth century. The organisation of astronomy in the United States of America was due to a strong wave of popular enthusiasm. ”

“ A naval force has been created on those interior waters, and under many disadvantages, within little more than two years, exceeding in numbers the whole naval force of the country at the commencement of the present Administration. Satisfactory and important as have been the performances of the heroic men of the Navy at this interesting period, they are scarcely more wonderful than the success of our mechanics and artisans in the production of war vessels, which has created a new form of naval power. ”

“ Secretary Herbert recommended in his report of 1893 that Congress authorize the construction of at least one new battle-ship and six torpedo-boats. He said that for the defence of ports the latter are more effective according to cost than any class of vessels. The knowledge of their existence alone will make an enemy chary about approaching within bombarding distance. ”

“ As this situation dawned upon men, their fears burst all bounds. Frantic excitement took possession of the throngs.
Only at the naval observatory in Washington was there calmness and restraint. The gathering of scientists spent the night in earnest deliberation of the course to be followed. ”

“ Biology in America has many needs, but not one that rises to the importance of a marine observatory. In that its highest interests now center, and I am sure that I only express the conviction of my scientific colleagues, both in this country and abroad, when I say that the establishment of such an observatory is an object worthy of the most splendid gift that private munificence has ever bestowed on any branch of science. It costs many millions nowadays to create a first-class university ”