•JjniiininHl -1 |IUI IIUI> ""1- - hnitnu-p ^1^ Q H B H ffl H Q p H 9 1 u u HHH 1 1 1 1 • A|il|ft f M| III i • i • • llliiiiliiiii 11 • 1 • B n B B H t9 B w eiRiiiifliiiBi ^ ,-^'1 NAVAL ACADEMY CHINAWARE BY WEDGWOOD Service Plates — Cups and Saucers — Bread and Butter Plates IN STAFFORDSHIRE BLUE ROSE PINK MULBERRY THE CENTER VIEWS OF NAVAL ACADEMY PLATES 1. The Chapel 7 Birdseye View of the Naval Academy- 1858 2. Old Main Gate—1869-1932 8 Mahan Hall 3. Old Forr Severn—1851 „ Dahlgren Hall 4. Old Midshipmen Quarrers—1868-1905 ^Q Airplane View from East 5. Naval Academy Hop—1869 H Postgrad uare School 6. Dress Parade 12 Sailboat Drill PRICES Service Plates Per dozen $14.00 Per half dozen 7.50 Per single 1-25 (Orders are shipped from Bosron, shipping charges collect) The profit from the sale of this chinaware goes to the Naval Academy Auxiliary of the Navy Relief Society. In purchasing you are not only olataining something of real value for yourself, but you are also contributing to a very worthy cause. Send orders to: Naval Academy Plates, U. S. S. Reina Mercedes, Annapolis, Md. SHIPMATE The Publication of the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association VOL. I DECEMBER, 1 938 No. 6 The First Annual Meeting The first annual meeting of the sentiment that must be common to all body. Both must be healthy, developed U.SJSr.A. Graduates Association, out of men; from one of the attributes with and well trained, and the work of one which the present Alumni Association which everything human is endowed; mother must be supplemented by that of was destined to grow, was held a little and, passing this in review, I select as the the other before the elements can be so more than 52 years ago, June 11th, 1886, instinctive compelling agent the love of fitly combined as to produce that type of for the expressed purpose of forming an home. well-balanced manhood, thfe "mens sana Altunni Association. Captain A. P. We carry with us through life the in corpore sano." Cooke, '56, presided. Lieutenant Charles home of our childhood as rhe dearest This idea is embodied in the word Belnap, '67, was chosen to act as Secre­ memory of our hearts, which are ever "alumni," which is our title as graduates. rary. The Senior living graduate, who filled with gratitude for the tender care The definition of the word implies the became the first President of the Associ­ that we recall. It was there we looked nourishment of the pupil, and is a con­ ation, was Rear Admiral Edward Simp­ for nourishment for our body; it was stant reminder of the debt of gratitude we son who srood 8 in the first class to grad­ there we received our first rules for guid­ owe our Academy for that aliment which uate from the Naval Academy, the class ance for our aaions; it was our haven to nourished our inrellects and fed our of 1846. which we were happy to return from our minds. Unforeseen circumstances prevented daily wanderings, feeling that, though interested and amused elsewhere, it was With such thoughts as these as the root Admiral Simpson from attending that of our action, it is eminently proper that meeting but he did send his address to pleasant to go back to a place of which we formed a part, with which we were we should form an association in which Lieutenant Belnap who read his address identified. It was at this home that our they may be fostered, keeping green the to rhe assembled gathering. That ad­ bodies were fed and our affections nour­ memory of our obligation and inciting dress is reprinted here: ished; lessons in self-control were taught us to repay it; while, at the same time, "Brother Graduates: It has been sug­ and generous impulses fostered. It was unconstrained reunions will promore so­ gested that an association should be here that we were physically developed, cial intercourse and the fraternal senti­ formed of rhe graduates of the Naval and were imbued with those moral prin­ ment that should exist in the members Academy. We are assembled in accord­ ciples which were to form the base on of this one family, having a common ance with a call issued for the purpose of which our character was to be built. mother. As the senior graduate I bid you carrying this suggestion into effect, and, all welcome, and it is with a feeling of In close sympathy with this sentiment as the senior living graduate, it has de­ intense earnestness that I say I rejoice to —a reproduction of it—is the love and volved upon m.e to preside at this meet­ see this day. The act we are about to reverence that a graduate of an institu­ ing. perform will put the capstone on the tion of learning has for it—^his ALMA monument we have all helped to rear, The formation of an association such MATER—his fostering mother—that will show our devorion to it, and prove as we now propose seems to be a natural mother who took his intellect into train­ our interest in its future welfare. consequence to the establishment and ing, aided his feeble efforts as he essayed development of our institution of learn­ to mount the first steps of the ladder of The establishment of the Naval ing. We are but following a custom learning, prepared his mind to reason, Academy is due to the Honorable Geo. which obtains in the case of graduates of and then stored it with the heavier Bancroft, whose name is always grate­ all colleges of distinction. The object is weights of knowledge, until, her work fully associated with it by graduates. Mr. to promote kindly feeling and social in­ being completed, the educated man, Bancroft was a scholar and statesman. tercourse among the members, and to fitted for his profession, is sent forth His scholarly habits disclosed to him the foster the memories of the Akna Mater. equipped for his struggle for eminence. necessity of education, and his statesman­ It seems to me that the universality of She has done for the mind what the ship enabled him to recognize the benefit this practice shows that it springs from a mother in the flesh has done for the that would accrue to the country from the possession ot a Navy officered by from rhe same point of the river. The pretty poetical and musical talent, wrore men whose ideas and capacity could keep Superintendent and the professors were and sung his own songs, and filled the pace with progress. accommodated in the old officers' quar­ "role" of marine officer to perfection. He He saw that the training given to mid­ ters; the soldiers' quarters were assigned was a Rhode Island man. shipmen at the time to which I refer was to the midshipmen students. In the neighborhood of the site where not such as was calculated to keep the Extending from a point near the for many years the bandmen's quarters Navy in line with other professions, and, quarters of the Superintendent to a point were located there was a two-storied as a conscientious officer of the Govern­ about equally distant from where the building affording quarters to a certain ment, he set himself to remedy the de­ recitation-hall now stands, there was a number. This house was known as the fect. In 1845, being the Secretary of the building, two stories high, divided into "Gas House," from the rather inflated Navy, he decided to establish a Naval large barracks. The lower srory consisted tendency of one of its occupants, now School. No act of Congress was neces­ of two large rooms, divided by the hall dead and gone. through the center of the building. The sary. The power was in his hands, and The - last - to - be - mentioned building second stories were divided into two and he exercised it. Fort Severn had ceased which served to provide shelter for mid­ three divisions each. The lower floor of ro be of value as an Army post, and it shipmen during my year of student-life at one barrack was our mess-room; the was readily transferred by the War De- the school was situated half-way of the lower floor of the other was the kitchen. parrment, and in October, 1845, the wall leading from the gate to the river. It The rooms on rhe second floor were the Naval School was established under the was a modest edifice, consisting of two reciration-rooms. Along the site of what superintendency of Commander Franklin rooms, wirh a dividing passage; the back is now the old quarters for cadets, there Buchanan, to whose executive ability is rested against the wall bounding the Gov­ was located a long wooden building with due the success that so promprly crowned ernment terrirory. From irs isolated posi­ a peaked roof, one srory high, divided in­ this effort. The other officers were well tion, and in keeping, it was supposed, ro four rooms. Each room was provided selected, the list including Lieutenant with the pious characrer of its occupants, wirh a window and door on each side. James H. Ward, Surgeon J. L. Lockwood, this abode was styled "The Abbey." Its This arrangement assisted ventilation, Professor H. H. Lockwood, Professor characrer was orderly to a marked degree. and for rhe same object, no doubt, the Giraulr, Chaplain George Jones, Passed No noisy choruses were heard issuing window frames were given an abundance Midshipman Samuel Marcy, and last, not from its doors or windows.