Naval Establishment Research Articles

Social Reform in the United States Navy, 1798-1862 (review)

BOOKREVIEWS75 and does not, therefore, live up to its title. Students of American sectionalism and the Civil War will also find in this work, begun under David Potter's direction, valuable insights for understanding die shifting sectional pattern of die antebellum decades. _, , . _, „ Robert Swterenga Calvin College SoctaZ Reform in the United States Navy, 1798-1862. By Harold D. Langley. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1967. Pp. x, 309. $8.50.) Mercifully, during the past ten years, historians have started to deemphasize die drum-and-broadside approach to the writing of naval history and to stress the significance of die more unromantic aspects of die United States Navy, including technology and administration. The men who worked ashore in wartime and in peace have at long last begun to receive historical notice of their contributions to the service and the nation. Harold D. Langley has added still anodier focus to diis ever growing list of books devoted to non-operational history. Social Reform in the United States Navy, 1798-1862, is the story of die impact of die nineteenthcentury reform spirit upon the United States naval forces and, more particularly , upon the enlisted man. Professor Langley stresses that die American Navy was patterned after diat of Great Britain and diis togetiier with its early emphasis on the training of officers and on improving die size and efficiency of die Navy tended to create in die minds of many an image of a sea arm which operated on principles tiiat were in direct conflict to the nation's growing sense of democracy and equalitarianism. After several early chapters relating to the development of the Navy, Langley settles down to new and fresh material. To illustrate die influence of reformers in improving the lot of die seaman, he explores four major diemes: the origins and activities of various societies dedicated to helping the sailor, especially die American Seaman's Friend Society; die Navy's manpower shortage and die abuses in enlistments; die agitation against flogging; and die temperance crusade for the abolition of die grog ration. National concern was first concentrated on the plight of die American sailors by die harassment and captivity that they endured at die hands of the North African pirates and from the navies of England and France. The United States government resorted to diplomacy and warfare to eliminate diese abuses. By die time the condition of the bluejacket had ceased to be a matter of diplomatic concern, it became important to Americans caught in the religious fervor that swept die country after the War of 1812 to improve the status of the able bodied seaman within die naval establishment. Langley shows that tivroughout die period it was customary for congressmen and secretaries to depend upon the judgment of naval officers. Even when abuses were commonly known, tradition continued to outweigh a memorial. It was only when officers of proven ability joined die reform movement that measures received a serious consideration. 76CIVIL WAR HISTORY While memorials, experiments, and appeals from well-recognized reformers all contributed, in the last analysis, real progress hinged upon convincing the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs that the proposed revision was necessary. Committee members tended to follow the course of the least resistance and to let petitions and proposals die in committee. Where agitation was strong enough to force debates, distinguished naval officers often prevented legislation by arguing that the proposals would injure the service. Eventually reform orientated officers helped dislodge measures from the committee so that they could be acted upon. Between 1828 and 1862 the practices of the United States Navy regarding the enlisted man were dramatically changed and the foundations were erected for a career enlisted service. Opportunities were also held out for die skilled and ambitious to gain the commissioned ranks. These changes, says Langley, were the naval equivalent of the rise of the common man. Based upon a remarkable amount of manuscript and documentary research , Social Reform in the United States Navy has all the other hallmarks of critical scholarship—clear cut organization and sound judgment My only criticism is one of style, especially the labored transitions. But tiiis does not dim die fact that Langley has made a...

The Role of the Gulf Stream in the Prediction of Iceberg Distribution in the North Atlantic

A twenty-six year correlation is made between the yearly frequency fluctuations of icebergs south of the 48th parallel and the preseasonal sea surface temperature anomalies at Key West in the Straits of Florida and those of the Labrador Current three years later.
 Good agreement among these variables is attributed to (1) the immediate effect of the relative strength of the Gulf Stream in barring the southward flow of bergs, and (2) the effect that varying strength of the Gulf Stream has upon the volume of warm water that escapes to the north, the effect in turn upon the rate of transport of icebergs, and the potential number eventually to be carried into the shipping lanes.
 An iceberg prediction table is offered, making possible a prediction for the current year by using the sea temperature anomaly at Key West for March of this year together with the anomaly of three years earlier.
 “The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private ones of the author and do not reflect the views of the Navy Department or the Naval Establishment.”

Government of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

tered by that country until their capture by United States forces during 1944. The Territory represents a great zone of thousands of small islands scattered over 5,000,000 square miles of sea. The United States Navy on occupation instituted military government in these island areas. Since the termination of hostilities, the Naval Establishment has continued supervision of the government administration of the islands. On April 2, 1947 the United Nations Security Council approved a trusteeship agreement designating the United States as the administering authority for these former Japanese island areas, and naming them officially the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

Retraining Naval Offenders

One of the problems of the civilian world is that of dealing with those socially maladjusted individuals who are called delinquents. It is to be expected, therefore, that a similar problem should exist in an organiza tion as large as the wartime naval establishment. Naval delinquency, while in many ways comparable to that existing in civil life, has many facets which are peculiar to a military organization. A man under military discipline is restricted as to individual freedom. Many of the things he had been able to do as a civilian are prohibited. There, if he came late to work or talked back to his boss he might have been discharged but he was perfectly free to look for another job. In the Navy he found that such acts often resulted in a court-martial. In other ways the civilian sailor found his movements re stricted. He had to get permission to go beyond the limits of the port; he had to be back aboard ship or on the station at a certain time; and if some one became ill in his family, military necessity often prevented him from going home.

John Quincy Adams's Letters on Silesia

operations against New Providence, several other vessels were cruising, or preparing to cruise, off the American coast. These were fitted out by the marine committee, which had superseded the naval committee. There were the brigs Lexington, Captain John Barry, and Reprisal, Captain Lambert Wickes, three sloops, and possibly others. It is certain that Commodore Hopkins never exercised any authority over these vessels, even after his return from his expedition. Although perhaps not susceptible of absolute proof, the evidence seems to point irresistibly to the conclusion that the Congress had in mind the commodore's command of a particular fleet for a particular service and had no intention of placing him at the head of the entire naval establishment of the United Colonies.

The Effect On American Institutions of a Powerful Military and Naval Establishment

Of all the novel and perplexing problems which have been fastened on the American nation by the proposal to make a very large increase in its military and naval armament, there is none which bristles with more difficulties than the subject on which I am addressing you this morning. What will be the effect on American domestic life and institutions of a more efficient, expensive and powerful military and naval establishment? Americans who are opposing are basing their opposition largely upon the havoc which it is expected to work in our traditional internal order. Americans who are advocating are basing their approval largely upon thebetter order, which it is expected to impose upon our time-honored internal chaos. Americans who are hesitating are basing their hesitation largely upon misgivings as to the wisdom of exposing American institutions and life to the corrosive effect of such a dubious and perilous innovation. These are the questions which American public opinion is considering most anxiously and with the smallest prospect of future agreement. The country is not thinking so much about what we can and should do with a larger army and navy. It is thinking rather about what a larger army and navy may or will do to us. Preoccupation with the domestic effects of military preparedness presided at its official birth. Last sulmmer when President Wilson decided to include in the legislative program of the administration provision for a large army he ordered his Secretary of War to make the plans for an increase conforming to the existing American military tradition. What the President had in mind is clear. He had decided that more soldiers must be enlisted and