THE FOUNDER OF THE BROOKLYN NAVAL LYCEUM.
AN English writer[7] in the Naval College at Greenwich thus compares the
life on shore of British and American officers.
“The officers of the United States navy have one great advantage which
is wanting to our own; when on shore they are not necessarily parted
from the service, but are employed in their several ranks, in the
different dockyards, thus escaping not only the private grievance and
pecuniary difficulties of a very narrow half-pay, but also, what from a
public point of view is much more important, the loss of professional
aptitude, and that skill which comes from increasing practice.”
When on the 7th of January 1833, Captain Perry received orders to report
to Commodore Charles Ridgley at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, his longest
term, ten years, of shore duty began. Being now settled down with his
family, and expecting henceforth to rear his children in New York, he
gave notice April 24, to the Navy Department that his name should go on
record as a citizen of the Empire State. He at once began the study and
mastery of the steam engine, with a view of solving the problem of the
use of steam as a motor for war vessels.
That Perry was “an educator of the Navy,” and that he left his mark in
whatever field of work he occupied was again signally shown. He
organized the Brooklyn Naval Lyceum. This institution which still lives
in honorable usefulness is a monument of his enterprise.
The New York Naval Station in the Wallabout, or Boght of the Walloons,
which to-day lies under the shadow of the great Suspension Bridge, is
easily accessible by horse-cars, elevated railways, and various steam
vehicles on land and water. In those days, it was isolated, and
ferry-boats were inferior and infrequent. Hence officers were compelled
to be longer at the Yard, and had much leisure on their hands. Desirous
of professional improvement for himself and his fellow-officers, Perry
was alert when the golden opportunity arrived. Finding this at hand, he
first took immediate steps to form a library at the Yard. He then set
about the organization of the Lyceum, whose beginnings were humble
enough. About this time, money had been appropriated to construct a new
building for the officers of the commandant and his assistants. It was
originally intended to be only two stories in height. Perry suggested
that the walls be run up another story for extra rooms. He wrote to the
Department. He personally pressed the matter. Permission was granted. A
third floor was added. It was to be used for Naval courts-martial, Naval
Boards, and the Museum, Library, and Reading Room.
The Lyceum organized in 1833, had now a home. It was incorporated in
1835, and allowed to hold $25,000 worth of property. The articles of
union declared the Lyceum formed “In order to promote the diffusion of
useful knowledge, to foster a spirit of harmony and a community of
interests in the service, and to cement the links which unite us as
professional brethren.”
The blazon selected was a naval trophy decorated with dolphins, Neptune,
marine and war emblems, eagle and flag, with the motto, “_Tam Minerva
quam Marte_,” (as well for Minerva, as for Mars.) A free translation of
this would be, “For culture as well as for war.”
Commodore C. G. Ridgley was chosen President, as was befitting his rank.
Perry assumed an humbler office, though he was the moving spirit of
this, the first permanent American naval literary institution. He
presided at its initial meeting. He was made the first curator of the
museum, in 1836 its Vice President; and later, its President. Officers
and citizens employed by, or connected with the navy came forward in
goodly numbers as members. Soon a snug little revenue enabled the Lyceum
to purchase the proper furniture and cases for the specimens which began
to accumulate, as the new enterprise and its needs began to be known.
Publishers and merchants made grants of books, pictures and engravings.
Other accessions to the library were secured by purchase. From the
beginning, and for years afterwards, the Lyceum grew and prospered.
“Although other officers rendered valuable service in the organization,
yet the master spirit was Captain Matthew C. Perry, United States Navy.
From that day to this, the Naval Lyceum has been a fertile source of
professional instruction and improvement.” Among the honorary members
were four captains in the British navy, three of whose names, Parry,
Ross and Franklin, are imperishably associated with the annals of Arctic
discoveries.
Out of the Lyceum grew the Naval Magazine, an excellent bi-monthly, full
of interest to officers. Of this Perry was an active promoter, and to it
he contributed abundantly, though few or none of the articles bear his
signature. Always full of ideas, and able to express them tersely, the
editor could depend on him for copy, and he did. The Naval Magazine was
edited by the Rev. Charles Stewart. The Advisory Committee consisted of
Commodore C. G. Ridgley, Master Commandant M. C. Perry, C. O. Handy,
Esq., Purser W. Swift, Esq., Lieutenant Alexander Slidell Mackenzie,
Professor E. C. Ward, and passed Midshipman B. I. Moller. Its
subscription price was three dollars per annum. Among the contributors
were J. Fenimore Cooper, William C. Redfield, Esq., Chaplain Walter C.
Colton and Dr. Usher Parsons. In looking over the bound volumes of this
magazine—one of the mighty number of the dead in the catacombs of
American periodical literature—we find some articles of sterling value
and perennial interest. It was fully abreast of the science of the age,
and urged persistently the creation of a Naval Academy.
The magazine died, but the Lyceum lived on to do a good work for many
years, notably during our great civil war. It is still flourishing and
is visited by tens of thousands of persons from all parts of our
country.
Perry had already made his reputation as a scientific student. His motto
was “_semper paratus_.” He was ever in readiness for work. The British
Admiralty and the United States government were desirous of fuller
information about the tides and currents of the Atlantic ocean,
especially those off Rhode Island and in the Sound. Chosen for the work,
Perry received orders, June 1st, to spend a lunar month on Gardiner’s
Island. The congenial task afforded a pleasant break in the monotony of
life in the navy yard, and revived memories of the war of 1812. The
careful observations which he made during the month of June, embodied in
a report, were adopted into the United States and British Admiralty
charts. He returned home June 29.
Though Commodore Ridgley was officer-in-chief in the yard, upon Perry
fell most of the active clerical and superintending work. The frigate,
_United States_, was fitting out for service in the Mediterranean, and
one of the young midshipmen ordered to report to her was the gentleman
who afterwards became Rear-Admiral George H. Preble, a gallant soldier,
fighter of Chinese pirates, and author of the _History of the American
Flag_ and of _Steam Navigation_.
He reported to the Navy Yard, May 1, 1836, in trembling anxiety as to
his reception by his superiors. The commandant was absent at the
horse-races on the Long Island course, so young Preble returned to New
York, to his hotel, and again reported May 3.
His first impressions of Master Commandant Perry are shown in the
following doggerel, written in a letter to his sister:
“Charley again was at the race,
But I was minded that the place
Should own me as a Mid.
And since the Com. was making merry,
Reported to big-whiskered Perry
The Captain of the Yard.
“‘Mat’ looked at me from stem to stern,
His gaze I thought he ne’er would turn,
No doubt he thought me green.
For I had on a citizen’s coat
Instead of a uniform as I ought,
When going to report.
“At last he said that I could go,
There was no duty I could do,
Until the next day morning.
So I whisked o’er and moved my traps,
And made acquaintance with the chaps
Who were to live with me.”
Perry at this time wore whiskers, and for some years afterwards
cultivated sides in front of the ear. In later life he shaved his face
clean. The fashion in the navy was to wear only sides, as portraits of
all the heroes of 1812 show. The younger officers were just beginning to
sport moustaches. These modern fashions and “such fripperies” were
denounced by the older men, who clung to their antique prejudices.
Hawthorne, in his American Note Book, August 27, 1837, gives an amusing
instance of this, couched in the language with which he was able to make
the commonest subject fascinating.
That the regulations should prescribe the exact amount of hair to be
worn on the face of both officers and men seems strange, but it is true,
and illustrates the rigidity of naval discipline. Evidently inheriting
the modern British (not the ancient Brittanic) hatred of French and
continental customs, the Americans, in high office, forbade moustaches
as savoring of disloyalty. Wellington had issued an order forbidding
moustaches, except for cavalry. It was not until the year of grace,
1853, that the American naval visage was emancipated from slavery to the
razor. Secretary Dobbin then approved of the cautious regulation: “The
beard to be worn at the pleasure of the individual, but when worn to be
kept short and neatly trimmed.” What a shame it must have seemed to
feminine admirers, and to the possessors of luxuriant beards of
attractive color! Both the hairy and hairless were, perforce, placed in
the same democracy of homeliness. The ancient orders, in the interest of
ships’ barbers, and once made to compensate for the wearing of perukes,
were crowned by the famous proclamation of Secretary Graham, dated May
8, 1852, which at this date furnishes, amusing reading:
“The hair of all persons belonging to the Navy, when in actual
service, is to be kept short. No part of the beard is to be worn
long, and the whiskers shall not descend more than two inches
below the ear, except at sea, in high latitudes, when this
regulation may, for the time, be dispensed with by order of the
commander of a squadron, or of a vessel acting under separate
orders. _Neither moustaches nor imperials are to be worn by
officers or men on any pretence whatever._”
Our illustrious Admiral Porter shaved only once or twice in his life.
During the Mexican War he found it difficult to get Commodore Conner to
give him service on account of his full whiskers. The British army wore
their beards and now fashionable moustaches in the trenches of
Sebastopol, when it was difficult, if not impossible to get shaved, and
thus won a hairy victory, the results of which were felt even across the
Atlantic.
Another high honor offered to Perry, was the command of the famous U. S.
Exploring Expedition to Antarctic lands and seas. This enterprise was
the evolution of an attempt to obtain from Congress an appropriation to
find “Symmes Hole.” The originator of the “_Theory of Concentric
Spheres_” was John Cleves Symmes, born in 1780, and an officer in the
United States army during the war of 1812, who died in 1829. In lectures
at Union College, Schenectady, and in other places, he expounded his
belief that the earth is hollow and capable of habitation, and that
there is an opening at each of the poles, leading to the various spheres
inside of the greater hollow sphere, the earth itself. He petitioned
Congress to fit out an expedition to test this theory, which had been
set forth in his lectures and in a book published at Cincinnati in 1826.
Despite the ridicule heaped upon Symmes and his theories, scientific men
believed that the Antarctic region should be explored. Congress voted
that a corps of scientific men, in six vessels, should be sent out for
four years in the interests of observation and research. This was one of
the first of those “peace expeditions,” no less renowned than those in
war, of which the American nation and navy may well be proud.
By this time, however, Perry had become interested in the idea of
creating a steam navy. He declined the honor, but took a keen interest
in the expedition. An ardent believer in Polar research, he was heartily
glad to see the boundaries of knowledge extended. He had read carefully
the record of the five years’ voyage of the British sloop-of-war
_Beagle_. In this vessel, Mr. Darwin began those profound speculations
on the origin and maintenance of animal life, which have opened a new
outlook upon the universe and created a fertile era of thought.
The Secretary of the Navy applied to the Naval Lyceum for advice as to
the formation of a scientific corps, for recommendation of names of
members of said corps, for a series of inquiries for research, and
details of the correct equipment of such an expedition. To thus
recognise the dignity and status of the Lyceum was highly gratifying to
its founder and appreciated by the society. A committee consisting of
three officers, C. G. Ridgley, M. C. Perry and C. O. Handy, was
appointed to make the report. This, when printed, filled eleven pages of
the magazine. It was mainly the work of M. C. Perry. The practical
nature of the programme was recognized at once. It was incorporated into
the official instructions for the conduct of the expedition. The command
was most worthily bestowed on Lieutenant Charles Wilkes.
The success of this, the first American exploring expedition of
magnitude is known to all, through the publication entitled _The Wilkes
Exploring Expedition_, as well as by the additions to our herbariums and
gardens of strange plants, and the goodly spoils of science now in the
Smithsonian Institute.
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[7] J. K. Laughton, _Encyclopædia Brittanica_, vol. ix., article
“Farragut.”