I ,__ ___-. .
REMARKS
ON
THE HOME SQUADRON
AND
NAVAL SCHOOL,
BY A GENTLEMAN OF NEW-YORK,
FORMERLY CONNECTED WITH THE CITY PRESS.
(Thomas Coin)
Flag of the Seas ! on Ocean s wave
Thy stars shall glitter o er the brave,
When Death, careening on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail ;
And frighted waves rush wildly back,
Before the broadside s reeling rack,
The dying wand rer of the sea
Shall look at once to Heav n and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o er his closing eye.
Drake s "American Flag.
N E W- YO R K:
Printed by J. P. WRIGHT, 18 New Street, near Wall.
1840.
TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK
REPRINTED
WILLIAM ABBATT
1921
BEING EXTRA NUMBER 72 OF THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WITH NOTES AND QUERIES
EDITOR S PREFACE
IF our Extract No. 71 was an eloquent plea for the mainte
nance of our Navy, this one is no less so on the kindred
subject of training boys to become sailors.
Its author, Thomas Goin, born only the year after Mr. Bron-
son published his treatise, may well have read it in his youth,
for we find that his interest in the subject dated from his
twentieth year and ceased only with his death. He, like so
many other pioneers in good causes, did not live to see his plans
fully successful. Born in Brooklyn in 1803, he spent his life
as a merchant and "shipping master," thereby gaining a prac
tical knowledge of the need for nautical training, to which he
devoted time, labor and money, dying finally from overwork
in connection with securing crews for our ships for service in
the Mexican War.
His pamphlet appeared in two editions (both now very
scarce), 1840 and 1845. We make our reprint from the first;
the second contains many more letters of commendation than
we could print, from sea captains and shipping merchants, and
the only reason why his plan did not become a permanent suc
cess seems to have been the misapprehension on the part of the
boys that they would be eligible for appointment as midshipmen
on our men-of-war. When they found that the merchant
marine was their only future, dissatisfaction caused the enlist
ments to fall off and the dying out of the system which for
1839-40-41 had proved completely successful. Doubtless, had
Mr. Goin lived, he would have been able to carry it through to
permanent success. He had been granted an appointment in
the Navy (as appears from Hamersly s s Register of the Army
and Navy) as "Master" in 1839.
To his granddaughter, Mrs. L. H. Fisher, of Brooklyn, we
are indebted for copies of the following newspaper notices :
From the New York Herald, Tuesday morning, March 16, 1847.
THE FATHER OF THE NAVAL SCHOOL
Thomas Coin is with the dead ! Who did not know him ? For thirty years
his energy and honesty of character made him one of the first of the "shipping
masters" of the United States. Shipping, as he did, thousands of sailors every
year, he became intimately acquainted with the requirements of commerce and
of the Navy in all relating to the efficient manning of our ships. His sagacity
foresaw the scarcity of men which now exists when our ships of war can
scarcely enlist one man per day and the Mexican war is consequently protracted
and when our Merchantmen laden with food for the starving millions of
Ireland and Scotland are delayed from day to day from a want of seamen
and his philanthropy and patriotism induced him to undertake, from his own
private resources, the expense of inducing Congress to establish a Naval School.
By an outlay of upwards of $10,000, and after many years of incessant labor,
his efforts were crowned with a limited success. Thousands of sailors, now
afloat, owe to Mr. Goin a debt of gratitude for the first rudiments of a nautical
education. He was emphatically the friend of the poor man s son, and whilst
he never quarrelled with the good fortune of those who obtained commissions
in our Navy from adventitious birth, he strenuously advocated the claims of the
children of poverty who possessed talent and worth.
Mr. Coin s plan would have been of incalculable advantage had he lived to
carry out its details with the assistance of a liberal Congress but his good deeds
live after him. Several large cities have awarded him public thanks and we
trust that the ingratitude with which some have treated his labors will not deter
others from attempting to complete what he so well began.
His sudden death was superinduced by his extraordinary exertions, night and
day, in the arduous labor of manning the ships of war hastily prepared for the
Gulf Squadron. He died blessing his country and is mourned by friends
innumerable. His brethren of the Masonic and Odd Fellows institutions fol
lowed his remains, with many mourners, to Greenwood Cemetery, where, after
a life of usefulness, he sleeps in peace. All the shipping in port, American and
foreign, wore their colors at half-mast throughout the day as a mark of respect.
Death notice which appeared in New York Commercial Advertiser, Monday
afternoon, March 15, 1847:
On Sunday morning, after a short illness, Thomas Coin, Acting Master, U. S.
Navy. Funeral from the house of his sister, 187 Bridge .St., Brooklyn,
this afternoon at 3 o clock.
Death notice which appeared in New York Herald, Monday morning, March
15,1847:
On Sunday morning, after a short illness, Thomas Goin, Acting Master, U. S.
Navy. The friends of the family, the brethren of Mariners Lodge, No. 67,
of the Masonic Order, and the Masonic brethren generally, and the members
of Knickerbocker Lodge, I. O. of O. F., and also those of his partners,
A. P. Pentz and Wm. Poole, are respectfully requested to attend his funeral,
from the house of his sister, No. 187 Bridge Street, Brooklyn, this (Monday)
afternoon at 3 o clock.
The poem which we add is extremely rare and has never
before been reprinted. It is supposed to have been written by
Thomas Jefferson though on what grounds I fail to see, for
in Stevens & Stiles "Century of American Printing" (1916) I
find: "Evidently issued by the Tory party in New York and
secretly printed (probably by James Rivington) for fear of the
Sons of Liberty." The only sale I find recorded was for $32.50.
The wife virulently reproaches her husband for attending the
Congress of 1774 and prophesies his ruin therefor.
203
T
THE AMERICAN CORVETTE
THE APPRENTICE BOYS SONG.
HE canvas is spread, and the anchor s a-trip,
And o er the blue ocean we go,
And gallantly mann d is our trim little ship,
And ready to meet any foe.
The Star Spangl d banner we give to the breeze
We swear it shall never be furl d
In shame or dishonor, but over the seas
In triumph it floats through the world.
You ask why we say so ? Then look at our boys,
Each one that free standard born under;
It tells them of kindred, of home and its joys,
And our foes we answer in thunder.
Our Bainbridges, Jones , Decaturs, are there,
Hereafter to stand in the grip,
And, like our own Perry, all proudly declare
That they never will give up the ship.
Aye! there is the Navy to which you may trust
The eagle, the stripes and the stars,
With a faith all unshaken that conquer they must,
For they all are American Tars.
The cannons loud mouthings shall be our reply
To those who our standard contemn ;
Our ship she shall sink, and our crew they shall die,
Ere our flag shall be lower d to them.
Should our halyards be cut, to the tow ring mast
Our unconquer d eagle shall fly
In the face of the foe, and, then nailing it fast,
Shall stay till we conquer or die.
Should our topmast be struck, our spar shot away,
It shall wave at our highest mast-head
The standard of glory, if ours be the day,
Or the winding sheet of the dead.
205
THE APPRENTICE BOYS SONG
Our scuppers run blood, but we prove that the spirit
Of Seventy-Six is alive ; r
Our fathers are dead, but their deeds we inherit-
Like them we shall valiantly strive
To keep what they left us untainted by shame,
To prove that the sons of such sires
Like them will rank high on the records of fame,
For their spirit our bosom inspires.
The home that we love, it shall never be trod
By the tyrant, or press d by the slave.
But true to our country, ourselves and to God,
We guard the free soil of the brave.
The father, the mother, the sisters we love.
The home of our childhood is there
The altar we knelt at when looking above,
Our infant lips murmur d in pray r.
Her proud cataracts thund ring over the steep,
Her magnificent rivers and bays,
Will speak to our bosoms when far on the deep
We raise the loud song in her praise :
How her sons are all brave, her daughters all fair,
Her land as an Eden in bloom
How beauty and goodness commingl d are there,
While freedom the whole doth illume.
The fields where we wander d, the haunts of our childhood,
All, all round our bosoms entwine,
Till we love ev ry hill, ev ry vale, ev ry wild wood,
Ev ry thing that, Columbia! is thine.
Then up with the eagle, the stripes and the stars,
Let our banner float proud to the breeze,
And hurrah for our boys, our own native Tars,
The free-hearted sons of the seas.
206
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
Among the most remarkable enterprizes of the times in which
we live, we class the establishment of the "Home Squadron and
Naval School." When we look at the good it has already done,
and carry our views forward and anticipate the beneficial re
sults which, by an intelligent carrying out of the plans of the
originator and founder, may be made to flow from it, and realize
that it has been produced by the patriotic zeal, untiring indus
try, and at the great personal expense of one individual, and he
comparatively in an humble situation in life, possessed of no ad
ventitious advantages whatever, but one who has been the archi
tect of his own fortune and success in life one who, left early to
struggle with the world and buffet with adversity, rose step by
step to moderate competency, and yet never hesitated to employ
the hard earnings of long years of untiring and unremitted in
dustry, to carry out a national and patriotic object; and when
we bear in mind that he had to labor for years against the oppo
sition of some, the lukewarmness of others, and the ridicule of
the incredulous in his success, who laughed at the idea of his
being able to accomplish his object ; and that, undaunted by all,
he continued steadily year after year, to bring his plans before
the Executive of the United States, and to have them presented
to Congress, and at last succeeded in obtaining that for which he
had for years been striving, the passage of an act of Congress
establishing the Home Squadron and Naval School upon a per
manent and efficient basis, we feel ourselves justified in rank
ing THOMAS COIN of New- York among the most remarkable
men of the present day. In his native city none possess more
thoroughly the confidence and good opinion of his fellow citizens,
as a Notary and Ship Broker, which he has followed for about
twenty years, or as an unassuming individual. Of sailors, none
207
6 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
possess a more extensive knowledge; and he enjoys to an unlim
ited extent the affectionate dependence of a class of men pro
verbially versatile, and prone to take captious exceptions; and
yet all regard Thomas Goin as the sailors friend, and one who
will honestly and faithfully protect their rights, and render
equal justice to the merchant and the man before the mast. To
him are our merchants and ship-owners indebted for temper
ance boarding-houses, and eventually for temperance ships,
where no liquor is, by mutual agreement, permitted to be used;
and if he had effected no more, he would have conferred a great
and enduring benefit on society, but the formation of the Home
Squadron and Naval School proves that he is a man capable of
enlarged and liberal views, and of combining great national ob
jects with plans of enlightened and comprehensive benevolence.
At the breaking out of the war* with our great commercial
rival and naval opponent, Mr. Goin was very young, and al
though he rejoiced in our successes on the ocean, his national
pride was wounded by the reproach so justly put forth by Great
Britain, that if she had been beaten in single contests, it was not
by the superiority of American skill or valor, but by the employ
ment of British deserters and renegados, contending, with the
halter round their necks, for an escape from punishment, and
fighting under such circumstances with desperation. Knowing
as he did, that no sailor can surpass the native born American
sailor in activity of body, or muscular strength, or in that de
termined valor which springs from moral courage, and believing
that the protection of the stripes and stars would be most safely
committed to those who were born under its folds, whose first
breath had been drawn in a land of liberty, and whose love of
freedom was as it were a portion of their existence, he determ
ined as far as lay in his power to wipe off the national reproach,
*Of 1812.
208
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 7
and, if possible, to digest some plan by which an abundant sup
ply of native-born American seamen could be procured to man
our Naval Marine.
The policy of the United States had never been turned to a
nursery for seamen. While our commerce penetrated every
ocean, and our canvas whitened every sea, nothing was done to
create seamen : a class of men extremely slow to form, liable to
more casualties than any other, sinking sooner under hardships
and privations, and falling victims to pestilence and disease in
foreign ports.
It was supposed that high wages would allure a sufficient
number of foreign seamen to desert their country and their flag,
to sail from the United States, and that certificates of citizen
ship would give them a national identity, and the flag of the
United States would protect them from impressment. A war
with Great Britain followed; and although the honour of our
flag was gloriously and triumphantly vindicated and the right
of search abandoned, yet our pride is alloyed by a feeling of re
proach of which we cannot divest the question. "Our country
always right but our country, right or wrong" should be the
maxim of every American citizen, when an appeal to arms be
comes inevitable; but to preserve our country always right, and
to guard against reproach should, in a time of peace, be the con
duct of every patriotic American. Our short-sighted policy,
which answered a temporary purpose, has now, however, be
come inefficient. After drawing from Great Britain, France
and every other maritime power, every sailor we could allure,
we find that from our increasing foreign commerce, and our ex
tending coasting trade, we can hardly procure men for our mer
chant service; and when they are wanted for our naval marine,
we find, to make a crew for a man-of-war, we have to ship from
ten to twelve foreign to one American sailor. We refer, in cor-
209
8 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
roboration of this fact, to the Report of Mr. Reade, as Chairman
of the Naval Committee in Congress, where the startling fact is
disclosed, that out of 109,000 seamen sailing from the United
States, about 9000 were American, or about one in twelve ! Here
then we have our stock of seamen, say 9000, for the whole com
mercial and naval marine of the United States, our coasting
trade, and the fisheries the steamboats which are multiplying
upon our waters, and the various and diversified descriptions of
craft for which seamen are indispensable.
Natural causes are also operating against the formation of
American seamen. Our large and uncultivated national do
main, the low price at which land can be purchased, the high
rates of wages, and the comparative ease with which life can be
supported on shore, offer to the industrious and enterprising a
certainty of success without exposing themselves to the uncer
tainties and hardships of a sea-faring life ; and without some ex
traordinary means to procure a supply of seamen, the conclusion
is irresistible, that either our commercial or naval marine must
be suspended. As it is, in various parts of the Union seamen
are so scarce that enormous wages have to be paid, and even in
New- York, the Commercial Emporium of the United States,
where seamen most do congregate, our packet-ships are fre
quently detained from want of men.
The only remedy lies in a naval school as a nursery for sea
men; and in proportion as it is intelligently and energetically
carried out, will our national wants be supplied. There are al
ready something like two thousand boys in our naval schools,
and the reports of the various commanders of our national ves
sels who have them in charge are most encouraging. The Secre
tary of the Navy has evinced a deep and patriotic interest in the
success of the plan, and to his intelligence and grasp of mind in
carrying out the details so far as he has been authorized by law,
210
AND NAVAL SCHOOL
is the nation indebted for the present promising state of the
naval school. A great deal has been done; but that which has
been accomplished has only shown the extent to which the plan
is susceptible of being carried, and the great advantage which
would accrue to the service by having competent persons to visit
the various naval depots, and to see that in each of the States the
quota of boys was contributed, which could not only be done
without injury, but oftentimes with advantage. In the State of
New- York for instance, five thousand boys could be spared for
the naval service ; and by drawing from all the States in propor
tion to their population, in a few years we would have an infu
sion of something like fifty thousand native American seamen,
and in process of time the proportion of foreign seamen would
be so small as to be unimportant to our national pride or policy.
But as the matter at present stands, should we find ouselves
again involved in a war with Great Britain, and under the
necessity of sending our ships-of-war to sea with eleven hundred
foreigners to one hundred Americans, those eleven hundred
principally Englishmen or British subjects, we confess, for va
rious reasons, some of which it may not be proper to detail here,
we would not, if we were a naval officer, be very desirous of a
command.
We will put a case, the reverse of which will apply to our own
position. Suppose it to be possible that 1100 American seamen
could be shipped on board of a ship of war, belonging to a nation
with which we are at war, with only 100 of their own seamen,
would the commander dare to engage an American vessel?
Would he venture to appear off one of our seaport towns or to
bring them where the stripes and stars floated proudly in the
breeze, bringing vividly before them all the associations of home
and country reminding them of kindred and friends and ap
pealing to all the better feelings of their nature against the par-
211
10 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
ricidal act? And if a Briton would not dare to trust an Ameri
can sailor under such circumstances, can we dare to trust a
British? Captain Marryat, it is true, says that the British sail
ors are the greatest vagabonds upon earth, and that they will
fight for the side which pays them best; and if this be true, (and
few had better opportunities of judging,) we must bear in mind
that we get the worst and most unprincipled portion of the
British seamen, and that the man who can turn traitor to his
own country can never be true to any other, and, if a higher
temptation were offered, would turn a double traitor, and buy
peace, and perhaps competency, by an act of atrocity.
The frequent desertions from the Navy the spirit of insub
ordination and revolt, wherever and whenever manifested, are
in nineteen cases out of twenty, originated by foreign seamen,
shipped from the necessity of the case a necessity stern and
imperious, and its only justification for the support of the na
tional flag, and with it the national honor, should only be en
trusted to those who were born under its folds, or at least two-
thirds or three-fourths of our seamen should be American.
By the allurements which our commerce has offered to foreign
seamen, we have drained England, France, Holland, and all Eu
rope, of every man that could be had, and still we have not
enough. Great Britain, awakening to her want of seamen, is
adopting our plan of school ships, which will generally be fol
lowed by the maritime powers of the Old World, but to this coun
try remains the honor of first introducing the plan, and for that
honor she is indebted to Thomas Goin.
All hardy plants are of slow growth, and it is so emphatically
of seamen. Bounties do not make sailors. Nothing but active
service will produce the thorough-bred Tar. They require as
much education, but of a different description, as the merchant,
the lawyer or the physician.
212
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 11
Jack must go through College, as well as his betters, and must
enter the junior class, and go through all the different grades,
before he can be pronounced the thoroughbred and accomplished
seaman, and no class of men have a quicker perception of the
awkward or the ridiculous on any thing applying to nautical
matters. Hence their expressive term of "land-lubber" to any
one who exhibits any want of acquaintance with sea-faring mat
ters, and the disdain with which they generally look upon mar
ines.
In military affairs we find the necessity for a thorough edu
cation, and hence we wisely support West Point but in every
point of view our Naval School is infinitely more important, and
is free from all those popular objections which apply to military
establishments. A standing army is generally supposed to be
unfavorable to liberty. An extensive marine, on the contrary, is
regarded with some as evidence of freedom, and of a high state
of commercial prosperity, as necessary for the protection of our
coast in time of war; and from the war of Independence down to
the present time, the Navy has always ranked high in the affec
tions of the American people, who regard with favor anything
tending to add to its strength and respectability who rejoice in
its glory, and would mourn bitterly over its decay, for they look
to it as the main arm of national defence as the source of na
tional glory as the protection of the national commerce and
as never dangerous to national independence.
In any point of view in which we regard it, the Naval School
commends itself to popular favor, to philanthropy, to national
glory, and to sound policy. Here we may honorably and advan
tageously offer bounties and inducements, and train up an abun
dant supply for the future, and every year we can be infusing a
portion of native seamen into the service, and gradually over
coming the present appalling disparity.
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12 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
But to effect this requires energy and some expenditure of
money; an expenditure, however, well applied to the attainment
of an object of so much importance to our national honor and in
dependence, so essential to the preservation of our commercial
and naval marine. If our commerce is diminished, we must re
sort to high duties or direct taxation, and our onward march is
impeded if our navy is inefficient, we are defenceless and it
is a fact which can no longer be disguised, that while the demand
for seamen is annually increasing with the extending commerce
of the United States, the sources of supply for the Navy are an
nually diminishing.
After the above remarks, and the opinions of the Press which
we subjoin, and to which we refer for the purpose of elucidating
many points on which we have not touched, we feel justified in
saying a few words with respect to Mr. Goin. To him belongs
the honor of having originated, and so far, successfully carried
through, the Home Squadron and Naval School, and he has
strong claims on the Nation s gratitude. To this object he has
devoted a great deal of time, and impoverished his private for
tune. The letters from members of Congress which are sub
joined, will prove his determined zeal and patriotism. For the
model of the proposed school-ship he refused $2,700, offered him
by a British agent, as he was determined to present it to his
country, without any regard whatever to the intrinsic value of
the offering; and on the altar of public good he was satisfied to
lay down his time and his money as a free-will offering. But will
his country allow him to do so without any remuneration? We
do not believe it, but that it will bind him, if possible, more
firmly to her service, by some enduring mark of appreciation.
The necessity for a rigid visitation and superintendence is as
apparent in the Naval School as in the Military Academy of
West Point, and it should be committed to those who feel a deep
214
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 13
interest in its success. The management and mode of instruction
in the different ships and navy yards where apprentices are
taken should be as uniform as possible ; the discipline as paren
tal as is consistent with good order. Nothing in the way of pun
ishment should be resorted to in the slightest degree degrading
to the individual, and expulsion should be considered, when the
subject is evidently reprehensible, as the extremity of disgrace.
Every thing, on the contrary, to encourage a high spirit of inde
pendence, to stimulate that chivalry which will stop at nothing
when his country s call requires him to face danger and death in
its most appalling forms, should be inculcated, for where the
spirit is broken by corporal punishment, or by degrading menial
offices, the moral influence of the School-Ship is lost, and high-
spirited boys will become reluctant to enter. The plan of pro
motion from the Naval School is admirable, and our subordinate
officers should be taken entirely from it, and placed in the line of
promotion, and private influence in obtaining midshipmen s
warrants should be discountenanced. Every thing should be
brought to bear upon the Naval School ; and where we have an
abundant supply of the raw material at home, it is surely im
politic and unwise in us to look for a supply from foreign and in
ferior sources.
WASHINGTON, 1st Sept. 1835.
Dear Sir Capt. A. D. Crosby lately delivered to me in your
name a miniature School-Ship which had been built under your
superintendence, for which I return you my sincere thanks.
This elegant model of a ship-of-war I have placed in a conspic
uous place in my office, where it has been greatly admired by
all gentlemen skilled in ship building who have seen it.
I am, with great respect and esteem,
Your obedient humble servant,
Thos. Goin, Esq. M. DiCKERSON.
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14 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
NAVY DEPARTMENT, 31st Dec. 1835.
Sir In answer to your letter of the llth inst. I have to ob
serve, that I do not perceive that the President in his Message
has noticed the subject of a "School Ship for the education of
young men for the merchant service/ &c.
If our force afloat shall be increased as proposed, our young
officers will learn seamanship by actual service.
The plan of a School-Ship should be examined by the Navy
Board before it would be advisable to adopt it as a measure of
this Department. If the subject is brought before Congress, any
information respecting it in this Department will be cheerfully
furnished, if required. I am, with great respect,
Your obedient humble servant,
Thos. Coin, Esq. M. DICKERSON.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Jan. 21, 1837.
Dear Sir With great pleasure my attention shall be given to
the petition forwarded by you.
With respect I remain
Your obedient servant,
Thos. Goin, Esq. JOHN M KEON.
NEW- YORK, 31st July, 1839.
Dear Sir Agreeable to your request, I take pleasure in stat
ing that the first communication I had on the subject of a Naval
school, or Naval Apprentices School, connected with a Home
Squadron for discipline, was received from you, and my impres
sion is that the plan originated with you.
Very respectfully yours,
Thos. Goin, Esq. C. C. CAMBRELENG.
216
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 15
NEW- YORK, Aug. 6, 1839.
Dear Sir The first knowledge I had of any proposition for a
School Ship, was from a conversation held with you a short time
previous to my departure from this city for Washington in the
year 1836. In the month of January, 1837, I presented to the
House of Representatives a petition from merchants of this
city, praying for the establishment of a School Ship at this port.
This document was received by me from you; and to you I be
lieve the whole credit of the project is justly due.
With respect I remain
Your obedient servant,
JOHN M KEON.
NEW- YORK, Aug. 19, 1839.
Dear Sir In the winter of 1837, at your request, I called up
the memorial relative to the "Home Squadron and Naval School"
in the Committee of Naval Affairs, and, if I recollect aright,
they made a favorable report on the subject. You were the first
individual that ever named the subject to me, and it affords me
pleasure to bear testimony to your active exertions in behalf of
the project above referred to.
Yours very respectfully,
Thos. Goin, Esq. ELY MOORE.
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16 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
W
HY should we look to foreign hands
In preference to the native born ?
Why seek to rob all other lands,
And hear from them the laugh of scorn ?
" Tis true ye have beat us on the wave,
But then how basely mann d your deck
By renegados and by slaves,
Fighting with halters round their neck."
And this while native hearts beat high,
In Freedom s cause to do or die!
Thousands and tens of thousands yearn
To man our noble ships-of-war
Young lads whom we can take and learn,
Proudly to bear our flag afar.
Who will, like LAWRENCE, meet the grip,
And dying, cast their eyes above ;
Who never will give up the ship,
Or strike the standard that they love;
But man to man, and gun to gun,
Will ne er in valor be outdone.
Then shall we triumph o er the wave;
Then shall our deeds be all our own ;
Then may we glory in the brave,
And Freedom mourn each perish d son ;
Then shall the Stars and Stripes wave free
In ev ry clime, in every sky.
When those who combat on the sea
Strike home for home and liberty
The free-born children of that soil
Which knows no master but its God.
218
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS, &c.
[From the New York Mercantile Advertiser, February, 1837.]
THOMAS GOIN MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS, ON THE
SUBJECT OF SCHOOL-SHIPS.
Everybody knows Thomas Goin but few know the extent of
his exertions and sacrifices; and that to him we are indebted for
the plan of school ships, which he has for years been advocating,
and we now think with every prospect of success, since New
York, Philadelphia and Boston have taken it in hand; and we ex
pect to find a recommendation, from the proper department,
transmitted to Congress at the present session.
Into his business Mr. Goin carries an active and enlightened
benevolence. To him are our merchants and our sailors in
debted for temperance boarding houses, and eventually for tem
perance ships, in which no liquor is, by mutual consent, per
mitted to be used. Some eight or ten years since, Mr. Goin took
about one hundred and fifty boys and young men, from ten to
twenty years of age, out of the House of Refuge in this city, and
sent them to Nantucket and other eastern ports, where they
were shipped on whaling voyages. Of these one hundred and
fifty boys, it has been satisfactorily ascertained that forty are
captains or first officers of different vessels; and one in particu
lar has been mentioned to us as commander of a fine Nantucket
ship, just returned with a full cargo; ten of whose crew were
Mr. Coin s proteges. This is indeed a rich reward for philan
thropic exertion, a return which few men are permitted to en
joy for unfortunately, good intentions and benevolent views
too often end in disappointment. Of a mind naturally active,
Mr. Goin next conceived the plan of a school-ship, as a nursery
for young seamen, and at his own expense had a memorial pre
pared, to which he obtained a great many signatures of the first
219
18 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
respectability, principally from persons connected with our In
surance offices and ship owners, and had the same presented to
Congress, which has been introduced into one house, but has
never received that attention to which it is so prominently en
titled. A model of the proposed school-ship was presented by
him to the Secretary of the Navy, being the model of the Eck-
ford corvette, which was bestowed on him by our lamented fel
low citizen,* previous to his ill-fated voyage to the East.
In this school-ship Mr. Goin proposes to take five hundred
boys and young men, from thirteen up to twenty-two years of
age, to be instructed in naval tactics, and brought up in all the
strictness of naval discipline. The completion of his plan em
braces three ships of this description, carrying 500 boys each,
crusing continually along our coast, and coming monthly into
port to receive a supply of boys, in lieu of those they have parted
with, or lent to vessels on the coast in want of hands.
These three corvettes, with five hundred hardy boys and
young men in each, under the instruction of able officers and ex
perienced pilots, would be the best supply vessels we could have
on our coast in stormy weather; and the advantage will be at
once perceived by our insurance offices and ship owners. There
are other points of view, in which it presents an extremely inter
esting aspect. In the first place, it will have a tendency to clear
our cities of wild and idle boys, to whom the charm of the school-
ship, and of a thorough seaman s education, will be irresistible.
We understand that fifteen hundred smart, active, intelligent
boys and young men could be easily procured ; and that several
hundred have already made application, and would go to sea in
our merchant ships, if they would be taken ; but our ship-owners
naturally prefer thorough-bred foreigners to green, uneducated
Americans, and even the ships in our navy are principally man-
*Henry Eckford, the great ship-builder. He died at Constantinople in 1832.
220
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 19
ned by foreigners. Of two ships fitted out at this port, requir
ing something like eighteen hundred men, not over two hundred
were Americans, and those were procured with great difficulty.
The reason of this is obvious while we have had a military
school, in which every facility has been given to acquire a tho
rough knowledge of military tactics, the naval service has been
entirely neglected ; and if the state of our navy could be ascer
tained, the result would be astounding and mortifying.
We shall find ourselves entirely dependent on foreign mercen
ary aid for the defence of our coast, and that too, at a time when
thousands of free-born Americans would have been at the post
of honor and of danger, if the niggard policy of their Govern
ment had not prevented. Thousands now in want and destitu
tion, would spring forward, with warm hearts and able hands,
to man our school-ships, until in the course of a few years our
Navy would be entirely manned by native Americans. And
whether we regard it in a point of morals, as having a tendency
to the prevention of crime for far better is a school-ship than
a House of Refuge as by subjecting them for a season to salu
tary restraint, we make them active and valuable seamen, pre
pared to carry their country s standard triumphantly through
the hottest battle or as a source of supply, in which we enlist
the ardent, the ambitious, and the enterprising from every part
and section of the Union, it commends itself in every way to our
benevolence, patriotism, and policy; and there would be that
general blending of all classes, which would give a high tone to
our naval character, and enable us, in case of war, to cope suc
cessfully with the greatest maritime nations upon earth. But
on all hands it is admitted that our Navy is defective, and re
quires to be increased and re-organized. New ships may easily
be added, but where are the sailors to come from? We cannot
obtain them to man what we have already afloat, and the only
cure for the evil is in a naval school.
221
20 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
We understand with much pleasure, that, no way discouraged
by the delay he has experienced in carrying out his object nor
the time he has lost in three or four journeys to Washington
nor the expense he has already incurred, amounting to some
thing like $5000, Mr. Goin will endeavor to have his memorial
brought forward and acted upon at the present session of Con
gress ; and as it is one with which politics has nothing to do, we
hope a bill will pass by acclamation. The expense of a school-
ship with five hundred boys, who receive no wages, nothing but
their clothing and provisions, we understand, will not exceed
that of a revenue cutter. But be this as it may, the expense can
be no objection, if the object can be accomplished. We believe
the plan contemplates three corvettes of .twenty-eight guns each;
but of this we cannot speak decidedly, not having seen the mem
orial, nor can we give all the details. The term of service em
braces, we think, three years. An occasional voyage to Europe
is contemplated by the ships in rotation at the mild season of the
year; but the principal employment is on our own coast Boys
or young men may be drafted for merchant vessels bound on
long voyages, before their term of service expires, if they shall
be willing, in which case bond is to be given to return them to
the school-ship from which they were taken, and the wages al
lowed are to go, one-half to the boys and the other half to the
ship. In the same way boys may be drafted for our men-of-war,
if they shall be satisfied to enter, in which case we presume the
control of the school-ship over them ceases. There is one thing
which we hope has not been lost sight of the necessity of edu
cation, and of moral and religious instruction, for which pro
vision ought to be made, and that the school-ship shall be in fact
a miniature of our Navy, in which temperance, discipline, moral
conduct and devoted love of country, shall stand pre-eminent;
and when our Navy shall be entirely manned by Americans,
then will those lines of Drake s be beautifully appropriate :
222
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 21
Flag of the seas ! on ocean s wave
Thy stars shall glitter o er the brave ;
When death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frightened waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside s reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea
Still look at once to heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o er his closing eye.
APPRENTICE BOYS FOR THE NAVY.
[Extract from the Act of Congress providing for the enlistment of Boys for the
Naval Service of the United States, approved March 2d, 1837.]
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful to enlist boys
for the Navy, with the consent of their parents or guardians, not being under
thirteen nor over eighteen years of age, to serve until they shall arrive at the
age of twenty-one years.
Regulations for the Enlistment and Employment of Boys who may be entered to
serve in the Navy until they arrive at the age of twenty-one years.
In the enlistment of Boys to serve until twenty-one years of age, as author
ized by the Act of Congress approved on the second day of March, 1837, none
are to be entered who shall be under thirteen or over sixteen years of age, and
who after careful examination and inquiry, shall not be deemed of sound con
stitution, good health, and free from all injuries, defects or disease, which would
be likely to render them unfit to perform the duties which are expected from
them.
No boy is to be entered who shall have been convicted of any criminal or dis
graceful offence, or who shall have been sent to any house of correction or
refuge, or other place of punishment.
No advances are to be made by the recruiting officer to the boys who may en
ter, or to their parents or guardians ; but such clothing and other articles as may
be necessary to their comfort will be furnished upon the order of the command
ers of the receiving vessels when they repair on board for duty.
Whenever it can be ascertained that a boy wishing to enter has a parent or
guardian whose presence can be obtained, such parent or guardian must sign his
223
22 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
or her name in the proper column of the Shipping Articles, as evidence of his or
her assent to the enlistment.
When the parent or guardian cannot be present, and can be referred to, they
must sign duplicated certificates of assent, in presence of, and to be certified by,
some Justice of the Peace, or other magistrate, according to a form which will be
furnished, one of which certificates must be transmitted to the Secretary of the
Navy with the Monthly Reports of the recruiting officer, and the other sent to the
commander of the recruiting vessel, to be transferred with the account of the
boy from one vessel to another, whenever he is transferred himself.
At the time of their enlistment they are to be rated as of the second or third
class boys, according to their age, size, and qualifications.
The pay of boys of the third class shall be five dollars a month, and the pay
of boys of the second class shall be six dollars a month. First class boys to re
ceive seven dollars.
When they cannot be attached to vessels in commission, they shall serve on
board some one of the three large receiving vessels.
They are to be supplied, under the immediate direction of the commander of
the vessel, with such articles of clothing and other necessaries as may contribute
to their health and comfort ; but after the first supply, the amount which may be
due to them is on no account to be exceeded ; on the contrary, it is desirable that
they should have as large an amount due to them as possible at the expiration of
their service.
They are not to be allowed to draw the spirit part of their ration, nor to re
ceive tobacco, but on the contrary they are to be encouraged, and required, if
possible, to abstain from the use of both.
Whenever their rate of pay will allow it, they may allot to a parent such
amount as shall not reduce the amount left for their own use below six dollars a
month, nor more than one-half their pay when the half shall exceed $6 a month.
They shall receive no part of their pay for their personal use until their dis
charge excepting for clothing and necessaries as hereinbefore provided, and
occasional small advances in money, under direction of their commander, for
the purchase of articles conducive to health, and for small expenses when per
mitted to go on shore for liberty ; care must be observed, however, that this in
dulgence is not abused.
Every commander of a vessel in which any of these boys may serve, shall
cause them to be well instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and to be
employed on all such duties which they may be competent to perform, as may
give them a- thorough knowledge of seamanship, and best qualify them to per
form the duties of seamen and petty officers.
224
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 23
They are never to be required or permitted to attend as waiters or servants to
the officers whenever there are other persons present who can properly perform
. those services.
As an inducement for exertion and a reward for good conduct, all persons en
listed under this provision shall be eligible to promotion in the same manner as
other persons of the ship s company, as vacancies may occur, and their qualifica
tion and conduct may merit ; but all such promotions of boys shall be gradual and
regular from third to second, and from second to first class boys, landsmen, or
dinary seamen, seamen and petty officers ; and on the other hand, they shall also
be subject to a reduction of rating, like all other persons, for neglect or miscon
duct.
If they shall serve the full term of their enlistment in a manner satisfactory to
their respective commanders, they shall, upon their discharge, receive a certificate
stating the length of such service and time served in each rating, and the opinion
which is then entertained of their conduct, qualifications and merits.
Should they subsequently wish to re-enter the service, and produce to the re
cruiting officer a certificate of good conduct while serving their first enlistment,
such officer shall, if men are required, and there shall be no objection on the score
of health or other disqualification, give a preference to them over persons who
have not previously served in the Navy.
Should any of them give decided evidences of the talents and conduct which
might, by proper attention and cultivation, make them valuable Boatswains, Gun
ners, or Masters for the Navy, they are to be speciality reported to the Secretary
of the Navy, and the commander of the vessel shall give all proper facilities to
advance their instruction.
At the expiration of their service, or at their regular discharge, they shall re
ceive the amount which may then be due them.
These regulations to be subject at all times to such alterations and modifica
tions as the Secretary of the Navy for the time being may deem necessary or ex
pedient ; and it is to be understood that they form no part of the agreement be
tween the United States and the other parties, all of which are contained in the
Shipping Articles.
By order of the President :
JAMES K. PAULDING, Secretary of the Navy.
The Regulations adopted by the Navy Department in virtue of the Act of
Congress of 2d March, 1837, require that boys presenting themselves for enlist
ment shall be of sound constitution, good health, free from all injuries, defects or
225
24 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
disease, which would be likely to render them unfit to perform the duties ex
pected from them.
None will be received who have been convicted of any criminal or disgraceful
offence, or from any house of correction or punishment.
They will be well and comfortably clothed.
The pay of the boys will be, for the third class five dollars per month ; second
class six dollars ; first class seven dollars per month.
They are not allowed the spirit part of the ration, nor to receive tobacco, but on
the contrary they are to be encouraged, and required, if possible, to abstain from
the use of both.
They may allot a part of their pay to a parent when their rate will allow, and
when permitted to go on shore may receive small advances in money, at the dis
cretion of their commander.
They are to be well instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in a
thorough knowledge of seamanship, to qualify them to perform the duties of sea
men and petty officers.
They are never to be permitted or required to attend as waiters or servants to
the officers whenever there are other persons present who can properly perform
those services.
They shall be eligible to promotion for good conduct, like any other of the
ship s company, as vacancies occur among the petty officers.
On re-entering the service, a preference will be given them over others who
have not previously served in the Navy, always provided they preserve a good
character.
Those among them giving decided evidence of talent and good conduct shall
be prepared for Boatswains, Gunners, or Masters for the Navy, and receive
every facility to receive instruction accordingly, and are to be specially reported
to the Secretary of the Navy.
Application to be made at the Navy Rendezvous.
By order of the Secretary of the Navy :
JOHN R. LIVINGSTON, JR., Navy Agent.
Navy Agent s Office, New York, October 22d, 1839.
226
[From the New- York Evening Star of 29th June, 1839.]
HOME SQUADRON AND NAVAL SCHOOL.
The action which has been had on the Law of Congress ob
tained by the irrepressible spirit and indefatigable exertion, and
at the great personal expense of Thomas Goin, to say nothing of
the loss of time in urging it year after year upon the public at
tention, demonstrates the great value of his plan of Naval Edu
cation, and the great strength it is destined to afford to that arm
of national defence. As far as our recollection serves us, his
plan embraced at first 3 corvettes with 500 boys each, to be
brought up in all the strictness of naval discipline ; but if it was
found to work well, to be extended; and we are happy to find
that the national government has taken it up in earnest; and
that the keels of three steam frigates are laid one at Boston,
one at Baltimore, and one at New York, where in addition to
naval tactics, the boys will be taught engineering, receive a lib
eral education, fitting them for any situation in the merchant
and naval service; and when we bear in mind that Nelson s
origin was that of a cabin boy, we indulge in no idle speculation,
when we say that this school is destined to produce many officers
who will hereafter carry their country s flag in triumph through
the hottest battle, and give additional glory to the stars and
stripes. At present, we have the Hudson frigate as a receiving
school ship at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, with some 200 or 300
boys generally aboard ; the captain of which takes great interest
in his school ship, where boys are taken for the naval service and
distributed among the different men-of-war; and a letter from
the Ohio, at Port Mahon, of 30th March last, speaks most highly
of the boys :
"The pupil apprentices, fifty-four in number, are said to be
well behaved intelligent lads, who give every promise of becom
ing good seamen, perhaps officers." The writer adds,
"They are under the exclusive charge of Lieutenant Ganse-
227
26 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
voort, who takes great interest in them, as indeed do all the offi
cers in the ship. The boys are divided into two watches, one at
tending school while the other is employed in the ordinary duties
of the ship. They thus attend school every other day. Their
schoolmaster, who by the way is very capable, having been a
public teacher in the United States, reports favorably of their
attention and improvement. They will, I think, obtain as good
an education as boys generally get at our public schools. They
are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, navigation and compo
sition. Some specimens of the latter, which have been shown to
me, written by the elder boys, were really very creditable to the
writers. They are allowed to go on shore on liberty, as a reward
for good conduct, and thus far but one or two have required any
punishment. They have the free use of the ship s library, and
most of them are very devoted readers."
It is reported that the Secretary of the Navy has ordered the
North Carolina 74, now just arrived at New York, to be anchor
ed at Buttermilk Channel as a permanent school ship, to receive
a supply of 2000 boys ; and if this report be true, as we sincerely
hope it is, we rejoice that Mr. Paulding has indeed turned his at
tention in earnest to the subject. Captain Gedney has 24 boys
on board the U. S. brig Washington, all smart, clever, intelli
gent lads, whom he is bringing up as active seamen, surveyors
and coast pilots; and Commodore Ridgely of the Navy Yard at
Brooklyn, says the service wants 10,000 of these boys. All these
gallant officers take great interest in the proposed plan, as they
begin to realize the vast advantage it offers to the public service,
and the greater dependence to be placed on the love of country
which actuates the free-born native American, than on the paid-
for service of the foreigner, and oftentimes the deserter from
his own flag; and in about five years, Mr. Goin s plan, faithfully
carried out, will give an infusion of about 10,000 native Ameri
can seamen into our naval service.
228
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 27
The records of the United States Court will establish a singu
lar fact, that mostly all the mutineers on board our vessels are
foreigners, and we have not in our recollection known an in
stance of a mutiny on board a vessel manned by native Ameri
can seamen, and the reason is obvious. They realize that the
profession they have chosen is their own voluntary choice, pro
fitable and honorable, if they conduct themselves with prudence
and discretion; and as they are generally better educated than
foreigners, they understand and admit the necessity of proper
subordination; and they look forward to becoming in due time
masters or mates of vessels, and will very rarely do any thing to
compromise their prospect of advancement, or bring disgrace on
the fireside at home. Foreigners, on the contrary, are reckless
and careless. They have nothing to excite them beyond immedi
ate pay; and at one moment they will crouch beneath the hand,
and at the next spring at the throat of their superiors.
It is stated, that out of 38,564 seamen shipped at the port of
New York last year, not 2000 were Americans. How has this
disgraceful and unsafe result been produced? From the want
of encouragement, and the disinclination Americans feel to en
ter into competition with foreigners, often of the very lowest
description.
A writer in the Army and Navy Chronicle gives it as the opin
ion of an intelligent naval officer, "that the scarcity of native
American seamen is mainly attributable to a law of Congress,
obliging the captains of vessels to give bonds for the safe return
or satisfactory account, of any American seaman he takes with
him; but no such restriction attaching to foreigners, he ships
tEem in preference to Americans, as he may discharge them in
foreign ports if his vessel is unexpectedly detained, and ship
others when ready for sea." This officer may be very intelligent,
for aught we know, but in the present instance, he is wide of the
truth. The law is certainly an injudicious one, and might be re-
229
28 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
pealed with advantage; for although it was evidently intended
for the protection of American seamen, yet it is one of those stat
utory enactments which only embarrass a matter, without ob
taining any positive good. It is idle to suppose that this act has
any influence in determining the decision of an American for a
sea-faring life ; and if it had, it would only be an inducement, as
evidencing the paternal care of his government over him in
a foreign country. And as to an American captain s shipping
foreigners in preference to his own countrymen, when they can
be had, the idea is too preposterous to be for one moment ser
iously entertained. We shall next hear some such intelligent
officer of the Navy declaring that they ship foreigners on board
our men-of-war for their superior subordination. Away with
such nonsense. We have all, or very nearly all, the seamen that
the niggard policy of our Government permitted to be made, and
while we are overrun with foreign seamen, the few Americans
in foreign service is a full and triumphant answer. We can tell
this intelligent officer of the Navy that, notwithstanding this
law of Congress, the few Americans who are in foreign service
are there in breach of this embarrassing enactment. They are
principally wild and thoughtless young men, who have run away
in foreign ports become indebted to landlords under foreign
flags and the one month s advance which they would receive
under their own flag not being sufficient to discharge their in
debtedness, with the dread of a foreign gaol before him, the
thoughtless and hard-run American is obliged to enlist under a
foreign flag, where he receives three months pay in advance, to
satisfy his grasping creditors; and on the return of the original
vessel in which he shipped, his non-return is satisfactorily ac
counted for by proof of his desertion, and the requirement of the
law of Congress satisfied. But the real reason why so few na
tive American sailors are shipped is, because they cannot be had.
230
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 29
Take some of our Eastern vessels, for instance, where the cap
tain and crew go on shares, and you find no foreigners there
which satisfactorily proves that sailors can be obtained if ade
quate inducement be offered; and that foreigners are only
shipped from a necessity, alike dangerous and disgraceful.
If we take the Report of Mr. Reade of Massachusetts, as
Chairman of the Naval Committee in Congress, on the subject
of the Naval School Ship, we learn that out of 109,000 seamen
employed in the United States service, 9,000 were Americans;
one out of twelve : and to send a man-of-war to sea to contend
for the liberties of our country, with eleven hundred foreigners
and one hundred Americans, and to boast of American prowess,
partakes somewhat too largely of the absurd. Verily "there is
but a step between the sublime and the ridiculous;" which shall
we take? Shall we foster and encourage our Naval School, until
in a few years our navy will be entirely manned with young, ar
dent, intelligent, thorough-bred native American seamen; or
shall we go on as we have, depending entirely on fereign merce
nary aid, these "Brabanc^ons" of the sea, for the support of our
future naval reputation.
Apart from national considerations, there are however other
points of view in which the subject presents a most interesting
aspect. The philanthropist will rejoice in our Naval School,
when he sees boys rescued from idleness and destruction, and its
concomitants ignorance, vice, and often infamy, placed in a
situation in which they may become useful and valuable mem
bers of society, perhaps honors to the naval profession and orna
ments to their country, winning reputation for themselves, and
weaving fresh garlands for the national escutcheon. Numbers
of these boys, it is no unfair or ungenerous supposition, might
become tenants of a house of refuge, for although possessing
naturally a high and generous disposition, evil communication
231
30 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
corrupts good morals, and a youthful mind cannot be in long
contact with vice without imbibing its withering influence,
naturally good principles give way before bad example, until at
last the injured, ill-nurtured, and ruined boy grows up the bad
and desperate man, fit for any species of crime or villainy or
the loitering and lazy mendicant, dangerous and burdensome to
society. We are all the children of circumstance and education ;
and take the most moral and gifted man in the community
deprive him from his childhood of all incitement to good place
him in constant contact with vice take from him all oppor
tunity of instruction and few will have the hardihood to deny
that he who is now the pride of his friends, the ornament of his
profession, and an honor to society, might not have died igno-
miniously on the gallows.
There is another consideration connected with these Schools,
which is, that independent of the boys receiving a thorough nau
tical, and a good scholastic education, they are not to be sub
jected to any menial office, or such as would break down the
spirit of independence ; but on the contrary, every thing is done
to encourage a decent pride and self-respect : and no boy will be
received who has been guilty of crime and the subject of punish
ment and disgrace. They do not take boys from the house of
refuge or alms-house, but they prevent them ever going there,
and they keep them from contamination. Associated with the
officers, looking forward to advancement in their country s ser
vice, privileged to receive a preference in the way of promotion
there is everything to encourage them in a high and honour
able career; and parents who have boys whose predilections are
in favor of a sea-faring life, may place them in the School Ships
with far more advantage than they can in the merchant service,
under the most favorable circumstances. Of these boys, we un
derstand from twelve to fourteen are already singled out for
midshipmen s warrants, under the recommendation of the Sec-
232
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 31
retary of the Navy, and the sanction of the President, after a
year or two of probation ; and the reports which we hear from
these School Ships are most satisfactory and heart-cheering as
to the conduct of these naval cadets, for such in fact they are.
We are therefore safe in assuming that the School Ship is one
of moral reform, inasmuch as an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of remedy; and that it is to be looked upon as relieving
our city authorities and our private citizens from taxes, and
contributing to the reformation and support of what might
otherwise become a needy or an idle population. And here we
must be permitted to pay a deserved tribute to Commodore
Ridgely, and Captain Ogden, and Lieutenant Marshall, of the
Navy Yard at Brooklyn, for their able and intelligent carrying
out of the national design in the institution of these School
Ships, an interesting incident in relation to which has just oc
curred. The U. S. sloop-of-war St. Louis, Captain French For
rest, has been rigged entirely by the apprentice boys at the
Brooklyn Navy- Yard, under the direction of Captain H. W.
Ogden, of the Hudson frigate, and the First Lieutenant, J.
Harding Marshall. The blocks are strapped, and the rigging
set up in seaman-like style, worthy of old tars. If the seed sown
already promises so well, what will be the harvest? Like the
growth of our country, it outstrips all calculation; and pro
phecy becomes fact before the doubters are awakened to a sense
of its possibility.
The merchants should regard the Home Squadron and Naval
School with peculiar interest, not only as a nursery for seamen,
but as supply vessels on our Coast in a boisterous or inclement
season of the year, as Captain Frazer, in the cutter Washington,
during the severity of the last winter, by way of testing the ad
vantage of a home squadron, cruised about five thousand miles,
from the Capes of the Delaware to Nantucket, relieving the dis
tressed and frost-bitten mariners, by supplying vessels in dis-
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32 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
tress with men and provisions. And it must be fresh in the
recollection of all, that the steam-frigate Fulton, Captain Perry,
a worthy bearer of the name, last winter saved several vessels
from total loss. One in particular, the Borodino, with a cargo
worth from forty to fifty thousand dollars, embayed among the
breakers on Rockaway beach, both masts cut away, two anchors
ahead, bay and harbour full of ice, was taken in tow, and both
vessel and cargo brought safe into port, without any expense to
the insurance companies. The Fulton has on board fifteen to
twenty apprentices bringing up for engineers, in addition to
their instructions as seamen. She is now at anchor at Butter
milk Channel, ready at the first note of danger to put to sea, and
to afford assistance to vessels in distress.
When we bear in mind the dreadful shipwrecks that occur on
our coast in the severity of winter, we will instance the ship
Bristol, and barque Mexico, for example, and that heretofore
our Insurance Companies had to send out supply vessels at their
own expense, to relieve them, and that, owing to the exertions of
one enterprising individual, and at his own expense, an object
fraught with so much national and individual advantage, which
may be briefly summed up as fostering seamen for our merchant
and naval service; as promoting the cause of sound morals; as
relieving our cities and citizens from taxations and contribu
tions ; as saving to our insurance companies tens of thousands of
dollars every winter ; it must be conceded to be the accomplish
ment of an object which the friends of good order, the man of
philanthropic feelings, the merchant, and every one connected
with trade, either as principal in the risk, or as guaranty for its
safety in the shape of an insurer, have a deep, an immediate and
an abiding interest. And all this has been accomplished by one
man, and yet no national or individual movement has been made
in his behalf. The city authorities rest quietly upon the annual
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 33
sum which his exertions are destined to save to the public cof
fers, by relieving them from the support of crime, occasioned by
idleness or want of employment; the merchant sleeps the
sounder on his pillow when the wind roars and the face of the
ocean is whitened by the storm, because he knows the Home
Squadron or the steamships are ready to interfere for the pre
servation of his property; the Presidents and Directors of the
insurance companies congratulate themselves on the increased
dividends which they will be enabled to make the coming year;
the statesman, the patriot, and the lover of his country, rejoice
in the certainty that, in a few years, an abundant supply of na
tive American seamen will be provided to man our national ves
sels hereafter to meet war, if war should come, with hearts
proud of their country, and hands nerved and strong in her de
fence; and yet, none that we have heard of have moved for any
compensation, honor, or reward to Thomas Coin, or even an
honest remuneration of his expenses out of pocket. While our
ambassadors to foreign courts, perhaps on a mere congratula
tory, or technical visit, which might be well dispensed with,
have their outfits and their infits, their privileges and their
perquisites, and never do any thing to promote the honor or to
secure the independence of their country, this man, who in
ancient times could have had a statue erected to his honor, and
in England, wealth and dignity conferred upon him, is left
wholly without any mark of national or individual approbation :
but he carries with him a proud consciousness, when he treads
our streets, when he visits our thoroughfares of business, or
when borne on the broad waters of the Hudson he surveys our
school-ships, with their barges manned with young and promis
ing native American boys, the future Perrys, Lawrences, and
Decaturs of our Navy, that this great saving of property and
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34 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
positive and prospective amount of good, has been produced by
his own unassisted exertions, under all discouragements; and if
we were asked to point out, at the moment, the greatest public
benefactor of the present day, within our knowledge, we should
unhesitatingly name Thomas Goin.
A correspondent of the Navy and Army Chronicle, under the
signature of "A Greenhorn" attacks an article in the Star on
the "Home Squadron and Naval School/ with that excess of
valor and want of discretion for which the family of the "Green
horns" have always been celebrated. Flies are an intolerable
nuisance in summer "Greenhorns" all the year round, as they
are a kind of fungus excrescence growing on the rind of intel
lect, but never penetrating the shell. Now, as we have kept our
temper through the fly season, we do not mean to be disturbed by
these fungus appearances which look something like an intellect
ual mushroom, but differ from it essentially, for the one may be
cooked and eaten, but with the other there is always "death in
the pot" "A Greenhorn" is like a toadstool, you never can make
any thing out of him : he is born, lives and dies "A Greenhorn"
If further proof is wanted of the unhappy writer belonging to
the family of Greenhorns beyond his own sign-manual to the
article in the Chronicle, let the reader consult Walker or Web
ster, and he will find the definition of Greenhorn very similar to
Justice Shallow s directions to his clerk, "write me an ass."
Again: "Greenhorn" cannot be a gentleman, for no gentleman
would acknowledge himself "a greenhorn" He cannot be a
scholar, for no scholar would choose such a signature. He can
not be a man of sense, for no sensible man is "a greenhorn." He
is therefore by his own showing, no gentleman by his own ad
mission, no scholar by the character which he assumes, a man
236
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 35
of no learning or intelligence. Why then should we do other
wise than laugh at him? Will the Navy and Army Chronicle
publish this reply to "A Greenhorn" as they published his at
tack on the Star?
[From the New-York Evening Star, of August 3, 1839.]
NAVAL SCHOOL.
This subject is deservedly attracting a great deal of attention,
and mixed with the various newspaper speculations on the sub
ject, is a great deal of misapprehension, if not error. If the pub
lic will have patience sufficient to wait for the development of
Mr. Coin s plan, they will find that it embraces active service as
well as theoretical instruction, the practice as well as the science
of navigation, as stated in our article sometime since. His
original plan embraced three Corvettes as a home or cruizing
squadron, and years ago he presented as a model that of the Eck-
ford corvette, which was given to him by Mr. Eckford, as a
mark of friendly high personal esteem and deep interest in the
object in which Mr. Coin had for years been absorbed, (the es
tablishment of school ships,) immediately preceding Mr. Eck-
ford s voyage to the East. This model may be seen in the office
of the Secretary of the Navy at Washington, and is remarkable
for the symmetry of its architecture, beautiful model, and is in
itself extremely valuable. But time and money were with Mr.
Coin no consideration, when his whole soul was engaged in the
accomplishment of his object, for his business placed before him
the great advantages which would result to the service from his
success and after expending thousands of dollars and urging
his memorial upon the proper departments for several years, he
at last had the satisfaction of carrying it triumphantly through.
But when it is recollected that the school ships are to be a per-
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36 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
manent establishment, it will be found that time is necessary to
furnish the proper craft, and that steamships and ships of the
line will answer very well for particular purposes, but light fri
gates and corvettes are to be the schools for practical seaman
ship. In the infancy of the school, in order to give the boys some
instruction in nautical science, they are very properly placed on
board receiving ships, of ships of the line, under competent
teachers of the art of navigation and in contact with old and
thorough-bred sailors ; but after having gone through the initia
tion, Mr. Coin s plan was to send 500 of these boys, well offi
cered, with a sprinkling of old tars, in a light frigate or corvette,
on a voyage to the Pacific or Mediterranean in a mild season of
the year, and to have them back for supply vessels on our coast
in the severity of winter. Thus one corvette might leave the
United States in April for the Mediterranean, another for the
Pacific, and a third might be employed in short voyages ; but as
November blasts come on, the young eagles should be found
darting homewards, and then, after being well provided with
every necessary, they should be employed as coasting or supply
vessels until the coming spring, when having distributed among
the different vessels in the United States some of the boys who
were sufficiently advanced, and received a fresh supply, these
corvettes could again leave for foreign climes, only reversing the
order of their cruise ; the one which went last year to the Medi-
terrean, goes this spring to the Pacific, and the one which re
mained at home taking a cruise to the Mediterranean. It does
seem, however, to us, that with the beneficial results which are
destined to flow from the adoption of Mr. Coin s plan, is mingled
the duty of remunerating him for his services and sacrifices;
and we shall be happy to hear that some plan has been devised
by which this end could be obtained, in a way honourable to the
individual and creditable and advantageous to the nation.
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 37
[From the New Era, of August 7th, 1839. j
THE AMERICAN MARINE.
We think, if our recollection serves us right, that it was after
Sheridan s brilliant attack on Warren Hastings, in the British
House of Commons, that Burke moved that the House adjourn,
as they were too much excited to proceed with that calm deliber
ation so necessary to attaining the end of justice ; and it has been
under something of a feeling of this kind that we have allowed
ourselves to wait until the excitement of the Naval School had in
some degree subsided, before we entered into the discussion. It
is fortunately one of great national interest, which can be freely
and frankly discussed upon its merits without the smallest polit
ical feeling, although it may not be amiss to mention, that from
the first moment of its suggestion by Mr. Coin, it received the
warm approbation of General Jackson, and his efficient aid in
carrying it through, and he always asserted that with Mr. Coin
rested the merit of its origination, and to him the nation was
indebted for whatever of good should ultimately flow from it.
These feelings we know are entertained by Mr. Van Buren, and
that the present Secretary of the Navy is a warm friend of the
Naval School apprenticeship system.
Few men have had greater opportunity of observation on the
deficiency of the American Marine, than Mr. Goin. His busi
ness for the last twenty years, as a notary and shipper of sea
men, brought the fact constantly before him that our navy was
principally manned by foreigners, and of the crews shipped for
our vessels of war not one out of ten, on an average, were Ameri
can seamen. It was idle to search for the cause, unless you as
certained at the same time how you could apply a remedy. Mr.
Goin did not stop to canvass conflicting opinions, but his active
mind at once suggested a remedy, and his determined and ener-
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38 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
getic spirit never rested until that remedy was applied. We
have long been aware of the fact that he was endeavoring to
have the subject of the Naval Apprenticeship System acted upon
in Congress. To this our representatives bear ample testimony,
and under doubts, fears, misapprehensions, discouragements,
and delays, Mr. Coin has persisted, year after year, in urging
his project upon Congress, until at last he has carried his ob
ject.
Capt. Marryat, in his "Diary/ furnishes some useful statis
tics to show the immense disproportion between the American
and British seamen employed in our merchant service.
His experience in nautical affairs perhaps renders him better
qualified to animadvert upon this important subject, than to dis
cuss the propriety of American Provincialisms or manners. His
opportunities of inquiry during his stay in this country were,
according to his own account, all that he could have desired, and
the sources whence he derived his information to be relied upon.
The whole number of seamen employed in the foreign trade
and whale fishery, whence the Government Navy must derive its
additional supplies in time of war, he puts down at thirty-five
thousand three hundred and three, of whom more than twenty-
four thousand are British seamen, with a slight intermixture of
Danes and Swedes. These he alleges to be the very flower of the
English Marine, and deplores the British policy of slow vessels
and low wages, which compels her not only to raise seamen for
her own navy, but also for ours, and to give us the refusal of her
prime and best seamen, because our fast sailing vessels and high
rates enable us to outbid her without loss to ourselves. He de
duces from this that, in proportion as the commerce and ship
ping of America shall increase, the demand upon her will be
come more onerous, and that in case of war, should she fail in
producing the number of seamen necessary for both services,
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 39
ours will always be full manned, whilst the deficit must fall up
on her. A refusal on the part of English sailors to fight against
their own fathers and brothers, he does not deem within the
range of probability, of whom he says "there is no character so
devoid of principle as a British sailor and soldier. 9> Many in
stances, however, occurred during the last war disproving this.
The Captain himself is a British sailor ! But if we are to take
this character of British seamen as given by the hand of a mas
ter, what dependence is to be placed upon the hired service of
unprincipled mercenaries, who will fight for or against their
own country, according to the amount of pay they are to receive?
From the Report of Mr. Reade, of Massachusetts, as Chair
man of the Naval Committee of Congress, it appears that at the
time his report was written, of one hundred and nine thousand
seamen employed in our National service, only nine thousand
were Americans. By these data it would indeed appear that
both the national and merchant service are deplorably deficient
of that reliable strength which has become absolutely necessary
for defence and attack in the modern system of warfare. If the
character which Captain M. has given of the English sailor be
deserved, every future contest between the two countries must
be decided in favor of the highest bidder, unless we take effectual
measures to furnish our vessels of war with an adequate supply
of American seamen : men whose hearts will throb at the name
of country, who will strike home for freedom, and who will shed
the last drop of their blood to sustain their star-spangled banner
victorious over its foes.
We find then, the reports of the American Congress, and the
statements of foreigners, all converging to one point, the great
disparity of American seamen in our service; and we feel our
hearts warm and our bosoms throb, when we look to the home
squadron and the Naval School, as destined to wipe away that
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40 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
reproach hereafter, and render the United States dependent on
the valor of her own seamen, for the support of her naval reputa
tion. Nor, as it has been well observed by some of our contem
poraries, is the Naval School only to be regarded in a national
point of view it commends itself to our philanthropy and to
our interests as well as our national pride and love of country
to the merchant and all interested in trade, whether as princi
pals or insurers, and to all who feel an interest in the promotion
of the cause of education, and the prevention of pauperism and
crime. To the patriot and statesman, our Naval School system
is one of great hope and prospective good. Its projector and suc
cessfully persevering advocate is entitled to the warm and en
during gratitude of the people, as a national benefactor.
[From the New- York Sunday Morning News.]
THOMAS COIN.
It is with unfeigned pleasure that we refer to this individual,
so well known to our fellow citizens for the last twenty years as
one of our most active, intelligent and enterprising notaries, the
senior of the house of Goin, Poole & Pentz, and now so favorably
and so prominently placed before the public as the originator
and founder of the National Naval School an institution des
tined to give efficiency to our navy, and to hand down his name
with credit to posterity. In this school, if we understand the
subject right, boys are taken as naval apprentices, and brought
up in the strictness of naval discipline, a good education given
them, and the excitement of an honest and honourable ambition
applied to them to signalize themselves in their country s ser
vice. In our country we know of no fictitious distinctions, and
the son of a farmer or a cartman, entered as a naval apprentice
or cadet, will have the same opportunity for future distinction
as the son of the President of the United States. Many boys who
242
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 41
would otherwise grow up in idleness, or worse than idleness, in
vice, simply for want of encouragement and proper direction, by
entering the naval school will have an opportunity of the fairest
and most animating description for a profitable and honourable
future career; and for ourselves, we rejoice at every opportunity
afforded to the young and destitute for escaping from the seduc
tions of vice by which they are as it were hedged round and sur
rounded in a crowded city, their principles sapped by contamin
ation, and their active minds given up to the pursuits of error,
mainly because the avenues to a virtuous, respectable, and use
ful life are closed against them. We agree fully with our con
temporaries, that this school is destined to exert a great moral
bearing on the rising generation. Ten thousand boys or young
men may annually be taken from our population, as naval ap
prentices, and be made good and useful citizens placed in a
situation where they may run a career of honour with a naval
chivalry of other nations, and those who are left behind be
benefitted by the abstraction, until in the course of a few years
our navy will be principally manned by ardent and well-in
structed Americans, who, in the language of Lawrence, will
"never give up the ship"; and until this is done, we can never
say with Perry, "We have met the enemy and they are ours";
for the reproach will always be thrown in our teeth, "You have
beaten us, it is true but you have beaten us with our own men ;
it has not been a national trial of man for man, and gun for gun,
but of treachery and desertion." We will put a case which we
think will come home. Our ships of war go to sea, we will say,
with 900 foreigners to 100 Americans aboard. Do you think
that the captain of a British man-of-war (supposing such a
thing possible, which it is not,) would contend against an
American man-of-war if his crew were nine to one Americans?
Would he not be afraid, that as soon as the stripes and stars
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42 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
waved before them, the flag of old England would be lowered,
and the ship which he commanded would be surrendered with
out the firing of a gun? Would he dare to appear off any of our
seaports, lest his crew would take the matter into their own
hands, and while he found himself a prisoner of war, would
laugh at his folly in supposing that they would ever lend them
selves to national dishonour?
We know it has become fashionable in some quarters to abuse
seamen ; and Captain Marryat has the unenviable credit of hav
ing denounced British seamen (his countrymen and fellow ship
mates) as unprincipled vagabonds: but the reproach is not de
served. There is at the bottom of the seaman s heart a deep and
unwavering patriotic feeling, which the sight of the national
flag will call into action, however reckless may be his general
character. The opponents, therefore, of our naval school, if
such there be, are on the horns of a dilemma. If they are good
seamen, and honest men, they will not fight against their coun
try. If they are not such, they are precisely the men we do not
want; and the most conclusive part of the argument in favor of
the naval school is, the feasibility and ease with which it may be
carried out to any extent.
To our insurance companies the naval school should be an ob
ject of great interest, as supply vessels on our coast in the sever
ity of winter, saving them thousands and tens of thousands of
dollars annually: and all this has been accomplished by the
patriotic zeal and activity of one enterprising individual, who
has devoted years to urging it upon the General Government,
and has attended Congress session after session, at an expense
of several thousand dollars of his private funds, until at last the
object of his thoughts by day and dreams by night, has received
the national sanction, and become a permanent establishment.
It is also most gratifying to see that the Secretary of the Navy
244
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 43
takes a deep interest in the naval school, and that his strong and
well directed mind has realized the great aid which Mr. Goin s
plan of naval education is destined to give to that arm of the
national defence. Standing armies are objectionable in many
points of view ; but, commercial as is the spirit of our people
extended as our trade is to every portion of the globe, calling at
the most distant parts for the protection of our national flag
exposed as is our coast we cannot have too many of our wooden
walls, and they cannot be too thoroughly manned by those who
were born under the national standard, and to whom we may
commit it with the perfect confidence that it will never be furled
in dishonor.
NAVAL APPRENTICE BOYS.
These little fellows have had a chance of serving their coun
try in a naval feat of some importance. Almost all the crew of
Captain Gedney s surveying brig the Washington, that captured
the piratical schooner, are boys. [New- York Star.]
[From the Baltimore American.]
WEST POINT ACADEMY.
The Army and Navy Chronicle of the 4th inst. contains the
Report of the Visitors of the Military Academy at West Point.
The document is drawn up with care, and evinces an elaborate
discharge of the duties assigned to the members of the Board.
After setting forth in a general way the propriety on the part of
the Government of having an institution at which persons in
tended for the military service of the country shall be fitted for
the performance of their important duties, the Report goes on to
suggest such alterations and additions as seem advisable.
With reference to the principles upon which candidates are
admitted, the Board express themselves in terms of approba-
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44 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
tion, and at the same time state that so far as they are informed,
no complaints have arisen on the score of classification of Ca
dets. The regulations established in regard to the time of resi
dence at the Academy and subsequent service during four years
in the Army, also received the commendation of the Visitors as
calculated to ensure a thorough education, and at the same time
deter persons who do not intend to pursue a military career
throughout life from availing themselves of the facilities of the
establishment.
Without deeming it necessary to notice each branch of study
particularly, the Visitors express warmly their approbation of
that feature of the Academy which requires a register of the
conduct of the pupils to be kept, an abstract of which is for
warded to Washington at the end of each month, and is thence
sent to the parents and guardians of the Cadets. In examining
into the police and discipline of the institution, the Board have
formed the opinion that they are salutary in their character,
and properly enforced. Increased attention to the study of
Geology and Mineralogy is strongly recommended. The library
of the institution is said to be excellent and extensive, including
upwards of ten thousand volumes.
The Board speak in terms of the warmest approval of the
views of the commanding officer, Major Delafield, and the man
ner in which he has administered his important trust. It is but
justice to give the opinion of the Visitors in the language of the
Report, which says :
"The multifarious, responsible, and highly important duties
of the superintendent of the Academy require a superior order
of qualifications in the individual selected for this distinguished
station. The comprehensive views, the rigid and unbending im
partiality, blended with a due share of paternal solicitude, all
which are indispensable to the full and adequate discharge of his
246
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 45
elevated trust, are, in our judgment, conspicuous in the charac
ter and conduct of the present commandant of the post."
It may not be out of place here to remark, that whatever ad
vantages and it will be admitted by all that they are very great
may accrue from the institution above mentioned, they are in
no way superior to those which may be expected from the estab
lishment of Naval Schools.
If it be proper to fit men for military command at home, it is
certainly not less so to prepare for the naval profession those
who are to represent our country in distant climes. On the con
trary, the obligation to educate our seamen appears to us the
more binding, inasmuch as in the pursuit of their profession
they must of necessity be deprived of the opportunity of self -im
provement in after-life.
To them it is all important to acquire knowledge early, be
cause the nature of their employment is such as to separate
them from the society of their fellow men, and throw them upon
their own resources. It must not be supposed that we would in
the slightest degree detract from the claims of the Military Aca
demy, which has always possessed our best wishes for its pros
perity, and must continue to enjoy them so long as it is con
ducted as it has been, but we should be gratified to see the two
great arms of defence equally cherished and sustained by the
nation.
[From the New- York Transcript.]
NAVAL APPRENTICES.
This system is attracting very general attention from the
Press, and we are pleased and gratified to learn that the Secre
tary of the Navy is so well convinced of its benefits and useful
ness, that, in addition to the North Carolina line-of -battle-ship,
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46 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
moored in our harbor, as the school ship here, he has ordered the
Columbus to Boston for the same use.
Something of the kind has long been wanted, and the almost
universal commendation bestowed on the present system evinces
that it is the plan which was needed. It not only is the means of
furnishing our navy with excellent and capable seamen, but it
takes very many boys from a course of idleness and crime, and
places them in a situation of interest and respectability. There
are thousands of boys in this city alone who spend their days and
nights around the wharves in petty thieving, or become the
hangers-on of some favorite engine, and who, after generally a
brief career in this initiatory step, become the occupants of the
House of Refuge, or a prison.
They receive a good plain English education, and are in
structed in the theory and practice of seamanship. Being early
brought together, and looking to the United States service, not
as is generally the case, as a dernier ressort, but as the avenue to
usefulness and station, they have an esprit de corps, which has
been a desideratum much desired in the service.
The number of boys is constantly increasing, and is now about
five hundred* it should be five thousand; and if the facts were
widely disseminated we have no doubt it would be so increased.
In addition to the education, the boys receive good sailors cloth
ing and food, and the same medical attendance as is furnished
to officers and men.
We know of no institution originating during the last ten
years, replete as the time has been with schemes and theories
tending to disseminate good and check the prevalence of vice and
evil, better calculated to unite practical good with theoretical
philosophy, than the Apprentice System. Its author and active
*Now about 2000.
248
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 47
supporter, we are informed, is Mr. THOMAS COIN, of this city,
a Notary and Shipping Broker.
[From the New York Herald.]
THE NAVAL SCHOOL.
The most interesting part of the celebration on Wednesday
was the procession of the naval students from Brooklyn. This
valuable institution has been but a few months established, and
already contains one hundred boys, who are instructed in every
branch of science and seamanship, under the tuition of com
petent teachers. It was urged upon the attention of Congress
several years ago, by our enterprising fellow citizen, Mr.
Thomas Coin, and passed through the United States Senate, but
was laid on the table in the other House, in consequence of the
"panic" of 1832, which seemed to suspend every thing like enter
prise in the country. The school, however, has at length re
ceived the sanction of Congress, and is now in the full tide of
successful experiment.
Unlike the candidates for admission to that rank, aristocratic,
and anti-republican military seminary at West Point, the appli
cants to this institution are received without reference to rank
in society, or the influence of politician. The son of every
American citizen is eligible at the naval school, and the preten
sions of the humblest individual in the community, provided he
comes with a character of integrity and industry, are recognized
and encouraged.
These lads, the youngest of whom are not over the age of thir
teen, joined in the procession commemorative of this country s
freedom, and were universally admired, both for their appear
ance and their general good conduct during the day. They were
accompanied by their teacher, Geo. T. Page, and Lieutenant
Woodhull, U. S. N. They were, by special invitation of the
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48 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
Mayor, present at the review, upon the balcony of the City Hall,
and, at a signal from the flag beam they simultaneously sprung
upon the top of the balustrades, and waving the star-spangled
banner, gave nine hearty cheers, in real man-of-war style, with
the alacity of foretopmen. The enthusiasm of the young tars
elicited a shout from the surrounding multitude, which was gal-
lanty returned by the round jackets. Success to the young
heroes the future commodores and commanders of our gal
lant navy.
SCARCITY OF SEAMEN.
The Boston Mercantile says: "The scarcity of seamen in the
naval service is getting to be an evil of magnitude. The Consti
tution is still detained at New- York for want of fifty able sea
men, and the Concord has been lying at the Charleston navy
yard for months, fitted for sea, and detained, doubtless, merely
in consquence of the impossibility of procuring a crew. Other
sloops-of-war, in other ports, are detained for the same reason."
For years past great difficulty has been experienced in supply
ing our vessels of war with seamen, in consequence of the better
wages offered in the merchant service. The British Government
have experienced yet greater difficulties, from the wages in their
merchant service being on an average somewhat lower than in
ours, and the pay in their marine so small that, according to the
statement of Capt. Marryat and others, British seamen, allured
by the great advantages offered in our country, constitute the
bulk of the crews of our vessels, both of the merchant and naval
service. Great Britain, however, will have every year less and
less to apprehend from this drain than we ourselves shall have,
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 49
from the difficulties of procuring seamen for our Navy increas
ing with the rapid increase thereof, and the more extended and
prosperous condition of our commerce. Now, it is obvious that
some means must be devised to supply this deficiency, and that
we cannot look to any relief from a prospect of an increase of
pay, as that must, in the course of time, from the augmentation
of our marine, necessarily undergo a corresponding reduction.
Common sense and the necessity of the case have pointed out a
mode of supplying this desideratum. The subject has been for
some time discussed in the public prints, and attracted the at
tention of Congress; and public opinion has settled down into
the recommendation of the employment of boys in the Navy, to
be brought up therein as in a school. It is proposed that the
Government guarantee to them such an education as will render
them adapted both for the ordinary duties of seamen and of
petty officers, with the prospect of rising by their merit from
this naval seminary, which our vessels will possess within them
selves, to the highest command and rank in their profession.
The experiment, in fact, has been already commenced, under an
act of Congress recently passed ; and we have, we believe, in all
our receiving ships a large number. In that of the navy yard of
this port there are, we believe, some two hundred boys, who are
many of them of respectable families, and all of whom have
passed through a certain preliminary examination as to their
fitness and qualifications, intellectually and morally, to be ad
mitted to the privilege of being in this service, now already be
ginning to be esteemed as one of the most eligible to which par
ents can send their children. Congress should immediately en
large the provisions of the law, so as to embrace a number of
from ten to fifteen thousand pu.pils, thus to have the resources of
a supply of seamen abundant and at hand. We have had occa
sion several times to witness the advantages of this system, even
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50 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
in its present state of infancy. The boys are brought up in the
rudiments of an excellent naval education, and kept in admira
ble discipline, costumed in neat sailor dress, and daily drilled on
ship-board, at the boats, rigging, &c., so as to become intimately
conversant, from their boyhood, with all the practical duties of
their profession, while they are acquiring an excellent education
in all the most useful branches of knowledge, and of the sciences
immediately connected with the life they are to follow. These
schools, in fact, are manual labor colleges afloat in the Navy,
and we know, from conversing with many naval officers, that
their introduction is deemed one of the most important reforms
ever attempted for the preservation of that right arm of our de
fence, which must ever constitute the glory of a commercial
people.
While on this subject, so vitally connected with the existence
of our Republic, we notice in the paper already cited the follow
ing remarks :
"According to the present rules of the service, no sugar, cof
fee or tea, usually denominated by seamen small stores/ are al
lowed by the Government. These little comforts are considered
not merely luxuries, but necessaries, by almost every seaman,
and are purchased of the Purser out of their hard-earned
wages."
This is peculiarly hard, and we cannot discover the motive of
this abolition of an excellent usage, except in the evidently un
friendly feelings which have existed on the part of the present
Administration towards this branch of our service. It is, or
certainly has been, very obviously the intention of the policy of
our present rulers to retard if possible, the growth of a service
which, by the high principles that must govern those employed
in it, and by its being placed, as it were, beyond the reach of
party control, must in a measure be a dead weight upon the
252
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 51
hands of those who would desire to convert it into a political
machine. But we will not at present discourse on this topic,
feeling assured that the country, without reference to party
feeling, will take good care that the Navy, the most cherished
jewel in our possession, shall never be tarnished in its lustre, nor
want protectors.*
[From the New York Herald.]
Among the most interesting spectacles will be the procession
of the boys attached to the Government Naval School. This is a
new institution, a sort of naval West Point, for the education of
sailors. The plan has been for a long time urged upon govern
ment by Mr. Thomas Goin, of this city, to whose unremitting ex
ertions the community is chiefly indebted for its present estab
lishment. The boys will leave the United States frigate Hud
son, at the Navy Yard, at 9, and land at Castle Garden at 10
o clock A. M., from whence they will proceed to the City Hall,
and be present at the review. The lads, about 90 in number, are
from 13 to 16 years of age, and will be dressed in Navy uniform.
[From the New York American.}
Decidedly the most interesting object we witnessed yesterday,
was a procession of one hundred boys belonging to the United
States Naval School at Brooklyn. They marched in double files
through the streets, in charge of a Midshipman, to the Mayor s
Office at the City Hall. The young Jack Tars were uniformly
dressed in blue jackets, white trowsers, and blue and white shirt
collars turned over the neck, and neat tarpaulin hats. They
were sprightly and pretty boys without a single exception, and
will, we doubt not, make glorious American seamen we dare
* The omission to preserve the name of the paper from which this article was taken, was
unintentional.
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52 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
say officers, for this is the very material from which our Naval
Officers should be taken. We understand that most of these
lads belong to some of our most respectable families ; but we sin
cerely hope the Apprentice System in the Navy will be encour
aged and extended as it deserves, and the Navy hereafter be
principally manned by men brought up to seamanship from the
start.
[From the New York Herald.]
THE SHAM FIGHT, AND THE NAVAL SCHOOL.
There is to be a sham fight on Thursday, and the Commodore
of the Navy Yard and the officers, and the Mayor and Corpora
tion and other dignitaries, are to be there. Very good ! Now then,
what else? Why this : "Utile et dulci" is our motto. Let good
spring out of pleasure. And no move could be made so benefi
cial, as to invite the "seamen boys" of the New- York Naval
School to witness the manoeuvres of the French seamen. This is
a suggestion of our friend Tom Goin, the founder of the school.
This suggestion, we think, demands the respectful attention of
the French commander, the Mayor, and the powers that be. We
expect to see the boys at the sham fight; and shall think that the
spectacle will be incomplete unless the boys are present.
254
THE HOME SQUADRON! WHERE IS IT? THE AMERI
CAN BOYS NAVAL SCHOOL! HOW DOES IT PRO
GRESS?
These are very simple but very important queries. It is now
three years back since we first called public attention to this
subject; it is more than ten years back since Mr. Goin of this city
first called the attention of the government to it. But up to this
hour very little has been done by the government towards per
fecting a system, the most important in its results, that ever
was broached in this country.
What has given the United States its prominent position up
on the page of history but her unrivalled enterprise in foreign
commerce? To her merchants her merchant service the sea
men in that service and by means of that service, her extensive
and unrivalled commercial transactions with foreign nations,
the United States of America owes her present power and emin
ence. But unless more attention is paid by the government to
the Naval School system already established in this Navy Yard,
we must fall behind all other nations instead of preceding them.
If ever a home squadron was wanted on our coast, it is now.
Our harbors and bays are now filled with ice ships, brigs and
schooners in abundance are now off our coast, unable to enter
their destined haven from the severity of the weather, their
seamen worn out by fatigue, in sight of their homes, and anx
ious to embrace their wives, to bless their children, are destined
perhaps to a doom similar to the seamen of the Bristol and the
Mexico, because we have no home squadron.
And why is this? The Home Squadron Bill passed both
Houses last winter, and yet it is not acted upon. The never-to-
be-forgotten Henry Eckford presented Mr. Thomas Goin with a
model of that beautiful corvette, the United States, before he
went to the Mediterranean ; this model Mr. Goin presented to the
255
54 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
Secretary of the Navy, and it can now be seen at Washington,
over Mr. Paulding s private desk. For this model, $40,000 was
offered;* it was intended by Mr. Goin as a model for corvettes
for the Home Squadron, to be manned solely by seamen trained
in our Naval Schools. From these corvettes, all vessels arriv
ing on our coast in the winter might be supplied, and many valu
able lives and much property might be saved. These vessels,
manned solely by our own tars, might be used also for despatch
vessels, and many other purposes.
Under these circumstances, therefore, we ask, can there be a
more important subject brought before Congress? Decidedly
not! It is a fact, that out of 38,564 seamen shipped out of this
port last year, not two thousand were Americans. Is not this
fact disgraceful? In the New York rendezvous 940 seamen
were shipped for the United States service; of these 162 only
were Americans. Out of 800 seamen on board the Ohio, not 100
were native Americans! These facts are startling but true.
And the Delaware 74 put to sea with a less proportion of native
seamen than the Ohio. And yet, by the laws of the United
States, no government vessel can go to sea with less than two-
thirds of her crew native seamen.
Here then is a glorious subject for the true patriot the phil
anthropist the lover of his country, to display his abilities.
Who will bring the subject before Congress and see that it is
fully acted upon? A citizen of New York one of her best and
noblest Henry Eckfordf began the movement his mantle
This $40,000 was offered to Mr. Eckford, and refused. He presented it to Mr. Goin as
a model for his naval school ships, and Goin refused $2700 from an English Agent, as he
was determined to present it to his country as a model for his school ships, and it is now to
be be seen in the office of the Secretary of the Navy at Washington, and is universally ad
mired for the beauty and symmetry of its architecture.
t This is an error Mr. Eckford did not begin the movement, but very patriotically and
liberally he presented to Mr .Goin the model of his beautiful corvette, as one on which the
school ships should be built.
256
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 55
descended on his friend Mr. Coin; this gentleman has spent
many months of time and some thousands of dollars to bring
the naval school to perfection ; he has succeeded partly, but much
remains to be done.
We want American seamen! we want thousands of them.
With the tremendous disproportion of foreigners that we have
named, still there is a deficiency of able seamen in our ports:
putting French, English, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Portuguese
and Spanish together, still we have not seamen enough to
man our merchant vessels. And this evil, and this alone,
caused the late disastrous war; and in the event of another
war, would be attended with still more disastrous results.
How is it to be remedied? Easily. By establishing
naval schools in all our principal sea-ports; have re
ceiving ships for the boys, like the Hudson frigate in our Navy
Yard let them be taught the rudiments of all that is necessary
to make sailors of them then provide school ships, corvettes,
and a home squadron, to perfect the boys thus trained; and in
five years every American man-of-war and merchantman might
be manned wholly with American seamen. This would be a de
sirable state of things, and its beneficial results would be incal
culable. Five years would effect this, and yet for ten years past
Mr. Goin has annually been at Washington, endeavoring to get
his plan put in full operation, without the desired effect. Who is
there to come forward and see it carried to perfection? It con
cerns not alone one branch of the country it concerns all
classes; the President the cabinet members of Congress
agriculturists manufacturers merchants insurance com
panies in particular and the parents of all hearty boys.
Something has been done a nucleus has been formed. A
naval school is now in operation on a small scale on board the
Hudson, in our Navy Yard. About 120 boys are there, under
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56 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
the supervision of the excellent Captain, and Lieut. Mitchell.
So far as government has delegated the power to them, they
have carried out the plan; they have taught the boys to reef,
splice, strap blocks, &c., almost equal to old seamen. In short,
the Boys Naval School on board the Hudson is a little world of
wonders, and ought to be visited by every member of Congress,
legislator, and lover of his country. It has but to be seen to be
admired.
We have done for to-day, but we have not left the subject.
Hundreds, of boys are strolling idly through our streets hun
dreds more are begging and stealing we continually see cases
of magistrates committing boys to the House of Refuge and to
prison. Out upon such mock morality and reformation! Let
every citizen lend all his energies to train American boys for the
American Navy let them, like us, determine never to let the
subject rest till they see every Navy Yard in the country sup
plied with 2000 or 3000 active hearty boys, to man our ships;
and then, not till then, can we point proudly to the Star-
Spangled Banner, and as proudly exclaim :
Flag of our country ! in thy folds
Are wrapped the treasures of the heart;
Where er thy waving sheet is fanned
By breezes of the sea or land,
It bids the life-blood start.
THE NAVAL SCHOOL.
We do not claim the merit of the invention of the plan; far
from it, for that belongs to Mr. Thomas Coin, of this city; who
single handed, unaided, unassisted, at his own expense, fought
his way through innumerable difficulties, until he obtained the
passage of a law by Congress to establish a Home Squadron and
258
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 57
a Naval School in every Navy Yard in the United States. After
this but little was done, till we roused the dormant energies of
the government by a series of articles on the subject, and since
then we have the gratification of finding that there is a Naval
School, for boys, in successful operation in the principal ports of
this country. Already about 2,000 boys are receiving an educa
tion sufficient to make them competent seamen in three or four
years, and in less than two years we hope to find at least 20,000
boys similarly situated. We shall never leave this subject until
we see the honors and tribute paid to the founder, where it is
due, and our Navy manned solely by American seamen.
[From the New York American.]
NAVAL APPRENTICES.
It is now a little more than two years since the law authoriz
ing the enlistment of apprentices in the naval service was pass
ed, since which about five hundred have been enlisted, and
placed on board the three large receiving ships, at Norfolk, New
York, and Boston. Two hundred and ninety of these have been
received on board the Hudson at New York, and instructed in all
the branches of a plain English education, and all that relates to
a seaman s profession. Two hundred and four of them have
been transferred to different seagoing vessels, and from the fav
ourable reports received from several of the commanders under
whom they are serving, there is every reason to be satisfied with
the experiment thus far; and now that a more regular and gen
eral system is to be instituted for the government of all the re
ceiving ships, growing out of the course pursued on board the
Hudson, it is to be hoped that much greater advantages may be
realized.
Since the arrival of the North Carolina, a ship of the line, she
has been converted into the receiving ship on this station, and
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58 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
placed under the command of Captain John Gallagher, an intel
ligent officer and seaman, who it is believed feels great interest
in the apprentice system as indeed every intelligent officer
must, and will do all in his power to carry out the object of the
law, on the plans of his predecessor, which have met with the ap
probation of the Navy Department. The course of instruction
and management of the boys, on this station, has become so well
established, that, like the general discipline of the service, it
would be more difficult to do away with than to continue it;
therefore the officer under whose command it may fall into dis
use, will incur great and well-merited censure. Of this, how
ever, we have no apprehension, as the good conduct of the boys
themselves has created an interest among the officers, which will
increase rather than diminish.
On the President s recent visit to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, he
was conducted on board the Hudson, where the apprentices were
ranged in a line on the gun deck, eighty-six in number, all
dressed in their sailor uniform, viz. : white shirts and trowsers,
trimmed with blue nankeen, blue jackets, with a white anchor
on the right sleeve, and black tarpaulin hats, with broad flowing
ribands, &c.
As soon as the President had cast his eye along the line, he re
marked to Commodore Ridgely that he had not seen so gratify
ing a sight for a long time. He made very particular inquiries
as to the manner of instructing the boys, and manifested great
interest in the system of thus preparing young Americans for
the naval service of their country.
It was only a few minutes previously to this that they had
manned the yards at the reception of the President at the Navy
Yard, and presented an appearance worthy of the best disci
plined crew in the service. These boys have since been trans
ferred from the Hudson to the North Carolina, she being
260
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 59
moored under the Brooklyn heights, or at the naval anchorage,
as it is now called, where their education will be continued; but
with regard to the daily practice of seamanship, such as reefing
and furling, bending and unbending the sails, sending up and
down topgallant yards, &c., we fear that the yards and sails of
so large a ship will be found unmanageable by youths between
thirteen and sixteen years of age. The Hudson was lightly
fitted with the masts, spars, and sails of a sloop-of-war, which
brought every thing within their strength, and they very soon
became expert in the management of them ; but the North Caro
lina is too large a scale for a school of practical instruction to
boys so young.
If this plan of receiving ships is to be persevered in a plan,
by the by, which, without adequate results, will cost the Govern
ment more money than an actively cruising Home Squadron
there should be connected with them a small vessel, such as the
brig Washington or Dolphin, to be manned during the favour
able season by apprentices, under the direction of efficient offi
cers and petty officers, as instructors. This vessel should cruize
along the coast between Boston and Norfolk, which would teach
the boys all that relates to their profession ; and by occasionally
touching in, and communicating with the different receiving
ships, the best boys could be transferred as required for sea
going ships, and those last enlisted received on board the brig
for instruction. From the deep interest which we perceive Mr.
Paulding feels in the apprentice system, and the attention he has
already bestowed on it, we doubt not that some such plan will be
adopted, as soon as a small vessel can be spared for the purpose;
but in consequence of the appropriation for building five small
vessels having failed for want of time at the last session of Con
gress, there are not at present a sufficient number for the wants
of the service. There are however, four new sloops of war, of a
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60 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
small class, recently launched, which cannot be immediately em
ployed, for want of seamen. Would it not be well to employ at
least one of these, in a manner which would assist in remedying
this difficulty, rather than to let her lie useless at the dock? Not
a dollar would be added to the present expense, as both boys and
officers receive the pay, whether thus employed or where they
now are.
OUR REVENUE CUTTERS RELIEF TO MERCHANT
VESSELS.
We were informed some time since that no U. S. vessel but the
cutter brig Washington was cruising off the coast to relieve mer
chant vessels at the present perilous period, and the following
letter from Captain Fraser confirms this statement:
To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD,
SIR, It was with much surprise I saw a paragraph in your
paper of this morning, asking why the U. S. Revenue brig
Washington under my command, was at Newport, and myself in
New- York, when my presence was so much needed upon the
coast. I would inform you that the Washington is the only ves
sel employed upon the coast this winter, and since the cruizing
commenced she has been at sea on the coast fifty days, and it will
be perceived by the public prints the Herald as well as others
that she has been spoken repeatedly, in every situation, be
tween Block Island and the Capes of Virginia. My supplies
having been expended, and some of my men, who were put on
board the schooner Samuel L. Southard, the crew of which ves
sel were frozen, having arrived here, it became necessary to
touch at some port for men and provisions. The harbor of New
port being accessible at all times, I made that port. Not having
authority to procure supplies or money at any other place than
262
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 61
New York, I came here for that purpose.
ALEXANDER V. FRASER,
Lieut. Com g. U. S. Revenue Brig Washington.
New- York, Feb. 8, 1839.
Lieut. Fraser need express no surprise that we asked the
question; it was our duty to ask it it was due to the merchants
of this city to those who support the Government and pay the
expenses of the navy, to know why the only cruiser allowed by
Government was in port. The Lieutenant renders a reason
his supplies were expended. This is sufficient, as far as he is
concerned ; but it is not sufficient as far as the Secretary of the
Navy is concerned. It is his duty to have cruisers on the coast;
and we hope a meeting of our merchants will be called instantly
to petition Congress to remedy the evil. There is at this moment
not one government vessel on the coast to relieve our merchant
men. Out of eighteen revenue cutters, only the Washington is
fit to cruize on our coast. What a miserable state of things!
We are pleased to learn that Lieut. Fraser is not only free from
blame, but that he has amply done his duty; he has been at sea
fifty-three days, and has cruised nearly five thousand miles, and
was appointed on his own application. But still we must ask
the question, why there is no other vessel on the coast? This
state of things must be remedied. What member of Congress
will take this matter in hand and immortalize himself?
[From the Baltimore American, July, 1839.]
From a well written communication in the New- York Ameri
can we are happy to learn that about five hundred youths have
been enlisted since the passage of the law authorizing the em
ployment of apprentices in the naval service of the Government.
Of these, two hundred and ninety have been received on board
of the Hudson, at New- York, and instructed in all the branches
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62 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
of an English education, and two hundred and four of this num
ber have been put on board of sea-going vessels. The best re
ports have been received from the several commanders under
whose charge they were placed, and every thing is calculated to
induce the belief that the system will succeed to admiration.
Two courses were open for adoption with reference to the mode
in which these youths were to be instructed; the one proposed
the employment of them on board of the Home Squadron ; by the
other, receiving ships were to be established, in which the
schools should be kept. This latter course has, it seems, been
preferred, and since her return from sea, the North Carolina 74
has been placed at the naval anchorage, near Brooklyn. This
noble ship is under the command of Captain John Gallagher, an
officer distinguished for his qualities as a disciplinarian and
seaman, and noted for his bravery during the last war. As
Marylanders, we are pleased to see the selection, knowing as we
do the zeal which this excellent officer, who is a native of our own
State, will carry into the undertaking with which he is charged.
The lads at Brooklyn were paraded on the gun deck of the North
Carolina at the time of the President s late visit to that station,
and attracted his attention by the neatness of their appearance,
dressed in their uniform, which it appears consists of a white
shirt, collar bound with blue nankeen, blue jacket, white trow-
sers, and black tarpaulin, with broad ribbons streaming to the
wind. Thus has been commenced under favorable auspices a
system which, if properly carried out, cannot fail to furnish the
American Navy with a material not equalled for intelligence
and honorable motive in the world beside. Under such guar
dianship the stripes and stars must float triumphantly where-
ever honor calls and national right invokes. We say All hail
to the young Blue Jackets ! The more, the merrier.
[From the Army and Navy Chronicle.]
The causes of the scarcity of native American seamen may be
variously accounted for, and by every one perhaps satisfac-
264
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 63
torily, according to his own notions. An experienced and in
telligent officer of our Navy has given it as his decided opinion
that one of the leading causes, if not the greatest, is the exist
ence of a law of Congress, designed for the protection of Ameri
can seamen, but which in its operation has a contrary effect. By
our laws as now in force, the captain of every merchantman, be
fore sailing, gives bonds for the faithful return or satisfactory
account of every American seaman he takes with him ; but he is
not called to account for the foreigners who compose a greater
or less proportion of his crew ; consequently it is an object with
him to ship foreign in preference to American seamen, because
when he arrives at a foreign port he may discharge them to save
expense, if his vessel be detained any length of time, and ship
others when ready for sea.
OUR NAVY THE MERCHANT SERVICE THE NAVAL
SCHOOL SYSTEM.
It is a remarkable, but a lamentable fact, that out of thirty
thousand seamen that navigate the mercantile vessels of this
port, only nine thousand are natives of the United States. The
five individuals arrested on board La Duchesse d Orleans
on Tuesday morning by the energy and activity of Mr. Goin,
were all foreigners. Mr. G. has spent a great deal of time and
some thousands of dollars in endeavoring to convince the Gov
ernment of the necessity of some action for the purpose of estab
lishing a Naval School, and yet they have done comparatively
nothing to effect so desirable an object. If we doubt the success
of the scheme, let us look at the example of England. Not only
is every shipmaster compelled to take a number of boys as ap
prentices, in proportion to the tonnage of the vessel he com
mands, but the merchants of London have established a Marine
society, having for its object the taking of friendless lads from
the streets, and educating them to be seamen. This society has
265
64 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
a large ship always stationed at Deptford, where these boys are
received and instructed in the rudiments of the naval profes
sion. Truly did an English editor observe in an article on this
subject, that "in this early attention to the supply of seamen,
does the real strength of the British Navy repose." Let us con
trast this attention to the national and mercantile marine with
that paid to the manning of our vessels by the Naval Depart
ment. The OMo, which lately sailed on a three years cruise,
had a crew of nearly one thousand men, and out of that number
not more than one hundred were native Americans. What re
gard or feeling for our national honor what love of our insti
tution can be ever expected from such a crew? Is it not
enough to alarm any thinking mind for the safety of that noble
vessel and the gallant spirits who have gone out in the command
of her? Suppose the foreigners were to revolt as they did on
board La Duchesse ^Orleans, could the one hundred Ameri
cans and the officers make any defence against such an over
whelming array of physical force? We hope these few facts
will arouse the watchful activity of some member of Congress,
and that some means will be taken to provide for the education
of the thousands of boys that are standing all the day idle in our
market-place, for a profession to which this country must de
pend on for its safety whenever another war shall arise.
A HOME SQUADRON.
The case of the Spanish schooner taken into New London is
again arousing public attention to the necessity of a Home
Squadron. The United States is probably the most defenceless
country in the world, on a short notice.
[From the Baltimore Sun of October 31, 1839.]
NAVAL APPRENTICESHIP.
We have repeatedly referred to the naval apprenticeship sys-
266
AND NAVAL SCHOOL 65
tern as founded in wisdom. It is known that under the present
arrangement, boys are admitted into the naval service of the
United States for the purpose of being instructed in the princi
ples of naval science, and inured gradually to the toils and hard
ships of a seafaring life. They are admitted between the years of
12 and 16. Their wages vary from five to six and seven dollars
per month, and they are instructed in the ordinary branches of
an English education, and in such knowledge as pertains more
immediately to the duties devolving upon them in their naval
career. They have also the chance of promotion to the post of
gunners, boatswains, masters, &c.
By such a plan, efficient seamen are far more likely to be ob
tained than by the course too long pursued of taking sailors
from the bosom of society, and (as is of necessity the case under
the present relation of things) not unfrequently from the ranks
of ignorance and degradation. In addition to the stimulus of a
chance of promotion (which acts certainly with no little power)
are assurances of success in after-life, should they see fit to ex
change the duties of a naval seaman for the merchant service.
The certificate of moral character and proficency in the required
knowledge which they will receive, as a kind of diploma, from
the officers under whom they may have passed their apprentice
ship, will serve as a sure passport into profitable situations,
which applicants of another kind cannot so readily secure.
Hence should they continue per choice, (for there is no compul
sion) in the seafaring life, they will find the road to usefulness
and prosperity through an orderly apprenticeship.
It will be seen that the plan under notice rejects the idea of
abandoning the sailor to a life of vice and ignorance, and looking
upon him as though a being of some lower species than our own,
and totally unworthy of being classed among us, and to be
treated as an outcast from decent and respectable life as, in
other words, only worthy of being regarded for the physical
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66 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
benefits to be secured by his services, his intellectual and moral
attributes uncared for and unprotected. How often, alas! are
mankind disposed to look upon the poor sailor boy as a being of
necessity, hardened, and reckless, and abandoned, as past re
claiming. Hence, this class of our fellow beings are left to the
ravages of intemperance, and dark and vulgar crime.
It is well, then, that in the system of naval apprenticeship we
have a promise of a better state of things. It is high time that
these hardy guardians of our national safety and pillars of our
commerce should be regarded more benevolently, and not be per
mitted to remain in the bonds of degrading ignorance and sheer
brutality, to be flogged and goaded to exertion like mere beasts
of burthen. They are worthy of a more humane and brotherly
usage. In the amelioration of their condition, as a large and in
dispensable class of the community, the nation s honor and bene
ficence (and, at the same time, its own interest) are conspicu
ously displayed.
The New York Times of January 8, 1840, in speaking of the
Report of the Secretary of the Navy, says :
Our system of naval apprenticeship affords the subject for
some very interesting statements and important suggestions.
The Secretary, in referring to the benefits which have resulted
from this admirable system, takes occasion to speak of an in
famous abuse of its benefits, in the following terms :
"They (the apprentices) are occasionally presented by per
sons claiming to be the parents or guardians, and received ac
cordingly. After remaining until they are sufficiently educated,
and capable of being useful to their real parents, the latter come
forward, prove the whole case a fraud, procure a habeas corpus,
and release the apprentice after he has been maintained and
educated at the public expense."
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 67
A similar fraud is stated to be frequently practised by minors,
who present themselves for regular enlistment. They take the
oath of majority, (the violation of which has been decided not to
be perjury) and after receiving an advance of pay, perhaps be
coming indebted to the purser, procure a habeas corpus, and are
released from their engagement, without any legal obligation to
pay the debt thus contracted. In order to put a stop to this sys
tematized swindling, the Secretary recommends "the passage of
a law authorizing recruiting officers to cause an oath to be ad
ministered to persons offering for enlistment in cases where
their majority is doubted, and in every case, to parents or guar
dians presenting boys as apprentices to the navy, the violation of
which should be declared a perjury, and subject the offender to
legal prosecution and punishment."
[From the New Era.]
NAVAL APPRENTICES.
We have been highly gratified at the deep and patriotic inter
est which the press has taken in the Naval Apprenticeship sys
tem, as evincing that deep love of country, which, in every
bosom, is a deep and exhaustless fountain, extinguished only
with the existence of the individual. Time cannot change it
circumstances cannot chill it political feeling cannot poison it.
But however strong the individual may appear under what he
considers ordinary appeals, come home to his heart with but
this, and the rock is smitten, and the pure and refreshing stream
will gurgle out. Talk to an American citizen of our naval ex
ploits, and his eye brightens, and he feels himself identified with
the national glory; but tell him that in the conflict on the ocean,
but a small, a very small portion of our seamen were Americans,
and the great majority British subjects, and he hangs his head
in shame. Be this as it may, the war terminated gloriously for
our Naval reputation, but the reproach has always been thrown
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68 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
in our teeth. To wipe off the possibility of the recurrence of
such a reproach to man our vessels of war with our citizens
and to confide to them the task of bearing the stars and stripes
of the country in triumph over the wave through the battle
and the storm, has been, for years, the ardent object of our en
terprising and patriotic citizen, Thomas Coin. Years ago he
introduced his project, and took journey after journey to Wash
ington to bring the subject before the proper authorities, and
when he called on the old General* and mentioned to him that the
disgraceful fact was true, that the American Navy was manned
principally by British seamen, down went his hickory stick, and
out came his expressive declaration, "By the Eternal, that should
not, nor ought it so to be." On went his white hat, and with
Goin he took his way instantly to the office of the Secretary of
the Navy, to confer with him on the subject, and the patriotic
honesty with which he forwarded the project, may be gathered
from his two last messages to Congress, in which the matter was
twice brought before the National Representatives. Mr. Van
Buren has also been always a firm advocate of the Naval Ap
prenticeship system; but Mr. Goin has been the originator, the
father and founder of the school, and to him is the nation in
debted for its establishment, and for all of good that may ulti
mately flow from it.
The present Secretary of the Navy has entered warmly into
the subject, and to Mr. Paulding the Naval School is greatly in
debted for the progress it has already made. Confessedly a man
of superior mind, and of great grasp of intellect, he at once saw
that Mr. Coin s plan was the sober deduction of reason enlight
ened by experience, and stimulated to action by an ardent love of
country, and he has lent his official aid warmly and intelligently
to carrying it into effect. In any point of view in which we re-
* Jackson.
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 69
gard it, the Naval Apprenticeship system comes commended to
our interest as well as to our patriotic love of country and it
possesses strong claims on our philanthropy. To our interest
it points out the great saving in life and property which will be
the annual result of the Naval School plan, to supply vessels on
our coast in the severity of winter, and the lessening of our
taxes for the support of houses for the prevention or punishment
of crime. To our patriotism it says Can you submit to the re
proach of being dependent on mercenary aid for the support of
your naval reputation, when thousands and tens of thousands of
the rising generation would spring at your call to man your ves
sels of war, and to lay down their lives in support of the national
honor? And to the philanthropist it says look for a moment at
the situation of New-York, and every other Atlantic city
throughout the Union see the thousands of idle boys, who may
be saved from prospective crime, and rendered useful to their
country; some of them winning honor for themselves, and suc
ceeding in naval renown, by being well and carefully brought up
as the property of the nation, as the children of the Republic,
and our future "gems of the ocean/
[From the Baltimore Post.]
THE NAVAL SCHOOL SYSTEM.
This is the right principle, and cannot fail of success. It has
been put into operation in New York, where about three hun
dred youths are already fairly, and with the consent of parents
or guardians, enlisted into the service. They are received on
board the North Carolina 74, Capt. Gallagher, an officer dis
tinguished in the last war, and a practical nautical scholar.
The boys are to receive a good education, fully embracing navi
gation in its technical and active seamanship. Their uniform,
in which they were paraded on the gun deck on the occasion of
the President s visit, consists of blue jacket, white trowsers,
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70 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
white shirt bound with blue nankeen, and tarpaulin with a
broad ribbon streaming to the wind.
The abundant success which seems likely to result from this
scheme, we hope will soon lead to the entire abolishment of pro
miscuous enlistments or at least to the exercise of more caution
in effecting them. The distress and agony which they too fre
quently occasion in the bosom of a family is beyond description.
An instance but a short time since came under our notice : a re
spectable family in humble life, out of a numerous offspring had
raised but one child, the last born, and he was about sixteen
years old ; the heart of a parent will at once feel how dear he was
to them : one night at supper his place at their table was vacant,
and when he returned not through the night, alarm took hold of
the mother s heart; in a few days, it was ascertained that he
had shipped and was gone, gone for three years in the Brandy-
wine. His parents are deserted by the hope of their age, and
their boy will come back to them a changed being, on the verge
of manhood, with a heart estranged from its filial love, and with
the habits and the rough exterior formed on the gun deck of a
man-of-war. We question if they would not rather he had died.
How many instances of this kind must occur under the old
system may be easily conjectured, and often attended with still
more afflicting circumstances. The Naval School System we
hope will take precedence of the old mode, and remove entirely
the necessity to resort to it. We say with a contemporary
All hail to the young blue jackets. The more the merrier.
[From the Philadelphia Ledger, of July 29th, 1839.]
THE APPRENTICES.
About 500 boys are on board the receiving ships moored at
Norfolk, New York and Boston, who are receiving an excellent
education. It has been suggested to the Navy Department that
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 71
practical lessons on navigation be afforded the pupils, by cruises
along the coast in small vessels, rigged lightly and adapted to
boys strength.
We perceive in the Norfolk Beacon an article showing the
beneficial effects of the apprentice system in the navy. The
writer, however, does not seem to have been aware that Mr.
Thomas Goin, of Burling Slip, in this city, merits all the credit
for this arrangement. He has exerted himself for several years
to have the system introduced, at an expense of time and money,
which reflects great credit upon his enterprize and patriotism.
[From the Journal of Commerce.]
THE LOW, BLACK SCHOONER CAPTURED.
The runaway schooner has been captured by the U. S. survey
ing brig Washington, Lieutenant Gedney, and carried into New
London. She is the Amistad, of Puerto Principe, Cuba, and was
owned by a Mr. Carrias of that place. At the time she was
taken possession of by the slaves, she was bound from Havana
to Nuevitas, with a cargo of dry goods, and about fifty slaves.
The slaves rose upon the captain and passengers, and killed
nearly the whole of them.
The trial of these blacks will involve several curious questions.
P. S. Since writing the above we have received the following
letter:
NEW-LONDON, Aug. 27, 1839.
The surveying brig Washington, Lieutenant Gedney, put in
here last night, with the schooner reported by your pilot-boats.
She proves to be the schooner which left Havana in June, with
negroes for a neighboring port. The slaves murdered all the
white men, and then intended to go to Africa, but brought up on
this coast. She had touched near Montauk Point, and got a sup
ply of water, &c.
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72 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
The head negro jumped overboard, when the boats from the
brig came alongside, and it was with some difficulty he was re
covered and saved. The negroes made no resistance. One of the
white men saved is the owner of the slaves, as he says. One or
two of the negroes died yesterday, and several are sick. It is
said there is money and jewels on board of the value of $40,000,
but this is mere report. The schooner lies down the harbor,
awaiting the arrival of the U. S. Marshal.
[This is an interesting exploit for the boys of the Washing
ton, for she is manned with thirty or forty Navy apprentice
boys, and only three or four men. She is engaged in surveying
the coast. Eds. Jour. Com.]
[From the New- York Herald, of Jan. 14th, 1840.]
THE NAVAL SCHOOL.
Every one who desires to see the Navy of the United States
manned by American seamen, will rejoice to find that the Naval
School system is in the most flourishing condition. After unsuc
cessful trials for several years, Mr. Goin, (the originator of the
system) some three or four years since, by great exertions, and
a considerable outlay of time and money, effected the passage of
a law through Congress, for the establishment of a naval school
in every Navy Yard, and the fitting out of a Home Squadron.
The various Secretaries of the Navy have each done but little
towards carrying the law into effect, but the present Secretary
seems disposed to help the project considerably.
The school, in our Navy Yard, contains nearly 300 boys, all
hearty and strong ; many of whom would be running the streets,
ragged and noisy, dragging fire engines, or stealing at every
turn, if they were not on board the school ship. In this point of
view, therefore, the establishment of the naval school is an in
valuable project, and of incalculable benefit to the community.
Again, by means of the school, an immense number of otherwise
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 73
helpless, idle, and worthless boys are endowed with an educa
tion, and the means of obtaining an honorable and independent
livelihood. Lastly, by means of the Naval School, we shall in
four or five years be enabled to man all our men of war with
educated, well disciplined, native born American seamen. This
latter circumstance is of itself a fact of such immense import
ance, that it is only necessary to state it, to convince every one of
its value.
[From the Norfolk Beacon.]
APPRENTICES IN THE NAVY.
We happened to be near one of the wharves a day or two since,
when a boat was seen in the stream and attracted much atten
tion. The crew looked like sailors in miniature, as in truth they
proved to be, for they were the young apprentices from the Java,
and so neat and tidy did they seem, that they might readily have
been taken for some youngsters who had stolen from school and
equipped themselves in the apparel of the sailor.
It is plain to see that this system of apprenticeship is about to
effect a great change in the materiel of the man of war a
change that will be hailed as one of the most important revolu
tions of modern times. If there was ever a class of men deemed
incapable of amendment, they were those who, without pride of
profession, and as a last resort, shipped on board a man of war.
Such men seemed unassailable by the ordinary means of moral
attack; they were given over in despair. But there is a means
now operating which will accomplish the work. The regular
education of young men, from their earliest infancy to man
hood, in all the details of seamanship, in the nurture of sound
morals, and under the guidance of intelligent and accomplished
officers, will bring about the change. These youths will be well
skilled in their profession a qualification that will claim for
them the respect of the oldest or most worthless sailor. They
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74 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
will have become acquainted with the officers, shared their con
fidence, and like them will feel a professional pride as well as a
sense of self-respect that will lift them above vicious associa
tions. Known to the commanders, they will be selected as petty
officers, and be deemed worthy of confidence and respect. Each
will form a nucleus among those who have not enjoyed the same
advantages, and while the tone of the ship will be improved, its
discipline will be also promoted.
We understand that in order to attain a result so important to
the discipline of the navy, and so auspicious to its moral and in
tellectual improvement, the Secretary of the Navy has determ
ined to remodel the receiving ships, and convert them into
schools of practice for young landsmen and boys. The system
which has heretofore prevailed in these ships had some consider
ations to recommend it, but it has been felt very sensibly that it
crushed the spirit of the sailor and made the service unpopular.
It sunk every sentiment of chivalry in the bosom of the young
mariner, who, with all the pride of profession about him, was
handed over to the dock-yard for daily labor, at reduced remun
eration. It was a commingling of land and sea service in the
case of those who looked to the ocean as their proper element,
and the ship as their native home.
Under the new system, which will regard the receiving ship
as in its proper light as a school of discipline .for young lands
men and boys, the best results will assuredly flow. Much of the
practical knowledge of seamanship may be learned in port. To
handle the guns, to manage the yards, to attain, if we may so
speak, the geography and vocabulary of a man in war, may be
done ashore. A service of six or eight months will enable an
active lad to perform the duties of a sailor well and skilfully,
especially if an occasional coasting trip, by way of experiment,
were added. Such a policy will insure a constant supply of good
seamen in our ships of war, and if the present Secretary of the
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 75
Navy succeeds in establishing the system on a firm and lasting
foundation, he will have done more for the real interests of the
Navy than he could have done by any other act whatever, and
will have secured a reputation for himself as lasting as the bene
fits conferred upon this favorite arm of the public defence.
We lately visited the receiving ship Java, under the command
of Capt. Charles W. Skinner, and had an opportunity of observ
ing the apprentices. They were about forty or fifty in number,
neatly attired in the garb of a sailor, good looking, and ranging
from twelve to eighteen years of age. We saw the school room
appropriated to their use, and the carronades which they used
in their exercises.
They show great aptitude in acquiring knowledge, and are al
ready catching that esprit du corps so essential to effective or
ganization. If the boys on this station do not turn out worthy
and skilful seamen, it will not be the fault of Capt. Skinner, and
the intelligent officers of the Java.
[Extract from the Report of the Secretary of the Navy, to the
President of the United States, of 30th November, 1839.]
I deem it proper, also, to bring to your notice an abuse of
great importance to the interests of the service. Numerous in
stances occur of the enlistment of minors; and it is obviously im
possible to discriminate between those who are, and those who
are not, of legal age.
After receiving further advance of pay, and becoming, per
haps, indebted to the purser in addition, they apply to a lawyer
or a magistrate, procure a habeas corpus, and obtain their re
lease without any legal obligation to pay the debt thus con
tracted. The instructions to recruiting officers authorize them
to cause an oath to be administered in cases of doubt; but it has
been decided that its violation does not subject the offender to
legal punishment. Cases analogous to these frequently occur in
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76 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
the enlistment of apprentices authorised by an act of Congress.
They are occasionally presented by persons claiming to be their
parents and guardians, and received accordingly. After re
maining until they are sufficiently educated, and capable of be
ing useful to their real parents, the latter come forward, prove
the whole case a fraud, procure a habeas corpus, and release the
apprentice after he has been maintained and educated at the
public expense.
I would, therefore, respectfully recommend the passage of a
law, authorising recruiting officers to cause an oath to be admin
istered to persons offering for enlistment, in cases where their
majority is doubted (and, in every case, to parents or guardians
presenting boys as apprentices to the navy), the violation of
which should be declared a perjury, and subject the offender to
legal prosecution and punishment.
Should this system of apprenticeship be carried to the extent
of which it is susceptible, I look forward to it as a source of great
and lasting benefit to the navy. There is every reasonable pros
pect of its becoming a nursery for the supply of petty officers,
one of the most important constituents in the service, nor can I
doubt that it may be made the means of supplying a large num
ber of capable, intelligent seamen, more strongly attached to
their country by the benefits she has conferred on them.
The result, thus far, has been highly encouraging. A spirit
of excitement and emulation prevails among those boys; their
conduct, with rare exceptions, is correct and exemplary; exam
ples of profligacy and cases of desertion seldom occur; com
manders of vessels of war, are, without exception, anxious to
have at least one- tenth of their crews composed of them ; and the
reports from the receiving ships give uniform testimony to their
general deportment, their habits of order and industry, and
their capacity for the acquisition of those branches of learning
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 77
and that practical knowledge of their profession which fit them
for future usefulness.
I have endeavored to call the attention of magistrates, parents
and guardians, to the means afforded by this system, of provid
ing for that large class of unfortunate children which has be
come so numerous, most especially in our large cities, and which
is without the means or the prospect of a comfortable mainten
ance, or of acquiring even the rudiments of education. If, in
stead of permitting them to live in idleness, exposed to every
temptation, and plunging prematurely into every vice, they were
apprenticed to their country, they would receive such an educa
tion as befits their station, and acquire those habits of sobriety,
honesty, order and industry, which would go far to render those
who are so apt to become the bane of society, efficient supporters
of the honor and interests of their country.
The New- York Courier and Enquirer of the 4th of January,
1840, in commenting on the Report of the Secretary of the Navy,
uses the following language in reference to the Naval School :
"On the subject of Naval Apprenticeship, the Secretary
makes highly judicious observations. He represents the bene
fits which have hitherto resulted from the system as of the most
highly encouraging character. The attention of parents, guar
dians, and magistrates, cannot be too earnestly directed to the
opportunities offered by this system for the disposition of that
numerous class of children, born to misfortune, and now edu
cating in vice and ignorance, to become pests to the community.
The naval nursery, so wisely established by our government,
offers the means of rescuing hundreds and thousands of this
class from the degradation and wretchedness which menace
them; of giving them useful education; submitting them to a
wholesome and salutary discipline; and ultimately rendering
them the efficient supporters of the honor and interests of their
country. "
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78 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
[From the New- York Evening Star, January 18, 1840.]
FLOGGING IN THE NAVY.
The Secretary of the Navy has recently issued an order pro
hibiting the flogging of sailors, and making it imperative that
such punishment shall be strictly conformable to law, and al
ways by order and in presence of the captain. This order is not
only conceived in a proper spirit of humanity, but is likewise
policy, as good seamen are unwilling to join our Navy, from an
abhorrence of the system of tying up a free citizen and flogging
him like a convict. The subject has probably been brought to the
immediate consideration of the Secretary from having seen it
asserted in a Portsmouth paper that a gentleman saw twenty-
five hundred lashes inflicted on board a United States line-of-
battle-ship one morning before breakfast. Without crediting
this statement, various considerations pressed upon the Secre
tary the necessity and importance of taking some measures to
abridge such practices in future. The Norfolk Herald, in noti
cing the arrival of the Vandalia. sloop-of-war, Commandant
Levy, from a long and perilous cruise in the Gulf of Mexico,
notices the great moral reform brought about in that ship, the
crew of which were remarkably steady and attentive to duty,
and asks :
"By the way, we observe in the same article from which the
above extract is quoted, that Commander Levy, of the Vandalia,
managed matters so well that he kept his ship always in prime
order, and yet seldom had occasion to use either the cat or the
colt. If this is true, (and we do not doubt that it is so,) we
would call upon that officer to impart his mystery. He owes it
to the service, in which he holds a distinguished position, no less
than to the advancement of his own fame, to let it be known by
what process he has arrived at the consummation of a high state
of discipline with so little use of the cat or colt; while an old
veteran in the service, who has heard the enemy s bullets whiz-
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AND NAVAL SCHOOL 79
zing about his head like mosquitoes in September, could not ad
monish his ship s crew of their duty without giving them
twenty-five hundred lashes for their bitters before breakfast!"
The story is soon told. Captain Levy has had twenty-eight
years experience in the Navy as a seaman and an officer, and he
always held the opinion to us that too little care was bestowed
upon the morals, comfort, character, and health of seamen the
mainstay of the Navy; and he adopted a system of his own for
example : When a sailor was drunk, instead of his being taken in
charge by an officer and handed over to the master-at-arms, and
put under a sentry s charge in irons, and the next day flogged
for using abusive language when drunk, the officer was not per
mitted to have intercourse with him; his messmates were di
rected to take charge of him, and he was immediately placed in
his hammock and lashed securely. The next day he was sober,
and at work, under a reprimand from his captain, instead of be
ing in irons and punished at the gangway, and then be placed a
week on the sick list in consequence of exposure in the brig.
This produced the best moral effect. The habitual drunkard
had a wooden bottle painted black and lettered "punishment for
drunkenness," hung round his neck and locked securely, which
he wore night and day : this fretted and worried the sailor as a
disgrace, and it seldom occurred twice to the same person. For
petty crimes, for which the grog is usually stopped, a severe pri
vation for seamen, the captain ordered the delinquent s whiskey
to be watered a pint of water to a gill of whiskey. The seamen
preferred a dozen lashes to this watering their whiskey; but it
had a good moral effect. For petty thefts, a wooden collar was
hung around his neck and a badge upon his back, and the delin
quent messed in the manger, and not permitted to speak to any
one. When fighting took place, the captain heard the story of
each, and punished the offender by making him drink a tin-pot
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80 REMARKS ON THE HOME SQUADRON
of sea-water, which, though he disliked terribly, nevertheless
cooled his blood and cleansed his stomach.
It was by this system, carried out firmly, that flogging ceased
a pride of character among seamen was created duty per
formed cheerfully, and the men kept in perfect health. The
captain, when the men were sick, saw in person to their com
forts sent them something nourishing from his own table.
This is the proper course to be pursued towards seamen, who, in
short, are children, and are to be coaxed, not driven. A sailor
will work hard when well treated; and we have no doubt that
Captain Levy could ship a full crew with more ease than could
almost any other officer, from the confidence that men have in
him relative to duty and general treatment. We say this much
because we have a personal knowledge of his humanity and
kind feelings to a brother sailor.
FINIS
2X2
