The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III, Part 48

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897
Publication date: 1880-1881
Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood
Number of Pages: 770

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 48

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Three days after his arrival Bainbridge addressed a letter 1 to Chaplain Cheever Felch, establishing the first naval school for officers ever organized in our navy, and which may therefore be said to be the parent of our pres- ent naval academy at Annapolis.

In 1816 an official journal of the proceedings at the Yard - a sort of shore log-book - was commenced, which has been continued down to the present time, affording a good index of all the principal events.2

1 UNITED STATES SHIP " INDEPENDENCE," Boston Harbor, Dec. 10, 1815.

SIR, - I have to direct that you open a naval school within the Navy Yard at Charlestown, in such apartments as Captain Hull may assign to you, for the purpose of instructing the officers of the squadron in those branches of mathemat- ics which appertain to their profession. The school must be opened every day in the week, Sunday excepted. The hours of study must be from nine A.M. to one P.M. You will daily re- port to me the officers who attend. Once a fortnight you will make to me a general report of the respective branches of study in which cach officer is engaged, accompanied with can- did remarks on their conduct, attention, and progress.

I am, etc., WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE. The Rev. Mr. FELCH.

2 The first volumes are in the elegant hand- writing of sailing-master Charles F. Waldo, and open with the following " List of officers attached to the Navy Yard, Charlestown, Mass., Jan. 1, 1816 : Isaac Hull, commandant ; Richard M. Winters, licutenant ; Samuel R. Trevett, Jr. and John A. Kearney, surgeons : Lewis Deblois, purser; Joseph Cross, Thomas B. Tilden, and Ed- mund M. Russell, midshipmen; Abram Walton, boatswain ; Matthew Rogers, gunner; Charles F. Waldo and Robert Knox, sailing-masters ; Benjamin H. Fosdick, commandant's clerk ; Thomas J. H. Cushing, assistant-surgeon ; Ste-

phen G. Clarke, master's mate; John Johnson, gunner ; William -, quartermaster ; Fran- cis Wyman, purser's steward; B. Evans, carpen- ter, - total, nineteen officers. Petty officers : one armorer's mate ; one sailing-master's mate ; one carpenter's mate ; four men with gunner (for 'Constitution ') ; three boys (officers'); two at- tendants at commandant's ; two cooks (hulk and gunboat) ; one mate for ditto ; one gunner's yeo- man (Dick Dunn); and nine men to work in the yard, - forty-four in toto."

Major Caleb Gibbs was at this time, as he had been for many years, the naval storekeeper. The Secretary of the Navy, addressing Commodore Hull concerning him, Jan. 4, 1816, says : "Major Gibbs, the naval store-keeper, is an old Revolu- tionary officer of merit, and has held the station since the commencement of our naval opera- tions. I request your attention and indulgence toward him as far as may be consistent with public duty ; and you will be pleased to accom- modate him at the Navy Vard with a room for his office, and in every other way in which you can render his situation agreeable to him. A re- gard for his former services and respect for his personal merit induce me to recommend Major Gibbs to your benevolent disposition."

Major Gibbs was continued in office until Dec. 1, 1818, when George Bates was appointed the storekeeper. He in turn was relieved after twenty-two years of service by Seth J. Thomas, Jan. 1, 1840. Major Gibbs was the first con- mander of Washington's Body (or "Life " )

349

THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.

In 1818 the Navy Commissioners surveyed the harbor, and reported it capacious and deep enough to be entered by any man-of-war, and that twenty-five and a half feet could be taken over the bar at low tide. They were further of the opinion that Boston harbor possessed many advantages resulting from its natural means of defence, -its ample space for anchorage in the lower harbor and Nantasket Roads, its proximity to materials for naval construction, " and in the dense population of the town and its vicin- ity; " nevertheless, " from the uncertainty of entrance into it, and that a fair wind was requisite to enter President from Nantasket Roads, and that occasionally it was obstructed by ice, and from the difficulty of getting to sea in easterly weather, and its susceptibility of blockade, and the danger- ous navigation of the bay in the winter," - the commissioners did not think it advisable to establish a great national depot and rendezvous at Boston. They, however, recommended retaining the establishment and connecting it with a dry dock for occasional building and repair, and also that the fortifications on George's, Long, Castle, Governor's, and Noddle's islands should be strengthened.

For some years to come there were no signal transactions to notice; but a few items taken from the records may serve to show the course of cur- rent events.1

In October, 1819, Commodore Bainbridge was ordered to serve as pres- ident of a board of captains to convene at New York, to examine midship- men for promotion. This was an outgrowth of his naval school, and the first examination of midshipmen; the result of which proved so beneficial that now examinations into the physical, moral, and professional qualifica- tions of an officer are made prior to every promotion or increase of rank ; and thus the worthy and intelligent are encouraged, and the indolent, igno- rant, and profligate driven out of the service. Towards the close of the year the Commodore was detached from the " Independence " and ordered to the "Columbus," 74, then equipping at Washington, when eighteen of the officers of the " Independence " addressed to him a letter of regret.

In 1820, May 16, Master Commandant William Branford Shubrick 2 re-

Guard. His office was first in Batterymarch Street, -the yard at the bottom of Milk Street being leased for naval purposes. When Waslı- inglon visited Boston in 1789, he appointed eight o'clock, A.M., as the hour when he would leave for Salem. The cavalry company which was to escort him, not understanding his punctuality, paraded in Tremont Street after his departure, and it was not until he had passed Charlestown Bridge that it overtook him. Washington said to Gibbs, who commanded the troop when it overtook him : " I thought, Major Gibbs, you had been too long in my family not to know when it was eight o'clock."

1 A passing notice may be given to the duel which took place Sept. 25, 1819, between Licu- tenant William B. Finch, United States Navy

(afterward well known as Commodore William Compton Bolton), and Lieutenant Francis B. White, of the Marine Corps, both officers of the " Independence." It was fought on Noddle's Island, not far from the present Border Street in East Boston, between two elm trees. Lieu- tenant White was instantly killed. Lieutenant Finch was born in England. His mother was said to have been an actress of the name of Finch; his father, the Earl of Bolton. He entered the navy as a midshipman in 1806; changed his name to William Compton Bolton in 1833 to inherit some property, and died in Genoa while in com- mand of the United States squadron in the Med- iterrancan, in 18.49.

2 [See Harper's Monthly, August, 1876. - ED.1

1 [See Mr. J. P. Quincy's chapter. - En.]

sail-loft, the Rev. Cheever Felch officiating. This was the first service of the kind held within the Navy Yard. On June 15 work was discontinued to allow the men to witness the execution of three pirates in Boston.1

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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

350

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THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.

On August 23, 1823, at 1 P.M., Commodore Isaac Hull delivered over the command of the Navy Yard, which he had held for eight years and five months, to Commodore William Bainbridge, who had been his prede- cessor. A committee of the citizens of Charlestown received Bainbridge at the draw of the bridge and escorted him to the town hall, where a colla- tion was provided. The committee then attended him to the Navy Yard gate, where he was received by Major Wainwright and a guard of marines, who conducted him to Commodore Hull.

In September the commissioners completed the purchase from Dr. Aaron Dexter of a site for a naval hospital in Chelsea, for which $18,000 was paid from the fund in the Treasury which had been deducted from the pay of the officers, scamen, and marines of the navy.1

On March 12, 1824, there was a mutiny in the Massachusetts State Prison, which the marines, under Major Wainwright, were called upon to suppress. Three convicts had been sentenced to be publicly whipped in the prison yard, and were in the solitary cells waiting punishment. An officer of the prison entered one of the cells, when the prisoner sprang upon him and locked him in, and then opened the doors of the other two cells. The three prisoners thus released then ordered the officer to give the signal at the guard-room door that all was right, while they stood ready to rush through when the door was opened and secure the guard and arms. The officer refusing to comply with their orders, they threatened to kill him, and he was forced back into a cell and locked in. The alarm having been given, the prisoners rushed from the workshops armed with clubs, knives, hammers, chisels, and every variety of weapon attainable, and formed a band whose strength, vileness, and reckless daring could hardly be equalled. Men of all ages and characters, dressed in the motley garb of the institution, gathered together for the purpose of preventing the punish- ment of their comrades. Finally a subordinate officer despatched a request to Major Wainwright for assistance. On his arrival Major Wainwright was requested to order his men to fire down upon the convicts through the little

1 In 1802, by order of the Secretary of the Navy, five acres of land in the north-east corner of the Navy Yard was assigned to the Treasury Department for a Marine Hospital, on which a hospital with all the necessary outbuildings was crected and enclosed with a picket-fence from the Navy Yard. In IS25 this property was re- transferred to the Navy Department, upon the payment to the Treasury Department of $12,87 5, the estimated value of the buildings, and a Ma- rine Hospital was erected in Chelsea. The hos- pital building in the yard was pulled down the same year, and on the site was erected a block of four dwelling-houses, which are still occupied as officers' quarters. They were first occupied August, 1826.

The United States Naval Hospital at Chel- sea is beautifully situated on the left bank of the

Mystic River. It furnishes accommodation for all the sick or wounded officers, seamen, and marines of the navy at Boston, Portsmouth, N. H., and New London, Conn .; and for all the in- valids from our naval vessels on foreign stations which may come into the port of Boston. There was originally one hundred and fifteen acres in the tract ; there now remain about seventy-five, the remainder having been transferred to the ordnance department of the navy, and to the ma- rines' hospital service. The hospital building is of granite, one hundred and forty-nine feet by seventy-one, and was completed in 1836. A wing was added in 1865. It is capable of accommo- dating one hundred sick comfortably. The par- ticular merit of this hospital is that it is the only Naval Hospital on the Atlantic coast which is absolutely free from malarial poison.

352

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

windows, first with powder, and then with ball, until they surrendered. He took a wiser as well as a bolder course. Relying upon the effect of a firm determination upon men so situated, he ordered the door thrown wide open, and marched into the hall at the head of thirty men, and formed them opposite the crowd of criminals grouped at the other end. He then ad- dressed them, and said he would not quit that hall alive until every convict had returned to his duty. The convicts replied that some of them were ready to die, and only waited his attack, and swore they would fight to the end unless the flogging was remitted. Major Wainwright now ordered his men to load their muskets, and directed each man to hold up to view the bullet which he was to drop into his gun. This only caused a growl of deter- mined resistance on the part of the convicts. The guns being loaded, the next order to the marines was to take aim. Still not a prisoner stirred, except more firmly to grasp his weapon. Major Wainwright then took out his watch, and turning to the convicts, while his men kept their pieces

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AUTOGRAPHS OF THE COMMANDANTS.1

aimed at them, said: " You must leave this hall. I give you three minutes to decide. If at the end of that time a man remains he shall be shot dead. I speak no more." No more tragic situation than this can be conceived: at one end of the hall a fearless band of desperate and powerful men

1 In addition to these commandants there were at several times, though not continuously, " port captains," who commanded all the naval forces afloat. Thus Captain William Bainbridge was port captain from 1815 to 1819, - making his service in Boston harbor from 1812 to 1824 almost continuous. Captain John Downes, the commandant from 1835 to 1842, and again from 1849 to 1852, was port captain from 1842 to 1845, - the entire period of the command of his successor as commandant. Rear Admiral Hi- ram Paulding, a son of one of the captors of Major André, was the port captain in 1869-70. Since that date the office has been abolished.

The twenty-two commandants have had con- siderable professional reputation. The first commandant, whose command extended over VOL 111 .- 45.

eleven years, died in office in 1811. Ile saw ser- vice during the War of the Revolution, and was the first commander of the frigate " Constitu- tion." Ilull and Bainbridge, who alternated in the command for fourteen years, as well as Mor- ris, who commanded for five years, made glori- ous records in the war of 1812-14. Downes also, whose several commands extended over ten years, commanded the Essex " Junior " in the famous Bay of Valparaiso fight. Elliott was second in command at the battle of Lake Erie. Gregory and J. B. Nicholson made honorable records in the War of 1812. Stringham, whose command extended over seven years, obtained the thanks of Congress for his services at Hat- teras Inlet during the Civil War. Commodore. Parker, Sr , was selected at one time to organ-

354

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

awaiting the assault; at the other, a small squad of well-disciplined marines waiting with levelled muskets the order to fire; the commander counting the tickings of his watch to give the signal. For two minutes not a person or muscle was moved, not a sound heard, except the labored breathing of the infuriated wretches. At the expiration of two minutes, during which they had faced the ministers of death unfalteringly, two or three in the rear went slowly ont; a few more followed, dropping out quietly and delib- erately, and before the last half minute had expired every man was struck by the panic, and the hall was cleared.

On March 16, 1824, work was begun on the building ways for a sloop-of- war. On the 13th of May her keel was laid, and at I P.M., October 15, the sloop-of-war " Boston," of seven hundred tons burden, was launched.1

December 22, the Secretary of the Navy ordered the seventy-four which was first begun Oct. 19, 1822, to be named the "Virginia,"2 and the seventy- four number two the "Vermont," and the forty-four gun ship to be called the "Cumberland." By another order, dated April 27, 1827, the names of the seventy-fours were reversed, number one becoming the " Vermont," and number two the " Virginia." The " Vermont " as thus named was launched in 1853, and is now a receiving hulk at the New York Yard. The "Virginia," after remaining on the stocks for fifty years, was ordered to be cut up in 1874, - an operation which is not yet completed.

June 1, 1826, the keel of the sloop-of-war "Warren " was laid, and November 29 she was successfully launched and hauled upon the flats, and careened to finish coppering her. Feb. 11, 1827, the harbor was shut up with ice, but 'on the 22d the "Warren," Master Commandant Lawrence Kearney, sailed for the Mediterranean, where she did good service against the pirates of the Grecian Archipelago. March I, the kecl of the sloop-of- war " Falmouth " was laid, and she was launched November 3. Her cost, when ready for sea, was $120,931.50.

In 1827 the stone dry dock was begun, under the superintendence of

ize the navy of the German Confederation; and his son, Commodore Foxhall A. Parker, distin- guished as a writer and for his services in the Civil War, died a few months after relinquishing his command, at the Naval Academy at Annapo- lis, whither he had been called to its superintend- ency. Hudson and Montgomery, who conducted the affairs of the Yard through the period of the Civil War, were brave and distinguished offi- cers; Hudson was the second in command of Wilkes's exploring expedition. Rodgers is the present superintendent of the Naval Observa- tory, and has a well-known naval record. Nich- ols, Parrott, Steedman, Spicer, and Ransom, the present incumbent, all made good records in the Rebellion, - Nichols (now the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks) and Ransom, with Farragut at New Orleans ; Parrott and Steed- man, with Dupont at Port Royal and elsewhere.

Commodore Spicer died in command in the commandant's house, Nov. 29, 1878; his funeral was conducted without military or other parade or ceremony, by his particular request.

Not one of the commandants was Boston born, and only Commodore John Downes, who was born in Canton, in 1784, was a native of Massachusetts. Of the twenty-two command- ants only four are now living ; namely, Rodgers, Nichols, Steedman, and Ransom,-the latter now in command.

1 She was the fourth vessel of war to re- ceive that name, and is reported to have cost $109,156. After twenty years of almost constant service, she was wrecked on the Island of Eleu- thera, West Indies, in 1846.

2 From a newspaper of that date we learn that it was at first proposed to call her "The Massachusetts."

355

THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.

Loammi Baldwin, Esq., who had been commissioned in the previous August to make estimates. It appears from the Yard journal that the first " steam tow-boat load of stone" for it was received August 23, and that the stone wall of the dock was begun the next day. The dock was not completed until 1834.

Up to 1828_the improvements in the several navy yards had been with- ont any organized plan; but on March 3, 1827, Congress enacted a law directing the President to cause the navy yards of the United States to be thoroughly examined, and plans to be prepared for their improvement, etc., from which no deviation but by his special order was to be made. The President appointed Commodores Bainbridge, Chauncey, and Morris to carry this law into effect, and Loammi Baldwin engineer to aid them in their surveys, and in forming plans, etc. This board commenced its labors in 1827, but did not complete them until 1829. The plan for the Charlestown Navy Yard was completed and issued Aug. 11, 1828, and (see plan) has since governed all the improvements, with such modifications as have become necessary by the advance of naval science and the modern requirements in the equipment, armament, and construction of vessels of war. Railroads have supplanted canals, and steam power, heavy ordnance, and iron and iron-clad ships have combined to modify essentially the plan of 1827.1

July 20, 1832, Commodore Charles Morris, having been commissioned as one of the Navy Board, was relieved as Commandant by Commodore Wil- liam Bainbridge. Jan. 23, the commissioners authorized the gun carriages of the saluting battery to be made of iron, which is probably the first in- stance of metallic gun carriages being used in our own or any other naval service.

On account of ill health Commodore Bainbridge obtained permission to pass the winter months in Philadelphia, and left the Yard in command of Master Commandant Joseph Smith.2 He returned and resumed active com- mand of the station, Jan. 10, 1833, but soon failed again, and was informed by his physicians that his case was hopeless. On March 21 he wrote this touching letter to the secretary: "My health is so bad, and this climate so severe, that it renders it necessary for me to ask the favor to be relieved from my present command on the Ist of May next. In making this request I feel confident our excellent President will grant it, with your approba- tion, to one who has served his country as commander nearly thirty-five years most zealously, and, as he trusts, most faithfully." He failed rap- idly, and on April 13 wrote his last letter to the Department, turning over the command to Captain Smith temporarily, until the arrival of Commo- dore Jesse Duncan Elliott, appointed to take command on the Ist of May. The death of Commodore Bainbridge, who had been so long and so much identified with the station, took place at the naval asylum in Philadelphia, July 27, 1833. When wandering in mind he raised himself up with a last effort, called for his arms, and ordered all to board the enemy. He was

1 Sec plan of ISSo. 2 For many years Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks.

356

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

fifty-nine years, two months, and twenty-one days old. On July 30 the flags at Charlestown Navy Yard, and at all the other naval stations, were half-masted, and a commodore's salute of minute guns fired.

In 1834 the dry dock was finished,1 having cost $677,089.78, when trans- ferred by the constructing engineer to the commandant.2

The new commandant, Commodore Elliott, was a man of rough man- ners,-whence he obtained the sobriquet of "Old Bruin,"-and of an active and despotic disposition. He at once instituted changes and re- forms in the methods of administration, which, added to the reputation he had acquired at the battle of Lake Erie and as the second of Barron in his unfortunate duel with Decatur, made him unpopular with his officers, and were the occasion of several reports and courts-martial. He also, from his extreme partisan worship of his idol -General Jackson - soon became un- popular with the citizens of Boston, who at the time were strongly of the opposite side of politics.

1 In 1858-60 the dock was lengthened sixty- five feet at the head, modern vessels having out- grown its capacity.

2 Before the dock was entirely completed it was decided to dock the "Constitution." Ac- cordingly she was admitted June 24, being the second ship of war ever docked in the United States, - the "Delaware," 74, having been en- tered into the Norfolk Dry Dock on June 17, a week previous. The docking of the "Con- stitution " was made a great occasion. All the officers were assembled in full dress, and Martin Van Buren, the Vice-President of the United States, Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, and Levi Woodbury were present; and Commodore Hull appeared once more upon her deck in com- mand. The President of the United States, General Andrew Jackson, was only prevented by illness from being present. Commodore El- liott, however, in a speech at Hagerstown, Mary- land, Nov. 14, 1833, says that the President was on board : "General Jackson became the guest of the State by invitation of the Legislature, and the time of his visit was seized upon as an aus- picious season for bringing the trophy of the nation, Old Ironsides, into the cradle which was originally built for her reception. On this occa- sion there were on board of her the President of the United States and his Cabinet, His Ex- cellency the Governor of Massachusetts, my es- timable friend Joel N. Poinsett, of South Car- olina, and last, not least, Commodore Hull, the man who first broke the charm of British naval invincibility on the ocean, together with such offi- cers and men who had participated in the various battles in which that noble frigate was engaged. Thus you will see that I had four important em- blems of the old vessel's glory, - Jackson, the hero who had but a short time before declared that 'the Constitution ! it must and shall be pre-

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III, Part 48

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897 Publication date: 1880-1881 Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood Number of Pages: 770

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897
Publication date: 1880-1881
Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood
Number of Pages: 770