DRAWINGS REPRINTED FROM HARPER 'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE, AUG. 1879
United States is hereby authorized, when in his opinion the same can be done without detriment to the public service, to detail proper officers of the Navy as superintendents of, or instructors in such schools: Provided, that if any such school shall be discontinued, or the good of the naval service shall require, such vessel shall immediately be restored to the Secretary of the Navy, and the officers so detailed recalled: and provided further, That no person shall be sentenced to, or be received at, such schools as a punishment or commutation of punishment for crime." 17 Federal assistance for maritime education had become a reality. More thorough certification of merchant marine personnel and a governmental agency watching over the interests of ocean commerce would both have to wait In spite of his disappointment in the 1874 law and his doubts about the future of schools founded under such a statute, Luce saw the fight through to its conclusion. On July 11 , he was suggesting ships which might be loaned to a New York school. His first choice was either USS Worcester or USS Guard, lightly armed vessels which had been used by the Navy for supply and survey work. If a ship with engines was chosen, he recommended that the engines be removed and replaced with ballast to provide more living space and "more healthy" conditions. 18 On several earlier occasions, Luce had also stated his belief that, "Sailors can only be made aboard sailing ships." 19 By September 30, the sloop of war St. Mary's had been selected by the Navy for loan to the school and Captain Luce was writing the Boston Navy Yard to ask that half of her main battery of sixteen guns be removed. 20 The St. Mary's, a wooden vessel of958 tons, had been launched at Washington in 1844, and was named for the first settlement in the present state of Maryland. After serving in the Gulf of Mexico during the Mexican War, she had spent the remainder of her active career with the Pacific squadron. On November 23, 1872, she left San Francisco for Norfolk, Virginia, where she arrived June 3, 1873, by way of Cape Horn. 21 In December 1874, Captain Luce himself commanded the St. Mary's on her trip from Boston to New York. The City of New York provided the ship with a berth at the foot of East 23rd Street, at which location on December LO Captain Luce formally transferred responsibility for her to the Executive Committee on Nautical Schools, represented by its chairman David Wetmore. 22 Following passage of the schoolship bill, Luce had also sent out inquiries to the other ports on the possibility of their starting nautical schools. In addition, he sent to shipowners a prospectus on the proposed New York school and inquiry as to their willingness to hire its graduates. 23 In September 1874, the Philadelphia Board of Trade wrote, "Efforts have been commenced to make the provisions of your act effective for the interest of our port."24 However, no school materialized at that 14
port until 1889. The Baltimore Board of Trade was rather pessimistic and cautious, wanting to see how the other schools progressed. 25 Boston's reaction is not known, but the recent failure of its reformatory schoolships may have been a dampening influence. Only one other port took advantage of the Act during 1874. This was San Francisco, which was loaned a sistership of the St. Mary's, the USS Jamestown. That school was not a success, however, and the ship was returned to the Navy in 1876. 26 On December 4, 1874, even before delivery of the St. Mary's, Luce was writing to Wetmore asking to terminate his role as agent of the New York school. 27 Other campaigns which he had been pursuing since the 1860s now became the focus of his energies. Within half a decade, he was able to see the formation of a US Naval Apprentice Training Squadron, serving as its commander from 1881 to 1884. Next, he campaigned for and saw created the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, which he also headed as Superintendent from 1884. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1889 and did not retire from the service until 1910, after a remarkable career of 69 years. The State University of New York Maritime College and the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, exist today as monuments to his efforts. The Apprentice Training Squadron has evolved into our present naval "boot camps." And the certification of officers and seamen and a Federal agency for the merchant marine, which he advocated so strongly , are now a reality. 28 D 1 Portland Price Current, January 1867, quoted in Robert G. Albion, William A. Baker and Benjamin W. Labaree, New England and the Sea (M iddletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1972). 'Letter, R. W. Schufeld1 to Isaac Bell, April 29, 1872, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. 'Stephen B. Luce, " Nautical Schools in the US , A Historical Sketch," The Nautical Gazette, February 15 , 1873 ... 'The Nautical School St. Mary's," Harpers New Monthly Ma gazine, August 1879, p 342. 5New York Legislature, "A n Act to Authorize the Board of Education for the City and County of New York to Establi sh a Nautical School," (typed manuscript, New York State Maritime College, Archives), Apri l 24, 1873. 'J. D. H. , "S tephen B. Luce," p5. 'Letter, C. R. P. Rodgers to Stephen B. Luce, July 11 , 1873, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. "Letter, Executive Committee on Nautical School of New York Board of Education to Stephen B. Luce, August 20, 1873, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. 9 Letter, Stephen B. Luce to John Crosby Brown, September 3, 1873, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. "Letter, Stephen B. Luce to George M. Robeson , September 6, 1873, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce Papers. "Stephen B. Luce, "(illeg.) for Organization of New York Nautical School ," handwritten manuscript, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. "Letter, Stephen B. Luce to Richard Henry Dana, October I, 1873, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. "Stephen B. Luce, " Manning the Navy," November 13, 1873, copy of address , New York Public Library, Rear Admiral Franklin Hanford papers. "Ibid., p 13 ff. 15 Stephen B. Luce, "Ci rcular letter to Boards of Trade, Subject-School Ships," February 12, 1874, manuscript, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. "Ibid. , p 13 ff. "US Forty-third Congress," An Act to Encourage the Establishment of Public Marine Schools," June 20, 1874, typed transcript, New York State Maritime College, Archives. '"Letter, Stephen B. Luce to unknown addressee, July 11 , 1874, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. 19Stephen B. Luce, "(illeg.) for Organization of New York Nautical School." '°Letter, Stephen B. Luce to Commandant, Boston Navy Yard, September 30, 1874, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. "Letter, Nelson M. Blake, Chief, Navy Section, National Archives to Terence J. Hoverter, Librarian, New York Maritime College, July 19, 1951 , New York State Maritme College, Archives. "New York Board of Education, Annual Report, 1874. "Stephen B. Luce, 1874 letterbook, p I 07 , Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. 24 Letter, Philadelphia Board of Trade to Stephen B. Luce, September 23, 1874, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. "Letter, Baltimore Board of Trade to Stephen B. Luce, November 6, 1874, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. 26 Harold A. Underhill, Sail Training and Cadet Ships (G lasgow; Brown, Son & Fergusson, Ltd. 1956), p77. "Letter, Stephen B. Luce to David Wetmore, December 4, 1874, Library of Congress, Stephen B. Luce papers. 28 1. D. H., "Stephen B. Luce, Class of 1846, Educator of the Navy, Founder of the Maritime Colleges," Shipmate, November 1956, p 5 ff.
SEA HISTORY 57, SPRING 1991