CHAPTER XII.

THE FOUNDER OF THE BROOKLYN NAVAL LYCEUM.

AN English writer[7] in the Naval College at Greenwich thus compares the life on shore of British and American officers.

“The officers of the United States navy have one great advantage which is wanting to our own; when on shore they are not necessarily parted from the service, but are employed in their several ranks, in the different dockyards, thus escaping not only the private grievance and pecuniary difficulties of a very narrow half-pay, but also, what from a public point of view is much more important, the loss of professional aptitude, and that skill which comes from increasing practice.”

When on the 7th of January 1833, Captain Perry received orders to report to Commodore Charles Ridgley at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, his longest term, ten years, of shore duty began. Being now settled down with his family, and expecting henceforth to rear his children in New York, he gave notice April 24, to the Navy Department that his name should go on record as a citizen of the Empire State. He at once began the study and mastery of the steam engine, with a view of solving the problem of the use of steam as a motor for war vessels.

That Perry was “an educator of the Navy,” and that he left his mark in whatever field of work he occupied was again signally shown. He organized the Brooklyn Naval Lyceum. This institution which still lives in honorable usefulness is a monument of his enterprise.

The New York Naval Station in the Wallabout, or Boght of the Walloons, which to-day lies under the shadow of the great Suspension Bridge, is easily accessible by horse-cars, elevated railways, and various steam vehicles on land and water. In those days, it was isolated, and ferry-boats were inferior and infrequent. Hence officers were compelled to be longer at the Yard, and had much leisure on their hands. Desirous of professional improvement for himself and his fellow-officers, Perry was alert when the golden opportunity arrived. Finding this at hand, he first took immediate steps to form a library at the Yard. He then set about the organization of the Lyceum, whose beginnings were humble enough. About this time, money had been appropriated to construct a new building for the officers of the commandant and his assistants. It was originally intended to be only two stories in height. Perry suggested that the walls be run up another story for extra rooms. He wrote to the Department. He personally pressed the matter. Permission was granted. A third floor was added. It was to be used for Naval courts-martial, Naval Boards, and the Museum, Library, and Reading Room.

The Lyceum organized in 1833, had now a home. It was incorporated in 1835, and allowed to hold $25,000 worth of property. The articles of union declared the Lyceum formed “In order to promote the diffusion of useful knowledge, to foster a spirit of harmony and a community of interests in the service, and to cement the links which unite us as professional brethren.”

The blazon selected was a naval trophy decorated with dolphins, Neptune, marine and war emblems, eagle and flag, with the motto, “_Tam Minerva quam Marte_,” (as well for Minerva, as for Mars.) A free translation of this would be, “For culture as well as for war.”

Commodore C. G. Ridgley was chosen President, as was befitting his rank. Perry assumed an humbler office, though he was the moving spirit of this, the first permanent American naval literary institution. He presided at its initial meeting. He was made the first curator of the museum, in 1836 its Vice President; and later, its President. Officers and citizens employed by, or connected with the navy came forward in goodly numbers as members. Soon a snug little revenue enabled the Lyceum to purchase the proper furniture and cases for the specimens which began to accumulate, as the new enterprise and its needs began to be known. Publishers and merchants made grants of books, pictures and engravings. Other accessions to the library were secured by purchase. From the beginning, and for years afterwards, the Lyceum grew and prospered. “Although other officers rendered valuable service in the organization, yet the master spirit was Captain Matthew C. Perry, United States Navy. From that day to this, the Naval Lyceum has been a fertile source of professional instruction and improvement.” Among the honorary members were four captains in the British navy, three of whose names, Parry, Ross and Franklin, are imperishably associated with the annals of Arctic discoveries.

Out of the Lyceum grew the Naval Magazine, an excellent bi-monthly, full of interest to officers. Of this Perry was an active promoter, and to it he contributed abundantly, though few or none of the articles bear his signature. Always full of ideas, and able to express them tersely, the editor could depend on him for copy, and he did. The Naval Magazine was edited by the Rev. Charles Stewart. The Advisory Committee consisted of Commodore C. G. Ridgley, Master Commandant M. C. Perry, C. O. Handy, Esq., Purser W. Swift, Esq., Lieutenant Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Professor E. C. Ward, and passed Midshipman B. I. Moller. Its subscription price was three dollars per annum. Among the contributors were J. Fenimore Cooper, William C. Redfield, Esq., Chaplain Walter C. Colton and Dr. Usher Parsons. In looking over the bound volumes of this magazine—one of the mighty number of the dead in the catacombs of American periodical literature—we find some articles of sterling value and perennial interest. It was fully abreast of the science of the age, and urged persistently the creation of a Naval Academy.

The magazine died, but the Lyceum lived on to do a good work for many years, notably during our great civil war. It is still flourishing and is visited by tens of thousands of persons from all parts of our country.

Perry had already made his reputation as a scientific student. His motto was “_semper paratus_.” He was ever in readiness for work. The British Admiralty and the United States government were desirous of fuller information about the tides and currents of the Atlantic ocean, especially those off Rhode Island and in the Sound. Chosen for the work, Perry received orders, June 1st, to spend a lunar month on Gardiner’s Island. The congenial task afforded a pleasant break in the monotony of life in the navy yard, and revived memories of the war of 1812. The careful observations which he made during the month of June, embodied in a report, were adopted into the United States and British Admiralty charts. He returned home June 29.

Though Commodore Ridgley was officer-in-chief in the yard, upon Perry fell most of the active clerical and superintending work. The frigate, _United States_, was fitting out for service in the Mediterranean, and one of the young midshipmen ordered to report to her was the gentleman who afterwards became Rear-Admiral George H. Preble, a gallant soldier, fighter of Chinese pirates, and author of the _History of the American Flag_ and of _Steam Navigation_.

He reported to the Navy Yard, May 1, 1836, in trembling anxiety as to his reception by his superiors. The commandant was absent at the horse-races on the Long Island course, so young Preble returned to New York, to his hotel, and again reported May 3.

His first impressions of Master Commandant Perry are shown in the following doggerel, written in a letter to his sister:

“Charley again was at the race, But I was minded that the place Should own me as a Mid. And since the Com. was making merry, Reported to big-whiskered Perry The Captain of the Yard.

“‘Mat’ looked at me from stem to stern, His gaze I thought he ne’er would turn, No doubt he thought me green. For I had on a citizen’s coat Instead of a uniform as I ought, When going to report.

“At last he said that I could go, There was no duty I could do, Until the next day morning. So I whisked o’er and moved my traps, And made acquaintance with the chaps Who were to live with me.”

Perry at this time wore whiskers, and for some years afterwards cultivated sides in front of the ear. In later life he shaved his face clean. The fashion in the navy was to wear only sides, as portraits of all the heroes of 1812 show. The younger officers were just beginning to sport moustaches. These modern fashions and “such fripperies” were denounced by the older men, who clung to their antique prejudices. Hawthorne, in his American Note Book, August 27, 1837, gives an amusing instance of this, couched in the language with which he was able to make the commonest subject fascinating.

That the regulations should prescribe the exact amount of hair to be worn on the face of both officers and men seems strange, but it is true, and illustrates the rigidity of naval discipline. Evidently inheriting the modern British (not the ancient Brittanic) hatred of French and continental customs, the Americans, in high office, forbade moustaches as savoring of disloyalty. Wellington had issued an order forbidding moustaches, except for cavalry. It was not until the year of grace, 1853, that the American naval visage was emancipated from slavery to the razor. Secretary Dobbin then approved of the cautious regulation: “The beard to be worn at the pleasure of the individual, but when worn to be kept short and neatly trimmed.” What a shame it must have seemed to feminine admirers, and to the possessors of luxuriant beards of attractive color! Both the hairy and hairless were, perforce, placed in the same democracy of homeliness. The ancient orders, in the interest of ships’ barbers, and once made to compensate for the wearing of perukes, were crowned by the famous proclamation of Secretary Graham, dated May 8, 1852, which at this date furnishes, amusing reading:

“The hair of all persons belonging to the Navy, when in actual service, is to be kept short. No part of the beard is to be worn long, and the whiskers shall not descend more than two inches below the ear, except at sea, in high latitudes, when this regulation may, for the time, be dispensed with by order of the commander of a squadron, or of a vessel acting under separate orders. _Neither moustaches nor imperials are to be worn by officers or men on any pretence whatever._”

Our illustrious Admiral Porter shaved only once or twice in his life. During the Mexican War he found it difficult to get Commodore Conner to give him service on account of his full whiskers. The British army wore their beards and now fashionable moustaches in the trenches of Sebastopol, when it was difficult, if not impossible to get shaved, and thus won a hairy victory, the results of which were felt even across the Atlantic.

Another high honor offered to Perry, was the command of the famous U. S. Exploring Expedition to Antarctic lands and seas. This enterprise was the evolution of an attempt to obtain from Congress an appropriation to find “Symmes Hole.” The originator of the “_Theory of Concentric Spheres_” was John Cleves Symmes, born in 1780, and an officer in the United States army during the war of 1812, who died in 1829. In lectures at Union College, Schenectady, and in other places, he expounded his belief that the earth is hollow and capable of habitation, and that there is an opening at each of the poles, leading to the various spheres inside of the greater hollow sphere, the earth itself. He petitioned Congress to fit out an expedition to test this theory, which had been set forth in his lectures and in a book published at Cincinnati in 1826.

Despite the ridicule heaped upon Symmes and his theories, scientific men believed that the Antarctic region should be explored. Congress voted that a corps of scientific men, in six vessels, should be sent out for four years in the interests of observation and research. This was one of the first of those “peace expeditions,” no less renowned than those in war, of which the American nation and navy may well be proud.

By this time, however, Perry had become interested in the idea of creating a steam navy. He declined the honor, but took a keen interest in the expedition. An ardent believer in Polar research, he was heartily glad to see the boundaries of knowledge extended. He had read carefully the record of the five years’ voyage of the British sloop-of-war _Beagle_. In this vessel, Mr. Darwin began those profound speculations on the origin and maintenance of animal life, which have opened a new outlook upon the universe and created a fertile era of thought.

The Secretary of the Navy applied to the Naval Lyceum for advice as to the formation of a scientific corps, for recommendation of names of members of said corps, for a series of inquiries for research, and details of the correct equipment of such an expedition. To thus recognise the dignity and status of the Lyceum was highly gratifying to its founder and appreciated by the society. A committee consisting of three officers, C. G. Ridgley, M. C. Perry and C. O. Handy, was appointed to make the report. This, when printed, filled eleven pages of the magazine. It was mainly the work of M. C. Perry. The practical nature of the programme was recognized at once. It was incorporated into the official instructions for the conduct of the expedition. The command was most worthily bestowed on Lieutenant Charles Wilkes.

The success of this, the first American exploring expedition of magnitude is known to all, through the publication entitled _The Wilkes Exploring Expedition_, as well as by the additions to our herbariums and gardens of strange plants, and the goodly spoils of science now in the Smithsonian Institute.

[7] J. K. Laughton, _Encyclopædia Brittanica_, vol. ix., article “Farragut.”