Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1918 — FIRST NAVAL TRAINING POST [ARTICLE]

FIRST NAVAL TRAINING POST

Was Established at Boston, Largely Through Efforts of" Commodore Bainbridge. The first naval school in the United States was established at the old Boston navy yard more than a century ago, the founder being Commodore Bainbridge, who is known as the “Father of American Naval Construction,” and who was born in Princeton, N_ J. Bainbridge was captured by ’the French in 1798, during the naval conflicts between that country and the United States, and in „ 1802 he was held a prisoner for nine months by the Tripolitan pirates. He fought gallantly in the last war between America and England, and after its conclusion Induced the Washington authorities to open a training school for officers at Boston. In 1840, some years after the death of the founder of American naval education, a naval school was opened in the old naval asylum in Philadelphia, and .here for a few years the midshipmen of the republic were instructed in the arts of warfare on the sea. The plan was so successful that it was decided to open a permanent jiaval academy. Annapolis, Md., was chosen as the site of the school and there the present United States Naval academy was formally opened.