Anchors Aweigh A Naval Academy Alphabet

By Nancy Prothro Arbuthnot

A is for anchor as in “Anchors aweigh!” The photographs, catchy rhymes, and informative notes in Anchors Aweigh offer a lively introduction to the history, architecture, culture and traditions of the United States Naval Academy. Welcome aboard as we set sail from the “Boat School,” where young women and men are trained to serve as officers in the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9798369407110

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Copyright © 2024 by Nancy Prothro Arbuthnot.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/14/2024

Xlibris

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Contents

Flagg Map

USNA Beginnings

Midshipman Life

A to Z at USNA

USNA Midshipman and Naval Officer Ranks

Military Abbreviations

Naval Mottoes and Sayings

Ship Descriptions

Glossary of Nautical and Military Terms

Class Gifts and Other Contributions

Suggested Readings

Acknowledgments

Also by Nancy Arbuthnot

Blue Rhapsodies: Poems of a Navy Life (2021)

Remember Me Singing: A Catoctin Mountain Alphabet (2021)

Postcards from the Border: Poems and Watercolor Meditations (2020)

Spirit Hovering: Poems (2014)

Waves Beyond Waves (translations with Le Pham Le, 2012)

Guiding Lights: United States Naval Academy Monuments and Memorials (2009)

Wild Washington: Animal Sculptures A to Z (with illustrations by Cathy Abramson, 2005)

From Where the Wind Blows (translations with Le Pham Le, 2003)

An American Artist in World War II: Jason Schoener at Eniwetok Atoll (1996)

Mexico Shining: Songs of the Aztecs (1995)

Dedication

To my former students and USNA families everywhere

In memorium, Randell Hunt Prothro (1922-2018)

and Nancy Wilde Prothro (1925-2023)

35_a_lbj23.jpg

ERNEST FLAGG’S 1902 PLAN

Courtesy Bohl Architects, Annapolis, 2024

USNA Beginnings

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) was founded in 1845. But its origins lie decades earlier, with the founding of the American navy and the navy’s need for officers. On October 13, 1775 during the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress established the Continental Navy of small ships (frigates, brigs, sloops, and schooners). Captain John Paul Jones stood out as a leader, with daring raids into British waters that forced the surrender of Royal Navy warships to his rag-tag fleet. To strengthen naval power, Jones and others called for better officer training. In 1789 the First Federal Congress ratified the Constitution of the United States, founding a nation with a strong central government—and granting Congress the authority to provide and maintain a navy. Training of naval officers was largely conducted shipboard. Limited onshore education was offered at such institutions as the Philadelphia Naval Asylum, which opened in 1839 to prepare sailors for the passed midshipman exam. In 1845, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft called for a professional school for the study of mathematics, nautical astronomy. . . international law, gunnery. . . and other branches essential to the accomplishment of a naval officer. He transferred Fort Severn in Annapolis from the War Department (the Army) to the Department of the Navy, and adapted the buildings for classrooms, dining, and housing. He appointed Commander Franklin Buchanan superintendent, and selected professors such as mathematics professor William Chauvenet from the Naval Asylum. The Naval School