Excerpt from Annual Register of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD: Fiftieth Academic Year, 1894-'95 The United States Naval Academy was founded in 1845 by the _hon. George Ban croft, Secretary of the Navy, in the administration of President James K. Polk It was formally opened October 10 of that year under the name of the Naval School, with Commander Franklin Buchanan 'as superintendent. It was placed at Annapolis, Md., on the land occupied' by Fort Severn, which was given up by the War Depart ment for the purpose. The course was fixed at five years, of which only the first year and the last were spent at the school, the intervening three years being passed at sea. This arrangement was not strictly adhered to, the exigencies of the service making it necessary, in many cases, to Shorten the period of study. In January, 1846, four months after the opening of the school, the students consisted of 36 mid shipmen of the date of 1840, who were preparing for the examination for promotion; 13 of the date of 1841, who were to remain until drafted for service at sea; and? Acting midshipmen, appointed after September of the previous year. The midship men of the date of 1840 were the first to be graduated, finishing their limited course in July, 1846, and they were followed in order by the subsequent dates until the reorganization of the school in 1850. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.