A School For Sailors

1900 - Mar 18 - Faurbank's Naval Bill Passed

(Special to the Indiainapolis News)
Washingto, D. C., March 18 - The Senate today passed Senator Fairbank's bill authorizing the Secretary of the Nacy to furnish vessels of the revenue cutter type to military academies situated on other bodies of water thant the ocean and great lakes.

They are for practice of students.

This will take in the Culver Military Academy on Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiaina.

The bill in the House will be handled by Representative Brick - - Indianapolis News

Ships For Marshall County

Revenue Cutters to be Placed on Lake Maxinkuckee to Train Boys

Culver Military Academy has achieved such an enviable reputation that the iinstitution has not room to accommodate near all the applicants for admission, and the authoritites are preparing to build a new barracks to accommodate more students.

The are also expecting to receive from the general government one or prehaps two revenue cutters to be used as trainign ships on the lake and the boys will be instructed in naval as well as in military matters.

Col. Fleet expects to go to Washington this weel to arrange for this service, in securing which he has the active co-operation of the governor. - Apr. 4, 1902 - Bremen Enquirer (Indiana)

An Inland Navy

Prett h Lake Maxinkuckee Now Floats Government Vessels

Two Revenys Cutters Given to Culver Military Academy For a Naval Training School

Special Act of Congress Permits an Indiana Lake to be Thus Favored

Culver, Ind., May 21 - The two revenue cutters that were placed ath the disposal of Culver Military Academy for use in nava; instruction hafe arrived from the United States navy yard at Boston.

These two cutters are of the type used in the revenue service of the government. They are 28 feet long, carry 12 oars and are fitted with masts and other equipment.

The boats coast the government $1,500 each and were went to Culver academy by a special act of congress.

Colonel A. F. Fleet, superintendent of the academy says that the summer naval school which will be conducted here from June 26 to Aufust 20, will be the first of the king in Indiana.

The department of naval instrucrion will be under the direction of the T. H .

Gignillat, as former navu offiver and a large boat house is to be erected near the lagoon for the protection of the two cutters.

The course of study will be light and will include a variety of recreation - - May 21, 1903 - Munice Daily Herald (Indiana)

A School For Sailors

Culver Military Academy will Have Naval Department

Young Hoosiers, Though For from the Sea, May Have Nautical Training - Full Equipment

Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal
Culver, Ind., June 16 - There is not longer any reason why the boys of the interior should not have an equal knowledge of things mautical with their brothers of the seaboard states.

A naval school is to be established in Indiana.

The Culver Military Academy at Culver, on Lake Maxinkuckee, has through the Indiana delegation in Congress, secured from Uncle Sam regular man-of-war cutter and all the equipment necessary to teach the young Hoosiers and the boys from neighboring state all that is to be learned about boat drill and elementary naval science in general.

The course, say the officals, is to be pratical and complete, and when he finishes it a Culver naval cadet ought to be able to go on board a ship wherever he may find her and take her safley to port.

With the recent groweth of immense and prosperous shipyards on both coasts and on the lakes, and the recent rapid strides of the United States toward the commerical as well as the industrial supremacy of the world, and the consequent increasing importance of naval and martime matters in general, naval instruction for these youngsters is by no means without practical value.This innovation is another sigb of a new era in the country's history.

FLat cars hearing these big twenty-eight foot cutters from the Boston Navy Yard were backed in on the academy track a few days ago.

These are the counterparts of the boats used by Uncle Sam's cadets at Annapolis, and in them they learn everything from the handling of an oar to the evolutions of a squadron.

These boats are fitted with two masts and accompanying sails. The government has built them well. They are strong, steady and safe and are just the sort of craft in which to teach boys the handling and maneuvering of larger vessels.

Boat drill under sail is an interesting thing, and when the breeze is freh it has in it the spice of excitement dear to a boy's heart. it is harder work, but no less a pretty sight to see the crews at the oars, the rhythmic dip of the blades and click of the rowlocks, and the precise and clock like movrmrent of the cadets to the command of the captain of the crew are a reveoation to the ordinary land lubberly oarsman.

Lake Maxinkuckee will present a unique and attractive appearance during the boat-drill hours. The trim cutters, with their graceful lines and spotless woodwork, the cadets in their white canvas suits and black neckerchiefs and the instructor's launch - the flag-boat it is caled - signaling orders to the crews will all combine ti make a pucture interestinh enough for any one, and especially so to people of th interior.

Not every one perhaps knows that attached to the end of that snowy white cord that is worn by every jack tar is not a timepiece, but a huge jack knife. The Culver Naval cadet when is his working suit will also wear the lanyad and knife, for it plays an important part in a phase of the nautical training termed marlin spike seamanship and which consists of instruction in the handling and preserving of ropes and spilces used in the sailor's vocation. The use of the compass, the lead line and the log will also be included in his nautical education.

The wigwah, semaphore and night signals used in the Navy will become plain ENglish to him before his course is finished, and the solution of the fundamental problems of navigation and the use of the sextant and chronometer will have become as simple as the working of some and the telling og the time by the clock/ The laws of storms, or in ledd technical terms, "how to spot a hurrican" and learn its intentions and itinerary in time to give it a wide berth will, together with the "rules of the road" for avoiding collisions at sea, be other essential features of his instuction

Ship nonenclature and the principles invovled in the construction of wooden and iron ships must these youngsters alike learn. ANd courtesies and customs of the United Naval Service they will have at their finger's ends, so that they will know in every detail how to conduct themselves on shipboard from the time they salte the quarter deck on going over the side until the uncover to it on leaving the vessel.

A distinguished graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and an officer who trod the quarter deck in the West Indian campaign in our recent war with Spain, will conduct the instruction at Culver Naval School is, as as the name implies, to be a vacation school..

Light coaching for boyes who are backward in stuies or preparing for college is to be the only academic feature, and is to be run only during July and August, the months best suited for boat drill.

VIsitore to Maxinkuckee during these months, therefore will find the lake with quite a nautical appearance, the only feature lacking being the smell of the salt sea air. - 17 Jun 1902 Indianapolis Journal

Congessman Brick has secured the placing of two more naval launches on Lake Maxinkuckee for the user of the Culver Military Academy . This is a splendied investment for the government as there is a great demand for experienced men in the navy and the can be trained there at the lake at no expene to the department. The work that was done last summer by the students was under the guidance of a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and highly creditab;r to the institution and instructor. Feb. 12 1904 Monticello Herald (Indiana)

1905 - Apr 27 - Culver military academy at Lake Maxinkuckee has been granted another cutter by the navy department by the government. This will makre five such boats bow held by that school - Weekly Republican, Plymouth, Indiana

1905 Jun -Landing drill; firing the Horchkees guns at long distance