HONORS TO THE AMERICAN NAVY 



79 



TH^ NAVY IN PEACE: BY HON. TRUMAN 



H. NEWBERRY, SECRETARY 0E 

 THE NAVY 



The Navy makes its immediate appeal 

 to public consciousness in the role of a 

 mighty instrument of warfare, and as 

 the public mind lends itself most readily 

 to spectacular impressions, hence it is 

 that the world pronounces the national 

 defense and the maintenance of national 

 prestige the sole object of a navy's ex- 

 istence. So powerful is the influence of 

 martial achievement, so touched is hu- 

 man nature with the pride of prowess 

 that it is difficult for the average person 

 to believe that the Navy has a peaceful 

 mission, and has, indeed, attained great 

 achievements in times of peace. 



This occasion happily affords an op- 

 portunity to trace briefly the forces of 

 our naval power which have operated 

 within a civilizing and educating sphere 

 of activity. The energy expended in 

 this direction during the last threescore 

 years has brought new lands and seas 

 within the confines of the known world, 

 and insured their accessibility. Western 

 civilization has been disseminated, and a 

 new fund of geographic and commercial 

 knowledge has been contributed to man- 

 kind. Toward every point of the com- 

 pass, and against all the obstacles of na- 

 ture, this arm of the national power has 

 extended the boundaries of science, 

 opened new channels of trade, brought 

 the world into contact with new people, 

 and assembled fresh and important bio- 

 logical and ethnological learning. This, 

 and more, has been accomplished by the 

 great educating power of the Navy, and 

 the Government and the people have 

 recognized this as part of its proper avo- 

 cation. 



The expeditions of exploration and re- 

 search under the authority of the Navy 

 Department cover a period of more than 

 half a century. The first of importance 

 was in 1835, when an expedition was 

 sent into the North Pacific Ocean to ex- 

 plore and survey. Charts of many har- 

 bors and inland groups were made, 

 among which was the first American 

 chart of Bering Sea. In the same year 



an authorized expedition opened to com- 

 merce the valley of the La Plata, bring- 

 ing into commercial contact with the 

 world some of the richest provinces of 

 Brazil by hitherto unknown navigable 

 waterways. 



Another expedition, and one which at 

 that time was of pretentious proportions, 

 was undertaken to the South Sea Islands, 

 partly for the protection of our whaling 

 interests, and also for the discovery of a 

 continent which was supposed to lie in 

 the region of the South Pole. And a 

 striking and remarkable picture of naval 

 progress may be had by contrasting the 

 character of this expedition with the 

 notable cruise now in progress. Lieu- 

 tenant Wilkes' squadron of six wooden 

 sailing ships, the largest being of 700 

 tons displacement, sailed out from Nor- 

 folk in 1838 and passed through the 

 Straits of Magellan on its peaceful mis- 

 sion of exploration and scientific investi- 

 gation — to mark out in the vast and un- 

 known oceans the pathways of com- 

 merce, over which was destined to sail 

 seventy years later, from the same port, 

 the magnificent fleet of today, bear- 

 ing the peaceful greetings of this nation 

 to the maritime countries of both hemi- 

 spheres. 



The operations of the Wilkes expedi- 

 tion extended over a region of ten mil- 

 lion square miles, within which more 

 than five hundred islands were charted, 

 more than two thousand drawings of 

 costumes, scenery and natural history 

 were brought back, together with thou- 

 sands of botanical and geological speci- 

 mens. Wilkes also realized the dream 

 of his life in the discovery of a large 

 body of land lying within the Antarctic 

 Circle, which he named the Antarctic 

 Continent. 



In 1 83 1 a United States naval officer, 

 under orders from the Navy Depart- 

 ment, explored from the headwaters to 

 the south of the Amazon, and opened 

 that valley for the first time to the trade 

 and commerce of the world. 



To the Navy is due the credit of suc- 

 cessfully opening negotiations with and 

 bringing into the family of nations the 

 densely populated and wealthy islands of 



