Fifty midshipmen report to a converted Army fort in Annapolis

For decades, the Navy had trained its future officers piecemeal, aboard ships, under whatever captain happened to be in charge. On October 10, 1845, that changed. The Naval School opened in Annapolis, Maryland, on the grounds of the old Army post Fort Severn, with fifty midshipmen reporting under the command of Franklin Buchanan, its first superintendent. Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft had pushed the plan through without asking Congress for new money, folding the cost into the existing budget…