Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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THE BOMB. g The accuracy of his deep-sea soundings have been verified by Captain George Belknap, who ran a line of soundings across the Pacific using Sir William Thomson ' s machine, with piano wire, and Brooke ' s detaching apparatus. A cyclone on August 22d, 1859, while Brooke was in Yedo (Tokio) conferring with the American minister, caused the officer left in charge, very properly, to beach the Fennimore Cooper, to save the lives of her crew. Her timbers were found so decayed that it was useless to repair her. Brooke remained at Yokohama with the crew till the tenth of February, i860, for passage to the United States in the ffagship Pow- hatan of the Asiatic Squadron. The Japanese freely consulted with Captain Brooke and as he had no mercantile interests, they relied implicitly on his statements. When the Japanese determined to send an embassy to the United States, they wished to send a war vessel to avoid the supposition that they were unable to send their embassy in a vessel of their own. The Tycoon wouldn ' t consent to send a Japanese ship to the United States unless Brooke would go with their vessel. Brooke vol- unteered to do this and was directed by Flag Officer Tatnall to take passage in the Japanese corvette, Candimarroo, and to assist the cap- tain in the navigation of his ship. The corvette reached San Francisco thirteen days ahead of the Powhatan, which had been forced by heavy weather to take a more southerly course, touching at Honolulu. This service was highly appreciated by the Japanese authorities, who invited Brooke to take from a chest containing $60,000, what he considered a proper consideration for his assistance. Brooke refused to take anything. On the reception of the embassy in Washington, the ambassador asked as his first request, that the services rendered Japan by Captain Brooke should be recorded in the archives of the United States. In 1861, Captain Brooke applied in the construction of the Vir- ginia (the Merrimac) the principle of extended and submerged ends, which has been adopted in the most powerful of foreign ships of war, as the Inflexible and the Italia. This invention is attested by a patent

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8 THE BOMB. Naval School at Annapolis, first organized in 1845, by the dis- tinguished Buchanan, whose bearing and sense of honor made lasting impressions on his pupils. Brooke ' s class was the first and largest ever graduated at this famous school. They were called fort)--ones ' from their entrance year into the navy, not, as is the custom now, from the date of gradua- tion. Brooke was graduated in 1847, d in 1849 or 1850, was on the Coast Survey in the hydrographic party under Rear-Admiral Sam Philipps Lee. About this period Brooke married his first wife. Miss Lizzie Gar- nett, a sister of General Richard Brooke Garnett, killed in Pickett ' s charge at Gettysburg. Brooke was stationed at the Naval Observatory, Washington, D. C, from 185 1 to 1853. During this time he invented the deep-sea sounding apparatus. After i860 he was given the gold medal of science of the Academy of Berlin, by the King of Prussia, afterward Emperor William of Germany, in recognition of his service to scientific research. He was on the exploring expedition to the North Pacific and Behring Straits, under Commander Ringold. The command was afterwards transferred to Rear-Admiral John Rodgers. In this expe- dition Brooke was entrusted with the important duty of determining astronomical positions of primary points and measuring chrono ' metric- ally differences of longitude. He made improvements in manipula- tion and management of chronometers, also made magnetic observa- tions and deep-sea soundingci. He made reconnaissance of the east coast of Niphon (Japan) from Simoda to Hakodadi in a launch of the Vincennes. Hfe W s sent via Panama to Washington with the results of the survey tQ hasten the publication. In 1858 Brooke was assigned to the survey of the route between California and China. Sailing from San Francisco September 26th, 1858, in the schooner Fennimore Cooper, originally a New York pilot- boat, he made a sur -ey of islands in the Pacific and a part of the eastern coast of Japan.

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10 THE BOMB. granted by the Confederate States a a time when all cognizant of the facts were alive and competent to testify. In 1863, as chief of ordnance and hydrography of Confederate States, he proposed that a thirteen-inch Blakely should be fired with the powder charge placed wholly in front of the chamber in order to diminish the initial tension of the gases, a sister gun having burst at the first discharge. This was done successfully with heavy charges, overthrowing the then universal belief that a considerable space unoc- cupied by powder would cause a gun to burst. A series of experi- ments by direction of the chief of ordnance in the army of the Confede- rate States was subsequently made, which fully confirmed the theory thus advanced, and the emplo} ' ment of an air space is now, as is well known, general. Brooke ' s career in the United States Navy was brilliant for a young man. Even as a midshipman he was noted among his fellows for his physical strength, activity and skill in athletic sports. He was a skilful oarsman, a good rifle- and pistol-shot, and a noted swimmer. Among the Americans, he was one of the few who seemed at all equal to the Sandwich Islanders in their feats of diving and swimming near their island home. Besides his inventive genius, he had a mechanical turn of a high order. There used to be in the house now occupied by our accom- plished Commandant of Cadets, Colonel Price, a model in wood of a schooner in which was reproduced every timber, block, spar, mast, rope, pulley or piece of tackle in a real schooner. Even the planks in the deck were imitated and the sails made of his wife ' s best linen hand- kerchief were not lacking — all made by Captain Brooke, to please a lad who had never been out o ' sight of land. The lines of this miniature vessel were so fine that she easily beat all her tiny competi- tors in a trial race on a pond not far from the site of the old ' irginia Military Institute. As a passed-midshipman he early became distinguished by his deep-sea sounding apparatus which revolutionized communication between Europe and America. By this was made possible the laying