Midshipmen selected for the engineering branch of the Navy go to the Royal Engineering College, Keyham, Devonport, where, after duly qualifying, they are promoted to sub-lieutenant.
Paymaster midshipman is the present day title of the sub ordinate officer who used to be called a clerk R.N. He enters as a paymaster cadet and is promoted after twelve months service afloat.
See Falconer, Marine Dictionary; King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions (H.M. Stationery Office) ; Appendix to the Navy List (H.M. Stationery Office). (E. A.) In the U.S. Navy midshipman is the title given to the student undergoing the course at the U.S. Naval Academy (q.v.), prepara tory to entering the lowest commissioned ranks. As such he is an officer in a qualified sense. He is appointed a midshipman in the Navy, not merely at the Naval Academy, is subject to the orders and regulations of the Navy Department, but does not participate in the benefits of retirement or longevity. He may be ordered to sea duty, although this is not customary except on practice cruises. He ranks after a commissioned warrant officer, and ahead of a warrant officer.
When the naval forces were first established, midshipmen were seagoing officers in training for commissions, with rank and duties similar to those of the British Navy of that time. In the Revolu tionary War midshipmen were appointed by the commanders of vessels, but practically all were discharged at the end of the war.
In the great expansion after the authorization of a new national navy in the president was empowered to appoint as many midshipmen as desired. They were appointed from civil life without special regard to education or aptitude, but in the ensuing naval wars with France and the Barbary States, and the War of 1812, theirs was a record of great activity and gallantry. Age at entry was generally 14 to 20, but this varied. Stephen Decatur was warranted a midshipman at 20, and commissioned a lieutenant at 21. David G. Farragut entered at 9, and became a lieutenant at 24. In 1827 the grade of passed midshipman was established. At the age of 20, and having served three years at sea, a midshipman was eligible for promotion to passed midshipman. The time of promotion to lieutenant varied, depending on the vacancies.
In the Navy regulations of 1802, commanding officers were en joined to consider the midshipmen as "meriting in a special degree the fostering care of their Government," and to see that the schoolmasters (at that date the chaplains) were diligent in in structing them. Later, schoolmasters were added to the ships. However, the system of giving instruction on board ship did not prove satisfactory. This led to proposals from many sources
often from the service itself, for a naval school similar to the Military Academy established in 1802. Nearly every secretary of the navy from 1814 to 1845 recommended it. In the meantime the midshipmen received such instruction as the system permitted, at sea, and at the navy yards at Boston, New York, Norfolk and Philadelphia, where professors of mathematics and languages were stationed.
With sail as the motive power, and the old smooth-bore ord nance, "the young gentlemen of the watch" could master the elements of their profession at sea, even if they did not acquire a liberal education. But the advent of steam and the swift ad vances in the arts and sciences soon made more efficient instruc tion imperative. Congressional action continually failed, but in 1845 secretary of the navy George Bancroft set up a naval school on the site of Ft. Severn, Annapolis, Md., by con centrating there all the equipment and instructors available, and ordering the attendance of all midshipmen undergoing instruction at the navy yards. Acting midshipmen, aged 13 to 16, attended one year; they were then warranted midshipmen and served at sea for three years; then returned for another year's study, final examinations and promotion to passed midshipmen. In 1850-5i the Naval school was reorganized as the U.S. Naval Academy.
For many years the Navy Department had been free to ap point as many midshipmen as it pleased. In 1845, Congress provided that midshipmen should be appointed from each State or Territory in proportion to the number of representatives and delegates. This principle has been adhered to.
The students at the Naval Academy have been called, in turn, acting midshipmen, midshipmen, cadet midshipmen and cadet en gineers, naval cadets, and again, midshipmen. From 1873 to 1912 the academic course was six years, the last two of which were spent at sea. In 1912 the course was reduced to four years, the midshipmen, upon graduation, being commissioned as ensigns in the line or staff corps of the Navy, or as second lieutenants in the Marine Corps.
See J. R. Soley, Historical Sketch of the Naval Academy (1876) ; Park Benjamin, The United States Naval Academy (1900) ; Ralph Earle, Life at the U.S. Naval Academy (1917) ; Navy Regulations (1802, 1814, et seq.) ; Navy Registers; Naval Academy Registers and Regulations Governing the Admission of Candidates into the U.S. Naval Academy as Midshipmen, published by the Bureau of Naviga tion, Navy Department. (S. S. R.)