CHAPTER 8
THE SHIPBOARD LIBRARY
One of the main purposes of the Command
Religious Program is to maintain the morale of
command personnel. Shipboard libraries, which
are maintained by RPs, are a very important
factor in this effort, Shipboard libraries may
range in size from a small paperback book col-
lection aboard a minesweeper to a 10,000
volume library collection aboard a giant nuclear
powered aircraft carrier.
The Navy’s General Library Program, under
the control of the Chief of Naval Education and
Training (CNET), provides approximately 650
afloat and ashore libraries with an inventory of
more than 2-1 /2 million books. The first ship’s
library was placed aboard the warship USS
Franklin in 1821. This venture was initiated by
Mr. William Wood, a New York philanthropist.
Just before the Franklin, under the command of
Commodore Charles Stewart, sailed for a 3-year
cruise of the Pacific, Mr. Wood, with the per-
mission of the Commodore, addressed the crew
on the subject of a “Seaman’s Library.” Mr.
Wood’s remarks were enthusiastically received
by the crew and the officers and crew im-
mediately subscribed approximately 0. With
this money, 1,500 books were selected and pro-
cured by Mr. Wood who later performed a
similar service for the United States and the
Erie. The Commodore promptly set aside a com-
partment aboard the Franklin as a library
and appointed a librarian. Upon the return of
the ship, the books that remained from the
Franklin’s collection became the nucleus of the
Seaman’s Library at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The shipboard libraries of that era were
among the first projects sponsored by Navy
chaplains to improve the social and moral con-
dition of naval personnel. Similarly, the
promotion of learning was among one of the
chaplain’s earliest collateral duties. One
chaplain serving aboard a ship during this period
wrote of “forty men aboard who could read
(only) poorly or not at all,” Concerning this
situation, the same chaplain wrote: “To remedy
in some degree this gross neglect, several of us
obtained such books as we were able to get, and,
at Gibraltar, we purchased for the crew, at their
request and at their own expense, schoolbooks,
such as geographies, grammars, arithmetics,
etc., to the value of 0. Thus, were many of
them furnished with the means of improving
their minds; and, so important is the influence
of books in making seamen peaceful, contented,
and happy, that it would be a good policy on the
part of our government to furnish every ship of
war with a well-selected and appropriate library
for the use of the crew. Some of our larger ships
have had libraries of several hundred volumes
purchased by the men on board, and great good
has resulted from them; but, from having no
system on the subject, the books have been
disposed of at auction, or by lot, at the end of a
cruise, or left to mold and waste away at some
naval depot, instead of being carefully preserved
and transferred to some other ship, where they
might be useful.”
Since 1828, when the Navy assumed official
responsibility for the provision of shipboard
libraries from appropriated funds, the Navy’s
General Library Program has been an essential
element in meeting the educational, informa-
tion, communication, professional, and recrea-
tional needs of commands and of individual
personnel.
Figure 8-1 shows education and training
around 1898. Note the distinctive garb worn by a
8-1
