Artifact of the Month: Our Bicentennial Chart

This chart, complete with the Old Point Comfort Light (which began operating in 1803) was completed by Chaplain David P. Adams in 1816 from surveys he conducted throughout Hampton Roads during the latter half of 1815. (Photograph by M.C. Farrington, HRNM)

From deep in our archives comes an extraordinarily precise rendering of what Hampton Roads looked like two hundred years ago.  Normally, the chart is behind several layers of physical security and is available by appointment only.  As our featured Artifact of the Month, however, it can now be seen by any visitor to the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.

During the construction of the current Naval Station Norfolk Chapel in 1941, then-Command Chaplain William W. Edel discovered the chart.  He taped it together and had it framed for display, subsequently obtaining permission from then-Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to name the chapel for Adams.  The chart remained mounted to a wall to the right of the sanctuary until 2013. (Photograph by Diana Gordon, HRNM)

Ironically enough, for three-quarters of a century the chart was available for viewing to anyone who chanced upon it, mounted upon a wall at the David Phineas Adams Chapel at Naval Station Norfolk.  Unfortunately, it was also exposed to a host of threats to its existence during that long period, including ultraviolet light and every barometric and humidity change, with nothing to protect the chart except for the ordinary glass covering the ordinary frame enclosing it.  That all changed in 2013 after Commander Denis Cox, who was command chaplain at the time, made it his mission to save the chart.  Through the assistance and support of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, the Hampton Roads Naval Historical Foundation, and Conservator Pamela Young, the chart has been conserved and now has an infinitely greater chance at surviving for centuries to come.

The 1816 Hampton Roads Chart as it now appears inside a display case at the entrance to the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. (Photograph by Michele Levesque, HRNM)

It took thirty hours of meticulously removing adhesive tape that had been indiscriminately applied to the chart.  New “rag stock” paper also had to be created from scratch to replace its missing cotton fibers.  The efforts brought the chart back from the brink of destruction, yet the restored artifact is faithful to the original.    

The chart's creator, David Phineas Adams, was a man of numerous talents.  He had risen from humble origins in Lexington, Massachusetts to graduate from Harvard University and for a time edited a literary magazine in Boston. He had also been a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Columbia College (now Columbia University) in New York before serving under Captain David Porter aboard the frigate Essex as chaplain on his epic voyage to the Pacific during the War of 1812.  When not battling the Royal Navy or capturing British merchant vessels, Essex and her small squadron of prize vessels engaged in exploration and discovery, and Adams became one of the first Americans to explore and chart the Galapagos Islands, decades before Charles Darwin and HMS Beagle would make them famous.   


After USS Essex was ultimately cornered and captured by the British on March 28, 1814, Adams was sent by his captors on an arduous journey from Chile all the way to England bearing affidavits concerning the capture. It was not until February 24, 1815, that Adams finally reached home soil here in Norfolk.  


Although the war was over, Adams stayed in the Navy as a chaplain, taking up an assignment by then-Captain Stephen Decatur later that year to undertake a survey of Chesapeake Bay for the Board of Naval Commissioners.  "The well known talents and precision of this gentleman leaves no doubt of the accuracy of his lines of bearing, distance, and soundings," wrote Decatur of the completed chart.


We think you will agree.  

Artifact of the Month: Divine Military Gear

In 1951, Lieutenant James E. Norton, CHC, is hoisted onto an awaiting H-03C after holding Sunday morning Catholic services aboard the cruiser USS Newport News (CA-148), a ship designed before rotary-wing aircraft came into common use.  From the very beginning, U.S. Navy Chaplains have had to find a way to serve Sailors and Marines wherever they serve. (National Archives photo via Naval History and Heritage Command/ Flickr)   

The second article of Navy regulations as adopted by the Continental Congress on November 28, 1775, specifies that:

"The Commanders of the ships of the thirteen United Colonies, are to take care that divine service be performed twice a day on board, and a sermon preached on Sundays, unless bad weather or other extraordinary accidents prevent."

The regulation did not specify just who would conduct the services, and during those years ordained clergy would simply accompany ships at sea whenever possible.  A professionalized chaplaincy would not come into being until after "An Act to Provide a Naval Armament" was passed by Congress on March 27, 1794, which specified that "there should be employed on board each of the said ships of 44 guns... one chaplain."

Although uniform regulations and other details about the roles of chaplains would not come about for another generation, no amount of regulations could encompass what logistical constraints members of the Navy Chaplain Corps have had to overcome in the almost 240 years since their founding. As in every other category of military mission, however, American industry has met the challenge of providing gear that is tough enough to withstand the arduous duties its users perform in times of war and peace, and that includes the duties of Chaplains.  For your enlightenment this month we proudly display two Korean War-era field kits for performing divine services wherever the need arises.  

The "Protestant/Catholic Chaplain Kit" includes the case, Ciborium, bottle for wine, communion stand with cups, bread plate, Bible/missive holder, a set of two bottles/cruets for water/oil, a cross/crucifix, candles with holders, followers and stands, a paten, an intinction cup/chalice paten, a chalice, three corporals and three altar cloths.

Newly-commissioned Chaplains of the early-1950s would be issued kits such as these, specific to their religious affiliations, as much as was practicable at the time.  For example, the Protestant kit shown was designed also to be usable for Catholic services.

In the "Jewish Chaplain Kit," the case acts as the Ark, with two covers and a detachable bottom; a Torah with cover; two prayer shawls, Yarmulkes; a Yad; a Bimah (velvet cover); several sets of candles with holders and stands; and a Kiddush cup with cap.

On May 7, 1952, Lieutenant August F. Mendonsa, CHC, USNR, assisted by Corporal Alvin J. McGee, USMC, sets up an altar on sand bags in preparation for mass at the front lines in Korea. (U.S. Navy Photo by Aviation Photographer's Mate 3rd Class H.W.H. Aring/ NHHC Photo via Flickr)

Lieutenant August F. Mendonsa, CHC, USNR, conducts a Communion Service for a company of Marines posted on the front lines in Korea.  It is likely that Mendonsa's field altar case is at the lower left of the frame. (U.S. Navy Photo by Aviation Photographer's Mate 3rd Class H.W.H. Aring/ NHHC Photo via Flickr)

Known alternately as portable altars, field altars, or field kits, by the end of the Second World War, these indispensable implements of the chaplaincy were designed and built with such a high degree of combat readiness that many were designed to float and also be attached to a pistol belt or rucksack so that chaplains could even carry them during parachute jumps and amphibious landings.

Our current Artifact of the Month display at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum (Photo by HRNM Public Information Officer Susanne Greene)

During the over 60 years since these two kits were made, our military has become much more diverse.  Today's chaplains might carry kits not only made to provide Catholic, Jewish and Protestant services, but also to serve Muslim and Orthodox Christian service members as well, enabling them to provide worship opportunities regardless of faith or denomination.

Wherever called upon, regardless of the difficulties or dangers, U.S. Navy Chaplains have been right with the Sailors and Marines they serve, from the calm of peacetime patrols to the thick of combat, right from the beginning.  These artifacts are a testament to their ability to serve a higher calling anywhere, any time, with the tools they are given.

Saved: A Chaplain's Two-Century-Old Chart

"It’s just been sitting here for 75 years next to the door next to the weather under this light, and I thought, 'I’ve got to do something about this.'"

Chaplain Denis Cox

"There is a point of no return.  Fortunately... Chaplain Cox found it in the nick of time."

 Conservator Pamela Young


Nearly 75 years have passed since a chart made 199 years ago by the most famous Navy chaplain of the War of 1812 came to adorn a wall of the Naval Station Norfolk Chapel.  After the rededication of the chart and its official transfer to the Naval History and Heritage Command on April 29, 2015, this restored artifact, one of the earliest of the U.S. Navy in Hampton Roads, made a short but substantial journey to the archives of the nearby Hampton Roads Naval Museum.  

The talent of its creator, David Phineas Adams, was on full display as dozens of Chaplain Corps members, most notably Deputy Chief of Navy Chaplains Rear Admiral Brent W. Scott; members of the Naval Station Norfolk community, led by Captain Robert E. Clark; and members of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, itself part of the Naval History and Heritage Command led by Director of Naval History Sam  J. Cox, gathered in the David Phineas Adams Memorial Chapel to commemorate the event.   

During the construction of the current Naval Station Norfolk Chapel in 1941, then-Command Chaplain William W. Edel discovered this chart made by Chaplain David P. Adams in 1816.  He taped it together and had it framed for display, subsequently obtaining permission from then-Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to name the chapel for Adams.  The chart remained mounted to a wall to the right of the sanctuary until 2013, when oncoming Chaplain Denis Cox took notice of it.  "I... thought, there's no way that this could be the original 200-year-old chart," said Cox, who discovered that it indeed was the genuine article. "It’s just been sitting here for 75 years next to the door next to the weather under this light, and I thought, 'I’ve got to do something about this.'" (Hampton Roads Naval Museum Collection)     

 

Chaplain Denis N. Cox discusses the significance of Chaplain Adams' chart during its rededication ceremony at the Naval Station Norfolk Chapel on April 29, only about 30 feet from where the chart was mounted for nearly 75 years.  A duplicate chart has now taken its place on the wall, and the original seen here on an easel now resides at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. (Photograph by M.C. Farrington, HRNM)  

“I learned of David Phineas Adams when I was in Chaplain’s School, on what not to do as a chaplain” said Commander Denis N. Cox, Chaplain of Naval Station Norfolk, and the man whose interest in the chart led him on a two-year journey culminating in the ceremony.  "But it wasn’t until I came to this chapel, saw his chart, read that plaque, and instantly fell in love with Chaplain David Phineas Adams.  I fell in love with who he was.  I fell in love with what he accomplished.  I fell in love with what he was able to do.  As a chaplain.  As a man."

A one-time professor of mathematics and astronomy at Columbia College (now Columbia University) in New York, the Harvard-trained Adams was appointed by President James Madison as a  Navy chaplain on May 10, 1811.  Although he performed the duties expected of chaplains today, the exigencies of war demanded much more of him.  His most famous exploits during the War of 1812 came from serving under Captain David Porter on the frigate Essex; not for ministering to the crew, but for taking command of three of Porter's prizes on his famous cruise around Cape Horn to the Galapagos Islands, where Adams became arguably the first American to conduct topographical surveys, decades before the arrival of HMS Beagle on her own history-making mapping mission.  

After the war, Adams was assigned by Captain Stephen Decatur to utilize his skills once again, undertaking a survey of Hampton Roads for its suitability for future use by the Navy.  The resulting chart was completed in 1816.  "[Adams spends] all year out here in Hampton Roads and charts all the shoal waters and does an incredible job," said Chaplain Cox.  "[Adams] submits it back to the Navy.  And then the chart just goes dormant.  David Phineas Adams goes dormant.  We don’t read anything about David Phineas Adams after that.  Nobody knows about him.  He just falls off the charts."

"Until 1938," Cox added, after another chaplain succeeded in securing funding from Congress for the naval station's Protestant and Catholic chapels, as well as Frazier Hall.

Director of Naval History Sam Cox listens to Commander Denis Cox as he describes his realization shortly after becoming command chaplain of Naval Station Norfolk in September 2013 that the original 1816 chart made by David Phineas Adams, hanging at a corner of the chapel since 1941, had to be saved and preserved.  It has now been replaced with a high-resolution copy provided by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.  (Photograph by M.C. Farrington, HRNM)  

Commander William Wilcox Edel discovered the chart sometime during the construction of the new chapels, which were completed in 1941.  "It’s kind of falling apart because it’s 125 years old at this point," said Cox.  "[Edel] takes out Scotch tape and tapes this thing together, and then he puts it on acidic paper, and he puts it right next to the door.  God bless him.  He [was] a chaplain; not a preservationist."  

"So I am walking around here wondering what am I going to do," said Cox as he described his first encounter with Adams' chart shortly after taking over as command chaplain of Naval Station Norfolk in 2013.  "And I look over here and I see this chart that’s sitting on the wall. And I go, 'What is this?'  And I started reading and thought, there’s no way that this could be the original 200-year-old chart.  There’s no way.  [But] yeah, it’s the original 200-year-old chart.  Unbelievable.  It’s just been sitting here for 75 years next to the door next to the weather under this light and I thought, 'I’ve got to do something about this.'  So I called up [Hampton Roads Naval Museum Curator] Joe Judge, and Joe Judge says, call [conservator] Pamela Young, and I called Pamela Young and instantly fell in love with another great American."

 

As Director of Naval History Sam Cox looks on, Chaplain Denis Cox greets Pamela Young, the conservator who restored the original 1816 Adams Chart, just before the ceremony commemorating the chart's official transfer to the Naval History and Heritage Command on April 29, 2015.  A reproduction provided by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency has now taken its place on the chapel wall.  (Photograph by M.C. Farrington, HRNM)

Young subsequently spent about 30 hours over the next nine months painstakingly removing the adhesive tape Edel applied in 1941 and fabricating new "rag stock" paper to replace the cotton fibers that had leached away from the chart over the past 199 years.  "This organic material is prone to deterioration," said Young, "and there is a point of no return.  Fortunately... Chaplain Cox found it in the nick of time."

"We will make sure that it is taken care of," said Sam Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command and Curator of the Navy, adding that the chart would also be protected from, in his words, "the ravages of ultraviolet light that are as bad as the ravages of time on memory."

Sam Cox, Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) as well as the Curator of the Navy, signs the official form accepting the 1816 David Phineas Adams Chart into the NHHC collection as Hampton Roads Naval Museum Curator Joe Judge looks on.  (Photograph by M.C. Farrington, HRNM)  

"This chart was used by the Navy as a reason to bring the United States Navy down here to Hampton Roads," said Chaplain Cox.  "This [was a] backwater area.  Nobody lived out here in the 1700s and 1800s.  Nobody but tobacco farmers and corn farmers...  There was nothing but swampland until the Navy came here to Hampton Roads.  And now we have millions," Cox added.  "Blame a 'chap' for that." 

Just before the rededication ceremony for the 1816 David Phineas Adams Chart, Hampton Roads Naval Historical Foundation member Channing Zucker, who spent a career at the Defense Mapping Agency (now known as the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency), traces the lines around what was then known as "Willoughby's Point" on the 1816 Adams Chart of Hampton Roads as fellow attendee Elizabeth M. Dietzmann looks on.  (Photograph by M.C. Farrington, HRNM)