School For Sailors   Increasing the midshipmen’s doubts was the
unabashed way Bancroft and the handful of officers who backed
him announced the course would be “identical” to that of the
U.S. Military Academy, except for calculus, which they thought a
midshipman could do without. They took this tack partly to
impress Congress and partly because they meant it. West Point,
in its forty-fourth year, had made its reputation turning out
expert engineers who were also good soldiers. But this
announcement only sharpened the midshipmen’s determination to
prove that sailors were different from soldiers.  The midshipmen
soon demonstrated their nautical proclivities. One particular
dormitory was so quiet at night it was nicknamed the Abbey. Much
too late the superintendent, Franklin Buchanan, found out why
silence reigned: the Abbey’s residents had managed to tunnel
through the wall behind the building and were “trenching out”
each night to enjoy themselves in Annapolis’s numerous taverns.
Most surprising, considering