Return to Naval Historical
Center home page. Return to Frequently
Asked Questions page.
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Rocks and Shoals
By Captain Donald I. Thomas USN (Ret.)
Shipmate 54, no. 7 (September 1991): 31. Reprinted Courtesy
of United States Naval Academy Alumni Association
One Sunday morning of each month, before compulsory Chapel
services, our Battalion of Midshipmen was marched to Memorial
Hall for the required reading of the Articles
for the Government of the Navy, better-known as "Rocks
and Shoals." There, under those wonderfully inspiring paintings
of bygone sea battles, we heard the dire consequences to those
who "suffered any vessel of the Navy to be stranded or run
upon rocks and shoals, or improperly hazarded;" or who, "when
engaged in battle, treacherously yields or pusillanimously cries
for quarter." We were enjoined to "guard against and
suppress all dissolute and immoral practices." Court-martial
punishment was provided for any person "who is guilty of
profane swearing, falsehood, drunkenness, gambling, fraud, theft
or any other conduct tending to the destruction of good morals."
We learned that any officer" who absents himself from his
command without leave may be sentenced by a court-martial to be
reduced to the rating of seaman second class."
This wonderful prose and those thundering admonitions made
a strong impression on this young Midshipman despite the fact
that our Battalion Adjutant was expected to read as many of the
Articles as he could within his allotted 15 minutes. This didn't
leave much time for their provisions to sink in, although its
more stirring ones still remain in my memory. Nowhere else would
you hear such rarely-used and interesting words and phrases as
"pusillanimous," "dissolute and immoral practices"
or "scandalous conduct tending to the destruction of good
morals."
In due course I reported to my first ship and soon became
a part of the Naval justice system; first as recorder of a three-
officer Summary Court Martial ("Special Court" in today's
Uniform Code of Military Justice). The Bible for these legal proceedings
was the Manual for Courts-Martial, a voluminous, tan-colored,
loose-leaf book. In it, each step from beginning of the trial
to its conclusion was spelled out, word for word. On my first
case the accused (a.k.a. "the accursed,") agreed to
plead guilty, sparing me my first go at being the prosecuting
attorney. Fortunately, also, the accused didn't wish to be represented
by counsel, which would have been appointed from the wardroom
had he so requested, or else by a civilian lawyer if he chose
to employ one; rarely practicable on a seaman's monthly pay of
$54. The tone of court- martial proceedings-to-be was perhaps
set by our crusty two- stripe senior member with his announcement
at lunch that his summary court would meet at 1300 "to dispense
with justice."
Justice under the Articles for the Government of the Navy
was speedy and fair, with the rights of the accused properly safeguarded.
Speedy justice was enhanced by the nonavailability of peremptory
challenges of members of the Court by the accused, and challenges
"for cause" based on prejudice, prior knowledge or investigation
of the case, etc were rarely invoked. Only a simple majority vote
was required for a guilty finding in all but capital cases, where
a two-thirds majority was required. Unlike civil law, there were
no mistrals based on hung juries. In reaching a sentence, the
Court was enjoined by Article 51 that it was its duty "to
adjudge a punishment adequate to the nature of the offense."
Convening Authorities were quick to point out in their approval
remarks on the court-martial record any failure in this respect.
There was no independent judiciary or a JAG Corps in those days,
and any undue leniency in sentencing could bring down upon the
Court a scathing denunciation from the Convening Authority-usually
your Commanding Officer-and possible adverse comments on your
next fitness report.
Periodically, the Fleet Commanders published in pamphlet
form their "Court Martial Orders" in which were digested
the findings and sentences of officers tried before General Courts-
Martial. These made popular, albeit vicarious, reading in every
wardroom. Usually they included some contemporary who had lost
a highly-classified publication or some junior officer who "in
a public place, to wit, the Pacific Coast Club in Long Beach,
California, was grossly drunk and conspicuously disorderly. "
Other cases might include an occasional collision at sea or a
running aground, or an embezzlement of government funds by a paymaster
or postal officer. Here again the long shadow of the Convening
Officer would be manifest in his remarks on the record that "the
punishment awarded in this case was entirely incommensurate to
the seriousness of the offense committed and the members of the
Court were thereby admonished" for their collective failure
to perform their duties as The Admiral expected them to do in
dispensing justice.
Some years later, at Newport, in 1944, while a member of
a precommissioning detail of a new ship, I was one of several
officers appointed as Senior Member of summary courts convened
by the Base Commander Commo. Cary W "Red" Magruder '09.
With a war on, there were some enlisted men among the thousands
being assembled in precommissioning details who weren't all that
gung-ho to go off to war and would therefore go AWOL. Calling
us new senior members into his office, he made it abundantly clear
to us that (a) there wasn't the slightest doubt as to the guilt
of the offender, and (b) that the only reason for our appointment
was to adjudge a punishment more severe than that allowable to
him at "Mast." We got the message loud and clear that
we were expected to throw the book at the accused and leave leniency,
if any, to him. This well-understood command influence remained
until 1951, when the Uniform Code of Military Justice came into
being. One of its provisions was that "no Convening authority
or commanding officer could censor, reprimand or admonish any
court or member with respect to findings and sentence adjudged
by the Court and may not attempt to coerce or influence action
of a court in reaching its finding or sentence."
With the enactment of the Uniform Code, the Articles for
the Government of the Navy together with the Army's Articles of
War faded into oblivion. For the Navy, those wonderful words "treacherously
yielding and pusillanimously crying for quarter;" "scandalous
conduct tending to the destruction of good morals" and "suppression
of all dissolute and immoral practices" were lost forever.
More mundane and less spectacular wording was introduced into
its punitive articles. The administration of justice took on more
of the characteristics of civil law; not surprising since it was
drafted by members of Congress, many of them lawyers who had served
in the Armed Forces during the War. Under the Uniform Code, greater
latitude was given to peremptory challenges, and the finding of
guilt required a two-thirds majority in all but capital cases.
One happier provision of the Uniform Code eliminated the
requirement that it had to be read to the troops every month.
Mercifully for the Brigade of Midshipmen, this ended that monthly
reading of the Articles for the Government of the Navy in Memorial
Hall .
13 August 1997