Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Secretary of the Navy John D. Long to Captain Caspar F. Goodrich

 

Washington, March 15, 1898.

Sir:

     In addition to your present duties,1 you are hereby ordered to make, and report with all practicable dispatch, a preliminary plan of arrangements for establishing a Coast Signal Service on the Atlantic and Gulf Seaboards.

     2.   The enclosed forms2 indicate the general lines on which the Department proposes to act in case it shall hereafter issue any emergency order, and you will have them in mind.

     3.   You are authorized to perform such travel, and to expend such sums, in reconnaissance, as in your judgment are necessary, rendering a weekly statement to the Department for its approval.

     4.   It is expected that you will so complete your arrangements that the building of stations and their occupation by signal men can take place whenever the Department so directs.

     5.   The four-armed semaphores for the Primary Stations require time for their completion and erection. You will at once obtain and submit to the Department offers from responsible parties for this part of the work.

                             Very respectfully

                                  John D. Long

                                      Secretary.

Source Note: CbCy, DNA, RG 24, Entry 427. Addressed below close: “Captain Caspar F. Goodrich, U.S.N.,/(Assistant Secretary)” Document reference: “SCH/96592”. Letter was copied and sent to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt.

Footnote 1: Capt. Caspar F. Goodrich was president of the Naval War College in Newport, RI.

Footnote 2: The “enclosed forms” have not been found.