Photo By Nicholas Froment | Maria Vazquez, a collections specialist with the Naval War College Museum in Newport,...... read more read more
NEWPORT, R.I. – By 1924, the Naval Torpedo Station on Goat Island in Rhode Island, a predecessor organization of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport established in 1869, employed just over 1,000 civilians for the research, development and production of torpedoes for the U.S. Navy fleet.
Just a year before, in 1923, the Naval Torpedo Station completed building its first experimental electric torpedo, although it was later lost at sea. In July 1924, an extensive modernization of the torpedoes program was initiated by the Bureau of Ordnance. The Mark VIII3, 3-A and 3-B were to be made into Mark VIII-3C and 3D and in fiscal year 1924, 145 torpedoes were completed, another 65 were awaiting trial proof-runs, and another 362 were modernized.
That same year, on nearby Coasters Harbor Island at what was then the Naval Training Station, officials from the city of Newport and the Navy collaborated on burying a time capsule under Settlers’ Stone, a marker dedicated to Newport’s founding by Nicholas Easton in 1639.
The contents of that time capsule were revealed during a live event held on Jan. 24 inside the Newport Public Library.
Personnel with the Naval War College Museum, namely Maria Vazquez, a collections specialist, and Rob Doane, the museum’s curator, took center stage in carefully removing the material from the glass time capsule and explaining the significance of each piece. Getting to this point, however, proved to be quite a chore.
The mere discovery of a time capsule under the front lawn of the museum was incidental. Doane explained that in 2021, museum researchers were looking into another project when they came across a newspaper article about the time capsule. Being just three years from the centennial of its burial was simply good timing, Doane said.
To confirm the time capsule’s presence, ground-penetrating radar was used, and the task of getting it out of the ground began in June 2024. This involved moving the bulky Settlers’ Stone with the help of heavy machinery and personnel from the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC).
Contracted workers then had to carve and chisel their way through a significant amount of bluestone concrete — destroying five metal saw blades in the process — to reveal a wooden box. Inside the box was the glass jar with the contents, which was removed and put on display at the library until the unveiling event held in January.
“Miraculously, after all of that jackhammering, the glass was still intact and not chipped or damaged in any way,” Vazquez said.
Perhaps equally as laborious as getting the time capsule out from under approximately 40 inches of dirt and concrete was getting it open before a room filled with eager viewers. For more than an hour, Vazquez and others attempted to remove the three-inch cover that was tightly sealed with two types of wax.
Handwarmers were utilized in an attempt to loosen the wax, and a member of the Naval Station Newport Fire Department was called in to try to pry open the container, to no avail. Finally, Vaquez, with assistance from museum technician Alyssa Opishinski, uncovered the pesky canister using a wooden clamp, drawing cheers from the audience after a painstaking process.
What was in the time capsule?
Wearing gloves, Vazquez cautiously removed the century-old items from the jar, which included coins, stamps, newspapers, Navy pamphlets and other unique memorabilia (see the full item list below). Doane had a list of what was expected to be in the capsule based on a newspaper article published in the days before it was buried.
Perhaps the item that drew the largest interest among those with the museum was pages of written correspondence that covered two years between city officials and Capt. Franck T. Evans, commanding officer of the Naval Training Station in 1924. It was Evans who sought to bury a time capsule to commemorate the 285th anniversary of Newport’s founding.
Other items of note included a small hunk of wood taken from the plane that completed the first commercial flight from New York to Newport; sawdust from the USS Lawrence, the flagship of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, that served in the War of 1812 and whose battle flag held the words “Don't Give Up the Ship,” the last words uttered by crewmate Capt. James Lawrence, a friend of Perry's who died during the Battle of Chesapeake and Shannon in 1813. The time capsule also contained a blueprint of the Coasters Harbor Island and the Naval Training Station.
Doane said there weren’t many surprises in the time capsule, and that the items in it largely matched the list that was printed in the newspaper. Ultimately, all of the material found in the time capsule will be presented for display at the Naval War College Museum, but not immediately.
“There is definitely some conservation work that needs to happen in order to preserve these things,” said Vazquez, who has a master’s degree in textile conservation from the University of Rhode Island. “I’m happy with how malleable they were. I was worried they would be sort of stiff and not able to come out of the jar. The only difficult part was that the jar was so well sealed.”
Ryan Meyer, director of the Naval War College Museum, noted that the general public has access to the “world-class facility in your own backyard,” with attendees needing only “a background check and an ID.” Registration for admittance and more information can be found at https://usnwc.edu/NWC-Museum.
The museum offers several displays on the early days of the Naval Torpedo Station and NUWC Division Newport’s important role in developing submarine systems and torpedoes for the U.S. Navy. More about the Division Newport’s history is posted at: https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NUWC-Newport/Who-We-Are/History/.
Vazquez said there has been talk about creating another time capsule alongside officials from Naval Station Newport to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy later this year. If that does come to pass, she had one suggestion — make it easier to find and open.
“My fingers-crossed goal is to just get a metal box, we seal it, we put stuff in it, and we put it in the museum storage, so 100 years from now they can just open a box,” she said.
Below is a list of the items that were found in the 1924 time capsule:
– Blueprint of Coasters Harbor Island and the Naval Training Station
– A 1924 directory of Navy officers
– Numerous issues of the “Navy Recruit,” which later became the “Newport Navalog” newspaper.
– Copy of naval officer, crew and civilian payrolls
– Street directory for the city of Newport
– General muster of Naval Training Station forces
– Photograph of the Naval Training Station with the word “Newport” formed by officers and enlisted Sailors
– City of Newport directory with those employed on the station denoted
– A pamphlet for the local Young Men’s Christian Academy (YMCA)
– Issues of The Newport Daily News and Newport Herald newspapers
– Copies of correspondence between Commanding Officer Capt. Franck T. Evans and Newport city officials
– Envelope with sawdust from USS Lawrence, flagship of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry
– Copy of regulations for U.S. Navy uniforms
– Coins from 1921 and 1923, as well as current postal stamps
– Photograph of President Theodore Roosevelt with U.S. Navy Capt. E.H. Campbell at the Naval Training Station in 1918
– Photograph of Coasters Harbor Island taken from the USS Shenandoah (ZR 1), the first Navy zeppelin
– Piece of wood from the first airplane to complete a commercial flight from New York to Newport
– Newport Historical Society bulletins
– The 1924 edition of The World Almanac
NUWC Newport is the oldest warfare center in the country, tracing its heritage to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869. Commanded by Capt. Chad Hennings, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher's Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.
| Date Taken: | 02.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.14.2025 10:41 |
| Story ID: | 490820 |
| Location: | NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 167 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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