John Mercer Brooke
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John Mercer Brooke (December 18, 1826 – December 14, 1906) was an
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...
,
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
,
scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
, and
educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
. He was instrumental in the creation of the Transatlantic Cable, and was a noted marine and military innovator.


Early life and career

John M. Brooke was born in
Fort Brooke Fort Brooke was a historical military post established at the mouth of the Hillsborough River (Florida), Hillsborough River in present-day Tampa, Florida in 1824. Its original purpose was to serve as a check on and trading post for the native S ...
(modern-day
Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...
),
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
. He was related to Congressman
John Francis Mercer John Francis Mercer (May 17, 1759 – August 30, 1821) was a Founding Father of the United States, politician, lawyer, planter, and slave owner from Virginia and Maryland. An officer during the Revolutionary War, Mercer initially served in th ...
. His father was an army officer, General George Mercer Brooke, who died in
San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...
. He was a kinsman of General Dabney Herndon Maury as well as Virginia governor Robert Brooke. Brooke graduated in 1847 from one of the earliest classes of the
United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...
Conrad, p.9 and became a
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
in the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
in 1855. He worked for many years with Commander
Matthew Fontaine Maury Matthew Fontaine Maury (January 14, 1806February 1, 1873) was an American oceanographer and naval officer, serving the United States and then joining the Confederacy during the American Civil War. He was nicknamed "Pathfinder of the Seas" and ...
at the
United States Naval Observatory The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense. Established in 1830 as the ...
(USNO), charting the stars as well as assisting in taking soundings of the ocean's bottom to determine the shape of the sea floor. Many believed the sea floor was flat, but all previous soundings as deep as could not find the ocean bottom. Part of this was due to powerful undercurrents far below, rivers in the ocean traveling in various directions. In the struggles with soundings, which nobody had done anything of value at great depths, it was Maury's failure with a unique device he invented that gave Brooke an idea of taking deep sea soundings. Brooke perfected a "deep-sea sounding device" which was used afterwards by navies of the world until modern times and modern equipment replaced it. At Maury's direction, Brooke also added a "core-sampling device" for taking samples of the material of the sea floor. The outcome was a cannonball with a hollow tube through the center of it — a tube coated on the inside so as not to contaminate the samples. Studying this seafloor material with his microscope, Maury saw something that fascinated him. A sample was sent to Jacob Whitman Bailey at the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
, who in November 1853 responded:
I was greatly delighted to find that ''all'' these deep soundings are filled with microscopic shells; not a particle of sand or gravel exists in them. They are chiefly made up of perfect little
calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime (mineral), lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of Science, scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcare ...
shells (
Foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...
) and contain, also, a small number of silicious shells (
Diatomaceae A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's biomass. ...
). It is not probable that these animals lived at the depths where these shells are found, but I rather think that they inhabit the waters near the surface; and when they die, their shells settle to the bottom. Maury, Matthew Fontaine. ''The Physical Geography of the Sea, and Its Meteorology.'' 1860. Section 587, p. 325
(Google Books)
/ref>


Telegraph

The inference in all of this is that the area where the samples came from was the "telegraphic plateau" as called by Maury who had sent out ships to sound those depths at two hundred mile intervals from Newfoundland to Ireland. Maury had charted the underwater mountain ridge. The microscopic organisms left the sea floor on this "telegraphic plateau" were deep and soft so that the area was that of a long mountain chain with the top of those underwater mountains having a firm and soft coating of these dead organisms. This meant that the area was deep enough that no ship's anchor nor any fisherman's net would drag the area. The fact that there was no abrasion on these minute organisms meant that there were no strong currents in that area at that depth. Soon after publishing this,
Cyrus West Field Cyrus West Field (November 30, 1819July 12, 1892) was an American businessman and financier who, along with other entrepreneurs, created the Atlantic Telegraph Company and laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858. Early ...
wrote to Maury of the USNO on the feasibility of laying a transatlantic cable and was given a positive reply and later details explanation face to face. Cyrus Field also contacted
Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse, in his middle age, contributed to the invention of a Electrical telegraph#Morse ...
regarding the feasibility of transmitting an electric current a distance of underwater. Again, Field was given an affirmative and soon visited Morse. Cyrus Field continued contacting these two men, Maury and Morse, gathering all possible information and offered them shares in his great adventure that would become a reality in 1858 when the Queen of the United Kingdom communicated with President Buchanan in Morse code through the transatlantic cable.


Later career

As an expert in maritime surveys, he participated in exploratory missions in the Pacific. He served in the
North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition The North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, also known as the Rodgers-Ringgold Expedition was a United States scientific and exploring project from 1853 to 1856. Commander Cadwalader Ringgold (1802–1867) led the expedition until ...
on the and was in charge of the astronomical department. On his return to the United States, he worked with Commodore John Rodgers to prepare the official charts and records of the expedition. In 1858, he returned to sea on the to map the topography of the north Pacific seafloor and to survey the east coast of Japan. After the ''Fenimore Cooper'' was wrecked in a typhoon off
Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...
in 1859, had a role in the counseling and instruction of officers of the nascent Japanese Navy and returned to the United States as a technical adviser aboard the Japanese steamer ''
Kanrin Maru was Japan's first sail and screw-driven steam corvette (the first steam-driven Japanese warship, ''Kankō Maru'', was a side-wheeler). She was ordered in 1853 from the Netherlands, the only Western country with which Japan had diplomatic rela ...
'' in February 1860. He was accompanied by Japanese representatives aboard the . In 1861, Brooke resigned from the U.S. Navy to join the
Confederate Navy The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the Navy, naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the Amer ...
. He was involved in the conversion of the frigate into the ironclad CSS ''Virginia''. He was also instrumental in the development of a new rifled gun for the Navy that became known as the
Brooke rifle The Brooke rifle was a type of rifled, muzzleloader, muzzle-loading naval and coast defense gun designed by John Mercer Brooke, an officer in the Confederate States Navy. They were produced by plants in Richmond, Virginia, and Selma, Alabama, betw ...
. In 1862, he was promoted to commander, and in 1863, to Chief of the Confederate Navy's Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, until the end of the war. He was instrumental in the organization and establishment of the
Confederate States Naval Academy The Confederate States Naval Academy was an undergraduate academy in Richmond, Virginia, of the Confederate States of America that educated and commissioned officers of the Confederate States Navy. The CS Naval Academy was established by an act of ...
. After the war, he became a professor of physics and astronomy at the
Virginia Military Institute The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the U.S. In k ...
, at
Lexington, Virginia Lexington is an Independent city (United States)#Virginia, independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, Virg ...
. He retired in Lexington in 1899. He died there in 1906 and is buried in its Oak Grove Cemetery.


Family life

John Mercer Brooke's parents were George Mercer Brooke, b. 1785 (Va.) and Lucy Thomas. John Mercer Brooke married: # Mary Elizabeth Selden Garnett, b. 1 Mar 1826 who died. They had one daughter named Anna Maria Brooke, b. 12 Dec 1856 who never married. # Catherine Carter "Kate" Corbin, the widow of Alexander Swift "Sandie" Pendleton kia September 22, 1864. John Mercer Brooke and Catherine Carter "Kate" Corbin of Moss Neck Manor (and widow of
Sandie Pendleton Alexander Swift Pendleton (September 28, 1840 – September 23, 1864) was an officer on the staff of Confederate Generals Thomas J. Jackson, Richard S. Ewell and Jubal A. Early during the American Civil War. Early life and career Sandie Pendlet ...
) married on 14 Mar 1871 at St. George's Episcopal Church (Fredericksburg, Virginia). John and "Kate" had three children:-- # George Mercer Brooke II b. 17 May 1875 (Father of George Mercer Brooke Jr.) # Rosa Johnston Brooke, b. 1876 # Richard Corbin Brooke, b. 1878 John Mercer Brooke and Catherine Carter "Kate" Corbin-Pendelton-Brooke are buried beside each other in Oak Grove Cemetery,
Lexington, Virginia Lexington is an Independent city (United States)#Virginia, independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, Virg ...
.


Legacy and honors

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the
Liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...
was built in
Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Route 98 in Florida, U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee, Florida, Tallahassee and Pensacola, Florida, Pe ...
, and named in his honor. The US Navy honored his career by naming , the namesake of the , after him.


Further reading

*


Notes


References

* * Maury, Dabney H.
''Recollections of a Virginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil Wars''
* Maury, Matthew F.,''Physical Geography of the Sea''. (1855) *Williams, Frances Leigh, ''Matthew Fontaine Maury: Scientist of the Sea''. (1969)


External links


John Mercer Brooke
John Mercer Brooke web page at Naval History and Heritage Command web site

Halftone reproduction of a photographic portrait of Commander J. M. Brooke #: NH 58902

Web page at Civil War Artillery web site {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, John Mercer 1826 births 1906 deaths 19th-century American educators United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy officers Confederate States Navy commanders 19th-century American naval officers Military personnel from Tampa, Florida Members of the Japanese Embassy to the United States Mercer family (Virginia)