Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic ExpeditionLanman, Charles
History
Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic Expedition
Lanman, Charles
Arctic regions; Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-1884); Lockwood, James Booth, 1852-1884
called _scrapul_, and the discipline of _powers_ administered to those
who failed in their studies. In this latter punishment, the delinquent
was required to raise to the fortieth, fiftieth, or one hundredth power
any number given him. However distasteful to him at the time, he seems
to have changed his mind upon the subjects of food and discipline
afterward; for he became, after his return home, a strong advocate of
_scrapul_ as a physical, and of “powers” as a mental diet. Returning, in
1866, with his father to Annapolis, he was sent to St. John’s College in
that place, and at that time in a flourishing condition, under the able
administration of James C. Welling, now the accomplished President of
Columbian College. Although his mental abilities were acknowledged as
superior, he preferred action to books, and his success there was not
satisfactory to his father. Others known to be his mental inferiors took
a higher stand. He, however, read some Latin, and made considerable
progress in mathematics. Here we come to a new illustration of his
character. During his residence within the walls of the Academy, a
species of tyranny existed among the sons of naval officers of his own
age with whom he associated, which he could not endure. Rank in the
father was supposed to give rank or prestige to the son. This theory
young Lockwood was unwilling to acknowledge, and the consequence was
that he soon found himself beset by those whom he opposed. But then, as
always with the free and brave, right prevailed, and the aggressors were
sent to the wall, while the fearless victor very soon became the peer of
his associates. The situation of the Academy offering peculiar
facilities for boating, fishing, swimming, etc., the professor’s son
became an expert in all these exercises, making pets of his sail and row
boats, as he had done with the ponies of Chincoteague. Many of the
Annapolis students, now high officers in the navy, have spoken of his
frolicsome pranks at that time within the grounds of the Academy—for
example, how he mimicked the strut of the drum-major, how he teased the
watchman by hiding among the trees and bushes, personating an intruder
on the grounds, and how he alarmed the servant-maids and the children by
appearing suddenly before them like a phantom. He was more fond of
reading than of study, and among his favorite books were those of De
Foe, Mayne Reid, and others of that class. To what extent he was
familiar with the histories of John Ledyard and Joseph R. Bellot can not
be stated, but there is a striking similarity in their characters, and
indeed it was the fate of the latter, like Lockwood, to lose his life in
the Arctic regions. They form a trio of remarkable explorers, whose fame
will be perennial, but it was the fate of the last one mentioned to
reach the highest success. During the latter part of his residence at
Annapolis, he spent many of his spare hours on his father’s farm. By way
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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