NWC Issues in National Security Lecture Series, Lecture 13 “History of the Narragansett Bay”

This lecture took place on April 25, 2023.
From Professor Kohnen: The stony façade of a small New England college stands upon Coasters Harbor Island, overlooking the great waters surrounding the approaches to the Narragansett Bay. Nestled between other historic buildings dating from the nineteenth century, the white-washed structure that stands between the other historic buildings now crammed on the tiny island once stood alone on the gliding hill overlooking the approaches to the Narragansett as the “asylum for the deaf and dumb.” U.S. Naval luminaries later inhabited the grounds of Coasters Harbor Island at the dawn of the twentieth century. In 1884, Commodore Oscar Badger assumed command on board Coaster’s Harbor Island when Commodore Stephen B. Luce assumed collateral duty as the Superintendent of the Naval War College.

As the symbolic center of American notions of “sea power,” the Naval War College and historic surroundings of Coaster’s Harbor Island are analogous to other global historical landmarks which are truly second to none. As the “home of thought” for naval practitioners, the Naval War College holds comparable importance as compared with such other historic landmarks as the Vatican, the Kremlin, the Pyramids, or perhaps Tienaman Square – all being among many other interesting places where U.S. Naval personnel also influenced strategic perceptions while playing the quintessentially American game of baseball more than a century ago. Given this rich institutional history, my presentation also highlights previously uncharted areas of future documentary research. Indeed, the Naval War College has the unique historical capacity to inspire service practitioners and the public to understand the longer historical trends in our collective effort to anticipate the challenges of the twenty-first century and beyond.

David Kohnen completed doctoral studies with the Laughton Professor of Naval History at the University of London, King’s College. As a historian in museums, he produced the award-winning exhibits surrounding the captured German submarine U-505 in Chicago and the Battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) in Virginia. Kohnen’s past published works include 21st Century Knox: Influence, Sea Power, and History for the Modern Era (Naval Institute Press, 2016) and Commanders Winn and Knowles: Winning the U-Boat War with Intelligence (Enigma Press, 1999). Looking outward, Kohnen completed work on his forthcoming book, King’s Navy: Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King and the Rise of American Sea Power, 1897-1947 (Under contract with Schiffer Publishing, 2024).

The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.

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