Massachusetts Nautical School (1867-1872)

St 1859, c 285 established the Nautical Branch of the State Reform School in Massachusetts, under the oversight of the Board of State Charities and its own board of trustees. Delinquent boys were to be instructed in seamanship and navigation, and if successful, transferred to outside shipping. A ship was purchased Dec. 1859, dedicated June 1860 as the Massachusetts, and staffed with fifty boys taken from the State Reform School in July 1860. In Dec. 1860 it was stationed at Salem, but the following year it guarded Boston Harbor. Inmates were graduated to the naval or merchant marine service as early as 1861.

St 1863, c 139 set the age of eligibility at fourteen to eighteen. In 1865 a new ship was purchased, which was dedicated in Feb. 1866, and named after the principal donor, George M. Barnard. In June 1866 the ship Massachusetts was moved to New Bedford. Per St 1867, c 260, the institution itself was renamed the Massachusetts Nautical School.

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