HERNDON

A gray, granite obelisk – 48” square at the bottom and 21 feet high with matching granite base, 71” square.

The Herndon Monument was commissioned by the Officers of the US Navy as a tribute to Commander William Lewis Herndon (1813-1857) after his loss in the Pacific Mail Steamer “Central America” during a hurricane off Georgia on September 12, 1857. Herndon had followed the long custom of the sea that a ship’s captain is the last person to depart his ship in peril. It was erected in its current location on June 16, 1860 and has never been moved even though the Academy was completely rebuilt between 1899 and 1908.

The Herndon Monument is the center of the Plebe Recognition Ceremony. Upperclassmen securely tape a “Dixie cup” (the cover that plebes wear during Plebe Summer) on the top of the monument and the monument is then coated with 200 lbs. of lard. The plebes must work together to replace the Dixie cup with a midshipman’s cover. The successful plebe is awarded with a mounted Superintendent’s shoulder board, and tradition holds that that mid will be the first one of the class to make Admiral. It has yet to come true.

The monument climb is timed. The record of one minute, thirty seconds was set by the Class of 1972 in 1969 (no lard was used that year). The longest climb was in 1995 when the Class of 1998 took four hours, five minutes, and seventeen seconds (the dixie cup was so heavily taped that rules on maximal taping were established the following year).

PLEBES NO MORE!

With the completion of Herndon, the plebe year officially comes to an end and the cheer “Plebes no more!” rings out loud and clear across the Yard. Now, officially 4/C, the mids will advance to 3/C at Commissioning a few days later. Tradition holds, however, that they do not actually achieve the title of “youngster” till they sight the Chapel dome upon returning from their YP cruise that summer.