d Farragut to the East by assigning him to duty as
far west as the naval interests of the United States, within its own
borders, then allowed. In August, 1854, four months after his
application for the former employment, he was ordered to California as
first commandant of the navy yard at Mare Island. The site had been
selected in the year 1852 by a commission of three officers, but as yet
no navy yard existed. It was to be Farragut's particular duty to plan
and build it up under the general instructions of the Department. His
selection for this difficult and onerous, but at the same time very
flattering, appointment was among the first evident results of the
diligent, painstaking effort which had marked his professional career.
By that, and by that only, had he as yet had any opportunity of marking
himself above the ordinary run of men; but he stood high in the esteem
of Commodore Joseph Smith, then and for many years both before and
after, the chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, under whose charge
the management and development of navy yards more particularly came. At
the critical period when the selection of an officer to command in the
attack upon New Orleans had to be made, Smith, who had close
confidential relations with the Secretary of the Navy, always held that
Farragut was the man above all others for the place.

The site of the new yard was in the extensive sheet of inland waters
connected with the bay of San Francisco, and some thirty miles from the
city. There being no accommodations upon the island, Farragut, with his
family, for some seven months lived on board an old sloop-of-war
anchored near by. He remained at this station for four years, during
which great progress was made in the development of the yard; but the
duty, though most important and particularly responsible, because of the
length of time required by correspondence to pass to and from
Washington, was not fruitful of incident. These were the troublous early
times of California--the days of the Vigilance Committee and the Law and
Order Party. With these intestine troubles of a State the military
officers of the United States had no proper concern; but there was
continually a possibility that they might be forced to take a stand by
the interference of one side or the other with civil officials of the
United States Government, or might be induced, by a request from the
authorities, to act upon the ground that there was no time to refer to
W