http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/oni/
Since 1882, the Office of Naval Intelligence has provided the intelligence weapons and personnel to sustain the preeminence of United States seapower. The basic mission has remained the same as that posed to ONI's founder, Lieutenant T.B.M. Mason, by the then-Secretary of the Navy, to collect and record "such information as may be useful ... in time of war as well as in peace."