Navigation.-Repaired deep-sea sounding-machine. Construction and Repair.-Tested boilers and made castings for boilers at saw-mill. The following tools are recommended to be added to the plant: The expenditures at this yard for the year, other than those for work done on naval vessels, are as follows: Running, firing, and repairing yard-engines and boilers Care and repair of boilers and machinery of yard steam-launches 2,393.44 350.56 422.34 Steam-boilers and machinery for launches for general service. Holidays 6,635.77 1,505.17 4,759. 10 Total 29,574.50 NORFOLK NAVY-YARD. During the last fiscal year the machinery of the Fortune was thoroughly overhauled, and a new air-pump, surface condenser, and centrifugal circulating pump fitted. The engines and boilers of the Galena were extensively repaired. Minor repairs were made on the machinery of the Ajax, Despatch, Franklin, Jamestown, Lancaster, Mayflower, Ossipee, Standish, Swatara, Trenton, Yantic, and Wyandotte. The old boilers have been removed from the Pensacola, and two rectangular boilers, with one cylindrical auxiliary boiler, are being placed on board, and the machinery is being thoroughly overhauled. The work done for other Bureaus was, briefly, as follows: Ordnance.-Repaired tram-car and made composition wood-screws and elevating screw. Construction and Repair.-Miscellaneous castings, such as grate-bars, melting-pots, life-buoy anchors, and bending furnace; built two boilers for ship-fitting house. Yards and Docks.-Repaired boilers, cast grate-bars, and made cast ings for large crane. Medicine and Surgery.-Repaired boilers at the Naval Hospital. The following machinery was added to the shop plant during the year: One large key-way cutting machine. One shaping machine. One emery grinding machine. One slide lathe. One hydraulic riveting machine for driving rivets up to 1 inch diam. eter. The steam engineering buildings at this yard are old and badly adapted to modern machine-shop practice. A new building should be erected to be used as an erecting shop and for the heavier tools, and fitted with traveling cranes and other modern appliances, leaving the present machine-shop to be used for the lighter work. A number of tools that are needed can not be got into the present shops. The following tools, which can be put into the present buildings, should be added to this plant to facilitate rapid and economical work: One screw-cutting engine lathe to swing 60 inches, 50 feet centers. Two emery tool grinders One 24-inch pattern-maker's lathe, 16 feet long.. One boiler-drilling machiue One hydraulic flanging machine One hydraulic plate-bending machine..... One hydraulic overhead crane for riveting machine.. One hydraulic accumulator.. One hydraulic pressure-pump $6,000 590 255 1,500 5,500 10,000 4,350 1,600 1,000 Iron platform and elevator for cupolas in foundry. 3,000 And various small tools amounting to. 1,000 Cost of setting the above machines, foundations, pipes, shafting, etc 15,000 Total. 49,795 The expenditures of the Bureau at this yard, other than for repairs to machinery of naval vessels, are as follows: Care and repair of shop tools, and additions to same. Running and firing yard engines and boilers..... Repair to yard engines and boilers and additions to same. Draughting materials...... Care and repair of machinery of yard steam-launches. Tests and trials of machinery. Melting down old material Preservation of stores.... Building and repairing steam-launch boilers for general purposes.. Surveys. Total.... 1,670.49 14, 848.74 7,951.20 1,792, 34 209.37 3, 141.80 230.01 6.26 3,860.62 8,652.02 5,358.09 1, 435. 06 500.76 23.55 56, 591.47 MARE ISLAND NAVY-YARD. During the last fiscal year the engines and boilers of the Thetis were overhauled. Repairs were made to the machinery of the Camanche, Iroquois, Lively, Nellie, Monterey, Ranger, and two launches for the Pinta. Repairs were also made to the machinery of the U. S. R. S. Rush, U. S. Coast Survey steamers McArthur and Patterson, and the machinery and boilers of the U. S. Light-House steamer Manzanita. The work done for other Bureaus was, briefly, as follows: Yards and Docks.-Cast-iron and composition castings, such as truckwheels, grate-bars, man-hole plates, and miscellaneous work. Navigation.-Brass blocks. Construction and Repair.-Miscellaneous cast iron and composition castings. Medicine and Surgery.-Small castings. Equipment and Recruiting.-Repairs, and galleys, etc. The only addition to the machinery of the shops was a 15-ton crane in the machine-shop. A new building is badly needed for the rollingmill machinery, which is now nearing completion. This machinery will be very useful in working up, at little expense, the scrap material which is now as good as wasted. The following machines should be added to this plant to facilitate rapid and economical work: One universal milling machine.. Two slotting machines. Two planing machines. One emery-wheel surfacing machine One boiler drilling machine One crane in boiler shop One hydraulic flanging machine. Crane for riveting machine... One accumulator One hydraulic pressure-pump.. One hydraulic plate-bending press. $800 1,680 1,300 3,200 5,375 800 1,500 5,000 5,500 4,350 1,600 1,000 10,000 Freight and handling of the above, foundations, pipes, shafting, setting, etc.. 12,000 Additions to cupolas and cranes in foundry 1, 150 Total..... 55, 255 The expenditures for the year, exclusive of those charged to vessels, are as follows: Care and repair of, and additions to shop tools. Running and firing yard engines and boilers. Care and repair of yard steam-launches, boilers, and engines. Launch machinery for general purposes Superintendence of shops.. $4, 541.66 1,317.98 33, 663. 12 2,570.40 27,722.92 5,845, 09 1, 694. 18 192.32 8, 163.00 2, 316. 42 219.70 33.90 1,495.50 Total.... 89, 776. 19 BOSTON NAVY-YARD. This yard having been transferred to the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, but little work has been done there during the year. Slight repairs were made to the machinery of the following vessels: Wabash, Ossipee, and Rocket. The work done for other bureaus was briefly as follows: Equipment and Recruiting.-Miscellaneous castings, such as forges and hammers, fittings for cranes and testing machine, grate-bars, fittings for galleys, etc. The expenditures during the year, other than those for work done on naval vessels, are as follows: Chief engineer's office, writers and messengers Store-house expenses, handling stores, etc Value of tools, appliances, and machinery transferred to the Bureau of Running and firing yard engine and boilers, with repairs to same. Repairs to engines and boilers of yard steam-launches... Total. $173. 15 1,425. 05 179.14 5, 129.97 224.60 13, 325, 82 667.08 26.38 21, 151. 19 LEAGUE ISLAND NAVY-YARD. This yard not being at present used for general naval purposes, no work has been done on vessels, with the exception of such as is necessary for the preservation of the armored vessels laid up there, and preparing the monitor Terror for the passage to New York. The expenditures for the year, other than those for work done on naval vessels, are as follows: This yard having been transferred to the Bureau of Ordnance, the only work done, other than the care and preservation of stores and machinery, was slight repairs to the machinery of the following vessels: Despatch, Rescue, and Swatara, and the preservation of the machinery of the monitor Saugus. The expenditures during the year, other than those for work done on naval vessels, are as follows: Office expenses, writers, messengers, etc Superintendence of shops Handling stores.... Preservation of stores. Preservation, care, and repair of tools and shop plant.... Handling machinery and tools ... Care and repair of yard steam-launch machinery Holidays.. Work for Bureau of Steam Engineering.. Total... $43.86 582.00 937.86 192.98 637.15 2, 937. 16 4.5. 11 139.12 768.20 6,283. 44 PENSACOLA NAVY-YARD. No work was done at this yard during the year on machinery of naval vessels. The work of the Bureau has consisted principally in the care and preservation of the shop plant. The expenditures were as follows: Civil establishment, writer, office expenses Running, firing, and repairing yard engines and boilers.. Care and repair of boilers and machinery of yard steam-launches. Total..... $950.67 786.55 1,170. 28 717.25 1,918.96 51.19 5,594.90 NAVAL STATION, NEW LONDON, CONN. No work was done by the Bureau at this station except for the care and repair of steam-launches in use at the station. No returns of expenditures have been received up to the present date. 11294-N SS--22 NAVAL STATION, KEY WEST, FLA. No work was done by the Bureau at this station except in the care and repair of the machinery in the shop and the shipment of stores. No returns of expenditures have been received up to the present date. NAVAL ACADEMY, ANNAPOLIS, MD. During the last fiscal year the machinery of the following vessels was repaired by the Department of Steam Engineering: Passaic, Phlox, Standish, and Wyoming, and the necessary repairs to the thirteen steamlaunches used for instruction of the naval cadets. PERSONNEL OF THE ENGINEER CORPS. I would again call attention to the rapidly decreasing number of engineers in the naval service. This number has already become too small to properly attend to the duties pertaining to the mechanical administration of the vessels of the old fleet, and will be found absurdly small when the new vessels now building are ready to be put in commission. It is a difficult matter to say just how many engineers we need, as no definite number or character of new vessels have yet been decided upon. Some idea of the relative number of officers of various kinds may, however, be formed by comparison with foreign navies. We naturally turn to the British navy for a comparison, not only on account of its importance, but also on account of the many similarities between the two English-speaking nations. Again, in making a comparison between officers performing various duties we naturally take as a basis of comparison the corps on which devolves the general executive duties of the service, the corps of officers of the line. According to the last Navy Register we had 725 line officers of commissioned rank and 220 engineers, including the cadets who have since been commissioned, or 30 per cent. as many engineers as line officers. At the same time in the British Navy there were 1,517 line officers of commissioned rank and 698 engineers (English Navy List, January, 1888), or 46 per cent. as many engineers as line officers. Then, again, our engineer corps is being reduced to a limit of 170, while the engineer corps of the British navy is being increased to a limit of 750. When these limits have been reached we will have 23.5 per cent. as many engineers as line officers, while the English will have 49 per cent. They will then have, relatively to the officers of their executive corps, more than twice as many engineers as we, while at the present time they have half again as many. Moreover, the English have a large steam merchant marine from which engineers could be obtained to assist the reg ular force in time of war, while our source of similar supply is comparatively insignificant. Besides all this, the engineer corps of the British navy is supplemented by an admirable force of "engine-room artificers", similar but superior to our force of" machinists". They get better artificers than we can; first, because the pay is relatively better, and secondly because English mechanics of a superior grade will enter the naval service as enlisted men, while similar mechanics in the United States command such advantageous positions and wages that they could not be induced, save in exceptional cases, to exchange the independence of a life on shore for the subordination of one on board ship as enlisted men under existing circumstances. As to the difference in pay, it can only be considered |