ance with the regulations prescribed by the Department. All the officers employed on the recruiting service are men of judgment and much interested in their duties.

The men are well-behaved, and, as a rule, orderly. During the year the vessels engaged in recruiting service were stationed and commanded as follows: U. S. R. S. Wabash, Captain C. C. Carpenter, Boston, Mass.; U. S. R. S. Vermont, Captain W. A. Kirkland, Brooklyn, N. Y.; U.S. R. S. St. Louis, Captain William Whitehead, Philadelphia, Pa.; Ú. S. R. S. Dale, Commander Yates Sterling, Washington D. C.; U. S. R. S. Franklin, Captain A. P. Cooke, Norfolk, Va.; U. S. R. S. Independence, Commander J. W. Philip, Mare Island, California.

All these vessels were at one time in active service as cruising ships, but were withdrawn when the expense of repair was too great to justify the expenditure. Most of them are covered in and otherwise fitted, and permanently moored alongside the docks at the navy-yards where stationed.

The number of men enlisting under continuous service is larger yearly, but there yet remains much to be desired in the increase of this class. My own impression is, that more attention to the comforts of men, more regard for their future, and more consideration of their privileges when abroad in service are the means by which men are to be made contented, efficient, and attached to their profession. My own observation is that men never dislike what is called a "taut ship" if the officers are just. If they know that the commanding and executive officers are mindful and careful of their interest and considerate in granting privileges, there is nothing in the work of such ships that is not done with the highest efficiency and credit. But, as judgment is so variable, we find the greatest variety in the treatment of the minor offenses on board different ships; they often appear to differ for the same offense as widely as the stations of the ships. It is here that I would suggest for your action the propriety of calling together a board of officers to classify the minor offenses committed by men belonging to the Navy, and to prescribe what punishment should be meted out to each offense, so that uniformity will result in every ship. Punishment inflicted when the officer is excited is apt to be unfair, but it is much more unfair to the man when the punishment of offenses committed by him is left to the absolute discretion of commanding officers. Added to this, cheaper clothing, better food, more healthful sleeping accommodations, with better light and better ventilation are the means which must bring efficiency, contentment, and greater happiness.

ADDITIONAL COURSE OF INSTRUCTION FOR SEAMEN.

The great benefit accruing to the service from the training of men at Washington and at Newport is more and more apparent. The advantage to the Navy of having some men in the crew of each vessel acquainted with the modern means of offense and the methods of preparing and handling the new machines can not be overstated. The gratifying fact to the Bureau is that more applications are made for this instruction than can be granted, which indicates the appreciation held by the men of the advantage given them by this course of training. Reports from both Washington and the Torpedo Station show that the men under instruction are highly interested, efficient, and skillful. As the new ships now building come into service, the advantage of this training will be more apparent. Commander Goodrich, at the Torpedo Station, has been most interested in the instruction of these men at the

station, and the Bureau would fail in a pleasing duty if it omitted this acknowledgment.

TRAINING APPRENTICES FOR THE NAVY.

Coaster's Harbor Island.-This permanent headquarters of the train. ing service has been for the past year under the command of Commander F. J. Higginson, U. S. Navy, a most able and efficient officer, whose untiring interest in all that relates to the training and care of apprentices is to be highly commended by the Bureau. I think the time has passed to defend the system of training apprentices; the yearly progress in all matters on board ships relating to naval service in every branch must certainly prove that preliminary instruction in the duties of seamen is indispensably needed. This establishment, therefore, is a great nursery upon which we are to depend for trained seamen in the future. The course of instruction is so arranged as to include some training in all branches taught practically at the headquarters. This training, supplemented by that in the cruising training ships for a period of six months, is sufficient to equip the lad for usefulness on board the cruiser of the general service, where he is always found proficient and reliable in performing duties. The Bureau has in course of preparation new regulations for this training service, with a view to secure more uniformity throughout the service, touching the instruction and management of the lads, as well as to correct some inequalities which occasionally exist in their special ratings after leaving the training ships. There are a number of vessels engaged in the enlistment of apprentices, and are stationed and commanded as follows: U. S. R. S. Wabash, Capt. C. C. Carpenter, Boston, Mass.; U. S. T. S. Minnesota, Capt. G. C. Wiltse, New York; U. S. R. S. St. Louis, Capt. William Whitehead, Philadelphia; U. S. R. S. Dale, Commander Yates Stirling, Washington; U.S. S. Michigan, Commander H. F. Picking, on the Lakes; U. S. T. S. New Hampshire, Commander F. J. Higginson, Newport, R. I.

Except on the New Hampshire, as soon as these lads are enlisted they are transferred for preliminary training to Coaster's Harbor Island, where they are retained for about six months, to be taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, together with practical instructions in all the duties of the young seaman, such as sewing, handling the palm and needle, heaving the lead, reefing, furling, loosing sails, knotting and splicing, boxing the compass, as well as the infantry, howitzer, and great gun drills. Gymnastic exercises of no ordinary kind are taught all boys, as a setting-up drill to improve their carriage and general physique. A new feature in the training this year has been to set aside a number of boys whose aptitude for several trades was superior to their aptitude for a sailor's life, and these boys, in addition to their instruction in sailmaking, carpentering, blacksmithing, have been taught the practical duties of the sailor, so that, in going out into service, they will carry with their trades a knowledge of the duties of the sailor. This circumstance will make them as much better than the men of the gangs into which they go as a man with two arms is likely to be better than a man with only one.

The following exhibit shows the number of apprentices in the Navy on June 30, 1888:

Number on board stationary and cruising training-ships..
Number on board cruising ships of the general service..

Total

522

542

1,064

Those on board the cruising ships of the general service are distributed as follows:

There were 2,072 applications for enlistment during this year; there were rejected of this number 1,284 for physical disqualifications, and 105 for other causes, leaving 683 accepted; of these, 218 failed to report after examination, so that the number actually received into service and placed under training was 465.

Cruising training-ships.-The Jamestown and Saratoga being so much out of repair, a survey was requested on each of them under the Revised Statutes. In each case the amount of repairs found necessary by the Board were so extensive that the sea-worthiness of these vessels became very doubtful. Under these circumstances their usual winter cruise to the West Indies were not made, but a cruise to Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries was substituted. The condition of Portsmouth being much more satisfactory, Commander E. White was ordered to cruise during the winter months among the Windward Islands of the West Indies, extending his trip as far south as Trinidad, and returning about the latter part of May to Newport, R. I. In the meanwhile, the apprentices on board the Jamestown, Commander C. J. Train, were transferred to the Saratoga, Commander C. H. Davis, and sent in that vessel to Newport, where the usual semi-annual inspection took place during the early part of June.

The inspection of the apprentices of these ships at Coaster's Harbor Island in June was extremely satisfactory, and showed evidence of proficiency that was very creditable to the officers of the ships. Soon after this inspection the Bureau recommended a complete survey of the Portsmouth, at the Portsmouth yard, with a view to ascertain her seaworthiness. The report of the Board showed that her condition was, in most particulars, similar to the Saratoga and Jamestown. They were accordingly recommended to be put out of commission for general repairs. The work done by these vessels was of incalculable benefit to the naval service, though it must be admitted that nothing could be learned in them of the new conditions of service now being developed in the newer vessels. As a school for gymnastic exercise or in which to afford opportunities for sea hardening they have some merit, but to no greater extent than would occur in new steam bark-rigged vessels of modern type suggested in my preceding annual reports.

Notwithstanding the difference of opinion on this subject by officers of merit and distinction in the naval service, the Bureau believes that the proper system of education to suit the new conditions of the new Navy is to begin the training of apprentices in vessels that bear some analogy to the newer implements and conditions of the vessels in which they must serve beyond the mere external likeness of ships. The older methods of rigging or handling these ships might be taught in somewhat the same way that ancient history is taught in schools, but to subordinate the training of apprentices entirely to obsolete methods, in obsolete ships, and to defer their real usefulness until they reach the new vessels, where they can be of no service and must be in their own way until they are shaken down for a few months to acquire a knowledge and adaptability to the new surroundings, appears to the Bureau

a fatal mistake. Such a system, if it means anything, forces the conclusion that every new ship going into commission must assume a condition of probation until her apprentices have been taught their new duties, made all the more difficult at the outset by prejudices imbibed in the obsolete school of training. It hardly needs argument to show how disastrous this might be during war, when vessels of war would be required to meet an enemy immediately after being equipped for service. The vessels suggested for this service are not of special design or build, but simply two modern-built steam bark rigged vessels capable of keeping the sea under sail, and of making passages from port to port, but which should be fitted with all modern appliances for steering, lighting, and for torpedo work, but capable of being turned into the battle lines in the event of war. It was the Bureau's purpose, with ships of this character, to include the training of men for the engi neer's force, that there might be developed at the outset of a cruise, or in steam trials, the fullest capacity and power of the new engines and boilers now found in all our modern vessels.

PENSIONS.

The table following presents a concise exhibit of the pension cases of men presented during the fiscal year ending June 30 to the Bureau, under the operations of sections 4756 and 4757 Revised Statutes of the United States:

During the fiscal year the Bureau has had an officer employed in making new allowance tables for these new vessels, as the space available in them is so much less than in the old steam and sailing vessels they are to replace. The types of these new ships differing so much from each other has made it necessary to make special and separate allowances for each ship. Weight being an important factor in the new ships, it has been found absolutely necessary to reduce to the lowest possible limit all supplies required, in order to keep within the figures estimated at the time these ships were designed. Allowance tables, therefore, which include anchors, chains, sails, running and standing rigging, galleys furniture, mess and boat fittings, together with all the various articles of stores provided by this Bureau, have been made, with the weight of each article determined by computation or directly by scale for the following ships: U. S. S. Yorktown, Baltimore, Charleston, Petrel, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Bennington, and Concord,

These tables are sent to the Boston navy-yard, where the articles allowed are made and assembled, ready for shipment to the vessel as soon as she may be in condition to receive them. In this particular the advantage of a special equipment yard is made manifest by the increased facility and reduced expenditures in fitting the different vessels. The equipment officers are required to keep strictly within the allowance of weight given for each vessel, so that the Bureau is informed almost to the pound weight of all things manufactured and placed on vessels.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

I have referred, in my previous report, to the improved conditions of the new ships, as a means to improved comfort of the men, but in no particular is the health, happiness, and harmony of ships' companies more affected than by good and cleanly mess arrangements. At the present time the Government ration is most excellent, and to meet the new conditions a new galley has been devised, with a view to amplify the means of properly cooking the men's food, but there yet remains one feature of new organization intensely defective, uncleanly, and wasteful. The Bureau has had in view a change in this particular by which many of the slovenly and incompetent mess cooks could be dispensed with, and, in their places, a reliable man or two substituted and charged more directly with providing and preparing the rations in forms more palatable and digestible. In the present organization of messes, there is nobody responsible for stores, or money paid in, for mess use, and it often happens that there is extravagant wastefulness of one, or complete loss of the other, by desertion of the caterer of the mess who has charge of commuted ration money. There is no reason why, as a matter of comfort and better government so intimately connected with the ship's efficiency, some commissioned officer of the ship should not be charged with the administration of this most important question of organization. The Bureau would also recommend that some increase in the pay of certain grades of petty officers and other enlisted men in the Navy be allowed. The reason leading to this suggestion is that the law concerning employment in the navy-yards requires that the rates of pay in them shall be those prevailing in the private establishments in the localities about our yards. The object of this law is evident. It has become necessary to train men for special uses on board our ships of war in connection with their electric installation, for the handling of torpedoes, for diving, for the safe handling of high explosives, and for various other duties which have their value in special civil callings. Unless, therefore, these men are paid wages which correspond to those paid in civil life, we shall find that our best men, after being trained to our needs, will naturally drift away from us into civil pursuits where they would be preferred as disciplined in self-control. The pay of all other men should be somewhat nearer to that paid in the merchant marine; the Bureau would suggest somewhat higher, for the reason that the men of the Navy are required to be absent from homes for terms of three years, they are compelled to be uniformly better dressed, to be constantly under military restraint and discipline, and in the nature of their service are subjected to greater privations and exposures for longer periods of time in many of the unhealthful localities of the world. The Bureau would recommend to your consideration the schedule transmitted a short time ago with the report of the Board ordered by you to consider the matter of pay and ratings of the enlisted men of the Navy.