Those on board the cruising vessels of the general service are dis During the year the number of applicants reached 2,674; the number rejected for various causes, 1,773; leaving the number accepted 901. Of this number, 352 failed to report for enlistment after examination, so that the number actually received into the service was 549. The same system of instruction as reported in my last report was continued through this year, with the same good result. During the year the training ships Portsmouth, Jamestown, and Saratoga, under command of Commander Silas W. Terry, made a cruise of several months' duration among the Windward Islands of the West Indies. The resulting benefit of this cruise to the apprentices was very marked, as shown by an inspection of the fleet after its return to Hampton Roads. The ships were found in the most creditable condition of cleanliness and efficiency, and the apprentices showed the effects of careful and attentive training. TRAINING SHIPS. The Bureau would again advert to the pressing need for two modern steam cruising training ships to take the place of the Portsmouth, Jamestown, and Saratoga. The constant repair to these old ships to keep them efficient obliges the loss of too much time each year in the training of apprentices. Again, the next development of the training serv ice will be to train a force of firemen for the new high-powered ships now coming into use. Without modern steamers in our training service, this necessary part of training cannot be undertaken. As it is no longer possible to improvise our defenses, more particu larly the men needed for them, the importance of our training system must be apparent. The watermen of our seaports and the scamen of our merchant marine were our dependence in the late civil war, but the vast improvements which have taken place since that time in guns, torpedoes, electric attachments, motive power, &c., in the modern war ship have made special training a necessity. We must, therefore, look to our training system mainly to supply us with men fitted and trained to our necessities. In this view the Bureau would urgently recommend for your consideration the construction of two steam, composite, barkrigged vessels of about 900 tons displacement, with modern type of machinery, and fitted with torpedo attachments, search lights, and lighted by electricity. It needs no argument to prove that for service in the modern war ship the primary education of our apprentices should begin in a ship of modern type. SAIL LOFTS. There have been expended for material and labor in making sails, awnings, hammocks, clothes-bags, &c., at the various yards the following: For material... For labor.... $58,800 00 50,059 83 Total cost...... 108,859 83 RIGGING-LOFTS. There have been expended for material and labor in fitting rigging for vessels in service at the several yards the following: The following table exhibits the pension cases submitted to the Bureau during the fiscal year, under the sixth section of the act of March 2, 1867, sections 4756 and 4757, Revised Statutes of the United States: Pensions under the sixth section of the act of March 2, 1867, sections 4756-4757, Revised Statules of the United States. On the 30th of June there were 8,123 men and apprentices in the service. The number allowed by law has not been exceeded during the year. Deaths during the year.. 112 Honorably discharged and continuous-service men in the Navy, June 30.. 1,470 Meu employed in Coast Survey.. 275 Men employed in Fish Commission.. 134 Men employed at Naval Academy (winter). 94 Men employed at Naval Academy (summer). 424 Cost of maintaining the men doing duty in the Coast Survey for the fiscal year.. Cost of maintaining the men doing duty in the Fish Commission during the fiscal year.. $156, 799 10 $64,064 97 220,864 07 The Bureau would renew the suggestion of last year touching the force employed at the Naval Academy, in the Coast Survey, and Fish Commission. The force for these services ought not to exceed 600 men, and should be independent of the 7,500 men allowed the Navy at pres ent. Several times during the year the Bureau has been cramped for men to fit out additional vessels needed for service, and to commission the Essex it was found necessary to compose her crew very largely of boys from the training ships. During the year a class of about 40 men were trained in the use of tools, lathes, ordnance construction, fitting ammunition, &c., for the new artillery at the Washington yard, and in torpedo work, diving, search lights, &c., at Newport. Most of these men have been drafted into the service and have proved to be most desirable additions to the crews of our war vessels. Another class at each station are now undergoing similiar instruction. During the last session of Congress bills looking to the system of savings banks, homes on naval receiving-ships, and retirement after 30 years' service, for seamen, passed the Senate but failed of action in the House. The Bureau would urgently recommend these measures to the favorable consideration of the Secretary of the Navy for such action as may be deemed necessary at the coming session of Congress. It is believed that the passage of these measures will do much to increase the morale of the Navy. To secure the future of men and to estab lish the certainty that they will be taken care of when too old to work, as these bills do, is regarded a matter of such vital importance to the best interests of the service that it cannot be too strongly commended. One other measure of great importance to the apprentices, whose pay is so small, is the matter of their outfit on enlistment. This the Bureau would urgently recommend as a means to remove much of the cause of discontent now prevailing. Their outfit of clothing at present costs them quite four months' pay, and during this interval the apprentices enjoy no privilege of liberty nor any pocket money for personal use. It can be understood how discouraging this must be to a boy taken from home, placed under restrictions and discipline, but forbidden the freedom to amuse himself by a run on shore. Desertion too often follows, with theft of outfit, as a consequence of a system which, at first sight, appears a hardship to the boy. The Bureau would suggest this matter as one filled with vital concern to the apprentice system. There is no authority of law for a commissioned officer of the Navy to administer the oath of allegiance to recruits on enlistment. Article 2, section 1342, Revised Statutes, gives such authority to commissioned officers of the Army. As there are no notaries public on board of our receiving or other vessels, nor at naval rendezvous, the binding par ticulars of an oath are not required of recruits. If section 1342, Revised Statutes, could be amended to include officers of the Navy all enlistments would be given the binding effect of oaths lawfully administered. The Bureau is much impressed with the need of this feature of enlistment, and would therefore urgently recommend it for your consideration. The Bureau would respectfully invite your attention to the need of some uniform system relative to punishment of men for the minor of fenses committed on board ship. Under the present system, as the law does not define the offenses to be punished, there is much vagueness and great latitude of action permitted, in conformity to the six or seven sections of article 24 for the better government of the Navy. Justice to the enlisted men of the Navy would suggest that all minor offenses committed by them be alphabetically classified from the con duct reports of the past five or six years, and a suitable punishment prescribed for each offense in accordance with the law. It would result in greater uniformity in the means of preserving discipline, and would secure to the men of the service similar punishments for similar offenses. The Bureau holds this matter to be one of vital concern to the best interests of the service, as it will secure for the enlisted men a punish*ment for minor offenses prescribed by unbiased judges, and will tend to secure them against the effects of hasty judgment, as might occur now. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM C. WHITNEY, W. S. SCHLEY, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C. REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF STEAM ENGINEERING. NAVY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF STEAM ENGINEERING, Washington, November 10, 1886. SIR: In obedience to your order of October 23, 1886, I have the honor to submit to the Department the annual report of this Bureau for the past year, together with the estimates for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888. APPROPRIATION, STEAM MACHINERY, 1886. Amount appropriated for fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, act approved EXPENDED TO NOVEMBER 10, 1886. For labor in navy-yards and stations, in constructing new engines, boilers, and their dependencies; repairing old boilers, machinery, &c., and fitting vessels for sea service; preservation of tools; handling and preservation of materials, stores, &c. $950,000 00 For purchase of materials, stores, machine-tools, freights, and incidental expenses $474,906 78 202,068 54 For payments on foreign stations, for repairs, materials, freights, and incidental expenses. 63,313 45 Total... 740,288 77 Less repayments by transfers in the adjustments of appropriations 3,978 99 Total expenditure..... 736,309 78 Balance on hand ............... 213,690 22 OBLIGATIONS OF THE BUREAU TO BE PAID FROM THIS BALANCE. APPROPRIATIONS FOR STEEL CRUISERS. Amount drawn out by Bureau of Steam Engineering for the machinery of the steel cruisers and dispatch boat from the appropriation of $1,300,000, act approved March 3, 1833.... Less repayment by transfer (December, 1885) to Bureau of Ordnance in the adjustment of this appropriation... $386, 748 00 42, 000 00 Appropriated, act approved July 7, 1884, for steel cruisers' machinery. 344,748 00 620,000 00 |