4 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 



ship was turned over to the commission, but remained at the works 

 awaiting her outfit. This depended upon a deficiency appropriation 

 not yet passed, and which did not, in fact, become available until June 2. 



I received orders from the Navy Department to assume command of 

 the vessel on the 12th of March, 1880, and reported to Professor Baird 

 for that duty on the above date. 



The months of June and July were occupied in procuring the vessel's 

 outfit and in the construction of her fish-hatching machinery. 



Mate James A. Smith was ordered to report as executive of&cer, and 

 Assistant Engineer William B. Boggs in charge of engines, on the 4th of 

 June. Passed Assistant Paymaster George H. Read was ordered to the 

 ship June 12, and Dr. F. C. Van Vliet joined the vessel on June 14, as 

 medical oflicer. 



The general description of the vessel is as follows (see Plate ) : 



Feet. In. 



Length from rabbet to rabbet on 7 feet water-line 146 6 



Length over all 156 6 



Breadth of beam moulded 27 00 



Depth of hold amidships 10 9 



Shear forward 4 4 



Shear aft 1 9 



The vessel's rig is a fore-and-aft schooner with pole topmasts. 



The hull below the main deck is of iron, built on Lloyd's rules for ves- 

 sels of her class, and sheathed with yellow pine, from 2^ to 3 inches in 

 thickness, calked and coppered. Above the main deck the structure is 

 of wood. She has a promenade deck extending from stem to stern, and 

 from side to side, covered with canvas, ou which are located the pilot 

 house, captain's quarters, and laboratorj^ 



There are five iron bulk-heads: the collision bulk-head about 20 feet 

 from the stem, Ko. 2 forward of the boiler. No. 3 between the boiler and 

 engines, No, 4 abaft the engines, and No. 5 about 9 feet from the stern 

 rabbet, all water-tight except No. 3. 



In the hold forward of the collision bulk-head, ou a platform raised 

 about 5 feet above the keelson, is the boatswain's store-room. Abaft 

 the bulk-head, extending aft about 10 feet, are the ice-houses, one ou 

 each side of a central passage 3 feet in width. The bulk-heads are 

 double, with an air space of 4 inches, which is filled with sawdust, the 

 whole interior lined with sheet tin soldered and well secured, and a 

 lead drain-pipe in the after outboard corner of each. They have two 

 entrances, one through a door in the central passage and another 

 through a scuttle in the main deck. 



The chain-lockers are under the ice-houses and extend across the hold, 

 a bulk-head amidships separating the starboard from the port chain. 

 They are entered through a scuttle in the central passage above men- 

 tioned. 



