472 



NAVY, UNITED STATES. 



injury to American interests. Bear-Admiral 

 Bowan was directed to afford every facility at 

 his command to citizens who are endeavoring 

 to obtain from the Chinese Government per- 

 mission to lay an electric telegraph. Should 

 they obtain the desired permission, an officer 

 was to be detailed to represent the United 

 States in the undertaking. 



The state of the active force of the Navy, and 

 the service which it has rendered during the 

 year, are shown in the preceding statements. 

 The views of the Government relative to the 

 future of this arm of national defence are stated 

 in the report of the head of this Department. 

 He says: 



The time has come, I think, when we should begin 

 to use the knowledge we have been seeking, and I 

 therefore earnestly urge the propriety of commencing 

 at once the building of seagoing iron-clads, suitable 

 to cruise on foreign stations, and able to protect our 

 commerce and vindicate our principles in any emer- 

 gency. We should aim to have one or more of these 

 ships on each foreign station, and to be prepared with 

 the necessary reliefs. This will ultimately require no 

 less than ten in all ; and, without attempting to build 

 them all at once, we should (admonished of the 

 urgency of the case and of the time necessarily con- 

 sumed in their construction) commence immediately 

 on no less than four one for the Asiatic, one for the 

 Pacific, and two for the European squadron ; follow- 

 ing these, as rapidly as circumstances will admit, with 

 those necessary for the other squadrons and their re- 

 liefs. I recommend that plans for the boilers and 

 engines of these vessels be submitted by persons out- 

 side of the navy, the best of which may be adopted. 



These, with some additions to our wooden vessels 

 and the refitting on the plan adopted, and the proper 

 employment of such effective ships as we now have, 

 and with our monitors and torpedoes for harbor de- 

 fence, will give us the nucleus of a navy not, indeed, 

 proportioned to our commerce or approaching the 

 force of other maritime powers, but sufficient to com- 

 mand respect abroad, and to afford time, in case of 

 sudden war, to organize and apply the resources of 

 our country and the energies of our people. 



During the year a torpedo corps was estab- 

 lished under the Bureau of Ordnance, to make 

 experiments, take charge of the apparatus, and 

 perfect a system for the application of this 

 means of defence to the coasts and harbors. 



Enough experiments have already been made 

 to show how valuable, as well as terrible, is 

 this means of defence; and to convince all hav- 

 ing knowledge of it that when it shall have been 

 further perfected, and its use systematized, the 

 torpedo will he one of the most effective weap- 

 ons of marine warfare. The torpedo corps 

 has been selected with care, and the experi- 

 ments are conducted under the supervision of 

 an officer of scientific ability. As soon as a tor- 

 pedo is constructed, and the particular locality 

 and manner of its use determined, it can he 

 stowed away as an inexpensive but most effect- 

 ive weapon of war. 



This means of defence, properly applied in 

 conjunction with a system of harbor obstruc- 

 tions, backed by monitors and supported by 

 the forts and water batteries which command 

 the narrow entrances to the principal harbors, 

 would defy any power which could cross the 

 ocean to attack them. 



These localities have been the subject of 

 careful inspection by both branches of the 

 military service, and both are thus prepared 

 with the knowledge which only actual inspec- 

 tion can give. 



There are seven regularly-established navy- 

 yards, of which only four are capable of fitting 

 out more than two or three vessels at a time. 

 A board was appointed during the year to make 

 an examination of their condition, which pre- 

 sented a very complete and instructive report 

 to the Department. 



The number of men in the service last year 

 was 8,000. The estimates of the present year 

 are made on a basis of 12,000. The expendi- 

 tures during the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1869, were $20,000,757. 



During the year a hoard of^officers was con- 

 vened by order of the Department, to take into 

 consideration the subject of assimilated rank 

 between the officers of the various corps of the 

 Navy. They made a report, which resulted in 

 a bill that was laid before the Naval Commit- 

 tee of the House. The views of the Secretary 

 on the subject, expressed in a letter to that 

 Committee, were as follows : 



It will be perceived that its provisions for the 

 benefit of the various auxiliary corps of the Navy, 

 while they are considerably more liberal than those 

 of the bill which passed the Senate at the last session, 

 dp not include so great a number of officers in the 

 higher grades as was agreed to by the Board of 

 Officers, nor even so many as are suggested in the 

 letter of the vice-admiral. This is a question of 

 much personal interest, and calculated to excite con- 

 siderable feeling ; and he has hesitated long before 

 differing in this point from so many experienced 

 officers, but he felt that their views had been some- 

 what influenced by deference to the claims of indivi- 

 duals, and a desire to compromise a much- vexed and 

 difficult question. While he was not authorized to 

 yield for such reasons what seemed to him in this 

 respect to be for the public good, he has been con- 

 strained, while recommending a much larger number 

 of pay medical and engineer officers of the higher 

 grades than was provided by the Senate bill, at the 

 same time 'to reduce the number reported by the 

 Board, believing the number to be larger than a fair 

 adjustment of public or personal claims requires or 

 will allow. The bill proposed by him gives the aux- 

 iliary corps twenty-eight captains in all, certainly a 

 full proportion ; also forty-five commanders ranking 

 with lieutenant-colonels, which, with the thirty-one 

 officers of higher grades, gives them seventy-six 

 officers ranking with or above lieutenant-colonel in 

 the Army. He has retained in the bill eight chief en- 

 gineers and constructors of machinery, in view of the 

 number required at the various navy-yards and sta- 

 tions, and also followed the recommendation of the 

 Board in regard to officers on the retired list, as this 

 seemed to manifest a proper respect for seniority and 

 confer suitable reward for long-continued service, 

 without doing injury to anybody. The Board made 

 no recommendations in regard to the rank" of assist- 

 ant and past-assistant surgeons, paymasters, and en- 

 gineers, and he recommends that this remain as it 

 is now fixed by law namely, with and next after 

 lieutenants ai\d with and next after masters. He has 

 substantially followed the recommendations of the 

 Board in regard to the precedence of the executive 

 officer, because it seemed to him clearly right and 

 necessary to discipline and efficiency. The recom- 

 mendation of the Board and the bill proposed that 

 this officer shall, as far as practicable, be next in line 



