11.

A candidate for the office of Assistant Paymaster must be not less than For Assistant twenty-one nor more than twenty-six years of age. His moral and mental Paymaster. qualifications will be subjects of rigid investigation by a board.

12.

A candidate for the office of Assistant Surgeon must be not less than -For Assistant twenty-one nor more than twenty-six years of age. His moral, mental, and Surgeon. professional qualifications will be decided upon by a board.

13.

An applicant for the office of Chaplain must be not less than twenty-one nor more than thirty years of age. He must be a regularly-ordained minister.

SECTION II.-Examinations.

1.

For a Chaplain.

Boards will be ordered for the examination of candidates for appointment Examinations or promotion, who will be duly informed of the time and place of meeting. for appointment Before proceeding to the examination of any candidate for appointment, the or promotion. Medical Officers will furnish to the board a certificate of the physical fitness of each candidate. No person will be passed by the medical board who is not free from physical defects and all obvious tendency to any form of disease which would be likely to interfere with an efficient discharge of duty. In the case of an Assistant Surgeon, the board will scrutinize his physical qualifications, and will make a separate report in each case direct to the Department. The board to examine professionally, having received the certificate of the physical fitness of the candidate, will examine him on all the required qualifications; it will grant certificates to those who may be found duly qualified, numbering them in the order of merit; it will also report to the authority convening the board, at the close of a session, the result of all their investigations, and forward the documentary evidence they may have received in relation to the capacity and fitness of those examined.

2.

Officers to com

examination.

Boards for the examination of candidates for appointment or promotion will be composed as follows: For a Mate, Boatswain, Gunner, Carpenter, pose boards for or Sailmaker, of three Line-Officers, one of whom shall be of or above the rank of Lieutenant-Commander; for Engineer Officers, of three Chief Engineers; for Passed Assistant and Assistant Paymasters, of three Paymasters; for Assistant Naval Constructors, of three Naval Constructors.

3.

Qualified can

No qualified candidate will be held over for appointment for more than one year. If not appointed within that time it will be necessary for him to be didates not to be re-examined, when he will take position, if successful, with the last class.

4.

held over more than one year.

for examination.

Any person who shall fail to present himself for examination after having Failing to offer obtained permission will be considered as having forfeited his right, and any officer who shall fail to present himself after having been ordered so to do, unless for reasons satisfactory to the Department, may be dropped from the list.

5.

When absent

States.

Any officer absent from the United States on duty, or excused by the Department from attending at the time when others of his date are examined, from the United will, if not rejected at a subsequent examination, be entitled to rank with them, and if his relative seniority cannot be assigned, he will retain his original relative position on the register. In order, however, that the rela

Examination of Machinists, &c.

Giving a false certificate.

Acknowledging an appointment.

Within the

tive position of officers of the same date, who may be examined for promotion at different times, may be more readily determined, a majority of the members of the board will be selected, if practicable, from those who served on the next preceding board.

6.

Machinists, Coppersmiths, and Boiler-makers will be required to pass, before enlistment, the examination designated under Recruiting, Chapter XXV.

7.

Any person giving a false certificate of age, time of service, or character, or making a false statement to a board of examination, will be dropped.

SECTION III.-Appointments.

1.

Every person on receiving an appointment from the Navy Department to any office in the Navy will forward a letter of acceptance immediately, together with the oath of allegiance, duly signed and certified.

2.

No officer shall, when within the jurisdiction of the United States, unless United States, no authorized by the Secretary of the Navy, appoint any person not holding a appointment to be commission or warrant in the Navy to perform the duties of a commissioned given, unless. or warranted officer, nor give to any officer an acting appointment, except in the case of Paymasters. (Approved July 17, 1861.)

3.

No acting apNo officer other than the Commander-in-Chief of a fleet or squadron will pointment to be give any acting appointment except as provided for above; nor will any given by other such acting appointment be issued unless a permanent vacancy should occur mander-in-Chief, in the established complement of a vessel, which cannot be filled from super

than the Com

except.

numerary officers on board other vessels, and in such case the appointment must be in writing, and be subject to revocation by himself, his successor, or by the Secretary of the Navy. In the case of a vacancy by death on board any vessel absent from the United States, and acting singly, the Commanding Officer may issue a written order to supply the deficiency, which will continue in force until the vessel falls in with a Commander-in-Chief or arrives in the United States.

Vacancies from sickness, &c.

4.

Temporary vacancies on board vessels not within the United States, occasioned by the continued indisposition of officers, their absence on duty, or inability to perform it, may be filled by a written order from the Commanderin-Chief or senior officer present, to other officers of the fleet, squadron, division, or vessel, who will perform the duties of such sick, absent, or incompetent officer until their return to duty, or further orders be received from competent authority. Such orders may be revoked by the officer from whom they issued.

5.

Commanding No Commanding Officer of a vessel ordered to sail from the United States, Officer not to fill or separated from the Commander-in-Chief of the fleet or squadron to which vacancies which such vessel belongs, shall issue any order to fill vacancies among officers existed on leaving which existed and could have been reported to the Navy Department in time or the Commander- for orders to be issued to other officers before sailing, or to the Commanderin-Chief before the separation occurred.

the United States,

in-Chief.

6.

All acting appointments and orders directing an officer to perform duties Acting appointhigher than those of his grade must specify the vessel on board which he is ments must specify. to act, and in case of his subsequent removal to another vessel, a new appointment or order must be given, except when the original shall have issued from the Navy Department.

7.

ed of acting ap

Officers conferring acting appointments or giving orders to fill vacancies Navy Departwill promptly inform the Department of the reasons which govern them. In ment to be informno case shall the established complement of the vessels be exceeded. If an pointments. acting appointment or order to perform duties belonging to a higher grade be revoked, the reasons for the revocation must be immediately reported to the Department.

8.

The uniform of

appointed to be

An officer holding an acting appointment will wear the uniform of the grade to which he is appointed, and will annex the title of his acting rank to the grade to which his official signature; when the duty ceases he must relinquish the uniform; worn. but when holding only an order to perform the duties of a higher grade he will not change his uniform nor his official designation.

9.

secretaries
clerks.

and

No person will be appointed a secretary who is not twenty-one years of Appointment of age, nor a clerk who is under eighteen. Officers who nominate secretaries or clerks will be responsible for their character and fitness. Every officer entitled to a secretary or clerk may nominate him; but the appointment or discharge of a clerk by any officer not in command is subject to the approval of the Commanding Officer; the latter, however, will not refuse his approval except for good and sufficient reasons, which he will state in writing to such officer. No secretary or clerk will be entered upon the muster-roll of any vessel, nor be entitled to any pay, until he shall have accepted his appointment by letter, in duplicate, binding himself therein to be subject to the laws and regulations for the government of the Navy and the disciplíne of the vessel. One of these letters is to be transmitted immediately to the Department by the officer conferring the appointment, together with the oath of allegiance; the other copy will be preserved by that officer. In the case of any clerk appointed by an officer not in command, the letter of acceptance sent to the Department must bear the approval of the Commanding Officer. The acceptance of an appointment as secretary or clerk shall be understood as binding such person to serve with the officer who appointed him until regularly discharged. Should an enlisted man be appointed as clerk, the appointment does not release him from his enlistment."

10.

A Paymaster's clerk will not be allowed to a vessel having a complement When clerk to of one hundred and seventy-five or less, excepting supply and store vessels. Paymaster is not

11.

Masters-at-Arms and Yeomen will be appointed by the Commanding Offi· cer of the vessel; Apothecaries and Baymen by the Surgeon; Paymaster's Yeomen and Jack of the Dust by the Paymaster, and Engineer's Yeoman by the senior Engineer; but all such appointments must bear the approval of the Commanding Officer of the vessel or station. They will be entered on the ship's books after having been found physically qualified, taken the oath of allegiance, and signed an agreement, in accordance with prescribed form, to serve faithfully for the cruise, to be amenable to the laws, regulations, and discipline of the service, and to be subject to discharge in case of misbehavior, in any port, foreign or domestic, without claim for passage-money, the fact of misbehavior to be established by a summary court-martial. This agreement must be executed in duplicate, one copy of which, approved by

allowed.

Appointment of Master at Arms and Yeomen, &c.

the Commanding Officer of the vessel, together with the oath of allegiance, is to be forwarded to the Department, and the other retained by the Commanding Officer. The physical examination of apothecaries and Baymen will be made by the officer appointing them. Masters-at-Arms and all Yeomen will be examined by the Surgeon of the vessel or of the station.

12.

Appointment of The Surgeon of every vessel of the Navy will appoint an apothecary, and apothecary and on board every vessel commissioned for sea-service one bayman, when the combaymen. plement is less than two hundred, and, when it is two hundred and over, two or more baymen, subject to the approval of the Commanding Officer. Baymen will be allowed on board receiving-ships proportionate to the necessities of the case.

If the office of

comes vacant.

13.

A Paymaster's Yeoman will be appointed in every vessel having a complement of twenty persons and over.

14.

When the office of Paymaster or Assistant Paymaster becomes vacant by Paymaster be- death or otherwise, in ships at sea or on foreign stations, or on the Pacific coast of the United States, the senior officer present may make an acting appointment of any fit person, who shall perform all the duties thereof until another Paymaster or Assistant Paymaster shall report for duty, and he shall be entitled to receive the pay of such grade while so acting.

Requirements for all officers.

SECTION IV.-Requirements for promotions.

1.

All officers, of both the Line and Staff Corps, of the Navy, to be eligible for promotion, are required to pass a physical examination, and subsequently, before the Board of Examiners, such professional examination as the Navy Department may from time to time direct, together with an examination of their record of service and the testimonials received from the heads of their respective departments and from their Commanding Officers.

Selection of men for ratings.

CHAPTER X.

RATING AND DISRATING; TRANSFERS AND DISCharges, desERTIONS.

SECTION I.-Rating and Disrating.

1.

It shall be the duty of the Commanding Officer of every vessel of the Navy to appoint a board, consisting of at least three officers attached to the ship, whose duty it shall be to inform themselves, as fully as possible, of the previous naval history of the general-service men of the ship, and their general character, ability, and fitness, and to make recommendations, signed by themselves and entered upon the log-book of the ship, as to the ratings of the general-service men; and the ratings and disratings of general-service men shall be made by the Commanding Officer in view of such recommendation; and when, in his opinion, it shall be for the interests or discipline of the service to disregard such recommendation in any particular case, or to rate or disrate any man, independently of or contrary to the same, he shall enter the fact, together with his reasons for acting in disregard of such recommendation, upon the log-book of the ship, over his own signature.

2.

among

In the event of a vacancy occurring among the appointed Petty Officers, Vacancies OCif a suitable person can be found among the crew, the Commanding Officer curring appointed Petty may rate such person and cause him to perform the duties. This rating Officers. will not discharge him from his enlistment; but in case it should be revoked, he will return to his former rate.

3.

No enlisted person is to be transferred, other than for discharge on expi- Men are not to ration of enlistment, from or to any vessel, navy-yard, station, or hospital, be transferred as Petty Officers. with the rating of a Petty Officer, except machinists, boiler-makers, and coppersmiths, and those specified in paragraph 22, page 101.

4.

he has rated.

In case of death
Commanding

No Petty Officer or person of inferior rating is ever to be disrated by a A Commanding Commanding Officer unless he receives his rating from that Commanding Officer only to disOfficer, and this will be done only for sufficient cause, which must be stated rate those whom in the log. Every Commanding Officer, when transferring his command, will previously reduce all persons who may have been rated by himself to the rates they held at the time of joining his ship, and his successor shall appoint them immediately to the same rates. In case of the death of any Commanding Officer, or other circumstance which may vacate his command, of all ratings established by himself shall be vacated, subject to re-establish. Officer. ment by his successor, except those of such persons as a Commander is allowed to take with him from one ship to another, who shall not be reinstated unless such success or fail to bring with him other persons to fill their situations. If not re-instated, the Coxswain shall resume the rate held on joining the vessel, and the steward, cook, and one other person of inferior rating shall be regarded as having fulfilled their enlistment, and be entitled to their discharge.

5.

No person having enlisted in any particular rate shall be reduced to a No reduction belower one except by order of the Department, or to carry out the sentence of low the rate of a court-martial or summary court, except as hereafter provided for those of the Engineer's force.

6.

enlistment except.

Men for disNo person who is to be discharged from a vessel going out of commission, or transferred and sent home to be discharged, shall be disreted by reason of for discharge, not charge or transfer such discharge or transfer, but his rate shall be expressed on the face of his to be disrated. discharge or transfer for that purpose.

7.

Whenever a change of rating takes place, an order in writing is to be given Orders for by the Commanding Officer to the Pay Officer, stating the change of rate and change in ratings to be given in the time from which it is to date; but no such order shall be given in one writing. quarter to take effect in a preceding one.

8.

In event of neg

disability on the

Should any of the Engineer's enlisted force be reported by the senior Engineer of the vessel for neglect of duty, or inability to perform it, from lect of duty or other causes than sickness or injury received in line of duty, the Command- part of any of the ing Officer of the squadron, or, in his absence, the Commanding Officer of Engineer's enlistthe vessel, may, if he deems it necessary, direct another person to perform it ed force. during the continuance of such neglect or disability, or until the place is supplied by a person of the proper rating, and the person so appointed shall receive the pay of the situation which he may thus fill. The Commanding Officer shall, when it is practicable, direct first-class firemen to supply the