C.

REGULATIONS

FOR

THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER I.

RANK AND COMMAND.

ART. 1. Sea officers of the navy of the United States shall take rank In the following order, viz.

1. Admirals,

Commission Officers.

2. Vice admirals, flag officers when authorized by law.

3. Rear admirals,

4. Captains.

5. Commanders, heretofore called masters commandant.

ART. 2. The above named commission officers shall take precedence and command in their respective ranks, according to the priority of the date of their commissions; passed midshipmen and second masters according to the number or date of their certificates of examination, or of their warrants as such; and the other warrant officers according to their date, except when an officer shall be appointed to act temporarily in some superior rank, in which case he shall, while so acting, have precedence and command over all officers attached to the same ship, post, or station, of a rank inferior to that in which he may be acting. Should

officers of the same rank have commissions, certificates, or warrants, bearing the same date, they will be numbered, and the lowest number will designate the officer entitled to precedence and command.

ART. 3. No officer of any rank below that of a second master shall be entitled to exercise any authority or command over any other officer of the same, or of inferior rank, excepting when employed on detached service, where there is no superior officer present, or when he shall have succeeded to the command of a vessel or navy yard, by the death or absence of all superior officers, or when he shall have charge of a watch, or when it shall be necessary for the suppression of any riot, quarrel, or other manifest impropriety of conduct, or when duly appointed to act in some higher grade.

ART. 4. When under the laws and regulations for the government of the navy, and on duty with navy officers, all officers of the marine corps, and the following civil officers of the navy, viz. surgeons, pursers, chaplains, assistant surgeons, secretaries, schoolmasters, and clerks, shall have assimilated rank with the sea officers of the navy, as follows, viz. Lieutenant colonel of marines, next after captains of the navy; Majors of marines, next after commanders of the navy;

Captains of marines, surgeons, pursers, chaplains, and secretaries, next after lieutenants of the navy;

First lieutenants of marines, and passed assistant surgeons, next after masters;

Second lieutenants of marines, assistant surgeons, and schoolmasters, with passed midshipmen; and clerks with midshipmen.

No marine or civil officer shall, in consequence of any assimilated rank, exercise command over any sea officer, except as provided in Art. 5; but the civil officers of the navy, and the marine officers who shall be attached to any vessel of the navy, or to any navy yard, station, or other service, which shall be commanded by a sea officer, shall be under the command of such commanding sea officer, and of any other sea officer who may succeed to such command, or of the officer of the watch for the time being, whatever may be his rank.

ART. 5. When any military operations shall be ordered to be executed on shore, and the command of the same shall be assigned to a marine officer, the sea officers who may be ordered to aid in such operations, being of inferior rank to him, shall obey his orders.

ART. 6. Marine officers and civil officers shall not have any authority, or exercise any control over each other while acting under the command of a sea officer, except in the following cases:

Marine officers will command each other and the marines, in whatever relates to the military duties in their detachments, according to their relative rank, and surgeons shall have authority to direct and regulate the professional duties and practice of assistant surgeons: provided that, in all cases, the orders given by such marine officers and surgeons shall be in conformity with the general regulations of the navy, and of their commanding sea officer.

ART. 7. If an officer shall receive an order from his superior, contrary to any particular order of any other superior officer, or to the regulations of the navy, he shall respectfully represent (in writing when practicable) such contrariety to the superior officer from whom he shall have received the last order; and if, after such representation, the

superior shall still insist upon the execution of his order, the officer is to obey him, and report the circumstances to the officer from whom he received the original order; but every officer who shall divert another from any service upon which he may be ordered by a common superior, must show, in the clearest manner, that the public interests required it. ART. 8. When an officer in command of a fleet, squadron, or single ship, shall meet with his superior officer in command, he shall, if practicable, wait on him, and show his general instructions; and if he shall have sealed or secret orders, and his superior officer should determine to take him under his immediate command, he will then make the fact of his having sealed or secret orders known to his superior, who will not, in any case, open any sealed orders, or divert a commander from executing his original orders, unless he may conceive it absolutely necessary for the public service; which service having been executed, he will permit him to obey his original instructions, if still practicable and necessary, and will as early as the nature of the service will permit, communicate all the facts of the case to the person under whose orders the inferior officer may have been acting.

ART. 9. Vessels mounting 26 guns and upwards, shall be considered as the appropriate commands for captains; vessels from 16 to 24 guns, as the appropriate commands for commanders; and vessels under 16 guns, as the appropriate commands for lieutenants: but, whenever circumstances shall require it, captains may be appointed to any vessel of 20 guns and upwards, and commanders to vessels of 12 guns and under 16 guns.

ART. 10. Whenever ships of the line shall be employed, a commander may be attached to each as executive officer.

ART. 11. The military officers of the land and sea services of the United States shall rank together as follow:

1st. A lieutenant of the navy with captains in the army;

2d. A commander of the navy with majors;

3d. A captain of the navy, from the date of his commission, with lieutenants colonel;

4th. Five years thereafter, with colonels;

5th. Ten years thereafter, with brigadiers general;

6th. Fifteen years after the date of his commission, with majors general but should there be created in the navy a higher rank than captains, then rear admirals only shall rank with majors general, vice admirals with lieutenants general, and admirals with generals.

ART. 12. Nothing in the preceding article shall authorize a land officer to command any United States vessel or navy yard; nor any sea officer to command any part of the army on land; neither shall an officer of the one service have a right to demand any compliment, on the score of rank, from an officer of the other service.

ART. 13. The following table shows the full complement of officers, petty officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen, boys, and marines, which are to be allowed to vessels of the navy. The whole number of petty officers and persons of inferior ratings is not to be exceeded in any case, nor must the number, in any particular rating, be exceeded, unless it be to make up an existing deficiency in some higher rating, except by special order of the Secretary of the Navy.

ART. 14. The commander of a squadron shall be allowed, independently of the complement of the vessel in which he may be embarked, if commanding in chief, one flag lieutenant, one secretary, one clerk, one coxswain, one cook, and three servants. If not commanding in chief, he shall be allowed the same, excepting a clerk; and to a captain of a fleet there shall be allowed a coxswain and two servants, who, with the commanders of fleets or squadrons, and captains of the fleet, when allowed, are to be borne as supernumeraries for pay and provisions.

CHAPTER II.

APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS.

ART. 15. No officer whatever shall, when within the jurisdiction of the United States, appoint any person not holding a commission or warrant in the navy, to perform the duties of a commission or warrant officer, nor give to any commission or warrant officer an acting appointment for any higher grade than that for which he may be commissioned or warranted; nor shall he, at any time, order any officer into service, or upon duty, who is on leave of absence or furlough, or make any change in the distribution or arrangement of officers, unless by the orders or permission of the Secretary of the Navy, except in cases of emergency. ART. 16. The commander in chief of a fleet or squadron, or the commander of a vessel acting singly, when without the jurisdiction of