Regulations for the government of the United States Navy (1865)

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Section 2.

Examinations.

229.....At stated or convenient periods, boards will be ordered for the examination of candidates for appointment or promotion, who will be duly informed of the time and place of meeting. Before proceeding to the examination of any candidate for appointment, the medical officers who may be ordered for the purpose will furnish to the board, to examine professionally, a certificate of the physical fitness of each candidate who may pass the examination ; and also a list of those who may be found to be physically unfit for the service. 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 a prompt and efficient discharge of duty. In the case of an Assistant Surgeon, the board of examiners will scrutinize his physical qualifications, and will make a separate report in each case, direct to the Department, to be placed on file with his testimonials. The board to examine professionally, having received the certificate of the physical fitness of the candidate, will proceed to examine him on all the required qualifications ; it will grant certificates to those who may be found duly qualified, numbering them in succession in the order of relative merit, beginning with one to the best qualified. It will, besides, report to the authority convening them, at the close of a session, the result of all their investigations, and forward all the documentary evidence they may have received in relation to the capacity and fitness of parties.

230.....The board of Naval Surgeons will assemble annually, and usually about the close of the lecture season. In no case admitting of a reasonable doubt will it report favorably, as the health and lives of the officers and men of the Navy are objects too important to be entrusted to ignorant, or incompetent persons.

231.....Boards for the examination of candidates for appointment or promotion shall be composed as follows. For a Master's Mate, of three Line Officers, one of whom shall be of, or above the rank of Lieutenant Commander. For a Boatswain or Gunner, of three Line Officers, one of whom shall be of, or above, the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and one shall be of the grade in which the applicant desires an appointment. For a Carpenter or Sailmaker, of two Line Officers, one of whom shall be of, or above, the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and of one Staff Officer of the grade in which the applicant desires an appointment. For Engineer Officers, of not less than three Chief Engineers. For Medical Officers, of not less than three Surgeons. For Assistant Paymasters, of not less than three Paymasters. For Assistant Naval Constructors, of not less than three Naval Constructors, and one Professor of Mathematics.

232.....Candidates who may exhibit the highest degree of practical experience and professional skill will be given a preference, both in admission and promotion.

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

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

235.....Any Assistant Surgeon who, after examination, shall be reported to the board as not qualified for promotion, shall be dropped from the list of officers of the Navy.

236.....If an officer should fail to pass a first examination, and be granted an opportunity to present himself a second time, he will, in case of success, have his position on the register designated by the board, subject, however, to the decision of the Department. But if he should fail in the second examination, he shall be dropped from the Navy list.

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

238.....No allowance will be made for the expenses of persons under- going examinations for appointments, as the latter are indispensable prerequisites to appointment. An exception to this rule will be made in the case of candidates for admission to the Naval Academy, who, if successful, will be allowed their actual necessary travelling expenses.

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

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