Regulations for the government of the United States Navy (1865)
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Section 3.
Appointments and Promotions.
240.....Any person having passed an examination will be eligible to an appointment. Appointments will be made as vacancies may occur, in the order of merit as reported by the board. Every person on receiving an appointment from the Department to any office in the Navy, will forward a letter of acceptance immediately to the Department, together with the oath of allegiance duly signed and certified. (See appendix, form No. 17.)
241.....No officer shall, when within the jurisdiction of the United State, unless authorized by the Secretary of the Navy, appoint any person not holding a commission or warrant in the Navy to perform the duties of a commissioned or warranted officer, nor give to any commissioned or warranted officer any acting appointment. An exception to this rule will be found in the fourth section of the act to provide for the appointment of Assistant Paymasters, approved July 17, 1861.
242.....No officer other than the Commander-in-Chief of a fleet or squadron, shall give any acting appointment, except as provided for in the last paragraph ; nor shall any such acting appointment be issued unless a lasting vacancy should occur in the established complement of a vessel of the Navy, which cannot be filled from supernumerary officers on board other vessels of the fleet or squadron, and in such case it shal1 be in writing, and be subject to revocation by himself, or by 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 shall continue in force until the vessel falls in with the Commander-in-Chief, or arrives in the United States.
243.....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 Commander-in-Chief, or senior officer present, to other officers of the fleet, squadron, or vessel, who will perform the duties of such sick, absent, or incompetent officers, until their return to duty, or until further orders be received from competent authority. All such orders may be revoked by the officer from whom they issued.
244.....No Commanding officer of a vessel which may be ordered to sail from the United States, or which may be separated from the Commander-in-Chief of the fleet or squadron to which such vessel belongs, shall issue any order to fill vacancies among offices which existed and could have been reported to the Navy Department in time for orders to be issued to other officers before sailing, or to the Commander-in-Chief before the separation occurred.
245.....All acting appointments and orders directing an officer to per- form duties higher than those of his proper grade, must specify the vessel on board which he is to act, and in case of subsequent removal to another vessel, a new appointment or order must be given, except when the original shall have issued from the Navy Department.
246.....Officers conferring acting appointments, or giving orders to fill vacancies, will promptly inform the Department of such transactions, and of the reasons which governed them. In no case will the established complement of the vessel be exceeded. If an 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.
247.....An officer holding an acting appointment, will wear the uniform of (he grade to which he is appointed, and will annex the title of his acting rank to his official signature; but when holding only an order to perform the duties of a higher grade, he will not change his uniform nor his official designation.
248.....All officers of, and above, the grade of Lieutenant Commander, when commanding or acting as Captain of the Fleet, shall be allowed to appoint a clerk.
249.....Every officer entitled to a secretary or clerk may appoint or discharge him. But the appointment or discharge of a clerk by any officer not in command shall be subject to the approval of the Commander of the vessel; 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 shall 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 discipline of the vessel so long as his appointment may continue. One of these letters in duplicate shall be transmitted immediately to the Department by the officer conferring the appointment, together with the oath of allegiance, the other copy of the letter of acceptance shall 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 Commander of the vessel. 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, or until the return of such officer to the United States.
250.....Masters-at-arms and Yeomen will be appointed by the Commander of the vessel; Surgeon's stewards and nurses will be appointed by the Surgeon, and Paymaster's stewards by the Paymaster; but all such appointments must bear the approval of the Commander of the vessel. They will be entered on the ship's books after having been found physically qualified, have taken the oath of allegiance, and have signed an agreement (form No. 18, appendix) to serve faithfully for the cruise, to be amenable to the laws and regulations of the service and discipline of the vessel, 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, appointed by the Commander of the vessel. This agreement must be executed in duplicate, one copy of which, approved by the Commander of the vessel, together with the oath of allegiance, shall be forwarded to the Department, and the other copy shall be retained by the Commander of the vessel. The physical examination of Surgeon's stewards and nurses will be made by the officer appointing them. Masters-at-arms, Yeomen, and Paymaster's stewards will be examined by the Surgeon of the vessel or of the station. The Petty Officers named in this paragraph, together with the Orderly Sergeant of Marines, shall be allowed to mess separately on the berth-deck.
251.....The Surgeon of every vessel of the Navy may appoint, for duties connected with the medical department, a steward, and on board every vessel commissioned for sea-service, he may appoint one nurse, when the complement is less than (200) two hundred, and when it is (200) two hundred and over, two nurses. Nurses will be allowed on board receiving-ships, in numbers proportionate to the necessities of the case. Their compensation is provided for in the article on "allowances''
252.....No Paymaster, nor Assistant Paymaster, shall be allowed a clerk in a vessel having the complement of one hundred and seventy-five (175) persons, nor less, excepting in supply steamers and store-vessels. Stewards may be appointed in all vessels having a complement of twenty persons and over.
253.....Whenever an officer may be appointed Commander-in-Chief of a fleet or squadron, he will be allowed to nominate to the Department an officer not below the grade of Commander to serve as Captain of the Fleet, and such other officers of lower grade as he may wish to have on his personal staff, who, if allowed by the Department, will be in addition to the complement of the flag-ship.
254.....The Commander-in-Chief of a fleet or squadron, in the ease of a vacancy occurring on a foreign station, may order the senior Surgeon of the squadron to perform the duties of Surgeon of the Fleet, unless from disability, or other good cause, it be found necessary to select another of the same, or of a lower grade, for the purpose.
255.....No officer whatever is to order into service or to appoint to duty any officer who is on leave of absence or furlough, or make any change in the distribution or arrangement of officers established by the Secretary of the Navy, except in cases of emergency, and then he shall report his acts to the Department without delay.
256.....If an officer be promoted while in command of a vessel on foreign service, he is not, on that account, to be removed from his command until instructions be received from the Secretary of the Navy.
257.....As a general rule, Ensigns, Masters, Lieutenants, or Lieutenant Commanders will not be nominated for promotion to the next higher grade until they shall have performed as such, respectively, at least two years sea service, exclusive of coast survey service.
258.....Masters who have not been promoted from Ensigns, are not to be considered eligible to further advancement, except under extraordinary circumstances.
259.....Hereafter no officer will be promoted to the grade of Lieutenant, until he has served one year as Master, one year as Ensign, and at least one year as Midshipman after leaving the Naval Academy.
260.....Any person having served six months at sea under an acting appointment as Boatswain, Gunner, Carpenter, or Sailmaker, may be eligible to a warrant bearing the same date as his acting appointment, provided the Commanding Officers under whom he may have served shall have certified favorably as to his merits.
261.....No person will receive a warrant as Master's Mate unless he shall have served at least one year at sea under an acting appointment, and the Commanding Officers under whom he may have served shall have certified favorably as to his merits.
262.....Candidates for promotion to the grade of Second Assistant Engineer, must have served at least two years at sea as Third Assistant Engineer on board of a naval steamer; favorable testimonials must have been received by the Department from the Commanding Officers and senior Engineers under whom they may have served. They must also pass, before the board appointed to examine them, a thorough examination upon the subjects prescribed for Third Assistant Engineers, and, in addition thereto, be able to explain properly the principles, peculiarities, and uses of the different kinds of valves and valve-gear applied to marine steam-machinery ; the construction, principles, peculiarities, and uses of the various apparatus for working steam expansively ; the construction of the various marine boilers commonly used, together with their attachments, uses of the same, and the reasons therefor; the causes of derangement in the operation of air and feed pumps and feed pipes, and how to prevent and remedy them; the chemistry of boiler scale, the means of preventing it, and the mode of removing it; the construction, principles, peculiarities, and uses of the different kinds of surface condensers; how to calculate the loss by "blowing off," with the sea-water in the boiler at a given concentration; the principles of, and the manner of using, the various instruments for determining the water's concentration, and the method of graduating them ; the theory of using steam expansively, together with the limits and modifications imposed by practice, and the necessary calculations connected therewith ; the construction and mode of applying the indicator, and the interpretation of its diagrams ; the construction and principles of the various steam and vacuum gauges, and the causes of their derangement; and besides, they must have a thorough knowledge of rudimentary mechanics, be well versed in the elements of geometry, including descriptive, and be well acquainted with the practical building and repairing of steam-machinery.
263.....Candidates for promotion to the grade of First Assistant Engineer, must have served at least three years at sea as Second Assistant Engineer on board of a naval steamer; favorable testimonials must have been received by the Department from the Commanding Officers and senior Engineers under whom they may have served. They must also pass, before the board appointed to examine them, a thorough examination upon the subjects prescribed for Second Assistant Engineers, and, in addition thereto, be able to explain properly the whole subject of fundamental mechanics, and the theory of the steam-engine, the use of logarithms and the solution of a simple algebraic equation. They must further satisfy the board that they possess a competent knowledge of the first six books of Euclid's Elements, of plane trigonometry, of descriptive geometry, of conic sections, and of the strength of materials, and the influence of form in connection therewith; that they are capable of furnishing a working drawing of any piece of steam machinery, superintending its construction, and determining its adaptation for the use intended; and that they have a general knowledge of the theory, laws, and construction of the various kinds of paddle- wheels and screw propellers in use.
264.....Candidates for promotion to the grade of Chief Engineer, must have served at least two years at sea as First Assistant Engineer on board of a naval steamer; favorable testimonials must have been received by the Department from the Commanding Officers and senior Engineers under whom they may have served. They must also pass, before the board appointed to examine them, a thorough examination upon the subjects prescribed for First Assistant Engineers, and in addition thereto, they must satisfy it that they are well versed in mechanical philosophy, the physical laws of steam, applied mechanics, the theory of the steam-engine, and likewise in the construction, principles, and the laws of action of various types of marine governors, paddle-wheels, and screw propellers, and in all the necessary calculations relating to these. Furthermore, they must satisfy the board that they are thoroughly acquainted with the various kinds of paddle- wheel and screw propeller engines, able to point out their respective advantages and disadvantages, to design and erect the same, and to proportion them to a given vessel, for a given speed, with a given propelling instrument; that they are thoroughly versed in the strength of materials, in the theoretical laws governing form, the limits and modifications imposed by practice, and the reasons connected there-with; that they are familiar with the different kinds of boilers, their respective advantages and disadvantages, and able to properly proportion and construct the same for supplying a given power under given conditions; and that they do understand so much of chemistry as is involved in the laws of combustion and corrosion, and the metallurgic operations connected with steam-engineering.
265.....When, in the opinion of the Department, the wants of the service require a greater number of Engineers of any grade above that of Third Assistant than can be obtained by regular promotion, candidates presenting themselves for admission will have to undergo the the same examination as that prescribed for the grade to which they may aspire; and with regard to subsequent promotion, the same length of sea-service prescribed as necessary to advancement from one grade to another will be required. But all persons so appointed to the grade of Second Assistant Engineer must be between the ages of twenty-one and twenty eight; all to the grade of First Assistant Engineer, between twenty-five and thirty-two; and all to that of Chief Engineer, between twenty-eight and thirty-five.
266.....Assistant Surgeons, after five years service in the Navy, at least two years of which shall have been passed on board a public vessel of the United States at sea, shall be entitled to an examination for promotion. Testimonials of correct deportment and habits of industry from the Surgeons with whom they have been associated on duty must have been received by the Department, and they shall present to the board a journal of practice, or case-book, in their own handwriting. They are expected to be familiar with all the details of duty specified in the "Instructions for the Government of Medical Officers."
267.....Candidates for promotion to the grade of Paymaster must satisfy the examining board of their competency to perform the various duties of Paymaster. They must be well acquainted with all laws and regulations relating to the duties and responsibilities of the position they aspire to. They must have a good theoretical and practical knowledge of book-keeping, and the law and practice of exchange, the value of foreign coins as compared with those of the United States, and the weights and measures of foreign countries; and they must have a sufficient knowledge of the Spanish and French languages to enable them to transact the business of their departments in those languages. But the acquaintance of these languages is not to be exacted until two years after the promulgation of this regulation. They must produce satisfactory testimonials from the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing and from the Fourth Auditor's Office that their accounts have been well kept and promptly rendered, and that their returns have been properly and seasonably made.
268.....Candidates for promotion to the grade of Naval Constructor must have been at least five years in the service as Assistant Naval Constructors; they must pass, before the board appointed to examine them, a satisfactory examination in Euclid.s Elements, algebra, with its application to geometry, plane trigonometry, conic sections, descriptive geometry, mechanics, strength of materials; calculation of displacement, of stability, of centre of gravity, of centre of effort, and other matters relating to the theory of naval architecture, as well as the practice in building ships of wood and of iron.
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