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

[<< - previous section] | [TOC] | [next section - >>]

Section 2.

Receiving Vessels.

1040 The Commander of a vessel receiving recruits shall take charge of, and receipt for daily, to the officer sending them, all such as may be duly forwarded ; and if, after an examination severally by himself and his Medical Officer they shall be found fit for the service, he shall cause them to be regularly entered upon her books, and paid, under the restrictions provided in paragraph 1025 of the preceding section, the advance money allowed. He is also to receipt to the recruiting officer for the descriptive lists directed to accompany the recruits, and to direct the Paymaster of his vessel to receipt to that officer for the transcript lists he is ordered to furnish, and to certify to him that the amounts of money against the recruits, as exhibited by his accounts, have been duly charged to them respectively. The recruit will be carefully inspected to see that he conforms to the descriptive list accompanying him, in order that no person may be delivered onboard the receiving vessel who had not previously passed examination at the rendezvous.

1041 No person is to be considered as finally shipped in the naval service until he shall have passed medical inspection on board the receiving ship where he is to be delivered. If this examination should develop any cause why the recruit should not be accepted, the Commander of the receiving vessel will report the case to the Commandant of the station, who will forthwith order a survey by two or three medical officers, and, as far as practicable, senior to the Medical Officer of the rendezvous where the primary examination was held ; and if the recruit is found unfit for service, the objections are to be fully stated by the board of survey, whereupon the recruit shall not be received. The order for survey and medical report shall in all cases be transmitted to the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting.

1042 The descriptive lists accompanying recruits are to be carefully verified, under the direction of the Commanding Officer of the vessel to which they are sent ; and should discrepancies be detected, he is to notify the Commanding Officer of the rendezvous of all the facts attending them without delay.

1043 The descriptive lists are to be kept by the Executive Officer, who is to have a copy of them recorded in a book for the purpose, to be retained on board for reference when necessary.

1044 Descriptive and other lists must always accompany recruits whenever they are transferred from one vessel to another and the name of the vessel to which they are transferred, preceded by the words, " transferred to," must be noted on the descriptive lists, as well as a statement of their probable qualifications ; and all such transfers must be duly noted on the muster-book of the vessel making them.

1045 The transcript lists are to be kept by the Paymaster, who is to have a copy of them recorded in a book for the purpose, to be retained on board for reference when necessary.

1046 Accounts, specifying the sums paid and balance due, and transcript lists, both signed by the Commanding Officer and Paymaster, must always accompany recruits whenever they are transferred from one vessel to another.

1047 The Commander will have the clothing and bedding of all recruits carefully examined and marked, and lists of the same taken when they are first received on board, and take all measures for their preservation and safe-keeping. No recruit will be allowed to bring on board any other outside clothing than that prescribed by the uniform regulations.

1048 Neither clothing nor small stores are to be issued to recruits on board a receiving vessel, without the written order of the Commanding Officer ; and this must be preserved by the Paymaster as a voucher, in case a person to whom an issue of them was made should die or desert while in debt to the United States.

1049 The Commander of the receiving vessel is to adopt proper precautions to prevent desertions, and is not to allow any recruit to go on shore on liberty without the consent of the Commanding Officer of the station.

1050 Receiving vessels shall be sufficiently equipped to furnish the means for exercising the recruits who may be on board. The Commanding Officer will, under the direction of the Commanding Officer of the station, have them exercised at the guns, small arms, &c., sails, pulling in boats, and exercise of the boats' howitzers ; and he will report to the Department at the end of each month the exercises had during the month. Particular attention will be paid to the instruction of landsmen and boys.

1051 The recruits on board a receiving vessel are not to be employed upon duties unconnected with that vessel, except by the order or sanction of the Commander of the station ; and when employed in aid of the force in navy yards for rigging or equipping vessels, or for any other service, he will see that they are placed under the direction of proper navy officers. Unless for some special service, he will not authorize the employment of the recruits in a navy yard upon other duties than such as are immediately connected with the equipment of vessels, or the preparation of their outfits and stores.

1052 No recruit intended for general service is to be rated a petty officer whilst on board a receiving vessel, as that authority is to be exercised by the Commanding Officer of the sea-going vessel to which he may be transferred.

1053 When the Commanding Officer of a receiving vessel is directed to transfer men to a sea-going vessel, if there be more than a sufficient number of any class on board to comply with the order, he is to make an impartial selection, preferring those who have been longest shipped, and sending a fair proportion of such as may be supposed qualified for petty officers, of useful mechanics, and persons of foreign birth and colored persons.

1054 When men are to be drafted from the receiving vessel to a sea-going vessel, the selection shall be made by the Commander of the receiving vessel ; and no officer, whatever may be his rank, shall be permitted to visit the receiving vessel and make selections for the vessel which he is to command.

1055 In case of complaint or dissatisfaction as to the character or condition of the draft on the part of the Commander of the vessel to which men are transferred from a receiving vessel, it shall be. the duty of the Commander of the station to order a survey, on which he will decide the case ; but no men are to be returned and exchanged except for good causes, and by his written order, in which the reasons for the same will be expressed.

1056 Should authority be given to enlist men for a particular vessel, such men shall not be detailed for any other vessel except by order of the Department.

1057 When persons who have entered at the rendezvous are brought on board the receiving vessel, care shall be taken that they are in a proper condition to be received ; and if any person, when brought on board, shall be so much intoxicated as to require restraint, he shall not be received until he becomes sober.

1058 If, between the time of a person being entered at the rendezvous and his appearance on board the receiving or other ship, he shall receive an injury which, in the opinion of the inspecting and medical officer of the receiving ship, unfits him for the service, he shall not be received.

1059 The Commander and other officers attached to the vessel designated to receive recruits are to conform to the general regulations for other vessels in commission, as far as they are applicable, and are to live on board, unless specially exempted by the Secretary of the Navy, in the same manner as though under orders for sea service.

1060 A return for each week, ending on Saturday, signed by the Commanding Officer of the receiving vessel and the Paymaster attached to her, showing all the changes with regard to recruits that have taken place in the course of it, whether resulting from deaths, desertions, discharges, apprehensions, surrenders, or transfers, is to be made to the Chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, agreeably to Form No. 14, through the Commanding Officer of the station.

1061 The Commanding Officers of receiving vessels shall see that a note is made upon all accounts, transfer and descriptive lists, and on all shipping articles and enlistment returns, against the name of every person who may come under the seventh section of the act approved February 24, 1864, for enrolling and calling out the national forces.

[<< - previous section] | [TOC] | [next section - >>]

This is privately operated website. It is not associated with any governmental organization.