INCLUDING PROVISIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION
OF ALL VESSELS OF THE "NEW NAVY"

WITH TABLES SHOWING PRESENT NAVAL STRENGTH
IN VESSELS AND PERSONNEL, AND AMOUNT
OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE

Senate, Secretary's office: For compiler of the Navy Yearbook and indexer for Senate public documents (Pitman Pulsifer), three thousand five hundred dollars; and hereafter said Navy Yearbook shall be prepared and published for each calendar year and distributed as other public documents; and six thousand additional copies shall be printed and bound in cloth and distributed as follows: One thousand five hundred for the Senate, three thousand for the House of Representatives, one thousand for the Navy Department, and five hundred for the Committees on Naval Affairs of Senate and House.

2

PREFATORY NOTE.

The initial legislation for rebuilding the Navy commenced with the act of August 5, 1882 (Statutes, vol. 22, p. 291), which provided, under limitations, that no more money should be spent upon old wooden vessels, and for the appointment of a Naval Advisory Board. The following are the important provisions of the act:

one million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars: Provided, That no part of this sum shall be applied to the repairs of any wooden ship when the estimated cost of such repairs shall exceed thirty per centum of the estimated cost of a new ship of the same size and like material: Provided, Nothing herein contained shall deprive the Secretary of the authority to order repairs of ships damaged in foreign waters or on the high seas, so far as may be necessary to bring them home. Any portion of said sum not required for the purposes aforesaid may be applied toward the construction of two steam cruising vessels of war, which are hereby authorized, at a total cost, when fully completed, not to exceed the amount estimated by the late Naval Advisory Board for such vessel, the same to be constructed of steel, of domestic manufacture, having as near as may be a tensile strength of not less than sixty thousand pounds to the square inch, and a ductility in eight inches of not less than twenty-five per centum; said vessels to be provided with full sail-power and full steam-power. One of said vessels shall be of not less than five thousand nor more than six thousand tons displacement, and shall have the highest attainable speed, and shall be adapted to be armed with not more than four breech-loading rifled cannon, of high power, of not less than eight-inch caliber, or two of teninch caliber, and not more than twenty-one breech-loading rifled cannon, of high power, of not less than six-inch caliber; one of said vessels shall be of not less than four thousand three hundred nor more than four thousand seven hundred tons displacement, and shall have the highest attainable speed, and shall be adapted to be armed with four breech-loading rifled cannon, of high power, of not less than eight-inch caliber, or two of ten-inch caliber, and not more than fifteen breech-loading rifled cannon, of high power, of not less than six-inch caliber. The Secretary of the Navy is hereby empowered and directed to organize a board of naval officers and experts for his advice and assistance, to be called the "Naval Advisory Board," to serve during the period required for the construction, armament, and trial of the vessels hereby authorized to be constructed, and no longer. Said board shall consist of five officers on the active list of the Navy in the line and the staff, to be detailed by the Secretary of the Navy, without reference to rank and with reference only to character, experience, knowledge, and skill, and two persons of established reputation and standing, as experts in naval or marine construction, to be selected from civil life, and employed for this sole duty by the Secretary of the Navy, and to be paid such sum, out of the appropriation hereby made, not exceeding eleven thousand dollars, as he may direct: Provided however, That no person shall be a member of said board who has any interest, direct or indirect, in any invention, device, or process, patented or otherwise, to be used in the construction of said vessels, their engines, boilers, or armament, nor in any contract for the same. It shall be the duty of said board to advise and assist the Secretary of the Navy, in his office or elsewhere, in all matters referred to them by him relative to the designs, models, plans, specifications, and contracts for said vessels in all their parts, and relative to the materials to be used therein and to the construction thereof, and especially relative to the harmonious adjustment, respectively, of their hulls, machinery, and armament; and they shall examine all materials to be used in said vessels, and inspect the work on the same as it progresses, and have general supervision thereof, under the direction of said Secretary. But said board shall have no power to make or enter into any contract, nor to direct or control any