The Emperor of Brazil is Commander-in-Chief of the land and naval forces of the empire and President of the Supreme Council of War. The navy has a separate representative in the Cabinet, the Minister of Marine being always a civilian. In the Supreme Council of War the navy is represented by four members, naval officers of the highest grades. The organization of the naval ministry consists of a civil and a naval department. The head of both departments is the Minister, assisted in the civil one by a Director-General, four Directors of sections and the under-officers of the sections. The naval department consists of a Naval Council having a vice-president, members, and a secretary. In addition to the Naval Council there is an Adjutant-General’s Bureau with a vice-Admiral at the head who is the immediate executive, a Controller’s Bureau and a Finance Bureau, all within the limits of the Navy Department proper. There are five naval arsenals, situated at Rio Janeiro, Bahia, Pernambuco, Pará, and Matto Grosso. At the ports of Rio Janeiro, Espiritu Santo, Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Parahyba, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Pianhy, Maranhão, Pará, Matto Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Santa Catarina, Parana, and San Paulo are established offices of naval control under the superintendence of a Captain of the Port, these places being recruiting depots. In addition to these departments there is a Naval School, Observatory, and Library at Rio Janeiro.
The naval personnel is divided into two main classes, the active and the reserve, the latter forming a very small minority. The grade divisions of rank are as follows:
There is a corps of pilots having no relative rank, and chaplains are assigned from the different sees without rank.
Warrant officers have the grade of second lieutenant. Machinists are graded into first, second, and third class, the first class having the grade of second lieutenant and the others no official grade.
Candidates for entrance into the Naval Academy are required to be between the ages of 14 and 17. The duration of the course is three years, during which time the exercises are pursued almost exclusively on shore. At the date of graduation the cadet takes rank at once as midshipman. The average complement at the Academy is 100. The cadre of the personnel of the navy is 821 officers, 100 cadets, 2993 men, 842 men of the marine battalion, and 1528 apprentices; total, 6184.
The Brazilians have no foreign squadrons, their practice being to send occasional cruisers to different parts of the world. Their own waters are, however, divided into squadron cruising grounds as follows: Sea coast, three districts, each employing a squadron of from three to seven vessels; river stations, five, as follows: Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay, Amazon, Paraguay, Rio Plata, each one having a flotilla of from six to twelve gun-boats and iron-clads.
Chili.
There is no distinct Navy Department in Chili, that administration forming one of the sections of the War Department, having one of the senior naval officers at its head. The central administration is at Valparaiso, and is in reality controlled by the civil governor of that district, who has on his staff a naval officer with the title of Major-General, for the superintendence of maritime affairs. Attached to the naval section are a Hydrographic Office, Observatory, and Naval School, and an Apprentice School. The navy is manned in time of peace entirely from voluntary enlistment. The war cadre is not known. That for peace is 148 officers and 5400 men, in addition to which there is a battalion of marine infantry and a battalion of marine artillery of the Civil Guard, amounting in all to 1200 men, making a grand total of 6800.
The grades of Chilian naval officers correspond to those of other services, except that there is no grade of Admiral. The Chilians have neither foreign cruising squadrons nor single cruisers, except an occasional single ship visiting the northern Pacific ports and the Brazil coast. There is but one dock-yard for general repairs at Valparaiso. The vessels composing the fleet with the exception of small gun-boats are purchased in foreign markets. The navy, although small, is in excellent discipline, and is rapidly developing in strength and general efficiency.