Paint brushes when new, and before use, should be wrapped or bridled with strong twine and soaked in water to swell. After use they should be cleaned with turpentine and put away in water to keep them from drying and becoming unpliable.

Large ropes should be stored on skids, allowing a free circulation of air. Small ropes should be hung on wooden pins. Ropes should be uncoiled semiannually in dry seasons and stretched out for several days to dry. Wire rope must be stored in a dry place where it will not rust. Marline-covered wire rope should be stored where there is a fair circulation of air. The date of receipt should be stenciled on each reel. If not used at the end of five years it should be run through a bath of pure distilled tar oil. This may be done by setting up an empty reel 20 feet in front of the full reel and placing a tub of the tar oil midway between them. As the rope comes off the full reel it is passed through the oil and the surplus oil slicked off with a piece of burlap, thus returning the oil to the bath. The freshly oiled reel will continue to drip for several days, and sand should be put on the floor under the reel to take up the excess oil. After use in water the marline-covered rope should be thoroughly dried out and then reoiled as above described.

APPENDIX NO. 6.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MASTERS OF
MINE PLANTERS.

The matter contained in this appendix is primarily for the information of the masters of those vessels which are called into service for mine planting purposes upon the outbreak or threatening of hostilities.

The master shall request to be supplied with a copy of Regulations for Mine Planters, U. S. Army.

To each vessel will be assigned a coast artillery officer, who shall be the commanding officer of the vessel. All orders for the vessel shall be given to and through him. He shall have general charge of its business and be responsible for the proper care and disposition of all stores aboard, leaving to the master of the vessel the full and unquestioned control and authority over all matters for which he is professionally responsible.

Any orders to be given by the commanding officer concerning the vessel or its crew will be given to or through the master, except that when planting mines or operating any of the mining appliances or machinery aboard the vessel, the commanding officer, or an officer designated by him, may give instructions directly to any of the vessel’s officers or to members of the vessel’s crew who have duties directly connected with the mining work.

The duties and responsibilities of the master of a vessel engaged in submarine mine work do not differ materially from those devolving upon him when his vessel is otherwise employed. With respect to every duty the vessel may be called upon to perform, it may be stated that explicit directions as to where the vessel is to go and just what maneuvers it is to execute in the mine field will be given by the officer aboard, and it is then incumbent upon the master to execute the maneuver according to his best judgment.

The duties that vessels employed as mine planters are likely to be called upon to perform are as follows: