Though crippled at first at the commencement of this rebellion by the traitors among her officers in command—crippled by the loss of vessels and property destroyed by rebels—her ranks thinned by resignations and desertions, the navy struggled onward, slowly but surely, gaining vitality and power, until, under the present administration, it has 'lengthened its cords and strengthened its stakes,' attaining its present efficiency. Accessions have been made in vessels, new grades of officers have been appointed, the various bureaus have been enlarged, and an immense number of volunteer officers have been appointed, mostly chosen from petty officers and seamen, or from the merchant service, to command armed transports and the smaller craft used for the shallow waters of the Atlantic coast. A strong blockade has been effected, a number of valuable prizes taken, and the navy has rendered invaluable service by its bombardments of the enemy's towns and fortifications, on the coast of the United States as well as along the banks of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee rivers. In fact, much is due to the navy for its great efficiency in the present civil war in America.
We will give to the reader some statistics, taken from the September issue of the Naval Register for 1862, from which an idea can be formed of the great strength of this branch of our service. As these statistics are official, they will serve as a valuable source of information to those who are interested in the welfare of the country. Let us then review the organization of the United States navy.
The organization of the navy is as follows: The Navy Department, which consists of the office of the Secretary of the Navy and its various bureaus, and the officers of the navy, consisting of officers of the navy, officers of the marine corps, and warrant officers, besides volunteer and acting volunteer officers, these two last being new grades. There is no list of petty officers and seamen published in the Register, these being simply kept on the unpublished rolls, kept in the office of the Secretary of the Navy.
In the Navy Department proper may be found the following officers: The Secretary of the Navy; his Assistant; the chiefs of the bureaus of yards and docks, equipment, and recruiting, navigation, ordnance, construction and repair, steam engineering, provisions and clothing, and medicine and surgery. Since the publishing of the last annual Register, one of these bureaus is a new organization—the bureau of navigation not yet perfected. It will be seen by referring to this Register that the office of the Secretary of the Navy and the bureaus attached, require, besides the chief officers, one engineer, forty-four clerks, five draughtsmen, and eight messengers.
The officers of the navy proper are divided into the following grades: Rear admirals, commodores, captains, commanders, lieutenant commanders, lieutenants, surgeons ranking with commanders, surgeons ranking with lieutenants, passed assistant surgeons ranking next after lieutenants, assistant surgeons ranking next after masters, paymasters ranking with commanders, paymasters ranking with lieutenants, assistant paymasters, chaplains, professors of mathematics, masters in the line of promotion, masters not in the line of promotion, passed midshipmen, midshipmen detached from the naval academy and ordered into active service, boatswains, gunners, carpenters, sailmakers, navy agents, naval store keepers, naval constructors, officers of the naval academy, officers on special service, engineers in chief, first assistants, second assistants, third assistants, and officers of the marine corps.
The volunteer officers of the navy are acting lieutenants, acting volunteer lieutenants, acting masters, acting ensigns, acting master's mates, acting assistant surgeons, acting assistant paymasters and clerks, and acting first, second, and third engineers.
The petty officers of the navy are comprised as follows: Yeomen, armorers, boatswains, gunners, carpenters, sailmakers, and armorer's mates, master-at-arms, ship's corporals, coxswains, quarter masters, quarter gunners, captains of forecastle, tops, afterguard, and hold, coopers, painters, stewards, ship's officers, surgeons, assistant surgeons and paymasters, stewards, nurses, cooks, masters of the band, musicians, first and second class, seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen, boys, first and second class firemen, and coal heavers.
The ranking of officers of the navy compared to the grades of the army may thus be enumerated: An admiral of the navy ranks with a major general in the army, a commodore as a brigadier general, a captain as a colonel, a commander as a lieutenant colonel, a lieutenant commander as a major, a lieutenant as a captain, a master as a first lieutenant, and an ensign (the new grade) as second lieutenant. The senior rear admiral of the navy, Charles Stewart of Pennsylvania, now on the retired list, ranks as a major general commanding in chief, and is the highest official in the navy except the Secretary.
The pay of the navy is quite an item in the list of Government expenditures. A few statistics relative to the expenditures will not prove uninteresting to the reader. The pay of seven admirals in the active list, commanding squadrons, and of fourteen rear admirals in the retired list, is $87,000; of twenty-six commanders and six on the retired list, is $117,860; of seventy captains on the active list, $239,300; thirty-two on the retired list, $85,400; one hundred and seventy commanders on active list, $554,380, and nine on the reserved list, $18,800; two hundred and forty-four lieutenant commanders, active list, $672,000; one hundred and eighty surgeons of various grades, $708,000; ten passed assistant surgeons, $8,700; two hundred and eighteen assistant surgeons, $422,900; eighty-one paymasters, $81,000; sixty assistant paymasters, $67,850; twenty-three chaplains, $34,500; twelve professors of mathematics, $21,600; seventeen masters, $18,320; three passed midshipmen, and one midshipman (old list), $4,308; four hundred and eighteen midshipmen, graduates of the naval academy, $259,600; fifty-four gunners, $67,500; forty-two acting gunners, $33,600; sixty carpenters, $60,000; forty-six sailmakers, $43,650; eight navy agents, $25,000; twelve naval store keepers, $18,000; nine naval constructors, $16,200; engineers and assistants, $756,700; officers of the naval academy, $759,000; officers of the marine corps, $536,000; acting volunteer officers of the navy of all grades, $2,975,300, and petty officers and seamen, $2,560,000; making a total of $10,863,118, for pay alone.
Let us add to this, other expenses to swell out the list. For clerk hire alone it is said that $600,000 is annually paid out; for navy yards and depots, $12,583,280 64; for the different bureaus, $8,325,161; and for contingent expenses, $2,600,000. Add to this the pay of the hospitals, $1,200,000; for magazines, $200,000; repair and equipment, $11,400,000; chartering and purchasing of vessels for naval purposes, $10,800,000; thus making a total of $47,708,441 64, which, added to the pay of the navy, makes the annual expenditure $58,571,559 64.