An Universal Dictionary of the Marine / Or, a Copious Explanation of the Technical Terms and Phrases Employed in the Construction, Equipment, Furniture, Machinery, Movements, and Military Operations of a Ship. Illustrated With Variety of Original Designs of Shipping, in Different Situations; Together With Separate Views of Their Masts, Sails, Yards, and Rigging. to Which Is Annexed, a Translation of the French Sea-terms and Phrases, Collected from the Works of Mess. Du Hamel, Aubin, Saverien, &c.

by William Falconer

COMMISSAIRE de la marine imports in general a civil officer, or commissioner of the marine, of which there are several: as,

Commissaire général à la suite des armées navales, an officer who receives the orders and instructions of the intendant of a fleet of men of war, and performs his duty when he is absent. See Intendant des armées navales.

Commissaire général de la marine, the principal officer under the intendant de marine, in his department. It is his duty, 1. To execute the orders of the admiral, or commissioners of the admiralty, with regard to the number of ships which are ordered to be taken into the service of the state; to provide for their being equipped, manned, and victualled, for the expedition to which they are destined; to press the masters and mates who refuse to serve, and to break, or disband and return, those who will not do their duty. 2. To measure the ships which attend a fleet; to give them orders, either to sail with the fleet, or to join it according to the regulations which have been made; to keep account of those who have been discharged from duty, and send them back in due time to the appointed place. 3. To attend the affairs of the dock-yards and harbours, and controul the clerks, artificers, and ordinary-men; to administer the oath of allegiance to them; to review the shipping, and take an inventory of the prizes. 4. To take care that the oldest and best seasoned timber is first used; and that the bolts, nails, and other iron-works, have their due proportions, and conform to their dimensions. 5. To examine, once every fortnight, the muster-roll of the artificers, signed by the clerks. 6. To observe that the master-shipwrights do in nowise depart from the draught which has been established by the council of construction, of which he is always possessed of a copy. 7. To inspect whatever concerns the port, and to take care that the ordonnances relative thereto are faithfully executed; and to see that the ships are properly situated, and each one moored in the birth assigned.

It is also the office of the commissaire général to keep a list of the sea-officers and sailors, able and ordinary; and to minute the ships in which they have served, and upon what footing they have been paid. With respect to the youths, officers servants, and other boys, their names, privileges, and time of service, are enrolled in a particular list; and each of them is furnished with a certificate, representing these articles.

The commissaire général is not, however, always charged with these several employments himself. There are under his department, in different places, or according to the times, other commissaries, who share such services with him: as, Commissaire ordinaires de la marine; Commissaires ayant inspection sur les vivres d’un port, an agent victualler; Commissaire préposé pour l’enrôlement des matelots, clerk of the cheque; Commissaire pour les constructions des vaisseaux; and Commissaire des ports, master-attendant.

Commissaire général de la marine ambulant, an officer whose duty resembles that of the former, but who has no particular residence, being intended to visit any one port or harbour occasionally.

Commissaire de l’artillerie de la marine, an officer who, under the orders of the intendant, has the charge of the foundery, the proof of cannon and mortars, and of all other arms, gunpowder, ammunition, instruments, and implements of war. He has also the command of the gunners, matrosses, and bombardiers, maintained in a royal port, who are divided into squads, commanded by lieutenants de marine, or lieutenants of bomb-ketches. There are two of these Commissaires généraux, one for the western ports of France, and the other for Provence, or the eastern ports.

Commissaire ordinaire de la marine, an officer whose duty it is to superintend the ordinary, the several clerks in a dock-yard, the store-keepers accounts in a port, and the out-fits and return of stores of a fleet.

Commissaire ordînaire de l’artillerie de la marine, an officer who performs the duty of the Commissaire général de l’artillerie de la marine, when he is absent. He keeps the keys of the naval magazine and artillery store rooms jointly with the garde-magazin. He has also a key of the arsenal, wherein the fire-arms are disposed according to their length and calibre; and he keeps a register of all the artillery within the warren where he resides. This register contains principally the matter and fabric of such artillery.

COMMISSION, an order given by the king to an admiral, vice-admiral, or other superior officer, to cruise against, and seize, the enemy’s ships, &c.