Henry Billings Brown

“ While the words 'acting master's mates,' sometimes employed prior to the Revised Statutes, might indicate, by the use of the word 'acting,' a person temporarily appointed to the duties of a master's mate, officers who are recognized by law, and whose pay is fixed by a permanent statute, cannot be said to be temporarily appointed. The argument that a 'warrant' is defined to be 'an instrument conferring authority upon persons, inferior to a commission,' and that mates must therefore be warrant officers, because they are appointed by the secretary of the navy, proves too much ”

“ The personnel of the navy is divided generally into commissioned officers, noncommissioned or warrant officers, petty officers, and seamen of various grades and denominations. That a mate is not a commissioned officer is entirely clear, and is not disputed by either party. ”

“ That boatswains, gunners, sailmakers, and carpenters are warrant officers to be appointed by the president, and that they are the only ones specifically mentioned as such.
2. That mates are officers not holding commissioners or warrants, and not entitled to them, but are petty officers, promoted by the secretary of the navy from seamen of inferior grades, who have enlisted for not less than two years, and that they are distinguished from other petty officers only in the fact that their pay is fixed by statute instead of by the president. ”