Navy Board

“ This was the system of executive boards, composed jointly of commissioners selected outside the membership of Congress, and of members of Congress. Congress and the Marine Committee probably derived a part of their knowledge of executive boards from the practice of the English government and of the states. “Board of Admiralty” was the name during the Revolution, as now, of the British Naval Office. Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina had early in the Revolution established “Navy Boards.” In October, 1777, Congress had formed a Board of War composed of five commissioners. ”

“ The office, in fact, grew, as has been commonly the case with our administrative machinery, by adaptations to meet needs. At last, in 1546, in the year before his death, the king formed the first regular Navy Board by letters patent dated April 24. It consisted of a Lieutenant of the Admiralty, a Treasurer, a Comptroller, a Surveyor, a Clerk of the Ships, and two officials who had no special title. ”

“ In Virginia, as in the other states and in the Continental Congress, naval enthusiasm and interest was at its height in 1776. In the fall the Navy Board contracted for the building of twenty-four small transports. [518] The General Assembly in its October session authorized the Navy Board to construct [Pg 403] two frigates of thirty-two guns each, and four large galleys, adapted “for river or sea service.” For manning these galleys and those already building, the Navy Board was empowered to raise thirteen hundred men, exclusive of officers, to serve three years from March 3, 1777. ”

“ If the court of enquiry found that the loss of the vessel was caused by the negligence or malconduct of any commissioned officer, the Navy Board might suspend such officer pending his trial by a court-martial, which, in the event that six naval officers could not be assembled, was to consist of five men appointed by the Navy Board. The permitting of civilians to sit upon naval courts is the salient feature of these new resolutions, and is an anomaly in naval judicature. ”

“ The Navy of to-day, and still more the Navy of to-morrow, bears the imprint of your work. The enormous impending influx of capital ships, the score of thirty-knot cruisers, the destroyers and submarines unequalled in modern construction which are coming now to hand, are the results of labours which we have had in common, and in which the Board of Admiralty owes so much to your aid. ”

“ Does the statute confer upon the secretary of the navy, acting alone or by direction of the president, the power to declare a particular service to be shore service, if, in fact, it was performed by the officer 'when at sea,' under the orders of the department, and on a vessel employed by authority of law? By the navy regulations of 1876, it was declared that 'duty on board a sea-going vessel of the navy in commission, on board a practice ship at sea, or on board a coast-survey vessel actually employed at sea, will be regarded by the department as sea service.' Page 85. ”

“ On taking charge of naval affairs the Navy Board found one of its most engrossing duties to be the purchasing of supplies of all sorts—salted beef and pork, bread, pitch, tar, turpentine, tallow, duck, cordage, and spars. On October 17, 1776, it appointed a naval agent at Georgetown to procure and issue supplies to the schooner “Rattlesnake,” Captain Stephen Seymour, now in the employ of the state for the protection [Pg 427] of this port. [557] The Board continued the building of four galleys, which had been begun by President Rutledge. ”

“ Under Elizabeth the improvements in building and rigging constituted a step longer than had yet been taken towards the modern type, the Navy Board became an effectively working and flourishing institution, and the wars and voyages of her reign founded the school of successful seamanship of which was born the confidence, daring and self-reliance still prescriptive in the royal and merchant services. ”

“ At the Admiralty the principal naval member of the Board is made responsible not only for the distribution and movements of ships—a definition which includes the whole domain of strategy and tactics —but also for the fighting and sea-going efficiency of the fleet, its organisation and mobilisation, a definition so wide that it includes the greater part of the administration of the navy, especially as the same officer is held responsible for advice on all large questions of naval policy and maritime warfare, as well as for the control of the naval ordnance department. ”

“ Many of the essentials of success are already recognized by the General Board, which, as the central office of a growing staff, is moving steadily toward a proper war efficiency and a proper efficiency of the whole Navy, under the Secretary. This General Board, by fostering the creation of a general staff, is providing for the official and then the general recognition of our altered conditions as a Nation and of the true meaning of a great war fleet, which meaning is, first, the best men, and, second, the best ships. ”

“ It is the Duty of every Friend to his Country to throw his Knowledge into the common Stock. I know you are well skilled in Commerce and I believe you are acquainted with the System of the British Navy, and I am sure of your Disposition to do every Service to the Cause of Liberty in your Power.”—Publications of Rhode Island Historical Society, VIII, 201, Papers of William Vernon and the Navy Board. ”

“ At first called ‘Keeper and Governor’ of the king’s ships, later, ‘Clerk of the king’s ships,’ this official held, sometimes really and sometimes nominally, the control of naval organisation until the formation of the Navy Board in 1546. His duties included all those now performed by a multitude of highly placed Admiralty officials. If a man of energy, experience, and capacity, his name stands foremost in the maintenance of the royal fleets during peace and their preparation for war ”

“ Beneath these great officials there were a number of lesser and subordinate officers who did not form a part of the Navy Board. The first of these was the Storekeeper, whose function it was to receive all stores, stow them away, and issue them out again on a warrant of two or more principal officers. He was to examine all bills for stores delivered; to refuse what was unfit; to receive no stores without a copy of the contract; to keep accounts; to do all work by himself, and not, unless in case of necessity, by his servants. ”

“ Each member of the Board, transferred to the head of a separate bureau charged with specific duties, would feel in its highest degree that wholesome responsibility which can not be divided without a far more than proportionate diminution of its force. Their valuable services would become still more so when separately appropriated to distinct portions of the great interests of the Navy, to the prosperity of which each would be impelled to devote himself by the strongest motives. ”

“ The Boards’ supplies of naval stores consisted chiefly of canvas, sails, cordage, cables, tar, turpentine, and ship chandlery.
The commissioners of each district made some division of their work among themselves. For instance, the special task of [Pg 113] Wharton of the Philadelphia Board was the superintending of the accounting and the naval finances of the Middle District. During 1778 Deshon of the Boston Board spent much time in Connecticut attending to the naval business in that state. ”

“ Members of Congress assume the responsibility of deciding what the strength of the Navy shall be, and what shall be its composition. Congress, not the General Board, decides how many battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines we shall have; how many officers and men they shall carry. The result is disastrous, for our Navy is inefficient and ill-balanced. It is dangerously weak where it should be strongest. ”

“ A method of coordination and cooperation of the Army and Navy and the principal aircraft builders is being perfected. At the suggestion of the Secretaries of War and Navy I appointed a special board to make a further study of the problem of aircraft.
The report of the Air Board ought to be reassuring to the country, gratifying to the service and satisfactory to the Congress. It is thoroughly complete and represents the mature thought of the best talent in the country. No radical change in organization of the service seems necessary. ”

“ For a long time it had under consideration a revision of the rules and regulations of the Continental navy. Concerning its intention to inspect the British rules and incorporate into its new code such of them as were adapted to the American navy, it observed that it did not “think it unlawful to be taught by an enemy whose naval skill and power, until the reign of the present illustrious King of France, were superior to [Pg 203] that of any kingdom or state on earth.” [254] It is believed that the work of the Board in this particular was not brought before Congress. ”

“ All the orders for great movements of the fleets and ships are directed by this board and signed by its secretary, the board, by a fiction of the law, being considered an individual replacing the lord high admiral—which it did, in 1632. The board is supposed to meet every day with all the members present, the vote of each member carrying as much weight as that of any other member. Naturally, the first lord of the admiralty being a cabinet officer and a member of Parliament, has a far greater influence on broad questions than any other member ”

“ As soon as the crew is received on board the vessel, he shall cause a fire-bill to be prepared, the crew shown their stations, and see that they are duly stationed at quarters for battle (See Articles 78 to 103) , and exercised at general quarters, and by divisions, particularly the powder division (See Articles 180 to 201) , until each officer and man is thoroughly instructed in his duties; after which the exercises are to be frequent during the cruise. Exercises which are short and spirited are preferable to those which are long and fatiguing. ”

“ To be efficiently administered the Navy must be economically run. At the present time it is most extravagantly conducted. This statement is not made as an accusation of any officer or official. Under present laws and present organization, every official is doing his utmost to be fair and economical with public funds, but the difficulty is substantially that already discussed. There is no man and no board endowed with authority and charged with responsibility for results. ”

“ The Congressional members received no pay for their services on the Board.
When Congress came to select Commissioners of Admiralty, it found no easy task. Men who were eager for distinction and honor felt that they were cultivating a surer field in their home governments or in the army. The prestige of the Continental government was now declining. ”

“ Subordinate to the Parliamentary Navy Committee was a board called the Commissioners of Navy and Customs, whose work was chiefly financial; and the functions of the Principal Officers, except the Treasurer’s, were performed by another body known as the Commissioners of the Navy. The [288] Earl of Warwick was the parliamentary Lord Admiral, appointed in July 1642, in place of Northumberland; he resigned in April 1645, to be again appointed on 29th May 1648, when the news of the Rainsborow outbreak was received. ”

“ Thousands of men were placed in training for this purpose and detailed instructions were prepared and issued to the Shipping Board and to all ship-building companies to enable them to prepare their vessels while building with gun-emplacements, armed-guard quarters, and the like, so that when the vessels were completed there would be as little delay as possible in furnishing them. ”

“ Those ships and other material that are not actually in commission are maintained in reserve, a condition of partial readiness, of which several degrees are recognized, in which a reduced number of officers and men are kept on board, and the various structures and apparatus are kept in as high a degree of readiness as circumstances will permit. ”

“ Few more important duties fall to naval offices than the enforcing of discipline in the navy by means of naval courts. Adams’s rules of November 28, 1775, made provision for holding courts-martial, but not courts of enquiry, which are a sort of grand jury or inquest. They also provided that courts-martial should consist of at least six naval officers, with six officers of marines, if so many of the latter were convenient to the court. [171] The Committee and Navy Boards at times found it impossible to assemble so many officers. ”

“ The same is true for each re-enlistment. When an enlisted man completes thirty years’ service and is over fifty years of age he may retire on three-fourths pay.
The Marine corps (see Marines) is a wholly separate military body, but it is under the control of the Navy Department.
United States naval vessels are, as a rule, built at private yards under contracts awarded after competition. The government is not committed to any fixed policy or building programme. Each year the secretary recommends certain new construction. ”

“ A Secretary of War, upon his induction into office, finds system and regularity—the army divided into corps—each officer employed in his legitimate sphere, and the various branches of the service moving in unison and harmony. In the Navy Department there is no such system, and possibly, from the nature of the service, there cannot be, without a thorough re-organization—a work involving not only much time but an enlarged experience. ”