NAVY DEPARTMENT, October 28, 1852. I approve the regulations herein reported, and direct that the Bureau of Yards and Docks take the proper measures to carry them into effect. JOHN P. KENNEDY. Regulation for the admission of apprentices into the navy yards of the United States. NAVY DEPARTMENT, November 1, 1852. The existing regulation, allowing apprentices to master-workmen and others, is hereby revoked, to take effect on the 1st of January, 1853. Apprentices at that time in the yard, and who may pass the required examination, may remain, if their parents or guardians desire it, under this regulation. The commandants of navy yards will appoint a board, to be composed of a commissioned sea officer, a medical officer, the constructor, and two mechanics, (in case of a deficiency of any such officer on the station, he will fill the vacancy from other classes) to assemble on the 1st of January and July of each year. to examine all apprentices at the yard, and all candidates for apprenticeship. The board will report on the character, proficiency, peculiar aptness for any particular trade, theoretical knowledge, and general merits, of each. Each apprentice may be required to perform any problem, or piece of work, required by and in presence of the board. At these examinations after the first year, if any one or more of the apprentices examined shall exhibit an unusual degree of talent, cleverness, and general merit, the report of the board will state fully its opinion on each one so distinguished. Applicants must be over fifteen and under seventeen years of age, (of which satisfactory evidence to board will be required;) they must produce testimonials of good character; must pass an examination by the medical officer of the board; be physically able to perform the labor incident to the branch in which they desire to serve; be able to read and write legibly, and understand the first four rules of arithmetic. As a general rule, preference will be given to the orphan children of master-workmen, quartermen and mechanics, who have faithfully served in navy yards, and of seamen and marines, in the order herein named. All reports of boards will be transmitted to the department for its sanction. A book of registry will be kept in the office of the commandant at each yard, in which will be recorded all entries, discharges, reports of character, or other matters touching the subject of apprentices; which record will be opened to the Board of Examiners hereinafter named. Another board will be ordered by the Secretary of the Navy once a year, after the first year, in March, to examine those apprentices whom the previous board report as possessing unusual cleverness and merit; and such of them so examined and passed as worthy of it, will be Part ii-22. recommended to the consideration of the Secretary of the Navy for such further advantages of instruction as he may think proper. No person on a yearly salary from the government shall receive any part of apprentice's pay, or any gratuity from or on account of such apprentice. Master-workmen and quartermen, and those on per diem pay, who properly instruct apprentices in their trade, shall be entitled to receive from the pay of apprentices so instructed, in addition to their own pay for the last year of their apprenticeship, twenty cents per day; for the three years preceding the last, fifteen cents per day, and for any previous service of his apprentices from the commencement, ten cents per day for each, depending on the age at which they enter; the apprenticeship to terminate at the age of 21 years. The clerk of the yard shall have access at all times to the apprentice book, to ascertain the rate of wages to be allowed, which rate will only be changed on the 1st of January and July nearest the period of the entry of the apprentice. The wages of the apprentices until they shall arrive at the age of seventeen years will be 25, for the next year 35, for the next 45 for the next, and for the last year fo, of the rates of wages paid to the first-class journeymen workmen in the department in which they serve. 1009 65 100, At the expiration of the apprenticeship, or at the next succeeding examination, such apprentices as pass a satisfactory examination by the board shall receive a certificate on parchment, stating their good conduct and proficiency, signed by the commandant of the station, and countersigned by the chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, which certificate shall entitle him to preference over other applicants equally qualified for employment and promotion at the several navy yards, according to their respective merits at the time their services shall be required. Apprentices shall be subject to be discharged at any time by order of the Secretary of the Navy. All necessary tools, which it is usual for mechanics to find, shall be furnished by the parents or guardians; in case of their failure, then to be supplied by the master-workmen who instruct them, and their cost to be deducted from the apprentice's pay, as they are furnished, and paid to the master-workmen who supplied them. The master-workmen or others in charge of apprentices will report their conduct and progress monthly, in writing, to the naval constructor, who will forward the report to the commandant, with such remarks as he thinks necessary. When there is no constructor, the reports to be made directly to the commandant of the yard. Whenever work shall be suspended and the employment of masterworkmen and others, who have apprentices under their charge, shall be discontinued, the employment of the apprentices will also be suspended, unless otherwise directed by the chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. Upon the renewal of work, and satisfactory evidence to the commandant that the apprentice merits it, he shall be continued on the same terms, excepting pay during absence, as though there had been no suspension. All complaints on the subject of apprentices will be at once examined into by the commandant, and such steps taken in the matter as he may deem proper, reporting to the Secretary of the Navy, if, in his opinion, the case requires dismissal or the action of the department. The number of apprentices to be allowed will be determined from time to time by the Secretary of the Navy. On and after the first of January next, and until further orders, the following number of apprentices will be received at the respective yards named, including those who remain and are now engaged, viz: Carpenter's department.. PENSACOLA. Joiner's department. Blacksmith's department. Machinist, engineer, and plumber's department..... 422 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 SIR: The investigations carried on at this office with regard to the winds and currents of the sea, and other phenomena, a better knowledge of which is calculated to benefit commerce and navigation, have been prosecuted during the last year with as much vigor as the forces of the observatory would allow. Of these charts there have been printed and distributed, for use, about thirty thousand copies of the various sheets, some of which, being in red, black, blue, and green, require four impressions, which would make the total number of impressions distributed not less than fifty thousand. The demands for this work are largely increasing, calling, during the year, for a third and fourth edition of the Sailing Directions which accompany the chart, and explain the discoveries made. Thirty-one sheets have been printed, and eighteen sheets more are in the hands of the engraver. These relate, principally, to the Pacific ocean. Sixty-eight sheets of similar charts, including the entire Indian and Pacific oceans, are in hand, and will be pushed forward with all the energy possible. The most gratifying evidence, as to the value and importance of these charts to the practical navigator, continues daily to be received from all parts of the world. They lessen the dangers of navigation; and by showing at a glance the prevailing winds and currents for cach part of the ocean, and for every month of the year, they enable the navigator to come and go with despatch; and thus, by shortening passages from port to port, they have brought remote parts of the worldparticularly the markets of the northern hemisphere, India, China, and the Pacific slopes of America-nearer together by many days' sail. American navigators, among whom the advantages of these researches are chiefly confined, and by whose gratuitous and voluntary co-operation the materials and data for the construction of these charts. |