Equipment Officer.

EQUIPMENT OFFICER.

422..The duties of Equipment Officer of a vessel are to be performed, unless otherwise specially directed, by the Executive Officer, under direction of, and responsibility to, the Commanding Officer. 423..He will be provided with the necessary blanks and books, and allowed an additional writer to keep them.

424..When the vessel is placed in commission he will be furnished with Invoices in triplicate, signed by the Equipment Officer of the Yard, and approved by the Commandant, of all articles under the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting comprised in the Outfits and Stores of the vessels.

425..He will receive, take charge of, and cause to be fitted in place or properly stowed in suitable parts of the ship, all articles delivered to him upon the Invoices, and when satisfied that their character and amount corresponds with those therein set forth, he will give his receipt for them thereupon. These receipts will be approved by the Commanding Officer; the original retained by the Equipment Officer of the vessel, the duplicate delivered to the Commandant for the Equipment Officer of the Yard, and the triplicate for the Bureau.

426..Whenever articles are thereafter received, whether from a Navy Yard, from other vessels or sources, or by purchase, he will be furnished with triplicate invoices in the same way by the officer from whom received, or who may purchase them, which will be acted upon in the same way.

427..If discrepancies occur they will be brought to the notice of the Commanding Officer, and adjusted before the receipts are signed. 428..He will immediately cause to be entered upon the equipment books all articles thus received, in the order and by the designation in and by which they appear on the Invoices.

429..He will, to the extent necessary, upon the authority of the Commanding Officer, issue for use the Outfits of the vessel as set forth in pages 1 to 17, inclusive, of "Invoices of Equipment," together with such articles of stores as axes, silver calls, marline spikes, the galley, cooking utensils, furniture, and the like, as may be necessary for the ship's purposes, and carry them forward on his books from

Equipment Officer.

quarter to quarter, as "issued for use." But such articles are not to be "expended" until they are surveyed and condemned as lost, worn out, broken, or injured so as to be unfit for further service in the use for which they were issued.

430..He will see that all articles, whether issued for use or retained as "in store," are properly used and cared for, and will, from time to time, inspect them and take the necessary measures to insure their preservation from rust, decay, or other injury, and will issue articles "in store" only on proper requisition for use under the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, or transfer requisition to other Bureaus, and will take care that they are properly receipted for by the persons to whom they are delivered.

431..Articles delivered to be manufactured after being expended by their proper term as stores, will be taken upon his books by their proper name as manufactured articles, and issued for use as above directed.

432.. All articles condemned by survey, after being expended by their proper names, will be taken up on the books as condemned articles, or by names, designating the uses to which they may be condemned.

433..He will be accountable to the Commanding Officer for the return into store, or transfer to a successor, of all articles remaining upon his books by whatever name designated, and for all expenditures made during his term of duty as Equipment Officer.

434..He will file all Invoices on which articles have been received, all surveys on which articles have been condemned, and all requisitions and receipts for articles expended, and deliver them with the Equipment books and all articles remaining on hand or issued for use, to his successor, or to the Navy Yard at which the vessel may go out of commission at the end of the cruise, or to the officer or person to whom he may be directed to turn them over, by proper authority, and take triplicate receipts therefor. The duplicate to be sent to the Bureau, and the triplicate retained as his voucher.

435..In case of his transfer he will certify to their correctness to his successor, and take his receipts in triplicate therefor, as well as for stores remaining on hand and articles "issued for use." His successor may, however, thereafter take an inventory and report any discrepancies to the Commanding Officer.

Navigator.

436..At the final transfer at the end of the cruise, all articles will be surveyed, and their condition and amount ascertained, and the books audited at the Yard at which the vessel goes out of commission.

437..The survey will report the condition of all articles returned into store, and in cases where articles are damaged or lost, whether such damage or loss is attributable to carelessness or neglect on the part of the Equipment Officer. And he will not receive his detachment until such cases have been adjusted.

NAVIGATOR.

438..When it is possible, the Line Officer next in rank to the Executive Officer shall be the Navigator.

439..He shall, at sea, ascertain and report daily to the Commanding Officer the vessel's position at meridian, and make such other reports of position, variation of the compass, &c., as the Commanding Officer may require.

440..He is to have charge of, and must account for, all nautical instruments, books, charts, national flags, and signals.

441..He shall frequently examine the compasses, time glasses, log and lead lines, and thus see that they are constantly in proper order for service.

442..He shall examine the charts of all coasts which the vessel may visit, and note upon them any errors which he may discover, and inform the Commanding Officer of the same, who will report them to the Navy Department.

443.. When the vessel may be approaching any land or shoals, or entering any port or harbor, he shall be very attentive to the soundings, and he shall at all times inform the Commander of any danger to which he may think the vessel exposed, whether under charge of a pilot or not.

444..He shall have charge of keeping the ship's log-book, and will see that all particulars are duly entered in it, according to such forms as are or may be prescribed, and he will, immediately after such entries, send it to the watch officers, that they may sign their names at the end of the remarks in their respective watches while the circumstances are fresh in their memories, and he shall take it

Navigator.

to the Commanding Officer for his inspection, immediately after noon of each day.

445..There shall be entered on the log-slate and log-book, with minute exactness, the following particulars:

1. The name and rank, or rating, of all persons who may join or be discharged from the vessel; all transfers, deaths, and desertions; the names of all persons made prisoners by an enemy, and of all absent without leave; the names of all passengers, with times of coming aboard and leaving; the direction of the wind, state of the weather, courses steered, and distances sailed; the time when any particular evolution, exercise, or other service was performed; the signal number of all signals made, the time when, and by what vessels, and to what vessels, they were made; the nature and extent of all public punishments inflicted, with the name and crime of the offenders; the rating and disrating of Petty Officers; the result of all observations made to find the ship's place, and all dangers dis covered in navigation.

2. The grounding of the ship, and the loss of or serious injury to boats, spars, sails, rigging, and stores of any kind, with the circumstances under which they happened, and the extent of the injury received.

3. A particular account of all stores received, from whom received, or by whom furnished, and the department for which they were received.

4. A particular account of all stores condemned by survey, or converted to any other purpose than that for which they were originally intended.

5. A particular account of all stores lent, or otherwise sent out of the vessel, and by what authority it was done.

6. All the marks and numbers of each cask or bale, which, on being opened, is found to contain less than is specified by the invoice, or than it ought to contain, with the deficiency found.

7. Every alteration made in the allowance of provisions, and by whose order.

8. The employment of any hired vessel, her dimensions in tonnage, the name of the master or owner, the number of her crew, how or for what purpose employed, by whose order, and the reasons for her employment.

Navigator.

9. The draught of water, light and loaded, as furnished at the navy yard; and always on going into or leaving port the ship's draught is to be taken and entered on the log.

446..After the log has been signed by the officers of the watches no alteration will be made therein, except to correct some error, or supply some omission, and then only with the approbation of the Commanding Officer, and upon the recollection of the officer who had charge of the watch in which the alteration or addition is proposed, who shall then sign the same, if satisfied of its correctness. 447..The navigator shall deliver to the Commanding Officer of the vessel, signed by himself, and, after careful comparison, certified to be correct, a fair copy of the log-book, every six months, to be transmitted by the first safe opportunity to the Bureau of Navigation.

448..The original log-book will be kept by the vessel until she is paid off, when it shall be placed in charge of the Commanding Officer of the Yard, and by him transmitted to the Bureau of Navigation.

449.. Besides the log-book, he is to keep a remark-book, in which all the hydrographical information he can obtain is to be carefully inserted, as well as a description of the instruments he may employ in any of the observations hereafter mentioned. He is to determine as accurately as he can the various particulars relating to navigation of every place which the vessel may visit, entering the results in his remark-book, under the following heads:

1. Latitude.

2. Longitude.

3. Variation of the compass.

4. Time of high water immediately following new and full moon. 5. Rise and fall of the tides at springs and neaps.

6. Prevailing winds.

7. Periods of the year at which the wet and dry seasons prevail, if any.

8. Seasons at which hurricanes prevail.

9. The temperature of the chronometer room at the time observations are taken.

The particular spot at the place visited, to which latitude and longitude refer, is to be carefully noted; also, the number and nature