Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition.

Excerpt

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL DUTIES OF OFFICERS

IN RELATION TO ORDNANCE AND GUNNERY, AND TO MILITARY EQUIPMENTS AND EXERCISES.

CAPTAIN.

1. THE CAPTAIN OR COMMANDING OFFICER will be careful to require that all the Ordnance Instructions are strictly enforced on board the vessel under his command; and although particular duties are assigned, and various instructions given to the other officers of the vessel, yet he is to see that the duties are performed, and the instructions obeyed, by the officers to whom they are respectively addressed.

2. 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. Distinctions and indulgences to those who excel are recommended.

When the men have become well acquainted with their duties at the guns, and in passing powder, or when the general duties of the ship are unusually fatiguing, the divisional exercises may be confined to those belonging to one watch. It is directed that, unless bad weather prevent, Monday of each week be set apart for general quarters.

3. He will, at least once in two months for the first year of the cruise, and once in three months for the remainder thereof, assemble the crew at quarters in the night, without any previous intimation of his intention to do so, and have a general exercise. He will inspect the ship throughout, and cause an entry to be made in the log-book of the length of time required between the beginning of the call to quarters and the complete preparation for commencing action; also, when every gun is ready for a second fire.

4. In order to ascertain whether the equipments are complete and their uses understood, as soon after the ship has been commissioned as circumstances will permit, he will cause at least one round to be fired, with shot or shell, according to the nature of the gun; and, when practicable, at targets at known distances and with the appropriate service charges. (See TABLES OF RANGES, Appendix.)

5. He will immediately endeavor to discover whether defects or deficiencies in the armament or equipment exist, and, if any be found, will remedy them as far as in his power consistently with instructions, representing them to the Commandant of the yard of outfit, if near it; and, if important, to the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance.

6. On the representation of the Gunner that the Ordnance Stores are injured or liable to injury, he will order the survey called for by Article 49.

7. He will, in each quarter of the first year of the cruise, expend in target-practice six rounds, and in each succeeding quarter-year six broadsides, making the report required by Art....