3. Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting. 4. Bureau of Navigation, with reports of Naval Observatory, Hydrographic REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., December 1, 1874. SIR: The following report of the present condition of the Navy and its operations during the present year is respectfully submitted: VESSELS OF THE NAVY. One year ago the Navy consisted of 165 vessels of all classes, armed with 1,269 guns, exclusive of howitzers. Since that time there have been added to it 8 new steam-sloops, 2 torpedo-vessels, and 1 dispatchboat, and it has been diminished by the sale of 2 wooden and 11 lightdraught iron vessels, leaving as the present number 163 vessels with 1,254 guns, the armament having been slightly increased by the increase in the number of guns on the new ships. Of this whole number, 26 have sail-power only, and of these four are to be placed at the disposal of State and local authorities as school and training ships, under the direction of the act of Congress, providing for such disposition. Seven are in use only as receiving-ships; 2 are old line-of-battle ships, which have been on the stocks for many years, and 8 are of old type and in bad condition, and can be used only for barracks or stationary schoolships; leaving 5 which can be put to practical use at sea as store-ships transports, or surveying-vessels. Our steam-navy consists of 137, vessels of all classes and in every condition. Of this number, 25 are tugs, used with one or two exceptions. for yard purposes; 37 are armored vessels, and 2 are torpedo-boats, leaving 73 steam-vessels originally of a class adapted for cruising. These are classified at present as follows: First-rate, 5 vessels, 188 guns, 15, 163 tons; second-rate, 31 vessels, 510 guns, 57,528 tons; third-rate, 31 vessels, 183 guns, 18,956 tons; fourth-rate, 6 vessels, 21 guns, 3,183 tons; making a total of 73 vessels, 902 guns, including howitzers, and 94,830 tons. Of the iron clad or armored vessels, 16 are of a class and in condition for actual and efficient service; 4 others, of the class of powerful double turreted monitors, are actually in hand undergoing repair, and the fifth is well worth the same attention; but the remainder may be counted as really useless for any active and efficient purpose. Four of the largest of them, designed and commenced during the war, have never been launched, and consist, in fact, only of their wooden frames, still on the stocks, and their incomplete plating and machinery stored at the navy-yards, though their names and designed dimensions appear on the Navy list; and the remaining 12, of the class known as lightdraught monitors, not able to carry their turrets, guns, and munitions of war, are valuable only as old material. Of the 73 steam-cruising-vessels, 5, of over 2,000 tons each, have remained on the stocks since the war, never having been launched, and are not estimated to be worth, for our purposes, the cost of completion; 7 are condemned and laid up in ordinary as unfit for further use; 3 others with condemned machinery; and 41 are in commission for various duty. Of the remaining 17, upon which we must rely to take the place of the cruisingvessels as they return home and are put out of commission, 2 are laid up ready for service, 7 are repairing at the various navy-yards, and 8 are building under special appropriations of Congress. Thus it will be seen that one-half of the steam-navy adapted to cruising is in commission and in actual service. This number of vessels cannot be prudently diminished; but if it is to be maintained, there should be a gradual and constant addition to the Navy to supply the places of those which are each year found to be worn out and unfit for further service, and for this purpose a fixed amount of tonnage should be built every year. This amount may be small, but it should be constant and unfailing. To this end the Department has accumulated a large amount of live oak timber in the various navy-yards, where it will yearly improve in condition and be available as the very best material for the frames of any ships it may at any time be necessary or desirable to build. The rapid and almost complete disappearance of this most valuable ship-timber from our shores, (large quantities being sent abroad,) should arrest the attention of Congress, and measures should be taken to secure what remains. It is the growth of centuries, and once lost will never be regained. CRUISING-STATIONS. No change has been made during the year in the number or designation of the cruising-stations, which comprise six separate commands, although, in consequence of threatened disturbances of our friendly relations with Spain, the whole of the force was temporarily withdrawn from one, and the greater part from another, to strengthen the North Atlantic or home station. The European station and the South Atlantic station, which were thus temporarily deprived of their cruising force, have been again occupied, though not with precisely the same. force. To the former, from which the Wabash, Congress, Alaska, Wachusett, and Shenandoah were withdrawn in December last, the Franklin, Congress, and Alaska have returned, with the addition of the Juniata; and to the South Atlantic station, from which the Lancaster and |