BUREAU OF YARDS AND DOCKS. BUREAU OF YARDS AND DOCKS, NAVY DEPARTMENT, SIR: I have the honor to submit the annual report of the Bureau of Yards and Docks for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875, together with estimates for improvements and repairs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877. KITTERY NAVY-YARD. At this navy-yard little could be done beyond making the repairs necessary to prevent the dock and buildings from falling into decay, The allotment to the yard has been economically and satisfactorily expended. BOSTON NAVY-YARD, The buildings and docks at this yard have been repaired so far as the moderate allotment would permit. Your attention is respectfully called to the estimates for a boundary-wall, a necessary protection against fire, for a wet timber-basin, and for workshops for this Bureau-improvements much needed. NEW LONDON NAVAL STATION. A board of civil engineers has prepared an elaborate plan for a navyyard at this site. Should it be contemplated to press the work at this station to completion, large appropriations will be necessary. The work already completed has been well and economically done. A second storehouse has been finished, an inexpensive dwelling-house for the civil engineer erected, and the wharf-facilities have been enlarged and improved. Grading has been carried on with reasonable speed and economy. NEW YORK NAVY-YARD. I beg leave to renew the recommendation that this important navyyard be preserved in its territorial integrity. In the near future, every available foot of ground within its walls will be needed for wet-docks, timber-sheds, workshops, and other public buildings. The importance of a liberal appropriation for the improvement of the cob-dock is made more manifest each year. PHILADELPHIA NAVY-YARD. The work of transferring the plant from this navy-yard to League Island has been carried on as rapidly as circumstances would permit. LEAGUE ISLAND. At this naval station the iron-plating shop has been finished, the foundations for an extensive steam-engineering building have been laid, and the brick-work of the walls commenced. Owing to the small appropriation for this station, little "filling-in" could be accomplished. It is hoped that, with the fund inuring from the sale of the Philadel phia navy-yard, greater progress may be made during the ensuing year A repairing-basin, in which vessels may lie during the winter, protected from the running ice of the river, and a substantial wharf, extending into deep water, are of prime necessity. It is possible to cover the island with workshops, but League Island as a building and repairing yard will be useless to the nation until a proper wharf, with facilities for lifting heavy weights, and a repairing-basin for the purpose indicated, shall have been completed. The whole proceeds of the sale of the Philadelphia yard should, in my judgment, be made immediately available for this great undertaking. Crib-work, granite-laying, and excavations, once commenced, should, as a mere matter of economy, be as rapidly as possible carried to comple tion. WASHINGTON NAVY-YARD. The small amount allotted to this yard during the past year under the appropriation "repairs and preservation" has been judiciously expended, but was not sufficient to make all the repairs to the various buildings and wharves that a due regard to economy would dictate. The law of last Congress prohibited the expenditure of any portion of the appropriation for "repairs and preservation," 1875-76, at this yard, and, as a consequence, a larger sum will be required to meet the expense for repairs during the next year. NORFOLK NAVY-YARD. Repairs have been gradually and economically made at this yard. which, from its geographical position and natural advantages, is an important naval station. PENSACOLA NAVY-YARD. Repairs to the dry-dock, basin, and workshops have been made at this yard, and a number of wooden buildings, used as hospitals and infected with fever from the epidemic of last year, have been torn down and burned. By the intelligent efforts of the present commandant of this station, it has been preserved from the recurrence of the epidemie during the past summer. Two sections of the iron dry-dock will probably be completed within the next six months. MARE ISLAND NAVY-YARD. From a personal inspection of the Mare Island navy-yard, I am able to state that the work upon the large granite dry-dock is progressing satisfactorily, and that the yard itself is in excellent condition. An appropriation for the commencement of a quay-wall along the face of the yard is strongly recommended, and is becoming a necessity, in order to preserve the channel from gradually filling up, and to moderate the expense of constant dredging. The best means of supplying this navyyard with water are under consideration; the report of the commandant upon the subject is daily expected. I beg to recommend as a measure of undoubted economy that an ap propriation be asked from Congress for the building of three inexpensive wooden workshops, and a landing-wharf, at some point near Port Royal, S. C., where a suitable site can be obtained. When our vessels are driven from Key West by yellow fever, Port Royal is the nearest and safest harbor of refuge. With workshops and the necessary tools, the artisans from the vessels of the squadron should be able to make all minor necessary repairs, all repairs which do not involve the necessity of docking the vessel; and the great expense of sending the vessels of the North Atlantic squadron to a dock-yard, would, in a measure, be avoided. I entirely concur in the recommendation of my predecessor relative to the pressing need of a proper naval reformatory prison, to be located at one of our navy-yards; plans and specifications are already in possession of the Bureau, and I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of an appropriation for this humane reformatory measure. I beg leave to state that, with the limited appropriations of the past two years, not only is it impracticable to improve the navy-yards and stations, but the actual necessary repairs to dry-docks, buildings, and workshops, railways and wharves, cannot be substantially accomplished. Temporarily patching up public works, when radical repairs are needed, is unwise economy, and I earnestly call your attention to the estimates submitted for placing the navy-yards in thorough working condition. Report of expenditures at nary-yards, stations, and Naval Asylum for fiscal year ending June 30, 1875. Accompanying this report is an abstract of offers for supplies received for furnishing articles coming under the cognizance of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, made in conformity to the act of Congress approved March 3, 1843. The following estimates for the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1877, are respectfully submitted: Sheet No. 1.-For support of Bureau of Yards and Docks... Sheet No. 2.-General maintenance of yards and stations and contingent.. Sheet No. 3.-Support of Naval Asylum.. $15, 280 910,000 58,177 500,000 1,225,000 2,708, 457 J. C. HOWELL, I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. GEORGE M. ROBESON, Chief of Bureau. Secretary of the Navy. BUREAU OF NAVIGATION. NAVY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF NAVIGATION, SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the Bureau of Navigation for the past year, together with estimates for its support, and for the expenditures that will probably be required in that division of the naval service committed to its immediate charge for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877. Included in this report, and transmitted herewith, are the reports and estimates of the several oflices under its cognizance. NAVIGATION. Compasses and compass-stations.-For years past, this Bureau has promoted, as far as possible, the construction of marine compasses known as "liquid; " it is supposed that those now in use are inferior to none; for this purpose a compass-observatory has been built, and sup plied with the proper testing-instruments, at Brookline, near the manufactory which supplies compasses for the Navy. The use of compass-stations, designed for making tables of local deviation for our vessels-of-war, is supposed to be objectionable, rather than advantageous; the operation of making the tables is usually slow, wanting in accuracy, and, when completed, leaves the supposition that, without compass-stations, deviation-tables could not well be made. Publications on this subject have been made, tables calculated, &c., and there is no reason why every vessel-of-war should not make a new table whenever a considerable geographical change has been made. The appended report of Prof. B. F. Greene, United States Navy, who is charged with the superintendence of Navy compasses, treats of this important subject more fully. During the past year, a considerable number of old dry compasses were disposed of at public auction, as no longer suitable for service; and the stock of Navy liquid compasses has been augmented by the purchase of a number of the most improved pattern. In the allowance of other nautical instruments, no change has taken place, except that now a Laurent's night-octant is issued to every vessel fitting for sea, which instrument has proved useful. Nautical charts and books.-The supply of these indispensable aids to navigation is being increased as the operations of the Hydrographic Office proceed in their preparation. Most of the charts and sailing-directions now used in the Navy are of Government manufacture. Libraries.-Ship's libraries contain, besides strictly professional books, also such scientific, historical, law, and miscellaneous publications as are advantageous to naval officers for their service in all parts of the globe. The allowance of library-books is deemed liberal, considering the small appropriation made annually for the purpose. Recently, the Revised Statutes of the United States were added to ship's libraries, thus filling a want more or less seriously felt in the Navy for some time. HYDROGRAPHY. The work of geographically determining, to the nearest limit of error, as many points as are supposed necessary in Central America and in the West Indies, was prosecuted last year by the United States Steamer Fortune, Lieutenant Commander F. M. Greene, and assistants. This work is now in progress; the Fortune being found unsuited, the Department has assigned the Gettysburg. The longitudes of Panama, Aspinwall, Santiago de Cuba, and Havana, have been determined by means of the telegraph. It is proper to acknowledge the courtesy of the Cuba Submarine and the West India and Panama Telegraph Companies, which have without charge extended all the necessary facilities. The work now in course of completion will include points on the Windward Islands and the northern coast of South America. The survey of the outer coast of the peninsula of Lower California, and that of the Gulf of California, has been concluded by Commander George Dewey, commanding the Narragansett. The gulf was absolutely unsurveyed, but is now sufficiently examined and determined for the safety of navigation. The Bureau has the satisfaction of expressing its appreciation of what has been accomplished. Commander A. T. Mahan, commanding the Wasp, has made muchneeded surveys at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Owing to no appropriations, the survey of the North Pacific Ocean has been abandoned; the work is so extensive that it would be a mere pretense if attempted without appropriations sufficient to purchase, or build by contract, a suitable steamer and two three-masted schooners to serve as assistants. The probable cost of a steamer and two schooners would be $170,000, for which an estimate has been submitted. Such vessels, once fitted out and employed upon their work, would entail little expense beyond that of cruisers, and in fact would serve that purpose most usefully among the islands visited by our own and other vessels, for cargoes of beche-de-mer and sandal-wood. The survey of the North Pacific Ocean is a necessity; without it the loss of life and property will yearly increase; and as the ocean binds our coasts, it should be our pride, as it is our interest, to lessen the dangers of its navigation as much as possible. It is respectfully recommended that, when a vessel can be spared for the purpose, from those employed on the North Pacific station, a running survey be made of the coast of Guatemala; this would render the surveys of different values, however-continuous from Behring's Straits to Cape Horn. The report of the hydrographer, in this as in other matters, is worthy of your careful consideration. Since completing the lines of deep-sea soundings in the Pacific Ocean for cable purposes, as mentioned in my last annual report, another line has been run by the United States steamer Tuscarora, under the command of Commander H. Erben, from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands, and some soundings were also made on the return of the said vessel from the Navigator Islands to Honolulu. Additional deep-sea soundings will soon be in progress as directed by you, between the Sandwich Islands, the coast of Australia, and New Zealand. INTEROCEANIC SURVEYS. This arduous work, which has been carefully prosecuted for five seasons by two or more parties, from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to twenty or more miles south of the mouth of the Napipi on the river Atrato, is at length satisfactorily accomplished. It is the duty of this Bureau to acknowledge the ability and energy of the different officers who have been in command, and the untiring zeal and intelligent and faithful exertions of their subordinates. The |