Leaves of Absence.

States under any leave of absence unless such leave shall expressly authorize it.

1082....Within the United States leave of absence for a longer time than one week will only be granted by the Secretary of the Navy, except in cases of great emergency, which must be immediately reported to him.

1083....Commanding Officers, acting under the immediate orders of the Secretary of the Navy, may, within the United States, grant leave of absence to persons under their command for not exceeding one week, provided it can be done without delaying the equipment of the vessel to which they may belong, or producing other injury to the public service, and that no leave is granted to any officer belonging to a vessel under sailing orders.

1084....Commanders-in-Chief of squadrons, and Commanders of navy yards or stations in the United States, shall not leave the limits of their command for a longer period than one week in any successive two months without the permission of the Secretary of the Navy.

1085....Permission will not hereafter be granted by Commanding Officers of squadrons or vessels in commission to any officer or man under their command to leave his station for any causes connected with health till a board of medical survey shall have pronounced such a measure essential to early recovery, or have reported the officer or man unfitted for further duty on his station; and Commanding Officers of squadrons abroad will not hereafter grant leaves of absence, unless authorized by the Navy Department, to officers to return to the United States, except upon the recommendation of a medical board of survey. This order is not intended to supersede the instructions of October 3, 1861, authorizing the Commanding Officer of a vessel detached from a squadron, or on separate service, to transfer sick or invalids upon the report of the medical officer of the vessel. Officers on leave, in consequence of medical survey or sick ticket, will report their state of health to the Department every fifteen days.

1086....Officers of the navy applying for a leave of absence, or an extension thereof, on the score of ill health, must forward at the same time to the Department the certificate of a surgeon in the navy, if

Leaves of Absence.

there be one in their vicinity, or, if there be no naval surgeon, of some respectable surgeon or physician, of their inability to perform duty. Such certificates must state the nature of the disease and the probable duration thereof, as far as can be judged.

1087....Unless otherwise directed by competent authority, temporary leave to officers may be granted by their Commanding Officers; but no such leave is to exceed twenty-four hours, unless sanctioned by the Commander-in-Chief or senior officer present.

1088....The petty officers and men belonging to vessels in the navy will be permitted to visit the shore on suitable occasions, when it can be done without injury to the public service. In foreign ports such permission will not be granted if objected to by the proper authorities thereof. The senior officer present must always be consulted before such leave in foreign ports is granted. Leaves of absence, or permission to go on liberty, will not be granted to any enlisted man by any person other than the Commanding Officer of the vessel to which he is attached; and should the Commanding Officer be absent on service, or on temporary leave, the officer left in command shall have no power to grant leave to any enlisted man unless specially authorized by the Commanding Officer. The names of those to whom leave is to be granted must be specified in writing, and signed by the Commanding Officer previous to his absenting himself from the vessel.

1089... Leave is not to be granted to men of a crew in debt to the Government unless they deposit as security the full amount of their indebtedness, and in no case unless, in the judgment of the Commanding Officer, there is no probability of desertion. Hereafter all funds deposited by enlisted men, as security for their return from absence on leave, and forfeited by their desertion, and any bounty money or advanced pay refunded by minors or others discharged from the service, will be deposited by the Paymaster with the nearest United States Assistant Treasurer; the advance pay to the credit of "pay of the navy," and the bounty and other money to the appropriation for naval bounties. The certificate of deposit, in the case of advanced pay, is to be transmitted to the Navy Department, and in other cases to the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, to be sent to the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury.

Furloughs....Correspondence.

SECTION 2.

Furloughs.

1090....Officers can only be placed on furlough by the Secretary of the Navy or by sentence of a court-martial.

1091....Officers on furlough are not to wear their uniforms, except on occasions of special ceremonies.

ARTICLE XXVI.

Correspondence.

1092....Officers of the navy and marine corps, and all other persons connected with the naval service, will observe the following rules in their correspondence with the Secretary of the Navy and the bureaus of the Department:

1093....All communications are to be written in a clear and legible hand, in concise terms, without erasures or interlineations, and on one side only of each half sheet.

1094....If the subject-matter can be completed on one page, and no communications or papers are enclosed with the letter, a half sheet only shall be used; but if communications or papers are enclosed with the letter, a whole sheet shall be used, and such communications or papers shall be placed between the leaves.

1095....Enclosures are to be separately numbered, and referred to

accordingly.

1096....The paper used is to be white foolscap, 13 by 16 inches, weighing sixteen pounds to the ream, and made of linen stock; to be stop-ruled, with twenty-four blue lines on the first and third pages only, leaving one inch margin back and front, top and bottom.

1097...Separate letters are to be written on separate subjects. 1098....Letters are to be folded twice, parallel with the ruling, indorsed with the name and rank of the writer, place or vessel, date, and brief statement of the contents.

Correspondence.

1099....Signatures are to be distinctly legible, and the writer is to annex his rank or rate. This rule is also to be observed on all occasions of officers signing their names to official documents.

1100-Commanders of squadrons and stations, and all other officers having a regular correspondence with the Department, are to number their letters. A new series is to commence on the 1st of

January of each year.

1101.... When letters or documents are dated at sea, the latitude and longitude are to be stated.

1102....In all communications dated on board ship, the rate of the vessel shall be stated after her name.

1103....In order to facilitate the public business and prevent errors, the dates of all circulars, orders, telegrams, or letters, to which reference is made in corresponding with the Department or any of its bureaus, shall be distinctly quoted. And the same rule is to be observed in forwarding triplicate bills, bills of lading, and invoices, the date of the order or orders being written across the face in red ink.

1104.... All letters and documents transmitted in a foreign language are, when possible, to be accompanied by translations.

1105....Commanders-in-Chief and other officers abroad are to forward, by different conveyances, duplicates, and, if necessary, triplicates, of all important letters they may write, either to the Secretary of the Navy or to any of the bureaus, and on these occasions they are to state at the top of each letter, in red ink, when and by what conveyance the original was sent.

1106....Every person in the navy making a report, application, requisition, or communication of any kind whatever to the Secretary of the Navy, a bureau, the Commander-in-Chief, or to any authority other than his Commanding Officer, will send the same unsealed to such Commanding Officer, to be by him remarked upon and forwarded to its address.

1107....All officers through whom communications from inferiors are to be forwarded to the Department, one of the bureaus, or any authority higher than themselves, must forward the same, if couched in respectful language, as soon after being received as practicable; and they will invariably state their opinions in writing, by indorsement or

Correspondence.

otherwise, in relation to every subject presented for decision. The term "forwarded" is only to be indorsed upon such papers as require no action from the Department or other authority.

1108....The general routine to be observed in forwarding communications, or in submitting requisitions or reports, is as follows: Commanders of vessels to transmit them to the Commander of the division to which they belong; Commanders of divisions to the Commander of the squadron to which they belong; Commanders of squadrons to the Commander-in-Chief; Commander-in-Chief to the Navy Department. Each of said officers, in forwarding papers from others, to append his approval, or such remarks as he may judge necessary and proper. Fleet officers shall forward all communications through the chief of the staff. The senior marine officer of the fleet, squadron, or division will forward all reports or returns from the several vessels through the chief of the staff. Should he be in command of the guard of the vessel in which he is serving, all reports or returns relating to that vessel will be forwarded through the Commanding Officer.

1109...If there be no Commanders of divisions, Commanders of vessels will transmit them to the Commander of the squadron; and if there be no Commander-in-Chief other than the Commander of the squadron, he will refer such as may be necessary to the Navy Department.

1110....In case vessels of a squadron should be separated from the Commander-in-Chief, then, in the absence of their divisional Commander, the senior officer present is to be regarded in the light of a Commander of a division.

1111....In case of a vessel acting singly, and being alone, her Commanding Officer is, of his own authority, to dispose of requisitions and reports, and to be the medium of reference to the Navy Department; but if not alone, the senior officer present, whoever he may be, is to discharge those functions.

1112....Should the same communication be made to the Secretary of the Navy and any bureau, the person forwarding such duplicates shall state the same in his communication.

1113....When officers are separated from the Commander-in-Chief, and important or useful information is likely to be delayed by trans