competency of the officers; that there are the proper instruments of navigation, compasses, &c.; report if the chronometers have been rated, and if there is a supply of charts. The water tanks and butts are to be looked at to see if there is water enough for passengers and crew. He will specially inspect the cooking arrangements, see that the vessel is clean, and that the portion occupied by troops is dry and well ventilated.

1380. In order that the paddles may be secure from the action of the waves, in a side-wheel sea-going steamer, the projection on the sides under the guards, called the sponsons, should be covered up to make that portion as solid as any other part of the ship; the keel, stern apron or inner stern, futtocks, floor timbers, dead wood, stern post, transom, inner post, frame and filling timbers abreast of the engine, the wales, the rudder and rudder fastenings, should be increased in strength twenty-five per cent. over those of river steamers. The weight of machinery should be well below the water-line. The vessel should be high between decks and well ventilated by hatches, wind-sails, and side-lights. There ought to be water-closet and temporary bath arrangements. Provision for sufficient masts and sails, in the event of accident to the motive power, should be made, and there ought not to be less than a fore and aft sail to each mast set upon a gaff, and a trysail to each mast to be set in a storm.

INSPECTION OF PROPERTY FOR CONDEMNATION.

1381. Inspectors are the only officers authorized to inspect public property with a view to condemnation. The final disposition of condemned property, except it be worthless, can only be ordered by Commanding Generals of Departments.-[ Circ. War Dept., Nov. 2, 1868.]

1382. All surveys and reports having in view the condemnation of public property, for whatever cause, will be made by Inspector Generals, or Inspectors specially designated by the Commander of a Department or an army in the field, or by higher authority. Such surveys and reports having a different object from those of Boards of Survey, will be required independently of any preliminary action of a board on the same matter.-[Regs. 1863, ¶ 1021.]

1383. Public property must not be reported as unserviceable, or condemned by an Inspector, merely because of its shabby appearance, when it is really strong and serviceable.—[G. O. 5, 1866; Circ. War Dept., Nov. 2, 1868; G. O. 55, 1875.]

1384. Generally inventories of unserviceable property should be forwarded to the Department, or superior headquarters, in anticipation of the visit of an Inspector. But Inspectors, during their tours, will inspect all property presented to them for condemnation, on proper inventories and inspection reports.—[ Circ. War Dept., Nov. 2, 1868.]

1385. Officers having property requiring inspection will make a request therefor, in letter form, through their immediate commanding officer. They will send to the proper Inspectors through the regular channel signed inventories in triplicate, according to form furnished from the Inspector General's Office, Washington, D. C., accompanied by a letter of advice stating where the property is. The property will be arranged according to description, and every article of each class must be examined by the Inspector, the officer responsible for it accompanying the Inspector, and giving all required information as to its use, care, means taken to preserve it, &c.-[G. O. 5, 1866.]

1386. All reports of inspection of property will be submitted by the Inspector, through his immediate commander, to the officer empowered to order final disposition of the property.-[G. O. 5, 1866.

1387. An officer commanding a Department, or an army in the field, may give orders, on the report of the authorized Inspectors, to sell, destroy, or make such other disposition of any condemned property as the case may require-ordnance and Ordnance stores alone excepted, for which the orders of the War Department must always be taken. But if the property be of very considerable value, and there should be reason to suppose that it could be advanta geously applied or disposed of elsewhere than within his command, he will refer the matter to the Chief of the Staff Department to which it belongs, for the orders of the War Department. No other persons than those above designated, or the General in-chief, will order the final disposition of condemned property, saving only in the case of horses, which should be killed at once to prevent contagion, and of provisions or other stores which are rapidly deteriorating, when the immediate commander may have to act perforce. Inventories of condemned property will be made in triplicate, one to be retained by the person accountable, one to accompany his accounts, and one to be forwarded through the Department or other superior headquarters to the Chief of the Staff Department to which the property belongs. Separate inventories must be made of the articles to be repaired, of those to be broken up, those to be sold, to be dropped, &c.-[Regs. 1863, ¶ 1023.]

1388. Great care should be taken to prevent property once condemned, and ordered to be dropped from the returns, from ever being again presented for inspection. When public property is presented to an Inspector for condemnation, the officer responsible will certify, on the inventory, that the property had not been previously condemned.[Circ. War Dept., Nov. 2, 1868; G. O. 193, 1863.]

1389. Property unfit for the purpose for which it was designed may often be applied to other uses. Inspecting officers, in recommending the disposition to be made of condemned property, especially of the Quartermaster's Department, will bear in mind that there is hardly any species of material, however worn, which can

not be put to some use. Old linen, cotton, wool, iron, &c., can all be worked up in some new form, and wood can be used as fuel. No condemned articles that have any salable value will be recommended "to be dropped," unless there be special reasons therefor, which reasons must be stated in the report.-[G. O. 5, 1866; G. O. 8, 1869.]

1390. The Inspector will mark the letters I. C. (Inspected— Condemned) upon all property condemned and ordered to be dropped from the returns, with a brand, stencil, cold chisel, steel cutter, or punch, depending on the material to be marked. Should it happen, when final action is had, that the Inspector's recommendation is disapproved, the marks will be canceled, and a certificate of the fact will be given to the officer accountable.-[G. O. 193, 1863; G. O. 5, 1866.]

1391. Officers inspecting public property will cause the destruction, in their presence, of all property found to be worthless, and which is without any money value at the place of inspection. The action of an Inspector, on property of this character, will be final, and his inspection report on the same will be a valid voucher for the officer responsible for the property. In the discharge of the duty devolved upon Inspectors in this regulation, they are reminded they will be regarded as answerable that their action is proper and judicious according to the circumstances of the case.Regs. 1863, ¶ 1024; G. O. 85, 1877.]

1392. Unserviceable arms and stores will be inspected and disposed of in like manner with other property. Their sale can be ordered by the Secretary of War only.-[Regs. 1863, ¶ 1023; G. O. 5, 1866.]

1393. Inspectors will state in their reports of damaged or inferior Quartermaster, Commissary, or Medical stores the depot whence such stores were obtained, the marks upon them, and, if practicable, the marks upon original packages, and the names of contractors and inspectors who furnished and passed the articles so reported.-[G. O. 5, 1866.]

1394. The inspection report on damaged clothing shall set forth, with the amount of damage to each article, a list of such articles as are fit for issue, at a reduced price stated.-[Regs. 1863, 1164.]

1395. Inspection reports of Medical property will be referred to the Medical Director before being acted upon by Department Commanders.-[G. O. 20, 1868.]

1396. Inspectors, when called upon to inspect unserviceable property, will note whether due care has been exercised by officers concerned to protect the interests of the Government, and will report the officer responsible for any loss accruing to the United States, if such loss has not been previously charged against the soldier.-[G. O. 55, 1875.]

ARTICLE LXXI.

BOARDS OF SURVEY.

1397. Boards of Survey will not be convened by any other than the commanding officer present. They will be composed of as many officers, not exceeding three, as may be present for duty, exclusive of the commanding officer, and the officer responsible in the matter to be reported on. In case the two latter only are present, then the one not responsible will perform the duties. When the responsible officer is the only officer at a post, he will, instead of constituting himself a board, furnish his own certificate of the facts of the case, accompanied by affidavits of non-commissioned officers at the post cognizant thereof. If this should not be satisfactory, the Department Commander, upon notification, may send an Inspector to make the necessary report. Neither the commander nor any member of the Board should be parties interested in the matter to be investigated.-[Regs. 1863, ¶¶ 1019, 1020; G. O. 25, 1872.]

1398. A Board of Survey has no legal power to swear either itself, its members, or witnesses before it.-[G. O. 68, 1873.]

1399. Every member of a Board of Survey, and commander acting on its proceedings, shall be answerable that his action has been proper and judicious, according to the Regulations and circumstances of the case.-[Regs. 1863, ¶ 1024.]

1400. Boards of Survey shall have no power to condemn public property. They are called only for the purpose of establishing facts or opinions by which questions of administrative responsibility may be determined, and the adjustment of accounts facilitated; as, for example, to assess the amount and kind of damage or deficiency which public property may have sustained from any extraordinary cause, not ordinary wear, either in transit or in store, or in actual use, whether from accident, unusual wastage, or otherwise, and to set forth the circumstances and fix the responsibility of such damage, whether on the carrier, or the person accountable for the property or having it immediately in charge; to make inventories of property ordered to be abandoned, when the articles have not been enumerated in the orders; to assess the prices at which damaged clothing may be issued to troops, and the proportion in which supplies shall be issued in consequence of damage that renders them at the usual rate unequal to the allowance which the regulations contemplate; to verify the discrepancy between the invoices and the actual quantity or description of property transferred from one officer to another, and ascertain, as far as possible, where and how the discrepancy has occurred-whether in the hands of the carrier or the officer making the transfer; and to make inventories, and report on the condition of public property in the

possession of officers at the time of their death. In no case, however, will the report of the Board supersede the depositions which the law requires with reference to deficiencies and damage.— [Regs. 1863, ¶ 1019.]

1401. It is required that Boards of Survey shall fully investigate the subject of losses submitted to them; that they shall call for all evidence attainable without limiting their inquiry to that submitted by the party or parties at interest; that they shall scrutinize rigidly the evidence, especially in the matter of property alleged to have been stolen or embezzled by deserters or others; and that they shall recommend no officer or soldier to be relieved from responsibility for property till the proof shall be clear and conclusive that he has given it his watchful attention, and fully performed his duty in regard to it.-[G. O. 55, 1879.]

1402. In order to relieve an officer from liability on account of public property which has become damaged, except by fair wear and tear, or which is believed to be unsuitable for the service, it shall, before being submitted to an Inspector for condemnation, be examined by a Board of Survey. Exceptions will be made in cases of animals or other public property infected with contagious disease, which may be summarily disposed of by order of a commanding officer.-[G. O. 79, 1880.]

1403. One copy of the proceedings of the Board will accompany the inventory and inspection report which is transmitted, as a voucher, with the accounts and returns of the officer responsible for the property. Another copy of the proceedings of the Board and of the inventory and inspection report will be filed with his retained papers.-[G. O. 29, 1880.]

1404. The proceedings of the Board will be signed by each member, and a copy forwarded by the convening officer to the headquarters of the Department or army in the field, as the case may be, duplicates being furnished to the officer accountable for the property.-[Regs. 1863, ¶ 1020.]

1405. Proceedings of Boards of Survey recommending the relief of officers or soldiers from property responsibility should not receive the approval of the convening authority without convincing proof that they are not properly to be held accountable therefor, and that the fullest investigation practicable has been made of the subject.-[G. O. 55, 1879.]

1406. The action of the Board of Survey will ordinarily be made complete in form by the approval or disapproval of the convening authority, but will be subject to revision by higher authority.[Regs. 1863, ¶ 1019.]

1407. When the amount in question, or the value of the property submitted to a Board of Survey, exceeds five hundred dollars, the proceedings will not be regarded as complete in form until they have been acted on by the commander of the Department in which they originate.-[G. O. 29, 1880.]