# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/26th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 51

Chap. LI.—An Act making appropriations for the naval service for the year one thousand eight hundred and forty.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be appropriated, in addition to the unexpended balances of former appropriations, out of any unappropriated money in the Treasury, for the naval service for the year one thousand eight hundred and forty, viz:
Pay of officers and seamen.For the pay of commissioned, warrant, and petty officers and seamen, two millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars;
Pay of sup’dts &c. at yards.For the pay of superintendents, naval constructors, and all the civil establishments at the several yards, seventy-four thousand six hundred and twenty dollars;
Provisions.For provisions, six hundred and twenty dollars;
Repairs, &c.For repairs of vessels in ordinary, and the repairs and wear and tear of vessels in commission, one million of dollars;
​Medicines, &c.For medicines and surgical instruments, hospital stores, and other expenses on account of the sick, seventy-five thousand dollars;
Navy yards at Portsmouth.For improvement and necessary repairs of the navy yard at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, twenty thousand dollars;
Charlestown.For improvement and necessary repairs of the navy yard at Charlestown, Massachusetts, seventeen thousand dollars;
Brooklyn.For improvement and necessary repairs of the navy yard at Brooklyn, New York, eighteen thousand dollars;
Philadelphia.For improvement and necessary repairs of the navy yard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, five thousand dollars;
Washington.For improvement and necessary repairs of the navy yard at Washington, twenty thousand dollars;
Gosport.For improvement and necessary repairs of the navy yard at Gosport, Virginia, seventeen thousand two hundred and fifty dollars;
Pensacola.For improvement and necessary repairs of the navy yard near Pensacola, thirteen thousand dollars;
Proviso.Provided, That no more of the several appropriations last mentioned for the improvement and repair of the navy yards, shall be expended previous to the fourth day of March next, than shall be found by the Secretary of the Navy, upon inquiries made for the purpose, to be absolutely necessary for the preservation of the public works, the security of the public property, and the prosecution of the public business at the respective yards;
Ordnance, &c.For ordnance and ordnance stores, sixty-five thousand dollars;
Miscellaneous expenses.For defraying the expenses that may accrue for the following purposes, viz: For the freight and transportation of materials and stores of every description; for wharfage and dockage; storage and rent; travelling expenses of officers and transportation of seamen; house rent for pursers, when duly authorized; for funeral expenses; for commissions, clerk-hire, office-rent, stationery, and fuel to navy agents; for premiums, and incidental expenses of recruiting; for apprehending deserters; for compensation to judges-advocate; for per diem allowance to persons attending courts-martial and courts of inquiry, or other services authorized by law; for printing and stationery of every description, and for working the lithographic press; for books, maps, charts, mathematical and nautical instruments, chronometers, models and drawings; for the purchase and repair of fire engines and machinery; for the repair of steam engines in navy yards; for the purchase and maintenance of oxen and horses, and for carts, timber-wheels, and workmen’s tools of every description; for postage of letters on public service; for pilotage and towing ships of war; for taxes and assessments on public property; for assistance rendered to vessels in distress; for incidental labor at navy yards not applicable to any other appropriation; for coal and other fuel, and for candles and oil for the use of navy yards and shore stations, and for no other object or purpose whatever, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars;
Expenses.For contingent expenses for objects not herein before enumerated, three thousand dollars;
Pay of marine corps.For pay of the officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates, and subsistence of the officers of the marine corps, one hundred and seventy-five thousand and fifty dollars and forty cents;
Provisions.For provisions for the non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates serving on shore, servants and washerwomen, forty-five thousand and fifty-four dollars and ninety-nine cents;
Clothing.For clothing, forty-three thousand six hundred and sixty-two dollars and fifty cents;
Fuel.For fuel, sixteen thousand two hundred and seventy-four dollars and twelve cents;
​Repair of barracks, &c.For keeping barracks in repair, until new ones shall be erected, and for rent of temporary barracks at New York, six thousand dollars;
Transportation.For transportation of officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, and expenses of recruiting, eight thousand dollars;
Medicines, &c.For medicines, hospital stores, surgical instruments, and pay of matron and hospital stewards, four thousand one hundred and forty dollars;
Military stores, &c.For military stores, pay or armorers, keeping arms in repair, accoutrements and ordnance stores, and flags, drums and fifes, two thousand three hundred dollars;
Expenses.For contingent expenses of said corps, viz: for freight, ferriage, toll, wharfage, and cartage; for per diem allowance for attending courts-martial and courts of inquiry, compensation to judges-advocate, house-rent where there are no public quarters assigned, per diem allowance to enlisted men on constant labor, expenses of burying deceased marines, printing, stationery, forage, postage on public letters, expenses in pursuit of deserters, candles and oil, straw, barrack furniture, bed sacks, spades, axes, shovels, picks, carpenters’ tools, and for the purchase of a horse for the messenger and keeping the same, seventeen thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars;
Hospitals at New York.For coppering the roof of the hospital building at New York, and for other necessary expenses upon the same, and its dependencies, nine thousand five hundred dollars;
Norfolk.For necessary repairs of the hospital building at Norfolk, and its dependencies, three thousand five hundred dollars;
Pensacola, &c.For furnishing hospital number three, at Pensacola, and for building a stable and other necessary appendages, and for current repairs on the other buildings, seven thousand dollars;
Completion of the two steam vessels.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That in addition to the sum of three hundred and thirty thousand dollars, which was placed subject to the disposition of the Navy Department by the second section of the act of Congress making appropriations for the naval service for the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine,1839, ch. 95. the further sum of three hundred and forty thousand dollars of the amount heretofore appropriated for the gradual improvement of the navy, is hereby directed to be placed subject to the disposition of the department aforesaid, for the purpose of completing the two steam vessels which have been commenced, in case that amount can be diverted from that appropriation without impairing the ability of the Navy Department to make payments under existing contracts prior to the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and forty-one, and if that cannot be done consistently with the rights of contractors and the public interests, then so much of the said sum of three hundred and forty thousand dollars as can be so diverted to this object, from the appropriation referred to, shall be subject to the disposition of the Secretary of the Navy for this purpose, and the said sum of three hundred and forty thousand dollars, to be expended in the manner in this section prescribed, shall be in addition to any materials now on hand applicable to the construction of the said steam vessels of war.
All appropriations for building, &c. vessels, hereby transferred to one head of appropriation, to be expended, how.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all appropriations, and all remaining balances of appropriations heretofore made for building, rebuilding, purchasing, or repairing vessels of war, or other vessels, for the use of the navy, or for the purchase of timber, ordnance, or any other articles for building, arming, equipping, or repairing vessels of the navy, or for the repairs of vessels in ordinary, and repair, wear and tear of vessels in commission, together with any materials which have been, or may be, collected under any of the said appropriations, be, and the same are hereby, transferred to one head of appropriation, to be called ​“the appropriation for the increase, repair, armament, and equipment of the navy, and wear and tear of vessels in commission;” and the amount of said appropriation, and of such other, as may be made hereafter for like purposes, and the materials which have been, or may be hereafter collected for the same, may be expended and used by the Secretary of the Navy, in building, replacing, arming, repairing, equipping, and employing any vessels which Congress may have authorized, or may hereafter authorize to be built, rebuilt, purchased, or replaced, in such manner as the interests or necessities of the service may require.
Annual statement required of amounts expended for mechanics’ wages, &c.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Navy to cause to be laid before Congress, annually, as soon after the beginning of each year as practicable, a statement of the amounts expended during the preceding fiscal year for wages of mechanics and laborers employed in building, repairing, or equipping, vessels of the navy, or in receiving and securing stores and materials for those purposes; and for the purchase of materials and stores for the same purposes; a statement of the cost or estimated value of the stores on hand, under this appropriation, in the navy yards at the commencement of the next preceding fiscal year; the cost, or estimated value, of articles received and expended during the year; and the cost, or estimated value, of the articles belonging to this appropriation which may be on hand in the navy yards at the close of the next preceding fiscal year.
Provisions, materials, &c. may be used for a different appropriation from that under which they were purchas’d.Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That, whenever in the opinion of the Secretary of the Navy it shall be conducive to the public interest to use any article of provisions, materials, or other stores, for a different appropriation from that under which they may have been purchased for the naval service, it shall be lawful for him to authorize such use, and it shall be his duty to certify to the Secretary of the Treasury, the value or cost of the articles thus used; and the Secretary of the Treasury, is hereby authorized and required to cause the proper officers of the Treasury to transfer the amount of such cost or value upon the books of the Treasury, from the appropriation for which the articles may have been used, to the appropriation from which they may have been or may be taken, so that the actual expenditure under each may be accurately shown.
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the following sum, being the unexpended balance of a former appropriation which has been carried to the credit of the surplus fund, be, and the same is hereby reappropriated, viz:
Prize money, brig Gen. Armstrong. 1834, ch. 273. Survey of the coast from Appalachicola bay.For distribution as prize money among the officers and crew of the private armed brig General Armstrong, per act of thirtieth June, eighteen hundred and thirty-four, two thousand nine hundred and seventy-five dollars and twenty cents.
Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That there be appropriated, from any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the immediate survey of the coast from Appalachicola Bay, to the mouth of the Mississippi river, for the ascertainment of the practicability of establishing a navy yard and naval station which shall best subserve the protection of the commerce of the Gulf of Mexico, the sum of ten thousand dollars, to be expended under the direction of the Commissioners of the Navy Board.
Transfers from one head of appropriation to another. 1834, ch. 171.Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That whenever the President of the United States shall have authorized the transfer of any moneys from any head of the naval appropriations to other heads of naval appropriations as authorized by the act of Congress approved thirtieth June eighteen hundred and thirty-four, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, immediately after the naval appropriations for the year shall have been made, to cause all such transfers to be repaid, by ​transfers on the books of the Treasury, so as to preserve for each appropriation the amounts which were granted by Congress.
Approved, July 20, 1840.