to be tested and delivered
over to the agents of the Government. That at Portsmouth, N.H., is also
nearly ready for delivery; and a contract has been concluded, agreeably
to the act of Congress at its last session, for a floating sectional
dock on the Bay of San Francisco. I invite your attention to the
recommendation of the Department touching the establishment of a
navy-yard in conjunction with this dock on the Pacific. Such a station
is highly necessary to the convenience and effectiveness of our fleet
in that ocean, which must be expected to increase with the growth of
commerce and the rapid extension of our whale fisheries over its waters.

The Naval Academy at Annapolis, under a revised and improved system of
regulations, now affords opportunities of education and instruction to
the pupils quite equal, it is believed, for professional improvement, to
those enjoyed by the cadets in the Military Academy. A large class of
acting midshipmen was received at the commencement of the last academic
term, and a practice ship has been attached to the institution to afford
the amplest means for regular instruction in seamanship, as well as for
cruises during the vacations of three or four months in each year.

The advantages of science in nautical affairs have rarely been more
strikingly illustrated than in the fact, stated in the report of the
Navy Department, that by means of the wind and current charts projected
and prepared by Lieutenant Maury, the Superintendent of the Naval
Observatory, the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ports of
our country has been shortened by about forty days.

The estimates for the support of the Navy and Marine Corps the ensuing
fiscal year will be found to be $5,856,472.19, the estimates for the
current year being $5,900,621.

The estimates for special objects under the control of this Department
amount to $2,684,220.89, against $2,210,980 for the present year, the
increase being occasioned by the additional mail service on the Pacific
Coast and the construction of the dock in California, authorized at the
last session of Congress, and some slight additions under the head of
improvements and repairs in navy-yards, buildings, and machinery.

I deem it of much importance to a just economy and a correct
understanding of naval expenditures that there should be an entire
separation of the appropriations for the support of the naval service
proper from those for permanent improvements at