I.
The Warrant Officer of His Majesty’s Ships, when in Ordinary, are to examine frequently the condition of the store-rooms appointed to receive their respective Stores, and are to inform the Master Shipwright of the Dock Yard of any defects in them which may require to be repaired; that they may be fit to receive the Stores whenever the Ship shall be put into Commission; and when any Ship is commissioned, the Warrant Officers are to use their utmost endeavors to get the Stores on board as expeditiously as the other duties, necessary to equipment the Ship, will admit.
II.
When they receive Stores on board, whether at the fitting out of the Ship, or in any subsequent supply, they are to be very particular in ascertaining that they are good in quality, and that they receive the full quantity specified in the Note sent with them; and they are immediately to report to the Captain any defect or deficiency which they may discover and them.
III.
They are to indent for all the Stores they receive from His Majesty's Dock yards, as well as from His Majesty's Ordinance Magazines, before the Ship proceeds to Sea; and they are to be very careful in observing that they do really receive all those for which they indent, as they will always be considered as having received them.
IV
They are to keep an account, according to the forms delivered to them, of the receipt, expenditure, (expressed in words, and not in figures) condemnation by survey, or supplying of Stores; always specifying the Place where, and the Person from whom, the Stores are received, or the Person to whom they are supplied.
V
There should not be any interlineations in the accounts of stores expended; but if an Officer shall discover that he had forgotten to insert it in its proper place the expenditure of any article which generally been expended; he is to represent the circumstances to the Master who, being satisfied of the truth of such representations, is to allow it to be inserted in the account of expenses for the next month, and to note his having done so in the Ship's Log-book, specifying in both the reason for being so inserted.
VI
No waste of Stores not perishable will ever be allowed, except from unavoidable accidents, which are to be particularly mentioned in the Log-book, where the quantity of every article is to be specified. Two of the Principal Officers present at such accident are to certified that it happened; and if the quantity of the Stores lost be considerable, the quantity remaining is to be ascertained by Survey.
VII
If Stores of any description be lost or damaged through the neglect, or by the misconduct, of any Officer or other Person; the Officer having charge of such stores is to report such misconduct or neglect to the Captain, that the value of the Stores may be charged against the wages of the Person guilty of it.
VIII
Every Officer shall be responsible for the conduct of his Yeomen, to whom he is not to entrust the keeping of those accounts; but is to keep them with great accuracy himself. He is most carefully to avoid the stating of any Stores as being expended which has not been used, or the stating of them as having been expended for any other purpose than those to which they were actually applied.
IX
Every Officer shall be responsible for any errors he makes in his accounts; and he shall pay out of his wages the full value of all Stores not properly accounted for, or improperly expended, unless he shall produce an order from his Captain to expend them in a manner contrary to the regulations contained in these Instructions, and the allowed practice of the service.
X
Officers are not to suffer the Yeoman to take the stores from the store-rooms without their express order. They are frequently to examine the quantity remaining, and if they have doubts of it being as great as it ought to be, they are to apply for its being surveyed.
XI
When they are supplied with Stores by other Officers whether of the same Ship or of any other, they are to charge themselves with those Stores, and are to mention their having done so in the receipt they give for them.
XII
One Officer shall not supply another with Stores, nor lend any, without an order in writing from the Captain; and when he does supply or lend them, he is to demand a receipt in which the quantity of every article is to be written in words at length, and in which it is to be mentioned by whose order they were supplied: he is also to give under his hand, to the Officer supplied, a voucher of delivery, specifying the Stores with the same peculiarity as the receipt.
XIII
Officers when appropriating rope, canvas, or any other article to use, are to be very attentive to conform to the established length and other dimensions of whatever it may be intended to make.
XIV
When they convert Stores to any other use than that for which they were originally intended, they are to expend them, in their accounts, as having been so converted, and are to charge themselves with whatever they convert them into.
XV
One Masts, Sails, Colours or other Stores are blown away or lost, they are to be very particular in the quantity they expend in that manner, as they will probably be required to make oath to the truth of that part of their accounts.
XVI
When Stores are damaged or worn out, the officer who has charge of them is to apply to the Captain for their being surveyed; and after their being surveyed, he has to be careful to apply them to whatever use the surveying Officers shall appoint, charging himself with those articles into which he may be directed to convert them.
XVII
They are to visit their store-rooms very frequently to see that they are kept clean, that they are well aired, and that the Stores are so arranged, as to admit of any part of them being easily got at when wanted.
XVIII
They are never to carry, nor to suffer others to carry, lights into their store-rooms except in good lanthorns, the doors of which are never to be opened in the store-rooms.
XIX
They are strictly charged not to put into the magazine, the wings, or any of the store-rooms, any wine or spirituous liquors; nor to keep any quantity in their cabins, except such as the Captain shall expressly permit them to keep there.
XX
When the Ship his to be dismantled, either for the purpose of being refitted or being paid off, they are to be particularly careful in preventing their Stores, Rigging, &c. from being cut, or in any way damaged; they are to see that all the Stores they send from the Ship are tallied, and very carefully put into the Boats or Vessels which are to carry them, and to take every possible precaution to prevent their receiving damage in their way to the store-houses.
XXI
When a Warrant Officer is about to be removed from a Ship, or when he wishes to pass his accounts, which he will be allowed to do at the end of every twelve calendar Months, he is to apply to the Captain for a survey on his Stores, who will obtain from his Commanding Officer an order for the purpose, if his Ship be not alone and under such command, otherwise the Captain is himself to order the survey, that the quantity of Stores remaining on board may be correctly ascertained.
XXII
When a Warrant Officer dies, the Captain is immediately to apply to the Commanding Officer present, to order, or if the Ship be alone he is himself a order, a survey on the Stores remaining on board, one Copy of the Report of such survey is to be sealed up with the papers of the Officer who died, and another Copy is to be delivered to his Successor to be considered as his first charge.
XXIII
As all Warrant Officers may at times be called to survey Stores, they are strictly charged to perform that duty with the utmost attention, and to make all their reports with the strictest truth and impartiality, so that when called on, they may be able to conscientiously to make oath to the correctness of the report they have made.
XXIV
When ordered to survey Stores represented as being unfit for service, they are to examine every part of them very carefully, and if they find them unfit for the service for which they were originally intended, they are to point out in their report any other service to which they may be appropriated.
XXV
When ordered to survey Stores for the purpose of ascertaining the quantity, whether to enable the Officer, in whose charge they are placed, to pass accounts, or to transfer them from one Officer to another; they are not to take any account of any part of them, from the Officer who has charge of them but, as far as it shall be possible for them to do so, they are themselves to ascertain their real quantity.
Admiralty
1808 Regulations and Instructions Relating to His Majesty's Service at Sea. Winchester & Son. Strand, London.