Regulations on the sea requirement for fleet officers

"Regulations on the Maritime Census for Fleet Officers" is a legislative act of the Russian Empire , regulating the conditions of service of officers of the Russian Imperial Navy . Highest approved on February 25, 1885 by Emperor Alexander III . It was put into effect by Order No. 25 of the Maritime Office of March 9, 1885 ^[1] . "Regulations on the Maritime Census for Navy Officers" consists of 8 sections and 57 articles.

The “Provisions” include the following sections:

1. Separation of naval officers.
2. Sea qualification and its value
3. Maritime qualification for production in the ranks
4. Production in the following ranks
5. Age limit
6. The ranks of the fleet
7. Fleet reserve
8. Pensions and rewards for marine campaigns.

As a result of the introduction of the "Regulations" , the service system in the Russian navy has changed dramatically. The system of service in the fleet, established by the early 80s of the XIX century, provided for the production of the next rank along the line or for the difference ^[2] . In each rank it was necessary to stay a certain number of years, and production to the next rank took place in turn. The presence of the position and the performance of official duties did not affect the course of cyn production.

The lists of the fleet personnel included officers who did not serve in the fleet. While serving in other departments or sailing on commercial ships, they continued to receive ranks as military sailors. Thus, in 1880, out of 146 full-time admirals, only 47 served in the fleet; in 1884, out of 140 admirals, only 34 commanded warships ^[3] . The lists of personnel included officers who had not gone to sea for 20 years or commanders in the staff officer ranks of the most insignificant ships.

In order to change the situation, on the initiative of the Director of the Navy Department I.A. Shestakova , a commission was created under the Maritime Ministry under the chairmanship of Vice-Admiral P. A. Pereleshin , the purpose of which was to develop a project for a new fleet personnel organization ^[4] . The result of the commission’s activity was the “Regulation on the Sea Census”. The principles of regular discipline, the strict separation of the front-line ship service from the coastal and engineering-technical ones, were put in the basis of the service system. The production of a naval officer or mechanical engineer to the next rank became possible only if there was a fulfilled sea qualification - a certain number of days of sailing. Production was carried out only upon appointment to the appropriate rank of the vacancy (position).

The transition to a new system of service marked a whole period in the history of the Russian fleet - the “era of maritime census” ^[5] . The new system, shortly after its introduction, was reduced to alternate "serving" by officers of the sea qualification, after which many of them simply waited for vacancies for production in the next rank ^[6] . As a result, inadequately trained, but “served officials” officers were often appointed to responsible command positions. Ship commanders, detachments and squadron commanders were regularly replaced, freeing the way for others to serve the sea qualification ^[6] . Only after the defeat of the Russian fleet in the Russian-Japanese war, under the influence of all-round criticism of the Naval Ministry and thanks to numerous projects for the revival of the fleet that appeared on the pages of periodicals, in 1905 it was decided to urgently revise the Regulations on the Sea Census. In 1907, the "Regulations on service of the officers of the fleet" came into force. Maritime notice has been canceled.