At the beginning of the war there were 361 vessels ready for service,
including twelve first-line battleships, twenty-five second-line
battleships, nine armored cruisers, twenty-four other cruisers, seven
monitors, fifty destroyers, sixteen coast torpedo vessels, seventeen
torpedo boats, forty-four submarines, eight tenders to torpedo boats,
twenty-eight gunboats, four transports, four supply ships, one hospital
ship, twenty-one fuel ships, fourteen converted yachts, forty-nine tugs,
and twenty-eight minor vessels. There were about seventy thousand
regularly enlisted men, besides eight thousand five hundred members of
the naval militia. Many yachts together with their volunteer crews had
been offered to the government by patriotic citizens.
For the complete mobilization of the Navy, as it then stood, 99,809
regularly enlisted men and 45,870 reserves were necessary. About
twenty-seven thousand of these were needed for coast defense, and twelve
thousand at the various shore stations. Retired officers were called
out, and assigned to duty which would permit officers on the active list
to be employed in sea duty. The Navy therefore still lacked thirty-five
thousand men to bring it up to its full authorized strength at the
beginning, but after the declaration of war an active recruiting
campaign brought volunteers by thousands.
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