Fun facts about the US Navy bureaucracy in 1918

I had my first stint of volunteering for the government today. It was about 3 hours spent refiling some fairly dry stuff from the Boston Navy Yard Commandant's Office in 1918.

OK, there's a small consolation. We were at war in 1918, so maybe you'd think interesting war-related stuff would turn up.

Uh uh.

The most interesting tid-bit I turned up (other than the fact that there were daily and weekly reports filed by the yard's forge on how much chain it produced, and what it cost to produce it) outside of the amazing quantity of reports being passed up the chain of command was that submarines were seen at the base. There were also some "reduction in force" (ooh, office-speak goes back that far?) reports that only occurred in December, after the armistice was signed.

I also saw monthly reports on the condition of the USS Constitution, including notations to the effect that (at the time) it was last painted in Portsmouth (NH) in 1897, and was basically in good shape.

I'm sure you all always wanted to know that back then they inspected their fire hoses quarterly.

I asked to be exposed to a different bureaucracy next week. It's looking like it'll be court cases, possibly more interesting reading.