Ranks and ratings in US Navy

The development of ranks and ratings in the US Navy is an evolutionary one.
In many cases, there is no exact equivalent between the ranks and ratings used at different times in naval history.

Helpful title:
Stacey, John A. U.S. Navy Rating Badges, Specialty Marks and Distinguishing Marks, 1885 – 1982.
(Ft. Washington, MD: John a. Stacey, 1982.)

Basic history of these ratings at http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq78-4.htm

US Navy in World War II: 1944 issue of the Bluejackets’ Manual.

There was no logic to how the Navy's Bureau of Personnel issued serial numbers to sailors in World War II.
Serial/Service numbers were issued in blocks of numbers in a random manner to various recruiting stations where the numbers were then assigned to individuals.

When a station used up its block of numbers it was then issued another block of numbers.
To determine where a number was issued requires a researcher to look through a set of thick binders until the appropriate block of numbers is spotted. We have the only known set of these binders in our library.

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq78-1.htm

From the Beginning: The Navy of the United Colonies of the 1775 era offered only a few different jobs above the ordinary seaman level. These included Boatswain's Mate, Quartermaster, Gunner's Mate, Master-at-Arms, Cook, Armorer, Sailmaker's Mate, Cooper, Cockswain, Carpenter's Yeoman, and Yeoman of the Gun Room. These were titles of the jobs that individuals were actually performing and thus became the basis for petty officers and ratings.
Also, there were Ordinary Seaman, Loblolly Boy, and Boy, but these are more related to our apprentices of today. During this period in the history of the new Navy, crews were taken directly from civilian life and enlisted only for the duration of one cruise.
Because of this enlistment practice, the job at hand, rather than career possibilities, was the primary consideration.
The Continental Congress back in April 1776, and its "Instruction to Commanders of Privateers" stated "One third, at least, of your whole company shall be landsmen" (that is, men on shipboard with no experience in seagoing). This could have been a colonial recruiting expedient, but at any rate, it had the effect of making more landlubbers sea-conscious and willing to serve in defense of the youthful United States.

World War II: From 1913 to 1948, no major changes in the structure of enlisted ratings were made, although new ratings were authorized as technological changes, expansion of naval aviation for example, demanded. Hand in hand with this system of classification of personnel went the practice of supplying men according to numbers and ratings requested, without any special attention to the individual qualifications of the men or particular demands of the billets.

By the beginning of World War II, the Navy's rating structure was becoming inadequate to the problem of distributing the best qualified personnel to billets in which they were most needed. In short, the structure had to be adjusted to meet the technological advances of the modern Navy.
Under pressure of necessity, during World War II, the Bureau of Naval Personnel and other commands charged with personnel administration found themselves dividing and subdividing existing ratings to reveal special skills.
The Radioman (RM) rating, for example, split into Radioman (RM) and Radio Technician (RT); later some Radio Technicians were transferred to the newly established Radarman (RD) rating, and others to the new Sonarman (SO) rating.

To the SO rating itself was later added SOH (Harbor Defense).To supplement this process of subdividing old ratings, the Specialist (X) ratings were established, and eventually became the catch-all for jobs that could not be fitted elsewhere into the existing rating structure.

Post War Rating : StructureBy V-J Day, the 30-odd prewar ratings had given way to nearly 200 wartime categories. In September 1945, the Navy launched studies directed toward finding a more orderly, scientific classification system which would serve both peacetime and wartime needs. The resulting rate and rating structure, implemented by the new Manual of Qualifications for Advancement in Rating, went into effect 2 April 1948.

It was the product of intensive research by the Bureau of Naval Personnel, of numerous conferences with representatives of various Navy bureaus and offices, and of recommendations submitted by fleet and training commands.
Although the current rating structure was developed during the 1945-47 period its framework was the wartime rating structure, the traditions of the Navy rating system, and many additional factors necessary to develop a structure adapted to the modern Navy. Not the least of these factors were lessons learned from the Navy's successes and failures in personnel management during World War II, and tested principles of personnel management developed in recent years by industry and government.

The result is a dynamic structure designed to meet the needs of the modern Navy today.

Civil War steamer Dragon

Civil War steamer Dragon.
NDL has a small file on this vessel.

Deck logs and other documents concerning Dragon’s actions may be available at the National Archives in Washington, DC:

Old Military and Civil Records Branch
National Archives and Records Administration
700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20408
202-501-5385)
http://www.archives.gov/contact/

Pictures of Dragon may be available through the Photographic Section here at the Naval Historical Center.

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, which is available online through Cornell University at http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/ofre.html

Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941

NDL's web site about the Pearl Harbor Attack.

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq66-1.htm

USS Chicago -- armament

37 mm and 47 mm cannons on USS Chicago.
John Alden’s book -- The American Steel Navy-- confirms that Chicago had two 37 mm and four 47mm Hotchkiss revolving cannons.
Additional drawings of naval armament may be available from the National Archives in Washington, DC, in the Records of the Bureau of Ordnance.

Contact information for the National Archives is as follows :

Old Military and Civil Records Branch
National Archives and Records Administration
700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20408
1-866-272-6272 http://www.archives.gov/contact/