The officers while at sea receive more pay than when on shore duty. The salary of an ensign at sea is $1200 a year; that of a rear admiral is $6,000. The salaries of the other officers range between these two extremes. Previous to 1898 the number of enlisted men in the navy was limited to ten thousand. These men are received for a period of three years; and any one after serving continuously for twenty years may be assigned to duty in the navy yards, or on board receiving ships, or to other duties not requiring them to go far from home. All who have served thirty years are entitled to admittance in the Naval Home. The wages of enlisted men vary from $16 to $70 a month, according to the kind of work they perform. The law provides that seven hundred and fifty boys may be enlisted as apprentices in the navy. These are received only with the consent of their parents or guardians, and are required to serve until they are twenty-one years old. Besides the regular navy of the United States there is a naval militia organized in eighteen states. This militia is under the general direction of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy; and its duty in time of war is to man the vessels designed for coast and harbor defense. At the beginning of the year 1898 there were more than four thousand men and officers in the naval militia. During the war with Spain, most of these were mustered into the naval service and did duty on the war vessels or in the signal service along the coast. At the close of the year there were belonging to our government nine battleships, all of which had been built since 1890. Four others were in process of construction. The average cost of vessels of this class is about $3,500,000. Of other vessels in the navy of 1898, there were two armored cruisers which cost $2,986,000 each; one ram, the _Katahdin_; six double turreted monitors; thirteen single turreted monitors; seventeen protected cruisers; four unarmored cruisers; fifteen gunboats; and ten torpedo boats. Many other vessels of different classes were being built. All these were in active service, or soon to be so. But there were also several other vessels of the old-fashioned style which, although of little use in battle, were valuable in the various peaceful enterprises in which the navy is always engaged. Of such there were six old iron vessels and ten wooden frigates, all propelled by steam, and seventeen old wooden sailing vessels, some of which were used as receiving ships. During the war with Spain, many temporary additions were made to the navy. Eleven merchant vessels were bought or leased and converted into auxiliary cruisers. Among these were the four fast steamers of the American line, the _St. Louis_, the _St. Paul_, the _Yale_, and the _Harvard_.