4,000 "relief seamen," and the 5,000 short-service pensioners from the Marines fit for active service, we still require 21,000 men to make good the number the Commissioners, after mature consideration, were of opinion we ought to have. However, considering the number and class of men at our disposal when our fleets were triumphant on every sea, it would be idle to argue, as some writers do, knowing the pluck and energy of our people and their superiority at sea over those of all other nations, that we are now in an unsafe position, or that it is absolutely necessary to make good the 60,000 Reserves recommended by the Commissioners in 1859. Indeed, so far as regards our naval peace establishment, we never had a finer nor a better set of drilled men than we have at present, while the training-ships under the Admiralty, maintained solely at Government expense, supply, without the aid of the Merchant Service, all the vacancies in our peace force; but they do no more. Whether the scheme now in operation is the most economical and most politic mode of supplying existing wants is a question into which I shall hereafter enquire; in the meantime, I wish to impress upon my readers the fact that, as compared with former periods of our history, we are thus far in a more satisfactory position than ever we were. In confirmation of this opinion, I must ask my readers to refer back to the second chapter. A careful study of the facts therein brought under notice will show that the number of men supposed to be secured by the press-gang was a delusion, and that the coasting trade having been an all-important "nursery" for the seamen who manned our ships of war was a pleasing but popular error. No doubt we obtained from coasting vessels, and especially colliers, some very brave and most valuable men during our great wars, many of whom distinguished themselves by their indomitable valour. These, and the seamen who had been trained in the Royal Navy, constituted the leading men in the old wars. They served as boatswains, coxswains, captains of guns, or tops, and so forth, and together with our commissioned and warrant officers, and above all, being under the command of Admirals whose names are now renowned in history, they were chiefly instrumental in the extraordinary success which attended our naval engagements; but the bulk of the crews were landsmen, men who had never been trained to the sea, or of those who had experience only in boats. A very large number, however, consisted of the sweepings of our gaols and other worthless characters, and though they could and did fight when brought up to the mark by the trained seaman in charge of the guns, they must, considering the trouble Lord Nelson had with them, and the vast number of desertions, have been, in a great measure, a very depraved lot of men. It should further be borne in mind that this state of things continued until a very recent period; indeed, it embraced, as I have shown, the Crimean war. For these reasons I, without hesitation, state that we are in a better position now than we ever were. But considering our vastly increased wealth, our immense fleets of unprotected merchantmen, our extensive colonies and possessions, and, above all, the greatly increased rapidity of action, combined with the entirely different mode in which future wars will be conducted, not a few of my readers may consider that we are still in an unsatisfactory position so far as regards our requirements in the event of war, or when compared with the armaments of other nations. Various causes have tended to prevent the enrolment of Reserves to the number recommended, and some of these must be deep-rooted prejudices against the Royal Navy, or the inducements offered by the Commissioners would surely have produced the full complement of men. . as the Royal Naval Reserve), to consist of 20,000 men, "who will never be long absent from the ports from which they hail;" and their number the Commissioners thought could be easily obtained from the coasting and shortvoyage trades, embracing the trades to North America, the Baltic, and Mediterranean. The inducements for men to join the proposed force were to be (1) a payment at short periods; (2) a pension at the age of 50 to 55; (3) payment for time spent in practice; (4) admission to the Coastguard; and (5) participation in the benefits of Greenwich Hospital. That is to say, each man was to receive a retaining fee of £5 per annum, and the State was also to contribute a further sum of £1 per annum, which would secure to those men who continued in the service "a pension of not less than £12 at the age of 50, of £15 at from 52 to 53, and £18 at 55." When at drill, which they were required to be for one month each year, they were to receive the same scale of pay, and other allowances, as the seamen engaged in the Navy, besides the other advantages just named. The Commissioners were of opinion "that no great reliance could be placed upon the Naval Coast Volunteers for manning the fleet in case of emergency," arising from the fact that they were "not seamen in the true acceptation of the term, but boatmen, fishermen, and along-shore men," and more especially as they could not, by the articles of their agreement, be called upon to serve at a greater distance than 100 leagues from our shores; nevertheless, as they were "tolerable gunners, and would be useful for coast defence or for service in port," the Commissioners, strange to say, thought it would be advisable to increase this force to 10,000 men. The Royal Naval Reserve has materially superseded the prior Reserve, known as the Naval Coast Volunteers, which it was found included men in every trade and profession, except that for which they were retained, and many of whom were of no trade or profession whatever, having no regular place of abode except the county gaol or local prison, where they were too frequently found when their period for drill-muster arrived. The Commissioners further recommend that the Coastguard should be increased to 12,000 men; that the reliefs of seamen in the home ports should not be less than 4,000; that 6,000 marines should be embodied on shore, ready for service afloat, and that it was advisable to have a further Reserve of 5,000 short-service pensioners belonging to that valuable corps, as well as 3,000 short-service seamen pensioners-men who had retired after ten years' service on a pension of 6d. per day, thus constituting a Reserve Force of 60,000 men at the estimated annual cost of £598,821.* Though the result, if not the object, of all commissions seems to be to increase expenditure, I should not have objected to even this large addition to our Naval Estimates; nor would it have been too much to pay, even if it did no more than afford relief from the panics which prevail, to a greater or less extent, at every rumour of Not the least of these were the ill-usage to which they were subjected on board of ships of war, and the stories of the villainous conduct of the press-gangs, whose proceedings having been handed down from generation to generation have not yet been altogether eradicated from the minds of our seafaring population. But while these are passing away, and our Navy is in a very satisfactory position to what it was, I must impress upon my readers the fact that we have not a sufficient number of skilled or trained men in our Merchant Service to fall back upon to increase our existing Reserves, which we should assuredly require to do in the event of a great or prolonged war. Our fleets of merchantmen, it is true, are far greater than ever they were-as great almost as the fleets of all other nations combined-and in these somewhere about 410,000 persons are now to be found following so-called seafaring pursuits; but they are not seamen.* Nor are In the British Mercantile Marine there were, in October, 1874, from a careful computation made by the late Registrar-General of Seamen, about 407,000 persons manning ships coming to or from the United Kingdom. This does not include seamen manning British ships in the colonies and abroad that do not come to our shores. men he classified as follows:— 1. Certificated masters and mates These 407,000 ... 7,600 10,000 7,000 ... ... ... 13,000 9. Other boys in merchant ships serving afloat 10. Boys in fishing boats The annual "waste of these numbers was, as far as he could ascertain, 16,000 men; that is to say, not that 16,000 seamen die every year, but that, including deaths, invalidings, desertions, and retirements from the sea service, about 16,000 men go out of the British Mercantile Marine every year. |