The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). Frederick Whymper
half a pint of salt water. Those good old times!
Pleasant is it to read of life on board a modern first-class man-of-war. Where there are, perhaps, thirty officers in the ward-room, it would be hard indeed if one cannot find a kindred spirit, while on such a vessel the band will discourse sweet music while you dine, and soothe you over the walnuts and wine, after the toils of the day, with selections from the best operas, waltzes, and quadrilles. Then comes the coffee, and the post-prandial cigar in the smoking-room. At sea, luncheon is dispensed with, and the regular hour is half-past two; but in port both lunch and dinner are provided, and the officers on leave ashore can return to either. Say that you have extended your ramble in the country, you will have established an appetite by half-past five, the hour when the officers’ boat puts off from shore, wharf, or pier. Perhaps the most pleasant evening is the guests’ night, one of which is arranged for every week, when the officer can, by notifying the mess caterer, invite a friend or two. The mess caterer is the officer selected to superintend the victualling department, as the wine caterer does the liquid refreshments. It is by no means an enviable position, for it is the Englishman’s conceded right to growl, and sailors are equal to the occasion. Dr. Stables remarks on the unfairness of this under-the-table stabbing, when most probably the caterer is doing his best to please. But on a well-regulated ship, where the officers are harmonious, and either not extravagant or with private means, the dinner-hour is the most agreeable time in the day. After the cloth has been removed, and the president, with a due preliminary tap on the table to attract attention, has given the only toast of the evening—“The Queen”—the bandmaster, who has been peering in at the door for some minutes, starts the National Anthem at the right time, and the rest of the evening is devoted to pleasant intercourse, or visits ashore to the places of amusement or houses of hospitable residents.
Before leaving, for the nonce, the Royal Navy, its officers and men, a few facts may be permitted, particularly interesting at the present time. The navy, as now constituted, has for its main backbone fifty-four ironclads. There are of all classes of vessels no less than 462, but more than a fourth of these are merely hulks, doing harbour service, &c., while quite a proportion of the remainder—varying according to the exigencies of the times—are out of commission. There are seventy-eight steam gun-boats and five fine Indian troop-ships. These numbers are drawn from the official Navy List of latest date.
It is said that since the ironclad movement commenced, not less than £300,000,000 has been disbursed (in about twenty years) by the different countries of the world. Even Japan, Peru, Venezuela, Chili, the Argentine Confederation, possess many of this class of vessel, of more or less power. The British fleet, under the command of Vice-Admiral Hornby, in the Mediterranean, &c., though numerically not counting twenty per cent. of the fleets in the days of Nelson and Collingwood, when “a hundred sail of the line” frequently assembled, has cost infinitely more. A cool half million is not an exceptional cost for an ironclad, while one of the latest of our turret-ships, the Inflexible, has cost the nation three-quarters of a million sterling at the least. She is to carry four eighty-ton guns. A recent correspondent of a daily journal states that next to Great Britain, “the ironclad fleet of the Sultan ranks foremost among the navies of the world.” Be that as it may, there can be little doubt that if Russia had succeeded in acquiring it, it would, with her own fleet, have constituted a very powerful rival.
The progressive augmentation in the size of naval vessels has been rapid in Great Britain. When Henry VIII. constructed his Henry Grace de Dieu, of 1,000 tons,124 it was, indeed, a great giant among pigmies, for a vessel of two or three hundred tons was then considered large. At the death of Elizabeth she left forty-two ships, of 17,000 tons in all, and 8,346 men; fifteen of her vessels being 600 tons and upwards. From this period the tonnages of the navy steadily increased. The first really scientific architect, Mr. Phineas Pett, remodelled the navy to good purpose in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. Previous to this time the vessels with their lofty poops and forecastles had greatly resembled Chinese junks. He launched the Sovereign of the Seas, a vessel 232 feet in length, and of a number of tons exactly corresponding to the date, 1637, when she left the slips. Cromwell found a navy of fourteen two-deckers, and left one of 150 vessels, of which one-third were line-of-battle ships. He was the first to lay naval estimates before Parliament, and obtained £400,000 per annum for the service. James II. left 108 ships of the line, and sixty-five other vessels of 102,000 tons, with 42,000 men. William III. brought it to 272 ships, of 159,020 tons. George II. left, in 1760, 412 ships, of 321,104 tons. Twenty-two years later the navy had reached 617 vessels, and in 1813 we had the enormous number of 1,000 vessels, of which 256 were of the line, measuring 900,000 tons, carrying 146,000 seamen and marines, and costing £18,000,000 per annum to maintain. But since the peace of 1815, the number of vessels has greatly diminished, while an entirely new era of naval construction has been inaugurated. In the seventeenth century a vessel of 1,500 tons was considered of enormous size. At the end of the eighteenth, 2,500 was the outside limit, whilst there are now many vessels of 4,000 tons, and the navy possesses frigates of 6,000 and upwards. Several of our enormous ironclads have a tonnage of over 11,000 tons, while the Great Eastern—of course a very exceptional case—has a tonnage of 22,500.
THE “GREAT HARRY” AND “GREAT EASTERN” IN CONTRAST.
Whilst we have efficient military volunteers enough to form a grand army, our naval volunteers do not number more than the contingents for a couple of large vessels. There are scarcely more than a thousand of the latter, and only three stations. London, Liverpool, and Brighton divide the honour between them of possessing corps. The writer believes that he will be doing a service to many young men—who in their turn may do good service for their country—in briefly detailing the conditions and expenses of joining. In a very short period of time the members have become wonderfully efficient, and the sailor-like appearance of the men is well illustrated by the fact, that at a recent reception at the Mansion House a number of them were taken for men-of-war’s men, and so described in several daily journals. Their prowess is illustrated by the prizes distributed by Lady Ashley, at the inspection of the 1st London Corps, in the West India Docks, on February 9th last. Badges were won by the gunner making the best practice with the heavy gun at sea, and by the marksman making the greatest number of points with the rifle. The “Lord Ashley challenge prize,” for the best gun’s crew at sea, was won by fourteen men of No. 2 battery, who fired forty-two rounds at 1,300 yards in thirty-seven minutes, scoring 411 points out of a possible 504 points. The official report says:—“that further comment on the men or their instructor is superfluous.” The list included rifle, battery, and boating prizes.
The Royal Navy Artillery Volunteers are raised under an Act passed in 1873, and are directly subject to the authority of the Admiralty. They may be assembled for actual employment, their duties then consisting of coast or harbour service. They are not required to go aloft, or to attend to the engine fires, but in regard to berthing and messing must conform to the arrangements usual with seamen. The force is formed into brigades, each brigade consisting of four or more batteries, of from sixty to eighty men. Each brigade has a lieutenant-commander, and each battery a sub-lieutenant, chief petty officer, first and second-class petty officers, buglers, &c., while the staff includes a lieutenant-instructor, first-class petty officer instructor, surgeon, bugle-major, and armourer. Those desiring to join a corps should communicate with the Secretary of the Admiralty. The annual subscription to the 1st London Corps is one guinea, while each member has to provide himself with two white frocks, one blue serge frock, one pair of blue trousers, one blue cloth cap, &c., black handkerchief, flannel, knife, lanyard, and monkey-jacket, costing in the neighbourhood of six pounds. When on a cruise, in gunboat, the volunteer requires in addition serge trousers and jumpers, flannel shirt, towels, and brush and comb, canvas bags, &c. The officers’ uniforms are the same as those of the Royal Navy, with the exception of silver, for the most part, taking the place of gold. It is more expensive to join the naval than the military volunteers, and the class composing the corps are generally well-to-do young men, a large number of them employed in shipping offices, and mercantile pursuits connected with the sea.
The drills consist of practice with great guns, rifle, pistol, and cutlass exercises. “Efficient” volunteers