OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
THE SWEEP OF THE SWORD 
 
 From Marathon to Mafeking 
 
 In large crown 8vo (over 600 pages), with a Photogravure. 
 Frontispiece, 16 full-page Illustrations of world-famous pictures 
 printed on art paper , and nearly 150 Illustrations in the text. 6s. 
 
 Truth :" Never before has Mr. Miles gathered such a 
 harvest as this in a single volume. It is truly a 
 stupendous volume, and there is quality as well as 
 quantity to recommend it." 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette : "It is a tremendously attractive and 
 manly volume. It is not a book in favour of war, but 
 it celebrates in a fitting way those virtues which war 
 brings out." 
 
 United Service Magazine : " Mr. Miles has com- 
 piled an extremely valuable volume, from which not 
 only boys, but also a great many men, will not only gain 
 pleasurable excitement but much useful instruction of 
 real historical value." 
 
 The Navy : " A wonderful book. To write it and compile 
 it has evidently been a labour of love, and it has been 
 not less a work of almost inexhaustible patience." 
 
 The Bookman : " Mr. Miles has produced many books 
 of adventure, but this is by far the best. ' The Sweep 
 of the Sword* is healthy and inspiriting in tone, and 
 yet its stories lose nothing of that dash and enthusiasm 
 that of right belong to them." 
 
 STANLEY PAUL & CO., 31 ESSEX STEKET, STRAND, W.C. 
 
OUR FIGHTING 
 
 SEA MEN 
 
 BY 
 
 LIONEL YEXLEY 
 
 AUTHOR OP "THE INNER LIFE OF THE NAVY"; "WHEN THE EAGLE FLIES 
 
 SEAWARD"; (JOINT) " GROG-TIME YARNS," ETC. 
 EDITOR OF "THE FLEET"; "FLEET ANNUAL"; "LOG SERIES." 
 
 LONDON 
 
 STANLEY PAUL & CO 
 
 31 ESSEX STREET W.C. 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., 
 LONDON AND AYLESBURY. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 FROM EARLIER TIMES 15 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 50 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 80 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 1797 PORTSMOUTH IOO 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 1797 THE NORE 133 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 l8l2 AND ITS LESSONS 144 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS .... 162 
 
 5 
 
6 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PROFESSIONAL OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS . . 2()6 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 COURTS-MARTIAL ANCIENT AND MODERN . . . 226 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS .... 26l 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE FIGHTING SEA MAN'S PROSPECTS .... 280 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE TRADING SEA MAN ...... 2QO 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 IN LIGHTER VEIN 30O 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE ? 307 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 321 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 WHEN " Billy " Russell of the Times started to tell the country 
 the truth about the condition of our troops in the Crimea, 
 and the murderous mismanagement of things by those in 
 command, both the Queen and Prince Consort were furious, 
 the latter referring to Russell as " that miserable scribbler" ; 
 while Sidney Herbert, the Minister of War, writing to Glad- 
 stone, said : "I trust the Army will lynch the Times cor- 
 respondent. ... If they were to hang Mr. Russell, I believe 
 the public here would be very well pleased." But Russell, 
 instead of being hanged, lived to be honoured; it was Herbert 
 and his colleagues who were metaphorically hanged by an 
 indignant country. 
 
 When Sir William Butler dared to be honest enough to tell 
 the truth about the condition of South Africa, he was re- 
 lieved of his post. And the Government who committed 
 that blunder also fell, stricken and shattered at the Polls. 
 
 It is an exceedingly unpleasant, and not always a profitable 
 task, to expose the feet of clay of a popular idol, and he who 
 dares to do it must be prepared for the rending that is sure 
 to follow. But I have been rent so often that really the 
 process has no terrors for me, otherwise this book would 
 surely not have been written. 
 
 It is not by premeditation that it is published in this the 
 Coronation year of our Sailor King, when a goodly fleet will 
 be assembled at Spithead, the_envy and admiration of the 
 
 7 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 world. It should have seen the light last autumn, but " the 
 ways of men and mice aft gang agley " ; and so it has been 
 hung up for months to make its appearance when the whole 
 world will be envying the strength of the British Navy. 
 Even then, perhaps, it will cause some people " furiously 
 to think." 
 
 It was a mere coincidence that when it was being written 
 the country was startled by the Archer-Shee case. The 
 collapse of the Government defence in open court was the 
 signal for a flood of Press comment, to be followed, on April 6 
 of the present year, by a lively debate in the House, during 
 which the Admiralty expressed its decision to compensate 
 the lad for the wrong done him. With the position taken 
 up by Sir Rufus Isaacs I am in entire sympathy, and had 
 Sir Edward Carson been called on to defend the case as law 
 officer of the Crown, he would, no doubt, have done exactly 
 as Sir Rufus Isaacs did, and try to block the case by 
 demurrer. Sir Rufus Isaacs pointed out that 
 
 " I was following out the traditions of my office as they have 
 been handed down for centuries. There is no precedent for 
 an officer, either of the Army or Navy, being allowed to bring 
 his case into a court of justice before a judge and before a 
 jury. Any person is liable to be dismissed without explana- 
 tion and without any justification given, and still is not 
 entitled to go into court to question it. It is not for me, as 
 law officer, to make the law, but to administer it as I find it." 
 
 Then he pointed out that if the present rights of the Crown 
 " i.e. the rights of the public have to be abolished, it is 
 entirely a matter for Parliament," and the action of Parlia- 
 ment in this case has been to practically abolish those old 
 rights. The money of Mr. Archer-Shee and the powerful 
 pleading of Sir Edward Carson have shattered the traditions 
 of centuries, so that this case opens up a new era, and a new 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 situation that will have to be faced. Already it has opened 
 up an entirely new outlook for the lower-deck, and the petty 
 officers, in their corporate capacity as members of societies, 
 are already itching to get service wrongs righted through 
 the law courts. Who can blame them ? What is right 
 and fair for Cadet Archer-Shee must also be right and fair 
 for Petty Officer Brown and Able Seaman Robinson. And 
 what of the case of John Louis Bars tow, to which reference 
 is made ? 
 
 There is no money here ; no powerful King's Counsel to 
 force through a Petition of Right and fight a department of 
 State. So this man is still branded with a crime he never 
 committed, and is still denied the pension he earned by years 
 of long and faithful service. Such things cry out with a 
 loud voice for a full review and revision of naval laws as 
 they exist. It should not be left to one wealthy parent to 
 vindicate his son : what we want is that sentences like this 
 should be rendered impossible. 
 
 Dozens of papers have insisted that the present state of 
 things cannot be allowed to continue, and in Parliament 
 it has been declared, amid cheers, that "it is very important 
 that the British sailor and soldier should know with absolute 
 confidence that if any wrong were done it would be redressed." 
 If Parliament is in earnest, let it set to work, and so revise 
 naval laws that wrongs are impossible. Here is a case that 
 took place even as I write this : A stoker petty officer had 
 been sent to a ship to enable him to get in twelve months' 
 sea time previous to qualifying for a mechanician. He was 
 stationed at the capstan engine, and one day, when the ship 
 was unmooring, the bearings of the engine ran hot, which 
 caused a slight delay. The captain ordered the petty officer 
 to be placed in his report, and although he, the petty officer, 
 was exonerated from all blame by the engineer-commander, 
 
io INTRODUCTION 
 
 the captain insisted on punishing him on the ground that 
 he was not going to have his ship made the laughing-stock 
 of the-fleet. So he deprived the petty officer of one good- 
 conduct badge, thus not only fining the man id. per day for 
 six months, but practically ruining his career not because 
 the petty officer had committed any offence, but because the 
 captain's ill-humour had to be satisfied with a victim. 
 
 I hold no mawkish sentiments about discipline proper 
 the man who commits an offence against discipline, or who 
 does not do his job, should be punished. It is against pseudo- 
 discipline that the Navy cries aloud: the manufacture of 
 " crimes " for the pleasure of punishing them. Lying 
 before me as I write is a Commander's Order Book of three 
 hundred odd pages, and every page has an average of six 
 don'ts, musts, and mustn'ts. 
 
 Here are a few " irregularities " that a dozen pairs of eyes 
 were always on the look-out for 
 
 " That men go in and out over the lower boom properly 
 dressed and with their trousers turned down." 
 
 " No men are to lean on the forecastle rails." 
 
 " No men are to sit about on the booms." 
 
 " No smoking is to take place on the forecastle before 
 sunset." 
 
 " Nothing is to be eaten anywhere except on the mess-deck." 
 
 " Singing on the mess-deck is forbidden." 
 
 And so the book goes on, page after page, and under every 
 separate sub-heading is the preliminary caution : 
 
 " All petty officers and non-commissioned officers are to 
 consider it part of their duty at all times to see that these 
 orders are obeyed." 
 
 There we have pseudo-discipline in excelsis and naval 
 *' crime " in the making, for the petty and non-commissioned 
 officers were bound to see things to maintain their own posi- 
 
INTRODUCTION n 
 
 tions. That " Order Book " was written, not for a ship, 
 but for general use throughout the Navy ; it was published 
 at 25. 6d. net, and, I believe, found a ready sale anyway, the 
 first edition speedily sold out, when a " Revised and Enlarged" 
 edition was published, probably because the first edition was 
 found to contain not enough " don'ts " and " mustn'ts." 
 Considering that the " Official King's Regulations and Ad- 
 miralty Instructions " contain 1,888 " Articles," which, with 
 their Appendices, cover 729 pages ; that there is also an 
 Addenda running into 307 further pages, with further Ad- 
 dendas running into 600 pages, published yearly, one would 
 have though that every conceivable condition connected 
 with naval life was fully met. The Official Regulations 
 may be said to deal with discipline proper ; the private 
 " Order Book " with pseudo-discipline that magnification 
 of punitive power in a disciplinary system directed to petty 
 and insignificant ends. 
 
 It must be admitted that the Admiralty have made at- 
 tempts to cope with this lust to punish, and to-day the com- 
 manding officer whose ship sends in abnormally heavy 
 punishment returns finds himself later on passed over for 
 employment. This has led to the practice of making false 
 returns, and most ships now keep two sets of Punishment 
 Books : official and unofficial. The Naval Punishment 
 Returns for the information of the country are compiled 
 from the former, those punishments entered in the latter 
 never see the light of day, and so both the country and the 
 Admiralty are grossly misled. A ship may show a very low 
 number of official punishments, and yet be a veritable penal 
 establishment from the innumerable unofficial punishments 
 inflicted. In civil life the falsification of accounts is a criminal 
 offence ; apply the same code to the Navy, and this form of 
 criminalty would soon die. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Every year the gap seems to grow wider between the 
 conditions of naval life and civil life. Mr. Winston Churchill 
 has outlined a scheme for dealing with our criminal popula- 
 tion. These, when undergoing imprisonment, are to have 
 life made more congenial ; there are to be facilities for reading 
 (libraries), letter- writing, and even canteens are to be intro- 
 duced where prisoners may purchase little luxuries from 
 money earned. I am well aware that there are those who 
 think the Home Secretary is going too far ; that does not 
 concern me, I am stating a simple fact. 
 
 What do we find in the Navy ? As recently as the end 
 of 1910 one of those various " regrettable incidents " oc- 
 curred in a battle-ship belonging to the Home Fleet. It 
 was brought about by innumerable petty restrictions, backed 
 up by a wholesale stoppage of leave. When the men showed 
 open disapproval of their treatment the commanding officer 
 met it, by closing the canteen, dismantling the reading-room, 
 and stopping all smoking. He even stopped all communi- 
 cation with the shore and the delivery of letters. Can it 
 be seriously contended that men of this stamp are fitted to 
 control our latter-day fighting sea men ? 
 
 I have expressed a belief that a general outbreak among 
 our sea men is impossible, and I do not think any living 
 person will question that belief. Yet such ships as just 
 mentioned constitute ever-present danger-spots which might 
 jeopardise at any moment the loyalty and efficiency of a 
 whole fleet or squadron. Let us suppose that the nation 
 was at war, the petty restrictions of peace-time might, and 
 probably would, be multiplied and accentuated as soon as 
 war broke out, and so friction would be more acute. The 
 eyes of the whole fleet would be on such a ship, for every petty 
 officer and man would know what was going on, and their 
 whole sympathies would be with their comrades. Suppose, 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 further, that at last the ship's company openly declined any 
 longer to submit to their treatment, how would the situation be 
 met ? Any attempt to repeat the tactics of St. Vincent with the 
 Marlborough would at once plunge the whole fleet into open 
 and active protest ! Expediency might suggest the removal 
 of prominent officers : rather a dangerous proceeding at 
 such a time. Common-sense suggests that the only proper 
 course is to make such danger-spots impossible by a rigorous 
 weeding-out process in time of peace. 
 
 I am not foolish enough to appeal to the sense of justice 
 of the nation, but to its self-interest. I know, and every one 
 who has studied the subject knows, that a discontented super 
 " Dreadnought " is not nearly such an efficient war machine as 
 a contented " Formidable." Let publicists study the gunnery 
 returns, and then find out why an obsolete battle-ship stands 
 at the head in the order of merit of shooting, and some of 
 our latest ships low down ; they will perhaps then ask them- 
 selves whether the mere counting of ships denotes a Two 
 Power or any other standard of strength. 
 
 Further, let the nation fully realise that no great measure 
 of reform will ever be initiated by the Navy from within. 
 It is a viciously conservative service, and has ever resisted 
 progress. Look at the tremendous fight that Lord Fisher, 
 who was by nature a reformer, had to wage from the day he 
 became First Sea Lord. 
 
 The Board of Admiralty, in Lord Melville's day, was con- 
 fronted by a proposal to introduce steam into the Navy. 
 They drew back in holy horror from the monstrous innova- 
 tion, and in the following minute, which deserves to be held 
 up to everlasting remembrance, reprobated it : 
 
 " They felt it their bounden duty, upon national and pro- 
 fessional grounds, to discourage, to the utmost of their ability, 
 the employment of steam-vessels, as they considered that the 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 introduction of steam was calculated to strike a fatal blow 
 to the naval supremacy of the Empire ; and to concede to the 
 request preferred would be simply to let in the thin end of 
 the wedge, and would unquestionably lead to similar demands 
 being made upon the Admiralty from other departments." 
 
 The nation itself if it is determined to do justice by its 
 fighting sea men must take the task in hand ere it is too 
 late. 
 
 For the book itself I offer no apology. My only qualifi- 
 cation as author is that I am a " common sailor " ; and, free 
 of all attempts at literary garnishings, I have set down what 
 other " common sailors " throughout the Navy think, feel, 
 and say. It may be complained that the book is somewhat 
 dogmatic in tone ; my reply is, that conviction and dog- 
 matism have ever been stable companions. I am dealing with 
 hard facts, not theories. It may also be complained that 
 there is a certain amount of repetition. It is deliberate ! 
 To quote one of the innumerable apothegms of Lord Fisher, 
 " Reiteration is the secret of conviction." And if I have hit 
 the same nail on the head many times, it is because I wish to 
 drive it in. And so the book must stand. It shows the 
 Navy as it is. 
 
 LIONEL YEXLEY. 
 
 8 YORK ROAD, ILFORD. 
 June i, 1911. 
 
OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FROM EARLIER TIMES 
 
 Fair is our lot O goodly is our heritage ! 
 (Humble ye, O people, and be fearful in your mirth) ; 
 
 For the Lord our God Most High, 
 
 He has made the sea as dry, 
 He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the earth. 
 
 RUDYARD KIPLING. 
 
 TO-DAY the civilised world is busy piling Dreadnought upon 
 Dreadnought, Invincible upon Invincible, Destroyer upon 
 Destroyer, and Submarine upon Submarine. The music of a 
 million hammers echoes round our own coasts, while our ship- 
 yards teem with activity, and Parliament is the scene of 
 angry wrangles as the demand is put forward for more 
 and more ships for the defence of the Empire. And what 
 of the men ? They are largely forgotten in the mad rush 
 to build ships, though only a short time since the country 
 was warned by Lord Charles Beresford that 
 
 " You may have what size of ship you like, as many as 
 you like, guns, armour, boilers and engines ; but remember, 
 it is the human element, and only the human element, that 
 wins battles." 
 
 More recently the Governor of South Australia, Admiral 
 Sir Day H. Bosanquet, told an audience that 
 
 15 
 
16 OUR* FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " The personnel is the most important point in a fleet, and 
 the education and training and discipline of the personnel 
 are the whole end-all and be-all of a Navy. . . . When the 
 crisis comes, when the hour of trial arrives, the slight differ- 
 ence which only the eye of an expert can detect, is sufficient 
 to send one ship to the bottom in ten minutes and leave the 
 other untouched." 
 
 Are we ready for the crisis ? 
 
 On that point Great Britain does not concern herself ; 
 she takes the men for granted. " The men ? oh, they are 
 all right splendid fellows," is the comfortable assurance 
 we hear on all sides. Yet through it all come angry mutter- 
 ings like the echoes of thunder on a bright summer's day. 
 Hardly a day passes in the House of Commons but several 
 questions are addressed to responsible ministers about lower- 
 deck affairs ; petty officers of all classes issue an annual 
 " Appeal " against certain conditions of their lives, while now 
 and again comes a louder and angrier clap of thunder in the 
 shape of a " regrettable incident " on board some particular 
 ship gun-sights thrown overboard, etc. to be immediately 
 followed by the soothing information that it was only the 
 work of some ill-disposed person on board and the emphatic 
 assurance that no general disaffection exists among the 
 crew, etc., etc. Then the nation goes comfortably to sleep 
 again and dreams of the number of Dreadnoughts it possesses. 
 
 But may we not be living in a fool's paradise ? And if it 
 is true that everything depends on the human element, are 
 we justified, in face of all these mutterings, to take that 
 element for granted and believe that it is contented and fit 
 to meet the crisis which sooner or later must come ? If it 
 fails us in that crisis then the British Empire passes away 
 to the region of have-beens. 
 
 Surely the stake is too big for the matter to be left in doubt, 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 17 
 
 therefore it is well that we should frankly face facts and 
 inquire fully into the cause of the discontent which undoubtedly 
 prevails in our Navy at the moment. In that inquiry we 
 shall see how the fighting sea man emerged from obscurity 
 to the most honoured position in the land, and how he then 
 sank into a position of degradation and serfdom from which 
 he has never fully recovered. For one hundred and thirty 
 years the process of degradation went on, during which time 
 laws and customs came into existence to meet purely artificial 
 conditions, while the sea man himself was seen through a dis- 
 torting mirror for so long that the image became fixed in the 
 national imagination and was accepted as true to life. The 
 laws and the image still largely remain, the former an ever- 
 present menace to our sea supremacy. 
 
 Right back in early days the fighting sea man was a child 
 of chance, fighting to-day with his neighbour on land, em- 
 barking to-morrow in his roughly constructed craft to fight 
 on the water an ever-present necessity, for did not the 
 ancient name of Briton, " Clas Merdin," mean " Sea-defended 
 green spot." 
 
 But in those days there were no laws regulating sea life 
 or sea fighting. In the open row-boats which constituted 
 the war- fleet of Alfred the Great each man was a warrior 
 and equal to all others. When his fighting was over for 
 the time being he returned to shore, and the war-vessel 
 became the trader. Sea life in such craft could not have 
 been very enticing. Thus we find Athelstan, grandson of 
 Alfred the Great, offering very special inducements to men 
 to go to sea every merchant who made three voyages on 
 his own account was raised to the rank of Thane, an exalted 
 position hitherto confined to those of noble birth. So sea life 
 gradually grew, though the sea man as such, the man whose 
 profession it was to follow the sea exclusively, was not yet. 
 
 2 
 
i8 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Life on board these old-time craft must have been trying 
 in the extreme, so that quarrels were no doubt frequent and 
 violent, more especially as those who manned them when on 
 fighting bent were not of the gentlest ; yet there is no record 
 of any code of regulations until the " Naval Ordonnances " 
 of Richard I., A.D. 1190. Richard was about to start for 
 the Holy Land, in an attempt to rescue the Holy Sepulchre 
 from the hands of the Saracens, and no doubt felt that some 
 code of laws was necessary for the guidance of those who 
 were going with him on the expedition. He therefore de- 
 livered his charter to them as follows : 
 
 " Know all men that we, with the aid of upright Councillors 
 have laid down these Ordonnances : who ever shall commit 
 murder aboard ship shall be tied to the corpse and thrown 
 into the sea ; if a murder be committed on land the murderer 
 shall be tied to the corpse and buried alive ; if any man be 
 convicted of drawing a knife for the purpose of stabbing 
 another so the blood shall flow he shall lose a hand ; if a 
 man strike a man with his hand, he shall be ducked three 
 times into the sea ; if any man defame, vilify, or swear at 
 his fellow, he shall pay as many ounces of silver as times he 
 has reviled him. If a robber be convicted of theft, boiling 
 pitch shall be poured over his head, and a shower of feathers 
 be shaken over to mark him, and he shall be cast ashore 
 on the first land at which the Fleet shall touch." 
 
 In the first part of this we have the old Mosaic law pure 
 and simple " An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." The 
 second part the fine to a vilified fellow shows a law among 
 equals, borne out by the decision to get rid of any who com- 
 mitted the contemptible crime of theft by putting them 
 ashore at the first land touched. These, however, could 
 hardly be called sea men ; they were really land men (soldiers), 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 19 
 
 who had to cross the seas to get at their object. The same 
 may be said of all those who took part in our earlier sea fights, 
 with the exception of the men of the Cinque Ports, who 
 were fighting sea men in the true sense of the term, and as 
 such they had honours and liberties not enjoyed by others, 
 which were accurately defined by royal charter. " In 
 requital for their faithful and continual services the privileges 
 of these Ports be very great, considering either the honour 
 and ease, or the freedom and exemption that the inhabitants 
 have by reason of the same." Bearing in mind the constant 
 state of war which existed between England and France at 
 this time and the frequent raids of the pirates of Sark and 
 other places, the fighting sea men of the Cinque Ports could 
 not have had a very great amount of ease though the honour 
 was not little, while the amount of booty must have been 
 considerable. We are told that in the first great fight which 
 took place in 1217, the spoil from the French ships over 
 which the ships from the Cinque Ports gained a great victory 
 was " verie rich, so that the English men, being laden with 
 riches and honour, upon their safe returne home were received 
 with great joy and gladnesse." 
 
 The fighting sea men of the Cinque Ports, while they were 
 always ready to repulse an attack by the enemy, were never 
 loth to start off on a marauding expedition of their own, 
 so that attacks and reprisals were the normal conditions 
 under which they lived ; the only sea laws being those that 
 divided the booty and secured a kind of rough justice between 
 man and man. Discipline, as we understand the word, or 
 any fixed code of sea laws, did not exist beyond the Ordon- 
 nances of Richard L, which held good for many centuries. 
 Until well into the sixteenth century no standing Navy 
 existed, fleets only being raised to meet emergencies, the 
 code of laws governing which was fixed by the Lord High 
 
20 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Admiral or Commander-in-Chief. When the emergency had 
 passed the fleet was disbanded and the laws governing 
 it came to an end. 
 
 All this time over- seas trade was growing, which neces- 
 sitated a continual increase in the size and number of ships, 
 all of which were armed and manned by sea men, who were 
 fighting or trading sea men as necessity required. 
 
 By the end of the fifteenth century the Commercial Navy 
 of England was considerable, and the sea men who manned 
 it had made their name respected throughout the world. 
 Ostensibly traders, they were nevertheless prepared to 
 fight, with or without provocation, whenever opportunity 
 offered. Their only laws were the customs of the sea, which 
 made it possible for such rough men to live in such curtailed 
 space ; of the despotic power of the sea captain to punish 
 and torture men to gratify his desire, we hear nothing. 
 
 When war broke out, as ships were required for the service 
 of the State, the seaports furnished their quota, while others 
 were bought or hired by the Crown. The sea man then 
 played a subordinate part, for to embark troops and cover 
 their landing on an enemy's shore was the usual object. 
 When in 1596 a great expedition was planned for the destruc- 
 tion and capture of the Spanish Fleet at Cadiz, 126 ships 
 were engaged, only 17 of which were Queen's ships. 
 
 By 1630 a Royal Navy had become a permanent institution, 
 to support which and keep himself in funds for other purposes 
 Charles I. introduced ship money, which ultimately led to 
 the Great Rebellion and the establishment of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Now it was (1644) that a system of laws for the governance 
 of the Navy was first passed. The leaders of the Long Par- 
 liament recognised that Britain was indeed a " sea-defended 
 green spot/' and that on her sea men depended, under the 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 21 
 
 good providence of God, " their wealth, peace and prosperity." 
 They therefore drew up a code of laws, " based on the broadest 
 principles and complete in all its details . . . founded on the 
 great fundamental law of English liberty the trial of a 
 man by his peers." l 
 
 This birth of a real British Navy was immediately followed 
 by the most glorious period in its history. Hitherto, ex- 
 peditions had been entrusted to Court favourites, whose 
 main inspiration was not patriotism, but gain ; now, patriot- 
 ism, not profit, was to be its watchword ; glory, not gold, its 
 reward. In April 1657 Blake, only a few years before a 
 quiet country gentleman in Somerset, now an Admiral, 
 hearing that a treasure fleet of twenty- two large vessels 
 was en route for Spain, at once sailed for the Canaries. He 
 found the Spanish Fleet at Santa Cruz, under the numerous 
 land fortifications believed to be impregnable to attack 
 from the sea. But Blake had trained his men with intelli- 
 gence, and their gun fire was so accurate and destructive 
 that in four hours all the forts had been silenced, and two 
 hours later every Spanish ship in the land-locked harbour 
 had been sunk or burnt. The object of Blake was not to 
 seize treasure for the benefit of its captors, but to destroy 
 it so that it might not be used against his country. Santa 
 Cruz was the crowning glory of a great period. 
 
 During this period 1645 to 1660 we have no record of 
 disaffection in the fleet, while our naval renown grew till 
 it may be said to have reached the apex of its glory at Santa 
 Cruz. This also is the only period in the history of the British 
 Navy when it was ruled with just and equitable laws, and 
 the sea man enjoyed rights and privileges as well as duties. 
 The Captains of ships and Admirals of Fleets enjoyed vast, 
 but not despotic power ; pseudo discipline had not yet had 
 1 " Manual of Naval Law and Court Martial Procedure." 
 
22 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 birth, and a man who offended against the laws of the Navy 
 was tried by his peers and punished according to their finding. 
 He was never the victim of the caprice of an individual vested 
 with despotic powers. The leaders of the Long Parliament 
 had seen the evils of absolutism on shore too fully to allow 
 them to connive at it on board ship, where all its bad points 
 must be accentuated by the limitations of space. They 
 therefore gave their sea men a code of laws which not only 
 encouraged a sea life, but fostered patriotism in those who 
 followed it. All that came after cannot alter this great fact, 
 that when the Commonwealth came into possession of the 
 fleet it was disaffected fore and aft especially forward ; what 
 supervened showed that it was not " discipline " but justice 
 that was required. As soon as the latter was granted Blake 
 was able to sweep the sea of Dutch and Spaniards, and the 
 success that crowned his efforts has never been excelled, 
 not even by Nelson : his sea men were as invulnerable as 
 the old Ironsides of the Civil War. 
 
 At the Restoration this happy state of affairs came with a 
 crash to the ground. The government and command of 
 all forces by sea and land were declared by Act of Parliament 
 to be, and ever to have been, the undoubted right of His Majesty 
 and of his royal predecessors, the Kings and Queens of England. 
 From here started the demoralisation and degradation of 
 our sea service, a demoralisation and degradation that became 
 so general and pronounced, that in a hundred years the fight- 
 ing sea man, instead of being a free son of the nation patrioti- 
 cally fighting its wars for love of country, was a poor degraded 
 serf denied every right, denied all freedom, flogged, starved, 
 and worried, till a British ship-of-war became the nearest 
 approach to hell that this world has ever witnessed. 
 
 The mainspring of action that guided the Commonwealth 
 sailors glory not gold passed away with the accession of 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 23 
 
 King Charles II. to the throne, and the Navy at once became 
 the happy hunting ground of his corrupt favourites. Pepys 
 has told us the state of the Navy under Charles. Worthless 
 ships were commanded by incompetent officers, the bulk of 
 whom were either the corrupt favourites of Charles himself 
 or the proteges of his mistresses. It was only natural that 
 these should be anxious to hide from the world the vastness 
 of their incompetence, and the more the nation clamoured 
 against it, or against the state of the Navy, the more did they 
 endeavour to suppress all real and reliable information as to 
 its cause. This they no doubt found they were able to do 
 by the positions they held. 
 
 The old code of laws not suiting the new conditions, a new 
 code was enacted for the enforcement of discipline among the 
 crews in actual service aboard men-of-war when at sea, or 
 in the main stream of great rivers ; in these laws power was 
 created for the trial of offenders by court martial. 1 
 
 Whatever may be said of the code of laws and their suit- 
 ability for enforcing " discipline " among the crews, there is 
 little doubt that they entirely failed to enforce discipline 
 on ship captains, who were in practice above the law and able 
 to enforce the whim of the moment under the guise of dis- 
 cipline. Having entered on this slippery slope the Navy 
 plunged rapidly down into the abyss that led to Portsmouth 
 and the Nore, and nearly to the undoing of the Empire. 
 
 Had the men who grasped this unfettered power been 
 models of rectitude and morality, it would have tended to 
 weaken the fibres of their nature ; being the very reverse, 
 they looked on the ships they commanded and all they con- 
 tained as theirs, and exercised their sway in a way that could 
 not fail to irritate their subordinates. When this irritation 
 showed itself in overt acts, severely repressive measures were 
 1 13 Charles II,, c, 9, 
 
24 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 used, and punishment was introduced not for breach of the 
 law, but to " maintain discipline." Every act of repression 
 was excused on that head, and those in command clamoured 
 for more power and more repression. The introduction of 
 new laws and regulations was in the hands of Sea- Lords, who 
 naturally viewed with sympathy the opinion of sea captains ; 
 therefore it happened that giving information on the internal 
 economy of a ship was made a capital offence and punished 
 accordingly. Thus the King's sea service rapidly fell into dis- 
 repute with the sea man, and a ship-of-war was looked on 
 as something to be shunned. 
 
 Sea officers entered the Navy when little more than children, 
 and from this early age they had it instilled into their minds 
 that the sea men could only be kept in order by perpetually 
 exercised tyranny ; and they were encouraged to show their 
 power by annoying and irritating men whenever opportunity 
 offered. " By the god of war," said one unspeakable ruffian 
 to his men when some of them complained at the devilish 
 cruelty of a midshipman, "I'll make you touch your hat 
 to a midshipman's coat if it's only hung on a broomstick to 
 dry." Theoretically men had the right to complain, but in 
 the "interests of discipline" they were punished if they 
 did so. 
 
 Midshipmen, brought up under such conditions, became 
 habituated to scenes of violence and cruelty, and when men 
 revolted they put it down to the wickedness of the men and 
 not to the unnatural tyranny of the officers, who by this time 
 had become generally brutalised. The greater the brutality 
 the more frequent the revolt, either on the part of the ship's 
 company or of individuals. At every revolt severer repres- 
 sion was resorted to hanging at the yard-arm, flogging round 
 the fleet and all in the name of " discipline," which, correctly 
 interpreted, meant the right and privilege of sea officers to 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 25 
 
 wreak their will without let or hindrance on those who were 
 under their command. 
 
 That the sea man should show an ever-increasing aversion 
 to voluntarily submit to such conditions was but natural; 
 thus it came about that when the nation was at war her 
 sons who should and would have crowded to her help held 
 aloof , till first a press-gang had to be resorted to, and then our 
 prisons were emptied to fill our ships : the fighting sea men, 
 the pick of the nation's sons, were reduced to the status 
 of a subject-race, and our ships- of -war became prisons in which 
 they were forcibly detained to fight their country's battles. 
 Other nations have used mercenaries and slaves of alien or 
 subject-nations to fight their battles, but history records 
 only one similar crime to that committed by England in 
 the eighteenth century Venice. The Navy of Venice seems 
 to have passed through similar stages to our own. 
 
 " In the early days of the Republic the business of working 
 the oars of the galleys was one of honour and of advantage 
 to the community. For no one who was not a Venetian 
 subject was admitted to row on board the galleys, and this 
 branch of one of the most important services of the state 
 was entrusted only to men whose stake in the Government 
 was as great as the Patrician who commanded the vessel." 1 
 
 Here we have a somewhat similar condition to the days 
 of the Cinque Ports Navy. But the time came for a State 
 Navy ; then the arrogance of Patricians commenced to assert 
 itself, and service in the galleys became a degradation instead 
 of an honour, and a description of life on board reads like a 
 page from our own naval doings of the eighteenth century. 
 
 " The business of getting together a galley's crew was an 
 arduous one. No freeman being easily persuaded to work 
 an oar or submit to being chained, to be beaten, and to the 
 1 " The Navy of Venice," page 51. 
 
26 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 innumerable discomforts of the galley. Were it not for the 
 needs or foolishness of many vagabonds or of emancipated 
 villains full of the lowest vices which lead them to sell them- 
 selves, it may well be believed that no man would ever be 
 found who would spontaneously submit to so unhappy a life, 
 full of such miseries and such horrid accidents. 
 
 " The business of recruiting was not carried on without 
 loss of honour and temper, and ways were used which were 
 not always highly commendable nor free from violence and 
 dishonour. Condemned criminals were pressed into the ser- 
 vice ; men who were sentenced to death were chained to the 
 oar instead of being strung up ; and every judge was petitioned 
 to ' send diligently and without delay ' the criminals that 
 came under his condemnation to service in the galleys ac- 
 cording to their sentences. 
 
 " Offenders of high rank were entitled to buy themselves 
 off, especially if they had been arrested for debt. They could 
 then expiate their sentences either by purchasing so many 
 slaves and sending them on board in their stead, or by main- 
 taining a given number of slaves for the time which they 
 themselves should have served. In fact, every rascal was 
 swept off as a galley slave under one pretence or another . . . 
 it was no easy job to keep such a crew in order, and the cruelty 
 and harshness needed to maintain discipline is sickening to 
 read of." * 
 
 It was " discipline," or rather unbridled power in the hands 
 of a few, that degraded the Navy of Venice and partly led to 
 the undoing of the Republic, though on occasions the reign 
 of terror on board ceased and the tyrants appealed to the 
 slaves either through their religious fears or by kind treat- 
 ment at the moment. Thus we read that immediately pre- 
 ceding the battle of Lepanto 
 
 " The great standard of the league, bearing the Image of 
 the Crucified Redeemer and blest by the Pontiff, was run up 
 1 "The Navy of Venice," p. 69. 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 27 
 
 on the Commander- in- Chief's vessel. As the Standard rose 
 in view every man in the Christian host, from the highest to 
 the lowest, bared his head and on bended knee confessed his 
 sins to the priest on board of each ship. The galley slaves 
 were freed from their chains, food and wine was given liberally 
 to all. 
 
 " Promises of reward and gain in this world were held out to 
 all who conquered in the fight ; whereas everlasting life was 
 to be the guerdon of those who laid down their lives fighting 
 the Infidel for God and their country." 
 
 What the poor devils of galley slaves had to look for either 
 from " God or country " it is difficult to say. But the 
 Venetian commander was only anticipating British Admirals. 
 
 As the process of degradation went on in our own Navy, 
 and it became difficult and ever more difficult to induce sea 
 men to join the King's ships, a host of apologists sprang into 
 existence, all competing with each other to excuse everybody 
 and everything but the poor unfortunate sea man. As cir- 
 cumstances demanded, he was represented now as a roystering 
 spendthrift, now a helpless child, again as a kind of untamable 
 savage, but never as what he was really a very much- 
 wronged man. Gradually the mind of the nation accepted 
 this picture, and Clarendon, who has been claimed to be the 
 greatest master of naval portraiture, gave it as his opinion 
 that 
 
 " The sea men are a nation by themselves, a humorous 
 and fantastic people, fierce and rude and resolute in whatever 
 they resolve or are inclined to, but are unsteady and incon- 
 stant in pursuing it." 
 
 While the great English novelist Henry Fielding wrote: 
 " All human'flesh is not the same flesh ; there is a flesh of land 
 men, and another of sea men." 
 
 For twenty years I soaked my hands in a naval tar-pot 
 
28 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 before I took to the pen for a living, and having cleansed my 
 hands of the tar I venture to shed my ink in refutation of a 
 theory that has hung like a blight over those whom circum- 
 stance or inclination has led from the land to follow their 
 lawful occasions on the great waters. This placing of sea 
 men in a world by themselves " a rude, fierce, fantastic 
 people" has acted as a kind of soporific on the national 
 conscience, and thus given birth to laws and conditions so 
 far removed in spirit from those governing the lives of land 
 men, that our great Mercantile Marine, the basis of all our 
 prosperity, is passing into the hands of aliens, and our Navy 
 is seething with a chronic restlessness that may spell disaster 
 if not dealt with. To cross swords with Clarendon and 
 Fielding may be an act of temerity on my part, but fools 
 have ever rushed in where angels feared to tread, and per- 
 chance this is a fool's outing ! Yet in face of what lies ahead 
 of us as a nation it may be worth the making. 
 
 That the pernicious doctrines of Clarendon and Fielding 
 were accepted when they were put forth and still sway the 
 popular imagination is shown by the popular attitude towards 
 our fighting sea men of to-day. This can be summed up in 
 the words "We all love Jack." We do not "love" the 
 miner, the mechanic, or the railway worker, neither do we 
 flood our music-halls with songs about their doings ; it is 
 only the sea man who is accepted as something abnormal, 
 who must be favoured with the indulgence of a child in his 
 moods, and punished as a brute in his tenses. That he is 
 just a normal human who has a right to enjoy the same laws 
 and conditions as his fellows seems to strike no one, for sea 
 men are not land men, therefore sea laws cannot be the 
 same as land laws. In this the sea man is wronged and 
 misunderstood, and the sea Power that persists in a policy 
 of that nature has its feet fixed in a bed of clay. 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 29 
 
 In his introductory chapter to " The British Tar in Fact 
 and Fiction/' Mr. John Ley land says : 
 
 " When Howard wrote to Walsingham in 1588 that neither 
 sickness nor death should make them yield until the service 
 in hand was ended, and when he added that he never knew 
 nobler minds than those then in the fleet, he was expressing 
 the two things that are primordial factors in success the 
 moral ascendancy over all discouragements, and the capacity 
 and energy that fit men to win. We may say that with 
 these two elements, acting in all spheres of naval activity, 
 success is not only possible, but certain." 
 
 That was written in the happy days before the sea man 
 had come to be regarded as an abnormal creature or the 
 Navy had taken its downward plunge ; but the words are 
 as true to-day as when they were uttered. Another writer, 
 Fred. T. Jane, condensed the same idea into the term " fitness 
 to win" ; and unless we possess that ''fitness," in the war 
 that must come, then the Empire will go under. Even our 
 Two-Power or any other standard will not ensure victory. 
 
 By the later middle of the eighteenth century the de- 
 moralisation that started in 1660 was complete, though it 
 was at this time that one of the most brilliant achievements 
 of the Navy took place the battle of Quiberon Bay. 
 
 But before we deal with this let us retrace our steps to 
 the Restoration. The vigour of Blake and his sea men had 
 placed the Navy on a pinnacle of glory from which it was 
 rapidly to fall during the second Dutch War, 1665-7. On 
 the eve of the battle of Lowestoft, we are told : " Numberless 
 young cavaliers joined the fleet, all anxious to prove their 
 devotion to the throne by putting their precious lives in 
 jeopardy." The value of this crowd to the ships may be 
 judged by the following verses written by the Earl of Dorset, 
 
30 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 afterwards one of Charles's boon companions ; the verses 
 were dedicated to " The ladies left behind " : 
 
 Then if we write not by each post, 
 
 Think not we are unkind ; 
 Nor yet conclude our ships are lost 
 
 By Dutchman or by wind ; 
 Our tears we'll send a speedier way . . . 
 The tide shall bring them twice a day. 
 
 Should foggy Opdam chance to know 
 
 Our sad and dismal story, 
 The Dutch would scorn so weak a foe 
 
 And quit their fort at Gore ; 
 For what resistance can they find 
 From men who've left their hearts behind ? 
 
 Then came the four days' battle lasting from June ist to the 
 4th, 1666, during which time the country must have longed 
 for a Blake ! Gallant Sir Christopher Myngs was there, and, 
 on the last day, received a bullet in the throat. Compressing 
 the wound with his fingers he still remained on deck en- 
 couraging his men, till a second bullet ended his agony. 
 What became of the body of this gallant sea man Pepys has 
 told us. The King allowed him to be buried not only without 
 pomp and ceremony but without recognition. Sir William 
 Coventry attended the funeral out of goodness of heart, 
 and Pepys went to keep him company. Pepys records how 
 on leaving the church he witnessed a scene 
 
 " One of the most romantique that ever I heard of in my 
 life, and could not have believed, but that I did see it, which 
 was this about a dozen able lusty, proper men came to 
 the coach side with tears in their eyes, and one of them 
 that spoke for the rest began and says to Sir W T . Coventry, 
 ' We are here a dozen of us that have long known and loved 
 our dead Commander, Sir Christopher Myngs, and have now 
 done the last office of lying him in the ground. We would 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 31 
 
 be glad we had any other to offer after him, and in revenge 
 of him. All we have is our lives, if you will please to get His 
 Royal Highness to give us a fire-ship among us all, here is 
 a dozen of us, out of all which choose you one to be com- 
 mander, and the rest of us, whoever he is, will serve him, 
 and if possible will do that that shall show our memory of 
 our dead Commander and our revenge.' ' 
 
 But the loyalty of the fighting sea man and the gallantry 
 of the dead sea officer were ignored. Charles was too much 
 engaged shielding the Court favourites who had deserted 
 their Admiral in battle to render them justice or to grant 
 them acknowledgment, though he was very anxious to shuffle 
 out of his responsibility, so that after the battle of St. James's 
 day, July 25, 1666, we find thousands of sea men thrown out 
 of employment and clamouring in vain for the pay they 
 had earned. Failing to get it, and vowing vengeance, they 
 entered the service of the enemy. 
 
 King and courtiers seem to have conspired to bring the 
 nation into disrepute and disgrace. In this they were 
 eminently successful. But when the Dutch appeared in the 
 Thames the plaintive cry arose, " Help ! help ! for God, and 
 the King, and the kingdom's sake," while history tells us 
 that " the Courtiers fled like children at the approach of a 
 peril . . . there is hardly anybody in the Court but do look 
 as if he cried." 
 
 And so the tale proceeded as the years passed by, the 
 position of the fighting sea man getting ever more desperate, 
 ever more degraded, though his fighting and other qualities 
 were surely and soundly laying the foundations of the 
 Empire. 
 
 In spite of the treatment of our sea men on board our own 
 ships we could always rise to the height of fiery indignation 
 against the foreigner who maltreated them, as witness the 
 
32 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " War of Jenkin's ear/' the outcome of the action of the 
 Spanish " Guarda Costa," which inspired James Thompson 
 to write : 
 
 Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves ; 
 Britains never ! never ! never ! shall be slaves. 
 
 1744 brought us another disgrace with the battle of Toulon. 
 Mathews and Lestock, with their paltry crew of captains, are 
 dealt with in another chapter, so we need not trouble with 
 them here. But even in this action the sea man shone forth 
 in the only two ships commanded by men fit to command 
 the Marlborough, Captain Cornwall, and the Berwick t Captain 
 Hawke ; and it is with the latter we will deal. 
 
 Hawke joined the Navy in 1720 at the age of fifteen, and 
 for twenty years had little chance to distinguish himself, but 
 in 1743 he was appointed to the Berwick for service in the 
 Mediterranean. In making ready for sea he had considerable 
 difficulty to get a crew together, and was forced to resort to 
 the press, for by this time the very name of " Navy " stank 
 in the nostrils of every sea man. At last he succeeded, and 
 very soon had his ship efficient and fit, for Hawke had a great 
 many of the qualities of Nelson ; above all he was a leader 
 and not driver of men. It was on that shameful day, 
 February n, 1744, that his sun first shone forth, for while 
 others were quarrelling or holding back from the enemy he 
 went on. In his " Sea Kings of Britain," Callendar tells us : 
 
 " Captain Hawke first laid himself alongside of the Neptune. 
 In less than an hour he had driven her from the line with her 
 captain killed, and 200 of her company. Here was a start. 
 Next he singled out the Poder, vainglorious still and boastful, 
 putting Englishmen to shame. He sought her out, left his 
 station to do so and cared not. In this he anticipated the 
 action of Nelson at the battle of St. Vincent. He laid 
 the devoted Berwick alongside, and with his first broadside 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 33 
 
 slew twenty- seven men and dismounted several lower- deck 
 guns. In twenty minutes he had shorn away her standing 
 rigging and mown down her masts. The Poder contained 
 brave men as she had already proved, and gamely they 
 fought, but the English captain was not to be denied. 
 After two hours' fruitless resistance the end came, and with 
 casualties too horrible to describe and too numerous to reckon 
 the gallant Poder struck. Not once nor twice in the combat 
 her late antagonists invited her to submit, but she waved 
 them aside ; to the captain of the Berwick, and to him alone 
 would she strike, for here was a prince of men, not moulded 
 from ordinary clay. That is how Captain Edward Hawke 
 captured the only prize on that fateful nth February, and 
 his casualties numbered five ! " 
 
 Three years later he was a Rear-Admiral in the Channel 
 Fleet under the command of Sir Peter Warren. Warren fell 
 ill and the entire control of the fleet devolved upon Hawke, 
 and on October 14, 1747, the second battle of Finisterre was 
 fought. It was a battle and a victory only possible under 
 such a leader. Of the eight French ships in the battle line, 
 six surrendered, and of these, three to Hawke, the Servern, 
 the Trident, the Terrible, all larger ships than his Devon- 
 shire. 
 
 The loss of Minorca and the execution of Byng cast a shadow 
 over the nation, but Hawke's star still shone, and British 
 prestige was re-established by him, for at the beginning of 
 April 1758 Rochfort was a scene of activity and animation. 
 Five ships of the line, seven frigates, and forty transports 
 for the conveyance of 3,000 troops were being fitted out 
 when, on April 8, Hawke hove in sight with seven ships 
 of the line. Straight in by the He d'Oleron he went, 
 followed by the rest of his command. The French did 
 not stop to fight, but cutting their cables they fled, 
 3 
 
34 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 ignoring in their terror the shallows over which it was 
 impossible for them to pass. As they went aground they 
 commenced to cast everything portable overboard ; guns and 
 fittings went in the mad terror to escape. What a tribute 
 to Hawke ! 
 
 And now comes an incident which shows that numbers 
 cannot always annihilate, even when they are two to one 
 the fight between the Monmouth and Foudroyant. Captain 
 Gardner of the Monmouth had been Byng's flag-captain on 
 the Ramillies, at the battle of Minorca, when the Foudroyant 
 carried the flag of Galissoniere. When she appeared under 
 the Marquis Duquesne off Carthagena, where she had come to 
 relieve the ships blockaded by Admiral Saunders, Gardner 
 determined he would wipe out the stain of the earlier incident 
 or perish. The Foudroyant carried a broadside twice as heavy 
 as that of the Monmouth, and theoretically should have blown 
 her out of the water, and probably, under happier conditions, 
 would have done. Size, however, did not deter Gardner, who 
 piped all hands aft and addressed them thus, pointing towards 
 the Foudroyant : (( That ship has to be taken, my lads. I 
 shall fight her until the Monmouth sinks," which utterance 
 shows that he was by no means certain of the result, and 
 indeed how could he be with such an antagonist ? But 
 he hungered to wipe out the stain of Minorca as far as it had 
 touched him personally, and nobly did his men respond to 
 his wish. From seven in the evening till past midnight the 
 unequal fight went on, and the decks of the Monmouth re- 
 sembled a shambles, over one hundred of her men being killed 
 or wounded. Captain Gardner himself was badly wounded, 
 but refused to leave the deck ; later he was mortally wounded, 
 and confided the ship to Lieutenant Carkett, second in com- 
 mand, who at once nailed his flag to the mast for fear of 
 accidents. At last the mainmast of the Foudroyant fell 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 35 
 
 across the fore and she was rendered unmanageable. Then 
 the Swiftsure and Hampton Court appeared on the scene, 
 and Duquesne struck, declining to surrender his sword to 
 any one but the officer commanding the Monmouth, which was 
 now Lieutenant Carkett. The astonishing result of this fight 
 was afterwards explained by Duquesne, who declared that 
 his crew was in such a mutinous state that he could not use 
 the guns on his second deck, and that many of the men ran 
 below directly the action began. Thus the Foudroyant, 
 which as a ship was the pride of the French Navy, fell captive 
 to an infinitely weaker foe because the human element, the 
 only thing that wins battles, was lacking. 
 
 And Hawke was eating his heart out and brooding over the 
 ill- fortune that had latterly attended his efforts. Councils 
 of war and lack of the barest necessaries had both tended to 
 cripple his efforts, and he feared he was held responsible. 
 Brilliant as he was in action, like Nelson he was deeply sensi- 
 tive to any slights, and when Howe came to Portsmouth 
 where Hawke was lying and told him that he (Howe) was 
 commanded by the Ministry to make a descent on the coast 
 of France, Hawke saw through the snub of the implied 
 suggestion that this young man could do what he had failed 
 to do, and he also realised that the shortcomings of the poli- 
 ticians had been laid on his shoulders. His fiery soul re- 
 volted at this injustice and without a moment's delay he 
 wrote : 
 
 "PORTSMOUTH, 7 o'clock p.m., 
 
 "May 10, 1758. 
 "SIR, 
 
 "About four o'clock arrived here Captain Howe and 
 delivered me their Lordships' order of the gth. In last 
 September I was sent out to command an expedition under 
 all the disadvantages one could possibly labour under, arising 
 chiefly from my being under the influence of land officers 
 
36 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 in Councils of War at sea. Last cruise I went out on a par- 
 ticular service, almost without the least means of performing 
 it. Now every means to crown success is provided, another 
 is to reap the credit. I have therefore directed my flag 
 immediately to be struck ... for no consequence that can 
 attend my striking it without orders shall ever out-balance 
 with me the wearing it one moment with discredit. 
 
 " I am, &c., 
 
 "E. HAWKE." 
 
 That letter was worthy the man ; he, like Nelson, thought 
 more of honour than place. 
 
 We need not follow Hawke through the details of the 
 succeeding eighteen months, during which time victory after 
 victory was gained and immortalised in the song " Hearts 
 of Oak." 
 
 Come, cheer up, my lads ! 'tis to glory we steer, 
 To add something more to this wonderful year ; 
 'Tis a free man we call you, not press you as slaves ; 
 For who are so free as the sons of the waves ? x 
 Hearts of oak are our ships, 
 Jolly tars are our men ; 
 We always are ready, 
 Steady, boys, steady ! 
 We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again. 
 
 This song was sung nightly to crowded and appreciative 
 audiences, which shows that Mafficking and mawkish sen- 
 timents were known before the last Boer War ! While theatre 
 audiences were bawling themselves hoarse at the bidding 
 of a mummer and assuring themselves and each other that 
 " none were so free as the sons of the waves," these " free 
 men " were labouring under a serfdom as cruel as has ever 
 afflicted man. 
 
 France was completing her schemes of invasion at Vannes 
 
 1 Their brand of " freedom " was a peculiar one, as we shall see 
 later. 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 37 
 
 and Havre. Theirot was to sail north and draw off our 
 ships ; then the main fleet under Conflans at Brest and La 
 Clue from Toulon were to cover the passage for the invading 
 army, all of which nicely cut schemes fell through, though 
 Louis XV. still believed that an invasion might be carried 
 out from Brest. But Hawke stood watch and ward. Month 
 after month through that exceptionably bad summer of 
 1759 he remained at his post, but he never forgot his men : 
 he sent his ships home two at a time to be re-watered and 
 re-victualled, and he gave the most stringent orders that 
 their ships' companies should on these brief visits enjoy a 
 rest and be liberated from the monotonous confinement of 
 ship-life. In the early part of the blockade he had established 
 a line of transports to bring fresh supplies of beer and beef 
 to his men, and he himself inspected it to make sure that 
 the supplies were good. He knew the corruption of victualling 
 officials, and that however bad things were, once they were 
 distributed the men dare not complain ; so when he received 
 inferior beer he simply poured it into the sea and sent for 
 more ; because inferior meat was sent he demanded live 
 cattle. Still his wishes were not carried out to his satisfaction. 
 He then peremptorily demanded that the victualling depart- 
 ment at Plymouth should be instantly remodelled. The 
 Admiralty knew the man ; they remembered his action at 
 Portsmouth, so they meekly acquiesced, and Hawke got 
 what he wanted. No other fleet had been so well looked 
 after as this, and as a result his men were contented in spite 
 of the cruel monotony of their lives. 
 
 Winter came, and with it terrible gales that drove him 
 to seek shelter at Torbay, but he was back again ere the 
 enemy had noticed his absence. Again he was blown away, 
 and this time incoming French ships from the Indies told 
 Conflans that the blockade was raised, and he (Conflans) 
 
3 8 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 sailed forth from Brest on the very day that Hawke left 
 England to again take up his position. 
 
 The news reached England that Conflans was out, and the 
 fickle mob, who had not long before wept with maudlin 
 sentimentalism what time they declared " Britons never, 
 never, never should be slaves," now declared the country 
 was doomed, and burned Hawke's effigy for " forsaking his 
 post ! " But Hawke was advancing, and on the morning of 
 November 20 Conflans discovered his ships on the horizon. 
 Conflans had no heart for a fight with such an opponent ; 
 the coast was near Quiberon Bay, with its rocks and shoals 
 and everlasting breakers, even when all around is dead calm. 
 Every French ship had a Breton pilot on board. He would 
 lead his enemy into a trap : as his pilots guided his own vessels 
 into channels they alone knew he would turn his guns on 
 the English ships as they struck rock and shoal. 
 
 He reckoned without Hawke. 
 
 There is a magnificence, a grandeur, about this battle not 
 found in any other in which English ships have taken part. 
 A gale was blowing, the rain came down in a pitiless torrent, 
 the sky was inky black ; at each ship's wheel there were 
 eight men, and so violent was the motion of the ships as 
 they plunged ahead that men were hurled about the decks. 
 Ahead was Quiberon Bay, the rocky Cardinals on one side, 
 the Four Banks on the other, the sea thundering over them 
 with the noise of a thousand cannons. 
 
 At three o'clock on that winter's afternoon Hawke made the 
 signal to close. First to feel the brunt of the British attack 
 was the Formidable, then the These ; the Heros, then the 
 Superbe. This was Hawke's prey ; with one broadside 
 delivered at point-blank range she was literally blown out 
 of the waters and sank in that seething cauldron with all 
 hands. The like had not been seen before. The These, 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 39 
 
 with more than 600 on board, sank like a stone, while the 
 Heros drifted away towards the breakers. The Soleil Royal, 
 the flagship of Conflans, was inside the Bay, but Hawke 
 in the Royal George passed on, only to be warned by the 
 master of the awful danger of the place. " You have done 
 your duty in pointing out the danger," replied Hawke ; 
 " now lay me alongside of the Soleil Royal." Darkness 
 was now coming on, but the Soleil Royal was found and 
 engaged at close quarters, only to escape again in the Stygian 
 darkness. Panic had seized the French at this almost super- 
 natural daring of the British, so that when morning broke 
 and Hawke again commenced the attack Conflans fled before 
 him, running his ship on the rocks. The other ships of the 
 French fleet reached the river Vilaine, only to have their 
 backs broken as the tide went out. Hawke had restored the 
 trident to the hand of Britannia, and his sea men had gallantly 
 repaid him for his care during the long days of the blockade. 
 Here we saw England's fighting sea men at their best. The 
 hardships incidental to a sea life were nothing, for justice 
 and not tyranny was the keynote of Hawke's discipline ; but 
 above all he had cultivated contentment by the way he had 
 looked after the victualling of his fleet. That a well-filled 
 mouth cannot grumble was fully realised by Hawke. He 
 did not let his men go hungry and then flog them because 
 they were discontented. Thus when the hour of trial came 
 leader and led were irresistible. 
 
 Such a victory naturally led to a great outburst of public 
 rejoicing, and hardly were the ashes of the effigy cold before 
 Hawke was the public idol. Quiberon Bay sealed the con- 
 quest of Wolfe in the New World, and the British Empire 
 had birth. Curiously enough the victory was followed by 
 an outburst of discontent in Hawke's command, which found 
 expression in the following lines : 
 
40 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Since Hawke did bang 
 
 Monsieur Conflans 
 
 You sent us beef and beer. 
 
 Now Monsieur's beat 
 
 We've naught to eat 
 
 Since you have nought to fear. 
 
 For once the complaint seems to have been ill-founded. 
 True, the beer and beef did stop, but not through neglect 
 but through the terribly stormy weather that followed the 
 victory of Quiberon and made the service of the victualling 
 ships almost impossible. The verse, however, shows how 
 ever-present was the food question. No one who has not 
 lived a life at sea can in any way appreciate what this food 
 question means to the sea man. The first and fiercest instinct 
 of nature is quest of food, and from my earliest days at sea 
 I noticed the tremendous effect food had on a ship's company. 
 I noticed that after being some time from harbour, when the 
 meals approximated closer and closer to " bare Navy," as 
 a purely official dietary was called, the tempers of the men 
 grew worse, and things on board tended to run less smoothly. 
 A hard forenoon on deck, followed by a dinner of rancid salt 
 pork, mostly fat, would produce irritation, and men would 
 quarrel among themselves and at the same time continually 
 growl at the ship work and drills. As soon as the ship arrived 
 in harbour and the larder was replenished from the bum-boats, 
 all irritation would pass away, and a long trying day's work 
 would be followed by a sing-song in the forecastle. I noticed 
 this as a continually recurring phenomenon, and gradually 
 took a keen interest in it till I became convinced that, once 
 solve the food problem and give our fighting sea men reason- 
 ably good meals at reasonable intervals, a great many other 
 troubles would automatically die out ; but so long as they 
 remained ill fed it would be useless to try and deal with 
 other matters that affected them. It was this that induced 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 41 
 
 me to make a long and exhaustive study of naval victualling, 
 and to suggest the abolition of the old system for the one 
 now in operation. 
 
 We have all heard the matron's advice to the young wife 
 who wanted to know how to keep her husband in good temper : 
 " Feed the brute ! " Good sage advice too, and specially 
 applicable to the sea man. From the day I laid down the 
 marling spike and took up the pen I used it to urge a better 
 system of victualling in the Navy. It took over ten years' 
 constant plodding before I converted the Admiralty to my 
 views ; but everything comes to him who waits and 
 works. 
 
 Formerly it was the custom, as at the present day, for 
 some officers, after a period at sea, to enter Parliament to 
 " represent the Navy." In 1773, Howe, who was member 
 for Dartmouth, brought forward the grievances of naval 
 captains in the matter of their half-pay, and in spite of the 
 opposition of Lord North, who was then Prime Minister, 
 he gained the sympathy of the House, and a sum of 7,000 
 was granted. The scale of half- pay was fixed at los. a day 
 for fifty captains, 85. for thirty, and 6s. for all the others 
 in order of seniority. But not a word was said about the 
 condition of the men, which was now deplorable. No officer, 
 from the captain down to the youngest midshipman, ever 
 went on deck without a rattan. 1 As men pulled on ropes 
 the officers ran up and down cutting at them indiscriminately, 
 and driving them like cattle from pillar to post ; flogging 
 round the fleet became a common occurrence, while flogging 
 on board was carried on to such an extent in some ships that 
 the gratings were rigged at the gangway every morning 
 and left rigged all day, so that men might be triced up at 
 
 1 There were of course notable exceptions, but they were the 
 exception. 
 
42 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 a moment's notice. "Four dozen before breakfast" was 
 a terrible reality. 
 
 I think there is nothing so terrible in all history as the 
 condition of our fighting sea men at this period. Uncon- 
 trolled power, with an absence of all criticism, had so brutalised 
 the average naval officer that the only human thing about 
 him was his shape. In Parliament and to his friends he 
 was declaring that the sea men led one of the happiest and 
 easiest of lives, and the country was flooded with literature 
 bearing out that contention. In his admirable work, " The 
 British Tar in Fact and Fiction," Commander C. N. Robinson, 
 R.N., has made an extensive collection of these, together 
 with old plates showing how the sea man was represented 
 to a past generation : 
 
 Tis grog is the soul of the sailor, 
 'Tis that makes him squeeze the French frog ; 
 Was the boat full, by Neptune I'd bail her, 
 Or drown in an ocean of grog. 
 
 The above lines are typical of the verses representing the 
 sea man's supposed drinking capability, while his happy 
 and easy life at sea is represented by : 
 
 Life is chequered toil and pleasure, 
 Fill up all the various measure : 
 Hark ! the crew with sunburnt faces 
 Shouting Black-eyed Susan's graces ! 
 
 Chorus 
 
 Then hark to the Boatswain's whistle, whistle ! 
 Then hark to the Boatswain's whistle, whistle ! 
 
 Let us sing, let us toil, 
 
 Let us drink all the while, 
 
 For labour's the price of our joys, 
 
 For labour's the price of our joys. 
 
 And so that he should have a real happy time all round other 
 songs dealt with his doings on shore : 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 43 
 
 At Portsmouth while we're lying, 
 
 With our noble commodore ; 
 We'll send our money flying, 
 
 And then to sea for more. 
 
 There seems to be no doubt that the average Englishman 
 took these pictures as true to life, and thought that sea men 
 were exceedingly lucky dogs. At the seaports they only 
 saw Jack on shore suffering from the violent reaction of his 
 life on board, and were quite content to benefit by his lavish- 
 ness ; what went on aboard when ships were at sea was no 
 concern of theirs. 
 
 Throughout the service ship mutinies were becoming more 
 and more frequent. Some were stamped out with a devilish 
 severity, some were condoned, but all were as far as possible 
 concealed from public knowledge. When things did leak 
 out and questions were asked in the House, those naval 
 officers who were at the time members always assured the 
 House that there was nothing wrong with the Navy, and that 
 whatever happened was due to the " natural cursedness " 
 of the men. So the nation was lulled to sleep till 1797, 
 when the great upheaval which had been so long brewing 
 came, and with it nearly the winding up of the Empire. 
 
 The main grievances of pay and food were dealt with, and 
 duty was resumed by a number of those who had openly 
 protested coming under the tender mercies of St. Vincent, 
 then Commander- in-Chief of the Mediterranean. The " stern 
 but kindly discipline " of St. Vincent has been referred to 
 by many writers, but there was nothing kindly in St. Vincent's 
 nature : he was a mere cattle driver of whom Nelson said, 
 "He took a hatchet to every error, and enjoyed inflicting 
 punishment." His reign in the Mediterranean was one of 
 terror : flogging round the fleet ; hanging at the yard-arm. 
 It really seemed as though he said, "You complained of the 
 
44 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 officers of the Channel and North Sea Fleets because they 
 flogged you with whips, I will flog you with scorpions." Of 
 all the Admirals who rose to fame in the old wars I know of 
 none who is so deserving of the execration of the sea man as 
 St. Vincent. In all things he was the antithesis of such men 
 as Hawke, Nelson, Hardy, and Collingwood. 
 
 Nelson's star was now in the ascendant, and wherever 
 Nelson was the rigours of " discipline," as it was understood, 
 were at once abated, for he always gathered kindred spirits 
 round him. 
 
 Of Hardy his biographers say : 
 
 " In the matter of discipline Sir Thomas Hardy was far 
 n advance of his times. He was the first who had the courage 
 to trust to the honour of his men and to dispense with the 
 patrol of boats round the ships for the prevention of desertion. 
 He was in the habit of granting shore-leave for forty-eight 
 hours at a time, with no security for their punctual return 
 but their pledged word. The result was an esprit de corps, 
 and on one occasion when weighing anchor to put to sea the 
 whole crew was apparently in a fervent state of dissatis- 
 faction. It soon became known that the cause of the com- 
 motion was the absence of two of the men on leave, which 
 their comrades looked on as a breach of good faith reflecting 
 on them all. Soon these two men were seen approaching 
 the ship, ' rowing with might and main ' ; their being adrift 
 was quite accidental, and as soon as they came on board 
 three cheers were given for Sir Thomas Hardy ! " 
 
 The experience of Hardy alone gives the lie to all those 
 " strict disciplinarians " who turned their ships into prisons, 
 with a cordon of armed boats keeping guard round them all 
 night. Collingwood was a similar type to Hardy, and some 
 have said that their association with Nelson had shaped their 
 characters in this way. Rather let us think that it was their 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 45 
 
 nature that attracted Nelson towards them. " Birds of a 
 feather flock together." Nelson would have no " flogging 
 captains " with him if he could help it ; if they did get with 
 him, his very presence curbed their brutality, and his fleet 
 was contented if not happy. Under St. Vincent a fleet was 
 a floating hell. 
 
 On August i, 1798, Quiberon Bay was repeated at Aboukir 
 Bay. Otherwise than in weather conditions never did 
 history so closely repeat itself as in these two battles ; 
 both commanders loved by their men on account of their 
 continued generosity and justice. In the former, Hawke 
 kept weary watch and ward month after month, because 
 he knew just where his antagonist was ; in the final act 
 swooping down in a gale of wind into a bay full of rocks, 
 shoals, and quicksands, and destroying the enemy. In 
 the latter, Nelson kept chasing Brueys, but always just 
 missed him, till late in the evening of August i, 1798, when 
 the naked topmasts of the French ships came into sight, 
 showing like a fringe of lances against the low shores of 
 Aboukir Bay. Darkness was falling, but little recked the 
 intrepid Nelson. Into the Bay his fleet poured, risking 
 shoals and darkness, and the result was not a victory 
 but a conquest ; and this in spite of the assertion by an 
 obscure naval captain that " Nelson demoralised his men by 
 kindness." But neither Hawke, Nelson, nor any others of 
 the school to which they belonged were guilty of weak kind- 
 ness. Hawke could punish and Nelson could punish, but 
 they never punished, or allowed others to punish, unless an 
 offence had been committed and was proved to have been 
 committed. Justice rather than kindness was the main- 
 spring of their actions, and they hated tyranny and injustice 
 with a very healthy hatred. These two men beyond all 
 others proved that the cruel tyranny which the world has 
 
46 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 been pleased to call " naval discipline " was as unnecessary 
 as it was sinful. 
 
 The culminating scene of Nelson's life on October 21, 1805, 
 need not be dealt with at length. It is too well known, for, 
 " If the chariot and the horses of fire had been vouchsafed for 
 Nelson's translation, he could scarcely have departed in a 
 brighter blaze of glory." But though we have practically 
 canonised him as the patron saint of England, we have largely 
 ignored the one great lesson he taught, that the fighting 
 sea man is a much more formidable weapon when led by 
 justice and kindness than when driven by tyranny and 
 punishment. 
 
 After " Eighteen Hundred and war time " the nation settled 
 down to a long period of peace and prosperity, the fruits of 
 the deeds of her fighting sea men. Did the national conscience 
 then rouse itself to inquire fully into the conditions of sea life, 
 so that its sea men might also enjoy some of the blessings their 
 labours and blood had won ? Not a bit ! Playwright, 
 poet, author, and artist had conspired to lull that conscience 
 to sleep ; the soporific administered being that there was 
 " one flesh of sea men and another of land men," while naval 
 officers had become saturated with the superstition that the 
 sea man must be ruled with a rod of iron, and they inflicted 
 punishment when no offence had been committed, just as 
 a foretaste of what would happen should a breach of law or 
 custom take place. 
 
 So we drifted along till the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, when naval operations becoming again necessary, 
 the Admiralty discovered the Navy was still unpopular with 
 the sons of the " Mistress of the Seas." So a Royal Com- 
 mission was appointed to inquire into the manning of the 
 fleet. Here was the opportunity that should have been 
 seized to inquire thoroughly and exhaustively into the laws 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 47 
 
 and customs of the Navy. But the sea man had not yet 
 commenced to carry a pen at the end of his knife-lanyard, 
 so his voice remained silent, and outside him were too many 
 opposed to change, too many interested in maintaining the 
 status quo. Of all these groups the most important was that 
 inert but powerful mass of naval officers who took things 
 as they found them, without reasoning as to why they existed, 
 without observing their development or decline, and without 
 applying their critical faculties to discover the relation which 
 they might have to their changing surroundings. So the 
 Royal Commission left the laws of the Navy untouched, 
 and suggested a system of long service, with a pension at 
 the end, as an inducement for sea men to join the Navy ; and 
 in 1853 this scheme came into existence. A part of this 
 scheme was the introduction of a training service, under which 
 boys of tender years fifteen to sixteen and a half would be 
 entered and trained for a sea life, these boys to have certain 
 qualifications to enable them to join at all. Thus we passed 
 from the old compulsion of the press-gang to the persuasive 
 eloquence of the recruiting sergeant. 
 
 But no far-seeing statesman arose, who, piercing through 
 the blackness of the eighteenth century into Cromwellian 
 days and seizing the " Instructions " of Monck, Disbrow, 
 and Penn, could say, " The laws and customs that grew up 
 when ships were filled from the prisons and the gutters of 
 our cities can no longer hold good. Now we are about to fill 
 them with the flower of our youth let us revise our naval 
 laws to meet the requirements of the new personnel, so that 
 the two can develop together, or else there surely must 
 come a time when the two will clash, to the detriment, per- 
 chance to the downfall, of the Empire." 
 
 " No man putteth new wine into old bottles ; else the 
 new wine will burst the bottles and the bottles shall 
 
48 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles, and 
 both are preserved." 
 
 The warning voice was lacking, so we proceeded to put 
 our new wine into the old bottles. 
 
 For some time we felt no ill results. But the personnel 
 gradually changed, though no great standard of intelligence 
 was yet called for. Sails were the motive power, and muzzle- 
 loading guns the armament of our ships-of-war. Still, dis- 
 content at the conditions commenced to assert itself. Men 
 who were voluntarily serving their country would not tolerate 
 flogging with the cat ; and though they were forbidden to 
 raise their combined voice against its use they made their 
 feelings known to their friends, and these feelings soon found 
 expression in Parliament. 
 
 Then came a general discontent with the victualling ar- 
 rangements, which were the same in 1899 as they were in 1799. 
 To every complaint came the stereotyped reply : " The vic- 
 tualling is perfect ; the men are well fed and have nothing 
 to complain at." Yet the complaints grew till in 1900 a Com- 
 mittee was appointed, not to inquire into and find out the 
 faults of the system, but to whitewash it and prove to the 
 nation that the sea men had no cause of complaint. This 
 Committee issued their report, and on October I, 1903, the 
 fighting sea man had two ounces of jam allowed him daily to 
 encourage him to be good ! 
 
 Happily for the Navy, and happily for the nation, Trafalgar 
 Day, 1904, saw a man don the mantle of First Sea Lord who 
 hated sham, who hated incapables, whose favourite motto 
 was " Ruthless, Relentless, Remorseless," yet who was 
 saturated with the spirit of Nelson in his love of justice and 
 hatred of tyranny, and to him more than any other man 
 does the Navy owe its present admirable system of victualling. 
 Mine was a poor weak voice crying in the wilderness, pointing 
 
FROM EARLIER TIMES 49 
 
 the line that reform should take, but it was Sir John, now 
 Lord Fisher, who opened up the whole question with the 
 object not of burking but welcoming reform. An iniquity 
 was not less iniquitous because it had the sanction of 107 
 years. 1 So in 1906 another Committee was appointed, and 
 this time the iniquity was wiped out. 
 
 The present century ushered in an entirely new era. The 
 sea man was no longer a mere hewer of wood and drawer of 
 water. Mechanical science was rapidly changing a ship-of- 
 war into a huge box of complicated machinery which required 
 ever and ever more skill and intelligence for its successful 
 manipulation. Submarines, wireless telegraphy, turbines, 
 modern guns of precision, torpedoes, dirigibles, all demanded 
 and had attention bestowed on them, till the sea man was 
 turned into a student : brawn had to give way to brain, and 
 our sea men had to be more and more carefully selected to 
 enable them to meet the strain of the new conditions. 
 
 Alongside this rapid development, mutterings of discontent 
 grew more and more pronounced. Ministers were and are 
 daily bombarded with questions concerning lower-deck life. 
 It is the new wine stirring in the old bottles. 
 
 Official replies are largely what they were 150 years ago. 
 " Only a few malcontents ; the mass of the men are quite 
 happy." Various writers, whose knowledge of the Navy is a 
 purely arm-chair one, lament all these latter-day signs. Some 
 ascribe them to the growth of Socialism, some to other causes, 
 but no one has the courage to ask Britain, " Is all right with 
 those who man your ships ? " for the fashion of the hour is 
 to put our faith in Dreadnoughts. And now, having dealt 
 with the general, let us turn to the particular. 
 1 Savings were legalised in 1799. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 
 
 The Admiral struck his flag and went to London ; the Minerva 
 went into Portsmouth Harbour to be paid off, and after being a week 
 there, without having a moment's liberty on shore, after being abroad 
 so long in unhealthy climates, thirty-seven of us were drafted on board 
 the Royal William at Spithead, and the same day drafted again into the 
 Prompte, a frigate of twenty-eight guns, and ready for sea. Here 
 was encouragement for a sea man to fight for his king and country I 
 A coolie in India was better off ! This took place on May 2, 1794. 
 However, by getting fresh provisions the scurvy began to abate, 
 thank God ! and my gums broke away bit by bit without pain as the 
 new ones came." 1 
 
 WILLIAM RICHARDSON. 
 
 FOR over a hundred years it has been the custom for drama- 
 tists, playwrights, and, latterly, music-hall artists, to depict 
 the sea man when on shore as a wild, roystering, debauchee, 
 with heaps of gold in his possession and an abiding passion 
 for women and wine. This phase of the sea man's supposed 
 character has been repeated so often and so long till it has 
 been accepted as true, not only by the land man, but by the 
 average naval officer, and around the sea man of to-day all 
 manner of restrictions are placed to see that he does not 
 indulge in these his supposed special vices. It does not seem 
 to have struck any one that excesses when on shore were but 
 the natural reaction against repressions while on board, and 
 that one was the measure of the other. 
 
 1 " A Mariner of England." An account of the career of William 
 Richardson from Cabin Boy in the merchant service to Warrant Officer 
 in the Royal Navy (1780 to 1819) as told by himself. 
 
 50 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 51 
 
 There seems to have been a kind of unconscious conspiracy 
 on the part of both writers and artists of the past to misrepre- 
 sent the men who were gradually turning the small group of 
 islands off the coast of France into a mighty Empire. Or, 
 perhaps, it was not altogether unconscious, but a set desire to 
 mislead public opinion. Uncontrolled and autocratic power 
 had corrupted and brutalised sea officers to such an extent 
 that our ships-of-war, in which it should have been an honour 
 to serve and which should have been manned by the flower of 
 the nation's manhood, were looked on with such aversion that 
 they had to be manned with the help of the press-gang and 
 from the convict prisons. Brutality followed on brutality, 
 till even the pen of a Dante would have failed to describe 
 the horrors of the sea man's life. Both writers and painters 
 took their cue from naval officers, so both pen and brush 
 depicted all his troubles as due to his own inherent wickedness. 
 " Look," they seemed to say, " this is what he does when 
 uncontrolled ; see how necessary it is to have a tight hand 
 over him." 
 
 Now and again a sea officer has seemed to step outside his 
 environment, and plead against this universal brutality, but 
 they have been very few and far between, and can be counted 
 on the fingers of one hand. That there were kind, humane 
 officers in the old days goes without saying, but they were 
 the exceptions. William Richardson writes (1799) : 
 
 " While at Port Royal I was much gratified in finding 
 myself appointed to the Regulus (14 guns), commanded by 
 my old friend Captain George Eyre, who commanded the 
 Prompte when we came from England ; so I left the ' happy 
 Prompte^ a ship where there was none of your browbeating 
 allowed, nor that austere authority where two men durst 
 hardly be seen speaking together (as I have seen since in the 
 service). The Prompte' s crew were like a family united, and 
 
52 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 would, both officers and men, risk their lives to assist each 
 other. This I knew well, having belonged to her more than 
 five years in continual active service." 
 
 Happy indeed were the men who chanced to get into such 
 a ship, for they were indeed few and far between. In Novem- 
 ber 1745 Admiral Vernon wrote : 
 
 " It will be necessary to reconcile the affection of the sea 
 man to the public service by a more humane treatment. . . . 
 I have long lamented their situation, and made some faint 
 attempts towards relieving it." 
 
 Admiral Patten describes the state of the Navy as one of 
 civil war, the officers backed up by the marines on one side, 
 the sea men on the other. 
 
 " When the mode of supplying the British Navy with sea 
 men is taken into account," he wrote, " it will not be a matter 
 of surprise to find that they desert. Continual oppression 
 will produce continual attempts to escape from it. In vain 
 hath the most severe punishment been inflicted upon deserters. 
 From the nature of mankind, it is not to be expected that five 
 hundred men out of six hundred will patiently continue under a 
 severe martial law, to which they have been subjected without 
 their consent, during a whole war, which may last six, eight, 
 or twenty years. The most violent attempts will certainly be 
 made to regain freedom of action and escape the severity of 
 discipline. Neither the fear of death, nor any other punish- 
 ment, will be found effectual under such circumstances to 
 secure sea men to the British Navy. The wonder is not that 
 they desert, but rather how they have been able to bear con- 
 finement with so much patience, as it appears they have done. 
 As this imprisonment (for it deserves no other name) is well 
 known to sea men to be the plan upon which Commanders 
 think themselves obliged to proceed in order to keep the ships 
 manned, it is of itself sufficient to make any man defend 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 53 
 
 himself to the last gasp, rather than yield to a confinement of 
 which he can see no end." 
 
 The second Article added to the Printed Instructions, in 
 some measure required a captain to make a prison of his ship. 
 This order, proceeding from the highest naval authority, gave 
 a sanction to the most oppressive confinement if an officer 
 happened to be so inclined. The " highest authority " were 
 officers who had passed through and qualified in the school 
 of brutality, and they merely acted according to their lights. 
 On October 10, 1745, Admiral Vernon wrote a letter of 
 protest to the Admiralty on this very subject : 
 
 " Our longboats and cutters are all employed for impressing 
 sea men, as their Lordships directed (but to be sure the 
 greater part of them will escape, as they are as industrious 
 to escape it as we can be to execute it), and which I shall do 
 with all possible diligence, as it is my duty, being ordered, 
 though much against my judgment and inclination. 
 
 " The East and West India men are generally in a scorbutic 
 state, that requires some refreshment and smell of the shore 
 to recover therefrom, and for want of which it is to be feared 
 the lives of many useful subjects to His Majesty are lost 
 to the public. . . . Therefore I cannot but think it honest 
 advice for His Majesty's service that some Parliamentary 
 provision should be provided for the Crown's obtaining the 
 voluntary service of our sea men ; that those who are to 
 be depended upon for the defence of our present Royal family, 
 our religion, and liberties, should not be the only persons in 
 the country that appear to have no liberties at all." 
 
 But the Admiralty did not want honest advice. Events, 
 in fact, showed that they very bitterly resented it. Their 
 lordships made Vernon feel the weight of their wrath, so 
 impressment and its accompanying brutality went on and 
 desertion proceeded apace. 
 
54 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Some apologists, Captain Glascock for example, have tried 
 to show that it was only the land man and the " sea lawyer " 
 who was dissatisfied. He makes one of his characters say 
 
 " We never said a word, no, not so much as the sign of a 
 syllable, against the use of the cat, for we knew, aye, better, 
 by George, nor the officers themselves, there was a precious 
 sight too many chaps in the service as couldn't be managed 
 without it." 
 
 Captain Frederick Chamier was another ex -naval officer, 
 who used his pen to excuse, even laud the brutality of the 
 Navy, and to try and prove that the sea man himself delighted 
 in his treatment ; only sea lawyers or devil's attorneys ob- 
 jected to the cat, and tried to make people believe they were 
 whipped and kicked like dogs. Into the mouth of his hero, 
 Ben Brace, he puts the following : 
 
 " Let them be educated, say some. I say, no, you'll 
 make them worse. Instead of talking of the good old 
 times, spinning a yarn about Nelson of the Nile and 
 such like, they would be squatting about the decks like 
 a set of Turks, with newspapers before them, settling the 
 affairs of the nation, and talking about that none of them 
 understood. Let them alone ; they are used to it, they 
 think less of the disgrace than the pain ; and whilst we have 
 officers who are as humane as they are brave, we have little 
 to fear from tyranny, and that tyranny can be stopped." 
 
 That is the kind of soporific that has been handed out to 
 the public ad nauseam. But the facts are all against the 
 sea-lawyer apology. I have an authentic account of the 
 qualities of the men who deserted from the whole Navy 
 between the beginning of the month of May 1803 and June 8, 
 1805, showing that notwithstanding the great care sea officers 
 took to keep sea men in their respective ships, and notwith- 
 standing the awful punishments for desertion, the loss of 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 55 
 
 able sea men the prime sea men of the fleet was nearly 
 equal to that of ordinary sea men and land men combined, 
 and although no more than one third of a ship's company 
 was allowed to consist of men rated A.B. 
 
 Invalided by survey of captains and surgeons . 
 Able sea men deserted ..... 
 Ordinary sea men deserted .... 
 Land men deserted ..... 
 
 Total lost to the Navy in 25 months . . 15,319 
 
 And now let us turn to that old-time sea man, William 
 Richardson, and see what he has to say about it all. 
 
 " June 25, 1810. A transport boat was upset near us, 
 but by speedy assistance they were saved. Sent Samuel 
 Morgan, a prisoner for desertion, on board the Barfleur, to 
 await his trial, and next day he and two men belonging to 
 the Kent (likewise for desertion) were tried by a Court Martial 
 and each sentenced to three hundred lashes. Poor Morgan 
 was much pitied, being a good and mild creature, and almost 
 fainted when the sentence was pronounced. By the kind 
 interference of Lady Hardy poor Morgan afterwards got 
 reprieved, but the other two poor fellows were punished round 
 the fleet ; but did not receive their number of lashes (at 
 once) because they could not bear it, so they were sent on 
 board the flag ship until they recovered to receive the re- 
 mainder. Horrid work ! Could any one bear to see a beast 
 used so, let alone a fellow creature ? People may talk of 
 negroes' slavery and the whip, but let them look nearer home, 
 and see a poor sailor arrived from a long voyage, exulting 
 in the pleasure of soon being among his dearest friends and 
 relations. Behold him just entering the door, when a press- 
 gang seizes him like a felon, drags him away and puts him 
 into the tender's hold, and from thence he is sent on board 
 a ship-of-war, perhaps ready to sail to a foreign station, without 
 seeing either his wife, friends, or relations ; if he complains 
 he is likely to be seized up and flogged with the cat, much more 
 
56 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 severe than the negro driver's whip ; if he deserts he is flogged 
 round the fleet nearly to death. Surely they had better 
 shoot the man at once : it would be greater lenity." 
 
 But lenity was the last thing that mattered with the treat- 
 ment of the sea man. Who first devised flogging round the 
 fleet it is not possible to know he must have been a fiend 
 incarnate ; and that the punishment could ever have been 
 generally adopted is a more lurid light on the callous 
 brutality of the sea officer of the period than any volume 
 that will ever be written. 
 
 When a man was flogged round the fleet the ship's launch 
 was prepared by means of three capstan bars being rigged 
 triangle fashion, after the style of sheer legs. To this con- 
 trivance the culprit was lashed, his wrists to the upper part 
 above his head, his ankles spread-eagle fashion to the lower 
 ends of two of the bars. In the stern sheets were the master- 
 at-arms, boatswain's mates, with a supply of cats, and a 
 ship's surgeon ; also a file of marines with loaded arms. In 
 the fore part of the launch was a drummer, who used to play 
 the " Rogue's March " as the boat was towed from ship to 
 ship. 
 
 When everything was ready the hands were ordered up 
 to witness punishment, and manned the rigging and nettings. 
 The captain stood at the gangway and read the particular 
 Article of War relating to the crime ; then, at a signal, the 
 boatswain's mate commenced the flogging, the number of 
 strokes the victim received alongside each ship depending 
 on the number of ships present, they being divided up so 
 that no ship should miss its share of the spectacle. When 
 the last lash had been given of the allotted number for the 
 ship, the order " Pipe down ! " was given ; the crew left the 
 rigging and carried on with their work, and a cutter took the 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 57 
 
 launch in tow and started for the next ship to the dismal 
 rattle of the Rogue's March. Over the bare body and bloody 
 back of the victim a blanket was roughly thrown, but in- 
 variably he was left triced up to the triangle. 
 
 The same performance would be repeated at ship after 
 ship, till the poor wretch's back was a mere mass of torn and 
 bleeding flesh. Should he faint, water was thrown on him 
 as a reviver ; the surgeon stood by to say when endurance 
 had reached its limit. If that should be before the allotted 
 number of lashes had been given, the prisoner was taken 
 on board the flag ship, where he remained until the skin on 
 his back had sufficiently healed, when he was once more 
 triced up and taken round the fleet for the completion of his 
 punishment. 
 
 Happy was the poor wretch who died without recovering, 
 for this second part must have been indescribable torture. 
 The livid flesh, barely healed and exquisitely tender, burst 
 asunder at the first renewal of the punishment. But " dis- 
 cipline," like Shylock, demanded its pound of flesh, and there 
 was no Portia to circumvent the cat. During these punish- 
 ments the officers were drawn up in full dress on the quarter- 
 deck, while the marines, with bayonets fixed, were there to 
 overawe the sea men England's fighting sea men ; the 
 men who were building the islands into an Empire. What 
 must have been the condition of ship-life when thousands 
 of men risked this awful torture rather than submit to it .> 
 The Glascocks and Chamiers may write of " sea lawyers " 
 and " devil's attorneys " ; there were very few of the former 
 forward and a surfeit of the latter aft, for they must have 
 been devil's attorneys indeed who could have devised and 
 repeated such a devilish torture as flogging round the fleet. 
 
 " When the ship has been sufficiently depopulated by ill 
 
58 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 usage/' says Edward Ward, "my Spark is dispatched 
 ashore, with some choice Hounds, to go hunt up a fresh stock. 
 He and his Bandogs together made a woeful noise in all the 
 seaport towns round the Kingdom ; he beats up all quarters 
 and rumages all the Wapping Ale houses as warmly as he 
 would a prize from the Indies. In fine, he is a perfect hurri- 
 cane in a town, and drives the laggard dog along the streets 
 with as much noise and hustle as butchers do swine at Smith- 
 field:' 
 
 That very fairly represents the outlook of the average sea 
 officer of the period towards the sea man : " like swine at 
 Smithfield ! " 
 
 This was shown by the system of " ship leave " or " mess- 
 deck leave," that was granted by many captains. As soon 
 as a ship came into port, after an absence at sea or on a prize 
 station, the men naturally looked for leave, which was very 
 rarely given ; instead of which a cordon of marine sentries 
 was placed round the ship to prevent men breaking out. 
 William Richardson tells us that 
 
 " During the whole time we had been in the Prompte we had 
 no liberty given to go on shore, and several of our best men 
 had deserted from the boats. One day an officer was sent 
 to press out of a merchantman just arrived in the Roads, 
 and as soon as the officer stepped on board the boats' crew 
 shoved off, set their sails, and ran up the Firth, the wind 
 being fair, as far as they could get, then landed and travelled 
 to Greenock. So strict a watch was kept at night that a 
 man could not go to the ' head ' without being challenged 
 by the sentries with ' Who comes there ? ' and I have heard 
 since from a follower of the captain's that when he left his 
 ship and joined the Andromeda he kept up the same discipline 
 there." * 
 
 1 It was after this captain had left the Prompte and been replaced 
 by another that she became the " happy Prompte " referred to on a 
 previous page. 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 59 
 
 But withal it was not possible to isolate the men from the 
 world entirely when their ship was laying only a few hundred 
 yards from shore, for as soon as she dropped anchor she was 
 surrounded by boats loaded with women and Jews. " Jew " 
 does not necessarily mean that a man was of that nationality : 
 it is a generic term used by sea men towards those who trade. 
 Even to-day those sea men who try to supplement their 
 wages by making clothes for their shipmates are called " Jews," 
 and their sewing is termed "jewing." However, boats 
 loaded with these gentry would at once put off to the ship, 
 some with "jewellery," some with food stuffs, clothes, 
 crockery in fact, a miscellany of articles all designed to catch 
 the eye ; and if allowed inboard they opened up their goods 
 in the gangways and proceeded to drive a roaring trade. 
 If the men had not been paid they were willing to advance 
 money on the security of a pay ticket ; and from what I know 
 of somewhat similar conditions when I first joined the Navy, 
 I should say that the men got about 75. 6d. for a sovereign, 
 but as it was a question of submitting to the terms of the 
 Jew or going without, the unhappy seaman had no alternative 
 but to submit. 
 
 If the captain decided to give " mess-deck leave " then 
 ship routine came to an end for the time being, and women 
 were let on board. These women of the ports really 
 became part and parcel of the naval life of the time, and 
 would follow ships from port to port, and it would seem 
 that they also were the prey to harpies in very much the 
 same way as the sea man, who in the end paid for all. 
 When ships were at sea, these women were naturally 
 without money, so had to eke out a very precarious 
 existence. When a ship or ships returned to port there 
 was a rush to be first alongside, but it was no use going 
 ragged, or such might remain unchosen, so finery of 
 
60 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 sorts had to be procured on loan/ no doubt at excessive 
 rates. 
 
 The boatmen, too, used to drive a flourishing trade with 
 the women on a speculative basis. They would charge them 
 many times the proper fare on the understanding that if 
 they did not pick up a " fancy man " they should be landed 
 and no fare charged at all. This naturally made them 
 careful to take only gaily dressed women alongside ; and no 
 doubt those with pretty faces in addition to fine clothes had 
 first chance as a pure speculation. Once alongside the 
 women trooped aboard, where they were seized on by the 
 sea men and taken away to the mess-decks. William Richard- 
 son tells us that when he returned from the East Indies in 
 1794 and had just anchored at St. Helen's : 
 
 " As the Admiral was dressing to go on shore he saw out 
 of the cabin window two wherries pulling up to the ship full 
 of girls ; he came out much agitated, and sending for Captain 
 Whitby, desired him not to allow such creatures inboard, 
 so they were hailed to keep off ; but as soon as the Admiral 
 got on shore they were permitted to come inboard, and the 
 ship was soon full of them." 
 
 Frequently in the first-rates there were several hundred 
 of these women on board at one time, so that the ordered 
 life of the ship came to an end for the time being, as the 
 women would remain on board sometimes as long as a ship 
 remained in port, sometimes only for a few days, according 
 to the temper of the captain or officer in charge. Here is 
 
 1 Twenty-six years ago, when the writer paid off at Plymouth, 
 hundreds of the women of the town were assembled on Mutton Cove 
 to meet the sailors as they landed. These were all decked out in 
 excessive finery, and I learned that there were people in Plymouth 
 who drove a prosperous trade lending this finery so that the women 
 might more easily entice men. 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 61 
 
 a little scene which took place on board H.M.S. Ccesar, Sir 
 Richard Strachan's flag-ship in Cavvsand Bay, as described 
 by William Richardson : 
 
 " On May nth (1806) Her Royal Highness Caroline, 
 Consort to His Royal Highness George, Prince of Wales, 
 being on a visit to Edgcumbe House, paid our Admiral a 
 visit on board the Casar, accompanied by Lady Hood and 
 some other ladies of distinction, and were received with a 
 royal salute of twenty-five guns. The ship had been cleaned 
 and prepared for the purpose, and all the girls (some hundreds) 
 on board were ordered to keep below on the orlop-deck and 
 out of sight till the visit was over. 
 
 " As Her Royal Highness was going round the decks and 
 viewing the interior, she cast her eyes down the main hatch- 
 way, and there saw a number of girls looking up at her. 
 ' Sir Richard/ she said, ' you told me there were no women 
 on board the ship, but I am convinced there are, for I have 
 seen them peeping up from that place, and am inclined to 
 think they are put down there on my account. I therefore 
 request that it may no longer be permitted.' . 
 
 " So when Her Royal Highness had got on the quarter- 
 deck again the girls were set at liberty, and up they came 
 like a flock of sheep, and the booms and gangways were 
 soon covered with them, staring at the Princess, as if she 
 had been a being just dropped from the clouds." 
 
 What a sight for a royal princess and ladies of distinction 
 to witness ! 
 
 Richardson himself refers to " all the girls on board " as 
 though it was in the natural order of things that they 
 should be there, and the Princess's remark to Sir Richard, 
 ;< You told me there were no women on board," shows that 
 she was aware of the custom, so it must have been very 
 general. 
 
 There was and is about as much privacy on the mess-deck 
 
62 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 of a ship-of-war as there is in the middle of Oxford Street. 
 Under ordinary circumstances, with only the crew on board, 
 the mess-deck or decks were crowded ; with several hundred 
 women on board they must have been fearfully congested. 
 With the women came drink, which they smuggled on board ; 
 intercourse was open and promiscuous, and with men and 
 women in all stages of drunkenness the scene must have 
 been one that had its parallel nowhere else on earth except 
 in another ship-of-war. It was the offspring of our " naval 
 discipline. " Of a verity were the men brought to the level 
 of "swine at Smithfield." It is a very grisly hand that 
 shakes our "glorious naval traditions" in the eyes of the 
 latter-day multitude. 
 
 A few, very few officers prevented such bestiality by a 
 discipline of kindness. As soon as the Hon. Edward Leveson- 
 Gower was appointed to the Prompte (it was he who turned 
 her from " the flogging " into the " happy Prompte ") he at 
 once declared that his ship should never be called a prison 
 ship, and arranged for his men to go ashore ten at a time 
 on twenty-four hours' leave. Richardson tells us 
 
 " I had the luck to be among the first ten, and glad was 
 I to get my foot on English ground again, being the first time 
 since I left it to go to the East Indies ! (Five years before. ) When 
 we left the ship in the liberty boat some of our officers seemed 
 to signify that they did not expect to see us again ; but 
 they were all mistaken, for we returned to our proper time 
 (and so did all the others after us), for we thought it would 
 be very ungrateful now to desert, when we had got a captain 
 who would give us liberty." 
 
 Such liberty was, however, the exception so exceptional, 
 in fact, that twenty-four hours' leave after a five years' 
 confinement on board brought forth all the finer instincts 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 63 
 
 of the sea man, and they thought it would be ungrateful to 
 desert after such kindness ! 
 
 The only liberty on shore that was the lot of fighting sea 
 men was at the end of a war, when they were no longer 
 required, or when a ship paid off after a long commission 
 and the " Press " was not afoot. Then they were turned adrift 
 with their pockets full of money in a strange port, where, 
 after the rigour of years, they gave full fling to their new- 
 found freedom. Whatever may have been their moral and 
 physical condition when they entered the Navy, persistent 
 brutality which masqueraded under the guise of discipline, 
 coupled with bad food and insanitary conditions, had de- 
 moralised them, so much so that they sought oblivion in 
 debauch. 
 
 It was these periods that painters and writers seized on 
 to depict either the abnormal licentiousness of the sea man, 
 or to show what a really good time he had. Much of the 
 former was no doubt done so as to lay all the blame for his 
 bad treatment on his own shoulders ; much of the latter was 
 done to order as recruiting literature when the nation in one 
 of its generous moods was offering bounties for volunteers. 
 But whether it was one or the other, it was a gross caricature 
 of the sea man which became impressed on the national 
 mind and still remains to this day. 
 
 Rational leave, so that men would have behaved like 
 rational beings, was made impossible, not from the viciousness 
 of the sea man, but the animalism of the sea officer. He 
 entered the Navy as a child, and from the day he stepped 
 on board he was encouraged in every brutal act towards 
 the men ; they had extraordinary privileges which they 
 abused extraordinarily. We are told of a midshipman on 
 board H.M.S. Revenge, just before Trafalgar, who used to 
 amuse himself by climbing on to gun carriages, then, calling 
 
64 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 to him the strongest and finest of the sailors, kick and 
 beat them. To have resented this cruelty would have been 
 mutiny, to strike him back would have meant hanging at 
 the yard-arm or flogging round the fleet. The wonder is 
 not that sea officers should have been so brutal, but that 
 there should have been a single well-disposed man among 
 them. Nelson must have been a phenomenon to have 
 graduated in such a school and still have retained a heart 
 overflowing with the milk of human kindness to all. 
 
 Wherever we go, or to whatever authority we turn, we 
 find that the sea man was simply an ordinary man much 
 abused, much wronged, but always to be relied on unless 
 driven to desperation, when he would occasionally turn and 
 rend his tormentors. Barnaby Slush says : " Good mariners 
 grow not up like mushrooms, without care or culture. It 
 is morally impossible, nay and it is naturally impossible, 
 too, to have a brave, active, skilful, resolute body of sailors 
 without just and generous officers." But that is just what 
 we did have, for as Mr. John Layland has pointed out 
 
 " Success or failure (in action) depended upon the officers 
 and not upon the men. There were gross abuses affecting 
 the physique and fitness of the men, in bad and scanty food, 
 cold and hardship ; but when the battle was engaged it was 
 not the men of the lower-deck but the tone and quality of 
 the officers that decided the course of the action. Not in 
 any record of fighting in this period (1702-1756) do we find 
 any failure in the sea men." 
 
 It was not till later, when they met men of their own race 
 in the American War, that they were outclassed, not through 
 lack of bravery, but because they were for once pitted against 
 men who were freely fighting for their country. 
 
 It was Nelson who said : " Aft, the more honour ; forward, 
 the better man." But both fore and aft were Englishmen, 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 65 
 
 and had the qualities of their race. It was the unbridled 
 power of the sea officer that demoralised and brutalised him, 
 and not any special fault inherent in his composition. As 
 Barnaby Slush says, and very correctly this time, that it 
 lay entirely in a captain's power " to have always his com- 
 plement, nay, and double his complement, without even a 
 pressed man among them," and to such, liberty on shore 
 might be freely given ; but to expect those men to act in 
 the same rational way when they were on shore for a brief 
 period as men who were living comfortable, well-fed lives 
 on shore, was to expect them to be above all human failings 
 and weaknesses. As well expect a starving boat's crew, 
 picked up after a month's privation, to sit down to their first 
 meal and act with the same decorum and moderation as he 
 who a few hours previously had partaken of a good repast. 
 
 Those who go through the world with seeing eyes, and see 
 men as men, may see a moderate repetition of the sea man's 
 pranks any Bank Holiday. The workman freed for the day 
 " lets himself go." And in different degrees. The man who 
 leads a hard laborious life, into which there comes little 
 pleasure or little comfort, takes his pleasure violently. The 
 well-paid clerk, to whom some pleasure and comfort comes 
 daily, has no leeway to make up, and his conduct when taking 
 a holiday differs in no way from any other period of his life. 
 
 Under the very best conditions of ship life a sea man is 
 cooped up in a restricted place, with dozens or hundreds of 
 his fellows, and the longer he is cooped up the greater the 
 feeling of freedom when he steps on shore. If his ship life is 
 accompanied by harsh treatment, momentary freedom is 
 likely to upset his equipoise. I can write feelingly on this 
 point, having experienced the restriction and the freedom. 
 
 A ship enters port, and " liberty " is piped for the watch. 
 The men dress themselves in the prescribed dress and fall in 
 5 
 
66 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 for inspection. An officer comes along. This man has some 
 dust on his cap : " Fall out ; leave stopped." Another has a 
 break in the tape on his collar : " Fall out." And so the others 
 stand waiting will they pass muster ? At last the ordeal is 
 over, and with a great sigh of relief those who have passed 
 through it go down into the boat that is to take them to shore 
 and liberty. As the boat nears the shore feeling rises higher 
 and higher, till at last they step on shore free free to do just 
 as they like for a limited time. Ah, yes ! I have felt it hun- 
 dreds of times, and have let myself go in a wild abandonment 
 for twenty- four or forty- eight hours as the case may be, just 
 because I am neither saint nor child, but just an ordinary 
 man swayed by the same failings and feelings as my fellows, 
 whether they be on sea or land. 
 
 But all those bad old times have passed. We no longer 
 have to press men, and leave is given on a generous scale. 
 The traditions of the past, however, still sway the Navy of 
 to-day, and liberty is still a thing granted as a privilege 
 by commanding officers, with the result that the privilege 
 fluctuates to-day just as it did a hundred years ago. Some 
 officers believe in as little leave as possible, and will always 
 find excuses for not granting it. Some years ago an Admiral 
 of this type had command of the Channel Fleet, and denied 
 leave to such an extent that there was a general outcry 
 throughout the fleet. At last, when the ships of the fleet went 
 into an Irish port where there was little in the way of recrea- 
 tion or pleasure to be had, general leave was given for twenty- 
 four hours to each watch, preceded by a general signal from 
 the flag ship to the effect that any man breaking his leave 
 would be severely punished. The resentment that already 
 existed among the men at being unnecessarily confined on 
 board was added to by this public threat, and as soon as they 
 landed they commenced to indulge in all kinds of excesses, 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 67 
 
 while hundreds deliberately broke their leave to show their 
 resentment. Exceedingly foolish no doubt, but human ! For 
 several days the wildest scenes took place between leave- 
 breakers, the local police, and armed patrols landed to arrest 
 absentees ; and the Press, as usual, indulged in comments on 
 the wickedness of the sea man. No one thought to find out 
 the cause ; they were too busy reviling the effect. As was to 
 be expected from this type of Admiral he took the leave- 
 breaking as proof of the men's unfitness to be granted leave, 
 and said, in effect, " You complained when I did not grant 
 leave ; when I did, you proved you were not fitted to enjoy 
 the privilege ; henceforth general leave will not be granted 
 till the ships return to their home ports." 
 
 For the remainder of that cruise leave was granted oc- 
 casionally very occasionally to the chief petty officers 
 only, with the result that " breaking out of the ship " was a 
 frequent offence, while there was a general increase of " crime " 
 throughout the squadron. Whenever this happens it points 
 to general disaffection, with a consequent lowering of the 
 fighting efficiency of the ship or squadron affected. To what 
 extent fighting efficiency suffered in this case must be a matter 
 of pure conjecture, but as it was the nation's first fighting 
 fleet in the event of war, disaffection could not have been 
 other than disastrous had war broken out. 
 
 Under modern conditions, petty officers, non-commis- 
 sioned officers, sea men, and marines are divided into three 
 classes for leave : First Class (Special Leave) : Second Class 
 (General Leave) : Third Class (Limited Leave). 
 
 The King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions say 
 that: 
 
 " Chief Petty Officers are not to be classed for leave, and are, 
 whenever the Service admits of it, to be granted leave. 
 
68 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " The Special Leave List is to consist of all Men below the 
 rating of Chief Petty Officers who return to their leave punc- 
 tually and fit for duty, who have not misconducted themselves 
 while on leave, and who are in the First Class for Conduct. 
 
 " Whenever leave can properly be given and the Service will 
 admit of it, Men of this class are to be allowed the privilege 
 of leave to the fullest extent possible." 
 
 So that in the general stoppage of leave referred to the 
 Admiral broke both the spirit and letter of the Regulations. 
 
 " Limited Leave " men are men who, having broken their 
 leave frequently or for long periods, or, having been guilty of 
 gross misconduct whilst on shore, are in the opinion of the 
 captain unfit to be trusted. Every man in this class is 
 allowed leave only when and where the captain of the ship 
 may decide, but it must be at least once every three months. 
 So soon as a man has returned punctually to his leave three 
 times successively within a period of not less than nine months 
 he is restored to the General Leave List. 
 
 The General Leave List comprises all men not included in 
 the Special or Limited Leave Lists, and the Regulations say 
 that : " Leave is to be granted to this class when convenient 
 to the Service, the principle to be observed being that frequent 
 short leave is preferable to longer leave at protracted inter- 
 vals." Thus, as far as the Regulations themselves are con- 
 cerned, there is no fault to find : the fault lies in the freedom 
 of interpretation that individual officers are allowed to place 
 on them. 
 
 To go to the other extreme we may take the genial and 
 generous Admiral Lord Charles Beresford. Lord Charles has 
 always had very pronounced views on the benefits of a dis- 
 cipline of kindness, and whenever he has been on active service 
 he has shown that such a discipline will fully stand the stress 
 of war. When Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean, 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 69 
 
 1905-7, his leave arrangements for the men were on a very 
 generous scale ; and on one occasion, when laying in an Italian 
 port where general invitations from the local authorities to 
 the ships' companies had been issued, Lord Charles made ar- 
 rangements for the men under his command to take advantage 
 of these to the fullest extent possible. Before they proceeded 
 on a leave, which he knew would be full of temptations and 
 festivities, he made a general signal wishing them all a very 
 pleasant time, feeling sure they would maintain the credit of the 
 
 jieet, and hoping to see them all on board fit for duty on , 
 
 mentioning the time when the leave expired. Of three 
 thousand odd men who landed there were only three absentees 
 at the expiration of the leave. Then there arose a cry of 
 admiration about the splendid character of the modern sea 
 man, whereas he had simply proved that he was, as all other 
 men, able to appreciate generous treatment in this case, even 
 as he had resented injustice in the case of the Admiral pre- 
 viously referred to. That is a characteristic not of the sea 
 man, but of all men ; and when the former is treated as a 
 rational ordinary man he behaves accordingly. 
 
 When Lord Charles became Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Channel Fleet in 1907, the interpretation he placed on " Special 
 Leave men are to be allowed the privilege of leave to the 
 fullest extent possible," was an extreme one. His attitude 
 was that men who are called on to serve their country in 
 foreign waters for lengthy periods, during which time they are 
 denied the pleasure of seeing wives, mothers, and friends, 
 should be given every chance to do so when serving in home 
 waters. So when the fleet was at its base at Portland, he 
 made arrangements with the railway people for special trains, 
 and granted leave each week-end from noon Friday to noon 
 the following Monday, thus practically demobilising his com- 
 mand for four days out of each week. 
 
70 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 It is not my task here to discuss whether this was harmful 
 or beneficial, but there is surely something wrong with a 
 " discipline " that makes such extremes possible. There is 
 in this also a very grave danger to the State. When a generous 
 man of the type of Admiral Beresford is followed by a strict 
 disciplinarian, privileges which the men have come to look on 
 as their right are suddenly cut oft for no rhyme or reason, 
 except that the new man does not believe in them. Against 
 this sudden curtailment there is a natural resentment which 
 makes itself felt in acts overt and covert, to cope with which 
 the discipline of punishment is brought into operation. In a 
 very short time the squadron is seething with disaffection ; 
 " crime " increases, and with it repressive measures for the 
 "maintenance of discipline." 
 
 This is no imaginary picture, because it is taking place 
 continually, and will do so just as long as the nation is willing 
 to allow its Navy to be the plaything of individuals. Were 
 the comfort of the sea man the only thing at stake we might 
 perhaps safely continue to drift along on the stream of laissez- 
 faire ; but in the comfort and contentment of the fighting 
 sea man lies the safety of the British Empire. In the olden 
 days you ran him alongside the enemy till ship's side touched 
 ship's side, then with pistol, rattan, and cat, he was " encour- 
 aged " to load and fire his gun as quickly as possible, it being 
 impossible to miss what he was firing at. To-day all that is 
 altered. Writing to me from H.M.S. Bulwark at Barcelona 
 on July 4, 1905, Lord Charles Beresford said : 
 
 " The result of an action (after the Admiral in Command 
 of a Fleet has placed that fleet in a position of advantage) will 
 depend upon the Captains of Guns of Fleet ; on their accuracy 
 of eye, readiness of resource, and strict discipline the fate of 
 the Empire will depend, should the British Navy ever be 
 engaged in warlike operations." 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 71 
 
 The captain of the gun is helpless unless he enjoys the 
 intelligent co-operation of his gun- crew, and friction among the 
 human element may render nugatory as a fighting machine 
 the finest battleship ever built. This, no doubt, was what 
 Admiral Bosanquet meant when he said that the discipline 
 of one ship might sink her in ten minutes, and the discipline 
 of another take her through unscathed. 
 
 There is another type of leave known to the service, though 
 those who grant it are few and far between. This is known 
 as " a free gangway." When a ship is in harbour and the 
 day's work is over a part of the watch is detailed for duty 
 on board, the remainder of the ship's company being allowed 
 to go on shore and return to the ship without let or hindrance, 
 and altogether irrespective of what class for leave they belong 
 to. And this, which is to-day the very rare exception, might 
 well become the general rule, classes of leave and stoppage 
 of leave being abolished, for stoppage of leave always has 
 and always will encourage leave-breaking. 
 
 Leave-breaking offences are punishable with disrating 
 or reduction to the ranks ; deprivation of good conduct 
 badges and good conduct medals ; reduction to second class 
 for conduct ; solitary confinement in a cell or under a canvas 
 screen on board (not to exceed fourteen days) ; or, by IOA or 
 IOB punishment (black list) according to the degree of the 
 offence. 
 
 Every leave-breaker is also mulct of one day's pay for each 
 period of six hours, or part of six hours, of improper absence. 
 These mulcts are obligatory within the following limit, i.e. 
 the total deduction, including time in cells, is in no case to 
 exceed sixty days' pay, exclusive of every expense incurred 
 in a man's apprehension. It will thus be seen that the punish- 
 ments for this offence are exceedingly severe, yet leave-breaking 
 continues to be one of the normal conditions of service life. 
 
72 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 In some squadrons or ships it will suddenly become epidemic, 
 in others it is practically unknown, and can always be traced 
 to the interpretation placed on the Leave Regulations by the 
 Admiral in command of the squadron or the captain of a 
 ship. Fixed and definite rules, that leave to the men should 
 be granted wherever the privilege was possible for the officers, 
 should form part of the Regulations, and all classes of leave 
 should be abolished. Keeping a man on board for ninety 
 days, and then letting him go on shore for twenty- four hours 
 never has and never will do any good. Restriction must 
 and does find reaction in excess, and a man becomes a chronic 
 " bad character." In the Navy of to-day intelligence more 
 than brawn is required, and it should offer no asylum either 
 to the habitual drunkard or offender. Stoppage of leave 
 and " class " for leave are fertile breeders of leave- breaking, 
 and should be abolished ; while the same system as is in vogue 
 at the Royal Marine Barracks should be applied to all naval 
 shore establishments and stationary harbour ships. 
 
 The air of contentment which broods over the Royal 
 Marine Barracks, with the very small number of punish- 
 ments, is due entirely to the freedom enjoyed by their 
 occupants. Compared with the number of men stationed in 
 these barracks, the number of leave- breakers is a negligible 
 quantity. 
 
 When a recruit joins the Marines, he is allowed to go out 
 of barracks on completion of duty, and remain out daily 
 till 10 p.m. Should he desire to remain out later, he must 
 apply for special midnight or reveille passes on such occasions 
 as he may require them. 
 
 On completion of his recruit's training, if the mystic letters 
 "V. G." appear opposite his character on his parchment 
 certificate, he is given a standing reveille pass. With this in 
 his possession, he may leave barracks every day when his 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 73 
 
 work is finished, and remain out until reveille the following 
 morning. Reveille sounds at 5.30, 6, or 6.30, according to 
 the time of the year. On Sundays and holidays, as a rule, 
 passes do not expire till about 8 o'clock. 
 
 When a man wishes to go out of barracks, he does not need 
 to get his name " ticked off " or to be " passed out " by a 
 N.C.O. He simply gives his name to the sergeant on gate- 
 duty. The duty of the sergeant is to see that the man is 
 correctly dressed. N.C.O.'s do not require to call their names 
 out as gunners and privates do. But, some may say, by this 
 system defaulters could easily break out of barracks. De- 
 faulters are so few and the regulations so sensible that there 
 is no need to break out. 
 
 Should a man desire to wear plain clothes instead of uni- 
 form, he has only to request a pass and the privilege is granted. 
 There is no obligation to come in at any particular hour of 
 the night, and men may come in at any time they wish. Stand- 
 ing passes must always be shown on returning to barracks 
 after ten o'clock. 
 
 The possession of these passes does not entitle their owners 
 to proceed beyond the limits of the garrison. To do so one 
 must apply for special permission. Week-end passes are 
 freely granted to those desirous of obtaining them, the average 
 being one per month. Three weeks' to a month's leave is 
 granted at Christmas-time to every one not required for duty, 
 with four or five days at Easter and Whitsun. Men coming 
 in from sea are granted a week's furlough for every period 
 or part of six months they have been afloat. 
 
 Married marines are also given standing passes, as, techni- 
 cally without them, they should be in their quarters by 10 p.m. 
 nightly. They do not, however, require to be in barracks 
 at reveille. They simply come in in time for their drill or duty, 
 and on its conclusion they return home, their houses being 
 
74 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 considered in the same relation to them as barracks to the 
 single men. 
 
 Single men must, of course, be correctly dressed in walking- 
 out uniform in order to leave barracks, but married men 
 pass between their homes and the barracks in whatever rig 
 is required for their particular duty. 
 
 When men are foolish enough to get " adrift," they are 
 often punished by being deprived of their standing passes 
 for a certain period. This still allows them to go out each 
 evening till 10 o'clock. 
 
 It will be seen, then, that marines serving in barracks enjoy 
 practically complete liberty in their leisure hours. It is, too, 
 a well-known fact that they are among the most contented 
 and best behaved men in Great Britain's fighting services. 
 Opponents of generous leave-giving would do well to study 
 these two statements, and see if they cannot find any con- 
 nection between them. 
 
 The marines are exceedingly well behaved when in bar- 
 racks, because, there being no petty restrictions, they cannot 
 break them, and " crime " statistics are very low. During 
 their leisure hours there is a policy of non-interference, 
 and of course there are no ship's police always hunting 
 round. 
 
 The wet canteen (general) opens on week days at noon, 
 closes at 2.15 p.m., re-opens at 2.45 p.m. and closes at 9.45 p.m. 
 For the junior N.C.O.'s the times are the same, except that 
 closing time at night is 10.30. The sergeants' bar opens at 
 10.30 a.m., closes at 10.45 p.m. There is no stipulation as 
 to the amount of beer a man may have, and defaulters may 
 use the canteen between 8 and 9 p.m. Yet it has never been 
 suggested that laxity of discipline or drunkenness is to be 
 found in a Marine Barracks ; the reverse is the case. The naval 
 wet canteens open from 6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m., and each man 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 75 
 
 is limited to two pints of beer, which he has to drink under 
 the eyes of the ship's police or a patrol which is detailed for 
 that duty. Petty officers and men are treated the same. 
 This system of supervision and espionage is extremely irk- 
 some ; and fixing the quantity of beer to be consumed seems 
 to have the exactly reverse effect to what was intended : 
 men who use the canteen, knowing they are allowed two pints, 
 think they are in duty bound to consume that quantity ; 
 the marines, who are free to drink what they like, have their 
 " pint " and are satisfied. 
 
 The leave arrangements of the Navy have no resemblance 
 to those of the marines (on shore). Even when the sea man 
 is " following his private occasions " with the consent of the 
 captain of his particular ship, he is never sure that they will 
 not be cut short at the whim of some one else. At all the 
 great ports there are naval patrols, whose theoretical duty 
 is the maintenance of order in the public streets, a duty 
 which the local police are quite capable of performing to-day, 
 whatever may have been the case one hundred years ago. 
 The interpretation those in charge of patrols place on " main- 
 tenance of order " is often peculiar. A few years ago the 
 captain of the receiving ship at Portsmouth, who had the 
 ordering of patrols at that port, had personal fads on minute 
 points of uniform. He therefore gave orders that patrols 
 were to be stationed at the dockyard and gun- wharf gates 
 to meet liberty men as they emerged. As they came out, 
 each man was carefully inspected to see if his dress was correct 
 in these small points (these men, be it remembered, had already 
 been inspected on board their respective ships before landing) ; 
 if not they were arrested and sent as prisoners on board the 
 receiving ship, from whence a signal was made to their own 
 ships to send boats for " men under arrest." Such men 
 were invariably punished for " disobedience of orders and 
 
76 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 being out of uniform/' though as already stated they had been 
 inspected on their own ships before landing. 
 
 It is the common practice to say, " Oh yes ! but these are 
 all things of the past." They are not, but are constantly 
 recurring in more or less acute forms. Take the following 
 letter, written to me, June 14, 1910 : 
 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " Knowing the interest you take in the welfare of the 
 men of the lower-deck, and remembering your kindly efforts 
 on their behalf in connection with public searching of men 
 by the Custom Authorities, I beg to bring to your notice 
 some recent occurrences in connection with the apprehension 
 of Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers in the public 
 thoroughfares of Portsmouth by the Naval Patrol, for trivial 
 and trumpery breaches of the Uniform Regulations. 
 
 4 'These arrests synchronise with the taking over of the Town 
 Patrol by the Warrant Master- at- Arms, and it is thought 
 that the Naval Authorities are quite unaware of the action 
 he has taken, which savours more of petty spite than the 
 enforcement of the Port Regulations, and the maintenance 
 of order in the public streets. In connection with the latter 
 it is safe to assume, that only the tact of the patrol prevented 
 a serious outbreak, when these apprehensions took place ; 
 it must have been a very unpleasant duty for the patrol to 
 perform, and all praise is due for the manner in which they 
 carried out their orders. 
 
 "The facts are as follows, but before stating them, I beg to 
 remind you that the Petty Officers had, before leaving their 
 ships, reported themselves to the Officer of the Watch, and 
 then, on setting foot outside the Dockyard or Gunwharf Gates 
 as the case may be, were approached by the patrol and very 
 closely scrutinised, as it was impossible otherwise to see 
 whether a man was improperly dressed or not. You will 
 doubtlessly wonder what the offence was, for which these 
 Chief Petty Officers, some wearing the Good Conduct Medal, 
 were marched through the public streets under arrest, to the 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 77 
 
 R.N. Barracks, and you will be dumbfounded to hear that 
 the crime, for which these men were so humiliated and de- 
 graded, consisted in wearing a soft white shirt instead of one 
 starched ! To discover this ' crime ' the coats had some- 
 times to be unbuttoned. I must add that these Petty Officers, 
 after being detained at the R.N. Barracks for some consider- 
 able time, were sent under escort to their respective ships. 
 
 " The custom of wearing these soft white shirts in the hot 
 weather is an extensive one, and the uniform white collar 
 was of course worn in each case. 
 
 "Another most arbitrary case which was brought to my 
 notice, was that of a Petty Officer who had just landed in the 
 Dockyard, when his name was taken by the patrol, and a 
 report sent to his Commanding Officer, for the heinous crime 
 of having a small portion of his chin stay showing below 
 his cap. 
 
 "I find it hard to believe, Sir, that in these enlightened days, 
 the Naval Authorities can countenance such arbitrary mea- 
 sures, and to see Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers 
 marched through the streets of Portsmouth under escort of 
 the patrol, for such trivial offences, is a disgrace to the King's 
 Uniform, and almost makes one loathe the uniform instead of 
 being proud of wearing it. 
 
 "Yours very truly, 
 
 "CHIEF PETTY OFFICER. 
 
 "PORTSMOUTH, 
 
 June, 1910." 
 
 The chief petty officers of the fleet are the very pick of 
 the lower-deck ; their dress, a thick blue cloth with peaked 
 cap, is the same summer or winter, and it is the custom to 
 seek some relief in the warmer weather by wearing white 
 shirts of soft -spun material instead of starched linen. Such 
 a shirt, however, is not provided for in the Regulations, so the 
 wearing of such is technically an offence. This was taken 
 advantage of to arrest these men the highest grade of naval 
 petty officer and march them through the streets as prisoners. 
 
78 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 If we are to place an intelligent interpretation on " discipline," 
 surely a gross breach was committed by such arrests. 
 
 This interference with men while on shore takes different 
 forms, but is very seldom entirely absent, and is always 
 attended with danger of an outbreak of violent resentment. 
 Let us take an example : For some reason or other the Sailors' 
 Home, Weymouth, which was erected by public subscription 
 for the use and convenience of the men of the fleet, had become 
 the centre of rules and regulations that made it more like a 
 " well-disciplined " ship than a resort for the festive sea man. 
 Disciplinary notices were placed up in every position of van- 
 tage, while a patrol was always kept on hand to ' ' maintain 
 discipline." 
 
 Quite recently a petty officer called on me, and we were 
 discussing service topics when I happened to touch on this 
 particular Home, when he gave me an instance of a narrowly 
 averted conflagration. He, with several other petty officers, 
 was in the saloon bar of a public-house, the general bar being 
 full of younger men, when four or five more entered, in a high 
 state of indignation at some affront they had met with at the 
 Home, and commenced relating their troubles to the crowd, 
 which brought forth such exclamations as "Too much Navy 
 about that place " ; " It's nearly time we had a change," etc., 
 when one more daring spirit than the rest said, "What say, 
 down house ? " At which there was a general shout of ap- 
 proval, and they all proposed to go at once and wreck the 
 establishment, an intention which would have been carried 
 out had not the petty officers immediately gone among them 
 and dissuaded them from such a piece of stupidity. Yet one 
 day, when the harbour is full of ships and hundreds of men 
 are on shore, a spark may start a conflagration always sup- 
 posing that the conditions continue. Then the military will 
 be called out, armed patrols will be landed, and all the world 
 
THE FESTIVE SEA MAN 79 
 
 will lament the drunkenness and sinful ways of these strange 
 sea men. That is the policy of the Navy supervise, irritate, 
 punish, then blame the men ; and it all comes from the old 
 legend that there is one flesh of the land man and another of 
 the sea man, and that the flesh of the sea man is of a peculiarly 
 wicked nature. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 
 
 I don't wonder that mutinies happen on board ships, but do wonder 
 they don't happen oftener, in cases where men are driven to such 
 extremities that they don't care whether they live or die. Well might 
 Lord Collingwood say that when a mutiny took place on board a 
 ship it must be the fault of the captain or officers. 
 
 WILLIAM RICHARDSON. 1 
 
 SHIP mutinies have been exceedingly numerous in the British 
 Navy, if we are to accept as " mutiny " every revolt of men 
 against the tyranny of their officers. In the vast majority 
 of cases these have been mere momentary " flashes in the 
 pan " which have been immediately stamped out without any 
 grave results except to those who have been picked out as 
 ringleaders. Naval historians have not even taken the trouble 
 to record them. What mattered the treatment of the men so 
 long as they won battles ? 
 
 In one or two cases constant brutality has gradually driven 
 men to desperation, till their pent-up feelings have overflowed 
 like the eruption of a volcano, leaving behind a scene of " hell 
 let loose " for future generations to contemplate with horror. 
 Bounty, Hermione, stand out from the pages of our sea story, 
 showing up in the most lurid colours what went on behind 
 those wooden walls, surrounded by miles of ocean that com- 
 pletely hid from the public gaze the daily lives and doings of 
 our fighting sea men. 
 
 1 "A Mariner of England." 
 80 
 
SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 81 
 
 The mutiny of the Bounty has been most often told, prob- 
 ably because its romantic sequel lends itself to the pen, and 
 John Adams stands out a picturesque figure from his peaceful 
 little colony on Pitcairn Island. 
 
 The Bounty was a small vessel carrying forty-four souls all 
 told, with Lieut. V. Bligh in command. Bligh seems to have 
 been a brutal bully, very fond of using the cat, so that when 
 they reached Otaheite discontent was rife. Life under a good 
 captain would not have been a bed of roses in a small ship like 
 the Bounty ; when it was accompanied by constant abuse and 
 flogging it soon became unbearable. The beauties of Otaheite, 
 however, seem to have made the men forget their troubles ; 
 and as it was impossible for his crew to desert by leaving the 
 island, Bligh seems to have given them plenty of leave ashore, 
 where they soon got on exceedingly friendly terms with the 
 natives, both male and female. For five months this idyllic 
 life continued ; the troubles of the ship partly lost sight of in 
 the comforts and joys of the shore. Only partly, however, as 
 several little incidents, such as the desertion of three of the 
 men in the small cutter, the cutting of the cable, etc., show. 
 
 At last, on April 4, 1789, the Bounty left Otaheite, laden 
 with bread-fruit plants, and at once all the old trouble and 
 discontent came to the surface. For five months Bligh's men 
 had been enjoying a condition of life as pleasant as it was 
 unusual ; now, once again, they found themselves cooped up 
 in the tiny space afforded by the Bounty, with a bullying and 
 brutal taskmaster ever alongside them. Here they were, out 
 on the broad bosom of the Pacific, quite out of the track of 
 shipping, beautiful islands all around them, and only one man 
 between them and the life of Otaheite with all its sensuous 
 sweetness and ease. The temptation was too great, and on 
 the early morning of April 25, Bligh was seized, and with 
 eighteen of the crew forced into the ship's launch and cast 
 6 
 
82 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 adrift, with twenty-eight gallons of water, a hundred and fifty 
 pounds of bread, a quantity of rum and wine, also a quadrant 
 and compass. After an adventurous voyage of close on 4,000 
 miles Bligh reached Batavia without the loss of a man. 
 
 The mutineers, as might have been expected, put back to 
 Otaheite to settle down ; but some fearing that the Govern- 
 ment might send out a ship to inquire into the fate of the 
 Bounty, and thus find and punish them, set sail for Pitcairn 
 Island. This party consisted of nine men belonging to the 
 Bounty, six native men, and twelve native women. That 
 their fears were not misplaced was shown by the visit of the 
 Pandora to Otaheite, which captured twelve of the mutineers, 
 three of whom were hanged. 
 
 It is around the other party that all the romance of this 
 tragedy hangs. They reached Pitcairn Island, where trouble 
 followed, and the native women killed the native men, throw- 
 ing in their lot with the white men ; and it was not till 1808 
 that their refuge was found by the American ship Topaze. 
 By that time only one Englishman had survived, a patri- 
 archal figure, who had organised a prosperous and peaceful 
 little colony. This was one John Adams, and he was never 
 molested ; he lived to a ripe old age, dying in 1829. The 
 descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty people Pitcairn 
 to this day. 
 
 Although Bligh, in his own accounts of the mutiny, refers to 
 his crew as " villains," their subsequent life, both at Otaheite 
 and Pitcairn, shows them to have been simple, law-abiding 
 men who were driven to mutiny by tyranny. The compara- 
 tive mildness of their treatment of Bligh and those they sent 
 adrift with him, is an index of their real character under 
 normal conditions. 
 
 The mutiny of the Hermione is of quite another nature. It 
 stands by itself alone, both in the brutality of the captain 
 
SHIP MUTINIESHOW THEY ARE MADE 83 
 
 that led up to the mutiny, and the bloody revenge of the 
 crew when at last it broke out. The Hermione was a frigate 
 of 714 tons, launched at Bristol in 1742, and at the time of 
 the mutiny was attached to the Leeward Island station, West 
 Indies. The squadron, under the command of Rear- Admiral 
 Sir Henry Harvey, had distinguished itself by its dealings 
 with the French privateers with which those waters teemed, 
 and our sea men had shown what they could do when led by 
 officers who gave them only moderately good treatment. 
 
 The Hermione was cruising off the Spanish Main, her 
 captain being one Hugh Pigot. The captain was an officer 
 of no mark. He seems to have been one of those men in 
 whom the exercise of authority and seclusion from the check 
 of criticism by equals permit the development of moral putre- 
 faction. 1 It may be doubtful if Pigot was really in his right 
 mind, for, to again quote David Hannay : 
 
 " There was in the sea life of confinement to the ship, and 
 long solitary cruises, an underworld of the brutal lust gener- 
 ated amongst segregated men. The power of torture by 
 flogging bred the foul love of inflicting torture which is never 
 far from lust." 
 
 But it could only be a moral and mental degenerate who 
 could get to this state, and Pigot seems to have been both. 
 
 From the time he joined the ship, flogging commenced. 
 He was determined to have a " smart " ship, as he understood 
 the term " smart/' and to that end he always found scapegoats 
 if things were not done to his liking. The passion for punish- 
 ment grew till at last the gratings were kept continually 
 rigged at the gangway, ready for men to be strung up and 
 flogged at a moment's notice; and it seemed to be Captain 
 Pigot 's chief delight in life to walk round his ship with the 
 
 1 David Hannay, " A Short History of the British Navy." 
 
84 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 sole object of finding excuses for flogging men. To such a 
 degree was this carried out, and so severe were the floggings, 
 that the men were always on the qui vive, till at last even 
 Captain Pigot had a difficulty in discovering things with 
 which to find fault, and thus an excuse for the use of the cat. 
 
 It was at this time that he hit upon a plan which must 
 infallibly place several men at his mercy nightly, and this 
 was an order that in future two minutes only would be allowed 
 to reef a topsail a thing which was, of course, a practical 
 impossibility. 
 
 It was the custom in ships-of-war of that time, when at 
 sea, to reef topsails in the last dog-watch, and snug down 
 for the night ; and evening after evening saw men triced up 
 and flogged, and evening after evening witnessed the crew 
 going forward after these scenes, their pent-up passions 
 showing on their faces. The brutality of the captain seems 
 to have been reflected in the boatswain of the ship, who 
 supplemented the punishments of the captain by some of 
 his own devising, with which he tortured the ship's boys, 
 knowing full well there was no appeal to Caesar. 
 
 And so things went on till the evening of September 21, 
 1797. The dog-watch evolution of reef topsails was taking 
 place, and so rapidly had the men acted that there was every 
 possibility of their doing the task in the allotted time. Seeing 
 this, and no doubt fearing that he would be robbed of an 
 excuse to use the cat, Pigot shouted out to the men on the 
 mizen topsail yard, declaring that he would flog the last man 
 to leave it. Knowing only too well that this threat would 
 be put into execution, there was at once a rush for the rigging. 
 Brenton, in his " Naval History," says : 
 
 " The poor fellows, well knowing that he kept his word 
 (and though the lot would naturally fall on the outermost, 
 
SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 85 
 
 and consequently the most active l ), each resolved at any 
 rate to escape from punishment ; two of them (the yard- 
 arm men), who from their position could not reach the topmast 
 rigging, made a spring to get over their comrades within 
 them ; they missed their hold, fell on the quarter-deck, and 
 were both killed." 
 
 Only a sea man can appreciate the situation and the fierce 
 struggle that must have taken place on that topsail yard, 
 and the wild fear of those who made such a desperate leap 
 to escape the cat, only to meet death. To have made the 
 spring they must have left the foot rope and scrambled up 
 on the yard, a desperate enough undertaking with a ship 
 curtseying and rocking in a seaway. The eyes of all their 
 shipmates were no doubt fixed on them; they saw the leap 
 and the swift descent to the deck, foUowed by the horrid 
 thud, thud, as the bodies reached it. 
 
 On one or two occasions I have seen men fall from aloft, 
 and have felt the nausea that the sound of a body as it reaches 
 the deck produces. On one such occasion I heard the bugle 
 suddenly ring out " Still ! " while every officer and man on 
 deck stood reverently at attention, bareheaded, while the 
 bruised and battered remains were carried below. But this 
 is another story. Here, when the matter was reported to 
 Pigot, he brutally and casually remarked, "Throw the 
 lubbers overboard," then turning to the other men, who 
 had paused horror-struck in the rigging, he severely repri- 
 manded them and threatened them with punishment. 
 
 From that moment the men seem to have lost all control 
 of themselves. They realised that try as they would they 
 could not please the tyrant who had them in his power, 
 
 1 The smartest men would reach the topsail yard first from the 
 deck, and would thus have the yard-arm billet. 
 
86 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 and while the two bodies were being prepared for burial, 
 they seem to have come to the fatal determination to take 
 immediate revenge for their wrongs. 
 
 Almost immediately after the accident the bodies were 
 committed to the deep, and probably no burial at sea was 
 ever so pregnant with tragic consequences. For that night 
 and all the next day the men nursed their wrongs, and 
 probably even then a tragedy might have been averted had 
 Pigot only realised that he had reached the limit of endurance. 
 This he seems to have been quite incapable of doing. " The 
 foul love of inflicting torture " had become the ruling pas- 
 sion of his life, and again the next day did he resort to 
 flogging. 
 
 About ten o'clock, in the first watch, the mutiny broke out. 
 Pigot had retired to his cabin and the officer of the watch 
 paced the poop when, without warning, he was knocked 
 senseless with a belaying pin, then murdered. Then " hell 
 broke loose/' The pent-up rage, the result of months of 
 brutal treatment, burst forth in a raging torrent, and for 
 a time the men were transformed into veritable monsters. 
 
 A brutal captain makes a brutal ship's company. These 
 men had been so habituated to scenes of violence and cruelty, 
 that all their finer feelings must have been deadened. Pigot, 
 hearing a noise, ran on deck, and the sight of him was the 
 signal for an outburst of ferocity. He was driven back into 
 his cabin badly wounded, where he was stabbed by his own 
 coxswain and then flung through one of the stern ports into 
 the sea. The other officers, with the exception of the master, 
 gunner, carpenter, and one midshipman were all done to 
 death, a horrible fate being reserved for the boatswain, who 
 was handed over to the tender mercies of the ship boys ; 
 these tied him down to the deck and murdered him slowly 
 by scraping the flesh from his bones with dumbscrapers. 
 
SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 87 
 
 The nature of his death may be taken as the measure of his 
 brutality when living. 1 
 
 Having satiated their lust for revenge, the mutineers were 
 faced with the results of their actions. The other ships of 
 the squadron were within measurable distance, and they 
 knew that the mutiny must be speedily discovered. What 
 were they to do ? They had passed the Rubicon, and no 
 mercy could be theirs from the laws of their own country, 
 for mutiny and murder, whatever may be the circumstances 
 leading up to them, cannot be condoned. In their despera- 
 tion they turned the ship towards La Guayra, a port on the 
 Spanish Main, and handed her over to the Governor, repre- 
 senting that they had turned their officers adrift in the 
 jolly-boat. 
 
 The historian James, who never seems to have been able 
 to weigh up such doings in the scales of justice, says : 
 " That the mutineers of the Hermione should turn traitors 
 to their offended country, was the natural consequence 
 of the enormity of their guilt." Looking at the matter im- 
 partially through the perspective of 113 years, it is hard to 
 see what else they could have done. To cruise the sea meant 
 immediate capture by our own ships ; to enter a friendly 
 port meant the same thing; so necessity drove them into 
 the arms of the enemy. They were not traitors to their 
 country, they were merely desperate men flying from the 
 results of their own mad actions. 
 
 Immediately he heard the news, Rear-Admiral Harvey 
 demanded the restoration of the ship and mutineers from 
 the Governor of La Guayra, but was refused, and she was 
 later fitted for sea as a Spanish national frigate. Nearly 
 the whole of the men shortly after fell into the hands of the 
 
 1 This account of the death of the boatswain is not generally 
 accepted. 
 
88 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 British, were tried and brought to execution, the remains of 
 a number of them being suspended on gibbets at the entrance 
 to Port Royal. 
 
 James, with a one-sidedness which seems to have been 
 his main characteristic, says: "Could we descant upon the 
 humanity or general kind behaviour of the Hermione's captain 
 it might serve to heighten, if any thing could heighten, the 
 guilt of his murderers." Not a word of condemnation for 
 the brutalities of Pigot, which alone were responsible for 
 the terrible happening. There is no record in history of 
 sea men mutinying against a kind captain, though history 
 is one long record of men patiently and patriotically bearing 
 the most inhuman treatment, lavished on them month after 
 month and year after year by those placed in authority over 
 them. When men mutiny they have been driven into the 
 same position as a wild beast who finds itself in a corner 
 with its would-be slayer in front of it. It cannot get away, 
 so can only spring forward in a desperate hope of escape. 
 
 While fully realising the enormity of the crime of mutiny, 
 especially when accompanied by murder, is there nothing 
 to say in condemnation of the system that made it possible 
 not only for a man of the Pigot stamp to hold command of 
 one of the nation's ships, but to systematically torture those 
 under his charge day in and day out, without any tribunal 
 to which they could appeal for relief, and from which the 
 only escape was to murder and mutiny? In spite of the 
 lucubrations of James the nation cannot hold itself guiltless 
 for the mutiny of the Hermione. A thousand pens and a 
 thousand brushes have painted in vivid colours our " glorious 
 naval traditions " ; to the other side of the picture they 
 have never turned their attention, or thought it necessary 
 to demand for those who fought their battles some measure 
 of justice and fair treatment. James, in his grandiloquent 
 
SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 89 
 
 way, says in his brief allusion to the horrors of the Hermione : 
 " Although our plan has been to be sparing of details in 
 cases of mutiny, especially where restricted to individual 
 ships, yet there was one case of the latter description in the 
 West Indies too flagrant in its proceedings, not to be made 
 an exception." Then he proceeds to curse the men for their 
 crime : " Crimes that had they had a dozen lives merited the 
 sacrifice of the whole." For the two poor wretches who had 
 been condemned to a horrid death and consigned to a watery 
 grave through their wild attempt to escape the torture of Pigot, 
 not a word of compassion or consideration. This attitude 
 can surely only result from the mistaken idea that the sea man 
 is a being to himself, and that the laws that govern the 
 land man cannot be applied to him. 
 
 The sequel to the Hermione added to the Navy List a 
 name, the latter-day holder of which, a second-class cruiser, 
 now lies at the Motherbank awaiting sale or breaking up, 
 and which might well be obliterated altogether H.M.S. 
 Retribution. The story is worth telling, because it shows the 
 sea man in an entirely reverse position. The Spaniards, 
 as soon as the Hermione came into their possession, made 
 certain alterations in her before sending her to sea. In the 
 British service she had been a 38-gun ship carrying 220 
 hands. The Spaniards, by cutting six gun ports, increased her 
 guns to 44 and her complement to 320. In September 
 1799 the British Commander- in-Chief at Jamaica Admiral 
 Sir Hyde Parker learned that she was about to leave Puerto 
 Cabello for Havana, so despatched the 28-gun frigate Surprise 
 to intercept her. 
 
 Whatever may have been the feelings of the sea men on 
 the station, the officers in charge of ships were determined 
 that the Spaniards should not hold the Hermione if they could 
 prevent it, and Captain Hamilton of the Surprise was ex- 
 
go OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 ceedingly keen on this point in fact, he proposed to Sir Hyde 
 Parker at Jamaica, that the Surprise should attempt to cut 
 out the Hermione, if the commander-in-chief would add a 
 barge and twenty men to the Surprise's crew, which was 
 197. Sir Hyde Parker refused, considering the service too 
 desperate. Captain Hamilton was, for the period, a humane 
 man. He had the confidence of his crew, whom he had led 
 on more than one successful expedition, and he must have 
 determined in his own mind that, notwithstanding the refusal 
 of the Admiral to countenance a cutting- out expedition, he 
 would do it if opportunity offered. 
 
 On the evening of October 21, the Surprise arrived off 
 the harbour of Puerto Cabello, and there was the Hermione, 
 moored head and stern between the strong batteries situated 
 at the mouth of the harbour, and mounting nearly two 
 hundred guns between them. The Hermione herself was 
 ready for sea, and until the evening of the 24th the Surprise 
 cruised in and off, waiting in vain for her to put to sea ; then, 
 after evening quarters, Captain Hamilton had all hands aft 
 and unfolded his plans. 
 
 " I find it useless to wait any longer," he said; " we shall 
 soon be obliged to leave the station, and that frigate will 
 become the prize of some more fortunate ship than the Sur- 
 prise ; our only prospect of success is by cutting her out 
 this night. I shall lead you myself, and here are the 
 orders for the six boats to be employed, with the names of 
 the officers and men to be engaged in this service." 
 
 One can imagine how such a straightforward, manly address 
 went direct to the hearts of the crew, who answered with 
 lusty cheers, so at half-past seven the boats were hoisted out, 
 and everything prepared for what was a desperate expedition 
 against enormous odds. But fortune ever favours the brave, 
 and it was so on this occasion. Captain Hamilton had drawn 
 
SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 91 
 
 up his plans in a masterly manner, and before they left the 
 ship every boat knew the part it had to play ; that is, if the 
 enemy had acted in the way anticipated by the captain. 
 But when within a mile of their prey, two small gunboats, 
 armed with a long gun each, discovered them and at once 
 opened fire. Captain Hamilton at once cast off tow and made 
 straight for the Hermione, the crew of which were now at 
 quarters. Some of the other boats, however, remained to 
 attack the gunboats which, with a more determined foe, 
 might have spelled disaster to the expedition. 
 
 In due course the pinnace with Captain Hamilton got 
 alongside, and the boarders were soon scrambling inboard, 
 where they found the Hermione's crew at quarters on the main- 
 deck, firing at their own two gunboats, that their fears had 
 magnified into two frigates coming in to attack them ; they 
 were quite oblivious of the fact that the enemy was actually 
 on board. It was soon over with the Spaniards, though not 
 before Captain Hamilton had had a very narrow escape. 
 He was standing on the quarter-deck waiting the arrival of 
 those who had not yet boarded, when he received a blow on 
 the head from the butt end of a musket, which knocked him 
 senseless. Happily, at this critical moment, some of his own 
 men arrived and rescued him from his precarious position. 
 
 In the meantime the carpenter had cut the stern cable, 
 and as the vessel swung head to, the bow cable was cut, and 
 the boats started towing her towards the harbour mouth. 
 Shortly after the foretopsail, which was loose, filled, and the 
 Hermione was standing out to sea with the fire of the batteries 
 directed full on her. At 2 a.m. she was clear and out of gun- 
 shot, when the towing boats came alongside; the prisoners 
 were secured, a prize crew left on board, and Captain Hamilton, 
 with his prize in company, stood away for Jamaica, and on 
 November i anchored in Port Royal. On January 21, 
 
92 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 1800, the London Gazette contained a letter from Sir Hyde 
 Parker, Commander-in-Chief on the Jamaica station, to the 
 Secretary to the Admiralty. It ran : 
 
 "SIR, 
 
 "I have the peculiar satisfaction in communicating 
 to you, for the information of My Lords Commissioners of 
 the Admiralty, that His Majesty's late ship Hermione is 
 again restored to his Navy by as daring and gallant an enter- 
 prise as is to be found in our annals, under the command of 
 Captain Hamilton himself, with the boats of the Surprise 
 only." 
 
 Sir Hyde Parker re- christened her the Retaliation , which 
 was afterwards altered to Retribution. Whether this was in 
 commemoration of her recapture from the Spaniards, who had 
 acquired her in such an unusual way, or as a triumphant 
 sequel to the mutiny, it is hard to say. In any case the 
 name might well be allowed to sink into oblivion. 
 
 The cutting out of the Hermione was one of the brightest, 
 as the mutiny of the Hermione was one of the blackest, spots 
 in British naval history ; together they form an admirable 
 study in human nature. One shows to what depths men 
 will descend when driven by tyranny, the other shows what 
 deeds of gallantry they are capable of under good leadership. 
 The incident shows that there is not " one kind of flesh of 
 land men and another of sea men," but that each share the 
 virtues and the failings of our common humanity. 
 
 But have we ever read aright the lesson that tragedy taught ? 
 In calculations of the naval strength of that day the Hermione 
 appeared as an effective fighting unit ; she was an accepted 
 item in British naval strength in West Indian waters, where 
 happily we were faced with a weak, irresolute enemy. She 
 could no doubt reef topsails quicker than any other ship in 
 the Navy, but as a fighting unit she did not for the time 
 
SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 93 
 
 exist ; bad conditions made it possible for Pigot to render 
 useless that ship, as far as the country was concerned, under 
 the name of " discipline." Is all the naval paper strength 
 of to-day an effective strength for war ? 
 
 From 1797 to 1910 is a long stretch. In the intervening 
 period the whole conditions of sea life have been changed. 
 Masts and sails have made way for turbines ; muzzle-loading 
 guns, weighing a few hundredweights, have made room for 
 breech- loading monsters weighing more in tons; torpedoes, 
 submarines, wireless telegraphy, and telephony; submarine 
 mines and a hundred other things, demand for the sea service 
 the best brains in the best bodies the nation can produce, 
 and yet withal the so-called " discipline " of that sea service 
 has changed so little that it can produce its Pigots even now. 
 
 Not long since there was in one of our cruiser squadrons 
 a vessel which on paper at least was a valuable item in 
 the event of war. When she was first commissioned the 
 commander addressed the ship's company in words to the 
 following effect : 
 
 " We shall be together for the next two years, and whether 
 this ship is to be a happy ship or not depends entirely upon 
 you. I shall take no notice of any man's previous character, 
 but shall treat every one as having a clean defaulter's sheet. 
 As much leave and other privileges will be given as is possible, 
 and I hope these will not be abused. In return I want you 
 to understand that this ship has got to be a smart ship. I 
 shall study your comfort in every way so long as you carry 
 out my wishes ; if you fail to do that, then the comforts will 
 be few and far between. The routine of the ship will start 
 to-morrow. To-day you may have to settle down. Bugler 
 sound the disperse." 
 
 Despite the covert threat, the address was a fair one and 
 very similar to hundreds that sea men have listened to on 
 
94 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 ships commissioning. But the commander was known as a 
 " taut hand," and the captain as a weak man who would be 
 hardly likely to interfere. The next day the trouble com- 
 menced men did not move smartly enough, though it stands 
 to their credit that they were fifth ship in an evolution in 
 which some dozen ships took part, all of whom had been some 
 time in commission and black list (loA punishment) was 
 awarded to several men. 
 
 Within four months of commissioning the ship was in- 
 variably first or second in the majority of fleet evolutions 
 performed, 1 yet men were being continually punished for 
 " slackness." 
 
 At last the commander hit on a device which in principle 
 was a repetition of Pigot's. " Clear lower-deck," was an 
 evolution that he had continually complained was not carried 
 out smartly enough. Now the pipe to " Clear lower-deck" 
 may take place when the men are on the mess- decks dis- 
 tributed among their messes. To get on deck they must 
 crowd up the narrow iron hatchways and from thence run 
 aft and fall in in their appointed places on the quarter-deck. 
 Immediately the mess- deck is clear the m aster- at-arms re- 
 ports the fact to the commander, and the evolution is complete. 
 In this case the time given for its execution was thirty seconds, 
 which, with a ship's company of between seven hundred and 
 eight hundred men, was not excessive. 
 
 Immediately " Clear lower-deck " was piped, two petty 
 officers had to station themselves, one in either gangway. 
 The commander stood aft, watch in hand ; by his side a bugler, 
 bugle to lips. When the watch indicated that the thirty 
 seconds allowed had expired, the bugle sounded the " G " 
 and the petty officers in the gangways at once prevented 
 
 1 It is worthy of note that this ship, like others run on similar lines, 
 was low down the list in the order of merit at all her gunnery tests. 
 
SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 95 
 
 any more men getting aft : all those whom they stopped had 
 their names taken by the ship's police and were punished 
 with five days' " slack watch." 
 
 This was quite an unauthorised punishment, and men dealt 
 with under it would not be logged in the defaulter's book ; 
 their punishment was extra drill and extra work, with stop- 
 page of leave. This method of getting a slack watch together 
 necessarily drew petty officers as well as the lower ratings 
 into it, for whether a man succeeded in falling in, in the stipu- 
 lated time, depended entirely on what he was doing at the 
 moment the pipe went to " Clear lower-deck," so that dis- 
 content was just as acute among the petty officers as the 
 remainder of the ship's company. 
 
 The time came when "Clear lower-deck " in thirty seconds 
 was accomplished; then the commander removed the time 
 limit and gave an order to take the names of the last six men. 
 Here we have an exact repetition of Pigot's " last man off 
 the yard." I have been told by men who were on board 
 during this period that when the pipe "Clear lower- deck" 
 went, the ladders leading to the upper- deck presented a mass 
 of struggling, fighting, cursing humanity. 
 
 The next feature was an outbreak of " serious crime." 
 Men, finding that no matter how they tried they could not 
 escape, refused to carry out the punishment awarded by the 
 commander. They were therefore taken before the captain, 
 charged with " refusing to obey the lawful commands of their 
 superior officer," " insubordinate conduct," etc., and were 
 punished with confinement in cells or imprisonment with hard 
 labour. Petty officers who had the misfortune to get into 
 the slack watch too often were taken before the captain, 
 charged with " general slackness," and were disrated or de- 
 prived of good conduct badges, and, to quote one correspon- 
 dent who was on board, " the ship is a perfect hell." 
 
96 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 At last the inevitable happened one night some of the gun- 
 sights and other fittings disappeared and the ship's company 
 were just at that point when the minute spark will precipitate 
 a catastrophe. 
 
 The incident, as is usual in such cases, was soon flashed all 
 over the kingdom, and next day a News Agency said: 
 
 " Our correspondent at understands that in connec- 
 tion with the loss of gun-sights from H.M.S. , there is no 
 
 disaffection on board. The act is put down to one or two 
 malcontents who are now under arrest, and will be dealt with 
 in accordance with naval discipline." 
 
 Those who study the newspapers must have been struck 
 with the sinister frequency of these " regrettable incidents " 
 during the past few years. Here is a newspaper report of 
 one such which occurred in the Channel Fleet. 
 
 " The arrived at Portland on Saturday week. The 
 
 same night all the gun-sights disappeared over the side of the 
 vessel, and the most strenuous inquiry since has been fruitless 
 in discovering the names of those responsible for the offence. 
 Last evening the" war-ship sailed for Bantry Bay, and to-day 
 a full court of inquiry regarding the incident was to be held 
 on board one of the other war-ships now in Portland Harbour. 
 Three of the crew are detained in the port guard-ship 1m- 
 perieuse. 
 
 " During the whole of last week all outside communication 
 with the ship was strictly forbidden, save only from the 
 flag-ship of the Channel Squadron, the Lord Nelson. No craft 
 was allowed to approach the battle-ship with the exception of 
 a boat from the Lord Nelson, which on three successive days 
 brought a number of officers, who mounted the gangway, to 
 return hours later after a secret investigation. 
 
 " The most rigorous steps were taken immediately the loss 
 of the gun- sights was discovered. Tobacco and every luxury 
 were suspended. Even the postman was forbidden to deliver 
 
SHIP MUTINIESHOW THEY ARE MADE 97 
 
 his usual parcel of letters. The tradesmen's tug-boats at- 
 tempted in vain to gain access to the ship." 
 
 At first sight the throwing overboard of gun-sights appears 
 as senseless as it is criminal, and a feeling of indignation 
 arises against those who have been guilty of such an act. I 
 shall not attempt to defend it, but let us look the thing fairly 
 in the face. Acts of insubordination are an effect, and the 
 general policy is to punish the effect, leaving the cause un- 
 touched. 
 
 The sea man has devoted his life to the service of his country 
 and has voluntarily submitted himself to the restrictions of 
 ship-life and the discipline of a fighting service. Prior to 
 joining the Navy he spent many years of his life at school, 
 where he was told of the greatness of the British Empire, 
 the glory of our laws, the freedom of our people. When he 
 came to make inquiries about the Navy, he was supplied 
 with literature that set forth the life in glowing colours. 
 Now he finds himself in a ship which is to all intents and 
 purposes a penal establishment. Officers aft, ship's police 
 forward, every moment of his waking life from 4.30 a.m. 
 till 9.30 p.m. is a round of worry, drive, abuse, punish. 
 
 The sea man's world is circumscribed by the walls of his 
 ship, and inside those walls there is no one to whom he can 
 appeal, neither do the regulations under which he lives pro- 
 vide facilities for appeal to an outside power. He is strictly 
 forbidden to write to the Press ; and even if he did, his com- 
 plaint would necessarily be of such a general character that, 
 in the event of it being published, it would convey nothing 
 intelligible, so he grins and bears till human endurance reaches 
 its limits, and he looks round for some means that will bring 
 relief. If important ship's fittings are lost, this has to be 
 reported, and an inquiry is sure to follow, with a more or less 
 7 
 
98 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 accurate report in the Press, which calls public attention to 
 the ship ; and as this was the one object aimed at, the sacrifice 
 of the gun- sights achieves its object. 
 
 Unfortunately the inquiry which follows is always carried 
 out by naval officers, and is invariably devoted to discovering 
 the individual or individuals who were guilty of the offence ; 
 it is a matter of punish the effect, ignore the cause, and that 
 being so, the effect continues to repeat itself, and will do so 
 with growing frequency until the nation has the courage to 
 deal with and stamp out the cause. 
 
 11 In all cases where one man is to direct the conduct and 
 operations of other men, that degree of regard for the human 
 species, or respect for society which in all ages and nations 
 hath been justly and uniformly demanded from those who 
 govern, is so requisite, that as far as the commander of a ship 
 is deficient in this quality, in the same degree will his govern- 
 ment be oppressive." x 
 
 It is at present considered necessary that the captain of a 
 ship shall be vested with what is despotic power ; that power 
 is vested in him by the nation, and can only be beneficial to 
 its interest so long as it is fairly and judiciously used. It 
 therefore behoves it to see that any abuse of that power 
 should be punished by its immediate withdrawal. To that 
 end these " regrettable incidents " should be dealt with by an 
 outside and entirely disinterested authority, with power to go 
 into the matter with the object of tracing the cause and 
 effecting its removal. 
 
 It is not to sentimentalism I would appeal, but to the 
 selfish interests of the nation. It is the human element, 
 and only the human that wins battles, therefore the slightest 
 disaffection on board a war-ship lessens her fighting value, 
 
 1 " Strictures on Naval Discipline," p. 8. 
 
SHIP MUTINIES HOW THEY ARE MADE 99 
 
 As disaffection grows, fighting efficiency diminishes, till it 
 reaches vanishing point in open mutiny or insubordination. 
 It is the happy belief of many that in face of a common 
 enemy all internal strife would cease, and that a crew discon- 
 tented with their treatment would not fight worse on that 
 account. History has given the lie to that belief over and 
 over again. Human nature is the same in all ages. It was 
 hatred of a superior that induced Lestock in 1745 to withhold 
 his help from Mathews. It was hatred of their officers that 
 made the men of the Macedonian fall such an easy prey to 
 the United States ; and where that feeling exists its effects 
 will always be the same. It never has and never will exist 
 as a result of discipline, i.e. the steady enforcement of instant 
 and unquestioning obedience to authority in its administra- 
 tion of those rules and regulations necessary to a fighting 
 service. But the manufacture of crime for the purpose of 
 gratifying a lust to punish is not discipline, but a crime against 
 discipline, and should be equally punished with the excesses 
 and insubordination it produces ; thus by stamping out the 
 cause we should kill the effect. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 1797 PORTSMOUTH 
 
 There must have been a great fund of loyalty and discipline in England 
 in the eighteenth century ; otherwise all this ill treatment of the 
 sea man would not have been endured by armed men who again and 
 again had the country, apparently at least, at their mercy. 
 
 DAVID HANNAY. 
 
 JUST before Queen Victoria's accession to the throne of 
 England, a prominent statesman gloomily prophesied that it 
 the throne was not worth ten years' purchase. A suc- 
 cession of royal debauchees had brought monarchy into 
 contempt, and it only required a few more indiscretions to 
 sweep it away and place a Republican Government in its stead. 
 Even as the advent of Nelson in the Mediterranean dispelled 
 all traces of mutinous feeling and led to Trafalgar, so the 
 advent of Queen Victoria to the throne was destined to raise 
 the institution of monarchy from the slough into which it had 
 fallen, whilst the effort of her son King Edward VII., of 
 glorious memory, placed it on the rocky foundation of public 
 favour, where it stands secure from assault. We can afford 
 to let men of republican ideas give fervent expression to their 
 feelings at street corners, because republicanism is an abstract 
 idea in which the average Britain has no concrete interest ; 
 the conditions necessary to a desire for such a change do not 
 exist. 
 
 And remote as is the possibility of a revolution in England 
 for the purpose of upsetting the monarchy, more remote is the 
 
 100 
 
I797 _PORTSMOUTH 101 
 
 possibility of a general mutiny in the British Navy the con- 
 ditions that breed general mutinies no longer remain ; the 
 very last was swept away with the revision of the victualling 
 on October i, 1907 therefore we can afford to discuss mutiny 
 with as little danger as we discuss republicanism. 
 
 The great mutinous upheavals that convulsed the Navy in 
 1797 began with the Restoration. When Charles II. abolished 
 the wise laws for the Navy framed by the Commonwealth, 
 and turned the royal ships over to his corrupt favourites, the 
 causes arose which in course of years were to produce the 
 great mutinies of 1797. From that time, 1660, to the great 
 upheaval, the life of the fighting sea man grew worse, until 
 we had arrived at a state surely unparalleled in the history 
 of the world an island kingdom struggling onward to its 
 imperial destiny, while its own sons, who were so freely giving 
 their lives to add to its glory, were treated as a subject race, 
 denied all freedom, right, or privilege, badly fed, incessantly 
 flogged, and yet ever vanquishing and overcoming the nation's 
 enemies wherever they were found. Yet, brilliant as were their 
 achievements in action, the sea men's nature never showed 
 to greater advantage than when driven to revolt by the un- 
 speakable misery of their lives. Their patriotism and loyalty 
 to the country that had so cruelly wronged them, shone forth 
 in the declaration that " We would suffer double the hardships 
 we have hitherto experienced before we would suffer the 
 Crown of England to be imposed on by that of any other 
 Power in the world/' and induced them to ask simply that 
 they might be fairly paid, decently fed ; that their sick 
 might be attended to, and not robbed of even the necessaries 
 the State allowed ; that if wounded in fighting their country's 
 battles, they might be paid till their wounds were healed ; 
 " and that we may in some wise have opportunity to taste 
 the sweets of liberty on shore when we have completed the duty 
 
102 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 of our ship on our return from sea." It is somewhat to the 
 national disgrace that its fighting sons should have ever lacked 
 such things, doubly so that they were forced to revolt to get 
 them. For a hundred and thirty years they had borne their 
 burden patiently, though it grew heavier year by year. Their 
 complainings to their officers were only met by savage punish- 
 ments, and as they pathetically remark in their Petition to 
 the Commons : 
 
 " Your petitioners, with all humility, laid their grievances 
 before the Honourable Lord Howe, and flattered ourselves 
 with the hopes that his Lordship would have been an advocate 
 for us ; but to our great surprise we find ourselves unpro- 
 tected by him " ; 
 
 though there seems no reason why they should have 
 thought Lord Howe would act differently from every other 
 officer. It was this wilful blindness on the part of naval 
 officers that made the outbreak inevitable ; their attitude 
 then could be summed up as it can be summed up to-day : 
 If the men do not complain they are perfectly contented. If 
 they complain collectively it is a " mutinous assembly," and 
 the " ringleaders " are punished. If a man complains singly he 
 is a discontented sea lawyer, and is punished. If to avoid 
 the result of open honest complaint they issue an unsigned 
 petition, it is the work of some " evil-disposed person," and 
 should be ignored. 
 
 But before we proceed to deal with the outbreak of 1797, 
 let us deal with latter-day conditions, which are of course 
 infinitely better than they were then, and we shall be more 
 able to appreciate the difficulties of the men and see how 
 impossible it was for them to get relief without mutiny. 
 
 Theoretically, every man in the Navy who has a grievance 
 has a right to state it and get relief. Section 37 of the Naval 
 Discipline Act provides that : 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 103 
 
 " Every person subject to this Act who shall have any 
 cause of complaint either of the unwholesomeness of the 
 victuals, or upon any other just [my italics] grounds, shall 
 quietly make the same known to his superior, or captain, or 
 commander-in-chief, and the said superior, captain, or com- 
 mander- in- chief shall, so far as he is able, cause the same to 
 be presently remedied ; and no person subject to this Act 
 upon any pretence whatever [my italics] shall attempt to stir 
 up any disturbance, upon pain of such punishment as a court- 
 martial may think fit to inflict, according to the degree of 
 the offence." 
 
 Now if an individual has a complaint which he requires to 
 have remedied his proper course to pursue is to go to the 
 master- at-arms or corporal of the gangway, and ask to see 
 the officer of the watch. He falls in on the quarter-deck, and 
 the officer of watch comes down to hear what is the matter, 
 and either settles it himself or refers it to the commander. 
 Now we will suppose that on some particular day there is 
 something radically wrong with the provisions issued, and the 
 whole of the lower- deck is in a state of tumult and ill- temper. 
 What is to be done ? No general complaint can possibly take 
 place, no matter how justified complaint may be, without 
 some one taking the initiative being a " ringleader " ; so, 
 though grumbling on the lower-deck may be very general, no 
 complaint is made to authority for fear of the consequences. 
 Let us further suppose that an individual more daring than 
 the rest decides to see the officer of the watch, the first 
 question is, " Is this man's food the same as has been issued 
 to his messmates ? " " Yes, sir ! " " Then where are they 
 how is it they are not complaining ? " Result, individual 
 sent away, or more likely placed in the report for making 
 frivolous complaints, and punished. 
 
 If the caterers of messes, whose duty it is to look after the 
 
104 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 interests of their messmates, are to go on the quarter-deck as a 
 body to make a just complaint, they have to be got together 
 by an individual. This may be quite possible, but when the 
 quarter-deck is reached, that individual is expected to be 
 spokesman for the party. Getting a party together for the 
 purpose of complaint is by every law and custom of the 
 service " stirring up a disturbance/' and as no person may do 
 that upon any pretence whatever, such a one finds himself con- 
 fronted with Section 14 of the Naval Discipline Act, which 
 says : 
 
 " Every person subject to this Act who shall make or 
 endeavour to make any mutinous assembly, or shall lead or 
 incite any other person to join in any mutinous assembly, or 
 shall utter any words of sedition, or mutiny, shall suffer penal 
 servitude or such other punishment as is hereinafter men- 
 tioned." 
 
 So the right of complaint is a purely theoretical one, for no 
 matter how justified complaints might be, it is exceedingly 
 dangerous to make them in the way provided for by the 
 service regulations : those regulations are only traps leading 
 to trouble. 
 
 Realising these hard facts the latter-day petty officers have 
 formed themselves into Societies whose Secretaries are not 
 subject to the Naval Defence Act, and these solicit M.P.'s and 
 the Press to get grievances remedied. Some years ago, when 
 the naval warrant officers first put forward their " Earnest 
 Appeal " and lobbied for it, the late Admiral Mayne, who was 
 then an M.P., came to the leaders one day and said that the 
 First Lord had had captains in the fleet written to, to get their 
 views of the " Appeal," and those replies showed that it did 
 not represent the feelings of the warrants as a body. In- 
 stantly a printed letter was sent out by the Warrant Officers' 
 
I797 _PORTSMOUTH 105 
 
 Society to every warrant officer on the Active List, asking 
 whether the " Appeal " represented his wishes or not ? When 
 these letters were all returned it was shown that 95 per cent, 
 had replied, and 90 per cent, were in favour. These replies 
 were shown to Admiral Mayne, and the First Lord was in- 
 formed of the result. The " Appeal " was then accepted as 
 representative, and concessions followed. What steps did the 
 captains in the fleet take to get the warrant officers' opinion ? 
 We may judge by a recent experience of my own. A great 
 many complaints were reaching me about the condition of a 
 certain ship, so I went to the port to investigate things on 
 the spot, and finding the state of affairs serious decided to 
 give publicity to them in The Fleet, When the paper ap- 
 peared, a copy was sent by the Admiralty to the Commander- 
 in- Chief of the port, 1 asking for a report on the matter ; the 
 captain of the ship was communicated with and an " inquiry " 
 took place. The form this inquiry took was that the captain 
 had all the petty officers of the ship fallen in on the quarter- 
 deck, and asked them collectively, " Do any of you petty 
 officers wish to identify yourselves with the statements that 
 have appeared in The Fleet?" For any of their number to 
 have made such an admission would have been to convict 
 themselves of a punishable offence, therefore they all re- 
 mained silent. This silence was followed with, " Then I under- 
 stand that none of you identify yourselves in any way 
 whatever with these charges ? " Again silence ! The report 
 that reached the Admiralty was to the effect that all the 
 
 petty officers of H.M.S. had been fallen in on the 
 
 quarter-deck and closely questioned by the captain, and 
 they one and all wished to repudiate every charge made by 
 The Fleet, whose editor had evidently been misled by some 
 evil-disposed person t 
 
 1 I was kept informed of all these proceedings by friends on the spot. 
 
io6 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 The naval officer who is ordered to investigate and report 
 on a charge brought against himself or his ship would be 
 something more than human if he gave a perfectly impartial 
 and truthful one to his own disadvantage ! The mere fact that 
 discontent exists in his ship is to his discredit, therefore he 
 will strenuously deny that it does exist, and punish those who 
 complain, because the complaints are in themselves criticisms 
 of his administration. So it is practically impossible, or at 
 least exceedingly dangerous, to make complaints. In short, 
 we may say it is impossible to get redress for any grievance, 
 however well founded, except by a breach of the Regulations. 
 That is why the petty officers are banding themselves together 
 in societies, but so careful do they have to be that in issuing 
 their "Appeal" they do so through an individual living at 
 Cardiff, who has no connection with the Navy. These are 
 things as they exist to-day, so it is possible to imagine the 
 hopeless position of the sea man of 1797, to whom we will 
 now return. 
 
 In spite of the writings of such men as Glascock and Chamier 
 there is unquestionable evidence that the plan for obtaining 
 redress of the grievances which the sea man had long and 
 patiently suffered, was concerted among the best sailors of 
 the line- of -battle ships of the Channel Fleet so early as the 
 month of December 1796. That they were exceedingly 
 anxious to get this redress without any open opposition 
 to authority, is shown by the fact that between that 
 time and the month of April 1797 a very humbly worded 
 petition, addressed to Admiral Lord Howe, the Commander- 
 in- Chief, had been sent to his lordship at Bath from most of 
 the ships. These petitions Lord Howe said, in the House of 
 Lords, had no signatures, and the dates of them appeared to 
 be written by the same hand, which looks as though the men 
 had taken the precaution to have a shore secretary through 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 107 
 
 whom they could send their plaints. These circumstances, 
 said his lordship, induced him to imagine that they were not 
 the real petition of the ships' companies, but that they " had 
 been drawn up by some evil- disposed persons for improper 
 purposes." That, as we have seen, was and still is the attitude 
 of naval officers to all documents of a like nature. 
 
 Instead of trying to find out for himself first-hand if the 
 petitions did represent the feelings of the men, he wrote to 
 the officers acting immediately under him at Portsmouth, to 
 know how far the petition might be regarded as genuine. 
 The officers' answer was stated by Lord Howe, in the House 
 of Lords, to be that the petitions were the work of some evil- 
 disposed persons ; and it appears that no danger was appre- 
 hended, either by Lord Howe or the Admiralty, from disre- 
 garding any petitions which might be presented by the sea 
 men of the fleet. The orders to sail issued to Lord Bridport 
 upon the information of the outbreak, confirms this fact 
 beyond the possibility of a doubt. 
 
 It must appear strange how a large body of sea men, em- 
 barked in sixteen ships, and having practically no communi- 
 cation with each other, could secretly concoct, first a collective 
 petition to their commander- in- chief, and then, when that 
 failed, a general and simultaneous outbreak against authority ; 
 yet such was the fact, and it shows how general was the dis- 
 affection and how desperate the straits to which they were 
 driven. 
 
 The inattention to their petitions transmitted to Lord 
 Howe showed that there was no hope from that quarter, and 
 as they had reached the limit of human endurance, one thing 
 and one thing only remained revolt ; so a plan was concerted 
 for taking command of the ships from the officers by signal on 
 the morning of April 16, 1797. The Queen Charlotte, flag- 
 ship of Lord Howe, was to have hoisted a Union Jack at the 
 
io8 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 main, and to have fired two guns which the assembled ships 
 were to have acknowledged by cheering, and immediately all 
 command was to have been taken from the officers. As in 
 most cases of a like nature there was a traitor in the camp, 
 and Captain Patten of the Transport- Office, not then em- 
 ployed in any ship, received information of the plan adopted 
 by the men on the I2th ! He immediately informed the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, Sir Hyde Parker, who sent 
 for the flag officers of the fleet, acquainted them with the 
 information he had received, and also acquainted the Ad- 
 miralty. This should have been proof sufficient that the 
 petitions sent to Lord Howe did emanate from the men, and 
 an inquiry should have immediately followed, instead of 
 which an order was sent for the immediate sailing of the fleet. 
 This order reached Portsmouth on Saturday. 
 
 The sea officers of the Admiralty fully realised that once 
 get the ships to sea, the men would be helpless, and could be 
 dealt with in detail ; the men thoroughly understood this 
 too, therefore the order for immediate sailing only demon- 
 strated how little the Admiralty understood the sea men's 
 minds, and what erroneous ideas they had formed of the 
 power that could be exercised in a general outbreak. 
 
 As soon as Admiral Lord Bridport made the signal for the 
 ships to prepare for sea, the sea men, without orders, manned 
 the rigging of every ship, gave three cheers, and instantly all 
 command was taken from the officers. This action must 
 have been quite spontaneous, and is another proof, if any 
 were needed, of the state of the fleet. James says of this : 
 
 " On April I5th, Lord Bridport threw out the signal to 
 prepare for sea ; when instead of weighing the anchor, the 
 sea men of the Royal George ran up the shrouds and gave 
 three cheers ; a proceeding which from the awful response it 
 produced throughout the fleet at once betrayed it as a signal 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 
 
 of disaffection. The captain and officers of the different ships 
 were astonished, nay almost astounded at this sudden act of 
 disobedience, and, as may be supposed, did their best to per- 
 suade the men to return to their duty ; but all their efforts 
 were in vain. The spirit of mutiny had taken deep root in 
 the breasts of the sea men, and from the apparent organisa- 
 tion of the plan seemed to be the result of far more reflection 
 than for which the wayward mind of a Jack Tar is usually given 
 credit." 
 
 James, like a good many others, seems to have imagined 
 the sea man to have been a kind of trinity who combined 
 the working power of a horse with the stupidity of an ass 
 and the reasoning power of an ape. 
 
 That the officers should have been astounded does not 
 speak very highly for their powers of reflection. For a hun- 
 dred and thirty years they had been sitting on the safety valve 
 while they piled ever more and more fuel on the fire press, 
 cat, bad food, ill-treatment ; and as they piled on the fuel, so 
 they screwed down the safety valve tighter and tighter. And 
 they were astounded when the explosion came ! We can only 
 gaze with amazed admiration on the men whose loyalty to 
 their country enabled them to submit to such conditions for 
 so long without revolt. 
 
 Having passed the Rubicon they proceeded to carry out 
 their intention with that determination that characterises our 
 race. At the same time they showed that, though they were 
 determined to get just grievances removed once for all, they 
 did not intend the fleet to fall into a state of anarchy. They 
 proceeded to take oaths on board the different ships to be 
 true to each other in such a dangerous undertaking. The 
 council of delegates resolved at a meeting held that order must 
 be maintained, sobriety enforced, and respect shown to the 
 officers. For these purposes, and to show they were in 
 
no OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 earnest, they ordered yard ropes to be rove in each ship at the 
 main and fore yard-arms, which might either signify death 
 by hanging, or for ducking transgressors in the sea ; and they 
 were really used for the latter purpose in several ships. Dur- 
 ing the first outbreak the order and solemnity which prevailed 
 were wonderful. The delegates, who had the whole command, 
 appear to have been sensible and moderate men, which is 
 shown in the two following Petitions : 
 
 " To the Right Honourable, and the Honourable Knights 
 and Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled. The 
 HUMBLE PETITION of the Sea men and Marines on board His 
 Majesty's Ships, in behalf of themselves : Humbly sheweth 
 
 " That your petitioners relying on the candour and justice 
 of your Honourable House, make bold to lay their grievances 
 before you, hoping that, when you reflect on them, you will 
 please to give redress as far as your wisdom shall deem 
 necessary. 
 
 " We beg leave to remind your august assembly, that the 
 Act of Parliament passed in the Reign of King Charles II. 
 wherein the wages of all sea men serving on board his Majesty's 
 fleet was settled, passed at a time when the necessaries of life 
 and slops of every denomination were 30 per cent, cheaper 
 than at the present time, which enabled sea men and marines 
 to provide better for their families than we can now do with 
 one half advance. 
 
 " We therefore request your Honourable House will be so 
 kind as to revise the Act before mentioned and make such 
 amendments therein as will enable your petitioners and their 
 families to live in the same comfortable manner as sea men 
 and marines did at that time. 
 
 " Your Petitioners, with all humility, laid their grievances 
 before the Honourable Lord Howe, and flattered ourselves 
 that his Lordship would have been an advocate for us, as we 
 have been repeatedly under his command, and made the 
 British flag ride triumphantly over that of our enemies ; but 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 
 
 in 
 
 to our great surprise we find ourselves unprotected by him, 
 who has seen so many instances of our intrepidity in carrying 
 the British flag into every part of the seas with victory and 
 success. 
 
 " We profess ourselves as loyal to our Sovereign and 
 zealous in the defence of our country as the army or militia 
 can be, and esteem ourselves equally entitled to his Majesty's 
 munificence ; therefore with jealousy we behold their pay 
 augmented and their out- pensions of Chelsea College increased 
 to 13 per annum while we remain neglected, and the out- 
 pensioners of Greenwich have only 7 per annum. 
 
 " We your petitioners therefore humbly implore that you 
 will take these matters into consideration and with your 
 accustomed goodness and liberality comply with the prayer of 
 this petition. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will 
 ever pray, etc. 
 
 " We the Delegates of the Fleet, hereunto sign our names 
 for the ships' companies. 
 
 "Royal George : 
 
 VALENTINE JOYCE 
 JOHN MORRIS 
 
 Queen Charlotte : 
 PATRICK GLYNN 
 JOHN UDLEFON 
 
 Royal Sovereign : 
 JOSEPH GREEN 
 JOHN RICHARDSON 
 
 London : 
 
 ALEXANDER HARDING 
 WILLIAM RILEY 
 
 Glory : 
 
 PATRICK DUGAN 
 JOHN BETHELL 
 
 Duke : 
 
 MICHAEL ADAMS 
 WILLIAM HENDERSON 
 
 Mars : 
 
 THOMAS ALLEN 
 JAMES BLYTH 
 
 Marlborough : 
 JOHN VASSIA 
 WILLIAM SENATOR 
 
 Ramillies : 
 
 CHARLES BERRY 
 GEORGE CLEAR 
 
 Robust : 
 
 DAVID WILSON 
 JOHN SCRIVENER 
 
 L'Impeteux : 
 
 JOHN WILSON 
 WILLIAM PORTER 
 
 Defence : 
 
 GEORGE GALOWAY 
 JAMES BORERICK 
 
112 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Terrible : Minatour : 
 
 MARK TURNER DENNIS LAWLEY 
 
 GEORGE SALKED GEORGE CROSSLAND 
 
 La Pompee : Defiance : 
 
 WILLIAM POTTS JOHN SAUNDERS 
 
 JAMES MELVIN JOHN HUSBAND." 
 
 To the Admiralty these mutineers stated their case in 
 language which for moderation and good sense it would be 
 hard to beat. 
 
 " To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty 
 
 " My LORDS, 
 
 " We the Sea men of His Majesty's Navy take the liberty 
 of addressing your Lordships in an humble petition showing 
 the many hardships and oppression we have laboured under 
 for many years and which we hope your Lordships will 
 redress as soon as possible. We flatter ourselves that your 
 Lordships together with the Nation in general will acknow- 
 ledge our worth and good service both in the American war 
 as well as the present ; for which good service your Lordships' 
 petitioners do unanimously agree in opinion, that their worth 
 to the Nation and laborious industry in defence of their 
 country deserve some better encouragement than that we 
 meet with at present, or from any we have experienced. We 
 your petitioners do not boast of our good services for any 
 other purpose than that of putting you and the Nation in 
 mind of the respect due to us : nor do we ever intend to 
 deviate from our former characters ; so far from anything of 
 that kind as that an Englishman or men should turn their 
 coats we likewise agree in opinion that we should suffer 
 double the hardships we have hitherto experienced before we 
 would suffer the Crown of England to be in the least imposed 
 upon by that of any foreign Power in the world. We there- 
 fore beg leave to inform your Lordships of the grievances 
 which we at present labour under. 
 
I797-PORTSMOUTH 113 
 
 " We, your humble petitioners relying that your Lordships 
 will take into consideration the grievances of which we com- 
 plain, and do not in the least doubt but that your Lordships 
 will comply with our desires, which are in every way very 
 reasonable. 
 
 " The first grievance which we have to complain of is that 
 our wages are too low, and ought to be raised, that we might 
 be the better able to support our wives and families in a 
 manner comfortable and whom we are in duty bound to 
 support as far as our wages will allow, which we trust, will 
 be looked into by your Lordships and the Honourable House 
 of Commons in Parliament assembled. 
 
 " We your petitioners beg that your Lordships will take 
 into consideration the grievances of which we complain, and 
 now lay before you. 
 
 " First That our provisions be raised to the weight of 
 sixteen ounces to the pound, and of a better quality, and 
 that our measures be the same as those used in the commercial 
 trade of the country. 
 
 " Secondly That your petitioners request your honours 
 will be pleased to observe there should be no flour served 
 while we are in harbour in any port whatever under the 
 command of the British flag, 1 and also that there might be 
 granted a sufficient quantity of vegetables of such kind as 
 may be the most plentiful in the ports to which we go ; which 
 we grievously complain and lay in want of. 
 
 " Thirdly That your Lordships will be pleased seriously 
 to look into the state of the sick on board his Majesty's ships, 
 that they may be better attended to, and that they may have 
 the use of such necessaries as are allowed for them in time 
 of their sickness and that these necessaries be not on any 
 account embezzled. 
 
 " Fourthly That your Lordships will be so kind as to 
 
 1 This flour must have been vile stuff when it was issued. In quite 
 recent times I have seen the contents of a flour cask in one solid block 
 owing to the dampness of the hold, so that it had to be split up with 
 a hammer and issued to the messes in chunks ! 
 
ii4 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 look into this affair, which is no wise unreasonable, and that 
 we may be looked upon as a number of men standing in 
 defence of our country, and that we may in some wise have 
 greater an opportunity to taste the sweets of liberty on 
 shore, when in harbour, and when we have done the duty of 
 our ship after our return from sea ; and that no man may 
 encroach on his liberty there shall be a boundary limited, 
 and those trespassing any further without a written order 
 from a Commanding Officer, shall be punished according to 
 the rules of the Navy ; which is a natural request, and con- 
 genial to the heart of man, and certainly to us, that you make 
 the boast of being the guardians of the land. 
 
 " Fifthly That if any man is wounded in action his pay 
 be continued until he is cured and discharged ; and if any 
 ship has any real grievances to complain of, we hope your 
 Lordships will readily redress them as far as is in your power 
 to prevent any disturbances. 
 
 "It is also unanimously agreed to by the Fleet that from 
 this day, no grievance shall be secured in order to convince the 
 Nation at large that we know when to cease to ask as well 
 as to begin, and that we ask nothing but what is moderate 
 and may be granted without detriment to the Nation or injury 
 to the Service. 
 
 " Given on board the Queen Charlotte by the Delegates of 
 the Fleet this i8th day of April, 1797." 
 
 Signed. Here follow the same signatures as in 
 the Petition to Parliament. 
 
 The last request " and if any ship has any real grievance to 
 complain of, we hope your Lordships will readily redress 
 them as far as is in your power, to prevent any disturbances," 
 was by far the most objectionable in the eyes of the officers, 
 because it was interpreted as meaning that where disaffection 
 was rife from purely local causes, as distinguished from general 
 causes, the officers should be tried by court-martial. The 
 
I797 _PORTSMOUTH 115 
 
 captains of the Marlborough and Nymph were in fact ordered 
 to be so tried by the Admiralty. 
 
 On April 16 three of the Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty arrived at Portsmouth and commenced an inquiry. 
 To the very moderate demand of an increase in pay to one 
 shilling a day they at first turned a deaf ear, and for eight 
 days they argued and consulted, at the end of which time 
 they had had to give way on every point. Admiral Patten 
 says : 
 
 " After all these deliberations, the great power of the State 
 in full force on the shore, was compelled to yield to the sea men 
 embarked in onty 15 ships of the line of battle ; for the 
 delegates did not yield a single point to the Admiralty." 
 
 With a moderation which under the circumstances was 
 really marvellous, their petitions set forth the absolute 
 minimum of their wants ; the members of the Admiralty who 
 took part in the negotiations acted like Jew hucksters, instead 
 of frankly meeting the men, and, by their methods, created a 
 feeling of uncertainty and suspicion in the minds of the men 
 generally and the delegates especially. Their first attitude 
 was one of assured belief that the outbreak had been manu- 
 factured by "some evil- disposed person or persons/' when 
 they might have seen that without very general concurrence 
 in opinion the unanimity which appeared could not have 
 been produced. Even the marines concurred with the sea 
 men ; and scarcely a dissenting voice was heard in any ship 
 from the quartermasters, boatswains' mates, etc., down to 
 the meanest sweeper. 
 
 At Portsmouth, while the negotiations with the Admiralty 
 were proceeding, the sea men printed and sold a paper con- 
 taining the Petitions to the Commons and to the Admiralty. 
 Now while the letter from the Board to Admiral Lord Bridport 
 
n6 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 granting the rise of pay, etc., asked for, was an answer to the 
 latter, no notice was taken of the one addressed to the Com- 
 mons. Immediately the reply came from the Board, the 
 men, in accordance with their promise, returned to duty, 
 and the fleet was ordered to sea, but was detained by contrary 
 winds. With the exception of the London and Marlborough, 
 against whose captain (Nichols) a court-martial was pending, 
 the ships dropped down to St. Helen's, Isle of Wight, ready 
 to seize the first opportunity to put to sea. 
 
 While these things were in progress a discussion took place 
 in the House of Lords, the tone of which was entirely against 
 the case of the sea men. The newspapers which contained this 
 discourse were no sooner circulated in the ships at St. Helen's 
 than a considerable fermentation was produced in the minds 
 of the sea men. The hesitation in actually carrying out the 
 promises, and the orders to go to sea, were coupled with 
 the House of Lords' discussion, and an intense distrust of the 
 situation arose. It was exceedingly unfortunate that no 
 discussion had taken place in the House of Commons, as the 
 men looked on the Commons as the only branch of the Legis- 
 lature which could dispose of the public money, and they 
 felt that nothing was certain until a law sanctioning the 
 promise made to them had been passed in Parliament. 
 
 As though a final spark was necessary to fan these fears 
 into activity, the unfortunate order dated May i was sent 
 by the Admiralty to the Admirals and captains of the fleet. 
 This order, after stating that 
 
 " From the disposition lately shewn by the sea men belong- 
 ing to several of His Majesty's ships, it had become highly 
 necessary that the strictest attention should be paid by all 
 officers in His Majesty's Service, not only to their own conduct 
 but to the conduct of those who may be under their orders, 
 the more effectively to insure a proper subordination and 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 117 
 
 discipline, and to prevent as far as may be all discontent 
 among the sea men." 
 
 was followed by a new and uncommon instruction for the 
 captains of His Majesty's ships, viz. : 
 
 " To see that the arms and ammunition belonging to the 
 Marines be constantly kept in good order , and fit for immediate 
 service as well in harbour as at Sea." 
 
 This was unquestionably interpreted by the men as meaning 
 that the promises would not be carried out, but that as soon 
 as they got to sea they would be subjected to a " vigorous 
 discipline " backed up by the arms of the marines, especially 
 as this order stated : 
 
 " That the Captains and Commanders of his Majesty's 
 ships be particularly attentive to the conduct of the men 
 under their command, and that they be ready on the first 
 appearance of mutiny to use the most vigorous means to sup- 
 press it and to bring the ringleaders to punishment." 
 
 Whatever may be said for this order in a general way, the 
 issue of it at such a critical moment showed an extraordinary 
 lack of tact and perception on the part of the Admiralty, for, 
 had they seen things in their true light, the first outbreak 
 would not have lasted twenty- four hours. As it was, their 
 bargaining, submission, and then issue of the foregoing order, 
 drove the men to a second outbreak on May 7. 
 
 On that date they again acted in concert in all the ships 
 at St. Helen's, took command of the fleet and appointed dele- 
 gates. As already stated the Marlborough and London were 
 still at Spithead, and there seems to have been a suspicion in 
 the minds of their ships' companies that they had been 
 singled out for punishment. Be that as it may, they were 
 separated from the remainder of the fleet, so the delegates 
 from the ships at St. Helen's came formally in boats to Spit- 
 
n8 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 head, intending to go on board these ships. But Admiral 
 Colpoys, H.M.S. London, considered that the orders of May i 
 were binding on his conduct, and refused to allow the delegates 
 to come on board the London ; and having armed the officers 
 and prepared the marines in accordance with the order, he 
 ordered his ship's company to go below and let down the gun- 
 ports, at the same time peremptorily refusing to allow the 
 boats with the delegates to come alongside. The sea men 
 of the London consulted together, and decided that the 
 delegates should come into the ship, and one of their number 
 commenced to unlash a gun for the purpose of pointing it 
 towards the quarter-deck. Lieutenant Bover cautioned him 
 against so doing, but as he persisted, Bover fired, killing the 
 man on the spot, at which the men rushed to arms, drew the 
 powder from the guns, and broke open the magazine. A short 
 discharge of muskets and pistols took place, but the marines 
 who had been armed rushed down and joined their shipmates, 
 when the sea men drove the officers aft and disarmed them. 
 
 In the first fury of resentment, the ship's company decided 
 to instantly hang Bover, and for this purpose a yard rope was 
 rove at the fore yard-arm. Bover was carried forward, the 
 noose slipped round his neck, when Valentine Joyce of the 
 Royal George, who had just come on board with the delegates 
 from St. Helen's, interposed and saved his life. 
 
 " His life was saved," wrote one of Bover 's sisters, " by one 
 of the very delegates he fired upon. They seized our dearest 
 Peter and were in the act of completing his destruction, when 
 Joyce ran, clasped him by the neck and called out to the sea 
 men, ' If you hang this man you shall hang me, for I will 
 never quit him.' The recollection of how near it was makes 
 me shudder every time I think of it." 
 
 All this while Bover was doing his level best to drive the 
 men to extremes by calling them dastards, cowards, traitors, 
 
I797 _PORTSMOUTH 119 
 
 and other choice epithets. At this very critical moment 
 Admiral Colpoys intervened, and stated that if any one was 
 to blame it was he, as Bover had simply acted on his orders, 
 which at once drew the resentment on himself, which he en- 
 deavoured to soften by producing the Admiralty orders to 
 show that he also was but carrying out the orders of a superior 
 authority. This however proved of little avail, when both 
 the chaplain and surgeon, seeing how things were going, 
 intervened and begged that they would leave the Admiral 
 to be tried by the civil power. While this discussion was 
 going on, as to whether Admiral Colpoys should be put to 
 death there and then or not, a strange incident turned the 
 fury of the men and saved his life. One of the seamen, in reply 
 to some remark the Admiral made, called him a " d d 
 bloody rascal," which so incensed the others that they turned 
 their anger on him, threatening to throw him overboard, and 
 for the time at least they decided to hold their decision over. 
 This may seem strange, but it should be remembered that 
 at no time did the sea men of the fleet view their conduct in 
 the light of a mutiny. They had certain well-established 
 grievances which they had in vain tried to get remedied by 
 legitimate means. They all along regarded their refusal to 
 weigh anchors as a combination to obtain what they con- 
 sidered the just reward of their labours which they found no 
 other means to accomplish. As showing their peculiar atti- 
 tude towards the State it may be mentioned that some of the 
 ship's company of the Mars talked openly of taking her to 
 France. This got to the ears of the delegates, who threatened 
 the destruction of that ship with all hands if they held forth 
 such language, and to prevent any communication between 
 the Mars and the shore they stationed two guard-boats to row 
 round her night and day to prevent boats from the shore 
 going on board. 
 
120 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 A general consultation now took place among the delegates 
 as to whether they should try Admiral Colpoys and Lieutenant 
 Bover by a court of their own institution, or turn them over 
 to civil authority to be dealt with. The general feeling of the 
 fleet was towards the former course, when a bombshell was 
 exploded in the shape of a letter from the London flatly refus- 
 ing to hand over their officers to the decision of the delegates. 
 This letter was sent to every ship at St. Helens, and is of itself 
 testimony of the extraordinary nature of this outbreak : 
 
 " To the Delegates of the Fleet at St. Helen s : 
 
 " You have, I presume, read the address of the ship's com- 
 pany, of which I am a member, to you, recommending me as 
 their representative in future. They have further given me 
 the most flattering proof of their opinion of my abilities to 
 act as a Man and a Christian ought to do. Under these cir- 
 cumstances I flatter myself you will hear me with patience, 
 as I am partly convinced that your own sentiments when 
 compared with mine will join me in saving a deserving char- 
 acter from ruin and destruction. I shall not dwell on the 
 particulars of yesterday ; they are I am confident still warm 
 in your memory, but only call your attention to the behaviour 
 of our brother Valentine Joyce his intrepid behaviour in 
 rescuing the unfortunate gentleman from the hands of an 
 enraged multitude, will I am sure make a deep impression 
 on your minds and will, I hope, induce you to act in a manner 
 worthy of Christians and British sea men. 
 
 " This much my brethren for preface. Permit me now to 
 speak for that ship's company whose confidence I enjoy. In 
 the first place had they followed the momentary impulse of 
 passion and wreaked their vengeance upon that unfortunate 
 gentleman, a few minutes would have brought to their recol- 
 lection the amiable character he has always borne among 
 them, and I am confident would have embittered the latest 
 moments of their lives. Now my brethren your general cry 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 121 
 
 is ' Blood for Blood.' Do you mean that as a compliment 
 to me : to assist us in following error after error ? If so, it 
 is a poor compliment indeed. Do you (let me ask you) think 
 it justice ? I hope not : if you do let me ask from whence 
 did you obtain authority to sit as a court over the life of even 
 the meanest of subjects ? The only answer you can give me 
 is, you are authorised by your respective ships' companies, 
 but is that authority sufficient to meet your consciences for 
 taking the life even of a criminal much more that of a deserv- 
 ing and worthy gentleman ? I can almost safely say you will 
 say no. But if you are to be influenced by your ships' com- 
 panies in spite of your own opinions I am but a single 
 individual among you and before this arm of mine shall sub- 
 scribe the name of Fleming to anything that may in the least 
 tend to that gentleman's prejudice much more to his life, I 
 will undergo your utmost violence and meet death with him 
 hand in hand. 
 
 " I am nevertheless as anxious as any member in the fleet 
 for a redress of our grievances will maintain that point hand 
 in hand with you all so long as you are contented with your 
 original demands : but that moment I hear you deviate from 
 those principles, that instant I become your most inveterate 
 enemy. You see brethren I act openly and am determined 
 to support it, so I will never form a part to do injustice to my 
 country and for the future shall expect that whatever comes 
 before us shall be only conducive to the much wanted and 
 desirable end of restoring this fleet to the confidence of an 
 injured country. Let these be your aims and depend on 
 every support from me and this ship's company, and be 
 assured that the life and character of Mr. Bover shall always 
 remain inviolate in our hands ; and we think any steps taken 
 to the contrary highly injurious to ourselves as brothers of 
 your community. 
 
 " We expect your answer this night and try to remain, 
 
 " Yours most sincerely, 
 " Per desire of the London's ship's company, 
 
 " (Signed) JOHN FLEMING." 
 
122 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 For three days Admiral Colpoys, his flag-captain, and 
 Lieutenant Bover were kept under arrest. The two former 
 were then sent on shore together, with the chaplain, for whom 
 a dose of tar and feathers had been prepared, but which he 
 escaped. Lieutenant Bover was tried on shore before a 
 coroner's jury, the verdict being "Justifiable homicide." He 
 then returned on board and continued to serve in the London 
 till made commander on February 4, 1798. This was the ship's 
 company that was afterwards sent to the Mediterranean for St. 
 Vincent to " discipline." That St. Vincent was a petty-minded, 
 vindictive man we are able to judge by his letter to Keppel, 
 when he was John Jervis, and captain of the Foudroyant. 
 We may therefore assume that he would take a delight in 
 retaliating on the Marlborough and London for their share in 
 the outbreak. But his secretary relates that "In a week the 
 London had become as quiet as mice, and ever maintained an 
 excellent character." 
 
 There is no doubt that right through the outbreaks the 
 men, with occasional exceptions, conducted themselves with 
 marvellous moderation and courtesy towards their officers, 
 who cannot be congratulated on showing a like spirit. Even 
 James admits that on April 21, during the first outbreak, 
 when the Vice-Admirals Gardner and Colpoys and Rear- 
 Admiral Pole went on board the Queen Charlotte and had a 
 conference with the delegates in the hope of removing the re- 
 maining impediments in the way of a general reconciliation, 
 they were anything but conciliatory in their attitude. As far 
 as they were concerned, it was not a conference at all ; they 
 treated the delegates with scant respect, and when the latter 
 assured them that no arrangement would be considered as 
 final until sanctioned by King and Parliament and guaranteed 
 by a proclamation of pardon, Admiral Gardner was so incensed 
 that he seized one of the delegates by the collar and swore he 
 
I797 _PORTSMOUTH 123 
 
 would have them all hanged, together with every fifth man 
 in the fleet ! It was that attitude that made the second 
 outbreak inevitable. 
 
 In whatever light this combination may have been looked 
 on by those who possessed the power of the State, two very 
 material points stood out clear. First, that as the discontent 
 was quite general, affecting both sea men and marines, no 
 power whatever could dispossess the sea men of the command 
 of the ships once they had taken them over. This being so, 
 no means remained to secure to the nation the use of the fleet 
 but the most speedy, the most ,full, and the most direct com- 
 pliance with all their demands, even supposing them to have 
 been unreasonable, which they were not. However clear these 
 points may be now, they certainly were not perceived by the 
 Admiralty when at Portsmouth ; had they any real concep- 
 tion of the situation, they would not have issued the general 
 order, dated May i, which certainly precipitated the second 
 outbreak and led to the bloodshed on board the London. 
 
 The immediate result of this was that the delegates directed 
 the whole of the ships which lay at Spithead by Admiralty 
 orders both ships of the line and frigates to get under way 
 and join the fleet at St. Helen's. These commands were in- 
 stantly obeyed, and the whole assembled ships were kept at 
 single anchor in readiness for sailing. In addition, the guns 
 were loaded ready for resistance, and a strict watch was kept in 
 every ship, and every precaution was taken by the delegates 
 to preserve the power in their own hands till their demands 
 were met in full. Their attitude from the very first, as ex- 
 pressed through their Petitions, seems to have been, " We have 
 asked for the very minimum, and from that we shall not 
 depart." 
 
 There is one action of the delegates after the London inci- 
 dent that has met with universal condemnation at the hands of 
 
124 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 writers as being unnecessarily violent, viz. the landing of all 
 unpopular officers. To me this has always appeared as a very 
 wise course to pursue. The bloodshed on board the London 
 unquestionably inflamed those men who might have been 
 inclined to wreak their ill-feelings on those officers who were 
 displeasing to them. Admiral Gardner, who, owing to his 
 stupid threat during the first outbreak to hang the whole of 
 the delegates and every fifth man in the fleet, had become 
 exceedingly unpopular, was one of the first to be put on shore. 
 But even here the delegates showed a deference to his wishes 
 that did them credit. While he was drinking tea with some 
 of his officers, a lieutenant entered the cabin and told him 
 that he and his officers had to quit the ship at once, and that 
 there was a cutter alongside for that purpose. The Admiral 
 went on deck and asked, if he must go, that he might be 
 allowed his barge. The request was granted without any 
 demur ; and it is worthy of note that as soon as the general 
 anger had softened the officers were asked by letter to come 
 on board again, which they did. 
 
 By this time the Government was fully alive to the position 
 of affairs, and, realising that the fleet would not be at the 
 nation's disposal till the claims of the men had been met in 
 full, the Act of Parliament for raising their pay was passed 
 with uncommon despatch, and sent to Portsmouth, where it 
 was at once communicated to the delegates, who declared 
 themselves perfectly satisfied on that point; but they still 
 clung to their demand that objectionable officers should be 
 placed on shore. In this they were inspired by the first law 
 of nature : self-preservation. They knew that once the trouble 
 was settled and duty resumed, no further general outbreak 
 could take place, and that the tyrant officer, if left on board, 
 would be free once more to wreak his will on them, therefore 
 they decided he should go. 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 125 
 
 Lord Howe was sent down vested with full power to settle 
 all matters with the delegates, and his first object at the con- 
 ference held with the delegates was to try and induce them 
 once more to receive those officers who had been sent out of 
 their ships, and to send no more on shore. He considered 
 that to grant this point would be fatal to discipline; the 
 delegates considered it as vital to their future, and in spite of 
 all Lord Howe's pleadings they did not yield a single point, 
 but continued to send officers on shore and remain complete 
 masters of the situation. To Lord Howe himself they showed 
 every respect and deference, but where their claims were con- 
 cerned, they were adamant, and his lordship, fully realising 
 the position, yielded point by point till every concession had 
 been granted. 
 
 That he must have deeply regretted his inattention to the 
 Petitions sent to him at an earlier period is obvious, though 
 he was not for a moment upbraided for this by the delegates, 
 who at the end of the conference desired that they might be 
 allowed to row him round the fleet as a token of approbation 
 of the concessions that had been granted by him. Here 
 again, surely, the sea men stand forth with credit. In spite 
 of the fact that the conference had terminated in a complete 
 acquiescence to their demands they evinced no elation ; in- 
 stead, they treated the Admiral as the victor by rowing him 
 round the fleet. 
 
 This should and would have had the happiest results, had 
 the friends of Lord Howe been blessed with the same modera- 
 tion and good sense as the delegates, but these former, hearing 
 of what was to take place, decided to turn it into a kind of 
 triumphant procession. A large number of ladies, land officers, 
 and others, together with two bands, attended in a large 
 number of boats and accompanied his lordship round the 
 fleet. Whatever might have been their ideas of the situation 
 
126 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 the sea men, who knew they had won all along the line, took 
 this procession as a sign of respect and recognition of their 
 power. The delegates were regaled at the Governor's house ; 
 and attempts were made to raise a popular demonstration in 
 their favour on the occasion. 
 
 Affairs being amicably adjusted in favour of the men the 
 flag of revolt was struck, and at 10 a.m. the next day the fleet 
 got under way, but the wind suddenly veering round to the 
 southward, anchors were again dropped. But the next morn- 
 ing, the I7th, the fleet again weighed and got to sea ; and so 
 ended one of the most extraordinary revolts that had ever 
 taken place in connection with the sea service of any nation. 
 " Certainly," as David Hannay says, " no body of mutinous 
 men were ever provoked by more genuine grievances, and 
 none ever behaved with greater moderation." 
 
 To thoroughly appreciate that moderation it is necessary 
 to understand the condition of the ships' companies generally, 
 and the prime sea men particularly. Each company was 
 made up of a dozen different elements, among whom foreigners 
 were a by no means negligible quantity. Then there were 
 boys, marines, land men, quota men and ' 'State- the- case " 
 men the sea men proper forming not more than one- third of 
 the whole. The quota men were those supplied by the various 
 counties throughout the United Kingdom, and were, without 
 doubt, the scum tempted to sea by the high bounties offered. 
 The " State- the-case " men were those who had been impressed 
 illegally, or who believed thay had been impressed illegally. 
 These sent in appeals to the Admiralty for relief, their appeals 
 being a statement of their case for consideration. These 
 became so numerous that they were dealt with by a special 
 department at the Admiralty, and, for convenience, all com- 
 munications connected with these appeals were marked on 
 the outside " State-the-case " ; thus these men came to be 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 127 
 
 known as " State-the-case " men. We can only imagine what 
 their lives were on board. Dragged from their homes, with 
 no knowledge of the sea, eternally appealing against their 
 lot, they could have been of little use, and no doubt every one 
 would have been glad to see the back of them. But the sea 
 men themselves were the worst sufferers ; they were the most 
 valuable to the nation, and by far the worst treated. Their 
 main general grievance was unquestionably the matter of pay. 
 
 In 1758 George Grenville, who was then Treasurer of the 
 Navy, induced Parliament to pass an Act for the Encourage- 
 ment of Sea men employed in the Royal Navy ; and for 
 establishing a regular method for the punctual, frequent, and 
 certain payment of their wages ; and for enabling them more 
 easily and readily to remit the same for the support of wives 
 and families, and for preventing frauds and abuses attending 
 such payments. But these fine paper phrases, like a good 
 many that exist to-day, were very different in practice, and 
 were choked with many petty meannesses. 
 
 Theoretically, a man who volunteered received two months' 
 advance, and was allowed to allot part of his pay to support 
 his wife and family. All men who had served for a year or 
 over were entitled to receive the full wages due to them (less 
 a deduction of six months, which was kept back as a provision 
 against desertion) whenever their ship came into a port where 
 there was a Commission of the Navy. Pressed men got no 
 advance, and none of the men got paid when serving abroad, 
 or at a home port when not a naval dockyard. 
 
 Even when they were paid it was not in coin of the realm, 
 but in pay tickets, which were surrounded by all kinds of red- 
 tape regulations, and could only be cashed through a pay- 
 ofhce. What this meant to a man pressed out of a home- 
 coming merchant ship and to his wife and family can be 
 imagined. Even when men sent tickets home to their fami- 
 
128 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 lies to be cashed, the woman had to present them at a pay- 
 office in a dockyard town, so that they were compelled to 
 come there from all parts of the kingdom for the purpose. 
 The people at these pay-offices seem to have been in league 
 with the " Jews," as all manner of objections were raised 
 to the tickets, and payments refused. The women, being 
 ignorant of the forms to be complied with, either had their 
 journey for nothing or sold the tickets to the " Jews," who 
 were always on the look-out for such cases of want. From 
 15 per cent, to 50 per cent, was the commission charged for 
 cashing the tickets. 
 
 Of the men themselves, William Richardson l has told us 
 how they were marched from one ship to another without a 
 moment's liberty on shore, and with their paper money in 
 their hands to start a new commission. Admiral Elkins re- 
 cords one case where a man did fourteen years without 
 touching a penny of actual pay, and he says that to his own 
 knowledge men often did nine years without getting any 
 wages. As they had to buy their own clothes they were 
 often reduced to rags or practical nakedness on this account. 
 Is it a wonder that Nelson said his heart was with the men 
 who mutinied at Spithead ? On the other hand, Admiral 
 Cunningham, who was captain of the Clyde at the mutiny of 
 the Nore, and who seemed to have been of the type of Glascock 
 and Chamier, declared that they were as happy as mortal 
 sailor could expect to be ; and quoted as one of the blessings 
 of the fighting sea man that the Admiralty had done all mortal 
 wisdom could do to see that each man got exactly his right 
 amount of wages ! In spite of Cunningham, it is easy to 
 understand why the sea men made the claim for higher wages 
 the main feature of their Petition to Parliament, and the 
 first item in their Petition to the Admiralty. 
 
 1 " A Mariner of England," 
 
1797 PORTSMOUTH 129 
 
 The request for sixteen ounces to the pound was the result 
 of an inexplicable governmental meanness, it being the custom 
 of the Admiralty to allow the men only fourteen ounces to the 
 pound, in order to provide for what was called "leakage." 
 Even this fourteen ounces dwindled, in the hands of dishonest 
 pursers, down to ten, eleven, twelve ounces ; and to complain 
 was a crime. 
 
 Vegetables were a crying need. William Richardson gives 
 us an idea of his state when he was sent from the Minerva to 
 the Prompted 
 
 Men were eaten up with scurvy ; their gums were in a horri- 
 ble state. They had only salt meat and hard biscuit to eat, 
 with the shore and an inexhaustible supply of fresh vegetables 
 only a couple of hundred yards away. There is no record 
 that the officers ever suffered from scurvy, or that they went 
 without fresh provisions and vegetables, when these were by 
 any means obtainable ; and no valid reason was ever given why 
 the men should be denied fresh vegetables when in harbour. 
 
 The condition of the sick was shocking in the extreme. The 
 medical stores were insufficient and bad, in the first place, 
 while the dishonesty of the surgical staff further reduced 
 these, till the sick were left without any proper medicines. 
 
 The Greenwich Hospital pension was 7 only as compared 
 with the 13 given to the military pensioners at Chelsea. 
 This difference was owing to the extraordinary maladminis- 
 tration and corruption of old sea officers at Greenwich. 
 
 These things alone were sufficient to inspire a chronic dis- 
 content in the hearts of any men ; when they were coupled 
 with practical slavery backed up with the whip, they became 
 insupportable, and the wonder is not that there was a general 
 uprising in 1797, but that it did not come many years before. 
 Admiral Patten predicted one in 1792. And now, before we 
 
 1 See quotation at head of chapter on " The Festive Sea Man." 
 
 9 
 
130 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 proceed to the Nore, let us take a brief glance at latter-day 
 happenings. 
 
 A few years ago there were very continuous murmurings 
 at a certain naval depot against the short issue of provisions, 
 especially fresh beef ; men declared that they rarely got more 
 than fourteen ounces to the pound, often considerably less ; 
 but how was it possible to prove this ? To make an effective 
 complaint the meat, just as it was drawn from the beef- house, 
 would have to be taken to an officer and weighed there and 
 then. But it was not possible to get straight to an officer, 
 especially the commander, who only receives requests and 
 defaulters at stated times. A mass of red-tape formula had 
 to be gone through, and this had to pass through officials who, 
 in ninety- nine cases out of every hundred, were interested in 
 maintaining the status quo. Things got worse and worse, till 
 at last it was decided to deal with the matter in the Press. 
 The commodore of the depot got wind of this. In fact, if I 
 remember rightly, he had an advance proof of the article sent 
 to him privately, which, like a wise man, he kept to himself. 
 But the next morning he sent for three lieutenants ; to one 
 he said : 
 
 " Go down to the beef- house ; hang about, taking no notice 
 of any one, and when the last mess has drawn its beef, turn 
 every one out, lock up the place, and bring the key to me." 
 To the others he said: "Take those scales, station yourselves 
 
 at (mentioning a part of the barracks), and as the men 
 
 come through with their messes' meat ask the amount they 
 drew, and then weigh it to see just what they have got. Don't 
 stop them if they are short, but simply note in this book their 
 mess, what they were supposed to have, and what they really 
 did have." 
 
 These orders were faithfully carried out. When Lieutenant 
 No. i descended on the beef- house, turned the issuing staff out 
 
I797-PORTSMOUTH I 3 i 
 
 and locked the door, placing a sentry with orders that no one 
 was to go near it, consternation spread. When Lieutenants 
 2 and 3 returned with their figures it was discovered that 
 the difference between the supposed and real issue amounted 
 to just on seven quarters (a bullock and three quarters) ; 
 there were about 5,000 men in the depot. The paymaster 
 was sent for with his books, and the commodore informed 
 him that he wanted to survey the beef in the beef -house at 
 once ; but before they went, would he, the paymaster, state 
 what amount of beef should be there. This was done, and 
 the procession wended its way to the beef -house, where a 
 surprise was in store : instead of there being seven quarters 
 of beef too many, there was about one and a half short! 
 This was a totally unexpected situation, because it showed 
 that instead of a few petty officials being guilty of small 
 peculations, there must be a widespread conspiracy, as evi- 
 dently the beef, though signed for, had never come into the 
 barracks, thus involving the issuing staff at barracks, the 
 victualling yard officials, contractors, and those accountant 
 officers who had left everything to subordinates and signed 
 for stuff they had never seen or checked. From five hundred 
 to seven hundred carcases a year must have been the amount 
 of plunder of this group, but the whole thing was hushed up 
 " in the interest of the service." I only quote this to ask, if 
 this could go on with impunity not long since, what must 
 have been the conditions 150 years ago ? A perpetually 
 hungry belly was the groundwork on which was built a 
 monstrous structure of repression, corruption, and cruelty, 
 which grew and grew till it became absolutely insupport- 
 able. As there was no legitimate means whereby the 
 burden could be lightened, revolt, the last resource of poor 
 suffering humanity ever since the world began, was re- 
 sorted to, with the results we have seen. Right through 
 
132 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 this part of the serio- comedy, which might have ended in 
 blackest tragedy, the sea man was the only one who shone 
 to advantage. Authority began by ignoring him, then 
 tried to bully him, granted all he asked, and ended by ban- 
 quetting him and escorting him round the fleet in a kind of 
 triumphal procession. Then, when he had returned to his 
 duty, the safeguarding of the State, authority once more, in a 
 vindictive reaction, whirled the cat and the yard rope round 
 his head as though he was a felon of felons, and only fit for 
 torture and death. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 1797 THE NORE 
 
 THREE days before the men at St. Helen's returned to duty, 
 signs of disaffection appeared in the ships congregated at the 
 Little Nore. It has always been the practice to put this down 
 to political influence organised on shore ; one writer credited 
 it thus, and all those who came after have slavishly followed 
 his lead. They have been incapable of looking at the thing 
 through a sea man's eyes, and as they had a theory to hand 
 already cut and dried, they have seized it to point a moral 
 and adorn a tale. 
 
 The outbreak at the Nore was not due to political influence, 
 to Parker, or to any one else, but to the Admiralty order of 
 May i, backed up by the fact that the grievances of the men 
 were universal, and that the conditions which produced the 
 outbreak at Spithead were to be found everywhere throughout 
 the Navy. 
 
 If we are to believe Admiral Patten, who was in the Navy 
 at the time and who seems to have been a keen and uncom- 
 monly shrewd observer of the conditions of the men, the Navy 
 was on the brink of a general upheaval in 1792. This being 
 so, it is only reasonable to assume that in the intervening five 
 years it was a constant subject of discussion among the prime 
 sea men of the Navy who were the chief sufferers ; not those 
 belonging to the Channel Fleet alone, but the sea men of the 
 Navy generally. It is also fair to assume that an understand- 
 
134 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 ing was arrived at, that circumstances should be left to decide 
 just when and where action should commence, and that as 
 soon as the others heard of it they should follow the lead, and 
 so make the thing general. 
 
 The winter of 1796 offered special facilities to the men of 
 the Channel Fleet, and in the December of that year Petitions 
 began to reach Lord Howe which he was foolish enough to 
 ignore, and so it came to pass that the men of the Channel 
 Fleet decided to set the ball rolling. We have followed the 
 vacillating policy of the Admiralty and their final collapse 
 before the determined attitude of the delegates, and we have 
 also seen how the senseless order of May i precipitated the 
 second outbreak at St. Helen's. That order was of course 
 promulgated throughout the Navy. Naval captains, taken in 
 the bulk, were by no means slow in the use of the cat, even 
 under ordinary circumstances, when what they were pleased 
 to call " discipline " was normal. This order 
 
 "That the Captains and Commanders of His Majesty's 
 ships be particularly attentive to the conduct of the men 
 under their command, and that they be ready on the first 
 appearance of mutiny to use the most vigorous means to 
 suppress it and bring the ringleaders to justice " 
 
 frightened the more timid of the officers mentioned, and in- 
 duced the more brutal to " see red," so that there was a general 
 outbreak of authoritative violence. But there is a limit to all 
 human endurance, and the sea man had reached that limit, 
 so that the repressive measures that were now suddenly taken, 
 instead of stamping out disaffection as was intended, only 
 intensified his misery and precipitated the general revolt 
 which tact and a generous acknowledgment of his claims 
 would have made unnecessary and impossible. 
 
 I am not here to defend Parker. Portsmouth and the Nore 
 
1797 THE NORE 135 
 
 illustrated the two ends of one proverb. The banquet at the 
 Governor's house showed the St. Helen's delegates that nothing 
 succeeds like success ; the yard whip probably convinced 
 Parker and his colleagues that nothing fails like failure. Had 
 he been the perfect man, one could hardly regret the end ; he 
 played for high stakes and lost : lost because, though he had 
 some of the qualities of the leader, he lacked the essentials of 
 moderation and level- headedness. Unlike the Portsmouth 
 delegates, he did not know " when to cease to ask, as well as 
 to begin." His want of level- headedness, and perhaps a 
 strain of vanity, carried him over the border-line of legitimate 
 demand to excess. He strutted on the stage for a few brief 
 days in all the glory of a transient authority, then hit up 
 against the swing-back of the pendulum at the yard arm of 
 the Sandwich ! David Hannay admits 
 
 " He met his death at the fore yard-arm like a man, having 
 written a proper sort of letter to his wife, expressed due con- 
 trition for his offences, and asked, as the leader of an unsuc- 
 cessful rebellion should, that his life might be accepted as 
 sufficient sacrifice. If it was all, or even partly, affectation, 
 it was at least the affectation of a man who knew the proper 
 thing to do." 
 
 His last letter shows that he had made the great mistake of 
 fancying himself the wheel instead of, as he was, the fly on the 
 wheel. His leadership of an " unsuccessful rebellion " only 
 existed in his imagination, for, as was the case at Portsmouth, 
 the delegates refused to admit that they were engaged in a 
 mutiny ; and that their attitude should not be mistaken, the 
 King's birthday was observed with the usual forms of loyalty 
 a royal salute was fired, ships were " dressed " with the usual 
 display of bunting, and the chaplain of the Sandwich was 
 sent for to preach the Birthday sermon. So if this was a 
 
136 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " rebellion/' it was one of the strangest in the history of 
 man ! 
 
 These loyal observances were strictly in accordance with 
 the nature of the outbreaks, and those most intimately con- 
 nected with them. Admiral Patten tells us that they were 
 concerted among the best sea men in any ship. 
 
 " When any ship arrived from sea and the delegates went on 
 board, they immediately called for the captains of the fore- 
 castle, who were always the best and most experienced sea 
 men, and they never failed to concur with the delegates and 
 to induce the ship's company to follow their opinions. All 
 the petty officers, that is to say, quarter-masters, boatswains' 
 and gunners' mates, etc., uniformly joined in the combina- 
 tion ; and the boatswains, gunners and carpenters themselves 
 at least stood neutral, and did not join the higher officers in 
 any ship, according to the best information I have been able 
 to collect on this subject; and in the London , the boatswain, 
 gunner and carpenter went down to the orlop-deck during the 
 unfortunate contention which took place on that ship." 
 
 When a revolt consisted of such active and passive elements 
 as these, there must have been something above the average 
 in Parker that he should have been able to assume the leader- 
 ship from the beginning. True, he was repudiated later, and 
 his own messmates handed him over to authority, but that 
 was after he had been tried in the scale and found wanting 
 in the qualities of a leader. His brief power seems to have 
 turned his head, and he imagined himself the " leader of a 
 rebellion," instead of one of a combination whose object was 
 not rebellion, but the abolition of well-founded grievances. 
 
 The fantastic picture drawn by James is worthy of an arm- 
 chair sailor totally ignorant of the sea. 
 
 "It is notorious that a certain custom had long prevailed 
 for the London police when a culprit possessed wit enough 
 for his roguery just to elude the letter of the law, rather than 
 
1797 THE NORE 137 
 
 discharge him that he might commit, with increased confi- 
 dence, fresh depredations upon society, to send him on board 
 a ship- of -war. He was generally a plausible fellow, with a 
 smattering of learning and a knowledge of the world ; two 
 qualities that ranked him very high in the estimation of the 
 unsophisticated sailor. He sang a good song, or at all events 
 he told a good story, and became in time the oracle of the fore- 
 castle. He was perhaps a dabbler in politics, and certainly 
 from the nature of his profession a bit of a lawyer. He 
 therefore could expound Acts of Parliament to the sailor. In 
 short, such a character was capable of infecting a whole ship's 
 company, and many of the mutinous crews could no doubt 
 trace their disorganisation to the first appearance among them 
 of one of those pests of society." 
 
 Had James spent only six months on the forecastle or lower- 
 deck of a ship- of- war he would have found that the sea man 
 is not so unsophisticated as he supposed, and that such a 
 character as he depicts would be about the very last to get a 
 hearing or demoralise a ship's company ; his fate would be 
 to be kicked from pillar to post as a wind-bag. Of course 
 James's object was to scout the idea of well-founded grievances, 
 and to fix all the troubles on the " evil- disposed person." 
 
 David Hannay takes his cue from James, and follows on 
 with the same fable : 
 
 " Whether Parker belonged to one of our revolutionary 
 societies is not certain. It was afterwards asserted that he 
 did, and was sent on board as being, from his training, a likely 
 person to foment a mutiny. This, however, is so much the 
 kind of story which would be told, that it cannot be accepted 
 as evidence. On the other hand it is not intrinsically im- 
 probable. He himself had the grace to " die game," and 
 without betraying his associates on shore if he had any. All 
 we can be sure of is that he was very much the stamp of men who 
 did belong to Jacobin societies, and that his training had ad- 
 
138 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 mirably qualified Mm for the part he played. On board the 
 ships at the Nore he had plenty of the kind of material which 
 the demagogues love. The London police had been in the 
 habit of sending its criminals on board for some time, and 
 among them undoubtedly were members of the Corresponding 
 Society and United Irishmen." 
 
 The obvious desire is to prove political influence, and a 
 manufactured revolt by political agitation. But Parker has 
 been so very much maligned that it is difficult to say at this 
 time of day what manner of man he really was. Still, the 
 disaffection in the North Sea Fleet, over which Parker had no 
 influence, should dispel the idea of political influence. 
 
 But after all is said, the character of Parker is quite im- 
 material. In all great upheavals, men of various standards 
 float to the surface ; those of the right type and character are 
 able to seize opportunities and shape circumstances to the 
 end desired, others may have the strength of purpose to get 
 to the surface, but not the qualifications to act rightly when 
 they get there. To whichever type Parker belonged is quite 
 immaterial ; he was a bubble on the surface, a fly on the 
 wheel, and to credit him with the organisation of the outbreak 
 is to totally ignore the conditions of the Navy at the time, and 
 to do grievous wrong to the sea men of the fleet, by implying 
 that they could be led into such a movement by a man " who 
 could sing a good song and tell a good story." As Admiral 
 Patten says : 
 
 " Had the whole of what had been admitted at Portsmouth 
 with respect to the changing of officers been openly com- 
 municated to the North Sea Fleet, and the same indulgence 
 prudently granted, there is the strongest probability that no 
 ship of the fleet would have gone to the Nore." 
 
 There is also the strongest probability that the outbreak at 
 
1797 THE NORE 139 
 
 the Nore would never have taken place. Instead of this the 
 Admiralty issued the order of May i, and a reign of terror 
 commenced. There seems to be no doubt whatever that the 
 men became convinced that the concessions granted to the 
 Channel Fleets were, as far as they were concerned, dead 
 letters. They therefore determined to get equal treatment ; 
 and as these concessions affected the prime sea men of the 
 Navy more than any one else, it was only natural that the 
 outbreak at the Nore should have commenced in the Sandwich, 
 which was full of prime sea men at the time. They were not 
 allowed on shore for fear they would desert, and Admiral 
 Buckner was keeping them for the ships of the North Sea 
 Fleet, which at the time was at sea, watching the coast of 
 Holland under Admiral Duncan. 
 
 James says of this outbreak : " The mutineers at Sheerness 
 and Yarmouth had no solid, nor even plausible ground for 
 complaint"; and Hannay follows this up with "When their 
 petition was handed in it was found to begin with the super- 
 fluous demand that whatever had been given to ships at 
 Portsmouth should be given to those at the Nore." This 
 request said : " That every indulgence granted to the fleet at 
 Portsmouth should be granted to His Majesty's subjects serv- 
 ing in the fleet at the Nore and places adjacent." This has 
 always seemed to me proof positive that the Admiralty in- 
 tention that what was granted at Portsmouth should affect 
 the whole Navy had never been communicated to the service 
 generally ; and, as already shown, the order of May i and the 
 subsequent severity of ship captains led the men to believe 
 that no benefits would accrue to them, and that their last 
 condition would be, if anything, worse than the first. It was 
 this feeling that induced the ships of the North Sea Fleet to 
 leave Duncan and join the ships at the Nore. There were, of 
 course, ship captains who had declined to " see red " over the 
 
140 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 order of May i, and who treated their men with humane con- 
 sideration. These, on the first sign of an outbreak, seem to 
 have called their ship's companies together, explained the real 
 situation, and that the concessions granted at Portsmouth 
 were to be extended to them, which at once settled the ques- 
 tion as far as they were concerned, and they declined to join 
 the other ships in open revolt. As this news spread, and 
 ship's companies became convinced that what they were 
 fighting for had actually been granted, they began to return 
 to duty, and the outbreak fizzled out. But at the beginning 
 they were actuated by no mere " mischief-making spirit, with 
 scarcely a knowledge of the object they had in view." They 
 stated definitely what they wanted, which was practically the 
 same as what had been asked for at Portsmouth. The Ad- 
 miralty reply was anything but satisfactory, probably through 
 a misunderstanding of the situation. The Admiralty and 
 Government knew that the concessions made to the men of the 
 Channel Fleet necessarily included the whole of the Navy. 
 The men at the Nore did not know this ; therefore the Ad- 
 miralty reply, refusing to accede to further demands and 
 promising forgiveness if they would return to duty, only in- 
 censed them. They did not want forgiveness, they wanted 
 concessions, and they showed that they were prepared to go 
 to any length to get them, quite ignorant of the fact that what 
 they wanted was already theirs. Their conduct was certainly 
 wanting in the moderation shown by the Spithead delegates, 
 but the circumstances were so entirely different that this is 
 hardly to be wondered at. At Spithead there was no mis- 
 understanding : the men presented their Petitions, and were 
 almost immediately met in conference by members of the 
 Board of Admiralty ; and although the proceedings were some- 
 what dilatory, the things asked for were granted, and the men 
 at once returned to duty. But for the unfortunate order 
 
1797 THE NORE 141 
 
 already referred to there would have been no further outbreak 
 at St. Helen's. Had the Admiralty been as prompt to inform 
 the men of the Navy of the permanent concessions granted, 
 as they were to suggest repressive measures to ship captains, 
 the combination at Spithead would have been the only one ; 
 but they preferred to act timidly instead of boldly and 
 generously, and the obloquy for all the subsequent violence 
 has been piled on the shoulders of the sea man. 
 
 All writers on the subject, without exception, have 
 claimed that as there was no specific complaint made 
 against the use of the cat, this bears out the claim of 
 various naval officers that the men did not object to its 
 use. That sort of argument was persisted in till as late 
 as 1877, and we have seen how, when naval officers put 
 such arguments forward in the House of Commons, they 
 drew forth an immediate protest from the petty officers 
 at Portsmouth. What the men of 1797 did was to ask, and 
 persist in the request, that certain objectionable officers 
 should be removed from the ships ; and as every captain so 
 removed was a flogging officer, it is only reasonable to assume 
 that that was why he was hated. Certain it is that every 
 single instance of a ship mutiny was brought about by the 
 excessive use of the cat, which was vigorous enough protest 
 in all conscience. 
 
 There was one demand put forward by the delegates at 
 the Nore which did not figure in the Petitions from Spithead : 
 that in future a foremast man should be a member of every 
 court-martial by which a foremast man was tried. This has 
 been quoted to show the " excessively revolutionary spirit " 
 with which they were imbued. Yet they were< quite uncon- 
 sciously, I believe simply falling back on the laws of the 
 Commonwealth Navy which had worked so admirably in the 
 seventeenth century, and which the compilers of the " Manual 
 
142 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 of Naval Law and Court-Martial Procedure " 1 have since 
 referred to as a " perfect system.'* 
 
 For the various reasons mentioned, the outbreak at the 
 Nore was entered upon in a very different spirit from the one at 
 Portsmouth, and the exasperation caused by the Admiralty 
 reply at once led to excess, the very means to suppress which 
 only added fuel to the fire, which saw its last flicker in the 
 eighteen bodies swinging at the yard arms, and the doleful 
 and dreadful sounds of the drums as other poor wretches 
 were flogged round the fleet. 
 
 Seventeen ninety-seven is unquestionably the blackest year 
 in the story of our Navy ; black, because the laws of that Navy 
 offered the men no amelioration of their horrible position 
 except through open revolt. 
 
 Admiral de la Gravier said of the fight between the Chesa- 
 peake and Shannon: "On the I4th day of September, 1806, 
 the day when he took command of his frigate, Captain Broke 
 had begun to prepare the glorious termination of this bloody 
 affair." And of those others it may be truly said : " The 
 day in 1660 when at the Restoration the wise laws of the 
 Commonwealth Navy were wiped out, and corrupt court 
 favourites entered on an era of cruel punishments and 
 savage repression, they had begun to prepare for the outbreak 
 at Portsmouth, The Nore and other places." 
 
 Lower- deck feeling had been dammed back by flogging at 
 the gangway, round the fleet, and by hanging at the yard arm, 
 but it continued to rise until, like a great flood, it overflowed 
 the dam. To brutalise men during that period of their lives 
 when the animal passions run fiercest in the best of us, and 
 then express wonder at their excess when they had resorted 
 
 1 The compilers of this work are J. E. R. Stephens, Barrister-at-Law ; 
 C. E. Gifford, C.B., Fleet Paymaster, R.N. ; and F. Harrison Smith, 
 Staff Paymaster, R.N. These can hardly be called revolutionists. 
 
I797-THE NORE 143 
 
 to that last desperate expedient force, is hardly consistent. 
 What we should wonder at and extol is their marvellous 
 moderation. 
 
 We can afford to talk freely of these things to-day, because 
 the possibility of a general upheaval in the modern Navy is 
 even less likely than a revolution to upset the present mon- 
 archy : the conditions for either do not exist. If we even 
 admit that Parker was largely responsible for the outbreak at 
 the Nore, it is safe to say that if ten thousand Parkers were let 
 loose on the lower- deck to-day, they would fail to bring about 
 a repetition of 1797. Disaffection there may be, and will be, 
 but the waters of disaffection can never again rise to a dan- 
 gerous height, for the dam of repression and cruelty that had 
 held them back was shattered and broken beyond repair by 
 the overflow. It has always been the fashion to anathematise 
 the men for their few weeks of excess and defiance of author- 
 ity ; how much more should we anathematise that authority 
 which for 137 years had turned the Navy into an ever-growing 
 hell! 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 l8l2 AND ITS LESSONS 
 
 IN the year 1812 the British Navy received the rudest lesson 
 that had come to it in its long history : a lesson that the 
 Navy and the nation might have laid to heart and profited by, 
 had both not been blinded by old traditions and past successes 
 over spent and disorganised foes. 
 
 The sea thunders of the Napoleonic wars were gradually 
 dying away, though Waterloo was still ahead, when the 
 attention of Great Britain was called to the trading activities 
 of the United States of America. The destruction of French 
 merchantmen by our own war-ships, coupled with the destruc- 
 tion of our own merchantmen by French privateers, drove 
 trade into neutral bottoms, and the United States was the 
 neutral who profited. Her merchants shipped cargoes to 
 French ports, and as the trade grew apace ever more men 
 were required to man the American ships. At this time the 
 British sea man was looked on as the finest sea man in the 
 world, and American merchant shippers were only too glad to 
 welcome all they could lay their hands on, and they found 
 plenty who were only too willing to take service under the 
 American flag so as to avoid the press-gang and the brutal 
 severity of British naval discipline. 
 
 So great was this drain, and so great the harm done to 
 British interests, that public feeling was inflamed, and 
 Orders in Council were issued dealing with the subject, claim- 
 
 144 
 
i8i2 AND ITS LESSONS 145 
 
 ing that our war-ships could at any time take British sailors 
 wherever found, on the high seas. 
 
 Whatever may have been the right, there seems little doubt 
 that the method of exercising it left much to be desired, for 
 not only British but American sailor men were lifted out of 
 American ships (as it was of course very difficult to tell an 
 American from a British subject), and " if the captain of a 
 war vessel were short-handed, he was certain to resolve all 
 doubts in his own favour ; and, consequently, thousands of 
 impressed Americans served, much against the grain, in 
 British war-ships." 1 
 
 Irritating as this was it was eclipsed later on by the order 
 of Vice- Admiral the Hon. George Crosfield Berkeley, that 
 vessels under his command on the American coast were to 
 search all vessels, even American men-of-war, for deserters. 
 The American frigate Chesapeake was about to put to sea when 
 this order was issued, and the British 50 -gun ship Leopard 
 intercepted her with the intention of searching. Captain 
 Barrow of the Chesapeake refused to submit to such an insult, 
 so the Leopard opened fire, and after three broadsides the 
 Chesapeake, which was lumbered up with gear, and quite un- 
 prepared for action, struck. The British then boarded her 
 and took out four deserters from British ships ; three of these 
 were American citizens who had previously been illegally 
 pressed into the British Navy, and only one a British subject. 
 
 Even then the pusillanimous Jefferson hesitated to act, 
 which only led British naval officers to greater excesses, till 
 finally, in June 1812, Madeson sent in a declaration of war 
 without having made any preparation either on sea or land 
 for its prosecution. 
 
 At this time the whole of the United States Navy was 
 composed of seven frigates, one corvette, two ship-sloops, four 
 1 Theodore Roosevelt, " The Naval Operations, 1812-15." 
 IO 
 
146 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 brig- sloops, and two brigs, while the British Navy stood at the 
 very height of its splendour. Off the American coast there 
 were half a dozen British frigates and the two-decker Africa 
 carrying 64 guns. 
 
 And now commenced a series of single ship actions that 
 discovered the Achilles heel of the British Navy in a way that 
 had never happened before or since. After a few preliminary 
 skirmishes in which no great harm was done on either side, 
 the American frigate Constitution, 44 guns, Captain Hull, 
 on the afternoon of August 19, 1812, sighted the British 
 Guerribre, 38 guns, Captain Dacres. The Guerriere at once 
 backed her maintopsail and waited for her opponent, who 
 was running towards her with a fair wind. At 5 p.m. she 
 opened fire, and a ding-dong battle ensued, with the advantage 
 always on the American side, till at 7 p.m. the British ship 
 was a battered and defenceless hulk, and struck her flag just 
 two hours after she had fired the first shot. Both the man- 
 oeuvring and shooting of the American ship were, superior to 
 the British, yet only six weeks before Captain Hull had written 
 to the Secretary of the Navy : 
 
 " The crew are as yet unacquainted with a ship- of -war, as 
 many have but lately joined and have never been on an armed 
 ship before. . . . We are doing all we can to make them 
 acquainted with their duties, and in a few days we shall have 
 nothing to fear from any single- decked ship," 
 
 which showed a splendid trust in his men. In the fight 
 fourteen of the Constitution's, and seventy- nine of the Guer- 
 riere's were killed or wounded. 1 
 
 The result of this action caused consternation throughout 
 the British Navy, for the American Navy had been viewed 
 
 1 In this fight ten of the Guerritre's crew were Americans who had 
 been pressed and who refused to fight against their countrymen. 
 Captain Dacres allowed these to go below. 
 
1812 AND ITS LESSONS 147 
 
 with utter contempt, and no one had imagined that in a single 
 ship, or any other action, the result could be other than 
 victory for our side. 
 
 But worse was to follow. On the evening of October 17, 
 the American sloop Wasp, 18 guns, sighted the British 
 sloop Frolic, also carrying 18 guns, she having with her 
 a convoy of merchantmen. In the early morning of the i8th 
 the Wasp bore down, the Frolic cleared for action, and at 
 11.30 a.m. the action began. The firing of the Frolic was far 
 more rapid than that of the Wasp, being equal to three broad- 
 sides to her opponent's two ; but while the Frolic's shooting 
 was wild, that of the Wasp was precise, the gunlayers firing 
 into their opponent's hull, doing great execution. 1 There was 
 a heavy sea running at the time, and gradually the vessels 
 drew closer together, till the Americans struck the Frolic's 
 side with their rammers while loading their guns. After three- 
 quarters of an hour's fighting the Frolic struck, both ships by 
 this time being very severely damaged, so much so that the 
 British ship Poictiers, 74 guns, coming along a few hours 
 later, captured both victor and vanquished. 
 
 In this action the ships were as near equal as possible, the 
 superiority of armament being with the British; but once 
 again the Americans showed a superiority of personnel that 
 won the day. The rapid firing of the English gunners showed 
 they had been well drilled, and in bravery they were not 
 lacking, but the discipline of the Americans was of a different 
 type it was the discipline of intelligence. Thrice we had 
 met our adversary on the sea in single- ship combat, and twice 
 we had had to acknowledge defeat. 
 
 On October 25 the American frigate United States, 44 
 guns, Captain Decater, with a crew of 478 officers and 
 
 1 The Wasp lost ten men only ; of the Frolic's over fifteen were 
 killed and forty-seven wounded. 
 
148 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 men, fell in with the British 38-gun frigate Macedonian, 
 Captain Garden, carrying a crew of 301 all told. Now 
 the Macedonian had won for herself quite a name as a 
 crack ship ; her captain had picked his crew with great care, 
 taking every opportunity to get rid of every sea man whom 
 he did not look on as a first-class man. He was what sailors 
 call a " taut hand/' and delighted in the use of the " cat " 
 to maintain " discipline," finding a kindred spirit and willing 
 helper in his First Lieutenant David Hope. Both these 
 officers were feared and hated by the crew, but the ship had 
 attained to that " perfect state of discipline " when the men 
 would fly at the slightest order, and every drill could be car- 
 ried out with the precision of clockwork. When the ship was 
 lying at Norfolk all leave was denied for fear the men would 
 desert, a precaution that was absolutely necessary under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 On board the Macedonian there were a very fair number 
 of American sea men, the bulk of whom had been pressed, 
 and some of these, before the action commenced, requested 
 permission not to fight against their countrymen, a request 
 which Captain Garden refused, ordering them to the guns 
 under penalty of death. On the other hand there were many 
 British sea men on board the United States, and there is no 
 record of these asking to be excused. 
 
 In the mind of the British captain there could be only one 
 result in an action between his own ship and another of any- 
 thing like similar strength the discipline on board was ex- 
 cellent; and Lieutenant Hope said afterwards that "in no 
 other British ship was so much attention paid to gunnery," 
 but it was the discipline of the slave compound and the 
 " gunnery " of the tyrannical drill- master. 
 
 However, as soon as the United States was made out, the 
 Macedonian beat to quarters, and in a very few moments, 
 
1812 AND ITS LESSONS 149 
 
 without any noise or confusion, the guns were cast loose and 
 all was ready for the impending conflict. The discipline of 
 peace immediately gave place to the discipline of war, for 
 the junior midshipmen were stationed below, on the berth- 
 deck with orders to shoot any man who ran from his 
 quarters. 
 
 The action began at 10.15 a.m., the Macedonian having the 
 weather gage, but from the very commencement the superior- 
 ity of the American was apparent, her rapidity of fire being 
 twice as great as her opponent, while its accuracy was such 
 that in a very short time the decks of the Macedonian re- 
 sembled a shambles. The British sea men fought with the 
 tenacity of despair, but their shooting was bad, and beyond 
 some damage to the American's rigging, left her unscathed. 
 
 Captain Garden did all he could to exhort his men, discard- 
 ing for the nonce the discipline of the " cat " for the discipline 
 of encouragement, appealing to his men to show fidelity and 
 courage, even quoting Nelson's famous signal " England ex- 
 pects every man to do his duty! " Was there ever such a 
 ghastly parody of the " Nelson touch " ? But it was all of 
 no avail ; the men had been drilled and disciplined till the only 
 spirit that animated them was fear and hatred of their task- 
 master. Battered aloft and below, the Macedonian gradually 
 dropped to leeward, and at 11.15 struck her colours just an 
 hour after the action began. 
 
 This was a battle of long bowls, as the two ships were never 
 close enough for grape or musketry to be used. The United 
 States, beyond a few wounded spars and cut-up rigging, had 
 come out practically scatheless, only two or three shots having 
 touched her hull, and only twelve of her men were killed and 
 wounded. The Macedonian, on the other hand, presented a 
 sorry spectacle ; her fore and main topmast and mizzenmast 
 were shot away, her hull was riddled with over a hundred 
 
150 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 shots, her guns were dismounted, and 104 of her men either 
 killed or wounded. 
 
 The discipline of the United States was perfect, but of an 
 entirely different type. The crew had not been a great while 
 together, but they had been admirably drilled by their officers, 
 and treated so humanely that instead of waiting to be driven 
 they were anxious to anticipate every wish of those over 
 them. 
 
 When the Americans boarded to take possession of their 
 prize, they found the British inflamed with rum the last 
 desperate expedient of the incompetent commander and 
 ready to resort to fisticuffs, but were so impressed with the 
 good relations existing between the American sea men and 
 their officers that they speedly fraternised, and the bulk of 
 them expressed a willingness to enlist in the American Navy 
 there and then. Leech, who is the authority for these inci- 
 dents, tells us that Captain Decater refused this offer, though 
 the bulk of the men managed to get away, thus escaping 
 being sent to England in exchange for American prisoners. 
 What concerns us here is that this company of picked men, 
 after being beaten, were quite willing to become traitors and 
 fight on the side of their country's enemies ; every sense of 
 nationhood and patriotism had been stamped out by the 
 brutality that hid itself under the guise of discipline. Sir 
 Howard Douglas, in summing up the action, says : 
 
 " As a display of courage the tradition of the service was 
 nobly upheld ; but we would be deceiving ourselves were we 
 to admit that the comparative expertness of the crews in 
 gunnery was equally satisfactory. Now, taking the difference 
 of effect as given by Captain Garden, we must draw this con- 
 clusion that the comparative loss in killed and wounded 
 (104 to 12), together with the dreadful account he gives of 
 his own ship, while he admits that the enemy's vessel was in 
 
1812 AND ITS LESSONS 151 
 
 comparatively good order, must have arisen from inferiority 
 in gunnery, as well as in force." 
 
 But the inferiority was really of quite another nature. The 
 British sea men went into action sullen and discontented, with 
 officers standing over them with loaded firearms to see that 
 they worked the guns. They fired the guns, not caring where 
 the shots went, and so really threw their ammunition away. 
 The Americans, on the other hand, were animated, if not by 
 love of their country, at least by love of their officers ; there- 
 fore all their efforts were intelligently used. It was the old, 
 old story of the led and the driven. 
 
 The next action was between the United States frigate 
 Constitution, 44 guns, Captain Bainbridge, and the British 
 frigate Java? 38 guns, Captain Lambert. This took place 
 on December 29, off the coast of Brazil. The Java was 
 the swifter ship of the two, the comparative strength of the 
 two ships being as five to four, or rather less, the advantage 
 being with the Constitution. 
 
 At 2 p.m. both ships opened fire at long range, the shooting 
 being equally good on both sides. The Java had the weather 
 gage, and bore down on her opponent till well within musketry 
 range, and attempted to bear across her opponent's bow and 
 rake her. But the American was too smart, and wore in the 
 smoke. Then commenced a running fight at pistol-shot dis- 
 tance, with the shooting all to the advantage of the American, 
 finding which the Java forged ahead, again attempting to 
 rake the Constitution , and again failing through the clever 
 
 1 James says that the Java (ex Renommee] had been commissioned 
 at Portsmouth on August 17, 1812, to carry to Bombay the newly 
 appointed Governor, Lieutenant-General Hislop, and that her ship's 
 company included sixty raw Irishmen, fifty disaffected seamen from 
 the Coquette, besides a considerable number of Marine Society boys 
 in all 397 person of every description, mainly inexperienced, 
 
152 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 tactics of the American, which shortly after passed under the 
 Java's stern, raking her heavily. Captain Lambert, recog- 
 nising that at an artillery duel he was outclassed, attempted 
 to turn the scale by boarding, but was terribly raked as he 
 came down, while the American topmen simply mowed down 
 the boarders gathered in the gangways. 
 
 Once again they got clear, and the fight waged as furiously 
 as ever. But the cool precision of the American's fire rapidly 
 told ; one by one the masts of the Java went over the side, 
 her guns were dismounted and silenced, and she lay on the 
 water a battered hulk. At 4.5 p.m. the Constitution ceased 
 firing, and started to repair damages. At the end of an hour 
 she was in as good a condition as ever, when she stood towards 
 the Java, which then struck. Once again the Americans were 
 victorious, though this time they had to pay a little more 
 dearly for their victory, thirty- four of the Constitution's crew 
 being killed or wounded ; beyond that, she was practically 
 unhurt. The Java, on the other hand, sustained terrible 
 damage, 124 of her complement, including her captain, were 
 killed or wounded, all her masts were shot away, while her 
 hull was battered. Being so far from a home-port she was 
 destroyed, and the Constitution returned to the United 
 States. 
 
 On board the Constitution the same happy relationship ex- 
 isted between officers and men as was the case in the United 
 States. Her crew was enlisted from among the seafaring folk 
 of the New England States, who enlisted freely in the Ameri- 
 can ships, and were shown every consideration. They were 
 continually practised at the guns in the art of hitting a target, 
 and while exceedingly smart aloft and below, were never sub- 
 jugated to that policy of drive and punish which was the 
 distinguishing feature of British Naval discipline. The Java 
 did not boast that perfection of smartness and discipline that 
 
1812 AND ITS LESSONS 153 
 
 characterised the Macedonian^ she was merely a typical 
 British war- ship of the period. Her crew, with the " fifty 
 disaffected sea men of the Coquette" was made up of pressed 
 men from various sources, who had no cause to love either 
 the service or their officers ; their smartness was of that per- 
 functory kind which consisted of doing certain set drills and 
 evolutions in a certain set time, or being severely punished. 
 When this was pitted against the intelligent discipline of the 
 American ships, it crumpled to pieces and left us undone. 
 
 James, in his " Naval History," rather belittles these ac- 
 tions, putting the success of the Americans down to a great 
 superiority of force. While in his " Remarks upon the Naval 
 War of 1812 with the United States," published in the 1886 
 edition of James, Mr. H. J. Powell says : 
 
 " It is impossible to deny that they (the Americans) gained 
 some unexpected successes, and it would be ungenerous to 
 dispute that they showed frequently a very respectable degree 
 of efficiency ; yet we still must contend that those successes, 
 as shown by William James, were in nearly every case due, 
 not only to a superiority of force, but to a great superiority of 
 force." 
 
 That the American 44 -gun frigates were more powerful 
 than those they captured is indisputable, but until the 
 action had taken place and the captures made, no single 
 British officer on the American station looked on the American 
 ships other than with contempt ; the superiority in tonnage 
 was never looked upon as being a possible factor in the result 
 of an action. British ships had been in the habit of engaging 
 French and Spanish ships of equal or superior weight, and the 
 result was invariably the same. Their crews were all serving 
 under compulsion and more or less brutal conditions, and had 
 as little interest in the fighting ; the superior prowess and 
 
154 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 stamina of the British made them irresistible against such foes, 
 especially when it came to boarding. 
 
 The American sea men were men of an entirely different 
 mould. They were serving freely, and of their own wills ; 
 their discipline, while it demanded instant and ready obedience 
 to order, was exceedingly humane ; they, therefore, took an 
 intelligent interest in their work, and when the battle joined 
 issue each felt a personal interest in the result. Such men 
 were irresistible, and wanted no looking after while the fight- 
 ing was in progress. The sudden loss of a gun-captain did not 
 demoralise the rest of the gun- crew, they immediately supplied 
 his place from among their number and continued the firing. 
 The British sea men, on the other hand, were drilled inces- 
 santly; but the object was not so much war- efficiency as to 
 enable them to do certain things in certain times. Mistakes 
 were severely punished ; in fact, the whole discipline rested on 
 punishment and drive. They were thus in the habit of doing 
 what they were told, and only what they were told, not from 
 a sense of duty, but from fear. The Guerriere, the Mace- 
 donian, and the Java showed us our Achilles heel, but we 
 blinded ourselves and turned unseeing eyes on the spot, and 
 even till to-day our " eyes are holden." 
 
 One more fight, that between the American sloop Hornet, 
 and the British brig Peacock, demonstrated the superiority of 
 the American sea men. This fight took place on February 24, 
 1813, near the mouth of the Demerara River. At 5,25 p.m. 
 the vessels exchanged broadsides when only a few yards dis- 
 tant from each other, but while the shooting of the English 
 was exceedingly wild, passing through the Hornet's rigging 
 doing no damage, the American fire struck the hull of the 
 Peacock between wind and water, making holes through which 
 the water gushed. Another broadside followed, the mainmast 
 of the Peacock went by the board, and she commenced to 
 
1812 AND ITS LESSONS 155 
 
 settle ; surrendering and hoisting her ensign Jack down as a 
 signal of distress at 5.50 p.m. 1 The Peacock was one of the 
 dandy ships of the British Navy : she was known as " the 
 yacht " on account of the tasteful arrangement of her upper- 
 deck ; her gun breechings were lined with white covers kept 
 spotlessly clean, while the metal work shone like burnished 
 silver and gold. 
 
 For this action Captain Lawrence of the Hornet was pro- 
 moted to the command of the 38-gun frigate Chesapeake, 
 fitting out at Boston. Cruising off Boston harbour, was 
 the British 38- gun frigate Shannon, Captain Vere Broke, 
 who had commanded her since September 14, 1806. Captain 
 Broke was well known throughout the service as a very 
 able commander and an enthusiastic gunnery man. Of him 
 James says : 
 
 " From the day on which he joined her the Shannon began 
 to feel the effect of her captain's proficiency as a gunner and 
 zeal for the service. The laying of the ship's ordnance, so 
 that it may be correctly fired in a horizontal direction, is justly 
 deemed a most important operation ; upon it depends in a great 
 measure the true aim and destructive effect of every future 
 shot she may fire. On board the Shannon this was attended 
 to by Captain Broke in person. 2 . . . and in the course of a 
 year or two, by the paternal care of Captain Broke ... a 
 rather motley ship's company became as pleasant to command 
 as they would have been dangerous to meet." 
 
 We further learn that " every day for about an hour and a 
 half in the forenoon the men were exercised in training the 
 
 1 James says the action lasted from 5.25 to 5.50 p.m. ; Theodore 
 Roosevelt from 5.25 to 5.39 p.m. 
 
 8 This is exactly what Captain Percy Scott did in the Scylla (1899) 
 and Terrible (1900), and which led to the phenomenal shooting of 
 those ships. 
 
156 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 guns/' while twice a week they fired at targets both with the 
 heavy guns and with musketry. Captain Broke, as an ad- 
 ditional stimulus beyond the emulation excited, gave a pound 
 of tobacco to every man who put a shot through the bull's-eye. 
 He led his men on to war- efficiency with kindness and personal 
 presents, where Captain Garden of the Macedonian drove his 
 men to " smartness " with the lash. Every sailor man will 
 recognise from this that the Shannon was what is called " a 
 happy ship," emulation and not fear being the driving 
 power. 
 
 Captain James Lawrence of the Chesapeake was also a 
 humane man, and somewhat of a gunnery enthusiast. His 
 own very easy victory over the Peacock, coupled with the other 
 single-ship victories referred to, seem to have had the effect of 
 inducing him to take the British too cheaply, overlooking the 
 fact that the British sea man, properly treated and properly 
 led, was equal as a fighting man to the best production of the 
 United States. His own crew, moreover, were a scratch lot, 
 including forty Britishers. His officers, with one exception, 
 were new to the ship, so that everything must have been at 
 " sixes and sevens." 
 
 But the Shannon was cruising about outside, and seems to 
 have acted as the proverbial red rag to a bull, for as soon as he 
 had got the last batch of his crew on board 1 he got under 
 way, and proceeded to sea. 
 
 Captain Broke was just as eager to pit his ship against the 
 Chesapeake, and had actually sent to challenge Captain 
 Lawrence, offering to meet him in a duel in any latitude and 
 longitude he might appoint. Lawrence never received this 
 letter. On June I, his complement being complete, he stood 
 
 1 These men came on board at the last moment, and when the 
 ship was captured their bags and hammocks were still lying in the 
 boom-boats. 
 
1812 AND ITS LESSONS 157 
 
 out towards the Shannon, the shore, we are told, being lined 
 with spectators waiting to see the captured Shannon brought 
 into harbour. 
 
 The ships were as near as possible equal. The Shannon 
 carried 52 guns, the Chesapeake 50, while the former had a 
 crew of 330, the latter, 379. x It is not necessary here to give 
 a detailed account of the fight : that has been given by a 
 thousand pens ; suffice to say that the Americans were out- 
 manoeuvred, outfought, outclassed, and at 6.5, only fifteen 
 minutes after the first gun had been fired, struck her colours. 
 But if the fight was brief, it was bloody, the Chesapeake having 
 148 killed or wounded, the Shannon 83, which shows how 
 desperately in earnest both combatants were. 
 
 Many English writers have tried to belittle the success of 
 the Americans in the single-ship combats in which they were 
 victorious. That their frigates were more powerful than the 
 British which they captured is indisputable, but the enormous 
 difference in the killed and wounded, and damage done to the 
 respective ships, speaks very highly for the Americans. That 
 Captain Lawrence, who had only commanded the Chesapeake 
 for a few days, and had never been to sea in her, should take 
 her straight out to fight a ship like the Shannon, whose crew 
 was notoriously efficient, was an act of foolhardiness ; but when 
 we realise that even with his totally untrained crew and un- 
 prepared ship he put up a fight that laid eighty- three of his 
 opponents low thirty- three killed and fifty wounded we 
 must surely admit that as a fighter the American sea man of 
 that time was justly entitled to be proud. 
 
 The superiority of the Shannon lay in her discipline, which 
 
 was of a type quite unusual in the British Navy of that day ; 
 
 the men were contented, they had been taught to take an 
 
 intelligent interest in their ship, their smartness was the out- 
 
 1 James says 400. 
 
158 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 come of a spirit of emulation and not of fear, so that when 
 they went into action it was as the willing and devoted 
 followers of their leader. As Admiral de la Graviere very 
 truly said : 
 
 (< The Shannon captured the Chesapeake on the ist June 
 1813, but on the i4th of September 1806, the day he took 
 command of his frigate. Captain Broke had begun to pre- 
 pare the glorious termination of this bloody affair." 
 
 Equally true would it be to say that on the day he took 
 over the command of the Macedonian, Captain Carden had 
 begun to prepare for the day when she struck her flag to the 
 United States. 
 
 The story is as old as the hills. Great commanders have 
 come, and great commanders have gone, but every really 
 great commander in the world's history has owed his great- 
 ness to his ability to lead men. The two glorious examples 
 of the nineteenth century were Nelson and Napoleon. Hard 
 taskmaster as was the latter, he was ever careful that his 
 soldiers should see the silken glove and not the iron hand it 
 covered, and the " Little Corporal " was responsible for many 
 a glorious victory. When on February 26, 1815, after a brief 
 period of inactivity at Elba, he sailed from Porto Ferrago 
 with his army of nine hundred men to invade France, he knew 
 that the soldiers of France loved him and would do his 
 bidding in spite of what the House of Bourbon might order. 
 From the day he landed at Antibes till he reached Paris his 
 was a triumphal march. Meeting the six thousand royal 
 troops who had been sent to bar his progress, he boldly ad- 
 vanced, and throwing open his coat, exclaimed : 
 
 " Soldiers, you have been told I fear death. If there be 
 one among you, one man who would kill his Emperor, let him 
 plunge his bayonet in this bosom." 
 
1812 AND ITS LESSONS 159 
 
 They forgot everything but the loved leader before them, 
 and he led them back with the imperial colours and not the 
 white cockade decorating their helmets. 
 
 Nelson is our own glorious example of the leader. In 
 August 1781 he commissioned the Albemarle, a small frigate 
 of 28 guns. This was at a time when the Navy was reeking 
 with discontent, when our sea men, according to general 
 belief, could only be kept in hand by the most brutal 
 treatment ; when desertion, 1 in spite of the awful penalties, 
 was of a wholesale nature, and men were not allowed shore- 
 liberty for years at a stretch, yet Nelson said of the Albemarle, 
 " I have an exceeding good ship's company, not a man or 
 officer in her I would wish to change. . . .1 am perfectly 
 satisfied with both officers and ship's company." Writing 
 later he said : " We are all well ; indeed nobody can be ill 
 'with my ship's company, they are so fine a set." 
 
 After a two years' commission in the West Indies the 
 Albemarle returned to England, reaching Spithead on June 25, 
 J when Nelson wrote : 
 
 " Not an officer has been changed, except the second 
 lieutenant, since the Albemarle was commissioned ; therefore, 
 it is needless to say, I am happy in my ship's company." 
 
 When he paid off , he again wrote 2 : 
 
 " My ship was paid off last week, and in such a manner 
 that must flatter any officer, in particular in these turbulent 
 times. The whole ship's company offered, if I could get a 
 ship, to enter for her immediately." 
 
 1 Lord George Hamilton, speaking at the anniversary celebration 
 of the Marine Society on March 15, 1910, said : " According to 
 figures laid before me less than 2,000 persons were killed in naval 
 warfare, but no fewer than 133,000 died from sickness or deserted 
 during the Seven Years' War 1756-1763." 
 
 2 Mahan's " Life of Nelson," p. 35. 
 
i6o OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 There was nothing special about this crew, they were just 
 the ordinary sea men to be found right through the British 
 Navy, " fully sensible," as Admiral Patten wrote in 1797, 
 " of the eternal obligations and immutable effects of jus- 
 tice, ready to return the full measure of gratitude and affec- 
 tion to that Commander who treats them as rational beings, 
 indeed with the same faculties and perceptions which he 
 himself possesses." * 
 
 Had Nelson, with all his genius, possessed the temperament 
 of Jervis, he could never have attained to the pinnacle of 
 glory on which he stands. Jervis held sway through the 
 Articles of War, backed up with the cat ; Nelson through the 
 love he inspired in his fellows. As soon as Nelson took 
 command all trouble, all disaffection died away. Who could 
 have successfully fought the battle of the Nile but Nelson ? 
 and he fully realised where the success lay. " I had the 
 happiness to command a band of brothers," he wrote ; " there- 
 fore night was to my advantage. Each knew his duty, and 
 I was sure each would feel for a French ship. My friends 
 readily conceived my plan." No Articles of War here, just a 
 " band of brothers " engaged in the annihilation of a common 
 enemy. 
 
 In 1803 he wrote from the Mediterranean, " My ships are 
 the best commanded, and the very best manned in the Navy," 
 yet these were the same men to a very large extent who took 
 part in the mutinies of Portsmouth and the Nore. Under no 
 other commander would the signal of Trafalgar have had any 
 meaning : " ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS 
 DUTY ! " He had gained the confidence and esteem of his offi- 
 cers, and he had weaned his men from fear of the cat and other 
 punishment to love of their chief : the originally suggested 
 form of his signal " NELSON CONFIDES THAT EVERY MAN WILL 
 
 1 " Strictures on Naval Discipline and the Conduct of a Ship of War." 
 
1812 AND ITS LESSONS 161 
 
 DO HIS DUTY," shows the implicit faith he had in the magic 
 of his name. But, as Mahan says, the change from " Nelson " 
 to " England " could have made no difference to them, the 
 two names meant the same thing. How different their effect 
 when the same words were uttered on the blood-stained decks 
 of the Macedonian by the brutal cat-loving Garden ! 
 The moral is so obvious that he who runs may read. 
 
 II 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 
 
 The true secret of successful administration is the intelligent anti- 
 cipation of agitation. Don't wait for agitation ! Things have got 
 to come do them yourself and don't let them be forced on you. 
 
 LORD FISHER. 
 
 ANY suggestion for a change in the system or nature of naval 
 punishment is sure to be met with the most violent opposition ; 
 therefore, before suggesting change in latter-day punishments, 
 it will be as well to go back a few years and briefly scan all 
 the dismal forebodings indulged in when the use of the cat 
 in the Navy was agitating the public mind. 
 
 It will not be necessary to go back to the days when flogging 
 round the fleet, with its five hundred lashes, was a common 
 occurrence. Concession after concession had been wrung from 
 the Admiralty. From five hundred the maximum had been 
 reduced to three hundred, then to two hundred, later to one 
 hundred, later again to forty- eight, and every concession had 
 been accompanied by forebodings of the downfall of the Navy. 
 " Discipline," said the advocates of flogging, " could not be 
 maintained without the use of the cat." 
 
 On April 10, 1877, there was a discussion in the House of 
 Commons on flogging in the Navy, and a Mr. A. P. Taylor 
 rose to move : 
 
 " That in the opinion of this House the time has arrived 
 when the punishment of flogging in the Navy should be en- 
 tirely abolished." 
 
 162 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 163 
 
 Mr. Taylor said : 
 
 " When I last year for the first time brought forward a 
 motion for the prohibition of flogging in the Navy, and treated 
 the various steps reducing the punishment from five hundred 
 lashes to two hundred and one hundred, I remember telling the 
 First Lord of the Admiralty that there was still one chaplet to 
 be gained by the man who would relieve the Navy of the stain 
 of being the only Navy in the world which permitted this blot 
 to remain. The motion I made had not been agitated through 
 the country ; I found the country did not know this practice 
 remained in the Navy, and it was not known to many in this 
 House. If it be necessary for me to enter into the case again, 
 should I now fail [to get flogging abolished] ; no honour will be 
 with the Government, because I am perfectly certain the 
 people of this country will not rest until this punishment is 
 abolished, when the practice is made known to them. 
 
 " We are told it is practically abolished; that there are two 
 classes in the Navy ; that the upper class are never flogged ; 
 and that if the men get into the lower class and then offend, 
 they would probably be dismissed the Navy without flogging. 
 There is for this no foundation in fact. Under a court- 
 martial at this time a man may be flogged for any offence 
 whatever. The terms of the Navy Discipline Act are that he 
 may be flogged for ' any act, disorder or neglect, to the 
 prejudice of good order and naval discipline.' It has been 
 said that the power to flog by summary order of the command- 
 ing officer has been limited to mutiny. What does ' mutiny ' 
 mean ? Not to resist officers and gain possession of the 
 vessel, for if you do gain possession you cannot be flogged, 
 because you will be in possession of the vessel. What then 
 does mutiny mean ? It means insolence, desertion, rudeness, 
 disobeying the commander, or striking a petty officer. In 
 fact, it means that should any dispute arise, the commander 
 as judge- executioner shall have power to decide what shall be 
 called insubordination and punish with the cat. 
 
 " There is a court-martial now going on I will mention 
 
164 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 no names, because the case is not yet concluded. I would 
 not allude to the case at all except that it illustrates my 
 position as to whether the commander be acquitted or not. 
 In that trial many officers have come forward and borne 
 testimony to the long- continued ill-usage by the captain of an 
 inferior officer. The junior officer appears to have offered no 
 resistance, but to have yielded almost abjectly to a galling 
 and continuous oppression. Now whether this is true or not, 
 the fact remains that a number of British officers believe it not 
 incredible that such a system of persecution could have been 
 maintained. Now what if a common sea man were placed in 
 like circumstances ? How easy for such a commander to 
 goad a man into insubordination, and then order him to be 
 flogged ! The regulations affecting punishment appear to an 
 outsider to be truly astonishing. Thus in Section 56 it is 
 laid down : 
 
 " Except in case of mutiny no man shall be sentenced 
 to be flogged unless his offence has been inquired into by 
 a sort of improvised court-martial, appointed by the 
 commander, and yet, should the man be reported as inno- 
 cent to the commander he may still flog him if he thinks 
 fit! 
 
 " The Regulations of 1875 are more restrictive in regard to 
 summary corporal punishments, but are specially limited to 
 time of peace. Was ever such fatuity ? Suppose the time 
 should come when unhappily we are again at war and should 
 want the best men and the best patriotism that is the time 
 which we choose to wave the cat over their heads. There 
 was no case in the world where a man was so absolutely sub- 
 ject to the will of another as those on board a vessel. A 
 hundred years ago it was thought necessary to inflict as much 
 as five hundred lashes. ' Discipline must be maintained/ Sir, 
 you know. We are now the only Navy in the world where 
 discipline cannot be maintained without the cat. 
 
 " tip to 1847 there was no power of imprisonment, and 
 therefore some rough-and-ready method had to be resorted 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 165 
 
 to to deal with refractory sea men. It was suggested to me 
 last year that I should postpone my Motion until I could find 
 three Admirals and three Captains to support me in the matter. 
 It was certainly not by means of Colonels that flogging was 
 abolished from the Army ; it was certainly not by the action 
 of the judges as a body that the abuses of capital punishment 
 were removed in this country ; and it was certainly not by the 
 manufacturers the Factory Acts were passed. Not that any 
 of these very men or the officers of the Navy were more cruel 
 or cold-hearted than other Englishmen, but because they were 
 naturally steeped in the traditional superstition of their pro- 
 fession. 
 
 " I greatly regret that the House should have refused the 
 Returns, which I asked for recently, as to the extent of crime 
 and punishment in every ship in the Navy. 1 It is an absolute 
 abomination to maintain flogging in the Navy and to refuse 
 the fullest particulars to this House and to the country. It 
 is contended that it is not a disgrace to the Navy to wave the 
 cat over its head when it is not inflicted. Why then are 
 officers, by a special clause in the Naval Discipline Act, ex- 
 empted from this punishment ? It may be admitted that 
 there is small chance of an officer being flogged. It might 
 be said also, that there is small danger of a gentleman com- 
 mitting murder or rape ; but at all events he ought to be left 
 to take his chance. Here is a class difference of the grossest 
 character, giving a key to the whole position that it is a 
 matter of caste relations. Lord Clarence Paget in 1860, in 
 introducing the Naval Discipline Act, said : 
 
 " ' And if any should think how Draconic they still appear, 
 I pray them to bear in mind that we have to deal with a great 
 body of men of all classes, often drawn from the very dregs of 
 society, and who too frequently enter the Navy without re- 
 ligion or moral principles/ 
 
 " Instead of now sweeping the dregs of your ports in order 
 to get men you have now a body of men who enter the Navy 
 
 1 The Punishments Returns are now published yearly, and are dealt 
 with in another chapter. 
 
166 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 at fifteen and sixteen years of age. But flogging is still 
 going on." 
 
 I have quoted Mr. Taylor's speech at some length, be- 
 cause the arguments he used are typical of those used right 
 through the agitation. Mr. A. F. Egerton, who was Parlia- 
 mentary Secretary to the Admiralty at the time, replied by 
 saying that Mr. Taylor 
 
 " had begun his speech by asking for a distinct expression 
 of opinion from the Government with respect to the points 
 under discussion. He had no objection to give that opinion. 
 It was this that the Admiralty as at present advised had no 
 intention of altering the existing regulations in regard to the 
 infliction of corporal punishment in the Navy. The Board 
 regretted the necessity which existed for the maintenance of 
 the rule, but they were unable to see how discipline could be 
 maintained unless the power to flog offending sea men were 
 retained. The Board of Admiralty could not think that the 
 time had arrived at which corporal punishment could safely 
 be abolished. With regard to discipline at sea, there were 
 officers on both sides of the House who would, he believed, 
 corroborate him when he said that from the information he 
 had received in some cases it would be impossible to preserve 
 discipline without having recourse to the lash. He was, how- 
 ever, happy to say that the cases of flogging were becoming 
 fewer every year. But it was in the interests of the Service 
 that power to flog should be left in the hands of the command- 
 ing officers. 
 
 " He might quote various instances where its use had been 
 beneficial and necessary ; and so long as the morale of the 
 Navy was such as it was at present he thought that it was 
 necessary that the punishment should be preserved." 
 
 That was the typical attitude of the old-time civil official. 
 Go to the officers who believed in the cat, and then say its use 
 was necessary because they felt they could not get on without 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 167 
 
 it. It never seems to have struck men of Mr. Egerton's type 
 that the officer who declared that discipline could not be 
 maintained without flogging proclaimed his incompetence by 
 that fact. The commanding officer of a ship- of- war should 
 be a leader of men, and not a driver of men. We hear a great 
 deal about this and that punishment being retained " in the 
 interests of the service." But when an officer proclaims his 
 inability to lead by begging for power to drive, it is in the true 
 interests of the service he should be placed outside it. 
 
 Admiral Egerton followed the Parliamentary Secretary with 
 a typical expression of opinion on the subject : 
 
 " He now considered it was necessary to maintain corporal 
 punishment in order to maintain discipline. With reference 
 to the punishment being degrading, that might be the case, 
 but he would show that in one instance at least a man who 
 had been flogged bore no revengeful feeling. When he 
 (Admiral Egerton) was in command of a small ship he was 
 the prosecutor in a case where a man got four dozen lashes 
 and was dismissed his ship. On the following day he met 
 that man, who saluted him, just as if he still belonged to his 
 ship and had not been punished. Within three or four 
 months of that time the same man was serving as a petty 
 officer in the Navy, and probably he ought to have reported 
 him ; but he deemed it right ' in the interests of the service ' 
 to be blind on that occasion." 
 
 Here we see the extraordinary obliquity of vision that can 
 affect those " saturated with the traditional superstitions of 
 their profession." A man who had just been cowed with four 
 dozen lashes is held not to have had revengeful feelings be- 
 cause he saluted the man who had power to get him another 
 four dozen. This man, who, under Admiral Egerton's rule, 
 was a bad character and had to be flogged, was " within three 
 or four months a petty officer under another officer," which 
 
168 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 speaks infinitely more for the man than it does for Admiral 
 Egerton. But let him proceed : 
 
 " Last year an Honourable and Gallant Gentleman (Sir 
 W. Edmundson) defended the punishment of flogging on the 
 ground that the men rather liked it ; but without going that 
 length, he himself thought that it was possible and probable 
 that nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand in the 
 Navy who knew they were not going to be flogged might not 
 be entirely opposed to the thousandth man being flogged, inas- 
 much as it secured them from having to do his work. The 
 Admiralty had announced that it was not their intention to 
 abolish the punishment in the Navy, and he presumed that 
 Her Majesty's Government were able to carry out their 
 views." 
 
 On the House dividing there were Ayes 122, Noes 164, a 
 majority of 42 against the abolition of flogging. 
 
 It will not be necessary to quote at length further speeches 
 by officials or naval officers in the House on this subject of 
 flogging. The former was invariably to the effect that dis- 
 cipline could not be maintained without the cat ; the latter 
 was to the same effect, backed up by the impudent assertion 
 that the men themselves liked it. But in spite of this, the 
 Admiralty were forced to yield in face of a growing public 
 opinion, and on July 5, 1879, the following Memorandum was 
 issued : 
 
 " ADMIRALTY, 
 
 11 5th July, 1879. i 
 
 " My Lords desire that you will at once give directions to all 
 Commanding Officers of ships under your orders that they 
 shall in no case award corporal punishment amounting to 
 
 1 The above was supplemented on August 3, 1881, by a Circular 
 Letter to the effect that " Should a Court-Martial award Corporal 
 Punishment, it is not to be carried out without the previous approval 
 of the Admiralty. Courts-Martial are however recommended not 
 to include the award of Corporal Punishment in any sentence." 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 169 
 
 more than twenty- five lashes ; and My Lords further desire 
 that you will convey to the President of any Court-Martial 
 which you may order to assemble, the recommendation that 
 no sentence of corporal punishment should exceed twenty-five 
 lashes. 
 
 " (Signed) ROBERT HALL. 
 
 " To THE COMMANDERS-IN-CHIEF ON THE VARIOUS STATIONS." 
 
 That was a sop thrown to public clamour, but it by no means 
 satisfied the abolitionists or the Navy, i.e. the men of the Navy. 
 At a subsequent debate on the question of flogging all the old 
 arguments of the men being in favour of it were repeated by 
 the naval officers, who were also members of Parliament, and 
 this so incensed the men of the Navy that in July 1879 a mass- 
 meeting of petty officers and men was held at Portsmouth to 
 protest against such misrepresentation. This was imme- 
 diately met by a memorandum from the Commander-in-Chief 
 of the Port, prohibiting such expression of feeling, and on 
 July 28, 1879, the following question was asked in the House 
 and answer given : 
 
 " Mr. Anderson asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, if it 
 be the fact that a meeting of petty officers and men was held 
 at Portsmouth to protest against the way in which the opinion 
 of the men of the Navy on the subject of flogging had been 
 misrepresented by certain naval officers in Parliament ; if 
 Admiral Fanshawe issued a memorandum to captains of 
 ships, pointing out that such meetings were subversive of 
 discipline ; and if Admiral Fanshawe had issued any memor- 
 andum to officers cautioning them against making public 
 misrepresentations directly provoking to such breaches of 
 discipline." 
 
 Mr. W. H. SMITH. " There is no doubt, Sir, that a meeting 
 was held at Portsmouth at which petty officers and sea men 
 were present, and the punishment of flogging was discussed ; 
 and it is a fact that Admiral Fanshawe, as Commander-in-Chief 
 at Portsmouth, did issue a memorandum cautioning the men 
 
170 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 from attending such meetings. He did so on his own re- 
 sponsibility, but with the entire subsequent approval of the 
 Admiralty, as it is clearly the duty of officers in his position 
 to warn men against being led into acts which are subversive 
 of discipline and are breaches of the Queen's Regulations. 
 The statements which the Hon. Member alleges on his own 
 authority to be misrepresentations having been made in 
 Parliament, do not come under the cognisance of the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of Portsmouth, and I apprehend it would 
 be a breach of the privileges of this House if he were to take 
 notice of them." 
 
 In spite of the warning the men of the Navy continued to 
 protest, taking up the attitude that they had not broken 
 the regulation, which read as follows : 
 
 " All combinations of persons belonging to the Fleet 
 formed for the purpose of bringing about alterations in the 
 existing Regulations or customs of H.M. Naval Service, 
 whether affecting their interests individually or collectively, 
 are prohibited as being contrary to the traditions and practice 
 of the service and injurious to its welfare and discipline." 
 
 They had simply met to protest against their opinions being 
 publicly misrepresented in Parliament without any attempt 
 having been made to find out what their opinions really were. 
 So on July 31, 1879, Mr. Anderson again returned to the 
 charge by asking the First Lord : 
 
 " If it be a fact that the Admiralty rules only prohibited 
 combinations (here he quoted the regulation). If it be not 
 the fact that the meeting of petty officers at Portsmouth 
 was held for none of these purposes, but solely to protect them- 
 selves against public misrepresentations of their opinions by 
 certain naval officers, and, therefore, strictly in the exercise 
 of citizen rights not abrogated by employment in Her Majesty's 
 service, and whether in these circumstances, Admiral Fanshawe' s 
 memorandum was not an indiscreet straining of authority." 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS t 7 i 
 
 Mr. W. H. SMITH. " Sir, I will not enter into an argument 
 with the hon. member as to whether a meeting (on shore) 
 composed of petty officers and sea men called to discuss 
 punishments in the Navy does or does not come within the 
 Articles in the Queen's Regulations to which he refers ; but 
 I repeat it was the duty of a Commander-in-Chief at Ports- 
 mouth to warn men against being led into the commission of 
 acts which in his judgment are subversive of discipline and 
 are breaches of the Queen's Regulations." 
 
 Looking at the matter from this distance of time it is diffi- 
 cult to see what breach of the Regulations the petty officers 
 for as a matter of fact they were all petty officers concerned 
 committed in their protest. They certainly did not meet 
 for the purpose of bringing about any alterations in the then 
 existing Regulations, but to protest against being misrepre- 
 sented in Parliament. 
 
 And so the struggle went on, and in the autumn of 1879 
 Mr. Joseph Chamberlain and others stumped the country 
 during the General Election, and made the abolition of 
 flogging one of the planks of their political programme. Mr. 
 Chamberlain, speaking at Glasgow, said : 
 
 " We are opposing the brutal and degrading punishment 
 of flogging, a relic of the past which by special legislation 
 has been reserved for the most abandoned ruffians in our 
 gaols, and which at the same time is declared to be absolutely 
 necessary to preserve the character and discipline of the 
 British Army and Navy." 
 
 On the return of the new Government (Liberal) to power, 
 Mr. Gorst protested against the campaign, on June 7, 1880. 
 He called the attention of the House to speeches made by 
 members of the present Government : 
 
 " At Birmingham, where two members of the present 
 Cabinet were the successful Liberal candidates, a disgraceful 
 
172 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 placard was posted 50 or 100 copies in a row in the streets. 
 It contained a disgusting picture of a naked soldier being 
 flogged by a political opponent of the right hon. gentleman. 
 The letterpress gave a most minute and disgusting description 
 of the mode in which the punishment was inflicted, and then 
 in large letters came the following : 
 
 " * The British Army is the only Army in the world in which 
 this brutal and degrading punishment is inflicted. Last 
 year Mr. Bright and Mr. Chamberlain struggled night after 
 night in the House of Commons in order to secure its abolition. 
 They succeeded in reducing the number of offences for which 
 it could be inflicted from 100 to 10, although they were met 
 by the most strenuous opposition from the Tory Party, who 
 prevented its total abolition. Working men of Birmingham ! 
 These men whom the Tory Party would see horribly tortured 
 are your brothers.' " 
 
 Whatever may have been the merits or demerits of these 
 pictorial placards, they aroused the indignation of the country 
 and sent a Liberal Government into power to deal with the 
 question. And the same may be said of the meeting at 
 Portsmouth. Whatever technical offence the petty officers 
 committed, they at least convinced the country and Parlia- 
 ment that, notwithstanding what naval officers might say 
 to the contrary, the men of the Navy looked on corporal 
 punishment with abhorrence. The case for abolition was 
 therefore clear and emphatic, and it was the definitely ex- 
 pressed wish of the nation that it should be abolished. But 
 once again the Civil heads of the Board of Admiralty bent 
 to the sinister influences of the sea members of the Board, 
 who declared most emphatically that discipline could not be 
 maintained if the cat was abolished, even as their predecessors 
 in office had declared that the introduction of steam would 
 mean the downfall of the British Navy. So they had their 
 way, and the King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 173 
 
 of to-day still provide for the infliction of corporal punish- 
 ment as follows : 
 
 " It being requisite for the maintenance of the efficiency, 
 discipline and even safety of His Majesty's Ships of War that 
 the power of inflicting corporal punishments when absolutely 
 necessary, should be continued, such punishment under the 
 following conditions may be inflicted under the responsibility 
 and authority of the Captain, who is however to exercise the 
 power vested in him with the greatest discretion and for- 
 bearance, compatible with the discipline of the Service : 
 
 (a) Corporal punishment is never to exceed 25 lashes. 
 
 (b) Except in a case of open Mutiny, no corporal punish- 
 
 ment is to be inflicted without a Warrant in the es- 
 tablished form, which must be fully completed 12 
 hours before the punishment shall take place. 
 
 (c) No Petty or Non-Commissioned Officer and no sea man, 
 
 Marine or other person in the First Class for Con- 
 duct belonging to a Ship shall be liable to summary 
 corporal punishment except for Mutiny as herein- 
 after explained. 
 
 (d) No sea man, Marine or other person in the Second Class 
 
 for Conduct belonging to a Ship shall be liable to 
 summary corporal punishment in time of peace, 
 unless he shall be guilty of : 
 I. Mutiny, or 
 II. Using or offering violence to a Superior Officer. 
 
 (e) Corporal punishment is not to be awarded for using 
 
 violence to a Superior Officer should the offence 
 be in its circumstances one that can be sufficiently 
 met by summary imprisonment, and if the offender can 
 within seven days from the date of the offence be 
 sent to a prison in which such imprisonment can be 
 properly carried out, or if, the offence being aggra- 
 vated in its circumstances, the offender can within 
 a reasonable time be tried by Court-Martial. 
 (/) In time of peace, summary corporal punishment is not 
 
174 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 to be awarded in the presence of a Flag Officer or 
 Commodore for any offence without his approval. 
 
 " When the Captain shall receive a complaint against, or 
 observe any misconduct on the part of, any Man for which 
 such Man is amenable to corporal punishment and he is of 
 opinion that no other punishment which it is in his power to 
 award would be applicable or expedient in the circumstances, 
 then except in open Mutiny he is to appoint one or more 
 Officers in inquire into the particulars of the offence with 
 which the Prisoner may stand charged, and, having received 
 the report of such Officer or Officers as to the guilt or innocence 
 of the accused, and after subsequent and full investigation 
 on his own part, he is to act as, according to his judgment 
 may seem right. 
 
 " If he should determine upon ordering the Prisoner to be 
 corporally punished he is to make out a Warrant on Form 
 S. 182, in which all the information required is to be clearly 
 and explicitly set forth. 
 
 " Exceptional power is hereby given to the Captain or to the 
 Commanding Officer in the case of open Mutiny. When an 
 immediate example is necessary to deter others from joining, 
 any person under the grade of Subordinate Officer who shall 
 be guilty of open Mutiny may be summarily punished corpor- 
 ally : in such urgent cases neither Warrant nor preliminary 
 enquiry by other Officers is necessary, but the Officer so acting 
 is forthwith to forward for the information of the Admiralty 
 a detailed statement of the circumstances which called for 
 such deviation from the general rules in this respect, the 
 degree of punishment inflicted and all other particulars 
 required by the usual Warrant, and a duplicate statement 
 is to accompany the Quarterly Returns. 
 
 " By Corporal Punishment is to be understood the usual 
 punishment at the Gangway : it is to be carried out according 
 to the custom of the Service and in the presence of the Captain, 
 the officers and the Ship's Company, or so many as can be 
 spared from other duties. Every other description of Corporal 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 175 
 
 Punishment by rope, stick or any other instrument is hereby 
 forbidden, with the exception of the authorised caning and 
 birching of Boys. 
 
 " Corporal Punishment is to carry with it in all cases : 
 
 (a) Disrating to a grade below that of Leading Seaman or 
 
 Non-Commissioned Officer. 
 
 (b) Deprivation of Good Conduct Medal and Badges and 
 
 reduction to the Second Class for Conduct. 
 
 " In the casual absence of the Captain, the Commanding 
 Officer is not to order Corporal Punishment to be inflicted, 
 unless the Captain shall be absent on Admiralty leave : or, 
 if abroad, on leave granted by a Commander-in-Chief for a 
 lengthened period. 
 
 " Nothing contained in the foregoing Articles can be deemed 
 to extend to the nullification or abatement of such powers 
 as are vested in Naval Courts-Martial by the Naval Discipline 
 Act, to award Corporal Punishment to persons under the 
 rank of Officer." 
 
 The " Foot Note " referred to under Articles 748, 750 and 
 754 reads : 
 
 " Note. The Power of Commanding Officers to award 
 Corporal Punishment for any offences tried summarily under 
 Section 56 of the Naval Discipline Act is suspended until 
 further orders." 
 
 When we turn to Article 691 of the King's Regulations 
 and Admiralty Instructions we find that : 
 
 " If a Court-Martial should award corporal punishment, 
 it is not to be carried out without the previous approval of the 
 Admiralty." 
 
 So the use of the cat is to all intents and purposes abolished, 
 though it is in the power of any reactionary Board to remove 
 the restrictions that now exist without the matter coming 
 before Parliament at all. 
 
176 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 The Regulations on this point, as they stand, show the 
 contradiction of cowardice. The advocates of flogging have 
 taken up the " last trench " position that there may arise 
 occasions when an immediate example is necessary to deter 
 other persons from joining a mutiny (see Article 751) ; 
 therefore they want to have power, should such an occasion 
 arise, in their estimation, to tie a man up and administer a 
 flogging pour encourager les autres. But the first necessity 
 of a mutiny or anything approaching a mutiny is (a) a tyran- 
 nical and brutal captain; (b) a weak captain who allows a 
 tyrannical and brutal commander or first lieutenant to 
 work his will on the ship's company. Neither type is fitted 
 to have such power (or any power) placed in their hands, and 
 it is probably in recognition of this that the power of com- 
 manding officers to award corporal punishment is suspended. 
 
 But provided the necessary number of ships are together 
 it would be easy to convene a court-martial; and so as to 
 prevent any hasty or ill-advised return to the use of the cat 
 on the sentence of such a Court, flogging, even if awarded, 
 could not be carried out without the previous approval of 
 the Admiralty. So that the Regulations as they stand are a 
 farce and a sham. Yet the country is living on the edge 
 of a crater that may become active at any moment ; for while 
 the power exists, no matter in how restricted a form, the 
 danger exists. Let us take an imaginary case. 
 
 A court-martial sentences a man to be flogged, because in 
 its opinion such a punishment is absolutely necessary. Before 
 the punishment can be carried out the approval of the Ad- 
 miralty has to be obtained, which would take some days at 
 least, even with a ship in home waters. In the meantime the 
 news has been flashed all over the country, and violent articles 
 appear in the Press against the revival of such an old-time 
 brutality. At all the home ports the petty officers would 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 177 
 
 immediately assemble to lodge one united protest ; for let it 
 be thoroughly understood that the Navy itself, i.e. the men 
 of the Navy, would never tolerate a revival of flogging, and 
 as there is no single class of petty officer to-day but what 
 has its own society ostensibly a Death Benefit Society, in 
 reality a society to protect and forward the interests of the 
 class which forms it these petty officers would be able to bring 
 considerable pressure to bear. If Parliament was sitting 
 Ministers would be bombarded with questions, and it is doubtful 
 if any Ministry would feel inclined to face public obloquy at 
 the Polls by allowing the sentence to be put into effect. 
 Thus the Navy would be shaken to its very foundations, and 
 at a time when the loyal support of the men would be the one 
 essential necessary to the security of the Empire. As long 
 as these Articles form a part of the King's Regulations and 
 Admiralty Instructions, they form a menace to the security 
 of the Empire. 
 
 Now let us turn to the list of summary punishments 
 allowed by the Admiralty to be awarded to persons subject 
 to the Naval Discipline Act, of and below the grade of chief 
 petty officer or non-commissioned officer (of marines). 
 
 1. Dismissal with disgrace. 
 
 2. Corporal punishment not to exceed twenty-five lashes 
 
 (suspended). 
 4. Imprisonment not to exceed three calendar months. 
 
 6. Disrating or reduction to the ranks (see Appendix A). 
 
 7. Deprivation of good conduct badge and of good conduct 
 
 medals. 
 
 8. Reduction to 2nd class for conduct. 
 
 9. Solitary confinement in a cell or under a canvas screen 
 
 on board. Not to exceed fourteen days. 
 10. (a) Grog to be stopped; eat meals under sentry's 
 charge ; after half an hour for dinner to stand for the 
 
 12 
 
178 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 remainder of the dinner time in the place appointed ; 
 extra work in watch below ; to be deprived of smoking 
 and to be under the sentry's charge during smoking 
 hours. If in harbour, or an idler at sea, to stand on 
 the upper-deck in the appointed place from 8 p.m. 
 till 10 p.m. Not to exceed fourteen days. 
 (b) Grog to be stopped ; after half an hour for dinner 
 to stand for the remainder of the dinner time on 
 upper-deck in place appointed. Not to exceed seven 
 days. 
 
 11. Stoppage of leave. Not to exceed three months. 
 
 12. Deductions from pay for leave-breaking and for un- 
 
 fit ness for duty from " drinking on shore." 
 
 13. Deductions from pay under Article 1,36s. 1 
 
 14. Reduction to a lower class for leave. 
 
 15. Stoppage of grog. Never to exceed thirty days except 
 
 for habitual drunkenness. 
 
 16. Carrying hammock on bag. Not to exceed an hour 
 . a day for three days. 
 
 Punishments i to 9, when not referred to a court- 
 martial, are awarded by captains of ships, though Clause 5 
 of Article 756 stipulates that : 
 
 " In order to secure as much uniformity as possible in the 
 award of sentences of punishment by officers in command 
 of H.M. Ships at Home Ports, on Foreign Stations, and in 
 Detached Squadrons, such officers, when in the presence of a 
 Commander-in-chief or Senior officer, are to submit the 
 Punishment Warrant S. 182 for his consideration and approval 
 before completing it ; that is, before causing the sentence to 
 be read to the prisoner." 
 
 But as the sentence has already been awarded and the 
 1 For loss or destruction of Government property. 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 179 
 
 prisoner informed of it the submitting of the warrant to the 
 Commander-in-Chief or senior officer is a mere matter of form 
 which, as far as it protects men from harsh punishments, 
 might be abolished. 
 
 The awarding of No. 10 is invariably delegated to the 
 executive officer, i.e. commander or first lieutenant ; and 
 io(<z) is the salve for all naval sores of a minor nature, 10(6) 
 being rarely awarded. This punishment is dealt with at length 
 in another chapter. 
 
 It is the heavier punishments that require serious attention. 
 The Naval Discipline Bill, 1910, provides for detention 
 instead of " Imprisonment " for all crimes against discipline ; 
 but this is a difference only of degree and not of kind. Im- 
 prisonment carries with it disrating in the case of a petty 
 officer, deprivation of good conduct badges, loss of all pay 
 and time for pension while in prison, and reduction to 2nd 
 class for character. 
 
 Men reduced to the 2nd class for conduct may be re- 
 stored to ist class after six months of continuous good 
 conduct unless the reduction was within three years of a 
 previous restoration, or unless while in the 2nd class he 
 has been awarded a punishment that would have involved 
 reduction had he been in the ist class ; in which case 
 twelve months of continuous good conduct must precede 
 restoration. As the total daily pay of men in the 2nd class is 
 less by one sixth than their pay when not in that class, the 
 punishment is excessively severe, and is continually being 
 awarded in a casual haphazard way without any attempt to 
 go into the pros and cons of the case. 
 
 The same may be said of the deprivation of good conduct 
 badges. To entitle a man to a good conduct badge he must 
 have served three years with very good conduct from the age 
 of eighteen, eight years for two badges, and thirteen years for 
 
i8o OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 three badges the total that can be gained. To entitle a man 
 to a good conduct medal, (a) he must have served for ten 
 years with continuous "Very Good" character, and must 
 never previously have been awarded a character below 
 " V.G.," unless for a period not exceeding one year in his 
 first five years reckoning for pension ; (b) He must have 
 been recommended for it on his service certificate for the 
 three consecutive years immediately preceding his applica- 
 tion ; (c) He must be recommended by the captain under 
 whom he is serving when he becomes eligible. Yet all these 
 things, won by years of endeavour, can be and are taken 
 away at the whim of an individual. This is bad for the 
 service and bad for the individual who awards the punish- 
 ments, which considering their nature and far-reaching results 
 should not be left to an individual to award, but should be 
 the carefully considered verdict of a court. 
 
 There was a time, very much to the nation's disgrace, when 
 the Navy was manned by pressed men and felons. To-day 
 it is manned by very carefully selected volunteers. We are 
 making the mistake of trying to apply the " discipline " that 
 was introduced for the former to the latter, and are failing. 
 That period of stress and strain through which we passed in 
 the eighteenth century has coloured and distorted all our 
 views of sea life, sea men, and sea discipline. We emerged from 
 that period with our sea laws more Draconian than they 
 had been in any period of our island story. Officers who 
 were schooled in the Navy during that period naturally 
 accepted the conditions as in the natural order of things, and 
 as lasting. They therefore handed them down to those who 
 followed, or when they went to the Admiralty as Members of 
 the Board, they busied themselves in framing and perpetuating 
 laws for conditions that in themselves were only transcient 
 and now no longer existed or were rapidly passing away. 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 181 
 
 That period through which we passed had no more relation 
 to ordinary sea life or necessary sea laws than the inside of 
 our prisons to-day represent the life of the nation at large. 
 If we could but blot it out from our minds and go back to the 
 period that preceded it we should get a clearer and better 
 perspective. 
 
 The most ancient code of sea regulations known is that of 
 Richard L, promulgated in 1190, and quoted at length in an 
 earlier chapter. In 1635 Admiral the Earl of Lindsay issued 
 instructions to the officers of his fleet as follows : 
 
 " i st. In your own particular ship you are to have special 
 care that you perform your duty faithfully and with dili- 
 gence ; and if any sea men or other in your ship raise faction, 
 tumult or conspiracy, or commit manslaughter, or murder, 
 or shall quarrel or fight, or draw blood or weapon to that 
 end, or commit theft, or other heinous capital offence you 
 shall cause precise information to be brought to me thereof 
 that I may inflict condign punishment upon each offender 
 according to his crime. 
 
 " 2ndly. If any under your command in that ship shall 
 be a common swearer, blasphemer, railer, drunkard, pilferer, 
 or sleep at his watch, or make a noise and not betake himself 
 to his place of rest after the watch is set, or shall not keep his 
 cabin cleanly, or be discontented with his proportion of 
 victuals or shall spoil or waste them or any other necessary 
 provisions for the ship, or shall commit any insolency or 
 disorder, fitting by you to be corrected, you are to punish 
 them according to the order and custom of the sea." 
 
 There we have the power of punishing serious offences 
 reserved by the Admiral to himself, with summary powers 
 for minor offences delegated to the captains under him. 
 
 The summary punishments and the terms in which they 
 are explained are typical of the age, and barbarous as they 
 
182 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 may seem they coincide exactly with the punishments in 
 vogue on shore. 
 
 " A captain may punish according to the offence com- 
 mitted, putting one in the billboes during pleasure; keep 
 them fasting, duck them at the yard arm, or haul them from 
 yard arm to yard arm under the ship's keel ; or make them 
 fast to the capstan and whip them there ; or at the capstan 
 or mainmast, hang weights about their decks, till their heart 
 and back be ready to break, or to gag or scrape their tongues 
 for blasphemy or swearing." 
 
 On shore there was whipping at a cart tail, ducking in a 
 pond, scraping of tongues, and hanging with weights ; so we 
 simply have here shore methods taken to sea, with the capstan 
 substituted for the cart tail and the yard arm for the ducking 
 stool. " This," sum up the instructions, " will tame the 
 most rude and savage people in the world." Here again we 
 have nothing peculiar to the sea, as the avowed object of all 
 punishment in those savage old days was to " tame " people, 
 to " break their backs or their hearts." Withal the Navy 
 of those days was not a very efficient weapon, i.e. as compared 
 with the forces we had to meet. But as David Hannay has 
 pointed out, " The fleets of Charles I. were equipped by fits 
 and starts and there was no order or coherence in the 
 efforts." 
 
 It was not until the Commonwealth came into existence 
 that a considerable naval force was continuously maintained 
 and a system of laws framed for its guidance and government. 
 These were embodied in "An Ordinance and articles con- 
 cerning martial law for the government of the Navy," and 
 passed the House of Commons in April 1645. This Ordinance 
 was followed in 1653 by " Instructions 1 on Councils of War," 
 
 1 The full text of these Instructions will be found in the chapter 
 on^Courts-martial. 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 183 
 
 which was the first notice of the form and constitution of a 
 naval court-martial to be found in English history. 
 
 It is the " Ship " court-martial described there that should 
 be revived to-day in an advanced form to meet latter-day 
 requirements. Scraping of tongues, keel-hauling, and hanging 
 of weights about the necks of men may have been necessary 
 punishments to place in the hands of captains four hundred 
 years ago. They became obsolete, and new punishments were 
 substituted ; but these were of such a nature as would meet 
 the supposed peculiar temperament of the sea man, with vast 
 powers still vested in the hands of commanding officers, 
 which are used in such an erratic manner as to constitute a 
 grave menace to the well-being of the service. 
 
 I shall be told that 70 per cent, of naval captains are 
 just and humane men who are very careful how they exercise 
 the power placed in their hands, and are never guilty of excess. 
 They are ! And being able to maintain discipline without the 
 exercise of these powers is the chief argument why they 
 might safely be taken out of the hands of the other 30 per 
 cent., who in many cases are absolutely unfitted to wield 
 them. The real crime in the Navy to-day is so small, and the 
 character of the men so uniformly high, that the difference 
 in the punishment returns of the various ships is the most 
 eloquent testimony of the necessity for reform that can be 
 offered. The certain and impartial punishment of crime is 
 the one thing that makes civilisation possible ; the manu- 
 facture of crime for the sake of punishment is always a dis- 
 integrating force, therefore, the stamping out of manufactured 
 crime in the Navy is a matter of primary importance to the 
 State. This could be accomplished by a reintroduction of 
 the " Ship " court-martial for the purpose of dealing with 
 punishments i to 9, and the abolition of such stupid 
 punishments as io(a) and the stoppage of leave, and 
 
184 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 substituting instead a system of fines for all minor 
 lapses. 
 
 For many years prison administration and the treatment 
 of crime and criminals has exercised the public mind, and 
 as recently as July 26, 1910, Mr. Winston Churchill outlined 
 a Bill which he proposes to bring in. In that outline he 
 said : 
 
 " The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treat- 
 ment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests 
 of the civilisation of any country. A calm, dispassionate 
 recognition of the rights of the accused against the State, 
 and even of convicted criminals against the State ; a constant 
 heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, 
 a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry 
 all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of 
 punishment, tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative 
 and regenerative processes, unfaltering faith that there is a 
 treasure if you can only find it in the heart of every man 
 these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and 
 criminals mark and measure the stored-up strength of a 
 nation and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it." 
 
 That is the consideration the country is prepared to extend 
 to its criminals and law-breakers ; will it be less tender, less 
 considerate towards the rights of its sea men who are not 
 criminals ? 
 
 The Home Secretary's remarks bear so closely on what 
 I am urging that they are worth quoting : 
 
 " I come to the question of preventing young persons being 
 unnecessarily committed to prison. I mean the treatment of 
 offenders under twenty-one. I will ask the House to consider 
 specially the case of youths between fifteen and twenty-one. 
 There is disaster in sending them to gaol for the first time. 
 (Hear, hear.) An old prison visitor was telling me the other 
 day how often they cried the first time they went to prison, 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 185 
 
 but not afterwards. We may attribute that to the ac- 
 commodation provided or to the brutalising effect of the 
 treatment ; but, at any rate, it is a great misfortune. The 
 House will, I think, sympathise, and will support me in any 
 steps that may be necessary to prevent these undesirable 
 commitments. 
 
 " If the House is sympathetic on this subject, I shall hope 
 to make proposals next year on certain general principles 
 on the treatment of youthful offenders. (Hear, hear.) No 
 youth ought to go to prison unless he had shown himself to 
 be most incorrigible, or had committed a serious offence ; and 
 no youth ought to receive a sentence which was not definitely 
 of a curative and educative character, and which should 
 never be merely a punitive sentence." 
 
 In the Navy every sentence is punitive and punitive only ; 
 and so far from there being any consideration of the effect of 
 a sentence on a youth under twenty-one it is just these who 
 are specially liable to sentences of io(a). For all practical 
 purposes this is a prison punishment, and I should think that 
 fully 90 per cent, of the " bad characters " of the Navy could 
 trace their downfall to it. A youngster of eighteen goes 
 before the commander for some trivial offence " leaning on 
 the forecastle rails," being on the upper-deck " improperly 
 dressed," or " not in the rig of the day." Seven days io(a) 
 is the punishment. 
 
 This brings him directly under the control of the police ; 
 also his record is stained. A further io(a) punishment and he 
 grows callous. io(a) is followed by cells, and cells by chokee, 
 and you have a fully manufactured " bad character." If a 
 youngster can safely pass the first two or three years without 
 getting io(a) his career is practically safe ; whether he will 
 or not depends not on himself at all, but on the kind of com- 
 mander he has the good or bad fortune to get with at this 
 dangerous period. Let me give one or two personal expe- 
 
i86 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 riences and opinions of naval officers with whom I have dis- 
 cussed this subject. 
 
 In one ship in which I served there were from twenty to 
 thirty defaulters before the commander each day, and always 
 a goodly number of black-list men. This commander left 
 the ship and the first lieutenant took his place for the time 
 being. The first evening he undertook his new duties he 
 went on the upper-deck to find each side of the quarter-deck 
 lined with silent figures facing the paint-work, and a corporal 
 of marines walking up and down to see they did not talk. 
 He at once sent for the master-at-arms and told him to 
 dismiss all the men and he would see them the next day. 
 Next day every punishment but three was remitted, and 
 the daily number of defaulters fell from being twenty to 
 thirty, to five or six. 
 
 A. was a naval commander, a genial kind-hearted man in the 
 main, not a deep thinker, who liked his ship to be a " smart " 
 ship. I asked his opinion on io(a). 
 
 " Oh ! as a general thing when a ship has settled down 
 it is not necessary, but on first commissioning or coming from 
 dockyards hands one must have black-list men or it would 
 take a month of Sundays to get things ship-shape." 
 
 Here we have punishment not for the maintenance of dis- 
 cipline, but manufactured crime for a specific purpose. 
 
 B. was a senior lieutenant doing executive officer's duty 
 in a cruiser. He expressed himself on the question of 10(0) 
 as follows : 
 
 "It is a very good thing for youngsters ; puts the fear of 
 God into them ; and lets them understand what the service is. 
 Besides, it keeps them employed and out of mischief in their 
 spare time." 
 
 Here we have punishment for punishment's sake. 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 187 
 
 C. was a post-captain, a stern, somewhat taciturn man, 
 but with a reputation for being scrupulously fair and just 
 in his dealings with his subordinates. 
 
 " Well, really, I have never given much consideration to 
 the subject. You see I have always had exceptionally good 
 ship's companies, so have never found io(a) necessary." 
 
 Several other officers whose opinions I asked had none to 
 give ; they simply took io(a) and the other things for granted. 
 
 " There they are, don't you know, and that's all about it. 
 It's not my job to amend the King's Regulations ; and if the 
 punishments are not good enough, why let the Admiralty 
 find new ones." 
 
 That is the typical attitude. 
 
 " Cells " should be abolished altogether. The average 
 " cell " is an unhealthy, un ventilated little hutch in the flats. 
 
 " Cells are not to be less than 6J ft. in length, 3 ft. in breadth, 
 and the full height between decks (about 6 ft. or less), and they 
 are to be properly ventilated." l 
 
 The ventilator is a small scuttle in the ship's side, which 
 always has to be closed when the ship is at sea. In many 
 ships the heat from the stoke-hole makes the cells unendurable. 
 For the first three days a man awarded " cell" punishment 
 is confined altogether to this little hole. But here are the 
 Regulations. 
 
 " Solitary confinement in a cell or under a canvas screen 
 on board carries with it deprivation of Badges, and, at the 
 discretion of the Captain, forfeiture of time and wages for the 
 period of the confinement ; should the period exceed seven 
 days, reduction to the Second Class of Conduct is obligatory. 
 
 " i. All Men in the Second Class for Conduct sentenced 
 
 1 Article 743, Clause 281 b, King's Regulations and Admiralty In- 
 structions. 
 
i88 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 to cells for more than ten days are to have the hair of the 
 head, but not of the face, cut close. 
 
 "3. Men sentenced to cells are to be checked for victualling 
 on the Ship's ledger for the period during which they are 
 actually undergoing their sentence, and are to be victualled 
 as provided for in Appendix X. 
 
 " 4. The Diet is to be at the discretion of the Captain and 
 is to be set out in the Warrant ; the Low Diet is, however, 
 to be limited to the first three days, or, in the case of a Man 
 awarded fourteen days, to the first three and the last three 
 days of the punishment. 
 
 " When cell punishment is awarded for leave-breaking, 
 Low Diet to the full extent authorised is obligatory. 1 
 
 "5. The Prisoner is daily to pick two pounds of oakum, 
 which is to be weighed when given out to him, and again when 
 received from him. 
 
 "6, He is not to be allowed the use of his bed or bedding 
 for the first four nights, but in cold weather he may have a 
 blanket if considered necessary and specially ordered. After 
 the first four nights he is to be allowed his bedding every 
 alternate night. 
 
 "7. He is to keep himself and his cell clean. He is to be 
 allowed a Bible and the use of religious books, and if a member 
 of the Church of England, he is to attend Divine Service on 
 Sundays. He is to be visited in his cell once in each watch 
 by the Police, but he is not to be allowed to hold communica- 
 tion with any other persons. 
 
 "He is to be deprived of tobacco, knives, razors, writing 
 materials and of all secular books and papers. 
 
 " 8. After the third day's confinement he is to be brought 
 on deck under a sentry's charge for two hours a day, one hour 
 a.m. and one hour p.m. 
 
 " 9. In hot climates no Man is to be imprisoned in a cell 
 in which the temperature exceeds 80, except where there is 
 direct ventilation through the Ship's side from the outer air. 
 
 1 Here we have a distinct echo of a hundred years ago. 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 189 
 
 " 10. Prisoners in cells are to be visited night and morn- 
 ing by the Medical Officer." 
 
 Solitary confinement in a 6 ft. by 3 ft. iron box, even when 
 the temperature does not exceed 80 degrees, can hardly be 
 called a humane punishment, yet there were 7,695 cell punish- 
 ments in 1908. 
 
 Ship cells were introduced in the days when ships were at 
 sea for weeks and months at a stretch, and naval prisons 
 were not in existence ; in these days, when ships return to 
 harbour every few days, there is no excuse for their retention. 
 If they are retained, then we shall be in this position : 
 Imprisonment, which is looked on as a severer punishment 
 than cells, is to give place to detention in the case of 
 all disciplinary offences ; thus we shall have a " curative and 
 educative " sentence for the more serious offence and a 
 purely punitive and more severe sentence for the lesser. 
 Does this not show the necessity for complete instead of 
 patchwork reform ? With cells should go 10(0), and the 
 ship's police. 
 
 There is not the slightest doubt that io(a), beyond being 
 a senseless and degrading punishment when inflicted on an 
 intelligent man, is very largely indulged in by some com- 
 manders simply that they may have men always available for 
 extra work, i.e. polishing iron-work, cleaning paint-work, etc., 
 and it is just as certain that in some ships the master-at-arms 
 is given to understand that a number of black-list men must 
 always be available, and this turns the ship's police, however 
 they may dislike it, into agents provocateurs pure and simple. 
 Sooner or later in ships of this description comes the inevit- 
 able " regrettable incident "gun-sights, etc., thrown over- 
 board, with the stereotyped excuse, " A few malcontents ! " 
 
 1 The Parliamentary Secretary's description of what this detention 
 punishment will be given in another chapter. 
 
igo OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 In other ships, where there is no desire on the part of the 
 commanders to manufacture crime, the ship's police use their 
 position for their own benefit in a variety of ways. It may 
 surprise the public to learn that dozens of ships become 
 miniature Monte Carlos as soon as the day's work is done. 
 Roulette, Anchor and Crown, Under and Over boards are 
 spread out, and those in charge of them openly compete with 
 one another in loud-mouthed pleadings that " Faint heart 
 never won fair lady," etc., etc. These things, of course, 
 cannot go on without the connivance of the ship's police, who 
 draw a stated monthly revenue from each form of gambling 
 they allow to exist ; and it will invariably be found that 
 those men who are allowed to fleece their shipmates secure 
 " dry " billets, such as lower-deck and flat sweepers, drying 
 room, etc., where they have ample facilities for keeping their 
 paraphernalia and bringing it forth as soon as work on deck 
 ceases. As these are forms of gambling where only one side 
 can win, the young and foolish are soon fleeced, when the 
 " quid for twenty-four " man who is generally an accomplice 
 of those who own the boards steps to the front with an offer 
 to accommodate with a loan. This takes the form of a pound 
 for 245. for a month, or till pay day, when capital and interest 
 have to be repaid ; and in many cases the borrower re-borrows 
 on the same terms, and becomes a source of regular income to 
 the usurer. These are invariably prominent petty officers, 
 who are able to enforce their claims by virtue of their position, 
 and woe betide the helpless wight who tries to shuffle out of 
 his responsibilities : the lender at once becomes the " superior 
 officer," and a trumped-up charge of " disrespect/' " inso- 
 lence," or a like nature follows and the victim goes to prison 
 cells or io(a), for " discipline " must be maintained ! 
 
 The petty officers, unless they are absolutely unanimous, 
 are powerless to take any steps to check this gambling evil 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 191 
 
 in a ship. They know too well the weight which the word of 
 the master-at-arms generally carries, and they also know 
 what a rod they are laying in pickle for themselves if they 
 interfere. Besides, why should they interfere ? The ship's 
 police are responsible, so things slide on. Even if one of the 
 police is averse to the corruption, he is powerless, as to inter- 
 fere would be to jeopardise his position, so he has every 
 incentive to adapt himself to his surroundings and take his 
 share of the plunder. 
 
 I do not blame the ship's police for the corruption that 
 affects them as a body. They are human, and as the King's 
 Regulations and Admiralty Instructions, together with the 
 " customs of the service," offer them every incentive to be 
 corrupt, and every penalty if they will not float with the tide, 
 they would be something more than human if they were 
 not as they are. We are told that the ship's police are 
 necessary for disciplinary purposes : I know nothing so 
 inimical to true discipline as the maintenance of this special 
 body of men. What is the " discipline " they maintain ? 
 Manufactured crime and " regrettable incidents " at one end, 
 gambling hells, with their attributes of theft and usury, at the 
 other ! 
 
 The danger attached to any attempt to stem the tide of 
 corruption was forcibly brought to my notice while I was 
 writing this book. One day an old sailor-man paid me a 
 visit with the following letter of introduction from a brother 
 editor : 
 
 " DEAR MR. YEXLEY, 
 
 " The bearer of this, Mr. J. L. Barstow, is a friend of 
 mine of many years' standing. He has suffered great in- 
 j astice at the hands of the Admiralty, arid the chief aim of his 
 Hfe, ever since I have known him, has been to secure the 
 removal of the stigma upon his name. 
 
IQ2 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " If you will listen to his story and help him to obtain re- 
 dress you will do him the best service one man can render 
 another, while I shall regard it as a favour done to me. 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 I asked him in (he is now seventy -seven), and spent a 
 whole day in listening to his story and going through the docu- 
 ments he brought. Barstow was a ship's corporal, ist class, 
 within eighteen months of his pension, and a twenty years' very 
 good character, when he was faced with a trumped-up charge 
 and was disrated to 2nd class ordinary sea man (one grade above 
 a boy) and dismissed the service with disgrace the corner of 
 his discharge being cut off to proclaim to the world that he 
 was an utterly worthless character. No definite charge was 
 ever brought against him, neither was he ever heard in his 
 own defence. He asked for a court-martial which was denied 
 him. Instead, he was ejected from the Navy, a penniless 
 beggar, with a wife and family to keep. For some time he 
 struggled on as a casual labourer till he was able to get a 
 character from an employer, and so he gradually worked him- 
 self up into a position of trust. Twenty years ago he told 
 his story to Mr. T. A. Bramsdon (since M.P. for Portsmouth), 
 whom he had known for some time. Mr. Bramsdon was so 
 impressed that he took the matter up and wrote later the 
 following letter to the late Admiral Commerell, who was at the 
 time Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth : 
 
 " T. A. Bramsdon, Solicitor. 
 
 " 10, HIGH STREET, PORTSMOUTH, 
 
 "January 26, 1891. 
 
 " SIR, 
 
 " Referring to our interview yesterday upon the sub- 
 ject of the conviction of John Louis Barstow, I should like to 
 say that I was first attracted to consider the matter by the 
 earnestness with which he approached me. The greatest 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 193 
 
 difficulty he explained was that, though he had tried con- 
 tinuously since his conviction to get a copy of the Depositions 
 from South Africa, yet he had been entirely unsuccessful. 
 
 " I then went into the matter at very great length, and 
 succeeded in obtaining, through the Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, copies of the Depositions required, and I was, and 
 am fully assured that Mr. Bars tow, both legally and morally, 
 is as entirely innocent of the crime imputed to him (on evi- 
 dence that would not hang a dog) as I am. 
 
 " My reasons for such conclusions are : 
 
 " i. That with the exception of Macauley's confession 
 which I regard as utterly worthless there is not a tittle of 
 evidence against Mr. Barstow. 
 
 " 2. That Mr. Barstow was not heard in his own defence. 
 
 "3. That the charge is bad on the face of it, in not stating 
 a specific offence ; and 
 
 " 4. Only dealing with generalities. 
 
 " I have known Mr. Barstow for the past ten years, and 
 have been struck with his honesty and integrity. Indeed, I 
 should not have the least hesitation in entrusting him with 
 any sum of money, or the care or control of any matter in 
 which honesty is essential. 
 
 " I ought to add that I have never been, and am not now, 
 engaged professionally by Mr. Barstow, but was led to assist 
 him from a deeply rooted conviction that he was a wronged 
 man. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient Servant, 
 
 " THOS. A. BRAMSDON. 
 
 "To VICE-ADMIRAL 
 
 SIR EDMUND COMMERELL, V.C., K.C.B., 
 Commander-in-Chief, 
 
 Portsmouth Dockyard." 
 
 Admiral CommerelTs first attitude was one of unbelief that 
 
 any man could be so treated unless he deserved it and was 
 
 guilty the typical attitude of a naval officer but he was 
 
 induced to see Barstow, and decided to go fully into the matter, 
 
 13 
 
194 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 even going to the Admiralty and hunting up old ship's logs 
 for information. Later he wrote to Mr. Bramsdon as follows : 
 
 "MR. BRAMSDON 
 
 " I have read over very carefully the papers and 
 affidavits which have been submitted me by Mr. Barstow. 
 They are very voluminous, and require many hours' con- 
 sideration ; but I have no doubt in my own mind that Barstow 
 was innocent of the charge and that he was illegally con- 
 victed. I should doubt the Admiralty reconsidering the 
 case, because it would re-open many others ; and from the 
 death of so many important witnesses I do not see how a just 
 conclusion could be arrived at. 1 
 
 " J. E. COMMERELL. 
 " June 12, 1891." 
 
 For my part I am not only convinced that this man was 
 not guilty of any crime, but that he was actually the victim 
 of his own honesty He found himself on service at Simon's 
 Bay in a very hotbed of corruption, and failed to accommodate 
 himself to his surroundings. He actually brought one of the 
 gang, Macauley, to justice. Macauley, at his own trial, which 
 took place on shore, made certain statements against Barstow 
 which were never investigated, but which those on board 
 seized on to get him out of the way as a " dangerous char- 
 acter." He is seventy-six years of age, almost totally blind, 
 and came to see me in the hope that I might be induced to 
 take up his case. All he asks for is that his name may be 
 cleared and that he may be granted the pension that should 
 be his for the few years he has yet to live. 
 
 But Barstow is by no means the only pebble on the beach, 
 as these things are taking place to-day, and will continue 
 so long as the present system remains. With very, very few 
 exceptions those who get thrown out of the service with dis- 
 
 1 Here we have an Archer-Shee case from the lower deck. 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 195 
 
 grace " go under," and are never again heard of. Barstow 
 has had sufficient character to weather the storm and win the 
 respect of all those who have been brought into business 
 relations with him ; that is why he figures in these pages. 
 But there must be many others suffering, in silence and 
 obscurity, a similar fate. Naval history, so far, has con- 
 cerned itself with the doings of great and little Admirals 
 and our " glorious naval traditions." My task is to draw 
 back the veil and show the skeleton in the cupboard. 
 
 Since the foregoing was written the nation has been stirred 
 by a petition of right in which the suppliant, Martin Archer- 
 Shee, claimed damages and further relief for unlawfully re- 
 quiring him to withdraw his son, George Archer-Shee, from 
 the Royal Naval College, Osborne, in breach of the contract 
 by the Admiralty. By their defence the respondents denied 
 any breach of contract, contended that they had a discretion 
 in the matter which had been duly exercised, that the sup- 
 pliant's son had been guilty of misconduct, and also demurred 
 to the petition of right, alleging that it did not lie. 
 
 This case is of such vast importance to the Navy, and has 
 such a close bearing on the subject of this book, that I make 
 no excuse for including it here. 
 
 Sir Edward Carson, K.C., in opening the case for the sup- 
 pliant, said : 
 
 " In 1908 the suppliant entered into an agreement with 
 the Admiralty, entering his son at the Royal Naval College, 
 Osborne. This college was conducted by the Admiralty for 
 the purpose of training boys for the Navy, and it was im- 
 portant to remember that the boys had to enter as mere 
 children. The suppliant paid certain fees, and entered into 
 certain engagements for example, to withdraw the boy if 
 unfitted for the service. He also undertook to withdraw him 
 if his conduct was unsatisfactory. The little boy, from his 
 birth in 1895 until 1905, was brought up at home, and during 
 
I 9 6 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 that time he did not give his parents one moment's anxiety, 
 nor was anything suggested against his character, so far as a 
 character could be said to be formed at that early age. In 
 1905 he went to a preparatory school for a year, and then to 
 Stoneyhurst. There he obtained the highest character and 
 the confidence and affection of those brought into contact 
 with him. In 1908, by examination, he entered the Royal 
 Naval College, and in September he came home for his holi- 
 days, returning at their termination. On October 18 the sup- 
 pliant received the following letter from the Admiralty : 
 
 " ' Confidential. I am commanded by my Lords Commis- 
 sioners of the Admiralty to inform you that they have received 
 a letter from the commanding officer of the Royal Naval 
 College at Osborne, reporting the theft of a postal order at 
 the college on the 7th inst., which was afterwards cashed at 
 the post office. Investigation of the circumstances of the 
 case leaves no other conclusion possible than that the postal 
 order was taken by your son, Cadet George Archer-Shee. 
 My Lords deeply regret that they must therefore request you 
 to withdraw your son from the college. I am, Sir, your 
 obedient servant, C. I. THOMAS.' 
 
 " By this letter this little boy of thirteen (said Sir Edward) 
 was branded as a thief and a forger ; labelled and ticketed as 
 such for the rest of his life. In the investigation which had 
 led to this disastrous result neither the father nor any friend 
 of the boy was present to hear what was said. He (the 
 learned counsel) protested against the boy being branded in 
 this way as a thief and a forger. The little boy, from that 
 day up to the present moment, whether when called before his 
 commander, or under the softer ordeal of the inquiry by his 
 loving parents, had never faltered in the declaration that he 
 was innocent. Two years had elapsed since then. They had 
 pressed again and again for a judicial inquiry into the matter ; 
 not a Departmental inquiry, but a judicial inquiry ; but they 
 had pressed in vain until they had brought this petition of 
 right ; and even that had been objected to until they got an 
 order of the Courts. If the boy's character was to be cleared, 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 197 
 
 it would not, therefore, be by any action of the State, but by 
 the verdict of twelve of his fellow-citizens ; and that would 
 be the only satisfactory ending of this case. The suppliant 
 asked only for that which every street Arab obtained. Indeed, 
 he did not ask for so much. The latter had the protection of 
 a trained magistrate, of a grand jury presided over by a judge, 
 of a common jury presided over by a judge, and finally of 
 the Court of Criminal Appeal. But the Department, having 
 taken up a certain attitude, would never go back ; they had 
 fought and were fighting to the bitter end. He would not 
 trouble them about the technical defences, but would put the 
 boy before them on the plain issue Was he a thief and a 
 forger or not ? " 
 
 For three days this case proceeded, and then the Solicitor- 
 General interrupted, in the midst of evidence, and addressing 
 the judge, said : 
 
 " I am very glad to tell your lordship, with regard to the 
 issues of fact, that your lordship and the jury will not be 
 further troubled, because, as the result of the evidence that 
 has now been given for some days, and the investigation that 
 has taken place, I say now, on behalf of the Admiralty, that I 
 accept the statement of George Archer-Shee that he did not 
 write the name on the postal order and did not cash it, and 
 consequently that he is innocent of the charge. 
 
 " I say further, so that there may be no misapprehension 
 about it, that I make that statement without any reserve of 
 any description, and I intend that it shall be a complete 
 justification of the statement of the boy in the evidence that 
 he had given before the Court." 
 
 What effect will this extraordinary trial have on the public 
 mind, and to what extent will it impress the nation of the 
 perils of naval law and procedure as these exist ? On opening 
 my evening and morning papers, I at once turned to the 
 editorial comments on this case. Here they are : 
 
ig8 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 London Evening News 
 
 " If the judgment of the High Court on the question of 
 privilege had not been reversed by the Court of Appeal, who 
 ordered the case to go for trial, George Archer-Shee, who is 
 now declared innocent on the word of the Admiralty, would 
 still, on the word of the Admiralty, be branded as a thief. 
 
 " That such things should be possible fills us with a sense 
 of shame a sense which is not lightened by the subsequent 
 behaviour of the Admiralty in the matter. The evidence 
 given in court was the same on which the boy was condemned ; 
 but after its lamentable weakness had been exposed in court, 
 the officials who thought it good enough for a hole-and-corner 
 inquiry suddenly withdrew all charges and pronounced their 
 victim unquestionably innocent. Thus the verdict of the 
 jury was forestalled, and any unpleasant criticisms of the 
 Admiralty's action which the jury might wish to make re- 
 main unspoken." 
 
 Daily Mail 
 
 " A cruel wrong has now been tardily repaired. But the 
 authorities responsible for the miscarriage of justice at Osborne 
 cannot escape censure because of their sudden change of 
 attitude. A great blunder was committed in condemning 
 the boy, on evidence which, when carefully examined, 
 amounted to nothing more than vague suspicion. A still 
 greater blunder was perpetrated when the parents' letters 
 were left for long unanswered and when an obstinate resist- 
 ance was offered to a public inquiry. The boy's career has 
 been gravely affected by the lapse of two years between the 
 dates when the charge was brought and the day when it was 
 withdrawn. It is to be hoped that in future no cadet will be 
 condemned as the result of hole-and-corner investigation, and 
 that, after this lesson, parents will be treated with the ordinary 
 courtesy of everyday life. The affair is not without a wider 
 importance. It illustrates anew the absolute need for such a 
 check upon bureaucracy as the power of the law courts afford 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 199 
 
 at a time when Ministers are in every direction attempting 
 to deprive the subject of his right of appeal to the law." 
 
 Daily Express 
 
 " It cannot be pretended, despite all Mr. McKenna's 
 smooth words in the House of Commons, that the termination 
 of the Archer-Shee case has been satisfactory. The com- 
 plete and unequivocal vindication of the boy's character is 
 indeed the only satisfactory feature of a case which has 
 roused a very justifiable and deep anxiety in the public mind. 
 No real redress is possible, and a belated apology is a very 
 poor excuse for two years of unjustifiable persecution. So 
 far so bad. But the system which permits these things is 
 even more disquieting, for it is the system on which we rely 
 for the making of the officers of our fleets. The Admiralty 
 has struck a very hard blow at itself in all the conduct of 
 this case. We may wish that Mr. Archer-Shee had insisted 
 on getting the jury's verdict. But that is a minor point. 
 The vindication of his son's honour is unequivocal. No 
 vindication of Admiralty methods is, however, possible. The 
 system must be changed. Things cannot be left as they 
 
 These are expressions of opinion from the political op- 
 ponents of the Government, but they do not stand alone, for 
 political supporters have been just as emphatic. Let us 
 take the London organs that support the Government : 
 
 Daily Chronicle 
 
 " The Admiralty and its advisers cannot in all respects 
 be commended in this painful affair, but they at least may 
 be congratulated on the frank manner in which at this final 
 stage they withdrew from an untenable position, and made 
 haste to let right be done. It cannot, we fear, be denied that, 
 as was said in the House of Commons yesterday, this case will 
 cause some disquieting feeling in regard to Osborne College. 
 
200 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 The public should, indeed, accept what Sir Edward Carson 
 accepted as part of the settlement : that the authority of the 
 College and the Admiralty acted throughout ' in good faith 
 in a bona fide belief in the statements put before them ' ; but 
 the fact remains that their good faith did not prevent a mis- 
 taken conclusion, and consequent upon this, the commission 
 of a grievous and a partly irreparable wrong. The object of 
 the Petition in this case was to vindicate the character of the 
 cadet. The effect of the Admiralty's plea would have been 
 to deny the doings of this justice. Mr. Martin Archer-Shee 
 has the satisfaction of success ; but the unpleasant question 
 inevitably occurs whether, in a similar case, equal success 
 would have attended parents of slender means and of less 
 resolute temper." 
 
 Daily News 
 
 " The petition of right which ended so dramatically with 
 the withdrawal of the charges against George Archer-Shee 
 has excited the interest of the whole country, and we are 
 afraid that it cannot fail to leave a feeling of serious uneasiness 
 in the public mind. It is true that the amende has been 
 made, and the result may quite rightly be quoted in proof 
 of the prevalent belief that this country is less in danger of 
 departmental tyranny than are its continental neighbours. 
 But this consideration is not the one upon which the atten- 
 tion of the public will be likely to fasten. The Admiralty 
 will be told that after the most unsatisfactory inquiry, it 
 took the extreme step of destroying the boy's career, and then 
 during a long period did everything within its power to pre- 
 vent the facts from coming out, and that, further, when the 
 case came into court it adopted a line which is entirely in- 
 defensible. The procedure was clearly wrong all through. 
 It was open to the authorities to allow an open trial on the 
 question of fact, and to have the question of law settled 
 afterwards, but as things are, the Admiralty must be pre- 
 pared to hear a good deal of uncomfortable criticism. The 
 British people are deeply stirred by anything which smacks 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 201 
 
 in however slight a degree of bureaucratic secrecy and op- 
 pression, and they will not soon forget the Osborne case." 
 
 It is however not enough that the nation should " not 
 soon forget " : what will it do ? In the House of Commons 
 Mr. T. Healy, referring to this case, said : 
 
 " If the Solicitor-General and the First Lord of the Ad- 
 miralty had not had the good sense to take the course they did, 
 but had pushed it up to the House of Lords, could any one 
 doubt that this young man would have had no means of re- 
 dress ? Were they content to have soldiers, sailors, and civil 
 servants in the employ of the Crown without that redress to 
 which the civilian was entitled ! (Cheers.) The First Lord 
 had said that ' Private rights and interests have to be sacri- 
 ficed to the public good.' That phrase ought to be recon- 
 sidered. (Cheers.) The humblest and meanest citizen should 
 be able to feel that absolute justice would be meted out to 
 him, and it was very important that the British soldier and 
 sailor should know with absolute confidence that if any wrong 
 were done it would be redressed." 
 
 Yet it is just on twenty years ago since a lawyer and an 
 Admiral, after the fullest investigation, declared that John 
 Lewis Bars tow was wrongly punished, but he still remains un- 
 avenged. Had any one suggested, before the Archer-Shee 
 case was tried, the possibility of such a miscarriage of justice 
 followed by such persecution, the British people would have 
 turned a deaf ear and exclaimed, " Impossible ! " and yet as 
 far as the sea man is concerned they are of frequent occur- 
 rence ; men are broken and disgraced on " evidence that would 
 not hang a dog." When the sea man hangs out a danger 
 signal in the shape of a " regrettable incident," the British 
 people take no notice, as some " evil-desposed person " is 
 usually offered up as a sacrifice, and " discipline is main- 
 tained." These things perhaps do not matter, as "We all 
 love Jack ! " 
 
202 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 There is another matter which requires very urgent at- 
 tention, viz. the question of petty rank. In a ship-of-war 
 there are dozens of men who hold petty rank, but who have 
 no disciplinary control in any shape or form, They hold petty 
 rank because it is the custom of the service that a man's pay 
 status should be shown in an open and visible way, as increase 
 of pay, in any particular department, is accompanied by a 
 badge showing the fact. These men work in their particular 
 departments on an equal footing with the rest of the depart- 
 mental staff. They exercise no control, nor are they expected 
 to do so, yet should they quarrel with one of their lesser-paid 
 fellows they are able to at once assume the role of " superior 
 officer," when the matter cannot be dealt with on its merits 
 as a little personal squabble, but as an offence against authority, 
 as, according to the King's Regulations and Admiralty In- 
 structions, " Superior Officers includes all officers and petty 
 and non-commissioned officers " ; and as striking a " superior 
 officer " in the execution of his duty is a capital offence it 
 can only be dealt with by court-martial (Section 56 (i) 
 Naval Discipline Act). 1 The court-martial as at present 
 constituted deals only with the question of fact, and punishes 
 accordingly ; thus it comes about that the vast majority 
 of these cases of " striking a superior officer " are not offences 
 against discipline or authority, but personal quarrels, where 
 one man, often the instigator of the quarrel, has sought re- 
 venge through stupid regulations. A very good example of 
 this type of case was the trial of Able Sea man Stribling at 
 Devonport. The evidence at the court-martial showed 
 that there was an altercation one evening on the mess-deck 
 of the torpedo boat to which Stribling belonged, as to which 
 
 1 A superior officer is always to be considered in execution of his 
 office when afloat in one of His Majesty's ships and vessels, and when 
 on duty on shore. 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 203 
 
 gate of the dockyard it was most convenient for liberty men 
 to pass out. During the argument two of the disputants, 
 Stribling and an E.R.A., came to blows, and had a stand-up 
 fight. The E.R.A. was getting the worse of it, and at once 
 shielded himself behind his petty rank. Stribling was tried 
 by court-martial for " striking his superior officer," and was 
 sentenced to six months' hard labour. This is not a question 
 affecting only our own Navy, the U.S.A. finds it just as 
 pressing. I will give an extract from an article in the " Pro- 
 ceedings of the Naval Institute," by a Lieut. E. J. King, 
 U.S.A. Navy, entitled, " Some ideas about organisation on 
 board ship." 
 
 "It is believed that the best interests of discipline and 
 efficiency require careful consideration of the question of 
 ' petty officer.' There are two illogical and irregular condi- 
 tions now obtaining in this regard : (i) It has become the 
 practice to allow the title and standing of petty officers to 
 a large number of men on board ship whose duties and 
 training are not in the way of command ; the presence of so 
 many pseudo-petty officers has operated to nullify the im- 
 portance, the authority and the employment of actual 
 officers 1 ; (2) Conditions in the service have operated to 
 nullify the employment of actual petty officers, though in late 
 years this condition of affairs has improved by reason of the 
 great increase of enlisted personnel and the relatively small 
 increase of officers, but it is by no means yet the general 
 practice to require of the actual petty officers the great 
 increase of enlisted perfunctions as leaders of sub-groups in 
 base-groups. 
 
 "It is suggested that the title and standing of ' petty 
 officers ' be withdrawn from all pseudo -petty officers, and 
 that they be called ' rated men ' ; their classification being 
 
 1 This is especially the case in the British Navy, where our actual 
 petty officers have become accustomed to leave things to the ship's 
 police. 
 
204 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 retained as at present, which will serve not only to distinguish 
 their abilities but to afford a basis of control among them- 
 selves. These pseudo-petty officers are to be found entirely in 
 the ' artificer ' and ' special branches ' of the enlisted force." 
 
 Captain A. C. Dillingham, U.S.A. Navy, in the " Discus- 
 sion " of the foregoing, says : 
 
 " It is only necessary to look over the allowed complement 
 of a battle-ship to-day to realise the large number of men in 
 a ship's company who are wearing petty officers' badges on 
 their arms. The conditions that exist in the Service in this 
 respect cannot be better set forth than is done by the author. 
 Some two years ago I wrote the Bureau of Navigation upon 
 this subject and submitted the list of ratings that should be 
 petty officers' from a military standpoint, and I believe the 
 department appreciates the present faulty condition existing 
 in having no discrimination between petty officers and rated 
 men, and is ready to put into force, at a convenient time, the 
 suggestion that had been made upon this subject. The 
 consideration of this question I believe to be the most im- 
 portant, for it affects most seriously discipline and efficiency." l 
 
 Many British naval officers view with the utmost dislike 
 many clauses of the Naval Discipline Act as it stands, and 
 even as it will stand with the proposed amendment (1910). 
 These amendments are really only a form, substituting " Deten- 
 tion " for imprisonment, and " person charged " for prisoner ; 
 as far as the sea man goes his position will be about the same. 
 The average officer who troubles about the matter at all, will, 
 when asked his opinion, simply reply, " What can I do ? I 
 know the whole thing is wrong and absurd, but my job is to 
 take things as I find them (and he will quote Regulations) ; 
 altering the Naval Discipline Act and court-martial procedure 
 
 1 Of the 165 courts-martial held in 1908 for " Offences against 
 Discipline," 123 were for contempt, disobedience, etc., to " superior 
 officer." 
 
OLD BOGIES AND NEW SUGGESTIONS 205 
 
 is not a job for me." He knows that the average Sea Lord 
 does not view with favour the reforming officer, and having 
 his career to study he leaves reform alone, and contents him- 
 self with making his own ship as happy as he can. But the 
 whole question is one of such moment and such magnitude, 
 that it should not be left to the Sea Lord, the sea officer, 
 or the sea man, but should be relegated to a properly con- 
 stituted committee composed of impartial minds. Naval 
 discipline is an elsuive term which means a thousand different 
 things to a thousand different people ; it is, in fact, as it stands, 
 chaos. Even chaos of law may not be dangerous where there 
 exists an enlightened public opinion that can find free expres- 
 sion that will act as a gyroscope, and give steadiness to an 
 otherwise unstable condition. In the Navy there is no public 
 opinion : it is not allowed ; if it exists, which it admittedly 
 does, it must remain mute or pay a heavy penalty. Will 
 this carry us through the stress of war ? It is a hundred years 
 since the British fleet met an enemy in battle array. The 
 ships, the guns, the men, everything is changed but one thing : 
 Britain still allows a ship's captain to consider himself 
 " monarch of all I survey " ; to interpret his powers as he 
 thinks fit, and call it " Naval Discipline." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PROFESSIONAL OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 
 
 The fluctuating state of the supreme Naval Power and the con- 
 tradictory ideas formed at the Admiralty by the different sea officers 
 who have sat at that Board, are the true causes why nothing really 
 advantageous to discipline is likely to emanate from thence. 
 
 ADMIRAL PATTEN. 
 
 WHILE Admiral Patten in his writings shows clearly that he 
 has discovered the disease, he seems quite unable to prescribe 
 a remedy. Like so many others he looked on the sea man as 
 a rude, boisterous child whom it would be foolish to try and 
 govern by means of the same laws as were applied to the rest 
 of the nation. That the sea man himself should be consulted 
 on this point, never even entered his head : such a proceeding 
 would be subversive of all discipline, as that very much 
 abused word has been interpreted in the Navy. The hand 
 of the sea man not having yet grasped the pen, his voice 
 was never heard in the nation's literature ; but bad as this 
 silence has been for him, it would have been better that it 
 should have remained complete and unbroken than that he 
 should have been put forward as a grotesque by those who 
 did not, and had never tried, to understand him. 
 
 The greatest sinners in this respect have been naval officers. 
 It was Kipling who wrote : 
 For East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet : 
 
 which we may fairly paraphrase with 
 
 For forward is forward and aft is aft, and never the twain shall meet. 
 
 206 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 207 
 
 The mess-deck, with its doings and feelings, is a sealed book 
 to the naval officer ; discipline prevents him from friendly 
 intercourse with its inhabitants, whom he sees submitting 
 patiently day after day to conditions which at first he may 
 look on as harsh, but which gradually, from constant associa- 
 tion with, he gets to accept as the natural order of things. 
 Thus his outlook becomes distorted, and should he in the 
 evening of his life turn to the pen and " reminiscences," the 
 result, as far as the sea man is concerned, is a very misleading 
 grotesque. 
 
 And their name is legion. At all periods they have come 
 forth, and in no case, as far as my researches go, have they 
 appreciated the sea man as a man. 
 
 An anonymous officer wrote in 1788 : 
 
 "If we compare the past practices and methods as they 
 have been explained to us thirty years ago by old sea men in 
 the service, with the present, we shall find in no one theory 
 under the British Government has there been so much im- 
 provement as in the art of fighting, sailing and navigating a 
 British ship-of-war." 
 
 Then he gives his reasons as to why in his opinion this is so. 
 
 " The old method of enforcing discipline was without 
 method, by main strength and the frequent use of the rattan, 
 without which no officer from the captain down to the youngest 
 midshipman ever went on deck." 
 
 This discipline was a little worse, and was carried out under 
 infinitely more brutal conditions than the discipline of the 
 black slaves of America. But there was no Harriet Beecher 
 Stowe to plead the sea man's cause, or set the heart of the 
 world throbbing with shame and indignation at his treatment. 
 That he had to bear dumbly and patiently ; should he protest 
 he was executed as a villain, and a yard whip launched him 
 into eternity. 
 
208 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 However, let our anonymous officer proceed : 
 
 " Last war (1778-1783) there is no doubt that the internal 
 discipline of His Majesty's ships in general was brought to as 
 great a degree of perfection, almost, as it is capable of receiving ; 
 I say in general. There were indeed exceptions ; but in 
 captains bigoted to the old customs, and whose ships might 
 always be distinguished by their awkwardness and inactivity 
 and by the indifferent figure they cut in action, though com- 
 manded with bravery. This general improvement proceeded 
 from a method adopted in every branch of an officer's and 
 sailor's duty, by dividing and quartering the officers with the 
 men, and making them responsible for that portion of the 
 duty allotted them, without noise, or the brutal method of 
 driving sailors like cattle with sticks. Whether it were to 
 make or shorten sail to manoeuvre the ship, to keep the 
 men clean clothed, clean bedded, and berthed, this method 
 was practised." 
 
 Yet at the very time when this was written, when, in the 
 opinion of the writer, the " internal discipline of H.M. ships 
 in general was brought to as great a degree of perfection as 
 it is capable of receiving," the Navy was rushing down that 
 slope that brought us to the terrible mutinies of Portsmouth 
 and the Nore ! 
 
 Another type of writer was Captain William Nugent 
 Glascock, who entered the Navy in 1800. In 1826 his first 
 book appeared " The Naval Sketch Book ; or Scenes, Afloat 
 and Ashore." He introduces sea men into his yarns to give 
 expression to his views. A group of sea men are gathered 
 round the galley of a frigate discussing the " march-o'-mind " 
 afloat, the growth of " larnin' " and the lore of the sea lawyer. 
 According to Captain Glascock they did not want learning, 
 and they rather liked the cat ! Here is how they talk : 
 
 " No, no ; a good man as knows well his work, and knows 
 how to respect himself mind, I say himself for if a 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 209 
 
 won't respect himself, where's the fellow as will ? Yes, yes ; 
 let a man but respect himself, obey his officers, and keep from 
 lip and lickor, and he need never, no never, shy at a King's 
 ship, or in any way dread a man-o'-war. The man as desarves 
 the name o' man is sure sure, to be treated like a man, and 
 sure, in the end, to meet wi' reward." 
 
 Having given vent to these very admirable sentiments it 
 was only natural that one of the others should proceed in the 
 same strain : 
 
 " And, moreover, Jim, you know well, the very chaps as 
 sneer an' snarl about the cruelty o' the cat, and the like o' that 
 'ere shore goin' lubberly trash, are only your piebald par- 
 limin' -praters chaps 'oo are sore and savage at seein' sea men 
 contented 'stead of growlin' an' dissatisfied like their sulkey 
 selves." 
 
 One can understand such stuff being written as recruiting 
 literature, but it is hard to believe that sea men ever talked in 
 that strain, But the whole of Captain Glascock's writings are 
 a mere travesty of facts ; he seems to have been anxious to 
 prove that the sea man delighted in the treatment he received, 
 and that everything was of the best in the best of all possible 
 Navies. In his " Tales of a Tar," published 1836, he pictures 
 a group of pensioners seated on the grass in Greenwich Park 
 discussing the " Breeze at Spithead." Naturally they were 
 entirely out of sympathy with it and its objects ; did not 
 believe it was set going by thoroughbred tars ; such things 
 were always set going by " your King's Benchers, your gallery 
 growlers, your jail birds, and them there jaw-breaking chaps 
 as are reg'lorly brought up to the law." 
 
 Commander C. N. Robinson, in his " British Tar in Fact and 
 
 Fiction," seems to fall in withjtheir view and comments. 
 
 " It was the sea lawyer that was at the root of the evil, playing 
 
 upon the weakness of the men, and exaggerating and mis- 
 
 14 
 
2io OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 interpreting the real hardships of which they had to com- 
 plain." The " sea lawyer " has ever been the fall-back of 
 those who are anxious to close their eyes to facts. The sea 
 man, like all other humans, appreciated justice and resented 
 injustice. All the sea lawyers in the world would not make a 
 single sea man believe he was being treated unfairly if he was 
 not. The conditions of his life have got to be bad, very bad, 
 before he even complains, and desperately bad before his 
 complaints take collective and violent shape. Those condi- 
 tions are entirely what the officers have made them, for a 
 ship is a little world, governed by its own peculiar laws and 
 customs. The naval officer turned writer seems to have 
 dimly realised this, and that to justify the sea man in his 
 complainings would be to condemn their own class, so they 
 have sought a scapegoat and found him in the sea lawyer. 
 But where the conditions of ship-life are bearable the sea 
 lawyer would have as much chance of inciting his shipmates 
 to open disaffection as the anarchist spouter has of inciting the 
 British public into acts of violence under the belief that their 
 laws are bad. They listen to his invective, and smile ; if he 
 grows too violent, they dip him in a horse-trough to cool his 
 courage. 
 
 Our later officer-writers, who have tried to portray the 
 feelings and sentiments of the sea man, have been just as 
 unfortunate, just as wide of facts, as their predecessors. 
 Admiral Moresby, writing on " The Navy Sixty Years Ago," 1 
 says : 
 
 " We had no time for speculation then, for it was the 
 transition time between press-gang and training ships, and 
 to get a crew together from all quarters meant infinite labour 
 and cajolery the quick completion of this part of the busi- 
 ness depending very much on the captain's character as it ran 
 
 1 The National Review, December 1908. 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 211 
 
 abroad in the seaport towns. A strict, flogging captain held 
 his own and secured his men without difficulty, so long as it 
 was felt he was just (' A beast, but a just beast ! ' to quote 
 the schoolboy), whilst captains who substituted a black list 
 for the cat, might and did whistle for their men. This is a 
 fact, let the humanitarians explain it as they will." 
 
 Here we have the suggestion, that the old-time sea man did 
 not object to the cat as a punishment. This suggestion has 
 been repeatedly made by naval officers, but so far I have 
 never heard it from a sea man. I joined the Navy at the 
 time when the abolition of the cat was the subject of dis- 
 cussion in the country and in the service. I have often 
 listened to old sea men telling tales of its use, but never did I 
 hear one uphold its retention. It was a hated instrument of 
 torture, used with a callous and brutal indiscrimination. 
 William Richardson, who spent twenty-six years of his life 
 in the Navy (1793 to 1819), rising to warrant-officer, has 
 happily given the sea man's view on this very subject. 1 The 
 Minerva, into which he was pressed at Madras, was a 48-gun 
 frigate, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Cornwallis. The captain 
 
 " had come out with the Admiral on this station as a mid- 
 shipman, and in the course of three or four years had got 
 made a post-captain when only nineteen years of age ; he 
 could work the ship very well, and that was all." 
 
 This boy was a believer in the cat 
 
 " and when any were heard to swear their names were put 
 on a list, and at seven next morning were punished, though 
 not severely, few getting more than seven or eight lashes, 
 and yet it was galling, and how I escaped God only knows, 
 for my name had been put on the list several times, and I 
 suppose it must have been through the kindness of my good 
 friend Mr. Robinson, the first lieutenant. 
 
 1 " A Mariner of England," pp. 105, 106. 
 
212 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " Though the punishment was light, it displeased the men 
 very much. . . . Every evening, weather permitting, it was 
 customary for the people to have a dance, and one of these 
 evenings the lantherns were lighted as usual . . . and the 
 fiddler on the topsail sheet bits begun to play away on his 
 violin, but nobody came to dance. 
 
 " By-and-by the gunners' wads began to fly about in all 
 directions, the lights were extinguished, the lantherns knocked 
 to pieces, and a wad rolled into the Admiral's cabin as he 
 walked there. The old boy soon saw that something was 
 the matter and sent for Captain Whitby ; but when Captain 
 Whitby came he pretended that he knew nothing was the 
 matter with the ship's company. The Admiral's steward 
 came into the cabin at the time, and being asked if he knew 
 what was the matter with the people, replied that he heard 
 the men say that there was too much dancing in the morning 
 to keep them dancing in the evening ; so the Admiral seeing 
 through it immediately, instead of using severe measures 
 (as many a tyrant would have done, and perhaps caused a 
 real mutiny) adopted a better way, and that was in cautioning 
 Captain Whitby not to use the cat on such occasions, and 
 never to flog a man again without his permission. 
 
 " When the people heard of this they were greatly satisfied, 
 and did their duty more cheerfully and better, and not a 
 man was flogged after this but one, and he richly deserved it 
 it was for striking an officer when on shore on duty. But 
 in all my experience at sea I have found sea men grateful for 
 good usage, and yet they like to see subordination kept up, 
 as they know the duty could not be carried on without it ; 
 but whenever I hear of a mutiny in a ship, I am much of the 
 opinion of Admiral Lord Collingwood, who said it must 
 assuredly be the fault of the captain or his officers." 
 
 There we have a sea man on flogging ! Like Pepys' 
 Diary, Richardson's Journal was not written for pub- 
 lication, it is just a record of things as he saw them, set forth 
 in simple and straightforward language. 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 213 
 
 And now let us return to Admiral Moresby and his expe- 
 riences. He tells us that : 
 
 " No official regulations existed on the subject of punish- 
 ment, the matter was left to the captains, and there can be 
 no doubt that many men preferred a short and sharp five 
 minutes at the gangway to a long-drawn-out black list, be- 
 ginning with drinking six-watered grog on the quarter-deck 
 and ending with a month of carrying a hammock from eight 
 to ten every evening, with two 32-pounder shot lashed in it. 
 I have not infrequently seen fifteen or twenty men thus 
 punished together ; and I remember a man weighted in this 
 way and compelled to stand on the quarter-deck hammock 
 nettings, who (as the commander was going on the poop) 
 flung the hammock down and attempted to jump over- 
 board. Luckily he was caught in the nick of time." 
 
 When a man finds himself at the mercy of a torturer, and 
 knows that he will be subjected to a sharp short torture, or 
 a long-drawn-out agony, he may be excused if he prefers the 
 former. To imply, on that account, that he does not object 
 to it, shows a somewhat distorted vision. Admiral Moresby 
 shows to what lengths naval captains have gone to gratify 
 their lust to punish. Here is a case where, not satisfied with 
 weighing a man down, he was stood on the quarter-deck 
 hammock nettings, exposed to every inclemency of the weather, 
 till death seemed preferable. Admiral Moresby admits that 
 the 
 
 " whole system was thoroughly bad, and it is good to realise 
 that these aimless and brutal punishments have disappeared, 
 as they were bound to do with the higher education and 
 civilisation of the lower-deck." 
 
 One wonders if they have all disappeared. Only a few 
 years since a cruiser, home from a foreign station, put into 
 Plymouth, where it leaked out that the commander of the 
 
214 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 ship had triced a writer up by the thumbs, till his toes only 
 just touched the deck, as punishment for some offence. As 
 the gallant Admiral says : 
 
 " There is still, however, much to be understood and 
 revised in connection with all our disciplinary punishments." 
 
 But the understanding and revision can only come as the 
 result of publicity, backed up by outside pressure ; for what 
 was true of the Admiralty when Admiral Patten wrote in 
 1797 is equally true to-day. 
 
 It is difficult for the lay mind to grasp the conditions of 
 naval discipline, because the Navy is a sealed book to them. 
 Suppose, however, that the whole of our judges had power 
 to make their own laws, and administer them as they felt 
 inclined ; and suppose, further, that they also had power to 
 seize on and imprison any person who dared to criticise 
 them ; then would the land man be governed under similar 
 conditions to the sea man. Not exactly the same, as a ship 
 is a tiny world, where the governed are always immediately 
 under the eyes of the governing. True it is that the majority 
 of latter-day naval captains are humane, but there are others, 
 and the fighting sea man of to-day is called on to exercise his 
 brains more than his muscles, and is thus more keenly alive 
 to injustice than his predecessor of the eighteenth and nine- 
 teenth centuries. 
 
 The laws of the Navy could never have existed as they 
 have done had the healthy light of publicity been allowed to 
 percolate through our ships' walls. But the tyrant and in- 
 competent hates publicity, and one of the " time-honoured 
 and most glorious traditions of the Navy " is that it is a 
 " great silent Navy " ! Communicating with the Press, 
 either directly or indirectly, is forbidden by the King's Regula- 
 tions and Admiralty Instructions, and though this is more 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 215 
 
 honoured in the breach than the observance to-day, especially 
 among naval officers, there are still those who will ruthlessly 
 beat down and punish men who have broken through this 
 rule; thus the nation depends for its knowledge of naval life 
 on retired officers, who see the sea man not as he is, but as 
 they have seen him through the distorting glasses of discipline. 
 Unconsciously some of them have shown that " discipline " 
 has two definitions, one applicable to forward and the other 
 to aft. 
 
 Perhaps in no single thing has the sea man been more 
 misrepresented than in the question of his food. It was the 
 food question that was primarily responsible for the great 
 mutinies of 1797, as, had the men been properly fed, those 
 outbreaks might never have happened, for, as Captain Frank 
 H. Shaw has put it, " A food-filled mouth cannot grumble." 
 
 I think it would be true to say that since those mutinies 
 took place the sea man, as far as the quantity of food-stuffs 
 officially allowed is concerned, has been amply provided for. 
 The method of preparation and cooking, however, was lament- 
 able, and led to enormous waste, while the rigid suppression 
 of all expression of opinion from the sea man bred carelessness 
 and corruption on the part of the victualling staff which still 
 further reduced the quantities allowed. For men to com- 
 plain at either the quantity or the quality of food-stuffs 
 issued, was to court severe and instant punishment, no matter 
 how justified the complaint might be ; the same thing, in fact, 
 very largely holds good to-day. Thus the men were ever 
 hungry, 1 and resorted to all manner of expedients to supple- 
 ment the official allowance. 
 
 When fresh meat came on board, that which was not 
 immediately served out to the messes was placed under the 
 " beef screen," while a marine sentry mounted guard over it. 
 1 We are dealing now with the middle nineteenth century. 
 
3i6 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Even then hungry men would attempt to steal portions of it, 
 for which, if caught, severe punishment was theirs. The cook's 
 slush-tub was often raided for the purpose of making duff. 
 This was a punishable offence, as slush the fat skimmed 
 off the coppers in which salt meat had been boiled was 
 exceedingly unwholesome and likely to produce scurvy. 
 Still, chronic hunger will drive men to many queer deeds, and 
 the sea man was chronically hungry. Especially did this 
 apply to the ship's boys and young ordinary sea men 
 growing youths who would feel the lack of food even more 
 than the older men. They were thus ever on the look-out for 
 unconsidered trifles, willing to risk the most severe punish- 
 ment if they could snap them up. 
 
 And what of the boys aft the midshipmen during this 
 period ? Admiral Moresby has told us about them : 
 
 " A bad old custom prevailed among Jjaemselves, known 
 as ' cutting out/ In plain English the midshipmen of the 
 night watches would break into the steward's pantry (and 
 sometimes even the ward-room pantry was not spared) with 
 the object of stealing as many eatables as they could lay 
 hands on. But we never regarded this as dishonesty. It 
 was buccaneering, and brought a certain amount of honour 
 and glory to its successful exponents, as the following parody, 
 current in the gun-room, will prove. 
 
 " ' I dreamt that I stood on the Monarch's decks, 
 
 With the youngsters by my side ; 
 And of all the flower of the ' cutters out ' 
 That I was the hope and pride. 
 
 I dreamt, though things are not what they seem, 
 
 I had collared the whole of a fowl ; 
 And I also dreamt the jovial dream, 
 
 That I found some grog in a bowl. 
 
 Then I dreamt that one of the hungry host 
 
 Stood out my fowl to claim ; 
 But I also dreamt, which pleased me most, 
 
 That I wolfed it all the same.' " 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 217 
 
 We thus see that what was looked on as a mixture of 
 criminality and breach of discipline in one boy, was " buc- 
 caneering/' carrying with it " a certain amount of honour 
 and glory," in another. I neither excuse the one nor condone 
 the other, but simply point out the difference. 
 
 It was not until the first year of the twentieth century 
 that the Admiralty consented to inquire into the victualling 
 of the Navy not of their own free will, but driven to it by a 
 volume of complaint in the Press, backed up by questions in 
 the House of Commons. Even when a Committee of Inquiry 
 was appointed, everything was done to stultify it by the 
 terms of reference. The fixed idea in the minds of senior 
 officers was that there was nothing to complain at, therefore 
 the inquiry was a farce and a sham. A few " reforms " were 
 introduced, which satisfied no one, but made things more 
 complicated and unsatisfactory than ever ; at the same time, 
 costing the country several hundred thousand pounds yearly. 
 
 So serious and corrupt did things become, that in July 1906 
 another Committee was appointed, this time with full powers 
 to go into the whole question. It had an enlightened Admiral 
 as its President (Spencer M. Login), and a progressive Ad- 
 miralty behind it. As a result of its inquiry it made a clean 
 sweep of a system that had been in vogue since 1799, and 
 introduced one more in accordance with modern ideas. 
 
 It is perhaps natural that the old school of officer who had 
 so long, so persistently, and so successfully resisted reform, 
 should view with some amazement even horror such a 
 revolutionary proceeding. Nor have they hesitated to raise 
 their voices in the Press in favour of the " good old times," 
 and protest against the over-feeding of the modern sea man. 
 Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge complains that 1 
 
 " Whatever the character of the former naval dietary was, 
 1 British Health Review, March 1910. 
 
2i8 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 it undoubtedly kept the Navy full of healthy men. The Marine 
 Artillery and Light Infantry could compare in general phy- 
 sique and health most favourably with the members of any 
 other corps; and the bluejackets were notably hardy and 
 active beings. By the third quarter of the nineteenth century, 
 there had been instituted a marked improvement in the ap- 
 pearance of the sea man, though the dietary had remained 
 unchanged. This could therefore not have been due to any im- 
 provement or alteration in the nature or quality of their food." 
 
 By this expression of opinion Admiral Bridge unconsciously 
 confesses that he went through the service with unseeing 
 eyes, as far as lower-deck life was concerned. 
 
 It was in the third quarter of the nineteenth century that 
 the continuous service system was introduced, ships did more 
 regular periods in harbour, and the sea man was therefore able 
 to supplement his official ration from the shore to an ever-in- 
 creasing extent. This is proved by the increase in the amount 
 of " savings." " Savings " enabled the sea man to obtain for 
 each of the articles of the official ration a fixed monetary 
 payment in lieu. This payment in lieu was never intended 
 to represent the equivalent money-value for the article sur- 
 rendered, nor was it intended that any inducement should 
 be given to the men to leave behind the Government pro- 
 visions, as the " savings " price of each article was fixed at 
 about two thirds of its value. Thus the Government made 
 a profit and the men a loss by the system. But as the facili- 
 ties for getting food from extraneous sources increased, so 
 the men took up less of the official provisions and more 
 " savings," as is shown by the following figures of the average 
 rate per man per annum paid in the years specified : 
 
 1854-5 i'9958 
 
 1864-5 3'25 
 
 1884-5 3-5609 
 
 1898-9 4-6912 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 219 
 
 It was during this period that the canteen was introduced 
 into ships-of-war, from which the men could buy a multitude 
 of articles to suit the taste of the moment, and so relieve the 
 horrible monotony of the official ration, so that though the 
 latter remained the same, both the nature and quality of the 
 food on which the men were really living had entirely changed, 
 with a consequent marked improvement in the appearance 
 of the men. All this went on under the unseeing eyes of 
 Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge. 
 
 Admiral Moresby also raises his plaint against the over- 
 fed sailor of to-day, and lauds the good old dietary and work 
 of the mid- Victorian sailor-man. Here is his description of 
 the latter 1 : 
 
 " At 4 a.m. the pipe went, ' Lash up hammocks, scrub and 
 wash decks/ At 7.15, breakfast, milkless cocoa with hard 
 biscuit, was followed by sweating drills in the keenest emula- 
 tion. At noon a Spartan dinner, supposed to be a pound's 
 weight of meat, but when cooked and the bone subtracted, 
 about half the quantity. Duff or peas-pudding added pre- 
 pared him for equally hard work (excepting on Thursday 
 afternoons, which was Jack's ' make and mend clothes day ') 
 until 4.30, when a basin of tea and the remainder of his allow- 
 ance of biscuit, washed down by his evening grog, enabled him 
 to once more face mast and yard drill, hoist the boats up and 
 get a draw at his pipe till 8 p.m., when the hammocks were 
 piped down, and Jack, healthy although supperless, turned 
 in content and ready for any call." 
 
 It was during the early mid-Victorian age that I entered the 
 lower-deck, to find it seething with discontent at its supperless 
 condition. No other subject exercised the mind of the 
 sailor-man to the same extent. At the very time of which 
 Admiral Moresby writes, the Navy was marching straight 
 1 British Health Review, April 1910. 
 
220 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 ahead to a repetition of 1797, a catastrophe which was only 
 averted by the growth of the naval canteen. 
 
 With officers holding these views, it will easily be seen 
 how impossible it was for reform to come from inside the 
 service. If men did not complain, everything was all right 
 and they were contented ; if they did complain, punish them 
 for being " damned sea lawyers." This attitude is the 
 natural and necessary outcome of a life's training. Here 
 is Admiral Moresby's happy summary of the sea man of 
 to-day : 
 
 " It will possibly cause some surprise to learn that whilst 
 our working men go forth to their daily hard labour with 
 only a bottle of tea, a half -loaf of bread, and a lump of cheese 
 or meat for their dinner, and return at sunset to an equally 
 frugal supper, their sons in the Navy, who in comparison 
 have no hard toil, are supplied by a generous Government 
 with five meals a day, each of which a Lucullus might enjoy. 
 And in addition are supplied with means (profusely used) for 
 further supplies from the ship's canteen, where almost every 
 luxury can be obtained to tickle a jaded appetite and sup- 
 port (?) them for a day's work, beginning at 5.15 with a basin 
 of cocoa and milk, etc., followed, after cleansing and polishing, 
 by drills in which machinery forms so large a part that a 
 normal condition of health can only be obtained by enforced 
 gymnastic exercises in which there is no spirit of rivalry or 
 emulation, and concluded at 4.30 p.m., when, after a sumptuous 
 tea, work ceases and preparations are made for supper, the 
 best enjoyed meal of the day, at 7.30. Is it surprising that 
 men, all unaccustomed in their bringing-up to such pampering, 
 fling New Zealand mutton overboard and become adipose 
 before their time! " 
 
 It is a very vivid imagination that credits the sea man of 
 to-day with five meals, " each of which a Lucullus might 
 enjoy." He starts at 5 a.m. with a pint of cocoa: that, and 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 221 
 
 that alone. That is meal number one. Meal number two is 
 at 8 a.m., three hours after the first so-called meal, during 
 which time he has been continuously on the jog, often in cold, 
 bitter weather, with salt water splashing over his naked 
 legs to his knees, or perhaps a pull in a duty-boat of a few 
 miles. This second meal provides him with a pint of tea 
 or coffee, bread and butter with perhaps a bloater, kipper, or 
 portion of corned beef, according to fancy. Then follows 
 four hours of various work, during which he is continually on 
 the go, mostly at the run, and at 12 noon comes the meal of 
 the day, consisting of joint, vegetables, and perhaps a sweet 
 of some sort to follow. Another four hours, and meal number 
 four tea is served, which is just a basin of tea with bread 
 and butter, perhaps jam, and at 7.30 p.m. he has meal number 
 five, supper, if so disposed ; but this meal must be purchased 
 entirely out of his own pocket. Admiral Moresby says his 
 work finishes at 4.30 p.m. Does it ? In the fleets at sea we 
 should say more often at 6.30, backed up by night watches ! 
 
 The charge of throwing overboard New Zealand mutton 
 because of their pampered adiposity, might be amusing but 
 for what lies behind. It is the custom of the service, rigidly 
 enforced as far as the men's messes are concerned, that un- 
 consumed food is never to be left in the mess ; and as there is 
 no other place provided, the cook of each mess, when clearing 
 up for the rounds, has no alternative but to throw any uncon- 
 sumed food over the side. To enforce this wasteful rule, and 
 then put the waste down to the sea man's pampered condition, 
 is very much like striking a cripple with his own crutches ! 
 
 From the foregoing it is impossible not to assume that the 
 intention is to show that the sea man eats more than the sea 
 officer, with the result that he is not so physically fit as the 
 latter. Commenting on this the Naval Warrant-Officers' 
 Journal bluntly said : 
 
222 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " With that assumption we are again unable to agree. 
 Taking for granted that the officer only has three meals a day, 
 i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner ; yet we are confident that 
 the officer eats at least 50 per cent, more in his three meals 
 than the bluejacket does in his supposed five. But whatever 
 may be the failings of the sea man with regard to his grub, 
 he responds splendidly when called upon to perform heavy 
 work." 
 
 I may give an example " coal ship." Coaling ship under 
 modern conditions entails the most strenuous and sustained 
 endeavour. I once asked a bluejacket what "coal ship" was 
 like, and he replied, " Like playing a football match for twelve 
 hours on end " ; and that very fairly describes the physical 
 exertion necessary. 
 
 Since I severed my connection with the lower-deck as a 
 sea man, I have been afloat as a Press representative during 
 manoeuvres, and have of course at such period been a member 
 of the ward-room mess. I can therefore speak with some 
 knowledge of the dietary of the officers, and have no hesita- 
 tion in saying, that in quantity it is fully 50 per cent, more 
 than that enjoyed by the men, while in cooking and serving 
 it is beyond all comparison. It is easy to understand that 
 the elderly officer captain or Admiral with no other physical 
 exercise than a walk up and down the quarter-deck provides, 
 may find that his appetite is somewhat jaded, and that a small 
 quantity of food will go a long way. The young man who is 
 subjected to ten hours' physical labour daily in a sea atmo- 
 sphere, finds an appetite that is never quite satisfied. The 
 human machine is like other machines the more energy 
 that is required, the more fuel has to be supplied. The 
 battle-ship cruising at economical speed does not demand the 
 same amount of coal for her furnace as when she is steaming 
 at full speed under forced draught. 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 223 
 
 Are there any facts to show that the sea man over-eats 
 as the result of the new dietary introduced in October 1907, 
 or that he crams himself with " every luxury " from the 
 canteen ? Until that date the canteens were unrecognised, 
 therefore there were no official statistics to show what money 
 was actually spent in each ship. A painstaking effort, how- 
 ever, extending over some years, succeeded in gathering 
 together a large number of canteen mess account-books from 
 ships in both home and foreign waters ; also the harbour 
 establishments. By striking an average from these, it was 
 discovered that approximately 1,500,000 per annum was 
 spent at these establishments. For the year 1906-7, 700,000 
 was paid to the men as " savings," leaving 800,000 to be made 
 up from their own pockets, equal to 135. 4^. per man per 
 month. 
 
 These canteens, though admittedly filling the gap left 
 vacant by the official ration, were unrecognised, uncontrolled, 
 and fearfully corrupt, yet they were rapidly ousting the 
 official system, which existed really only on paper, as out of 
 a total sum of 2,256,600 voted by the House of Commons for 
 the year 1905-6, only 762,800 was spent on provisions by 
 the Admiralty ! The new system abolished " savings," and 
 placed the canteens under strict official supervision and 
 control, the accountant officers of each ship being responsible 
 for the auditing of canteen accounts ; reliable figures there- 
 fore became available to show what advantages accrued. 
 A collection of these figures showed that during the first six 
 months of the new system, even in sea-going ships, 70 per 
 cent, to 80 per cent, of the messes, instead of having to supple- 
 ment the messing allowance (which replaced " savings") from 
 their own pockets, had money to share out after meeting all 
 liabilities. At the shore establishments and permanent 
 harbour ships, 98 per cent, of the messes were in this happy 
 
224 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 state, the men pocketing approximately 200,000. In other 
 words, instead of paying 800,000 out of their pockets, they 
 put 200,000 in a saving of One Million Sterling ! which 
 was equivalent to an immediate rise of pay of jd. per man per 
 day. That saving represented the amount of corruption 
 and waste that went on under the old system. At the end of 
 six months the canteen expenditure commenced to show a 
 tendency to rise, so let us take the position as it existed in 
 November 1909 the first month of the third year of the 
 new system. First, let us take the proportion of messes 
 which had money to share out at the end of the month after 
 meeting all liabilities : 
 
 (a) In ships serving on Foreign Stations the proportion 
 
 of messes which had money to share out was 20 per 
 cent. (The number varied a good deal, from 20 
 messes out of 56 on the Mediterranean Station, to nil 
 out of 27 in a ship with a service canteen on the 
 North American Station.) 
 
 (b) In ships in full commission in the Home Fleet, the pro- 
 
 portion was 22 per cent, (number varied from 13 out 
 of 40 in a big cruiser with an English tenant, to i out 
 of 52 in one with a Maltese tenant). 
 
 (c) In ships with nucleus crews the proportion was just 
 
 over 50 per cent, (very little variation in these ships). 
 
 (d) In shore establishments and stationary ships the pro- 
 
 portion was between 80 and 90 per cent. 
 The difference between the proportion in November 1909 
 and the first six months of the system is easily explained. 
 Before October I, 1907, a very large proportion of the canteen 
 business was in bread, flour, tea, sugar and milk. The whole 
 of the men's requirements in respect of these articles is now 
 covered by the standard ration, and an average of a penny 
 per diem purchases on repayment from the Government. 
 
OPINIONS ON SERVICE CONDITIONS 225 
 
 It seems a very natural sequence of events that at first, 
 when the new system came in, the messes should go on living 
 as they had been accustomed to live, with the result that 
 they nearly all had money in hand, and that the canteen 
 business dropped off (a battle-ship turn-over which was 
 9,000 to 10,000 per annum dropped to barely 6,000) ; 
 that the messes should then gradually find they could afford 
 to live better, with the result that their expenditure has 
 increased, and that the canteen business has revived. 
 
 The total benefits derived are an infinitely better dietary 
 not more in quantity, but better in quality and variety, also 
 better cooked at a saving of 450,000 a year to the men, 
 equal to a rise of pay of $d. per man per diem. Of the dietary 
 generally, as a fleet surgeon, who was asked his opinion, said : 
 
 " The diet now is a very good and nutritive one, and I 
 do not at all agree with the suggestion that the men get too 
 much food. The diet is calculated to cover with a liberal 
 margin the requirements of a man doing hard manual work." 
 
 Another naval medical officer is of the opinion that : 
 
 " The importance to discipline of giving men satisfactory 
 and pleasant meals must not be overlooked. In dealing 
 with a large body of such men, one of the principal points to 
 be aimed at is to keep them in a good temper, assisting not 
 only the discipline of the service, but also the health of the 
 men themselves." 
 
 The old idea of perfect discipline starve and drive is 
 dying a very hard death. To give men satisfactory and 
 pleasant meals as an aid to discipline is still looked on as a 
 heresy a violation of all the traditions of the past, which 
 has persisted in looking on the sea man as something not 
 quite human half animal, half child. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 COURTS-MARTIAL ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 In all societies, the only use of punishments is to enforce obedience 
 to laws necessary to order and good government. 
 
 ADMIRAL PATTEN. 
 
 THE laws of England are her glory and pride, framed in a 
 spirit of equity and administered without fear or favour. 
 Englishmen know that both peer and peasant are equally 
 protected. True, the former may by a lavish use of money 
 secure the services of highly skilled pleaders, who will put 
 his defence forward in a way not possible to the latter. Even 
 then, even-handed justice holds sway, and the lord may not 
 wrong the labourer with impunity. But when we come 
 to the sea service we say, " Ah ! but this is different ; these 
 men must have laws to themselves," and so we have the 
 " Naval Discipline Act," and the system of trial known as 
 Courts-martial. It will not be necessary to deal at length 
 with courts-martial procedure at this point ; the object is 
 first to show how the system works out in practice, with 
 special regard to its effect on the sea man as distinguished 
 from the sea officer. 
 
 It is a saying among naval sea men that courts-martial 
 do not try they punish ; and a reference to the Punishment 
 Returns will show that there is much truth behind this saying. 
 The attitude of the average Court was well shown by the 
 following discussion which took place at a court-martial 
 held in April 1910 : 
 
 226 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 227 
 
 Prisoner's Friend. " If you had referred to the com- 
 mander's account, you would have seen that something was 
 wrong ? " 
 
 Witness. " I did not refer to that individual account." 
 
 Prisoner's Friend. " Is it not your duty to examine each 
 one ? " 
 
 Witness." No." 
 
 Prisoner's Friend. " Is that not what the certificate 
 means : ' I have examined and certify each officer has been 
 paid the amount opposite his name ' ? You signed that 
 certificate without doing what it states ? " 
 
 Witness. " I do not agree with your interpretation of the 
 certificate. I signed as a witness. It is the fleet-paymaster's 
 certificate." 
 
 Prisoner's Friend. " Did you assure the fleet-paymaster 
 that everything was correct ? " 
 
 Witness. " I should not go to him without being asked." 
 
 The President. " I do not think these questions as to duty 
 are relevant to the case." 
 
 Prisoner's Friend. " I am showing that they will sign 
 anything, and that if the books had been examined it would 
 have been noticed at once." 
 
 The President. " It would not have made the charge any 
 different." 
 
 That is, that with the Court, it was a mere question of fact, 
 and not of circumstance. Were this practice carried out 
 impartially, though much injustice would be done, Naval 
 Law would be held in respect ; but as we shall see, the Court 
 is often governed in its decisions very largely by the position 
 of the prisoner it is trying. 
 
 Let us go back to the year 1744, the year of the reopening 
 of the war with France. In January of that year the Mediter- 
 ranean Fleet, under the command of Admiral Mathews 
 second-in-command Admiral Lestock was at anchor in the 
 roadstead of Hyeres, where it had been lying for some con- 
 
228 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 siderable time. In May 1742, when Admiral Mathews went 
 out to the Mediterranean, it was not only to command the 
 fleet, but to act as Minister to the Court of Sardinia, so that 
 his time was spent on shore while his command laid at anchor. 
 When it was known that hostilities with France could not 
 much longer be delayed, he came down from Turin, where he 
 had been acting as Minister, and once again resumed his 
 duties as Admiral. 
 
 At this time his command consisted of twenty sail of the 
 line, but was speedily raised to twenty-nine. On February 19 
 the fleets of the allies France and Spain, under M. de Court 
 and Don Jose* Navarro, put to sea from Toulon, their total 
 strength being twenty-eight, twelve of which were Spaniards. 
 
 As soon as Mathews learned that they were at sea, he left 
 Hyeres with his ships, foul through long lying at anchor, and 
 succeeded in getting between the enemy and Toulon. It 
 was night, and the English rear, under Admiral Lestock, was 
 -some miles astern, when Mathews gave the order to lay to. 
 Instead of just joining the other ships and laying to with 
 them, Lestock interpreted the signal literally, and lay to at 
 once, so that when the morning broke he was five or six 
 miles astern of the remainder of the fleet, and in the light 
 breeze could not get up in time to take any part in the action 
 which followed. 
 
 Both in weight of metal and in numbers the advantage was 
 with the British, including Lestock's ships ; without them 
 the advantage was with the allies. Yet in spite of this 
 Mathews decided to give battle, and at one in the afternoon 
 the van, under Admiral Rowley, came into action with the 
 French centre, while the British centre, under Mathews, 
 engaged the Spanish ships. But the bulk of her captains were 
 shy, and though he stood out of his line in the Namur, with 
 the signal flying for his ships to come closer to the enemy, 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 229 
 
 they hung back, with the exception of the Marlborottgh, 
 Captain Cornwall, and the Berwick, Captain Hawke, the 
 latter compelling the Spanish Poder to strike to him. 
 
 The mantle of night brought the battle to a close, though 
 Mathews, who by this time had been joined by Lestock, might 
 have renewed the action with advantage as the enemy were 
 in retreat. However, he decided not to follow them, but 
 made sail for Mahon, in Minorca, where he placed Admiral 
 Lestock under arrest. 
 
 Now it was notorious that these two Admirals were at open 
 enmity one with the other, and when Mathews was appointed 
 to the command of the Mediterranean, he had asked that 
 Lestock should be recalled, a request that was not complied 
 with. 
 
 This action brought matters to a head : Lestock returned 
 under arrest and, later, Mathews resigned, came home and 
 entered Parliament, when the recriminations of the two 
 opened up the whole truth to the public. 
 
 The series of failures in the West Indies had already stirred 
 the country to anger and disgust, which found fresh vent 
 when they began to appreciate the cause of the failure off 
 Toulon ; and so pronounced did this feeling become, and so 
 little disposed did the Admiralty seem to deal with the matter, 
 that at last Parliament took it up and carried out an inquiry 
 during the months of March and April 1745. Lestock and 
 the various captains implicated were heard at the bar of the 
 House, and Mathews, who was a member, from his place. 
 
 The result of this inquiry was that Parliament decided 
 there must be a court-martial on the whole battle; and on 
 April 18 the Commons, with their Speaker, waited on the King 
 at St. James's Palace to petition that " a court-martial may 
 be held in the most speedy and solemn manner, to inquire 
 into the conduct of Admiral Mathews, Vice-Admiral Lestock, 
 
230 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Captains Burrish, Norris, Ambrose, Frogmore and Dilk, to- 
 gether with the lieutenants of the Dorsetshire'' 
 
 The King granted the petition, and on September n a 
 court-martial, presided over by Sir Chaloner Ogle, and con- 
 sisting of no less than twenty-four members, began the trial. 
 First it tried the four lieutenants of the Dorsetshire, whom, in 
 order to clear himself, their captain had accused. They were 
 acquitted. The trial of Captain Burrish followed, and he 
 was condemned to be cashiered. And so through the whole 
 lot of the captains, with the exception of Frogmore of the 
 Boyne, who died before the trial, and Norris of the Essex, 
 who fled into Spain from Gibraltar, and was lost sight of. 
 The trial was more or less a white-washing affair, for these 
 officers had unquestionably shown the white feather in the 
 face of the enemy ; their sentences were exceedingly mild, 
 the Court being seemingly anxious to find " extenuating 
 circumstances." 
 
 The trial of Vice-Admiral Lestock followed in May 1746. 
 The charges against him were in substance that he did not 
 do his best to bring his squadron into action. To this he 
 pleaded that he could not come up, and that as the signal for 
 the line was flying, he was bound to remain in line, even 
 though that kept him out of action. One thing was quite 
 clear that Lestock was only too anxious to interpret a 
 signal in such a way as would keep him clear of the enemy, 
 but he was honourably acquitted. In June 1746 Admiral 
 Mathews was tried, and sentenced to be cashiered. And so 
 ended a series of courts-martial whose only object seemed 
 to be to find excuses for those who were tried. It seemed as 
 though the trial, which had been forced on the service by 
 public opinion, was to be nullified as far as possible by the 
 sentences inflicted. 
 
 Now let us turn to another court-martial which took place 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 231 
 
 at this time that of Lieutenant Baker Philipps of the Anglesea. 
 The Anglesea, 40, was commanded by Captain Elton, and 
 whilst cruising off the south coast of Ireland met the Apollo, 
 a French privateer carrying 56 guns. Captain Elton, 
 without waiting to prepare his ship for action, closed on the 
 Frenchman, and was within easy range before his decks were 
 cleared or his men properly at quarters. The Frenchman, 
 who was to windward, crossed his stern, raking him with a 
 destructive fire ; then ran up on the lee side, where the small- 
 arm men poured a heavy fire down on to the upper-deck 
 of the Anglesea, which was heeled right over, till the water 
 ran into her gun-ports. Captain Elton fell, shot through the 
 body, and in twenty minutes she struck to the Apollo, Lieut. 
 Baker Philipps surrendering the ship. 
 
 The court-martial that followed found that the chief cause 
 of the defeat was the negligent and unofficer-like conduct 
 of Captain Elton ; its sentence on Lieut. Philipps was that 
 he be shot. This sentence was accompanied by a recom- 
 mendation to mercy, to which the President of the Court 
 declined to subscribe. Lieut. Philipps was shot, perchance 
 to show that at times a court-martial could do its duty ! 
 
 It has been necessary here to deal with the comparative 
 treatment of officers of high and officers of low degree, as 
 naval history does not record the troubles of the old- 
 time sea man who offended against the laws of the Navy. 
 He was flogged to death round the fleet, or hanged as the 
 case might be ; but he went to his grave unwept, unhonoured, 
 unsung, and unrecorded. Modern conditions have somewhat 
 altered this order. We are thus able to compare the sentences 
 of latter-day courts-martial in cases where officers and men 
 have been tried for exactly similar offences. But first of all 
 let us take an example that in some degree justifies the men's 
 ideas that courts-martial do not try, but punish. 
 
232 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 On the loth and nth March, 1904, David Scott, petty 
 officer, second class, of the Impregnable, was tried by court- 
 martial at Devonport for a serious offence, alleged to have 
 been committed between February 25 and 26. Lieut. 
 C. H. Fox, of the Impregnable, prosecuted, and accused was 
 represented by Mr. Percy T. Pearce, Plymouth, who, in a 
 lengthy written defence, pointed out the inconsistency of 
 some of the statements by the witnesses for the prosecution, 
 and the absence of evidence of identification. He submitted 
 that the prosecution had not discharged the onus of proof 
 which was placed upon it, and that on the evidence before 
 them, the Court would not be justified in condemning the 
 prisoner. The Court found that the full charge was not 
 proven, but that the prisoner was guilty of a minor offence, 
 and sentenced him to two years' imprisonment, and at the 
 expiration of that time to be dismissed His Majesty's service. 
 So convinced was the prisoner's advocate of the injustice 
 of the sentence, that he put himself into communication with 
 the senior M.P.'s for Plymouth and Devonport, pointing out 
 to them that the papers would be sent forward to the Ad- 
 miralty authorities for confirmation or revision of the sentence, 
 and soliciting their aid to induce the Admiralty officials to 
 carefully review the whole evidence. As a result of the 
 representations thus made the prisoner was released from 
 Bodmin Prison, his certificate of discharge being marked, 
 " Sentence annulled ; discharge from prison ordered by 
 Admiralty ; discharged from Navy ; services no longer re- 
 quired." 
 
 But for the very strong representation of the solicitor, and 
 the special attention called to this case by him, this man 
 would have served the two years' imprisonment. What of 
 those who are tried in the sea-going fleet, where no solicitor 
 for the defence is available ? 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 233 
 
 Clause 3, Article 665, King's Regulations and Admiralty 
 Instructions, says : 
 
 " A prisoner may have a person to assist him during his 
 trial, whether an officer, legal adviser, or any other person ; 
 but in the case of a prisoner below the rank of officer, should 
 he not obtain the help of any one for that purpose, it is to be 
 considered part of the ordinary duty of the officer of his 
 division, or detachment if he is a Marine, to watch the case on 
 his behalf, and assist him should he desire it." 
 
 This is a mere mockery and a sham. The captain of a 
 ship can award summary punishment up to ninety days' 
 imprisonment with hard labour. In the case of all trial by 
 court-martial from his ship he is the prosecutor. The officer 
 of a division is a young lieutenant, having no knowledge of 
 court-martial procedure or law ; he is busied with his own 
 professional duties, and anxious not to offend his captain 
 the prosecutor. This is the " prisoner's friend " ! Whatever 
 might be his opinion of the sentence or the evidence it is not 
 likely he would appeal against either, as to do so, would be to 
 bring himself into direct conflict with his senior officers. 
 
 Where solicitors have been employed, they have appealed 
 so often with such good results from the decisions of courts- 
 martial, that petty officers and men have nowformed themselves 
 into societies, under the guise of " Death Benefit Societies," 
 one of the objects being to provide a solicitor for any member 
 who has the misfortune to be tried by court-martial. 
 
 And now we come to a type of offence which until October 
 1907 was of not uncommon occurrence : " Misappropriation 
 of mess funds." Here is a brief report taken from the Naval 
 and Military Record of Feb. 23, 1907 : 
 
 " MISAPPROPRIATING MESS FUNDS 
 " A court-martial was held on board the Victory on Friday, 
 
234 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 for the trial of George Pearce, stoker, first class, serving in the 
 Furious, tender to the torpedo-school Vernon, who was 
 charged with misappropriating mess funds. The charge 
 was that between December 4 and January 31, he, being 
 entrusted with 15 35. yd. to pay canteen mess bills, and to 
 retain the remainder in safe keeping for his messmates, 
 converted 5 175. $\d. to his own use. Accused had been 
 entrusted with the money to pay the mess bills, but it trans- 
 pired that he had not done so. He pleaded that his wife had 
 been very ill, and that he himself had also been ill, otherwise 
 he would have paid the accounts. He had only, therefore, 
 committed a technical offence, as he had endeavoured to pay 
 off the bills by instalments ; but the firm to whom the money 
 was due would not permit this, and reported the matter to 
 the captain of the ship. Since then the bills had been paid. 
 He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard 
 labour." 
 
 The average case of this description was, however, of a 
 somewhat different nature. Until October 1907 there was a 
 system in vogue known as " savings " ; this was money that had 
 accrued to the messes for provisions not taken up. At the 
 end of each month the whole of the money due to each mess 
 was paid, in cash, to the mess caterers, and it was used to 
 settle all canteen and other bills run up by the messes during 
 the month. It so happened that with the payment of money 
 leave was invariably given of longer or shorter duration, 
 according to where the ship was stationed ; and as the canteen 
 accounts were rarely ready for presentation at the time, the 
 caterers found themselves in possession of sums varying from 
 10 to 20. They were forced to carry this on their persons, 
 as there was no place on board where it could be put with 
 security ; and if they wanted to go on shore, they had to take 
 it with them, carried in the same pocket and mixed with 
 their own personal moneys. 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 235 
 
 The inevitable occasionally happened, and when, a few 
 days after, a mess caterer came to settle the mess accounts, 
 he found himself short, was reported to the captain, and 
 punished for " Misappropriation of Mess Funds." The 
 viciousness of the system was pointed out over and over 
 again, and the Admiralty were asked to make it incumbent 
 on the ship's paymaster, either to pay this money direct to the 
 canteen, or hold possession of it till the bills were presented 
 for payment. The stereotyped reply was that it was the 
 routine to pay money at certain times ; if this was broken 
 through, it would upset the routine and give the paymasters 
 extra work 1 and pamper the sailors ! 
 
 Some few years ago a case came under my notice of an 
 able seaman, seaman gunner, captain of gun. This man 
 was serving on the south-east coast of America, and was 
 caterer of his mess. Monthly money and mess savings were 
 paid on the first of the month, and leave was also granted, 
 it being his watch on shore. The mess bills had not been 
 presented for payment, but as he had a fair sum in the ship's 
 bank he did not trouble, but went on shore, where he spent 
 a large proportion of the money in his possession. Returning 
 on board he found the mess bill waiting payment, and at 
 once went aft to the paymaster with his bank-book for the 
 purpose of withdrawing sufficient to meet his liabilities. 
 The paymaster refused to accommodate him, on the ground 
 that there was a proper day for drawing out money ; as he 
 did not get what he wanted on that day he would have to 
 wait. The man then went to the first lieutenant of the 
 ship, explained the situation, and asked that officer to speak 
 
 1 This system was altered in October 1907, the Regulation now 
 reading, " The Paymaster shall pay at the beginning of each month 
 the bills due from each mess to the canteens for the previous month 
 up to the amount of the messing allowance due from the Crown." 
 
236 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 to the paymaster, and persuade him to let him (the A.B.) 
 have some of his own money out of the bank to enable him 
 to pay his bills. Instead, the first lieutenant reported the 
 case to the captain, and the result was that the man received 
 ninety days' imprisonment, with hard labour, for " Mis- 
 appropriation of Mess Funds." He was so outraged with the 
 treatment he had received that, after serving his sentence, 
 he returned on board, drew his money from the bank, and 
 later deserted when the ship was at Punta Arenas. Making 
 his way to one of the South American Republics, he learned 
 the language, got employment with a Land Development 
 Agency, and is to-day holding a good position. 
 
 Such is the attitude that has always been adopted towards 
 lower-deck ratings. Now let us turn to a similar but much 
 more aggravated case, where an officer was concerned. 
 
 Early in April 1910 a court-martial sat at Devonport to 
 try a lieutenant belonging to the R.M.L.I., the charge being 
 (i) that, having been entrusted with various sums, amounting 
 to 31 65. id., in order that he might retain the same in safe 
 custody and apply the same in discharge of the accounts of 
 the ward-room officers' mess of the ship, did, between 
 January 6 and January 25, 1910, fraudulently convert 12 
 to his own use and benefit ; and (2) that, on January 19, 
 1910, he deserted from the ship. 
 
 The circumstantial letter stated that on January 6, 1910, 
 the mess accounts of the ward-room mess in the hands of 
 prisoner, who was doing duty as mess caterer, were audited, 
 and on investigation it was found that he had, as evidenced 
 by his signature to the balance-sheet, in his hands on that 
 date 31 6s. id. Of this sum he advanced j to the ward-room 
 steward, and consequently on January 7 there should have 
 been in the cash-box 24 6s. id. On January 7 prisoner pro- 
 ceeded on first Christmas leave, which expired on January 17. 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 237 
 
 Prisoner should have returned on board on January 19, 
 but did not do so. The next the captain heard of prisoner 
 was an application to be allowed to resign his commission. 
 This request was dated January 16, but as the captain was on 
 second Christmas leave, and the letter was wrongly re- 
 addressed, it did not reach him until January 20. On the 
 latter date the commander, who was commanding officer in 
 the captain's absence, wired to the prisoner to the home 
 address given by him before proceeding on leave, directing 
 him to return to the ship at once. This he did not do. On 
 or about January 25 the commander and paymaster, in the 
 absence of the prisoner, opened the mess cash-box and 
 counted the balance remaining therein, and found it to be 
 12 6s. id. 
 
 About February 3 an undated letter was received from 
 prisoner. This letter was written from the Sailors' Rest at 
 Havre, where prisoner appeared to be staying under an 
 assumed name. In it prisoner stated : " There are about 
 20 short in the mess cash-box," and also mentioned that he 
 was being supported by the British Consul until such time 
 as he was able to work his passage to New York. On this 
 letter being brought to the captain's notice, he at once wired 
 to the Consul-General at Havre, asking for information, and 
 giving the two aliases under which this officer might be 
 passing. A reply was received immediately that prisoner 
 was in distress, and that the Consul would do his best to 
 detain him. Another letter, dated February 7, was received 
 by the paymaster, in which prisoner stated : " Like a fool 
 I took 25 from the mess money-box to meet a cheque which 
 I had to give before going on leave." A cheque for 25 was 
 enclosed, and had been duly honoured. In consequence of 
 communication between prisoner and his relatives he was 
 induced to return, on February n, to his home at Shoebury- 
 
238 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 ness. From there he returned to the ship on the same day, 
 and was immediately placed under arrest. 
 
 Prisoner pleaded guilty to the second charge, and in a 
 written statement said that when he went on leave he had no 
 intention of not returning to the ship at the proper time. 
 During his leave he met a man who offered him a well-paid 
 post in New York. Being then somewhat dissatisfied with 
 his prospects in the service, he foolishly accepted his offer, 
 and arranged to meet him in Paris. He went to Paris, but 
 was not met as promised, and he found himself stranded 
 without a penny. He made his way to Havre as best he 
 could. Having arrived there in considerable distress he 
 realised the seriousness of his position, and determined to 
 return to his ship, which he did on February n. When he 
 determined to go to New York he was under the impression 
 that he could resign his commission without the sanction of 
 the Admiralty, and sent his papers to the captain, but he 
 now recognised that this action could not avail him, although, 
 while he did not mean to return, he did his best to make 
 his absence regular. He saw that he had been a fool, but he 
 had paid dearly for his folly. This did not excuse him, but 
 he asked the Court to take it into consideration, and also the 
 fact that he had voluntarily returned from abroad to take his 
 trial, for which he had been waiting in close arrest for nearly 
 eight weeks. The Court accepted prisoner's plea on the 
 second charge. 
 
 The following are the letters which were handed in at the 
 trial, and which had been sent by prisoner : 
 
 "SAILORS' REST, HAVRE, FRANCE. 
 
 " MY DEAR DOGO, 
 
 " I have not been able to write before, because I have 
 been steadily on the move or in prison since I wrote last. 
 The money which I was expecting from England to take 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 239 
 
 me on^to America did not turn up, so I had to leave my 
 baggage at the hotel and leave Paris on foot. When I got 
 twenty miles out of Paris, I was arrested, because I had 
 neither money nor papers. I also had a fowl in my possession, 
 but that I swore I had bought, and there was no proof to the 
 contrary ; as a matter of fact, I had knocked it down in a 
 hen-roost. Well, the two gendarmes who collared me hand- 
 cuffed me, and cast me into a cell at Maison Lafitte on the 
 Seine, until the next day, when they took me to the prison a* 
 Versailles. I remained in prison for three days, when I^was 
 tried by the Procureur and liberated. The charge wa^ vaga- 
 bondage. On being set free I returned to Paris, soK my watch 
 and chain for ten francs, and took a ticket A or five francs, 
 which landed me about half-wav ' ,vcen Paris and Havre. 
 On detraining I set out for Il^vre on foot, and did the remain- 
 ing eighty miles in tfili ly-six hours. I only slept for two hours 
 in a hay-loft during that time, and had only so much food 
 as I could buy with the two francs which were left me. Well, 
 when I arrived at Havre, old boy, I could scarcely stand. 
 Prison fare, you know, is not the very best stuff to give a man 
 strength, and I had come along as hard as I could, so as to 
 get here before my money gave out. On arrival here I went 
 to the Consul, who has put me up at this place at his expense 
 until I can ship as stoker or something on board a ship bound 
 for New York. So you see, Dogo, my life in France has not 
 been all joy. 
 
 " But besides that, I forgot to tell you how I left Paris 
 the first time I mean the time of my arrest. You know 
 the Seine was in flood at the time, and the current was running 
 a good three or four knots. So about midnight I took a boat 
 from the embankment, which boat, by the way, had no oars, 
 nothing but a long boat-hook, and dropped down on the 
 current. The river was so swollen that under some of the 
 bridges there was only just head room. After being afloat 
 for two hours, I came to a bridge, under which I could not pass, 
 and I fetched up right in front of a gendarmerie. Then I 
 had to get a yarn ready to account for my possession of the 
 
240 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 boat, so I dipped my mackintosh in the water, put my card 
 case in the pocket, and told the gendarmes that I, ' Francis 
 Graydon/ had been trying to save a drowning man in the 
 Seine, but that I had only succeeded in securing the coat. 
 They swallowed the yarn at one gulp, and promised to take 
 the boat back to Paris. It was grand, old boy, grand. But 
 what is not grand is the fact that there are about 20 short 
 in the mess cash-box. It was neck-or-nothing business that 
 made me take it, and had I got my money from England, I 
 could have sent it back, but now I must wait until I get to 
 New York. Ask the paymaster to square it for me in the 
 meantime, and destroy this letter. Remember my New 
 York address, 
 
 " Yours, etc. 
 
 " Sorry I have got no stamp for this letter. I only have 
 fifty centimes all told, to last me God knows how long. 
 
 " No good writing to me here, and remember secrecy. Tell 
 Haly if you like." 
 
 " SAILORS' REST, HAVRE, FRANCE. 
 
 " MY DEAR PAY, 
 
 " I am thoroughly ashamed to say that, like a fool, I 
 took 25 from the mess money-box to meet a cheque which 
 I had to give before going on leave. 
 
 " I am not quite certain whether 25 is the exact amount 
 of the deficiency, it may be a trifle less ; but, anyhow, here 
 is the cheque for amount, and I must ask you to square up the 
 matter for me. 
 
 " I am still in possession of the key of the box, and will 
 send it to you as soon as I land in England to-morrow morning. 
 I am not coming direct to the ship, but going home for a day 
 or two in order to recover my uniform, which I disposed of, 
 before my departure, for a mere song. Do square this matter 
 up for me as quickly as you can, and I shall be thankful to 
 you for ever. I can see an ugly time in store for 
 
 " Yours sincerely." 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 241 
 
 The Court, after deliberating in private, found that the 
 first charge was not proved (!) and acquitted him of it. The 
 prisoner having pleaded guilty to the second charge, the Court 
 considered that proved. 
 
 After deliberating further for some time, the Court sentenced 
 prisoner to be severely reprimanded, and to forfeit one year's 
 seniority, but directed that he should not forfeit pay and 
 allowances earned by him and clothes and effects. 
 
 Shortly after this court-martial had taken place and the 
 verdict was known to the service, a warrant-officer wrote 
 me : 
 
 " Fennimore Cooper was quite correct when he said, 
 1 Hawks would not pick other hawks' eyes out.' Seeing as 
 one does the heavy sentences meted out to the lower-deck 
 for similar offences, and many of them lack the desertion which 
 here occurred, I was amazed at the decision of this particular 
 Court." 
 
 The whole trial was amazing, because it disclosed the fact 
 that there is one code of laws and one code of ethics for the 
 lower-deck, and another for the ward-room. The blue- 
 jacket mess caterer who used any portion of the mess money, 
 no matter for how short a time or under what circumstances, 
 would be deemed to have misappropriated it, and would 
 be punished accordingly. Extenuating circumstances have 
 never been allowed to be put forward ; if they have been, the 
 Court has at once decided " they do not make the charge any 
 different." Yet here, in cross-examining one of the witnesses, 
 the following was elicited : 
 
 " If prisoner says he merely borrowed the money from the 
 mess, he is a person whom you would expect to return the 
 money ? Yes." 
 
 So what is " misappropriation " on the part of a sea man 
 becomes " borrowing " in the case of an officer. 
 16 
 
242 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 The same with the charge of desertion, to which " the 
 prisoner having pleaded guilty, the Court considered that 
 proved." Such a clear case of desertion brought home to a 
 bluejacket deserter would mean ninety days' imprisonment 
 with hard labour, to forfeit all pay and allowance, also clothes 
 and effects. Here the sentence was one that could hardly 
 affect the prisoner's future prospects, and the Court hastened 
 to relieve him of the ordinary penalties that should ac- 
 company it. 
 
 While these extraordinary vagaries of courts-martial take 
 place, it is impossible to expect that an intelligent personnel 
 (rank and file) will or can look on naval law with respect. 
 A sentence like the foregoing brings the whole system into 
 contempt. During the past few years many suggestions 
 have been made that martial law should only apply to the 
 services in the time of war, and that during times of peace 
 offenders should be brought before the ordinary courts for 
 punishment, and be subjected in every way to the common 
 law of the land. I can imagine nothing more disastrous, 
 nothing more inimical to discipline. But unless the Navy 
 shows its ability to mete out even-handed justice, a wave of 
 popular feeling at some gross inequality may sweep the 
 power to punish from its hands, for Demos is a fickle but 
 powerful child, and these are the days when Demos is always 
 ready to exercise his power, though not always to his own 
 advantage. 
 
 Besides the laws of civil society, the naval or military 
 forces of any state must be subjected to rules and regulations 
 for the maintenance of that discipline which the services 
 require. But " in disciplining any body of men, particular 
 attention must be paid to the opinions entertained in the 
 country from which they are drawn" ; in other words, naval 
 and military discipline must march ahead, so as to be always 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 243 
 
 in touch and sympathy with the opinions of the country 
 to which the Navy and Army belongs, otherwise discontent 
 will be rife ; and where discontent is rife, fighting efficiency 
 must suffer, and nothing will breed discontent quicker than 
 a sense of injustice. 
 
 Over a hundred years ago, Admiral Patten protested 
 against this very canker, which he knew was at the bottom 
 of every naval ill. 
 
 " It is a trite observation," he wrote, " that no band of 
 robbers can exist as a band without a considerable degree of 
 justice among themselves. And however unjust any society 
 may be in its collective capacity with regard to neighbouring 
 communities, internally there must be justice. It is also very 
 common for men to enlarge upon the duties which inferiors owe 
 to superiors in all the different relations in which we stand 
 to each other. But it should never be forgotten by superiors 
 that all duties are reciprocal. There are duties from superiors 
 to inferiors, equally binding and equally necessary to all 
 different connections, and to all the different ranks of life. 
 The child owes the parent respect, obedience, gratitude and 
 affectionate attention. The parent, in one word, owes to the 
 child justice. These observations are applicable to all 
 societies, whether they consist of ten men or ten millions of 
 men, and whether they be hordes, families, nations, armies 
 or navies, the degree of justice required, merely for existence 
 as a community, must always depend principally upon the 
 general knowledge and intelligence diffused among the 
 individuals. It is easy to conceive how little justice has been 
 found requisite, where the different modifications of slavery 
 have prevailed, and the mind can readily run over the nations 
 of the earth, in which ignorance and oppression have kept 
 an equal pace. // vigorous action be demanded from any body 
 of men not grossly ignorant, something more than bare justice 
 must be done to procure the effort of the general will. In this 
 case, not only justice conformable to general knowledge 
 must be religiously observed, but regard must be had to all 
 
\ 
 
 244 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 the prejudices and opinions previously entertained by the 
 individuals of which the force is composed. This doctrine 
 by no means agrees with the idea that severity will produce 
 vigorous effort ; for if the vigour carries with it any degree of 
 injustice, so far from increasing the power of the force, it 
 tends, in the most direct manner, to produce discontent or 
 disgust in all the ranks which the injustice may reach. Such 
 injudicious rigour, therefore, acts in opposition to unanimity, 
 and consequently diminishes the strength, if fortunately it 
 should not destroy the organisation of the whole body." 
 
 This was written at a time when the Navy was seething 
 with discontent, and had just been convulsed with two 
 general mutinies. The writer had passed through every grade 
 to Admiral, and must therefore have seen how little justice 
 entered into the considerations of naval officers in their 
 treatment of their subordinates. 
 
 " Nothing is more common," he says, " than to attempt to 
 gain the name of an excellent officer, or strict disciplinarian, by 
 a vigorous severity. But the numbers who fail demonstrate 
 the difficulty of the attainment by those means. The reason 
 is easily discovered. These ambitious men forget, or are 
 ignorant of the necessity of giving to every man what is his 
 due : they forget that they are bound to injure no man, and 
 that they are required to act in all cases with the most im- 
 partial equity ; or, in other words, they forget that to obtain 
 the characters at which they aim, they must do justice." 
 
 The same argument applies with equal, if not more force 
 to-day. Nothing is more common than to try and gain the 
 name of " strict disciplinarian," by a vigorous severity that 
 has neither common sense nor a sense of justice attached. 
 It is a well-known fact in the Navy that if an officer reports 
 a man, commanders as a rule will punish him without any 
 attempt to hear the case. If the man is able to prove beyond 
 dispute that he is not at fault, he is still punished, because 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 245 
 
 it is felt that the officer who brings forward the charge must 
 be given " satisf action. " Officers who are accustomed to 
 acting in this way in their individual capacity, as judge over 
 petty offences, can hardly be expected to act differently in 
 their collective capacity at a court-martial. And yet every 
 thinking officer has realised the weakening effect such a policy 
 has on a fighting force, and that if vigorous action be demanded 
 from any body of men not grossly ignorant, something more 
 than bare justice must be theirs. 
 
 There was a time perhaps when gross ignorance was a 
 characteristic of the fighting sea man. He cannot be accused 
 of that failing to-day ; he is the very pick of British manhood. 
 At a St. George's Day banquet (1910) Admiral Sir Day Bosan- 
 quet, the present Governor of South Australia, in responding 
 to the toast of the Navy, said : 
 
 " The personnel is the most important point in a fleet, and 
 the education and training and discipline of the personnel 
 are the whole end-all and be-all of a Navy. You may buy 
 ships, armaments, and machinery, but you cannot buy a fleet. 
 Money can do almost anything, but all the gold in the world 
 would no more buy a fleet than the moon and the stars. It 
 is the men that count. You cannot buy men. 
 
 " You require courage and self-reliance, endurance and 
 obedience. But alone they are insufficient. These qualities 
 must be polished, like the metal of a tempered sword. It is 
 not a thing of a day, or a week, or a month, or a year, or of 
 two or three years. You may build three battle-ships one 
 after another on the same slip in the same time that you will 
 train one man to be a sea man. When I was engaged in the 
 training service a few years ago, we selected boys at the age 
 of sixteen, and we rejected 35,000 boys every year, in order to 
 enter 700. You can imagine that there was a considerable 
 selection, and the best only were taken. From the ages of 
 sixteen to eighteen we were developing their moral qualities, 
 from eighteen to twenty their physical and sailor-like qualities, 
 
246 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 and from twenty to twenty-three the qualities required in the 
 higher gunnery, torpedo, and engineer artificer ratings. With- 
 out these ratings you may have ships, men and officers, and 
 not fight an action. It depends on the qualities of these 
 ratings whether you will have success. 
 
 " That is where I want to sound a word of warning. Do 
 not run away with the idea that it is easy to make these 
 ratings. It is a most painful, tedious, and arduous process, 
 wearying to all the faculties of the officers engaged in the 
 training ; but it must be done. There are few who can tell 
 when it is done. One ship may look smart, and the men 
 may look smart, and another ship, and her men may not look 
 so well, but it will take the eye of an expert to tell whether 
 the men in one are inefficiently and inadequately trained, 
 or in the other fully trained and disciplined. When the 
 crisis comes, when the hour of trial arrives, the slight difference 
 which only the eye of an expert can detect is sufficient to 
 send one ship to the bottom in ten minutes and leave the 
 other untouched." 
 
 Unfortunately there is no expert eye to tell which is the 
 real and which is the false discipline. " The contradictory 
 ideas formed at the Admiralty by different sea officers " has 
 always been the greatest bar to any understanding on that 
 point ; afloat there are a thousand expert eyes watching and 
 working, and each one, having power to do so, places a different 
 interpretation on the word discipline, and exercises his powers 
 without let or hindrance. It is a saying among naval men 
 that " Every ship is a new Navy," and that very fairly repre- 
 sents the state of chaos that prevails. Life on board ships- 
 of-war to-day varies from that of a penal establishment to a 
 comfortable happy home. Further, a change of captains may 
 turn a happy ship into a penal establishment in forty-eight 
 hours ; not because the men are different, but because the new 
 captain has different ideas of discipline from the old. Does 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 247 
 
 England think that the very pick of her men, 700 out of 35,000, 
 can be safely subjected to such a discipline, which is " mere 
 servility," and which forbids them under pain of punishment 
 from complaining ? 
 
 Theoretically any man who feels he has been unjustly 
 punished may appeal from the commander to the captain, 
 or from the captain to the commander-in-chief of his fleet 
 or squadron. Against the decision of a court-martial there 
 is no appeal, neither is there in practice against the decision 
 of a commander or a captain. We remember the deputation 
 of a hundred years ago, who waited on the Admiral of the 
 squadron when he inspected their ship. " Let us do what we 
 will," they complained, " we can gain no good will or satis- 
 faction from our captain ; nothing but flogging from morning 
 to night." The Admiral did not trouble to investigate their 
 grievance, he punished them for complaining, and the punish- 
 ment was "to be flogged round the fleet," one of the most 
 ghastly and brutal tortures ever devised by the mind of 
 man. 
 
 Corporal punishment can be no longer inflicted, but there 
 are others, and he would be a bold man who would appeal 
 to a higher authority : instead of having his complaint 
 investigated, he would find himself charged with " bringing 
 false accusations against his superior officer," which would 
 mean a court-martial, and a long term of imprisonment. So 
 the last stage would be infinitely worse than the first. There- 
 fore no matter how unjustly men may feel they have been 
 treated, they do not complain, but grin and bear it. Some- 
 times a more glaring injustice will induce a man to write a 
 letter to the Press, which may or may not be published. This 
 is a dangerous expedient, as the following will show. 
 
 Early in 1909 I received a letter from one of the Home 
 Depots, dealing with the issue of clothing at that place. 
 
248 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Thinking it was of some public interest, I published it in TKe 
 Fleet. The following correspondence will show the sequel : 
 
 " TRAFALGAR INSTITUTE, PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I am writing you at the request of some of my ship- 
 mates, and trust you will give us your advice. You will 
 remember that about a month ago you received a letter 
 
 from regarding certain experiences he had while at 
 
 Barracks. The writer of that letter is now in this ship, 
 
 the , and it appears that the authorities traced him as 
 
 the writer by some particulars that appeared in the letter. 
 So a reference sheet was sent to the Captain of this ship by 
 the Commodore, enclosing the cutting of the letter from your 
 paper asking whether wrote it or not. 
 
 " He was brought up before the Commander, and under the 
 circumstances admitted being the writer. Afterwards he 
 had to sign a paper stating that he had done so, which is 
 being forwarded to the Commodore of the Barracks ; in the 
 meantime he has been placed under close arrest. This looks 
 like a serious affair for him, doesn't it ? Can you give us any 
 advice in this matter ? I may tell you that when he was up 
 before the Commander, the latter called him a ' Seditious 
 Rat,' hardly complimentary ? What ? Yours, etc. 
 
 " P.S. Please do not write to on any account, as in 
 
 all probability his correspondence is being closely watched, 
 and please do not write to me to the ship, but address all your 
 letters c/o this Institute. , H.M. S ." 
 
 "TRAFALGAR INSTITUTE, PORTSMOUTH. 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " Thanks very much for your kind letter which we all 
 
 appreciate very much. Since Sunday, loth, has been 
 
 kept under close arrest, and has not been allowed to correspond 
 with any one. On Tuesday last, the 26th, he was brought up 
 for punishment by the Captain of this ship, and deprived of 
 one (and only) good conduct badge, the warrant being read 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 249 
 
 out before the ship's company. The Captain said : ' The 
 Commander-in-Chief has decided to punish you by the depriva- 
 tion of one good conduct badge, but he has not yet decided 
 if you are a desirable person to remain in the service or not. 
 I hope this will be a lesson to you all not to write letters to 
 newspapers.' 
 
 " That is how the matter stands at present, and up to now 
 we have not heard whether he is to be ' kicked out ' or not. 
 This is the first time he has ever had a charge brought against 
 him, so he cannot be a very undesirable character. Please do 
 not write to him, and any letters for me send to this Institute. 
 
 " Yours, etc." 
 
 Extract from The Fleet : 
 
 " ' Young Navy/ in his letter in our correspondence columns, 
 calls attention to the case of one of our readers who was 
 recently punished for writing to this paper. We are fully 
 aware of the circumstances, and are considering the advis- 
 ability of having the whole matter brought up in the House 
 of Commons, for if the facts are as stated by this man's ship- 
 mates, then he has been the victim of a piece of petty vin- 
 dictiveness which is by no means creditable to those con- 
 cerned." 
 
 " TRAFALGAR INSTITUTE, PORTSMOUTH. 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " Since I wrote to you last has left this ship and 
 
 returned to Barracks, from which we all expected he would be 
 discharged, ' services no longer required.' But last Friday 
 forenoon he was informed he was on draft for the East Indies, 
 leaving England the next day at 4 p.m. Of cqurse, as you 
 know, it is usual to give ten days' leave to all men going on a 
 foreign station, so there is something rather strange about 
 his being told off suddenly like this. Another thing, all the 
 other men are drawn from Devonport, and he is the only 
 rating drawn from this port. He is now well on his way across 
 the Bay, and as he will be away two years, I suppose you will 
 not trouble to have the matter brought up in the House of 
 Commons. "Yours, etc." 
 
250 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 It seems quite evident from the foregoing that the original 
 intention was to discharge, as a warning to others, this man 
 from the Navy as an undesirable character ; but fearing 
 that the matter might be brought up in the House and art 
 inquiry follow, it was suddenly decided to get rid of him as 
 a witness, so he was packed off to the other end of the world, 
 where for all I know he still is, as I have never attempted to 
 communicate with him. 
 
 There is yet another sequel. A few months after the 
 foregoing had taken place, a widespread system of corruption 
 was discovered at the Barracks referred to, in connection with 
 the issue of clothing. The method was simple and barefaced. 
 When a man handed in a demand-note for certain articles of 
 clothing, they were given to him, the demand-note being 
 his acknowledgment of their receipt. Before this was sent 
 to the ship's office for the article to be debited against the 
 man's wages, one of the issuing staff would add other articles 
 which would also be charged to the man, but which the 
 issuing staff would keep and sell privately for their own benefit 
 and gain. These frauds were extensive, and from their very 
 nature there must have been collusion between the issuing 
 staff and those who ledgered up the accounts. Had an 
 inquiry been held several officers must have been proved 
 guilty of gross negligence, so no inquiry was held, the very 
 officers who were prepared to kick a man out of the service 
 for daring to write to the Press suggesting that something 
 might be wrong, were now anxious to hush up the matter of 
 corruption " in the interests of the service." Thus men had 
 to stand by and see themselves robbed, for " discipline must 
 be maintained." The inevitable result of such a discipline 
 is corruption ; and where there are repression and corruption, 
 there must be discontent. To prevent any expression of this 
 discontent by such methods as I have described is simply 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 251 
 
 sitting on the safety valve, and so endangering the safety 
 of the boiler. The question of course arises, " Is it possible 
 to frame laws for the Navy that would ensure justice, be more 
 in accordance with latter-day requirements, and not under- 
 mine discipline ? " The reply to which is " It all depends 
 upon what you mean by ' discipline/ " 
 
 The very first instance that we get of a naval court- 
 martial is in the " Instructions of the Admirals and Generals 
 of the Fleet for Councils of War," issued in 1653. These 
 are worth reproducing in full. 
 
 " INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 " For all Commanders-in-Chief of Squadrons, for all Flag 
 Commanders in their Divisions, and for all Captains of Ships 
 at sea in the Service of the Commonwealth. 
 " By ROBERT BLAKE, GEORGE MONCK, JOHN DISBROW, and 
 WILLIAM PENN, Admirals and Generals of the Fleet, set 
 forth by authority of the Parliament of the Common- 
 wealth of England and for Defence of the same. 
 
 " Whereas there are and may be from time to time sundry 
 exorbitance and miscarriage amongst several persons in the 
 Fleet for restraining whereof General Councils of War can- 
 not be so frequently called as were requisite : For preventing 
 therefore of the same and for regulating and governing the 
 Fleet in better order for the future, according to the Laws of 
 War and Ordinance of the Sea ordained and established 
 by the Commonwealth of England, we have thought expedient 
 and do hereby order as followeth : 
 
 " That the First Article of the said laws and ordinances 
 be duly observed by each commander of and in the Fleet, 
 according to the true intent and tenor thereof. 
 
 " General Council of War : 
 
 " That the chief flag (or commander) of each squadron, 
 with the assistance of the Council of War of the Squadron 
 
252 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 under his command, do fully determine, sentence and punish 
 all offences committed against any and every of the Articles 
 of the Laws of War and Ordinances of the Sea, by any person 
 belonging to any of the Ships in his respective squadron, 
 providing that no execution or loss of life or limb do proceed, 
 until that we, the generals, be made acquainted with the 
 crime, as also with the depositions against and defences 
 made by the offender, with all circumstances thereon de- 
 pending, and the same delivered to the judge advocate of the 
 Fleet, to be enregistered and kept upon record : Provided 
 also that no sentence for the cashiering of a captain of any 
 vessel of war of the States, or in their service, do pass until 
 that we, the generals, have had information of the whole, and 
 that the proceedings be delivered as above said to be recorded. 
 
 " General Court-Martial : 
 
 " That each commander bearing flag subordinate to the 
 chief commander of any squadron, calling to council with 
 him the commanders of the ships of his division that shall 
 be present, to the number of three at least, have hereby 
 power to determine sentence and punish all offences against 
 any and every of the said Laws and Ordinances of the Sea, 
 that are or shall be committed within the ships (or any ship 
 of the division) under his command, provided that no sentence 
 of loss of life or limb do pass upon any person, or of cashiering 
 any captain, until we, the generals, be made acquainted with 
 the circumstances of the proceedings. And likewise pro- 
 vided, that no sentence of cashiering any lieutenant, or 
 master of any ship of war of the States, or in their service, shall 
 pass until the chief flag commander of that whole squadron 
 be informed as aforesaid. And that the depositions be re- 
 mitted to record, as in the former section expressed. And 
 it is hereby likewise ordered, that whensoever any vessel 
 consisting of three ships-of-war or more, shall be sent as 
 commanded towards any guard or station, the commander 
 of that party shall have and hereby hath the same power 
 given to punish any manner of crime or person that is hereby 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 253 
 
 given unto the flag commander of a division during their 
 stay abroad. 
 
 " Ship Court-Martial : 
 
 " It is further ordered, that the captain of each particular 
 ship-of-war of the States, or in their service, calling unto his 
 assistance the lieutenant of the said ship (if any be thereupon 
 allowed) with the master, his mates, clerk of the cheque, 
 gunner, boatswain, and carpenter, thereof, have hereby 
 power to examine, bring to trial, and punishment, any person 
 belonging to the ship whereof he is commander, for any and 
 every offence committed against any of the said Laws and 
 Ordinances of the Sea, or against any such other orders as 
 have been formerly or shall be made by us, for retaining of 
 mariners within board of their respective ships, for the con- 
 taining of them within their respective duties, whilst on board 
 and for the punishment of any who shall attempt to convey 
 them thence without leave first obtained. And this order 
 is further to extend to the punishing in like manner of any 
 offence committed on shore, in any place or harbour by any 
 person of or belonging to any such ship or vessel, as also 
 of any offence committed against orders already made, or 
 hereafter to be made by us for the prevention of fire or any 
 other accidental mischance by miscarrying of light, taking 
 tobacco, selling strong water or strong drink within board, 
 or the breach of future orders for the avoidance of mischiefs, 
 and inconveniences in the fleet, provided that no sentence of 
 loss of life or limb do pass, nor the cashiering of any officer, 
 having a commission or warrant for his place, but that all 
 such officers be remitted unto the commander of the party (if 
 remote from the Fleet) or to the flag commander of the 
 division, or to the next superior commander in the squadron 
 or (if he also be about) to the chief flag or commander there^ of 
 according to the power by us devolved unto every of the-m in 
 the preceding sections. And that each person within th^ir cogni- 
 sance respectively may receive sentence and undergo execution 
 thereof to his demerit, reserving the case of loss r ^>i life or limb 
 or cashiering of captains to our own immediatt - knowledge. 
 
 
254 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " And it is lastly ordered that according to a former order 
 of the i6th May 1653 all commanders of ships of war in 
 the service of the State do without delay repair on board 
 the flag of the division under which they are ranged, or the 
 chief flag of the squadron, at all such times as a pennant or 
 other signal for a council of war shall be put forth by any 
 of the said flags, upon penalty of forfeiture of one whole day's 
 pay for the first neglect, and the like for the second, unless 
 cause allowable be shown to the contrary (in which case they 
 are to send the officer nearest them in place of command to 
 excuse their absence) and upon refusal of payment to be taken 
 into custody by the Marshal General of the Fleet until the 
 same be made. And the same persons offending a third time, 
 to be presented and be prosecuted against at the next general 
 council of war as a contenmer of order and discipline. 
 
 " Given under our hands and seal of Anchor, on board the 
 Swiftsure the i6th day of December 1653. 
 
 "Signed GEORGE MONCK 
 WILLIAM PENN." 
 
 There we have courts-martial as they first came into exist- 
 ence in the British Navy. 
 
 " Here is a perfect system, with all the machinery for the 
 
 fair and speedy trial of offenders, based on the broadest 
 
 principles, and complete in all its details. The constitution 
 
 of the court is founded on the great fundamental law of 
 
 English liberty the trial of a man by his peers. Captains 
 
 and commanders of ships are to be tried by a general council 
 
 of war consisting of the flag commander and the commanders 
 
 of the ships of his division. Subordinate officers and men 
 
 arc; to be tried by a ship court-martial, composed of the 
 
 officei rs and warrant- officers of the ship. These provisions 
 
 secure ai^ assembly of upright and sensible judges of every 
 
 rank and \~legree ; for the warrant-officers represent the 
 
 best class of T sea men. Such a tribunal inspires confidence 
 
 in the men, whi'le it is well calculated for the impartial in- 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 255 
 
 vestigation of facts, and the protection of all ranks in the 
 service." l 
 
 It would seem as though the leaders of the Long Parlia- 
 ment, always distinguished for their administrative ability, 
 had recognised that the Navy was indeed the Island King- 
 dom's all in all, in which it should be high honour to serve, 
 and that they were therefore determined that it should be 
 governed by laws whose ruling principles should be justice 
 and equity ; and during the period these laws were in force 
 some of the most glorious pages in British naval history 
 were written. 
 
 With the Restoration the Navy became the plaything of 
 corrupt favourites. It was enacted that "The government 
 and command of all forces by sea and land were declared by 
 Act of Parliament to be, and ever to have been, the un- 
 doubted right of His Majesty and his royal predecessors the 
 Kings and Queens of England." Before long, war- vessels 
 and seamen's lives to say nothing of the honour of the 
 Flag were entrusted to favourites of Charles, or to proteges 
 of his mistresses. It was the incompetency of these captains 
 that necessitated the introduction of " masters " who had a 
 knowledge of navigation. Under this type of officer the 
 Navy rapidly deteriorated. They believed in no law but the 
 unlimited gratification of their own desires, and they claimed 
 unlimited and unbridled power over every soul on board 
 their ships. They set up a standard that bred a type of sea 
 officer who rapidly turned the Navy into a hell. Instead of 
 it being an honour to serve in ships-of-war, men avoided 
 them as though they were plague-spots, as indeed they were. 
 As their brutality, the inevitable outcome of unlimited 
 power, made the Navy ever and ever more impossible, they 
 
 1 " Manual of Naval Law and Court-Martial Procedure," p. 2 i. 
 
256 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 created the press, went to the prison, and indulged in ever 
 more brutality. Let us take a peep into Smollet. 
 
 " About this time Captain Oakum, having received sailing 
 orders, came on board and brought along with him a surgeon 
 of his own country, who soon made us sensible of the loss we 
 suffered in the departure of Doctor Atkins, for he was grossly 
 ignorant, and intolerably assuming, false, vindictive, and 
 unforgiving ; a mercilous tyrant to his inferiors, an abject 
 sycophant to those above him. In the morning, after the 
 captain came on board, our first mate, according to custom, 
 went to wait on him with a sick list, which when this grim 
 commander had perused, he cried with a stern countenance, 
 ' Sixty-one sick people on board my ship ! Harkee, you sir, 
 I'll have no sick people in my ship.' The Welshman replied 
 he should be very glad to find no sick people on board, but 
 while it was otherwise, he did no more than his duty in pre- 
 senting him with the list. ' You and your list may be damned/ 
 said the Captain, ' I say there shall be no sick in this ship 
 while I have command of her.' Mr. Morgan told him his 
 indignation ought to be directed to the Almighty, who visited 
 His people with distempers, and not to him who contributed 
 all in his power towards their cure . . . then he received a 
 message from the doctor to bring all the sick to the quarter- 
 deck, as the Captain had ordered all the patients thither to be 
 received. This inhuman order shocked us extremely, as we 
 knew it would be impossible to carry some of them on the 
 deck without imminent danger of their lives ; but as we 
 likewise knew it would be to no purpose for us to remonstrate 
 against it, we repaired to the quarter-deck in a body, to see 
 this extraordinary muster, Morgan observing, by the way, 
 that the Captain was going to send to the other world a great 
 many evidences to testify against himself. When we ap- 
 peared on deck, the Captain bade the doctor, who stood 
 bo\\'ing at his right hand, look at these lazy lubberly sons of 
 
 b s, who were good for nothing on board but to eat the 
 
 king's provisions, and encourage idleness in the skulkers. 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 257 
 
 The surgeon grinned approbation, and, taking the list, began 
 to examine the complaints of each as they could crawl to the 
 place appointed. The first who came under his cognizance 
 was a poor fellow just freed of a fever, which had weakened 
 him so much that he could hardly stand. Mr. Mackshane 
 (for that was the doctor's name), having felt his pulse, pro- 
 tested he was as well as any man in the world, and the captain 
 delivered him over to the boatswain's mate, with orders that 
 he should receive a round dozen at the gangway immediately, 
 for counterfeiting himself sick, but before the discipline could 
 be executed, the man dropped down on the deck, and had 
 well nigh perished under the hands of the executioner. The 
 next patient to be considered laboured under a quartan 
 ague, and being then in his interval of health, discovered no 
 other symptoms of distemper than a pale meagre countenance 
 and emaciated body, on which he was declared fit for duty, 
 and turned over to the boatswain ; but, being resolved to 
 disgrace the doctor, died on the forecastle next day, during 
 his cold fit. The third complained of a pleuritic stitch and 
 spitting of blood, for which Dr. Mackshane prescribed exercise 
 at the pump to promote expectoration, but whether this was 
 improper for one in his situation, or that it was used to excess, 
 I know not, but in less than half an hour he was suffocated with 
 a deluge of blood that issued from his lungs. A fourth, with 
 much difficulty, climbed to the quarter-deck, being loaded 
 with a monstrous ascites, or dropsy, that invaded his chest 
 so much, he could scarce fetch his breath ; but his disease 
 being interpreted into fat occasioned by idleness, and excess 
 of eating, he was ordered, with a view to promote perspiration, 
 and enlarge his chest to go aloft immediately. It was in vain 
 for this unwieldy wretch to allege his utter incapacity : the 
 boatswain's driver was ordered to whip him up with the cat 
 of nine tails : the smart of this application made him exert 
 himself so much, that he actually arrived at the futtoc- 
 shrouds ; but when the enormous weight of his body had 
 nothing else to support it than his weakened arms, either 
 out of spite or necessity he quitted his hold, and plumped 
 
 17 
 
OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 into the sea, where he must have been drowned had not a 
 sailor who was in a boat alongside saved his life by keeping 
 him afloat until he was hoisted on board by tackle." 
 
 There is no reason to believe that Smollett exaggerated 
 or drew on his imagination. In August 1742 a court-martial 
 was held at Spithead for the trial of Captain the Honourable 
 William Hervey, third son of the first Earl of Bristol. He had 
 been captain of the Superb, 60, in the fleet which sailed for 
 the West Indies under Sir Chaloner Ogle in 1740, and he was 
 proved to the satisfaction of the Court, composed of brother 
 officers and presided over by Admiral Cavendish, to have been 
 guilty of conduct surpassing everything Smollett has described 
 in his grim pictures of the Navy. His first and second lieu- 
 tenants, the gunner and purser of his ship, swore that he had 
 beat an old sea man named White so brutally that the man 
 was carried insensible to his hammock, and died there, accusing 
 the captain of being the cause of his death; that he often 
 beat the quartermasters from the wheel with a cudgel, and 
 on one occasion actually endangered the ship in this way 
 during a paroxysm of rage ; that he once threw a paper under 
 the table of his cabin, ordered a subordinate to pick it up, 
 and kicked him while on his knees, to the peril of his life ; 
 that he injured the gunner seriously by a foul kick ; that he 
 thrashed his purser on the deck at Kinsale ; that he threatened 
 to beat all his officers, " from the first lieutenant to the cook's 
 boy " ; and that he not only abounded in abusive terms, but 
 enforced them by insulting gestures. Captain Hervey's 
 defence was that he was never violent in word or action 
 except when he was provoked ! l 
 
 We owe this court-martial to the fact that he extended his 
 brutality to his officers, instead of confining it to the men. 
 
 1 " A Short History of the Royal Navy," vol. ii., pp. 90, 91. 
 
COURTS-MARTIALANCIENT AND MODERN 259 
 
 The service abounded in this type, as it was bound to do. As 
 David Hannay says, 
 
 "If by any chance the cupidity which restrained them 
 from obeying honour and duty was stirred to active malignity, 
 by hatred of a comrade, or of a superior ; if, moreover, they 
 were far away from home and might hope even foolishly to 
 escape punishment, such persons would be capable of sinking 
 to well nigh any excess of baseness." 
 
 It was this type who were most clamorous of any inter- 
 ference with or curtailment of their powers. Use is second 
 nature, and sea officers entering the Navy as boys children 
 even became habituated to their methods, and the laws of 
 the Navy thus came to be based on the conditions they had 
 created, and gradually the legend came to be accepted that 
 naval discipline rested on three things : the denial of all rights 
 to the men, incessant punishment, and the despotic power 
 of a ship captain. 
 
 By section 58 of the Naval Discipline Act the constitution 
 of a court-martial must be as follows : 
 
 1. A court-martial shall consist of not less than five and 
 
 not more than nine officers. 
 
 2. No officer shall be qualified to sit as a member of any 
 
 court-martial held in pursuance of this Act unless 
 he be a flag officer, captain, commander or lieutenant 
 of His Majesty's Navy on full pay. 
 
 3. A court-martial shall not be held unless at least two of 
 
 His Majesty's ships, not being tenders, and commanded 
 by captains, commanders or lieutenants of His 
 Majesty's Navy on full pay, are together at the time 
 when such court-martial is held. 
 
 15. No commander or lieutenant shall be required to sit 
 as a member of any court-martial when four officers 
 of a higher rank and junior to the president can be 
 
260 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 assembled at the place where the court-martial is to 
 be holden ; and when any commander or lieutenant 
 sits on any court-martial the members of it shall not 
 exceed five in number. 
 
 This latter clause makes it practically impossible for a 
 lieutenant to sit at a court-martial, or if he does he is in a 
 minority of one on account of the number of ships that must 
 be present. As the compilers of the " Manual of Naval Law 
 and Court-Martial Procedure " say : 
 
 " More than two centuries have elapsed" (since the Com- 
 monwealth laws were promulgated) ; " the material growth of 
 the Navy and Army has been unexampled, the laws of the 
 land have been amended and adapted to modern wants, but 
 the constitution of military courts remains straightened in 
 an age of progress. True, regimental courts-martial have 
 been instituted in the Army, and commissioned officers of all 
 ranks in rotation are members of these courts, but there is 
 no representative of the subordinate class, a non-commissioned 
 officer cannot sit on a court-martial. In the Navy the rule 
 of seniority is more strictly followed, and the limits of jurisdic- 
 tion more confined. Lieutenants can only be members of a 
 general court-martial in exceptional cases, and a ship court- 
 martial is an unknown institution. The possibility of a non- 
 commissioned or warrant-officer becoming a member of a 
 court-martial is classed by many good officers among the 
 misguided theories of ardent reformers. Yet in the Fleet of 
 the Commonwealth, a tribunal composed of all ranks was in 
 good working order, and never was the naval renown of 
 England at a higher pitch of glory." 
 
 Is it not time that we pierced back through the hideous 
 veil of the eighteenth century to the Commonwealth days ? 
 for the time for complete and drastic reform in court-martial 
 procedure and the general laws of the Navy is over-ripe. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 
 
 Pseudo discipline is a magnification of punitive power in a dis- 
 ciplinary system, devoted towards a petty and insignificant end, 
 ignoring the necessity of maintaining a community in unity and co- 
 ordination, and usually accompanied by a lamentable lack of interest 
 in war work. Where pseudo discipline prevails, discontent will flourish. 
 
 LIEUT. A. C. DEWAR, R.N. 
 
 OF the modern Navy it may be fairly said that it is crimeless. 
 Its personnel is recruited from the very pick of the industrial 
 class, and in intelligence and physique are above the average 
 of that class, as not only are recruits very carefully selected 
 from those who offer their services, but a further process of 
 elimination goes on after those accepted have been a short 
 time in the service; for although all boys and youths are 
 entered with an obligation to serve twelve years, if not proved 
 to be smart and intelligent they are liable to be discharged. 
 Examinations for able sea men were some time since made 
 more stringent, and none of the youngsters trying to pass for 
 this rating, which is really the first rung of the ladder, are 
 retained unless considered thoroughly fit for the service. 
 
 This weeding-out process is necessary, for the fighting sea 
 man of to-day is a highly skilled mechanic, and while physical 
 perfection is essential to enable him to stand the strain 
 incidental to a continuous preparation for war, a high standard 
 of intelligence is also necessary to enable him to manipulate 
 modern naval ordnance, torpedoes, etc. This condition of 
 
 261 
 
262 
 
 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 things naturally shows itself in the general conduct of the 
 men, which is reflected in the Punishment Returns. 
 
 It is the custom to-day to publish yearly Returns of the 
 number of Courts-Martial held and Summary Punishments 
 inflicted on sea men of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, 
 which Returns are presented to Parliament, and can be pro- 
 cured by the general public through any bookseller for id. 
 Press reviews of these returns rarely venture beyond the 
 first page, which deals with " Courts-Martial and Offences," 
 and nothing could show better than this the high character 
 of the modern naval sea man. Here is the table for 1908 : 
 
 
 Sea men 
 
 Non-Sea 
 
 Marines 
 
 
 
 Class. 
 
 men Class. 
 
 Afloat. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Offences against Discipline 
 
 
 
 
 
 Desertion .... 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Striking and attempting to strike 
 
 
 
 
 
 Superior Officer . 
 
 37 
 
 36 
 
 14 
 
 87 
 
 Threatening language to Su- 
 
 
 
 
 
 perior Officer 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Wilful disobedience 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 Behaving with contempt to 
 
 
 
 
 
 Superior Officer . 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
 17 
 
 Improperly leaving place of duty 
 
 i 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Absence without leave 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 Drunkenness 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 Using profane language . 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 . 
 
 i 
 
 Negligent performance of duty 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Acts to prejudice of good order 
 
 
 
 
 
 and Naval discipline . 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 Offences punishable by ordinary 
 
 
 
 
 
 Law : 
 
 
 
 
 
 Theft and Embezzlement 
 
 H 
 
 J 7 
 
 I 7 
 
 48 
 
 Disgraceful conduct 
 
 5 
 
 I 
 
 
 6 
 
 TOTAL OF OFFENCES 
 
 9i 
 
 90 
 
 38 
 
 219 
 
 Of the above, five of the sentences were modified, and four 
 annulled by the Admiralty. 
 
 These are the crime statistics of the Navy for 1908, the 
 total number of petty officers and men being 112,751. 
 
 When we turn to the summary punishments, we find quite 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 263 
 
 a different tale. Summary punishments are the pin-pricks 
 of naval life, and are inflicted for a variety of offences, from 
 breaking leave to not having one's cap on straight. 1 They 
 are not only responsible for an enormous amount of discontent, 
 but reduce the fighting efficiency of the Navy to quite an 
 appreciable extent. 
 
 The punishments themselves are the outcome of that old 
 belief, expressed by both Clarendon and Fielding and re- 
 peated by a thousand pens, that the fighting sea men are a 
 nation by themselves, and must be legislated for and treated 
 altogether different from the land men. Take for example the 
 punishment known as " io(a)." Here is its official descrip- 
 tion. 2 
 
 " Grog to be stopped ; eat meals under sentry's charge ; 
 after half an hour for dinner to stand for the remainder of the 
 dinner time on the upper-deck in the place appointed ; extra 
 work in watch below ; to be deprived of smoking, and to be 
 under sentry's charge during smoking hours. If in harbour, 
 or an idler at sea, to stand on the upper-deck in the place ap- 
 pointed from 8 to 10 p.m." 
 
 The " place appointed " is facing the paint-work, with 
 hands by side the punishment of our nursery days, when 
 very naughty children we were stood in a corner. The 
 remainder of the time, when the ship's company are at leisure, 
 the black-list men are employed polishing bright work, cleaning 
 paint-work, or any other job the ingenuity of the ship's 
 police can suggest. io(a) is a favourite punishment with 
 a large number of commanders, as it enables them to always 
 have men on the bright work, therefore offences are manu- 
 
 1 " Cap-ribbons are to be worn with the ' S ' of ' Sovereign ' over 
 the nose." " A Battle-ship Commander's Order Book," p. 122. 
 
 2 Article 744, page 247, King's Regulations and Admiralty In- 
 structions, 
 
264 
 
 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 factured so that black-list men may be had. Let us take 
 the case of a cruiser that came under public notice in 
 November 1909. Up till the beginning of that year she was 
 looked on as a smart, happy ship ; then she changed captain 
 and commander, and a new regime started ; privileges were 
 cut down to a minimum, and the special offence of " throwing 
 matches about the upper- deck " was invented by the com- 
 mander. This really meant that if a man was seen to drop 
 the end of a used match on the upper- deck after lighting his 
 pipe, he was reported to the commander, and the punishment 
 was three days io(a), followed by the culprit having to keep 
 sentry on the upper- deck during smoking hours till he caught 
 some one else committing the offence. Thus we had the ship's 
 company spying one against the other, with the resultant 
 friction from such a state of affairs. 
 
 Irritated by such a policy, men committed more serious 
 offences, and became in the eye of the service " bad charac- 
 ters/' and the reading of " Warrants " became an almost 
 daily occurrence. 1 
 
 Here is a list of the Warrant offences and punishments 
 inflicted during the quarter ending September 30, 1909. 
 
 No. of 
 Warrant. 
 
 Offence. 
 
 Punishment. 
 
 296 
 297 / 
 298 \ 
 299 
 300 
 
 Absent without leave. 
 Did not obey the orders of Car- 
 penter when ordered to work 
 Absent without leave. 
 Breaking away from Patrol boat 
 and resisting Patrol 
 
 Deprived of i G. C. B. 
 
 } - 
 
 7 days cells 
 10 days cells 
 
 1 Minor summary punishments such as io(a) are inflicted by the 
 commander, and become operative at once ; but serious punishments, 
 such as imprisonment, cells, disrating, etc., are accompanied by a 
 Warrant, the King's Regulations (Art. 742) saying : " When signed, 
 a Warrant is completed by being read to the Prisoner preceded by the 
 Article of War under which his offence falls, the reading as a general 
 rule, being carried out on the Quarter-Deck." 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 265 
 
 Warrant offences and punishments, etc., continued. 
 
 No. of 
 Warrant. 
 
 Offence. 
 
 Punishment. 
 
 301 
 
 Neglect of duty 
 
 Disrated to stoker 
 
 302 
 
 Absence without leave 
 
 Deprived of i G. C. B. 
 
 33 
 
 Breaking out of ship . 
 
 28 days hard labour 
 
 304 
 
 Absence without leave 
 
 14 days cells 
 
 35 
 
 > )> 
 
 Deprived of 2 G. C. B. 
 
 306 
 
 
 
 10 days cells 
 
 37 
 
 Disorderly conduct on shore 
 
 3 days cells 
 
 308 
 
 Absence without leave 
 
 14 days cells 
 
 39 
 
 Disgusting language . 
 
 5 days cells 
 
 310 
 
 Absence without leave 
 
 Deprived of i G. C. B. 
 
 312 
 
 " " " 
 
 5 days cells 
 
 
 j> 
 
 7 days cells 
 
 314 
 
 Breaking out of ship ; refusing to 
 
 
 
 exercise and pick oakum . 
 
 90 days hard labour 
 
 315 
 
 Absence without leave 
 
 3 days cells 
 
 
 
 
 30 days hard labour 
 
 317 
 
 > 
 
 14 days cells 
 
 
 Refusing duty . 
 
 14 
 
 3 J 9 
 
 Desertion .... 
 
 42 days hard labour 
 
 320 
 
 )> 
 
 90 
 
 321 
 
 ,,.... 
 
 3 
 
 322 
 
 Absence without leave 
 
 14 days cells 
 
 323 
 
 > 
 
 30 days hard labour 
 
 324 
 
 
 14 days cells 
 
 325 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 14 >, 
 
 326 
 
 Refusing to obey orders 
 
 14 
 
 327 f 
 328 \ 
 
 Absence and refusing to work 
 when ordered by Master-at-Arms 
 
 \6o days hard labour 
 /go days hard labour 
 
 329 / 
 330 I 
 
 Refusing to work when ordered by 
 the Master-at-Arms . 
 
 1 90 days hard labour 
 
 
 Refusing to attend church . 
 
 28 days hard labour 
 
 332 
 
 Refusing to do punishment [io(a)J 
 
 10 days cells 
 
 This cruiser carried 100 sea man ratings, 126 engine-room 
 ratings, and 25 marines ; they were bordering on a state of 
 open mutiny when the attention of the Admiralty was called 
 to the ship, and an inquiry led to an entirely new regime. 
 
 The offences 327 to 332 were deliberately committed for 
 the purpose of getting out of the ship prison life was pre- 
 ferable. But the public interest here lies in the fact that 
 during the period of friction this ship, so far as her value as 
 
266 
 
 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 a fighting unit went, might as well have been scratched off 
 the Navy List. 
 
 In the published Returns an Abstract is given, showing the 
 number of summary punishments awarded during the years 
 1898-1908 inclusive ; let us take those of the last six years 
 for the 
 
 PETTY OFFICERS, SEAMEN, AND MARINES AFLOAT 
 
 Punishments 
 Numbers Borne 
 
 1903 
 
 1904 
 
 1905 
 
 1906 
 
 1907 
 
 1908 
 
 H9,754 
 108,868 
 
 126,384 
 114,246 
 
 127,699 
 112,559 
 
 120,615 
 118,518 
 
 H9,35 
 111,836 
 
 119,247 
 112,751 
 
 The percentage of punishments to numbers borne is fairly 
 constant for the whole eleven years, being one and a fraction 
 per man per year, which does not seem excessive till we turn 
 to the marines ashore for comparison. It should be under- 
 stood that " Petty Officers, Sea men, and Marines afloat " in- 
 cludes all the naval personnel, both in ships and at the naval 
 shore establishments, as, in accordance with the custom of 
 the Navy, the latter are rated as ships : the Royal Naval 
 Barracks at Portsmouth being officially H.M.S. Victory, and 
 the same applies to all the other Naval Barracks. When the 
 marines leave their respective ships they return to their own 
 Marine Barracks, where they at once come under a military 
 as distinguished from naval discipline. What this means in 
 the way of punishments will at once be seen from the following 
 figures : 
 
 ROYAL MARINES ON SHORE 
 
 Punishments 
 Numbers Borne 
 
 1903 
 
 1904 
 
 1905 
 
 1906 
 
 1907 
 
 1908 
 
 2,221 
 
 8,487 
 
 1,824 
 7,937 
 
 2,221 
 8,764 
 
 I,4l6 
 
 7,549 
 
 1,426 
 7,062 
 
 1,706 
 7,275 
 
 It is very generally claimed for the Royal Marines, (a) In 
 efficiency as a fighting force they are second to none in the 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 267 
 
 world ; (b) The discipline of the corps is of such a high order 
 that it is held up as a model to both the Navy and Army. 
 
 The superficial observer will say " Exactly so, and hence 
 the great difference in the percentage of punishments to 
 numbers borne." But when we turn to the marines afloat, this 
 comfortable argument is at once upset ; here are the figures 
 for two years : 
 
 Afloat 
 Ashore 
 
 1907 
 
 Punishments. 
 
 1908 
 
 Punishment*. 
 
 10,971 
 7,062 
 
 13,246 
 1,426 
 
 10,726 
 7, 2 56 
 
 13,057 
 1,706 
 
 It is not possible to believe that this force, as soon as it 
 steps afloat, commences to misbehave itself, and as soon as 
 it steps on shore loses its bad ways. The real difference lies 
 in the different ideas of discipline that animate the naval 
 and military mind. In the Navy everything is based on 
 punishment and repression. If a man makes a mistake, no 
 matter how innocently or unwittingly, he is not corrected 
 and the mistake pointed out, he is punished. Not because 
 naval officers are less humane or have less interest in their 
 men than military officers, but because it is the custom of the 
 service the sea man is a different being, and must therefore 
 be treated differently from the rest of humanity. 
 
 Under this belief he is surrounded with a multitude of 
 petty restrictions, with a special body of ship's police con- 
 tinuously watching and ready to pounce on him if he breaks 
 them. This espionage is readily seen by results, as shown 
 in the punishments of the different classes. 
 
 PUNISHMENTS OF DIFFERENT CLASSES DURING 1908 
 
 Punishment . 
 Numbers Borne 
 
 Sea men 
 Class. 
 
 Non-Sea men 
 Class. 
 
 Marines 
 Afloat. 
 
 Marines 
 Ashore. 
 
 59,755 
 43,010 
 
 40,259 
 47,296 
 
 I3, 2 46 
 10,726 
 
 1,706 
 7,275 
 
268 
 
 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 The " non-sea man " class is composed very largely of 
 stokers, who are often referred to as the undisciplined element, 
 and it would be wrong to deny that the younger members of 
 this class are more prone to leave-breaking and drunkenness 
 than the deck hands (sea man class). This may be seen by 
 the " cells " and " imprisonment " in the following table : 
 
 NATURE OF SUMMARY PUNISHMENTS 1908 
 
 Nature of Punishment. 
 
 Sea man 
 Class. 
 
 Non-Sea man 
 Class. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Marines 
 Afloat. 
 
 Dismissed with disgrace 
 Dismissed H.M. Service 
 Imprisonment 
 Disrating 
 Cells .... 
 Minor Punishments 
 
 TOTAL . 
 
 I 
 26 
 95 
 437 
 2,974 
 55,367 
 
 34 
 1,231 
 363 
 3,791 
 34,840 
 
 I 
 II 
 
 22 
 
 5,953 
 
 238 
 53 
 908 
 12,040 
 
 59,755 
 
 40,259 
 
 5,987 
 
 13,246 
 
 It is in the " minor punishments " that the startling differ- 
 ence is found. Why is this ? The men of the non-sea men 
 branch are for the greater part of the day at work in their 
 different departments, under their own officers, and are from 
 the very nature of that work unable to commit many of the 
 " crimes " that affect the deck hands, such as being " out of 
 the rig of the day," " being improperly dressed " (cap not on 
 straight), and the hundred and one other little pin-pricks that 
 seem to have been invented for no other purpose than to 
 irritate men to the limit of endurance. Thus the minor 
 punishments of the non-sea men branch are necessarily lower 
 than those of the sea men branch and marines afloat, who 
 for the greater part of each day while at work, are kept 
 rushing about from place to place, because it is the custom 
 of the Navy that men must be driven at top speed, and 
 punished for every little slip. 
 
 Another effect of this is seen in the number of disratings 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 269 
 
 which take place amongst the sea men and non-sea men 
 branches. Let us take the two years 1907 and 1908. 
 
 1907 .... 
 1908 .... 
 
 Total 
 Sea men. 
 
 Disrated. 
 
 Total 
 Non-Sea men. 
 
 Disrated. 
 
 43,216 
 43,010 
 
 528 
 437 
 
 46,538 
 47,295 
 
 335 
 
 363 
 
 The non-sea men ratings are made up of engine-room 
 artificers, artisans, electricians, mechanics, stewards, writers, 
 ship police, and chief and stoker petty officers, so that the 
 percentage of petty officers to the total is infinitely greater 
 in the non-sea man than the sea man class. Yet in spite of 
 a larger total and a much larger percentage of petty officers, 
 the disratings in the non-sea men class only amount to two- 
 thirds of the disratings in the sea man class. Why is this ? 
 Simply because the sea men class petty officers are always in 
 the limelight : in the rush and turmoil of deck work. Some- 
 thing goes wrong and delays an evolution, and the " captain " 
 of the part of the ship " dips." There is no doubt whatever 
 that a very fair percentage of the sea men class disratings 
 were due solely to the zeal of those disrated they were 
 always on the spot, so if anything went wrong theirs the 
 blame and theirs the penalty ; for the one governing prin- 
 ciple of naval custom is that if anything goes wrong, no 
 matter what the cause, some one has to be punished. 
 
 Another feature peculiar to the Navy is the ship's police. 
 In the Marines and Army the ordinary non-commissioned 
 officer is responsible for the discipline of the corps or regi- 
 ment ; thus he realises his duties and responsibilities, and 
 his subordinate comrades look up to him, so that, to quote 
 Kipling : 
 
 The backbone of the Army is the non-commissioned man. 
 
 In the Navy the petty officer is not trusted with dis- 
 
270 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 ciplinary duties; a special body of ship's police have been 
 created for this work. The whole duty of this body is espion- 
 age on the ship's company ; and though there are very many 
 excellent men among them, my twenty years life on the 
 lower-deck proved to me that they act very largely as agents 
 provocateurs. This is not their fault but the system. 1 The 
 petty officers, on the other hand, have learned to look to the 
 ship's police to carry out this work, and therefore do not 
 trouble themselves about disciplinary matters, contenting 
 themselves with supervising their men at their work. The 
 effect of this was seen when the trouble occurred at the R.N. 
 Barracks, Portsmouth, November 5, 1906. The petty 
 officers made no attempt to maintain discipline, leaving this 
 to the ship's police, as they had always been accustomed to 
 do. At this there was an outcry about the decadence of the 
 modern petty officer ; yet if we look at facts squarely in the 
 face, we must admit it is rather inconsistent to expect men 
 to suddenly assume, in a moment of crisis, duties that have 
 not been theirs under normal conditions. In this respect, 
 
 1 In one ship in which I served we had a very excellent ship's 
 company, so that even minor faults were very few. But the captain 
 was an enthusiast for bright work, and always wanted a body of 
 black-list men for burnishing stanchions, etc. These not being forth- 
 coming he sent for the master-at-arms, who is the head of the ship's 
 police and complained because more men were not reported. Later 
 he had all the ship's police and petty officers on the quarter-deck, 
 and told them they were not doing their duty because " There isn't 
 a half-dozen damned black-list men in the ship " ; so to save their own 
 positions these people, of whom I was one, had to manufacture offences, 
 and there was soon a plenitude of men doing io() punishment. Many 
 of those ordered this punishment, smarting under the injustice of a 
 trumped-up offence, refused to do it, and were sent to prison for periods 
 ranging from twenty-eight to ninety days. There was, in fact, such a 
 sudden increase in prison cases (we had previously gone six months 
 without one) that the Admiral made inquiries, and at once put a 
 stop to a state of affairs that could only have ended in general 
 insubordination. 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 271 
 
 if in no other, the discipine of the Navy, i.e. the discipline that 
 will stand the strain of war, is on a much less firm foundation 
 than that of the Army. 
 
 It has ever been the policy of the Army and the Marines 
 to elevate the non-commissioned officers in the eyes of the 
 rank and file. He is the connecting link between officer and 
 man ; therefore his position is of some importance and 
 stability, as he cannot be reduced in rank except through 
 the formality of a court-martial. Naval petty rank is not 
 worth an hour's purchase ; it is in the gift of a captain, and 
 can be taken away without fuss or formality. This also 
 applies to the non-commissioned officer of marines when 
 afloat, as then he is under naval discipline. How this affects 
 him is seen by the Punishment Returns ; for 1908 the number 
 of " Reductions to the ranks " out of the 7,275 non-com- 
 missioned officers and men of the Royal Marines serving on 
 shore was 4 ; out of the 10,726 serving afloat, the number of 
 reductions was 53 ! These figures are more illuminating than 
 any comments I can make. 
 
 Splendid fighting men as are the marines, their position 
 afloat is one of the many anomalies of the Navy. They owe 
 their introduction to a ship-of-war to the bad old belief that 
 the sea man could not be trusted to fight unless he had some 
 one to force him to do so. His was a parlous position ; ship's 
 police spying on his every movement on his own mess-deck, 
 with an afterguard to coerce him into submission, if he should 
 object to this treatment ! I would not rob the marines of one 
 atom of their glory ; on their colours are emblazoned the 
 records of the Empire's wars ; but they owe all this to the 
 Navy. By their presence in ships-of-war they were always 
 on board, wherever fighting was toward, either on sea or 
 land, so that an abundance of opportunity was theirs. It 
 was not, however, as fighting men pure and simple that the 
 
272 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Navy originally looked on them : it was as a repressive and 
 coercive force to be used against the sea men. 
 
 That practice, whatever may have been the need of it, has 
 long since passed away, and the marines' presence on board 
 our ships to-day is merely the relic of a barbarous age. It 
 is to the credit of Admiral Lord Fisher that he realised this, 
 and would have wiped out this stain on naval discipline. But 
 General Prejudice is a very doughty foeman, and often and 
 often wrests the laurels from both justice and efficiency. 
 During the past few years we have heard Lord St. Vincent 
 quoted ad nauseam. Of the marines, Lord St. Vincent said : 
 
 " I have never called on these men that they have not 
 realised my highest expectations. If ever the hour of trial 
 should come to England, the Marines will be found the country's 
 sheet anchor." 
 
 And this has been seriously quoted to-day against either the 
 reduction in their numbers or their withdrawal from our 
 ships. 
 
 But in what light was St. Vincent viewing the marines ? 
 He had passed through troublous times, when the Navy 
 was reeking with a disaffection that had found momentary 
 vent at Portsmouth and the Nore, and as Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Mediterranean he had largely, with the help of the 
 marines, stamped it down, but not out, with a heavy hand. 
 
 There must have continually recurred to his mind's eye 
 that terrible May morning in 1798, when his fleet lay off 
 Cadiz with their launches laying all round the Marlborough. 
 Let us go back to it. 
 
 The Marlborough joined the Mediterranean fleet off Cadiz, 
 with two men in irons and a request for a court-martial. 
 This was immediately formed, and the first of the Marl- 
 borotigh's prisoners was sentenced to death, St. Vincent 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 273 
 
 ordering him to be hanged on the following morning, and by 
 his own shipmates. Captain Ellison, of the Marlborough, 
 protested against what he considered an outrage, but St. 
 Vincent was obdurate, and a general order was issued to the 
 fleet for all launches to rendezvous alongside the Prince on 
 the following morning at seven o'clock, armed with cannonades 
 and carrying twelve rounds of ammunition each gun. Captain 
 Campbell, of the Blenheim, was to be in charge, his orders 
 being that he was to attend the meeting and that if " any 
 symptoms of mutiny appeared in the Marlborough, any 
 attempts to open her ports, or any resistance to the 
 hanging of the prisoner, he was to proceed close, touching the 
 ship, and fire into her, and continue his fire till all mutiny or 
 resistance should cease. Should it be absolutely necessary, 
 he should even sink the ship in the face of the whole fleet." 
 
 At half-past seven all hands throughout the fleet were 
 turned up " to witness punishment." The rigging of every 
 ship was black with men, and every eye was directed to a boat 
 proceeding from the flag-ship to the Marlborough, carrying the 
 prisoner for execution. 
 
 The Marlborough herself lay in the centre, between the two 
 lines of the fleet, and the prisoner was placed on the cathead, 
 and the running end of a yard whip was placed round his 
 neck. Imagine the awful tension as he stood there for a 
 moment, waiting for the bells to strike eight. As they broke 
 the stillness, a gun from the flag-ship flashed forth, the prisoner 
 was lifted from the cathead half way to the yard arm, and 
 then fell back. " At this dreadful moment, when the eyes of 
 every man in every ship were straining upon this execution 
 ... by an accident on board the ship the men at the yard 
 rope unintentionally let it slip." A moment later he was 
 hauled to the yard arm, and St. Vincent exclaimed, " Discipline 
 is preserved " ! 
 18 
 
274 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Yet he must have realised that it was a very terrible disci- 
 pline, possible only so long as there was sufficient force to 
 maintain it ; that he was living on a volcano which might 
 erupt at any moment. That would be " the hour of Eng- 
 land's danger," and her only sheet anchor the Royal Marine. 
 Surely it is treating St. Vincent too cheaply to imagine that 
 he thought a few thousand marines, scattered all over the 
 world, could turn the scale in any pitched battle with our 
 enemies ? It was the enemy within and not without the 
 gates that he was thinking of ; and that enemy was mutiny. 
 
 But the hour of England's danger passed away when 
 Nelson took command. He stamped out mutiny, not with 
 armed launches, hanging, and the cat, but by the kindness 
 and care he lavished on his men ; they, in their turn, showing 
 they were " fully sensible of the utmost obligations and 
 immutable effects of justice, and uncommonly alive to every 
 generous and every noble feeling." 
 
 How much more is this true of the sea man of to-day ? 
 The policy of pin-prick, drive, and punish does not promote 
 efficiency, discipline, contentment, or good feeling towards the 
 Navy. The highest state of discipline is found where punish- 
 ment is least, and a good example of this is the Submarine 
 and Destroyer services. In both submarines and destroyers 
 the work is arduous, exacting, and dangerous, yet there are 
 always hundreds of volunteers ready for either. Why ? I 
 know it is the common practice to say of both these that the 
 charm lies in the danger that where danger is, there will the 
 Briton be found. My answer is a much more prosaic one : 
 it is because the discipline of the destroyer and the sub- 
 marine, especially the latter, is of a different order from the 
 discipline of the battle-ship and the cruiser. 
 
 The Submarine service is a service of infinite danger, where 
 instant and implicit obedience, with a calm attention to duty, 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 275 
 
 is required ; therefore the discipline must be of a very high 
 order. How high it is was shown by Submarine A 8, which 
 had a remarkable experience whilst manoeuvring off Plymouth 
 on May 10, 1910. She went out in the morning with Sub- 
 marines Ay, A 9, and A 10, for exercise in discharging tor- 
 pedoes. She was accompanied by the Destroyer Snapper, 
 the commander of the Onyx, tender to the submarines, being 
 on board. At 1.30 p.m., A 8 dived, and went down a distance 
 of over two hundred feet. It was only after considerable diffi- 
 culty and over an hour's anxious labour that the boat could 
 be made to rise, she having touched the bottom. It was this 
 same submarine that five years earlier sank in Cawsand Bay, 
 Plymouth, when fifteen of the crew were drowned. On this 
 occasion the crew consisted of eleven men and an officer, and 
 through that terrible and trying hour there was no panic, no 
 expressed fear, the young officer, Lieutenant Donald Greig, 
 giving his orders quietly and calmly, his men carrying them 
 out in the same way ; the only expression they indulged in 
 was a hearty cheer when the vessel finally rose to the surface. 
 
 In the Submarine service there is no drive, no ship's police, 
 and no system of punishment. If a man is not suited to the 
 high state of discipline i.e. true discipline necessary to these 
 craft, he is sent back to general service, i.e. service on board 
 a big ship; that is his punishment. 
 
 Very much the same thing applies to service in destroyers ; 
 the life is hard, comfortless, and dangerous, but the petty 
 vexations incidental to life in the average big ship are absent ; 
 and as these petty rules do not exist, they cannot be broken, 
 so punishment is scarce, with a consequent higher order of 
 discipline. 
 
 It is a strange fact that many of the drive-and-punish school 
 of disciplinarians are continually finding fault with the present 
 gunnery arrangements of the fleet, because they force gun- 
 
276 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 nery officers to rely on the good will of the gun-layers. It is 
 the present Admiralty policy to encourage good shooting by 
 selecting for promotion those officers whose ships make the 
 best shooting at the annual test of gun-layers and at battle- 
 practice. Good shooting with heavy guns is the outcome of 
 an intelligent co-operation between officers and men, and this 
 can only be attained when mutual understanding and good 
 will exist ; punishment and petty vexations do not lead to 
 this end, and they find no place in the daily routine of the 
 majority of good-shooting ships. The other school scout 
 this idea of discipline, and contend that the sailor-man must 
 have a tight hand over him, and they base their belief on 
 " smartness " there is a great deal of difference between 
 the good-shooting ship and the " smart " gunnery ship by 
 which I mean carrying out certain fixed drills in certain fixed 
 times, and punishing the ship's company by stoppage of leave, 
 extra drills, etc., if these time limits are not reached. As war- 
 ships, such as these are of little value in comparison with the 
 others. 
 
 This is a chapter of small things, and I know there are those 
 who look on these as of no account. I write with the 
 memories of twenty years spent in ships-of-war flooding 
 before me, and I know it is the small things that count. I 
 have seen a smart, happy, and efficient ship turned into a bear- 
 garden, with the crew in a state of incipient mutiny, through 
 the queer ideas of a new commander as to the proper way to 
 enforce " discipline." Men, who a few months before were 
 happy and contented workers in the service of the State, were 
 turned into " bad characters " by a policy of pin-prick, re- 
 pression, and drive, till they grew reckless and committed acts 
 which under happier circumstances they would never have 
 thought of. 
 
 Court-martial reports often throw illuminating sparks on 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 277 
 
 the internal conditions of a ship. In December 1908 two men 
 belonging to the Amethyst were tried by court-martial for 
 throwing overboard one of the gun-fittings. At the trial an 
 officer giving evidence said that while going the " rounds " 
 as officer of the day, he had occasion to find fault with certain 
 men for smoking in the head of the ship. They were put in 
 the report. Why smoking in the ship's lavatory at 9 p.m. was 
 a " crime " in this particular ship it is difficult to imagine, 
 but as it was, it is reasonable to suppose that privileges were 
 exceedingly few, and that a state of tension existed. The 
 breaking strain on this occasion was punishment for smoking 
 in the head. These men were sentenced one to two years, 
 the other to twelve months imprisonment, at the end of which 
 both were to be dismissed the service. 
 
 The Board of Admiralty cannot be fairly blamed for the 
 system of which I complain, though they could do much by 
 completely revising the nature of summary punishments. 
 It may be quite reasonable and efficacious to stand a naughty 
 child of five in a corner as a punishment for some childish 
 fault, but the same punishment applied to a full-grown man 
 would, outside the Navy, appear grotesque to the onlooker, 
 and be exceedingly irritating to the person punished. The 
 sailor however is " but a child " ; hence his punishments are 
 of the nursery. Outside of this the policy of the Admiralty 
 has for some years been an enlightened one ; they have shown 
 their disapproval of excessive punishment by passing over 
 officers for employment whose punishment reports were 
 excessive. They have also recently introduced Detention 
 for Imprisonment for offences against discipline, and are 
 building Detention Barracks for this purpose. Of these, 
 Dr. Macnamara, Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, 
 said in the House of Commons on Friday, October 22, 
 1909: 
 
278 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 " We propose something which is far more than a change 
 in title. We propose, in the cases which I have mentioned, 
 to provide detention quarters at each of the home ports : 
 Chatham, Devonport, and Portsmouth. The offender will 
 not be a ' prisoner/ but a ' man under detention.' He will go 
 to ' detention quarters ' in naval rig, under a naval escort. 
 He will be confined in a ' separate room ' not ' a cell ' 
 wearing ordinary uniform. He will be under orders of naval 
 petty officers, and the captain of the detention quarters will 
 be a commissioned officer on the active list of the Navy. 
 During the first month of his sentence, as against the old 
 system of oakum-picking and shot-drill, he will do five hours 
 physical training and service drill and instruction, and five 
 hours industrial work. During the succeeding month he will 
 perform, daily, four and a half hours physical training and 
 service drill and instruction, and three and a half to four 
 and a half hours industrial work. The service drill and 
 instruction will be of the nature to improve his physique, and 
 to render him more efficient in the discharge of his duties as 
 a sailor when he returns to his ship. That is the genesis of 
 the new plan, and I am deeply interested in it, as are all the 
 members of the Board of Admiralty. The approximate cost 
 of building detention quarters at Chatham and Devonport, 
 and of converting Portsmouth Naval Prison, will be about 
 50,000, and the approximate time to complete these buildings 
 from the date of the order will be about two and a half years. 
 The thing will take time, the change must be gradual, and we 
 do not even propose to bring this Bill into operation till 
 January I, 1911. We mean to make punishment deterrent 
 severely deterrent, if you like but not degrading." 
 
 All of which is very admirable, though it would be better 
 were many of the causes that lead to " detention " punish- 
 ments abolished. 
 
 In their attempt to stamp out, or at least reduce, minor 
 summary punishments by not employing those who indulge 
 in them too frequently, the Admiralty have not been alto- 
 
SUMMARY AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS 279 
 
 gether successful, as many officers evade the result by intro- 
 ducing unauthorised punishments, which, not being logged, 
 leave no trace for the Admiralty to follow; 1 thus, petty 
 punishments may be excessive in a ship while her official 
 Punishment Returns may show an exceedingly small number. 
 In the January 1911 Fleet I dealt with naval summary 
 punishments, and almost immediately after the paper was 
 published a naval warrant officer wrote me : 
 
 " In your January issue you gave a table of punishments 
 for 1909, together with the numbers borne. These figures 
 alone seem very formidable, but what about the unrecorded 
 punishments ? Could you only get behind the scenes in 
 every ship of the fleet and cast your eyes over the books 
 recording the fancy and illegal punishments awarded in 
 practically every ship and establishment of the service, 
 punishments which are purposely kept out of the official 
 returns so that any particular ship, or I might rather say 
 commanding officer, should avoid being relieved of his 
 command, the total would be swollen to over 100 per cent." 
 
 It will seem strange to those readers uninitiated with the 
 ways of the Navy that such a situation as this should exist, 
 yet it is a simple fact, and arises entirely from the belief in- 
 grained in some officers' minds, that the sea man cannot be 
 treated and trusted as an ordinary human, and that discipline 
 means incessant punishment. 
 
 1 An example of this will be found in the Chapter on " How Mutinies 
 are Made Past and Present." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE FIGHTING SEA MAN'S PROSPECTS 
 
 The lower-deck richly deserves all we can do because of splendid 
 loyalty and unequalled efficiency among the Navies of the world. 
 Not only that, our warrant-officers and petty officers are competent 
 for much higher positions than they now occupy, and for the good of 
 the service their status should be raised. 
 
 LORD FISHER. 
 
 We know that every boy on board the War spite has the opportunity 
 of becoming a commander in the British Mercantile Marine. Some 
 years ago the Marine Society were good enough to accept a boy of my 
 nomination. He turned out well. He served his time in the Warspite, 
 and I got him a berth in a good line. He is now a lieutenant in the 
 Royal Naval Reserve, and a commander in one of the finest steamers 
 of one of the finest mail services in the world. What he has become 
 any of you boys may also become. 
 
 CAPTAIN SIR G. K. VYVYAN, K.C.M.G. 
 
 THE above words were uttered by Sir George Vyvyan at the 
 one hundred and fifty-fourth anniversary celebration of the 
 Marine Society, which exists to " train poor boys of good 
 character for the sea, and thus promote employment for 
 British subjects in lieu of alien sea men." Nothing could 
 show better one of the most glaring anomalies of our fighting 
 sea service, for while it is possible for a Warspite boy to 
 attain to commissioned rank in the Navy, no such possibility 
 exists for those boys who enter the Navy direct ! 
 
 Theoretically this statement is wrong, as on April i, 1903, 
 a number of lieutenants were promoted from warrant rank. 
 But these were purely honorary lieutenantcies, granted to 
 
 280 
 
THE FIGHTING SEA MAN'S PROSPECTS 281 
 
 senior chief warrant-officers, the whole of whom had passed 
 through active service in the fleet, and were holding shore 
 billets either in the dockyards or naval barracks. On pro- 
 motion to lieutenants they still continued to perform the 
 work they had done as chief warrants, and as they have 
 retired, other chief warrants have filled their places. Thus 
 these are purely theoretical lieutenancies, given to old warrant- 
 officers as a reward for long service and good conduct. 
 
 There is also a possibility of promotion from the ranks for 
 conspicuous service. Let us see how this works out in practice, 
 taking the records of those so promoted from Witherby's 
 Navy List. The first was R. A. Cathie, promoted June 21, 
 1887. His record is : 
 
 " Cathie, R. A., Gunner of Sphinx ; served during the 
 operations in the Eastern Soudan, 1884 ; landed with Naval 
 Brigade, and present at battles of El Teb and Tamaai ; 
 mentioned in despatches ; during the engagement of El Teb 
 he had more than one hand-to-hand encounter with the 
 enemy ; for the gallantry he displayed, both in bringing his 
 gun into action, and for his bravery in his personal encounters 
 with the enemy, he was strongly recommended by General 
 Buller, and was also thanked on the field by Commander 
 Rolfe ; the next morning, on his returning afloat, he was 
 especially thanked by Admiral Hewett for his bravery at El 
 Teb ; at the battle of Tamaai he was recommended by 
 General Graham for his bravery (Egyptian Medal, Khedive's 
 Bronze Star, El Teb-Tamaai Clasp) ; in same ship during the 
 naval and military operations in the Eastern Soudan, at 
 Suakin, 1884-5 (Suakin, 1885, To Frek Clasps) ; in same ship 
 during the conquest of Upper Burma, and was present in H.M. 
 Indian Marine gun-vessel Tigris at the capture of Mandalay ; 
 afterwards employed for a short time Dacoiting until the 
 return of the Sphinx Brigade (Burma Medal, Burma, 1885-7, 
 Clasp) ; promoted to Lieutenant 2ist June, 1887, on the 
 occasion of the celebration of the fiftieth year of Her Majesty's 
 
282 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 reign, in recognition of services in the Soudan and Red Sea 
 Expeditions, 1884-5 ; Lieutenant Cathie is the first Gunner 
 ever so promoted in modern times." 
 
 Employment was found for this officer in the command 
 of the " Special Service vessel " Traveller, a kind of ocean tug. 
 From here he went to the Coastguard as Divisional Officer, 
 and was allowed to assume the rank of Commander on his 
 retirement, February 2, 1907. 
 
 Contemporary with Commander Cathie is Mr. Webber, 
 who, as a young boatswain, distinguished himself up the Nile 
 in 1885, and was promoted to " Chief " Gunner by Lord 
 Charles Beresford on the field. In the jubilee of Queen 
 Victoria he was promoted to lieutenant, and died in 1903 
 while " Commander " of the Magnet, another " Special Service 
 vessel," which to-day is in command of a Chief Gunner. 
 
 The next was W. Sims, promoted May 2, 1900, and of him 
 the Royal Navy List says : 
 
 " Sims, W., Gunner of Powerful ; landed with the Naval 
 Brigade for the defence of Ladysmith during the war in South 
 Africa, 1899-1900, and was specially elevated to the rank of 
 Lieutenant for his brilliant services in the field, 2nd May, 
 1900 ; Captain Lambton says : ' Mr. Sims, gunner, is a 
 most capable and indefatigable officer, and of great ability.' 
 Specially mentioned in despatches for his gallant services at 
 Waggon Hill, 6th January, 1900." 
 
 He also found employment in the Coastguard. The next 
 and last is T. J. S. Lyne, promoted June 26, 1902. Mr. Lyne 
 is now in command of the Kinsha, a river steamer on the 
 Yang-tse. His record is : 
 
 " Lyne, T. J. S. ; served during the Boer War, 1901 to 
 1902, in command of No. 60 Torpedo Boat ; employed 
 patrolling and despatch running on the West Coast of Cape 
 Colony. During this period, when thirty miles from a dan- 
 
THE FIGHTING SEA MAN'S PROSPECTS 283 
 
 gerous coast, the main shaft broke, but the vessel being put 
 under extemporised sail was eventually brought to a safe 
 anchorage in Saldanha Bay ; was specially mentioned and pro- 
 moted to Lieutenant for these services (South Africa Medal)." 
 
 It is a mere mockery to call this " promotion from the 
 ranks," or to suggest that under present conditions the naval 
 sea man can become an " officer." The real attitude of the 
 Admiralty towards this question may be seen by their action 
 some years since, when the lieutenants' list was short. Instead 
 of a competitive examination among the naval warrant- 
 officers and petty officers passed for warrant to fill these 
 vacancies, they went to the merchant service, and introduced 
 a hundred supplementary lieutenants into the Navy from 
 that service. These officers, having had no naval training, 
 were in no sense of the word " Naval Officers." They were 
 absorbed as navigating lieutenants ; the Admiralty, in fact, 
 had reintroduced the old sailing-master in a different form, 
 much to the disgust of the warrant and petty officers of the 
 Navy. 
 
 The bulk of the Warspite boys are waifs or orphans of sea- 
 faring men. I am quite democratic enough to think that 
 character and ability should open the door to every boy, no 
 matter if he be waif, stray, or son of an Earl, and I do not 
 grudge any good fortune that may come to those who may 
 pass through the Warspite to the ward-room of a ship-of-war, 
 which they are quite able to do under existing conditions. 
 Still, it cannot be denied that a very fair percentage of those 
 who go to the Warspite would fail to pass the necessary test 
 to enable them to go direct into the Navy as bluejacket boys ; 
 yet by going into the merchant service they can and do 
 become, first officers in the mercantile marine, then officers 
 in the Royal Naval Reserve, and from thence, bona fide naval 
 officers. 
 
284 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 The bluejacket boy is denied access to the ward-room, no 
 matter what may be his character or professional abilities. 
 If exceptionally able he may become a petty officer at from 
 twenty-three to twenty-five years of age, and a warrant-officer 
 at from twenty-six to twenty-eight. That ends his career. 
 For at least twenty years he has to climb up the ladder of 
 seniority as a warrant-officer; then, at the average age of fifty, 
 chief warrant rank comes, with a quiet shore billet, followed 
 two or three years later with the honorary lieutenancy and 
 retirement at fifty-five. Is it a wonder that this is a burning 
 question with the latter-day fighting sea man ? 
 
 During the 1910 debates on the Navy Estimates in the 
 House of Commons, Mr. Barnes, a Labour member, complained 
 that the Admiralty method of selecting cadets was undemo- 
 cratic in character, and he condemned the new scheme for the 
 education of naval officers for several reasons, but mainly 
 because of its undemocratic character, and because it nar- 
 rowed the field of selection from which officers could be 
 drawn. He urged that the cost entailed in graduating as a 
 naval officer should be lessened, and asked whether we could 
 not contribute a little more out of the public funds towards 
 the cost of training these men in order to reduce the cost to 
 the parents, and to throw the Navy open to larger numbers 
 of the citizens of the country. Mr. McKenna, replying on 
 behalf of the Board of Admiralty, denied that there was any 
 desire at Whitehall to debar clever lads of humble birth from 
 reaching the quarter-deck. The First Lord went on to say 
 that the Admiralty had approached the County Councils, 
 and invited them to establish Naval Scholarships, but that so 
 far there had been no response. Dr. Macnamara said that 
 to the objection that the cost prevented a working-class man 
 from entering his son for service as a naval officer he had 
 given a good^deal of attention, and no doubt the restriction 
 
THE FIGHTING SEA MAN'S PROSPECTS 285 
 
 narrowed the field of selection. Spread over a period of 
 seven years the cost would be 600 or 700 by the time a lad 
 entered on his career. The Admiralty had the power to 
 reduce the fee to 75 a year for two years to 40 in certain 
 cases for the sons of officers, and had made the reduction in 
 10 per cent, of the entries. The new system was not, he 
 thought, more expensive than the old system, but the cost 
 was restrictive. Personally, he had always thought the new 
 scheme so admirable in many respects, that he had never 
 done anything to raise the question in an administrative 
 form ; but he recognised that the cost was a weak spot, and 
 operated as a restriction. Of course there might be abolition 
 or reduction of fees or the offers of scholarships ; but the 
 results had been so good that though he was a man from 
 the ranks himself, and had keen sympathy with the desire of 
 any man to see his son get on in this great service he had not 
 seen his way to make any proposition. All of which shows 
 how utterly the House of Commons and the Admiralty mis- 
 understand the feelings of the Navy on this question. The 
 offer of scholarships would be the very worst thing that could 
 happen, as it would inevitably lead to the degradation of the 
 lower-deck and the weakening of the Navy as a fighting 
 force. 
 
 Just after the debate took place I received a letter from a 
 naval officer who, if he is spared, is destined for high com- 
 mand, and that letter so well expresses my own feelings, and 
 is I believe so typical of service-feeling on the point, thai I 
 have obtained permission to publish it, provided the writer's 
 identity is not disclosed : 
 
 " DEAR YEXLEY, 
 
 " With reference to the proposals recently made that 
 County Council Board Schools should offer their boys Scholar- 
 ships to Osborne, I wonder if you will take the same view as I 
 
286 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 do, and if you will oppose the proposal with all your might ? 
 Anyway, you will agree that it is possible for people with the 
 very best intentions to move cheerfully along in what they 
 believe to be the right direction, and yet to fall over a precipice 
 if only they are short-sighted enough. I think the Admiralty 
 are strolling towards a precipice in this matter. 
 
 " You and I want the best possible Service. We consider 
 promotion from the lower-deck to be essential for this, because 
 it will have the three separate effects of attracting even 
 more and better men to the lower-deck, of inducing these men 
 to make the most of themselves, and of somewhat improving 
 the officers. I leave the question of ' Rights ' alone. But 
 our only hope of obtaining these things is the influence which 
 is being exerted to an increasing extent by the democracy, 
 which naturally and rightly wants its sons to have equal 
 chances with the sons of the rich. The democracy neither 
 understands nor cares for the essential things mentioned 
 above. 
 
 " If the proposed scholarships are given, then that will be 
 the rift in the great dam which separates the classes in the 
 Navy. Naturally and inevitably it will widen and widen, 
 till in time the greater part of all of our officers are selected by 
 open competition from all classes. Of course I would have 
 no objection to this in itself : it is only to the consequences 
 that I object. When the democracy has free entry direct to 
 the officers' corps, their influence will no longer be available 
 for clearing the way for the lower-deck. Also, the very fact 
 that of all those who think of going into the Navy, the best 
 can go in as officers, will inevitably stamp the lower-deck not 
 merely as a body of fine men of the lower classes, but as a body 
 of inferior men of the lower classes. 
 
 " We both of us know the general lines of the other alter- 
 native how that, somehow and sometime, it will be made 
 possible for the men to attain to the ward-room while still 
 young enough to fit themselves for their position. How that 
 immediately afterwards the lower-deck education will begin 
 to modify itself to make the men ever more and more fitted 
 
THE FIGHTING SEA MAN'S PROSPECTS 287 
 
 to use the proffered opportunities ; how the men's ambition 
 will grow in consequence ; how the naval training establish- 
 ments and various private and public training ships will 
 gradually feel the influence and be modified ; and how bit by 
 bit the gulf between Board School and Naval School will be 
 filled in. How better and better and ever more ambitious 
 youngsters will insensibly be drawn into the Navy, until we 
 have the pick of the nation to select from. How the lower- 
 deck training will gradually come to resemble more and more 
 the present training of an officer. How voices will be heard 
 clamouring for the excellent German military system by 
 which officers serve in the ranks for a time. And how, in the 
 distant end, the final amalgamation will take place officers and 
 men, one selection from the finest and best youth of the country, 
 one training, one great ladder to climb by character and brains, 
 and one undivided Navy, from truck to keelson, with no great 
 gulfs spanned only by narrow and treacherous bridges : the 
 flower of the nation, animated, I hope, by the same spirit as 
 to-day. 
 
 " I don't know how many decades I have looked ahead, but 
 at least the beginning of this dream is well in sight. And now, 
 when the first steps might actually be taken, the Admiralty 
 look like switching the whole lot on to a track which can only 
 lead to what to me appears disaster. 
 
 " People will not see beyond their noses ; will not recognise 
 that a single act, like the granting of a scholarship, is not really 
 just that action alone, but is for all practical purposes the 
 starting of an inevitable sequence, like the lighting of a bomb 
 fuse. The ostensible object of the whole thing is to widen the 
 basis from which officers are drawn. I am all for that. But 
 it ought rather to be done by progressively lowering the cost 
 of a cadet's training, so that the Navy itself would gradually 
 come to understand that high birth and wealth were not 
 essentials to naval efficiency, rather than by letting in a few 
 specially brainy sons of pushful men, with all the incidental 
 consequences I have sketched above. 
 
 " If you agree with my views, won't you do your very 
 
288 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 utmost to avert the danger ? The helmsman is just about to 
 put his helm the wrong way. 
 
 "io/6/io." 
 
 Anything that would tend to lower the status of the fighting 
 sea man should be fought tooth and nail, and who can doubt 
 that the introduction of scholarships would do this more 
 than any other plan that could be adopted ? 
 
 Is the present condition of things a satisfactory one from 
 the national point of view ? At one end of service-life we 
 have the officer recruited from that comparatively small 
 class that is wealthy enough to spend 700 on a boy ; at the 
 other end we have the men recruited from the poorer artisan 
 and labouring class. In between lies the pick of the nation. 
 It will not send its sons on to the lower-deck because of the 
 great limitation in the facilities for advancing ; it cannot 
 send its sons in as officers through lack of money. And we 
 are a maritime nation who continually assure ourselves that 
 the Navy is our " all in all," and that in the Navy to-day 
 only the very best will do both in men and material. We 
 scrap ships and guns almost as fast as they are made in our 
 eternal race after the latest pattern of ships and armaments, 
 while the personnel remains still, because to the greater part 
 of the nation the Navy is impossible. 
 
 Fair is our lot, O goodly is our heritage ! 
 
 and we are gambling with it like the veriest spendthrift. If 
 Ministers are sincerely desirous of opening up the quarter- 
 deck of a ship-of-war to the very pick of the nation, then let 
 scholarships be offered, not to the children of .County Council 
 schools, but to the Navy itself. The hollowness of the sug- 
 gestive scholarships is apparent as soon as we realise that a 
 cadet joins Osborne at the age of thirteen ; what kind of 
 
THE FIGHTING SEA MAN'S PROSPECTS 289 
 
 scholarship could be competed for by children of such tender 
 years, or what guarantee would it be of their fitness for a sea 
 life. The children who won the scholarship might be physic- 
 ally unfit ; or is physical fitness not to count ? 1 
 
 If, on the other hand, every boy who joined the Navy knew 
 that scholarships were open to him, the prize being quarter- 
 deck rank, ambitious youngsters would at once start to fit 
 themselves for the examination, boys from a much wider 
 circle than at present would be attracted to the Navy, and in 
 the distant end the great amalgamation would take place : 
 
 " Officers and men, one selection from the finest and best 
 youths of the country, one training, one great ladder to 
 climb by character and brains, and one undivided Navy, from 
 truck to keelson, with no great gulfs spanned only by narrow 
 treacherous bridges." 
 
 That is not an impossible ideal, and it is the ideal we should 
 strive for, for " the Fleet of England is her all in all." 
 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE TRADING SEA MAN 
 
 We only exist as a great nation so long as we have control of the 
 sea, and we never can have control of the sea, or keep our mercantile 
 navy up to its present dimensions, unless we get a good supply of 
 British-born subjects who will go afloat. 
 
 LORD GEORGE HAMILTON. 
 
 THE trading sea man, i.e. the sea man whose life is spent in 
 exclusively commercial pursuits, is a product of the nineteenth 
 century ; he was made possible by the victories of Nelson, 
 which gave Britain the unassailable dominion of the seas. 
 Prior to that our sea trade could only be carried on by the 
 help of sword and gun, now used against pirate, now against 
 privateer, or against the duly commissioned ships-of-war of 
 the King's enemies. 
 
 Up to the end of the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth 
 century, there was practically no difference between the man- 
 of-war's man and the merchant sea man ; each had to fight 
 as occasion demanded, and the demand was very frequent, 
 while the weapons used to fight and the motive-power used to 
 chase or run was the same in both cases ; therefore the sea 
 man was equally valuable on board a ship-of-war or in a 
 merchant bottom. He was so valuable and so eagerly sought 
 after that the searching led to the war between Great Britain 
 and the United States, 1812-1815. 
 
 With the command of the sea, however, our trading sea 
 men were able to follow their lawful occasions without let or 
 
 290 
 
THE TRADING SEA MAN 291 
 
 hindrance, so that gradually every vestige of armament 
 disappeared from their ships, and sea war having ceased 
 through the dominance of the British Navy, it was no longer 
 necessary to draw on our merchant ships for men wherewith 
 to man our ships-of-war. Thus we gradually developed two 
 distinct types the fighting and the trading sea man. 
 
 During this process of evolution our over-seas trade was 
 increasing by leaps and bounds, the number of our merchant 
 bottoms increased and multiplied, till the red ensign was seen 
 on every sea, and the carrying trade of the world rested in our 
 hands. 
 
 Had our statesmen been blessed with any sense of nationhood 
 they would have seen that this foundation of our national 
 prosperity and greatness was so regulated as to draw to it the 
 pick of the nation's manhood ; also that the fighting sea man 
 and the trading sea man were complementary one to the 
 other. They preferred the policy of laissez-faire ; navigation 
 laws were repealed so that the cupidity of shipowners might 
 have full scope and the maximum of profit made without any 
 consideration of the well-being of the men who manned our 
 ships, with the result that the mercantile marine is the last 
 instead of the first resort of the British-born subject. 
 
 For many years, acting on tradition, we hugged the belief 
 that the mercantile marine was the natural feeder of the 
 Navy in time of war, and under that belief built up a Royal 
 Naval Reserve composed of officers and men of the merchant 
 service. Suddenly we discovered that practically every one 
 of these were serving in one or other of our great steamship 
 lines, which, war or no war, must continue to keep the sea 
 if the heart of the Empire the United Kingdom is to be 
 fed ; therefore we have had to turn to the Navy itself to 
 supply its own Reserve, and have introduced a system of short 
 service for that purpose. This was in 1903, and here are the 
 
292 
 
 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 figures for the past six years, showing how the merchant 
 sea man (R.N.R.) is being gradually ousted by the new force. 
 
 R.N.R. . . . 
 R.F.R. . . . 
 
 1905 
 
 1906 
 
 1907 
 
 1908 
 
 1909 
 
 1910 
 
 32,505 
 16,600 
 
 28,850 
 19,500 
 
 28,536 
 20,700 
 
 24,884 
 21,55 
 
 23,509 
 22,950 
 
 21,915 
 24,100 
 
 Speaking at the one hundred and fifty-fourth anniversary 
 celebration of the Marine Society on March 15, 1910, Captain 
 Sir George K. Vyvyan, K.C.M.G., said : 
 
 " With regard to the Mercantile Marine, I must trouble 
 you with a few figures. The total number of people who were 
 employed in our merchant service in 1908 was 275,721, of 
 whom only 196,834 were British, leaving 78,887 strangers in 
 our British ships. It means this that 30 per cent, of our 
 sailors were not British subjects, and had no interest in the 
 British Empire or in our national prosperity." 
 
 Have the 197,000 British subjects any interest in our 
 national prosperity ? I am afraid only a very small per- 
 centage of them : the bulk of the remainder are the dregs of 
 our native manhood, whose interest in their motherland 
 is nil. 
 
 Captain Vyvyan, speaking of our alien sea men, said : 
 
 " I have nothing to say against aliens. In their way 
 they are a very creditable lot of men. They are endowed 
 with most convenient virtues, and they are extremely amenable. 
 . . . The native product is in all respects superior to the alien 
 with the single exception that, perhaps, he is not so amenable 
 to discipline. ... I am sorry to say that by the possession of 
 the very qualities which the British sea man exults in, he 
 requires to have over him what we call at sea a tight hand. 
 Without that tight hand he is liable to go astray. . . . The result 
 is that we take these aliens who are more convenient, more 
 amenable to discipline." 
 
THE TRADING SEA MAN 293 
 
 The italics are mine ; and here we find in modern language 
 the pernicious old doctrine of Fielding, that the sea man is 
 different flesh from the land man, though Captain Vyvyan 
 limits that doctrine in this case to the British sea man. 
 
 But is the alien sea man so amenable to discipline as his 
 apologists make out ? Here is an extract taken from a daily 
 paper : 
 
 " Reuter's Philadelphia correspondent wires that a mutiny 
 has occurred on board a British steamer outward bound for 
 Auckland. It appears that, finding confinement irksome, 
 one of the Chinese crew on board asked the first mate to allow 
 him to go ashore for a few hours before sailing. Upon his 
 request being refused the man drew a knife and chased the 
 mate about the ship. He was finally overpowered and put in 
 irons. An hour later nearly all the Chinamen made a dash 
 for liberty, and a hand-to-hand fight with the English crew 
 followed. The Chinamen were in the end overpowered and 
 forced back to the ship. The next day the ship sailed, but 
 as she was passing through the drawbridge a dozen Chinamen 
 appeared on deck, and seven of them leaped overboard 
 without hesitation. The tide being strong, four of them 
 were carried under and drowned, and three others barely 
 succeeded in reaching the shore. These were arrested and 
 placed in irons on board the vessel." 
 
 That sort of report is of almost daily occurrence, and 
 shows the type of " discipline " maintained in our mercantile 
 marine. 
 
 While on a railway journey I picked up a copy of The 
 Story Teller to wile away the time, and in it I found a yarn 
 by Captain F. H. Shaw, " The Gun Runners." A vessel was 
 about to proceed to one of the South American States with 
 a consignment of rifles and ammunition for the revolutionary 
 party. 
 
 " We had uncommon difficulty in getting a crew together. 
 
294 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Britishers we couldn't get at any price ; we badly wanted 
 them for our job, but they weren't there. There'd been 
 rather a rush on them of late a couple of new liners had 
 recently filled up so we had to make do on Dutchmen and 
 niggers, a beastly lot. Even Fordling, optimist as he was, 
 couldn't restrain a sigh of disgust when they lined into the 
 shipping office. 
 
 " ' They're not fit to run a cargo of mud to East Ham/ he 
 said. ' But time's money with us, and so sign here, you 
 dull-faced blackguard.' 
 
 " We got the crew signed on, telling them nothing about 
 where we were bound, for we knew they'd have their final 
 carousal before turning up close on midnight, and we'd no 
 wish for the secret to leak out. Just as the last man made 
 his mark on the articles, Benson, the chief officer, turned up, 
 all smiling. I liked his look, and the feelings of dissatisfaction 
 that had grown up as I watched the nondescript starvelings 
 we'd signed on died a natural death straightway, and didn't 
 resurrect worth mentioning, for Benson had the look of a man 
 whom it would be bad to trouble. He looked at the beggars 
 who were clustered about the counter drawing their advance 
 notes, and I saw him smile grimly." 
 
 When the over-loaded ship got to sea, life became a veritable 
 hell for the crew. Work, work, work ; bully, bully, bully ; and 
 for food and comfort well, here is Captain Shaw's description 
 of that side : 
 
 " I don't think the crowd in the forecastle had a particularly 
 happy time. She was like a half-tide rock amidships ; for'ard 
 she was worse. The galley was abaft the funnel ; and when 
 the wind shifted a bit and brought the sea on the quarter, the 
 place was washed out on an average three times a watch. 
 So we got grub when we could manage it, which wasn't often." 
 
 Down below in the engine-room and stoke-hole things 
 were just as bad, if not worse. 
 
THE TRADING SEA MAN 295 
 
 " I went down to the engine-room, which was about the 
 only dry place in the ship. Grant was standing watch him- 
 self. He had a donkey-man, but he wouldn't trust him. 
 He showed me a spanner ; it was all twisted and broken. 
 ' They fellies in the stoke-hold cut loose an hour agone/ he 
 informed me. ' Losh, mon, but they're unco' tough aboo 
 the heid ! ' And when, a little later in the day, I saw a 
 fireman walking for'ard with his head bandaged anyhow, I 
 knew that Grant hadn't had a picnic down below whilst we 
 were busy for'ard. . . . 
 
 " He was a stickler for appearances, was Grant. He 
 shook his head as he put the broken spanner back in its rack. 
 ' I'll never get anither like her,' he mourned. ' She knew 
 me weel. But I'll stop it oot the wages o' the mon I hit for 
 having a hard skull, if for no other purpose or cause, Myers, 
 my lad.' And I believe he did. A cool, level-headed man 
 for a chief engineer." 
 
 It is a well-told story as stories go told with considerable 
 gusto. Only a magazine story ? Yes, but true to life. Captain 
 Kettle, that virile ruffian, the creation of Cutcliffe Hind, 
 is duplicated by the hundred in the mercantile marine : men 
 whose chief boast is their powers of man-handling a recalci- 
 trant crew. 
 
 If it is true that every nation has the government it deserves, 
 it is doubly true that the British Empire has got the trading 
 sea man it deserves : white, yellow, black, the dregs of the 
 earth. Poor, half-starved serfs, who are amenable to the 
 discipline of a hungry belly, a spanner, a belaying pin, or a 
 sea boot. 
 
 While Lord George Hamilton tells us that " we can never 
 have control of the sea or keep our mercantile navy up to its 
 present dimensions unless we get a good supply of British- 
 born subjects who will go afloat," Captain Vyvyan says that : 
 
 " The native product is not so amenable to discipline. By 
 
296 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 the very qualities that the British sea man exults in he re- 
 quires to have over him what we call at sea a tight hand. 
 Without that tight hand he is likely to go astray. The result 
 is we take these aliens who are more convenient, more amenable 
 to discipline \ " 
 
 DISCIPLINE ! Surely the most-abused word that was ever 
 introduced into the sea vocabulary ! 
 
 If Great Britain wants the " native products " in her 
 merchant bottoms, her sons who will stand her in good stead 
 when the great fight comes, she may get them by teaching 
 shipowners that " discipline " does not mean licensed brutality 
 on one side and starved servility on the other ; that the 
 British sea man is under the same laws as the British land 
 man. There is no need for new laws, as existing laws give 
 the trading sea man all he needs in the way of protection, if 
 they were only administered with justice and impartiality. 
 At present it is the practice when a few poor trembling wretches 
 refuse to sail in a ship they have signed on for, to give them 
 imprisonment for their crime. The horrors that lie behind 
 are never inquired into. If half a dozen " tight hands " who 
 hold masters' berths had their certificates suspended in- 
 definitely, it would do more to induce the " native product " 
 to go to sea than all the Board of Trade regulations that were 
 ever framed. 
 
 With maudlin sentimentality we declare that " We all love 
 Jack! " and from the music-hall stage we are told that 
 
 Every nice girl loves a sailor, every nice girl loves a tar. 
 
 While our merchant " sailors," except in a few of the 
 leading " lines," are derelict aliens or the dregs of our own 
 country, battered and bruised serfs as soon as their ships 
 poke their noses out of harbour. 
 Ten hundred thousand will gloat over the truculent ruffian- 
 
THE TRADING SEA MAN 297 
 
 ism of a Captain Kettle, while to his victim they will offer a 
 tract or a song, and deny him justice at all times, and then 
 whine because he prefers to remain on shore instead of going 
 to sea and maintaining " their great and glorious Empire ! " 
 When the British people knock off " loving " the sea man 
 they will be within appreciable distance of treating him with 
 respect and a new era. 
 An Admiral told us, more than a hundred years ago, that 
 
 " In disciplining any body of men, particular attention 
 must be paid to the opinion entertained in the country from 
 which they are drawn." 
 
 And this is where the British shipowners have failed: the 
 discipline and condition of life in the average merchant 
 bottom to-day are as bad comparatively worse as they were 
 in " Eighteen Hundred and war time " ; bad food, filthy ac- 
 commodation, backed up by the persuasive eloquence of a 
 sea boot or belaying pin. A certain type of alien is amenable 
 to this method of " discipline/' and is therefore welcome. 
 Captain Vyvyan blames the English Government, who, he 
 says, are not entirely free from blame in regard to the number 
 of aliens we have on board our ships. 
 
 " The Board of Trade have from time to time succumbed 
 to pressure brought on them by sentimental theorists who are 
 imperfectly acquainted with the subject, and they have given 
 way, and have surrounded the sailor with precautions that 
 really, in these days, Jack has come to be almost as good as 
 his master." 
 
 The Board of Trade, however, only stepped in when the 
 dietary and system of cooking became so vile that even the 
 British-born hard-up preferred to starve on shore rather than 
 submit to it ; without Board of Trade intervention the 
 number of alien sea men would not be 79,000, but 179,000. 
 
298 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 Yet owners are not altogether oblivious of the part food 
 plays in life at sea. Captain Frank H. Shaw, writing of 
 " Life on a Liner," x says : 
 
 " The life of a passenger at sea nearly approaches per- 
 fection. ... He is fed at stated hours, and on the average 
 well-found liner the meals are something to marvel at. The 
 owners have an axiom that a food-filled mouth cannot 
 grumble ; and so the mouths are plentifully filled." 
 
 No one suggests that the mouth of the working sea man 
 should be filled with the same plenitude as the mouth of a 
 millionaire passenger ; but a decent meal should be his at 
 regular intervals, and the discipline should correspond with 
 the conditions of the country. 
 
 The votaries of " the tight hand " will shake their heads, 
 and declare that sea men require exceptional treatment ; let 
 me again quote Admiral Patten : 
 
 " Although sea men may have been regarded by certain 
 characters who have unfortunately had power, and who were 
 ignorant of their real dispositions as a species of mankind 
 deficient in the nicer feelings of humanity, whose attach- 
 ments might be sacrificed, their friendships disregarded, and 
 even their healths ruined or destroyed, upon the most perilous 
 occasions ; yet they are very far from being inferior to other 
 men, either in generous or in elevated sentiments, They are, 
 like land men, fully sensible to the eternal obligations and 
 immutable effects of justice ; they are open to the dictates 
 of common sense, and uncommonly alive to every generous 
 and to every noble feeling. Nor will they ever fail to return 
 the full measure of gratitude and affection to that Commander 
 who treats them as rational beings endowed with the same 
 faculties and perceptions which he himself possesses." 
 
 The sea man, in fact, is the same as every other part of 
 humanity, and amenable to exactly the same treatment. On 
 1 " The Sea and its Story," p. 97. 
 
THE TRADING SEA MAN 299 
 
 the recognition of that fact lies the future of our race, for we 
 cannot keep the command of the sea " unless we get a good 
 supply of British-born subjects who will go afloat " ; and they 
 must be the pick and not the dregs of our manhood. Mr. 
 Raymond Beck, Chairman of Lloyd's, said : 
 
 " I think if some wild inhabitant of, say, Central Africa, 
 asked to have pointed out to him on the map the Empire of 
 Great Britain, he would be rather surprised when he was 
 shown one little red blob on the northern seas, and also several 
 in fact, many other blotches of red marked on both 
 hemispheres. He would not be able to understand how it 
 was that these atoms could make the one vast Empire of which 
 he had heard so much. Well, I think the answer is in the 
 18,000,000 tons of shipping registered under the British flag. 
 The blue water that separates these different territories is no 
 gulf dividing us into separate nations. On the contrary, it 
 is the very means of communication and, in conjunction with 
 our Mercantile Marine, is what welds us into one whole. 
 
 Or, to quote Kipling : 
 
 For the Lord our God most High 
 He hath made the deep as dry, 
 He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth ! 
 
 And we are marching along it with feet of clay ! 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 IN LIGHTER VEIN 
 
 That the numerous unauthorised punishments which are known to 
 be awarded in the Fleet be discontinued. 
 
 LOWER-DECK " LOYAL APPEAL," 1910. 
 
 NUMEROUS and varied as are the official punishments that 
 may be awarded, they by no means satisfy those officers who 
 " live to punish," and all kinds of ingenious devices are intro- 
 duced by these to " haze " a ship's company. On the other 
 hand there are officers who, disliking the stupidity of 10 (a), 
 the unhealthiness of cells, or the harshness of prison, usually 
 try to introduce punishments of their own to suit special 
 cases. There is always a certain amount of danger in this, 
 as the following will show. Not so long since a battle-ship 
 commissioned for service in the Home Fleet, the captain of 
 which was known for his unconventional ways. Shortly 
 after the ship commissioned there was a small outbreak of 
 " chucking hands in." This is a lower-deck expression for a 
 refusal of duty, and is mainly confined to newly commissioned 
 ships. A ship taken straight from the dockyard hands, 
 especially if a new ship, leaves much to be desired both in the 
 direction of cleanliness, easy working, and in other directions. 
 The commander's one object in life is to get his ship and 
 ship's company into trim as quickly as possible. Some, most, 
 in fact, manage to do this with tact, others by the driving 
 power of the King's Regulations and Naval Discipline Act, 
 
 300 
 
IN LIGHTER VEIN 301 
 
 without any consideration of the feelings of the men, so that 
 every rough corner of service-life stands out at an acute angle 
 and gets in the way of men's tempers. 
 
 A week of this kind of life is generally enough to try the 
 temper of the most amiable ; men turn in dog-tired, and turn 
 out at 4.30 a.m. in very much the same condition. If at 
 sea, and night watches are thrown in, the strain is a little 
 more acute. The old service saying, " Growl you may, but 
 go you must," applies here, and though the growling is general, 
 the going is continuous, for the men quite realise the necessity 
 of what they are doing ; the sore point is the method of 
 doing it. 
 
 Where eight or nine hundred men are concerned it would 
 be unreasonable to expect that they should all be of such 
 amiable temperament as to stand the strain without some 
 exhibition of temper. It may be a nagging petty officer 
 adds the last strain to a hardly driven man, or something 
 of a similar nature takes place, when he " chucks his hand 
 in " and swears he will never do another stroke in 
 " Andrew " another lower-deck phrase meaning the Navy. 
 Of course in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he means 
 nothing of the sort, and if left alone to recover his temper 
 would proceed with his job as though nothing had hap- 
 pened. Unfortunately, the officer or petty officer who has 
 driven a man to this limit is not the sort to overlook such 
 an outbreak, and up goes the culprit on the quarter-deck 
 to face all the rigours of the Naval Discipline Act, Section 
 17 of which reads : 
 
 " Every person subject to this Act who shall wilfully dis- 
 obey any lawful command of his superior officer, or shall 
 use threatening or insulting language or behave with con- 
 tempt to his superior officer, shall be punished with dismissal 
 
302 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 with disgrace from His Majesty's Service, or suffer such other 
 punishment as is hereinafter mentioned." 
 
 The " other punishment " is invariably forty- two days 
 hard labour, or fourteen days cells. The captain in question 
 had appraised these insubordinate acts at their true value, 
 and had decided not to treat them in a service way at all. 
 Instead, he met offenders brought before him with, " So you 
 refused duty, did you ? Well, you will go and keep a watch 
 on the ' Jack ' staff till " (giving a time) ; " then, if you have 
 altered your mind, let the officer of the watch know." 
 
 Keeping watch on the open forecastle of a modern battle- 
 ship in mid-winter in the North Sea is not a pleasant occu- 
 pation, and twelve hours of it was sufficient to satisfy the 
 ordinary man, who was only too glad to return to his job 
 and the unsparing chaff of his topmates and messmates, 
 until " chucking your hand in " became quite unpopular. 
 Then came the climax. A man was sent on the forecastle 
 for "chucking his hand in," and he was evidently much more 
 afraid of the chaff of his shipmates than affected by North 
 Sea air, and at the end of twenty- four hours he was still 
 unrepentant. Forty-eight hours passed and still he was 
 looking after the "Jack" staff, his meals being taken to him 
 by his messmates. He now became a centre of interest to all 
 hands, and bets began to be made on the result. Day suc- 
 ceeded day, till seven days had passed, and the one topic 
 of conversation was how long would he last, and bets were 
 freely offered and taken. Then the captain, probably think- 
 ing that all this was exceedingly bad for discipline, sent for 
 the culprit and asked, " Well, what do you intend to do ? " 
 The laconic, but startling reply was, " Oh ! Just carry on ! " 
 Which shows that experimenting in punishments is not al- 
 ways safe. By this time the ship had settled down and the 
 
IN LIGHTER VEIN 303 
 
 offence mentioned died out, but not the memory of the seven 
 days " standing still Marathon," which is still a subject for 
 merriment. 
 
 Another experiment which had a much happier ending is 
 related of a ship attached to the Mediterranean fleet. The 
 captain was a very rigid total abstainer, but with a keen sense 
 of humour, as events will show. His fixed idea was that 
 every trouble in the Navy could be traced to grog. He was 
 therefore at great pains to turn as many of his ship's company 
 into total abstainers as he could, and to this end 10(6) was 
 lavishly awarded for every little slip that could be construed 
 into a " breach of discipline." Not that he wanted his men 
 to do 10 (b) punishment, but because Article 754 of the King's 
 Regulations and Admiralty Instructions says : 
 
 " Stoppage of grog, when used apart from No. 10, is to be 
 confined to offences comprised under the heading of Drunken- 
 ness." 
 
 So when io(b) was awarded the stoppage of grog held good, 
 and the other part of the punishment was not pressed. By 
 these means a goodly part of the ship's company were com- 
 pulsory abstainers while on board. 
 
 Christmas was coming along, and the sea men, like other men, 
 looked forward to a little extra cheer, both solid and liquid, 
 on that occasion, and it is the custom in most ships to allow 
 a pint of beer out of the canteen funds on that day. It 
 was quite certain that such a luxury would not be allowed in 
 this case, and as a large number would be under punishment 
 as far as stoppage of grog was concerned, liquid refreshment 
 promised to be fairly scarce on Christmas Day. 
 
 A few days before Christmas it was noticed that all the 
 messes were laying in stocks of bottles of preserved fruits 
 from the bum-boat. No notice was taken of this, as it was 
 
304 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 quite in the nature of things for the men to indulge in fruit- 
 pies and tarts on Christmas Day ; but two days before that 
 event the master- at-arms was up at the gangway when a 
 boy belonging to one of the messes came up from the bum- 
 boat, which was laying alongside, with two bottles of the said 
 fruit. As he reached the deck he stumbled and dropped 
 one of the bottles, smashing it, and the stench that arose left 
 no doubt as to what was the liquid preservative, for some 
 brands of "brandy" sold at Malta are very loud-voiced ! 
 
 The master-at-arms, who must have been a man of some 
 readiness, took no notice beyond cursing the boy for his 
 clumsiness and ordering him to " get that muck washed down 
 before the commander sees it." And as he allowed the boy 
 to take the other bottle down to his mess it was generally 
 considered he had not noticed what the bottle really contained. 
 
 That evening, after quarters, " Clear lower- deck " was 
 piped ; and when every soul was aft the captain made a speech 
 to the assembled ship's company. He told them that Christ- 
 mas was drawing near, and that he hoped they had nearly 
 completed their preparations, and that they would all spend 
 a very comfortable day ! Then the disperse sounded ; every 
 one went forward wondering what was the object of the 
 speech. When they reached the lower- deck they found the 
 ship's police had been very busy, every mess shelf, locker, 
 and corner had been ransacked, and no trace of a bottle of 
 fruit was left. 
 
 The first feeling was one of consternation, especially on 
 the part of the petty officers, for smuggling liquor on board 
 may be visited with a punishment up to ninety days hard 
 labour. But next day no defaulters were warned off, and rhe 
 master-at-arms and ship's police assumed an air of sublime 
 innocence, that was as puzzling as it was unusual. So on 
 Christmas morning the mess-deck was decorated as usual, and 
 
IN LIGHTER VEIN 305 
 
 one or two of the more daring spirits had seized the oppor- 
 tunity to throw out a hint on placards that an extra tot would 
 be acceptable. In due course the captain went the rounds, 
 accompanied by the officers, band, and usual " funny party." 
 
 After the rounds, " Clear lower- deck every one aft," 
 was piped, and when the men got aft the captain and all 
 the officers were there, and there was a table rigged, and on 
 the table were all the bottles of preserved fruit. 
 
 As soon as the master-at-arms had reported " Every one 
 aft," the captain commenced : 
 
 " My object in bringing the ship's company aft is to wish 
 you, on behalf of the officers and myself, a very merry Christ- 
 mas. When going the rounds a few moments since, I noticed 
 among the decorations, on which I heartily compliment you, 
 many suggestions that a little extra liquid refreshment would 
 be acceptable. 
 
 " Now, you are all well aware that I hold very pronounced 
 views on the drink question ; but this is a time of general 
 good- will, so I have decided to relax my views in face of the 
 generally expressed wish of you men for an extra tot. For- 
 tunately I have recently come into possession of a fairly 
 large consignment of a special brand of ahem ! fruit brandy, 
 and my desire is that you should drink my health and the 
 health of the officers in this choice liqueur. 
 
 " I have consulted the doctor on this matter, and he is 
 of opinion that it would not be wise for all the younger men 
 to partake of this liqueur : therefore the caterers of messes 
 will drink mine and the officers' health on behalf of their 
 messmates ; and as the doctor is further of opinion that rum 
 would not mix well with this potent spirit, it will not be ad- 
 visable to serve out the daily allowance of rum till the even- 
 ing, when the effect of the fruit brandy will have had time to 
 work off. 
 
 " The steward and his staff will issue this refreshment 
 here on the quarter-deck, and as the messes are called they 
 20 
 
306 OUR FIGHTING j_SEAJ_MEN 
 
 will step forward, the caterer, before drinking, saying, ' On 
 behalf of my messmates, I wish the captain and officers a 
 very merry Christmas.' Steward, carry on, please." 
 
 And there, on the quarter- deck, this exquisite farce was 
 carried through to its conclusion. As the mess number 
 was called all the men belonging to it fell in by the table, 
 when the steward handed the caterer of the mess a tiny liqueur 
 glass full of the liquid, before drinking which he repeated 
 the formula referred to. 
 
 At the completion of the ceremony the remainder was 
 taken to the gangway, where each bottle was broken by the 
 master- at- arms before being conveyed to the deep ; the 
 disperse sounded, followed by "Pipe down." At 7.30 p.m. 
 the bugle sounded off "Nancy Dawson," and off went the cook's 
 of messes for the grog, and it was not till they were discussing 
 it that they realised the colossal joke that had been played 
 on them : then shouts of laughter rent the mess- deck, till 
 some one shouted, "Let's go aft and give the old man three 
 cheers " ; and that is just what they did. The officer of the 
 watch was suddenly startled to see hundreds of laughing 
 men rushing aft, where they cheered themselves hoarse. So 
 ended an incident which, in the hands of a " strict discipli- 
 narian," would have resolved itself into wholesale disratings, 
 imprisonment, and open disaffection ; instead of which it 
 brought officers and men to a much better appreciation of 
 each other, and made possible a happy commission ! The 
 captain, in his earnest desire to promote temperance, had 
 overstepped the mark, and probably he realised it ; anyway, 
 history records that io(b) and other punishments disappeared, 
 and for the remainder of her commission she was known as 
 a " happy ship." This is only a fragment of the light and 
 happy side of naval life, and shows what is possible where 
 the silken glove covers the iron hand. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE ? 
 
 In the matter of naval preparations, whatever may be thought of 
 military preparations, the heart of the people is perfectly sound. They 
 would as readily add another ten millions a year to the Navy Estimates 
 as they would five. The Spectator. 
 
 THAT has been the weakness of the British people. They 
 will pour out their millions ad lib., they will rejoice with an 
 exceeding great rejoicing when they are told that their ships 
 outnumber all other Powers' by two to one, and there their 
 interest ends, everything else they take for granted. Fur- 
 thermore, they persuade themselves that as long as they find 
 money to build ships, they will never be faced with the ne- 
 cessity to fight for what they already possess. In that 
 respect we are ceasing to be a live nation ; we are like the 
 elderly financier or merchant who, having attained to a 
 position of affluence by the struggles and denials of earlier 
 days, only wants to doze away the evening of his life in 
 somnolent ease, with all his possessions secured to him. 
 
 " British statesmen and the British public, except for 
 some minute section of historians or students of political 
 science, regard war always as the ultima ratio. They look 
 upon it as something to be avoided wherever possible some- 
 thing which is not to be spoken of, or even dreamt of, till 
 every other means of settling a quarrel has been exhausted. 
 In the main, that is, war is considered entirely as a matter 
 of defence. We keep up our armaments and make our pre- 
 307 
 
308 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 parations solely in order to defend our rights and our pos- 
 sessions. We hold ourselves ready to deal with attempts 
 to invade these islands or any part of our possessions, to 
 repel them, and to make good our own. At the present day 
 it is literally true that no responsible statesman ever thinks 
 of regarding war except as a method of preserving the British 
 Empire. No one ever thinks of war, or the threat of war, as 
 an instrument of policy, a method of accomplishing political 
 aspirations, or of dominating other independent nations 
 and of bringing them under our influence or within our sphere 
 of policy. The use of ships or armies as handmaids of state- 
 craft is with us a wholly obsolete idea." l 
 
 The world in general, and Germany in particular, is not 
 willing to acquiesce in this happy state of retirement coupled 
 with the holding of all we have. Germany, with all the energy 
 and vigour of youth, longs to take first place among the 
 nations, to dominate the world and spread German culture 
 and influence, and to be able to say the final word on a hun- 
 dred different questions. She also longs to build up an over- 
 seas Empire ; but when she casts her eyes around she sees all 
 the fair places of the world either under British sway or pro- 
 tected by the Monroe doctrine. Her Army dominates the 
 continent of Europe, but history has taught her that sea 
 power and sea power alone can give her the position she 
 longs for ; therefore she is creating with feverish activity a 
 Navy that she hopes will win for her what she wants. 
 Writing from Berlin in March last (1910) to The Navy, the 
 organ of the United States Navy League, their special cor- 
 respondent said : 
 
 " The new German Navy is intended primarily as an 
 irresistible, iron-shod battering-ram with which to smash the 
 enemy out of existence. Everything is subordinated to this 
 principle. Gunnery training is consistently conducted under 
 
 1 The Spectator, July 9, 1910. 
 
WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 309 
 
 battle conditions. The fleets never manoeuvre save in battle 
 formation. The German Admiralty fills in its spare time by 
 creating new plans of attack against every conceivable com- 
 bination of foes, and it is the welcome duty of each officer to 
 put these plans to the test day after day. 
 
 " Nowhere, perhaps, is the fierce enthusiasm of the German 
 naval man seen to better advantage than in the torpedo 
 flotillas. We have all heard of the daring, devil-may-care 
 British sub-lieutenant who takes his little steel cockleshell 
 out in the teeth of a howling gale, pirouettes joyfully about 
 the jagged rocks of the Irish coast, and does his twenty-eight 
 knots in a crowded Channel route, showing not a light. 
 Having participated in one of these nocturnal excursions, I 
 am in a position to appreciate the fascination of the work 
 after a time ! This enthusiasm is at least equalled in the 
 German flotillas. It is a well-known fact that, in spite of 
 their splendidly solid construction and superb machinery, 
 German destroyers are continually in need of overhauling 
 and minor repairs. Why ! Simply because they are driven 
 to death, worked at high speed in all weathers, and wellnigh 
 shaken to pieces by vibration. Far from discouraging such 
 strenuosity, it is encouraged and rewarded by the Admiralty. 
 
 "It is easy to forecast the tremendous role that German 
 destroyers will play in war time. The commanding officers 
 have their orders to steam to within pistol range before dis- 
 charging their deadly missiles, so that a miss may be rendered 
 improbable. And there is but little doubt of their executing 
 these orders literally. The new German torpedo is an excep- 
 tionally powerful type, carrying a heavy charge of gun-cotton 
 and reaching a speed of thirty knots. The range is said to be 
 four thousand yards. 
 
 " Gunnery, as might be expected, is the object of persistent, 
 detailed study, both in theory and practice. It is noteworthy 
 that only on German ships are there auxiliary fire-control 
 stations, these being behind stout armour. The mast fire- 
 control stations are almost certain to suffer destruction in the 
 first fifteen minutes' firing, and the auxiliary stations are 
 
310 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 designed especially for medium-range work. This is only 
 one instance of the deadly readiness for war which charac- 
 terises the Kaiser's fighting fleet. 
 
 " As to efficiency, I do not hesitate to say that, to all out- 
 ward appearances, the German sea man is equal, if not 
 superior, to his American contemporary. The long-service 
 system has thus far given the British bluejacket a lead. 
 While there may be more initiative and personal ' vim ' in 
 the American tar, his training cannot compare with that given 
 to the German bluejacket. From the moment he arrives at 
 the swearing-in depot to his release at the end of three years' 
 service, he is subjected to an absolutely unique course of 
 instruction in every conceivable feature of the sea man's art. 
 There is, perhaps, none of the romance or jovial freedom of 
 tradition. It is all grim, heart-breaking work, but after the 
 first few months he begins to enjoy it, and rapidly develops 
 into a perfectly capable, handy man. His officers are beyond 
 all praise, and the brutality of the German barrack-yard is 
 unknown afloat. Something of the German sailor's keen 
 devotion to his duties may be put down to the fact that the 
 Emperor personally attends the swearing-in ceremonies, 
 and addresses the marine conscripts in a few appropriate 
 words. He exhorts them to do their duty for the honour of 
 the Fatherland, and pointedly reminds them that the nation 
 looks to each one of them for the defence of its interests in 
 distant parts of the world. The conscript goes aboard his 
 ship thrilling with the half -superstitious devotion to the 
 Imperial Head that is assiduously fostered in every German 
 school, and determines to prove his sincerity. The result 
 will be seen when the hour of action arrives." 
 
 My own observations have led me to the same conclusion. 
 Germany is not blessed or cursed with " glorious naval tra- 
 ditions," neither has her Navy had a century of peace to 
 develop a pseudo- discipline that expects an intelligent man 
 to study wireless telegraphy or some other scientific subject 
 all day, and then contentedly stand in a dark corner for 
 
WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 311 
 
 two hours each night because the " S " of " Sovereign " on 
 his cap-ribbon was not " over the nose." 
 
 The German Navy is a business proposition all the time. 
 Life on board both a German and a British war-ship is hard 
 and exacting ; in the latter this is supplemented by a code 
 of petty restrictions and punishments that have no relation 
 to true discipline or war preparation, and only lead to a 
 spirit of discontent and unrest. The Kaiser is too practical 
 a student of human nature to tolerate such a weakening 
 force in the weapon he is forging, hence the personal interest 
 he takes in the swearing in of marine conscripts. He is too 
 far-seeing a statesman not to realise that, sooner or later, 
 that weapon must come to death-grips with the British 
 Navy, and that on the result the fate of the Germans, as of 
 the British Empire, will hang, as an unsuccessful German 
 war would bring the House of Hohenzollern down with a 
 crash, and add another republic to the Powers of Europe. 
 
 Germany stands to-day where we stood in the past on 
 the threshold of her future. In those days we looked on 
 war, or the threat of war, not as a means of holding what we 
 had, but as a means of wresting from others what they had. 
 That is the German position to-day, or as The Spectator 
 puts it : 
 
 " German statesmen consciously and distinctly consider war, 
 the threat of war, and the manipulation of sea power and of 
 land power as instruments of policy. They would hear with 
 astonishment any one who should assert that it was unfair or 
 derogatory to make such a suggestion in regard to them. 
 German statesmen study Clausewitz, and look upon his 
 maxims of war and statecraft as irrefutable, while ours do 
 not. The fundamental principle of Clausewitz's great work on 
 the metaphysics of war is that policy and statecraft must go 
 hand in hand with strategy. To put it in another way, the 
 
312 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 business of the military authorities is to prepare an efficient 
 instrument which can be used by the statesman as the lever 
 with which he is to move the world. The notion that war is 
 to be limited to defending one's own country and preventing 
 other persons from interfering with one's rights is, by inference, 
 scouted as a piece of primitive barbarism. The kind of 
 glorified churlishness under which a nation proclaims : ' You 
 leave me alone and I'll let you alone, but if you hit me I'll 
 crack your skull/ is not of any use to students of the school 
 of Clausewitz the school to which, as we have said, every 
 German statesman in some sort belongs. To them such talk 
 seems nonsense, either in the naked form in which we have 
 just expressed it, or concealed, as they would say, under the 
 pompous alias of ' international righteousness.' ' 
 
 " International righteousness " did not build up the British 
 Empire, neither will it hold it together. The position of 
 Great Britain and Germany to-day is exactly similar to that 
 which led to the Dutch wars, and so compendiously stated 
 by Monk, Duke of Albemarle, when he said : "It was idle 
 to dispute as to the rights and wrongs of the quarrels between 
 the two nations, since they essentially amounted to this : 
 that the English wanted a larger share of the trade enjoyed 
 by the Dutch." History is repeating itself only to-day, the 
 conditions are reversed ; or, to paraphrase Monk, "It is 
 idle to dispute as to the rights and wrongs of the quarrels 
 between the two nations, since they essentially amount to 
 this : that the Germans want a larger share of the trade 
 enjoyed by the English." And what was won by the sword 
 must be held by the sword. If one thought that Germany 
 would be so successful with this country in a policy of threat 
 as she^was with Russia over the Austro-Balkan affair, then 
 one would cry Ichabod, and say no more ; it is because of 
 the belief that when the time comes we shall unsheath the 
 sword that this is written. 
 
WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 313 
 
 And we shall be contributing to our own obsequies if we 
 think that the glorious traditions of the past will help us. 
 Tradition might be as disastrous as it was in 1812, when we 
 sailed forth to crush the tiny Navy of the United States, 
 which had dared to throw the gauntlet to us, yet, 
 
 " In seven months/' says Mr. Roosevelt, " Great Britain 
 had suffered from the Infant Navy of the United States in 
 five single- ship contests severer imperial loss than she had 
 suffered in all the single- ship contests of the preceding 
 twenty years' warfare with the nations of Europe." 
 
 And the Times of February n, 1815, was bitterly com- 
 plaining of the American sloops-of-war and privateers that 
 
 " They daily enter in among our convoys, seize prizes in 
 sight of those who should afford protection, and if pursued 
 put on their sea- wings and laugh at their clumsy English 
 pursuers. To what is this owing ? Cannot we build ships ? 
 It must indeed be encouraging to Mr. Madison to read the 
 logs of his cruisers. If they fight they are sure to conquer ; 
 if they fly they are sure to escape." 
 
 The Times was unable to give the reply to its own question 
 " To what is this owing ? " If it had been able, it would have 
 replied " Tradition ! " When Blake swooped down on to 
 Santa Cruz he destroyed fort and ship by means of accurate 
 gun-fire, poured in by citizen sea men whose patriotism and 
 intelligence could be relied on. Those who came after 
 destroyed patriotism, and so dared not rely on intelligence ; 
 they never, therefore, taught the men to shoot and destroy 
 the enemy from a distance, but, instead, ran their ships 
 alongside the enemy, then forced their men to fire the guns 
 as quickly as possible under threat of punishment or death. 
 As the years went on this became the settled policy of the 
 Navy, and accurate shooting, except in a ship here and there, 
 
314 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 became a lost art. How desperately bad the shooting from 
 British ships ultimately became was shown at Porto Praya 
 when the American sloop Levant put into that place and 
 anchored only a couple of hundred yards from a heavy 
 battery on the shore. Three British frigates the Leander, 
 50 ; Newcastle, 50 ; and Acasta, 40 put in after her and opened 
 fire as soon as they got inside the harbour, while the British 
 prisoners on shore fired the guns of the battery at her. Not 
 one of the British ships was more than two hundred yards from 
 the Levant, who was at anchor and did not resist, the whole 
 being in smooth water, yet so bad was the firing that not a 
 man was killed on board the American ship by the combined 
 broadsides of the three frigates, the shots simply damaged 
 the town in her rear. The American naval officers of 1812, 
 recognising the traditional tactics of the British ships, set 
 themselves to circumvent it by teaching their men the art 
 of long-range shooting, with what results we have seen. Had 
 America possessed a Navy in 1812, only one- third the strength 
 of our own, she might comfortably have taken over the 
 British Empire as a going concern. Her ships were manned 
 with sea men of British stock, possessing all the courage and 
 tenacity of the race, to which was added applied intelligence. 
 Our boasted yard-arm to yard-arm fighting did not apply, 
 for the Americans destroyed our ships and mowed down our 
 men long before it could be brought into operation. Yard- 
 arm to yard-arm fighting, originally introduced because men 
 could not be driven to fight intelligently, at last became the 
 Moloch of the Navy : "an idol god worshipped with human 
 sacrifices." Is " discipline " to be the Moloch of the modern 
 Navy ? 
 
 Let us clear our minds of all cant, and ask ourselves fairly 
 and squarely, " What is discipline ? " Captain Mahan has 
 just told us, with brutal directness, that 
 
WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 315 
 
 "It is the privilege of insular democracies that they can 
 pursue the quiet tenor of their way behind the bulwark of a 
 fleet efficient in numbers that is, in great preponderance 
 as well as in intrinsic worth. But note that a State thus 
 favoured is militarily in the same position essentially as one 
 that hires an army of mercenaries. The only difference is 
 that the sea men are fellow-citizens : an immense distinction, 
 it would be granted, but it does not invalidate the fact that 
 the mass of citizens are paying a body of men to do their 
 fighting for them. It follows that the least the mass can do 
 in self-respect, as for security, is to pay amply and timely 
 for the efficiency of the body they thus employ. If they do 
 not pay ' with their persons/ as the French say, they should 
 with their cash." 
 
 There is much more than cash, however, demanded by the 
 fellow- citizens whom we have hired to do our fighting. During 
 the last decade reform has followed reform, and concession 
 has followed concession ; yet the unrest grows. Were this 
 unrest among the younger men who had not had time to 
 settle down to naval conditions, we could accept it as transient 
 and harmless, but it is most acute among the warrant-officers 
 and petty officers of the fleet. The former, who are the very 
 pick of the lower- deck, attain to their position at from twenty- 
 five to twenty- eight years of age, and find before them a long 
 dreary wait of twenty years ere they can get their next step 
 chief warrant. Ships grow in size, and the warrants' duties 
 and responsibilities increase and multiply, yet their prospects 
 remain the same. Quite recently they have tried to mitigate 
 the long dreary wait of twenty years by asking the Admiralty 
 to create a greater percentage of chief warrants than at 
 present exist, only to be met with a blank refusal. The 
 petty officers have long since banded themselves into socie- 
 ties, with joint committees representing the various classes, 
 while delegates from the three ports meet and discuss things 
 
3i6 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 in general, and issue an Annual Appeal. As is only natural 
 in movements of this kind, men get in whose objects are 
 altogether unworthy, and they make their voices heard through 
 these Appeals. Outside this small flaw the Appeals represent 
 the genuine unrest that exists. For some years I have closely 
 followed this unrest, vigorously contesting certain phases 
 of it. I have attended meetings of petty officers, discussed 
 it with hundreds of men of all ratings, always to be faced 
 with the hard, ominous fact that the time has arrived when 
 naval laws and customs are altogether out of touch with the 
 requirements of the modern Navy and the temperament of 
 the latter-day fighting sea man. 
 
 Curiously enough, various Press writers who interest them- 
 selves in things naval are repeating the errors of 1797, and 
 ascribing this interest to political influence the growth of 
 Socialism in the Navy. This we have been told is " the canker 
 of the service." Does Socialism exist in the Navy ? Un- 
 questionably it does to the same extent and in exactly the 
 same way as Conservatism, Liberalism, or any other political 
 faith, each of which is just as much a " canker " as the 
 others. This Socialist bogy seems to be the outcome of 
 the number of Parliamentary complaints from the lower-deck, 
 which of course implies disaffection. The lower- deck is 
 disaffected, and the disaffection will and must grow year by 
 year as the intelligence of the lower-deck increases. But 
 this is not on account of Socialism, but because " naval 
 discipline " has the same foundation to-day, when our ships- 
 of-war are manned with the pick of the nation, as when they 
 were manned from prison hulks and with the help of the press- 
 gang. You cannot expect men who have sufficient intelligence 
 to understand aviation, wireless telegraphy, torpedoes, sub- 
 marine navigation, modern gunnery, etc., etc., to be silently 
 amenable to such conditions. 
 
WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 317 
 
 Happily, in the majority of ships, naval officers read the 
 Regulations with modern eyes and in a modern spirit ; even 
 then they gall the modern sea man. In ships where officers 
 care only for the letter and the spirit in which those Regula- 
 tions were originally written, disaffection invariably declares 
 itself in an open way. This sort of thing is inevitable under 
 present conditions. When some old Act of Parliament, 
 entirely out of touch with the spirit of the times, is raked 
 up for a special purpose witness the Treasury's recent at- 
 tempt to collect a debt through an old Act public opinion, 
 intelligently expressed, acts as a gyroscope and brings matters 
 back to a level. In the Navy, especially in those ships where 
 " strict discipline " prevails, public opinion is ruthlessly 
 stamped out, and this safety-valve being screwed down, 
 steam escapes in other directions and blows things overboard ! 
 " Strict discipline," in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred, spells 
 petty tyranny ; and these open signs of disaffection, instead 
 of being put down to a growth of Socialism, should be accepted 
 for what they are storm- signals of wrong conditions. The 
 nation will do well to grasp the simple truth, viz. that the 
 personnel of the Navy has so completely changed that it 
 is quite out of touch and out of sympathy with naval laws, 
 and that history on this account is repeating itself. I am 
 not suggesting that a repetition of 1797 is likely or even 
 possible : there are too many safety-valves for that, and this 
 continual questioning in Parliament is one. This, however, 
 only applies to peace ; should we go to war the safety-valves 
 would all be screwed down, and the question is, Would the 
 machine bear the pressure ? 
 
 We go on counting up our Dreadnoughts year by year, and 
 imagine that as long as we have a superiority in numbers 
 we are quite safe, yet at least one- sixth of our ships are 
 afflicted with that type of discipline which, as Admiral Sir 
 
3i8 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 D. H. Bosanquet says, is sufficient, when the crisis comes, to 
 take them to the bottom in ten minutes. 
 
 A hundred years ago a ship could be run alongside an enemy 
 and a disaffected crew " encouraged " to load and fire the 
 guns. It would hardly be possible, however, to send officers 
 vested with plenary powers into turrets and casemates on 
 punitive expeditions for the purpose of " encouraging " accu- 
 rate shooting at ten thousand yards ! If Great Britain is wise, 
 she will recognise hard facts, and try and solve the problem 
 before war comes ; not by a few patchwork operations, but 
 by a thorough overhaul. Socialism, as far as the Navy is 
 concerned, is only a poor scarecrow with an empty turnip for 
 a head useful enough, no doubt, for a sensational halfpenny 
 Press to rave against at election times ; to hold it up as the 
 cause of service discontent is to be either woefully ignorant 
 or wilfully blind. The lower-deck is healthily patriotic : 
 it is simply asking that the " discipline " and inner life of 
 the Navy shall be brought up to date. 
 
 One can imagine the volume of protest that will be hurled 
 at these suggestions, for the British public love to think that 
 all is well with its fighting sea men, and " My Lords " can 
 harf ly be expected to admit that the state of chaos and unrest 
 thrc I have depicted exists. But " My Lords " have not 
 always been infallible guides. In 1800 a Mr. Bell submitted 
 a memorial to the Admiralty calling attention to " the prac- 
 ticability of, and utility of, steam as a marine propelling 
 power against tides and winds, and every obstruction in 
 rivers and seas, where there was a depth of water for vessels." 
 "My Lords" replied that: "after careful consideration of 
 his proposition, they had concluded that it would be of no 
 value in transmarine navigation." 
 
 Nelson was present at the Board meeting when Mr. Bell's 
 proposition was discussed, and at once seeing its importance 
 
WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 319 
 
 said, " My Lords and Gentlemen, if you do not adopt Mr. 
 Bell's scheme, other nations will, and, in the end, vex every 
 vein of this Empire." But " My Lords " were adamant. 
 When steam did come they dolefully prophesied the downfall 
 of the Empire on that account. That experience has been 
 repeated a hundred times. There is a story current in naval 
 circles how when Captain Percy Scott paid off the cruiser 
 Scylla in 1899, he went to the Admiralty and with some 
 elation and pride laid before " My Lords " the little contri- 
 vance with which he had taught his men to shoot (the " Dot- 
 ter "), and which was destined to revolutionise the gunnery 
 of the Navy. " My Lords " gazed on it with a supercilious 
 air, and said pityingly, " Put it down there, Captain Scott; 
 we have no time now to go into the merits of your gilguys." 
 " Scott's gilguys " are mentioned in the Navy to-day, and 
 with reason, for they have taught it how to shoot ! These 
 are things of the past, and are merely mentioned in anticipa- 
 tion of the reception these suggestions are likely to receive. 
 Were it the Army, we could afford to let things slide and trust 
 to our luck to " muddle through somehow." But there 
 will be "no muddling through " in the next naval war, which 
 is as inevitable as fate. Staring at us, with cold relentless 
 eyes across the waters of the North Sea, is our future anta- 
 gonist. In due course we shall join issue, and it will be a 
 struggle of Titans. There will be no weary waiting of battered 
 and befouled hulls cruising month in and month out in search 
 of the enemy, only to fight indecisive actions when he is found. 
 The fate of the Empire will probably rest on the results of 
 the first action, and that result will depend entirely on the 
 personnel, for, " The result of an action (after the Admiral 
 in command of a fleet has placed that fleet in the position 
 of advantage) will depend on the captains of guns of the fleet, 
 upon whose accuracy of eye, readiness of resource, and strict 
 
320 OUR FIGHTING SEA MEN 
 
 discipline, the fate of the Empire will depend." And the 
 captains of guns are helpless without the willing and in- 
 telligent co-operation of their gun-crews and disaffection, 
 however small, must spell disaster, and disaffection can only 
 be dispelled by bringing the laws of the Navy more in touch 
 with the laws of the land than they are at present. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 
 
 PART I 
 
 FOR some years past occasional letters or paragraphs have 
 appeared in various naval periodicals advocating increased 
 opportunities for the men of the Navy to attain commissioned 
 rank. 
 
 Early in 1910 Mr. McKenna was questioned in the House of 
 Commons as to his attitude towards proposals framed to 
 enable poorerboys than at present to enter the Navy as officers, 
 either by cheapening the cost to parents of keeping a boy at 
 Osborne College, or by granting Osborne Scholarships to 
 Board School boys. 
 
 He replied that the Admiralty had no objections to the 
 first proposal if the country were prepared to pay for it, 
 and that they had already made overtures to certain County 
 Councils with regard to the second one. 
 
 It is not too much to say that the service was utterly 
 astounded at this latter piece of news, and that it raised a 
 storm of adverse criticism in naval circles. 
 
 A flood of discussion broke out in the ward-rooms of the 
 fleet and in the columns of the service papers. 
 
 It speedily became evident that service opposition was 
 not directed against the proposal to modify the present 
 system of filling the executive ranks, but solely against 
 the particular proposal to recruit officers by Board School 
 Scholarships. 
 
 Further, it appeared that this opposition was due, not to 
 
 any inherent class prejudice, but to the fact that the service, 
 
 almost unknown to itself, had slowly and quietly grown 
 
 ready, almost anxious, to adopt a programme, real though 
 
 21 321 
 
322 APPENDIX 
 
 still undefined, which under the name of " Lower-deck 
 Promotion " had matured in its midst. 
 
 This programme had for its object the provision of facilities 
 by which the more brilliant men of the lower-deck could, 
 while still young enough to adapt themselves to their altered 
 circumstances, be raised to commissioned rank and put 
 approximately on an equality as regards career and " seniority 
 for age " with those more fortunate officers who had entered 
 in the usual way. 
 
 It was felt that this programme, unformed and undefined 
 as it was, was threatened by the Admiralty proposal ; that 
 the latter would finally crush all hopes that the lower-deck 
 had formed of their ever-improving character, discipline, 
 and intelligence being recognised and rewarded ; that the 
 dream of seeing the corps of officers invigorated by a stream 
 of the finest blood from the lower-deck would be shattered 
 for ever ; that the ever-rising standard required of recruits 
 would come to a standstill, and then slide swiftly down 
 when the notice was put up over the recruiting office : 
 
 Only second-rate men required ; 
 First-class men apply at the Board School. 
 
 Hence the storm of opposition, and hence the silence of 
 oblivion into which these Board-School-Scholarship pro- 
 posals have since been dropped. 
 
 But the voice of the service did not content itself with 
 mere destructive criticism. As soon as the Navy had had 
 time to realise the nature of its objections, practical proposals 
 began to be put forward in all places and journals and from 
 all ranks. These all tended in one direction, " Lower-deck 
 Promotion." There have been wide differences of opinion ; 
 schemes both vague and detailed have been put forward. 
 Side issues, such as the improvement of W.O.'s status, have 
 been dragged in with the hope that they, too, might benefit 
 " when something is done." But irrespective of their source 
 or motive, all proposals had this one view in common, that 
 fresh regulations are required by which petty or warrant- 
 officers can rise much more speedily to lieutenants' rank 
 
 AND ONWARDS. 
 
 Many commissioned officers who, a year ago, were almost 
 alone in their messes in suggesting that such reforms were 
 matters of immediate and practical importance, have now 
 the pleasure of finding themselves in ward-rooms in which 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 323 
 
 there is not a single dissentient voice from the main pro- 
 position, so marked has been the maturing of opinion. In 
 fact, at the present moment all these proposals are ripe 
 for collection into one coherent whole, and the problem itself 
 for treatment. 
 
 Although the need of reform is generally admitted, it may 
 be as well briefly to re-state the case. 
 
 It rests on a large number of different considerations, all 
 pointing in the same direction. 
 
 There is the claim of the men to better outlets for their 
 ambitions and energies. Undoubtedly at the present time 
 we have each year a large number of men of the highest 
 ability and character who reach the top of their lowly tree ; 
 here they stagnate. Even neglecting their own legitimate 
 claims that their careers should not virtually be cut short 
 at twenty-five or thirty, the very interests of the service 
 demand that such a waste of energy should cease. 
 
 Then there is the fear of many educated men, both officers 
 and others, that our commissioned ranks are being recruited 
 from too narrow a class, the wealthy class in fact. Then 
 there is anxiety lest with our new system of training officers, 
 in which scholastic work is emphasised so much more than 
 of old, we may not be rearing a class that will no longer 
 deserve the proud name of " Sea men," and that may fail in 
 the day of trial. It is only by comparison that a judgment 
 on this can be passed, and what better check could we have 
 against such a tendency than that these, the products of our 
 theoretical training, should work side by side as comrades 
 with the finest of those who by sheer practical merit had 
 raised themselves to petty or warrant rank before their 
 elevation to the quarter-deck ? Lastly, for the thoughtful 
 few, there remains one cogent reason which even alone would 
 necessitate immediate and most careful attention being 
 given to the recruiting of our officers. 
 
 For some years past, for good or ill, democracy has been 
 insurgent. Now the name of " Sea men," of which we are 
 so justly proud, denotes not merely men who move over 
 the face of the waters, but men who are trained to look 
 ahead, to foresee the coming wind ; and who, too wise to 
 try and bluff or defy the element they cannot control, prepare 
 for it and turn it to their own advantage. 
 
 The wind of democracy is sweeping on. Already, for 
 good or ill, one fine stately ship is in distress. Who can 
 
324 APPENDIX 
 
 doubt, if they had foreseen its coming, the Lords might 
 have got their reconstruction over years ago, and that the 
 very storm which, at the time of writing, threatens, for good 
 or evil, to engulf them, might have served merely to establish 
 them more firmly as the safeguards of the nation. 
 
 But they were not sea men, and so, fortunately or other- 
 wise, the wind caught them with not one single preparation 
 made. 
 
 Turn now to our own case, leaving aside all considerations 
 of right or wrong, or of the interests of the service or of 
 classes. Already the line of foam is on the horizon, as 
 evidenced by the questions and suggestions in the House of 
 Commons. Already the ship feels the swell that goes before 
 the wind, as evidenced by the gentle groaning and creaking 
 of the hull, the reasoned, plaintive, or passionate appeals 
 from our men of the lower-deck that appear now and then 
 iii print appeals "to be given a chance ! " 
 
 There is no hurry, no cause for alarm : the Navy is not on 
 the verge of revolution or Socialism. We could, perhaps, 
 preserve the status quo for many years ; but the sea man 
 does not wait till he is dismasted before taking action. It's 
 simply time to " Call the Captain," and report the wind is 
 rising. Then, under his direction, we, the O.O.W.'s, can 
 make all snug and use the freshness of the gale to put us far 
 ahead of all competitors in the world-wide race for supremacy 
 of the sea. 
 
 " PLEASE, SIR, FROM THE OFFICERS OF THE WATCH, SIR ; 
 WILL YOU COME ON DECK, AS IT'S COMING ON TO BLOW ? " 
 
 Such are the arguments in favour of a change ; against 
 them only one consideration has ever seriously been ad- 
 vanced : it is that men of the lower-deck will feel them- 
 selves ill at ease and socially out of place in the aristocratic 
 atmosphere of the ward-room. Even though it were true, 
 this argument would be quite negligible when weighed in 
 the scales against the overwhelming contentions sketched 
 above. But whatever our weaknesses may be, of education, 
 habits, or manners, we can at least say proudly that we are 
 not snobs ; and that if a self-made man is to feel uncom- 
 fortable in our company, then nowhere in the world can he 
 rise in comfort. But the case is not worth arguing. As 
 soon as the contention has been voiced it has always been 
 swept aside as a lying insult by the indignant protests of 
 the great mass of honourable and manly naval officers. 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 325 
 
 The principle being conceded that "something must be 
 done," it remains to formulate a practical proposal. 
 
 From what has already been said it will have been seen 
 that proposals fall, broadly speaking, under two headings 
 Revolutionary and Constructional. The Revolutionary 
 proposals are those which, by abolishing the charges at 
 Osborne College, or by the granting of Board School Scholar- 
 ships, propose to introduce direct into the ranks of our officers 
 an element at present entirely foreign. Apart from the fact 
 that such a solution would not meet all the conditions of 
 the problem, and that it would deal a permanent and irrepar- 
 ably disastrous blow at the quality of the personnel of our 
 lower-deck, it will be evident that it would involve the com- 
 plete negation and even reversal of the educational policy 
 which the Admiralty have adopted. 
 
 This policy, adopted only after mature deliberation, with 
 the approval of and after consultation with the highest 
 educational experts in the land, aims at abolishing cramming. 
 
 These experts hold that, provided a very moderate educa- 
 tional standard is ensured by a quasi-qualifying examination, 
 the best selection of future officers can be made by an intelli- 
 gent discrimination after an interview with each candidate. 
 
 Now the reduction or abolition of fees at Osborne must 
 inevitably be accompanied by the resurrection of entry by 
 competitive examination. Unwarranted charges of favour- 
 itism have even now been made against the Selection Board, 
 though the candidates are in the main all of one social class. 
 If all classes were admitted the numbers would inevitably 
 be much increased, and such a system could not stand for 
 a day against the fire of abuse which it would attract from 
 the democratic parents of rejected candidates. Again, 
 taking the scholarship proposals, it is evident that their 
 very essence is competition preceded by cramming, pro- 
 portionately more desperate and ruinous to the brain than 
 any the Navy has hitherto known, as the ratio of candidates 
 to vacancies would be greater than before. 
 
 It has been seen that these revolutionary proposals rule 
 themselves out of court on other counts counts which led 
 to the outburst of opposition and to their relegation to silence ; 
 but it is always best to kill a scotched snake ; and on this 
 principle it is scarcely superfluous to point out that their 
 adoption would cover the Admiralty with ridicule, and fully 
 justify a charge that they were without settled principle or 
 
326 APPENDIX 
 
 policy, mere shuttlecocks tossed to and fro by the whim, 
 first of a man, then of a party. 
 
 Constructional proposals involve utilising our present 
 naval personnel to the best advantage by suitably amending 
 our present regulations. 
 
 Now all the proposals of this type that have ever been put 
 forward involve promoting either warrant or petty officers, 
 or leading or able or ordinary sea men, or even boys, to either 
 midshipman, sub-lieutenant, or lieutenant that is to say, 
 they differ as to precisely WHERE the lower-deck tree of 
 promotion should be tapped. Apart from this they differ on 
 a number of details, but only on one other matter of radical 
 principle, which will be dealt with in due course. 
 
 What then are the considerations which should decide this 
 first and all-important point ? 
 
 They would seem to be two. 
 
 The younger the men are at the time of separation from 
 their fellows the more easily will they adapt themselves to 
 their new conditions. 
 
 The higher their rank, within certain limits, the more reliable 
 will be the operation of any system of selection. 
 
 The first of these considerations needs no explanation. 
 The second is not so completely true. 
 
 The step from boy to ordinary sea man, or from O.S. to A.B., 
 involves practically no selection ; the step from able sea man 
 to leading sea man involves a technical examination and also 
 individual selection of the candidate by his own officers from 
 amongst a large number of apparently equally eligible men. 
 It thus involves the possession of character and executive 
 fitness as well as of technical ability. The step from L.S. to 
 petty officer involves the same qualities, but to a higher 
 degree. The step from P.O. to warrant-officer mainly involves 
 the voluntary principle, coupled with considerable educa- 
 tional acquirements. But as candidates for the commissioned 
 ranks will necessarily be volunteers, and as they must 
 necessarily be examined according to an educational standard 
 considerably in advance of that required for W.O., it is 
 obvious that there is no gain in going so high up the tree as 
 to the warrant rank. It might be argued that it would be 
 useful to an officer to have had experience as a W.O., but 
 as these officers' duties are arranged at present, the value 
 of such experience is more than doubtful. 
 
 So from a consideration of the qualifications involved in 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 327 
 
 gaining each step, the ranks from amongst which the " tapping 
 point " must be chosen have narrowed themselves to two 
 those of leading sea man and petty officer. 
 
 At this point it is perhaps as well to make a digression 
 and dispose of a fallacy. 
 
 It is suggested by some, probably mainly interested persons, 
 that to give these new opportunities to petty officers would 
 be an injustice to the warrant rank. Undoubedly it would 
 be very hard luck on many an able warrant-officer to find he 
 had been born too soon ; but this particular piece of mis- 
 fortune falls to many a man. Their grievance too is purely 
 personal, and not worth counting against the interests of 
 the service. 
 
 Inevitably at whatever point the tapping takes place, even 
 if it were in the junior ranks of the W.O.'s themselves, there 
 will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in the ranks imme- 
 diately above. 
 
 This grievance is fallacious, because of a peculiarly tem- 
 porary character. From the moment that a promotion 
 scheme is started, all who become W.O.'s will have passed 
 the tapping point and had their chance of winning a higher 
 career by their own merit. Thus in a few years' time the 
 grievance will have been cured, and it should have no influence 
 whatever on the final selection of the point of tapping. 
 
 To return. In theory, the steps A.B. to L.S., or L.S. to 
 P.O., both ensure a man having all the qualities which are 
 desirable in an officer, except only the necessary educational 
 qualifications. But in practice the value of both these steps 
 is vitiated, at least from this special point of view, by the 
 number of rates which are given at depots. It is not for a 
 moment suggested that the present system is faulty, but 
 merely that as a consequence neither step by itself can be 
 accepted as an absolute guarantee of character and executive 
 fitness. 
 
 But though singly they are unsatisfactory, together they 
 practically preclude all possibility of an unworthy man 
 attaining petty officer's rank. Till recently, depot ratings 
 were not the only weak point in the system ; men whose 
 " faces fitted " could be rushed through from step to step 
 by a single officer in a single commission. But with the 
 reduction of the length of a commission, and the introduction 
 of a minimum period that a man must serve in each rank to 
 qualify him for the next, the Admiralty can congratulate 
 
3 :8 APPENDIX 
 
 themselves on having obtained a system which approaches 
 very near to perfection. 
 
 Even so, granting the high quality of our present P.O.'s, 
 it is not every one who is fit for a commission. But bearing 
 in mind that the P.O.'s rate involves no educational aptitude 
 we may neglect the puerile so-called educational test 
 and is purely a matter of character and executive ability, 
 it becomes evident that by lowering the age limit we can 
 raise indefinitely the standard of those who are to be con- 
 sidered eligible as regards character for the higher career. 
 It then only remains to devise means simultaneously to 
 ensure their educational fitness. 
 
 Further, if the educational requirements are such that a 
 man must, while still an able seaman, declare his ambition, 
 then the final touch is given to the system, in that such a 
 person will be a marked man, and his officers, who realise his 
 desire to take his place among them, can, by the exercise of 
 the powers of selection that they already possess, either 
 accelerate his career so as to allow him to reach the required 
 rank within the age limit, or else, without any hardship to 
 the man, just retard it so that he reaches P.O.'s rank only 
 at the ordinary age. Thus everything points clearly to the 
 conclusion that it is from petty officers that selection should 
 be made ; and numerous considerations, including the highly 
 important one that the younger the man is the better he can 
 adapt himself, all point to selection as soon after reaching 
 this rank as can possibly be managed. 
 
 It is sometimes fallaciously argued that a man's experience- 
 as P.O. would be of great value to him as an officer. But it 
 is on account of selection, not of experience, that it is advisable 
 to tap the P.O.'s rank. It is their experience of the lower- 
 deck, and not of taking charge, that will be of value. In the 
 matter of taking charge, what they learn as lieutenants, 
 among lieutenants, will very speedily outweigh any paltry 
 experience as P.O. ; and whatever value, if any, there maybe 
 in such experience will assuredly be conferred by their service 
 as leading sea men and as P.O.'s during the few weeks or 
 months preceding their separation. 
 
 So only one conclusion seems possible : Selection should 
 be made by competitive examination from among those who 
 reach petty officer's rank before attaining a certain low 
 age limit. 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 329, 
 
 EDUCATIONAL 
 
 This essential matter being settled, a number of details- 
 arise, comparatively unimportant in themselves, but of 
 which some mention must be made in order that the scheme 
 may be seen complete and in its entirety. 
 
 It is evident that by the time these men take their places- 
 as lieutenants at sea, their educational standard should be 
 approximately the same as that of the officers who will be 
 their comrades. 
 
 Apart from the fact that it is always better to make use of 
 existing machinery rather than to create new, this can pro- 
 bably best be ensured by passing these men through the 
 identical courses of training which acting sub-lieutenants- 
 undergo. Such an arrangement would have the additional 
 advantage that contact with those sub-lieutenants who were 
 going through these same courses would tend to accustom 
 these lower-deck men to the mental and social outlook of the 
 type of men among whom in future they are to live. It 
 would thus form a sort of easy school of social educatioa 
 preparatory to their entry into the ward-room. 
 
 But these courses scarcely cover the entire ground. There 
 are many little things which an officer " picks up " in his 
 younger days, apart from the knowledge required for the 
 seamanship and " Part I." examinations which he undergoes- 
 on the completion of his time as midshipman. To deal with 
 these it will be necessary for these men to have a special 
 course of a few months' training before joining up with the 
 acting sub-lieutenants. This course might well end in a 
 sub-lieutenant's " Part I.' ; exam., and in another which, 
 while embracing many other branches of general knowledge, 
 would correspond as regards marks to a sub-lieutenant's- 
 seamanship examination. 
 
 Turning now to the examinations by which selection must 
 be made from among those petty officers who are otherwise, 
 eligible, it is evident that they should be such as will prepare 
 them for those which are to follow. The annual examinations- 
 of junior officers afloat are specially designed for this very 
 purpose, and seem admirably suited to the requirements. 
 
 These, then, should be the competitive examinations by 
 means of which selection is made ; they have the additional 
 advantage of simplicity in that no new machinery has to be 
 
330 APPENDIX 
 
 created. Examinations are contrary to the spirit and tastes 
 of the British Navy, and the fewer there are the better. 
 
 But it is not mere knowledge hastily acquired that gives 
 power : it is rather the slow digestion of this knowledge. To 
 ensure this process of digestion, it would seem desirable so 
 to frame the regulations as to make men acquire their know- 
 ledge early, and maintain and cultivate it over a period of 
 years. 
 
 The simplest way of doing this would be to lay down that 
 a prospective candidate must compete in an annual ex- 
 amination while still an A.B., obtaining a certain percentage, 
 .and again as a L.S., obtaining certain higher marks. 
 
 The use of these particular examinations has rather more 
 to recommend it than at first sight appears. 
 
 In such a scheme as is proposed, it is most desirable that 
 all concerned should be able to scrutinise its working at 
 every step. This can only be done by comparison with a 
 known standard, such as the existing type of junior officer 
 would afford. 
 
 It is also desirable from all points of view to add interest to 
 the game by throwing these able and leading sea men into 
 direct competition with those whom they are intended to 
 supplement. 
 
 But whatever examination is chosen, it should be ad- 
 ministered in two doses for digestion's sake, and it is as able 
 sea man that a man should take the first dose, in order 
 to make clear to himself and to his officers the goal of 
 his ambition. Tentative details as to how selection might 
 be made by means of the results of these examinations are 
 -set forth in the subjoined " scheme." 
 
 Those who have themselves found considerable difficulty 
 in attaining to " lieutenant's standard " may be tempted to 
 suggest that it is useless to expect comparatively uneducated 
 men, working by themselves without proper instructors, to 
 approach the standard here required. Also, the service as 
 a whole would recoil from a vision of a Navy permeated 
 with schoolmasters, in which all the best and brightest would 
 spend every spare moment crouching over desks. 
 
 But these are empty fears. Again and again these words 
 have been written : " Make the standard as high as you like ; 
 let us reach it as best we can. Only give us a chance, and 
 some among us will be equal to taking it." 
 
 It is precisely these " some " that are wanted. 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 331 
 
 The standard fixes itself naturally. There can be no two 
 opinions about it. While as to the amount of assistance 
 these men are to receive, the service owes them no duty but 
 fair play. For their general assistance it would be well if 
 in each ship a suitable executive officer were detailed to look 
 after them, making use of the existing facilities. It would 
 certainly be necessary that the Admiralty should publish a 
 very full syllabus of the subjects to be studied, containing 
 advice as to text-books. These text-books, and also books 
 of examination papers, should somehow be made readily 
 available to those who require them. Finally, in order to 
 meet the case of men serving in small craft, and to eliminate 
 as far as possible any inequalities of instruction, it would be 
 most beneficial if the Admiralty could see their way to negotiat- 
 ing with the now world-renowned " I.C.S.," or International 
 Correspondence School. This latter has already a con- 
 siderable clientele on the lower-deck. At the request of the 
 Admiralty, it would gladly prepare a course covering all that 
 is required ; and if, finally, the Admiralty undertook to pay 
 two-thirds of the normal fees for each man who took up the 
 course, the educational problem would be completely and 
 satisfactorily solved from every point of view. 
 
 We can now turn to the second and last matter of real 
 and radical importance. 
 
 Having selected our men, and eventually made them 
 lieutenants, what is their career to be ? 
 
 There are only three conceivable alternatives : 
 
 Either they must serve as lieutenants for approximately 
 the normal time, a large or small proportion eventually being 
 promoted ; or they must serve as lieutenants till they reach 
 the age at which the average lieutenant is promoted, and then, 
 entirely irrespective of their seniority, they must be " con- 
 sidered " for promotion in the usual way ; or while lieutenants 
 they may have their seniority adjusted in such a manner 
 that by the time they reach promotion age they will also have 
 reached promotion seniority. 
 
 The first of these alternatives fails in all respects : it is an 
 unsatisfactory half-measure, foreign to naval instincts. The 
 Admiralty would find it difficult to make billets for such an 
 increased number of aged commanders ; these by reason of 
 their age would be quite unsuitable for further promotion. 
 As a career this would be unsatisfactory to the lower-deck, 
 a mere mockery of their ambitions ; as a stimulus to or stan- 
 
332 APPENDIX 
 
 dard of comparison for the present type of officer it would be 
 of no use whatever. It has indeed actually been advocated 
 in print, but only to raise a crop of letters of protest, and it 
 may definitely be considered as unworthy of more detailed 
 notice. 
 
 The two remaining alternatives both meet the main re- 
 quirements, and the decision as to which should be adopted 
 is only a matter of expediency. Both would enable these 
 lieutenants to become commanders at the normal age, which 
 is the condition most essential to success. 
 
 But whereas under the third alternative a commander 
 would have had at least a modicum of experience as a senior 
 lieutenant, with the special responsibilities, forecastle duties, 
 etc., entailed by such seniority, under the second he would 
 have missed all this, and his value as a commander and in 
 the higher ranks would be permanently impaired in con- 
 sequence. 
 
 Also it is not by any means every lieutenant who wins 
 promotion, and for the sake of those others it is very desirable 
 that their seniority should be adjusted as early as possible. 
 
 One recognised means of doing this already exists namely, 
 the awarding of seniority on the results of the acting sub- 
 lieutenants' examinations. The details of these awards are 
 changed from time to time ; but the general principle is 
 that in each of the six examinations which go to make 
 up the entire course, the candidate can obtain a " first," 
 a " second," or a " third-class " certificate, carrying three, 
 two, and one mark respectively. Seniority as lieutenant is 
 then awarded in accordance with the total number of these 
 marks obtained. 
 
 If the man who obtained a " possible " were to date his 
 seniority as lieutenant from the date on which he was rated 
 petty officer, this would be equivalent to his having become 
 a lieutenant at the age of, say, twenty-five. In order to put 
 him approximately on an equality with other lieutenants 
 it would then be necessary, before he reached the promotion 
 age, to ante-date this seniority by at least three years. Now 
 it must be recognised that when first such an officer goes to- 
 sea he will require special treatment. Probably it would be 
 best first to send him to a large sea-going ship for a year to 
 learn his elementary duties. After that he, and through him 
 the service, would probably benefit most if he were sent to a 
 torpedo boat or destroyer as captain or second in command, 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 333 
 
 thereby giving him a position of some independent responsi- 
 bility. Six months in such a position ought to fit him to take 
 his place in all respects as a fully qualified officer. 
 
 It would therefore seem desirable that he should by the end 
 of this educational period have attained his full seniority, 
 and the most obvious way of bringing this about is to seize 
 the occasions of his leaving his two ships to date him back 
 in each case by a year and a half. He would then be about 
 twenty-seven to twenty-nine years old, and available for duty 
 as a senior watch-keeper, or first lieutenant, or in any other 
 non-specialist capacity. 
 
 There is nothing new in this proposal to adjust seniority. 
 It is done every day in the case of junior lieutenants ; of 
 recent years it has been done for war services ; and it is done, 
 though in an unfavourable sense, every month or so to some 
 unfortunate who has run up against a court-martial. 
 
 It would thus appear that the third alternative is emphati- 
 cally the one to be adopted, and the one which would give 
 the greatest satisfaction to the service at large, as well as to 
 those most intimately concerned. 
 
 The question of the number of commissions to be given 
 can now be tackled. 
 
 At first this must be merely a matter of administrative 
 detail. Thirty commissions per annum might be suggested 
 as a reasonable maximum to start with, though just at first 
 the number of eligible petty officers who will pass the required 
 educational standard at such short notice will be small, and 
 hence the number of commissions actually given will probably 
 be much lower than this. But in due course the number will 
 become a matter of simple though exact scientific deduction, 
 thus : 
 
 Our entire naval administration is based on the assump- 
 tion that, thanks to their various sources of information, 
 the Admiralty are able successfully to select from among the 
 host of lieutenants those most suitable for promotion to the 
 higher ranks. This assumption must be accepted as correct. 
 Presuming that they retain this faculty, it is evident that the 
 relative proportion of promotions from the two types of 
 lieutenants within the promotion zone i.e. the ratio of the 
 percentage of "lower-deck" lieutenants who got promoted 
 to the percentage of "old type" lieutenants who get pro- 
 moted will give a true and scientific guide to the relative 
 value of the two types of officer. 
 
334 APPENDIX 
 
 ^ If the percentage of promotions to commander is higher 
 among the lower-deck lieutenants, then the number of com- 
 missions given per annum should be increased, and vice 
 versa. The service will be making the best use of its human 
 material when these two percentages are equal. 
 
 The relation of such a scheme to the stoker, signal, and 
 telegraphist branches, though of trifling importance compared 
 with the main problem of introducing it for the sea man or 
 executive branch, requires mention if only on account of 
 the wild suggestions which have been put forward. It has 
 actually been suggested that each branch should have its own 
 commissions ! 
 
 As regards stokers, the solution is not difficult to foresee. 
 With the advent of war-ships driven by internal combustion 
 engines, the merging into one of the sea man and stoker 
 branches is very near at hand. " Stokers " will no longer be 
 required ; in their place " mechanics " or " motor men," 
 specialised from the sea men branch, as are the gunnery or 
 torpedo ratings. When this amalgamation is complete, the 
 problem will have disappeared ; till then no temporary 
 expedients are desirable. 
 
 With the signal and telegraphist branches the case is 
 quite different. 
 
 First it must be recognised that the latter is absorbing the 
 former ; whereas originally the Navy employed signal men, 
 some of whom had a knowledge of wireless telegraphy, already 
 the day is at hand (and about to dawn with the increased use 
 of " short distance " wireless) when there will only be tele- 
 graphists with a sound knowledge of signals, and when the 
 warrant-officer telegraphist will have replaced the signal 
 boatswain. 
 
 Except, therefore, for purely temporary regulations, it is 
 only the telegraphist branch that needs to be considered. 
 According to our present system, telegraphists specialise 
 so young that at no period do they come into close touch with 
 the routine of the service. Consequently there are two 
 alternatives either the branch must be recruited from 
 among those boys who do not aspire to the highest ranks 
 and of these there will always be an ample number or else 
 the present system of specialising as a boy must be revised. 
 Probably the latter course would be the better ; but the 
 matter is in no sense of prime importance, and until the 
 main scheme for the sea man branch is in thorough working 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 335 
 
 order, its consideration is much better postponed as being 
 a side issue. But there is an important reservation to be 
 made in this regard. 
 
 It must be recognised that no such scheme can spring 
 full-grown into operation. Although any initial difficulties 
 or mistakes are in reality of no importance, yet such is human 
 nature that it is apt to judge and to condemn before any 
 innovation has had time to work out its own salvation. 
 Mainly for this reason it becomes necessary to pay the utmost 
 attention to details at the start, and to call in the aid of 
 psychology and wisdom in order to ensure the system setting 
 smoothly to work. 
 
 In these early stages the signal and telegraphist branches 
 may play a useful part. 
 
 To ensure initial success it is necessary that at the first 
 there should be a sufficiency of candidates, and particularly 
 that these should be of the highest quality if possible even 
 higher than that which will later be required. Now our 
 signal ratings are universally recognised as among the most 
 alert and capable, and our telegraphists as among the best 
 educated men in the service. Among the latter there are 
 actually some who were leading sea men when they turned 
 over, and who should expressly be allowed to compete if 
 otherwise eligible. A large proportion of the remainder 
 transferred from the lower sea man ratings. These and all 
 the members of the signal branch, provided they are eligible 
 as regards rank and age, should be allowed to compete in 
 the first few " Annual Examinations " on the special recom- 
 mendations of their captains. 
 
 In order to ensure a sufficiency of candidates it would 
 possibly be advisable somewhat to lower the qualifying 
 percentage of marks for the first two years, and otherwise 
 slightly to modify the regulations. 
 
 The alternative plan of postponing the first examination 
 till a few years after the issue of the regulations would have 
 the grave, even fatal, disadvantage that it would then be the 
 youngsters who would be the first to sit down to work. 
 
 This might easily wreck the whole scheme, for it must be 
 anticipated that the worst elements on the lower-deck will 
 offer considerable, though purely temporary, opposition to 
 those in their midst who aspire to a higher career than they. 
 Whereas young able sea men would be powerless against 
 such a spirit, it would soon exhaust itself against the broad 
 
336 APPENDIX 
 
 backs of the petty officers ; and it is these and the leading 
 sea men who would be the ones to set the example of working 
 if competition were allowed at the very first examination 
 after the issue of the regulations. 
 
 Even though the standard had been somewhat lowered, 
 the shortness of the time for preparation would give ample 
 security for the high ability of those who reached it. 
 
 COST 
 
 Until enough time has elapsed to allow of the numbers 
 l>eing adjusted, these new type officers would necessarily be 
 in addition to the establishment, and would therefore entail 
 some extra expense ; but as the new entries to Osborne would 
 at the same time be curtailed accordingly, this expense 
 would be more than counterbalanced, and in due course the 
 actual total cost of officering the Navy would be somewhat 
 reduced. 
 
 There is one item on which it is highly important that 
 no expense should be spared namely, the grants made to 
 these new type officers to defray the cost of their uniform. 
 Some of the officers will be married men ; none will have any 
 cash to spare. Yet if the scheme is to be a success it is 
 absolutely essential that during their early stages as lieutenants 
 they should be dressed, both as regards uniform and plain 
 clothes, up to the standard of their comrades. Dress is more 
 than a matter of decency ; more than the mere insignia of 
 rank and station ; more than a mere factor in gaining esteem ; 
 it is indeed the first essential towards self-confidence, which 
 is the key to merit, manners, and success. 
 
 The Admiralty grant or grants should therefore be unstinted 
 even to the verge of generosity, sufficient amply to defray 
 the cost of both uniform and plain clothes and of any other 
 minor expenses which may be incidental to the assumption 
 of the rank of commissioned officer. 
 
 Under such conditions, with the sympathetic attention of 
 the Board of Admiralty, and with the hearty good-will of 
 the service at large, the success of " Lower-deck Promotion " 
 is a certainty ; and as it develops the service will become 
 -enriched and energised, and knit ever more and more closely 
 into one harmonious whole, inspired by ambition, zeal, and 
 patriotism, a joy to itself, and the pride and safeguard of 
 its King and Country. 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 337 
 
 SCHEME FOR THE PROMOTION OF PETTY 
 OFFICERS TO THE RANK OF LIEUTENANT 
 
 NOTE. As the statistics which would be necessary for the 
 formation of a reasoned conclusion on certain points are not 
 available, such details as the age limit and the qualifying 
 percentages must be regarded as purely tentative. 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 Petty officers of the sea man branch, under 26 years of age, 
 who have passed the necessary qualifying examinations, will 
 be appointed, according to their order of merit in the previous 
 examination, to undergo a course of training for the rank of 
 lieutenant. During this course they will hold acting warrant 
 rank. The qualifying examination will be identical with the 
 annual " Examination of Junior Officers Afloat." 
 
 To be eligible for appointment to the course of training for 
 the rank of lieutenant, a man must, while A.B., have obtained 
 50 per cent., and also while L.S. have obtained 70 per cent, 
 of the total number of marks obtainable in one such ex- 
 amination, excluding the marks awarded for French. A 
 man may compete in as many such examinations as he 
 pleases, except that an A.B. may not compete at all until he 
 has passed the technical examination for L.S., nor a L.S. until 
 he has passed the technical examination for P.O. Men who 
 have " qualified " as A.B.'s will not under any circumstances 
 be required to pass the P.O.'s educational test. 
 
 METHODS OF SELECTION 
 
 When the results of such an examination have been pub- 
 lished, lists bearing that date will be distributed, showing 
 the marks and ages of those A.B.'s and L.S.'s who have 
 obtained the required percentages. Four months, eight 
 months, and twelve months after the date of this list, returns 
 are to be made to the Admiralty giving the names of such 
 leading sea men on the above list, not above the age limit on 
 the date of making the return, as have been rated P.O. since 
 the date of the list. The required number will be selected 
 from these P.O.'s in the order of their marks; and the ap- 
 pointments, dated a month previously, will be published five, 
 nine, and thirteen months after the date of the list. It will 
 
 22 
 
338 APPENDIX 
 
 thus be necessary for a L.S. desirous of undergoing this 
 course of training to have competed in an examination whose 
 results are published within a year of his promotion to P.O. 
 A petty officer who has not been so appointed within a year 
 of obtaining his rate will have no further chance of appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 COURSE OF TRAINING 
 
 Except for the addition of a preliminary course and the 
 omission from the " Part I." examination of " French " and 
 " Observations," this course of training will be identical 
 with the series of courses undergone by acting sub-lieutenants. 
 The preliminary course will consist of four months' instruction 
 in naval and general history, in the taking of observations, in 
 certain matters of seamanship, and in other general subjects. 
 On the completion of the preliminary course the class will 
 join up with the next class of acting sub-lieutenants, com- 
 mencing with their Part I. examination. 
 
 Seniority on the completion of the training will be awarded 
 as it is to sub-lieutenants, with the following modifications : 
 
 (a) Marks counting towards promotion will be awarded 
 for the examination on the preliminary course, in lieu 
 of those awarded to acting sub-lieutenants for their 
 examinations in seamanship. 
 
 (b) The zero date, instead of being the date of seniority 
 as sub-lieutenant, will be one year prior to the date of 
 seniority as petty officer, so that men who obtain a 
 " possible" will date their seniority as lieutenants from 
 the dates on which they were rated P.O. 
 
 The same regulations as to failure will apply as applied to 
 acting sub-lieutenants, with the modification that officers 
 failing in " Part I." will be sent on leave until the next ex- 
 amination, and that officers finally failing will be confirmed 
 in their warrant rank. 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY AFLOAT 
 
 Having completed his course of training, a lieutenant will 
 be appointed to a sea-going ship for about one year for watch- 
 keeping and general duties. On leaving his ship at the 
 completion of this period, the date of his seniority as lieutenant 
 will be put back one and a half years. He will then be 
 appointed for a period of about six months to a T.B. or T.B.D., 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 339 
 
 or other small vessel, which will afford him a position of 
 some independent responsibility. On leaving his ship at the 
 completion of this period, the date of his seniority as 
 lieutenant will be put back a further one and a half years. 
 From this time onwards a lieutenant introduced under these 
 regulations will be treated in all respects, and notably as 
 regards pay, employment, and promotion, in the same manner 
 as officers entered in the usual way. 
 
 FACILITIES FOR PREPARATORY STUDY 
 
 The Admiralty will issue a complete syllabus of the subjects 
 required, for the guidance of candidates and their instructors. 
 This syllabus will recommend the best text-books for the 
 study of each subject. These books will be obtainable from 
 the officer in charge of the instruction in each ship or establish- 
 ment at the lowest possible prices. The C.O. of each ship or 
 establishment will nominate one executive officer who, with 
 the assistance of the naval instructor and schoolmaster, if 
 borne, will render any educational assistance he can to those 
 who may desire it. 
 
 Arrangements have been made with the International 
 Correspondence School whereby the latter are preparing a 
 course covering the entire ground in all branches, to be 
 taught by their correspondence method. 
 
 Those who desire to avail themselves of this course should 
 apply to . Only one-third of the 
 
 full fee will be charged, the remainder being subscribed by 
 the Admiralty. 
 
 TEMPORARY REGULATIONS 
 
 In order to enable this scheme to be introduced without 
 delay, the examination to be undergone while an A.B. will 
 not be required in the case of men who already hold the 
 ratings of L.S. or P.O., or who may be rated L.S. during the 
 next two years. The examination to be undergone while a 
 L.S. will not be essential in the case of men already holding 
 the rating of P.O., or who obtain that rating during the next 
 two years. In any case, however, a man must, either as 
 L.S. or as P.O., have obtained 60 per cent, of marks in one 
 qualifying examination. The age limit will in no case be 
 relaxed. Telegraphist ratings who have turned over from the 
 
340 APPENDIX 
 
 sea man branch, and who held the rating of leading sea men 
 before turning over, may compete in the qualifying examina- 
 tions in accordance with the above temporary regulations. 
 
 Other telegraphist ratings who have turned over from able 
 or ordinary sea men, and all signal ratings now in the service 
 above the rank of boy, may compete under the same condi- 
 tions, provided that they are specially recommended by their 
 commanding officers. 
 
 PART II 
 CONCERNING AN IDEAL 
 
 IN times of stress action is usually based on expediency. 
 But under normal conditions nations, parties, boards, and 
 individuals frame their policies with some ideal in view. 
 Those that fail to do so lead a " hand-to-mouth existence," 
 and sooner or later Nemesis overtakes them. 
 
 Even those acts or policies committed or framed to meet 
 some pressing necessity, if in truth they are not in keeping 
 with the individual or national ideal, are always found to 
 be mistakes, the traces of which (such as the ravages of a 
 war, the lowering of a class, or the hurt of an individual) can 
 never wholly be obliterated, and can only be mitigated by 
 much toil and trouble. 
 
 In fact, however close the reasoning or clear the logic, the 
 true touchstone of any course of action is whether it is in 
 keeping with the sacred ideal, whether it tends to its fulfil- 
 ment. 
 
 Now this matter of " Lower-deck Promotion," trivial 
 though it is by comparison with the larger questions of naval 
 policy, demands the mental review of the whole science of 
 personnel, its development and aims, and therefore the 
 formulating of a Naval Ideal. 
 
 Such a thing exists : the developments of recent years 
 have been too consistent, too much in harmony with it and 
 with each other, for them to be merely isolated acts of mo- 
 mentary expediency ; but it has sometimes been lost sight 
 of as other acts betray ; and as at the present time the Navy 
 is about to take one of the most momentous steps in its 
 history, this is the psychological moment to frame it clearly. 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 341 
 
 One of the advantages of an ideal is its remoteness one 
 need not criticise it from the practical standpoint. If at 
 present any of its features seem impossible of attainment 
 they are none the less " ideal," guides as clear as the stars, 
 though possibly seeming as far beyond our present reach. 
 An ideal, in fact, should be above the criticism of expediency 
 or " practical politics," a noble thing of altruistic sentiment 
 and lofty aspirations. 
 
 This very aloofness makes it difficult to grasp, and calls for 
 the employment of similes. 
 
 In the ideal the great naval tree should have its roots 
 spread far and wide, over the whole surface of our land ; 
 and strong and deep, through castle to manor, manor to farm, 
 farm to cottage ; through palace to mansion, mansion to 
 villa, villa to tenement house. These mighty roots should 
 draw to themselves all that is most fitted for a healthy growth, 
 turn it into good sound fibre and pass it up into the trunk, 
 which in the pride of prefection should taper and tower, 
 straight and true, to its topmost twig. On every side and at 
 every height the branches, each perfect in itself, protecting 
 the ones below, filtering their sunshine, bearing the brunt 
 of storms, breaking for them the force of the rain and passing 
 it on in gentle measure. 
 
 In the actual, three scrubby bushes, thickly intertwined ; 
 their roots likewise intertwined, cramped into pots and buried 
 in what must be regarded as the very lowest fruitful stratum 
 of the soil. Entwined with these are creepers and parasitic 
 plants, dozens of them, each beautiful in itself yet fatal to 
 the whole. Overshadowing these bushes stand three trees 
 also intertwined. The roots of two show signs of recent 
 cutting ; they are dying down, greatly to the advantage of 
 the third, a handsome growth, but weak. Its roots, though 
 widely spread, are all on the surface ; they have no depth, 
 no grip on the body of the soil. Even this, the choicest tree 
 of all, is overgrown with ivy and the like, pleasant and vener- 
 able, and seeming at first glance a source of support and 
 shelter to the tree, but eating its substance and draining its 
 vitality none the less. 
 
 The bushes are our lower-deck sea men, stokers, and 
 marines. The pots in which the roots are confined are 
 narrow indeed, principally our naval ports and districts, and 
 a few other special recruiting areas ; and thin is the layer 
 of social soil from which they get supplies. What faintest 
 
342 APPENDIX 
 
 of inducements is there for the poorer middle-class, the 
 doctor's, clergyman's, schoolmaster's, clerk's or farmer's son 
 to join this, the finest of all professions for a man, on which, 
 " under the good providence of God, the wealth, safety, and 
 welfare of our country do chiefly depend " ? 
 
 Is it not realised that in solid, sober fact we are at this 
 moment manning our fleet with inferior men ? That their 
 standard is none the less so fine and high is a credit to their 
 country, a proof that, far from being decadent, this land is 
 still in the pride of its youth and a certificate to the vigour 
 of the service which they join. But none the less they are 
 poor stuff compared to what might and should be ours. 
 
 The creepers are the many auxiliary corps, all sound and 
 successful, but all cruel parasites on the body they feed upon. 
 For instance, the " Electrician Creeper," useful and sturdy 
 and bearing good fruit, yet which literally crept in and up 
 just when the torpedo personnel was ready for new and 
 vigorous developments. What an immeasurable boon would 
 have been conferred had the more suitable men of the latter 
 branch been given time and opportunity to train and meet 
 the new requirements and to win the higher ranks and pay 
 to which they had already come to aspire. This one act of 
 policy alone would have conferred more benefit on the lower- 
 deck than hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on extra 
 pay, than countless regulations framed to clear the warrant 
 rank. Yet deliberately the Admiralty planted the parasite 
 growth, which in due course, but only with much tribulation, 
 must be cut down as other growths have been. 
 
 The three trees, the three classes of officers, these need no 
 explanation. The ideal has been recognised, and a move 
 towards it has been made. Even the venerable ivy has been 
 threatened, so it is currently reported ; but the Treasury 
 warded off the blow, being with " fellow feeling . . . wondrous 
 kind." Such is the actual. 
 
 How can the ideal be accomplished ? How can we even 
 start towards it without jeopardising all our present strength ? 
 " Lower-deck Promotion," if full and generous, is one great 
 step towards it ; and if subsequently the charges at Osborne 
 College are very gradually and judiciously reduced, the 
 advance will have begun on both flanks. 
 
 Then the roots can be extended. Once the higher career 
 has been made possible, with honest hearts the Admiralty 
 could and should approach the County Councils and urge 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 343 
 
 them to popularise the Navy as a profession in every school 
 throughout the land ; approach the medical profession and 
 the clergy ; circularise them year after year ; show that the 
 best of all trainings is now open to their boys, free, gratis, 
 and for nothing. For as lower-deck promotion gets a hold, 
 the whole system will respond ; the training establishments 
 will find their present instructions, now the bane of the boys' 
 lives, becoming for them a living thing. As the standard, 
 step by step, is raised throughout the country, a different 
 class of lad will join, and once again the whole tone and 
 standard of the training will be raised. As these fellows get 
 to sea, with something behind them and a goal in front, no 
 longer will their well-ploughed minds be allowed to grow 
 fallow, a nurture-ground for every weed. Intellect, character, 
 and energy will multiply and grow ; from thirty per annum 
 the Admiralty will find themselves compelled to raise and 
 raise the number of lower-deck commissions till at length the 
 old type officers themselves join in to fight for their existence. 
 Then midshipmen will work ; then the " bitters " will fall 
 off ; then there'll be no lounging in the ranks. Till finally 
 (if not before) the Admiralty will take the last great step 
 but one, and bridge the gap between the board schools and 
 the naval training establishments. This may be done by co- 
 operation with existing training ships, or by other means, 
 but it must be done. 
 
 Last of all, the second and greatest " Amalgamation 
 Scheme," one common system of entry for officers and men, 
 not narrow or confined to a single type or class or year of age. 
 From the age at which a lad leaves the board school right up 
 to eighteen or nineteen, at every step there would be a standard 
 physical and educational, by reaching which a boy could 
 enter from no matter where. Once inside, at every step there 
 would be discriminatory training ; no false attempt to press 
 each to a common mould ; for some are ready for the highest 
 gifts of science, whilst on others all but elementary instruction 
 would be wasted. 
 
 The road will then be clear. From tutor or from board 
 school, from public school or private school, from orphanage 
 or royal palace, the best youth of the land will be able to enter 
 the lists and the Navy through the lower-deck. Some 
 would rise to the topmost twig ; some to the upper branches ; 
 some to the lower ; some, including probably the aristocracy 
 of the nation, would merely serve for a few short years : their 
 
344 APPENDIX 
 
 task, to set a standard ; and if the call should come to give 
 their lives. 
 
 Is this too much to hope for ? Have we not before us the 
 example of Sparta and of a dozen other tribes and nations in 
 which one special training was deemed the finest that a man 
 could have, the finest preparation for no matter what, and 
 one profession the noblest, whether for rich or for poor ? 
 
 And of our aristocracy and gentry : is it too much to ask 
 of them that they should deign to compete with their own 
 fellow countrymen on equal terms ? Is the example of the 
 abnegation of privileges by the Daimios and Samurai of once- 
 despised Japan without inspiration to them ? 
 
 There is much in heredity almost everything, in fact ; so 
 much, that our ruling classes need have no fear of going under. 
 The noble traditions of their caste, the brains and sinews 
 which they have inherited, will suffice to keep them well in 
 front for centuries, provided only that they do not shirk 
 comparison, do not, like cowards, fear to face their own 
 inferiors on equal terms. 
 
 Is all this too much to ask ? 
 
 For what is it we have to offer ? Why shirk the facts ? 
 Has any other profession yet approached our British Navy 
 in the health and manhood it produces ? In the loyalty it 
 inculcates ? In the joie de vivre it brings ? In the love its 
 children bear for it ? Then, if we add to this a perfect training 
 of body and mind, provide a straight clear path for merit, 
 a branch or place for every man of every taste or quality, a 
 " school for life " which with our own conscious efforts would 
 be recognised as finer even than the universities ; if, casting 
 aside all prejudice, we make class to mix with class according 
 to their instincts, and pit man against man according to their 
 merits then, where in all the world will there be such a 
 training, or profession, or gateway either for rich or for poor 
 by which to enter upon any of the highest or the humblest 
 walks of life ? 
 
 This then is the ideal, and such are the paths that lead 
 towards it. 
 
 In the service it must be the officers, and outside the 
 highest in the land who lead the way and set the pace, and 
 there must be provision for the fallen. 
 
 Our great newspapers, social institutions, and other organs 
 of public opinion must boldly play their part, not fearing 
 failure. 
 
LOWER-DECK PROMOTION 345 
 
 Thus in the end the Navy will be one, strong and undivided ; 
 large or small, but with the whole strength of the nation 
 behind it. No need then for a "Two-Power Standard." 
 There is of course no need now for such a standard ; it may 
 be a wise precaution, and if the country wants it, we in the 
 service can but rejoice in our wider opportunities. 
 
 But then \ Well, if the day of trial then should come, we 
 shall merely prove just once again the old, old saw that : 
 
 " One Englishman is worth two. , three 
 
 , and a dozen of any other ! " 
 
 AUTHOR'S NOTE. Courtesy forbids the printing of these 
 words ; but those readers who have any pride and faith 
 in the truth of the saw are requested to join this missing- 
 word competition, and fill them in to taste, clearly and 
 in ink, in their own individual copies. 
 
 Printed by Maxell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 23 
 
BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN 
 
 and the FAR EAST 
 
 By The BARONESS ALBERT D'ANETHAN 
 
 Fourteen Years of Diplomatic Life in Japan 
 
 Stray Leaves from the Diary of BARONESS ALBERT D'ANETHAN. 
 
 The wonderful progress made by Japan in the last few years has given the dwellers 
 in the Occident what, until this recent demonstration of the unexpected, seemed quite 
 impossible a new interest in the East ; and this book, with its record of experiences 
 enjoyed at first hand during the most important period of the Japanese Renaissance, 
 cannot fail to appeal strongly to the Western world. The late Baron d'Anethan was for 
 many years the representative of Belgium at the Court of Japan, where he was the head 
 of the diplomatic corps, and much may be expected from this diary of potential days. 
 The book will be fully illustrated. 
 
 Love Letters of a Japanese 
 
 Being the Correspondence of a Japanese man with his English betrothed. 
 G. N. MORTLAKE. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 5s. net. 
 
 In these love letters of a Japanese man and an English woman we have a human 
 document of great psychological and ethnological value. For all English-speaking 
 readers they will have a peculiar interest. This modernised Japanese and this highly 
 cultured twentieth-century Englishwoman were uncommon lovers, it is true ; but all the 
 world loves lovers. They may express their thoughts and feelings in earth's various 
 tongues, yet the language they use is a universal one, and the appeal they make is wide 
 as the world. To divulge the development, to reveal the ending of this unique love- 
 story, would be unfair to the lovers and to their readers ; suffice it to say that it is a 
 heart-record of absorbing interest. 
 
 The A B C of Japanese Art 
 
 J. F. BLACKER. Profusely Illustrated with 150 Line and 100 Half- 
 tone Illustrations, printed on Art Paper. In large crown 8vo, 5s. net. 
 
 Exceedingly useful to the collector, whom it will guide, assist and interest in the 
 Art of Old Japan. Those who desire to collect with profit will hardly discover any object 
 so suitable, whilst for home decoration the quaint beauty of Japanese Art is unequalled 
 in its peculiar attractiveness. Armour and Swords with their Furniture, Pottery and 
 Porcelain, Bronzes, Colour Prints, Ivory and Wood Carvings, including Netsukes, are 
 amongst the subjects dealt with. Technical processes are explained and many illustra- 
 tions given in addition to the 100 half-tone illustrations, and the marks, signatures and 
 sale prices. 
 
 A Passion in Morocco 
 
 CHARLOTTE CAMERON. A romance rich in Oriental colour, the 
 scenes of which are laid in Morocco. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6s. 
 
 The story opens on board a P. & O. steamer when it is ploughing its way steadily 
 towards the Moroccan coast, and where a beautiful English girl, duly chaperoned, makes 
 the acquaintance of a handsome Moorish prince who is returning to his native land after 
 passing through the curriculum at Oxford, with the varied problems of East and West 
 seeking solution in his mind. The presence of the girl presses one of these questions 
 irresistibly to the forefront of his consideration. At Mazagan the ladies are invited by 
 an officers' guide to visit the harem of the Kai'd, where the beautiful English girl, separ- 
 ated from the party, is trapped by the wily owner, from whose hands she is duly rescued, 
 at the eleventh hour, by Mohammed el Yurnar, the Moorish prince. Many adventures 
 follow, and strange scenes are enacted against a background of vivid Oriental colour, 
 and in the end East and West effect a union, finding that " love levels all." 
 
 STANLEY PAUL & CO., 31 ESSEX STREET, LONDON. 
 
Telephone- 31 ESSEX STREET 
 6659 GERHARD LONDON 
 
 Telegraphic Address- ENGLAND 
 
 "GUCIEN LONDON 
 
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 ANNOUNCEMENTS 
 
 The Love Affairs of the Vatican. DR. ANGELO S. 
 
 RAPPOPORT. Author of " Royal Lovers," " Mad Majesties," 
 "Leopold II.," etc. In demy 8vo, handsome cloth gilt, with 
 photogravure plates and numerous other illustrations, printed 
 on art paper. 
 
 The history of Rome and the Popes has often been treated in an 
 exhaustive manner, but there is scarcely any authoritative work 
 dealing with the more intimate side of the affairs of the Vatican. 
 Dr. A. S. Rappoport, who has made a special study of the lighter side 
 of history, and especially of the influence exercised by the favourites 
 of kings and queens upon the politics of nations, endeavours to show 
 the important part played by the favourites of the Popes in the 
 nistory of the Vatican and Christianity. As an impartial historian 
 this author draws attention to the discrepancy existing between 
 the noble and sublime teaching of Christ and the practice of his 
 followers. Beginning with the earliest history of the Bishops of 
 Rome, who soon became the spiritual rulers of Christendom, he deals 
 with the morality of the priests and the various love affairs of the 
 Popes. The words of the prophet, "and the women rule over us," 
 may literally be applied to the history of the Papacy during the 
 middle ages and the Renaissance. For not only were such famous 
 courtesans as Theodora and Marozia the actual rulers of the Vatican, 
 and in possession of the Keys of Heaven, but a woman one day 
 ascended the throne of St. Peter, and became Pope. The author 
 further relates the story of Pope Alexander VI. and Signora Venozza 
 of Pope Leo X. and a French court beauty, of Sixtus V. and the 
 beautiful English heretic Anna Osten, of Innocent X. and his sister-in- 
 law Olympia, and of many other Popes. Dr. Rappoport is a 
 philosopher as well as a master of light biographical literature, and 
 unobtrusively he teaches a lesson and draws a moral. Whilst 
 exposing the intrigues of the Papal court, he does justice to such 
 Popes as were worthy Vicars of Christ. 
 
The Life of Cesare Borgia. RAFAEL SABATINI 
 
 Author of "The Lion's Skin," "Bardelys, the Magnificent," etc. 
 In demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with photogravure frontispiece and other 
 illustrations printed on art paper, i6s. net. 
 
 Cesare Borgia, the most conspicuous figure in Italy's most conspicu- 
 ous age, has hitherto been no more than a figure of romance, a villain 
 of melodrama, and such conceptions as there are of him are vaguely of 
 a splendid criminal, based upon the fictions of Hugo and Dumas. It 
 is time we knew more of the prototype of "The Prince" of Machiavelli, 
 and singular that in an age of historical biographies so amazing a 
 subject should for so long have been neglected by the historian. 
 
 Mr. Rafael Sabatini has undertaken the task of telling this tremen- 
 dous and picturesque story. Ruthless, swift and terrific does Cesare 
 Borgia appear in the pages of this engrossing biography, yet a man of 
 sound judgment, as just as he was merciless too just, indeed, for 
 mercy a subtle statesman and a military genius. 
 
 Duchess Derelict : A Study of the Life and Times of 
 Charlotte d'Albrct, Duchess of Valentinois. E. L. MIRON. Demy 
 8vo, fully illustrated, 2 vols., 243. net. 
 
 The beautiful and saintly girl who became the wife of Cesare 
 Borgia is one of the most pathetic of the minor figures which take 
 the stage in the brilliant period of French history which is sand- 
 wiched between the Mediaeval and the Renaissance epoch. In this 
 book her brief life is presented to English readers for the first time, 
 many of the documents consulted having never before been translated. 
 Side by side with the hapless heroine move such arresting persons 
 of the drama as Louis XII., his twice-crowned Oueen, Anne of 
 Brittany, Louise d'Angouleme, the ambitious mother of Francis I., 
 the worldly Cardinal, George d'Amboise, the "little deformed 
 Queen" of France, Sainte Jeanne de Valois, and a host of lesser- 
 known men and women, the most important being the crafty, 
 blustering Gascon, the Sieur d'Albret, father of Charlotte. For setting, 
 the book has the social conditions of life in the feudal chateaux of 
 bygone France ; and the wardrobes, the jewel-caskets, the recreations 
 and occupations of a great lady of the period are faithfully pre- 
 sented in its pages. 
 
 A Queen of Tragedy : The Romance of HYPPOLITE 
 
 CLAIRON, the great Eighteenth Century Tragedienne, H. KENDRICK 
 HATES. Demy 8vo, handsome cloth gilt, illustrated. 
 
 The story of Hyppolite Clairon is told with lightness of touch 
 and fulness of knowledge in the sparkling narrative of Miss H. Ken- 
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 tragic Muse, and bring the sceptical playgoers of Paris to her feet. 
 Then, borne on the tide which " leads to Fortune," she gathered at 
 her table Voltaire, Diderot, Vanloo and Louis XV. himself. 
 
The Coburgs : The Story of a Princely House. EDMUND 
 B. D'AUVERGNK. Author of " Lola Monteg," " A Queen at Bay," 
 " The Bride of Two Kings," etc. Photogravure frontispiece and 
 other full-page illustrations on art paper. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, 
 IDS. net. 
 
 The rise of the ducal house of Saxe-Coburg Gotha forms one of the 
 most romantic chapters in the history of modern Europe. Unknown a 
 hundred years ago except within a petty German duchy, the dynasty 
 is now seated on the thrones of England, Belgium and Bulgaria, and 
 is allied with nearly every royal and imperial house in Christendom. 
 Little more than ninety years ago Leopold, a younger scion of the 
 house, set forth in quest of a queen or a crown. He married Charlotte, 
 the only daughter of George IV. only to lose her by the hand of death 
 a few months later. After this he became King of Belgium, where he 
 reigned many j-ears, reputed the wisest monarch in Europe. A life- 
 long friend and counsellor of Queen Victoria he was the means of 
 introducing her to his nephew Albert, whose memory as the Prince 
 Consort is still venerated. This fascinating stoiy is full of anecdotes 
 and details of curious Court intrigues, of which Mr. d'Auvergne is the 
 first to tell. Dealing as it does with sovereigns actually living or their 
 immediate predecessors, many of whom are, or have been, familiar to 
 our eyes, the book is full of personal interest. 
 
 The Amazing Duchess. The Romantic History of 
 Elizabeth Chudleigh, Maid of Honour Duchess of Kingston 
 Countess of Bristol. CHARLES E. PBAKCI. Author of "Love 
 Besieged," etc. In two volumes, demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with two 
 photogravure frontispieces and numerous illustrations. 245. net 
 the set. 
 
 " The Amazing Duchess " is the title Mr. Charles E. Pearce has given 
 to one of the most puzzling and fascinating Court Beauties of the 
 Eighteenth Century. The career of the elusive Elizabeth Chudleigh 
 Duchess of Kingston, and Countass of Bristol after the result of her 
 historic trial in Westminster Hall is as dramatic and adventurous as 
 any story evolved by the imaginative fictionist. Her histor)? 1 is insepar- 
 able from that of the Courts of George II. and of his son Frederick, 
 Prince of Wales, and round her are clustered all the notabilities of the 
 time, their frivolities, their intrigues, their scandals. Mr. Pearce 's 
 volumes abound with anecdotes which throw interesting sidelights 
 on the social life, the follies, the fashions and the amusements of the 
 gayest and most reckless period of English history. Of especial 
 piquancy is the account of the domestic life, of the duke and duchess 
 told in a series of letters by the duke's valet and for the first time 
 incorporated in a biography of the most-talked- of woman of her day. 
 
The Gay King. Charles II., his Court and Times. 
 DOROTHY SENIOR. Demy Svo, illustrated, 12$. 6d. net. 
 
 The salient qualities of Charles II., of whom it has been said that 
 " he never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one," are aptly hit 
 off in the sobriquet of " The Saunterer," which our author has applied 
 to him. His whole life was a picturesque saunter through picturesque 
 scenes. 
 
 Miss Senior has given in this volume a consecutive and convincing 
 portrait of the " merry monarch," showing penetration and a sense of 
 humour. She deals fully with his saunterings on the Continent, and 
 shows that his later failure as man and monarch was in no small 
 measure due to the sordid and anxious years of his early life in exile. 
 
 In this well-considered memoir the jovial monarch's deep devotion 
 to his sister Henrietta is shown as a thread of gold in the dark web of 
 his life. Charles' cynicism, his bonhomie, his dissolute character, his 
 corrupt and ever more corrupt life, are clearly indicated, though not 
 unduly emphasised. His mistresses also figure in the pageant of his 
 entertaining life-drama. 
 
 The author claims descent from Charles II., and writes with the 
 sympathy, without which there is no true understanding, though 
 without any attempt to gloss over facts or shape them to suit 
 preconceived ideas. 
 
 The Beloved Princess. Princess Charlotte of Wales, 
 
 the lonely daughter of a lonely Queen. CHARLKS E. PEARCI. 
 Author of "The Amazing Duchess," "Love Besieged," "The 
 Bungalow under the Lake," etc. Demy Svo, cloth gilt, fully 
 illustrated, i6s. net. 
 
 The main incidents in the married life of " The First Gentleman in 
 Europe " and of the hapless Caroline are fairly well known. It can 
 hardly be said, however, that the story of their child, Charlotte Augusta, 
 has received the attention it merits. That story occupies a distinct 
 page in the history of the Royal Family of England, and the curious 
 speculations of Professor Clerici give it an importance which was not 
 suspected by the Princess Charlotte's early biographers. Mr. Pearce, 
 while endeavouring to present a complete picture of an engaging and 
 fascinating personality drawn from the material which has accumu- 
 lated since Huish published his life of the Princess in 1818, has not 
 omitted to dwell on certain points which appear to strengthen Clerici's 
 suppositions. Apart from the mystery surrounding her birth which 
 these suppositions suggest, the life of the Princess Charlotte, short as it 
 was, has a human interest such as the lives of few royal personages 
 possess. 
 
A Woman of the Revolution ; THEROIGNE DE MERI 
 
 COURT. P'RANK HAMEL. Author of " The Dauphines of France," 
 " An Eighteenth Century Marquise, " etc., etc. With Photogravure 
 Frontispiece and 16 full-pnge Illustrations, printed on art paper. 
 Demy 8vo, i6s. net. 
 
 It has been said of The"roigne de Mericourt that she typified the 
 spirit of the Revolution. Brilliant at the beginning, caught in the 
 outbreak of unbridled passions, she was drawn by the force of circum- 
 stances into a whirl of terror and bloodshed. Of humble parentage 
 and but little learning she was swayed by the same destroying forces 
 which attacked the highest in the land of France. Her charm lay in 
 her elusiveness and in her versatility. From the village maiden who 
 herded cows in the meadows and washed linen on the river banks, she 
 became courtesan and virtuosa until, impelled by the rush of events, 
 she turned patriot and reformer. The common people, soldiers, depu- 
 ties, even nobles and princes, were influenced by her personality and 
 oratorical powers, and one who had seen her and heard her speak for a 
 short half hour declared that a thousand years would not weaken his 
 recollection of her. Her arrest, her imprisonment, her triumphant 
 return, and the downward career ending in a madhouse, are some of 
 the incidents in her dramatic story. 
 
 An Imperial Victim : MAKJB LOUISE, ARCHDUCHESS 
 
 or AUSTRIA, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH AND DUCHESS OF PARMA. 
 EDITH E. CUTHELL, F.R.Hist.Soc. Author of " Wilhelmina, 
 Margravine of Baireuth," etc. Fully illustrated. In two volumes, 
 demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with two photogravure frontispieces and 
 other illustrations, 245. net the set. 
 
 Bonapartist writers have been unsparing in their condemnation of 
 Marie Louise, the second wife of Napoleon I. History has never judged 
 her fairly, nor has her life-story hitherto been fully and impartially 
 told. Artistic, cultivated, well-read, she was a peculiarly sweet and 
 gentle, if weak character, possessing great charm, and a power of 
 making and retaining devoted friendships. She was thrice sacrificed 
 by an unscrupulous, if fond father, and his callous mentor Meternich, 
 to reasons of policy. First as a mere girl, brought up in cloister-like 
 seclusion, she was hastily forced into marriage with Napoleon. At his 
 downfall, the same hands and for the same reasons ruthlessly tore her 
 from him, and separated her cruelly from her son, throwing her with 
 brutal want of principle into the snares of a fascinating libertine. 
 After the storm and stress of her youth and early married life in the 
 vortex of the Napoleonic upheaval and cataclysm, for 31 years she was 
 the adored sovereign of the one happy and peaceful principality in 
 Italy, when the Peninsular was wrecked with her travail for liberty. 
 
 5 
 
In the Footsteps of Richard Cceur de Lion. MAUD 
 
 M. HOLBACH. Author of " Bosnia and Herzegovina," " Dalmatia," 
 etc. In demy 8vo, fully illustrated, i6s. net. 
 
 Born of a warrior race of princes, yet with troubadore blood in his 
 veins, Richard Cceur de Lion united in himself the qualities of soldier 
 and poet. His faults were many, but most of them were those of the 
 age in which he lived. This book aims to sketch truly this almost 
 mythical king, and to bring one of the most interesting characters in 
 history from the land of shadows into the broad light of day, tracing 
 his footsteps through medieval France and England to Cyprus and the 
 Holy Land, and back along the Adriatic shores to the place of his 
 captivity on the Danube, and finally to his tragic death in the land of 
 his boyhood. The author has a personal acquaintance with the scenes 
 of many of Coeur de Lion's wanderings which gives life to her narrative, 
 and the historical bent which enables her to do justice to the subject. 
 
 The France of Joan of Arc Lieut. -Colonel ANDREW 
 C. P. HAGGARD, D.S.O. Author of "The Amours of Henri dc Navarre 
 and of Marguerite deValois," "Sidelights on the Court of France," 
 etc. In one volume. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with photogravure 
 frontispiece and 16 illustrations on art paper, i6s. net. 
 
 The world will never cease to read with admiration the marvellous 
 career of that admirable peasant girl Joan of Arc. Yet, while 
 describing the personal events of Joan's own life, few writers have 
 hitherto been at the pains to explain the previous topsy-turvy con- 
 dition of affairs in France, which, had it not been for her almost. 
 miraculous interposition would have left that country as a mere appen- 
 dage to the English crown. Colonel Andrew Haggard, in his interest- 
 ing pages, supplies this deficiency. He shows us how the discord in 
 France commenced at the same time as the rising power of, that almost 
 Empire, the Duchy of Burgundy. The wild youth, the tragic sudden 
 madness of Charles VI., and the infidelities of his half Italian wife, 
 Isabeau, arc graphically placed before us in his pages ; after reading 
 which we marvel that Joan should have succeeded in firmly seating 
 upon the French throne a prince of whom his own mother acknow- 
 ledged the illegitimacy. 
 
 Great light is thrown upon the long drawn-out and bloody quarrel 
 known as that of the Armagnacs and Burgundians, which commenced 
 with the treacherous murder of the King's brother by his cousin, the 
 Duke of Burgundy, and was continued by the equally treacherous 
 murder of the Duke of Burgundy, by his cousin the Dauphin of France. 
 We learn also how, in spite of either Armagnac or Burgundian, the 
 bold Henry V. contrived to seize the throne of France. One of the 
 most interesting chapters reveals the awful state of the country, the 
 Satan worship which made possible the terrible child-sacrifices to the 
 Devil, by one of the greatest Seigneur*, the prototype of Bluebeard. 
 
Love Letters of a Japanese, being the correspondence 
 
 of a Japanese man with his English betrothed. G. N. MORTLAKE. 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 55. net 
 
 In these love letters of a Japanese man and an English woman we 
 have a human document of great psychological and ethnological value. 
 For all English-speaking readers they will have a peculiar interest. 
 This modernised Japanese and this highly Cultured twentieth century 
 Englishwoman were uncommon lovers it is true ; but all the world 
 loves lovers. They may express their thoughts and feelings in earth's 
 various tongues, yet the language they use is a universal one, and the 
 appeal they make is wide as the world. To divulge the development, 
 to reveal the ending of this unique love story, would be unfair to the 
 lovers and to their readers ; suffice it to say that it is a heart-record of 
 absorbing interest. 
 
 Via Rhodesia. CHARLOTTE MANSFIELD 
 
 Super royal 8vo, cloth, richly gilt, with about 150 illustrations, 
 
 printed throughout on art paper, i6s. net. 
 
 This is a frank and chatty narrative describing the author's journey 
 through the wilds of Rhodesia in 1909, in which she was accompanied 
 for the greater part of the way only by native carriers. Her experiences 
 were often amusing and sometimes thrilling, and the work is enlivened 
 by many entertaining anecdotes. The atmosphere of the Rhodesian 
 wilds is most effectively rendered, the scenery being very graphically 
 described, and the reader will vividly realise the nature of the life on 
 the lonely veldt. The quaint native villages which she visited, the dark 
 forests teeming with wild beasts which lay in the course of her journey, 
 the swamps through which she was carried shoulder high by her 
 natives, are described in a series of striking impressionistic pen -pictures. 
 The author was equally assiduous with note-book and camera, and 
 vvhra words fail of adequate pictorial e'Tact the story is completed by 
 rhe beautiful photographs which accompany the text. 
 
 A Chateau in Brittany. MARY J. ATKINSON 
 
 Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with many illustrations, IDS. 6d. net. 
 This delightful volume of travel recounts the journeys of a party 
 through the high-ways and by-ways of picturesque Brittany. It 
 describes in a chatty but scholarly manner the quaint customs of the 
 simple peasantry and fisher-folk, the fairs, festivals and markets, the 
 famous chateaux and the folk-lore which surrounds them with a halo 
 of romance. No one contemplating a visit to this quaint and 
 unspoiled corner of France should fail to read this entertaining book. 
 
 America -Through English Eyes. "RITA" 
 
 Author of "That is to Say" "Peg the Rake," etc., etc. Cloth 
 boards, 23. 6d. net. 
 
 In this volume " Rita " not only gives her impressions of the chief 
 <l sights " of the premier cities of the United States, but also vividly 
 describes, and frankly criticises, the social conditions, manners, customs, 
 etc., of our cousins across the water, and surveys life in its darker as 
 wr>l! as its brighter aspects. 
 
Spain Revisited : A Summer Holiday in Galicia. 
 C. GASQUOINE HARTLEY. Author of "A Record of Spanish 
 Painting," "Moorish Cities," "Things Seen in Spain," etc., etc. 
 In one volume, demy 8vo, cloth gilt. With numerous illustra- 
 tions, las. 6d. net. 
 
 C. Gasquoine Hartley is known already as a writer upon social life in 
 Spain, and as an authority on the art of the country. In this volume the 
 writer recounts, in a most entertaining manner, her experiences and 
 impressions during a sojourn in Galicia, the mountainous and 
 beautiful northern kingdom of Spain, which is still comparatively 
 unexplored. Galicia is the Switzerland of Spain, but it is a Switzer- 
 land with a sea-coast, and offers scenery that is not to be surpassed in 
 Europe. The mediaeval city of Santiago de Compostilla is certainly, 
 by its history and its magnificent old buildings, one of the most 
 interesting towns in Spain. Its cathedral of St. James is the greatest 
 monument of Romanesque architecture, while its Gate of Glory is the 
 finest example of early Christian sculpture in the world. Galicia is an 
 unrivalled centre for the study of Spanish sculpture, and her churches 
 are museums of treasures in this art. 
 
 The writer describes the fiestas, the religious ceremonies, the native 
 dances, the Gallegan music, the theatre, and many customs of the 
 people, who in many ways resemble the Irish Celts to whom they are 
 allied by race. She has visited not only the towns, but has lived 
 in the homes of the peasants in remote villages where English speaking 
 people have seldom been seen. 
 
 A Winter Holiday in Portugal. Captain GRANVILLK 
 
 BAKW. Author of "The Walls of Constantinople," etc. With 
 coloured frontispiece and 32 original drawings by the author. 
 Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, 125. 6d. net. 
 
 Captain Granville Baker who has served in several campaigns in 
 the British as well as the German Army, is an experienced traveller. 
 In this volume he describes with the pen, pencil and brush the 
 scenic charm of Portugal, the old buildings, the manners and 
 customs of the people, and gives a history of the rise and growth 
 of the nation, bringing his survey up to the recent important changes 
 in the government. The author sets forth, in fascinating pages, the 
 attractions of Portugal as a winter resort. 
 
 In the Land of the Pharoahs: A Short History of 
 
 Egypt from the Fall of Ismael to the Assassination of Boutros 
 Pasha. Dusi MOHAMED. In demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with sixteen 
 illustrations, printed on art paper, IDS. 6d. net. 
 
 The author of this work is a native Egyptian educated in England. 
 He writes with the impartiality and detachment of view of one who 
 has travelled in Asia, Europe, and North and South America. He 
 possesses an intimate and comprehensive knowledge of his own people, 
 and has studied closely the peoples of the West. He speaks and 
 writes English with fluency, and has been previously known to 
 English literature, not only as a special contributor to important journals 
 on matters Egyptian, but also as a brilliant short-story writer and 
 a gifted poet. 
 
Roman Footprints in Provence. A. S. FORREST 
 
 Painter of " Morocco," " West Indies," " Portugal," etc., etc. Pro- 
 fusely illustrated, cloth boards, 6s. net. 
 
 The very name of Provence excites vivid anticipations of the quaint 
 and the picturesque, and no more delightful companion for a trip 
 through its old-world associations with pen and pencil could be found 
 than the author of this book. In his foreword he says : " The way- 
 farer in this land of sunshine and fertility, passing through its villages 
 and visiting its towns, will continually meet with relics, ruins and 
 remains, which are like footprints of races, dynasties, and empires long 
 since passed away. Some are nearly effaced, but others stand out in 
 clear and distinct outline, recalling whole histories of bygone days. 
 There is something about this region that makes an irresistible appeal 
 to strangers from northern lands. Romance is written so plainly on its 
 face that even ' he who motors may read.' " 
 
 The Argentine Republic. Its History, Physical 
 
 Features, Natural History, Government, Productions, etc. 
 A. STUART PENNINGTON. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, profusely illus- 
 trated with half-tone illustrations, printed on art paper, los. 6d. net. 
 The author has treated his subject in a delightfully light and 
 interesting way, and the book will be of particular interest to travellers 
 and students. Mr. Pennington has been a resident in the Republic 
 for over 20 years, and is an authority on the subjects dealt with. 
 He has contributed extensively to the local press during more than 
 two decades, and his articles have ranged over many phases of 
 Argentine History, Literature, Geography, Natural History, etc. 
 
 Joy of Tyrol. Edited by J. M. BLAKE. Author of 
 " Lily Work," " A Reasonable View of Life," etc. Profusely illus- 
 trated with over 100 original drawings in the text by the Author. 
 In crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6s. net. 
 
 A series of ingeniously intimate after-dinner letters, written by a 
 very young cleric to a university don. They are of the kind which 
 rarely meet the eye of any but the intended recipient ranging from 
 what is gayest to what is gravest. The whole excitement of mountain 
 travel and of first love is in them. Pen and pencil sketches lend a 
 particular charm to the letters, which are full of human feeling, 
 humanly expressed. An interloping aunt, a doting sister, and a 
 gargoyle brother are a running background of comedy to what at first 
 appears to be moving to an inevitable tragedy. Not at all in the 
 ordinary run of books. 
 
 Our Fighting Sea Men. LIONEL YEXLEY 
 
 Large crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. net. 
 
 Mr. Yexley deals with the laws, regulations and customs of our 
 naval service as they affect the sea man as distinguished from the sea 
 officer. These customs date from times when our ships were manned 
 by the press gang or from our prisons, and though there have been 
 patchwork improvements, the author claims that no serious attempt to 
 meet modern requirements has ever been made. The book will pro- 
 ride food for thought for all students of our navy. 
 
Old Clifford's Inn. PERCIVAL J. S. PERCEVAL. 
 
 A history of the earliest of the old Inns of Chancery. Illustrated 
 with nearly 50 drawings by the author. Large crown Svo, cloth 
 gilt, 6s. net. 
 
 Clifford's Inn is full of interesting associations of the old world of 
 which it formed part. Six centuries ago it was a hostel of the Barons 
 Clifford, and thenceforward, for some five hundred years, became a 
 college for the study of the law, and famous for all that belongs to 
 student life with its past moots in chambers, dinners and revels in 
 hall, and town and gown riots in the streets without. Here Coke and 
 Selden learned the elements of law ; here, also, Harrison, the regicide, 
 served as clerk to a solicitor. Later the six attorneys of the Marshalsea 
 Court made Clifford's Inn famous throughout London. Here, too, 
 George Dyer had chambers where he gathered Scott, Sou they, Coleridge 
 and Lamb around his board. The ancient hall is rich in memories 
 of the Fire of London, as the re-adjustment of the boundaries obliterated 
 by the great conflagration was made within its walls. The subject is 
 a fascinating one, and pen and pencil are both employed in its graphic 
 presentation. 
 
 Police and Crime in India. Sir EDMUND C. Cox, Bart. 
 
 Illustrated, demy Svo, cloth gilt, iss. 6d. net. 
 
 Sir Edmund Cox gives an account of our early police achievements 
 in India, and of the appalling state of that country at the commence- 
 ment of British rule. He gives a succinct history of the policing of the 
 land under Hindoo and Mahomedan Governments, and tells us of our 
 early efforts and failures to police the country ; of Outram's organizing 
 the wild Bhils into a police corps, and of Sir C. Napier's work on the 
 lines of the English reformed police system. He, moreover, gives a clear 
 history of the Indian Penal Code, and a sketch of the Code of Criminal 
 Procedure, with many and further illuminating details. The infor- 
 mation contained in this volume is extremely valuable, and is not 
 easily accessible elsewhere. 
 
 Anomalies of the English Law. S. BEACH CHESTER 
 
 The Law in the Dock. Crown Svo, cloth, 55. net. 
 The writer of this book is a barrister-at-law and a Companion of 
 the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He 
 deals in a clear and piquant manner with many questions of almost 
 startling moment. His powers of penetration arid observation, and 
 his comprehensive view of life impart a strong element of human 
 interest to his treatment of the subject. He not only exposes injustice 
 and laxity, but mystery, ignorance and obscurity, with the sure hand 
 of one who knows. 
 
 Marriage Making and Breaking. CHARLES TIDBITS 
 
 In crown Svo, cloth boards, 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 This book surveys the present situation with regard to marriage and 
 divorce. The author does not attempt to force his own conclusions on 
 the reader, but states fully each aspect of the problem, summarises the 
 present law of divorce as it affects both men and women, and collects 
 together the opinions of leading judges, magistrates, politicians, divines, 
 and social workers, now scattered in various books, magazines and 
 papers. 
 
 10 
 
RECENT SUCCESSFUL VOLUMES 
 
 Intimate Society Letters of the i8th Century. 
 
 By His GRACE THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, K.T. In two volumes, 
 demy 8vo, cloth gilt and gilt top. \Vith two photogravure frontis- 
 pieces and 56 other full - page illustrations, printed on art 
 paper, of original letters, autographs, and other interesting matter. 
 245. net the set. 
 
 " No more vivid picture of life in the i8th Century could be presented than Is given 
 as by these letters, and much gratitude is due to the Duke of Argyll for the judgment 
 with which they have been selected out of th voluminous correspondence in the 
 possession of his family." Globe. 
 
 The Amours of Henri de Navarre and of Marguerite 
 
 de Valois. Lieut.-Colonel ANDREW C. P. HAGGARD, D.S.O. 
 Author of "Sidelights on the Court of France," " Sporting Yams," 
 " The Regent of the RoueV' etc. In one volume, demy 8vo, cloth 
 gilt, with photogravure frontispiece, and 16 full-page illustrations 
 printed on art paper, i6s. net. 
 
 11 Admirably written. Makes excellent and amusing reading." Morning Pott. 
 " The book is admirable, and the literary merit undeniable." Scotsman. 
 " One of the most fascinating books of the season." Country Lift. 
 
 An Eighteenth Century Marquise. EMILIB DU 
 
 CHATELET AND HER TIMES. FRANK HAMEL. Author of "The 
 Dauphines of France," etc. In one volume, demy 8vo, cloth gilt. 
 With a photogravure frontispiece and 16 other illustrations, 
 printed on art paper, i6s. net. 
 
 " Mr. Harnel furnishes some vivid and striking details of the famous men and 
 women of the time, and his descriptions of the cafes and salons are lively and enter- 
 taining." JA Scotsman. 
 
 The Beaux and the Dandies : NASH, BRUMMELL and 
 
 D'ORSAT, with their Courts. CLARE JERROLD. In one volume, 
 demy 8vo, handsome cloth gilt, with photogravure frontispiece 
 and numerous other illustrations, on art paper, i6s. net. 
 
 "The chief of the beaux in their day and generation, Nash, Brummell, and 
 D'Orsay, are generously dealt with, and a host of minor gentlemen, Bucks, Fops, 
 Bloods, and Macaronies, lend their brief brilliance to the scene." The Gentlewoman. 
 
 The Romance of a Medici Warrior. GIOVANNI 
 
 DEI.LE BANDE NERE. To which is added the story of his son 
 COSIMO. CHRISTOPHER HARE. Author of "Ladies of the 
 Renaissance," " Felicita : A Romance of Old Sienna," etc. In one 
 volume, demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with a photogravure frontispiece 
 and 16 other illustrations, on art paper, los. 6d. net. 
 
 " Mr. Hare writes with A tine, sense of pomp and pageantry, and uses his learning as 
 an artist should without ;><lantry or epprcusivenes*. Tkta it * ansaptnou* decoration 
 of history." 'tiornini Ltttder. 
 
 I* 
 
The Boy's Book of Sports, Pastimes, Hobbies and 
 Amusements. E. KEBLE CHATTERTON 
 
 For boys of the age of ten to seventeen. Cloth boards, gilt, 55. 
 
 The Observer says: " It is something in the nature of a boy's encyclopaedia in the 
 brightest sense or the word." 
 
 The Guardian says : " Mr. Chatterton is one of the best of writers for boys, and 
 herein he gives them largely from his personal experience all sorts of ' tips ' regarding 
 matters in which the healthy boy is interested. All he writes is marked by the 
 practical touch." 
 
 The Children's Reciter and Poetry Book. ALFRED 
 
 H. MILES. Cloth boards, as. 6d. net. 
 
 This is a collection of verse for children, made to satisfy the require- 
 ments of school and home. The pieces, selected from a wide field, are 
 graded to suit age, and classified to facilitate reference, and many new 
 pieces are included to help nature study and interest children in 
 collateral studies. 
 
 The Diners Out Vade Mecum. After-dinner Toasts 
 and Speeches. ALFRED H. MILES. In fcap. Svo (6| x 3^), cloth 
 bound round corners, is. 6d. net. 
 
 A handy little book which can easily be carried in the breast pocket, 
 and which every gentleman should possess. It is full of bright sayings 
 and amusing anecdotes, as well as toasts and other speeches suitable 
 for weddings, dinner parties, and other social functions, also rules of 
 etiquette and conduct. 
 
 Original Poems, Ballads and Tales in Verse. ALFRED 
 
 H. MILES. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, with photogravure portrait 
 frontispiece, 35. 6d. net. 
 
 "There will be a welcome for this relume of wholesome, spirited and well-turned 
 verse on a great variety of subjects." Timts. 
 
 " To our thinking the gem of the book is the poem 'To Mary Shakespeare. 1 'A 
 Man's Song ' ia one of the manliest love lyrics ever penned. The poems on child- 
 hood are exquisite, but all have the genuine ring of poetry about them." Wtst- 
 minster Review. 
 
 11 The poems cover a wide ranpe of thought and emotion. Many of the lyrics sre 
 full of tenderness and charm. The ballads have colour, warmth and movement, and 
 at times a touch of that fine enthusiasm that stirs the blood like the sound of a 
 trumpet. Mr. Miles is a poet of the people." The Bookman. 
 
 11 We are specially grateful to Mr. Miles for ' Pan : an Autumn Memory. 1 " Wtit- 
 minster Gazette. 
 
 This Funny World. F. RAYMOND COULSON (DEMO- 
 
 CRITUS). Author of "A Jester's Jingles." Crown Svo, cloth gilt, as. 
 net. 
 
 A volume of humorous and satirical verse by the author of "A 
 Jester's Jingles," a work well known to reciters, and whose " Social 
 Scale " enjoys wide popularity. 
 
 " This Funny World " will contain much of the author's latest and 
 best work. Besides his numerous contributions to periodical literature 
 Mr. Coulson has for many years enjoyed the appreciation of a vast 
 public as " Democritus " of the Sunday Chrcniclt, and a brisk demand 
 lor the book is confidently anticipated. 
 
THE ' GRIP 6? GRIT LIBRARY 
 
 A New Serif s Edited by ALFRED H. MILES. 
 IDEAL BIRTHDAY GIFTS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 
 
 Large crown 8vo, 384 pages, fully illustrated, handsome 
 cloth gilt, full gilt edges. 5s. each. 
 
 " Mr. Alfred H. Miles is the Homer of modern Ajaxes and Hectors. He saems to 
 have heard of more brave deeds than any man living." Christian World. 
 
 Twixt Life and Death on Sea and Shore. A Book for 
 
 Boys. Edited by ALFRED H. MILIS. 
 
 " Mr. Miles is always a safe guide where boys' reading is concerned. Here he 
 gives you plenty of stirring things, and the best of it is they are all from real lif e trug 
 ttories that is." Daily Chronicle. 
 
 Heroines of the Home and the World of Duty. A 
 
 Book for Girls. Edited by ALFRED H. MILES. 
 
 " Each story is of a high standard, and has the healthy atmosphere which charac- 
 terises all the books of Alfred H. Miles." Lady's Pictorial. 
 
 A Book of Brave Boys All the World Over, 
 
 Edited by ALFRED H. MILES. 
 
 " What could be more fascinating to the boy than the storits of brave deeds con- 
 tained in ' A Book of Brave Boys.' "Truth. 
 
 A Book of Brave Girls At Home and Abroad. 
 
 Edited by ALFRED H. MILES. 
 
 " It provides numerous and thrilling examples of heroism in all parts of the globe, 
 and ought to prove very inspiring." Morning Leadtr, 
 
 In the Teeth of Adventure Up and Down the World. 
 
 Edited by ALFRED H. MILKS. 
 11 A gloriously exciting book for boys." Manchester Couritr. 
 
 The Sweep of the Sword. From Marathon to Mafe- 
 
 king. Being a Battle Book for Boys. ALFRED H. MILBS. Dedi- 
 cated by special permission to Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, V.C. 
 In large crown 8vo (over 600 pages), with a photogravure frontis- 
 piece, 16 full-page illustrations of world-famous battle picture?, 
 printed on art paper, and nearly 150 illustrations in the text, hand- 
 somely bound in cloth gilt, with special cover design, 6s. 
 
 Truth says : " Never before has Mr. Miles gathered such a harvest as this in a 
 single volume. It is truly a stupendous volume, and there is quality as well as 
 quantity to recommond it." 
 
 The Pall Mall Gazette says: "It ii a tremendously attractive and manly volume 
 for boys. It is not a book in praise of war, but it celebntts in a fitting way those 
 virtues which war brings out." 
 
 The United Service Magazine says : " Mr. Miles has compiled an extromely valuable 
 volume from which not only boys but also a great many men will not only gain 
 pleasurable excitement but much useful instruction of real historical value. 1 ' 
 
SERIAL PUBLICATIONS 
 
 The Lady's Realm. Vol. 29 (November, 1910 April, 
 
 1911). In handsome cloth gilt, full gilt edges, 6s. net. 
 
 " The Lady's Realm " is published monthly at 6d. net. 
 
 Since the first number was issued more than fourteen years ago, it 
 has been recognised as one of the most beautifully illustrated maga- 
 zines for cultured gentlewomen. Almost every notable author and 
 celebrity in political life, literature or society, has at one time or 
 another contributed to the pages of " The Lady's Realm." 
 
 Among its annual subscribers are many of the reigning monarchs 
 and the leaders of society in all parts of the civilized world. To be 
 obtained from all booksellers or newsagents, or will be sent, post free, 
 each month (including Double Numbers), by the. Publishers to any 
 address in the world for IDS. per annum (or to Canada for 2 dols.). 
 
 The Beau. A Journal devoted to the Science of Pleasure. 
 
 Published quarterly, 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 " The Beau " is something entirely new in journalism ; it is printed 
 on a special hand-made paper with deckled edges, illustrated through- 
 out with photogravures and line drawings, and bound in handsome 
 covers. " The Beau " has but one object to induce its readers to make- 
 pleasure their sole aim in life. 
 
 '"The Beau' is about as delicious a feast as can be purchased for half-a-crown." 
 American Abroad. " Extremely pleasant reading. . . . Something utterly unlike 
 anything that has ever appeared before or is likely to appear again." Dublin Express. 
 " A fascinating production, full of entertainment for those whose susceptibilities are 
 not too easily offended; beautifully printed and artistically illustrated."^ berdeen 
 Free Press. 
 
 No. 2 is now ready. It is a special Greek Number, and contains 
 among other interesting features a series of delightful miniature Greek 
 figures in outline. 
 
 The Commentator. The most out-spoken paper in 
 
 England. One Penny Weekly. 
 
 " A sixpenny review for one penny." 
 
 "The Commentator " is a paper which has the courage of its con- 
 victions, and speaks with no uncertain sound. Whatever doubts and 
 fears may paralyse blase politicians, " The Commentator" is free from 
 all ambiguity and vacillation. It is an upright, downright, straight- 
 from-t he-shoulder paper, with a what-I-say-I-mean ring about it ; and 
 don't you forget it. Every Wednesday. 
 
 14 
 
STANLEY PAUL'S 
 ABC "COLLECTORS'" SERIES 
 
 Each in large crown 8vo, 5s. net 
 The A B C of Japanese Art. J. F. BLACKER 
 
 Profusely illustrated with 150 line and 100 half-tone illustrations, 
 
 printed on art paper. 
 
 Exceedingly useful to the collector, whom it will guide, assist and 
 interest in the Art of Old Japan. Those who desire to collect with 
 profit will hardly discover any object so suitable, whilst for home 
 decoration the quaint beauty of Japanese Art is unequalled in its 
 peculiar attractiveness. Armour and Swords with their furniture, 
 Pottery and Porcelain, Bronzes, Colour Prints, Ivory and Wood Carvings, 
 including Netsukes, are amongst the subjects dealt with. Technical 
 processes are explained and many illustrations given in addition to the 
 100 half-tone illustrations, and the marks, signatures and sale prices. 
 
 The ABC about Collecting. Sir JAMES YOXALL, M.P. 
 
 Profusely illustrated with numerous line and 32 pages of half-tone 
 illustrations. The subjects include China, Clocks, Prints, Books, 
 Pictures, Furniture and Violins, besides others. Written clearly 
 and explainingly out of personal knowledge, experience and 
 research. 
 
 11 A beginner cannot well have a better guide." Outlook. 
 " Every page is an inspiration to a young collector." Evening Standard, 
 "The amateur collector who cares to be advised by us will certainly possess 
 himself of Sir James Yoxall's volume." Academy. 
 
 A B C of Collecting pld English China. J. F. BLACKER 
 
 Profusely illustrated with numerous line and 64 pages of half-tone 
 illustrations, printed on art paper. 
 
 " To the beginner there could be no surer guida than Mr. Blacker 's book." Pall 
 McM Gazette. 
 
 " Mr. Blacker shows what to look for, how to know it, and what to avoid. For the 
 collector the book is a necessity." Daily Express. 
 
 11 The author has a golden rule for collectors. ' Never buy with your ears, 1 learn 
 to rely on your eyes, your fingers, a knife and a file." Sunday Times. 
 
 A B C of Collecting Old English Pottery. J. F. 
 
 BLACKER. Illustrated with about 400 line and 32 pages of half- 
 tone illustrations. 
 
 " Practically every known variety of old English pottery is dealt with, and the use- 
 fulness of the book is enhanced by the facsimila reproductions of the various marks, 
 and by an appendix giving the prices realised by good examples at auction.' 1 Observer. 
 
 " In this book the range is wide, stretching from Greek vases to Napoleon jugs, 
 and including a great deal of information on the Wedgwood productions and even 
 on the willow-pattern. Salt glaze, lustre, slipware, puzzle jugs, Fulham, Astbury, 
 Lambeth, Leeds, Yarmouth, and numerous other wares all receive careful attention. 
 Mr. Blacker speaks with authority, and his pages are full oi knowledge." Bookman. 
 
 " Mr. Blacker is to be congratulated on the production of a thorough] v good, trust- 
 worthy and informing handbook, and one that every collector will find not only 
 desirable but necessary." Pull Mall Gazette. 
 
STANLEY PAUL'S 
 
 XIX CENTURY HISTORICAL 
 
 ART SERIES 
 
 Nineteenth Century English Ceramic Art. 
 
 J. F. BLACKER. Author of " The A B C of Collecting Old English 
 
 Pottery," " The A B C of Collecting Old English China," etc., etc. 
 
 With about 96 pages of half-tone illustrations, printed on art paper, 
 
 and 150 line drawings, IDS. 6d. net each. 
 
 Active assistance from the successors of the old master potters has 
 enabled the well-known authority, Mr. J. F. Blacker, to produce a 
 unique volume which must prove of exceptional interest to the collector 
 and to all connected with the great ceramic industry. The same 
 author's " Old English Pottery " and " Old English China " are standard 
 works of reasonable price and exceptional merit. This new book com- 
 pletes them. It is a practical guide, with a history in pictures too, 
 which gives valuable information in a concise form regarding the great 
 factors of the century, such as Adams, Copelands, Mintons, Wedg- 
 woods, Hadley andLinthorpe ; and those who, being of a comparatively 
 recent date, have already made a reputation and a growing one. 
 
 The illustrations present nearly every type of form and pattern, from 
 the blue printed English and American scenery to the most elaborate 
 painting, gilding and modelling, the masterpieces of the later potters. 
 We have no hesitation in commending this work as one eminently 
 suitable for students of ceramic art. 
 
 Nineteenth Century English Engravings. 
 
 W. G. MENZIES. IDS. 6d. net. About 96 full pages half-tone 
 illustrations. 
 
 In this volume an attempt has been made to trace the history of 
 engraving in England in all its phases during the nineteenth century, 
 from the time when the mezzotint was beginning to be overshadowed 
 by the steel plate to the present day, when photo-mechanical processes 
 are all prevailing. 
 
 The literature on this period in the history of English engraving is, 
 with the exception of a few volumes and articles on certain special 
 sections or masters, singularly meagre, and a history of the art as a 
 whole has been a much wanted volume. 
 
 Never, for instance, in the history of English engraving did such a 
 flood of engraved plates of all classes emanate from engravers' studios 
 as during the Victorian era. Aquatints, mezzotints, etchings, litho- 
 graphs, line engravings, in fact examples of every class were put upon 
 the market, the art of wood engraving and that of etching, amongst 
 others, regaining much of their lost glory. 
 
 The author touches in a brief though concise manner on every 
 section of the art, enhancing the value of his remarks with copious 
 illustrations of the work of nearly two hundred en gravers, and shows what 
 is worthy of acquisition amongst the work of this most prolific period. 
 
 16 
 
The Artistic Side of Photography; In Theory and 
 
 Practice. A. J. ANDERSON. Author of " The Romance of Fra 
 Filippo Lippi." With 12 photogravure plates and 16 half-tone 
 illustrations, printed in black and sepia, as well as numerous 
 illustrations and diagrams in the text. In one volume, demy 8vo, 
 cloth gilt and gilt top, 125. 6d. net. 
 
 The author is well known as a critic and authority on photographic 
 topics. He has had the assistance of Mr. Alvin L. Coburn in the pre- 
 paration of this book. " The Artistic Side of Photography " is no 
 rechauff6 of what has already been written on pictorial photography, 
 but it is quite the latest word on the artistic development of the move- 
 ment. 
 
 The Amateur Photographer says it is "A most delightful book, full of pleasant 
 reading and surprises. !t is beautifully illustrated with many photogravure and 
 half-tone reproductions of pictures by leading workers. Every amateur photographer 
 with an interest in pictorial work should get it." 
 
 The Daily Mirror describes it as " A clear and accurate treatise with examples of 
 some of the best work possible to-day. A book of permanent use to photographers, 
 amateur or professional." 
 
 T.P.'s Weekly says : " Mr. Anderson writes as one having authority. His book is 
 not so much a tract in defence of photography from the art point of view as an 
 elaborate treatise on the practice of photography as an art, and no better argument 
 in favour of the art of photography could be made. His chapters on ' Tone and Key,' 
 'Values,' 'Composition,' 'Emphasis, 1 'Impressionism,' and other subjects are 
 masterly pieces of exposition, loaded with knowledge of his subject, and of art in 
 general." 
 
 The Life and Letters of Lawrence Sterne. LEWIS 
 
 MELVILLE. Author of " William Makepeace Thackeray, a Bio- 
 graphy," and other works. 2 vols, demy 8vo, with photogravure 
 and other illustrations, 285. net the set. 
 
 Mr. Lewis Melville, who has already written much on the eighteenth 
 century, has brought to the production of this book a full knowledge 
 of the work of his predecessors, to which he has added the results of 
 his own investigations and not a little information inaccessible to 
 earlier writers. This has enabled him to correct old errors and 
 chronicle newly-established facts, and so to make his work the most 
 complete and accurate account of the life, and the fullest collection of 
 the letters of this great humourist. Lord Baring has kindly permitted 
 the use of all the letters of Mrs. Draper (Sterne's Eliza) written from 
 India, in his possession. The work has been produced in a manner in 
 every way worthy of the standard position it will naturally take. 
 
 17 
 
The Life of James Hinton. Mrs. HAVELOCK ELLIS 
 
 Author of "Three Modern Seers," "My Cornish Neighbours," 
 " Kit's Honour," etc. Illustrated, IDS. 6d. net. 
 
 Mrs. Havelock Ellis is preparing this biography under very favourable 
 circumstances. Access to private papers, and the assistance of intimate 
 friends, together with her own knowledge and experience, qualify her 
 to treat the subject with greater fullness than was possible to those who 
 preceded her. The book will aim at presenting the man as his friends 
 knew him, and as the world does not realise him. Many matters will 
 be revealed to show that he chiefly sought to disentangle false morality 
 from true morality, and to prove him a noble serious student struggling 
 to bring truth into the open. 
 
 Three Modern Seers. Mrs. HAVELOCK ELLIS 
 
 Illustrated with 4 photogravures, crown Svo, cloth gilt, 35. 6d. net. 
 
 This fascinating volume treats of certain modern ideas expounded by 
 three different types of men who are in the forefront of modern thought, 
 namely : James Hinton, F. Nietzsche and Edward Carpenter. 
 
 The Court Journal says : " ' The Three Seers,' while differing fundamentally, 
 nevertheless agree in many things. They all revolt against hypocrisy, cant and the 
 petty observances that are sanctified by custom. They would break the letter if 
 thereby the spirit might be liberated. They realised that progress and convention are 
 totally opposed. While Hinton is actuated by the passion for true service as opposed 
 to destructive egoism, Nietzsche wars against the petty self-righteous narrow morality 
 of civilisation, and Edward Carpenter preaches freedom, brotherly love and leisurely 
 progress." 
 
 Two Russian Reformers (!VAN TURGENEV AND LEO 
 
 TOLSTOY). J. A. T. LLOYD. In demy Svo, cloth gilt and gilt top, 
 with illustrations, IDS. 6d. net. 
 
 "The outstanding merit and interest of Mr. Lloyd's work is the lucidity with 
 which he elaborates his main thesis to show that Tolstoi the author and Tolstoi the 
 reformer are not dual and distinct entities, but that one was the inevitable outcome 
 of the other. The first part of the book is a very careful and well-informed critique 
 of Turgenev's work, the chief interest of which is more exclusively literary, but 
 which is characterised by the same sterling qualities of discernment and analytic 
 acumen which make the author's appreciation of Tolstoi the stimulating reading it 
 undoubtedly is. The work combines matured judgment and genuine study, with 
 felicity of style and expression." The Onlooker. 
 
 The Welshman's Reputation. "Ax ENGLISHMAN " 
 
 In crown Svo, cloth, 25. 6d. net. 
 
 Ever since the publication of "Draig GlasV'book on the Welsh 
 character, entitled " The Perfidious Welshman," Taffy's reputation has 
 been the subject of considerable comment. "The Welshman's Reputa- 
 tion " puts very forcefully the case in favour of Taffy, and the author 
 supports his statements by a formidable array of facts which he has set 
 forth with lucidity and flavoured with humour. 
 
 18 
 
STANLEY PAUL'S NEW 
 6/- FICTION 
 
 The Tragedy of the Nile. DOUGLAS SLADKN 
 
 Author of " The Tragedy of the Pyramids," etc. 
 This novel is brimful of romance and stirring scenes. It presents 
 a study of the heroic figure of Gordon that will stir the reader's 
 deepest emotions. The story has for its background the new Soudan, 
 the tropical Utopia of peace and prosperity which has arisen from the 
 blood and ashes of the Mahdi's reign. Amid the drums of war 
 advancing across the desert, to the final days of Omdurman and 
 Omdebrekat, the heroine figures prominently in a great love episode. 
 
 A Man with a Past. A. ST. JOHN ADCOCK 
 
 Author of " Billicks," etc. 
 
 Olive lives with two maiden aunts who do not approve of her fiance". 
 She marries him nevertheless, and on the wedding day he justifies the 
 aunt's suspicions by being arrested by the police just as he is starting 
 for the honeymoon. Olive sets up in business, and the husband black- 
 mails the aunts. Disappearing for a time, Olive believes him dead and 
 herself a widow, which she ultimately becomes through his violent end, 
 upon which she marries a struggling author and happiness ensues. 
 There is a Dickens flavour about the story, and it is instinct with 
 comedy and the kind of melodrama which happens in real life. 
 
 Two Girls and a Mannikin. WILKINSON SHERREN 
 
 Author of "A Rustic Dreamer," " Chronicles of Berthold Darnlty," 
 
 "The Insurgent," "Tumult," etc. 
 
 The author of " Tumult " remains faithful to Wessex, but gives the 
 humorous side of rustic life full play. The comedy of country life acts 
 the part of Greek chorus to Reuben Rashley's chequered history. How 
 he is unsettled in his courtshrj) of Ruth Batinshaw, the farmer's daugh- 
 ter, and the extraordinary part played by her twin sister, Hermione, 
 makes a theme of passionate interest. The quaint old figure of Captain 
 Rashley, should appeal to all lovers of nautical character, while Wye- 
 port and Abbotston, the scenes of the novel, supply picturesque local 
 colour which enhances the attractiveness of the novel. 
 
 The Desire of Life. MATILDE SERAO 
 
 Author of " Farewell Love," " Fantasy," " The Conquest of Rome," 
 " After the Pardon," etc. Translated from the Italian by William 
 Collinge, M.A. 
 
 Matilde Serao enjoys a world-wide reputation. She strikes the 
 cosmopolitan note in all her novels. In none has this international 
 interest been so prominent as in " The Desire of Life" (Evviva La Vita), 
 the scene of which is mainly laid in the Engadine, amidst the cosmo- 
 politan crowd that frequents the fashionable resorts of that earthly 
 paradise. With such an environment the talented Italian novelist has 
 full scope for that jewelled description and character analysis for which 
 she is famous. The heroine is an English girl of rare charm and 
 sweetness of disposition. 
 
 19 
 
New Six Shilling Fiction continued 
 
 The Lady of the Bungalow. E. EVERETT-GREEN 
 
 Author of "A Will in a Well," "Co-Heiresses," "The City of 
 
 the Golden Gate," etc. 
 
 Vera Glenarvon is engaged to the " lion " of the season, Hailsham, 
 who suddenly informs her that he must break off the engagement. He 
 and a man called Cassilis are together when she comes upon them, and 
 instinct tells her that Cassilis is responsible for the rupture; he does 
 not deny it. Her object thenceforth is to wreck the life of Cassilis as 
 he has wrecked hers. But under remarkable circumstances she gradually 
 begins to find that Cassilis and not Hailsham is the lover of her choice, 
 and she learns why it was that Cassilis stood between her and Hail- 
 sham. She saves his life from the latter, who seeks to take it, and 
 rewards him with her own love. 
 
 Cantacute Towers CECIL ADAIR 
 
 Author of " The Dean's Daughter." 
 
 This story is full of excitement, incident and plot, and is per- 
 vaded by a strong love interest. It is the kind of story that makes 
 a direct appeal to fundamental human sympathies, and so is sure of 
 wide acceptance. The author possesses all the qualities which make 
 for popularity, and much excellent work may be expected to follow. 
 The Guardian says of this author, " We seem to see a successor to 
 Rosa N. Carey." 
 
 A Lady of the Garter. FRANK HAMEL 
 
 Author of " The Dauphines of France," " An Eighteenth Century 
 
 Marquise," etc. 
 
 The gorgeous ceremonies attending the inauguration of the Most 
 Noble Order of the Garter inspire Lady Katherme Merivale, who has 
 had chivalric ideals from childhood, with a longing to embark upon 
 an adventurous career. Her beauty arouses the passions of two 
 knights, who fight for the right to wear her colours. The difficulties 
 into which their rivalry plunges her necessitates her taking a journey 
 to France in time of war. There she wins the friendship of the wife of 
 the dauphin Charles, and follows up a quest of no little importance 
 Her message of peace to the English King, her courage during the siege 
 of Meaux, her devotion, her suffering, and her triumphant rescue of the 
 man she loves gain for her an unexpected reward. 
 
 The Werewolf. W. B. BEATTIE 
 
 TJ'.'s Weekly says : "A clever and vividly interesting novel. Anybody who reads 
 The Werewolf ' will never be at a los to understand the French Revolution. We 
 have many stirring; scenes, many clever pictures of court intrigue, many intimate 
 sketches of the gay life in cities, a description of the home and friends of Ninon 
 d'Enclos being amongst them. But the portions of th book that grip the reader and 
 leave an ineffaceable mark on the memory are the descriptions the life of the 
 peasants under the feudal system. Mr. Beattie is master ef the art of concentrating 
 without destroying either the vigour of his narrative or the picturesque efflorescence 
 of his language. Readers may rely upon a breathless time during the reading." 
 
 2O 
 
New Six Shilling Fiction continued 
 
 The Justice of the King. HAMILTON DRUMMOND 
 
 Author of " Shoes of Gold," etc. 
 
 This story centres round the reign of Louis XI., one of the most 
 interesting periods in the history of France. Crafty and cruel, Louis XI. 
 was indifferent to the welfare of individuals, though devoted to the 
 building up of his country, and this story is full of exciting incidents, 
 plots and counter-plots. Other historical characters dealt with in the 
 story include Charles the Dauphin, Commines, and Francis Villon. 
 There is a strong love interest. 
 
 The Third Wife. HERBERT FLOWERDEW 
 
 Author of " The Second Elopement," etc. 
 
 _ In this story we have another of those poignant dramas of married 
 life with which the author's name is chiefly associated. It is a problem 
 story in the sense that it makes the most orthodox of readers ask them- 
 selves whether there are not cases in which the marriage laws are not 
 more honoured in their breach than in their observance. But it has 
 nothing in common with those studies of neurotic temperaments and 
 sexual obsessions which have brought discredit on the so-called " problem 
 novel." 
 
 Love in Armour. PHILIP L. STEVENSON 
 
 Author of " The Rose of Dauphiny," " A Gallant of Gascony," etc. 
 
 Major Stevenson writes historical romances with a vigour, verve and 
 enthusiasm which have led several critics to compare him with Dumas. 
 He does not, like some writers, economise his situations. He is lavish 
 of hairbreadth escapes and exciting incidents, and his readers are 
 whirled along with him in a high state of excitement from the first 
 page to the last. " Love in Armour " is, perhaps, the best novel Mr. 
 Stevenson has yet written. The Times critic, writing of his last 
 novel, "The Rose of Dauphiny," says: " Mr. Stevenson is winning an 
 honourable place among the school of Mr. Stanley Weyman." 
 
 Where Truth Lies. OLIVER MADOX HUEFFER 
 
 Author of " The Artistic Temperament," etc. 
 
 Truscott, a destitute clerk, suddenly becomes an earl. He finds him- 
 self starving the same night on the Thames Embankment with a "1,000 
 cheque in his pocket, no means of cashing it, and unable to persuade 
 any one to believe his story. He undertakes a mysterious errand, and 
 meets a runaway girl supposed to be guilty of forgery, but really 
 innocent. Truscott, out of sympathy for the girl, pretends he is a 
 criminal also. After many comic incidents, the tangle is at last 
 unravelled satisfactorily to all. The story shows vividly the perils of 
 impersonation, but there is ao attempt to point a moral. 
 
 31 
 
New Six Shilling Fiction continued 
 
 The Riding Master. DOLF WYLLARDE 
 
 Author of " Tropical Tales," etc., etc. 
 
 Like all Dolf Wyllarde's books this is a thoroughly readable one. 
 Vice and virtue struggle together through its pages, but virtue triumphs 
 in the end in the person of a badly-neglected wife who preserves a 
 straight course and adopts the forsaken, proud, pet niece of her beautiful 
 and wicked rival. 
 
 The Ascent of the Bostocks. HAROLD STOREY 
 
 Mrs. Bostock is a character. She is determined to rise in the world. 
 She looks down upon her husband's business, and is disgusted when 
 her daughter's promising engagement is broken off. The story is one 
 of English country provincial middle-class life. Caroline's experiences, 
 with three distinct wooers, supplies the love interest, and throughout 
 the character drawing is excellent. A. well-known critic pronounces 
 it " good sound fiction." 
 
 The White Owl. KATE HORN 
 
 Author of " The Mulberries of Daphne," " Edward and I and Mrs. 
 
 Honeybun," Ships of Desire," etc. 
 
 Demeter Bellairs is a famous authoress, who, on the death of her 
 husband, hands her daughter over to an aunt and takes up her residence 
 in Sicily to devote herself exclusively to her art. Her daughter, 
 Persephone, who has been the belle of the season, becomes engaged to 
 a rich baronet. She fails in health. To recoup she retires to a 
 farm for open-air treatment. She recovers, and love complications 
 arise. In the end each marries the right person, though neither wed 
 their first love. 
 
 Clive Lorimer's Marriage. E. EVERETT-GREEN 
 
 Author of " The City of the Golden Gate," " A Will in a Well," 
 
 " Co-Heiresses," etc. 
 
 Clive Lorimer owns a flourishing plantation in Santa Lucia, where 
 lie lives with his beautiful extravagant wife. She is apparently killed 
 in the awful Mont Pelee fiasco. He returns to England, marries, and 
 lives happily with his family. The missing wife appears on the scene 
 in a nurse's garb. In the delirium of fever he is thought to have killed 
 her, but her violent death is otherwise explained. The story is direct 
 and clearly told and interesting throughout. 
 
 The Lion's Skin. RAFAEL SABATINI 
 
 Author of " Bardelys, the Magnificent," etc. 
 
 Mr. Rafael Sabatini's new romance has London of the early eigh- 
 teenth century for its inise-en-scene, London of the time of George I M 
 when the country was still quivering under the shock it had sustained 
 from the bursting of the South Sea Bubble. The story has a strong 
 human interest and a brisk rush of dramatic incidents. Mr. Sabatini 
 will have to do well indeed to better this. 
 
New Six Shilling Fiction continued 
 
 Married When Suited. Mrs. HENRY DUDENKY 
 
 Author of "Folly Corner," "The Third Floor," "A Sense of 
 
 Scarlet," " A Large Room," etc., etc. 
 
 Since the publication of her first book, "A Man with a Maid," in 
 1897, Mrs. Dudeney has been writing and publishing with ever-increasing 
 success and acceptance. " Hagar of Hornerton," " The Maternity of 
 Harriett Wicken," "Men of Marlowe's," "Spindle and Plough," " Robin 
 Brilliant," "The Story of Susan," "The Wise Woods," etc., etc., have 
 followed each other from the press to public favour, and her new book 
 will be sure of a hearty welcome from friends old and new. 
 
 The Muzzled Ox. CORALIE STANTON & HEATH HOSKEN 
 
 A Story of Romance and Mystery. Authors of " Plumage," etc. 
 This is a story of a dethroned queen and her missing jewel necklace, 
 which is of great value and historic interest. The lady takes refuge in 
 England, where she passes through many viscissitudes. A weird little 
 financier, a lovely companion and confidant, a baron, a cardinal, a 
 famous detective, and a criminal valet, all lend interest to the narrative. 
 
 A Mysterious Lover. ALICE M. DIEHL 
 
 Author of " An Actor's Love Story," " Miss Strangeways," " The 
 
 Temptation of Anthony," etc. 
 
 Alice M. Diehl's brilliant love stories contain other interests apart 
 from the tender passion. Here we are introduced to a country village, 
 with squire and rector and athletic youths as well as charming girls. 
 In their midst, on an anniversary kept by a cricket-match and dramatic 
 entertainment, a strange aviator with a most extraordinary bird-like 
 aeroplane drops. How he distinguishes himself, as volunteer, to take the 
 place of the rector's son, disabled by an accident, how he inspires the 
 love of the squire's daughter, and through what vicissitudes their love 
 has to pass, is the main subject of the story, which hints also at a 
 remarkable discovery in aviation which is likely to set to work 
 thoughtful brains interested in the subject. 
 
 For a Woman's Honour. CHRISTOPHER WILSON 
 
 Author of " A Mystery of Mount Street." 
 
 ^ A mystery story, turning on the tragic death of the wife of Sir Henry 
 Granton, Secretary for War, and virtual head of the Government. The 
 mystery is investigated by Inspector Oswald, whose character and 
 methods differ widely from those of the stereotyped fiction detective. 
 The attempted assassination of Sir Henry Granton ; a war peril, 
 threatening a breach of the entente cordiale ; an amazing crime, 
 committed by an eminent Cavendish Square physician ; and a sensa- 
 tional episode in the House of Commons, are amongst the happenings 
 which deepen the mystery. Throughout there runs a romance of 
 forbidden passion, of which Lady Helen Mardyke, wife of a distin- 
 guished soldier, is the heroine, and the ultimate solution of the mystery 
 proves also the solution of the problem of the strife between duty 
 and love. 
 
New Six Shilling Fiction continued 
 
 Madge Carrington and her Welsh Neighbours. 
 
 "DRAIG GLAS." (Author of "The Perfidious Welshman." 9th Edit.) 
 In " The Perfidious Welshman " " Draig Glas " showed a gift for 
 satirising the oddities and idiosyncrasies of a race that won him 
 instantaneously a wide public. In " Madge Carrington and her Welsh 
 Neighbours " he manifests equal ability in the field of fiction. It is a 
 clever study of Welsh village life. 
 
 When We are Rich. WARD MUIR 
 
 Author of " The Amazing Mutes." 
 
 This is a story of Bohemian life. Art students who localise in 
 Bedworth Square and attend a Gower art school figure in the narrative. 
 A fascinating flirt, a delightful old maid, and a generous baron 
 lend it piquancy and interest. A well-known critic says : " Wholesome, 
 bright, readable fiction, with an individual touch. More such fiction 
 would be a tonic boon." 
 
 The City of Enticement. DOROTHEA GERARD 
 
 Mr. Spiteful visits Vienna with much the same results that follow the 
 fly that visits a fly-paperhe sticks there till he dies. Two English 
 sisters, his cousins, follow him in search of his fortune, and find the fly- 
 paper just as attractive. An art-loving cousin despatched to fetch 
 them home sticks fast also, as does a schoolboy who despatches himself, 
 and others who follow with the same view. They are all held fast by 
 the City of Enticement, which has a separate appeal for each of their 
 foibles. An extremely entertaining novel. (Autumn, 1911.) 
 
 Because of a Kiss. LADY CONSTANCE 
 
 A smart readable novel, with snap and go about it. Margaret 
 Selwyn, a poor relative, is governess to the child of Lady Sylvia 
 Prescott. Lady Sylvia has a clandestine love affair with Lord 
 Ormantyre. His lordship kisses Margaret by mistake for Lady Sylvia, 
 and thereby hangs the tale. There are some amusing situations, and 
 Margaret beats Lady Sylvia at her own game. 
 
 Honours Fetters. MAY WYNNE 
 
 Author of " Mistress Cynthia," " Henry of Navarre," etc., etc. 
 This is an historical novel of the times of Louis XV., and is full of 
 incident and excitement. It deals with the troubles and adventures of 
 Henrietta and the young Yves, Marquis Prelinac of Brittany, her 
 brother. The fortunes of war bring the young marquis a prisoner to 
 England, where he is followed by Henrietta. Here love complications 
 arise, and the " battle " incident is followed by " murder and sudden 
 death." Two pairs of lovers are blest in the end. 
 
 Our Guests. ST. JOHN TREVOR 
 
 Author of "Angela." 
 
 This is a story of the humorous side of things, full of fun in narra- 
 tive and incident. The guests are " paying guests," and they pay the 
 reader in amusing enterts.inr.nea:. 
 
New Six Shilling Fiction continued 
 
 The Broken Butterfly. RALPH DEAKIN 
 
 An Austrian Romance. 
 
 This is a story of " Two Sons of Astadal," brothers, who become 
 rivals in the love of Irrna, the bright and beautiful " butterfly " of the 
 Austrian Brunnenthal. The elder son is accepted, but the younger 
 induces Irma to elope with him. Many complications arise, and the 
 story closes with a terrible revenge and a happy reunion. 
 
 His Will and Her Way. H. LOUISA BEDFORD 
 
 Thomas King leaves his mill and money to Jane, his daughter, 
 rather than to his spendthrift son. Jane with a pretty turn for philan- 
 thropy, handsomely endows the worthless brother, helping him on his 
 road to ruin, adopts a girl cousin whom she discovers amongst her 
 employees, and dissipates thousands in the endeavour to better the con- 
 dition of her hands. Conscious of her failure, Jane takes refuge in a home 
 of her own. But was it failure ? Let the reader judge. 
 
 In Fear of a Throne. R. ANDOM 
 
 Author of " We Three and Troddles," " The Cruise of the Mock- 
 Turtle," etc., etc., with 50 original illustrations. 
 Readers, and they are to be counted by the hundred thousand, who 
 have followed the fortunes of R. Andom's famous quartet will find 
 themselves in a new atmosphere in this story. The four friends are on 
 a cycling tour abroad, when they get into a Stanley Weyman coil of 
 political intrigue, owing to the chance resemblance of the hero to the 
 weak-minded heir to the throne of a petty kingdom. But Troddles is 
 always good fun, and his efforts to find personal comfort in the midst 
 of a whirl of exciting adventure, of which he is the unwilling victim, will 
 tickle the fancy of his numerous friends. 
 
 Red Revenge: A Romance of Cawnpore. CHARLES E. 
 
 PEARCE. Author of " Love Besieged," " The Bungalow under the 
 
 Lake," etc., etc. 
 
 The story of Cawnpore, besides the terrible picture it presents of lust 
 for blood, has its mystery of which Mr. Pearce has made full use. Nana 
 Sahib, the detestable sensualist, a puppet in the hands of his crafty 
 lieutenant, Azimoolah Khan, the Begum Hoosainee Khanum, intrigu- 
 ing and merciless, are characters which have all the darker elements of 
 romance. To these the English hero and heroine furnish a strong 
 contrast. " Red Revenge " forms a fitting companion to the author's 
 " Love Besieged." 
 
 The Bungalow under the Lake : A novel of Plot and 
 
 Mystery. CHARLES E. PEARCE. Author of " Love Besieged," etc. 
 
 The Globe says : " As a maker of thrilling plots and exciting situations Mr. Pearce 
 is hard to beat. In bis latest book he maintains his customary high level of writing, 
 while not neglecting to give the reader a liberal allowance of his artistically intro- 
 duced thrilU." 
 
 25 
 
STANLEY PAUL'S 6s. NOVELS 
 
 In Extenuation of Sybella. 
 
 URSULA A BECKETT 
 The Bottom of the Well. 
 
 F. UPHAM ADAMS 
 A Week at the Sea. HAROLD AVERY 
 The Dean's Daughter. 
 
 CECIL ADAIR 
 
 The Secret Terror. " BRENDA " 
 The Gay Paradines. 
 
 MRS. STEPHEN BATSON 
 
 A Splendid Heritage. 
 
 MRS. STEPHEN BATSON 
 The Trickster. G. B. BURGIN 
 Priests of Progress. G. COLMORE 
 The Crimson Gate. G. COLMORE 
 The Marriage Ring. F. J. Cox 
 
 Golden Aphrodite. 
 
 WINIFRED CRISPE 
 Young Nick and Old Nick. 
 
 S. R. CROCKETT 
 An Adventure in Exile. 
 
 RICHARD DUFFT 
 Pretty Barbara. 
 
 ANTHONY DTLLINGTON 
 Co-Heiresses. 
 
 E. EVERETT-GREEN 
 
 A Will in a Well. 
 
 E. EVERETT-GREEN 
 The Second Elopement. 
 
 HERBERT FLOWERDEW 
 
 The Dream and the Woman. 
 
 TOM GALLON 
 The Chippendales. 
 
 ROBERT GRANT 
 
 Troubled Waters. HHADON HILL 
 The Feet of the Years. 
 
 JOHN DALISON HYDB 
 The Ghost Pirates. 
 
 W. HOPE HODGSON 
 Edward and I and 
 
 Mrs. Honeybun. KATE HORN 
 The Mulberries of Daphne. 
 
 KATE HORN 
 
 Plumage. CORALIE STANTON & 
 HEATH HOSKEN 
 
 No. 5 John Street 
 
 (3. 
 
 The Cheerful Knave. 
 
 E. KEBLE HOWARD 
 Strange Fire. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER MAUGHAN 
 Love, the Thief. HELEN MATHERS 
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 F. A. MATHEWS 
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 SIDNEY McCALL 
 In Calvert's Valley. 
 
 M. PRESCOTT MONTAGUE 
 The Leveller. 
 
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 Fear. E. NESBIT 
 
 Love at Cross Purposes. 
 
 ALEX OTIS 
 
 Adventures of a Pretty Woman. 
 FLORENCE WARDEN 
 The Broken Snare. 
 
 LUDWIG LlWISHON 
 
 Lying Lips. WILLIAM LE QUEUX 
 That is to Say " RITA " 
 
 A Wild Intrigue. HEW SCOT 
 A Lady of France. B. SYMONS 
 Quaker Robins. 
 
 WILFRID L. RJLNDILL 
 Love and Bissaker. 
 
 WILFRID L. RANDKLL 
 Across the Gulf. 
 
 NEWTON V. STEWART 
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 PHILIP L. STEVENSON 
 Tumult. WILKINSON SHERRKN 
 The Little Gods. 
 
 ROWLAND THOMAS 
 Angela. ST. JOHN TREVOR 
 
 The Submarine Girl. 
 
 EDGAR TURNER 
 Heartbreak Hill. 
 
 HERMAN K. VIEL 
 The Vortex. FRED WHISHAW 
 An Empress in Love. 
 
 FRED WHISHAW 
 
 Tropical Tales. DOLF WYLLARDX 
 6d.) RICHARD WHITKINO 
 
STANLEY PAUL'S FAMOUS 
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 Lying Lips. WILLIAM LE QUEUX 
 
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 Love, the Thief. HELEN MATHERS 
 
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 27 
 
STANLEY PAUL'S 
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 16 The Mystery of Roger Bullock. TOM GALLON 
 
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 Author of " The Lion's Skin," " Cesare Borgia," etc. 
 
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 With cover design and original illustrations by GEORGE FVFFE-CHRISTIE. 
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 H. NOEL WILLIAMS 
 
 G. COLMORE 
 
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 Mrs. EDWARD KENNARD 
 
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 WILLIAM LE QUEUX 
 
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STANLEY PAUL'S 'CLEAR 
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 *8 The House of Sunshine, EFFIE ADELAIDE ROWLANDS 
 
 19 A Charity Girl, 
 
 so The Love of Hin Life. 
 
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 26 The Wooing of ROBO. 
 
 27 Love's Mask. 
 
 The Evolution of Katherina, E TEMPLE THURSTON 
 
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 74 Heart of his Heart. 
 
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 32 A Shadowed Life. 
 
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 35 Pretty Barbara. ANTHONY DYLLINQTON 
 3^ Edward and I and Mrs. Honeybun. KATE HORN 
 
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 15 The Man She Married. 
 
 16 Beneath a Spell, >. .. 
 
 17 Dare and Do, ,i 
 
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