Читать книгу The Story of the "Britannia" - Edward Phillips Statham - Страница 6

Table of Contents

New Brooms—Radical Changes—The Academy Closed—Wanted, a Professor—James Inman—An Enthusiastic Scholar—His Love of Fair Play—Senior Wrangler—Antarctic Astronomer—Appointed Professor—“Inman’s Tables”—The College Opens—A Master’s Untimely Optimism—A Poser for Their Lordships—The New Course of Studies—John Irving, Silver Medallist—A Mathematician’s Device—The Rod and the “Black Hole”—New Regulations—Commissioned Officers Admitted—Elastic Hours of Study—The End Approaches—The “late” Royal Naval College—Inman’s Pension—Sir H. Keppel’s Recollections—The Box Seat—A Retaliatory Cascade—Sir W. R. Mends—Alleged Toadying—Sir G. R. Mundy’s Letters—Keeping a “Mess”—The “Black Hole” in Being—“A Blow-out,” and After—Sir B. J. Sulivan—Bullying Studious Juniors—A Discouraging Experience—The Captain Converted—The College and the Excellent—Professor Main—The “Pitchfork” System Again—A Slender Equipment—Naval Cadets—Haphazard Methods—A Little More Detail.

THE Naval Academy saw out the century, and went on without interruption for six years more.

Then there came some “new brooms,” apparently, in office, who thought that the time had arrived for extending and remodelling it; and by way of making a fresh start, and leaving old traditions behind, they resolved to change even the title.

The reason set forth, in a memorial presented by the Lords of the Admiralty, for these alterations was to “render the Academy effectual for the increased naval force”; their suggestions were adopted in their entirety, and embodied in an Order in Council, dated 1st February, 1806, as follows:—

“1st. That the title of the building be altered to Royal Naval College.

“2nd. That the present building be enlarged, at a cost of £4,886 2s. 6d.

“3rd. That the establishment of Officers be as follows: A Governor, a Lieutenant Governor and Inspector, a Professor, a Preceptor, a Housekeeper, a Writing Master, a Drawing Master, a French Master, a Fencing Master, a Dancing Master, and a Surgeon. The Master Attendant of the Yard and the Master Shipwright to instruct in Seamanship and Ship Construction, and a Gunner of the Royal Marine Artillery in Small Arm Exercise, etc.

“4th. That the First Lord of the Admiralty for the time being be Governor.

WEST FRONT OF THE NAVAL COLLEGE IN PORTSMOUTH DOCKYARD.

Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd.

“5th. That a Post-Captain be appointed as Lieutenant-Governor, with net salary of £500 per annum.

“6th. That an able Mathematician from Cambridge be appointed as Professor, at £8 per head per annum, on a basis of probably seventy Scholars under the new system. To have apartments, and to have nothing to do with boarding, &c., nor attention out of College hours.

“7th. The Preceptor to receive £300 per annum.

“8th. That some disabled and meritorious Lieutenant be appointed as Housekeeper, to look after the domestic concerns of the College, under a Committee consisting of the Lieut.-Governor, the Professor, and the Preceptor.”

9th to 17th Articles contain details of the salaries of the various masters and instructors, the total being £1,443 10s., exclusive of the Professor, but including the Lieut.-Governor.

“18th. That the number of Scholars be increased from forty to seventy, of whom forty are to be sons of Officers, and the remainder sons of Officers, Noblemen, or Gentlemen, who are found qualified.

“19th. That the age of entry be not less than thirteen, or more than sixteen; that Scholars are to remain three years, whether they have completed the plan or not: only two years to reckon in any case towards the six years required to qualify for Lieutenant’s commission.

“20th. That preference be given to youths who have been at sea before.

“21st. That to avoid misuse of the College, parents are to give a bond for £200, to be forfeited in the event of a Scholar failing to complete his course and qualify for the Navy.

“22nd. That a Capitation fee of four shillings per day be paid by each Scholar while he is actually in the College.

“23rd. That the distribution of the said Capitation fee be as follows:—

	£	s.	d.
Stopped for Professor	8	0	0
Stopped for Clothing	10	0	0
Board for 330 days at 1s. 9d., of which 3d. goes to the Housekeeper	28	17	6
Washing, 47 weeks, at 2s. per week	4	14	0
Pocket Money at 1s. per week	2	7	0
	53	18	6
330 days at 4s. per day (allowing five weeks for holidays)	66	0	0
Balance	12	1	6”

The alterations and enlargements involved in this scheme naturally occupied a considerable time, and the establishment was closed from about May, 1806, until February, 1808, and even then was not in some respects complete.

Meanwhile, the Admiralty were seeking a fit and proper person to fill the important post of Professor under the new arrangements; and, a good mathematician being required, they naturally turned to the University of Cambridge, the birthplace of Wranglers. There they were lucky enough to find the very man they wanted, in the person of James Inman, a man whose name will not soon be forgotten by those who are interested in the science of navigation.

He was, to start with, a born mathematician; everything in this line seemed to come as easily to him as the alphabet, and abstruse problems which in other men would cause corrugated brows and the burning of the midnight oil were to him merely pleasant employment. He was also a good organiser, a man of details, and at the same time of pleasing and strong personality. Sir Henry Keppel—one of the last survivors of old College times—gives his impression of Inman as “a tall man in black, with an austere countenance: but there was that in him that I liked.”

In the “Life and Letters of Sir Bartholomew J. Sulivan” the following passage occurs:—

“I was content so long as I kept with the senior boys of my batch; and it was a fortunate thing for me that, three months after I entered, Dr. Inman’s son, Richard Inman, joined us. He had learnt the first three months’ work, or more, before he entered, and I had nearly completed in three months what we were allowed six for. Inman passed in the studies that made him equal with me within a week of entering, and then we went on competing each month. Nothing could be fairer than Dr. Inman was to me throughout this rivalry. He urged me to take my books home at Christmas and Midsummer and work every day, adding, ‘I shall keep Richard at work.’”

This shows the Professor in a very pleasing light, with his love of his work, and his honest desire to see “the best man win”; any lad who took kindly to mathematics would be sure of his friendship and assistance.

Inman was a Yorkshireman by birth, being the younger son of Richard Inman, of Garsdale Foot, Sedbergh; he was born in 1776, and was educated at Sedbergh Grammar School, to which institution he certainly did ample credit, for he carried all before him at Cambridge, coming out in 1800 as Senior Wrangler and first Smith’s Prizeman.

After this he appears to have had some idea of doing mission work in Syria; but being detained at Malta on account of the war, he occupied his time there in the study of Arabic. In 1803, young as he was—only twenty-seven—he was recommended by the Board of Longitude as astronomer on board the Investigator, engaged in Antarctic exploration, and joined her in June at Port Jackson.

BILLIARD-ROOM, NAVAL COLLEGE (FORMERLY THE LARGE STUDY).

Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd.

Eventually he returned to England by way of China, and towards the end of 1807 he was appointed Professor at the Royal Naval College, a post which he held for nearly thirty years. He was ordained about 1805, but does not appear to have held any benefice.

During the whole period of the existence of the College under the amended regulations the official records and correspondence bear constant testimony to Inman’s unflagging zeal and energy; he was always inaugurating something new, and it usually involved an accession of work for himself, but this he never appeared for a moment to consider.

THE COURTYARD OF THE NAVAL COLLEGE.

Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd.

In addition to his duties at the College, which were performed with characteristic ability and minuteness, he was for some years President of the School of Naval Architecture, established in the Dockyard in 1810, chiefly at his instigation.

In 1821 he published the great work by which his name is so well known, “Navigation and Nautical Astronomy for the Use of British Seamen”; a work which for many years was absolutely without a rival, and which he supplemented in the second edition by the table of Half Versines (or Haversines), which proved of immense value to navigators and mathematicians generally. “Inman’s Tables” were a necessity to every man and boy who went to sea, and were as familiarly spoken of as the mainmast or the compass.

He was consulted by the naval or other authorities upon almost every conceivable subject which could be included under the head of mathematics, not excepting designs of ships, sail plans, etc.; he directed the construction of ten ships of war, and is said to have given some valuable hints to Captain Broke for improving the gunnery on board the Shannon. He also wrote a book on Naval Gunnery, and translated from the original a Swedish work on Ship Construction.

Such was the man who was placed in charge of the Naval College; and in truth it would appear that he was to a certain extent thrown away there, for it is easy to imagine him Astronomer Royal, or anything else in a mathematical way.

The Royal Naval College was opened, as has been stated, in 1808; and there is a considerable mass of correspondence extant in connection with it, containing some amusing incidents, until its final abolition, as a school for young gentlemen, in 1837.

On January 20th, 1808, the second master of the old Academy writes to the Secretary to the Admiralty expressing his surprise and disappointment at not being appointed first master under the new régime; and, by way of setting forth how much he is losing, mentions that he has found that the salary and emoluments of his office amounted to about 200 guineas annually. As his salary was £100 a year, the Secretary is down upon him at once; he turns down the corner of the letter, and writes thereon: “Direct him to state in what manner his emoluments arise to make them, with his salary, equal to 200 guineas per annum.”

The unfortunate master is thus compelled to enter upon an analysis of his “emoluments,” which in truth is somewhat lame and inconclusive: he makes the most, however, of his “commodious apartment, free from rates and taxes, with a very productive garden,” free water and fuel, etc., but is obliged finally to complete the total by acknowledging the acceptance of “presents from the friends and relatives of the scholars for his general care and attention.”

It is to be hoped that his “apartment” was more “commodious” relatively than that of another master for whom quarters were subsequently provided under the new scheme, and who writes to the Admiralty that he has seen the plan approved, and perceives that one sitting-room, one sleeping-room, and a closet has been provided for each assistant: “Now, I would with the greatest respect submit to your Lordships’ consideration,” he plaintively continues, “whether this is sufficient to accommodate myself, wife, servant, three sons and a daughter, with every expectation of a still larger family!”

There is no evidence extant as to whether their Lordships attempted any solution of this problem.

As might be expected, Professor Inman lost no time in drawing up a very complete and elaborate plan of study.

The preliminary examination required a knowledge of the first four rules of arithmetic, reduction, and rule of three; to write English with facility from dictation; construction of English sentences; and the definitions, etc., at the beginning of Simpson’s Euclid.

The students were divided into six classes, new-comers being placed according to their acquirements.

First half-year; or 6th class.

First four books of Euclid, first four rules of algebra and simple equations, the doctrine of proportion, arithmetic, to vulgar and decimal fractions, general grammar, reading in English, French, or Latin, writing, drawing, fencing, dancing.

Second half-year, or 5th class.

Sixth book of Euclid, plane and spherical trigonometry, application of plane trigonometry to surveying, a few propositions in perspective, more complicated simple equations, quadratics, extraction of square and cube roots, leading points of sacred and profane history.

Third half year, or 4th class.

Principles of astronomy, figure and dimensions of the earth, artificial division of the globe by lines and circles, application of trigonometry to the art of navigation and to simple and easy problems in nautical astronomy, the use of instruments generally employed in navigation, nature and construction of logarithms and their application, reading, chiefly in the history and the laws of England, principles of the British Constitution.

Fourth half-year, or 3rd class.

The more difficult parts of astronomy and its application to navigation, observations for latitude and longitude, natural and political geography, prevailing winds and currents.

Fifth half year, or 2nd class.

Fortification, doctrine of projectiles and its application to gunnery, principles of flexions, and application to the measurements of surfaces and solids, generation of various curves, resistance of moving bodies, mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, naval history and nautical discoveries.

Sixth half-year, or 1st class.

More difficult problems in astronomy, motions of heavenly bodies, tides, lunar irregularities, the Principia and other parts of “Newton’s Philosophy,” to those sufficiently advanced.

This, together with fortnightly lessons in seamanship, weekly lessons in ship construction, an occasional cruise round the Isle of Wight in a small vessel, and practical gunnery, forms a pretty full programme, and argues a somewhat optimistic and enthusiastic view of the capacities of his pupils on the part of the learned Professor.

An examination was to be held every six months, and the best and second students were to receive respectively a gold and silver medal.

The silver medal was awarded at Midsummer, 1830, to John Irving, who, when he went out in the Terror with Sir John Franklin’s expedition in 1846, had it with him. It was buried with him in King William’s Land, when, in common with all the members of the ill-fated expedition, he perished, in 1848 or 1849; was found and brought home by Lieut. Schwatka, U.S.N., in 1880, and is now in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution.

The periodical reports show that the programme was carried out regularly; and after some years Inman introduced a novel system of recording progress. The total number of marks obtained by each student was supplemented by a second column headed “number expected”; this was arrived at by multiplying the number of hours at each subject by twenty; this number denoting the progress expected to be made in one hour, if the student completed his course in the full term of three years. If the number obtained exceeded the number expected, the student might be expected to finish his course in a proportionately shorter period.

This was a genuine mathematician’s device, and was very instructive. A glance at the two final columns of a report practically told the whole story; and it is satisfactory to note that a large percentage of the lads usually exceeded expectations: in one report, for instance, the number was forty-seven out of sixty-five.

Notions of discipline were severe, according to the spirit of the times. The Professor on one occasion, reporting the misconduct of some of the students, deplores the abolition of the rod; and mentions that, though a dark cabin is used for confinement, a “black hole” is much needed! There is no mention of such a place of confinement being instituted; but the Admiralty revokes the abolition of flogging.

In 1816 the regulations for entry, the composition of the staff, and the course of study were modified.

The number of students was augmented to one hundred in war time, and seventy in time of peace: thirty sons of naval officers to be admitted free, the remainder at £72 per annum; and the age of admission was altered, 12½ to 14 being substituted for 13 to 16. Two lieutenants, a clerk, two sergeants of the Royal Marine Artillery, and a matron were added to the complement; and Latin and Greek were introduced as part of the plan of study.

In 1821 further changes were authorised:—

1st. That the age of admission be from 12½ to 13½.

2nd. That no student remain more than two years, whether he completes his course or not.

3rd. That any student completing his course within two years shall be discharged.

Some examination papers which are extant, dated February and April, 1822, are of the size and form familiarly known in later years as the “College sheet”; and Inman strongly insists that these papers should be circulated in the Fleet, for the benefit of midshipmen at sea. There was evidently a strong feeling among the authorities during the “twenties” of last century that the College was behind the times; for in February, 1828, we find more alterations.

The sons of naval officers are to pay £40 per annum, and others £100.

Again, in June of the same year, a new circular appears, with some radical alterations.

The peace establishment was raised to eighty students, one-half to be sons of commissioned officers of the Navy and Army:—

Sons of flag and general officers to pay	£80
Sons of captains, colonels, and lieut.-colonels commanding	70
Sons of commanders and under, and regimental field officers	50
Sons of officers who have lost their fathers	40
Sons of officers whose fathers were killed in action	20
While sons of civilians were to pay	125

In January, 1829, the College was first opened to commissioned naval officers who wished to study on half-pay; and on April 1st of the same year appears the first report of the Lieut.-Governor on the class of commissioned officers, seventeen in number, registering the hours of attendance on each day.

On April 14th the Professor asks for some scientific apparatus for the use of commissioned officers, and encloses a syllabus of their course of study, which is as follows:—

Euclid as far as the third book, higher geometry (including some curves), algebra (including geometrical and arithmetical progression), proportion, making of logarithms, plane and spherical trigonometry, astronomy.

On November 7th of the same year a circular is issued, regulating the hours of study for these officers, in which a considerable amount of latitude is permitted, for they are allowed to present themselves at 8.30 a.m., and required to do so at 3 p.m., but must leave the Yard at 5 p.m. They are to form a mess outside, or otherwise arrange for their board, etc.; there is to be no public expense incurred, and they are not to remain more than one year. An extra assistant master was appointed to assist in their studies. The number to be admitted was twenty-four, but this was apparently increased in June, 1830, to thirty-six.

The College went on upon these lines for some years longer, but the end was drawing near.

On March 15th, 1835, the officers who conducted the examinations for lieutenant deplore the deficiency of the candidates as observers, recommend that each officer be required to have a sextant, that a proper place be provided in which to keep them, and that captains be required to report half-yearly as to their efficiency and the condition of their sextants.

In 1836 the abolition of the College as a training school for young officers is evidently decided upon, as only forty-three scholars are reported upon during that year; on January 15th, 1837, the Lieut.-Governor writes a long letter to the Admiralty, making various suggestions in connection with the “approaching event”; and on February 19th sends a catalogue of the library and a list of pictures, with suggestions concerning the bestowal of them.

Finally, on April 12th, 1837, he reports that he has handed over the keys of the public part of the “late Royal Naval College,” and recommends the staff lately serving under him.

Pensions are allowed to most of these, on rather a mean scale, and they all protest vigorously, with the result that a few receive slight augmentation; but Mr. Tate, the Preceptor, after twenty-nine years’ service, only gets £140 per annum.

In a long letter to the Admiralty just before his retirement, Inman mentions that he has “examined about two thousand five hundred midshipmen and schoolmasters; a work certainly of no great difficulty, yet one of great responsibility”; he disclaims any wish to make much of any “trifling elementary works” which he has compiled, but “ventures to mention” his Navigation and Nautical Tables.

He concludes by saying that he will be grateful for any sum their Lordships may award him, which will enable him to live creditably during his few remaining years. The corner of this letter is turned down, and “£400” briefly inscribed upon it. This was subsequently increased to £460; which indeed appears little enough.

Inman lived for over twenty years after his retirement, and died in 1859, at the age of eighty-three.

Sir Henry Keppel, the veteran Admiral of the Fleet, in his book, before alluded to, gives some reminiscences of his experiences at the College.

The Lieut.-Governor in Keppel’s time was Captain J. Wentworth Loring, who, as a matter of fact, filled that post for seventeen years; and Sir Henry thus describes his uniform: Blue coat, open in front, gold epaulettes, white kerseymere waistcoat and pantaloons, Hessian boots, straight thin sword, cocked hat.

The uniform of the youngsters was a blue tail coat with stand-up collar, plain raised gilt buttons, round hat with gold lace loop and cockade.

“We cadets,” he says—though the term was not officially in use at that time—“had each a cabin about seven feet square, with a window, except the corner ones, which at the monthly changes were occupied by those who had been oftenest on the black list, and did not require daylight.”

The London coach used to come into the Dockyard to take the lads away for their holidays, and it was customary on these occasions to draw lots for the box seat. Peashooters were procured outside the Yard, and passers-by had a lively time.

“One night,” says Keppel, “I had the box seat; the Royal Mail picked up and dropped boys as we came along, so that it was midnight before we reached Godalming. The postmaster having turned in, the mail pulled up, as usual, under his bedroom windows. The moment they were opened, the postmaster and his wife were assailed with peashooters, etc. The guard was saying, ‘All right,’ when the postmistress, calling, ‘There is something else,’ emptied the slops on the boys as we drove off.”

In the “Life of Admiral Sir William R. Mends,” who joined the College in May, 1825, reference is made to an unpleasant feature in the matter of leave-giving. In a letter to his mother, young Mends speaks with much indignation of the “toadying” that went on, and complains that when his uncle came for a while to Portsmouth, and endeavoured to obtain permission for him to go “out of gates” for an hour or two, it was refused, but that “my lord this or that” had only to send his butler to obtain a pass for any boy.

In the “Memoirs of Admiral Sir Thomas S. Pasley” there are numerous quotations, not from his letters—he appears to have been weak at letter-writing, as many boys are—but from those of his chum, George Rodney Mundy.

Writing to his mother, February 10th, 1818, Mundy says:—

I sleep in a very nice little cabin all by myself, and always keep the door locked and the key in my pocket. We have coffee and milk for breakfast every morning, very good dinners, also suppers. Most of the boys keep what they call a mess, or drink tea every night, but that is on condition that their fathers pay three shillings a week, and it is sent in the bill every half-year, so that it would come to £3 in a half-year. So I suppose that papa would not let me keep one. Some of them have five shillings a week. There is a sergeant who allows all those that have a mess a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, and a loaf of bread every week, and tea enough, too—sometimes chocolate. One of the boys invited me to drink chocolate with him one night, and I must say it was excellent. The masters here are very strict indeed, but they never flog, only lock them up in a dungeon, and have a soldier to guard it.

P.S.—I am now in my little cabin with my door locked.

This was some years after Professor Inman persuaded the Admiralty to reintroduce flogging, but possibly it was again abolished; or the “black hole” was instituted and found sufficient. Sir Thomas Pasley’s biographer smiles over Mundy’s description of punishment, regarding it as a sort of boyish “bogey”; but it was probably strictly true, the technical term being “confinement in cell under sentry’s charge.”

Young Mundy apparently succeeded in obtaining his “mess,” and discovered that it could be used to his disadvantage. He writes, March 25th, 1819:—

Yesterday I asked Captain Gifford for my mess, for I suppose you know he stopped it a month for copying last examination. He was in a very good humour, and said that I had behaved very well since I copyed, but that I ought not to lay my head down in church quite so much as I do, so I do not intend to do it any more.

On April 28th he writes again:—

Two boys of this college finished their studies the other day; they asked me to what is called a “blow-out,” which is something more than common. We had two turkeys, six chickens, a leg of pork, besides vegetables. I do call that a famous dinner. Most of the boys when they leave this college give a blow-out on the last day, to make merry with their best friends. There were twelve of us to demolish it. I know I ate my share.

Then follows a suggestive remark, which conveys the impression that the assimilation of the twelfth part of two turkeys, six chickens, and a leg of pork—besides vegetables—cannot be accomplished with impunity. “I was invited to another, but I was in the infirmary, and could not go to it”!

Sir George Rodney Mundy was a very well-known man in later years; he finished his active career as Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, and afterwards became Admiral of the Fleet.

Admiral Sir Bartholomew J. Sulivan speaks in his “Life and Letters” of his College days:—

“Lieutenant John Wood Rouse (my godfather) was the senior of the two lieutenants of the College. He had lost his leg as a midshipman in one of the ships of Sir John Duckworth’s Squadron in the passage of the Dardanelles. We stayed at Mr. Rouse’s house during the few days we were at Portsmouth, until I passed in. My father was very anxious about my passing; but the questions were all in arithmetic, except the definitions of Euclid, which I had learned by heart the previous week. Thanks to my father having taught me arithmetic so well, I passed first of twelve.

“No boy could get on unless he studied in his own cabin, and at the dining tables in the evening. This some of the senior boys tried to prevent, by watching the steps of the junior class, and if the junior boys showed any intention of studying they were sure to have their books knocked out of their hands, and scattered about the Yard. Fortunately, the one who passed in second to me—Baugh—was one of the strongest and biggest boys in the College: he was also one of the studious ones, and often protected me from the bullying.

“The collegians were often taken round the Dockyard, and shown ships building and in dock; and if the boys liked they could attend the rigging-loft, to learn to strop blocks and do many other useful things. There were also large barges to cruise about in, to visit ships, and to take us to Haslar Creek on Saturday afternoons for cricket.

“When I passed out of the College I was appointed to H.M.S. Thetis, Captain Sir John Phillimore, who, going round the College a short time before, had told Dr. Inman, and I believe Captain Loring, the Lieutenant-Governor, that if they sent him any collegians he would refuse to take them. When I went on board I found the captain was on leave. The second lieutenant told me that the captain had a strong prejudice against collegians, but that he would do all he could to keep me in the ship. When the captain returned from leave he sent for me to his cabin in the hulk, and told me had never known a collegian worth his salt, and he used strong language against the College and all connected with it.”

This was not a very encouraging reception for a youngster in his first ship; but the captain apparently soon found cause to change his opinion, for he subsequently applied for two more collegians, one of whom was Sulivan’s big strong chum Baugh.

Sir Bartholomew was well known afterwards as a splendid officer and seaman, and an exceedingly clever man all round.

Such is briefly the history of the Royal Naval Academy and College during its existence as a preparatory training school for young naval officers, for over one hundred years. That much good work was done there, especially during the long presidency of Professor Inman, there can be little doubt; but the authorities evidently formed the opinion that the youngsters would in future get on better without it, and so returned to the “pitchfork” system of sending lads to sea without any previous training whatever, to pick up their knowledge as best they could, with the aid of a naval instructor, who was, as a rule, afforded as little facility for imparting knowledge as the commanding officer could manage.

The College, on January 1st, 1839, entered upon another phase of existence, being reopened, under the command of the captain of the Excellent, for the admission of a limited number of mates, who were permitted to volunteer for a special course of mathematics, etc. They were borne on the books of the Excellent, and resided in the College for one year. Every six months an examination was held, and the officer who passed best was awarded a lieutenant’s commission.

Ten commissioned officers of higher rank were also admitted, to study steam, etc., under Professor Thos. J. Main, a very worthy successor to James Inman; for he was, like the latter, Senior Wrangler and Smith’s Prizeman of his year. Professor Main will be well remembered by many naval officers still living; he was thirty years at the College, and wrote more than one book, in conjunction with Mr. Thos. Brown, engineer, R.N., on the marine steam engine. He retired in 1869, and died in London December 28th, 1885, at the age of sixty-seven.

The history of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth subsequent to April, 1837, does not come strictly within the scope of this volume.

It was used eventually as the headquarters of sub-lieutenants, gunnery lieutenants, and naval instructors who were qualifying, and a small number of senior commissioned officers who studied steam, etc., as before. But since the opening of the college at Greenwich, in 1873, it has lapsed, both in title and office; no longer is it known as the “Royal Naval College,” but simply “The College, Portsmouth Dockyard”; no more are the voices and footsteps of Senior Wranglers heard within its walls. Its glory has departed, and, as a mere temporary residence for officers who are studying gunnery, etc., in the port, the title of “College” can, in fact, no longer be justly applied, save in the most crude and literal sense.

During a period of twenty years after the abolition of the Portsmouth College as a training school for young gentlemen, all candidates for admission to the Navy were sent straight to sea; though an Admiralty circular, dated December 18th, 1833, remained in force for some time; and in this a distinction is made between “Volunteers of the First Class” and “College Volunteers.”

On January 20th, 1838, a circular was issued to the following effect:—

A Volunteer of the First Class must not be under twelve years of age. He must be in good health, fit for service, and able to write English correctly from dictation, and be acquainted with the first four rules of arithmetic, reduction, and rule of three.

This seems a slender equipment of knowledge; an irreducible minimum, in fact, for a lad of that age about to enter the Navy; and, moreover, this circular contains no maximum limit of age; a serious oversight.

On February 7th in the same year the term “College Volunteers” is ordered to be discontinued; but the circular of January 20th continued in force, unaltered, until 1843, when the term “Naval Cadet” appears for the first time, being substituted in this circular for “Volunteer of the First Class”—still, however, with no superior age limit stated, and it is not until April 1st, 1849, that it is amended in this respect, the maximum age being laid down as fourteen.

This is only another instance of the singularly inexact and haphazard ways of the Admiralty in those days. The last regulation on this point was issued in February, 1821, when the age was fixed between 12½ and 13½; the lads were then being kept at the College for two or three years, so that they were actually going to sea at a considerably greater age than the more recent circular appeared to warrant. Unless, indeed, the Lords of the Admiralty reserved to themselves the right of arbitrarily fixing the age in each case; if they did, there is no circular extant to show it.

In 1851, however, a little more detail was apparently considered necessary, for there is a supplementary circular, dated February 13th of that year, which lays down:—

That all naval cadets who receive nominations at home are to present themselves for examination at the College within two months of the date of the letter of nomination; and a certificate of qualification, signed by the professor or mathematical master at the College, and approved by the captain of the Excellent (as superintendent of the College), together with a medical certificate of physical efficiency, must be forwarded to the Admiralty before they can be entered. No second trial is to be allowed, and the nomination is to be cancelled unless the candidate passes within two months.

The Commander-in-Chief is also authorised to enter cadets who have passed as supernumeraries on board the flagship until they are appointed to sea-going ships.

These regulations remained in force until the early part of 1857, when a very radical change was introduced. And here the curtain falls on the old order of things; how it rose on the new, and who were the men who brought about the change, must be told in another chapter.

JACK TAR EXPOUNDS.