62 Naval Affairs of Great Britain. [JULY, 



mencement of war, proportionally lessen the evil of impressment, and the 

 pressure on the trade of the country. It appears that on war breaking out, 

 thirty thousand additional seamen would at once be required : and it must be 

 quite clear, if an additional thirty thousand were employed in the peace, none 

 would be wanted ; no call on those in the merchant's employ would be requisite. 

 If then only an additional five thousand were employed, the demand would be 

 reduced to the same amount, and the revulsion occasioned by change from peace 

 to war would thereby be materially diminished. We would then propose an 

 increase of at least five thousand to the present peace establishment. Expense 

 being the great objection to overcome, our purpose will be to show how this 

 augmentation may be obtained with the least pressure on the finances. The 

 ships in commission have generally reduced complements. The cost of the wear 

 and tear of the ships, rigging, sails, and ordnance, are the same, whether with 

 the present short crews, or with the full ones. The wages and victualling would 

 consequently be nearly the whole additional charge ; and, further to reduce the 

 amount, our proposition is to create this number of seamen, by employing five 

 thousand well grown able-bodied youths, of the age of from sixteen to eighteen ; 

 to receive wages at the rate of eighteen to twenty shillings per month. If these 

 lads were put into the tops, and after-guard, instructed in the duties of seamen, 

 and duly taken care of, in two years they would become most valuable men. 

 To induce them to enter, the time of the servitude should be limited to three 

 years, and the promise of ordinary seaman's rating at the end of two, if they put 

 themselves forward. The advantages of this plan would not be confined to the 

 actual increase of seamen. From the ships being more efficiently manned, 

 reduced discontent, too often the cause of desertion, could not fail to attend it, 

 as well as the lessened necessity of impress which would consequently result. 

 These men would, in all probability, stick to the navy through life. Those 

 commencing their career, and brought up as it were in the navy, are little likely 

 to prefer the labour and toil of the merchant's employ ; precisely as the domestics 

 of the wealthy, with little work and pampered feeding, are not found to return 

 to the loom or the plough. Lads of this description, well selected, placed under 

 the immediate care of the captains of the forecastle, tops, &c. and duly attended 

 to by the officers, would speedily become most efficient and valuable men. That 

 no difficulty would be found to procure them, may be fairly inferred from the 

 fact before stated, that none is found to obtain workmen for any, even the most 

 disgusting and unhealthy employs. Let justice be done to those who serve, let 

 the abolition of the impress be seriously attempted, let the seamen and the popu- 

 lation see, and feel, such was the conduct they may rely on experiencing, and 

 a rational hope might be indulged of finding volunteers. One thing is self-evident, 

 that the abolition of the impress and a small peace establishment are perfectly 

 irreconcileable ! ! The utmost inducement trie nation is capable of offering, 

 could not produce the numbers wanted on the commencement of war, unless 

 such numbers were materially lessened by a considerable increase of those usually 

 employed in peace. 



"PETTY OFFICERS. These are unquestionably the primest men in the service. 

 It has been shown, page 130,* that the portion of these classes now in the navy 



* " The peace establishment is so comparatively small, and the system of withholding the 

 pensions which have been granted, from men who serve, has at once driven away and 

 excluded from the navy that important class of seamen the petty officers. At the con- 

 clusion of the war, we possessed a proportion of these invaluable men for 115,000; while 

 since the peace, the proportion we have employed is that of about the odd 15,000. You 

 cannot expect men who had been boatswain's mates, gunner's mates, quarter-masters, &c. 

 to come and serve in the navy as private seamen ! Men of this description are worth their 

 price any where, and nothing but positive distress would induce them to descend in the 

 scale ; besides that all these, and indeed all our seamen who from servitude receive pensions, 

 could not be expected to enter. Where is the inducement ? The king's pay, even since 

 the last regulation, is not equal to that of the merchant service, and every pensioned petty 

 officer and seamen losing these, while serving, it bona Jide amounts to a prohibition. In- 

 stead, therefore, of their being won to the service, thus are they excluded, and by whom 



