46 THE SEA. 



It is not generally known that our supply of seamen for the Royal Navy is nowadays 

 almost entirely derived from the training-ships first established about fourteen years 

 ago. In a late blue-book it was stated that during a period of five years only 107 men 

 had been entered from other sources, who had not previously served. Training-ships^ 

 accommodating about 3,000, are stationed at Devonport, Falmouth, Portsmouth, and 

 Portland, where the lads remain for about a year previous to being sent on sea-going 

 ships. The age of entry has varied at different periods; it is now fifteen to sixteen and 

 a half years. The recruiting statistics show whence a large proportion come from the 

 men of Devon, who contribute, as they did in the days of Drake and Hawkins, Gilbert 

 and Raleigh, the largest quota of men willing to make their "heritage the sea." 



Dr. Peter Comrie, R.N., a gentleman who has made this matter a study, informs 

 the writer that on board these ships, as regards cleanliness, few gentlemen's sons are 

 better attended to, while their education is not neglected, as they have a good school- 

 master on all ships of any size. He says that boys brought up in the service not 

 merely make the best seamen, but generally like the navy, and stick to it. The order, 

 cleanliness, and tidy ways obligatory on board a man-of-war, make, in many cases, the 

 ill-regulated fo'castle of most merchant ships very distasteful to them. Their drilling is 

 just sufficient to keep them in healthy condition. No one can well imagine the difference 

 wrought in the appearance of the street arah, or the Irish peasant boy, by a short 

 residence on board one of these ships. He fills out, becomes plump, loses his gaunt, 

 haggard, hunted look; is natty in his appearance, and assumes that jaunty, rolling gait 

 that a person gifted with what is called " sea-legs " is supposed to exhibit. Still, " we/' 

 writes the doctor, " have known Irish boys, who had very rarely even perhaps seen 

 animal food, when first put upon the liberal dietary of the service, complain that they 

 were being starved, their stomachs having been so used to be distended with large 

 quantities of vegetables, that it took some time before the organ accommodated itself to 

 a more nutritious but less filling dietary." 



You have only got to watch the boy from the training-ship on leave to judge that 

 the navy has yet some popularity. Neatly dressed, clean and natty, surrounded by his 

 quondam playmates, he is "the observed of all observers," and is gazed at with admiring 

 respect by the street arab from a respectful distance. He has, perhaps, learned to "spin 

 a few yarns," and give the approved hitch to his trousers, and, while giving a favourable 

 account of his life on board ship, with its forecastle jollity and " four bitter," is the 

 best recruiting-officer the service can have. The great point to be attended to, in order 

 to make him a sailor, is that "you must catch him young."* That a good number 

 have been so caught is proved by the navy estimates, which now provide for over 7,000 

 boys, 4,000 of the number in sea-going ships. 



* The conditions for entering a Government training-ship for the service involve, 1st, the consent of parents 

 or proper guardians ; 2nd, the candidate must sign to serve ten years commencing from the age of eighteen. A 

 bounty of 6 is paid to provide outfit, and he receives sixpence a day. At the age of eighteen he receives one 

 shilling and a penny per day the same as an ordinary seaman. Each candidate passes a medical examination, 

 and must be from fifteen to sixteen and a half years of age. The standard height is five feet for sixteen years 

 old rather a low average. 



