284 THE SEA. 



canvas bags, &c. The officers' uniforms are the same as those of the Royal Navy, with the 

 exception of silver, for the most part, taking- the place of gold. It is more expensive to 

 join the naval than the military volunteers, and the class composing the corps are generally 

 well-to-do young men, a large number of them employed in shipping offices, and mercantile 

 pursuits connected with the sea. 



The drills consist of practice with great guns, rifle, pistol, and cutlass exercises. 

 " Efficient " volunteers are entitled to a badge, while men returned five times as efficient 

 may wear one star, and those returned ten times two stars, above said badge. Every 

 volunteer must attend at least two drills a month, until he has obtained the standard of 

 an " efficient." When on actual service, the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers will receive 

 the same pay, allowances, and victuals as those of relative rank in the navy, and when 

 embarked on any of Her Majesty's ships for more than forty-eight hours, in practice, 

 will either be victualled or receive a money compensation. The cruises in gun-boats, &c., 

 usually last ten days, and the vessel visits many of the Channel ports, &c., more especially 

 off points where gun practice is practicable. A volunteer wounded, either on drill or in 

 actual service, is entitled to the same compensation as any seaman in the navy would be 

 under similar circumstances, and if killed his widow (if any) to the same gratuities out 

 of the Greenwich Hospital Funds as would a Royal Navy seaman's widow. Members who 

 are able to take advantage of the cruise in gun-boats must have attended drill regularly 

 for three months previously. It must be remembered that each man costs the Government 

 from 8 to 10 for the first year, in the expenses incurred in great gun and other practice; 

 and it is therefore made a point of honour to those joining that they will devote sufficient 

 time to their drills to make themselves thoroughly efficient. 



The London Naval Artillery Volunteers have a fine vessel, the President, now in the 

 West India Docks, on which to exercise, while to accustom them to living on board ship, 

 the old Rainbow, off Temple Pier, is open to them, under certain conditions, as a place 

 of residence. A number avail themselves of this : sleep on board in hammocks, and 

 contribute their quota of the mess expenses. The writer is the last to decry other 

 rnanly exercises, such as cricket, foot-ball, racing, or pedestrianism, but naval volunteering 

 has the advantage of not merely comprising a series of manly exercises, but in being directly 

 practical and specially health- giving. 



And to prevent the need of impressment, the Government did well in establishing the 

 Royal Naval Reserve. The latest estimates provided 140,000 for the year; the number, 

 which at present is about 20,000 men, is not to exceed 30,000. The service is divided 

 into two classes : the first class consisting of seamen of the merchant service, and the 

 second, fishermen on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. Both divisions are practical 

 sailors, and the value of their services in a time of war would be inestimable. They are 

 required to drill twenty-eight days in each year, for which they receive about 6 per 

 annum, and sundry allowances for travelling, &c. The former class can be drilled at our 

 stations abroad, so that a merchant seaman is not necessarily tied to England, or to 

 mere coasting trade. 



