These Degenerate Days. 



tions were effected in the Navy, including a 

 different scale of punishments, and many seamen 

 whose characters were classed as indifferent, 

 were not available for promotion, and were not 

 allowed to re-engage. Not that there was any 

 real vice in them, but merely because they did 

 not come aboard directly their leave expired, or 

 because they sometimes managed to get an extra 

 " tot of grog." 



Also, about that time, several ships were lost 

 with all hands. H.M.S. Captain, in 1871, went 

 down with about 600 men in the Bay of Biscay, 

 H.M.S. Eurydice capsized in a snowstorm, losing 

 all hands except three. H.M.S. Atalanta sailed 

 away into the north Atlantic and was never again 

 heard of; H.M.S. Dotterel was blown up in the 

 Straits of Magellan. About this time, too, w r e 

 saw the last of the old wooden line of battle- 

 ships as sea -going vessels. 



This general clear-out, and the invention of a 

 new type of vessel, in which seamanship was 

 rendered to a certain extent unnecessary, seems 

 to have evolved a new class of men differing in 

 many respects from the "sea dogs" of Nelson's 

 time. I do not say that they are an inferior 

 class. Intellectually they are no doubt superior ; 

 for many of the old school were illiterate, which 

 would be impossible in the Navy at the present 

 day, as the complexity of the sailor's duties now 

 necessitate a great deal of study. 



Physically, there is no gainsaying the fact, 

 that the men, both in the Army and Navy, have 

 undergone a great change. 



Anyone who remembers Portsmouth some 



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