The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-06 00:00:00

THE NATTY.

The following has been addressed to the editor
of the Times :
Sir,—l shall feel obliged if you will alloAwrae to
supply some information which I was unable to
obtain in time to insert in my letter which you
were good enough to publish in the Times of the
27th ult.

In the letter I then referred to, signed " One
Who Knows the Service," it is stated, " Every able
seaman can earn in the merchant service from £3
to £3s 108 and £4 a month ; in the Royal Navy he
gets a little over £2."

I have just obtained a copy of the return made
monthly to the Board of Trade—." Wages to all
parts for able seamen, £2 10s. That is for October
last. A few days since the Registrar of Seamen
also computed the averages wages of merchant
seamen at £2 lOs ; that is in November. These
returns were given before the letter referred to
appeared in the Times.
I believe that I am within the mark when I state
that the average time that a merchant seamen is
out of employ yearly in this country is two months;
this is lost pay, which must be deducted from the
average rate of wages, and which would reduce the
£2los in October and November to £2 ss. I ani
aware that these months are not the periods of th
highest rate of wages, but if you deduct for the
year round the time that the merchant sailor is out
of employ I consider £2 lOs a very fair average of
the able seaman's pay in the merchant service, and
this opinion is supported by the report of the Mer-
chant Shipping Committee of 1860.

But a further reduction must be made in com-
paring this average with the pay of the navy, on
account of the liabilities of the merchant sailor
when shipwrecked, or left behind abroad from in-
ability to proceed on his voyage. He is then dis-
charged from his ship, and his pay ceases until he is
restored to health and either finds a ship abroad
wanting hands or is returned to his own country.
More than that, if he has earned wages when so left
behind, they are paid to the consul, and go to cover
the expenses of his subsistence and medical attend-
ance. Only distressed seamen are provided for out
of the Mercantile Marine Fund, and as long as a
man has wages he is not considered a distressed
seaman, so that I have known a man left behind
on his voyage home from sickness with a consider••
able amount of wages due spend it all on recovery
of health, although perhaps the illness was brought
on in the service of the ship, such as scurvy from a
long voyage on salt provisions, or rheumatism from
exposure to wet or a leaky vessel. This last case
I always thought very hard, and, as the Act of
Parliament makes the owner liable for a seaman's
expenses if left behind owing to any hurt or injury
received in the service of his ship, I considered
scurvy or rheumatism contracted in the eervice of
the ship to come under this provision of the Act,
but I was overruled by the Board of Trade. How-
ever, at all times the pay ceases ; and what becomes
of the wife and family then, if the sickness is of
long duration ?
This feature of the case certainly deducts from the
value of the average rate of wages, and in opposi-
tion to this really grave consideration (for the
number of cases of men left behind abroad from
inability to proceed on the voyage and from
shipwreck is very considerable) I may point out
that the man• of-war's-man's pay and time for
pension never ceases, either when on leave at
home or when he falls sick abroad; he is paid
Until he is landed on his own shores and inva-
lided, and he has at all times the best oppor-
tunities afforded him of restoration to health.

Another statement made by the writer referred
to is—" The pay of an able seaman who ships for
10 years' continuous service is £2 9s, a month.
Very few, however, do enter for ten years, so that
the average of able seamen's wages in the navy is
only about £2 2s. a month."
The fact is that a large majority of the men are
continuous service men. The Boscawen's crew,
lately granted 42 days' leave (receiving pay all the
time), continuous service men, 214, all returned but
six, three of whom were ordinaries just joined the
service ; non-continuous service men, 34, all came
back, as well as 43 boys. The St. George has at
present 300 continuous service men, and she is the
last commissioned ship. So much for the " very
few" stated above. Any feally good able seaman
can get at once the rating o. f leading seaman, whose
pay is £2 14s, 3d. a month. When you add to this
the prospect of increased pay by promotion, which
every well•conducted man can easily obtain, and
the pension, I think it will appear that the pay is
not the question which affects the popularity of the
service. Double the pay, and the service would, in
my opinion, still present the same appearances to
the seaman in many respects ; but there are reforms
which I believe will soon be carried out, the advan-
tages attending which will heap benefits on the
sailor, morally and physically, which will produce
a powerful impression on him, and conduce more to
popularise the Navy than any increase of pay, espe-
I cially if obtained, as proposed by the writer of the
letter referred to, at the sacrifice of his pension.
Now, sir, I must be allowed to say a word in
my own defence. I see that because in my letter of
the 27th I simply confined myself to a contradiction
of the facts contained in the letter therein referred
to, I have afforded occasion for the accusation that
my defence of the Navy was influenced "by the natu-
ral leaning of all Admirals (who are not Napiers or
Cochranes) to the Board of Admiralty, and that the
really wise project of increasing the seaman's pay is
supposed by half the readers of the limes to have
been thoroughly demolished." So writes the
Saturday Review.
With regard to the first accusation, which seems
rather • to imply toadying the Admiralty, I am
willing to abide by the opinion of those who know
me in the service, and I think the writer would find,
if he would only seek the information, that he
could hardly have made a worse hit.
The second insinuation might produce an impres-
sion (which I should much regret) that I was opposed
to improving the condition of the sailor in the Navy
by increase of pay. I beg to deny the justice of any
such inference being drawn from anything I have
written on this subject. I opposed myself to an
increase of pay at the sacrifice of any portion of
the pension, and I sought to refute the correctness
of the comparison drawn between the pay of the
two services. I denied the description drawn of
the state of the Navy to be a true one, and I did
not agree that the unpopularity of the Navy was
owing to the inadequacy of the pay. But I beg to
assert that no one would rejoice more than myself
over any increased advantage, in pay or otherwise,
which the Legislature could be induced to afford to
the sailor. No officer has laboured more earnestly
than I have for the last 10 years to urge upon each
successive Board of Admiralty the necessity of im-
proving the condition of the sailor by abolishing
the hulks and establishing a thoroughly organised
system of barrack-homes for the Navy. I wrote a
pamphlet in 1856 on this subject, pointing out in the
strongest light the misery entailed on the men by
the hulk system, and recommending other reforms
for their benefit, and I trust I shall always be
found in the foremost ranks of those who will push
forward the interests of the sailor in a legal manner
and with due respect to authority. But I hold him
to be the sailor's worst friend who by misrepresen-
tations and evaggerations leads him to feel dis-
contented and disaffected towards the service, and
to seek by unlawful and violent means to obtain
from his country through the Legislature those
advantages which will more freely flow from the
impulse of generous sympathy and gratitude.
The prejudice against barracks has, I am glad to
say, at last succumbed, and, although I do not
speak from authority, I believe I may safely state
that the present Board of Admiralty have decided
on seeking from the Legislature tine means of carry-

ing out this most desirable of all benefits for the
Navy. The hulks have been truly called the curse
of the Navy. Through the barrack system, if
carried out with a generous hand, more will be
done to popularise the Nauthan by any other
means ; it will sSon prove a better recruiting-agent
than the £lO liOunty, and I believe it is the only
means whereby you will ever make dismissal from
the service the most dreaded punishment that can
be inflicted. The barrack system will give the sailor
a home near which his family can settle, and where,
by being insured a fixed portion of his service in
the Reserve, he will see the certain prospect of a
considerable part of his time for pension in his own
country. The barrack-home will afford many com-
forts hitherto unknown to the sailor, and I trust
that every man on leave from the fleet may find a
night's lodging there if he wishes it. Kindly
associations will flow from this change in his con-
dition, resulting in discipline and good order and
an esprit de corps which will raise the Navy as a
defensive power to that standard which the country
demands, and redound more in its after conse-
quences to the credit of the Board of Admiralty
who effected this reform than any other measure
the Navy has ever experienced.—l rem •
am, &c.,
Dec. 1. GEO. ELLIOT, Rear-Admiral.