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London, England, 1859-02-24 00:00:00

satisfactory basis, and to secure the complete and in improving the position of the officers themselves.
efficient working of the system. -Great care should, We have no reason, however, to suppose that any
however, be taken in selecting the men. ooking general alteration on the subject of widows'pensions
to the efficiency of the reserves, which wc hope to is intended ; and in the present state of the service
form out of those who have entered for 10 years' we think that the benefits conferred upon the
continuous service,-we think that it is desirable widows of officers in the higher ranks ought not to
that they should not be above the age cf 25 at the be withheld from the widows of seamen who have
time of their admission, and above a.l that they risen by merit through successive stages of promo-
should be strong and healthy. tion to the rank of warrant officers. We think that
CONDITION OF THE SEAMEN IN THE ROYAL NAVY. in fairness this payment should be retrospective.
15. Though there is no difficulty under the con- The cost involved is £19,150.
tinuous service system in maintaining the peace PROMOTION OF WARRANT OFFICERS. •
establishment of the navy, yet your Majesty's ser- 27. In the circular (No. 121) of the Lords Corn-
vice is not so popular as it should be with the great missioners of the Admiralty, dated the 14th of June,
body of the mercantile marine. The disinclination 1553, it was stated that, "as a further mark of their
to enter the navy in the minds of a large portion approbation of the merits of this deserving class of
of the merchant seamen is to be traced chiefly to officers, my lords are pleased to direct that warrant
ignorance of the usages of the service, and of the officers of exemplary conduct, who have distin-
advantages which it offers to the seaman, for we guished themselves by acts of gallantry and daring
find that the better the service is known the more in the service, be considered eligible to hold corn-
its brivileges are appreciated, and the greater is the missions in her Majesty's fleet, in such rank or
willingness to join it. We have satisfied ourselves position as their lordships may deem them, after
that there is no undue severity in your Majesty's undergoing an examination, entitled to receive and
service ; on the contrary, the witnesses place a high competent to fill, and all warrant officers so pro-
value on the strict observance of discipline, and moted will be granted respectively the sum of £lOO
consider that crews are exposed to injury and injus- as an outfit." We anticipate the best results from
tice whenever, from weakness in the commander of the occasional promotion of a warrant officer to the
a ship, discipline is relaxed. At the same time quarter-deck; at the same time we are ready to
we are of opinion that some arrangements in re- admit that the promotion should only be granted
gard to the condition of the seamen might properly for distinguished service combined with exemplary
be introduced, which would tend to make the ser- conduct ; and it should not be limited to the war-
vice more popular. These we proceed to indicate rant officers, but should be open, in the case of very
to your Majesty. signal and extraordinary services, to anyseaman in
your Majesty's navy.

THE HULKS.

PROMOTION OF PETTY OFFICERS.
28. There is also a point relative to the promo-
tion of petty officers which:deserves attention. We
have been assured that seamen have occasionally
refused the warrant in consequence of the expense
necessary to provide a suitable outfit. We think
that the principle of giving a gratuity to a
warrant officer on his promotion to the quarter-
deck is equally applicable to the case of a petty
officer promoted to the warrant. But we under-
stand that since our commission was issued this
subject has been reviewed by the Board of Ad-
miralty, and £l5 assigned by a recent order for
this purpose.
29. Such are the measures which we have ven-
tured to recommend to your Majesty with reference
to the mode of manning the navy in time of peace.
They appear to us the best than can be devised for
improving the condition and raising the character
of the seamen in the Royal Navy; and, aided by
frequent visits of vessels of war to the different
mercantile ports of the United Kingdom, will
render the service more popular, and tend to effect
the object which we have in view—namely, the
speedy and efficient manning of your Majesty's
ships.
lI.—MODE OF MANNING THE FLEET ON AN EMERGENCY.
30. We now propose to consider the means which
exist for manning the navy in case of an emergency;
how far those means can be relied upon ; what ad-
ditional measures it is desirable to adopt ; and in
what way the merchant seamen can be rendered
more readily available for the service of the coun-
try, if required.
31. The law now contemplates obtaining men, in
addition to the small reserves which already exist,
if any emergency occur and voluntary enlistment
fail, in the following manner—viz., •
1. An embargo prohibiting merchant vessels from
going to sea.
2. A bounty inviting seamen to enter your Ma-
jesty's service.
3. A proclamation compulsorily requiring the
service of seafaring men in classes, according to age
or generally.
32. The evidence of the witnesses, with scarcely
an exception, shows that the system of naval im-
pressment, as practised in former wars, could not
now be successfully. enforced. We speak, not of
any objections to that system which may exist in
our minds on the score of humanity or justice, nor
of the political excitement to which, in the opinion
of some witnesses, the revival of that system would
give rise, nor of the strong and determined opposi-
tion with which, according to others, it would be
met; we speak rather of difficulties arising from
the altered circumstances of the times. The sailor
who wished to avoid impressment would have much
greater facilities than formerly for desertion in
foreign ports, and for escape after his arrival at
home. The improvements in gunnery, also, have
effected a complete revolution in naval warfare,
and have rendered it absolutely necessary that our
vessels should in any future war be manned, not by
a promiscuous collection of untrained men, such as
impressment formerly provided, but by seamen who
are practised gunners.
33. The French system, by which every seafaring
man is liable to serve on board a ship of war during
a term of years, and is bound to come forward when
required, could not be successfully' applied to this
country, where the relative proportion between the
merchant seamen and the navy is so different ;
added to which it would be open to many of the
objections which affect the system of impressmeiat.
- 34. The ballot has been suggested, but we think
it is open to most of the same objections, and that
it would fail to provide any great number of men
on an emergency. The ballot for the militia would
act on the whole adult population, out of which
probably not more than 100,000 would be required
at one time ; the ballot for the navy, on the other
hand, would act upon a much smaller body of men,
of which a much larger proportion would be re-
quired. Again, the ballot for the militia would fall
on a resident population ; the ballot for the navy
on a floating population, a large portion of whom,
when their services were required, would be absen
from the country.

OUR STANDING RESERVES.
35. We therefore postpone the question of com-
pulsory service until we shall have first examined
what is the character and amount of our present
reserves, to what extent they can be relied upon in
case of emergency, and whether we can suggest any
new reserves. The present reserves consist of-1.
The marines on shore. 2. The coastguard. 3.
The naval coast volunteers. 4. A small body of
short service pensioners.

THE MARINES
36. The marines are a useful and efficient body of
men, second to none in the service of the State ;
they are excellent troops, both as artillerymen and
infantry, and are at the same time capable of per-
forming many of the deck duties of a ship of war.
There is, however, a limit beyond which they can-
not be conveniently increased, for it is necessary to
their efficiency that they should spend a large por-
tion of their time afloat. There is ordinarily a re-
serve of 6,000 marines in the home ports, ready for
active service afloat. We think that this force
might, with great advantage to the State, and
without impairing its efficiency, be increased by
5,000 men, who would be well fitted to garrison
the seaports in time of peace, and when required to
serve at sea they could be at once embarked, and
their place in the seaports supplied by the regular
army or the militia.

THE COASTGUARD.
37. The coastguard is a force capable of affording
a very efficient reserve of seamen for your Majesty's
fleet. It can be assembled with ease and rapidity,
and may be relied upon in case of danger. When
in 1856 this force was transferred from the Customs
to the Admiralty, it was in contemplation, we un-
derstand, under the provisions of the statute 19th
and 20th of Victoria, cap. 83, to increase it to 10,000
men, all efficient and fit for service at sea. Its num-
bers are insufficient for the protection of the revenue
and for the discharge of those duties for the preser-
vation of life and property in case of shipwreck
which by a recent statute have been assigned to the
coastguard. We are of opinion that it might with
advantage be raised to 12,000 men. This addition
to the force would occasion an increased expenditure
of £116,525 per annum.

NAVAL COAST VOLUNTEERS.
38. There is also a body of men enrolled under
special conditions, entitled the " naval coast volun-
teers." The evidence, however, leads us to think
that no great reliance could be placed upon them
for manning the fleet in case of an emergency.
They are not seamen in the true acceptation of the
term, but boatmen, fishermen, and alongshoremen.
They are tolerable gunners, and would be useful
for coast defence, or for service in port ; but they
know little of the duties of a seaman on deck, and
many of them are not capable of going aloft. But
the most serious objection to them is the limit of
distance—namely, 100 leagues--to which they can
be carried from the shore; so that the operations
of a fleet might be seriously impeded by having a
few naval coast volunteeers on board some of the
ships composing it.

SHORT-SERVICE PENSIONIIIRS.

39. Lastly, we have the short-service pensioners
—seamen who have retired after 10 years' service
on a pension of 6d. a day. Hitherto the men that have
so retired are few in number, and we do not antici-
pate that any large reserve of men will ever be ob-
tained from this source. The advantages to the
seaman of continuing in the navy until he gains his
full pension and the privileges of admission to
the coastguard are so great that we think that
there will never be any great number of seamen
who will be willing to accept the short service
pension. Such a reserve would, however, be ex-
tremely useful, if it should be found necessary at
the close of a war to discharge any large number
of good men.
40. But there can be little doubt that a large
undertor
oue reserve
hor
evf
mett
the
o eef
si f e r
vithec principle
Service
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wthilel
mcwereoamr
imenxeetnecned corpsiend
Limited
dischargesrr ti n es, service pensioners could be formed
ct
the present year, and it will be a great misfortune
if those valuable men are allowed to separate with-
out Any measures being taken to connect them with

the service of the country. A corps of several
thousand might be formed in this manner, and we
strongly recommend that it should be done. At the,
same time we think that the pensions should be
paid, in the case both of the seamen and of the
marines, only in the United Kingdom and the
Channel Islands, and to the men in person, so as to
insure their speedily coming forward when required.
We have included in our estimate the pensions of
5,000 short service pension marines, amounting to
£45,625 per annum.

41. Besides the 4,000 seamen whom we propose
to have in the home ports, there would be a reserve
force of 11,000 marines, 12,000 coastguard men, the
short service pension seamen, and the naval coast
volunteers. Of these the seamen in the home ports
and the embodied marines would be immediately
available for service in the fleet ; the short service
pensioners, as well seamen as marines, in the course
of a few weeks or less. Of the coastguard probably
8,000 or 9,000 could be collected within two or
three days, ready at once to man your Majesty's
fleets; the rest would remain on shore, some to
bring forward with rapidity detachments of volun-
teers as they arrived and became disposable for
service, others as depot officers, to discipline the
pensioners, enlist men for the navy, create new re-
serves, and be the maintaining and connecting links
of a system which is intended not only to meet a tem-
porary emergency, but to provide a continued defence
in the event of the continuance of the war. This
force, amounting to about 30,000 men, exclusive of
the naval coast volunteers, would go far to
meet the first outbreak of a war, but the difficulty
would still remain how to provide for the rapidly
growing demands of a continued contest, how to
man the ships which must be put successively in
commission in order to maintain the navy at a war
standard.

VOLUNTEER RESERVE FORCE.
42. Looking to the very large naval armaments
which we were forced to maintain in former wars,
amounting at one time to no less than 147,000 men,
it seems desirable that we should be able to add to'
the reserves, of which we have spoken, a further
force of from 20,000 to 30,000 seamen well trained
in gunnery. The problem to be solved is, how far
it may be possible to obtain from the mercantile
marine and the seafaring population of the kingdom
a volunteer force of seamen all trained in gunnery,
who could be relied upon to come forward when
their services were required.
43. We have considered a great variety of schemes
which have been suggested to us bypersons who have
long devoted their serious consideration to the sub-
ject, and, having determined on a plan which ap-
pears to us best suited to attain that object, we
have examined the witnesses most capable of giving
an opinion on its practical efficiency.
SHIPPING INTEREST.
44. While we had principally in view the object
of our commission—viz., the defence of the country
—we have endeavoured to promote the welfare of
the merchant service, believing that for the success
of any scheme for a reserve to be drawn from that
service it is most important to enlist its feelings on
our side. The earliest and most disastrous conse-
quences of war will fall upon the shipping interest.
On them the greatest ulterior difficulty will be im-
posed of carrying on their business during the con-
tinuance of hostilities. Under any system of defence
the necessities of the navy must withdraw seamen
from the merchant service, and raise the rate of
wages. If, then, by timely precautions during peace
we can diminish the probability that war will occur
at all—and to this end nothing will conduce so
much as a knowledge on the part of foreign Powers
that our defences are impregnable—if we can secure
that, on the outbreak of war, the Channel and
neighbouring seas shall be at once rendered safe for
ships and cargoes homeward bound—if we can
abolish or modify the risk that the employment of
seamen will be abruptly suspended by embargo or
interfered with by impressment—if we can attach
the sailor to his country, and prevent the disposi-
tion which has hitherto prevailed of seeking ser-
vice under other flags—the owners of our commer-
cial marine will reap the greatest advantage. To
them, therefore, we look with confidence for a
cordial and patriotic co-operation in promoting,
during peace, a system which is intended to
accomplish these results.
MERCHANT SEAMEN'S FUND.
45. Among the many suggestions that have been
offered to us, none have been so strongly or so ably
advocated as the re-establishment of a compulsory
merchant seaman's fund; free, indeed, from those
objections which caused the old fund to become
insolvent, but still a compulsory fund. It has been
urged that the seaman who reaches the age of 60,
is generally destitute, and obliged to resort to the
parish for support ; that it would be a great in-
ducement to young men to join the sea service if
they saw seamen in their old age well provided
for; that the seaman, who squanders his hard-
earned wages within a:few hours of his discharge,
would never miss the deduction of one shilling a
month from the large amounts which he frequently
receives; and, above all, that the prospect of an
adequate pension in old age would be a strong
inducement to the seaman to continue in the service
of his country, instead of resorting to a foreign
flag for employment.
-46. There are doubtless many arguments in
favour of a compulsory merchant seaman's fund;
but, on the other hand, strong objections must be
anticipated on the part of those who would regard
it as a special tax levied on their own trade. Nor,
indeed, would it effect the object which we have in
view; it might retain the seamen in the country,
but would not provide trained men for the navy.
We are not unmindful of the advantages which
would result from providing an adequate pension
for seamen in old age ; but we think that it had
better be done by means of a voluntary self-sup-
porting fund. This object we have kept in view in
the plan which we venture to recommend to your
Majesty for adoption.
PROPOSED PLAN.
47. The force we require must be composed of
trained seamen, and, as the necessity for such a
reserve is urgent, it must, in the first instance, be
recruited from adults. But the enlistment of adults
by pay and pension is in many respects undesirable,
for the adults have not had the advantage of early
training, and are consequently not such valuable
men as those who have been trained from boyhood ;
and the pension, if only commensurate in amount
to a short period of service, would not be ade-
quate to the support of the seaman in his old age.
Your Majesty will, therefore, perceive that for the
future maintenance of the force we propose to rely
in a great measure on boys trained specially for the
purpose, in conformity with the practice which has
been adopted in the navy with so much advantage.
48. That the force may be ready in case of
emergency it must be selected from men who will
never be long absent from the ports from which
they hail. It appears from the returns that have
been furnished to us that the coasting trade of this
country employs 63,000 men, including masters:.
The returns do not comprise watermen and others
who might be made available for the purpose. If
we add the Baltic and Mediterranean trades and
the voyages to the North American and other ports,
including the seamen employed by the large steam-
packet companies, we shall have not less than
100,000 men who are never absent for any length
of time from the ports of this country.
49. We propose that not less than 20,000 such
men, as in point of age, ability, character, and per-
manent connexion with their respective ports may
appear most suitable for the purpose shall be
selected from this number. This new body of men
might 'be called the " Royal Naval Volunteers."
50. The inducements which we propose to hold
out to seamen to join this force will be,
1. A payment at short periods.
2. A pension at the age of 50 to 55.
3. Payment for time spent in practice.
4. Admission to'the coastguard.
5. Participation in the benefits of Greenwich
Hospital.
On their part they would engage to practise gun-
nery, and to serve in case of emergency ; and condi-
tiqns would be framed to secure their coming for-
ward to join the navy within a very short period
after their services were required.

MODE OF SELECTING THE FORCE AT FIRST.
51. The marine department of the Board of Trade
has, by recent statutes, been invested with exten-
sive powers and duties, and is thrown into very
intimate connexion with the whole of the merchant
service. Every seaman who engages for, or is
discharged from, a foreign voyage may be said to
be personally known to the Board of Trade, through
the Registrar-General of Seamen, the shipping
masters of the Local Marine Boards, and the officers
of the Customs. -We propose that the assistance of
these officers should be made use of in selecting the
required number of men from the short voyage
trades. Their acquaintance with the men would
enable them to select those who would best answer
the impose in view. Those who were selected and
accepted the terms offered would go on board the
district coastguard ship for medical examination
and approval generally. Their actual engagement
would rest with the captain of the coastguard ship,
and he would make such arrangements for training
in gunnery the men who required it as the Govern-
ment might think from time to time expedient,
suiting as far as possible the convenience of the
men with regard to time.
52. After the men had returned to their ordi-
nary avocations the Registrar-General of Seamen,
through the shipping masters, would at all times
be acquainted with their present occupations, and a,
complete statement of those in port, and of the
times when the return of the remainder might be
looked for, could always be promptly furnished.
53. The shipping masters would be a ready mode
of communiestum between the coastguard officers