The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-24 00:00:00

CONDITION OF THE SEAMEN IN THE ROYAL NAVY.

15. Though there is no difficulty under the con-
tinuous service system in maintaining the peace
establishment of the navy, yet your Majesty's ser-
vice is not so popular as it should be with the great
body of the mercantile marine. The disinclination
to enter the navy in the minds of a large portion
of the merchant seamen is to be traced chiefly to
ignorance of the usages of the service, and of the
advantages which it offers to the seaman, for we
find that the better the service is known the more
its brivileges are appreciated, and the greater is the
willingness to join it. We have satisfied ourselves
that there is no undue severity in your Majesty's
service ; on the contrary, the witnesses place a high
value on the strict observance of discipline, and
consider that crews are exposed to, injury and injus-
tice whenever, from weakness in the commander of
a ship, discipline is relaxed. At the same time
we are of opinion that some arrangements in re-
gard to the condition of the seamen might properly
be introduced, which would tend to make the ser-
vice more popular. These we proceed to indicate
to your Majesty.

THE HULKS.

16. The witnesses complain of the condition of
the hulks, in which the men are lodged while their
ships are fitting out. They state that the hulks
are so uncomfortable that both officers and men
have the greatest dislike to them ; all desire to
escape from them as soon as the day's work is over,
preferring a residence on shore to the great detri-
ment of theinfant discipline of the newly raised
crew. An experiment has, however, been lately
tried at Portsmouth, by the establishment of a model
hulk, the Bellerophon, which has been attended
with great success. We recommend that the atten-
tion of the Admiralty be called to this matter, and
that improvements be made in the lighting, venti-
lating, warming, and other internal arrangements
of the hulks, upon which the health and comfort of
the men so much depend.

PROVISIONS.

17. Witnesses of great authority have told us
that they consider the allowance of provisions on
board your Majesty's ships to be sufficient ; and in
proof of that opinion they point to the fact that
large payments are frequently made to a ship's
company for savings of provisions. This, however,
is not conclusive evidence, for the savings of a ship's
company arise from a variety of causes ; first, the
provisions, when of indifferent quality, are not
taken up, and are consequently paid for as savings;
secondly, when a ship is in port the men purchase
largely from the shore out of their pay, and in that
case do not take up their provisions ; and, thirdly,
a considerable proportion of the savings is due, not
to the men, but to the officers, who very generally
save the whole, or nearly the whole, of their allow-
ance.

18. On the other hand, we have the evidence of
the men themselves, strongly confirmed by that of
several eminent naval officers, that the allowance
in your Majesty's service of both bread and meat,
which is only 11b. of each daily, is inadequate. In
the Peninsular and Oriental and the Royal Mail
Steam Packet Companies' services the allowance of
salt meat is half as much again ; and in Mr. Green's
ships, where the allowance of bread is unlimited,
nearly a pound and a half of meat is served out
daily to each man. We find, also, on comparing a
great number of tables of allowance produced to us
by the Registrar. General of Seamen, that in the
merchant service generally the daily allowance is :
—Of salt beef one pound and a half, and of salt
pork one pound and a quarter. These tables will
be found in the appendix.
19. On the whole, we are of opinion that the
allowance of both bread and salt meat should be
increased to one pound and a quarter of each daily.
At the same time, as the object of this increase is
to give the men a full allowance of food, and not to
enable them to receive a larger sum for savings, we
think that the rate of payment for them should be
diminished, and that instead of 2d. a pound being
allowed for bread and 4d. for salt meat, id. only
should be allowed for the former and 3d. for the
latter. The additional annual charge on account
of the increased allowance of bread would be
£43,181, and of salt meat £37,040, making
together £80,221; against which would have tobe
placed the diminished payments on account of sav-
ings, which we are informed would be £37,890,
leaving an increase on the annual estimates under
this head of £42,331.

CLOTHES BEDDING AND MESS UTENSILS.
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20. We understand also that when men enter
your Majesty's service they are furnished with bed-
ding and clothes, the whole value of which is
charged against their future pay. They thus incur
a debt to the Crown, and until that debt has been
satisfied can neither allot nor receive that portion
of their pay termed " monthly allowance." They
have also to provide their mess utensils. So that for
several months from their first entering the men are
in difficulties, and their wives and children too fre-
quently dependent on the parish for support. To
enable the men to commence their service free from
debt, we recommend that the bedding and mess
utensils should be issued, as the hammocks now are ;
and that to every man on his first entering for 10
years' continuous service a suit of clothes should be
given gratuitously. This would entail an addi-
tional charge of £14,200 per annum. Great evil is
experienced from the want of the prohibition, which
exists in the case of the army, against the purchase
of clothes issued to the men. We think that this
opportunity should be taken of placing both ser-
vices on the same footing.

PAYMENT OF WAGES WHILE THE SHIP IS FITTING OUT.

21. The witnesses have also stated that great in-
conveniences result from the present regulations in
regard to the payment of wages while the ship is
fitting out. We understand, however, that this
subject has recently engaged the attention of the
Admiralty ; and that, since this commission has
been sitting, arrangements have been under consi-
deration, with the view of enabling the seaman to
receive his monthly allowance, and to allot a por-
tion of his r.ltges at an earlier period than he now
can. We strongly recommend that these arrange-
ments should be carried into effect. We think, how-
ever, that as the matter is now under the considera-
tion of the Admiralty, the details of the measures
to be taken should be left to their discretion; and
we therefore refrain from making any more specific
recommendation on the subject.

ALLOTMENTS.

22. The system of allotments has been much com-
plained of. Under the Merchant Shipping Act the
only persons who can recover as allottees from the
owners are the wife, the father or mother, the
grandfather or grandmother, the child or grand-
child, or the brother or sister of the seaman (17th
and 18th Victoria, cap. 104, sec. 169). But in the
Royal Navy seamen have the power of alloting to
any persons they please, and we have the evidence
of those well acquainted with the present practice,
that allotments are frequently made by seamen to
very undeserving characters, to persons who have
no natural claim whatever upon them, while their
families are perhaps compelled to resort to the
parish for relief. The practice in regard to allot-
ments is perfectly satisfactory to the merchant sea-
men, and we recommend that it should be adopted
in the Royal Navy.

MADGE MONEY.

23. The preceding remarks apply to the seamen
of the Royal Navy generally, but there is one sub-
ject which affects the petty officers, which we beg
to submit for your Majesty's consideration. Able
seamen receive from ld. to 3d. a day badge money,
according to the number of good conduct badges
they have earned, and this extra allowance is con-
tinued if they are subsequently promoted to be
petty officers. But petty officers, becoming entitled
to a good conduct badge, receive no extra pay for
it. So that a petty officer, who had earned three
good conduct badges during the time he was an
able seaman might be in the receipt of 3d. a day
more than a petty officer having the same cha-
racter and the same Qualifications, who for his good
conduct and ability liad been promoted to be a
petty officer before he had earned any good con-
duct badges. This, we are of opinion, should be
remedied, and the same payment
made for good
conduct badges whether they are earned as able
seamen or as petty officers. This would require an
additional sum of £6,833 per annum,

23. The case of the warrant officers haso
whichocc hed
WARRANT OFFICERS
our attention. It is the highest grade t
seaman ordinarily, aspires, and to place this
ss t ofe
officers in the position to which they are entitled
will offer an additional inducement to seamen to
enter your Majesty's service. We have received
from the warrant officers a memorial, which will be
found in the appendix.
25. They complain that the precedence
assigned
to them on board your Majesty's ships is not such
as they ought to hold. Formerly they ranked next
afteisecond masters, and since 1844 have been placed
below the young and inexperienced cadet, although
they are at times required to take charge of a watch
and during the late Russian war frequently had
charge of mortar and gunboats. We recommend
that they should rank after second masters.
26. They likewise complain that their widows
have been deprived of the pensions to which they
were formerly entitled. There are few more diffi-
cult subjects than that of widows pensions; and, in
evidence well worthy of attention, we have been
urged rather to recommend that the sum which
these pensions would require ;should be expended