The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-03 00:00:00

MANNING THE NA VE

MR. LINDSAY'S REPORT.

The report of Mr. Lindsay, M.P., who dis-
sented from the report of the commissioners,
is of great length, and enters into the sub-
ject very minutely. After referring to the
increase of the naval armaments of France, and
to the extent to which the application of steam
to navigation has diminished the security of our
insular position, as reasons why the question of
manning the navy should be considered on a broader
basis than heretofore, Mr. Lindsay states as his
opinion that under no circumstances should our
peace establishment and reserve be less than 120,000
efficient men and boys. The existing reserve, when
raised to its full complement, will amount to about
30,000, therefore an additional reserve of 35,000
men is required. As efficient gunnery has now
become of greater importance than able seamanship,
15,000 or 18,000 of these ought to consist of marines.
The extra number of marines thus placed in our
ships of war could also be employed in various
ways to greater advantage. They could supersede,
to a considerable extent, the " after guard" and the
" waisters ;" and, in fact, if properly drilled, they
could perform generally all the work on deck in
which professional seamanship was not absolutely
required. The raw material being the same, ma•
Hiles are capable of being easily instructed in all
their duties. A simple difference in the training of
a raw lad converts him in time either into a sailor
or a marine ; the 300 trained men sent on board a
line-of-battle ship just commissioned, and set to
work at once in stowing the hold, in embarkity,
guns, stores, and getting spars and sails ready to
send aloft, would get the work put in a shorter
time in a much more advanced state than it hitherto
has been in cases of emergency. But with a view
to render the marines in the highest degree effi-
cient and valuable, they might with advantage be
placed in all duties connected with the ship, more
under the immediate orders of the naval officers,
and they should be more depended upon than they
now are for the working of the heavy
guns.
The whole of our seaport towns should be gar-
risoned by marines, in which service about 12,000
would be employed.
At each of our seaport towns, where the marines
were in garrison, one of these obsolete warships
laid up in ordinary might be moored, on board of
which they might be drilled and instructed. As a
primary object during prescribed intervals, they
should be exercised in the working of the guns.
At other intervals they might be taught the
rudiments of a seaman's duty. To these might be
added, with considerable advantage, boat exercise
under oars and sail, and above all the fighting of
the guns on board the boats. In a word, they
should be taught alternately the art of war afloat,
and the necessary drill as now in practice on shore.
By these means a body of men would be raised alike
valuable at sea and on shore, who, in the event of
any emergency, could be at once embarked. Their
place, in such an eventuality, would be filled by
the troops of the line, previously stationed in our
inland garrisons • this force in its turn being sup-
plied by the militia. By a proper combination of
military arrangements, all these changes might be
effected at any moment, and the country might
thus at once, and to a much greater extent than it
is now prepared to do, assume an attitude of
defence.

Of the remaining 20,000 men required for the
proposed reserve 2,000 might be added to the Coast-
guard service. For raising the remaining 18,000
men Mr. Lindsay relies on an improved Seamen's
Fund, to which both seamen in the Royal Navy
and the Mercantile Marine should be called upon
to subscribe, and which should have the guarantee
of the Government for its stability and due appro-
priation. On this subject Mr. Lindsay says :
" It is really a grave error to suppose that we
can' establish an universal though not a compul-
sory seamen's fund" which arc the words used in pro-
pounding the scheme. It cannot be done with any
other body of men. Voluntary contributions in
even the higher orders of society have signally
failed. Large sums, it is true, have been thus
raised ; but in no class of the community have even
one-third of those who ought to have subscribed to
any particular objvct done so. The requisite money
has been raised as a general rule, by the liberality
of the few, and not by the contributions of the
many. In the best regulated benefit associations
amongst our artisans, I question if the proportion
of those who subscribe in any particular trade is
one-half, or even one-third. It is indeed a mistake
to suppose that it will be' universal' amongst a body
of men with the peculiar habits and fickle notions of
our seamen, subjected as they are to numerous temp-
tations, and too often the creatures of extraordinary
impulses. While I think this fund would prove of
great advantage to the seamen themselves, the
salutary effects, so far as the nation was concerned,
would operate in three different ways. It would
prevent the seamen from being objects of charity
or claimants .upon the poor rates during their old
age. It would be a permanent tic to bind them to
their native country, founded upon a common bond
of self-interest ; while it would form the ground-
work of a system whereby the reserve of 18,000,
still wanting, might be raised. I may be excused
for entering into this part of the subject at some
length, as I am strongly of opinion that any sys-
tem which may be devised for manning the navy
must be laid upon broader grounds than any yet
attempted. We have seen that the plan sketched
out by the committee of 1852, and carried into
execution by, the naval authorities, however much
it may have improved the condition of the seamen
in the navy, signally failed, so far as aiding us to
man our ships in an emergency, though it cost the
country close upon £150,000 per annum. It did
not induce the seamen in the merchant service to
enter the royal navy. They felt that they had no
interest in common with that branch of the service.
We must give them an interest. The re-establish-
ment of a seaman's fund, to which the men of both
services should be called upon to subscribe, would
form this common union. The opening of Greenwich
Hospital to both services would cement this bond of
friendship. If the present building should not be
found sufficient lyspacious to accommodate the retired
seamen of both services who preferred it to out-door
pensions, and especially those from the merchant
service who had enrolled in the reserve, its enlarge-
ment might be determined upon, with a view to
accomplish the twofold object in view. The intro-
duction of school ships-at our principal seaports, as
recommended by Mr. Cardwell (a project to which
I shall hereafter advert), and the encouragement of
navigation schools, from which both boys for the
navy and merchant service could be drawn, would
prove a further bond of union between the two ser-
vices, and thus in boyhood and in old age the men
in each would meet on terms of equality, and be-
come known to each other. Seamen of all classes
would thereby obtain a correct knowledge of the
nature of the naval service, and they would thus
have much better means than they now have of
knowing and understanding the advantages to be
derived from entering the Royal Navy."
For the collection of the fund the machinery is
already organised in the shipping offices, so that
very little expense would be incurred under that
head. The complaints made against the former
Merchant Seamen's Fund would have no existence,
as the Government tables being in every man's
hand, he would see precisely his position, and the
conditions and mode of payment upon which his
claim rested, and being thereby attached to his
native country by the tic of self-Mterest, lie would
no longer be tempted to enter the service of the
United States, and the number of our seamen being
thus increased, we should have a larger field for the
operation of the proposed reserve.
By the plan proposed, a more complete system of
registration would be secured, without any of the
jealous inquisitorial superintendence of which so
many complaints have been made.
The new Seamen's Fund having been formed
under the authority of an act of tho Legislature,
steps might then be taken to raise the b _e raise
18,000
daddi-
tional seamen required. These should
from the coasting, the Baltic, and the short voyage
trades, from seamen employed in our yacht and
river steamers, and from watermen and lightermen.
With that object in view, Mr. Lindsay would pro-
pose a retaining payment of ss. per month, and. to
the pension of is. per day which the men would re-
ceive from their own fund at the age of 60, he
would add 6d. per day from the public purse to
those merchant seamen who volunteered for the
reserve. By this arrangement a man receiving ls.
6d. a day would be comfortable in his old age, and
even if his own fund only produced 6d. per day, he
would, with the additional 6d. from the public
purse, have sufficient for his maintenance.
Some distinguishing badge might also, with
great advantage, be bestowed upon every merchant
seaman, when he was enrolled upon the reserve.
The throwing open of Greenwich Hospital to the
seamen of both services should be held out as an-
other inducement to encourage the formation of the
reserve.

The gratuity of ss. per month paid to 18,000
men would cost the country .EM,000; and if it be
the case that in the ordinary course of events " not
more than 1 in 26 would be claimants at the age of
60 "—being rather less than 700 annuitants—the
extra pension of 6d. per day would not exceed
£6,400, being a total of £60,400 per annum.
In order to render the reserve from the merchant
service perfectly efficient as men-of-war's men,
ready to go into action, it would be necessary to
drill them for a month every year, which will cost,
including their pay during that month and their
provisions, £4 to £5 per head, or, in round num-
bers from £72,000 to £90,000.
In order to obtain the men in the first instance,
it might be expedient to establish recruiting parties