The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-21 00:00:00

NAVAL COMMAND MOREL

A writer in a contemporary says :—The new
scheme of naval command money has not given
satisfaction to the navy. It was stated last] year
in the House of Commons, by an ex-First Lord,
that captains were not well paid enough to enable
them to defray their necessary expenses while in
command, and he also mentioned that one of the
best officers in the navy, to whom he offered the
command of a line-of-battle ship, begged respect-
fully to decline it, on account of being without
private fortune, and therefore totally unable to
meet the necessary expenses,
It was also stated by the Secretary of the Admi-
ralty that during the winter the question would be
thoroughly gone into by the Board, and the result
has been the scheme of naval command money, of
which Sir J. Elphinstene remarked in the House of
Commons that captains complained that they were
no better off than before.

It is surely a most important point for the con-
sideration of the country that the men in command
of British men-of-war should still in many cases be
so inadequately paid that they cannot accept the
command of a sea-going ship without returning to
half-pay at the expiration of their service far
poorer than when they took command. This is not
the case in either the French or American Navy,
nor, as far as I can learn, in any other navy in the
world, except our own.
To many people the actual necessary expenses
incurred by a captain on receiving a command and
during his period of service are probably unknown.
I propose, therefore, to state them briefly, and then
proceed to compare the former allowance of pay
with the new scheme.

The average expense of fitting out a ship amounts
to the sum of from £4OO to £5OO. Few captains
have this sum of ready money at hand, and it is
therefore borrowed from their agents at 5 per cent.
interest ; and if this sum is to be repaid at the ex-
piration of their command a third part must be laid
by each year ; therefore, supposing a man to borrow
the sum of £5OO, he would be obliged to put by each
year £166, which, added to the annual 5 per cent.
interest, would amount to £l9l. I will estimate
the expenses of his table, entertaining foreign offi-
cers, consuls, Sze., at from £2OO to £250 annually.
He has also to pay his steward and cook, on an
average, £3O a year each ; he has also to provide
the whole of the stationary used in his official cor-
respondence, and, if he wishes his ship to look like
a British man-of-war, he is obliged to spend no
small sum annually for paint, as the quantity
allowed by the Government is insufficient, and less
than the half of what is allowed in the French Navy.
Add to this his necessary personal expenditure, and
it will be seen that without allowing a farthing for
expenses on shore a sum of nearly £6OO a year has
been accounted for.

Previous to the late alterations captains on full
pay were divided into three classes, according to
seniority. The first received £7Ol a year, the
second £574 a year, and the third £450 a year.
I will now state that the actual necessary ex-
penses of a captain in a large ship need not much
exceed those of one in a small frigate, and I believe
that £lOO a year would represent the difference of
expenditure. The same number of servants are al-
lowed in each, and the captain of the larger ship
would have a few more officers to entertain, and
probably a subscription to the band fund.
By the new scheme the first-class captains receive
£547 a-y ear, the second-class £455, and the third-
class £365. But in addition to this, an allowance
called" command money," is granted as follows :
£219 a-year to captains of line-of-battle ships, £lBO
a-year to captains of large frigates, and £9O a-year
to captains of small frigates and corvettes. So that
a first class captain in command of a line-of-battle
ship would now receive £547 pay and £219 com-
mand money —total, £766, or £65 a-year more
than he got under the old scale.

A second-class captain in a line-of-battle ship
would receive £455 pay and £219 command money
—total, £674, or £lOO a-year more than he did
before. But if he commanded a small frigate he
would receive £455 pay and £9O command money
—total, £545, or £29 a-year less than he did before.
A third-class captain in command of a line-of-
battle ship would receive £365 pay and £219 com-
mand money—total, £584 a-year, or £134 a-year
more than he did before.

But a third-class captain in command of a small
frigate or corvette would only receive £365 pay
and £9O command money—total, £450 a-year, or
£6 a-year more than he did before, .

Now, at a first glance this would appear to be a
most important addition, but when we examine
into the real facts of the case we find that by the
time a captain reaches the first class he has either
completed the servitude necessary to qualify him
for his active flag, or that he is in command of a
dockyard, a victuallingyard, or a steam reserve.
At this moment only two first-class captains are
in command of sea-going men-of-war; 34 captains
of the second class and 69 of the third class are
employed.
It is evident, therefore, that the third class is the
one from which captains are chiefly selected for
employment.

Oaf of 69 third-class captains employed 41 are
either flag captains or in command of small frigates
and corvettes, and we therefore find that out of the
whole number of captains employ ed in seagoing
ships (106) 41 receive only an addition of £6. The
small frigates and corvettes are the class of vessels
employed on the most distant stations, where cap-
tains are put to greater expenses in entertaining
foreign officers and Consuls than in the Channel or
Mediterranean, and provisions are far more expen-
sive. It does, therefore, seem strange that the
officers in command of this class of vessel should be
the ones who actually receive an increase of £6 a
year. Now, if it is the fact that on the old scale it
was found that the first class captains with £7OO
a year could pay their way, but that the class with
only £450 a year were totally unable to do so
(which I assert to be the case), then the first object
to be attained in proportioning the different allow-
ances of command money should have been to place
those who were unable to pay their way in a posi-
tion to do so ; instead of which, we find- that 41
captains out of 106, the whole number employed,
have actually been benefited only to the extent of
4d. a day.
The arrangement of this complicated sliding scale
of command money must have given considerable
trouble to the Board of Admiralty, and it has most
certainly not given satisfaction to the captains. I
believe that a far more simple and effective arrange-
ment might have been made by allowing the old
scale of pay to remain unchanged, and to have thus
apportioned the command money—to the first class
the sum of £5O a year, total pay and command
money £751 a year; to the second class the sum of
£BO a year, making total pay and command money
£654 a year; to the third class the sum of £l2O a
year, making total pay and command money £570
a year. I believe this arrangement would have
given general satisfaction to the navy. The neces-
sary sum to effect this would have been £ll,OOO a
year with the present number of captains employed.
When we consider the very small half-pay re-
ceived by captains, the first class receiving 14s. 6d.
a day, and the third class only 10s. 6d. (while the
medical officers in the navy who rank with captains
under three years' servitude receive from £1 17s.
6d. to £1 10s. a-day), I feel sure that there is not
a member of the House of Commons who would not
have gladly voted the necessary sum to secure that
when our captains are employed on active service
they should be enabled to fulfil the duties and
defray the expenses inseparable from accepting a
command without incurring a heavy debt which in
many cases is a heavy atone round their necks for
years after their return to half-pay.

The Belgian ltioniteur publishes the official
return of the receipts of the State railways during the last
year, which amounted to 30,012,621 f., being 1,510,010 f.
more than in 1859.

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