The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-03-14

v ~ 80
I boob THE British Navy From
within by an author who
signs himself "Ex-Royal Navy" The
volume is about to be published by the
George II. Doran Company.
Nothing in the avy has so altered
during the past ten years as the sys-
tern of maintaining discipline. Disci-
pline-the art of forming the manners,
q state of subsection, method of gov
eminent, correction and external NOR
tifcation-is the II great thing on
which the whole life and fighting eff
cheney of the navy rests. Without it
the service could not be carried on, a
man-of-war would be unable to per-
form its duties and those belonging
10 our fighting ships would be in a
perpetual state of quarrel and dis
rider. The very bedrock Of naval dis
eipline is the prompt obedience to all
external marks Of respect to superiors
IN rank.
The navy with the exception Of
such marines who are on shore in bar
racks in the United Kingdom, is
governed by act Of Parliament. which
act remains In force until it is re-
pealed. The first part of this act is
the Articles of War, and this has to be
posted up in some conspicuous place
IN every ship and read publicly to
every one on board once every three
months. The time chosen is invari-
ably Immediately after morning di-
Visions, . A. NJ. After prayers nave
been read the "Disperse" is sounded,
followed by Officers call" and the
pipe Clear lower deck: every one
Aft" Then the Captain mounts the
bridge or some suitable place where
he can see the assembled officers and
men. The order is given "Of caps"
and he reads out the Articles Of
War" The bulk of the articles after
hying down the offence end up with:
shall suffer death or such other pun
(shment as Is hereinafter mentioned"
BY the act ~bluejackets and marines
cannot be arrested for debt unless the
debt was contracted before the debtor
pined his Majesty's service: in fact,
the whole government Of the navy is
contained In the naval discipline act,
the court-martial being the great tri-
bunal. its finding final, the sentence
taking effect from the moment it is
read. though the Admiralty itself may
remit portions of a sentence or quash
illegal sentences.
In the everyday life Of the service,
however. it is the summary punish
ments." which the act allows the Ad-
miralty to issue from time to time, by
which order is maintained. For these
summary punishments' there are two
courts; the inferior is presided over
BY the commander or senior lieuten-
Ant. and the superior is presided over
BY the captain. The commander sees
whatever ~defaulters there are every
day at either s A. NJ. or IL A. NJ,
and the great bulk Of these are for
trivial offences against the good order
Of the ship. The punishments may vary
from 'one days leave stopped to -four
Teen days No. TO-" which is the limit
Of the commanders power Of punish
nent. Should a man have committed
an offence which in the commanders
opinion deserves a severer punishment
than the maximum he himself may
award the offender is placed in cap
tain's report" and is removed to the
superior court.
Captains as a rule see their de-
faulters and request men" n C a
week. viz, on Thursday afternoon,
and he has power to award punish
nent up to ninety days detention.
The naval discipline act dates back
TO 1866: it was amended by the naval
discipline act Of 1884 and again
amended some five years ago. The
last amendments were not large. and
consisted of the introduction OF two
words and the alteration Of one. The
addition was SHOULD be liable to i'm
pr1sonment or detention" Prior to
This addition all men who committed
offences against naval discipline OF
= sufficiently serious nature to de-
serve in the opinion Of the captain
or a. court-martial a punishment more
severe than cells" was ordered i'm
prisoned and was sen to a civil prison
either Lewes or Bodmin-where he
served his sentence among criminals
punished for offences against the civil
hw. In 1908 detention was thought
q more fitting method Of punishment,
and now at each naval port there are
detention barracks where offenders
may be sent for any period up to
ninety days. They are under the con-
troll Of naval police and instructors.
and the work they perform during
their period Of punishment is drill and
instruction which fits them for their
profession. This was an enormous
stride ahead and has resulted in in
finite good to the youngsters-for they
are mostly youngsters-who commit
offences.
Prior to September, 1912, the cap
tain VI a ship had power summarily 10
disrate my petty officer under his
command to the rating of able sea-
man. For many years the petty
officers themselves had asked that
they might be placed on the same
footing as non-commissioned officers
in the army in this respect, and have
the right of trial by court-martial
before disrating could take place. On
September 27, 1912, this request was
granted and IA long felt grievance re-
moved.
The same year saw n complete re-
Arrangement of the petty punishments
for trivial offences. The movement
that led to all these changes was
originally started by enlightened naval
officers introducing punishments Of
their own, entirely different in their
nature and effect from those pre-
scribcd by law, While his was quite
illegal, the beneficial results were be-
yOnd dispute. The standard punish
ment Of the navy for all petty offences
prior to September, 1912, was what