JACK TAR IN NELSON'S DAY.

Evening Star, Issue 12674, 30 November 1905, Page 8

JACK TAR IN NELSON'S DAY.

Mr John Mnsefkld in his 'Sea Life in Nelson's Time' draws a terrible thougn a most interesting pictuic of life in the navy towards the close of the eighteenth century. Xor doe- the description lose :;i force by the tense simplicity of its style. Nothing could la' moie matter-of-fiict th n the author's method. His primary object is to portray t-vcry aspect of the <iwn-oi-var of thoso days. The construction of the vessel, its armanunt, the duties of otHccis and cr.-w. the manner of living, and the daily routine—all those, he tell* with d-ta,led exactitude. And at the end of it all we join with Dr Johnson in wondering why folk in those days went to sea when there wicre gaols) ashore. "It cannot," says Mr Matx.-ficrd. "be too strongly insisted ou that sta life, in the late eighteenth century, in our navy, wn-s brniaJising, cruel, and horrible; a kind of life now happily gone for ever ; a kind of life which no man to-day would think good enough for a trimlnaf. There w.-ui lxirbmous discipline, bad pay, had focd, bad hours ot work, bad company, bad prospects. There was no going ashore- till the ship was paid off, or iiil a peace was declared. The'pay was small at Uk- b tit of times, but by to » ■■ c it reached the sailor it had often shrunken to a half or third of the orig nal sum.' Butthe majority of the seamen did not enter the sici vice voluntarily. " A cei tain pi oporllon of the man-of-war's insn came to 6oa .is bovs, and remained in- the service ail lives, partly because thsy wtre too strictly kept to escape, and partly b-ca-.ise ' once a. suiior always a sailor' —the life unfitted th;m for anything else. A huge number joined the navy because tbe : r heads had b:vn turned by patriotic cant ; and very bitt-rly they repented their folly alter a wick aboard. A number came willingly, from merchant-ships, attracted by the high bounticr- or premiums offered for sie/amtn volunteering. Some came willingly, deceived by tlccse placards in the se-aporfrs, which promised abundance of giog and plenty of prize-money to all who enters. But the greater number came unwillingly. by the imprest or quota or from my Lord Mayor." Criminals sentenced at the Sessions were sometimes offered tlic alternative of troing to sea, the result being that tho lower gtm-iJecks becamo a hotted of vice crime. It was reckoned that cnethird of each ship's company was composed of lands-Teen, and that one-eighth of the entire number of men serving in His Majesty's ahips were foreigners. The p'csi?gang was expected primarily to capture sailors and .seafaring people, but ulien a certain number of these had been secured the captains ware not at all particular cs to the rest. Tailors, little tradesmen, street loafers—all were fair game. Once on board the men were subject to a multi. tudc of tyrannies, not only from the senior officers but from the boatswain, the master-at-arms, the shin's corporals, and even thi midshipmen. They lived in a. foul ntmosphere "In spite of all the fumigations the ships were never free from unpleasant if.wlls-—the dank fusty anell of

dry-rot, the acrid and awful 6mell of bilge water, and the smells of decaying stores and long defunct rats. Windsails and canvas ventilators were always fitted in fiDe weather to drive pure air into the recesses ; but fine weather is the exception, rot the rule, to the north of the fortieth parallel. The ships were sometimes battened down for days together, till every inch of timber dripped with salt water, and the condcrsaton of the breaths of many men." Thfir food was " nearly always bad, and somethr.es villlinous." Tho meat "was of a stony hardness, fibrous, shrurken, dark, gristly, and glifteuing with salt crystals. It was ' believed to be salt horse, resemb'ing very much a piece of mahogany, and often quite as sapless.' It looked as tinwliolcsotto ns nreat could look. Strange tal's were to'd about it Old picrtailed 5P.imen would tell of liors"s)H>es> found in the meat ei-sks : of cut ions bark' : n<7sand neiihirgs heard in the slanjrlilrr-honsp'.-f ; and of nrcroes who disappeared near the victualling yards, to be s*en no more. Whatever mont it. may have been, the .salt beef was certa : nlv abominable. It cou'd, perhans, have been made eatable by lonsr soak ng in the steep tub. but no meat for the messes was ever sonkevj for more than twenty-fo-jr hours. The salt pork was generally rather better thin the lief, but the s-'ilors could carve farcy article's, such ac> out of either meat. The flesh is said io have taken a pool polish, like ;ome c!o*efrrajr.ed wood." The only tiling that was good and abundant was the supply of spirits, which, indeed, was too large. And any si<ra of drurkniness was unmercifully punisiied. Tho form, of punishnvnt was flotrging, wlrrh was oons'a'ered to htlie only one " likely to be rffectivo with such m°n as manned the Poyal Navv." But though it was inflicted often for quite trivial train-■•rrcsiiorw. 'he puiu.'hment was fearfullv severe. " S : x blows were i nough to mr ke the bark positively law. Twelve blows cut deeply into it, and left it a horI'bls red slough., sickening to look upon. Yet three dozen was a comTcn pimiVhmevjt. Six doz?n lasles were counted at polling Tlixee hundred lashes were very frequently given." The inwl ghastly penalty of all vns that of " [logging through the fleet," inflicted" for striking an admiral, commodore, or lieutenant, or for attempting to escape, no matter what the provocation might be. Those who survived this ordeal

were broken men, and lived but a fbort wiiile afterwards. Au acton at sea, to , which the author devotes a most graphic | chapter, was welcomed by the men, partly for the excitement of it, and partly because of the temporary relaxation of discipline, and for the fact" that it made the officers rather more humane in their treatment. And thare w.-s always tlie prospect of prizemoney. But the s'a.ti<rhtCT in these c'.oseran<*e battles was heavy, and those who were badly wounded had romparaiively slendcr charecs. The methods of the cockpit were primitive, and' the surgeons were heavily worked. And yet it was these men, with their nrs-rab'e w.th hardy a bright spot to relieve the blackness, who won for Enpiarid her mi-il s-premacy. "There is no London merchant telling over cold in his coun-rinc-bouse, ro man-of-war's man standing hi? watch at sea, who does not owe hiß pold or his rifrhtf to Iberaffl who lived wretched davs lons ago. aboird old wooden battl- ships. • under jrartmets. In order that they mijrht live as tbey live, what misery, what Wood and' tears, fell to the portions of those who wc-nt before mak : n2- straight the pfitlis! For every quiet hour here in London, for every merry dav at sea, what hecatombs were necessary!"