PAST NAVAL DAY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 6 January 1923, Page 4

PAST NAVAL DAY.

A COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS. QUEEN ELIZABETH TO NELSON. Two masters of tie Royal Naval College at JJartmoutn, xuessrs i± \ v Hodges una a_. A. Hughes, have had : tne nappy notion of compiling a prose '• antiioiugy of documents and fugitive writings illustrative of many pnases • of naval custom, organisation, and administration. | The work is arranged chronologically' from the Tudor period to tnat of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, and treats, among other matters, of such varied subjects as strategy, tactics, fighting instructions, signals, gunnery, victualling, discipline, and the entry and training of otticers. Incidentally, Queen Elizabeth is exhibited as an armchair tactician, complaining at the abandonment by the English of boarding tactics. From a little bookon the duty of a gunner we learn that every gunner "ought to know that, as it is a wholesome thing for him to drink-and eat a little meat before he doth discharge any piece of artillery, because the fume of saltpetre and brimstone will otherwise be hurtful to his brains, so it is very unwholesome for him to shoot in any piece of Ordnance while his stomach is full." j In 1596 Essex reminded the Council that an army is no less necessary to England than a navy. An early reference to mystery ships is found among the stratagems used at sea in Monson's Naval Tracts, where he says: "ItWay be as well serve for a man-of-war to stow his men, save so many as may sail the ship, in hold and embolden the other to come near him.'' I The following amusing anecdote occurs in a seaman's complaint in 1634 of "gentleman captains": "I will give you an emblem of a late captain, better known to others than to himself, who, being a fresh-water soldier, was sick with the savour of the sea; and his men pumping the ship in their watch, it gave a noisome smell (wnich notwithstanding is a good sign of a tight ship), whereof this young Neptune in a fume demanding the reason, reply, was made that it was the pump. "AVhy,' quoth he, 'cast it overboard, for if it stinks so I will have none in my ship. On the same topic, here is Pepy's view of the qualities of a good sea officer: "I did some time since write to Captain Killigrew for a character of this gentleman, who in answer tells ime that he apprehends him fit for a sea officer, by reason he hath been with him a whole year at sea and in three engagements, where he saith he behaved himself like a gentleman and aiL- .understand ing man, a character which I confess wants a good deal of that which must lead me to think a man fit to make a_ sea officer of: I mean downright diligence, sobriety, and seamanship, without which no man can serve His Majesty as he ought, or at least will ever be so thought by me to do.'' ' A section on eighteenth century victuals contains this gem, from a pamphlet of 1761: "That seamen in the King's Ships have made buttons for their Jackets and Trowsers with the Cheese they were served with, having preferred it, by reason of its tough and durable quality, to buttons of common metal; and that carpenters in the Navy Service have made Trucks 'to their Ships' flagstaff's with whole ■ Cheeses, which -have stood the weather equally with any timber.'' I Of particular interest at the moment, in connection with the movement for preserving the Victory, is a request of Captain Keppell. commanding the ship in 1778, for guns carrying a ball of 321b weight on the lower deck ( m preference to the 42-pounders then fitted. Evidently the request was granted, for the'smaller weapons were used at-Trafalgar. As showing how . slowly naval reforms came about in the old days, there are two documents lin which uniform for the seamen is j advocated. Admiral Kempenfelt wrote in 1779 that the appearance of the' men was a disgrace to the service, and < uniform clothing would helo them to J , keep sober, orderly, and clean, and . ! would contribute something to check ' desertion; and Sir Gilbert Blanc, the sureeon, wrote in 1782 that it would : certainly be for the benefit of the service that a uniform should be estab- : Hshed for the common men, as well as i ! for th.c officers. Yet seventy-four ; years elapsed before this was done. J I ... I