Fragments of voyages and travels, including anecdotes of a naval life

by Basil Hall

The kindness of a captain, or any other of the officers, certainly goes a long way to render the situation of a youngster on board ship happy, and useful. But these advantages can be fully extended only to a few cases, even in ships where the captain’s disposition has that kindly bent which takes delight in opening his cabin to the midshipmen, and prompts him to go out of his way in other respects, to make them pleased with their situation. It is deeply to be regretted, indeed, that in most ships in His Majesty’s service, no such advantages can be reckoned upon; and unless there be something more direct and imperative than the mere good-will of the captain, too many youngsters will inevitably be neglected, not only to their own loss and eventual sorrow, but to the manifest injury of the public interests.

There is a very mistaken notion entertained by many officers in the Navy, who conceive that parental care and kindness to the midshipmen under their command, do not fall within the strict line of their duty. And this would be reasonable, if it were right to govern His Majesty’s ships exclusively by the strict letter of the Printed Instructions and the Articles of War. But how could the service go on for a single day on such principles? Every thing falls within the line of a captain’s duty which contributes to the advancement of the public good; and who shall say that an attention to the morals and manners of those young men, who are destined to command the ships and fleets of the country, is not an object of vital public interest?

There is no law, strictly so called, by which parents on shore are compelled to educate their children, or to shew them kindness; but what father of a family will plead this omission in the statutes in excuse for neglecting his family? Yet the case is even stronger on board ship, where the dangers of evil communication—that corrupter of good manners—are far greater, and where the value of kindness is enhanced a hundred-fold, by the many hardships and privations to which the poor boys must be exposed.

To say that these young persons are merely public servants—that they must take their chance with the rest of the crew—and that a captain has enough to do besides making himself a dry-nurse for every child sent on board his ship, is a bitter and most unworthy mockery, implying little genuine public spirit, and still less private feeling.

At the very best, as I have already said, the captain cannot accomplish all the objects that could be desired; but in every case, even of the most actively employed ships, the exercise of his authority, in a generous and kindly spirit, must contribute, in a most essential degree, not only to the present comfort, but to the solid virtue of the youngsters on board. Indeed, these two results must always go together, afloat as well as on shore; and exactly in proportion as the captain can ameliorate the habits of his young officers, or win them to a conviction of the value of acting upon principle, so will they become happier men and more useful public servants.

It has already been stated, that a captain’s time is generally so much taken up with official duties, that, even if he be so inclined, he cannot devote an adequate portion of his attention to the moral care of the important class of rising officers of whom we are speaking. But it requires only a slight acquaintance with any description of public business to shew, that although a commanding officer may often not be able to execute a required task himself, he may usefully superintend its right performance by another. Indeed, it will happen, in most cases, that such work will actually be better done by another person, under his inspection, than it could have been done by the chief himself. This observation applies, in a remarkable manner, to the numerous and varied duties on board a man-of-war. Nor is it too much to say, that in a well-regulated ship the captain is bound not to attempt the execution of all, or, perhaps, any of these duties himself, but rather to devote his attention to their right performance by the officers especially named to such charges.

It is on this principle—that is to say, exactly in the same spirit by which every other duty is carried on afloat—that I consider it of so much importance to the well-being of the Navy that the captain should be provided with a duly-qualified officer in a most essential department of his discipline, at present absolutely vacant. He cannot, by any exertion, execute the duties of instruction himself; nor is there any other person on board to whom he can delegate them, at least as things are now constituted; and the consequences, we all know, are in many cases every way deplorable.

Fortunately, the remedy for these evils appears neither difficult of discovery, nor costly in its application; and as it has had the advantage of frequent and successful trial, it is to be hoped that, ere long, its adoption as a matter of official regulation will become general throughout the Navy.

It must have occurred to every one who has attended personally to this subject, that the duty of superintending the progress of youngsters circumstanced as the mids are, to any good purpose, can be performed only by a person who shall have this exclusive business to attend to, or whose chief duty and interest it shall be. Neither can there be a doubt, that if a proper salary were given, in connexion with some advantages which would cost the country nothing, a class of officers, fully competent to this high and important task, might soon be created, and placed as much at the disposal of the administrators of our naval affairs, as any other description of public servants. I use the word officers instead of schoolmasters, because it appears to me quite essential to the success of the measures under consideration, that the person having the superintendence of the young gentlemen in one of His Majesty’s ships should be permanently placed, as nearly as possible, in the situation eventually to be filled by his pupils, in order that he may become practically familiar with those professional feelings and habits, the value of which it is his duty to teach, along with those still more important principles, and sacred instructions peculiarly his province to inculcate.

Many of these useful refinements, however, cannot be looked for in men who are not placed in situations in which alone, as all experience shews, they can be acquired; it, therefore, becomes indispensable, as I have said before, that the instructors of our naval youth should be made to feel that they really are officers, to all intents and purposes, not only in rank, but in the enjoyment of every other technical advantage possible.