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

by Basil Hall

If, then, we can furnish all ranks of our naval officers afloat with a ready and agreeable means of filling up their time, of which most of them have a good deal to spare, we may fairly hope that they will not be slow to avail themselves of the opportunities placed within their reach. In order, however, to render these measures of any extensive utility, this plan of furnishing assistance must be carried a long way. A chaplain-schoolmaster should be allowed even to the smallest class of ships on board which, by any contrivance, the proper degree of accommodation can be obtained. And if these ideas were followed up in the admirable spirit with which some recent improvements have been carried into effect in the Navy, for instance, in the discipline, victualling, payment of wages, ratings, and other matters, a very great boon would be conferred on the service.

It is not likely that the measure proposed would materially augment the expenses of the Navy, if, indeed, it had that effect at all; since both a chaplain and schoolmaster are expressly allowed to all ships, from the first to the sixth class, inclusive. But, even supposing the expense were to be augmented, there can be no doubt, I should conceive, in the mind of any person who has reflected seriously on these subjects, that the return for such outlay would be speedy and certain. The religious, moral, and intellectual character of officers, on whose good conduct so much depends, must, in every conceivable state of things, be an object of material consequence to the country. And it were really almost a libel on the nation, to imagine that they would not cheerfully agree to the additional expenditure which might be required, if the advantages be such as are stated. There can be no truer economy, than expending money for the promotion of virtue and sound knowledge amongst this class of public servants. For their duties, it must be recollected, generally lie so far beyond the reach of ordinary scrutiny, that almost the only security we have for their good conduct rests on their own sense of honour. A dishonest officer on a foreign station might often divert from its proper purpose, by a single stroke of his pen, and without much danger of detection, more of the public money than would furnish the Navy with chaplains and schoolmasters for ten years.

It is to accomplish only one-half the great task of instruction merely to fill a boy’s head with technical information—his principles and habits ought to be likewise taken into our safe keeping. It is also greatly to be desired, that, when the period arrives at which he is expected to become, as it is called, his own master, he should find no difficulty in continuing, from choice, those pursuits to which he had previously applied himself on compulsion, or merely as a means of promotion. And there seems to be no method more likely to accomplish this desirable purpose, than affording the young commissioned officer the companionship of an instructor, or, at all events, of a person whose duty it should be, if required, not only to continue, in the ward-room, the course of information commenced in the cock-pit, but whose aim ought to be, so to modify these studies as to adapt them to the altered circumstances of the pupil, and to win his attention to their pursuit by rendering them agreeable and useful.

It is not pretended, by any means, that such a task is an easy one; on the contrary, it will require not only considerable abilities, but high attainments, and no inconsiderable degree of good taste, together with a long apprenticeship of self-discipline, and an exclusive application to these arduous duties, as the grand object and business of the instructor’s life.

There really appears, however, to be no situation but that of a clergyman which offers any reasonable chance of these conditions being fulfilled. And as the education of such a person is necessarily expensive, and the double office which it is proposed he should fill, one of great responsibility, labour, and difficulty, as well as one of peculiar and irremediable discomfort and privation, without any of those energetic excitements which stimulate every other class of officers to exertion, the remuneration ought clearly to be very considerable, otherwise no set of properly qualified men will engage permanently in its pursuit.

A distinct class of officers, of this sacred character, although as yet they do not exist, might be readily created. If the emoluments of the chaplain of a man-of-war were respectable, the situation rendered as agreeable, in point of comfort, as the nature of the elements will admit of, and if the prospects of future provision be made certain, or contingent only upon a right performance of duty, there cannot, I think, be a doubt that, in a short time, there would be an ample and steady supply of chaplains, as highly qualified, in point of attainments, as the Admiralty might choose to fix on the scale.

If this important professional object were once fairly carried into effect, we should probably soon discover an improvement in the whole system of naval discipline, the best evidences of which would be, the increased efficiency of the whole service, arising out of the gradually ameliorated habits and higher intellectual cultivation, as well as improved tastes and more rational happiness, of every class of the officers, from the oldest captain down to the youngest first-class boy, just untied from his mother’s apron-string.

In all that has been said, I have taken into view almost exclusively the advantages which would accrue to the officers from the adoption of this plan of uniform instruction. It is to them, individually as gentlemen, and collectively as a body, upon the certainty of whose hearty exertions the government can at all times depend, that the country must ever look for that energetic momentum in our naval strength, upon which the national power, in this department, essentially rests. Surely, however, it is not too much to say, as a matter of experience, that the influence of a resident clergyman on board ship, wherever there is one, over the minds of the crew, is felt to be quite as salutary, when properly exercised, as it is to the labourers in any parish of the empire.

It signifies nothing to say that the structure of naval discipline is widely different from the civil administration of the land; for the very same principles, and, more or less, the very same motives to right or wrong action, must always be in play in both cases. A judicious chaplain, therefore, who shall have become acquainted by personal experience with the habits, tastes, feelings, and pursuits of the seamen, may undoubtedly contribute an important share to the efficiency of the whole of our naval system. So far from interfering with, or in any way checking the strict course of nautical affairs, I conceive that the chaplain’s influence, rightly exercised, acting in cordial understanding with the captain, and sanctioned by his authority, might advance the best interests of the service by greatly diminishing offences, and thus lessening the melancholy necessity of punishments. Whenever this benevolent purpose can be effected, in a greater or less degree, both those who obey and those who command are sure to be better pleased with one another, and, it is reasonable to suppose, far more desirous of co-operating heartily in the accomplishment of the common purpose for which they are brought together.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.