"THE GLORIOUS 1st OF JUNE", 1794
On this date Lord Howe achieved a victory over the French which was considered so important that on the return of the fleet to Spithead the King presented Howe with a gold chain and a sword valued at 3000 guineas.
A Matchlock and a Firelock, or Fusil (17th Century)
The constantly smouldering match of the former rendered it a very dangerous weapon in the neighbourhood of cannon; the "snaphaunce", or "fusil", was fitted with a "fire-lock", in which a spark was struck from a flint.
"Now", he writes, "it only numbers thirty-seven ships, many of them old and rotten and barely fit for service." Never was it in a worse state, and good men were naturally harder and harder to get. Charles I was anxious to restore the navy to its former glory and efficiency, but his persistency in demanding "ship-money" from his subjects led eventually to the Civil War, which resulted in his downfall. The Commonwealth, however, did what he had been ambitious of doing himself: it spent large sums on the navy, and ships and men were once more in good case. With the Restoration set in rottenness and corruption. Even Charles II, though he was too careless or too incapable to remedy matters, recognized the state of affairs. "If ever", said he, at a meeting of the Council, "you intend to man the fleet without being cheated by the captains and pursers, you may go to bed and resolve never to have it manned." His brother James was more keenly interested in the navy, in which he had himself served against the Dutch, and no doubt improved matters in various respects, but the lot of a seaman was still a hard one. It may have been at his suggestion, when Duke of York, that the maritime regiment, of which he was the first commander, was raised, possibly with some idea of its being the nucleus of a permanent establishment.
These early marines, who were not infrequently referred to as "mariners", wore coats of the duke's favourite yellow with red breeches and stockings, and carried the flag of St. George, with the addition of the golden rays of the sun issuing from each corner of the cross—possibly "the glorious sun of York", as Shakespeare has it. It is interesting to note that they were the first fusiliers, though not in name. For probably to prevent danger from lighted matches on board a ship in action, they were armed with "snaphaunce muskets" or fusils—that is to say, flintlocks instead of the matchlocks usually carried by the infantry of the period. The 7th Fusiliers, who were raised as an artillery escort a few years later, were armed in the same way for a similar reason; and it is curious that, though never called fusiliers, the marines have almost always followed fusilier customs, as to uniform, in never having any officers of the rank of ensign, and in their officers carrying fusils at the time when other infantry officers carried half-pikes. We begin to find references to the familiar navy blue about this period as being worn by seamen. In a quaint old work published in 1682[23] the devil is referred to as having appeared to someone in Newcastle "in seaman's clothing with a blew cape". And again, in the description of the supporters of the coat-of-arms granted to the Earl of Torrington, who died 1689, we read that they are "Two sailors proper, habited with jackets and caps on their heads azure, with white trowsers striped gules," i.e. red. The following is a list of seamen's clothing or "slops" and prices, as authorized by James, Duke of York, when Lord High Admiral in 1663:—
| s. | d. | |
| Monmouth caps, each | 2 | 6 |
| Red caps | 1 | 1 |
| Yarn stockings, per pair | 3 | 0 |
| Irish stockings | 1 | 2 |
| Blue shirts, each | 3 | 6 |
| White shirts | 5 | 0 |
| Cotton waistcoats | 3 | 0 |
| Cotton drawers, per pair | 3 | 0 |
| Neat's leather shoes | 3 | 6 |
| Blue neckcloths, each | 0 | 5 |
| Canvas suits | 5 | 0 |
| Rugs of one breadth | 4 | 0 |
| Blue suits | 5 | 0 |
