The College, on January 1st, 1839, entered upon another phase of existence, being reopened, under the command of the captain of the Excellent, for the admission of a limited number of mates, who were permitted to volunteer for a special course of mathematics, etc. They were borne on the books of the Excellent, and resided in the College for one year. Every six months an examination was held, and the officer who passed best was awarded a lieutenant’s commission.
Ten commissioned officers of higher rank were also admitted, to study steam, etc., under Professor Thos. J. Main, a very worthy successor to James Inman; for he was, like the latter, Senior Wrangler and Smith’s Prizeman of his year. Professor Main will be well remembered by many naval officers still living; he was thirty years at the College, and wrote more than one book, in conjunction with Mr. Thos. Brown, engineer, R.N., on the marine steam engine. He retired in 1869, and died in London December 28th, 1885, at the age of sixty-seven.
The history of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth subsequent to April, 1837, does not come strictly within the scope of this volume.
It was used eventually as the headquarters of sub-lieutenants, gunnery lieutenants, and naval instructors who were qualifying, and a small number of senior commissioned officers who studied steam, etc., as before. But since the opening of the college at Greenwich, in 1873, it has lapsed, both in title and office; no longer is it known as the “Royal Naval College,” but simply “The College, Portsmouth Dockyard”; no more are the voices and footsteps of Senior Wranglers heard within its walls. Its glory has departed, and, as a mere temporary residence for officers who are studying gunnery, etc., in the port, the title of “College” can, in fact, no longer be justly applied, save in the most crude and literal sense.
During a period of twenty years after the abolition of the Portsmouth College as a training school for young gentlemen, all candidates for admission to the Navy were sent straight to sea; though an Admiralty circular, dated December 18th, 1833, remained in force for some time; and in this a distinction is made between “Volunteers of the First Class” and “College Volunteers.”
On January 20th, 1838, a circular was issued to the following effect:—
A Volunteer of the First Class must not be under twelve years of age. He must be in good health, fit for service, and able to write English correctly from dictation, and be acquainted with the first four rules of arithmetic, reduction, and rule of three.
This seems a slender equipment of knowledge; an irreducible minimum, in fact, for a lad of that age about to enter the Navy; and, moreover, this circular contains no maximum limit of age; a serious oversight.
On February 7th in the same year the term “College Volunteers” is ordered to be discontinued; but the circular of January 20th continued in force, unaltered, until 1843, when the term “Naval Cadet” appears for the first time, being substituted in this circular for “Volunteer of the First Class”—still, however, with no superior age limit stated, and it is not until April 1st, 1849, that it is amended in this respect, the maximum age being laid down as fourteen.
This is only another instance of the singularly inexact and haphazard ways of the Admiralty in those days. The last regulation on this point was issued in February, 1821, when the age was fixed between 12½ and 13½; the lads were then being kept at the College for two or three years, so that they were actually going to sea at a considerably greater age than the more recent circular appeared to warrant. Unless, indeed, the Lords of the Admiralty reserved to themselves the right of arbitrarily fixing the age in each case; if they did, there is no circular extant to show it.