In 1851, however, a little more detail was apparently considered necessary, for there is a supplementary circular, dated February 13th of that year, which lays down:—
That all naval cadets who receive nominations at home are to present themselves for examination at the College within two months of the date of the letter of nomination; and a certificate of qualification, signed by the professor or mathematical master at the College, and approved by the captain of the Excellent (as superintendent of the College), together with a medical certificate of physical efficiency, must be forwarded to the Admiralty before they can be entered. No second trial is to be allowed, and the nomination is to be cancelled unless the candidate passes within two months.
The Commander-in-Chief is also authorised to enter cadets who have passed as supernumeraries on board the flagship until they are appointed to sea-going ships.
These regulations remained in force until the early part of 1857, when a very radical change was introduced. And here the curtain falls on the old order of things; how it rose on the new, and who were the men who brought about the change, must be told in another chapter.
JACK TAR EXPOUNDS.
CHAPTER III.
THE “ILLUSTRIOUS.”
Captain Robert Harris—His Birth and Career—Appointed to the Illustrious—“Jemmy Graham’s Novices”—A Model School for Seamen—A Visit to the Illustrious—Why not Train Young Officers?—Opposition of Old Officers—Cadet Robert H. Harris—A Successful Experiment—Institution of Cadets’ Training Ship—Captain Harris Suffers for His Zeal—Commendatory Letters—He is Superseded—The New Admiralty Circular—General Approval of the Scheme—The Staff of the Illustrious—Lieutenant George S. Nares—Disciplinary Methods—The Cadets’ Corporals—Withering Sarcasm—Old-fashioned Seamanship—Cricket—“Sling the Monkey”—Rev. R. M. Inskip—His Sea Yarns—Mr. Kempster Knapp—“Knapp’s Circles”—Penalty of Fidgeting—Prince Alfred—Enter the Britannia—Her Predecessors.
THE story of the institution of a training ship for naval cadets, through which all must, of necessity, pass satisfactorily before being allowed to go to sea, is inseparably connected with the name of one man, but for whose energy, ability, and urgent and repeated representations it is quite safe to assume that this step would have been postponed for some years, though it was no doubt inevitable in the end.