The minimum time on the training ship, it will be noticed, was three months; any cadet who felt that he was competent might present himself at the first quarterly examination after joining, and if he passed, would be discharged. The maximum time was one year, and this could only apply to cadets who were under fourteen on joining; the others were bound to present themselves for examination either at the second or third quarterly examination, according to age.
No time was lost in preparing the Illustrious for her new purpose; dockyard hands were speedily at work, and an efficient staff selected to assist Captain Harris, so as to commence, as Sir Charles Wood says in his letter, already quoted, with as good a prospect of success as could be assured, by putting the work into the best hands.
Not the least prominent among the new appointments was the Rev. Robert Inskip, who was transferred from the Victory as principal naval instructor. He had long been associated with Captain Harris in advocating the new scheme, and was, in fact, Cadet Harris’s master during his year of training.
With two such enthusiasts at the head of affairs, there was likely to be no lack of “go” about the start; and although the idea was by no means in universal favour among the captains and admirals of those days, the new step attracted attention in many quarters, and was the subject of laudatory leaders in the Times and other “dailies,” to say nothing of magazine articles.
The keynote in these publications is the same throughout: while approving of the general scheme—which perhaps in most instances the writers were not very well qualified to discuss—they all with one accord declare that no man could be so well fitted for the post of commander as Captain Harris.
“Parents may well rejoice,” says a writer in Fraser’s Magazine (September, 1857), “to have it in their power to bestow on their children the results of the long experience of a man who has passed through all the dangers of the position with credit to himself and advantage to his country.”
The Illustrious was moored off Haslar Creek, on the west side of Portsmouth Harbour, near the entrance, and there on August 5th, 1857, the first batch of cadets, twenty-three in number, joined her.
The staff was as follows:—
Captain Robert Harris.
Lieutenant Geo. Y. Paterson.
Lieutenant Marcus Lowther (in command of Sealark, brig).
Lieutenant F. T. Thomson (in command of Bullfinch, tender).
Chaplain and Naval Instructor Rev. W. R. Jolley.
Chaplain and Naval Instructor Rev. R. M. Inskip.
Naval Instructor Kempster M. Knapp.
It is not easy to obtain very precise information as to the routine, but a good deal may be deduced from the subjects of study, as laid down in the Admiralty circular; and the general principle, no doubt, was alternate days at study and seamanship.