The Lords of the Admiralty addressed to each member of the committee the following memorandum:—
A question has arisen as to whether the conditions under which naval cadets are trained on board H.M.S. Britannia are favourable to their health and physical development. Their lordships are desirous that this matter should be investigated by a committee, and your attention is drawn to the following special points:—
I. (a) The effect of confinement on board a stationary ship.
(b) Ventilation.
(c) Sleeping arrangements.
(d) Diet.II. (a) The course of study as regards the subjects, the number of hours, and the routine.
(b) The nature of the examinations, including that of entry.
Under I., heads a, b, c, d, the committee report most favourably, and have no improvements to suggest, nor is this at all surprising, since the number of entries had fallen from 131 in 1869 to an average of 62 in the five following years, and there should certainly have been no difficulty in providing adequate cubic space and ventilation in the two large vessels for numbers not exceeding 100.
Under II., however, the committee have something to say. They consider that the hours of study are by no means excessive, but they recommend that the midday interval for dinner, etc., be increased from fifty minutes to an hour and a quarter at least in summer, as it is injurious to proceed to study so soon after a full meal. They consider that the brains of the cadets are overtaxed more by the number of subjects than by the length of hours, and recommend the abolition of the following subjects of examination: Grammar, literature, history, Scripture history, physical geography, physics, and the introduction of Latin. A very drastic measure, and, with the exception of the introduction of Latin, too utilitarian, perhaps, in its tendency as compared with accepted ideas in schools of that period. A boy on joining the Britannia after a year or so of special study under a “crammer” to enable him to pass the entry examination, certainly could not be said to have even approximately completed his education in general subjects.
MR. A. C. JOHNSON, NAVAL INSTRUCTOR.
Photo: Smale & Son, Dartmouth.
However, the committee had a still more important recommendation in connection with examinations, for they held that the competitive examination on entry was “hurtful to the boys and injurious to the Service,” and urged the substitution of a qualifying examination forthwith.
Here they probably had the whole Service with them; for, as has been pointed out, there could be no valid reason for the introduction of competition in 1869, no one could seriously maintain that the most suitable boys would be thereby obtained for the Service, and only one witness has much to say for it, having been partly instrumental in introducing it.
Before going to Dartmouth the committee visited the Royal Naval School at New Cross, the Greenwich Hospital School, and Eton College, and they found the physique of the cadets rather superior, age for age, to that of the boys in these schools.