The gentleman who made out this warrant was evidently either a stickler for phonetic spelling or a rabid “Francophobe”; a long time afterwards the Governor of the Academy advocates the abolition of the “buroes,” gunpowder having been found in one of them.
The existing records are for a long period very incomplete, but the Academy appears to have flourished on the whole, and to have fulfilled very fairly the purposes for which it was established.
In March, 1748, a “blue uniform” was first introduced for the students, and about the same time a detailed account of the expenses incurred by two individuals, designated as “A. B.” and “Hon. C. D.,” is given, evidently as a guide for arriving at an average expenditure. All the students paid £25 per annum for their board; the total expenses of the “Hon. C. D.,” however, amounted to £68 12s. 4d., as compared with £48 16s. 9d. for “A. B.,” the excess being practically, as might be expected, in the amounts for “mercer” and “taylor.”
Many, it is stated, fell short of “A. B.’s” total, while few, if any, equalled “Hon. C. D.”; but in these accounts “ale-house” scores are not included. This is explained by the fact that a brewery formed part of the establishment.
On November 1st, 1773, a very complete set of “Rules and Orders” relating to the Academy was issued by the Admiralty, consisting of no less than forty-one articles or paragraphs. The whole scheme had apparently been under revision, and the entire conduct of the establishment is provided for in great detail.
This scheme is of considerable interest, embodying, as it does, the matured ideas of naval authorities at that period concerning the entry and education of young naval officers; and it is, therefore, given in the Appendix practically in extenso, only the tedious verbiage being somewhat modified.[1]
[1] See [Appendix I].
It will be noticed, in Article XXXIV. of these regulations, that these sons of noblemen and gentlemen, on going to sea, were made to perform seamen’s duties, but had the privilege of walking the quarter-deck; while the term “Volunteers by Order” is still retained.
Of the plan of education devised by the master of the Academy there are no official details, except in the periodical reports of the qualifications of the scholars, which are rendered with great regularity and exactness, the remarks of the head master being sometimes very quaint. One pupil is described as being “much too volatile in writing and arithmetic”; on another occasion, when reporting some irregularities, he remarks that “they are cursed troublesome.”
The Commissioner of the Yard, in his capacity as Governor of the Academy, either voluntarily or by prescription adopted a stereotyped form of report to the Secretary to the Admiralty, which is repeated, word for word, with unfailing monotony, with each report of progress, as follows:—