Sea life in Nelson's time

by John Masefield

A FRIGATE IN CHASE, GOING FREE

The boatswain’s mates, his immediate subordinates, were chosen from the very best seamen on board. They were the leaders or drivers of the crew, and generally the finest men in the fleet. They wore no uniform, but the pay they received, being £2, 5s. 6d. a month, enabled them to wear neater clothes than the seamen. They had the unpleasant duty of flogging misdemeanants at the gangway. They slept in favoured places on the lower-decks, with rather more space for their hammocks than was allowed for a seaman. The boatswain’s yeomen, who kept the boatswain’s stores in order, generally slept in the wings, near their post on the orlop-deck.

Ranking with the boatswain as a standing or warrant officer, and drawing exactly the same pay, was the purser—the officer in charge of the ship’s provisions. A purser, like a boatswain, received his warrant direct from the Admiralty, but the fore-mast man had no chance of becoming purser without friends and influence. A purser was not usually promoted to his post for merit. He was generally a friend of the captain, one of the captain’s “followers” or servants, going with him from ship to ship, and feathering his nest very handsomely from every cruise. A purser could not receive his warrant till he had served a year or eighteen months as a captain’s clerk, or keeper of the ship’s books. The captain usually appointed his own clerk, or at anyrate recommended his own choice for the appointment. He had therefore considerable power over his purser, and often shared the plunder that worthy gathered. Before a man could commence duty as a purser he had to sign a bond, giving “two proper and competent persons as his securities.” The “penal sum” mentioned in this bond varied considerably, according to the size of the ship. The purser of a first-rate had to find securities for £1200; for a third-rate, £800; and for a sixth-rate, £400. This regulation made it impossible for a man without influence to obtain a purser’s place. Very often it led to grave abuses, for it frequently happened that the guarantors came forward with their securities merely to get the purser into their clutches. As a purser’s sureties were generally merchants, it followed that the purser was frequently squeezed into buying their goods, at their prices, to the prejudice of the poor sailors. In many cases the purser bought his place as captain’s clerk, by bribing both the captain and the Admiralty officials to give him the appointment. When he had qualified himself he bought his warrant as purser in the same way, trusting to his own dishonesty to recoup himself.

A purser had to see that the ship received her full quantity of water, spirits, and provisions. He was expected to examine the meat and bread, to make sure that all was sound, and stowed in sound casks. He was to have the key of the purser’s store or steward-room, on the orlop-deck. Twice a day, if the captain gave the order, he had to open this room, to serve out provisions to the cooks of the messes, weighing every atom with scrupulous care. The times of serving out were generally from seven to nine in the morning, and from six to eight in the evening. To encourage him to be careful and thrifty he received a bonus on the provisions remaining with him at the end of a cruise, when the ship was paid off. He also received 10 per cent. on all sums paid to the crew “for savings of provisions.” He was allowed a certain sum for the waste of casks, sacks, and iron hoops, but he was expected to pay for all deficiencies in excess of that sum. He had to provide the ship with “coals, firewood, turnery-ware, candles, lanterns, etc.,” out of a sum known as Necessary Money, which the Government allowed to him. He received, in addition to the Necessary Money, an annual allowance “upon passing his account”—a sort of Government reward for probity. This reward in a first-rate ship amounted to £25.

A purser was expected to exert himself to save the public money as much as he could. Old and bad meat, which had been in salt for a few years, was often issued to him in new casks, with new marks upon them. A purser had to see that this old meat was issued before the new salt meat was broken open. “The purser,” says the regulation, “is to issue out first such part thereof as he shall have perceived most liable to decay.” His most important duty was the keeping of the ship’s muster book, a lengthy folio, in which the name of every person “belonging to, or borne on the books of, the ship,” was carefully entered, with some short description of the man, to enable the runners to trace him if he deserted. The entire crew were mustered from this book every tenth day while at sea, and immediately after every action. Any man who was absent without leave for three successive musters was marked with an R, for run—i.e. deserted. A man so marked lost all the pay due to him. The book marked the date of all discharges from the service, with the cause of such discharge, “whether it be death, desertion, or otherwise.” In addition to the muster book a purser had to keep very careful and minute accounts of the expenditure of the provisions. If the supplies ran short he had to superintend the purchase of a fresh stock, if there were no “instrument of the Victualling Office” at the port where the ship refitted.

A most important duty allotted to the purser was the keeping of the slop books. “Slops” were the sailor’s clothes and sea-bedding, supplied by the naval storekeeper to every ship in commission. The slops were placed in the slop-room on the orlop-deck in the care of the purser. Seamen and pressed men who came aboard destitute were allowed to purchase from the slop-room to the amount of two months’ pay. After this first purchase they were allowed to spend 7s. a month in slops if they could show that they really needed them. No man was allowed to buy slops until he had received a written permission from his lieutenant. Seamen in rags, or in want of bedding, could be forced to purchase slops, to the amounts just mentioned, so that no man appeared disreputable as long as the slops held out. As the gear supplied from the slop-room was of uniform pattern, the crews of the ships were generally dressed alike. The slops usually carried were white canvas kit-bags, scarlet marine tunics, blue coats, waistcoats, and trousers, checkered blue-and-white shirts, black silk wrappers, Dutch, fur and worsted caps, straw mattresses, blue or brown blankets, thick woollen stockings, heavy weather trousers, and the usual seaman’s frocks and shoes. As the shoes usually worn were low, the slop-room generally contained a supply of silver buckles for those seamen who liked to be neat. The purser who had charge of the slops at sea received a shilling in the pound on all sales, from the contractor who sent the goods to the navy storekeeper. A similar sum was paid to him on the sales of dead men’s effects, which were sold publicly by auction on deck directly the man had died. No man was allowed to bid at these auctions unless he could prove that he was in real need.

The dishonesty of pursers has long been proverbial. There may have been honest pursers, but they were in the minority. They were usually rapacious sharks, who bought their places, and made hay while the sun shone. Their robberies and knaveries affected the sailors more than the Government. The sailors had no redress, and the Government system was so faulty that the frauds were never brought to light. A purser had many ways of making himself rich at the expense of the poor tar. At the time of which we write he was probably a less open thief than his forerunners in peculation—the pursers of Queen Anne and the later Stuarts—but he was no less clever in turning a dishonest penny. A very favourite way of making money was the old way of adulterating the ship’s wine, or giving vinegar in lieu of wine.[20] “He oft-times turns Water into Wine, and Wine into Water, with one mere Fiat to his Steward.” Another most lucrative way was that of getting a man “lent” to another ship, or sent ashore, thereby forfeiting his wages. When a man had been sent out of a ship in this way the purser neglected to strike his name off the books. When the ship was paid off the purser would forge a pay-ticket for the amount due to the poor fellow, and draw the whole sum. The slops were always sold at more than their value, so that the amount of the commission might be more handsome. Slops were also sold to dead men, and charged upon the dead men’s wages. The purser drew his commission on the sale, and kept the slops so sold. It was often said that a purser could make a dead man chew tobacco. He could also make a corpse buy clothes, and drink his allowance of grog. By restricting the supplies of firewood, and of the vile tallow dips or candles, a purser was often able to make something out of his Necessary Money. In those ships in which he was in league with the captain he found it possible to keep live stock, such as hogs or cattle, on the oatmeal charged to dead sailors.

A purser’s uniform was exactly the same as that of a boatswain. Being usually of more gentle breeding than a boatswain, he wore a three-cornered cocked hat, instead of the glazed, sailor’s top-hat. He also wore white knee-breeches and white stockings, instead of trousers. In action, he either retired to his berth below the water-line, out of danger of the shot, or went to the cockpit to moisten the lips of the wounded with weak rum-and-water or lime juice. In some ships he was placed in command of the powder passers, a line of men engaged in handing cartridge boxes from the magazines to the gun-deck. In those ships to which the naval storekeepers sent Bibles and prayer-books it was the duty of the purser to distribute the books to the ship’s company, under the direction of the chaplain. After December 1798 the ships were supplied with tobacco by the Victualling Board. The purser had charge of the tobacco during the cruise, and received a commission on all he sold, with a small “allowance for wastage.” He was not allowed to sell more than 2lbs. of tobacco in the month to any man, nor might he charge more than 1s. 7d. a pound for the commodity. A purser’s steward (the creature appointed to assist a purser) seems to have received about 35s. a month for his services, with the privileges of standing no watch and sleeping on the orlop-deck.

Ranking with the boatswain and purser, as a standing or warrant officer, was the gunner, the officer appointed to take charge of the ordnance and ammunition. He was generally appointed after twelve months’ service as a petty officer, if he could pass a vivâ voce examination in the art of gunnery. His first duty on getting aboard a ship fitting for the sea was to place the gun carriages at their respective ports, and to superintend the reeving of the breechings and side-tackles. He was assisted in this duty by a little gang of men placed under his orders, and known as the gunner’s mates and gunner’s crew. When the guns came on board from the storekeeper he had to examine them, and see them mounted in their carriages. He had next to examine the magazines, to test them for damp, to clean them, and to see them hung with felt. He was to prove the locks on the magazine padlocks, and to make sure that a set of felt or soft leather slippers was always hanging near the hatch, for use by all folk entering the magazine. When the ship took aboard her powder it was his duty to see all lights extinguished throughout the ship, save the lanterns in the light-rooms which lit the powder-magazines. He had to lock the magazines when the powder was shipped, and deliver the keys to the captain. At sea he had to examine the ship’s guns, and to see that they were ready for action. He had to take care that each gun was fitted with crows, sponges, etc., and that the “cheeses,” or nets of gun wads, were ready beside each gun carriage. He had also to see that the shot racks running down the ship’s sides along the waterways and round the coamings of all the hatches were filled with scraped and hammered shot. He had also to prepare a quantity of “match,” and to keep it ready for use in the match tubs, and to see that none of it was burnt during the day, and that “two lengths” of it were kept alight at night over tubs of water. He had to see the tops supplied with powder and hand-grenades. He had to keep his canvas grape-shot bags exposed to the sun and wind, so that the canvas might not moulder. He had to receive the stores issued for the use of the armourer, and to superintend that official in his cleaning and scouring of the muskets and small-arms. He had to keep the gun-tackle blocks well greased, so that they might work easily. He had to turn his powder barrels end for end from time to time, to prevent the separation of the nitre from the other ingredients. He was to fill a supply of cartridges for immediate use. In battle he was to make use of any lull in the firing to keep this supply undiminished. Before an action he had to hang up wetted frieze blankets round the hatchways leading to the magazines. He had also to go the round of the gun-decks, to make sure that every gun was ready for action. From time to time, in fine weather, the gunner was to air his stores, under a marine sentry, on the upper-deck. At all times he was to examine the guns and their fittings at least once a day, and to report their condition to the lieutenant. He was also expected to instruct the “people”—i.e. the ship’s company—in gunnery, a duty which he sometimes neglected. He slept and messed with the junior midshipmen in the gun-room. He had one servant, or ship’s boy, allotted to him, to wait upon him, while his store-rooms, etc., were kept clean by his mates or crew or “yeomen.” He stood no watch at night, but worked all day from “turn out” till the setting of the watch. His uniform was the same as that of the purser and boatswain, a white-lined blue coat, with blue lapels and cuffs, white kerseymere breeches or trousers, and gold anchor-buttons on the pocket flaps. His pay was the same as that given to the boatswain and purser, but he received in addition a small perquisite, the sum of one shilling being paid to him for every powder tub returned in good condition to the storehouse. The pay of his subordinates—the gunner’s mates, yeomen of the powder-room, and quarter-gunners (i.e. men in charge of four guns each)—varied from about £2, 2s. to £1, 16s. a month. These lesser dignitaries wore no distinctive uniform, but they had various little privileges—such as snug corners for their sleeping quarters on the berth-deck, or in the cable-tiers, etc.