Wages.
The articles of war seem in this generation to have troubled the sailors but little, since, in nearly every instance, we find officers the prisoners before the court. A court-martial would not enable the Treasurer to pay wages and prize money too long over-due, or silence men of whom one, who knew them well, said that they were ‘an unruly and untamed generation,’ and that he found ‘no hope to satisfy them without their full pay.’[1294] But there are signs that, notwithstanding delays in payment, the men gave heartier obedience to the Commonwealth than they had given to the crown under similar circumstances. On one occasion 180 men were sent down to join the Fairfax, but, not finding their raw shipmates already on board to their liking, announced that they would not go to sea ‘to do those men and boys’ work for them.’ But instead of attempting to desert they betook themselves to other ships.[1295] Three months afterwards the Navy Commissioners received the welcome news that the men were coming in ‘cheerfully and in great numbers since the publication of the late encouragement to them,’[1296] and from some places they were coming up as volunteers. From Dover and Deal came the information that the new arrangements were ‘much liked,’ and that the greater number of the men were willing to serve.[1297] Commissioner Peter Pett reported from Chatham that he found ‘the seamen in general to be very tractable and complying, and begin to attend to their duties handsomely.’
So far as wages were concerned, the encouragement spoken of related to the increased pay which took effect from 1st Jan. 1653. During the civil war the rate had been 19s a month; in the fleets sent against Rupert it had been raised to 25s for that particular service, and it was now to be 24s for able seamen (‘fit for helm and lead, top and yard’), 19s for ordinary, and 14s 3d for gromets,[1298] and 9s 6d for boys. Each man’s capacity was to be marked on his wages ticket when paid off, the first sign of the present discharge note. As a further inducement, by an order of 29th Jan. 1653, 20 men in first-, 16 in second-, 12 in third-, 8 in fourth-, 6 in fifth-, and 4 in sixth-rates were to be rated as midshipmen, with pay from £1, 10s to £2, 5s a month, according to the class of ship, and from 14th Dec. 1655 no one was to be so rated unless able to undertake an officer’s duties, if necessary.[1299] Of course the increase by the government caused a corresponding rise in merchant seamen’s wages; and at Ipswich, soon afterwards, the latter were so hard to come by as to be obtaining master’s pay.
Soldiers on board Ship.
It was estimated, although the number proved to be insufficient, that 16,000 men would be required in 1653, and many of these were untrained landsmen and boys, almost useless at sea. The remaining thousands needed were drawn from the ranks of the army. It has been suggested that soldiers were sent on board to keep the sailors in subjection, but, beyond the quite adequate explanation of a war demanding a larger number of men than the maritime population had ever before been called upon to supply, there is not the slightest trace of ill-feeling between soldiers and sailors such as would have inevitably occurred had the latter understood it as an attempt at intimidation. The expressed purpose was ‘to perform as far as they are able, all service as seamen, and to be ordered in like capacity as the rest;’ evidently they were expected to help in deck work and where no especial training was requisite. Altogether some 3000 or 4000 soldiers were sent on board the fleet; and it is significant of the different discipline, or the different spirit, animating the army and the Navy, that, although the new comers suffered the same vexations as the seamen in relation to postponed pay and prize money, in addition to the hardships peculiar to the sudden change in situation and duties, they do not appear to have troubled the executive with a single complaint beyond one meek remonstrance about the absence of hammocks.[1300]
Causes of Discontent.
The seamen appear to have decided that their duties began and ended on salt water. Captain Taylor, at Chatham, informed the Admiralty Commissioners that ships might be sent to sea in half the time and at one-third of the cost if the men could only be persuaded to help in their preparation; but ‘not one will help to get out ballast, or take it in, or do almost anything tending towards dispatch.’ Instead of working they haunted the beershops, which have always been the curse of their class. Bourne, the Commissioner at Harwich, had ‘the beginning of an ugly mutiny,’ attributable to drink; but Bourne eventually succeeded in putting down the alehouses at Harwich. At Plymouth vested interests were too strong for Hatsell, the agent there:—
The men come tippling ashore, and then march away in their mad fits.... The abominable strong drink brewed in this town is of more prejudice to the state and to the poor men than the heads of all the brewers and alehouse keepers here are worth.... The government here protest they cannot remedy it, as the brewers have grown so rich they contend with them at law.... This strong drink is from 26s to 28s a hogshead, and stronger than sack, and when a sailor has drunk one bowl of it it makes him half out of his wits.[1301]
Such a letter explains many of the so-called mutinies.
The system of payment, again, exposed the men to every temptation, since a ship might be a year or two at sea and no wages were given or expected until she was ordered in for repairs or laid up, the result being that when money was extraordinarily scarce cruisers were kept unnecessarily in commission to postpone the settling day. Money was sometimes borrowed when a squadron returned to port, and of £32,000 obtained in this manner in 1657, £10,200 was still owing in 1659.[1302] There are numerous expostulations from officers about their long over-due pay, but, read by themselves, these lamentations are sometimes apt to leave a wrong impression. Edward Larkin, for instance, gunner of the Mayflower, petitions in 1655 for two and a half years of his ‘dearly earned wages,’ of which he has only received six months; his wife and family are turned out of doors, his goods seized, and he himself arrested for debt. This, taken alone, appears to be a pathetic indictment of the ways of the administration, but here the corrective is supplied by another paper which is an account of stores embezzled by the said Edward Larkin.