When complaints came in they were not officially pigeon-holed but at once inquired into, and, so far as lay with the Admiralty Committee, the wants relieved. On 17th May 1653, a captain reported that he had no medical extras; on the 19th the Navy Commissioners were ordered to examine into this and remedy it; on 16th June the Generals of the fleet wrote about the badness of the provisions, and on the 20th the Navy Commissioners were directed to take the Victuallers to task. The beer was the most frequent subject of protest, and the difficulty was met by sending water in its place, to the extent of 500 tuns at a time, the men being allowed twopence a day to reconcile them to the change. At least one brewer laid the blame on the prices paid him, and frankly said he could give nothing better for the money. Beer and other provisions, ‘decayed and unfit for use,’ were licensed for export free of customs, perhaps in the hope that such stores would go to Holland. In October 1654 Pride and his colleagues gave notice of their intention to resign their contract, and, after some debate, it was decided to constitute the Victualling a department under the immediate care of the Navy Commissioners, captain Thos. Alderne being made its head, with a salary of £500 a year.[1336] Alderne died 10th April 1657, and was succeeded by three of the Navy Commissioners, majors Robt. Thompson, Neh. Bourne, and Fr. Willoughby, who were thenceforward styled ‘Commissioners of Navy and Victualling,’ and who received an additional £250 a year each for their services.[1337]
Alderne and his successors may or may not have been competent, but they had little chance of doing well under the financial embarrassments amid which they worked; they considered themselves fortunate in being able to continue supplies, of whatever quality, from hand to mouth. In June 1655 bakers and brewers were petitioning the Admiralty Committee, that although in January they had been promised monthly cash payments, not one penny had yet been paid them. The whole of one long despatch of Blake’s[1338] is made up of complaints about the provisions sent out, and censure of the officials at home. We, who have wider knowledge than Blake could then have, now know that the defaults were due to the situation rather than to the men. Orders might be given in London, but the local contractors were either not properly controlled, or, more probably, were defiant, knowing that the Admiralty could hardly go on provisioning the fleets without the credit they gave it. If the seamen protested to those individuals they obtained scant consideration. Some of the Tiger’s crew went ashore at Harwich to show the victualling agent their bread and beer which, their captain agreed, was not fit for food. The agent sent for the baker and brewer, and the former told the men that they were ‘mutinous rogues,’ that it was good enough for their betters, and next time should be worse. In another port the local agent told the purser of the Maidstone, whose men had shown provisions absolutely putrid, and to whom he had promised improvement when they were before him, that the more they complained the worse they should have. This coming to the ears of the men, some of the Maidstone’s crew went ashore and wrecked his house.
As the end of the Commonwealth approached matters became as bad as they could well be. At Plymouth, in January 1660, the victualler reported that he had been obtaining stores hitherto on his own credit, but would do so no longer; that there were six ships in port with starving crews, and another six expected, and that the only way open to him was to turn the men ashore to shift for themselves.[1339] In February the Navy Commissioners warned their chiefs that, unless money was provided within a week, there would be a failure of provisions everywhere, and that having done their utmost by persuasion they must be acquitted of blame. Judging from the number of their letters still existing, the Navy Commissioners must, about this time, have been pressing the Admiralty Committee for money nearly every day, either for wages or stores; it was not their fault if any one remained unpaid. Warrants authorising revictualling were posted freely, but, as captain Heaton wrote from Plymouth, nothing was said about the money, without which they were of no use. Heaton describes graphically the cruel poverty to which some of the townspeople there, who had trusted the government, were reduced:—
One cries, ‘For God’s sake spare me £20 to keep me out of prison;’ another begs for money to buy his family meat to eat, and to-day I saw a poor women beg of Mr Addis ten shillings of her due, to buy her four poor children bread, as for alms. Not long since a baker with sad complaints prevailed with Mr Addis for £23, and was as glad of it as though the money had been a free gift.’[1340]
While this letter was travelling up to London two others, of the same date, were coming from Hull. One, from the captain of the Bryer to the Admiralty Committee, says that he has already written nine times to them, and that his officers are compelled to buy their own food, and his men to forage for themselves on shore; the other, from the victualling agent at Hull, acknowledges the receipt of their warrant to furnish the Bryer and Forester, but, before acting on it, desires to know how he is to be paid. Truly the pious hope of captain Harman, of the Kentish, that Lawson would ‘be an instrument of bringing the victualling to its former splendour,’ was one not likely to lack fulfilment for want of occasion.
Medals and Rewards.
It had long been customary to give medals and chains to distinguished officers, but Parliament, for the first time, extended this form of distinction to the men. The first reference is a somewhat doubtful one, being an order of the House of 15th Nov. 1649, for medals for ‘several mariners’ who had done good service the previous year, but who may possibly have been officers. About the second, however, there is no question. In 1650 captain Wyard, of the Adventure, a hired merchantman, fought a gallant action off Harwich against greatly superior force, and he, his officers, and crew were awarded medals of different values, ranging from the one of £50 intended for himself down to others worth 5s for the men, each ‘with the service against five ships engraved on one side and the arms of the Commonwealth on the other.’[1341] There were at least 20,000 men employed during 1652-4, but the whole number of medals for the war was only 169; of these 79 were small ones, and may have been intended for the seamen, although, as they were all of gold, it is unlikely. Nine of the larger ones were with chains, the smaller weighed 18dwt. 11gr. each, and the total cost was £2060. One alone had ‘the service done in the Triumph expressed on it.’[1342] Blake and Monk had chains worth £300 a piece given them, and Penn one of the value of £100. The government was never unduly liberal in dealing with naval men. Major Fr. White, for bringing the news of Dunbar to London, was given £300; capt. Young, for following the Spanish fleet for a week in 1657, and then seeking Blake with the information which enabled him to destroy it at Santa Cruz, was granted £100.
Seamen’s Clothing.