There are seven dock-yard schools, held in the respective dock-yards of Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, Devenport, and Pembroke. They were founded in 1840, and are designed for the instruction of the apprentices employed in these establishments. The masters of them were originally foremen of the yard, men of good attainments, who had for the most part received their education in the School of Naval Architecture; but in 1847 a special class of schoolmasters was established, ranking as foremen of the yard. The object of these schools is to advance the education of the young men, since none are admitted as apprentices to become shipwrights until they have passed an examination.
Examinations for admission as apprentices to the dock-yards are held half-yearly, and about one-half are given to the lads who pass the best examinations, and the other half to nominees of the superintendent. These latter, however, are required to come up to a prescribed intellectual standard. The examinations are held under the Civil Service Commissioners, in the following subjects:—1. Dictation exercises to test Hand-writing and Orthography. 2. Reading. 3. Arithmetic. 4. Grammar. 5. English Composition. 6. Geography. 7. Mathematics, (Euclid, first three books, Algebra including Quadratic Equations, Arithmetical and Geometrical Progression.) The master shipwright and the schoolmaster are of opinion that the boys entered by competition are the best, and among the working shipwrights themselves the opinion is unanimous that the system of entering at least one-half by competition ought not to be done away. The effect in inducing parents to keep their children at school in order to fit their sons for examination is very manifest, and the justice of promotion by personal merit is felt and acknowledged by all.
For the first three years all the apprentices are compelled to attend, while those in the fourth year may volunteer to attend with others if they show an aptitude for study, and a disposition to profit by the opportunities afforded them. The fifth-year apprentices may attend after the hours of labor. So long as admission to the Central School of Mathematics and Naval Construction at Portsmouth, and an immediate appointment and regular advancement to the higher offices in the yard, after leaving the latter establishment, stimulated young men to the acquisition of knowledge, the attendance for the fourth year was numerous and regular. But the abolition of the School of Mathematics, and with it the consequent promotion of its graduates, operated very unfavorably both on attendance and habits of private study.
In 1859 the Admiralty adopted a supplementary course of study for such apprentices as have been diligent in their work, exemplary in conduct, and made satisfactory progress in acquiring a knowledge of their trade. This course, extending over two years for three hours a day, embraces Descriptive Geometry, Elementary Mechanics, and Hydrostatics, Logarithms, Calculations of displacement, Stability of ships, &c., Plane Trigonometry, Differential Calculus, with Analytical Geometry, Advanced Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Dynamics. This class of apprentices perform the duty ordinarily devolved on mould loft apprentices, under the superintendence of the draughtsmen in the mould loft. Scholarships of twenty pounds per annum are granted to such members of the class as show superior ability, attainments, and good conduct.
In the year 1859 there were 1,060 pupils in the five Dock-yard Schools, viz.: 461 apprentices, and 599 factory boys, the latter attending mainly in the evening.
The Commissioners pronounce these schools valuable institutions, both to the state and to the individuals, and they have demonstrated, according to the testimony of one of the master shipwrights, that the educated boy makes the superior workman, and the most moral and temperate man. They recommend that a better class of teachers be employed, and that their pay should be increased by half the amount of the scholarship accorded to the most proficient pupils of the advanced class, and that the intellectual part of the examinations for promotion should be conducted by the Civil Service Commissioners. To make this class of schools what they should be, much must be done to improve the education of the laboring classes, outside of the dock-yards.
[5. Greenwich Hospital Schools.]
The Greenwich Hospital School for 200 pupils, the orphans and sons of disabled seamen, and known as the Upper School, was founded in 1715. In 1805 the Royal Naval Asylum (founded in 1798,) consisting of 600 boys and 200 girls, was removed to Greenwich, and in 1821, was united to the former, and was designated the Lower School, making in that year (1821) a total of 1,000 children. In 1828, the number of boys in the Lower School was reduced to 400, and the Upper to 600, one-third of the latter being the sons of commissioned and ward-room officers. In 1841, the girls’ school was abolished, leaving 400 in the Upper, and 400 in the Lower School.
The schools are supported partly by the income of a special endowment (£136,000,) and partly by the general funds of the Hospital. The total expenditure for the two schools in 1859 was £20,234, for an average attendance of 774 boys.
Boys are admitted to the Lower School solely upon the claims of their fathers’ services. Until quite recently admissions to the Upper School were by patronage, but by recent regulations all exclusive privileges of nomination have been discontinued, and all claims for admission into the school (the distinction of Upper and Lower School having been done away,) are decided by a Committee of Selection, according to a scale laid down. The 110 boys found to be best in the last examination of 1860, were constituted the Nautical School, admission to which is now gained by competitive examination among the other boys of the school. The instruction of this school (for a Nautical School had always existed, composed of the two first classes of the Upper School,) is confined to Mathematics and Navigation, and qualifies its recipients to rise in their profession as masters’ assistants in the Royal Navy, and as midshipmen and apprentices in the merchant service. A system of pupil teachers, selected on account of aptitude for teaching, and a willingness to adopt the profession of schoolmaster as their career in life, has been recently introduced.