There is another class of nautical schools for destitute and endangered boys, which are aided by the government through the Ragged School Society, and are kept on board of ships, the practical seamanship of which might advantageously be incorporated into the navigation schools. The expense of these ships per day is thus given by Capt. Ryder, in his Report on Navigation Schools in 1858.
I have collected some statistics showing the expense of school ships. The Akbar, a frigate at Liverpool, is a reformatory, and has about a 100 boys. The Venus, also a frigate, is in charge of the Marine Society, and anchored near Woolwich; she is a school ship for destitute lads, and has about 140 boys. In the Akbar, supported, partly by local contributions and partly by the Government grant of one shilling a day for each boy, the expense of the establishment is probably reduced to as low a scale as possible. The Marine Society is a corporation which can afford to be more liberal in its arrangements. The Akbar was fitted out at an expense of 1,800l. but about 1,000l. is considered to be sufficient for a fit out, if the hull is in good repair. The Marine Society’s ships are always fitted out by the Admiralty without charge. The Akbar costs about 250l. a year for repairs, &c.
Estimate of Annual Expense per Boy, deduced from Report.
| Akbar. | Venus. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | £ | s. | ||
| Food, | £10 | 0 | £13 | 10 | |
| Clothes, | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | |
| Management, &c. | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 | |
| 24 | 0 | 30 | 0 | ||
Outline of Aims and Management of Navigation Schools.
In 1858, Captain Alfred P. Ryder, of the Royal Navy, was appointed to inspect the Navigation Schools connected with the Department of Science and Art, and report on their condition and future management. The statements and suggestions of this report harmonize so fully with the conclusions which we have reached respecting the need and mode of establishing and managing this class of schools in our own country, that we can not better express our own views than by making liberal extracts.
The Government is very anxious to raise the tone of the Commercial Marine for the following reasons:—
(a.) Because the Commercial Marine supplies even in time of peace a considerable number of men to the Royal Navy, and because in time of war we should have to rely upon it almost entirely to enable us to man our ships when our reserves were exhausted, which would soon be the case in a naval war.
(b.) Because on the efficiency of our commercial marine depends to a great extent our position as a commercial country, and on our position as the greatest commercial country rests our supremacy among European nations.
(c.) Because to the commercial marine is entrusted every year an immense amount of valuable property. Want of skill, intelligence, and readiness of resource largely increases the yearly loss of this property.