4. Independent firing; quick and broadside firing; shifting, breechings, trucks, and trigger lines, bow and quarter firing; and securing a lower deck gun.
On leaving a Training Ship about half the boys go through a course of Practical Gunnery, to enable them to aim and accustom them to firing shot and shell, on board of a ship specially fitted up for their use.
In few schools of any grade is the occupation of the pupils more incessant, but the routine is so diversified, that the lads are in high health and spirits during their entire training.
[SCHOOL SHIPS FOR DESTITUTE CHILDREN IN SEAPORTS]
In 1856 the frigate Akbar was handed over by the Admiralty to a Board of Managers in Liverpool, and in 1858, the frigate Venus, to the Marine Society in London, to be fitted up and occupied by a class of boys, who were found hanging about the docks, and were fit candidates for police and reformatory treatment. In these ships successive classes of lads—in the former an average of 70, and in the latter, of 140, each year have received the ordinary elementary school instruction, and in addition, have been trained to the ordinary routine of a seaman’s life. In due time a majority of them, rescued from bad influences, and lifted on to a higher plane of intelligence, have been put on board of merchant vessels, to work their way up into positions of good pay and responsibility.
In 1870 the Admiralty turned over to a Board of Management (charged by the Poor Law with providing schooling for destitute and pauper children) in the Forest Gate District, composed of three of the eastern parishes of London, a fine wooden man-of-war, the Goliath, of 84 guns, rendered powerless for the service, by the progress of modern naval construction. The ship was fitted up as a nautical and industrial school, at a cost trifling compared with that of a new building, site, and equipment for the same number, and, with its complement of 400 lads born to poverty and almost predestined to vice and crime, anchored off Gravesend. Fortunate in its superintendent, Captain Bourchier, of the Royal Navy, and his staff of industrial and book instruction, these lads (increased during the year to 450) have been subjected to a daily nautical drill and school course, which give great satisfaction.
From an official statement published in the London Times (Oct. 11, 1871), it appears that out of 449 boys received on board since the Goliath took up her station, 16 have gone into the Royal Navy, and in a few weeks 40 others will be in readiness; 13 have gone to sea in merchant ships, and more berths are promised shortly; 25 have found desirable situations on shore or been discharged to their friends. Besides the regular elementary school studies in which all engage for four hours, and seamanship which is taught to all, 115 are under instruction in the bands, of which there are four on board, in addition to a drum and fife band. There are 160 treble and second singers; and concerts, vocal and instrumental, are given by the young performers. For young musicians there is a demand in the army, and a list of 30 adepts have been sent to the Horse Guards. There is a swimming bath attached, and 185 have been taught to swim. Out of a fund raised by subscription, prizes are given, the first distribution of which is thus described:
The prizes, of which about 100 were given away—and Captain Bourchier said he wished heartily that he had a prize for every boy, for “there was not one black sheep among them”—were awarded according to a system calculated to stimulate the better feelings as well as the intelligence of the boys. Thus, while there were prizes for seamanship, for smartness aloft, for the best sail-makers, best coxswains of boats, best tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, painters, buglers, &c., there were also prizes for the best swimmers, the best captain of messes, for the boys who kept their clothes or band instruments in the best order, one for the boy who had attended most carefully to the sick, and two for the most popular boys in the ship. The latter prizes had been awarded according to a species of informal and unconscious plébiscite on the part of the boys themselves. There were five “popular boys” nominated; for one of these—a small, dark, round-faced urchin—every boy in the ship voted; the next on the list had a little over 50 per cent. of the crew in his favor; and if names be any guide to nationality both these boys ought to hail from the sister island. To five of the boys silver medals were given for special good conduct, and these enjoyed the distinction of standing in the front row and having their honors fastened on by Miss Bourchier, daughter of the Captain Superintendent, the general distribution of books being made by Mr. Brushfield, chairman of the Board of Managers. As the little fellows came up to the table it was impossible not to remark what a difference existed between recent arrivals in the school and those who had been a few months or even a few weeks on board the Goliath. The school records show that, though commonly feeble and stunted in growth when they embark, numbers of them have since grown two and three inches in height, and as much as two inches round the chest. At Gravesend mariners know that the salt water mingles with the fresh; the process is silent, but not the less real. And in the Goliath, as in the tide itself, a change may be traced, working quietly but just as surely, in the physique and characters of the boys on board. The constraint, depression, and helplessness lurking in all pauper boys lifts and melts away by little and little. In its place come the frankness, courage, and love of adventure natural to English boys who live near the sea. Every thing on board encourages a cheerful, self-reliant tone: the music, good food, good air, alternate hours of work and play, care, and strict discipline—these are the elements in the midst of which they live. The boys make every thing for themselves. Even the neat Hussar uniform in which band No. 1 plays on the quarter-deck has been cut out and made on board. The form of punishment held in most awe is to be forbidden to row in the boats. Moreover, they one and all feel that they have a future. Taking into account the advantages, physical and educational, which the boys receive, it would not be placing too high a value upon the training in the Goliath to estimate it in the case of each boy at 50l. a year. Yet the actual charge made to other unions is 6s. 6d. a week.
The editorial notice of this enterprise concludes as follows: