At the final examination in each course (theoretical and practical), two certificates are given, as follows:

THEORETICAL COURSE.

First class.-About 60 per cent. of the maximum.

Second class.-About 30 per cent.

PRACTICAL COURSE.

First class.-About 80 per cent.

Second class.-About 60 per cent.

FINAL CERTIFICATES.

First class. First class in both theoretical and practical courses.
Second class.-First class in either course and second in the other.
Third class.-Second class in both courses.

The duties of gunnery officers are largely instructional, and they may perform watch and divisional duty with the other lieutenants of the ship in which they are serving. They receive extra pay according to the certificate given them at their passing examination. They are picked and selected men; and they may be said to be to the Navy what the engineers are to the Army-the scientific corps of the service.

3.-INTERPRETERS.

The examination for interpreters is held at the Royal Naval College, and is open to all officers below the rank of commander, on their own application.

The application states the language or languages chosen by the candidate, the choice being open between French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, and such others as may be designated by the Admiralty. The examination is oral and written, and of a searching character. The branches of the examination and the marks given for each are as follows:

Candidates are not qualified unless they obtain 50 per cent. in each subject, and 583 per cent. of the aggregate; 75 per cent. gives a first class, 58 per cent., a second-class certificate. Rejected candidates are re-examined six months later, but the second examination is always final. The names of officers who pass successfully are noted for employment as interpreters, in flag or senior officers' ships, each of which, on foreign stations, is allowed one officer who has qualified in the languages spoken within the limits of the command. Officers so employed act as interpreters in addition to their regular duties, and receive extra pay according to their certificate.

S. Ex. 51- -2

CHAPTER III.

ORGANIZATION AND EDUCATION OF THE STAFF AND CIVIL CORPS.

1.-ENGINEER SERVICE.

The grades in the Corps of Engineers are :

Chief inspector of machinery,

Inspector of machinery,

Chief engineer,

Engineer,

Assistant engineer.

To these may be added the grade of engineer student, which corresponds in some measure to that of naval cadet.

Vacancies for appointment as engineer student are open to public competition. The candidates must not be more than 16 nor less than 14 years of age, and must be the children of British subjects. They must also satisfy the Admiralty with regard to "respectability, good character, and physical fitness," the last being tested by a medical examination. The mental examination is held in May of each year by the Civil Service Commissioners. To avoid the expense incurred by candidates in traveling to any one place, simultaneous examinations are held in London, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Devonport, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastleon-Tyne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dublin, Belfast, and Cork. This provision is specially important in an examination which is open to unlimited competition, where a candidate can form no possible estimate of his chance of success; and its absence would undoubtedly, as in the case of the examination for cadet engineers in the United States Navy, prevent many excellent candidates from presenting themselves.

The subjects for examination, and the corresponding marks, are as follows:

Candidates who fail to pass in the first three subjects, or in reading aloud, are disqualified, and their other papers are not examined. Those who show a competent knowledge of all the subjects, and who obtain an aggregate of not less than 50 per cent. of the maximum, are classed in one general list in order of merit, and are eligible for appointment as

engineer students in one of the dockyards, according to the number of appointments which it is decided to make in that year. The successful candidates are entered as engineer students before July 1 of each year, and are required to join with their parents in a bond for £300 to enter, if required, into the naval service, as assistant engineers, at the end of their period of training. Parents of engineer students are required to pay £25 a year for each student during the first three years of his training, payable each year in advance. In case of failure of payment, the student is discharged. Board and lodging are, however, provided by the government, and students are required to reside in the dockyard.

The course in the dockyards covers six years, and is mainly devoted to practical training in the workshops and to instruction in iron shipbuilding. The students also attend the dockyard schools, where they have an extensive course in mathematics, and spend a portion of their time in the drawing office. Means are afforded them of acquiring the groundwork of the knowledge required by a naval engineer in regard to the working of marine engines and boilers, including those repairs that can be carried out afloat; the practical use of the instruments used in the engine-room, including the indicator; and, in general, they become acquainted with the duties of a naval engineer. While undergoing this course the students are under the supervision of a captain of the Steam Reserve and a staff of officers; and instruction in ship-building is under the direction of the chief constructor of the dockyard.

Engineer students are examined yearly under the direction of the President of the Naval College. They are also examined at the end of their fourth, fifth, and sixth years of service, by the engineer officers of the Admiralty, as to their practical knowledge of steam machinery. Two prizes are given annually in each dockyard to the students who show the greatest skill as workmen. Practical engineering is an essential subject of examinations, and students have to get 50 per cent. of the maximum in this branch in order to pass; students who fail to get a passing mark are allowed another year, and a re-examination; but those who fail a second time are dropped. Those who pass successfully at the end of the six-year course in the dockyards are admitted to the Naval College at Greenwich, for a theoretical course of one term, as acting assistant engineers. On the completion of this course, they are commissioned as assistant engineers, and are sent to sea.

Two assistant engineers are chosen annually from those who complete the course at Greenwich, to remain for two terms longer, taking a far higher course of scientific instruction. After graduation, they serve for one year at sea, and then become eligible for positions as constructing engineers at the Admiralty and in the dockyards. By this ingenious but very simple device the great body of engineer officers get a sufficient training, while the government has at its disposal in the same corps a few men of the highest scientific attainments, to fill those positions in the service where such attainments are needed.

No assistant engineer who has passed three terms at Greenwich is allowed to leave the service within seven years of the completion of his course, except upon payment of £500 to defray the cost of his education. Test examinations are held for promotion to the grades of engineer and chief engineer.

2.-CONSTRUCTORS.

Though there is no organized corps of constructors in the English Navy, with a line of promotion and relative rank, like the engineers, yet the civil officers employed at the Admiralty and in the dock-yards to superintend the work of construction resemble in some respects such a corps, and perhaps will sometime be organized in such a way. At the head is the Director of Naval Construction, one of the most important officers in this department of the government; with him is associated at the Admiralty a staff of chief constructors, assistant constructors, examiners of dockyard and contract work, engineer inspectors, and draughtsmen. Each dockyard has also its chief constructor and its constructors. These officers, who have hitherto been drawn mainly from graduates of the School of Naval Architecture, will now be supplied by a small body of students, who, beginning their career as dockyard apprentices, are admitted, to the number of three a year, to a three-years' course at Greenwich; this course and the long course for assistant engineers are the highest pursued at the college, and they are of the very first importance to the naval service. To show the simple and admirable method by which these students are obtained, it will be necessary to go with some detail into the appointment and training of dockyard apprentices.

As in the case of engineer students, vacancies for appointments as apprentices at any of the five dockyards are open to public competition. Applications must be sent by May of each year to the superintendents of the dockyards, by whom lists of candidates are kept. Candidates must not be under 14 nor over 15 years of age; must give proof of age, character, &c.; and their physical fitness must be determined by a board of medical officers. Examinations are held simultaneously in June of each year, by the Civil Service Commissioners, at London and at the dockyards. The subjects and marks for the examination are as follows:

Candidates have a preliminary examination in the first four subjects, and, if they fail in any one of them, they are at once rejected. Those