Besides the daily leave there are three regular holidays, or "fête days," as they are called, during the year. The first of these is the Cadets' Regatta, on a Wednesday afternoon before the Easter holidays, when races take place in four-oared gigs, in ten-oared cutters, and in sailing cutters. The competing crews are made up by forms, by studies, by all cadets over five feet, by all cadets under five feet, and by scratch crews. Prizes in money, ranging from 58. to £1, for each boat, are given to the winners. These prizes, amounting to £15 in all, are paid by the ship. The second fête is the Queen's Birthday, when a whole day is given; an excursion is formed by train, steamer, or other conveyance, a lunch is supplied by the mess steward, and expenses are paid by the paymaster under an order from the captain. The third fête is the Athletic Sports, in October. It takes place in the cricket field, and consists of walking and running matches, hurdle races, throwing cricket ball, and jumping. The prizes, amounting to the value of from £10 to £15, are furnished by the paymaster. During the session cadets are granted temporary leave under certain regulations. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons they may visit their friends in the neighborhood, returning by 9 p. m., and on Wednesday, returning an hour earlier. Leave beyond Dartmouth is only granted once a week, and no leave is granted during examinations or in the fortnight after vacations, or at any time to cadets under punishment. All cadets are obliged to land for recreation every day, unless kept on board by the medical officer. Great care is taken that the fourth form cadets shall have their proper share in the boats and games, and shall not be hazed or fagged by the upper forms. An instructing warrant-officer is sent on shore during recreation hours, whose special duty it is to prevent bullying or hazing in any shape. When older cadets are found engaged in it, the offense is considered as of the most serious nature. In considering the good and bad points of the Britannia system, the principal defect is to be found in the course of instruction. It cannot be denied that the course, as indicated by the examination papers, is far in advance of the mental powers of average boys of the age prescribed for cadets. The reason that more do not fail to complete the course is to be found in the low standard of passing, and in the system of cramming, carried out by clever tutors, who are masters in the art of coaching pupils for examinations. In seamanship alone the passing mark is relatively high, but the course of book and model work is one that presents no difficulties and exacts little concentration. For the other studies, no one among the persons acquainted with the system in England seems to pretend that the students come anywhere near the ostensible standard or carry away anything like real knowledge of the subjects embraced in the programme. The statements made by some of the officers and professors of the Royal Naval College, in their evidence before the commis sion of inquiry in 1876–77, are distinct and emphatic on this point. This is the Britannia's defect. But in respect to training other than mental, in all especially that goes to make character, it would be hard to find a better system, or one more judiciously and carefully applied. It is doubtless in view of this that the Britannia has been selected for the training of the two princes, one of whom will eventually be the heir to the throne. The regulations for the government of the school and the daily life of the pupils strike a well-adjusted balance between oversight and independence, restraint and freedom; and the officers upon whom devolves the task of carrying out the discipline, from the captain to the lieutenants, are men qualified to continue to the young cadets the highest influences of the best-ordered homes, and to engraft upon them, by their example and companionship, the practice of a manly self-reliance and a manly self-restraint. CHAPTER VI. SERVICE AT SEA AS MIDSHIPMEN. At each half-yearly examination on board the Britannia, forty boys complete the course, and with it the first stage in their career as naval officers. Soon after they are detached from the training ship, they are ordered to a sea-going ship, still as naval cadets; and it is here that they get their first practical acquaintance with the actual duties of their profession. The Britannia certificates indicate the length of time necessary as naval cadet before passing for midshipman. When this time is completed, an examination is held on board the ship in which the cadet is serving. The general examination is conducted by the captain of the ship, assisted by the next officer; and the naval instructor-two, if possibleexamines in navigation, in presence of the captain or commander. The subjects of the examination, with the relative weight of each, are given in the following table: EXAMINATION FOR RATING AS MIDSHIPMAN. I. Knowledge of former instruction ... II. Ability to work a “day's work" by tables as well as by projection; to find IV. State of sextant and other instruments V. State of log-books Marks. 200 200 100 50 100 VI. Knowledge of steering and managing a boat under oars and sails; knotting and splicing; rigging lower masts and yards; use of the hand and deep-sea lead VII. Knowledge of great gun, rifle, pistol, and cutlass exercises 250 100 1,000 Certificates are granted in three classes for final marks of 900 or over, 750, and 600 respectively. Cadets failing to get 60 per cent. are rejected; those who pass are immediately rated midshipmen. In this grade they remain four years and a half, at the end of which they come up for promotion to sub-lieutenants. The intermediate time is spent in continuous sea-service. In January, 1879, out of 224 midshipmen, there were only 16 that were not attached to a cruising vessel. During the four years and a half of sea-service as midshipmen the "periodical examinations" are held in July of each year, and others, known as the "half-yearly examinations," in December.* Of the two, the July examination is the more important and elaborate. The papers in extra-professional subjects are made out at the Admiralty and sent to the various ships, on board of which the examinations are to take place. * In the new Admiralty Instructions (1879) both examinations are designated "halfyearly examinations." The examination is in three parts: (1) The professional examination in seamanship (1,000),* gunnery (600),* and steam (400).* (2) The Admiralty papers, ten in number,† viz : 1. Arithmetic and algebra. 2. Geometry. 3. Trigonometry, plane and spherical, practical and theoretical. 4. Navigation; practical (I) and theoretical. 5. Navigation; practical (II). 6. Chart drawing. 7. Mechanics and hydrostatics. 8. French. 9. Steam; theoretical. 10. Extra paper of advanced questions. (3) Work done in the course of the previous year, viz: A latitude by meridian altitude of sun. A longitude by sun lunar chronometer. Marks. 5 6 18 18 10 13 10 20 20 30 8 10 10 200 A longitude by star lunar chronometer Error and rate of chronometer (artificial horizon) from two observations taken on different days A variation by amplitude... A variation by altitude azimuth A variation by time azimuth. Total.. The examinations in seamanship, gunnery, and steam are conducted by the officer in command, assisted by the commander or senior lieutenant, gunnery lieutenant, and chief engineer, respectively, or other competent officer. The other examinations are conducted by the naval instructor and navigating officer, or, if there is no naval instructor, by the navigating officer alone. The observations are to be certified, as having been taken and worked by the junior officer, by the naval instructor, or officer acting in that capacity; and they are to be revised and marked by him. Observations may be taken until correct results are obtained; by which means every officer under examination has the opportunity, if he exercises any sort of diligence, of obtaining full marks for his sights. In addition to the observations, log-books are to be written up, examined, and reported on. *Relative weights. The time allowed is three hours for each paper, except 8 and 9, for which three hours are allowed in the aggregate. The examination occupies about two weeks. At its close, the workpapers, numbered but not named, are examined on board the ship by the officers conducting the examination. They are next forwarded to the flagship, where they are examined anew by the naval instructor on board, or by a substitute designated by the commander-in-chief, and finally they go to the Admiralty. Here they are a third time examined by Dr. Hirst, the Director of Studies at Greenwich; and an exhaustive report is made to the Admiralty in regard to them. The two previous reports are expressly ordered to be published. The half-yearly examinations, held in December, comprise papers in arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, and navigation, questions in seamanship and gunnery, and practice in gunnery, and in musket and cutlass exercise. The captain is also required to report on the general ability of his junior officers, specifying their knowledge of steam, and their qualifications in knotting and splicing, in drawing, and in observing; and to say whether they keep a daily and seamanlike reckoning, what instruments they possess, whether they are careful of instruments, whether they can use the mercurial horizon on shore, and what foreign languages they can speak. All these reports and examinations are repeated yearly from the time when a cadet leaves the Britannia until he is promoted to sub-lieutenant. It will be noticed, however, that the examinations are not progressive in their character; the papers are not graduated according to the length of the officer's services or training, but one set of papers is given for all. The object of the examinations is therefore not to test progress, but to serve as a simple check upon indolence, and an incentive to keep up knowledge already acquired. Indeed, it is confessed that midshipmen make no advance in mental acquisition during the long period of sea-service. On the contrary, it has been a very general complaint that the longer the time that had elapsed since they left the Britannia, the less they seemed to know of the subjects they had studied. It was to meet this very complaint that in 1873 the periodical examinations were introduced, with a list of elementary subjects resembling that at the final examination in the Britannia. It is, perhaps, too early to see the result of this experiment, but it is asserted that already acting sub-lieutenants come to Greenwich better prepared, and that this is directly traceable to the periodical examinations. Perhaps it is also due to the introduction of a more systematic arrangement of the detail and duties of naval instructors at sea. Formerly, instructors seem to have been attached to ships in a hap-hazard way, without sufficient reference to the midshipmen on board, so that it often happened that a young officer passed his five and a half years of sea-service without ever seeing one of them. A better arrangement is now in operation, and as much is done as possible to correct the inherent evils of the system of carrying out a course of theoretical training on board of regular cruising ships. |