*The pupils of both these ships serve an apprenticeship to become officers only. The subscriptions are received to enable members to vote in committee, and are used to educate two or three free boys, sons of merchant captains, deceased. Amount received during the year from public vote. Amount received during the year from private subscription, bequests, &c. 20 20 £ 8. d. 5,755 0 0 None. 25 25 8, 000 0 0 None. None. TRAINING-SHIPS FOR OFFICERS. Statement of the time boys remain on board training-ships; also the number who have joined the Royal Navy and merchant service, respectively, and the number drafted on shore from the time the ships were first established to September 1, 1874. ANALYSIS OF THE ABOVE TABLES. Particulars given for the year ending 31st August, 1874. From the above tables, the columns of which are not, however, complete in all cases, it would appear that at present the gross results attained by these 17 trainingships are as follows: TABLE I.-Number of boys sent into the merchant service by each class of ship, and average cost of each boy. *These are not seaman apprentices, but officers. All boys being under detention are sent to sea on license, under the reformatory act. *On referring to the remarks set against the Cumberland, Havannah, and Mars, it will be seen that these ships might be made available for a further increased number. The Arethusa, Clio, Mount Edgecumbe, and Shaftesbury have lately been added to this list; the last named within the past year; the Goliath, burned in 1875, has been replaced by the Exmouth. The Arethusa is under the same society as the Chichester, and is moored at the same point in the Thames; the Clio and Mount Edgecumbe are industrial school ships such as the Formidable. The Shaftesbury, the most important of these new additions, was purchased by the London school board from the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company, and fitted for her present uses at an expense of £42,000; there is attached to her as a tender a small bark intended for practical exercises under way. This school has been so lately organized that no judgment can be formed as yet of its effectiveness. I visited as many of these ships as was possible during my stay in England, and saw the workings of a sample ship of each class. Three of this list are wholly for convicted boys; all, with the exception of the Warspite, Indefatigable, and Shaftesbury, are for none but the poorest classes, and can be regarded as having been primarily established not so much for the benefit of the mercantile marine as for affording an outlet and employment to some of the great pauper class which forms so large a percentage of Great Britain's population. A great number are thus put in a fair way to become useful men, who would otherwise almost inevitably drift into crime and degradation. S. Ex. 52-9 |