RECOLLECTIONS OF THE NAVY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2136, 8 November 1875, Page 2

RECOLLECTIONS O F THE NAVY.

I.; r,jg o the'ißditOKoi^the Evening Star.) .-. Sib,—An tirade appeared in Tuesday's Star giving an account of the inhuman treatment of two Tahitian sailors in one makes the case more glaring is the shipmaster being a pretended upholder of a Church Mission. Such conduct is a l:ttiodmK<li»grace to any indiridual or«ny country, and which, ought to be enquirqji into, or somebody assume tie role of the member for~" Derby. The passing or nonpassing ,p£ the Merchant Shipping. B*U,: jntt; the isenlatlotf )^%hJs|Hbuse i>f: Commons caused by Mr Pljmsoli's eccentric conductmany of <ybiißfea^rS'will by acquainted with, and A, K. Taylor, Esq., Member fpr Leicester,.." on the, qrjme,returns for tKe $$&s.s earned gieafc^r^ie, and that he showed in the most conclusive manner the necessity for these returns. Anyone? acquainted with?- 'ikVtX^matters " must know how much the happiness and thejhealthgof sailors, are jeppardisad; by the wniiris caprices of the officers generally, and by' the'vagaries of the captam in particular, and that a ship under- a'feot&l ¥fficer : may be "■■ a Republic or a happy paternal Government, ;or in the hands of a tyrannical comjmander,nfch«jsani% ship. mayJbe •!.,* very hell." Mhisfinayia^pear strong language, but there is a case in point in my memory now, of one captain who'had the grim satisfaction of having had every man on his ship' at;6rie time or other flogged, but who was shot down in action, and by one of his "own 'crew, but the name of the assassin was kept a secret. At the same time"I ram free to admit that my-earliest recollections of " Jack Nastifaxje " (a,name by which a man-of-war sailor was always known) are not the most flattering to poor Jack. He was, as a rule, a swaggering, blustering, swearing, drunken,personage, who always when on shore'sought some low. pot-iiouse, and mingled;-r with the lowest and most profane,; but* as some of the well disposed among them explained, they were in such habits; but copying examples se^them by those in command,and whatever of goodness was possessed by rthejn before joining the. ship, was sure* to be thrashed out of them by the oat. In short, the whole discipline in operation at that time only tended to demoralise and to brutalise "Poor Jack," and the reason- wasbecause- of the irresponsible aature r of the commander, which placed every unfortunate sailor at the mercy of; each one immediately above him,, whether petty or; superior officer. Thus,^brutality;and;the"cat were wedded, and its offspring; was ithen as it must always necessarily be, ruffianism of the worst kind. There was a case at the time of which I am writing* of a man-of-war which was lying in Plymouth Sound, which had one of theso irresponsible, tyrannical captains in command, and, if report was true, not a week passed without the use of the cat on .board, consequently the crew was looked upon as a black one, and the: ship jhad earned the unen.viable soubriquet of "afloating hell full of devils." The shortest cut to Devonport by boat from Plymouth Sound compels a passage over a sunken reef of rocks, connecting Drake's Islands with Mount Edgecombe, and to pass this reef in rough w'eathgr is rather dangerous; many a boat has been swamped in the attempt* and many a brave tar and others have been drowned. The captain 'of this ship ' was being; conveyed over this reef, when the boat was upset by .the surf, and the captain and some of the crew were drowned. The accident was seen from the ship's deck, and a beat despatched to the rescue, and some of the boat's crew were thus saved and taken back to the ship ; but so great was the joy at the fate of the captain that- one of the rescued, immediately on reaching the ship, sprang up her side, and almost before he had reached the deck shouted to his mates, "Ihej— old captain is drowned; I saw the — go down. I was close to his carcase and could have saved him if I'd liked, but I let him go to , where he ought to have been long Ago." Andthep captain was at once commissioned to this ship who happened to be a Christian gentleman, and on the day he went on board the crew were drawn up in lines on the quarter deck to receive him." When he stepped on deck the first thing that appeared to attract his notice was a number of canes carried in the hands of the quarter-mas-ter, ship's- corporal, mas ter-at-arms, and, in fact, every petty officer carried a cane to maintain discipline, and was thus made a ruffian modeler. The captain, taking the cane from the hand of the first he reached, asked him " why he carried jt, and what he did with it." The answer was characteristic:? "Tomaintain discipline, y'r, honner." The captain replied, " I shall try and find out a more excellent way ; I am come to rule men not brutes V" and giving his first word of command, he shouted, "all these sticks overboard," and instantly there was a shower of canes over the ship's side, and simultaneously there arose three hearty British cheers, such as British tars only know how to give, and the subsequent history of that ship was that she lost her dreadful name, and was, notwithstanding the same crew was retained, known as one of the happiest and best disciplined ships in the service. Happily a great change has taken place for the belter in the navy since the time of which I write, and in every case, because poor Jack has been brought under proper refining influences, such as are found in Sailors' Homes and the many kindred movements which have been set -on foot on his behalf.—l am, &c, . Cosmopolite. November sth. *