CHAPTER III.

ORGANIZATION AND EDUCATION OF THE STAFF AND CIVIL CORPS.

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 char acter, 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 nec essary 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: Arithmetic....

Orthography..

Handwriting..

Grammar

English composition..

Geography....

Euclid (first three books)....

Algebra, including quadratics

Total....

350

100

100

100

100

100

150

150

1150

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

who pass the preliminary test then undergo a competitive examination, and, if they show a competent knowledge of all the subjects, they becomeeligible for appointment as apprentices in the various trades, according to their position on the examination lists, at the various dockyards. They are bound by indenture to serve in this capacity for seven years, at the end of which they receive a certificate of their character and conduct, and the progress they have made in their trade and in the knowledge of the prescribed subjects.

Three from among those who have passed five years at the dockyards are selected annually by competitive examination for study at the Naval College at Greenwich. They are entered as students in naval architecture, and they remain at college three terms, passing the vacation (July 1 to September 30) at one of the dockyards. The course at Greenwich is similar to the long course for selected engineers, and is of a very high professional and scientific character.

On passing the examination at the end of the course, the construction students may be sent to sea for a year,* after which they are appointed to some post for which they are fitted, at first, perhaps, as assistants to the foremen at the dockyards, and later to positions as constructors or draughtsmen, at the yards or the Admiralty.

On their entry into the college, they are required to give a bond for £250 to serve under the Admiralty for seven years after completing their apprenticeship.

Both dockyard apprentices and engineer students have instruction in the dockyard schools, comprising algebra, descriptive geometry, analyti cal geometry, calculus, and mechanics.

Half-yearly examinations are held, the papers for which are sent down by Dr. Hirst, the Director of Studies at Greenwich, and the examinations are supervised by the dockyard chaplains. The dockyard schools are also personally inspected from time to time by Dr. Hirst.

3. CHAPLAINS AND NAVAL INSTRUCTors.

There are, properly speaking, no grades in either of these corps; nor is there any specific examination for an appointment as chaplain. Naval instructors, however, are subjected to strict examinations before ap pointment; and chaplains frequently-in fact, in the majority of casesqualify for this examination, and hold the two positions jointly, and perform the duties of both, throughout their whole career. There are now on the Navy List 96 chaplains and 71 naval instructors, of whom 46 persons hold both positions. Of the 71 naval instructors, 1 is the Director of Education, 30 are attached to the ships bearing midshipmen and naval cadets, 5 are in the training ships for boys, 9 instruct in the Britannia, 6 at the Naval College, 13 are performing duty as chaplains, and the remainder, 7, are unattached.

*This rule is not generally observed, however. Evidence before the Greenwich committee, Q. 1852.

Candidates for appointment as naval instructors must not be under 20 nor over 35 years of age. They must pass a preliminary examination in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, elementary mechanics, Latin, and French; but university graduates, who have passed with a certain distinction, may dispense with all the subjects but French. On passing the examination, candidates are admitted to the Royal Naval College, and remain there one session of nine months, passing an examination at its close.

4.-MEDICAL SERVICE.

Although the education of medical officers in the Royal Navy forms no part of the scheme laid down for other officers, yet as it forms a branch of education in the naval service, it may be proper to give an outline of it here. The grades of medical officers are—

Inspector-general of hospitals and fleets.

Deputy inspector-general of hospitals and fleets.
Fleet-surgeon.

Staff-surgeon.
Surgeon.

Candidates for the medical service must not be under 20 nor over 28 years of age, and must have been licensed to practice under the Medical Act. Their physical fitness is tested in a preliminary examination. In the professional examination the principle of limited competition is introduced. The candidate is first examined in the required subjects, and he may then undergo a voluntary examination in elective subjects, the marks for which are added to those given in the obligatory examination, and assist materially in determining the successful competitor. The required subjects are―

Anatomy and physiology.

Surgery.

Medicine, including therapeutics and diseases of women and children. Chemistry and pharmacy, and a practical knowledge of drugs.

The required examination is partly practical, and includes operations on the dead body, the application of surgical apparatus, and the examination of medical and surgical patients at the bedside.

The voluntary examination includes comparative anatomy, zoölogy, natural philosophy, physical geography, botany with special reference to materia medica, French, and German; and any of the subjects may be selected by the candidate.

After passing this examination, candidates are required to attend the course of practical instruction in the medical school at Netley on1. Hygiene.

2. Clinical and naval and military medicine.

3. Clinical and naval and military surgery.

4. Pathology of diseases and injuries incident to the naval and military service.