PART V.

CHAPTER I.

THE EARLY ORGANIZATION OF THE NAVY.

The systematic recruiting of men for the naval service dates from 1665 (temp. Louis XIV). Previous to this time, when a fleet was fitted for sea, the ports were closed, and a general press of all the seamen needed took place. This brutal and clumsy method was at the date mentioned set aside by a decree, ordering the enrollment of all sea-faring men, who were divided into three classes; each class being obliged to serve one year at a time in the ships of the fleet; during the other two years the men of the class were free to take service in any other capacity.

Various ordinances from 1670 to 1713 tended to ameliorate the conditions of the service to which men were held. If unemployed, they received half pay; a month's pay was granted when permission was given to leave the navy for the merchant service; families were looked after by the state when their heads were at sea; the men enrolled were entitled to free hospital treatment; pensions for wounds and lengthy service were granted. From this time (1713) dates the establishment of the "Invalides de la Marine," to which a certain amount of the pay of all sea-faring men, a proportion of the prize-money, and a moiety of unclaimed wreckage were devoted. These rules remained almost without change until 1784, when it was decreed that there should be only two classes; one of the married, the other of the unmarried, seamen. Levies were made by beginning at the head of the lists and following it down as occasion demanded until the list was exhausted; then de novo. Under this decree unmarried men were subjected to one-third longer service than the married. After 60 no one was subject to levy.

The general principles hereinafter mentioned were finally established in 1790, and with slight modifications have held until now. The great principle underlying the law is, that every individual owes service to the state either in the army or navy. If he is not subject to enrollment or conscription in the one, he is in the other. For more than two hundred years the French sea-faring population has been subjected to the action of this law, so that now, strange as some of its regulations may seem to ourselves, it does not seem to bear heavily upon them.

PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE FRENCH NAVY.

The men of the fleet are now supplied from the inscription maritime, from voluntary enlistments, or in case these two classes are not numerous enough, from conscription. This last is effected in the same way as that for the army, and falls upon all departments which are touched by the tides; as far as the tide goes the conscription extends. The great mass of men belong to the first of the three classes; in this is inscribed every one who has arrived at eighteen years of age, and who has made two deep-sea voyages either in a public vessel or in a merchant ship, or who has been eighteen months in the coasting trade, or two years in the home fisheries, and who declares himself as wishing to continue a sea-faring life. As there are many advantages belonging to a man of the inscription, many of those who come from the conscription seek to be enrolled in it; a thing which is allowed only after a certain time of actual service, and after the passing of an examination.

All persons connected in any way with the working of steam-machinery afloat are likewise subject to the inscription, and are placed upon the same footing as those before mentioned. Every man so inscribed is called to service when he has completed his twentieth year. He must then present himself to a commissioner of the inscription. If this age is attained while abroad, he is obliged to report himself in the month which follows his return to France. As soon as he is enrolled, he is forwarded to the headquarters of the arrondissement, and takes his place in the division.

The word "division," to be frequently used in the following pages, is the official designation of the depôt at the headquarters or chef-lieu of the arrondissement; here, in barracks fitted to the accommodation of several thousand men, are concentrated all the recruits, of whatever kind, coming from the department or arrondissement in which the divis ion is established. With a permanent cadre of officers, petty officers, and men, amounting for the five divisions to about 1,400 men, the organization is always in perfect condition, and new recruits are at once gotten into shape. The total number of men in these five divisions is usually about 8,000, half of whom are supposed to be available for sea service. To return to the subject of recruiting:

Any sailor who has arrived at the age of eighteen and who desires to advance the period of his service may do so, if on examination the au thorities are willing to receive him as a desirable person; he may thus begin his service two years before the usual time.

The first period of obligatory service is for five years; the first three years of this period are generally passed in actual service; but at any time, and especially during the last two years of this period, leave may be granted (without pay) to go to sea in any capacity. If, however, the man engages to go only into the coasting trade, on short voyages, or in the home fishery, this time of service is counted as to the state. After

this first period, there is another period of two years, in which the inscrit is almost always in this position of "renewable leave." After this, one can no longer be called upon to serve in the fleet unless by special decree, or in case of special armament. All these men who complete three years of service without going on this leave are entitled to a premium of four cents a day.

The following persons are exempt from levy of any kind. The eldest of a family of which both father and mother are dead; a seaman who already has a brother levied; an only son or the elder of two sons, or in default of son or son-in-law, the only grandson, or the eldest of the grandsons of a widow, or of a father blind or entered on his seventieth year. If the eldest son is blind or permanently disabled, the exemption falls to the next younger. If, however, any of the above causes for exemption cease to exist, the men affected by them are required to declare themselves to the commissioner of the inscription, whereupon they are called to serve. Two cents a day are allowed to each child, aged less than ten years, of every sailor of a lower grade than second-maître and who is in actual service after having fulfilled the first period of obligatory service.

Every man of the inscription who announces his intention of quitting the sea is taken off the rolls at the end of the year from the time of his declaration; he is then turned over to the military authorities, and is obliged to accomplish five years of service in the army, less his time of active service in the fleet.

ADVANTAGES OF THE INSCRIPTION.

Sea-faring men so inscribed alone have the right of exercising the profession; they are free of all public service other than that in the navy or in the marine arsenals; they are exempt from having soldiers billeted upon them during the time of their service and for four months afterwards; they are exempt from acting as guardians to minors; they are admitted gratuitously to the hydrographic schools established for the instruction of those desirous of attaining the higher grades of the merchant service, and while on active service they are allowed to travel at one-fourth the usual rates.

CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION TO A COMMAND IN THE MERCHANT

SERVICE.

No one can be admitted unless he is twenty-four years of age on or before the 1st of July of the year of the examination. He must show sixty months of actual sea-service either in a man-of-war or a merchant-man. The certificate of birth, their services, and a certificate of good conduct, attested by the mayor of their place, and visé by the commissioner of the inscription maritime, must be shown. Captains going on long voyages can only be required for service in the capacity of en

seigne de vaisseau (auxiliary). The masters of coasting vessels can only be taken for service in the grade of quartier-maître. Every one of the inscription maritime is entitled, after twenty-five years of sea-faring and after having attained fifty years of age, to a pension, whether he has done any actual service to the state or not.

VOLUNTEERS.

The minimum age at which a volunteer can be taken is eighteen, unless he comes from the boys who have passed through the training ship Austerlitz. The maximum age for young men who have not been in the public service is twenty-four, but for musicians, firemen, carpenters, sailmakers, and calkers, who had five years' service, it is extended to thirty. For the machinists' corps the limits are from eighteen to twentyfive. No one can be enlisted out of France.

OTH

CHAPTER II.

THE MARITIME ARRONDISSEMENTS.

The whole of the French coast is divided into five arrondissements maritimes, each of which is under the command, as far as regards naval affairs, of a vice-admiral, préfet. The first takes in the ports and coasts of the channel from the frontier of Belgium to Cherbourg, inclusive; the second extends from Cherbourg to the river Belon; the third, from the river Belon to La Roche; the fourth, from La Roche to the Spanish frontier; the fifth includes all the coast of France washed by the Mediterranean, with the adjacent islands. Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, and Toulon are the chefs-lieux or headquarters of these arrondissements, respectively.

Under the préfet maritime, who has general command, is the "majorité générale," at the head of which is the "major-general," a rear-admiral. This latter is the executive officer of the arrondissement, and has under him the dock-yards, vessels in ordinary or fitting out, and, in fact, su perintends all the details of the departmental work.

Each arrondissement is divided into two, sometimes three, sous-arrondissements, having secondary ports as their headquarters, or, as the official designation puts it, chefs-lieux. Dunkerque and Le Havre in the first, St. Servan in the second, Nantes in the third, Bordeaux in the fourth, and Marseilles and Bastia in the fifth, are the headquarters of these. The head of the service in each of these is a commissary of high rank, unless there may be unusual cases of construction or fitting out, in which cases the authority of the place is turned over to an "officier de la marine," a phrase corresponding to "line officer," or to an officer of engineers. (The word "engineer," as used in the French service, being somewhat analogous to "engineer" as used in the army; all those whom we designate engineer officers in our own service being termed mécaniciens.) In exceptional cases the "chief of service" in the secondary port may correspond directly with the ministry, otherwise all his correspondence must be with the prefet maritime of his arrondissement.

The sous-arrondissements are divided into quartiers, sous-quartiers, and syndicats. The functionaries charged with the interests of the navy in these have the title of commissioners of the inscription maritime in the first, of administrators in the second, and of syndics in the third. The