number of boys in the school multiplied by the sum of the mean numbers will be the number which will determine the sum of money to be apportioned to that school, and divided among the educational staff. I propose that a sum of money, at the discretion of the Department, be divided once a year among the schools, in the ratio of the numbers obtained as above, and that notice be given to them to that effect at the commencement of each year, naming the total sum. I propose that the sum won by the school should be divided among the educational staff in the following proportions:Head Master 5 shares, but total not to exceed Assistant Masters, each 2 shares, but total not to exceed £30 12 6 - As every progressive step made by the dullest boy who attends the classes tells on the gross number, and through it on the pecuniary gain of the whole staff, the staff will have no temptation to neglect, but on the contrary, every inducement to push on the dull boys, and as proficiency in the lower subjects counts as much as proficiency in the highest the common fault of neglecting the low subjects would evidently diminish very much the profits of the staff, and will therefore be prevented. I consider this sliding scale would be preferable to paying the master a certain sum for every prize won in the school, which is a direct temptation and inducement to him to select from time to time the most promising boys, and put them under pressure to make prize boys of them, neglecting the dull boys of the same standing who can not on that system of reward be productive of any benefit. The collateral advantages of this system. (1.) It becomes the direct personal interest of the staff to retain the boys as long as possible, in order that at each examination, there shall be as many boys as possible well advanced in all the subjects. (2.) That it becomes their direct personal interest, to select from among the boys presenting themselves for entry, those that are most advanced in the elementary subjects, so that their backwardness may diminish the mean numbers as little as possible. (3.) That it becomes their direct personal interest to work the school with as few masters as possible, as thereby their individual gains are larger. (4.) Competition is created among the Navigation schools and their educa tional staffs. The result of each examination should be allowed to be published in the local papers, and the results of the examinations at all the Navigation schools should be made known at each school. (5.) The inspector and the Department can see at a glance whether any Navigation school has neglected any subject. The masters could not evade the rigor of this test by any artifice. (6.) The boys will be induced generally to enter into the spirit of the competition, which will have the best effect. A few only can win the prizes and exhibitions, but all can contribute by their exertions to the comparative success of their school. (7.) The local committee and the neighborhood would enter into the spirit of the struggle. X. A distinctive Dress or Badge is calculated to have a very good effect on the Navigation Schools. The Trinity Board at Hull gives to 80 boys in the Navigation school a neat uniform (blue jacket, blue and white trousers, and blue cap.) This has a capital effect on the boys, gives them an esprit d'ecole, and acts as a restraint on their conduct outside the schools. XI. In Navigation Schools great pains should be taken to ensure punctual attendance on the part of the boys. I beg to suggest that the best form of registers be provided, and that it be made imperative that the register be strictly kept in all the schools, and that the following practice be universal instead of partial, viz., that any boy arriving late is expected to produce a written authority from the master of his school or his parents for his absence. Prizes for good attendance have been found very useful in primary schools. I beg to suggest one prize of 10s., three of 5s., and five of 18. every half-year, or 31. a year in a school of 100 boys. I prefer this to any other plan, because the stimulus to exertion will be greater. Capt. Ryder recommends that the daily record of attendance, proficiency, and conduct, be posted up on the walls of the school every week, month, half-year, and year, as well as the names of all prize boys. Capt. Ryder goes into detail of the estimates of receipts and payments, and makes the education of each boy cost the Department about £2 108. per boy per annum. The whole expense of teaching and clothing at the Hull School averages a little more than £6 per boy per annum Obstacles to the success of Navigation Schools. The principal obstacles in the way of success, in addition to the inefficiency of the schools, the absence of prizes, &c., are three in number. It is my firm belief that if the Department assist liberally the establishment of navigation schools, placing them on a proper footing, and stating that they are schools established for the sole purpose of giving special instruction in scientific subjects to boys intended for the Royal Navy and the Commercial Marine, these three obstacles will gradually vanish. They are,― (I.) A disinclination on the part of shipowners to enter boys. In reply to my inquiries the owners of steamers stated, "We don't want boys, who eat as much as men, are of very little use, and give a great deal of trouble; we want men. Steam having superseded the use of sails to a great extent, boys, who in sailing vessels are invaluable for light work aloft, are not valued in steamers. oar. Many of the sailors, so-called, that we find in steamers differ very little from landsmen, except that they are not sea-sick, they can take the wheel and pull an To all the valuable qualities of a true sailor, which were developed by and almost entirely due to his work aloft, viz., agility, readiness of resource, indifference to all danger that may be escaped by bodily activity, as distinct from that solid courage which all Englishmen possess, the steam sailor can lay slight claim. In the Royal Navy we want the superior class of sailors, and if possible those alone. The partial substitution of steam for sails, while it has injured our own sailors has, in the same way and for the same reason, injured those in the commercial marine, on whose aid and support we may at any time be thrown for a supply of seamen. It is most important, therefore, that every impulse should be given to keep up in the commercial navy both the quantity and quality of the seamen; it is much to be regretted, therefore, that the same disinclination to take boys, although fortunately in a less degree, exists among the shipowners of sailing vessels. Lads enter on board merchant ships, some as apprentices, some as boys. In the employment of the larger shipowners apprenticeships are highly valued.* The proportion of apprentices to tonnage at present is about 1 to 200 tons. Before the repeal of the navigation laws, it was by Act of Parliament 1 to every. 100 tons. The disinclination to enter boys will, I believe, gradually vanish when the attention of the shipowners, as a body, is attracted to the valuable class of boys who will attend the Navigation schools, for they will be induced to reflect, that although at first sight it may appear to be more economical to enter no boys or The value attached to an apprenticeship varies largely with the employs, the port, &c. Mr. Green charges 180 for a four-years' apprenticeship as a midshipman. Large shipowners at Glasgow and elsewhere pay 351. for a similar term to a common apprentice apprentices, or a very few only, and those at very low wages,* yet that by so doing they are contributing indirectly, but yet surely and certainly, to the deterioration of the whole class of seamen, and to the ultimate injury of the shipowning interest. (II.) A disinclination on the part of parents to send their boys to sea. While sailors are, what they frequently are at present, not the most moral or respectable members of society, it is probable and natural that many parents would regret their sons' choice of the sea as a profession. But as sailors and masters improve by the aid of navigation schools, where they will be instructed in their youth, and are received in sailors' homes at every port where their vessels touch, this class of objections will gradually become obsolete; and the profession of the sailor will take its proper place by that of the high skilled mechanic as one of the noblest professions a working man's son can adopt, being also one of the highest paid; 37. and 47. a month besides victuals and medical attendance being the not uncommon emoluments of a merchant seaman. Moreover, the profession of a sailor, if he is a steady man, may be rendered both healthy, improving, and entertaining, and acts most beneficially on the character and temper. Steam and science are rapidly diminishing the longest voyages, and long periods of absence, one of the not unnatural objections of a parent, are becoming the exception instead of the rule. The wish to go to sea is implanted by Providence, doubtless for the wisest purposes, in large numbers of the boys of these islands, frequently in those who have never seen the sea. Those parents, ministers, or schoolmasters who take upon themselves to thwart this natural and laudable wish, going the length, as they frequently do, of treating the boy's desire as an evidence of a vagabond and depraved taste, may be fairly charged with the responsibility of the boy's immoral and depraved life, if such unfortunately is the result of his going to sea, for his naval career is probably commenced by running away from home, and he thus severs all those domestic ties which conduce so much to the preservation of purity of life and manners. This conduct on the part of parents should be deprecated by every one who has the best interests of his country at heart. Every respectable and well conducted boy who desires to go to sea should be aided and assisted to do so, and this course should be systematically adopted throughout the country. The Government, by the support of navigation schools, show their opinion on this subject. It only remains for the schools to be put on a proper and liberal footing, worthy of the Government and of the object which they are intended to serve. When this is done, the profession of the sailor will be rescued in the minds of the lower classes from all the odium which at present surrounds it. (III.) A disinclination on the part of boys to go to sea. This disinclination exists in some ports and not in others; it will decrease wherever it exists when Navigation schools, established on a liberal footing, offering the inducements I have suggested, are placed near the docks in every seaport town of any size or importance. It is advisable that the schools should be so placed that the boys can when out of the school play about among the shipping, witness and long to imitate the evolutions of the sailors aloft, &c. Owing to the low rate of wages referred to, large numbers of apprentices run away every year, after they have served a portion of their time. An attractive evening class will have to be established for the instruction of boys who have to work for their livelihood during the day, and for apprentices. I have proposed that half the fees be given to the educational staff, to insure their taking a direct pecuniary interest in the evening class. In concluding this report, I wish to state, that I am fully impressed with the great benefit that the establishment of good Navigation schools would confer directly on the Royal Navy, the Commercial Marine, and the country; and that I see every reason for believing, that if the schools are placed on a proper footing, the classes will be largely attended, and the schools will answer every purpose for which they are established. The limited number of thirty Navigation schools, which I have suggested, should be forthwith established, although only professing to assist in providing a sufficient supply of educated young men to fill up the vacancies among the masters and mates, yet can not fail to tell with the best effect on the commercial marine generally. For these well-educated lads, who, after leaving the Navigation schools, have to struggle through that large body, the seamen of the commercial marine, before they can win the prizes of their profession, must raise the tone of the class through which they pass. If the thirty schools are established, and after two or three years are evidently working well, it will be worth considering whether more schools of a simpler and less expensive character should not be established to educate a sufficient number of lads fully to supply the vacancies in the seamen class. The alterations I have proposed in the mode of payment of the educational staff are those upon which I desire to lay the most stress; they have had but one object in view, the making it the personal pecuniary interest of each member of the staff to devote himself zealously to those duties, and to no other, which the Department wishes him to perform. In individual cases, we might appeal to higher motives than these, but in dealing with a body of men, however upright and conscientious, I am firmly convinced that there is no safer course than the appealing to the lower motive in aid of the higher. The plan of payment of the teachers of navigation schools generally, presented by Capt. Ryder, was substantially adopted by the Department having charge of this class of schools, in 1860, but was changed to the following Minute in April, 1863, on the recommendation of Capt. Donnelly, for the purpose of restricting the efforts of the teacher, and the industry of the scholars, to the subject of Mathematics, Navigation, Nautical Astronomy, and the Use of Instruments, leaving general elementary studies to be mastered in other schools. AID TO NAVIGATION SCHOOLS AND CLASSES. I. Payments will be made by the Department only on the results of instruction in the following subjects: 1. Mathematics, including such portions of Algebra, Geometry, Mensuration, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, Logarithms, as far as necessary for understanding Navigation and Nautical Astronomy. 2. General Navigation. 3. Nautical Astronomy. 4. Physical Geography. 5. Steam and the Steam Engine. II. The payments will be made to those teachers only who have taken certificates as qualified to teach the above studies. III. Examination for teachers will be held annually in November, in South Kingston, Dublin and Edinburgh. The traveling expenses of candidates if successful will be paid. IV. Examination for students will be held (1.) The adults, seamen and others, at the seaport towns where local Marine Boards are formed and are prepared to undertake them from year to year. (2.) The youths, in inland towns once a year, the examination forming part of the general May Science examination will be held simultaneously all over the kingdom where local committees are formed to conduct them, the examination papers being supplied by the Science and Art Department. V. The successful candidate will be classed as passed with honorable mention, third, second, and first grade certificates. In the three last, a certificate will be given to that effect. The grades of success may be improved at any future examination. VI. The teacher will receive one, two, three, four or five pounds, according to the class of success of his pupils, on the condition that the pupil, if a boy, shall have received forty lessons, at least, from the teacher, and then goes to sea, and if an adult at sea, then he shall have received twenty lessons, at least. VII. Should the pupil have been previously examined and payment made on his account, the twenty or forty lessons, as the case may be, must have been given since that examination, and the payment to the teacher will be the difference between that sum previously paid and the amount found due on the grade then taken. VIII. A local committee must in all cases be formed, and from them the teacher will receive the necessary vouchers. IX. The sum above fixed can only be considered experimental, and may be altered from year to year. COLLEGE OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING. The course of instruction at the Royal College of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at South Kensington was originally in subjects the same as at Portsmouth, but after careful observation of what could be accomplished in connection with practical instruction and observation in the dock-yards, the subjects have been redistributed, and the number of sessions increased. The first year embraces mathematics, practical ship-building (laying off work), chemistry and metals, machinery, steam and its management, physics, drawing, and French. The second year embraces the same subjects, with the addition of heat, and strength of materials. The third year includes the same subjects still further pursued. A fourth year was added to the course in 1868, and the whole scheme in its details has not yet been fully tested. A portion of each year is spent in the dock-yards in practical work, under the superintendence of officers in charge of different departments of the local service. At the close of each session of theoretical study, a rigid examination is instituted, and promotion from class to class, and final graduation with the diploma of Associate or Fellow is awarded on the results. In 1869 there were 30 students (15 engineers and 15 shipwrights) sent by the Admiralty, and receiving their instruction free; and 10 outside or ordinary students (6 engineers and 8 in naval construction), a total of 40 students. |