Other Descendents

Of Warrant Officers

This Naval History continues on from: "Magellan"

The Naval History of the Minister of Religion resembles the Surgeon's in many ways, though not in all. His function, like the Doctor's, has been the same throughout, but his establishing himself in the Navy has been even slower than the medical man's.

The Authorities had been decreeing for many centuries that fleets at sea must be accompanied by clergymen, but for centuries they were in very short supply. In Elizabeth's Anglo-Spanish War, it was thought fit to encourage him, and he was given a salary greater than anyone else on board, except the Captain and his Lieutenant.

There was no regular place for him, as there was for the Master or a Boatswain or a Purser. Even when he was on board, he was not an officer; not appointed by "commission" or by "warrant"; he was just "rated," officially for the purpose of pay, along with the ordinary men.

In early Stuart times, he was receiving the ordinary seaman's wage of fourteen shillings a month; and that figure was absurdly, even insultingly, low. In 1626 his position changed.

The same dispensation which decreed that twopence should come out of the seafarer's wages for the cure of his body, also decreed that a further fourpence should be deducted for the cure of his soul.

Where it did go is not quite clear, but the Surgeon and the Chaplain often had to go without. It is suspected that sometimes it went into the Captain's pocket; and on several occasions that of the Keeper of Stores at Deptford; and in all probability, into that of the Treasurer of the Navy himself.

The trouble was that the poor Chaplain had no powerful friends to protect him. Yet in the end he did procure one, and then his position began to improve. Samuel Pepys had a hand in the matter; he arranged that the Chaplain be appointed by the Captain of the ship, after he was approved by the Bishop of London.

Pepys had him appointed by warrant from the Commissioners of the Admiralty, so that he became officially a Warrant Officer; though he continued to receive the same pay as an ordinary seaman, and only sometimes receiving his suppliment.

During the period of the 1670s the Reverand Henry Teonge appeared. Driven to sea by extreme poverty, carrying all his worldy belongings in an old sack, he seems to have made himself very popular with the men and officers alike; including the Captain who he took his meals with.

Since Ned Ward's Sea-Chaplain of 1706, a grotesquely unpleasant fellow who also dined with the Captain, as well as dinking and playing cards with him, we can assume that in some cases, the Parson had left the status of ordinary seaman far behind him.

Magellan

Proof was required

It was as late as 1808, before a Chaplain could draw his pay, then he had to have a certificate from the Captain, a Senior Lieutenant or a Master, stating that he had performed his spiritual duties in a "sober, decent and regular" manner.

During this century his prospects began to rise. The Admiralty, admitted he was no "ordinary seaman" as they had in the eighteenth cenury. Also he did not catch up with the Masters, Pursers and Surgeons, who in 1808, obtained official ward-room rank, although they had been residing there.

The Orders in Council of 1812,are the Chaplains charter. He emerged therefrom equal of his colleagues, he obtained a fixed salary and was also officially to "mess with the Lieutenants." In the great accession to commissioned rank of 1843 he was included.

In modern-warfare, his duties take him into all sorts of military areas forbidden to those in civilian dress, have at last forced him into uniform, with no rank-badges as in other Services. Today he still has no rank.

The Schoolmaster

The last in time, of this "civilian" group comes the "Schoolmaster." This term describes two things-his original duties in the Service and the last original name. Now his name has changed to Instructor Officer, while his duties have become enlarged.

He was much later upon the naval scene than all of those discussed. He dates from the days when the authorities made the discovery that practical knowledge was not enough. All they could pick up in actually sailing or steering a ship, or in working the guns, did not compensate for the absence of theoretical knowledge.

He is first named in Order of Council 1702, and the work then assigned to him was simply to teach navigation; though, very soon, we find him teaching mathematics and writing as well. There is no reason to think there were Schoolmasters on board earlier than this.

The Schoolmaster was at first, a humble member of the ship's company, just as the Chaplain had been in his earlier days. That is if he was there. The old Schoolmaster was a failure, it may be stated that eighteenth century theoretical instruction at sea ended in more or less a complete fiasco.

If the man appointed to implement the scheme was not there, we need look no further to find the cause of the failure. But he was there sometimes in some ships; he failed for two reasons; with the first those responsible for the Schoolmasters appointment, possibly, visulized a man with reasonable educational qualifications.

But they tempted him with low wages the same as a boy Midshipman which was twenty-four shillings a month. So it is hardly surprising that they failed to get the right sort of teacher. The later eighteenth century writers lift the veil occasionally to show us what they did get.

The somewhat pathetic Andrew Macbride, a brilliant mathematician and a highly cultured man, but he was a hopless dipsomaniac. Admiral Byam Martin shows us another-a certified madman who actually tried to murder King Willian IV, in the latter's midship days!

The main reason for the scheme's failure, lay in the obstructive attitude of their other officers, who regarded the Schoolmaster as high-faluting. His rise came in 1816, an Order in Council at last points out that he is still receiving "the pay of the youngest midshipman," and it must be raised.

But he remained classed as a "rating" until 1836, when he was appointed by warrant to Ward-room Warrant Officer, and for the first time was given a uniform. He fell behind again in 1843, when the others came to be appointed by commision-a prize denied him until 1861.

What really accelerated his rise was the Admiralty decision of 1837, to transfer such training to young officers, and the man who was to give the instruction afloat was the Schoolmaster. But not the old half starved variety; now, with improved wages and prospects. In 1840, his name was changed to "Naval Instructor and Schoolmaster," the last two words dropping off two years later.

In 1862, there appeared a new "rating" who looked as though he might be about to reproduce the whole story over again. When scientific officer-training came along in 1837, to take up most of the time, he did the new job while still retaining the older one of looking after the boy-ratings' training.

This is the real point of the clumsy-sounding title "Naval Instructor and Schoolmaster." but in 1962 he handed on the second half of the work to the new Naval Schoolmaster, remaining himself the "schoolie" of the Quarterdeck.

In 1879, he had received the light blue "distinctive colour" on his sleeve, and in 1919, he became an "Instructor Officer." The head of the branch became, in 1941, an Instructor Rear-Admiral.

The Engineer

There remains one more Branch, and that a big and important one-the Engineers. They must not stand with the quartet just described for, unlike them, they are not "Civilian" but "Military." Nor should they go with those "hard-core" Warrant Officers, the Master, Boatswain and Gunner; for unlike them, they are "non-executive."

In an historical survey they must be treated last because, in time, they came last; and they must appear under the big heading of "Warrant Officers" because when they made their appearance, it was as Warrant Officers that they came.

Their function calls for no comment; it is obvious. Nor should the approximate date of their appearance be of doubt. As the gun when introduced on board ship created the naval Gunner, so the engine when imported into a ship as motive-power created the naval Engineer.

The actual date of the first permanent establishment of Engineer Officers was 1837, and they were appointed by Warrant of the Admiralty. It may cause some surprise that, such important officers did not instantly become Commissioned Officers.

It is extraordinary, but true, that a highly placed writer, could maintain, as late as 1893, that, when all is said and done, Engineer Officers are only Engine Drivers!

We must not overlook the fact that, though in 1837, the highest of the new establishments were placed low, and the lowest were placed high; for all those original Engineers, without exception, were Warrant Officers. Though there were no commissioned officers, there were no Ratings either.

They did not have to wait long for their first rise. The senior ones obtained their commissions in 1847. It was then, also, that the highest class of them all, till then known as "First-Class Engineer," assumed the remarkably un-naval sounding title of "Inspector of Machinery Afloat"-a label until 1903.

The last half of the Century saw the steam-engine the undisputed victor over its rival, sail. This meant a vast increase in both the importance and the numbers of Engineer Officers and men. it demanded, a rise in quality no less than in quantity, since the engine itself was changing and developing and becoming ever more complicated.

Power not sail would have been better

The Crimean War, taught men to put the engine in its true perspective. From that moment dates the upward and downward spread of the Branch; and the process went a long way in both directions.

Upwards, in 1900, it made the Engineer-in-Chief the equivalent of a Rear-Admiral, and a Vice-Admiral in 1903. Downwards there was still further to go; not only to Engineer Cadet-the student at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham, founded in 1880,-but right through the Warrant Officer category down to the ratings.

It was in 1868, that the whole body was divided into "professional" and a "mechanical" class, the former being composed of Commissioned and Warrant Officers, the later of artificers, who found avenues of advancement opened for them from Lower Deck to Quarterdeck. The distinctive purple on the arm came in 1863.

The famous Selbourne Scheme of 1903, brought together the Executive and Engineer-of, in older language, "Fighting" and "Making her go." They proposed that in future, to draw all new officers, executive and engineer, from the same pool, or "Common Entry"; to educate them together until their training was over.

And then to let each individual decide which course, executive or engineering, he would pursue; whichever he chose, he was not to be denied from taking command when the time came. All were to be truly "executive." And all were to look alike; so the distictive purple was removed from their sleeves.

The technology was improving fast

This scheme failed because of the increasing demand for Specialization. The apparatus of war, whether direct as in guns and torpedoes, or indirect as turbines and fuel, became more complex and various, it soon became obvious that the gunnery expert, as an example, must spend his whole time on gunnery if he were to keep pace, and the engineer must concentrate exclusively on his engines.

This delemma affected the free choice of young officers who had reached the stage where he had to make his decision. Not unnaturally he chose the quarterdeck. The result was that not enough chose Engineering, so the ranks of that Branch could not be filled from the pool where the choice was free.

The only thing to be done then was to amend the whole "Common Entry" system. It was not abolished. A "Common Entrant" who wanted to choose "Engineering," entry had to be added in order to make up the numbers of those who did.

There is not a gulf between these pairs of officers. There is a staircase-a continuous staircase scaling the centuries which lie between Then and Now. Up the staircase climb a very great number of permanent young officers, each very like (though not identical with) the one behind him.

Yet as they mount the staircase they are gradually changing in their manners, their clothes, their habits, their ways of life and thought; even somtimes, in their names and-in minor respects-their duties.

They form an uninterrupted line-that is the point-so that the man now on the top step, though he bears little if any outward resemblance to the man on the bottom one, yet bears a very striking resemblance to the man immediately behind him.

All the way down it is the same. And the reason why there is nothing in the least remarkable about this is that each man happens to be the natural relation to the man in front of him.

The continuation of this Naval History will be: "Richard Grenville"

Other Descendents Richard Grenville

"Pirates Trilogy" $20