Frederick Marryat – The Complete Collection

Chapter 51

The American navy list is as follows:--

+=========================+===+=================+===+ ÝCaptains or Commodores Ý 50ÝPassed MidshipmenÝ181Ý +-------------------------+---+-----------------+---+ ÝMasters Commandant Ý 50ÝMidshipmen Ý227Ý +-------------------------+---+-----------------+---+ ÝLieutenants Ý279ÝSailing-Masters Ý 27Ý +-------------------------+---+-----------------+---+ ÝSurgeons Ý 50ÝSail-makers Ý 25Ý +-------------------------+---+-----------------+---+ ÝPassed Assistant SurgeonsÝ 24ÝBoatswains Ý 22Ý +-------------------------+---+-----------------+---+ ÝAssistant Surgeons Ý 33ÝGunners Ý 27Ý +-------------------------+---+-----------------+---+ ÝPursers Ý 45ÝCarpenters Ý 26Ý +-------------------------+---+-----------------+---+ ÝChaplains Ý 9Ý Ý Ý +=========================+===+=================+===+

The pay of these officers is on the following scale. It must be observed, that they do not use the term "half pay;" but when unemployed the officers are either attached to the various dockyards or on leave. I have reduced the sums paid into English money, that they may be better understood by the reader:

+======================================================+===+ ÝSenior captain, on service Ý960Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝOn leave i.e. half-pay Ý730Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝCaptains, squadron service Ý830Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝNavy Yard and other duty, half pay Ý730Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝOff duty, ditto Ý525Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝCommanders on service Ý525Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝNavy-yard and other duty, half pay Ý440Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝOn leave, ditto Ý380Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝLieutenants commanding Ý380Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝNavy-yard and other duty, half pay Ý315Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝWaiting orders, ditto Ý250Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝSurgeons, according to their length of servitude, fromÝ210Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝTo Ý500Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝAnd half pay in proportion Ý Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝAssistant Surgeons, from Ý200Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝTo Ý250Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝChaplains; sea service Ý250Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝOn leave, half pay Ý170Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝPassed midshipmen, duty Ý156Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝWaiting orders, half pay Ý125Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝMidshipmen; sea service Ý 33Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝNavy-yard and other duty, half pay! Ý 72Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝLeave, ditto! Ý 63Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝSailing-masters; ships of the line Ý228Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝOther duty, half pay Ý200Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝLeave, ditto Ý156Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝBoatswains, carpenters, sailmakers, and gunners Ý Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝShips of the line Ý156Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝFrigate Ý125Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝOther duty, half pay Ý105Ý +------------------------------------------------------+---+ ÝOn leave, ditto Ý 75Ý +======================================================+===+

The navy yard at Washington, in the district of Columbia, is situated on the eastern branch of the Potomac, contains thirty-seven acres, and cost 4,000 dollars. In this yard are made all the anchors, cables, blocks, and almost all things requisite for the use of the navy of the United States.

The navy-yard at Portsmouth, near Norfolk in Virginia, is situated on the south branch of Elizabeth river contains sixteen acres, and cost 13,000 dollars.

There is also a navy-yard at Pensacola in Florida, which is merely used for repairing ships on the West India station.

It will be perceived by the above list how very much better all classes in the American service are paid in comparison with those in our service. But let it not be supposed that this liberality is a matter of choice on the part of the American government; on the contrary, it is one of necessity. There never was, nor never will be, anything like liberality under a democratic form of government. The navy is a favourite service, it is true, but the officers of the American navy have not one cent more than they are entitled to, or than they absolutely require. In a country like America, where any one may by industry, in a few years, become an independent, if not a wealthy man, it would be impossible for the government to procure officers if they were not tolerably paid; no parents would permit their children to enter the service unless they were enabled by their allowances to keep up a respectable appearance; and in America everything, to the annuitant or person not making money, but living upon his income, is much dearer than with us. The government, therefore, are obliged to pay them, or young men would not embark in the profession; for it is not in America as it is with us, where every department is filled up, and no room is left for those who would crowd in; so that in the eagerness to obtain respectable employment, emolument becomes a secondary consideration. It may, however, be worth while to put in juxtaposition the half-pay paid to officers of corresponding ranks in the two navies of England and America:

+=====================================================+=======+=======+ ÝOfficers ÝAmericaÝEnglandÝ +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝHalf-pay post-captains, senior, on leave Ý Ý Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ Ýcorresponding to commodore or rear-admiral in EnglandÝ 730Ý 456Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝPost captains off duty - that is duty on shore Ý 730Ý Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝOn leave Ý 525Ý 191Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ Ýcommanders off sea duty Ý 440Ý Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝIn yards and on leave Ý 380Ý 155Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝLieutenants, shore duty Ý 315Ý Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝWaiting orders or on leave Ý 250Ý 90Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝPassed midshipmen, full pay Ý 156Ý 25Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝHalf-pay Ý 125Ý 0Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝMidshipmen, full pay Ý 83Ý 25Ý +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ ÝHalf-pay Ý 63Ý 0Ý +=====================================================+=======+=======+

My object in making the comparison between the two services is not to gratify an invidious feeling. More expensive as living in America certainly is, still the disproportion is such as must create surprise; and if it requires such a sum for an American officer to support himself in a creditable and gentlemanlike manner, what can be expected from the English officer with his miserable pittance, which is totally inadequate to his rank and station! Notwithstanding which, our officers do keep up their appearance as gentlemen, and those who have no half pay are obliged to support themselves. And I point this out, that when Mr Hume and other gentlemen clamour against the expense of our naval force, they may not be ignorant of one fact, which is, that not only on half-pay, but when on active service, a moiety at least of the expenses necessarily incurred by our officers to support themselves according to their rank, to entertain, and to keep their ships in proper order, is, three times out of four, paid out of their own pockets, or those of their relatives; and that is always done without complaint, as long as they are not checked in their legitimate claims to promotion.

In the course of this employment in the Mediterranean, one of our captains was at Palermo. The American commodore was there at the time, and the latter gave most sumptuous balls and entertainments. Being very intimate with each other, our English captain said to him one day, "I cannot imagine how you can afford to give such parties; I only know that I cannot; my year's pay would be all exhausted in a fortnight." "My dear fellow," replied the American commodore, "do you suppose, that I am so foolish as to go to such an expense, or to spend my pay in this manner; I have nothing to do with them except to give them. My purser provides everything, and keeps a regular account, which I sign as correct, and send home to government, which defrays the whole expenses, under the head of conciliation money." I do not mean to say that this is requisite in our service: but still it is not fair to refuse to provide us with paint and other articles, such as leather, etcetera, necessary to fit out our ships; thus, either compelling us to pay for them out of our own pockets, or allowing the vessels under our command to look like anything but men-of-war, and to be styled, very truly, a disgrace to the service. Yet such is the well-known fact. And I am informed that the reason why our admiralty will not permit these necessary stores to be supplied is that, as one of the lords of the admiralty was known to say, "if we do not provide them, the captains most assuredly will , therefore let us save the government the expense."

During my sojourn in the United States I became acquainted with a large portion of the senior officers of the American navy, and I found them gifted, gentleman-like, and liberal. With them I could converse freely upon all points relative to the last war, and always found them ready to admit all that could be expected. The American naval officers certainly form a strong contrast to the majority of their countrymen, and prove, by their enlightened and liberal ideas, how much the Americans, in general, would be improved if they enjoyed the same means of comparison with other countries which the naval officers, by their profession, have obtained. Their partial successes during the late war were often the theme of discourse, which was conducted with candour and frankness on both sides. No unpleasant feeling was ever excited by any argument with them on the subject, whilst the question, raised amongst their "free and enlightened" brother citizens, who knew nothing of the matter, was certain to bring down upon me such a torrent of bombast, falsehood, and ignorance, as required all my philosophy to submit to with apparent indifference. But I must now take my leave of the American navy, and notice their merchant marine.

Before I went to the United States I was aware that a large proportion of our seamen were in their employ. I knew that the whole line of packets, which is very extensive, was manned by British seamen; but it was not until I arrived in the states that I discovered the real state of the case.

During my occasional residence at New York, I was surprised to find myself so constantly called upon by English seamen, who had served under me in the different ships I had commanded since the peace. Every day seven or eight would come, touch their hats, and remind me in what ships, and in what capacity, they had done their duty. I had frequent conversations with them, and soon discovered that their own expression, "We are all here, sir," was strictly true. To the why and the wherefore, the answer was invariably the same. "Eighteen dollars a-month, sir." Some of them, I recollect, told me that they were going down to New Orleans, because the sickly season was coming on; and that during the time the yellow fever raged they always had a great advance of wages, receiving sometimes as much as thirty dollars per month. I did not attempt to dissuade them from their purpose; they were just as right to risk their lives from contagion at thirty dollars a-month, as to stand and be fired at a shilling a day. The circumstance of so many of my own men being in American ships, and their assertion that there were no other sailors than English at New York, induced me to enter very minutely into my investigation, of which the following are the results:--

The United States, correctly speaking, have no common seamen, or seamen bred up as apprentices before the mast. Indeed a little reflection will show how unlikely it is that they ever should have; for who would submit to such a dog's life (as at the best it is), or what parent would consent that his children should wear out an existence of hardship and dependence at sea, when he could so easily render them independent on shore? The same period of time requisite for a man to learn his duty ay an able seaman, and be qualified for the pittance of eighteen dollars per month, would be sufficient to establish a young man as an independent, or even wealthy, land-owner, factor, or merchant. That there are classes in America who do go to sea is certain, and who and what these are I shall hereafter point out; but it may be positively asserted that, unless by escaping from their parents at an early age, and before their education is complete, they become, as it were, lost, there is in the United States of America hardly an instance of a white boy being sent to sea, to be brought up as a foremast man.

It may be here observed that there is a wide difference in the appearance of an English seaman and a portion of those styling themselves American seamen, who are to be seen at Liverpool and other seaports; tall, weedy, narrow-shouldered, slovenly, yet still athletic men, with their knives worn in a sheath outside of their clothes, and not with a lanyard round them, as is the usual custom of English seamen. There is, I grant, a great difference in their appearance, and it arises from the circumstance of those men having been continually in the trade to New Orleans and the South, where they have picked up the buccaneer airs and customs which are still in existence there; but the fact is, that, though altered also by climate, the majority of them were Englishmen born, who served their first apprenticeship in the coasting trade, but left it at an early age for America. They may be considered as a portion of the emigrants to America, having become in feeling, as well as in other respects, bona fide Americans.