Written by Warrant Officer P.B. ELLIOTT in 1903

A FASCINATING READ OF THE ROUTINE FOR THESE BOYS 100 YEARS AGO

So important had gunnery become in the Navy that it was found necessary to commission a boys' training-ship for the special purposes of giving lads a good grounding in that important feature of their professional career .

The "Minotaur" was selected for this purpose, and moorings were laid down for her off Portland, the ship being particularly well adapted for accommodating boys owing to her long clear decks and large, airy gunports.

No more than sixteen years ago this fine old vessel was flagship of the Channel Squadron, and in this fact, almost more than anything else, should convey to the reader's intelligence the gigantic strides our Navy has made in the right direction during the last few years.  Those joining the "Minotaur" for their gunnery training are all what are termed first-class boys, having finished their other instructions, including school and seamanship [which are carried out in the second-class training ships], so that on the termination of the gunnery course they are ready for drafting to the "Agincourt", which is a depot for supplying the Fleet with sea-going boys as vacancies occur.

The total time of training from the raw recruit to the finished article is sixteen months, nine of which are spent as a boy second-class, unless he be particularly brilliant at school work and general smartness [which is often the case with Greenwich School boys], in which case, provided he is not below the age of sixteen, he may be rated a first-class boy after only eight months training.

As before stated, during the boy's time in the second-class training-ship, he is initiated into the seamanship side of his profession, and every day has to attend school under the supervision of the Naval Schoolmaster.

When he is not at school the boy is taught to pull an oar and to sail a boat and work a dipping lug.  However, it is not with the earlier part of the recruit's training that this article has to deal, but with the final stage, to include the many different branches of gunnery, which, when finished, leaves the boy a very different being from the raw recruit of eighteen months ago, ready at last to take his place and do his duty with other seamen in whichever ship or whatever station he may be sent to.  As before stated, the actual training is sixteen months, exclusive of holidays and special holidays.  These latter make up the time spent on board to eighteen months.

Excepting those training-ships at Devonport and Portsmouth - the boys in which get their gunnery training at the schools attached to those ports - all His Majesty's training-ships stationed around the United Kingdom discharge their boys to the "Minotaur" to complete their gunnery training.  I say to complete, because during the time in their first ships the boys are taught the rudiments of gunnery.

On board the "Minotaur" everything gives way to gunnery.  It is true that sail drill aloft is carried out on one morning a week before eight o'clock, but this is only with a view to prevent "Jack" losing his nimbleness aloft.

The course of instruction is divided up into six separate and distinct subjects - field exercise, cutlass and pistol, heavy gun [including firing] drill, rifle practice, machine and quick firing gun drill, ammunition - and takes in all thirty-five working days.

The first four subjects mentioned are carried out on shore at the rifle range and drilling ground, and the remainder are taught on board the ship, the instructions being under the control of a lieutenant attached to the "Minotaur", whose duty it is to visit the range at least once every day.

The instructional staff of the ship is a large one, but notwithstanding this fact, when the ship is full with 800 boys as is sometimes the case, and especially in the winter months when the brigs and sloops attached to the ship are lying up at their ports refitting, the inadequacy of the staff is distinctly felt.  However, this happily is not often the case the standard number of boys on board averaging 600.

The instructional part of the training devolves on two lieutenants, eight warrant officers, twenty petty officers instructors, and a gunnery commander in charge of the ship.  The boys have little leisure between the hours of reveille at 4.50am and the pipe "stand by hammocks" at 8pm, but plenty of honest hard work appears to agree with "sailor boys," at least, judging by his healthy complexion and well set-up physique, and there is but scanty opportunity of getting into mischief, a thing most boys are apt to do if allowed much time to themselves.

The usual daily routine is as follows; After lashing up their hammocks and cleaning themselves, the boys are employed on the decks until six o'clock, when they have their breakfast which consists of four ounces of corned pork, eight ounces of soft bread, three-quarters of an ounce of chocolate, and three-quarters of an ounce of sugar.  They then finish off the decks, thoroughly cleaning all the wood and bright work, and at 7.20 the "assembly" is sounded and the boys "told off" to man the many ship's cutters which are lowered, and pulling instruction is carried out under the second lieutenant.  At eight o'clock the boats return to the ships and are hoisted up, two boats being hoisted at the same time, the band meanwhile playing the "double" which allows the boys to run up to the "davit head" smartly.

The range parties proceed to land, taking with them their dinners, which are cooked on shore; while the classes left on board for instruction sweep up the decks for the divisional muster, which takes place at 8.45, followed by prayers read by the ship's chaplain.  Prayers over, the "instructions" bugle is sounded, classes fall in, and away they go to their instructions, which are carried out until 3.30pm, one hour being allowed for dinner at noon.  The range parties then return, and at the same time the instructions cease on board and fire drill is carried out, during which the lieutenant of the day visits the various stations to see everything is correct and in working order.  The "disperse" is sounded, and the boys go to supper.

Clothes have now to be washed and hung upon the clothes-lines to dry, the wet deck dried up, and everything got ready for lowering the boats.  These then go away under sail, with the lieutenant on duty in the sailing pinnace [the largest sailing-boat on board], and sailing instruction is carried out until seven o'clock, when the boats' recall is hoisted, and the boats return back to the ship.  Returning to the ship, the boats are hoisted up, ropes coiled down neatly, and the boys prepare their dinners for the next day.

Now it is very nearly time to "stand by hammocks", and willingly the boys turn in, and soon go to sleep after their hard day's work in the fresh sea air - indeed, so much so, that when the first lieutenant goes his rounds at nine o'clock he finds the decks quiet and peaceful.  Here and there, dotted around, are the nice clean white hammocks; and inside them, if one takes a peep, one sees a little sleeping form, snugly tucked between the blankets, as often as not snoring like a young steam-engine.  What a change from the activity of a couple of hours ago!  Such is the ordinary daily routine on board the "Minotaur".

On Thursday's and Sunday's the boys have "plum duff" with their dinners, and on these auspicious days they are allowed afternoon leave on shore.  Whilst writing the words "plum duff" an amusing incident runs through my mind. The other day I was inspecting the boys dinners.  It was a Thursday, and on arriving at the band-boys' mess I noticed that there were no currants or raisins in the pudding; in fact, the "duff" was deserted in this respect.  I questioned a cook-of-the-mess - a boy of about 4-ft nothing in height, with little beam and enormous eyes; in fact, he was nearly all eyes, as to the reason.  The boy blushingly stammered out that when making the pudding the evening before he had not the strength of mind to resist eating the raisins, as "they looked so nice.  The boy was not allowed to be cook-of-the-mess in the future.

Wednesday forenoon is a great day in the week. The battalion is landed and drawn up on shore by eight o'clock, then, with band playing and flags flying, the boys are marched up to the parade ground, where battalion and company drill is exercised. Once a year an inter-training-ship boat-race comes off for a challenge cup subscribed for between all the ships.  The contest takes place at a different port each year, in order to give crews from each ship in turn a chance of pulling on their own particular water.  The several crews arrive some days previous to the race, and it is the event which creates the greatest excitement of the year.  The "Minotaur" won the race both last year and in 1901, and she is the first ship to have won the race two years in succession, proving that although much time is devoted to gunnery on board her, boat pulling is in no wise allowed to deteriorate.  Quite recently a gunnery lieutenant has been appointed by the Admiralty to supervise the gunnery instruction of the entire training service.  This measure will unquestionably tend to standardise the training, and also introduce an element of competition and emulation which cannot fail to be of great advantage.

And with this brief account - brief solely by reason of little space, as much more might be said upon the matter - I am reluctantly obliged to take my leave, in the sincere hope that my readers may appreciate in its true value the life on board a training-ship, watching with interest the gradual piecing together of that living belt of defence that has grown year by year and bolt by bolt into the saving strength and security of a mighty nation.