empike]
ADMIRALTY
ADMINISTRATION
cruisers—the Cornwall, Suffolk, Cumberland, Lancaster, Donegal, and Berwick; one second-class cruiser (an improved Hermes), two sloops, two light-draught gunboats, and two torpedo boats. The programme of 1901-2 included three battleships, six armoured cruisers, two thirdclass cruisers, ten destroyers, five torpedo boats, two sloops, and five submarine boats. Shortly after the estimates were presented the Admiralty Boiler Committee made an interim report, in which the Belleville boiler was condemned, and a trial of other water-tube types recommended. It may be useful to add a note concerning the spending of the money. Within the Controller’s Department, as has been explained, are centred the more important Ex pen dl- Spen(jjng branches of the Admiralty. While the work of designing ships and preparing plans is in progress, the director of stores, the director of dockyards, and other officials of that department concerned are making preparation for the work. The necessary stores, comprising almost every imaginable class of materials, are brought together, and the director of stores is specially charged to obtain accurate information in regard to requirements. He is not, however, a purchasing officer, that work being undertaken by the director of navy contracts, who is concerned with the whole business of supply, except in regard to hulls and machinery of ships built by contract, and the special requirements of the director of works. At the same time, the civil departments of the Admiralty being held responsible for the administration of the votes they compile, it is their duty to watch the outlay of money, and to see that it is well expended, the accountantgeneral being directed to assist them in this work. The system is closely jointed and well administered, but it possesses a very centralized character, which interferes to some extent with flexible working, and with the progress of necessary repairs, especially in foreign yards. In so far as ships given out to contract are concerned (and the same is the case in regard to propelling machinery built by contract), the director of navy contracts plays no part, the professional business being conducted through the Controller of the navy, who is advised thereon by the director of naval construction and the engineer-in-chief. The work conducted in private establishments is closely watched by the Admiralty officials, and is thoroughly tested, but, mutatis mutandis, the system in regard to contract-built ships is practically the same as that which prevails in the dockyards. V. Personnel.—No work of the Admiralty is more important than the supply of trained officers and men to the fleet. The provision of these in adequate number, the organization of the training service, the constitution of the reserve, and many other questions connected with the pay, promotion, and retirement of officers and men impose a great duty upon the Admiralty Board. The work mainly lies in the province of the second Naval Lord, who has charge of the work of manning the fleet, and educating and training the personnel, together with the affairs of the royal marine light infantry and the royal marine artillery. Within his purview are all training establishments, including those for engineer students, the naval colleges, and the royal marine schools. The First Lord of the Admiralty has special charge of promotions and removals of naval and marine officers to or from the service, and of the appointments of flag officers, captains, all officers to command ships, commanders to the coastguard, superior officers to the medical service, staff appointments to the royal marines, and civil appointments and promotions, except where these fall under the Controller and the Civil Lord. The first Naval Lord appoints commanders (second in command), and the
73
second Naval Lord navigating officers and lieutenants, sublieutenants, midshipmen, cadets, engineer officers, and others, while the appointment of chaplains, naval instructors, junior medical officers, paymasters, and other officers of the accountant branch falls to the junior Naval Lord. The increase of the materiel of the fleet has led to large additions being made to the numbers of officers and men, and the conditions of service have been in some ways modified. The general regulations are published in the Quarterly Navy List, so that it is unnecessary to refer to them here. The great scarcity of lieutenants caused the Admiralty, in the year 1895, to institute a supplementary list of naval lieutenants and sub-lieutenants, who were appointed under special conditions from the mercantile marine, and are not promoted beyond the rank of lieutenant unless for distinguished service, but are retired at forty-five years of age. Changes have also been introduced in the conditions and service of the royal naval reserve, and it may be said that the system of training is still under trial and that it is not yet definitely established. The number of officers, seamen, boys, coastguard, and royal marines borne on the books of His Majesty’s ships and at the royal marine divisions are fixed yearly by vote A of the navy estimates. The following table shows the annual increase in the number in these ranks and ratings during the ten years 1890-1900 :— Total Number Increase Year. during borne at end Year. of Year. 189067,748 1764 189171,423 3675 189274,420 2997 189377,976 3556 5141 189483,117 189588,674 5557 5702 94,376 18961897100,052 5676 1898106,002 5950 1899111,019 5017 The total force voted for the year 1900-1 was 114,880, being an addition of 220 officers, 3050 petty officers and seamen, 150 engine-room staff, 200 miscellaneous ratings, 300 marines, and 320 apprentices (artisan ratings), making in all an addition of 4240. A further increase of 3745 was authorized in the next year. The number of officers is being increased under a scheme extended gradually over a certain number of years, and it was announced in 1899 that the flag officers would be increased from 68 to 80, the captains from 208 to 245, the commanders from 304 to 360, and the lieutenants from 1150 to 1550. Increases were also instructed to be made in the other branches of the service. The additions made to the materiel of the navy had outrun the provision made for the supply of officers, and the list of supplementary lieutenants was increased to tide over the interval which would elapse before a sufficient supply of executive officers trained up in the service could be produced in the ordinary course, it being easier to build ships than to train those required to man them. Except for the list of supplementary lieutenants and sub-lieutenants which has been referred to, all executive officers of the navy enter as cadets upon the nomination of the First Lord of the Admiralty (who also nominates assistant clerks for the accountant branch) and are trained in the naval establishment now located in the Britannia at Dartmouth, which is about to be transferred to a building ashore. A few nominations are given to the sons of colonial gentlemen and of naval and military officers for special reasons of service, and in particular cases a few youths are entered from the Worcester and Conway training-ships of the mercantile marine. Latterly, a new arrangement as regards the entry and training of cadets S. I.— io
