out for survey, it is eleven o’clock, the carpenter informs the clerk of the survey, his stores are ready for examination; he tells the carpenter to get the foreman afloat to attend, and by the time he is, one of his clerks shall he there. The carpenter then makes the best of his way to the foreman afloat’s office, and finds no person there[errata 1]; he then is at a loss, and asks the first person he meets, who readily tells him he is gone afloat; perhaps he is on board the ship the stores belong to, to consult the carpenter about the defects. In the afternoon they all go on board, winter time, dark, wet, cold, and hungry, and often times obliged to bear up for the guard-ship, and lie in their wet cloathes all night, the ship’s duty standing fast for want of men and boats; the rigging wants overhauling, provisions, water, beer, coals, &c. alongside the same day, and the commanding officer is under the necessity of sending some of the lighters away loaded, for want of hands to discharge them; the next day, if the weather permits, they are at the dock-yard again; perhaps the carpenter’s stores are surveyed, and by the time the old stores are taken to their respective places, and warrant out from demand, and properly signed by the master shipwright, and clerk of the survey, it is lime to go on board.
“The third day they are at the dock yard, and the warrant signed, the carpenter (a stranger) takes it to the store-houses; perhaps they tell him they are busy, and by the time he gets his plank, &c. they will serve him; that Mr. Richards will deliver the plank, Mr. Thomas the deals, and Mr. Randle the wedges and treenails: he is now at a loss to find either of those persons, as their duly calls them to many parts of the yard, neither he, nor any of his party know them if they meet them; and by this method it takes all the time the ship is refitting for the carpenter to draw his stores, and it is a mere impossibility that he can see the ship’s defects made good; and it may be said, as to the defects, that the ship is refitting without a carpenter, as he scarcely sees her by day-light. Although there are many inconveniencies to the service by the above method of drawing stores, yet there is no blame to be attached to any individual; for the foreman afloat must go to his respective ships, &c.
“I beg leave to propose a plan, that if a carpenter of the navy was appointed to survey the old stores, with the survey clerk, the carpenter to whom the stores belong, would have no more to do than to leave the demand, &c. properly signed, and the captain of the ship to nominate the day, the stores to be ready. There is the former and latter parts of the day lost, and so is every blowing day: I can venture to undertake, with six yard labourers, to complete a 74-gun ship’s stores in a day and a half, and so in proportion for other ships. If this should meet with approbation, the trial will be no expence, and in my humble opinion, the wear and tear of the boats, and their furniture, is more than double what will compensate for the labourers’ wages, and every man will have his dinner warm and comfortable, which was not the case before
“The mode of drawing stores at Plymouth is so very different fromErrata:
- ↑ Correction: there should be amended to there also
