The Training Of A Lad For The British Navy [1905].
For the moment, at least, you can still get gems from 2nd-hand bookshops for a few dollars ('tho for how long ..?), and I've always had a weakness for Almanacs, Annuals and Yearbooks; they give you a glimpse into what life was like 'back then' that a dozen TV docos can't equal. 
The following article is from Doidge’s Western Counties Illustrated Annual for 1905. If we go back in time 100 years, long before the coming of TV or computers (even household radios lay in the future) books and magazines were a vital source of entertainment. Because of this (and there was nothing comparable in home entertainment, unless you had a piano at home and a big enough family for a singalong) there was enormous variety in the material you could buy, or borrow from your local library.
Then, as now, infotainment had a major place. Articles, and complete books, on a huge range of topics sought to entertain the reader whilst informing him. And in those very literate times, most older children read the same – or similar – material to that of the adults in the household. Some infotainment doubled as propaganda, or thinly-disguised marketing or recruiting drives, and this piece certainly falls into that category.
Probably written by a staff writer at the suggestion of the Navy, it purports to inform the reader of what the young seaman-recruit undergoes when he starts his training, but the appeals to ‘patriotic spirit’ and the references to King and Empire and the career that the Navy offered, are scattered liberally throughout. In a word, its recruitment marketing.
This was written shortly after sail-training had been phased out, and this is mentioned in passing – with an accent on how ‘modern’ the Navy has become. One wonders how many ‘lads’ took the bounty after reading this; certainly the writer makes even salt-horse sound palatable!
A couple of observations on the photos: the 5th picture, 'Landing party..', shows a glimpse of the stern of another vessel on the left, which I suspect is HMS President; any info (or even guesses) would be welcome. The same photo - if looked at closely - shows just how huge those pulling boats were; its easier to understand how they would have mounted a carronade or even a long gun, for amphibious assaults or cutting out an enemy ship. And one of the last photos, showing the messes' cooks cllecting the meat for their messes, reminds me strongly of that scene in 'Battleship Potemkin' where the Russian sailors object to their maggoty meat. One of the first pictures, of a recruiting PO talking to two country lads, went on to become a famous and much-reproduced image, and the very last, showing washing-day, shows graphically just how huge was the deck of a line-of-battle ship.
Note: as always, if you want to see a picture at a larger scale, click on it; or better still, right-click and select 'Open in another window' - then you can (at the bottom of the screen) switch between the article and the image.
The Training Of A Lad For The British Navy
"Come and join the Navy, boys, and be a merry tar;
There’s ups and downs in every life, no matter where you are;
It's a happy life to lead, my boys, and when finished with the sea,
You’ll be a jolly pensioner in the King's Navee."
By W. M. CROCKETT.
The dweller in an inland town far removed from the sea coast, has no doubt often wondered on seeing some smart sailor lad on leave, where the "raw material" is manufactured, and how the boy, possibly from the plough tail, is moulded into the alert and well-disciplined seaman gunner.
Not far from the point where, as Captain Marryatt in his introduction to the Three Cutters remarks the tide runs "devilish strong" - at the narrowest part of the beautiful harbour of Hamoaze, and which has been called "Devil's Point", from the legend that it was here that his Satanic Majesty jumped across the Tamar on his way from Devonshire to Cornwall - is the chief training establishment of the British Navy, the training ship Impregnable, originally the Howe, re-named Bulwark, and once more re-christened to her present name.
From here the Inspecting Captain exercises a general supervision over the other training ships of the Navy, of which there are several, the Ganges at Harwich, Boscawen at Portland, St. Vincent at Portsmouth, Lion at Devonport, Caledonia at Queensferry, and Emerald, late the Black Prince, at Queenstown. Over all of these the Inspecting Captain has supervision, and it is part of his duty to visit them in turn to see that each is efficient for the important duty of training the future “Handyman”.
And from where do the boys who are to be trained on these ships come? and from where are they recruited? for the organization which gathers in some 3,000 boys every year must be great and widespread indeed to attract so many of the flower of the boyhood of Britain. It will be our task to consider this organization first.
Stations consisting of some seven or eight recruiters, all petty officer pensioners, selected for character and specially adapted for the duty, each station commanded by an honorary lieutenant (retired chief warrant officer), are established at Devonport, Portsmouth and Chatham, each division having a head-quarter office, where boys desirous of joining the service may be sure of meeting a recruiter, who will afford all information to those who desire to serve King and Country. The recruiters, who are equipped with bicycles, visit all the country towns around their districts at regular times, where they may be interviewed by those desirous of joining, and in other towns removed from these recruiting bases sergeants of marines are empowered to enlist likely boys. Sea ports are also visited by the cruisers Northampton, Calliope and Curacoa.
But there is not much necessity for advertising the Navy in this sea girt isle, and more especially around the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, for successive generations of sailor men have brought up their sons to look upon the sea service as the business of their lives, to be commenced as soon as they are qualified by age, and when the time for "joining up” arrives the West Country boy looks forward to belonging to the same service and joining the same ship that father or Uncle Joe served on when he joined years ago; indeed in some districts in Devon and Cornwall successive generations of the same family have belonged to the Navy.
In country districts it is the custom for the recruiting staff to fix up a recruiting station temporarily in the open air, where boys may meet them, and be tested in a rough and ready fashion as to their fitness for service. Here in our illustration we see one of these temporary stations, where beneath the Union Jack displayed from the cliff the embryo tars are tested as to teeth, vision and height, under the supervision of Lieut. George South, who joined as a boy many years ago, going through the mill as all the others have to do (only perhaps under much harder conditions than obtains now-a-day), and who is now an officer - an object lesson for every “ novice" in the training service.
It is a lovely morning, and the blue of the West Country sky is intensified by the blue of the waters of the lovely Tamar. From where we stand at Mutton Cove the heights of Maker and the woods of Mount Edgcumbe are looking their best in the summer sunlight. A cutter manned by a dozen brown-faced healthy-looking boys has just pulled over from the Cornish side and made fast to the quay, as half-a-dozen or so of youngsters in civilian attire, in charge of a petty officer who sports three medals and the Khedive's star, regard the cutter's crew curiously, and descending the steps, they seat themselves aft and are rapidly pulled over to the picturesque old line of battleship which is moored off Cremyll, and which is the home of some hundreds of boys such as these who have just come to join - truly a lovely spot for the training place of a great portion of Britain's future sailors!
The tremendous sides of the grand old ship, her figure-head the carved presentiment of Lord Howe, her stern with its tier upon tier of galleries, and above all the masts, now no longer, alas! used for the picturesque sail drill, all interest us as we approach. " Bows! Way enough!" cries the cox'on, the smart lads in the bow toss and boat their oars and hold on with a boathook, we get out on the gangway or landing stage, and ascending the ladder gain access to the ship through the entry port. Our youngsters are then mustered in line with some others who are already on board, and after a brief scrutiny from the master-at-arms are taken off for medical examination, for none may join the service of their King unless sound in wind and limb, of good eyesight, able to pass the educational test in the three R’s, and in every way fit to fight his battles and uphold the honor of his country's flag. Nor may any but good specimens of the country's boyhood enter here, for each one must have the consent of his parents or guardians to join for twelve years, and be vouched for as to character by a clergyman, magistrate, or tradesman of standing.
If successful in passing the very severe medical examination, the candidate is promptly taken on board H.M.S. Circe, which lays some few hundred yards away from the Impregnable. The Circe is the receiving ship, where for a fortnight the boy remains, being fitted with clothing and retained under observation until such time as the chance of an infectious disease having been brought with him shall have disappeared. He is during this time taught to swim, commences gymnastics, slings his hammock, stow his clothes in his bag (quite a science in itself), and here he learns generally what a ship is like. On rejoining the parent ship he is placed in a division of either starboard or port watch, and he has handed to him a ticket with his ship's number, the number of his mess, hammock, name of petty officer instructor, and some information for his general guidance.
His life on board ship may now be said to commence, and full of work it is without a doubt, with his class, twenty all told, who are all allotted to one instructor, and who mess together and are practically one happy family for the rest of their training service. He turns out at five a.m., lashes up his hammock, stows it away in the nettings (a space in the bulwarks on the upper deck), washes himself (having a bath twice a week, for on board a man of war “cleanliness is next to Godliness"), has a cup of cocoa as a “stand by," and falls in for cleaning ship and scrubbing decks. This brings him to seven o'clock, when about three-quarters of an hour's gymnastics and boat pulling gives him a splendid appetite for his breakfast, which comes at a quarter past eight. This consists of coffee, and bread with butter or pork on alternate days. Falling in half-an-hour after breakfast for inspection, church service is held under the chaplain, and the different classes are marched off for instruction.
Members of all religious denominations are accepted in the Navy - Churchmen, Roman Catholics, Dissenters and Jews. The King accepts any of his physically fit boys as sailors if they are of good character and have their parent's or guardian's consent. Not many Jews as a fact join, but they are accepted when they do come, if "fit," and with them as with Catholics or Dissenters, special arrangements are made for worship, and in the case of Hebrews for their feasts and diet - and thereby hangs a rather funny story.
A young Jew boy who joined H.M.S. Impregnable went home for his first leave. It is to be supposed that his parents felt as much pride in the improved appearance of their son as the average Gentile father or mother does. The boy was full of praise for the new life, its amusements, work, and above all, boy like, the “grub," the pork being especially good! The most indignant letters were at once sent to the ship to know why their son had been fed on the flesh of the unclean beast, and on his return from leave the boy was taken before the commander to explain if any attempt had been made by any of his Gentile messmates to induce him to eat the forbidden meat against his will. "Oh no, sir," declared the lad. "Well then, why did you take it?" asked the officer. "Please sir, it was so nice, and I liked it," was the reply. All who have tasted the ship's pork at dinner-time will quite understand the greatness of the temptation.
The ordinary routine course of a second-class boy on board the Impregnable or Lion (and this applies to all the other training ships) is seven months. During this time he attends school on board under properly qualified and certificated school- masters. A large and well-equipped schoolroom is fitted on each training ship, where every boy continues his shore scholastic training, and has every opportunity of adding to it. There is even an advanced class which goes as far as trigonometry. His other subjects consist of seamanship, gunnery, and gymnastics, an equal amount of each being taught.
The Seamanship taught as a second-class boy embraces all rudimentary subjects. The Gunnery consists of squad drill without arms. The Gymnastic course is derived from the Swedish system, and chiefly consists of what is known as free gymnastics, i.e. without apparatus; it is worked on a system of progression, and is continued on all boys and young seamen in our fleets and squadrons.
Tea is served at about half-past three to four o'clock in the summer, after which the boys land for cricket, football, or a general romp about the recreation field on the Cremyll or Cornish side of the Hamoaze. In the winter they have tea on their return to the ship at about five to half-past five. This consists of tea, bread, and different kinds of jam. Supper at seven o'clock consists of tea, bread and butter, and on alternate evenings dripping is served out; the time from the hammocks being got out of the nettings and slung up to the beams ready for use (8 p.m.), being devoted to doing odd jobs writing letters, reading, &c. At 9 p.m. all turn-in. If a busy day, it cannot be called a monotonous one.
The drill and recreation grounds of both ships at Devonport are magnificent. The one belonging to H.M.S. Impregnable is leased from the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, and consists of several acres of most beautifully situated ground. There is room for the combined battalions of the Impregnable and Lion to march past for inspection, and it, as well as the equally delightful play and drill field of the Lion at Torpoint, is equipped with an up-to-date gymnasium, cricket, football and hockey appliances, and it is a pleasing sight to see the happy faces of the sturdy youngsters amusing themselves in such pleasant surroundings. Half a-dozen lads are doing the “ladder trick," a merry party are going around on the giant stride, a burly schoolmaster is coaching up an eleven, and the youthful Grace is making up his century in spite of the bowling of the nautical Mold; and here some are indulging in dolce far niente on the grass beneath the shadow of the Obelisk, which commands such lovely views of Hamoaze on the one hand and Drake’s Island and the Sound on the other. Neither is commerce neglected, as some of the youthful tars are patronising some of the traders who take advantage of the public right of way near, the landing place to supply gingerbeer, sweets and buns to the boys. Happy lads!
The seven months training as second-class boy is now past, and thanks to the care and attention of the instructor (an individual who is scarcely sufficiently recognised, considering that the character of the future sailor is largely dependent upon his labours), he is now able to pass for firstclass boy, a rank which brings him several privileges, not the least of which is perhaps that of an increase of pocket money - he now has a shilling a week to spend.
On joining the Navy he is served out with a kit of clothing free, and on being advanced to first-class boy he receives an additional supply, which brings his free outfit up to a total value of £10, a supply of clothing which will compare very favourably with that of any ordinary boy in civilian life, and is indeed better than that of the sons of most of the artizan class.
To learn to swim is a part of the training of all our lads. To all of those who go "down to the sea in ships" the ability to sustain themselves for a time in the water seems an absolute necessity, and has been recognised as such in the Royal Navy, where a very large proportion of the boy recruits are quite ignorant of the art. A man may slip overboard, and unable to sustain himself for a few minutes in the water until a boat is lowered or a lifebuoy reached, will quickly drown, and a non-swimmer is of course quite unable to render assistance to another in distress, and may see a shipmate drown before his eyes without being able to lend a helping hand. It is a strange fact that in our great Merchant Service over fifty per cent. of our seamen are unable to swim. This is not so in the Royal Navy, where no boy is deemed efficient for drafting for sea unless he has passed the course laid down by the Admiralty.
Petty officers under the direction of a warrant officer who are qualified as teachers have the boys out on the "bathing trays," which are really floating baths moored near the ship. They are filled with sea water to a depth in which the smallest boy on the ship can stand. The boys are encouraged by thd instructors and the example of their more expert shipmates and where necessary are supported in the water by webbing and shown how to “strike out". The baths are some fifty feet in length, and the youngsters soon become proficient and qualify for their "passing out course." This consists of being able to swim a course in the open water by the ship's side of some sixty yards. During the swim the boys are accompanied by a boat which follows at a distance of only a few feet, and a strong swimmer (one of the instructors generally), is ready to jump in to the aid of a boy, if necessary, at a moment's notice, but as a matter of fact the training in the floating bath is so thorough that the neophyte rarely fails to swim the course.
The time is now at hand when our young sailor must bid adieu to his mother ship, and go in for the instruction required by the alteration which has become necessary by the abolition of sail as the motive power. No longer is it necessary for the sailor to run aloft and lay out on a yard arm to reef and furl. The picturesque sail drill such as is seen in our picture of the old ship, with boys and instructors aloft, is no longer one of the sights of the Hamoaze. The only vestige of "mast and yard drill" which is left is when the boys go over the masthead twice a day, at half-past seven and half-past eleven in the morning for exercise. Our lads have now to learn how to steer, heave the lead under way, how to splice a wire rope, boat work at sea, and all seaman's work required in a seagoing ship; he must a little later learn gunnery and mechanical work as required in the "new Navy."
It has been decided that a gunnery school for "finishing off" first-class boys, and making them a useful reserve at sea for the engine room department, shall be established as a tender to the parent ship, to which the boys of the Lion and also Black Prince (I beg the pardon of our Irish fellow subjects; I should have said Emerald) will be sent. For this purpose the Inconstant, a very fine steam frigate of a now obsolete class, has been specially fitted and moored some few hundred yards away from the Impregnable. She is splendidly fitted for the training of the young seaman in the elementary knowledge of gunnery and mechanical “handiness" which is required on a modern warship. A complete equipment of quick-firing guns has been fitted on the spacious upper deck, ranging in calibre from the diminutive but deadly Maxim to the 4.7 inch. The supreme point of importance in a seaman's training is of course gunnery, and the greatest effort is made to make him thoroughly efficient in this department; but he has also to make himself proficient in the use of tools, in order that he may be a useful aid to the proper artificers who are carried on a modern warship, and to this end he is with his class detailed for this
instruction on arrival on board the Inconstant. In this class he is taught to handle the file, spanner, hammer, drill, and all the tools which would become necessary for the hurried repairs on board ship after an action at sea.
It must not be supposed that the modern seaman is trained to replace the highly skilled mechanicians on board ship. This is of course impossible, but all boys are in future to be trained so far in the handling of tools as to enable them to be very handy auxiliaries to the engine room and armourer ratings of the ship. The average training in this department, bench work, is twenty-four days, and is superintended by Chief Artificer Engineer Blake and four chief stokers, specially selected for their teaching ability.
The training aloft of boys under instruction having become completely obsolete, the time saved by its abolition is now devoted to mechanical training as mentioned. The handiness with tools which has been gained by the twenty-four days' course is shown in our illustration of "stripping a 12-pounder quick-firer". Here the gun, which has been raised clear away from its mountings by the aid of a derrick is seen surrounded by the boys, who promptly take all the mechanism to pieces, clean and replace any injured part in a time which demonstrates the efficiency of their training. This 12-pounder quick firing gun weighs twelve hundredweight, is one hundred and twenty-three inches long, and can with an efficiently trained gun's crew (and they are trained before the Inconstant and the Cambridge finish with them) fire easily twelve or thirteen rounds per minute.
Another of our illustrations shows a class around a 4.7 gun. This instrument of destruction, around which quite a halo of romance has woven itself, owing to its being fitted by Captain Percy Scott with a field gun carriage designed by him, and used by the naval brigade with such effect at the siege of Ladysmith, is a much larger gun than the 12-pounder, as it throws a projectile weighing forty-five pounds a distance of about eight miles. The boys in the class have the different parts of the breech mechanism explained to them, and are then questioned by the instructors to test their efficiency.
The Maxim gun is also a weapon to which attention has to be paid by our budding gunners. This deadly little instrument, which fires the service rifle cartridge, is fed by a belt upon which the cartridges are strung; the operator has then simply to take aim, guiding the muzzle in the direction required, and as each successive cartridge comes into place it is exploded by the recoil of the preceding one, causing a constant hail of rifle fire.
A most ingenious instrument for teaching is the "deflection teacher". Here we have a target controlled by the boy on the left and connected with a lead weight which is suspended overboard on the right. On a wheel being worked by the boy, the target (shown in the illustration in front of the gun muzzle) moves rapidly from left to right, and back again on the cord being pulled in. Parallel to the bore of the gun is a telescope, and on top a Morris tube rifle barrel, which with the gun is aligned upon the moving target and is fired, the bullet passing through the paper target into an iron box behind, and leaving a record of the shot for the observation of the instructor.
The loading machine shown in the illustration seems more especially designed for the purpose of giving the boys more gymnastic training than for any purpose connected with the school to which it belongs, for anything more unlike a gun it would be hard to imagine. Built of wood, with an aperture in front some eight inches in diameter, it would be difficult at first sight to imagine its use. A class of boys are formed up around the "gun" as shown in the illustration, and a fifty pound shot is placed in the “breech" and lustily rammed home by a couple of the crew; sufficient force has to be expended to send the projectile from the "breech" to the commencement of an inclined plane, where it rolls down a shoot, is picked up by the next one of the class, and is quickly fed in again; the "rammers home" are changed from time to time, and so the ball "rolls merrily on". It is very interesting to watch the set attention on the face of each boy at this drill. The work is by no means light, and is useful in a double sense, for whilst the drill is of great importance in training the boys to feed the supply of shot and to load with the necessary rapidity, the physical training is not to be despised, as handling shot fifty pounds in weight, and ramming it home, requires no slight muscular exertion.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," you will say, dear reader. True for you, but the
training ship boy has both in judiciously mixed quantities. Deck gymnastics form a part of his curriculum on board as well as in the extensively equipped establishments on shore, and after dinner there is many a merry “set to" with the gloves. Quarrelling or fighting on board is of course sternly repressed, and there is always the opportunity for any "difference of opinion" to be settled by a good mill with the boxing gloves in a way which while it demonstrates which is "best man," hurts neither of the combatants. These mimic battles are always conducted with the polite courtesies of the "ring" - a hand-shake commences operations, and the moment it is seen that one boy is better than the other the boxing bout is stopped and another pair step into the arena.
And not only on board ship, or even in the playing fields, does our future seaman have his diversions. The ship's band plays once a week in the evening, especially for the boys' benefit, and during the winter months entertainments, concerts, and magic lantern lectures are given on board in the evenings occasionally, and are evidently popular, judging from the applause which can be sometimes heard at Stonehouse. Durnford Street, and Union Street, Plymouth, often ring with the martial music of the bands of the Lion and Impregnable, as hundreds of the youngsters march along on their way to either the Grand or Royal Theatre. The commanders of both training ships are to the full desirous of making those under their charge bright and cheerful, and the appearance of the hundreds of happy-faced lads who may be seen on a Saturday afternoon going to or returning from a pantomime or entertainment is sufficient evidence that they are successful in their efforts. Indeed, it may be safely said that all the lads may be happy as the proverbial sandboy, if they only behave themselves; for the careless and bad there are penalties, for the well behaved boy punishment has no terrors.
So goes on the daily life on board our training ships. Its routine is the very reverse of monotonous, embracing as it does so many different departments, and its result upon the physical welfare of the lad is certainly surprising. With the free open life, good and nourishing food, the regular habits to which all must conform, the physical development of the youngsters is little short of marvellous. The boy who joined some few months ago, possibly underfed, perhaps hitherto a dweller in a crowded London court, is as if by magic transformed into a ruddy-cheeked, lusty, well set up youth, alert in movement (for they move at the “double" in the "King's Navee"), bright in eye, and with the promise of a lusty manhood in his strong young limbs. His work is certainly continuous - in many respects, such as boat pulling, hard - but his food is excellent and plentiful, he is warmly and sensibly, even smartly, clothed, his surroundings healthy, and his sleep after his day's work is done such as only the young and healthy enjoy.
The effect of the regular life, fresh air, good food and gymnastic training upon the physical development of the lads is remarkable. A boy joining in May of this year, fifteen years and ten months old, five feet three and a half inches high, gains nearly an inch in stature, six pounds in weight, two inches chest measurement, one inch around arm, and nearly two inches thigh - this in three months! Another youngster in ten weeks from joining increases his chest development by an inch and a half, his upper arm by half an inch, and his thigh measurement by nearly two inches. Does not this say volumes for the training system and for the good beef and mutton depicted in our illustration of the “beef house," where the boys of the different messes are shown drawing the allowance under the supervision of the warrant officer of the day on board H.M.S. Lion.
The month's training at sail drill which was formerly given on the sailing brigs is now superseded by a course on the modern third class cruiser Medusa to which the boys are drafted on passing out from the Inconstant. They there continue their gun drill and are further instructed in stoking, firing, coal trimming, and stokehold work generally as required in a sea-going ship. This training is a six weeks' course, at the end of which the boy is ready for drafting for regular sea service, when he really commences his sea life, and is on his way to that promotion which surely awaits the smart and painstaking young seaman.
Of the vital importance of the Navy to the Empire it is hardly necessary to speak, yet it is a fact that the value of our first line of defence to the very life of our nation is scarcely realised. There are thousands of people in these islands who have never seen a ship or been within sight of the sea, and who do not grasp the fact that upon the supremacy of our Navy all for us depends. Bread is cheap, yet but little of the corn from which it is made is grown in Britain; meat is within the purchasing power of even the very poor, yet the sheep and beeves roamed on pastures far removed from England. Our staple articles of food have been imported from countries far away from our land, and it is safe to say that without the vast supplies received from our colonies and abroad, our teeming population could not be fed. Year by year the producing area of these islands has decreased, and at the present day it is quite impossible to feed our population with the food grown only at home.
It has become necessary for this reason to consider more carefully the vital importance of our Navy to our national existence. In war time the food of rich and poor will almost entirely depend upon the strong arm and watchful eye of the “boys in blue." We shall always have to largely depend upon our Army and the auxiliary forces to defend our ports from hostile raids, but it is upon our sea power that we rely for the protection of our sea borne commerce, our food supply in time of war, and above all our protection from invasion. If our Navy is from neglect suffered to fall from its present high standard of efficiency, or is from lack of funds allowed to grow weaker in power, and suffers crushing defeat from a hostile force, then the sun of Great Britain has for ever set as a great power among the nations, and no armies within these shores can prevent an enemy making his own terms, for he, by cutting off our food supplies, can starve us into submission.
Upon the “Handyman" therefore the working man may be said to be, under certain circumstances, dependent for his daily food; and the supply of our markets for the food of the people will have to be gauged by the ability of our ships to keep open our trade routes. Look well to it then, oh British tax-payer, that you grudge not the sinews of war, lest your first line of defence fail you in your hour of need. We have followed the course of instruction which goes to make our future seaman gunner. Here we must leave him, ready for sea, there to further
continue that “apprenticeship to the sea" which will qualify him as an efficient defender of his flag and country. Sail power, with all its glorious traditions, has departed, and upon our “new Navy" the future of our Empire now depends. But as in years gone by he was ever ready, so in spite of all the changed conditions of modern warfare, we may be sure that our training ship boys will worthily uphold the honor of their country, and that the motto of the man “behind the gun" will be as of yore,
" READY, AYE READY! "
The whole of the Illustrations of this Article are from Photographs by Mr. W. M. CROCKETT, Photographer, Stonehouse.
