In a
comment on the post below by Subrosa relating to the Australians and Gallipoli
in 1915, Edward Spalton reminds us of the youth of some of those involved in
the Navy, notably the Midshipmen. Not
only were they teenagers, some had only just attained that status.
Again we
often need when we look at the past we often need the detail to remind us that
the way it is written up today may not be accurate in that often the comment or
interpretation depends on assumptions and limited sources.
Clearly,
the Navy was a hard taskmaster, but it may not have been regarded as badly by
those at the time as we tend to do today.
One question is how many “pressed” men were in fact volunteers? Given the conditions in some merchant vessels
the Navy may have seemed desirable to the hungry and badly paid.
The
photograph above was something found in the Morning Chronicle of Friday 30th
July 1852, as usual when looking for something else, it states that its source
was the Dundee Advertiser. It is about
recruiting boys and seems to present a different picture to that which we might
expect.
Also, it
relates to Dundee , which is of interest not
only to Subrosa. One of my forebears was
a Master Mariner whose vessel was registered there. Given his voyages and the work that had to be
done, any of the boys may well have preferred the Royal Navy.
Also, when
you look at the other options for employment in the factories and the mines in
this period (1852) for youngsters of this age and their prospects, despite all
the hardships and discipline of the Royal Navy, to those at the time it may
have seemed a reasonable choice.
On Youtube,
the group “Fishermans Friends” are South
Australia
So what is
it to be? Crawling around and under
filthy machines in a factory for twelve or more hours a day? Working all the hours as the lowest farm
labourer for a pittance? Going down the
pit until your lungs give out in your mid 30’s to 40’s if your survive?
Or would
you choose to weigh anchor and see the world?
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