History Of The Development Of Naval Education

For 20 years after 1337 "volunteers" were trained at sea only. No wonder the status of the Naval Instructor as raised, for on his shoulders lay the education of Naval Cadets in an increasingly technical age. Unfortunately there were still not enough instructors to go round, there was no accommodation for them in small ships and insufficient candidates forth-coming to fill them if there had been. A hundred cadets were entered annually, and the difficulties well known today, of imparting theoretical knowledge when the students were so much occupied in the duties of the ship, soon arose. Many failed to pass their examination for Lieutenant and others quitted the service before they took it. "But while the education of those who were intended some day to command our ships and fleets as thus generally neglected, or left to chance" writes a critic, who admits that there were numerous exceptions to his strictures, "much pain was being taken to give increased intelligence to the seamen who were allowed to remain a year under a course of training, which included both schooling and practical teaching". It was said that when the "Naval Apprentices", first drafted from the training ship, and the Naval Cadet fresh from shore, met on the quarterdeck or in a boat, the former was more capable of taking the command.

But Naval education was increasing its scope. By an Order in Council of 18th February, 1833, Dockyard Schools were established. "The Admiralty by this enlightened policy thus became the pioneers of organised technical education in this country and laid the foundations of training schemes for apprentices". The advance in shipbuilding was the immediate cause of this advance in education. The object of the schools was 'to provide and maintain a system of part-time education whereby the men in the dockyard might develop their abilities and improve their position". Attendance was to be compulsory and to be partly in working hours and partly in the apprentices' own time. Attendance after the first year was to be dependent on the ability of the apprentice to benefit by the later courses. The syllabus, of course, has been revised to keep pace with educational and technical advance; but those 'underlying principles are still maintained today.

Meanwhile the system of shipping Naval Cadets off to sea with no preliminary training was found to be unsatisfactory. The Crimean War of the "fifties" and the transition of the service from sail to steam led to the re-opening of the Naval College. In 1856 a committee was set up to consider a syllabus of instruction, of which Professor Main and a Naval Instructor (K. M. Knapp, Esq.), were members. The report of this committee was approved by the Board of Admiralty and resulted in the commissioning of H.M.S, 'Illustrious' which had previously been engaged in training boy entries, called "novices" for the Service, The 'Illustrious' was fitted out to receive Naval Cadets, who were entered between the ages of 13 and 15. Naval Instructors under the Rev. R. M. Inskip, were appointed to the staff. The syllabus was a broad one, but the time allowed for its completion was short. Instructors in seamanship, French and Drawing were appointed. Weekly lectures on the steam engine were given and the Chemist of the Dockyard was imported to teach the Cadets that science, while an Instructor from the 'Excellent' dealt with swordsmanship, gymnastics and swimming. In addition to the crowded curriculum which made intelligent foreign observers ask how many years it to complete it, another difficulty lay in the varying periods individual Cadets remained in the training ship. Entering at different ages, they passed out as soon as possible after their fifteenth birthday. So the younger ones fared better than their elders. The age for admission was therefore reduced and the stiffness of the entrance examination declined with it; 12 to 14 became the new ages of entry and, in 1859, the "Britannia" replaced the 'Illustrious' as the training ship. She was first moored at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour and in her the modem system of training Naval Cadets was commenced.