The Instrument

Abstract

The real strength of any fleet lay in the skill and experience of the crews who manned it; the recruitment of prime seamen was therefore one of the most vital tasks facing any naval administration. Untrained men were of little use at sea, so the problem of obtaining sailors could not be solved merely by sweeping up droves of bewildered rustics and herding them aboard the fleet. It was easier to find men for the army, since far less time was required to teach a peasant the rudimentary skills required of an infantryman. Training a sailor took much longer, for the range of skills that he had to acquire was far wider, and the initiative and self-reliance called for by the conditions of life on board ship were far greater. By and large, men had to be trained from boyhood to become good seamen, and they were correspondingly rare.