Chapter 55

MIDSHIPMEN ENTERING THE NAVY EARLY.

The allusion in the preceding chapter to the early age at which
some of the midshipmen enter the Navy, suggests some thoughts
relative to more important considerations.

A very general modern impression seems to be, that, in order to
learn the profession of a sea-officer, a boy can hardly be sent
to sea too early. To a certain extent, this may be a mistake.
Other professions, involving a knowledge of technicalities and
things restricted to one particular field of action, are frequently
mastered by men who begin after the age of twenty-one, or even at a
later period of life. It was only about the middle of the seventeenth
century that the British military and naval services were kept distinct.
Previous to that epoch the king's officers commanded indifferently
either by sea or by land.

Robert Blake, perhaps one of the most accomplished, and certainly
one of the most successful Admirals that ever hoisted a flag, was
more than half a century old (fifty-one years) before he entered
the naval service, or had aught to do, professionally, with a
ship. He was of a studious turn, and, after leaving Oxford,
resided quietly on his estate, a country gentleman, till his
forty-second year, soon after which he became connected with the
Parliamentary army.

The historian Clarendon says of him, "He was the first man that
made it manifest that the science (seamanship) might he attained
in less time than was imagined." And doubtless it was to his
shore sympathies that the well-known humanity and kindness which
Blake evinced in his intercourse with the sailors is in a large
degree to be imputed.

Midshipmen sent into the Navy at a very early age are exposed to
the passive reception of all the prejudices of the quarter-deck
in favour of ancient usages, however useless or pernicious; those
prejudices grow up with them, and solidify with their very bones.
As they rise in rank, they naturally carry them up, whence the
inveterate repugnance of many Commodores and Captains to the
slightest innovations in the service, however salutary they may
appear to landsmen.

It is hardly to be doubted that, in matters connected with the
general welfare of the Navy, government has paid rather too much
deference to the opinions of the officers of the Navy, considering
them as men almost born to the service, and therefore far better
qualified to judge concerning any and all questions touching it
than people on shore. But in a nation under a liberal Constitution,
it must ever be unwise to make too distinct and peculiar the
profession of either branch of its military men. True, in a
country like ours, nothing is at present to be apprehended of
their