(no subject)

[quigonejinn]

Officers
-- volunteers: could go to sea as young as eleven if they were the sons of officers. otherwise, minimum age of thirteen. new class instituted after 1794 -- after both Horatio and Bush joined before that and would have been "captain's servants." Did not formally wait on the servants, were not officers, but were expected to pass into midshipman-hood.

- midshipmen: and had to spend at least three years (accroding to Lavery, Wiki says two w/minimum of 4 years before sitting for the lieutenant exam) at sea before they could be called this. ranged in age from the age of 15-22. (note: this means that Bush could NOT have "begun life" in the Navy as a midshipman and that Horatio couldn't be brand-new to the sea. . . was the regulation not strictly followed? or did both Bush and HOratio get entered into the books three years before they went ot sea so that when they did go to sea, they could step on as midshipmen -- common practice?)

- lieutenants: must be at least nineteen with six years of service. severity of the lieutenant's exam varied substantially -- not usually as terrifying as indicated in both books and movies, particularly if you had connections. frequently knew the people who were examining you, esp. if your family was in the Navy. see ex. passing certificate p. 96

Lieutenant pay: 8.8.0 (eight pounds, eight shillings) per month in 1808. half-pay would therefore be 4.4.0, and each week, would be 1.1.0. Which accords with the scale that we're given in Lieutenant Hornblower -- Hornblower gets half a guinea (guinea = 21 shillings) or 10 shillings 6 pence, and Bush remarks that his half pay is more than double that. (22 shillings v. 10.6, so it's double but not ALL THAT MUCH MORE, BUSH, YOU FOOL)
- lieutenant pay constant across ships. NOT TRUE of captains.
- 1808: lt pay = half of what the captain of a sixth-rate got.

Lieutenant duties, on ships where enough for this kind of division:
- first lieutenant responsible for administration of ship, did not keep watch. (Consistent with what we hear Sawyer say to Buckland about his idle time)
- one lieutenant might be in charge of mess, one lieutenant might be in charge of signals, etc. Flexibility in arrangement according to captain's desires.
- during battle, first lieutenant stood with captain, ready to take over in case anything went wrong, and each subordinate lieutenant typically took responsiblity for half a deck of guns.
- appointment of acting lieutenants as necessary and under captain's discretion -- record of an acting lieutenant William Weiss on the Nereid in 1810 who hadn't even served out his time as a
- if shorthanded, captain or the lieutenant might take watch.

Advancing from lieutenant -> commander

Three ways:

1. Patronage. (Not reserved forgreat lords -- if family had influence on election to Parliament, could exert pressure. Admiraly gneerally tried to resist. Note, just for fun, about how Edward Pellew <3 <3 <3 got his son promoted to captain at a v. early age <3 <3 <3 and that the son later proved to be v. capable. See also Historical Pellew notes below.)
   Ships
   - French generally considered better designed.
   - HEBE -- the nam eof Lady B's maid -- one of the mostcopied seized French ships. XD
   
   
   
   Book says that Pellew got one of his sons promoted v. early and book says that later proved to be v. capable (unlike this other admiral who got his son promoted, kid got court-martialled for losing ship)
   
   Presumably NOT Pownell Bastard Pellew -- son no. 1 who rose to the rank of post-captain when he was thirty. Was, incidentally, born exactly three days before Horatio :D :D :D. Seemed to have remained a post-captain -- Pellew didn't die until 1833.
   
   Presumably, INSTEAD, Pellew's second son, Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew who later became a Knight of the Order of Bath and of the Order of Hanover, as well as a Rear-Admiral. Born late in the same year that Pellew married a woman by the name of Susannah Frowde whose father came from Wiltshire. Possible scandal?
   
   Definite scandal(ish)-- Pellew didn't marry, in fact, until 1789, thirteen years after birth of Pownell. No mother listed for Pownell no matter how I dig, and ;lgh;ldifj THUS EXPLAINING THE BASTARD APPELATION :D :D :D PELLEW DOESN'T HAVE COMPLETELY AWFUL TASTE IN NAMES AFTER ALL. Correlation of birth dates suggests fascinating son-replacement stuff to play out if you want to go with the relationship between movie!Pellew and Horatio.
   
   Interestingly: Pownell becomes the second viscount Exmouth, though, NOT the first legitimately-born son. May be the regular thing, but interesting scope for postulating that Pellew skivvied son 2's career along a bit as recompense and dfjlkjgdf.

Comments

help me out here because I can't do the math

[black-hound.livejournal.com]

This reminds me that I've never been able to square up the dates and the info that CSF gives us as to when and how Bush gets where he is by the time we see him in Lt. HH.

Part of the problem is the age thing which CSF dickered with as he went along, but I tend to go with the 10 years older than HH that we get in the later books before CSF retooled things a bit. So ...

Bush is born in 1766.
Passes his Lt.'s Exam in 1796 which would make him THIRTY YEARS OLD??!!WTF?
Somewhere in the books (my memory fails me ONCE AGAIN) it's mentioned that he entered the RN in 1790, at 24!!! That's DAMN late for someone coming in on a midshipman's track.

So here's my crackpot theory *puts on tinfoil hat once again*

There were lieutenants who came up on a different track via the lower deck. Generally rising into the midshipman/lieutenant ranks after serving as a master's mate. These are the guys who came from working class backgrounds and didn't have the $$ or influence to come in as volunteers/midshipmen.

From the Peter Goodwin book referring to the master's mate track --

"Few officers entering from influential backgrounds could surpass the proficient abilities of these lower-deck men. However, experience and accumulated knowledge was not enough for further promotion: of this group only 13.5% reached post captain and a mere 2.5% reached flag rank. Of the remaining 84%, most of these men never achieved rank beyond lieutenant, mainly because of age. The other reason why promotion was limited was the patronage system .... "

Hello Mr. Bush and your Chichester background and your total and complete knowledge of how every spar and sail and piece of line operated on those ships. And didn't CSF make a point that Bush passed his exam based on seamanship alone? Which he would have known in spades if he had progressed up as a master's mate.

The only bit that doesn't quite fit the crackpot theory of the moment™ is the date he enters the RN, although I will be a silly bitch and just finesse that to mean that was the date he was entered into the midshipman's rank from master's mate. Amen.

And of course, this is probably just all crap on my part. XD

omg I spam you so much. :/

[randomalia.livejournal.com]

Looks like a fantastic resource. It's interesting re: the joining ages - in my fic I put Archie as joining at 15, trying to strike that balance of education and experience we talked about. If the rule about 3 years' experience was followed strictly that would put him at age 18 in The Even Chance. But then we have Horatio and Jack Hammond seemingly coming straight in to being a M'man. They both had influence behind them -- Horatio's father and Captain Hammond. Bush was unlikely to have had any (I assume; I should finish the books before yapping on), so I would agree that Bush spent time as a seaman first, before moving to the officer line.