Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy by J. R. (Joseph Robson) Tanner

Author:J. R. (Joseph Robson) Tanner [Tanner, J. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History
ISBN: 4064066126209
Google: 5ItEAQAAMAAJ
Publisher: Good Press
Published: 2021-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

... And where any wound or hurt occasions a fracture, contusion, impostumation, or the like, under the loss of a limb, such are viewed by the chirurgeons, and certified to deserve what in their opinions may be a proportionable reward in full satisfaction. And these sorts of hurts frequently accompany the loss of a limb in other parts of the body, for which they have a reward apart from their annual allowance, according to the chirurgeon's discretion.

One more question remains for our consideration to-day—that of the rates of pay in the navy during the period 1660-88.

As far as the rates themselves were concerned the story is one of steady improvement. In 1653 the pay of a general or admiral of the fleet had been £3 a day during his employment; of a vice-admiral, £2; and of a rear-admiral, £1[186]. The scale adopted by Order in Council, 26 February, 1666[187], raised the admiral's pay from £3 to £4; the vice-admiral's from £2 to £2. 10s.; and the rear-admiral's from £1 to £2. The vice-admiral of a squadron only was to get 30s. and the rear-admiral of a squadron £1. The pay of the other officers was not increased beyond the rates fixed in 1653[188]. The able seamen in 1660 received 24s. a month; the ordinary seamen, 19s.; the apprentices or 'gromets,' 14s. 3d.; and the 'boys,' 9s. 6d. The wages of the carpenter, boatswain, and gunner varied from £2 to £4 a month according to the rate of the ship. Monthly wages in harbour, as distinguished from sea wages, were on a lower scale[189]. In 1686 a new establishment of wages[190] made a few minor changes, but the pay of the seamen was not affected thereby.

The misfortune of the 'poor seaman' was not that his rate of pay was insufficient, but that he could not get his money, or if he got it at all it was in the depreciated paper currency known as the 'ticket.' A ticket was a certificate from the officers of his ship, issued to each seaman, specifying the term and quality of his service. This, when countersigned by the Navy Board, was the seaman's warrant for demanding his wages from the Treasurer of the Navy on shore. The original purpose of tickets was to save the necessity of transporting large sums of money on board ship, but the want of funds in the navy soon made it the regular practice to treat tickets as inconvertible paper, and to discharge all seamen with tickets instead of money—or with money for part of their time and a ticket for the rest. Theoretically, the ticket should have supplied the seaman with credit almost up to the full amount of his wages, but in practice the long waiting and uncertainty of payment caused a great depreciation of tickets. We hear of women brokers standing about the Navy Office, offering to help seamen who might have tickets to ready money—but always upon terms. They took them to Mrs Salesbury in Carpenter's Yard, near Aldgate, who bought them for cash at a discount of at least 5s.

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