HC Deb 28 February 1881 vol 258 c1846
ADMIRAL EGERTON

asked the Secretary to the Admiralty, If he could state what are the facts with regard to a rumoured reduction of seven hundred seamen in the Navy?

MR. TREVELYAN

Sir, no steps have been taken by the present Board of Admiralty to reduce the number of seamen. The number of our seamen was diminished from two causes, the loss of about 220 in the Atalanta and the small entry of boys in 1879–80, when between 400 and 500 boys fewer than usual were entered. No means exists of immediately adding blue-jackets to our Navy except by entering non-continuous service seamen. It takes three full years to train a boy into a seaman, and to enter more boys than the average demands of our service require in order to swell our apparent numbers in this year's Estimate would be evidently improper. The fact is that the number of petty officers and seamen proposed to be voted for next year is larger than in any year in the last eight, except only 1880–81. I may state here with reference to remarks that have been made in the service papers that the Admiralty have not and never had the intention of discontinuing the issue of grog to warrant officers.