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A Maritime Community?

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Steam Power and Sea Power

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series ((CIPCSS))

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Abstract

This chapter explores how sailors experience the station, analyses interactions with other “Westerners,” and shows that stations possessed a Western maritime culture. It also examines the more predictable pastimes of drinking and violence, shows how these activities can help elucidate visions of patriotism, masculinity, and class amongst the navy, and shows how this behavior could disrupt the feelings of the community. The chapter provides social and cultural histories of the navy by uniquely looking at the sailor in the empire and at leisure. Thus, it develops the work of imperial contact zones and cultural exchange and shows that although it was often overlooked, the presence of naval men at these stations are in fact one of the prime examples of everyday encounters between Britons and the wider world.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a thorough exploration of this idea, see Jan Rüger, The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

  2. 2.

    The number of sailors abroad in 1870 (33,549), 1880 (33,738), 1890 (39,385), 1900 (67,058). See Ships in Commission.

  3. 3.

    Brian Lavery, Able Seamen (London: Conway, 2011), 146.

  4. 4.

    See Ships in Commission.

  5. 5.

    Kings Regulations & Admiralty Instructions—1913. For the Government of His Majesty’s Naval Service, Volume I (London, T. Fisher Unwin: 1913), 301. Walton argues that officers tended to get more leave, but the example he cites suggests that the crew were unhappy because of this. The fact that refusing leave to a sailor was a punishment suggests that it was an expectation for bluejackets at foreign ports. Oliver Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy 1856–1900, unpublished PhD Thesis, Exeter, 2003, 163.

  6. 6.

    E.G. Anning, F.J. Bentley, and Lionel Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Argonaut, 1900–1904. China Station (London: Westminster Press, 1904), v. This goes against the suggestion made by Walton that only officers were able to regularly go ashore, with men of the lower deck only occasionally ashore and even then with only one watch at a time or only some eligible. He does, however, suggest that the new regulations in 1890 meant that “men who conduct themselves properly” had the same right as officers. In practice, it seems leave was largely down to the personal preference of officers, and because irt was seen as being crucial to the morale of the crew, it was frequently given if possible. See Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 163.

  7. 7.

    Journal kept by Edward Charrington, 1899–1902, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, 1999/51/7.

  8. 8.

    Figures taken from the Westminster Press Log series. For example, A.C. Spooner, Log of HMS Andromeda, 1904–1906 (London: Westminster Press, 1906).

  9. 9.

    Restricting leave had hugely detrimental effects on morale. See Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 163.

  10. 10.

    A.C. East, for example, was barred from an excursion because he refused to be vaccinated. He expresses his disgust at this decision in his entry. Diary of A.C. East, H.M.S. Natal on its Cruise to India as escort to Royal Visit, 27 December 1911, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Manuscript Collection, 95/90 (28).

  11. 11.

    William Cronon, cited in Tim Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 43.

  12. 12.

    Ships’ logs in particular appear to have been very popular, with more than forty being published by the Westminster Press in just ten years and many being published by other presses in addition. Generally priced at four shillings, these would have been easily affordable to contemporaneous members of the middle class and above as wel as available to others through public and circulating libraries as well as in buildings dedicated to service personnel.

  13. 13.

    Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (London: Routledge, 1992), 3.

  14. 14.

    For assessments of this trend, see, for example, Leggett, ‘Navy, Nation and Identity in the Long Nineteenth Century’, 7. The seminal text describing this is Mary A. Conley, From Jack Tar to Union Jack: Representing naval manhood in the British Empire, 1870–1918 (Manchester: Manchester, 2009). For examples of caricatures, see James Davey and Richard Johns, Broadsides: Caricature and the Navy 1756–1815 (Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing, 2012).

  15. 15.

    Within the text at the end of each book in the series, this fact is explicitly stated.

  16. 16.

    Don Leggett, ‘Navy, Nation and Identity in the Long Nineteenth Century’, Journal for Maritime Research, 13, no. 2 (2011), 151–163.

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    Peter Mandler, ‘What Is “National Identity”? Definitions and Applications in Modern British Historiography’, Modern Intellectual History, 3, no. 2 (2006), 271–297; Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 162.

  19. 19.

    Tars, or more properly Jack Tars, is a colloquial term for sailors.

  20. 20.

    An excellent discussion of sailortowns, and sailorhoods, can be found in Louise Moon, ‘“Sailorhoods”: Sailortown and Sailors in the Port of Portsmouth circa 1850–1900’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2015. The ‘otherness’ of these places is described in Brad Beaven, ‘The resilience of sailortown culture in English naval ports, c. 1820–1900’, Urban History, 43, 1 (2016), 72–95.

  21. 21.

    Walton suggests that ‘Naval membership transcended ship membership’, Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 156.

  22. 22.

    J.B. Brodie, Ray, A.F., and Yexley, Lionel, The Log of H.M.S. Goliath, China Station, 1900–1903 (London: Gerrards, 1903), 62, 74; A.H. Tyler, The Commission of H.M.S. Lancaster, Mediterranean Station, 1904–1906 (London: Westminster Press, 1906), 42. This was also true at home ports, see Moon, “Sailorhoods.”

  23. 23.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 172.

  24. 24.

    John Anderson Dougherty The East Station; or the Cruise of H.M.S. Garnet 1887–1890 (Malta: Muscat Printing Office, 1892), 27, 130; H. Callow, The Commission of H.M.S. Royal Arthur, Flag Ship, Australian Station. 1901–1904 (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 12–16; Journals of Donovan C. Roe, 1911–1912, NMM, JOD/92/2.

  25. 25.

    Diary of Petty Officer Lew Hanbridge, H.M.S. Philomel, 11 January 1916, British Library, MSS. Eur.C.172. Royal Sailors’ Homes were modelled on ship structures, however, as it was believed it would be less ‘alien’ to sailors when ashore and would provide them with a sense of familiarity. See Moon, “Sailorhoods,” 31–79.

  26. 26.

    Journal kept by Edward Charrington, 1890–1892, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, 1999/51/3.

  27. 27.

    Watts, The Commission of H.M.S. Retribution, 131; Brodie, Ray, and Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Goliath, 130; Journals of Donovan C. Roe, 1911–1912, NMM, JOD/92/2; Whiteley and Davis, The Commission of H.M.S. Bulwark, 5.

  28. 28.

    Dougherty, The East Station, 22.

  29. 29.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 173.

  30. 30.

    For example, Petty Officer Lew Hanbridge meets with Warrant Officers of the RFA and Sergeants of the Royal Artillery in Bombay. Diary of Petty Officer Lew Hanbridge, H.M.S. Philomel, British Library, MSS. Eur.C.172.

  31. 31.

    Brodie, Ray, and Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Goliath, 61; A.E. Butterworth, The Commission of H.M.S. Glory, Flag Ship of Commander-in-Chief, China Station, 1900–1904 (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 88–89.

  32. 32.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 182–183.

  33. 33.

    W.H. Watts, The Commission of H.M.S. Retribution, North American and West Indies Station, 1902–1904 (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 111–116; H. Breaks, The Log of H.M.S. Bonaventure, Pacific and China Stations, 1903–1906 (London: Westminster Press, 1906), 47; D.E. Whiteley and C. Davis, The Commission of H.M.S. Bulwark, Mediterranean Station, 1902–1905 (London: Westminster Press, 1905), 120.

  34. 34.

    Butterworth, The Log of H.M.S. Bedford, 119; Brodie, Ray, and Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Goliath, 80, 86; Charles Mitchell, The Commission of H.M.S. Renown, 1900–1904, Mediterranean Station (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 31; Journals of Donovan C. Roe, 1911–1912, NMM, JOD/92/2; Breaks, The Log of H.M.S. Bonaventure, 93.

  35. 35.

    Butterworth, The Log of H.M.S. Bedford, 102. In fact, there was no animosity between British and German sailors at any level before August 1914, although relations with Russian sailors were often bad. Lavery suggests that the British “got on well with colleagues from other nations, particularly the Germans,” Lavery, Able Seamen, 145.

  36. 36.

    Jonathan Hyslop makes a similar point about a white imperial working class, which largely ignored national identities but instead identified themselves against the “othered” non-white workers. See Jonathan Hyslop, ‘The Imperial Working Class Makes Itself ‘White’: White Labourism in Britain, Australia, and South Africa before the First World War’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 12, no. 4 (1999), 398–421.

  37. 37.

    Watts, The Commission of H.M.S. Retribution, North American and West Indies Station. 1902–1904, 131; Mitchell, The Commission of H.M.S. Renown, 1900–1904. Mediterranean Station, 28; Dougherty, The East Station; or the Cruise of H.M.S. Garnet 1887–1890, 52; W.E St. Clair, Three Years with the Mediterranean Fleet or the Cruise of H.M.S. Inflexible (Valetta: L. Critien, 1893), 81.

  38. 38.

    W.R. Kennedy, ‘Sport in the Navy’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 20 December 1893, 9.

  39. 39.

    G.R. Parker, The Commission of H.M.S. Implacable, Mediterranean Station, 1901–1904 (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 27.

  40. 40.

    Albert Newton, The Commission of H.M.S. Grafton, Pacific Station, 1902–1905 (London: Westminster Press, 1905), 172.

  41. 41.

    S.E. Dunslow, and R.J. Jones, The Commission of H.M.S. Eclipse, China Station, 1901–1904 (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 45–47.

  42. 42.

    Gibbs, The Cruise of H.M.S. Grafton, 58; Brodie, Ray, and Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Goliath, 96.

  43. 43.

    Breaks, The Log of H.M.S. Bonaventure, 99.

  44. 44.

    The memorandum is included in the Journal kept by Edward Charrington, 1899–1902, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, 1999/51/7.

  45. 45.

    For an extensive study of “British” identities in the empire, see John C. Mitcham, Race and Imperial defence in the British World, 1870–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).

  46. 46.

    Rüger, The Great Naval Game.

  47. 47.

    Mitcham, Race and Imperial defence, 97–128.

  48. 48.

    John S. Shearston, H.M.S. Nelson: An Account of Her First Commission on the Australian Station (Sydney: Thomas Richards, 1885), 22, 24–25.

  49. 49.

    Callow, The Commission of H.M.S. Royal Arthur, 22–23.

  50. 50.

    Shearston, H.M.S. Nelson, 26.

  51. 51.

    Fowler, The Log of H.M.S. Encounter, 125.

  52. 52.

    ‘The Reciprocal Jack Tar’, Evening News, 21 June 1911.

  53. 53.

    Shearston, H.M.S. Nelson, 23.

  54. 54.

    Fowler, The Log of H.M.S. Encounter, 71.

  55. 55.

    Shearston, H.M.S. Nelson, 270.

  56. 56.

    Callow, The Commission of H.M.S. Royal Arthur, 65; Shearston, H.M.S. Nelson, 23–26, 270.

  57. 57.

    Shearston, H.M.S. Nelson, 23, 26, 32.

  58. 58.

    Whiteley and Davis, The Commission of H.M.S. Bulwark, 79; Sam Noble, ‘Tween Decks in the Seventies: An Autobiography (London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company, 1925), 229; Diary of Petty Officer Lew Hanbridge, H.M.S. Philomel, British Library, MSS. Eur.C.172.

  59. 59.

    Journal kept by Edward Charrington, 1894–1898, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, 1999/51/5.

  60. 60.

    Tom Griffiths, ‘A Polar Drama’ in Martin Thomas (ed.), Expedition Into Empire: Exploratory Journeys and the Making of the Modern World (London: Routledge, 2014), 171.

  61. 61.

    Callow, The Commission of H.M.S. Royal Arthur, 128.

  62. 62.

    Breaks, The Log of H.M.S. Bonaventure, 27–28.

  63. 63.

    Brodie, Ray, and Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Goliath, 59.

  64. 64.

    See, for example, Jan Rüger, ‘Nation, Empire and Navy; Identity Politics in the United Kingdom 1887–1914’, Past and Present, 185 (November 2004).

  65. 65.

    ‘The Gallant English Tar’, Auckland Star, 21 July 1900, Supplement.

  66. 66.

    Rüger, ‘Nation, Empire and Navy’, 162, 173–177.

  67. 67.

    ‘Nation, Empire and Navy’, 178.

  68. 68.

    Sport was a major pastime for all of the armed forces. An examination of this for the British army can be found in Tony Mason and Eliza Riedi, Sport and the Military: The British Armed Forces 1880–1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). For the American military, see Wanda Ellen Wakefield, Playing to Win: Sports and the American Military, 1898–1945 (Albany: State University of the New York Press, 1997).

  69. 69.

    Richard Holt, Sport and the British: A Modern History (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 203–209, 223.

  70. 70.

    W.R. Kennedy, ‘Sport in the Navy’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 20 December 1893, 9.

  71. 71.

    Dunslow and Jones, The Commission of H.M.S. Eclipse, 90; Parker, The Commission of H.M.S. Implacable, 59; Callow, The Commission of H.M.S. Royal Arthur, 94.

  72. 72.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 202.

  73. 73.

    Butterworth, The Commission of H.M.S. Glory, 83–84.

  74. 74.

    Breaks, The Log of H.M.S. Bonaventure, 72.

  75. 75.

    Callow, The Commission of H.M.S. Royal Arthur, 94, 97.

  76. 76.

    Newton, The Commission of H.M.S. Grafton, 138, 144.

  77. 77.

    Parker, The Commission of H.M.S. Implacable, 54.

  78. 78.

    A sampan is a relatively flat bottomed Chinese wooden boat. Charles Gibbs, The Cruise of H.M.S. Grafton. A Record of Her Commission on the China Station, April 1896–September 1899 (London: Gale & Polden, 1900), 69.

  79. 79.

    Ibid., 34–35, 59.

  80. 80.

    Butterworth, The Log of H.M.S. Bedford, 102.

  81. 81.

    Whiteley and Davis, The Commission of H.M.S. Bulwark, 21; Wheeler, The Commission of H.M.S. Pandora, 20, 23, 39–41; Robert L. Moore, Commission and Travels of H.M.S. Good Hope (Cape Town: W.A. Richards & Sons, 1903), 49; Newton, The Commission of H.M.S. Grafton, 132.

  82. 82.

    Diary of Mr Dicks of H.M.S. Proserpine, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, JC 68 100/79 (2), 51; W. Wheeler, The Commission of H.M.S. Pandora, Mediterranean Station, 1901–1904 (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 39–41; Journals of Donovan C. Roe, 1911–1912, NMM, JOD/92/2; Newton, The Commission of H.M.S. Grafton, 90, 93, 117, 130, 132; Moore, Commission and Travels of H.M.S. Good Hope, 49.

  83. 83.

    Parker, The Commission of H.M.S. Implacable, 48.

  84. 84.

    Newton, The Commission of H.M.S. Grafton, 90; Callow, The Commission of H.M.S. Royal Arthur, 11.

  85. 85.

    Dunslow and Jones, The Commission of H.M.S. Eclipse, 80.

  86. 86.

    Gibbs, The Cruise of H.M.S. Grafton, 34–35.

  87. 87.

    Navy and Army Illustrated, 4 September 1896.

  88. 88.

    M.E. Donoghue, The Log of H.M.S. Crescent (London: Westminster Press, 1907), 64.

  89. 89.

    Diary of Mr Dicks of H.M.S. Proserpine, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, JC 68 100/79 (2), 3.

  90. 90.

    ‘Blue Jackets Drowned’, Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times, 7 February 1911.

  91. 91.

    Journal kept by Edward Charrington, 1890–1892, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, 1999/51/3.

  92. 92.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 203.

  93. 93.

    ‘On the Golf Links, Esquimalt’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 20 June 1900.

  94. 94.

    ‘A Nine-hole Course in Crete’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 18 February 1899.

  95. 95.

    W.R. Kennedy, ‘Sport in the Navy’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 20 December 1893, 9.

  96. 96.

    John M. MacKenzie, The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988), 22, 26, 37, 46, 50.

  97. 97.

    W.R. Kennedy, ‘Sport in the Navy’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 20 December 1893, 9.

  98. 98.

    Angela Thompsell, Hunting Africa: British Sport, African Knowledge and the Nature of Empire (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 3–5.

  99. 99.

    MacKenzie, The Empire of Nature, 22, 26, 37, 46, 50. A good summary of the current historiography can be found in Thompsell, Hunting Africa, 3–5, 11.

  100. 100.

    Vice—Admiral Sir William R. Kennedy, K.C.B. ‘Off duty with rod and gun—Sport in the Navy’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 4 June 1898.

  101. 101.

    A. Reeve, The Commission of H.M.S. Perseus. East Indies, Including Persian Gulf and Somaliland. 1901–1904 (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 39.

  102. 102.

    Journal kept by Edward Charrington, 1890–1892, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, 1999/51/3.

  103. 103.

    W.R. Kennedy, ‘Sport in the Navy’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 20 December 1893, 9; Navy and Army Illustrated, 16 July 1898, 388.

  104. 104.

    Thompsell, Hunting Africa, 162.

  105. 105.

    W.R. Kennedy, ‘Sport in the Navy’, Navy and Army Illustrated, 20 December 1893, 9; Navy and Army Illustrated, 16 July 1898, 388.

  106. 106.

    Butterworth, The Commission of H.M.S. Glory, 43–44; Newton, The Commission of H.M.S. Grafton, 35.

  107. 107.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 199.

  108. 108.

    Diary of Mr Dicks of H.M.S. Proserpine, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, JC 68 100/79 (2), 46.

  109. 109.

    G. Crowe, From Portsmouth to Peking via Ladysmith with a Naval Brigade (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Daily Press, 1901), 93–94; Anning, Bentley, and Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Argonaut, 15, 22; G.H. Gunns, The Log of H.M.S. Sutlej, Pacific and China Stations, 1904–1906 (London: Westminster Press, 1906), 37.

  110. 110.

    Brodie, Ray, and Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Goliath, 119; Butterworth, The Commission of H.M.S. Glory, 50–51; Gibbs, The Cruise of H.M.S. Grafton, 104; Masker, ‘The China Station in Other Days’, 522–533.

  111. 111.

    Wheeler, The Commission of H.M.S. Pandora, 104.

  112. 112.

    Whiteley and Davis, The Commission of H.M.S. Bulwark, 151–153; Tyler, The Commission of H.M.S. Lancaster, 42.

  113. 113.

    Navy and Army Illustrated, 18 February 1899.

  114. 114.

    Wheeler, The Commission of H.M.S. Pandora, 56–57.

  115. 115.

    Diary of A C East, H.M.S. Natal on its Cruise to India as escort to Royal Visit, 30 November 1911, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Manuscript Collection, 95/90 (28).

  116. 116.

    ‘Jack–Tar Footballers’, Australian Star, 12 September 1903.

  117. 117.

    'The Modern Blue Jacket: His Well Filled Stocking', Sydney Sunday Times, 18 September 1910.

  118. 118.

    Navy (Sobriety)—Resolution, House of Commons Debate, 13 August 1881, Hansard, vol. 264 cols 1821-351821.

  119. 119.

    Ibid.

  120. 120.

    Lionel Yexley, Grog Time Yarns (London: Westminster Press, 1904), ii.

  121. 121.

    Christopher McKee, Sober Men and True: Sailor Lives in the Royal Navy, 1900–1945 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 120–122.

  122. 122.

    Diary of Mr Dicks of H.M.S. Proserpine, Royal Naval Museum, Manuscript Collection, JC 68 100/79 (2), 80.

  123. 123.

    Lionel Yexley, Grog Time Yarns (London: Westminster Press, 1904), ii.

  124. 124.

    Gunns, The Log of H.M.S. Sutlej, 23, 34; Brown, The Log of H.M.S. Repulse, 27. For home ports, see Moon, “Sailorhoods,” 31–159.

  125. 125.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 162.

  126. 126.

    That British sailors interacted with Japanese sailors in much the same way as Europeans and Americans was a result of the westernisation of Japan by the late Nineteenth century. Furthermore, there was a strong connection with Britain, which became an official ally in 1902 and manufactured many of Japan’s ships, trained its cadets, and provided a model for the Japanese navy. However, the British view of the Japanese was complex: They were rarely seen as entirely equal. See Rotem Kowner, ‘“Lighter Than Yellow, But Not Enough”: Western Discourse on the Japanese “Race,” 1854–1904’, Historical Journal, 43, 1, 103–131; Olive Checkland, Britain's Encounter with Meiji Japan, 1868–1912 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989), especially 148–158.

  127. 127.

    See, amongst others, Watts, The Commission of H.M.S. Retribution, 17–19; Dougherty, The East Station, 22. Walton also notes not much was written about alcohol, but those accounts that do exist suggest heavy drinking was normal. Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 166.

  128. 128.

    Mary A. Conley, “You Don’t Make a Torpedo Gunner Out of a Drunkard”: Agnes Weston, Temperance, and the British Navy’, The Northern Mariner, IX, 1, (January 1999), 1.

  129. 129.

    Lavery suggests that despite Aggie Weston’s campaigns, sailors still fought and got drunk in Portsmouth and Plymouth—often over women, Lavery, Able Seamen, 112.

  130. 130.

    Anning, Bentley, and Yexley, The Log of H.M.S. Argonaut, 8.

  131. 131.

    J.R.M.A. Brown, The Log of H.M.S. Repulse, 1902–1904, Mediterranean Station (London: Westminster Press, 1904), 16; Joseph Bonnici and Michael Cassar, A Century of the Royal Navy at Malta (Malta: BDL, 1999), 26–32.

  132. 132.

    Raphael Semmes, The Confederate Raider Alabama (London: Richard Bentley, 1865), 286; C. Knox and C. Coetzee, Victorian Life at the Cape, 1870–1900 (Cape Town: Fernwood Press, 1992), 32.

  133. 133.

    Daily Telegraph, 24 June 1879.

  134. 134.

    Journals of Donovan C. Roe, 1911–1912, NMM, JOD/92/2.

  135. 135.

    Newton, The Commission of H.M.S. Grafton, 12–13; Stan Hugill, Sailortown (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967), 250.

  136. 136.

    ‘Very Much Drunk’, Thames Advertiser, 21 June 1893.

  137. 137.

    ‘Bluejacket teetotallers in Ballarat’ Ballarat Star, 23 November 1883.

  138. 138.

    Navy (Sobriety)—Resolution, House of Commons Debate, 13 August 1881, Hansard, vol. 264 cols 1821-351821. Agnes Weston frequently made the same point. Conley, “You Don’t Make a Torpedo Gunner Out of a Drunkard,” 6, 9.

  139. 139.

    Semmes, The Confederate Raider Alabama, 320–335.

  140. 140.

    Lavery, Able Seamen, 168. Walton suggests that extensive alcohol abuse was an issue, although the supporting footnote suggests this is not clear cut with a peak of only 25 cases of courts martial in 1881. Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 310.

  141. 141.

    ‘A Commander in the Royal Navy, 1827’ by Sir Joseph Sidney Yorke, cited in Isaac Land, ‘Customs of the Sea: Flogging, Empire, and the “True British Seaman” 1770 to 1870’, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 3:2 (2001), 174.

  142. 142.

    ‘Bluejacket teetotallers in Ballarat’ Ballarat Star, 23 November 1883; Conley, “You Don’t Make a Torpedo Gunner Out of a Drunkard,” 2, 14.

  143. 143.

    Hobart Mercury, 25 March 1881; Conley, “You Don’t Make a Torpedo Gunner Out of a Drunkard,” 3.

  144. 144.

    See Erica Wald, Vice in the Barracks: Medicine, the Military and the Marking of Colonial India, 1780–1868 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); Lavery, Able Seamen, 169.

  145. 145.

    This is especially the case because indigenous populations were supposedly childlike and unable to control their drink.

  146. 146.

    In 1903, for example, in the whole of the navy afloat, there were only 88 cases of “Poisoning (by alcohol)” when drinking resulted in a visit to the sick bay, a rate of 0.85 personnel in 1000. Just one of these cases was invalided, and two men died. British Parliamentary Papers, 1904 (320) Navy (Health) for the Year 1903.

  147. 147.

    Brown, The Log of H.M.S. Repulse, 16.

  148. 148.

    Moon, “Sailorhoods,” 198.

  149. 149.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 314.

  150. 150.

    Daily Telegraph, 24 June 1879.

  151. 151.

    ‘Jack Ashore in the Pacific Islands’, Evening News, 14 September 1895.

  152. 152.

    ‘The “Tar” Shindy at Hongkong’, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 4 June 1898.

  153. 153.

    ‘Jack Tar Triumpant’, Melbourne Leader, 6 March 1897.

  154. 154.

    ‘A Patriotic Blue-Jacket’, Western Champion, 17 November 1896.

  155. 155.

    ‘Jack Ashore in the Pacific Islands’, Evening News, 14 September 1895.

  156. 156.

    Ibid.

  157. 157.

    Ibid. 

  158. 158.

    T. Nilsson, ‘Hey Sailor, Looking for Trouble? in Brad Beaven, Karl Bell, and Robert James (eds), Port Towns and Urban Cultures: International Histories of the Waterfront, c. 1700–2000 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 69–89.

  159. 159.

    Walton notes that British sailors also fought Maltese residents. Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 166.

  160. 160.

    ‘Jack Tar in Trouble’, Evening Star, 5 June 1905.

  161. 161.

    ‘Blue, Blue, Blue!’, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 December 1907.

  162. 162.

    ‘Men of the King’s Navy. Demon Drink runs riot at Manly’, Australian Star, 27 December 1905. See also, for example, ‘Jack Tar and Policeman’, Evening News, 21 April 1908.

  163. 163.

    ‘Jack Ashore’, Sydney Truth, 18 April 1897.

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    ‘Jack in Jeopardy’, Sydney Truth, 1 May 1904.

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    ‘Jack Tar Triumpant’, Melbourne Leader, 6 March 1897.

  166. 166.

    ‘Highly Strung Nerves’, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 1909.

  167. 167.

    ‘Liverpool Street Riot’, Hobart Clipper, 10 February 1894.

  168. 168.

    Robert A. Hart, The Great White Fleet; Its Voyage around the World, 1907–1909 (Boston: Little, 1965), 220.

  169. 169.

    ‘Jack Tars on The Loose’, West Coast Times, 22 November 1910.

  170. 170.

    Lavery, Able Seamen, 109.

  171. 171.

    Walton, Social History of the Royal Navy, 190.

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    Steven Gray

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Gray, S. (2018). A Maritime Community?. In: Steam Power and Sea Power. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57642-2_8

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