THE SHIP CHURCH.
The carpenters and the watch on deck soon carry aft their benches and
mess-stools; but these not being sufficient to afford accommodation
for all hands, as many capstan-bars as may be required are likewise
brought up and placed athwart the quarter-deck, with their ends
resting on match-tubs and fire-buckets, or on the carronade-slides.
These seats occupy the whole of the space from the break of the
quarter-deck and the belaying bits round the mainmast, as far as the
companion-hatchway. Chairs from the cabin and gun-room are also placed
abaft all, for the captain and officers, and on the lee side for the
warrant-officers and mids; for it need scarcely be mentioned that due
subordination is made to keep its place even in our church.
The pulpit stands amidships, either on the after-gratings, or on the
deck immediately before the hatchway. In some ships, this part of the
nautical church establishment consists of a moveable reading-desk,
made expressly for the occasion, but brought up from the carpenter's
store-room only when wanted; sometimes one of the binnacles is used
for this purpose; and I remember a ship in which the prayer-book was
regularly laid on a sword-rack, or stand, holding six dozen naked
cutlasses. The desk is covered over with a signal-flag, as well as the
hassock for the chaplain to kneel upon, which is usually a grape or
canister shot-box, surmounted by a cheese of great-gun wads, to make
it soft.
All this implies that the weather is fine, the awnings spread
overhead, and the curtains stretched fore and aft, to keep out the
heat and glare. In rainy or blustering weather the church is rigged
under the half-deck, much in the same way, except that the pulpit is
placed between two of the guns, and generally on the larboard side, as
nearly abreast of the quarter-deck ladder as may be.
When all is ready, the bell is tolled by one of the quarter-masters;
and the crew, quietly clustering aft, occupy the bars, stools, planks,
and gun-slides, prepared for their accommodation. The marines range
themselves on the front seats; while the officers take their places,
of course not avowedly in the order of date in their commissions, but,
more or less, they do fall into their respective stations according to
seniority. The chaplain is now informed that every one is assembled;
or, if there be no clergyman on board, the report is made to the
captain, who generally officiates in that case. When the service
begins, if there be any other ship in company, a pendant, such as
men-of-war carry at their mast-head to distinguish them from
merchant-ships, is hoisted at the mizen peak, to show that the ship's
company are at prayers. This signal, which is kept flying during the
performance of divine service, is respected by every other ship,
whether commanded by a superior officer or not.
Besides the prayers, which, as I have already mentioned, are
"according to the Liturgy of the Church of England, established by
law," the chaplain gives a short discourse, not exceeding at most
twenty or twenty-five minutes in length. Some captains are in the
habit of reading a sermon; but more commonly, when there is no
clergyman on board, the prayers are deemed sufficient. These points,
as may be supposed, become frequent matters of discussion in the
fleet. I shall not enter into them further just now than by observing
that the majority of right-thinking officers appear to agree, that, if
the church service on board ship be not "solemnly, orderly, and
reverently performed," according to the terms and in the spirit of the
first article of war, it is either useless or worse than useless. It
ought therefore to take place as regularly and habitually as the
nature of the ship's duties will allow of. In the next place, it seems
clear, that if the service be rendered so long, or be otherwise so
conducted, as not to arrest the attention of the crew, or not to
maintain it alive when once fixed, it is too long.
I will venture to say, there is rarely to be met with anywhere a more
orderly or a more attentive congregation, in all respects, than on
board a man-of-war.
But, notwithstanding all Jack's decorum and his discipline, to say
nothing of his natural inclination, when duly encouraged, to reflect
seriously and properly on any subject, as he is made of ordinary flesh
and bones, his eyes will sometimes refuse to keep open under the
infliction of a dull or ill-delivered discourse; so that if the
person who officiates happens not to read very well, his best chance
for securing any useful attention consists in the brevity of his
prelections. If the quality, rather than the quantity, of instruction
be his object, he should be exceedingly careful not to fatigue his
hearers. The inverse rule of proportion obtains here with such
mortifying regularity, that the longer he makes the church service
beyond the mark of agreeable and easy attention, the more certain will
he be of missing his point.
The analogy, not to speak it profanely, between overloading a gun and
overloading a discourse applies especially to ship-preaching. Sailors
are such odd fellows that they are nowise moved by noise and smoke;
but they well know how to value a good aim, and always love and honour
a commanding-officer who truly respects their feelings, nor by means
of long-winded and ill-timed discourses, or what they irreverently
call psalm-singing, interferes too much with their religious concerns.
It would be easy, though perhaps rather invidious, to point out in
what other respects many officers are apt, besides the protracted
length of the church service on Sunday, to err in excess in these
matters. I am very sorry to say it would be still easier to show in
what respects all of us err in defect. I should rejoice much more in
being able to make officers who have not sufficiently reflected on
these things, duly sensible that it is quite as much to their
immediate professional advantage that the religious duties of their
ship should form an essential part of the discipline of the crew, and
be considered not less useful in a moral point of view, than rigging
the masts properly is to the nautical department of their command.
If, indeed, religion, when applied to the ordinary business of life,
should be found inconsistent with those moral obligations which are
dictated to us by conscience; or even were we to discover that the
ablest, most virtuous, and most successful person, amongst us were
uniformly despisers of religion, then there would certainly be some
explanation, not to say excuse, for young and inexperienced men
venturing to dispute on such subjects, and claiming the bold privilege
of absolutely independent thought and action. But surely there is
neither excuse nor explanation, nor indeed any sound justification
whatsoever, for the presumption of those who, in the teeth of all
experience and authority, not only trust themselves with the open
expression of these cavils, but, having settled the whole question in
their own way, take the hazardous line of recommending their daring
example to those around them. It is also material to recollect that
there is not a single point of duty in the whole range of the naval
profession, which, when well understood, may not be enforced with
greater efficiency by a strict adherence to the sanctions of religion,
than if it were attempted single-handed; so that most of the
objections which one hears made to the due performance of the church
service on board ship, on the score of its interfering with the
discipline, are quite absurd, and inapplicable to the circumstances of
the case.
The captain of a man-of-war, therefore, if his influence be as
well-founded as it ought, may, in this most material of all respects,
essentially supply the place of a parent to young persons, who must be
considered for the time virtually as orphans. He may very possibly
not be learned enough to lay before his large nautical family the
historical and other external evidences of Christianity, and, perhaps,
may have it still less in his power to make them fully aware of the
just force of its internal evidences; but he can seldom have any doubt
as to his duty in this case more than in any other department of the
weighty obligations with which he is charged; and if he cannot here,
as elsewhere, make the lads under his care see distinctly, in the
main, what course it best becomes them to follow, he is hardly fit for
his station. I freely own that it is far beyond his power to make them
pursue that line, if they choose to be perverse; but he will neglect
an important, I might add, a sacred and solemn part of his business,
if he leaves their minds more adrift on the score of religion than he
can possibly help. Their steering in this ticklish navigation, it is
true, depends upon their own prudence; but it is his bounden duty to
provide them with both a rudder and a compass, and also, as far as he
is able, to instruct them, like a good pilot, in the course they ought
to shape. The eventual success of the great voyage of life lies with
themselves; the captain's duty, as a moral commander-in-chief, is done
if he sets his juvenile squadron fairly under weigh. It is in vain to
conceal from ourselves, that, unless both officers and men can be
embodied more or less as a permanent corps, every ship that is
commissioned merely furnishes a sort of fresh experiment in naval
discipline. The officers are brought together without any previous
acquaintance with one another; and many of them, after a long
residence on shore, have lost most of their naval habits. The
sailors, being collected how and where we can get hold of them, are
too frequently the off-scourings and scum of society. With such a
heterogeneous crew, the first year is employed in teaching them habits
of cleanliness and common decency; and it is only in the third year of
their service that the ship becomes really efficient. Just as that
point has been reached, all hands are turned off, to make room for
another experiment. If a few active men of the crew have become better
sailors, they generally go into the merchant-service for higher wages;
while the officers are again laid on the shelf. Something has been
done lately to retain the petty officers in the navy, but perhaps not
enough. It has been suggested that, instead of giving men pensions for
long servitude, it might be more useful to allow their wages to
increase gradually year by year, at some small rate, and at the end of
fourteen years give them half-pay of the rating to which they had
reached, if they chose to retire.[5]
In returning to the subject of the church, it must be remembered that
the circumstances of wind and weather will often interfere with the
regularity of our Sunday service. In some parts of an Indian voyage,
for instance, it may be safely calculated that no interruption will
take place; while there occur other stages of the passage when Divine
service must of necessity be stopped, to shorten sail or trim the
yards. In peace-time, or in harbour, or in fine weather at sea, no
such teasing interference is likely to arise; but in war, and on board
a cruising ship, the public service frequently calls a ship's company
to exchange their Bibles and Prayer-books for the sponges and rammers.
The collect in which they have petitioned to be defended from the fear
of their enemies, and that their time might be passed in rest and
quietness, may hardly have passed their lips, before they are eagerly
and joyfully scampering up the rigging to shake the reefs out in chase
of an enemy, with whom, in the next hour, they will perhaps be engaged
in hot fight!
I remember once in a frigate, cruising deep in the Bay of Biscay, just
as the captain had finished the Litany, and the purser, whose greatest
pleasure it was to officiate as clerk, had said Amen, that the man at
the main royal-mast head screamed out,--
"A strange sail, broad on the lee bow!"
The first effect of this announcement was to make the commander turn
round involuntarily to the man at the wheel and exclaim, "Put the helm
up!" He then closed the book, with a degree of energy of which he was
made somewhat ashamed when the sound was echoed back by that of the
rapidly closing volumes all around him.
"My lads," said he quickly, but not without solemnity, "our duty to
our King is our duty to God; and if, as I hope, this sail turn out to
be the ship we have been so long looking after, you will not give a
worse account of her to the country, I am sure, for having applied in
good earnest for assistance from aloft." After which, suddenly
changing his tone and manner, he sung out loudly and clearly,--
"Hands, make sail! Let go the bow-lines! Round in the weather braces!
Mast-head, there! let me know when the strange sail is right ahead!"
Then leaping on the hammocks, and resting his glass against the
after-swifter of the main-rigging, he swept the horizon impatiently
for the stranger. Meanwhile, the rattling of the chairs, capstan-bars,
match-tubs, and shot-boxes, gave token of the rapid demolition of our
nautical church. The studding-sail booms shot out like spears from the
yard-arms, and the sails which these spars were to expand hung
dangling and flapping in the air, as if the canvas had been alive, and
joined in the eagerness of the chase; while the ship herself,
trembling fore and aft under these fresh and spirit-stirring impulses,
dashed away at the rate of ten and a-half knots.
Such are the incidents which happen on board single frigates; those
rattling, joyous, fly-along, Salee-rover sort of cruisers, which range
at large over the wide ocean, scour every coast, and keep the war
famously alive. A much more stately ceremonial is observed on board
fleets, whether at sea, blockading a port, or lying in harbour. The
ships of the different divisions, or squadrons, wait till the admiral
hoists at his mizen-peak the signal indicating that Divine service has
commenced, the bell is then tolled in each of the other ships, the
usual pendant is displayed, and the first article of war is complied
with, not only to the letter, but often, we may hope and trust, fully
up to the spirit. I have heard many clergymen declare that they never
beheld any congregation in which more attention and decorum prevailed
than in our ship churches.
At sea, both in fleets and on board single ships, the afternoon of
Sunday is generally a season of rest and quietness; but in harbour it
is frequently the most annoying period of the whole week. There is
nothing for the men to do, and the time hangs terribly heavy on their
hands; to which it must be added, that our ships are too often
infested by some of the vilest contaminations of the shore. Bad as
these influences are, at any time or place, I believe they may he
considered at their worst when they come afloat; so that whenever it
can possibly be done without injury to the service, portions of the
ship's company should be allowed to go on shore in turn, albeit their
proceedings when "on liberty," as they call it, are none of the most
commendable. But we must let that pass. In foreign ports, however,
this indulgence is frequently impossible; and in cases when the people
cannot be permitted to land, the different men-of-war in company are
sure to send boat-loads of visitors, or what are called "liberty men,"
on board one another's ships, to pass the afternoon of Sunday. This
practice is the very bane of good discipline, and ought at all times
to be discouraged in every way; for it almost inevitably leads to
drunkenness, rioting, and bitter heart-burnings. It has, moreover, the
effect of making the men discontented with their own ship and their
own officers. The sailors are sufficiently sharp criticisers of the
conduct of their superiors, even when they have all the facts before
them, and the power of observing closely, and from day to day. But
when they pass on board other vessels, and interchange exaggerations
over an extra pot of grog, the mischievous consequence is certain;
for each of the parties is likely enough to break up the visit
miserably discontented, and to return under a thorough conviction
that, while everything done in their own ship is wrong, all the
officers are either foolish or tyrannical, or both. If there must be
ship-visiting, let it be on week days, and in the morning; but,
clearly, the less the better; and most assuredly it ought never to be
allowed on Sunday evening.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] It would have gratified Captain Hall if he had lived to see that
some of the changes for which he pleads so earnestly are being
adopted, and that the best hands in the navy are now retained as
continuous service men.