Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/335

317 DOCK YARDS 317 issued to the dockyard officers, and regret that a work of such utility should not have been completed. The com mission consisted of Admiral Lord Barham, John Fordyce, Esq., Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, Bart, Vice- Admiral Domett, and Ambrose Serle, Esq. They made fifteen dis tinct reports, the date of the first being 13th June 1805, of the last the 6th March 1808. All these except two were printed by order of the House of Commons, and were mostly carried into effect by Orders in Council. One of the two not printed is an inquiry into the state of the navy at different periods, and of naval timber ; the other relates to the formation of a new dock -yard at ISTorthfleet. These reports led to the establishment, for the first time, in all dockyards, of one uniform system of management, by which it was hoped incalculable advantages would have been secured, in the preventing of frauds, in the saving of labour and materials, and consequently time and expense, and in securing better workmanship in the construction of ships ; but the system was cumbrous and expensive, and has given way to other more judicious management. The management of the dockyards, and of all the civil affairs of the navy, was formerly intrusted to certain com missioners, of whom the comptroller of the navy, three surveyors, and seven other commissioners formed a board at Somerset House, for the general direction and superin tendence of the civil concerns of the navy, subject to the control of the Admiralty. At most of the yards, both home and foreign, was a commissioner of the navy, who was nearly always a naval officer of the rank of captain. The foreign yards over which a commissioner presided were Bermuda, Cape of Good Hope, Gibraltar, Halifax, Jamaica, Malta, Quebec, Kingston (Canada), and Trincomalee. These, with the five belonging to the home yards, Woolwich (including Deptford), Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, made the whole number of commissioners of the navy amount to twenty-four. In 1832 Sir James Graham, then first lord of the Admiralty, substituted for these commissioners five depart mental officers, who were called &quot; principal &quot; officers of the navy. These were the surveyor of the navy, the accountant-general, the storekeeper -general, the comp troller of victualling and transports, the director general of the medical department (see ADMIRALTY). To these were subsequently added a director of works and a director of transports. In 1869 this arrangement was modified. The post of storekeeper-general was abolished, and the duties discharged by him were incorporated with the department of the comptroller of the navy, who had a few years before superseded the more limited surveyor of the navy ; the office of comptroller of victual ling was also modified, and the work of his department was incorporated with that of the Admiralty generally, under the control of the sea lord. The business of purchase and sale for each of the five departments was at the same time concentrated in one purchase department under a director of navy contracts. Victualling establishments. At each of the dockyards at Deptford, Portsmouth, and Plymouth are victualling establishments for supplying the fleet with provisions and water ; and also at Cork, Cape of Good Hope, Gibraltar, Malta, Jamaica, Halifax, Trincomalee, Rio de Janeiro, Barbados, Sierra Leone, Hong Kong, Valparaiso, and Bermuda. The victualling board at Somerset House con sisted formerly of a chairman and deputy chairman, and five other commissioners, two secretaries, a registrar of securities, and 136 clerks. The transport board having been dissolved at the end of the great French war, its twofold duties were divided between the navy and victualling boards ; those which concerned the hiring of transports devolved 011 the commissioners of the navy, and those which related to the sick and hurt depart ment, on the commissioners of the victualling board, on whom also devolved the direction and superintendence of all the naval hospitals at home and abroad. These have also merged in the Admiralty, where there is a transport depart ment under the supervision of a director of transports, a naval officer, first appointed after the Crimean war. Officers of the dockyard. The principal officers of an established dockyard, prior to 1833, were 1, the com missioner ; 2, the master attendant ; 3, the master ship wright ; 4, the clerk of the check ; 5, the storekeeper ; 6, the clerk of the survey ; to which were added the subor dinate officers of timber-master, and the master measurer. By the regulations in 1833, the commissioner was superseded by a superintendent, the offices of clerk of the check, clerk of the survey, and master measurer were abolished, and a store-receiver was substituted for the timber-master. Many subordinate offices were abolished, and the whole system of working the men and keeping the accounts was simplified and amended. Some idea may be formed of the diminution of the expense by the simple fact that, while in the ordinary estimate of the navy for 1817 the establish ment of officers in Portsmouth yard was 50,065, in 1833 it was only 19,803, and in 1853, 20,121. To this last, however, must be added the salaries of officers employed in the steam factory, which amounted to 2555. The principal officers in the factory are 1, the chief engineer and inspector of machinery ; 2, his assistant ; 3, assistant inspector of machinery ; 4, foreman of the factory ; 5, foreman of boilermakers ; 6, pay-clerk and book-keeper. At one time the men in the dockyards were employed almost wholly on job and task- work. Between 1850 and the present time they have been almost wholly on a day pay smaller than that given in the general trade, but having a title to a pension, contingently upon good service and good behaviour, attached to it. In 1869 Mr Childers cut down to a considerable extent the &quot; establishment &quot; system of dockyardmen, replaced the vacancies with hired men on higher pay, but without a title to pension, and with the usual liability to discharge at a week s notice when work is slack. The salary system, with its concomi tant vested interests, was not found to be productive of quick and therefore of economical work. Mr Childers s alteration improved matters not a little, but job and task work, besides being more in accordance with the usages of the day, is far more likely to interest and stimulate the men. One great advantage, however, of the salary system is the discouragement it gives to strikes. The conditions under which alone pensions are earned act as deterrents. In ordinary years the number of workmen of all kinds required for the service of the dockyards is, in round numbers, 16,000. Defence of the yards. In the year 1847 the workmen of the several dockyards were enrolled into a corps for the defence of the yards; and certain numbers were trained to the use of the great gun exercise, so that each of the dock yard battalions had some artillery attached to them. In 1854 the corps fell into desuetude, and was finally swallowed up in the volunteer movement. FOREIGN DOCKYARDS. The dockyards of the principal foreign states at the present time (1877) are as follows : Austria Pola and Trieste. Denmark Copenhagen. France. Cherbourg, Brest, L Orient, Rochefort, Toulon. Germany Kiel, Dantzic, Wilhelinshafen. Italy Spezzia, Naples, Castellamare. Russia, Cronstadt, St Petersburg, Sevastopol, Nicholaieff. Spain Cartagena, Cadiz. United States... Portsmouth, Charlestown, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington, Norfolk, Pensacola, Mare Island (Pacific).