But to begin with,
it may be objected that men trained in Royal Navy discipline
and habits never mix well with men trained in the other
service; their customs and habits of life and work are quite
different to those of the merchant seaman. It used to be a
recognised belief that the sailor of the merchantman could
adapt himself with striking facility to the work of the
Royal Navy and its discipline, but the Navy trained man was
never successful aboard a cargo vessel. The former
impression originated, no doubt, during the good old times
when it was customary for prowling ruffians from men-of-war
to drag harmless British citizens from their homes to man
H.M. Navy, and all the world knows how quickly they adapted
themselves to new conditions, and how well they fought
British battles! But what a sickening reality to ponder
over, that less than a century ago the powerful caste in
this country were permitted, in defiance of law, to have
press-gangs formed for the purpose of kidnapping respectable
seamen into a service that was made at that time a barbarous
despotism by a set of brainless whipper-snappers who gained
their rank by backstair intrigue with a shameless
aristocracy! All that kind of villainy has been wiped out;
and the men of the Royal Navy are now treated like human
beings; and they do their work not a whit less courageously
and well than they did when it was customary to lash God's
creatures with strands of whipcord loaded with lead until
the blood oozed from their skins.
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