necessarily and generally a smart young man all round. He and the secretary mess at the admiral's table and not in the ward-room. A man-of-war, it will be realized, even from this necessarily very brief attempt to describe those who make their "home on the rolling deep" on board her, is a little world in herself. FOOTNOTES: [74] Except between 1713 and 1739, when there were no marines. [75] "Fixed" is, perhaps, not the right word to use. Up to and including part of the nineteenth century, marines and soldiers seem to have been enlisted for an indefinite period--for as long or short a time as the Government chose to keep them. [76] The Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers were disbanded in 1892 on the report of a Committee of which the late Admiral Sir George Tryon was president. The report said: "The corps of Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers is composed of men who have not, as a rule, practical acquaintance with the sea, but are attracted by sympathy and aspiration. The Committee suggest that there are grounds for maintaining that a Volunteer Force affiliated to the Royal Marine Artillery--from the system of training and discipline that would be established--would be a far more permanently valuable force than any so-termed naval force in which are enrolled men not inured to sea-life and who have no sufficient practical experience at sea, which experience cannot be given by Government under any volunteer system we can devise." [77] The bluejacket of to-day, by the way, often refers to himself as a "Matlow" or a "Flat-foot", while the marines are often termed "Leather-necks". [78] i.e. the anchor [79] i.e. the ship's company. [80] Said to be a corruption of _gendarme_. CHAPTER XVI Beginning of the War Afloat "Hark! I hear the cannon's roar Echoing from the German shore." Old Nautical Ballad (in Huth Collection). "Come all ye jolly sailors bold, Whose hearts are cast in honour's mould, While English glory I unfold. Huzza for the _Arethusa_! Her men are staunch To their fav'rite launch, And when the foe shall meet our fire, Sooner than strike we'll all expire On board of the _Arethusa_. "And, now we've driven the foe ashore Never to fight with Britons more, Let each fill his glass To his fav'rite lass; A health to our captain and officers true, And all that belong to the jovial crew On board of the _Arethusa_." Old Naval Song. Ordered by the Admiralty to be engraved upon a brass plate and fixed in a conspicuous position on board H.M.S. _Arethusa_, after the Battle of the Bight, 28th August, 1914.