My attention was called to the bulletin offering inducements for volunteers to the Gunnery Schoolship Excellent. Men of good education, first-class seamen and physically perfect, were eligible. A man named McMinn and I made applications for the required examination. Both of us were taken on board the Excellent and most thoroughly examined. Everything being satisfactory, we were transferred and made "seamen gunners" and "submarine divers" in Her Majesty's service. The term of service was altered to twenty-one years. Extra pay was allowed for the grade of gunners. Two-pence--four cents--extra was allowed a day as submarine diver and one shilling an hour while diving, and one penny a day for each good-conduct stripe, three being the limit. A service pension was to be granted for seventeen years' service, at eight pence a day, that being additional to our regular pay. The Excellent was an old frigate anchored close to the navy yard. She had no masts or rigging, the crew having nothing more to do with the seamanship. We were divided into four divisions, each division changing exercises daily. From nine in the morning until three in the afternoon we were constantly drilling. Breech- and muzzle-loading guns, broadside guns, howitzers and muskets and rifles and pikes and cutlasses, all came in rotation, and target practice daily with big guns and small arms. Then, by turns, we would put on the submarine armour and practise at diving in thirty feet of water. On Saturdays and Sundays we had a rest. Five days' drilling in a week was sufficient. When a man-of-war was ready for sea an order would be sent to the Excellent for the same number of seamen gunners as the ship had guns. Then we would rank as Captains of the Guns and receive pay as petty officers. For instance, a frigate of forty guns was ready for sea; forty men from the Excellent would be sent on board. As soon as the frigate returned from a cruise the forty men would be sent back to continue their practice in gunnery. At three of the afternoon, every day, three divisions were at liberty to go on shore and remain until half-past seven the next morning.