"I pray leave to remark that at this juncture there is a pretty good harmony and agreement among the Scholars and the several Masters; and that upon my frequent visiting the Academy I find the latter are very diligent, and give due attention to their business, and the methods used by them in educating the young gentlemen are very regular, familiar, and instructive, and agreeably to the plan approved by their Lordships." Every candidate, before admission, was examined by the head master, in the presence of the Governor, and a report made to the Admiralty whether he was "found to have made such progress in his education as qualifies him to enter upon the Plan of Learning established for Scholars in the Academy." Similarly, before a scholar could be sent to sea, the head master gave a certificate in the following form:-- "Mr. ---- has in two years eight months and fifteen days finished the Plan of Mathematical Learning, and made a manuscript copy thereof; in consequence, he is judged qualified to serve in H.M. Navy." There happens to be in existence at the present time, in excellent preservation, one of these manuscript copies of the Plan of Learning, by no less a person than the celebrated Captain Philip Bowes Vere Broke, of whose exploit in the _Shannon_, when he captured the American frigate _Chesapeake_ after an action lasting only twenty minutes, the well-known verses tell in such graphic style:-- Brave Broke, he waved his sword, Crying, "Now, my lads, aboard, And we'll stop their playing Yankee-doodle dandy, oh!" [Illustration: THE TITLE-PAGE OF BROKE'S BOOK.] This book, which is very appropriately lodged on board the _Britannia_, is a heavy volume of portentous size and thickness, filled from end to end with problems in various subjects, beautifully written and worked out, and illustrated by neatly executed sketches, diagrams, etc. The title page is elegantly inscribed: "A Plan of Mathematical Learning taught in the Royal Academy, Portsmouth; performed by Philip B. V. Broke, a Student there: 1792." The subjects comprise arithmetic, geometry, plane trigonometry, the use of the terrestrial globes, geography, chronology, spherics, astronomy, latitude, longitude, dead reckoning, marine surveying, fortification, gunnery, mechanics. [Illustration: A PAGE FROM BROKE'S BOOK.] In addition to this very comprehensive mathematical course, the students, as we have seen, were taught French and drawing, fencing, dancing, seamanship, and ship construction.