Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 683: Chapter 592 The Problem with Talents

The British “press gangs” would even go to the United States to capture sailors—they claimed those sailors were immigrants from England who still had obligations to serve in the Royal Navy and took them away to be stuffed into British warships.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the British Navy’s battleship “Leopard” directly intercepted the United States Navy’s “Chesapeake” in Boston Port and attempted to board the ship to press men into service.

As a result, the Americans immediately sounded the battle alarm, and after the exchange of fire, the “Chesapeake” surrendered, and the British took some of the sailors on board…

This was the famous “Chesapeake Incident,” which became an important catalyst for the War of 1812.

As for why France did not adopt England’s practices,

One reason was that the French people were not as compliant as the British commoners; they had “protest” in their veins. If the French Navy dared to press men like the British press gangs, they would face riots from the citizens of the port cities.

Furthermore, the number of French sailors was far less than the nationwide maritime-dependent English; sailors were relatively rare resources, and the French Navy was unwilling to severely offend the seafaring community.

Therefore, France adopted the current reward system—the sailor registration system.

Any sailor who registered at the government office could receive subsidies of several dozen francs per year, but when the navy needed them, registered sailors must fulfill their service obligations.

The navy would even pay for the registered sailors’ travel expenses from their hometowns to the camps and double the spoils of war during conflicts.

Yet, even so, the French sailors, “loving freedom and unruly,” still did not want to register.

For example, the navy’s registration list currently only had about 10,000 people. Yet, the gap for sailors during wartime could reach up to forty or fifty thousand.

This forced the French Navy to conscript many inexperienced individuals to board ships, even temporarily borrowing people from the army—some of these individuals had never even set foot on a ship before.

With such quality of sailors, it was impossible to say that their warships were originally not as good as British ones. Even if the French and the English had identical fleets, France would still end up disastrously defeated.

The well-known Battle of Trafalgar during Napoleonic times was exactly like that. The French and Spanish Combined Fleet’s warships were not much inferior to the British ones, but the outcome still resulted in a devastating defeat by the British, with skilled British sailors playing a critical role.

After hearing Marquis Castries, Joseph immediately thought of adopting the model used by the army.

“Perhaps,” he said, looking at the Navy Minister, “we could establish a naval academy to train a large number of qualified sailors.”

Marquis Castries seemed not very enthusiastic and said diplomatically, “Your Highness, this might help somewhat, but it will hardly solve the problem completely.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“We need a large number of crew members, like during the Seven Years’ War, where we conscripted forty to fifty thousand sailors.”

“Fifty thousand?” Joseph frowned, realizing the number was indeed significant, but still insisted, “Then we will train fifty thousand cadets.”

For the sake of naval development, he was willing to invest substantial funds.

Marquis Castries immediately waved his hands, saying, “Your Highness, we really can’t use that many people.”

Joseph staggered back, “What do you mean? Do you need fifty thousand sailors or not?”

Marquis Castries hurriedly explained, “Your Highness, the navy usually only needs over six thousand personnel. It’s only during war that we need tens of thousands of sailors. This means we don’t have to sustain such a large number of crew members…”

He elaborated further, and Joseph finally understood; normally, nearly 70% of the fleet remained docked at the port—it was unavoidable, as these money-consuming behemoths, once deployed, would cost a massive amount of money.

This was also why the navy’s expenses were substantial during the war.

Moreover, the number of combat positions on the warships also significantly increased during wartime.

For example, a third-class battleship normally only needed to carry 40 marines, but during a war, it needed a full crew of 150 people.

These marines, unlike the marines of later times, primarily served to supervise the crew and help the captain maintain “control.” Of course, they could also fire at enemy ships during intense battles.

At the same time, the number of sailors on the warships increased during wartime as well. For instance, gunners definitely had to be fully staffed, which was not necessary during peacetime. Additional sailors were also required for other positions as replacements during battle losses.

This meant that after the outbreak of war, the navy’s need for crew members would surge dramatically.

In this aspect, the British Navy was even more extreme, with their crew size increasing tenfold during wartime!

And since sailors’ salaries were quite higher than infantrymen’s, the navy, which was always strapped for funds, definitely did not want to maintain so many freeloaders during peacetime.

More importantly, the navy preferred having these sailors go out to sea with merchant ships rather than idle on land, as this helped continuously improve their navigational skills.

In this era, the mode of operation of merchant ships and warships was nearly identical, including the commands.

The merchant sailors brought on board warships could immediately engage in combat.

As Joseph and company sat down at the dining table, he pondered, “So, it seems that what we lack are not sailors but ordinary seamen.”

Marquis Castelli immediately nodded, “Indeed so, Your Highness. It’s not just the navy; our merchant ships constantly struggle to find enough seamen. Merchants often have to go round to Italy to recruit people before heading for long voyages.”

“Why do people not wish to be seamen then?”

“This…” The Navy Minister seemed a bit embarrassed, and his voice dropped considerably, “When we had North American and Far Eastern colonies, this problem wasn’t so severe…”

Joseph was silent as well.

Indeed, France lost all its overseas colonies during the Seven Years’ War; without the support of massive overseas trade, who would become a seaman and not starve to death?

England alone supported many sailors with just the British-Indian trade route. So, Louis XV could still compete with England on the seas back then, but afterward, the situation worsened progressively.

He sighed deeply and said, “The naval academy still needs to be established. We should strive to support the foundation of the navy with professional soldiers. This will also allow us to implement uniform standards of combat and navigation across the fleet.”

In this era, every position on a warship could be considered a high-level talent, especially positions like officers, helmsmen, navigators, gunners, and doctors; if only relying on civilian training, the process would inevitably be very slow.

But if there were a dedicated naval academy to teach these, the process would be much faster, and the quality of personnel could also improve.

Historically, it was not until nearly half a century later that France realized this issue and established its first naval academy. Of course, at the moment, aside from Portugal, which had a semi-military-style maritime academy, no other European countries had naval academies.

“Additionally, we need to increase our maritime trade volume as much as possible.”