battalion-days

Updated: June 19, 2025

It was customary when the fleet was thus assembled to hold battalion-days that is to say, that all the various crews would land with their rifles and cutlasses, and a field gun from each ship. Headed by the flag-ship's band, we would be marched to a plain, and there engage in infantry drill as a battalion.

Henry Cowling - From Lower Deck to Pulpit