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Updated: May 17, 2025
I have examined the muster-book of every ship mentioned in the Admiralty letter to the Board of Ordnance above referred to, and also of the ships mentioned in TheNavalChronicle as fitting out in the early part of 1803. There are altogether thirty-three ships; but two of them, the Utrecht and the Gelykheid, were used as temporary receiving ships for newly raised men.
Out of twenty names on one page of her muster-book thirteen are those of 'prest' men discharged to other ships. The discharges from the Victory were numerous; and the Ardent, which was employed in keeping up communication with the ships off Brest, passed men on to the latter when required. I have, however, made no deductions from the 'prest' total to meet these cases.
One column was headed 'Whence, and whether prest or not? In this was noted his former ship, or the fact of his being entered direct from the shore, which answered to the question 'Whence? There is reason to believe that the muster-book being, as above said, primarily an account-book, the words 'whether prest or not' were originally placed at the head of the column so that it might be noted against each man entered whether he had been paid 'prest-money' or not.
Primarily it was an account-book, as it contains entries of the payments made to each person whose name appears in it. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was usual to make out a fresh muster-book every two months, though that period was not always exactly adhered to.
In the Elizabethan ship they superintended the stowage of the ballast, and were in charge below, over the ballast shifters, when the ships were laid on their sides to be scraped and tallowed. They also had to keep a variety of fish hooks ready, in order to catch any fish, such as sharks or bonitos. He kept the ship's muster-book, with some account of every man borne upon it.
If there was any holding back on their part, it was due, no doubt, to an expectation which the sequel showed to be well founded that a bounty would be given to men joining the navy. The muster-book of a man-of-war is the official list of her crew. It contains the name of every officer and man in the complement.
These valuable personages, under the general superintendence of the captain of the ordinary, an old officer of rank, and assisted by a few lads to row them to and from the shore, keep the ships clean, and guard against fire and pillage, to which they might otherwise be exposed at their moorings in the different creeks. The next step, after the ship is commissioned, is to open a muster-book.
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