Now, during the remaining years
of this war and throughout the Napoleonic war, great as were the
demands of the navy, they only in one year, that of the rupture
of the Peace of Amiens, equalled the demand at the beginning of
the Revolutionary war. From the beginning of hostilities till
the final close of the conflict in 1815 the number of merchant
seamen fell only once--viz. in 1795, the fall being 3200. In 1795,
however, the demand for men for the navy was less than half that
of 1794. The utmost, therefore, that Sir T. Byam Martin desired
to establish was that, on a single occasion in an unusually
protracted continuance of war, the strength of our merchant service
enabled it to reinforce the navy up to the latter's requirements;
but its doing so prevented it from giving much help afterwards.
All the same, men in large numbers had to be found for the navy
yearly for a long time. This will appear from the tables which
follow:--
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
-------------------------------------------------------
| | | | | Total |
| | Seamen | | | additional |
| | voted for | | | number |
| Year. | the navy | Increase. | 'Waste.' | required. |
|-------------------------------------------------------|
| 1794 | 72,885 | 36,885 | 2,160 | 39,045 |
| 1795 | 85,000 | 12,115 | 4,368 | 16,483 |
| 1796 | 92,000 | 7,000 | 5,100 | 12,100 |
| 1797 | 100,000 | 8,000 | 5,520 | 13,520 |
| 1798 | 100,000 | -- | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| 1799 | 100,000 | -- | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| 1800 | 97,300 | -- | -- | -- |
| 1801 | 105,000 | 7,700 | Absorbed | 7,700 |
| | | | by | |
| | | | previous | |
| | | |reduction.
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