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Find My Past Blog - Ask the Expert - seamen’s schoolmaster

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  • Find My Past Blog - Ask the Expert - seamen’s schoolmaster

    Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.
    From Carol Dyer in New Zealand:
    ‘My great grandfather was on the Odin as ’seamen’s schoolmaster’ in about 1855. He is listed as receiving a medal for service in the Crimea.
    1. What would his job entail?
    2. What was the Odin doing in the Crimea? I can’t find many references to her.’
    Paul says:
    ‘The rating of Seamen’s Schoolmaster was covered in a memorandum issued by the Admirality on 15 May 1837. It was introduced as a result of the desire of the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty who were, “anxious to extend the advantages of education to the Petty Officers, Seamen, Marines, and Boys of the Fleet” by appointing one Seamen’s Schoolmaster “in every ship of His Majesty’s Navy.” The memorandum continued:
    “The person to fill this rating is to be entered or selected by the Commanding Officer of the Ship, with the approbation of their Lordships. Vacancies occurring abroad may be filled up from the ship’s company, if a person properly qualified be found on board; if not, one may be taken from any other ship with the consent of his Commanding Officer, and the approbation of the senior Officer present.”
    The Seamen’s Schoolmaster was to be “competent to teach Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, viz., the first four rules, the ‘Rule of Three, Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, Logarithmic Arithmetic, Plane Trigonometry, and to keep a ship’s reckoning at sea.”
    Commanding Officers of His Majesty’s Ships were obliged to allow as many boys and men who wanted to be taught, provided this did not interfere with the “proper discharge of the duties of the ship.”
    So the rating of Seamen’s Schoolmaster was an uncommon one, and one presumes that medals awarded to Seamen Schoolmasters would command a premium. As for HMS Odin, according to Wikipedia, she was a steam-powered first class paddle steamer launched in 1846 and armed with 16 guns: two 68-pounders, ten 32-pounders and four ten-inch. The ship took part in the bombardment and siege of Sebastopol in 1855, having left Spithead on the 27th February that year. I hope this helps with your research.’

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