I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 593 Talent Issues

British "recruiting teams" would even go to America to capture sailors - they claimed that the sailors were immigrants from Britain and were still obliged to serve in the Royal Navy - and take them away to load them onto British warships.

Historically, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British Navy's battleship HMS Panther intercepted the U.S. Navy's Chesapeake in Boston Harbor and attempted to capture able-bodied men on board.

As a result, the Americans sounded the battle alarm. After the two sides exchanged fire, the Chesapeake surrendered and the British took some of the sailors away...

This was the famous "Chesapeake Incident" at the time, which became an important fuse for the Second Anglo-American War.

As for why France does not follow Britain's example.

One reason is that the French are not as honest as the British people, and the "protest" gene runs in their veins. If the French navy dares to conscript men like the British conscription team, expect the citizens of the port cities to riot.

In addition, the number of French sailors is far less than that of the British, whose entire country relies on the sea for its livelihood. They are a relatively scarce resource, and the French Navy is unwilling to offend the sailor group too much.

Therefore, France currently adopts a reward model - the sailor registration system.

Any sailor who registered at the government registry could receive an annual allowance of 30 francs, but registered sailors had to fulfill their service obligations when the navy needed them.

The Navy will even give registered sailors travel expenses to travel from their hometowns to the barracks, and double the spoils of war, among other benefits.

But even so, the "bohemian and freedom-loving" French sailors were still unwilling to register.

For example, there are only about 1 sailors on the Navy's sailor registration list, while the wartime sailor shortage is as high as or .

This resulted in the French Navy having to recruit many people with no sailing experience to board ships, and even temporarily borrow people from the army - these people may have never even been on a ship before.

With the quality of French sailors, not to mention that their warships were originally weaker than those of Britain, even if Britain and France were given the same fleets, the French would still be beaten to a pulp.

This is the case with the famous Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic era. The warships of the French and Spanish fleets were not much worse than those of the British, but they were still defeated by the British. The high-quality sailors of the British played a key role in this.

After listening to the Marquis of Castries, Joseph immediately thought of learning the army model.

"Perhaps, we can build a naval academy." He looked at the Navy Minister and said, "to train a large number of qualified sailors for the navy."

Marquis Castelli, however, did not seem very enthusiastic and said tactfully: "Your Highness, this may be of some help, but it is difficult to completely solve the problem."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"We needed a lot of sailors. During the Seven Years' War, for example, we drafted 4 to 5 sailors."

"5?" Joseph frowned. This number was indeed a bit too much, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "Then we will train 5 students."

He would rather invest a large amount of money in the development of the navy.

Marquis Castelli immediately waved his hand and said, "Your Highness, we don't need so many people."

Joseph staggered back. "Do you need 5 sailors or not?"

Marquis Castelli explained: "Your Highness, the navy only needs 6 people in normal times. It is not until the war breaks out that tens of thousands of sailors are needed. This means that we don't need to support so many crew members..." He continued to explain in detail for a long time, and Joseph finally understood. It turned out that nearly 70% of the navy's warships were usually docked in the port - there was no other way. Once these gold-eating monsters were deployed, the funds would be spent faster than water.

This is also the reason why the navy cost so much during the war.

And during wartime, the number of combat positions on warships will also increase significantly.

For example, a third-class battleship usually only needs to carry 40 marines, but in wartime it needs a full complement of 150 people.

The marines here are different from the marines of later generations. They are more responsible for supervising the crew and helping the captain maintain "rule". Of course, when the battle is fierce, they can also shoot at the enemy ships on the opposite side to join in the fun.

At the same time, the number of sailors on a warship will also increase during wartime. For example, the gunners must be fully staffed, which is not necessary in peacetime. Additional sailors in other positions must also be brought in to supplement the casualties in combat.

This resulted in a sharp increase in the number of crew members needed by the navy after the outbreak of war.

The British Navy is even worse in this regard, as their crew size can increase to ten times that of peacetime during wartime!
The salary of sailors is much higher than that of infantrymen. For the navy, which is always in a state of tight budget, it is absolutely unwilling to keep so many freeloaders in peacetime.

More importantly, the navy would rather let these sailors go out to sea with merchant ships than stay idle on land, because this will allow their navigation skills to continue to improve.

The operating modes of merchant ships and warships of this era were almost the same, even the commands were the same.

The merchant ship's sailors could be pulled aboard the warship and engage in combat directly.

Joseph sat down at the table with everyone else and thought, "So, what we lack is not sailors, but ordinary sailors."

Marquis Castelli nodded immediately. "That's true, Your Highness. Not only the navy, but our merchant ships have also been unable to find enough sailors for a long time. Merchants often have to go around Italy to recruit people, and then go out to sea."

"Then why don't people want to be sailors?"

"This..." The Navy Minister seemed a little embarrassed, and his voice was much lower. "When we had colonies in North America and the Far East, this situation was not too serious..."

Joseph was also silent.

Yes, France lost all its overseas colonies in the Seven Years' War. Without the huge amount of overseas trade to support them, wouldn't everyone starve to death if they all became sailors?
The British-Indian route alone could easily support tens of thousands of sailors.

He let out a long sigh and said, "We still need to build a naval academy. We should try our best to use professional soldiers to support the navy's framework. This will also allow us to promote unified combat and navigation standards in the fleet."

All positions on warships of this era can be considered high-level talents, especially officers, helmsmen, navigators, gunners, doctors and other positions. If they rely solely on civilian training, the efficiency will certainly not be too high.

But if there is a military academy that specifically teaches these things, the speed will be much faster and the quality of talent will also be improved.

Historically, France did not realize this problem until nearly half a century later and built the first naval academy. Of course, at present, except for Portugal, which has a semi-military maritime academy, other countries in Europe do not have naval academies.

“In addition, we want to increase the volume of maritime trade as much as possible.”

(End of this chapter)