Kings Regulations & Admiralty Instructions - 1913

Index
 
Kings Regulations & Admiralty Instructions - 1913

Chapter XIX - Discipline.

Section II

Discipline Generally

720. Captain-General Instructions.-The Captain will at all times and in all circumstances show an example of respect and obedience to his superiors, of unremitting attention to his duty and of cheerful alacrity in performing it. He will see that all the officers obey the several instructions which are addressed

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to them, or which, when of a general purport, concern them. He will correct or report to his superiors any reprehensible conduct on the part of those under his command. He will notice their conduct and abilities in order that he may be enabled to give them the testimonials they deserve, or, if called on, to make correct reports of their merits. While upholding the legitimate authority of all the officers under his command, he will check by timely reproofs any tendency he may notice to abuse of power, recommending by his example that firm but conciliatory manner of conducting duty, which is the surest. way to gain the respect and confidence of the men.

721. Salutes to Superiors, Army or Navy.-Every officer and man on meeting, passing, or addressing his superior officers, knowing them to be such, is to pay them the accustomed marks of respect, whether they are attached to the same ship or not, and whether afloat or on shore ; and officers and men of the Royal Navy are to pay the customary mark of respect to such officers of the army, when in uniform, as are entitled to be saluted by officers and men of corresponding rank in their own Service.

722. Arrest.-If an officer should disobey orders or otherwise misbehave he may be placed in arrest, and a report of the particulars of the offence shall be transmitted by the Captain to his superior authority as soon as possible. But if the Captain should be induced from any circumstances to release him from arrest, and to withdraw or allow to be withdrawn the charge against him, such officer is to return to his duty without prejudice to the future investigation of any complaint which he on his part may make relative to such arrest.

If the Captain or other superior officer should consider the cause for placing an officer in arrest to be of such a nature as to necessitate its being brought before a court-martial, but circumstances of the Service should render it necessary that the officer in arrest should be released without the withdrawal of the charge against him, he may so release him, and the officer shall return to his duty accordingly, without prejudice to his future trial or to the inquiry into the charge on which he was placed in arrest.

2. Unnecessary Restraint.-When an officer or man is placed in arrest, the Captain is to take care that no more restraint is put upon his personal liberty than the discipline of the Service requires and the nature of his offence may render expedient. Arrest is not a punishment but is a means adopted to ensure the safe custody of an offender until he can be adequately dealt with. See 173 (Authority of Commanding Officer), and 732; (Naval Custody).

3. Offenders sent to Hospital.- Persons waiting trial for a serious offence, by court-martial or otherwise, and offenders waiting transfer to prison, &c.., are not to be sent to hospital without the sanction of the Senior Officer.

When so sent, the Principal Medical Officer of the hospital is to be informed that they are to be considered as under arrest. Such officers or men are not to be brought forward for survey without the special directions of the Commander-in-Chief at home or of the Senior Officer present abroad.

4. When a survey is held under such directions the result is to be specially reported to the authority ordering the survey, who will, subject to the previsions of clauses 5 and 6, decide as to the disposal of the person concerned.

5. The Senior Officer shall in no case, in consequence of the report of the surveying officers, authorise any step which will result in an accused person escaping trial unless the surveying officers shall certify that the accused's mental condition at the date of the alleged offence was such that he was not responsible for his actions, or that the accused's physical or mental condition is such that even the fact of being tried, apart from any sentence that might be awarded, would be likely permanently to impair his health.

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6. The Senior Officer shall in no case, in consequence of the report of the surveying officers, authorise any step which will result in a person under sentence of imprisonment or detention escaping the residue of his sentence, unless the surveying officers shall certify that the offender is medically unfit to undergo even a modified prison or detention routine, as the case may be. If such medical certificate is furnished the offender may be invalided from the Service, but care is to be taken that the award is duly entered in his certificate and elsewhere as may be necessary. The medical certificate is then to be forwarded to the Admiralty in order that the residue of the sentence may be formally remitted.

723. Men placed in the Report.-The leave of petty officers and men is not to be stopped when they are placed in the report, unless they are placed there for any of the offences named in Article 768, clause 2 (a) to (i) inclusive.

724. Logging Offences.-If the Captain should consider an offence committed by an officer to be of such a nature as to necessitate its being recorded with a view to future reference under the provisions of Article 698, sub-clause (a), (ii), he is to cause the facts to be entered in the log, and the statement which is logged is to be read by the officer, who is to sign his name to it as evidence of his knowledge of the entry.

725. Misconduct of Officers.-Officers who have been guilty of misconduct or neglect of duty, or have unfitted themselves for active service by irregular and imprudent conduct, will be dealt with under the powers of the Admiralty defined in Appendix XI.

726. Duelling being forbidden by the Regulations, every officer of the Fleet who becomes aware of the intention of other officers to fight a duel, or has reason to believe that such is likely to occur from circumstances that have come within his observation or knowledge, is hereby ordered to take every measure within his power to prevent such duel, having recourse, if necessary, to his Captain.

2. Every officer of the Fleet is hereby ordered, in no manner or degree to evince dissatisfaction with or to upbraid another officer for refusing, or not sending, a challenge : and all officers are enjoined neither to reject nor advise the rejection of a reasonable proposition for the honourable adjustment of differences that may have occurred.

3. Any officer of the Fleet who may be called upon to act as second or friend to an officer intending to fight a duel, is to consider it to be his imperative duty, and he is hereby ordered, strenuously to exert himself to effect an adjustment between the adverse parties on terms consistent with the honour of each, and should he fail, owing to the determination of the offended parties not to accept honourable terms of accommodation, he must be guided by the first clause of this Article.

4. As obedience to orders is the essential and governing principle of the Naval Service, those officers may rest assured of the support and approbation of the Admiralty, who, having had the misfortune of giving offence to or having injured or insulted others, shall frankly explain, apologise, or offer redress for the same ; or who, having received offence, injury, or insult from another shall cordially accept frank explanation, apology, or redress for the same ; or who, if such explanation, apology, or redress is refused to be made or accepted shall submit the matter to be dealt with by the Captain or senior officer present ; and every officer who shall act as herein directed and consequently refuse to accept a challenge, will be deemed to have acted honourably

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and to have evinced a requisite obedience not only to this order but also to the pleasure of the King.

727. Sleeping out of Ship.-If the Captain should sleep out of the ship, the Executive Officer is not to be absent from the ship on the same night unless by special permission of the senior officer present. No officer is to remain out of his ship for the night without the previous sanction of the Captain or of the Commanding Officer.

728. Privileges of Petty Officers.-All petty officers, leading seamen, and non-commissioned officers of marines are to be granted every reasonable indulgence. They are to be made to feel that confidence is reposed in them, and are to be treated with the consideration which is due to the positions of trust which they hold.

2. The prefix " Chief Petty Officer" or " Petty Officer," or the corresponding prefix in the case of the non-seaman classes, is to be used by all ranks when addressing, or speaking of, men holding those rating.

3. On all occasions of men falling in, the petty officers are to be kept separate from the lower ratings, and when classes of instruction are formed the petty officers are to be classed up by themselves.

4. Chief petty officers and petty officers are to be shown on the ship's ledger distinct from lower ratings. The separation is to be made by classes (Seaman, Stoker, &c.), and the petty officers are to be shown on separate sub-divisions of their present lists.

5. Petty and non-commissioned officers are not to be mustered in and out of the ship unless for some special reason, nor are they to undergo personal search by the police unless the Executive Officer or the Captain, for a special reason in any particular case, shall order otherwise.

Separate lines are to be appropriated for hanging their clothes and hammocks, and their hammocks are to be stowed together in a part of the netting reserved for them.

Chief petty officers, petty officers, leading ratings, and non-commissioned officers, Royal Marines, dressed in the established uniform are allowed to pass dockyard and victualling yard gates, and may also pass out parties of men.

6. It is the duty of petty officers to preserve order and regularity wherever the crew or any portion of them may be employed, and this responsibility rests upon them whenever they are with the men, whether on duty or otherwise.

729. Articles of War.-The printed sheets containing so much of the Naval Discipline Act as relates to the punishment of offences, viz., the Articles of War, are to be displayed in an accessible part of the ship, for the information of the ship's company, to whom this portion of the Act is to be read quarterly, together with the last return of courts-martial received from the Admiralty.

730. Naval Ratings in Military Detention Barracks.-In the event of a naval rating who is undergoing sentence in a military detention barrack committing an offence too serious to be dealt with under the rules for military detention barracks, the matter will be reported to the Commanding Officer of the ship on whose books the man is borne, in order that he may be dealt with under the Naval Discipline Act. Members of the staff of military detention barracks are not the superior officers of naval ratings, and charges of insubordination should in such cases be drawn under Section 43 of the Naval Discipline Act.

2. In deciding how to deal with the case, the Commanding Officer will bear in mind that before the accused can be tried he must be removed from the detention barrack. (See Section 78, Naval Discipline Act, as to effect of such

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removal, and Section 73, Naval Discipline Act, as to effect of any sentence passed by court-martial on a man serving a court-martial sentence.)

3. An escort should be sent to remove the accused from the detention barrack, and, if his original sentence has not expired, should be furnished with an order in writing, under Section 78 of the Naval Discipline Act, directing

  1. If the offender is to be dealt with summarily, that he be discharged ;
  2. If the offender is to he tried by court-martial, that he be delivered over to naval custody for trial.

731. Discharge from Prison or Detention.-If a prisoner or person under detention should be discharged under the provisions of Section 78 of the Naval Discipline Act, such discharge shall be held to remit all that portion of his sentence that may be unexpired at the date of such discharge, except in the case of his discharge to naval custody for the purposes specified in the latter part of the said section. This power should, however, be used with great discretion, and should not be exercised except where the services of offenders are required in emergency, or when the ship to which they belong is on the point of sailing from the port and even in this latter case an offender should not be discharged when it is likely that at the end of his sentence there will be a ship present in which he can be received, and from which there would be a probability of his rejoining his proper ship within a reasonable time. Neither should this power be exercised when the length of an offender's sentence renders it possible to transfer him, either in his own or some other ship, to a place of confinement in England to complete sentence, or to some other place of confinement abroad, from which there would be greater facilities for sending him back to his own ship at the expiration of his sentence. Such cases should be dealt with under Section 75 of the Naval Discipline Act, and in each case of transfer a Transfer Form (S. 550) is to accompany the offender.

2. When abroad, if an offender should be discharged to a ship from prison, or from a detention establishment, before the expiration of the term of his sentence, a note is to be made in the " Remarks " column of the ledger, stating under which section of the Naval Discipline Act he has been received on board, i.e., whether as an offender on passage for transfer to another place of confinement under Section 75 of the Act, or, as specified in the first paragraph of clause 1 of this Article, under Section 78.

732. Naval Custody.-The Captain is responsible for the safe-keeping of every person, offender, or prisoner, on board; who is placed in naval custody.

Such custody may be open or close, according to the circumstances of each case and at the discretion of the Captain, it being clearly understood that open custody only involves such restraint as may be necessary for safe-keeping, whereas close custody involves deprivation of all liberty, continuous supervision, and is equivalent to confinement in the sense in which it is used in Article 768, clause 4.

2. Prisoners, &c., on Passage.-Persons under sentence of imprisonment or detention while on passage in His Majesty's ships are not to be called upon to do duty except in cases of emergency. They may be dealt with as prisoners at large, that is, kept in open custody, when the circumstances will permit, but they are to be subject to restraint or confinement whenever their safe custody or any misconduct on their part may render it necessary. (See 756, sub-clause (d), (Confinement for noise or violence).

733. Visits and Letters of Offenders under Sentence.-Offenders who may be in naval custody while undergoing a sentence of penal servitude, imprisonment, or detention, are, so far as possible, to be subjected to the following

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rules based on those laid down for naval prisons and naval detention quarters.

  1. They are not to be allowed to communicate by letter with any person nor to receive any letter or visit without permission from the Admiralty, or the Commander-in-Chief on a foreign station.
  2. Any letters written by or to them with such permission are first to be read by the Captain of the ship. Other letters addressed to them should be forwarded to the Governor or other officer in charge of the establishment to which they are committed for delivery to them on discharge.
  3. Any visit allowed to them must take place in the presence of an officer or the Master-at-Arms.
  4. Prisoners and persons under detention who are transferred in naval custody from one place of confinement to another may be allowed any privileges as regards visits or letters earned by them under the regulations of the establishment from which they have been removed.

2. Such measures are to be taken in His Majesty's ships to enforce these rules as circumstances will permit, and no departure from them should be allowed unless in exceptional cases when the Captain is to act according to his discretion, reporting the fact and the special reasons which influenced him to the Commander-in-Chief.

734. Private Firearms.-No person below the rank of officer is to carry private firearms, or to keep such arms in his personal care on board His Majesty's ship, or in any naval establishment.

The Commanding Officer may grant permission for any man below the rank of officer to possess private firearms for use in competitions, but such weapons are to be kept in a place of safety, and only temporarily issued under proper safeguards.

735. Trafficking.-No sort of beer, wine or spirituous liquor is to be sold on board by any person, nor is any person belonging to the ship to sell articles of any other description to the ship's company, without the written sanction of the Captain ; and all loan, transfer, gift, or barter of spirit or intoxicating drink is prohibited on board.

Men are not to be allowed to sell, exchange, nor in any manner to dispose of their clothes or bedding without the permission of the officer of their division.

2. Men may be permitted to sell a portion of their clothes during the last month of their active service engagements only, but in any case they must retain one duck suit and the articles comprising the regulation kit required by men enrolling in the Royal Fleet Reserve.

736. Smuggling Spirits on Board, &e.-By Act of Parliament, 16 & 17 Vict. cap. 69, any person who shall, without the previous consent of the Commanding Officer, bring on board any ship any spirituous or fermented liquor, or shall approach or hover about such ship for the purpose of bringing on board, giving or selling spirituous or fermented liquors without the previous sanction of the Commanding Officer, or shall approach or hover about any such ship for the purpose of aiding any officer, seaman, or marine in His Majesty's Service to desert or improperly absent himself from his ship, is liable to a penalty not exceeding �10., and any officer, petty officer, or non-commissioned officer, with or without a warrant may, under the 12th Section of the Act, apprehend any offender or person so acting, and may take him or cause him to be taken before a justice to be summarily dealt with, care being taken to follow strictly the provisions of the statutes.

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2. Assisting, &e., Deserters.-Persons not otherwise subject to the Naval Discipline Act are also punishable under Sections 25 and 26 of that Act for assisting or persuading men to desert or improperly absent themselves.

737. Women on Board or on Passage.-Neither the wife of any officer nor of any man, nor any other woman is to be allowed to reside on board nor to take passage in a ship except with the express permission of the Admiralty, or, abroad, when time and circumstances do not admit of a reference home, by the permission of the Commander-in-Chief.

2. This authority may only be exercised by a Commander-in-Chief abroad when the ship is about to make a direct passage from one port to another and back, but on no account is it to be exercised when ships are cruising for practice or for evolutionary purposes, and every case is to be specially reported to the Admiralty.

3. Whenever a Senior Officer, on the formal requisition of an ambassador, minister, charge d'affaires, or consul, or of the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of a colony, may receive or order to be received any woman for passage, he will report the circumstance to his Commander-in-Chief for the information of the Admiralty.

The Captain will include in his quarterly return of passengers the name and particulars of every woman embarked for passage as provided for by form S. 176.

738. Landing Rations, &c.-Provisions or stores are not to be issued on shore or taken out of the ship for any other purpose than for victualling portions of the crew when absent on duty or on other public service, and are not to be considered as having become private property, except as provided in Article 1687.

2. Whenever it may be necessary for officers or others to take their provisions on shore when proceeding on duty, the Captain will furnish a pass showing the names of the persons in whose favour it is issued, and the exact quantity of provisions allowed for their consumption.

3. When provisions or clothing are sent out of the ship, they must invariably be accompanied by written passes (form S. 263), signed by the Accountant Officer or Assistant Paymaster, and approved by the Commanding Officer, showing the quantities and the date.

4. Passes will be valid for the quantities and date for which issued, and must be produced when required for the information of any police officer or constable or any person acting under the Customs or Revenue Laws.

739. Passengers, Offences by.-The following Regulations are to be observed with reference to the 89th Section of the Naval Discipline Act :

  1. Any person, although not belonging to His Majesty's naval or military services, who, while on board one of His Majesty's ships as a passenger, shall commit any offence against the good order and discipline of the Navy, may be placed under such restraint, by the officer in command of the ship in which he has embarked, as the offence or offences committed by him may appear to justify or render necessary, and the officer who has occasion to place any such passenger in arrest shall take the earliest opportunity that presents itself of reporting the circumstances to the first Senior Officer he may fall in with, in order that it may be determined, after due investigation, whether the alleged offender shall be released from arrest, or continue in arrest until the termination of the voyage for which he is embarked, or whether he shall be transferred to some other ship ; but passengers who shall be guilty of the offences specified in the 6th and 13th
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    Sections of the Naval Discipline Act shall be tried by naval court-martial, and punished according to the provisions of the said Act.

  3. If any passenger while on board one of His Majesty's ships shall commit any criminal offence, punishable by the laws of the United Kingdom he may also be kept under such restraint as is necessary until an opportunity shall offer of delivering him over to a civil tribunal competent to try him for the same.

Officers, petty officers, seamen, marines, and boys, who, upon being invalided or discharged, may be ordered or permitted to take passage in any of His Majesty's ships, and persons sentenced under the Naval Discipline Act, so long as they are borne on the books of the ship in which they are embarked as passengers shall be deemed to be persons in and belonging to His Majesty's Navy, and shall be subject in every respect according to their several ranks and ratings, to the Naval Discipline Act in force in so far as that Act relates to the trial and punishment of offenders.

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