Joining the Navy and fibbing about your age

[JoolsAnn123]

I'm looking at the naval records of 2 brothers, Walter and Edwin Sheppard

Edwin joined the navy in 1866.  On his entry his father signed a paper declaring he was born in 1850. He was actually born in 1846.

Walter joined the navy in 1867.His father declared he was born in 1851 when he was in fact born in 1849.

Was there an advantage is pretending to be 16?

[ShaunJ]

In the cases I've seen they joined as boys because they weren't tall enough to join as adults.

[JoolsAnn123]

That's interesting. How tall did they have to be?

[Skoosh]

Up until the 1850's the Royal Navy used violent coercion to press men into the navy. If they subsequently agreed to join up they were paid, if not they got no pay & remained pressed!

Skoosh.

[ShaunJ]

The minimum height requirement for Royal Navy recruits in the 1860's was 5' 5". But the navy got around this in various ways. This from Hansard, 30 May 1870:

Hitherto the minimum height had been 5 feet 5 inches; but the Admiralty had power to make exceptions in certain cases. That power was now to be withdrawn, and the standard of 5 feet 5 inches to be observed for the future. From the Return appended to the Report, it appeared that one-fifth of the men introduced into the Naval Reserve of late years had been under 5 feet 5 inches; and, therefore, if the rule to which he had alluded were to be acted on, we should lose one-fifth of our Reserve Force. At least 30 per cent of the men in the Royal Navy were under 5 feet 5 inches; indeed, on board one of our large iron-clads, no less than 42 per cent were under that height.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1870/may/30/supply-navy-estimates

[JoolsAnn123]

Height may explain it as Edwin was only  4' 11 1/2" when he joined, and Walter was 5' 4"