Midshipmen occupied a fraught place in naval hierarchy. These young men were apprentice officers, placing them above ordinary sailors in rank, but not experience. Likewise, they sat beneath officers in both status and skill. Usually teenagers upon enlisting, midshipmen were sometimes called ‘middies’ but more often ‘snotties’, apparently due to their runny noses when crewing a ship’s bridge in cold weather.
A midshipman’s life entailed constant activity, learning and examinations. For this reason, there was a long tradition of snotties keeping daily journals to record everything they observed, from loading coal to launching torpedoes. Beyond procedural notes, many journals were also embellished with drawings, charts and human-interest snippets.
Two snotties who saw the world
