25. The US Navy’s Ranking System for Child Sailors
Throughout much of the nineteenth century, the US Navy typically enlisted powder monkeys between ages of ten to fourteen, for a three-year term. They were the lowest-ranked crewmembers aboard ship and were paid about $6 a month – roughly $160 in 2022 dollars. After the War of 1812, the Navy banned the use of boys younger than twelve aboard ship. In 1828, Navy regulations authorized ships to hire boys between ages of fourteen to eighteen, at a ratio of one powder monkey for every two guns the ship carried. In practice, recruiters had no problem enlisting children younger than fourteen, or even younger than twelve.
Things began to change somewhat in the decades before the Civil War. In 1833, Navy regulations prohibited the enlistment of boys younger than thirteen without parental consent. It was a tacit acceptance of the reality that many boys younger than thirteen were serving aboard American warships. Powder monkeys aged thirteen and over continued to be used through the Civil War and for decades after, until the Spanish-American War, at the close of the nineteenth century. The US Navy employed a ranking system for its child crewmembers, literally and officially labeled “Boy Sailors”. At the bottom of the heap were powder monkeys, the youngest and smallest crewmembers. Next was Boy 3rd Class, who typically served as stewards or in a clerical capacity, often in port.