Just the other day I was reading about the orphan problem Britain had during the 19th century because of all the imperial wars. No wonder Dickens started writing about it! Nelson had a program to at least do his part about this and that was to send around to these orphanages and jails to round up kids about to be a real problem for society. Every voyage he had at least a dozen of these boys from 7 to 15, all fixing to be major messes, and he'd train them. (He'd also pocket their paycheck but that was to keep them from going ashore with the men and getting rowdy...well, that's what he said!) Thing was, the kid got his three squares and learned a trade of some sort. Quite a number remained sailors, and a handful became officers but the rest learned various trades like sail making, upholstery, barrel making, carpentry - something they could use to make a living ashore. (One time he discovered one of his boys was a girl...Tried to find her family but...it was as she said - I ain't got nobody! Nelson did some head scratching over that one then decided to let her keep on pretending to be a boy. She was a stout hand!)