The QUALIFICATIONS Established by His Majesty and the Lords of the Admiralty December the 18th. 1677, without which no Person is to be thenceforth held capable of the Employment of a Lieutenant in any of His Majesty's Ships.  
1. TO have spent so much time actually at Sea in one or more Voyages in his Majesty's Service as (after abatement made for all Intervals of Voyages) shall together amount to three entire Years at least, and to have served in the quality, and have performed the duty of an ordinary Midshipman in some one of His Majesty's Ships for the space of one Year of the said three, receiving Midshipman's Pay for the same.  
Provided, that the aforesaid serving His Majesty as an ordinary Midshipman for the space of one of the said three Years, shall not be interpreted to extend to any Person, who hath at this day served His Majesty at Sea for more than two Years in the Quality of a Volunteir by Warrant from His Majesty, or the Lord High Admiral, and shall abide the Examination, and answer in every other respect, what is in this establishment required from him, saving in that of his having actually performed the Duty of an ordinary Midshipman.  
2. Not to be under twenty years of Age at the time of his first admission to the said Office.  
3. To produce good Certificates under the hands of the several Commanders under whom he hath served, testifying the several Voyages he hath been employed in, with his Sobriety, Diligence, Obedience to Order, applications to the study and practice of the Art of Navigation expressed therein, and his strict performance of the Duty of an ordinary Midshipman for one Year, saving in the Case above excepted.  
4. To produce a like Certificate under the hand of one at least of the Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy, who hath served His Majesty as a Commander, as also of two other Commanders, one whereof to have been a Flag-Officer, and the other a Commander of one of His Majesty's Ships of the First or Second Rate, or in Case no Flag-Officer shall by their distance from Town, be at that time to be resorted to, some other like Commander of a First or Second Rate Ship, jointly signifying their being (upon a solemn Examination of the said Person on that behalf had at the Office of the Navy) fully satisfied in his ability to judge of, and perform the Duty of an able Seamen, and Midshipman, and his having attained to a sufficient degree of knowledge in the Theory of Navigation capacitating him thereto.  
Provided, that where upon occasion of constituting a Levitenant to any of His Majesty's Ships at Sea, the aforesaid Examination cannot be had either in the manner, or at the place hereby enjoined, nor the Certificates arising there from signed by the Hand appointed, by the aforegoing Article, in such Case it is His Majesty's Will and Pleasure, That the Admiral, or Commander in Chief of any of his Fleets or Squadrons who shall so have occasion of advancing any Person to the Office of a Lieutenant, shall Authorise any three of his Principal Commanders of His Majesties said Fleet or Squadron to examine the said Person in the particuculars abovementioned, the Ceritificates of which Commanders pursuant thereto, together with the evidences which shall be brought on behalf of the said Person, showing his being duly Qualified for this Employment in the other particulars herein required, shall be a sufficient Warrant to the said Admiral or Commander in Chief, to commissionate the said Person to the Office of Lieutenant. Provided, That either the Original or Copies of the said Certificates, and evidences attested by the said Admiral or Commander in Chief, be by the first Conveyance transmitted for his Majesty's special saitisfaction to the Secretary of the Admiralty, to be by him presented to His Majesty's view, and afterwards safely disposed of among the other Papers of his Office.  
By Command of His Majesty, and the Lords of the Admiralty.