British Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole

584 Pages·2015·17.146 MB·English

by  Daniel A. Baugh

British Naval Administration
in the Age of Walpole

DANIEL A. BAUGH
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright © 1965 by Princeton University Press
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
L. C. CARD: 63-23399
Publication of this book has been aided by
the Ford Foundation program to support publication,
through university presses,
of works in the humanities
and social sciences.
Printed in the United States of America by
THE WILLIAM BYRD PRESS, INC.
TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

THIS BOOK is about the ingredients of naval power in the
eighteenth century: ships, bases, stores, victuals, seamen,
and leadership. However, and here I shall borrow the words of
John Hollond, who wrote on the royal navy more than three
centuries ago, "I do not mean to run over in fruitless dis­
course how many ships his Majesty hath, what are their
names, burdens in tons and tonnage, number of ordnance,"
nor will I discuss the dimensions of sails, rigging, and other
equippage—"things fit in their places to be known, and yet
better known by a digested list of them than other things fitter
to be known." Like John Hollond, I am concerned with the
"government" of the navy, with the administrative problems
involved in furnishing the ingredients of naval power.
A book on this subject cannot avoid reaching some conclu­
sions about the nature of Britain's naval strength. But this
book is not about naval victory and defeat. Thus I have re­
sisted the temptation to explain the outcome of naval opera­
tions solely in terms of administrative factors, and the other
factors—strategy, tactics, relative strength of the enemy—I
have not studied. I hope the book will make a contribution
to naval history by assisting those who may be prepared to
study the whole range of factors that determine success or
failure at sea, but my purpose is primarily to illuminate cer­
tain aspects of the nature and development of British govern­
ment. For in the eighteenth century the navy was one of the
largest, most highly organized branches of the government;
over the years it swallowed about half the public revenue.
The book focusses on the second quarter of the eighteenth
century, and particularly the war of 1739-1748, since war put
administration to the test. For the most part, I believe, the
administrative problems of that war were common to other
eighteenth-century wars. However, although I have drawn
most of my evidence from the 1739-1748 period, I have also
found it necessary to reach back half a century or more to
analyze the problems of naval administration and trace the
development of solutions to them.
Preface
One can scarcely begin to study naval administration before
the last decades of the eighteenth century without consulting
the archives. Had I not had the opportunity to work in
England for a long time this book could not have been writ­
ten, and I would like to thank those who were chiefly con­
cerned in giving me that opportunity: Professor Ε. E. Rich,
Dr. Stanley Aston, Dr. G. Kitson Clark, Professor Kenneth M.
Setton, and the late Professor Conyers Read. To the Fellows
of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, I am grateful for many
kindnesses and encouragements during my residence there. I
wish to thank the staffs of the Public Record Office, the Na­
tional Maritime Museum, the Admiralty Library, and the
manuscript room of the British Museum. Acknowledgement
is also made to these institutions for permission to reproduce
documents and pictures in their possession. I am indebted to
the Duke of Bedford and the Marquess of Cholmondeley for
allowing me to use their family manuscripts; and to Mr. Ken­
neth Timings, Commander P. K. Kemp, and Miss Gladys
Scott Thomson for their help in making materials readily
available. I am especially grateful to the late Commander
R. D. Merriman, who generously placed at my disposal a large
portion of his Queen Anne's Navy before its publication. Also
Mr. Christopher Lloyd thoughtfully sent me sections of his
work on eighteenth-century naval medicine before publica­
tion. To the reader I would like here to apologize for errors
I may have made in citing the manuscript sources, since my
present distance from the archives has made proper verifica­
tion impossible.
This book began as a doctoral dissertation, submitted to
Cambridge University in 1961, and I am especially indebted
to Mr. John Ehrman, my supervisor, for his unfailing guidance
and careful criticism. My debt to Captain John Creswell is
also very great—his expert scrutiny saved me from numerous
errors. I am also indebted to my colleagues, Professors John
W. Shy and David D. Bien, for their helpful comments on
portions of the book. Naturally I am responsible for the flaws
and mistakes that remain. My thanks go to Mrs. Jan Garrison
and Mrs. Frances McCarthy for some emergency typing. My
thanks also go to the staff of Princeton University Press: to
Preface
Mrs. Marjorie Putney for her assistance, to Mrs. Helen Van
Zandt for her work on the design of the book, and to Mr.
David Harrop for his patience and encouragement. Above
all, I wish to thank my mother, who saved me hours of toil
on the index, and my father, whose careful use of the language
I shall always admire. My father not only read carefully the
entire book, but also assisted on points requiring last-minute
research in London and in gathering together the illustra­
tions. My debt to my wife cannot be fully expressed. She
proofread the book twice, and—far more important—raised
three small children while it was being written, without
letting that business delay its progress.
Princeton, New Jersey
January 1965 DANIEL A. BAUGH