War At Sea Notes

Navy

Contents

• Past questions

• Quotes

  • The Seaman’s Narrative

  • The Renney Journal

  • Secondary sources

  • General

  • Supply

  • Manning

• Chronology

  • Wars

  • Events

• Principal sources

  • The Seaman’s Narrative

  • Naval Administration

  • The Wilson Journal

  • The Nagle Journal

  • The Mercer Wilson Journal

  • The Renney Journal

• Secondary sources

  • Naval Evolutions, or, a System of Sea-Discipline

  • ‘Instructions for Privateers’

  • The Teonge Journal

  • The Durant Journal

• Warfare

  • Ship types

  • Battle

  • Blockade

  • Economic warfare

  • Cost

  • Education

• The Military Revolution

  • The Military Revolution at sea

  • Michael Roberts

  • Jeremy Black

  • The French Revolution

• The French Navy

  • Administration

  • Relations with the state

  • Logistics

  • The Revolution

  • The Napoleonic Navy

• The Royal Navy

  • Power

  • Administration

  • Relations with the state

  • Manning

  • Popular culture

Quotes

The Seaman’s Narrative

• “[S]uch opportunities of visiting foreign countries, and beholding the wonderful works of the Creator in the remote regions of the Earth”.

  • The attraction of the navy to William Spavens.

• “I was much neglected and much injured.”

  • William Spavens on being passed over for promotion.

The Renney Journal

• “This proved fatal to many”.

  • Patrick Renney on Lord Hawke’s insistence on James’ Powder.

• I refuse “this ignorant prescription”.

  • Patrick Renney to Dr Vincent, on being bled with the fever.

• Dr Vincent “killed more Frenchmen than all the commanders of the navy put together”.

  • Patrick Renney.

• A “scene so horrible and full of terror”.

  • Patrick Renney on the prospect of the ship catching fire.

Secondary sources

• To “by force of armes, apprehend, seize, and take, upon the seas, any of the shipps, merchandizes, and goods” of the party that had wrong them.

  • 1649 instructions.

• “French fishermen are not to be molested”.

  • 1645 instructions.

• No-one can be “in cold blood killed, maimed, wounded… or inhumanely treated, contrary to the common uses and just provisions of war”.

  • 1666 instructions.

• “That all ships carrying any contraband goods to France and Spain shall be seized as prize to his Majesty”.

  • 1744 instructions.

• Men “whose Crimes were by no means equal to the severity of their Punishment”.

  • George Durant.

General

• It “has annihilated the navy and finished its plans”.

  • Captain SF Bigot de Morogues on the Battle of Quiberon Bay, 1759.

• “The ports, the ships of war, and even merchantmen, will be exposed to mutinies and insurrections”.

  • A letter to the Minister of Marine.

• “Les aristocrates à la lanterne!”

  • Cries of the mutineers at Brest.

• “It is revolution, not insurrection”.

  • The Captain of Le Northumberland, when asked if his crew was in mutiny.

Supply

• ‘The quantity and quality of supply determined how long the navy could stay at sea, how long they could blockade an enemy fleet or harbour and how well sailors fought in battle.’

  • John Brewer.

Manning

• “No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail… A man in jail has more room, better food and commonly better company”.

  • Dr Samuel Johnson.

• “The greatest difficulty and vexation in a war is the manning of ships”.

  • Sir William Coventry.

Chronology

Wars

1618 – 1648 – Thirty Years’ War.

1642 – 1651 – English Civil War.

1648 – 1653 – The Fronde.

1672 – 1678 – The Dutch War.

1688 – 1697 – The Nine Years’ War (King William’s War or the War of the English Succession).

1702 – 1713 – The War of the Spanish Succession.

1733 – 1738 – The War of the Polish Succession.

1739 – 1748 – The War of Jenkins’ Ear and the Austrian Succession (starting in 1740).

1756 – 1763 – The Seven Years’ War.

1775 – 1783 – The American War of Independence.

Events

1550 – Start of Roberts Century

1639 – Battle of the Downs; line-ahead tactics used successfully for the first time

1649 – First letter of marque issued

1652 – Further additions to privateering laws

1653 – English start using line-ahead formation

1660 – End of Roberts Century; start of the second Military Revolution, according to Jeremy Black

1666 – New privateering instructions against France and Holland

1667 – Dutch raid on the Medway

1670 – Coin struck commemorating the capture of British merchant ships

1672 – Privateering instructions insist on communication with the Admiralty

1681 – Instructions against Algiers

1692 – French defeat at Barfleur

1693 – New instructions move towards total war

1703 – Admiral Rooke and the main allied fleet in the Channel achieve little

1704 – New instructions make all French and Spanish shipping fair game

1714 – The Royal Navy had 247 ships.

1720 – End of the second Military Revolution, according to Jeremy Black

1729 – Shore-based academy was set up at Portsmouth

1739 – Eight Spanish men-of-war slip from Cádiz

1744 – France plans to invade England; de Saxe chosen as general; another instruction set

1756 – Keep away from Spanish shipping privateer instructions

1757 – 1758 – Combined Operations expedition to France

1759 – Battle of Quiberon Bay

1762 – Naval Evolutions, or, a System of Sea-Discipline published by Christopher O’Bryen

1779 – Franco-Spanish fleet gain control of the Channel

1782 – Battle of the Saintes

1789 – Cherbourg project abandoned

1^st June 1794 – Glorious First of June

1795 – Quota Act creates limited naval conscription; lemon juice included in British rations

1796 – The Seaman’s Narrative published by William Spavens; abortive Irish expedition

1798 – Battle of the Nile

1804 – Berlin Decrees

1805 – British naval surgeons receive a uniform and officer status

21^st October 1805 – Battle of Trafalgar

Principal sources

The Seaman’s Narrative

• Written by William Spavens in 1796.

  • At the time a naval pensioner.

    • Drawing from the Chatham Chest.

  • As a boy, Spavens saw the ships sailing on the Humber.

    • It caught his attention.

    • He longed for “such opportunities of visiting foreign countries, and beholding the wonderful works of the Creator in the remote regions of the Earth”.

    • He thought not of the perils and discomforts.

    • He went to sea to see the world.

• He...

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