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38-879: The origins of the Navy Board can be traced back to the 13th century via the office Keeper of the King's Ports and Galleys ; later known as the Clerk of the King's Ships . The management of the navy expanded with the Keeper of the Storehouses appointed in 1514 and the Clerk Comptroller in 1522. The Lieutenant of the Admiralty , Treasurer of Marine Causes and Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy were all added in 1544, and

76-639: A commissioner and did not therefore have a vote. List of Principal Officers and Commissioners 1796-1832 included: To all of these lists must be added the Commissioners of the Navy with oversight of the Royal Navy Dockyards . Normally resident at their respective dockyards and thus known as resident commissioners , these commissioners did not normally attend the board's meetings in London; nevertheless, they were considered full members of

114-496: A fifth between 1625 and 1640 they included:. As defined by a set of Ordinances drawn up under Henry VIII's successor, Edward VI , the Navy Board was given a high degree of autonomy, yet remained subordinate to the Lord High Admiral until 1628. This – at times ambiguous – relationship with The Admiralty was an enduring characteristic of the board, and was one of the reasons behind its eventual demise in 1832. During

152-485: A high-ranking admiral would have two post-captains on his flagship. The junior would serve as the flag captain and retain responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the vessel. The senior would be the fleet captain , or " captain of the fleet ", and would serve as the admiral's chief-of-staff. These two captains would be listed in the ship's roll as the "second captain" and "first captain", respectively. After 1795, when they were first introduced on Royal Navy uniforms,

190-623: A number of subsidiary Boards were established to oversee other aspects of the board's work. These included: Each of these subsidiary Boards went on to gain a degree of independence (though they remained, nominally at least, overseen by the Navy Board). List of Principal Officers and Commissioners 1546-1660 included. Instrumental in the early administration of the Navy Office were between four and seven "Principal Officers" though some were styled differently prior to 1660. Charles I added

228-627: A permanent administrator of their navies, he was the 'Clerk of the Kings Ships'. The post first appears in a distinct form under King John with William de Wrotham as Keeper of the Kings Ports and Galleys , the Clerk of the Kings Ships was not a one man department of state but a permanent agent of the crown" For a period of over 300 years this official was responsible, sometimes really and sometimes nominally, for control of naval organisation until

266-571: A seventh officer, the Master of Naval Ordnance a year later. By January 1545 this group was already working as a body known as the Council of the Marine or King's Majesty's Council of His Marine . In the first quarter of 1545 an official memorandum proposed the establishment of a new organisation that would formalize a structure for administering the navy with a clear chain of command. The Navy Board

304-499: Is not practically restrained ... Old modes of conducting public business, full of complexity and inconsistency, have too long been suffered to exist; official forms and returns have been multiplied; and the result has been an unnecessary increase of establishments. The Government's response was delivered on 14 February 1832, with a Bill to abolish both the Navy Board and the Victualling Board and merge their functions into

342-504: The Board of Admiralty . This Bill was moved by Sir James Graham as First Lord of the Admiralty , who argued that the Boards had been "constituted at a period when the principles of banking were unknown," and were redundant in an era of greater Parliamentary oversight and regulation. An amendment proposed by First Sea Lord Sir George Cockburn suggested that Navy Board be preserved and only

380-572: The Commonwealth the business of both Navy Board and Admiralty was carried out by a committee of Parliament. Following the Restoration , James, Duke of York (as Lord High Admiral) oversaw the reconstitution of the Navy Board. Alongside the aforementioned "Principal Officers" further officials were appointed to serve as "Commissioners" of the Navy, and together these constituted the board. By tradition, commissioners were always Navy officers of

418-565: The First Lord of the Admiralty . King John's son and successor Henry III continued to refine the administration the royal fleet. However it was during Edward III 's reign that a formal naval administration really began to evolve when the Keeper was succeeded by the office of Clerk of the King's Ships , according to naval historian Nicholas A. M. Rodger in his book the Admiralty (1979) states "Insofar as mediaeval Kings of England possessed

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456-606: The Acts Post-captain Post-captain , post captain , or postcaptain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy . The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: In the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries, an officer might be promoted from commander to captain, but not have a command. Until the officer obtained a command, he

494-669: The Board . In 1832, following proposals by Sir James Graham to restructure the Naval Service, the Navy Board was abolished (along with its subsidiary boards for Sick and Hurt , Transport , and Victualling ). Operational functions were taken over by the Board of Admiralty and administrative functions were dispersed between the Naval Lords . The Navy Board's responsibilities included: Individual officials held responsibility as follows: Note: The Navy Pay Office (domain of

532-495: The Board reconstituted; the function of the Navy Office was then supervised by three Committees, of Correspondence, Accounts and Stores. The Clerk of the Acts' official responsibility's were: The Clerk of the Kings Ships' responsibilities were: The Keeper of the Kings Ports and Galleys' responsibilities were: Included: Keeper of the King's Ports and Galleys Clerks of the King's Ships (also referred to as Keeper of

570-617: The King's Ships or Clerk of the Ships) Clerk of Marine Causes (in official court circulars also referred to as Clerk of the Ships) Clerks of the Navy (in official court circulars also referred to as Clerk of the Ships) From June 1639 to August 1706 two clerks of the acts were occasionally appointed jointly to the office Note: Title of Clerk of the Navy is changed to Clerk of the Acts in 1660 Clerks of

608-406: The Navy Board and carried the full authority of the board when implementing or making decisions within their respective yards both at home and overseas. Not every Dockyard had a resident commissioner in charge, but the larger Yards, both at home and overseas, generally did (with the exception of the nearby Thames-side yards of Deptford and Woolwich , which were for the most part overseen directly by

646-602: The Navy Board and that role was given to the Treasurer of the Navy also known as the Senior Commissioner . The Navy Board remained independent until 1628, when it became a subsidiary body of the Board of Admiralty now reporting to the First Lord of the Admiralty . In 1660 the Treasurer of the Navy ceased to direct the board and was replaced by the Comptroller who now held the new joint title of Chairman of

684-555: The Permanent Secretary to the Admiralty. The ultimate origins of the office lie in the reign of King John , who developed a royal fleet and the earliest known administrative structure for the English Navy, through his appointment of William of Wrotham as Keeper of the King's Ports and Galleys in the early 13th century. According to modern historians, William had a "special responsibility for ports, customs, and

722-601: The Treasurer of the Navy) was independent of the Board; though the Board's Commissioners were required to authorize payments, all funds were held and issued by the Pay Office (which was also known as the Navy Treasury) . As the size of the fleet grew, the Admiralty sought to focus the activity of the Navy Board on two areas: ships and their maintenance, and naval expenditure. Therefore, from the mid- to late-17th century,

760-592: The Victualling Board abolished, but this was defeated by 118 votes to 50. The Bill itself was passed on 23 May 1832, with the Navy Board formally ceasing operations from 1 June. Clerk of the Acts The Clerk of the Acts , originally known as the Keeper of the King's Ports and Galleys , was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy and a principal member of the Navy Board . The office

798-605: The acts, and then again from 1702 until 1706. Between 1673 and 1680 the post was held simultaneously with the Secretary of the Admiralty . In the same year the Clerk of the Acts was appointed an assistant to alleviate him of some of his secretarial duties and thus separating those responsibilities from the office of the secretary. In 1796 the offices of Clerk of the Acts and three other offices, those of Comptroller of Storekeepers Accounts , Comptroller of Treasurer Accounts and Comptroller of Victualling Accounts , were abolished and

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836-481: The board in London, although Woolwich did have a Resident Commissioner for some years). Chatham Dockyard , Devonport Dockyard , Portsmouth Dockyard , Sheerness Dockyard , Trincomalee Dockyard and the Bermuda Dockyard all had Resident Commissioners. After the abolition of the board in 1832 the duties of these commissioners were taken over by commissioned officers: usually an admiral-superintendent at

874-438: The board would consist of the controller and a deputy controller (both of whom were normally commissioned officers), the surveyor (usually a master shipwright from one of the dockyards) and around seven other commissioners (a mixture of officers and civilians) to whom no specific duties were attached. The treasurer, though still technically a member of the board, was (like the dockyard commissioners) seldom in attendance. In fact

912-643: The building; the rear wing (which had its own entrance on Tower Hill) housed the offices of the Sick and Hurt Board. The Victualling Office was also located nearby, on Little Tower Hill, close to its early manufacturing base at Eastminster . The Navy Treasury, where the treasurer was based, was located from 1664 in Broad Street (having moved there from Leadenhall Street). It was also known as the Navy Pay Office . In 1789, all these offices were relocated into

950-402: The formation of the Navy Board in 1546. During the course of the following centuries the title changed its name. In the fifteenth century the post was known as the Clerk of Marine Causes and during the sixteenth century the office was known as the Clerk of the Navy , in the seventeenth century, Clerk of the Acts . Between the years 1673 and 1677 the office was held jointly by two clerks of

988-535: The largest yards, or a captain-superintendent at smaller yards. From the 1650s the board, together with its staff of around 60 clerks, was accommodated in a large house at the corner of Crutched Friars and Seething Lane, just north of the Tower of London. Following a fire, the house was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren . This new Navy Office provided accommodation for the commissioners, as well as office space. Different departments were accommodated in different parts of

1026-434: The navy". Murray (1935), Oppenheim reprint, (1940), Lloyd (1970) and Runyan (1987) support the view that his office continued until the creation of the Navy Board in 1546 and is therefore a direct predecessor of the later Clerk of the Acts and the Secretary of the Admiralty . However, a clear definition of Wrotham's office is not conclusive and has been viewed by other sources such as Turner (1994) to be similar to that of

1064-557: The needs of the public service as a whole. The board's internal operations were also found wanting: The ancient and wise control vested by our financial policy in the hands of the Treasury over all the departments connected with the Public Expenditure, has been in a great degree set aside. Although it is the [Navy Board] practice to lay the annual estimates before the Board of Treasury, the subsequent course of expenditure

1102-463: The new purpose-built office complex of Somerset House . By the early nineteenth century, members of Parliament had begun raising concerns at the cost of Navy Board operations and the obscurity of its record-keeping. On 15 February 1828 Robert Peel , the Home Secretary , established a Parliamentary Committee to review the board's operations. The committee, chaired by Irish MP Henry Parnell ,

1140-401: The number and position of epaulettes distinguished between commanders and post-captains of various seniorities. A commander wore a single epaulette on the left shoulder. A post-captain with less than three years' seniority wore a single epaulette on the right shoulder, and a post-captain with three or more years seniority wore an epaulette on each shoulder. In the O'Brian series, Aubrey "wets

1178-470: The post of treasurer was by this stage little more than a sinecure; the main work of his department was carried out by its senior clerk, the Paymaster of the Navy. Following the abolition of the office of Clerk of the Acts, the post of secretary to the board was created; as well as overseeing the administrative department, the secretary attended meetings of the board and took minutes; but he was not himself

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1216-502: The rank of post-captain or captain who had retired from active service at sea. List of Principal Officers and Commissioners 1660-1796 included. Additional Commissioners added after 1666, who were soon given specific duties (so as to lessen the administrative burden placed on the Controller. In 1796 the board was reconstituted: the post of Clerk of the Acts was abolished, as were the three controllers of accounts. Henceforward,

1254-608: Was "on the beach" and on half-pay . An officer "took post" or was "made post" when he was first commissioned to command a vessel. Usually this was a rated vessel – that is, a ship too important to be commanded by a mere commander – but was occasionally an unrated one. Once a captain was given a command, his name was "posted" in The London Gazette . Being "made post" is portrayed as the most crucial event in an officer's career in both Forester's Horatio Hornblower series and O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series . Once an officer

1292-406: Was almost always a large ship of the line . The admiral would usually do this to keep his most junior captain under close observation and subject to his direct supervision. Captains commanding an admiral's flagship were called " flag captains ". One example of this is the appointment of Alexander Hood to the command of HMS Barfleur , flagship of his cousin, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood . Sometimes,

1330-479: Was created by King Charles II in 1660 and succeeded the earlier position of Clerk of the Navy (1546 to 1660). The Clerk was responsible for the organisation of Navy Office , processing naval contracts and coordinating the administrative and secretarial side of the Navy Board's work. The post lasted until 1796, when its duties were merged with that of the Second Secretary to the Admiralty later known as

1368-662: Was officially appointed to this role by letters patent of Henry VIII on the 24 April 1546. It was directed by the Lieutenant of the Admiralty until 1557. The board was charged with overseeing the administrative affairs of the navy; directive, executive and operational duties of the Lord High Admiral remained with the Admiralty and Marine Affairs Office . In 1557 the Lieutenant of the Admiralty ceased to direct

1406-444: Was promoted to post-captain, further promotion was strictly by seniority; if he could avoid death or disgrace, he would eventually become an admiral (even if only a yellow admiral ). A junior post-captain would usually command a frigate or a comparable ship, while more senior post-captains would command larger ships. An exception to this rule was that a very junior post-captain could be posted to command an admiral's flagship, which

1444-499: Was specifically charged with interpreting and reducing Navy Board costs. By the end of the year it had issued critical reports covering the board's administration of naval pensions, half-pay , revenue, expenditure and debt. In particular, the committee noted the Navy Board had long since abandoned financial controls; that it had instead "established a scale of expense greatly beyond what existed during former periods of peace," and that its operations tended to "exalt its own importance" over

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