Chapter XXII: Part III: The Administration (5)

The form of reparation exacted was manifestly unfair: instead of each maker being required to substitute good for whatever bad powder he had sent in they were called upon to replace it in proportion to their contracts. Thus Josias Devey was made liable for 461 barrels instead of the 141 which were faulty in the number he had supplied, and apparently he would have fared just as badly if his powder had been excellent down to the last pound.[1435] As some of the manufacturers had delivered 50 per cent., or more, of inferior quality, the probable explanation of this not very honourable proceeding is to be found in the fear of the Council that the worst culprits would be pecuniarily unable to make amends if assessed at their full liability. Wapping seems to have been a manufacturing district, since, in July 1657, there was an explosion of powder mills, or stores, there which injured many people and damaged 846 houses to the extent of £10,000.

[Sidenote: The Dockyards.]

The enlargements and improvements of the dockyards were not as considerable as might have been expected in view of the increased number of ships, and the space required for their accommodation. These requirements were partly met by the greater use made of Plymouth, and making Dover and Harwich stations where ships might obtain provisions and minor repairs. Harwich, largely used for a few years in the middle of the sixteenth century, had been found of some service during the civil war, but the movements of the fleets in the North Sea, and off the coast of Holland, brought both it and Dover into prominence. The latter port was not utilised till 1653, and was never very freely used, although the quarterly accounts sometimes reached £700 or £800; both it and Portsmouth were supplied with stores from Deptford. Bourne, from the date of his appointment as Navy Commissioner, took up his residence at Harwich, and remained there till March 1658. Monk’s testimony to his ability and success has already been quoted, although he had none of the appliances available in the older yards. But in 1657 ground was rented from the corporation, for a permanent government yard and wharf, on a ninety-nine year lease at £5 a year.[1436] Plymouth was employed mainly for victualling the ships on the western Channel station, as Dover was for those eastwards, and, to a certain extent, for repairs, although its exposed roadstead was no favourite with captains whose vessels were fit to put to sea. Blake evidently did not like it; ‘the unsafeness and hazard of this road, which to us is worse than a prison, is enough to scare us hence.’

One way of gauging the relative importance of the dockyards is to compare the stores in hand at a given date. We are enabled to do this for February and June 1659, as follows:—[1437]

+----------------------+-----------+----------+-----------------+
| | Chatham | Woolwich | Deptford |
+----------------------+-----------+----------+-----------------+
| Anchors | 108 | | 129 |
| Masts | 356 | 724 | 269 |
| Cables | 106 | 29 | 272 |
| Loads of timber[1438]| 1500 | 322 | 416 |
| Tree-nails | 80,000 | 122,000 | 93,000 |
| Compasses | | 180 | 144[1440] |
| Hemp | 100 tons | 75 tons | |
| Noyals canvas | | | 23,000 yds. |
| Vittery ” | 1800 ells | | 25,000 ells |
| Ipswich ” | | | 272 bolts[1441] |
| English ” | 240 bolts | | |
| Tar and pitch | 30 lasts | | |
| Hammocks | 900 | 1200 | 700 |
+----------------------+-----------+----------+-----------------+

+----------------------+-------------+------------+-----------+
| | Portsmouth | Plymouth | Harwich |
+----------------------+-------------+------------+-----------+
| Anchors | 62 | 17 | 13 |
| Masts | 498 | 95 | 67 |
| Cables | 70 | 42 | 63 |
| Loads of timber[1438]| 508 | [1439] | 79 |
| Tree-nails | | 2000 | |
| Compasses | | | |
| Hemp | 63½ tons | | |
| Noyals canvas | 10,600 yds. | 2000 yds. | 4850 yds. |
| Vittery ” | | | 380 ells |
| Ipswich ” | | | 5½ bolts |
| English ” | 7650 yds. | 370 yds. | |
| Tar and pitch | 99 barrels | 95 barrels | |
| Hammocks | 2020 | | |
+----------------------+-------------+------------+-----------+

Owing to want of money the magazines were very low at this date, but the relation shown here would doubtless always exist. Harwich and Plymouth can refit ships which have suffered in spars, fittings, or canvas; Chatham, Woolwich, and Deptford build or repair, while Portsmouth is equipped for all purposes. Hitherto all masts had been obtained from the Baltic, but in 1652 the government tried the experiment of sending two vessels to New England for them, and the results were so satisfactory that henceforth a proportion of masts from the colonies is found in all the lists of dockyard stores. The English canvas is elsewhere described as west country canvas, and was principally made in Somersetshire; its manufacture was due to Geo. Pley, afterwards government agent at Weymouth and governor of Portland, who successfully urged its use upon the Admiralty. It cost 1s 7d or 1s 8d a yard, and was dearer than French canvas, but considered better.[1442]

In 1653 there was a double dry dock at Chatham, Woolwich, and Deptford respectively,[1443] and one at Blackwall, probably in the East India Company’s yard; these were the only docks directly belonging to, or available by, the state. No addition appears to have been made to Chatham yard except the purchase of a wharf and storehouse adjoining the old dock in 1656.[1444] In October 1653 a contractor from Chatham was either repairing an old, or constructing a new, dock at Deptford;[1445] and in 1657 some wharves were built there along the waterside.[1446] A new dry dock was ordered for Woolwich in 1653[1447] and completed the next year;[1448] storehouses were built in 1656;[1449] and two years later a lease was taken from John Rymill, butcher, of London, of one acre of land, known as Chimney Marsh, on the east side of Ham Creek, ‘next to the state’s yard,’ for ten years, at £4 a year.[1450] The sizes of the yards may, perhaps, be inferred from the number of watchmen attached to each—Chatham, 32; Deptford, 18; Woolwich, 16; and Portsmouth, 13.

[Sidenote: Dockyards:—Portsmouth.]

Portsmouth, if the smallest of the chief yards, became under the Commonwealth one of the busiest and most important. In June 1649 one of five new frigates was ordered to be laid down there; this vessel, the _Portsmouth_, was duly launched in 1650, and, with the doubtful exception of the _Jennett_, in ‘new making’ at Portsmouth in 1559, was the first man-of-war of the modern Royal Navy built at that place since the _Mary Rose_ and _Peter Pomegranate_ of 1509 were first floated in the harbour.[1451] The dry dock so often recommended and ordered under Charles I was, however, not yet existent. It was urged that one-third of the Navy ought to be permanently stationed at the port, but in 1652 the Commissioner in charge complained that there was not room for the stores required for the few ships usually there. From a survey of 1653 we obtain, so far as names go, a statement of the number of buildings in the dockyard; they are upper and lower storehouses, upper and lower hemp houses, block loft, old rope-maker’s house, office and nail loft, canvas room, hammock room, kettle room, iron loft, tar house, oil house, sail loft, and top-makers’ and boat-makers’ house.[1452]

Less than twenty years earlier Russell had found that work done at Portsmouth was 100 per cent. dearer than at the other yards, but Willoughby had altered that, and now boasted that he could build 20 per cent. cheaper than elsewhere, although all the skilled artisans required in naval work had to be sent down, there seeming to be as yet no population attached to or living on the dockyard. He desired that five and a half acres of adjoining ground should be purchased, a rope yard erected, and the whole yard surrounded by a brick wall 73 perches in length.[1453] Therefore in 1653 and 1654 the Navy Commissioners were directed to take a lease of an acre and a half of the ground recommended, to set up a rope-yard, and to build the wall.[1454] In December 1655 Willoughby put before the Commissioners the difficulty in carrying on the ordinary work, ‘we wanting the benefit of a dock,’ and at this time the staff, recently reduced in strength, numbered 180 men. In the following April Bourne and captain John Taylor, a shipwright of Chatham, were sent down to consult with Willoughby as to the best position for a dry dock which was to be ‘forthwith made.’[1455] On their report an order issued in August that one of sufficient capacity to take third-rates was to occupy the situation of the existing graving dock, and that it was not to cost more than £3200, of which the town, presumably in the hope of attracting trade and inhabitants, was willing to contribute £500.[1456] In November Taylor was instructed to go to Portsmouth and superintend its construction, but he energetically protested that he knew nothing about dock-building and would, under such circumstances, only make himself ridiculous. It was therefore put in the hands of Nicholas Poirson, who signed the contract on 24th November, by which he undertook to complete it by the following 20th July, for £2100, the government providing the materials and the corporation £500 of this sum.[1457]

[Sidenote: Shipwrights and Workmen.]

There were still a sufficient number of abuses in connection with the dockyards, but the flagrant thefts customary under Charles I had been largely diminished. Members of the Pett family occupied responsible positions in the three home yards, and either they used their power to ill purpose, or their favour with the authorities was no passport to the love of their subordinates. In 1651 there was what would now be advertised as a great scandal at Chatham; all the chief officers, and many of the workmen, were accusing each other of misdeeds in a way which necessitated a governmental commission of inquiry, empowered to take evidence on oath. The light in which the Petts were regarded is shown by a remark made by one man to another that he dared not speak, ‘for fear of being undone by the kindred ... they were all so knit together that the devil himself could not discover them except one impeached the other.’ The result of the inquiry was a resolution that all the accused, on both sides, should retain their places, a decision more likely to be due to the impossibility of displacing experienced officers when war was imminent than to any inability to form an opinion.

The yearly salary of the master shipwright at Chatham was £103, 8s 4d, Deptford the same, and Woolwich £70. The building programme of the government naturally tempted these men to add to their salaries the profits to be made by having private yards for the construction of men-of-war. Holland pointed out that this led to the shipwright’s absence from the state’s yard, to the exchange of good government workmen for bad of his own, and that usually a frigate turned out from a shipwright’s yard cost the country twice as much as one from a dockyard.[1458] Holland commented on another evil, the existence of beerhouses in the dockyards, ‘necessary at first, now one of the greatest abuses in the Navy.’ At least one ‘searcher’ was employed to prevent theft from the dockyards; but, judging from the small number of such cases reported, the precautions taken or the higher standard induced in the men, had greatly altered former conditions for the better. In one instance, however, the want of honesty shown by two men was attributed—it is painful to have to confess here—to their habit of reading ‘histrye books.’ The wages of shipwrights and caulkers were raised in April 1650 from 1s 10d to 2s 1d a day, and again in 1652 to 2s 2d; they appear to have been punctually paid to a later date than the seamen, but in 1656, when they also were beginning to suffer from the emptiness of the treasury and their wages to fall into arrear, the Council, with the dry humour of officialism, ordered ‘an exact and punctual inspection and examination’ quarterly of their accounts. By 1658 they had, mostly, twelve months’ wages owing, but their murmurs were not nearly so loud as those of the seamen. Frequently during 1659 they were working half-time or less, for want of materials. In March 1660 there were not 100 yards of canvas remaining at either Woolwich or Deptford, the contractors would not supply more without ready money; and we may assume that other necessaries were equally lacking.[1459] During part of 1659 there was only one forge going at Portsmouth, John Timbrell, the anchor-smith, having received no money for two years, and having been compelled to dismiss his men, being unable to procure iron on credit. Timbrell was mayor of the town in 1662, so that the Restoration apparently relieved him of his troubles.

In September 1658 the _Happy Entrance_ was destroyed by fire at Chatham, a mishap attributed to carelessness on the part of the men at work on her, and the absence of supervision of the superior officials. This caused the promulgation of an order the following month that no member of the superior dockyard staff should absent himself without leave from the Commissioner, and he only by permission of the Admiralty or Navy Commissioners, with a general penalty of dismissal for disobedience.[1460] This order was to be framed and hung up in each yard. White’s invention of 1634 of iron mooring chains, noticed previously, was now taken up by the government, and some were laid down at Chatham, Deptford, and Woolwich for ships to ride at, two to a chain. Mooring places for the use of merchantmen were granted to White, Bourne and others at a rental of £5 a year.[1461] The dockyard chains weighed 2 cwt. 2 qrs. 14 lbs. to a fathom, cost fivepence a pound, and were guaranteed for two years.[1462] In 1658 a boom was ordered to be placed across the Medway at Upnor, but there is reason to believe that the order was not carried out.

[Sidenote: Dean Forest.]

Among the Commonwealth experiments was that of using the wood and iron ore of Dean Forest for the manufacture of iron for the supply of the dockyards and private purchasers. As a ton of iron could be made there for £3, 10s, and a ton of shot for £4, and sold respectively at £7 and £9, the enterprise was more profitable than most government undertakings.[1463] In 1656 the stock in hand was valued at £9446, which stood as net gain, all expenses being cleared;[1464] but, as Major Wade, who was in charge, thought that one or two hundred tons of iron thrown upon the market ‘would surfeit the whole country,’ it was rather a book profit than an actual one. However, from September 1654 to March 1659 Dean Forest supplied the Navy with 701 tons of shot and 88 tons of iron fittings; and from Sept. 1656 to April 1660 with 2300 tons of timber and 123,000 tree-nails,[1465] the saving thus effected being alone a sufficient justification of the new department. The plentiful yield of timber suggested the advisability of building frigates on the spot, and the _Grantham_ was launched at Lidney in 1654; she was followed by the _Forester_, and then the _Princess_ remained long in hand, since Furzer, the master shipwright, was receiving only £2 a week of the £15 necessary to meet expenses. In October 1659 he wrote to the Navy Commissioners that instead of attending to his duties he was forced to be away two or three days in the week trying to borrow money.

[Sidenote: Naval Expenditure.]

The following table, drawn up from the _Audit Office Declared Accounts_, shows the general expenditure for this period in round figures:—

+-----------+-----------+---------------+--------------+--------------+
| | | | | |
| | Amounts | | | |
| | received | Already | | |
| |and paid by| owing | Victualling |Deptford[1466]|
| | Treasurer | | | |
+-----------+-----------+---------------+--------------+--------------+
| | £ | £ | £ | £ |
|1649[1467]}| | | | |
|1650 }| 432,000| 233,500 | 149,000 | 8700[1468]|
|1651 | 446,000| 129,000 | 51,000 | 10,163 |
|1652 | 629,000| 238,000 | 88,000 | 10,900 |
|1653[1469] | 1,445,000| 335,000 | 269,000 | 12,600 |
|1654 | 1,117,000| 450,000 | 230,000 | 11,700 |
|1655 | 587,000| 466,000 | 70,000 | 8700 |
|1656 | 791,000| 473,000 | 209,000[1470]| 8000 |
|1657 | 746,000| 506,000 | | 9000 |
|1658[1472]}| | | | |
|1660 }| 1,442,000| 714,000 | | 11,800 |
|1660 | |1,056,000[1473]| | |
+-----------+-----------+---------------+--------------+--------------+

+-----------+--------+-------+----------+-------------+
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| |Woolwich|Chatham|Portsmouth| Wages |
| | | | | |
+-----------+--------+-------+----------+-------------+
| | £ | £ | £ | £ |
|1649[1467]}| | | | |
|1650 }| 8786| 23,768| 5292| |
|1651 | 7776| 19,089| 3783| |
|1652 | 8381| 22,744| 6860|304,000 |
|1653[1469] | 12,500| 29,000| 13,700|227,000 |
|1654 | 13,500| 22,500| 15,700|225,000 |
|1655 | 7600| 21,800| 7700| |
|1656 | 7000| 20,000| 7000| |
|1657 | 10,300| 19,400| 6200|311,000[1471]|
|1658[1472]}| | | | |
|1660 }| 18,000| 25,000| 9000|447,000 |
|1660 | | | | |
+-----------+--------+-------+----------+-------------+

The Commonwealth began its naval administration hampered by a debt of £233,000, and it will be seen that, with the exception of 1650, during which year the arrears were partly paid off, it steadily grew in amount. But comparing the national revenue, which had also to support a standing army, with the sums devoted to the Navy, the wonder seems to be that the debt was not larger. For the financial year ending 29th September 1657 the total public income was £1,050,000, and of this £809,000 was assigned to naval purposes; for 1658 £951,000, of which the Navy took £624,000.[1474] The receipts for 1659 were put at £1,517,000,[1475] and the Navy estimates at £848,000[1476].

The strain began to be most seriously felt from 1653, when, in September, the Navy Commissioners warned their chiefs that £1,115,000 was required before 31st December, without including the cost of the vessels on the stocks or that of the winter fleet; no provision, they said, had been made for this and ‘we find it necessary to lay before you the daily clamours we undergo for want thereof.’[1477] In October 1654 the Admiralty Commissioners apprised the Protector that the credit of the Government was so greatly impaired that stores could not be obtained except for ready money; yet £1,117,000 in cash passed through the Treasurer’s hands in this year. This sum was procured from many sources—excise, £262,000; treasurer-at-wars, £424,000; customs, £162,000; ‘profits arising by probate of wills,’ £1163; commissioners for Dutch prizes, £2029; commissioners for prize goods, £44,000; treasurer at Drury House, £16,000;[1478] Col. Barkstead,[1479] £44,000; from the exchequer, £131,000; and defalcations and sale of stores, £31,000. Notwithstanding these receipts the Admiralty Commissioners wrote in April 1655 to the Council that they had only been able to pay seamen’s wages, that all other debts remained unpaid, and that the yards were exhausted of stores.[1480] Straitened as they were, the Council, two months later, were not deterred from ordering 2000 Bibles for the soldiers in the West Indies, although the fact that the commissioners of the treasury had to ‘consider’ how they could be paid for seems to imply that Bibles were no more to be obtained on credit than cordage. On at least one occasion Oliver appears to have himself advanced £10,000 to the Navy Office.[1481]

The debt increased, but the revenue did not show the same elasticity; all that the Admiralty Commissioners could do, themselves almost daily invoked by the Navy Commissioners, was to carry on the appeal to the Council, ‘finding every day a sad increase of the just complaints of several persons for money long since due.’ This was in 1658, but in March of the following year they wrote bitterly to the Council that, while such large debts were contracted and they were struggling with difficulties, it made them ‘exceeding unhappy’ to see that even their assignments on the customs were not handed over to them in full.[1482] In May 1659, among other items, £330,000 was owing for seamen’s and £43,000 for dockyard wages, and the £735 a week paid by the Navy Treasurer to the Savoy and Ely House hospitals was six months over-due.[1483] In September the army commissioners were directed to hand over £60,000 for naval purposes, although the soldiers’ pay was months in arrear. When the Commonwealth accounts close on 7th July 1660 the debt was £1,056,000.[1484] For this large sum every year from 1640 furnished its quota, thus detailed:—1640-9, £10,200; 1650, £71,000; 1651, £25,000; 1652, £16,000; 1653, £11,000; 1654, £5000; 1655, £50,000; 1656, £229,000; 1657, £218,000; 1660, £421,000. That the earlier amounts were not merely book debts carried forward for want of claimants is shown by the existence of a petition, of April 1658, begging for the settlement of a bill for freight incurred between 1643 and 1651.[1485] These liabilities, belonging to only one branch of the public service, help to explain why many classes of society, not actively royalist, may have welcomed a restoration which promised a settlement of debts and a more stable financial system.

[Sidenote: Flags and The Salute.]

When the St George’s cross was made the national flag in February 1648-9, it was also ordered that an escutcheon should be carried on the stern of each man-of-war, containing a red cross in one compartment and a harp in another. In 1653 the three Generals at sea used, besides their standards, a pendant of red, white, or blue, at the main, and their vice- and rear-admirals their respective colours at the fore and mizen. From 18th May 1658 the standard of the General of the fleet was to bear the arms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ‘with his Highnes’ escutcheon of pretence according to the great seal of England.’ The jack flag for admirals was to consist of the arms of England and Scotland united, ‘according to the ancient form,’ with the harp added, ‘according to a model now shown.’[1486] All saluting, whether from ships or forts, was strictly forbidden in 1652, except in honour of ambassadors; but the salute to the flag from foreigners was firmly upheld under all circumstances. By the treaty of 5th April 1654, the Dutch formally acknowledged the English right to the salute in the ‘British seas.’ In 1657 Opdam, with thirty Dutch sail, passing Dover struck his flag and saluted the castle; shortly afterwards he met the _Dragon_ and the _Colchester_, whose captains ordered him again to strike. He refused, saying that he was not expected to pay this mark of respect to every ship he met, whereupon they replied that if he did not they would engage him till they sank alongside. Then ‘he struck in a great rage,’ and kept his flag down till out of sight of the Englishmen. Man-of-war captains sometimes displayed the same feeling of pride in their position at the expense of English ships. In 1654 a Virginiaman was run down and sunk in the Channel by the _Ruby_. In the subsequent inquiry the master of the merchantman held that the _Ruby_ should have gone astern of his vessel, to which her captain retorted by asking, ‘How many men-of-war have you known go under a merchantman’s stern?’

[Sidenote: Prices.]

The prices of naval stores varied greatly, according to the confidence felt in the treasury and conditions of peace or war; the following are the rates for some of the principal articles:—

IRON ORDNANCE
1650, £20 a ton
1653, £26 ”

CANVAS
Noyals, 1652, £15 to £17 a bale[1487]
Noyals, 1654, £19, 7s a bale
Vitery, 1654, 1s a yard
Vitery, 1655, 1s 4d an ell
Ipswich, 1654, £1, 12s a bolt
Ipswich, 1655, £1, 7s 9d a bolt

HEMP
1653, £32 a ton (English)
1655, £38, 10s a ton (Riga)
1657, £44 a ton (Riga)
1658, £46 a ton (Riga)
1658, £33 a ton (English)
1658, £38 a ton (Russia)

ANCHORS
1656, £34 a ton
” £37 ”

POWDER
1650, £3, 16s a barrel
1652, £4 ”
1653, £4, 10s ”

PLANK
1653, £2, 18s a load
1655, £3, 7s ”
1657, £3, 5s ” (oak)
1659, £3, 15s ” ”

SMALL ARMS
Snaphaunces, 1658, 11s 6d each
Matchlocks, 1658, 10s 6d each
Carbines, 1658, 11s each
Pistols, 1658, 14s a pair

BLACK ROSIN
1655, £10, 10s a ton
1657, £10 a ton (Mar.)
1657, £9, 5s ” (Aug.)

COMPASS TIMBER
1656, £2, 5s a load
1658, £3 ”

CORDAGE
1649, £30 a ton
1656, £44 ”
1657, £48 ”
1658, £44 ”

SHOT
1652, £11, 10s a ton
1653, £14 a ton

TAR
1654, £1, 15s a barrel
1655, £10, 12s a last
1656, £12 a last
1657, £12, 10s a last
1658, £13 a last

PITCH
1654, £1, 16s a barrel
1655, £15, 5s a last

BEER
1654, £1, 15s a tun
1659, £2, 5s ”

SPRUTIA[1488] DEALS
1656, 12s 6d each
1659, 14s ”

ORDINARY DEALS
1657, £4, 3s per 100 of six score

WHALE OIL
1659, £26, 15s a ton

ENGLISH TALLOW
1658, £2, 3s per cwt.

LIGNUM VITÆ for blocks
1656, £6, 15s a ton

Examples of that incongruity of expression usually associated with Puritan fervour are not frequent among the Navy papers, but they do occasionally occur. On one occasion Lawson writes, ‘All that look towards Zion should hold Christian communion—we have all the guns aboard.’ Major Robert Sedgwick, starting for the West Indies, asks the Navy Commissioners, after official details, for ‘your prayers that we may be sent out with a blessing and be a blessing where we go.’ Major Sedgwick’s duties were to kill Spaniards, plunder their property, and annex their territory. These men were too grimly earnest in the work they set their hands to do to trouble themselves about fine phrases. They lacked humour, and the court of Charles II was, we are taught, very witty; but when, in 1667, the roar of foreign guns was, for the only time in English history, heard in London, even that majority which always loves a royal jest must have begun to appreciate the distinction underlying Stewart wit and Puritan dulness.