Shipboard Life and Organisation, 1731-1815

‘Shipboard Life and Organisation, 1731–1815’, edited by Brian Lavery. This collection of documents has been selected, when taken in conjunction with other volumes produced by the Society, including notably Five Naval Journals 1789–1817 (vol. 91, 1951, ed. H. G. Thursfield) and The Health of Seamen (vol. 107, 1965, ed. C. C. Lloyd), to help give a rounded picture of life at sea during the age of sail. It begins in the second quarter of the eighteenth century, since few if any suitable documents exist from earlier periods, and ends in 1815, when the Navy entered a new era with vastly different problems in recruiting and organising seamen during the long peace of the nineteenth century. It thus to some extent complements N. A. M. Rodger’s Wooden World while extending its scope from the relatively ordered world of the Seven Years War to the great crisis of morale immediately before and after the turn of the century. The focus throughout is on the daily routine of shipboard life rather than the more dramatic events such as battle and mutiny although their effects are never far from the surface. Nor is it intended to illustrate the technicalities of shipboard life in any detail, although it is impossible not to touch on them. Shipboard society, particularly in the later part of the age of sail, was almost unique in the degree to which it was self-contained. With scurvy largely conquered, ships could stay at sea for months at a time and stay away from their home bases for several years, unconstrained either by the steamship’s need to refuel or by continually updated orders transmitted by radio. Even when in port seamen often remained on board at a time when shore leave was not in any sense a right. The collection aims to give an understanding of how this society actually worked with up to 850 men crammed together for months at a time. How were they clothed and fed, allocated space for sleeping and eating, organised for their different tasks such as fighting, sailing, maintenance and welfare, and their health and morale maintained. The documents are arranged in a hierarchy of sections according to their subject matter, each with an introductory essay, and within each part chronologically: Admiralty Regulations and Instructions; Captains’ Orders including those of Richard Howe for HMS Magnanime in 1759, Prince William for the Pegasus in 1786-88, Edward Riou for the Amazon in 1799 and John Fyffe for the Indefatigable in 1812; Other Orders include St Vincent’s for the Mediterranean fleet; Ship Organisation including allocation of watches, berths and messes; Discipline and Punishment; The Crew as revealed by petitions; Diaries, one of a Captain of Marines, another of the civilian tutor to a midshipman; Medical Journals; Accounts of pursers and other warrant and petty officers; and a final Miscellaneous section which includes Admiral Digby’s Menu Book, kept by his steward on the Prince George, and extracts from the writings of Admiral Philip Patton on shipboard life and management.