British Naval Documents, 1204-1960
Contributions by Charles S. Knighton Edited by John B. Hattendorf, Roger Knight, Alan W.H. Pearsall, Nicholas AM Rodger, Geoffrey Till
Publication date:
01 January 1993Length of book:
1232 pagesPublisher
The Navy Records SocietyDimensions:
234x156mmISBN-13: 9781805434177
This impressive 1200-page volume was produced in 1993 to mark the centenary of the Navy Records Society and was dedicated to Her Majesty the Queen as Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom. In addition to the documents, it includes an introductory note on the history of the society by the then Chairman of the Publications Committee, A. B. Sainsbury, and a foreword by its then patron, the late Prince Philip. The documents were selected with the intention of providing both “an introduction to British naval history for the beginner” and “a basis for further enquiry by the more expert”. The starting point was taken as 1204 when the English empire established by Henry II, which extended from the Cheviots to the Pyrenees, was split in two by France, thus requiring the establishment of naval forces to protect sea borne communications between England and its southern province of Gascony, while the end point of 1960 seems to have been dictated by the ‘Thirty Year Rule’ on the release of British government documents. The overall period was then divided into six parts of unequal length but equal perceived importance: the late Middle Ages from 1204 to 1485; the Tudor period from Henry VII’s victory at Bosworth in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 and thus including the Spanish Armada; the early Stuart period from the accession of James 1 in 1603 to the beginning of the second English civil war in 1649, the latter part of which saw the enlargement of the Navy and the development of a method of funding which made it possible to put a substantial fleet to sea in peace time; the years from 1648 to 1714 encompassing the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the three Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Glorious Revolution and which saw England, in contrast to the European powers, emphasising her navy rather than her army as she developed into a great power; the Georgian era from 1714 to 1815 and more specifically the years from 1739 to Napoleon’s defeat in 1815 during more than half of which Britain was at war; the long peace from 1815 to 1900 which saw the transition from sail to steam and huge developments in shipbuilding and armaments; and finally the years from 1900 to 1960 encompassing not only two world wars but the replacement of Britain by the United States as the world’s dominant naval power. Each part begins with a General Introduction after which the documents themselves are divided into sections on Policy and Strategy, Tactics and Operations, Administration, Matèriel and Weapons and Personnel, each with its own introduction “providing the context within which the documents are intended to be as self-explanatory as possible.” Present day readers will judge the extent to which the distinguished team of editors succeeded in providing “a proper tribute to the first centenary of the Society.”