Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/295

Rh smacks, yachts, &c., with more than 12,000 seamen ; and also 30 new ships building, and a good supply of stores in the dockyards. But this flourishing condition of the navy did not last long. In consequence of the dissipation of the king, and his pecuniary difficulties, he neglected the navy on account of the expenses ; the duke was sent abroad, and Pepys to the Tower. A new set of commis sioners was appointed, without experience, ability, or industry ; and the consequence was, as stated by the com missioners of revision, that &quot;all the wise regulations formed during the administration of the duke of York were neglected ; and such supineness and waste appear to have prevailed that, at the end of not more than five years, when he was recalled to the office of lord high admiral, only 22 ships, none larger than a fourth rate, with two fire-ships, were at sea ; those in harbour were quite unfit for service ; even the 30 new ships which he had left building had been suffered to fall into a state of great decay, and hardly any stores were found to remain in the dockyards.&quot; The first act on the duke s return was the reappoint- ment of Pepys as secretary of the Admiralty. In 1686, finding the principal officers unequal to the duties required of them, he appointed a special commission to restore the navy to its former strength and condition. Sir Anthony Deane, the most experienced of the shipbuilders then in England, was joined with the commissioners. He is said to have introduced important improvements in ships of the line, his model being the &quot; Superbe,&quot; a French ship of 74 guns, from which he built the &quot;Harwich&quot; in 1664. Others, however, are of opinion that no advance was made on the model of the &quot; Sovereign of the Seas &quot; after she was cut down. The commissioners undertook, in three years, to complete the repair of the fleet, and furnish the dockyards with a proper supply of stores, on an estimate of 400,000 a year, to be issued in weekly payments ; and in two years and a half they finished their task to the satisfaction of the king and the whole nation, 108 sail of the line being repaired and under repair, besides smaller vessels. At the time of the king s abdication, the list of the navy amounted to 173 sail, of 101,892 tons, carrying 6930 guns and 42,000 seamen. The naval regulations were wisely left unaltered at the Revolution, and the business of the Admiralty continued to be carried on for a short time, under the immediate direction of King William, by Pepys, till the arrival of Admiral Herbert and Captain Russell from the fleet, into whose hands, he says, &quot;he silently let it fall.&quot; Upon the general principles of that system, thus established with his aid by the duke of York, the civil government of the British navy has been carried on ever since. 1 In the second year of William III. (1690), no less than 27 ships were ordered to be built, of 60 and 80 guns each; and in 1697 the king, in his speech to parliament, stated that the naval force of the kingdom was increased to nearly double what he found it at his acces sion. It was now partly composed of various classes of French ships which had been captured in the course of the war, amounting in number to more than 60, and in guns to 2300, the losses by storms and captures being about half the tonnage and half the guns acquired. At the commencement of William s reign, the navy, as already stated, consisted of 173 ships, measuring 101,892 tons ; at his death it had been extended to 272 ships, 1 Up to this time merchantmen, hired and armed, but commanded by officers of the navy, formed more or less a part of every fleet sent out. Now, however, the navy became independent for fighting pur poses, while the development of commerce and colonial trade made the establishment of a system of convoys and cruisers an absolute necessity. 283 measuring 159,020 tons, being an increase of more than one-half both in number and in tonnage. The ships of the line numbered then 130, and this continued to be the average number till the middle of the 18th century. The accession of Queen Anne was immediately followed by a war with France and Spain, and in the second year of her reign she had the misfortune to lose no less than 13 of her ships by one of the most tremendous storms that was ever known ; but every energy was used to repair this national calamity. In the course of this war there were taken or destroyed about 50 ships of war, mounting 3000 cannon ; and about half that number were lost. At the death of the queen, in 1714, the list of the navy was reduced in number to 247 ships, measuring 167,219 tons, being an increase in tonnage of 8199 tons. George I. left the navy pretty nearly in the state in which he found it. At his death, in 1727, the list con sisted of 233 ships, measuring 170,862 tons, being a decrease in number of 14, but an increase in tonnage of 3643 tons. George II. was engaged in a war with Spain in 1739, in consequence of which the size of ships of the line ordered to be built was considerably enlarged. On the restora tion of peace in 1748 it was found that England s naval strength had prodigiously increased. The loss had been little or nothing, while the English had taken and de stroyed 20 French and 15 Spanish sail of the line, besides smaller vessels. The war with France of 1756 added considerably to the list, so that at the king s decease in 1760 it consisted of 412 ships, measuring 321,104 tons. In the short war of 1762, George III. added no less than 20 sail of the line to the navy. At the conclusion of the American war in 1782, the list of the navy was increased to 600 sail ; and at the signing of the prelimin aries in 1783 it amounted to 617 sail, measuring upwards of 500,000 tons, being aa increase of 185 ships and 157,000 tons and upwards since the year 1762. At the peace of Amiens the list of the fleet amounted to upwards of 700 sail, of which 144 were of the line. The number taken from the enemy, or destroyed, amounted nearly to 600, of which 90 were of the line, including 50-gun ships, and upwards of 200 were frigates ; the English loss amounted to about 60, of which 6 were of the line and 12 frigates. The recommencement and long continuance of the. revolutionary war, the glorious successes of England in naval actions, and the protection required for the extended commerce, of which, in fact, Britain might be said to enjoy a monopoly, and for the security of the numerous colonies, contributed to raise the British navy to a magni tude to which the accumulated navies of the whole world bore but a small proportion. From 1808 to 1813 there were seldom less than from 100 to 106 sail of the line in commission, and from 130 to 160 frigates, and upwards of 200 sloops, besides bombs, gun-brigs, cutters, schooners, &c., amounting in the whole to about 500 sail of effective ships and vessels, to which may be added 500 more in the ordinary, and as prison, hospital, and receiving ships, making at least 1000 pennants, and measuring from 800,000 to 900,000 tons. The commissioners appointed to inquire into the state and condition of the woods, forests, and land revenues of the crown state, in their report to parliament, in the year 1792, that, &quot;at the accession of his majesty (George III.) to the throne, the tonnage of the royal navy was 321,104 tons, and at the end of the year 1788 it had risen to no less than 413,467 tons.&quot; In 1808 it had amounted to the enormous total of 800,000 tons, having nearly doubled itself in twenty years. It must not, however, be supposed that the effective navy consisted of more than half this amount of tonnage.