Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/334

316 316 DOCKYARDS RESERVES IN DOCKYARDS. At each of the ports where there is a dockyard, Pembroke excepted, a certain number of ships when put out of commission, or new ships not commissioned, are laid up in reserve, being classed in one of the four classes, according to the state in which they are when paid off, or the state of forwardness for further service to which they may be ordered by the Admiralty. The reserves used to be comprehended in what was called &quot; the ordinary.&quot; But since twenty years the reserve ships have been placed under a captain of the navy, the flag captain of the dockyard admiral. The captain of the reserve is responsible for the care of ship and engines, and also for the due preservation and readiness for immediate service of all the ship s stores and equipment. The latter, excepting very heavy gear, which is kept on board, are kept in special storehouses at the dockyard, where all the items of the ship s &quot; establishment/ 1 from cordage to hammocks and lanterns, are kept ready for immediate shipment. These arrangements apply to the ships in the first division of the reserve. Competent technical officers, all the ship s artificers in port not other wise employed, and a large body of seamen are under the orders of the captain of the reserve. HISTORY OF MANAGEMENT OF DOCKYARDS. When Henry VIII. first established a regular king s dockyard at Woolwich, he appointed a board, consisting of certain commissioners for the management of all naval matters ; and it is curious enough (see the Pepysian Collection of Manuscripts in the university of Cambridge), that the regulations which he made for the civil government of the navy, and which were in the reign of Edward VI. revised, arranged, and turned into ordinances, form the broad basis of all the subsequent instructions given to the several officers to whom the management of the civil affairs of the navy has been committed. The commissioners of the navy then consisted of the vice-admiral of England, the master of the ordnance, the surveyor of the marine causes, the treasurer, comptroller, general surveyor of the victualling, clerk of the ships, and clerk of the stores. They had each their particular duties ; and once a week they were ordered to meet at their office on Tower Hill, and once a month report their proceedings to the lord high admiral. In 1609 the principal officers for conducting the civil affairs of the navy were suspended, in consequence of many abuses being complained of ; and other commissioners were appointed, with powers to manage, settle, and put the affairs of the navy into a proper train, and to prevent, by such measures as might appear to be necessary, the con tinuance of the many great frauds and abuses which had prevailed. A similar commission was renewed in 1G18, which in a full and minute report detailed and explained those frauds and abuses. That commission, which ended on the death of James L, was renewed by his successor, and remained in force till 1628, when it was dissolved, and the management of the navy was restored to the board of officers established by Edward VI. In the disturbed reign of Charles I. the navy was suffered to go to decay ; but by the extraordinary exertions of Cromwell it was raised to a height which it had never before reached ; it again declined, however, under the administration of his son. At the Restoration, the duke of York, of whom Macaulay wrote that he was the only honest man in his dockyards, was appointed lord high admiral ; and by his advice a committee was appointed to consider a plan he had drawn out for the future regula tion of the affairs of the navy, at which he himself presided. &quot; In all naval affairs,&quot; say the commissioners of revision, &quot; he appears to have acted with the advice and assistance of Mr Samuel Pepys, who first held the office of clerk of the acts, and was afterwards secretary of the Admiralty, a man of extraordinary knowledge in all that related to the business of that department, of great talents, and the most indefatigable industry.&quot; The entire management of the navy was now in the hands of the duke, as lord high admiral, by whom three new commissioners were appointed to act with the treasurer of the navy, the comptroller, the surveyor, and clerk of the acts, as principal officers and commissioners of the navy. A book of instructions, drawn out by Pepys, was sent to the navy board for its guidance. A rapid progress was made in the repair and augmentation of the fleet ; but the duke being called away, in consequence of the Dutch war in 166 4, the example of zeal and industry set by Pepys was not sufficient, in the duke s absence, to prevent neglect and mismanagement in every department, except his own. From 1673 to 1679, the office of lord high admiral was put in commission with Prince Rupert at the head of it. The king, through Pepys, arranged all naval affairs ; but in the latter year, when the duke was sent abroad, and Pepys to the Tower, a new set of men were made commissioners of the navy, who, without ex perience, ability, or industry, suffered the navy to go to decay. &quot; All the wise regulations,&quot; say the commissioners of revision, &quot; formed daring the administration of the duke of York, were neglected ; and such supineness and waste appear to have prevailed as, at the end of not more than five years, when he was recalled to the office of lord high admiral, only twenty-two ships, none larger than a fourth- rate, with two fireships, were at sea; those in the harbour were quite unfit for service ; even the thirty 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 dock-yards.&quot; Pepys was re-appointed secretary of the Admiralty ; the king instituted an inquiry into the characters and abilities of the first ship-builders in England, and by the advice of Pepys added Sir Anthony Dean, eminent in that profession, with three others, to the former principal officers. The old commissioners were directed entirely to confine their attention to the . business of a committee of accounts. To each of the new commissioners was intrusted a distinct branch of the proposed reform ; and it appears that, highly to their credit, &quot; they performed what they had undertaken in less time than was allowed for it, and at less expense,&quot; having completed their business to the general satisfaction of the public two months before the Revolution. The business of the navy, thus methodized and settled, remained undisturbed by that event. It will readily be seen that the vast increase of our naval force since that time has necessarily required many addi tional orders and regulations, some of which, from circum stances, were not compatible with each other; some were given to one dockyard and not to another; others in one. yard became obsolete, while they continued to be acted upon in another ; so that there was no longer that uniformity in the management which it is desirable indeed, essen-, tially necessary to preserve. From the year 1764 to 1804, when the king appointed a commission &quot;for revis ing and digesting the civil affairs of his navy,&quot; the attention of the lords of the admiralty and the navy board had frequently been directed to this important subject ; but nothing was done to forward so desirable an arrangement, except that Sir Charles Middleton (afterwards Lord Barham), when comptroller of the navy, classed and digested under distinct heads all orders and regulations prior to the year 1786. The commissioners of naval inquiry, appointed in 1803, state the necessity of revising the instructions, and digesting the immense mass of orders