Admiralty

“ Here is the so-called Admiralty, where the grand dukes exercise themselves in building the models of ships; near the pretty landing place boats are crowded from all the five divisions of the world; the Turkish kaik, the Chinese junk, the Russian tschelónok, and the whaling boat of the Greenlander, lie side by side, and skilful sailors in the emperor's employment are at the disposal of those who wish to embark. ”

“ The Admiralty should never engage itself to lock up a single vessel even—not even a torpedo-boat, or submarine—anywhere on any consideration whatever. The whole principle of Sea fighting is to be free to go anywhere with every d—d thing the Navy possesses. The Admiralty should engage to do their best but to reserve entire freedom of action. ”

“ He bowed and my father began—
“I cannot say,” observed the good old gentleman, “that I much approve of matrimony before you are a commander. At least, till then, you are not your own master.”
“Oh, if I am to wait for that, sir,” said I, “I may wait long enough; no man is ever his own master in our service, or in England. The captain is commanded by the admiral, the admiral by the Admiralty, the Admiralty by the Privy Council, the Privy Council by the Parliament, the Parliament by the people, and the people by printers and their devils.” ”

“ Only by mutiny did the Admiralty yield to our demands. What I did I would do again! We took our risks in the Thames against the guns that were levelled at us; we’ve taken our risks down here against the French to help save your squadron, and we’ve done it. The men have done it, because they’ve been loyal to the flag, and from first to last set to make the Admiralty and the people know they have rights which must be cherished. ”

“ So far as the Navy is concerned, the tendency of these “Thinking Establishments” on shore is to convert splendid Sea Officers into very indifferent Clerks. The Admiralty is filled with Sea Officers now who ought to be afloat; and the splendid civilian element—incomparable in its talent and in its efficiency—is swamped. Before the war, when I was First Sea Lord, when I left the Admiralty at 8 p.m., prior to some approaching Grand Manœuvres, I left it to my friend Flint, one of the Higher Division Clerks, to mobilize the fleet by a wireless message from the roof of the Admiralty ”

“ I really have little or no interest with the Admiralty; and I am at a loss how to obtain an appointment for my son, to place him in the way of promotion. Your pretensions are good; and I recommend your applying to Lord Melville, who often acts from the impulse of the moment, and may lend a favorable ear to officers of merit. ”

“ If these are the fruits, I don’t think there is much wrong with the government of the Navy. (Cheers.) Figs don’t grow on thistles. (Laughter and cheers.) But a gentleman of fine feeling has lately said that the recent Admiralty administration has been attended with the devil’s own luck. (Laughter.) That interesting personality (laughter) —his luck is due to one thing, and one thing only—hesitates at nothing to gain his object. That is what the Board of Admiralty have done, and our object has been the fighting efficiency of the Fleet and its instant readiness for war ”

“ A matter of more general interest than the growth of the High Court of Admiralty is the growth of the Admiralty considered as a Department of the Government. There is nothing to indicate the existence of such a Department, in the modern sense of the term, before the reign of Charles II. There are some early accounts relating to naval affairs; there was a Treasurer of the Navy as early as the year 1544, whose functions were transferred to the Paymaster-General in the reign of William IV ”

“ The board of admiralty, as at present constituted, comprises five lords commissioners of the admiralty, who decide collectively on all important questions. Besides this collective or corporate action, each commissioner has special duties assigned to him. There are two civil or political lords, and three naval or sea lords. The first lord, who is always a cabinet minister, besides a general control, has the management of naval estimates, finance, political affairs, slave-trade prevention, appointments, and promotions. ”

“ The First Lord of the Admiralty, who introduced the motion to the House of Lords, expatiated at length on the circumstances which enhanced the merit of the commander:—"When the expedition against Algiers was determined on, it became necessary to collect men from different guard-ships, and to call for the services of volunteers for this particular enterprise. ”

“ A Naval War Staff at the Admiralty is a very excellent organisation for cutting out and arranging foreign newspaper clippings in such an intelligent disposition as will enable the First Sea Lord to take in at a glance who is likely amongst the foreigners to be the biggest fool or the greatest poltroon, who will be opposed to his own trusted and personally selected Nelson who commands the British Fleet. ”

“ For it is well to consider, that a scold resembles a snow-ball—it always gathers weight as it rolls along. Thus the Admiralty send down, by post or by telegraph, a rap on the knuckles to the old admiral—very moderate as naval things go, but such as, in civil life, would make a sober citizen frantic, though it merely squeezes out a growl from the venerable commander-in-chief. Straightway he rings for the secretary, and issues a smartish general order, in which the wretched captain of the offending ship catches the reprimand, with a most usurious allowance of interest. ”

“ Yes, sir; the Admiralty sent us here in 1853, under the command of Captain Inglefield, with the steamer Phoenix and a transport ship, the Breadalbane, loaded with provisions; we brought enough with us to revictual a whole expedition. ”

“ Admiralty Organization.—Under the organization which now exists, the Board of Admiralty consists of the first lord, the first and second naval lords, the additional naval lord and controller, the junior naval lord and the civil lord, who are commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, and with them are the parliamentary and financial secretary and the permanent secretary. As has been explained, the first lord is responsible under the orders in council to the crown and to parliament for all admiralty business. ”

“ He had, upon one pretence and another, been shifted, by the manœuvres of the captains, out of different ships, until he went up to the Admiralty to know if there was any charge against him. The first lord at once perceived the charge to be preferred, and made a mark against his name as not fit for anything but harbour duty. ”

“ No—the Admiralty Policy is sound, consistent and irrefutable, which is never to exceed the normal number of Dockyard workmen as now fixed by the recent Committee, and have such a great margin of Naval strength—such as we now possess—as admits of a leisurely and economical refit of ships without extravagant overtime or inefficient hustling of work. Therefore, what it comes to is this:—The Admiralty decide what vessels they require first and what defects and repairs in those vessels are most material, and they give orders accordingly. ”

“ This post has since been occupied by a succession of distinguished naval officers under whom have grown up a large school of able nautical surveyors, the results of whose labours are now published in the well-known Admiralty charts. Prior to the issue of charts by the Admiralty, the instructions to masters of vessels in the British navy enjoined them to “ provide such charts and instruments as they considered necessary for the safe navigation of the ship,” while on the completion of a voyage of discovery it was customary for the results to be published for the Admiralty by private firms. ”

“ When the Sea Lords sit round the Board of Admiralty they can talk about anything, because they’ve been in every type of vessel and every branch of their Profession. Again, in a good regiment the promotion is slow because the officers stick to it. In a bad regiment the promotion is rapid because everyone wants to leave it. Then, finally, I submitted the idea of the Army and Navy being incorporated in one great Service. There is no going aloft now—a ship can be manned by soldiers with equal efficiency as by sailors. ”

“ At the Admiralty the principal naval member of the Board is made responsible not only for the distribution and movements of ships—a definition which includes the whole domain of strategy and tactics —but also for the fighting and sea-going efficiency of the fleet, its organisation and mobilisation, a definition so wide that it includes the greater part of the administration of the navy, especially as the same officer is held responsible for advice on all large questions of naval policy and maritime warfare, as well as for the control of the naval ordnance department. ”

“ The outcome of this expanded Naval War Staff beyond its real requirements, such as I have indicated, and which were provided for while I was First Sea Lord, was that a Chief of the Staff, in imitation of him at the War Office, was planked into the Admiralty and indirectly supplanted the First Sea Lord. I won’t enlarge on this further. It’s many years before another war can possibly take place, and it’s now a waste of educated labour to discuss it further. ”

“ Our Admiralty, obliged to keep at sea in all parts of the world such an immense number of men of war, straitened in their finances, and finding it difficult to obtain at short notice crews for all their ships, had certainly sent to sea a great many vessels exceedingly ill-manned. ”

“ If the admiral of the station be also a personal friend, that source of favour, of course, always adds another string to the young man's bow. Circumstances likewise occasionally arise which enable an admiral, who has an officer's interest really at heart, to give him an extra lift at the right moment, and in the right direction, provided his name actually stands on the Admiralty List, even though it be ever so low down. ”

“ The Admiralty lent the entire crews for the three destroyers and skeleton crews for the two cruisers, consisting of petty officers, seamen gunners, engine-room artificers, armourers, and also a small detachment of marines, whilst, acting on the advice of the Foreign Office and the Chinese Embassy, both of which threw out hints of the possibility of treachery, the remainder of the crews were taken exclusively from Naval Reserve men of known good character. ”

“ A sound beating at some not vital point, which could have been demonstrated to be the result of maladministration, would probably have roused the nation into taking the Admiralty and the navy in hand, and would have been for our good. ”

“ The character of the Admiralty Board is peculiar to the British constitution, and it possesses certain features which distinguish it from other departments of the state. The business it conducts is very great and complex, and the machinery by which its work is done has grown with the expansion of that business. The whole system of naval administration has been developed historically, and is not the product of the organizing skill of one or a few individuals, but an organic growth possessing marked and special characteristics. ”

“ The portico, which was intended as an ornament, rather disgusts than pleases, by the immoderate height and ill shape of the columns.
In this office are transacted all martime affairs belonging to the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, who here regulate the affairs of the navy; nominate Admirals, Captains, and other officers to serve on board his Majesty’s ships of war, and give orders for the trial of those who have failed in their duty, or been guilty of other irregularities. ”

“ The first Secretary of the Admiralty is generally a member of Parliament, but he only concerns himself with the affairs of the Admiralty; but ask him respecting the habits of sailors, he may tell it to the marines, for the captain of the main-top will never believe him. It is true the Admiralty have now given orders for captains to make a quarterly return of all punishments inflicted on seamen. This I think quite right, as it must in a great measure strike down the hand of tyranny. Nor do I find fault with the encouragement and respectability which has lately been given to the petty officers. ”

“ The Navy: the Lord High Admiral. With the idea of our Army is naturally associated that of our Navy. A most important jurisdiction was Admiral, that of the Lord High Admiral. Though you may not improbably have seen it stated in some publications that King Alfred was Lord High Admiral, the earliest known mention of any English Admiral at all occurs in the reign of Edward I. There are certainly no records of any Pre-Norman Admiralty ”

“ At first called ‘Keeper and Governor’ of the king’s ships, later, ‘Clerk of the king’s ships,’ this official held, sometimes really and sometimes nominally, the control of naval organisation until the formation of the Navy Board in 1546. His duties included all those now performed by a multitude of highly placed Admiralty officials. If a man of energy, experience, and capacity, his name stands foremost in the maintenance of the royal fleets during peace and their preparation for war ”

“ I had been wondering how it would be best to manage, there were so few of the right people. I should have had to apply to the Governor.”
“Yes—well, this morning the Admiral landed, and then sent for me. He asked me no end of questions about the fire, and said some very handsome things about us both; then he added, ‘The Lords of the Admiralty, with their usual discrimination in discovering merit, and promptness in rewarding it, having moreover, no doubt, had penetration enough to foresee what has just occurred, have sent out this as your reward. ”