Board of Admiralty

“ 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 ”

“ The Navy of to-day, and still more the Navy of to-morrow, bears the imprint of your work. The enormous impending influx of capital ships, the score of thirty-knot cruisers, the destroyers and submarines unequalled in modern construction which are coming now to hand, are the results of labours which we have had in common, and in which the Board of Admiralty owes so much to your aid. ”

“ The responsibility of the Officer in Command of an operation must necessarily be great, but the responsibility of the Higher Command, in this case the Board of Admiralty, which has to either sanction or disallow the execution of proposed operations, is by no means small. ”

“ The system provides no strictly professional unifying force, such as the Board of Admiralty, which has a numerical preponderance of combatant sea-officers, each of whom has in individual control one or more of the technical administrative departments, and may be supposed therefore to be fully informed of its arguments in any technical matter under discussion. ”

“ In January, 1780, Congress on the recommendation of the Board of Admiralty passed a resolution which was no doubt in harmony with administrative economy and thrift, but which pressed hard upon many naval officers. The pay of all officers in the navy not in actual service was at once to cease. Their commissions were to be deposited with the most convenient Navy Board, until the officers should be again called into service; each officer was to retain his rank. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To assist in the executive business of the Lord High Admiral, the Admiralty Office or Admiralty Board was formed. Full regulations for the conduct of all these officials do not seem to have existed until the time of Edward VI.; and, indeed, it may be assumed that no department of such great importance could, at the mere fiat of an individual, leap at once into full activity and usefulness. The Commissioners of the Navy Office met, apparently from the time of their first appointment, on Tower Hill, in a building which, under Elizabeth, was known as the Queen's Consultation Room. ”

“ This was the system of executive boards, composed jointly of commissioners selected outside the membership of Congress, and of members of Congress. Congress and the Marine Committee probably derived a part of their knowledge of executive boards from the practice of the English government and of the states. “Board of Admiralty” was the name during the Revolution, as now, of the British Naval Office. Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina had early in the Revolution established “Navy Boards.” In October, 1777, Congress had formed a Board of War composed of five commissioners. ”

“ If you take a little of the best Port Wine, the best Champagne, the best Claret, and the best Hock and mix them together, the result is disastrous. So often is it with a Board of Admiralty. That’s why I have suffered fools gladly! But Lord George Hamilton and Lord Spencer had an awful time of it. To both of these (I consider) great men I am very specially beholden. Lord George Hamilton more particularly endured much on my behalf when I was Director of Naval Ordnance, fighting the War Office. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All the orders for great movements of the fleets and ships are directed by this board and signed by its secretary, the board, by a fiction of the law, being considered an individual replacing the lord high admiral—which it did, in 1632. The board is supposed to meet every day with all the members present, the vote of each member carrying as much weight as that of any other member. Naturally, the first lord of the admiralty being a cabinet officer and a member of Parliament, has a far greater influence on broad questions than any other member ”

“ For the moment, it would be safe to build against Germany only. But we cannot build for the moment: the Board of Admiralty are the trustees of future generations of their countrymen, who may not enjoy the same comparatively serene sky as ourselves. The ships we lay down this year may have their influence on the international situation twenty years hence, when Germany—or whoever our most likely antagonist may then be—may have the opportunity of the co-operation (even if only temporary) of another great naval Power. ”

“ This offer was declined, with some remarks as to the greater importance of his services at the Board of Admiralty and in Parliament in time of peace than any service he could render at sea. The present Board then took office, and Vice-Admiral Sir Sydney Dacres, who had been a member of the former Board of Admiralty with Sir John Hay, continued in the present Board as its chief naval adviser. ”

“ The Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV, being appointed Lord High Admiral, the Admiralty Board lapsed as a board 121and became his council. The modification here made in deference to royal blood might well serve as a model for naval administration; a head with advisers feels responsibility more than a head with associates. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Vincent left the Admiralty, our officer accompanied that nobleman in his retirement. He was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral, April 23, in the same year; and on the change of ministry occasioned by the death of that great statesman the Right Hon. William Pitt, in 1806, he became a Commissioner of the new Board of Admiralty, under Mr. ”

“ The office, in fact, grew, as has been commonly the case with our administrative machinery, by adaptations to meet needs. At last, in 1546, in the year before his death, the king formed the first regular Navy Board by letters patent dated April 24. It consisted of a Lieutenant of the Admiralty, a Treasurer, a Comptroller, a Surveyor, a Clerk of the Ships, and two officials who had no special title. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It seems to sap individual responsibility; not perhaps in subordinates, but, what is much worse, in the head, in the commander-in-chief of the administration, upon whom depend the great determinative lines of provision and of policy. In conception, the Admiralty is primarily a Board, secondarily individual members. For individual responsibility at the head, too much depends upon the personality of the First Lord, too little upon his position. ”

“ On the 26th Feb. 1810, in consequence of favorable representations personally made to the Board of Admiralty by Sir John Poo Beresford, he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant, and about the same lime appointed to serve under his constant patron, in the Poicters 74, then fitting out at Chatham. ”

“ I venture to suggest to you that it is a great mistake for our Committee to be made a catspaw to suit Cabinet susceptibilities or parliamentary179 wirepulling and that we press for a full and complete publication.
* * * * * 1904.
May 26th.
... Arnold-Forster spent several hours here with me yesterday and he is coming again to-day discussing his difficulties. I tell him he can’t expect his Council all at once to possess the attributes of the Board of Admiralty (which he so intensely admires) which began in 1619! They want to be educated. ”

“ The Congressional members received no pay for their services on the Board.
When Congress came to select Commissioners of Admiralty, it found no easy task. Men who were eager for distinction and honor felt that they were cultivating a surer field in their home governments or in the army. The prestige of the Continental government was now declining. ”

“ It is a practical necessity that all connected with the sea should understand the use of the International code, therefore, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty require that all Royal Naval Reserve men who act as Masters or Mates of ships should be instructed in its working, and the Board of Trade makes like requirements from all candidates for Masters' or Mates' Certificates. ”

“ If the stronger character is a layman, he may be ignorant of, or see no danger in waiving, naval traditions that are embodied in no statute or regulation, but are not embodied simply because their cogency has never been questioned. In other words, the autocracy of the Admiralty is a necessity of executive administration, but can only be exercised safely if its enforcement is continuously tested by professional opinion.
How many people, I often wonder, really appreciate how singular a body is that which is made up of admirals, captains, commanders, and lieutenants of the Royal Navy? ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When the civil war commenced most of the non-combatant servants of the Admiralty remained, like the officers and men, in the service of the Parliament, which took control by means of committees, whose members were constantly being changed. ”

“ Instead of officials who, as in the preceding half-century, owed their posts to court influence, to purchase, or to seniority, the [306] work was in the hands of men chosen for business aptitude and who, in most instances, had given proof of higher qualifications on the field of battle or in parliamentary committees. Of the latter class was the Admiralty Committee; but the Navy Commissioners, and especially those Commissioners in charge of the dockyards, on whom fell most of the duty of organisation, were officers who had been taught by actual warfare. ”

“ If this is necessary for the protection of subordinate officers and men against arbitrary action by a captain, against arbitrary and prejudiced action by an admiral in a fleet, how much more necessary is it as a protection of naval standards and traditions against arbitrary action by the Board? For a captain is at any rate an entirely naval authority; an admiral is certainly an officer of large naval experience, acting generally with at least one other admiral. ”