The Hanoverian succession to the throne led to the fall of the Tory Ministry, with its suspect Jacobite links. Although less drastic than the Revolutions of 1660 and 1688, the change of dynasty amounted to a putsch, with a predominantly Whig Ministry being appointed by George I. The general election of early 1715 gave the Whigs a parliamentary majority estimated at 150, and the failed Jacobite rising that year served only to consolidate the new regime. Within a year, Walpole had become First Commissioner of the Treasury, beginning under him the process that was to see the creation of the premiership.

While many of the senior personnel responsible for the navy were rapidly retired (Josiah Burchett, the Secretary, remained in post), their successors, brought up in the era of the later Stuarts, were neither particularly innovative nor forward-thinking. The new Surveyor, Jacob Acworth, was to frequently oppose efforts to improve ship design until his death in 1749. Perhaps more significantly for naval development, expenditure on repairing and rebuilding ships, and on the upkeep of the dockyards fell from £237,277 in 1715 to £50,200 in 1721.

Having inherited the largest navy in the world, the new government recognised the need to preserve that position, and it made a concerted effort to systematise and standardise by updating the Establishments to which ships were built and operated, clearly expecting rationalisation to reap economic benefits. In July 1716 a new Establishment of Guns was introduced, this time aimed at securing a common armament for every ship of a given gun rating. This significantly increased the firepower of most ships of the line. In the case of three-deckers, 100-gun First Rates and 96-gun Second Rates were to retain their lower deck armament of 32-pounders (although new, longer guns were to be gradually introduced on First Rates), but the former were to exchange their culverins and demi-culverins on the decks above for 24-pounders and 12-pounders, while the latter were to lose six smaller guns from their upperworks to restore them to a 90-gun rating. The three-decker 80s (all the remaining elderly two-deckers were to be rebuilt as three-deckers in the next few years) had their lower deck 32-pounders restored; this process opened up a sizeable gap in the broadside strength of three-deckers as opposed to two-decked ships of the line.

The overall size of the navy, in terms of the number of ships of each Rate, was also to be fixed for the first time. From 1714 the strength of the British navy was to be maintained until the early 1740s at precisely 124 ships of the line, of which 36 were three-deckers (with 7 being First Rates), while 88 were two-deckers (64 of the latter being Fourth Rates). After 1744 the number of three-deckers fell to 19 by the start of 1750, of which just 4 were First Rates; in the same period two-deckers increased to a total of 107. Both types rose again to reach 25 and 109 respectively by the end of 1754.

THIS lines and profile plan of the Victory of 1737 is annotated ‘A copy of the draught that Sir Jacob [Acworth, the Surveyor] sent to Mr Naish for building the Victory by which the Board ordered she should be built’; this is followed in a different hand by ‘A copy sent Mr Allin by the Board’s order except some few alterations in ye ports, beams, & bulkheads expressed by being tickt.’ This is important because an argument later arose between Acworth and Allin over the height of the stern, the Surveyor accusing the Master Shipwright of ignoring his directions. Allin certainly turned the tiny topgallant roundhouse into a full-blown poop royal, giving the ship a unique quarter gallery of four full tiers of lights.
[NMM J1788]

Numbers of three-deckers

The London of 1718 Repair (non-Establishment) – construction history

The London of 1718 Repair (non-Establishment) – dimensions in feet and inches

The decision to fix the number of ships, coupled with the policy of rebuilding, was to disguise the size of the fleet that was actually available at any time. Rebuilding a three-decker was a process that lasted several years, while the ship was taken to pieces and totally reconstructed. Even some of the so-called ‘Great Repairs’ constituted a major reconstruction that often radically altered the capabilities of the ship concerned, but meant an equally long period before the ship was again ready for service. Yet all the while the ships concerned remained on the Navy List, ostensibly part of the current naval strength.

This became the standard practice. In 1717 the Navy Board recommended that when First and Second Rates were in need of rebuilding, the old ships could be taken to pieces and the re-usable wood stored in the dockyard until a suitable time for rebuilding occurred, while all the time the pile of timber concerned should be ‘continued on the general list of the Royal Navy’ under the name of the vessel concerned. The Victory, for example, was instructed to be taken to pieces in March 1721, but it was not until September 1733 that instructions to rebuild her were issued, and she was not re-launched until 1737. This administrative fiction kept the size of the navy from becoming a matter of party-political debate, and because of the lack of any serious conflict this state of affairs persisted unchallenged until the 1740s.

Note this was technically a ‘Middling Repair’ rather than a rebuild of the ship of 1706, altering her to the dimensions detailed above, and not to any Establishment.

In June 1719 the Admiralty, recognising that the 1706 Establishment of Dimensions was inadequate in several ways, not least in that it made no provision for First Rates or for ships of less than 40 guns, instructed the Navy Board to consider ‘in what manner [ships] may most properly be built (or rebuilt), to prove good sailors as well as Ships of Force, according to their several Rates.’ The Board promptly summoned the Master Shipwrights from the various yards to Deptford, where they met with the Officers of the Board over a period of twenty-two weeks to produce a report on the recommended ‘Dimensions, Scantlings, Size of Bolts, and dimensions of Masts and Yards for a Ship of each Class’. Their recommendations, submitted on 13 November, were approved by the Admiralty on the 18th.

The scope of the Establishments was increased in a variety of ways. The 1706 regulations had only stipulated the major dimensions of each class of ship; in that sense they had hardly amounted to more than a updating of the common dimensions and armaments proposed in 1677 and 1691. Now the more detailed 1719 Establishment laid down dimensions for almost every timber in the ship, although the skilled design work of drawing a ship’s lines and general shape was still left to the Master Shipwright in each Dockyard. As no further contracts to mercantile shipbuilders were to be required until 1739, this tended to reduce each class into a narrower series of designs, one from each of the Dockyards involved.

As there had been no previous Establishment for First Rates, in theory the Board was left in a quandary as to which dimensions should be used for 100-gun ships. They settled on the 1701 Royal Sovereign as a model ‘that has generally been approved of’. In fact, the evidence of the previous chapter shows that this did not pose a major dilemma. The Britannia had just been rebuilt, explicitly to the dimensions of the Royal Sovereign, showing that the latter was already considered a standard for her successors. But now the proportions of the Royal Sovereign officially became the standard for all large three-deckers.

Under the 1716 Establishment of Guns, the 100-gun First Rates were armed with twenty-eight 42-pounders (lower deck), the same number of 24-pounders (middle deck) and of 12-pounders (upper deck), and sixteen 6-pounders (12 quarterdeck, 4 forecastle). The guns on the three continuous decks compared with twenty-six 32-pounders, 18-pounders and 9-pounders on the same decks of the 90-gun Second Rate (which also had four fewer 6-pounders). Both ‘new’ (technically rebuilt) First Rates of this era, the Royal Sovereign and the Victory, were so armed.

The various Establishments provided that First Rates should have the dimensions given in the table, although no ships were built to the 1741 or 1745 Establishments (two ships ordered in 1746 and 1751 to the 1745 Establishment were finally completed to a modified design after 1754).

ROYAL SOVEREIGN (1729)

Having been laid up at Chatham since 1709, the Royal Sovereign was approved to undergo a Great Repair in 1723. This was carried out by Benjamin Rosewell between October 1723 and March 1729 at a cost of £34,720. In the process she was made to conform to the 1719 Establishment. However, since that Establishment’s requirements in respect of First Rates had been based on the 1701-launched Royal Sovereign, little structural change was needed to update her. As re-established she was still to carry exactly the same 100 guns, although the number of men was raised to 850.

The refitted ship was not commissioned for service for another twelve years. She required a further refit at Chatham between October 1739 and May 1740, at a cost of £13,245, and she was then fitted out as a flagship between November 1740 and April 1741, for a further £5122. In February 1741 she recommissioned under Captain Robert Allen, as flagship of Sir John Norris. In December 1743 she underwent a further refit at Chatham for £8232, which finished in March 1744.

VICTORY (1737)

The Victory of 1695 had been decommissioned in February 1705 and she was taken to pieces at Portsmouth in April 1721. Her name remained on the Navy List, but in fact she was simply a pile of reusable timbers in a corner of the Dockyard. In March 1727 it was decided that she should be rebuilt, this time to the specification of the 1719 Establishment. The keel was actually laid down by Joseph Allin in the dry-dock at Portsmouth in that month, but construction proceeded slowly until 1733.

In April 1732 the Admiralty, worried by the growth in size of foreign warships, instructed the Navy Board to enquire from the various Master Shipwrights as to their views on the best dimensions of each class of warship. From this emerged – rather more slowly than the Admiralty had hoped – sets of recommended new dimensions from the Master Shipwrights at the four principal dockyards. Little change was suggested for the First Rates, which most considered still served well, and certainly the principal dimensions went unchanged, other than a minor (6 inches) increase to the depth of the hold. The wartime complement of men was, however, increased from 780 to 850. In the summer of 1733, new orders were issued to the Dockyards. The rebuilding of the Victory at Portsmouth, and of the Royal Anne at Chatham, were ordered to follow the new Establishment.

The conservative nature of the Victory design was to contribute to her short active life. When floated in February 1737, after eleven years on the stocks at a cost of £38,239, she was found to be comparatively high-sided, and consequently proved somewhat leewardly in service. A description of her by Blaise Ollivier, the Master Shipwright at Brest, who made an unofficial inspection of her in that year, found her to be ‘of great fullness at her height of breadth; her capacity is very great, yet her upper works are scarce suitable for her lower body, for she is deep-waisted with much sheer.’

The Establishments – summary of the growth in principal dimensions for First Rates

The First Rate of the 1719 Establishment – construction history

The First Rate of the 1719 Establishment – dimensions in feet and inches

Early in the spring of 1741 her first captain, Thomas Whitney, was retired (he died soon after) and command passed to Captain Samuel Faulkner, formerly her second captain, who was to remain aboard for the rest of his (and the ship’s) short life. Sir John Norris again raised his flag on board, and put to sea in July, and once more in October, to cruise with a fleet off the north coast of Spain. She required a further refit at Portsmouth from November 1741.

In 1743 Sir John Norris reached the pinnacle of the service, being promoted to Admiral of the Fleet. In the following February he again sortied from the Downs aboard Victory with a fleet that turned back a French force threatening invasion. A month later Norris finally retired from sea service, and was succeeded as commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet by Admiral Sir John Balchen. A British supply convoy destined for the Mediterranean was blockaded in Lisbon harbour in April by a French fleet under Admiral de Rochambeau, and Balchen was despatched, again with Victory at the head of a sizeable squadron, to lift the blockade. He successfully achieved his object, and escorted the supply convoy as far as Gibraltar, before turning back for the Channel. At the start of October the squadron re-entered the Western Approaches before encountering a severe storm. Victory was separated from her consorts on 4 October. The rest of the fleet safely reached Plymouth on 10 October, but Victory disappeared with all hands.

For many years it was believed that Victory was wrecked on the Casquets, off Alderney. It was only in 2008 that her remains were located and identified about 100 kilometres further west of those rocks and it appears that the ship foundered.

THREE DECADES OF INACTION

It was not simply in design terms that the British First Rates stagnated during this period. Between the decommissioning of the Royal Sovereign and Royal Anne in late 1710, and the bringing into service of the new Victory in 1740, only a two-year stint off the Tagus by the Britannia in 1734–36 saw any First Rate in commission. This lack of operational use meant that senior officers (and their juniors and ratings) were robbed of any opportunity to learn how to handle First Rates at sea, or in action. In such circumstances, even the rebuilding of the ships did not help, as the completed vessels went straight into Ordinary.

The exigencies of the Spanish war of 1739 demanded little in the way of extra three-deckers. In part this was due to the nature of the conflict, which produced few fleet actions and an emphasis, for the first time, on amphibious operations in support of the worldwide imperial role which the navy now found itself ill-equipped to meet. But equally relevant was the Admiralty’s evident unhappiness with the current designs emanating from the Surveyor’s Office, and the rigidly enforced dimensions, which most of the new Admiralty Board that came to power in 1744 recognised as totally inadequate.

A new set of Establishment dimensions were therefore issued in 1745. There was relatively little criticism of the First Rates (perhaps because there was so little recent experience with them), so the alteration to the Establishment dimensions was a modest enlargement, a lengthening by three feet along the gundeck (26½ inches along the keel), a broadening of the design by some twelve inches, while six inches was added to the depth in hold. This brought the total burthen to almost exactly 2000 tons.

The First Rate of the Proposed 1733 Establishment – construction history

The First Rate of the Proposed 1733 Establishment – dimensions in feet and inches

The new Royal Anne was laid down at Woolwich, although she was to be renamed in honour of the king prior to launch. One other significant change had been brought in with the 1745 Establishment: all responsibility for ship design had been taken away from the Master Shipwrights at the individual dockyards. Even under Acworth the Master Shipwrights had been subject to the Surveyor’s guidance and criticism, which sometimes extended to his recommendation of hull forms, but now the design process was centralised in the Surveyor’s office, while Master Shipwrights henceforth were responsible for strictly following those plans, and played very little role in the design.

Due to the period of time taken to build a three-decker, several Master Shipwrights held responsibility at various times, and the one named in Admiralty records (eg in the Progress and Dimensions Books) is the one under whom the ship was finally delivered, but who often had had only a late role in the ship’s construction. This was certainly very true of the ships ordered in 1746 and 1751. The Royal Anne was begun under Thomas Fellowes, but in May 1752 Thomas Slade was given a temporary three weeks appointment as the Master Shipwright at Woolwich, and subsequently Adam Hayes took over. In March 1753 Edward Allin was placed in charge, and he remained until December 1755, when Israel Pownoll took over for the final period of the ship’s construction.

One month before her launch, the new ship exchanged names with the elderly Royal George, so that the new First Rate would carry the reigning monarch’s name. When she entered the water, the Royal George had cost £54,661 to build, and a further £10,613 was spent fitting her out for service. She joined the Western Squadron, and served as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Edward Boscawen. Later she became the flagship of Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, and as such took part in the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759. She saw more active service during the War of American Independence, but in August 1782 she foundered while being heeled for minor repairs off Spithead, with the loss of most of those aboard, including Rear-Admiral Richard Kempenfelt. The reasons for her loss remain controversial to this day, but some reports blamed structural failure brought on by the additional stresses of careening.

The sister-ship at Portsmouth was begun by Master Shipwright Peirson Lock. In December 1755 Edward Allin was moved from Woolwich to take charge at Portsmouth, and he supervised the construction until May 1762, when Thomas Bucknall was given the task. Although launched in 1752, the new ship, named Britannia (her predecessor of this name had been broken up in 1750), was not brought into service until 1779, having been fitted for Channel service over the preceding year. She saw little active service during the closing years of the War of American Independence, but underwent further refits during the 1780s. She was brought back into service for the French Revolutionary War, serving as Vice-Admiral William Hotham’s flagship in 1793–95, and then that of Vice-Admiral Charles Thompson in 1797. She paid off in February 1798, but was recommissioned when war was renewed in 1803 and was the Earl of Northesk’s flagship at Trafalgar in 1805.

The Britannia was relegated to harbour service in June 1806; she was renamed Princess Royal on 6 January 1812, but became the Saint George just twelve days later, She served as a prison ship at Plymouth in 1814, and was subsequently refitted and recommissioned as a receiving ship and was finally to become the Barfleur on 2 June 1819.

The First Rates of the 1745 Establishment, as Modified – construction history

The First Rates of the 1745 Establishment, as Modified – dimensions in feet and inches