LITERARY PANORAMA. AND National Register : For OCTOBER, 1817. NATIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES, (British and Foreign,) PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE. REGULATIONS FOR THE ROYAL NAVY. PROPOSALS AND REGULATIONS RELATIVE TO THE ROYAL NAVY. MADE BY THE BOARD OF ADMIRALTY, AND SANCTIONED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL: Commencing the 1st Day of January, 1817. Ir the question were put to most natives of Britain, which is the first important interest of your country? after having excepted each his own, they would fix on the Navy as most accurately answering the enquiry intended. And yet, if they were examined as to their acquaintance with this leading article the majority would be found lamentably deficient. Are they familiar with its history? with its condition? with its extent? with its progress? with its divisions? with its requisites? Nothing of all this. They know, in general, what all the world knows, that it has usually proved victorious over its enemies, and that, as the means of security from assaults of invaders, the British islands are indebted to it, beyond the ordinary expression of language. The British Navy has gradually grown up to its present magnitude and importance: it was not originally esta VOL. VII. No. 37. Lit. Pan. N. S. Oct. 1. blished on system; and the regulations introduced into the management of it, from time to time, have rather been suggested to meet the pressure of the moment, and as provisions of exigency and expediency, than as the careful and well selected determinations of cool, unbiassed and leisurely judgment. Like some of our great cities, originally a straggling collection of the huts of fishermen or labourers, forming a narrow, winding, incommodious lane; sufficient as a way of access for the inhabitants to their dwellings; but, absolutely unfit to become the great thoroughfare of a vast metropolis: absolutely unfit to be the resort of merchants, of foreigners, of vessels and their inmates from every quarter of the globe; of buyers, of sellers, from the interior; of courts of justice, and the official attendants on the police.-A city, laid out with a foresight of the necessary accommodations for these purposes, will not require that removal of projecting nuisances which deform the public ways in an ancient town; that formation of new openings, that rounding of corners, and those numerous changes in form and destination, without which a town may be indeed a maze of edifices; but, neither convenient, salubrious, nor beautiful. In like manner, there has always been much to clear away, when improvements in our Navy have been under contemplation; what has been introduced from the best of motives, has not alB ways fulfilled the intentions of those who established it;-to which if we add, the ever varying accidents of time and life, we shall have no occasion to wonder that frequent examinations are necessary;—and that, to use a seaman's phrase, the whole stands in need of overbauling. be invigorated. Its strength and readiness must not be compared to itself; that would infallibly induce indolence; but it must be excited by emulation, by the consciousness of competitors, by the anticipation of rivals :-the racer is not swift while others are swifter than he; nor let him think others are so far behind him, that he may delay; another moment, another spring, places them by his side. To the British Navy an additional argument applies. It is a necessary political weapon of our Country; and a knowledge that this weapon is not suffered to rust, is no slight inducement to the preservation of peace. One most efficient means to ward off war, is readiness to meet it; and the readiness to meet But, overhauling cannot take place in time of war, because the vigorous exertions then necessary do not allow a moment's respite: enquiries cannot be effected without loss of time, and loss of time is fatal to the service. Where the execution of any project is at the mercy of the wind, time is of infinite value. That variable element cares nothing for the importance attached by an anxious community to the sailing of a fleet; nor will it continue to blow from the wished-it depends much on preparations made for quarter for a single moment beyond that to which it is impelled by causes which defy the reach of human power. If the vessels are ready to take instant advantage of a favouring breeze, they may take it; but let none indulge the fancy that to-morrow will do as well as to-day the point of time is Now; and whoever avails not himself of now, may afterwards spend weeks and months in unavailing wishes, and bitter disappointment. This naturally introduces the enquiry what is necessary to enable a fleet to be so well prepared as to take the advantage alluded to? and the answer must refer to those extensive preparations which are usually the gradual accumulations of years; not to say of ages. The materials for building ships, as ships ought to be built, are of slow growth, and cannot be forced: the stores necessary for their safety are not to be obtained at a moment's warning; the skill necessary to conduct them is acquired by long study, persevering practice, habits formed in process of time; and in short, the whole is one stupendous combination of ingenuity, talent, authority, obedience, promptitude and judicious exertion. There is an old proverb that says "when a man's name is up he may go to bed;" but this does not apply to the navy. The reputation acquired by this department of national power must be maintained, and to be maintained it must in good time. Whereas, were it once suspected that a languor, or somnolency were stealing over the senses of our public officers, that a disposition to repose and taking of rest, from weariness or indifference, had lulled the minds of the nation or its statesmen, the opportunity would be quickly discerned by foreign vigilance; and those who by force have not been able to work our ruin would not fail to effect it, by silent exertion in the first place, and by sudden surprize in the issue. Let no man rest in the persuasion that as we have heretofore surmounted our difficulties so we shall continue to surmount them. The proposition is true, if the necessary means be included; the notion is not merely false but highly detrimental, if it rely on exertions to be made at a moment,-at a moment, perhaps, of confusion, and perplexing embarrassment, when councils should have been ripened, and nothing but the delivery of their definitive commands should be requisite to embody those commands by immediate execution. Under these convictions we cannot but express our satisfaction that in these early days of, we hope, a long and lasting peace, the state of the Navy in several of its branches, has occupied the attention of the governing powers. It has been our duty on various occasions, to examine those Reports which the vigilance of Parliament has caused It to be drawn up for its information. ] around the island; which, assuredly, Generally speaking, they have been were not less violent antiently, than too voluminous, and many of them too they are now: the winds and the waves intricate, to allow of that compression have varied nothing in their force. which is demanded by our pages. is not possible to analyse long tables of figures referring to various departments, in such a manner as to render them intelligible to the public. The utmost leisure of those who devote themselves to the duties of office, is not more than sufficient to allow them to form the necessary acquaintance with the prodigiously extensive Naval interests of our country, as they appear in the Reports addressed to the Legislature. That which we have the honour now to submit to our readers, is a series of proposals and regulations, which may properly be termed arrangements for the future classification of the vessels which form the Royal Navy, and for the remuneration of those talents which are the soul of the establishment. Our readers are sufficiently well acquainted with the history of their country to need no information on the early constitution of our naval force, For to say truth, the British Navy, as we now understand the term, is not of remote antiquity. Our Edwards and our Henrys did not transport their forces to foreign parts in national vessels, but in vessels hired from individuals, from merchants, native or foreign; and consequently, they did nothing more than convert for the time being the commercial transports of their days into warlike equipments. Certain of their ports, also, enjoyed peculiar privileges, on condition of furnishing vessels, when the sovereign thought fit to demand them. It is by no means easy to ascertain satisfactorily what were the general dimensions of these vessels. On the one hand, it is certain that by the side of our present fighting ships, or even of our larger merchantmen, they would appear mere boats and barges ;-and this we know from the places which are said to have contained them by hundreds, if not thousands :-On the other hand, they must have been both stout enough and large enough to sustain the tides and storms of the seal Never When Cæsar landed on our shore, his fleet felt the effects of a rude tide, to its extensive damage; and, if we are not mistaken, the stoutest vessels of the Phenicians, at an earlier period, were not proof against the tempests to which our waters are liable.* theless, not the smallest doubt can be admitted, that Cæsar, or the Phenicians would be lost in astonishment at the magnitude and construction of our modern first rates. They would not credit the mode of working them, the accuracy with which such immense masses are conducted from place to place, the distances to which they are wafted, the prodigious magazines they convey, with the powers of destruction enclosed within them, all passing among the people of this country for nothing more than natural. These wonders we owe to the miraculous properties of the loadstone-to the discovery of gunpowder,-to the consequent change in the art of war, and-to the necessity of self-defence, for which an island must always depend on its power at sea. Alfred (A. D. 871) certainly sent out vessels to the North Sea in search of whales; and he also sent agents to the furthest shores of the Mediterranean : could these be small vessels? But, the memory of his royal fleet was forgot; and the necessity of beating our foes at sea, in order to prevent them from ravaging the land, was either insufficiently understood, or feebly reduced to practice, by succeeding monarchs.-Even Richard III. a prince of no mean abilities, had overlooked this policy : for had he possessed a strong fleet at sea, his rival Richmond could not have landed his powers, and forced the king to a struggle for his crown and life in his own island. Whether a conviction of this impolicy actuated the mind of Richmond, afterward Henry VII, it is not our present purpose to enquire; but, beyond all Comp. LIT. PAN. Vol. VII. p. 45. B2 question, the vessel bearing the name | been stated in our first volume,* from of Henry Grace a Dieu, or the Great original documents preserved in the Harry, constructed by this king, may State Paper Office: the abstract shews, be considered as the parent of the Bri- that her "majestie had but 34 shippes, tish Navy. (Finished A. D. 1515).- greate and small; and that the rest of That wonderful effort is recorded by all her fleet was made up of Merchants our Chroniclers. The vessel cost the shippes, hired for the occasion; with king fourteen thousand pounds! The some Voluntarye ships, great and small." guns on the quarters and forecastles With this feeble force that princess aswere either Sakers (five pounders!) or sailed and defeated the pride of the Minions (four pounders!) or Falcons Spanish Monarch; the spirit and (two pounders!) The masts were five in skill of her subjects more than compennumber; and, at first, no taller than sating the inferiority of her vessels. a single stem could afford. After all, But, there are some reasons for thinkthis boasted piece of marine architec-ing, that however her vessels were inture was fit only for fine weather and a smooth sea; what our present sailors would term a small ripple in the water, would have endangered this superb construction with all its contents. Harry Grace a Dieu was burthen 1000 tons carried soldiers 349, Marryners 301, Gonners 50, Brass pieces 19, Iron pieces 103: but many of these were one pounders! The real number of guns was 34." ferior in size, they were superior in construction at this time to those of Spain. The five masts were reduced to four, and the moveable or shifting top"The masts were an improvement of no small consequence in the ready working of ships, in their rapidity and obedience. Sir Walter Raleigh, speaking of the improvements made in Marine Architecture, about this time, or within a few years immediately subsequent, says "Whoever were the inventors, we find that every age has added somewhat to ships: and in my time the shape of our English ships has been greatly bettered. It is not long since the striking of the top-masts, a wonderful ease to great ships, both at sea, and in the harbour, hath been devised, together with the chain pump, which taketh up twice as much water as the ordinary one did. We have lately added the bonnet, and the drabler, to the courses: we have added studding sails; also the weighing anchors by the Capstern." He adds a notice of the great improvement in placing the lower ports higher above the water, than formerly; for lamentable instances had occurred, of large vessels, in full sail, sinking in the midst of a fleet, the water having entered by those openings. The foundation of the Royal Navy, thus laid, by the foresight of Henry VII. was enlarged by Henry VIII. who on his accession to the throne applied himself with earnestness to obtain a commanding navy. He collected a fleet of fifteen ships of war; four of them, according to the usage of those days, first and second rates. He invited from Italy as many skilful foreigners as he could allure, by profits or honours and by means of their skill, his own subjects made a progress that placed them as rivals to the most famous ship-builders of foreign parts.To this King the Navy Office, and Arsenals at Woolwich and Deptford, are indebted for their existence. : In the first year of Edward VI. the Tons burthen 6255. Marryners 1885. 5136. 759. making, in all, 7780 persons engaged in Amidst the disadvantages of imperfect construction, we cannot wonder that the men of war of the Royal Navy were little other than fair weather boats. They never went to sea in winter. was even found necessary to move the king's ships, in the time of Henry VIII. Comp. Lit. Pan. Vol. I. p. 234. It from their summer station down the | About this time, a proposal was made, river, to a station higher up the river, by surveyors properly appointed, to at the approach of winter: and Bark-classify the navy into-Shipps Royaling creek! was of especial use for their Great Shipps-Middling Shipps-- Small reception. Shipps, and Pinnaces. A fleet composed of so small a num- Charles I. persevered in this attention ber of vessels, could need no arrange- to his navy; and without attempting to ment, classification, or rating under dis- justify the manner of his demanding tinct departments. Difference in size was ship-money, it will readily be granted, indeed their distinction; but, little be- that the object for which it was deyond this; and this did not require se-manded, the improvement and mainteparation or variation of rank. Sir Ro-nance of the navy, was Royal and salubert Dudley was the first, so far as is tary. Happy had it been for this known, who foresaw the magnitude of prince if his intentions had been bethe British Navy, and felt the necessity yond suspicion; but, nothing could of dividing it into classes. He pro- exceed the folly of sending Pennington posed seven different species of con- over to France with seven ships, to struction: first, the Galleon, or vessel assist the French king in enslaving his of large size; secondly, the Rambargo, protestant subjects. Pennington, when a French appellation for a light frigate, he came to understand the infamous or pinnace; thirdly, the Galizabra, service he was to be employed in, with or smaller galleon; fourthly, the Fri- a truly English spirit refused it: on gata, an Italian name for a light ves- which the King sent him orders, under sel, still retained among us; fifthly, the the sign manual, to deliver the ships Galerone, or galley; which does not into the hands of a French Officer, at suit our powerful waters, though still Dieppe. These commands the Admiemployed in the Mediterranean; sixth-ral obeyed; but instantly struck his ly, the Galerata; and seventhly, the flag, quitted his ships, and with every Passa Volante, or dispatch boat, anal-officer and every seaman (except one) ogous, probably, to the moden cutter. returned home in complete disgust.Nor was this noble person backward to reduce his system to practice; for he caused a vessel to be built on the model he proposed for a Galleon, and made a voyage in it to India, in the year 1594. She was of 300 tons burthen, only, and carried 30 guns, of small size: but, he proposed that his large Galleons should carry guns,-demicannon, or 30 pounders, and whole cannon, or 40 pounders. Under King James the navy was not forgotten; though it still remained but little numerous; and this accounts for the slight notice taken of the now principal stations, as naval arsenals, Portsmouth and Plymouth. Chatham was, at this time, the greatest depôt; Woolwich and Deptford, though of acknowledged seniority, having lost that importance by comparison, which had originally marked them. The navy, in the year 1610 amounted to forty-two ships, of which seventeen had been built since the accession of the King, in 1603. Could the nation, seeing this, believe the augmentation of the British navy to be the determinate intention of its sovereign? Could it endure to advance money for a service liable to be so grossly perverted to serve the interests of a foreign, a rival, and in respect to Protestantism, an inimical power? Can it be wondered at, that the fleet was mostly adverse to its sovereign, during the important struggle in the later years of his reign, after so glaring a dishonour had been put on it? Thus we are brought to the period alluded to by the first article of the public document before us, from which we learn that the division of the Royal Navy into six rates took place in the reign of King Charles the First. We conclude this branch of the subject with the remarks of the witty Fuller. "Before the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the ships royal were so few they deserved not the name of a fleet; when our Kings hired vessels from Hamborough, |