The education and careers of naval officers in the long eighteenth century: an international perspective

Abstract

During the long eighteenth century, European navies saw the emergence of a class of highly specialised and professionalised naval officers. These officers were in command of ships and squadrons at major naval battles, led explorations, and in some countries also served ashore as administrators of admiralties and dockyards. Officer training differed from country to country, and careers in different navies were subject to a variety of systems of ranks and promotions that relied both on cultural and on systemic factors. This article explores how the three northern European nations of Sweden, Denmark and Britain developed systems suited to the particular demands of their social and political situations. It presents the results of new research in a comparative context to examine the factors that shaped the development of officer training systems and the criteria used for determining officers' career prospects. Shore-based academies are a useful point of comparison: despite a common curriculum, the development and significance of each navy's academy varied widely. All three navies struggled with the tension between the fundamental demands of life at sea and the behavioural and educational expectations of gentlemen officers. By focusing in particular on officer training, this article provides a variety of perspectives on the origins, emergence, and development of professionalism and expertise in the eighteenth-century maritime world.

Keywords:

• Royal Navy
• Danish Navy
• Swedish Navy
• officer training
• eighteenth century
• professionalism
• seamanship
• education

Notes

1. Garde, Efterretninger om den Danske og Norske Søemagt, 302ff.

2. Rodger, ‘Commissioned officers’ careers’, graphs 1.0–1.3. Royal Navy promotions happened almost exclusively in wartime.

3. Zettersten, Svenska flottans historia, 89 and Glete, Swedish naval administration, 628. Glete argues that the exact date is debatable and should be seen as a part of a slow development that had already started in the sixteenth century.

4. Article 19, Sjöartiklarna 1644. Sjöartiklarna means the naval law, an equivalent to the Articles of War.

5. Glete, Swedish naval administration, 583–4 and Thörnbom, ‘Båtsmanshållets uppkomst’.

6. Wendt, Amiralitetskollegiets historia, I, 255–6. When the Admiralty was established in 1634, most of its members were recruited from the military with little or no experience of warfare at sea. During the war against Denmark of 1675–1676, there was a visible shift when experienced sea officers became regular members of the Admiralty. They expressed their dissatisfaction with inexperienced members such as Lorens Creutz.

7. Sjöstrand, Kadettskolan i Karlskrona, 17. The navigation officers were an exception. The king recommended exams for other higher officers but they seem to have been rarely used.

8. Lower officers were comparable to warrant officers in the British Navy, but since the system with warrant and commissioned officers differed between the two countries, the terms ‘lower officers’ and ‘higher officers’ are used to avoid confusion.

9. Officers’ lists 1651–1715.

10. Officers’ lists 1701–1711, 1715–1796.

11. Cavallie, ‘Werner von Rosenfeldt's sjömansmemorial’, 100–56.

12. Officers’ lists 1651–1715.

13. During the Great Northern War, at least 20 per cent of the officers were given permission to serve abroad, according to officers lists from 1701–1711, 1715 and 1720. For a more detailed discussion, see György, ‘Swedish naval personnel’.

14. Officers’ lists 1651–1715. Twelve per cent of those who served abroad got promotion to flag rank compared to 5 per cent of those that did not.

15. Sjöstrand, Kadettskolan i Karlskrona.

16. Officers’ lists 1676. 32 per cent or 290 out of 901.

17. Kommissorialrättens protokoll, 17 June 1676.

18. Ibid.

19. Glete, Swedish naval administration, 633.

20. Articles of sea 1685, article 195, Siö-articlar som aff herr Carl den XI.

21. Skeppsgossekåren, 13.

22. Wendt, Amiralitetskollegiets Historia, I, 439.

23. von Rosenfeldt, Navigationen, eller styrmanskonsten, til ungdomens nytta wed kongl.

24. Officers’ lists 1651–1699; Asker, ‘Sjöofficerare till sjöss och till lands’.

25. Carlsson, Ståndssamhälle och ståndspersoner, 109.

26. Wendt, Amiralitetskollegiets Historia, II, 55–8, 73–8, 96–103.

27. Sjöstrand, Kadettskolan i Karlskrona, 12.

28. Carl Hans Wachtmeister was the son of Hans Wachtmeister.

29. Sjöstrand, Kadettskolan i Karlskrona, attachment 3–7b.

30. Larsson, ‘En brokig skara’, 327–41.

31. Seerup, ‘Danish Naval Academy’.

32. For an analysis of the high level of militarisation in Denmark–Norway in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, see Lind, ‘Den dansk-norske hær i det 18. århundrede’.

33. Garde, Efterretninger om den danske og norske Søemagt, I, 274, 301f.

34. Garde, Efterretninger om den danske og norske Søemagt, II, 408.

35. Royal Danish Library, Schiøn 57, ‘Pensées Detachèes’, 4^o, 12, ‘Slette Officerer sendes paa Enroullering, Skade deraf’.

36. Pritchard, Louis XV's navy, chaps 3–4.

37. Table 1 builds on information gathered from Glete, Navies and nations, passim and Nilsson, ‘Den danske flåde i 1700-tallet’, 3ff.

38. Garde, Efterretninger om den danske og norske Søemagt, vols. 3 and 4.

39. Forsvarets Bibliotek, manuscript collection, ‘Marin Calender’, various years, eighteenth century.

40. Royal Danish Library, NKS 782. The list can be corroborated by the very comprehensive biography of Danish naval officers by Topsøe-Jensen et al., Officerer i den dansk-norske Søetat.

41. Seerup, ‘Danish Naval Academy’, 329.

42. Peter Schiønning (1732–1813) has left an extensive personal archive which is held in the Danish Royal Library. See Seerup, ‘Peter Schiønning, søofficer og dagbogsskriver’.

43. Royal Danish Library, Schiøn. 57, ‘Pensées Detachèes’, 4^o, 140ff. ‘Hvorfor Adelen muelig ikke vil være Capt. Lieut, i Søe Etaten’.

44. Steensen, Søofficersskolen gennem 250 År, 41.

45. de Fontenay, Søe-Evolutioner eller En Orlogs-Flodes Ordener og Bevægelser.

46. See, for instance, the manuscript ‘Søe Evolutioner’ by H.H. Stibolt, in Rigsarkivet, Søværnets Officersskole, Håndskrevne lærebøger og afhandlinger, 1775.

47. Kong Friderich den Femtes Söe–Krigs–Artikels–Brev and Kong Frideric den Femtes Krigs-Artikels-Brev.

48. A preliminary study of officer biographies in Topsøe-Jensen and Marquard shows that the general tendency was that Danish officers served in the British Royal Navy primarily in the 1730s and 1740s. Service in the Dutch navy was not unusual throughout the century, and the French Navy was popular during the Seven Years War and in the 1770s. The Russian Navy appealed to Danish officers in the beginning of the century and again in the 1770s.

49. See Rasmussen, ‘Royal Danish–Norwegian Dockyard’.

50. Vernon, Voyages and travels, 9.

51. Hattendorf et al., British naval documents, no. 170.

52. Rodger, Command of the ocean, 120–1.

53. Davison, Challenges of command, passim.

54. Rodger, Command of the ocean, 121.

55. TNA, ADM 6/86–118 and ADM 107/1–75.

56. Rodger, Command of the ocean, 120–1.

57. Sample of TNA, ADM 6/86–118 and ADM 107/1–75.

58. Ibid.; age data verified by familysearch.org. Cited hereafter as ‘Author's database’.

59. Author's database. Age data was not available for Denmark and Sweden.

60. Gardner, Above and under hatches, 22–3.

61. Cavell, Midshipmen and quarterdeck boys, 24–5.

62. Dickinson, ‘Portsmouth Naval Academy’, 18.

63. Cavell, Midshipmen and quarterdeck boys, 25–6.

64. Gardner, Above and under hatches, 106.

65. Rodger, Command of the ocean, 387.

66. Rodger, ‘Honour and duty at sea’, 434.

67. Cavell, Midshipmen and quarterdeck boys, 21 and Rodger, Wooden world, 265.

68. Dickinson, ‘Portsmouth Naval Academy’, 17–19; Author's database.

69. Nelson, Dispatches and letters, V, 310–11.