The Growth of Plymouth Naval Base and European Tensions, 1717–32

Abstract

Between 1715 and 1727 Britain sent nine substantial squadrons to the Baltic to safeguard its interests. However, as the situation in the north of Europe began to settle, distrust began to increase again between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar and trade in the West Indies. Fighting at Gibraltar in 1727 led to an extended period of tension. In 1732, for instance, Spanish military preparations resulted in British fears of a Jacobite invasion. This article traces the development of Plymouth Dockyard against this diplomatic background, not only of the dockyard, but of the victualling and ordnance yards and the naval hospital. There was significant and continuous investment throughout these years, often regarded as a period of quiescence. Plymouth was not only, in Daniel Baugh's words, a ‘fully fledged’ dockyard by the beginning of the 1739–48 war, but also a significant naval base.1

¹ I am gratefully for the comments of the anonymous referees which have helped sharpen some points in this article.

Keywords:

• Plymouth
• dockyard
• Baltic
• Mediterranean
• Admiralty
• ordnance
• victualling
• Navy Board

Notes

¹ I am gratefully for the comments of the anonymous referees which have helped sharpen some points in this article.

⁴ Coad, The Royal Dockyards, 1690–1850, 10–11; Coad, ‘Plymouth Dockyard’, 195.

² Duffy, ‘The creation of Plymouth Dockyard and its impact on naval strategy’, 271–4.

³ Baugh, Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole, 274; Baugh, Naval Administration, 1715–1750, 261.

⁵ Hatton, George I, 170–4, 211.

⁶ Black, Naval Power, 59–63.

⁷ Aldridge, Admiral Sir John Norris, is the most thorough treatment of these operations.

⁸ Black, Naval Power, 62; Harding, The Emergence of Britain's Global Naval Supremacy, 5.

⁹ Hatton, George I, 231–33, see also Ware, ‘George Byng Viscount Torrington’, 89–92; Black, George II: Puppet of the Politicians?, 94–6.

¹⁰ Hatton, George I, 112–13, 249.

¹¹ Aldridge, Admiral Sir John Norris, Appendix of ships, 280–4.

¹² Anderson, Naval Wars in the Baltic, 212; Black, Naval Power, 60.

¹³ Frost, The Northern Wars, 345–50.

¹⁴ Harding, Global Naval Supremacy, 4.

¹⁵ The National Archives, Kew, (hereafter, NA), NA ADM 8/14–17 Ship Lists, ships in sea pay 1714–31.

¹⁶ NA ADM 8/15–17, Ship Lists, ships in sea pay 1714–31.

¹⁷ NA ADM8/16 List book 1726–28, lists for Oct., Nov. and Dec. 1726.

¹⁸ Duffy, ‘Plymouth Dockyard’, 245.

¹⁹ Ehrman, The Navy in the War of William III 1689–1697, 427: ‘Although Plymouth dockyard was a well-balanced organization by the end of the war, with room for expansion inside its walls, in two respects it was not complete. First, the victualling arrangements had not been brought into line with the growth of the yard, and ships still had to fetch their provisions by river from a storeyard over two miles away. Proposals were made in 1691 to bring the brewhouse, and if possible the victuallers' storehouses, nearer to the docks, but nothing was done. Second, the workmen had to travel several miles every day between their homes and the yard’.

²⁰ Fox, ‘The Ingenious Mr Dummer’, 51.

²¹ Ehrman, Navy in the War of William III, 420–421.

²² Ibid., 415–426; see also, Coad, The Royal Dockyards 1690–1850, 7–10, and Duffy, ‘Plymouth Dockyard’, 270–4.

²³ Fox , ‘The Ingenious Mr Dummer’, 30.

²⁴ Merriman, Queen Anne's Navy, 117.

²⁵ NA ADM815–18, Admiralty list books of ships in sea pay 1717–32.

²⁶ NA WO 49/30 15 Oct. 1717, 18 Oct. 1717; Coad, Royal Dock yards 1600–1850, 249–52.

²⁷ NA WO47/30, Ordnance Board minutes, 9 Apr. 1717.

²⁸ NA WO47/30, Ordnance Board minutes, 17 Jun. and 22 Nov. 1717, Coad , Royal Dockyards, 249.

²⁹ NA WO47/30 Ordnance Board minutes 22 Nov. 1717.

³⁰ NA WO47/30 Ordnance Board minutes 14 Jan. 1718; Coad, Royal Dockyards, 249, only mentions the Navy Board negotiators as a ‘deputation’. The vulnerability of Plymouth to enemy attack was also a concern although nothing appears to have resulted from the fears of the Resident Commissioner of the yard (NA ADM 3/32, Admiralty Minutes, 19 Mar., 1719).

³¹ Ehrman, Navy in the War of William III, 420–1.

³² NA ADM 1/3374, 5 Feb. 1732, in response to a letter 20 Dec. 1731, setting out the terms of the renewal and how many times, twice, since 1713, the lease had been renewed under the new terms.

³³ NA WO 47/32, fos 86–7, 6 Feb 1719, for the lengths the Ordnance Board went to reduce the cost of the land for the new wharf.

³⁴ NA WO47/30, Board of Ordnance minutes, entries for 20, 29 Dec. 1718, 6, 2 and 27 Jan. 1727.

³⁵ NA WO47/30, Board of Ordnance Minutes, Feb.–Mar. 1719.

³⁶ NA WO 249/230, 25 Mar. 1719, WO47/30, 2 Nov. 1718, for acquiring a copy of the lease from the Navy Board.

³⁷ NA WO 29/230 8 Jun. 1719, Coad, Royal Dockyards, 247–9.

⁴¹ NA ADM174/9 Navy Board letter and Warrants, Plymouth 1722–25, 8 Jul. 1723.

³⁸ NA ADM174/7, Letters and Warrants Plymouth, instructions dates 4 Nov. 1720.

³⁹ NA ADM174/8, Letters and Warrants Plymouth, 2 Aug. 1721.

⁴⁰ Ibid.

⁴² Coad, ‘Plymouth Dockyard’, 195.

⁴³ NA ADM174/9, Navy Board Letters and Warrants, Plymouth 1722–25, 29 Sep. 1725; Coad, ‘Plymouth Dockyard’, 195, mention repairs were undertaken in 1718–19.

⁴⁴ Number abstracted from Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792.

⁴⁵ Burns, Plymouth ships of war, 14; Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 363.

⁴⁶ NA ADM174/10 Navy Board Letters and Warrants, Plymouth 1725–27, 8 Aug. 1727.

⁴⁷ Harding, ‘A Tale of Two Sieges’, 31–46.

⁴⁸ NA ADM 3/36 Admiralty minutes, 22 Feb., 1 Apr. 1728, NA ADM106/835/43, 22 Aug. 1732, Sir Jacob Ackworth's report on proceeding at Plymouth Dockyard.

⁴⁹ NA ADM 3/36 Admiralty minutes, 22 Feb., 1 Apr. 1728, referring to article 13 of the 1660 regulations.

⁵⁰ NA ADM 106/851/206, 23 Aug. 1733 and NA ADM106/851/244, 30 Oct. 1733.

⁵¹ NA ADM 106/835/43, 22 Aug. 1732 Sir Jacob Ackworth , report on proceedings at Plymouth Dockyard and NA ADM106/852/69, 24 Apr. 1733.

⁵² NA ADM 174/12, Navy Board Warrants and letters, 28 May 1728.

⁵³ NA ADM 174/14 Navy Board Warrants and Letters 6 Jul. 1747, 15 Aug. 1748, NA ADM 106/1062, 6 Feb 1748, NA ADM 106/1074/92, 28 Feb 1749, NA ADM106/1074/184 31 Oct 1749, NA ADM106/1086/1871 Jun. 1750, Coad, ‘Plymouth Dockyard’, 195.

⁵⁴ National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, (hereafter, NMM), NMM PST49/1–4, Admiralty Abstracts of Progress 1720–65.

⁵⁵ NMM, PST49/3, Abstract of Progresses, no–1–99. These are photostat copies of NA ADM 180, Progress and Dimensions Books.

⁵⁶ NA ADM 1/3643, Admiralty to Navy Board, 6 Sep. 1728.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ NA ADM1/3642, Admiralty to Navy Board, 31 Aug. 1728.

⁵⁹ Baugh, British Naval Administration, 426–7; NA ADM 3/34 Admiralty minutes, 9 Nov. 1722, 6 Feb 1723.

⁶⁰ Confusingly, he was the son of the prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and was styled between 1723–45 as Lord Walpole; he would inherit his father's title in 1745 and become the second Earl of Orford. NA ADM 3/38, Admiralty Board minutes, 12 Jun. 1729, Baugh, British Naval Administration 1715–1750, 432–3, Coad , Royal Dockyards, 282–283, gives a brief outline.

⁶¹ NA TS21/155, Treasury solicitors 28 Jul.1729.

⁶² Ibid.

⁶³ NA TS21/157, Treasury solicitors 3 Aug. 1733.

⁶⁴ Harland,‘Establishment and Administration of the First Naval Hospitals in the Royal Navy 1650–1745’, 110, 340–41.

⁶⁵ NA ADM 174/10 Entry Books of In-Letters, Letter dated 3 Aug. 1726.

⁶⁶ NA ADM 42/837 Plymouth Extraordinary, Oct. 1726.

⁶⁷ NMM, List of Dockyard Officers: Master Bricklayer, Richard Chenoweth, Master House Carpenter, Thomas Witherilt, Master Joiner, Henry Livesey, Master Mastmaker, Edmund Weedon, Master Sailmaker, Stephen Newell.

⁶⁸ Merrriman, Queen Anne's Navy, Appendix VIII.

⁶⁹ NA ADM 42/837, Plymouth Extraordinary, Mar. 1726; Baugh, Naval Administration, 264.

⁷⁰ NA ADM 42/837, Plymouth Extraordinary, Oct. 1726.

⁷¹ NA ADM 42/838, Plymouth Extraordinary, Mar. 1727.

⁷² NA ADM 42/839, Plymouth Extraordinary, Jul. 1728.

⁷³ NA ADM 42/840, Plymouth Extraordinary, Jun. 1729.

⁷⁴ NA ADM 106/862/191, 15 Dec. 1734.

⁷⁵ NA ADM 174/10. Warrants and Letters Plymouth, letter dated 10 Apr. 1727.

⁷⁶ NA ADM106/835/43, 22 Aug. 1732 Sir Jacob Ackworth , report on proceedings at Plymouth Dockyard.

⁷⁷ Baugh, Naval Administration, appendix II.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher Ware

Dr Chris Ware is currently senior lecturer in naval history at the Greenwich Maritime Institute, University of Greenwich. Prior to this he was on the curatorial staff of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, for 22 years. He has written a wide range of naval and maritime topics, including British armoured cruisers and most recently a full biography of the Hon. John Byng. His current research revolves around the wars with Spain in the period 1727–9.