The English Navy in 1700

The English Navy before the 1680's

The tradition of the professional English navy dated back to at least the reign of Henry VIII (1491-1547). During the reign of Cromwell (1653-1658) the English navy then saw serious fighting in the first Anglo-Dutch war. During the reign of Charles II it was engaged in the second Anglo-Dutch war (1665-1667) and third Anglo-Dutch war (1672-1674). After this last conflict the English started a large ship building program in the period 1679-1680. This expansion program was based on a thorough understanding of the relation between naval power and wealth and was laid down in the 'Blue Water policy'.

The English Navy in the 1680's

One might be tempted to think that in the 1680's England had the strongest navy of Europe, but this was not the case. On the contrary, a series of protracted conflicts between king and parliament led to a decline of the English navy in the 1680's. The navy still had a lot of ships, but these were not manned and many were laid up or rotting in the harbors. One can try to explain its failure to stop the 1688 invasion fleet by offering explanations like contrary winds and tides, which prevented it from sailing after the Dutch fleet had sailed. The real question is why it did not sail when the winds were favorable. For this one should look at the effective strength of the English navy in 1688.

A statement that when the danger of invasion became clear a fleet of: '30 ships of the line all third-rates and fourth-rates', was quickly assembled under Lord Dartmouth¹ does not say much. For the effective strength of the English navy in 1688 we have the order James II issued to Lord Dartmouth on 11 October 1688². It has the below annex which shows that it was hastily equipping ships. I've added the ships of the Dutch invasion fleet in order to explain why they thought their 57 ships were enough to escort their transport fleet. Further below is another table that illustrates the decrepit state of the English navy at the time.

The English Navy under William III

Most historians agree that William III wanted to take the English crown in order to engage the British army on the continent, but often overlook the fact that he held the same view with regard to the English navy. As soon as William had gained the crown he therefore started a large ship building program in 1690. This led to about 95 ships of the line being ordered between 1690 and 1700, Next to this a large number of existing ships was equipped and a Dutch squadron came over to support the English against the French fleet. The deplorable state of the English navy on the day that James II abdicated was captured in a list by Pepys³:

The English navy in the Nine Years War

The Battle of Bantry Bay

The Nine Years War started with an April 1689 encounter between an 18 ship fleet (8 3rd rates and 10 4th rates) under Admiral Herbert and a 24 ship French fleet. This happened in Bantry Bay on 11 May (1 May O.S.), when the French fleet was just landing supplies for James II. Admiral Herbert entered the bay to disturb this operation, but he was chased out of it by the French admiral Château Renault. After having reached their objective the French broke of battle and returned to France. No ships had been lost on either side.

The 1690 expedition to the Mediterranean

It might be nice to note something here about the fleet that was sent to Spain in March 1690. The whole operation was preceeded by a fleet escorting Marie Anne of Neubourg, the new Queen of Spain from Vlissingen to the Downs. After a lot of contrary winds the fleet had grown to a combination of English (under Killegrew) and Dutch warships (under Almonde) escorting 400 merchantmen and an English fleet escorting the new Queen to Spain. It finally left Torbay on 17 March 1690 (7 March O.S) under the overall command of admiral Russel. We have a list of the composition of this fleet went it left xxxxxx, but it might be slightly different from the composition it had when it finally left Torbay⁴.

The English fleet that escorted the new queen of Spain left the main force on 21 March and arrived in Ferrol on 26 March. The rest of the fleet was not so lucky. A storm started on the 25th and gained hurricane force on 27 March. There are several eye-witness accounts of this storm, and in particular one of the captain of the merchantship Saint Joseph⁵. As regards naval matters they noted that the Ridderschap and the ship Vrijheid of Barent Rees were lost⁶.

On 18 April the war fleet finally arrived in Cadiz. On 9 May (O.S.?) Killegrew recevied messages that the Toulon fleet was sailing and so he decided to seek them out. On the tenth he sailed with: the Duke; Montague; Eagle; Tyger; Portland; Falcon; Happy return; Richmond (probably picked up in the area), Saphire and two burners as well as the Gelderland and the Zierikzee. It was then joined by the Gibraltar forces of three Dutch and three English ships, bringing the total to 17 ships of the line. Near Ceuta the Toulon squadron of 6 ships of the line, 3 burners and 3 merchantships was sighted. This Anglo-Dutch fleet succeeded in capturing one of its merchant ships, but afterwards returned to Cadiz on 21 May.

From Cadiz the merchant ships were sent with their convois. The convoy to Smyrna was escorted by the Tiger; Newcastle and Oxford. That to Scandaroon by the Portland; Greenwich and Falcon. That to Malaga and Alicant was escorted by the Sapphire and Richmond. Meanwhile the French had succeeded in passing the Strait of Gibraltar, and Killegrew set sail for England. After a 35 day journey the Duke, four 3rd rates, the Half Moon, a prize and 6 Dutch warships arrived in Plymouth.

The English fleet supplies Ireland

In the Irish theater a small English squadron succeeded in lifting the siege of Londonderry. The troops of Schomberg were also successfully supplied. In June 1690 another squadron protected William III's army when it crossed over to Ireland. One can say that up till June 1690 the English navy was doning fine, even while the French succeeded in supplying Ireland from their side.

The Battle of Beachy Head or Bevesier

In June 1690 the French Mediterranean fleet had joined the fleet at Brest. Under Admiral Tourville this united fleet sailed into the Channel in June. On 10 July the the Dutch fleet under Evertsen and the English fleet under Herbert earl of Torrington fought this fleet in the Battle of Beachy Head.

The Battle of Barfleur

In 1692 the Anglo-Dutch-fleet fought the French fleet in the Battle of Barfleur and the subsequent actions at Cherbourg and La Hogue. This battle later proved to have decided the balance of power at sea for over 200 years. See the page Battle of Barfleur.

New ships for the English Navy in the 1690's

As stated above William III expanded the English navy. The largest chunk of this expansion was provided for by what is often the 'twenty-seven ship' programme of 1691. In fact the contents of this program were decided and approved on 24 December 1690. The Commons then decided that the funds for an augmentation of the navy were approved and that these should be used to build 17 third rate ships of 80 guns each and 10 fourth rates of 60 guns⁷. It's very significant that these third rates counted 80 guns and the fourth rates 60 guns, because before this the maximum for these classes was 72 guns for third rates rates and 54 for fourth rates, meaning that these two-deckers were larger than the previous ones. There were also some smaller programms. The total overview of programs approved by parliament is like this⁹:

Funding for new ships by the Commons

The English Navy in the War of the Spanish Succession

The war of the Spanish Succession would enable England to reap the benefits of the Blue Water policy. It had a navy which alone was stronger than the French, but this faced an enormous array of tasks. The most important of these was escorting Anglo-Dutch shipping to all corners of the world. Next to that it had to keep the French navy at bay, secure troop transports and logistics for the operations against Felipe V and even support attacks in the Mediterranean. The Royal navy was aided in this by the fact that the alliance with the Dutch continued on more or less the same footing.

The number of major battles during the war was quite small. The first was the battle of Vigo, were an Anglo-Dutch force captured or destroyed 18 Bourbon ships of the line and part of the treasure fleet. The capture of Gibraltar was not that bloody but proved to be a permanent strategic achievement. The subsequent battle of Malaga was in itself indecisive but confirmed the alliance in its possession of the Rock. One year later the battle of Cabrita point saw the end of French naval assistance in the attempts to recapture Gibraltar. In 1706 the fleet rendered a very important service when it lifted the Bourbon siege of Barcelona. The combined land and naval attack on Toulon failed, but led to about 15 enemy ships of the line getting permanently destroyed.

In general the Royal Navy succeeded in the abovementioned tasks and this is proven by the fact that English trade vastly increased during the war. The peace of 1713 secured the Mediterranean strong points of Gibraltar and Port Mahon for England. Next to that it confirmed the fact that its navy had given the United Kingdom commercial and military control of the Atlantic as well as the Mediterranean.

List of the English Navy in the War of the Spanish Succession

Below are several lists of the English navy in the period 1702-1714, ordered by rank. Ships do appear multiple times in these, because a rebuild (r) is considered to be the end of the ship. This is true, because a ship will only exist on paper during this rebuilding process and might be a very different vessel afterwards. The columns h. guns and guns differ in that the former designates official figures and the latter those found in less solid media like contemporary periodicals. Bur. stands for burthen, or size of the ship. Where a built at, by is given, it comes from a 1710 list of ships.

First Rates of the English Navy

Second rates

Third rates with max 74-80 guns

Third rates with max 70 guns:

Third rates with 60-69 guns max:

Fourth rates with 56-64 guns max:

fourth rates with 46-54 guns max:

fourth rates with 48-50 guns max, and max 250 men:

Sources for the English Navy

In order to defend his conduct Samuel Pepys wrote: Memoires relating to the State of the Royal Navy of England printed in 1690 it has lists of the Royal navy at the end of the reign of James II.

Brian Lavery wrote The ship of the line. It is the original source for a lot of information on the internet. Some of the launch dates, r dates (rebuilt) and bu (broken up) dates no doubt have their origin in this book.

A very available and nice source for this period is: A new list of all the ships and vessels of his majesties royal navy, printed in London, 1710.

Notes