Navy Board


The Navy Board and formerly known as the Council of the Marine or Council of the Marine Causes was the commission with responsibility for day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. The board was headquartered within the Navy Office.

History

The origins of the Navy Board first began to appear in the 15th century when the Keeper of the Kings or Clerk of the Kings Ships in 1414 the predecessor, then later subordinate office, of the Lord Admiral of England was joined by a Keeper of the Storehouses in 1514. As management of the navy began to expand he was joined by a Clerk Comptroller in 1522, then later the Lieutenant of the Admiralty in 1544, then a Treasurer of Marine Causes in 1544 was added. A sixth officer was created, a Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy, in 1544, and finally a seventh officer called Master of Naval Ordnance also in 1545 the group by January 1545 was already working as a body known as the Council of the Marine or King's Majesty's Council of His Marine. In the first quarter of 1545 an official memorandum was outlined that proposed the establishment of a new organisation that would formalize a structure for administering the navy that would have a clear chain of command for executing the office. Following the previous proposals the Navy Board was officially appointed by letters patent by Henry VIII on the 24 April 1546 it was initially directed by the Lieutenant of the Admiralty until 1557. the board was charged with overseeing the administrative affairs of the navy and all of the functions were merged under the single responsibility of the Board of Admiralty with its administrative functions being dispersed among the Naval Lords.

Duties and responsibilities

The Navy Board overall responsibilities were the construction and maintenance of ships through the Royal Dockyards of Deptford, Woolwich, Portsmouth and Chatham; the operations of the dockyards and other naval establishments. In addition to the procurement of victuals, stores, supplies and services for the fleetand provision of ordnance items. It was also responsible for all civilian and naval pay, and for the appointment of junior officers and warrant officers, and had several other duties in addition.
Note:The Navy Pay Office was independent of the Board; though the Board's Commissioners were required to authorize payments, all funds were held and issued by the Pay Office .

Subsidiary boards

As the size of the fleet grew, the Admiralty sought to focus the activity of the Navy Board on two areas: ships and their maintenance, and naval expenditure. Therefore, from the mid- to late-17th century, a number of subsidiary Boards began to be established to oversee other aspects of the Board's work. these included:
Each of these subsidiary Boards went on to gain a degree of independence.

Principal Officers and Commissioners

Tudor and Stuart period

List of Principal Officers and Commissioners 1546-1660 included.
Instrumental in the early administration of the Navy Office were usually between four and seven officials or "Principal Officers" though some were styled differently prior to 1660, Charles I added a fifth between 1625-1640 they included:.
As defined by a set of drawn up under Henry's successor, Edward VI, the Navy Board was given a high degree of autonomy while yet remaining subordinate to the Lord High Admiral until 1628. This - at times ambiguous - relationship with The Admiralty was an enduring characteristic of the Board, and indeed was one of the reasons behind its eventual demise in 1832.

Commonwealth and Restoration period

During the Commonwealth the business of both Navy Board and Admiralty was carried out by a committee of Parliament. Following the Restoration, James, Duke of York oversaw the reconstitution of the Navy Board. Alongside the aforementioned "Principal Officers" further officials were appointed to serve as "Commissioners" of the Navy, and together these constituted the Board. By tradition, commissioners were always Navy officers of the rank of post-captain or captain who had retired from active service at sea.
List of Principal Officers and Commissioners 1660-1796 included.
''Additional Commissioners added after 1666, who were soon given specific duties
In 1796 the Board was reconstituted: the post of Clerk of the Acts was abolished, as were the three Controllers of Accounts. Henceforward, the Board would consist of the Controller and a Deputy Controller, the Surveyor and around seven other Commissioners to whom no specific duties were attached.
The Treasurer, though still technically a member of the Board, was seldom in attendance. In actual fact the post of Treasurer was by this stage little more than a sinecure; the main work of his department was carried out by its senior clerk, the Paymaster of the Navy.
Following the abolition of the office of Clerk of the Acts, the post of Secretary to the Board was created; as well as overseeing the administrative department, the Secretary attended meetings of the Board and took minutes; but he was not himself a Commissioner and did not therefore have a vote.
List of Principal Officers and Commissioners 1796-1832 included:
To all of these lists must be added the Commissioners of the Navy with oversight of the Royal Navy Dockyards. Normally resident at their respective Dockyards and thus known as Resident Commissioners, these Commissioners did not normally attend the Board's meetings in London; nevertheless, they were considered full members of the Navy Board and carried the full authority of the Board when implementing or making decisions within their respective Yards both at home and overseas. Not every Dockyard had a resident Commissioner in charge, but the larger Yards, both at home and overseas, generally did. Chatham Dockyard, Devonport Dockyard, Portsmouth Dockyard, Sheerness Dockyard, Trincomalee Dockyard and the Bermuda Dockyard all had Resident Commissioners.
After the abolition of the board in 1832 the duties of these Commissioners were taken over by commissioned officers: usually an Admiral-superintendent at the largest yards, or a Captain-superintendent at smaller yards.

Headquarters

Main Article: Navy Office
From the 1650s the Board, together with its staff of around 60 clerks, was accommodated in a large house at the corner of Crutched Friars and Seething Lane, just north of the Tower of London. Following a fire, the house was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. This new Navy Office provided accommodation for the Commissioners, as well as office space. Different departments were accommodated in different parts of the building; the rear wing housed the offices of the Sick and Hurt Board. The Victualling Office was also located nearby, on Little Tower Hill, close to its early manufacturing base at Eastminster. The Navy Treasury, where the Treasurer was based, was located from 1664 in Broad Street. It was also known as the Navy Pay Office. In 1789, all these offices were relocated into the new purpose-built office complex of Somerset House.

Demise

By the early nineteenth century, Members of Parliament had begun raising concerns at the cost of Navy Board operations and the obscurity of its record-keeping. On 15 February 1828 Robert Peel, the Home Secretary, established a Parliamentary Committee to review the Board's operations. The Committee, chaired by Irish MP Henry Parnell, was specifically charged with interpreting and reducing Navy Board costs. By the end of the year it had issued critical reports covering the Board's administration of naval pensions, half-pay, revenue, expenditure and debt. In particular, the Committee noted the Navy Board had long since abandoned financial controls; that it had instead "established a scale of expense greatly beyond what existed during former periods of peace," and that its operations tended to "exalt its own importance" over the needs of the public service as a whole.
The Board's internal operations were also found wanting:
The Government's response was delivered on 14 February 1832, with a Bill to abolish both the Navy Board and the Victualling Board and merge their functions into the Board of Admiralty. This Bill was moved by Sir James Graham as First Lord of the Admiralty, who argued that the Boards had been "constituted at a period when the principles of banking were unknown," and were redundant in an era of greater Parliamentary oversight and regulation. An amendment proposed by First Sea Lord Sir George Cockburn suggested that Navy Board be preserved and only the Victualling Board abolished, but this was defeated by 118 votes to 50. The Bill itself was passed on 23 May 1832, with the Navy Board formally ceasing operations from 1 June.