Science, Utility and British Naval Technology, 1793–1815 (Routledge Studies in Modern British History)

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the technology employed by the British navy changed not just the material resources of the British navy but the culture and performance of the royal dockyards. This book examines the role of the Inspector General of Naval Works, an Admiralty office occupied by Samuel Bentham between 1796 and 1807, which initiated a range of changes in dockyard technology by the construction of experimental vessels, the introduction of non-recoil armament, the reconstruction of Portsmouth yard, and the introduction of steam-powered engines to pump water, drive mass-production machinery and reprocess copper sheathing. While primarily about the technology, this book also examines the complementary changes in the industrial culture of the dockyards. For it was that change in culture which permitted the dockyards at the end of the Wars to maintain a fleet of unprecedented size and engage in warfare both with the United States of America and with Napoleonic Europe.

Morriss, Roger

Reference

Routledge

British power and global expansion between 1755 and 1815 have mainly been attributed to the fiscal-military state and the achievements of the Royal navy at sea. Roger Morriss here sheds new light on the broader range of developments in the infrastructure of the state needed to extend British power at sea and overseas. He demonstrates how developments in culture, experience and control in central government affected the supply of ships, manpower, food, transport and ordnance as well as the support of the army, permitting the maintenance of armed forces of unprecedented size and their projection to distant stations. He reveals how the British state, although dependent on the private sector, built a partnership with it based on trust, ethics and the law. This book argues that Britain's military bureaucracy, traditionally regarded as inferior to the fighting services, was in fact the keystone of the nation's maritime ascendancy.

The Foundations of British Maritime Ascendancy: Resources, Logistics and the State, 1755–1815 (Cambridge Military Histories)

History

Europe

Cambridge University Press

The royal dockyards during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Leicester University Press

During the French Revolutionary War the Channel Fleet played the crucial role of defending Britain from invasion, protecting Britain’s incoming and outgoing trade through the Channel and Western Approaches, and preventing the French Brest fleet from setting forth on raids and expeditions. Presenting documents revealing the evolution of this role during the war, this book focuses on the blockade of Brest. It shows how the blockade developed and tightened through the increase of Admiralty control of the disposition of the Channel Fleet. It reveals the political conflicts that existed between the Commanders-in-Chief and the Admiralty, the logistical demands that had to be met, and the response of the Admiralty and fleet officers to the Spithead Mutiny. Above all, it reveals the response of the Fleet to the challenges it met from the French in their sequence of break-outs, and from the perennial problem posed by the necessity to preserve the health of seamen. Here, confuting the claims of contemporary medical officers, is evidence that shows how scurvy remained a scourge to the very end of the war.

The Channel Fleet and the Blockade of Brest 1793–1801 (Navy Records Society Publications)

Recent work on the growth of British naval power during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has emphasised developments in the political, constitutional and financial infrastructure of the British state. Naval Power and British Culture, 1760-1850 takes these considerations one step further, and examines the relationship of administrative culture within government bureaucracy to contemporary perceptions of efficiency in the period 1760-1850. By administrative culture is meant the ideas, attitudes, structures, practices and mores of public employees. Inevitably these changed over time and this shift is examined as the naval departments passed through times of crisis and peace. Focusing on the transition in the culture of government employees in the naval establishments in London - in the Navy and Victualling Offices - as well as the victualling yard towns along the Thames and Medway, Naval Power and British Culture, 1760-1850 concerns itself with attitudes at all levels of the organisation. Yet it is concerned above all with those whose views and conduct are seldom reported, the clerks, artificers, secretaries and commissioners; those employees of government who lived in local communities and took their work experience back home with them. As such, this book illuminates not only the employees of government, but also the society which surrounded and impinged upon naval establishments, and the reciprocal nature of their attitudes and influences.

Naval Power and British Culture, 1760–1850

Recounts Captain James Cook's voyages to the Pacific, and places them in the context of their times

Captain Cook & His Exploration of the Pacific (Great Explorer Series)

Children's Books

Literature & Fiction

Barrons Juveniles

Sir George Cockburn was the most influential serving officer in the politics of the British navy in the nineteenth century. He came to public notice as the man who burned the White House, following his part in the British attack on Washington in 1814. He also escorted Napoleon to St Helena after Waterloo. But his greatest impact was as the Admiralty Commissioner who presided over much of the transition of the British navy from sail to steam between 1818 and 1846. This book examines the career of a formidable personality who maintained the interests and professionalism of the British navy through one of the most difficult periods of political and technological evolution it has yet faced. It provides a unique insight into the conduct of the British Admiralty and will appeal to both the specialist and general reader.

Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn 1772-1853 (Exeter Maritime Studies)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Liverpool University Press

British power and global expansion between 1755 and 1815 have mainly been attributed to the fiscal-military state and the achievements of the Royal navy at sea. Roger Morriss here sheds new light on the broader range of developments in the infrastructure of the state needed to extend British power at sea and overseas. He demonstrates how developments in culture, experience and control in central government affected the supply of ships, manpower, food, transport and ordnance as well as the support of the army, permitting the maintenance of armed forces of unprecedented size and their projection to distant stations. He reveals how the British state, although dependent on the private sector, built a partnership with it based on trust, ethics and the law. This book argues that Britain's military bureaucracy, traditionally regarded as inferior to the fighting services, was in fact the keystone of the nation's maritime ascendancy.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Samuel Bentham influenced both the technology and the administrative ideas employed in the management of the British navy. His influence stemmed from his passion for science, from his desire to achieve improvements based on a belief in the principle of Utility, and from experience gained over eleven years in Russia, a large part in the service of Catherine the Great and Prince Potemkin. Having travelled extensively throughout the north and south of Russia, Poland and Siberia, he managed Potemkin’s industries at Krichev, built fast river galleys, armed the Russian flotilla of small craft at Kherson and served with the flotilla that defeated the Turks in the Black Sea. His main ambition was to open river communication in Siberia and develop trade into the Pacific. However he returned to England and in 1796 became Inspector General of Naval Works, a post in which he fought for innovations in the technology and management of the British royal dockyards. Regarded then by the Navy Board as a dangerous maverick, this book reveals the experiences, creativity and thinking that made him a major figure in British naval development.

Science, Utility and Maritime Power (Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies Series)

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Books by Morriss, Roger

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Morriss, Roger. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Science, Utility and British Naval Technology, 1793–1815 (Routledge Studies in Modern British History)

Science, Utility and British Naval Technology, 1793–1815 (Routledge Studies in Modern British History)

The Foundations of British Maritime Ascendancy: Resources, Logistics and the State, 1755–1815 (Cambridge Military Histories)

The royal dockyards during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

The Channel Fleet and the Blockade of Brest 1793–1801 (Navy Records Society Publications)

Naval Power and British Culture, 1760–1850

Captain Cook & His Exploration of the Pacific (Great Explorer Series)

Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn 1772-1853 (Exeter Maritime Studies)

The Foundations of British Maritime Ascendancy: Resources, Logistics and the State, 1755–1815 (Cambridge Military Histories)

Science, Utility and Maritime Power (Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies Series)