The Fourth Earl of Sandwich was First Lord of the Admiralty (for the third time in his long career) from 1771 to 1782. Blamed by the Whig opposition for many of the disasters of the American War, he was additionally loaded by 19th-century Whig historians with the false image of a corrupt libertine. It was the publication of these volumes of his correspondence and papers (then in the family home, now in the National Maritime Museum), covering the years 1771 to 1782, which restored his reputation as a conscientious and imaginative naval administrator and reformer, especially of the dockyards and of the timber question. Without entirely rescuing his status as a strategist, they showed very clearly the weaknesses at the heart of the North administration which damaged its handling of the war, and undermined Sandwich’s efforts. A fifth volume intended to cover his handling of naval patronage was overtaken by the war. This volume is from 1781 to 1782. The planned fifth volume was never completed.

Centred upon a man who never participated in combat operations during his sixty-year naval career, this volume depicts the routine peacetime operations of the mid-Victorian Royal Navy, operations that have received short shrift in naval histories, even though they have constituted the bulk of the service's mission during the past two centuries. Not surprisingly, the Navy operated in support of the liberal state and its agenda, as many of the documents in this collection make clear. Following the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, both Britain and the United States moved quickly to exploit new trade opportunities and for the next seventy years it was the Royal Navy that enforced the Doctrine, to the benefit of British commercial interests, but also to those of the United States and of any other country engaged in legitimate trade in the hemisphere. The service took the lead in combating piracy and the slave trade, and upheld the rule of law across global trade routes. The documents that comprise this volume therefore deal with topics of interest to scholars of international relations, Anglo-American affairs, the U.S. Civil War and the slave trade. Other aspects addressed include naval medicine, steam-era logistics and other elements of the Royal Navy's modernization pertaining to its materiel, personnel, and administration.

Centred upon a man who never participated in combat operations during his sixty-year naval career, this volume depicts the routine peacetime operations of the mid-Victorian Royal Navy, operations that have received short shrift in naval histories, even though they have constituted the bulk of the service's mission during the past two centuries. Not surprisingly, the Navy operated in support of the liberal state and its agenda, as many of the documents in this collection make clear. Following the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, both Britain and the United States moved quickly to exploit new trade opportunities and for the next seventy years it was the Royal Navy that enforced the Doctrine, to the benefit of British commercial interests, but also to those of the United States and of any other country engaged in legitimate trade in the hemisphere. The service took the lead in combating piracy and the slave trade, and upheld the rule of law across global trade routes. The documents that comprise this volume therefore deal with topics of interest to scholars of international relations, Anglo-American affairs, the U.S. Civil War and the slave trade. Other aspects addressed include naval medicine, steam-era logistics and other elements of the Royal Navy's modernization pertaining to its materiel, personnel, and administration.

This second volume of Cunningham's papers covers the period from his brief term in 1942 as head of the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington and his subsequent appointment as Allied Naval Commander of the Expeditionary Force, through his time as First Sea Lord from October 1943 to his retirement from active service in June 1946. The collection includes official documents but also many letters to his family and brother officers that exhibit his feelings, as well as his illuminating diary entries from April 1944 onwards.

Edward Hawke (1705-1781) had a long and distinguished career in the Royal Navy, serving for over half a century and finally becoming First Lord of the Admiralty. This book is a selection of his papers chosen from between 1743 and 1771, providing information on every significant stage in Hawke's career combined with a connected sequence of documents for the outstanding campaign of 1759-60 during the Seven Years War. His peacetime command at Portsmouth between 1748 and 1754 is also documented together with his post of First Lord from which he retired in 1771. Hawke has been the greatest naval commander of his generation, of whom Horace Walpole wrote ’Lord Hawke is dead and does not seem to have bequeathed his mantle to anybody’. This volume brings together papers to and from Hawke; the sources are the Public Record Office, the National Maritime Museum and the British Library.

Overbearing, avaricious and difficult, yet talented and ambitious, George Brydges Rodney has never attracted much sympathy or understanding. He was nevertheless an original thinker and one of the great admirals of the eighteenth century. The contents of this volume, the first of three, document his career from 1742 until 1763 - his private and political life. His early years as a captain were spent in the severe conditions of the North Sea and in taking privateers in the western approaches. During the peace after 1748 he was Governor of Newfoundland and in the Seven Years' War blockaded Le Havre before going, as a flag officer, to command in the Leeward Islands where he participated in the capture of Martinique. This volume also contains letters to his wife which indicate, against past opinion, that Rodney had a heart.

The Anglo-German rivalry in battleship building at the beginning of the twentieth century has been blamed by many as a major cause of the First World War, yet ‘the Great Naval Race’ has not received the attention that its notoriety would merit. This volume facilitates an understanding of how the two parties interacted by providing a comprehensive survey of existing scholarship, as well as important primary sources from a range of archives. By offering German documents in their original text and in English translation, this book makes the German role in this conflict accessible to English speakers for the first time.

This seventh volume of Naval Miscellany contains documents which range in date from the late thirteenth century to the Korean War. They illustrate the many different ways in which the naval forces of the crown have served the realm. Topics covered include the role of ships in campaigns against Scotland under Edward I and Edward VI, the protection of the Iceland fishery in the days of the Commonwealth government, and the operation of prize courts during the wars against France in the eighteenth century. Moving on to the nineteenth century, the supply of timber to the Royal Navy is examined, while two contributions deal with surveying off the west coast of Africa and another prints a diary kept by a member of the Naval Brigade operating onshore in the Zulu War. The most recent contributions deal with the origins and development of the Royal Australian Navy up to the 1950s. Two more controversial subjects are also included; the first gives more information about the storage of cordite on battle cruisers in 1916 and the battle of Jutland; the second documents the relief of Admiral North from Gibraltar in 1940. There is something here for every enthusiast for naval history and for all students of the relevant periods.

This is the first general selection from the substantial body of surviving documents about Elizabeth’s navy. It is a companion to The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I (Vol.157 in the NRS Series), where the apparatus serving both volumes was printed, and it complements the other NRS volumes that deal specifically with the Spanish Armada. This collection concentrates (though not exclusively so) on the early years of Elizabeth’s reign when there was no formal war. From 1558-1585 the navy was involved in a number of small-scale campaigns, pursuit of pirates and occasional shows of force. The documents selected emphasize the financial and administrative processes that supported these operations, such as mustering, victualing, demobilisation, and ship maintenance and repair. The fleet varied in size from about 30 to 45 ships during the period and a vast amount of maintenance and repair was required. The main component of the volume is the massively detailed Navy Treasurer's account for 1562-3 which is followed by and collated with the corresponding Exchequer Account. The documents illustrate just how efficiently the dockyards functioned. They were one of the great early Elizabethan achievements.