Preface

Summary

The contents of this, the eighth of the Navy Records Society's Naval Miscellany series, chronicles the activities and adventures of the Royal Navy, its officials, its officers and its men – both in British employment and out of it – over a period of some six hundred years. Ranging from the reign of Edward III to that of Edward VIII, its contents shine a spotlight into hitherto partially understood corners of naval history, from the maintenance and victualling of the Royal fleet of the fourteenth century to the diplomatic and personal minefields encountered by officers when escorting the Emperor Haile Selassie into exile following the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.

Thomas de Snetesham was one of the first to hold the title of Clerk of the King's Ships. His duties covered the building and repair of royal ships, their care and maintenance when in harbour or laid up, and the supply of victuals and naval stores. The documents printed here give extensive details and enable the reader to form an impression of how mariners, dockyard artisans and royal officials kept Edwards III's fleet seaworthy. Snetesham's papers provide insights into the operation of shipyards, the nature of the work force, the design of the ships themselves, the nature of their equipment and the source of naval supplies. Of particular interest is the earliest documented mention of a timing device and a form of magnetic compass to be used on an English ship.

Much has been written about Mary Rose following the raising of Henry VIII's favourite flagship from the mud of the Solent in 1982. The material found and the supporting documentation have enabled a picture to be formed of the structure of the vessel, her armament, the life of her crew and how she worked as a functioning warship. But not all the detail has been settled, and the documents which form the second contribution to this volume fill some of these gaps. The victualling account, for example, shows exactly the official scale of rations in terms of such things as bread, meat, fish and beer. Likewise, the shipwrights’ report not only confirms the form of Mary Rose 's missing stem, but shows that alterations were being considered to the bow section of conventional English sailing ships at the time to give them the notoriously effective forward-firing capability of the galley.