Throughout the eighteenth century European powers with overseas colonies and interests in trade were in frequent conflict. For much of the time the Caribbean was the focal point of these clashes, and it is with the problems of administering a navy there, during the first war waged on a large scale, that this book is concerned.

The outbreak of war in 1739 was the culmination of the efforts by Britain to break into Spain’s colonial trade, which had been pursued since the Treaty of Utrecht had brought the War of Spanish Succession to a close in 1713. This had given...

The problem of sickness, and the disastrous effect it could have on sailors in the West Indies, was well known before the outbreak of war in 1739. The dangers had been graphically illustrated by the fate of Admiral Hosier’s expedition in 1726. Sent to the Caribbean to prevent the Spanish treasure ships sailing from Porto Bello, Hosier had blockaded these ships for six months, until sickness finally forced him to return to Jamaica. When he arrived there he had 622 men sick out of a rated complement of 1920.¹ Having recruited new men, he then proceeded to lose them in...

The greatest difficulty faced by a commander-in-chief in the West Indies was manning his ships. This went hand in hand with the problems of sickness and desertion. Sickness was the biggest single cause of ships being short of complement. Much of the effort expended trying to cure the sick was aimed at recovering as many men as possible for the service. Manning was also indirectly affected by sickness. The unhealthy climate gave the Caribbean such a bad name that few were willing to serve there voluntarily, and those compelled to do so were often more prepared to risk punishment for...

Having examined the scale of the manning problem in the previous chapter, it is now necessary to look at how the commanders in the Caribbean tried to cope. There were no easy solutions. Attempts could be made to prevent desertions and sickness, and to make good the losses by impressment, and by recovering deserters. Medical ignorance limited the effectiveness of measures against sickness, while it proved difficult to either prevent, or to recover deserters. With impressment being of limited value, as well as of doubtful legality, commanders were forced to use every other means at their disposal, to overcome the...

Provisioning ships in the West Indies was the responsibility of the Victualling Board. Composed of seven members, and subordinate to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the Board rarely met with more than three or four members present.¹ It was charged with ensuring that supplies were available at the places where they were needed, and with providing the necessary storage space for them. How these duties were discharged varied. In the Caribbean two methods of victualling were employed. In the early years of the war, the Board contracted with a private firm, Messrs. Mason and Simpson of London, to provide...

Manning the ships, and keeping the crews adequately fed and healthy, was only part of the task of the administration in the Caribbean. Equally important was the need to keep the ships seaworthy. Facilities had to be provided for replacing expendable stores, for repairing the damage that arose during the normal course of service, and, exceptionally, for carrying out large scale repairs on ships damaged during battle or severe weather. Ships serving in the Caribbean also had to be cleaned periodically to prevent them being wrecked by theteredo navalis,a worm that thrived in tropical waters, and which ate...

Providing yard facilities was one thing, attracting the men to operate them was another. A basic problem was that the West Indies was an unpopular station, because of its health risks. Dockyard workers in England were well aware of the ravages caused by yellow fever, and there was an understandable reluctance to serve there. The problem was compounded by the scarcity of the necessary skilled workers among the white population of the islands, and the high civilian wages available outside the naval yards to those with the skills. Given these local circumstances the only feasible sources of labour remained the...

The Navy Board was responsible for ensuring that adequate supplies of naval stores were available in the West Indies. It functioned in much the same way as the Victualling Board, hiring and loading merchant ships to carry out stores, and requesting convoys from the Admiralty. The Navy Board was represented in the West Indies by a naval storekeeper at each of the bases. It was his responsibility to forward his requirements to England periodically, to ensure that the Navy Board knew exactly what supplies were needed.

In practice, this system encountered a number of problems. First, the distance involved caused...

If the navy was to carry out its operational tasks in the Caribbean, it was not enough to ensure that the ships were manned, and fit for sea: they also had to be capable of fighting. The task of ensuring that they were adequately supplied with guns, and ordnance stores, fell to the Board of Ordnance. Unlike the Navy and the Victualling Boards, it was not a subsidiary board of the Admiralty. It was an independent body, responsible for supplying the ordnance needs of both the army and the navy. The Admiralty could only request that stores be sent out,...

At this point it is useful to remind oneself that the essential function of all naval administration is to provide the support services, that enable warships to carry out their assigned operational tasks. In the Caribbean this involved protecting British trade, attacking enemy commerce, and carrying out operations against Spanish, and later, French colonies. The first task could only be undertaken efficiently, if the ships were capable of keeping at sea for long periods. As the previous chapters have shown, this was not always achieved. Lack of naval stores, of dockyard workers and facilities, even of seamen, all contributed at...