Chatham Dockyard (39 page)

11
 TNA ADM7/660, 15 July 1773.

12
 TNA ADM106/2508, 4 April 1771.

13
 NMM CHA/L34, 27 December 1799.

14
 TNA ADM106/2227, 30 June 1801.

15
 NMM CHA L/29, 3 March 1791.

16
 TNA ADM106/2227, 30 June 1801.

17
 NMM CHA L/34, 18 July 1799.

18
 Commission for Naval Revision, p9.

19
 NMM ADM B/194, 7 May 1777.

20
 Commissioners for Naval Revision, p29.

21
 
Ibid.
, p29.

22
 
Ibid.
, p54.

23
 Wade (1832), p376.

24
 Mahan (1908), p22.

Chapter 4

1
   All references to numbers employed are taken from quarterly returns submitted to the Navy Board: see NMM ADM/B series.

2
   Crawshaw (1955), p2.

3
   PP Commissioners of Naval Revision. Second Report, p11.

4
   TNA ADM106/2975. Description Book of Chatham Artificers, 1779.

5
   TNA ADM106/2975; death certificate dated 24 January 1806.

6
   NMM CHA/L/30, 22 November 1792.

7
   NMM CHA/E/35, 18 April 1787; CHA/L/28, 18 March 1790.

8
   NMM CHA/E/48, 31 January 1795.

9
   NMM ADM/B/187. 25 November 1772.

10
 
Ibid
.

11
 TNA ADM106/2975.

12
 Falconer, p59.

13
 NMM CHA/E/33, 12 October 1778.

14
 Haas (1969).

15
 NMM ADM/BP/4, 1 October 1783.

16
 A pension scheme was allowed to all dockyard workers who had fulfilled thirty years of service, this introduced in 1771. As for the permanency of workers, few skilled workers, upon taking up employment in the yard, were made redundant (other than as a form of retribution for theft or leadership of a strike), while no worker suffered a loss of day pay through poor weather.

17
 NMM ADM/BP/4, 2 October 1783.

18
 TNA ADM106/907, 30 August 1739.

19
 
TNA ADM106/2553, 30 August 1739.

20
 
Ibid.
, 31 August 1739.

21
 
Ibid
.

22
 Jones, p81.

23
 NMM CHA/L/32, 18 November 1795.

24
 
Ibid
.

25
 
Ibid
.

26
 
Ibid.
, 19 November 1795.

27
 
Ibid.
, 23 November 1795.

28
 NMM ADM BP/21a, May 1801.

29
 TNA ADM1/5126, f.252.

30
 NMM ADM/BP/21a, 1 April 1801.

31
 NMM ADM/B/201, 7 April 1801.

32
 NMM ADM/BP/21a. May 1801.

33
 TNA ADM3/306, 18 December 1823.

34
 For a more complete discussion of the petitioning campaign see Chapter 6, while a more directed discussion appears in MacDougall (1997).

Chapter 5

1
   BM Kings 44.

2
   NMM/CHA/L/20, 29 September 1790.

3
   TNA ADM7/660, 13 July 1773.

4
   BL Kings 44.

5
   
Ibid
.

6
   The vessel concerned was
Chatham
, constructed for use as a dockyard hulk in 1694 and not to be finally broken up until 1813. She was not to be taken out of dry dock on this occasion until 18 December.

7
   See Chapter 4 of this book for more detail on task work.

8
   NMM CHA/E/32, 21 June 1776.

9
   Chips (82), February 2011, pp16–17.

10
 NMM CHA/E/36, 20 September 1785.

11
 NMM CHA/E/35, 12 March 1785.

12
 NMM ADM/BP/6b, 8 September 1786.

13
 NMM CHA/E/36, 5 April 1787.

14
 MacDougall (1982), pp112–22.

15
 NMM CHA/ E/36, 18 April 1787.

16
 Beamish (1862), p109.

17
 Wildash,
The History and Antiquities of Rochester
, p73.

18
 Coad (1989), p71.

19
 NMM ADM/B/185, 21 August 1771.

20
 TNA ADM7/660, 13 July 1773.

21
 Rochester Bridge Trust Ms. 214.

22
 For a full account of the projected Northfleet dockyard see MacDougall (2000). Consideration of the effect of shoaling on the royal dockyards can be found in MacDougall (2001).

Chapter 6

1
   Rennie,
Treatise on Harbours
, pp46–8.

2
   TNA, ADM106/3138, John Rennie to Navy Board: estimate for new dock.

3
   TNA ADM140/32.

4
   
For a more detailed examination of the building of the first stone dry dock at Chatham, see MacDougall (1989).

5
   TNA, ADM 106/1830, Commissioner Cunningham to Navy Board, 12 July 1825.

6
   Rennie, Treatise on Harbours, p46.

7
   
Ibid.
, pp46–8.

8
   
Ibid
.

9
   NMM ADM/BP/376. Navy Board to Admiralty: covering of docks and slips.

10
 For a more complete account of the use of steam and the work of the ropery during the nineteenth century see MacDougall (2004).

11
 Morriss notes that the use of the term ‘leadingman’ predates the 1822 reforms and was applied as an occasional and unofficial alternative designation for ‘quartermen’. See Morriss, (1983), p139.

12
 Observations on the Recent Abolition of Certain Situations, including Quartermen and the New Arrangement of the Clerks in his Majesty’s Dockyards (Chatham, 1824), pp11–14.

13
 NMM, CHA/H/1, 9 June 1832.

14
 BL, Add Ms 41,400, 1 June 1818.

15
 Tucker,
Memoirs of St Vincent II
, p425.

16
 Commission to Inquire into the Civil Administration of the Army, 18 February 1836.

17
 TNA ADM1/3404, 20 February 1837.

18
 TNA ADM1/3394. 31 July 1833.

19
 
Rochester Gazette
, 13 December 1836.

20
 
Ibid
.

21
 
Ibid.
, 2 June 1840.

22
 
Ibid
.

23
 
Ibid
.

24
 NMM, CHA/H/37, 12 November 1840.

Chapter 7

1
   NMM, CHA/E/126, 27 June 1816. Seppings, who held the post of Master Shipwright at Chatham from 1804 to 1813, was now a member of the Navy Board, holding the post of Surveyor.

2
   TNA, ADM106/3233, Minutes: Navy Board visitation, 30 September 1819.

3
   TNA, ADM106/2267, 28 June 1815.

4
   John Fincham (1851), p331.

5
   
Ibid
.

6
   Brown (1990), pp114–5.

7
   TNA, ADM85/7, Enclosure 2 Letter No.15. Report of Alex Lawrie. Chatham Yard, 23 November 1851.

8
   
Illustrated London News
, 25 February 1854.

9
   TNA ADM106/2234, 6 May 1805.

10
 Goodwin (1998), pp39–40.

11
 Hobbes (1895), pp143–8.

12
 TNA, ADM85/7, 10 February 1852.

13
 Previously, naval warfare had been dominated by muzzle-loading canons, the heaviest of which could propel a 32-pound shot a few thousand yards, whereas these new guns, as a result of having rifled barrels, could propel with greater accuracy an explosive shell for a distance in excess of five miles.

14
 Barry (1863), xiv.

15
 
Ibid.
, p133.

16
 
Rochester Gazette
, 16 February 1862.

17
 
Rochester Gazette
, 16 September 1862.

18
 
Chatham News
, 13 May 1893. The writer incorrectly asserts the naval mutinies to have occurred in 1789 when, in reality, they took place in 1797. See Coats and MacDougall (2011),
passim
.

19
 
Ibid
.

20
 Dickens,
The Uncommercial Traveller
(1865).

21
 Hobbes (1895), p308.

22
 
The Times
, London, 6 August 1864.

Chapter 8

1
   TNA ADM106/2273, 25 June 1817.

2
   TNA ADM106/1841, 12 July 1831.

3
   TNA ADM106/1836, 24 January 1828.

4
   
Ibid
.

5
   NMM, CHA/F/33, 7 December 1819.

6
   RNM, Portsmouth Mss 286 (previously Da 0126), 8 January 1857.

7
   
Ibid
.

8
   Evans (2004), p182.

9
   RNM, Portsmouth Mss 286 (previously Da 0126), 8 January 1857.

10
 
Chatham News
and
North Kent Spectator
, 10 November 1860.

11
 
Ibid.
, 24 June 1871.

12
 
Ibid
.

13
 The cost of constructing the No.7 Slip cover at Chatham, undertaken during the mid-1850s, was in the region of £13,000. It is on this that I have based the estimated savings of reusing the existing Woolwich slip covers.

14
 
The Naval and Military Record
, 8 February, 1894.

15
 
Ibid.
, 24 May 1894.

16
 
Ibid.
, 17 June 1894.

17
 Re-quoted from Parkes (1990), p384. According to Parkes, it was generally held that ‘should’ would be a more truthful picture than ‘might’.

18
 
The Naval and Military Record
, 6 June 1895.