Archive Results For: Spanish Succession
Duguay Trouin: the Financial Background
This comprehensive analysis describes the investment and support systems that underpinned France’s extensive privateering activities during the Nine Years War (1688-97) and War of Spanish Succession (1702-13). The complex relationship between the King, his navy and leading private investors is explored in detail, with especial attention given to outlay costs, risk against reward, and the […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Spanish Succession | English Channel | North Sea | Nine Years' War | Mediterranean | Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | Pacific
Subjects include: Biography | Navies | Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers
English Privateering in the War of the Spanish Succession 1702-1713
This article is a very comprehensive description of the workings of privateering in the period reviewed. There are detailed tables in it, enumerating the total of Letters of Marque issued, the number of prizes condemned, and the geographical origins of the vessels which captured them. A clear distinction is made between the smaller Channel Island […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Spanish Succession | English Channel | Irish Sea | Mediterranean
Subjects include: Administration | Merchant Marines | Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers
The Rebuilding of British Warships 1690 – 1740 Part II
The early eighteenth century saw a shift in British policy from the commissioning of new Navy vessels, to rebuilding the existing fleet. While suiting a conservative national mood, the policy presented practical difficulties by requiring the reshaping of older materials to meet modern design. Polite fictions also arose, such as the breaking up of older […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Spanish Succession | English Channel | Other (Early Modern) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Internal Waterways
Subjects include: Administration | Harbours & Dockyards | Logistics | Navies | Shipbuilding & Design
The Rebuilding of British Warships 1690 – 1740 Part I
This article explores the changing practice of warship rebuilding between 1690 and 1740; focusing on the role of the Navy Board, Admiralty and dockyards in these developments. Different interpretations of the term rebuilding are covered, along with Drummer and Lee’s 1691 definition. Rebuilding was used to modernizing the shape and size of ships. Prior […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Spanish Succession | English Channel | Other (Early Modern) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Internal Waterways
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Shipbuilding & Design
Improbable Legends Surrounding the Shipwreck of Sir Clowdisley Shovel
This research note clearly demonstrates the unfounded basis for at least three colourful tales about the wreck of Sir Clowdisley Shovell’s fleet on the Isles of Scilly in 1707. The article discuses three legends: Firstly, that a council of sailing-masters was held concerning the fleet’s position in the afternoon prior to the disaster; secondly, that […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Spanish Succession | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Ship Handling & Seamanship
Sir John Jennings and the Preparations for the Naval Expedition to the Mediterranean of 1711-1713
The problems, tribulations and sheer luck of Admiral Sir John Jennings during his efforts to man his fleet, provide protection for his convoy, and conduct his duties as sent forth by the Admiralty to take command of the Mediterranean with little or no support from his own administration. England was fortunate that he was such […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Spanish Succession | English Channel | Mediterranean | Health at Sea
Subjects include: Manpower & Life at Sea | Navies | Ship Handling & Seamanship
The British Attacks on the Caracas Coast, 1743
An account of the 1743 British attack on the Caracas Coast based on English and Spanish sources. This expedition was part of a British campaign to gain control of the Caribbean Sea by capturing several Spanish ports, Cartagena and Guantanamo Bay (1741) and Panama (1742) all of which failed. In a third attempt, Captain Charles […] Read More
Filed under: Spanish Succession | Caribbean
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Biography | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
Impressment of Seamen During the War of the Spanish Succession
The paper is based on the correspondence kept by Tancred Robinson while a captain in the Royal Navy during the War of the Spanish Succession. It focuses on letters received from the Admiralty concerning men on ships he commanded who had been impressed, in some cases requiring their release and in others confirming their impressment. […] Read More
Filed under: Spanish Succession | English Channel | North Sea | Press Gangs
Subjects include: Administration | Manpower & Life at Sea | Navies
The Capture of Minorca 1708
In the early Eighteenth Century Britain needed a strong, year round naval base in the Mediterranean to protect trade routes and to support the blockades of French and Spanish ports. The War of Spanish Succession provided an opportunity to take and use Port Mahon in Minorca as such a base. Details are given of the […] Read More
Filed under: Spanish Succession | Mediterranean
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Strategy & Diplomacy
Some Notes on Warship Building by Contract in the Eighteenth Century
When the war of Spanish Succession began in 1701 the Royal Navy was well supplied with ships in reserve built after the last peace with France in 1697. At the start of the war of Austrian Succession in 1739 there had been no new construction and the existing fleet was decaying. Thus began a period […] Read More
Filed under: Spanish Succession | Austrian Succession | Seven Years’ War | American Revolution | French Revolution | Other (location)
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Shipbuilding & Design
Shipbuilding in Ipswich 1700-1750
Ipswich was a town which experienced great changes in the fortunes of shipbuilding between circa 1700 and 1750. The town was dependent on the Newcastle coal trade and the patronage of the Navy Board. After a busy period up to 1673, decay set in quickly. In 1710 the fortunes of Ipswich improved when a recovery […] Read More
Filed under: Spanish Succession | Austrian Succession | North Sea | Other (location)
Subjects include: Administration | Harbours & Dockyards | Navies | Shipbuilding & Design
Document: Memoires d’un Protestant
A French galley slave’s description of an engagement in the Thames estuary between a fleet of French galleys under the command of Captain M. de Langeron of the French Navy and a British convoy under the protection of HMS Nightingale (frigate 36 guns) on 5 September 1708. De Bergerac was a galley slave in the […] Read More
Filed under: Spanish Succession | North Sea
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Manpower & Life at Sea | Merchant Marines | Navies