N. A. M. Rodger

A classic piece of social history, and required reading for all fans of naval fiction. Rodger goes a long way beyond our preconceptions about "rum, sodomy and the lash" to explain how the 18th century British navy - in effect the largest and most complex industrial organisation of its time - actually functioned. What controlled relations between officers and men? Why didn't sailors desert at the first opportunity? How did an organisation that relied on professional competence operate in an age of patronage and influence? How did the Admiralty make sure that sailors were fed and paid? What did a bo'sun actually do?… (more)

The alternative title for this work could be "The Impact of Politics and Social Change on the Royal Navy," as Rodger argues that without the need to secure religious liberty and Parliment's ultimate adoption of the fleet it is unlikely that the will would have been found to develop the service most symbolic of Britain, with additional profound results for the building of the British state and the evolution of British society. Which is to say that Protectorate and Restoration England, as authoritarian polities, were not unusual in creating efficient naval power on the fly, but it would seem to take a society-wide commitment to sustain such naval power. This you can learn from reading the conclusions, the rest of the work is a exhaustively detailed examination of the contingincies encountered on the way to the zenith of British naval power.… (more)