1719 Establishment

The 1719 Establishment was a formal establishment of dimensions for ships built for the Royal Navy. It superseded the previous 1706 Establishment, and was applied to nearly all new ships of a qualifying size (30 or more guns) as well as rebuilds of existing ships. During this period, a rebuild could amount to anything from stripping off planking to facilitate replacement of rotten timbers and adjustments to suit the required dimensions, or complete dismantlement and construction of what was, for all intents and purposes, a completely new ship making but the scantiest use of timber from the old ship.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p78-79.]

Background

When the 1706 Establishment had been introduced, British naval architecture had entered a period of highly conservative stagnation. The Establishments were intended to create standardisation throughout the fleet, in part to reduce the cost of maintaining Britain's large navy. The side-effect was to almost completely eliminate any design innovation until the abolition of the Establishments in 1755.

When King George I ascended the throne in 1714, thus beginning the Hanoverian dynasty in Great Britain, the main institutions of the Royal Navy—the Board of Admiralty and the Navy Board—underwent the typical reorganisations associated with a change of régime. While the Admiralty became a much more political body, the Navy Board became populated by men who had learnt their trade during the formative years of the Establishment system. A very significant factor in the formation of the 1719 Establishment and its subsequent longevity is that the period of 1714—1739 was the most peaceful of the 18th Century.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p75.]

A further contributory factor was the introduction of a new gun establishment in 1716. Previously, gun establishments had catered for each ship, as there were often differences between ships of the same nominal size that would affect the armament they could carry. The 1716 gun establishment was intended to overturn that situation, so that all ships of a particular type (for example, 70 gun ships) would carry the same armament. The Navy Board highlighted the fact that there were still several ships in service that were physically incapable of carrying the proscribed armament, either due to the number and disposition of gunports, or to sturdiness of build. Essentially, however, the Navy Board resolved to undertake the task of having all ships rebuilt to common designs to facilitate the new gun establishment.

The new Establishment of dimensions, finalised in December 1719, was significantly more detailed than its predecessor. The 1706 Establishment had sought to constrain only the basic dimensions (keel length, breadth, and so forth), whereas the 1719 Establishment detailed everything from the keel length to the thickness of planks on each deck. The new Establishment was also expanded in scope to include First rates, the dimensions for which were to be based upon HMS|Royal Sovereign|1701|6. The dimensions for other ship types were adjusted according to experience with ships built to the 1706 Establishment.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p76-78.]

1733 proposals

Over time, as British shipbuilding remained stagnant, Britain's foreign maritime rivals, most notably France, continued developing their own ships so that eventually the Navy Board was forced to take note. British ships by comparison with their foreign counterparts were usually significantly smaller—a practice that had come about through a combination of various factors differentiating the role of the Royal Navy from that of the continental navies, but a major factor was the need for a sizeable fleet, and the associated requirement to keep costs as low as practicable. However, by 1729 concerns were being expressed that the ships being built to the 1719 Establishment may be too small, and so a new ship, HMS|Centurion|1732|6, and HMS|Rippon|1735|6 which was due for rebuilding, were built with slightly altered dimensions.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p81.]

In 1732 the Admiralty decided to ask the dockyards to report to them on how best they thought the ships could be improved. The responses, when they finally arrived, were conservative, offering only minor adjustments to certain dimensions. There was little agreement between the changes proposed, and no further progress was made until May 1733 when Sir Jacob Ackworth of the Navy Board—the Surveyor of the Navy at the time—proposed to the Admiralty some changes to the dimensions of the 50- and 60-gun ships, most notably an increase in breadth. The Admiralty accepted these proposals, and the ones that followed in later months for the other types, and these new dimensions became the effective new Establishment, though they never technically superseded the 1719 dimensions; there was no 1733 Establishment. Indications are that the Admiralty desired more far-reaching reforms that what was actually implemented, but due in part to the absence of anyone with practical shipbuilding knowledge on the Board, the Board of Admiralty lacked the ability to realise them.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p81-83.]

1741 proposals

The true state of British ship design became apparent with the start of the War of Jenkins' Ear. The capture of the Spanish 70-gun ship "Princessa" in April 1740 by three British 70-gun ships (HMS|Kent|1724|6, HMS|Lennox|1723|6 and HMS|Orford|1727|6) took six hours of fighting despite one of "Princessa's" topmasts being missing. Her greater size (much closer to that of a British 90-gun ship than a 70) gave her stability that the British ships lacked, and her build quality allowed her to withstand the pounding from the three British ships for a long time.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p85.] By way of response to the now apparent individual inferiority of British ships over their opponents, a previously abandoned update to the gun establishment was called upon to increase the fire power of the ships. With heavier guns came the need for larger ships to carry them, and so Sir Jacob made a new set of proposals for increased dimensions—slightly less conservative this time around.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p86.] Additionally, the new gun establishment made some changes to the types of ships that would be on the navy list in future. The 70-gun ships would become 64-gunners, albeit with heavier guns as compensation, and the 60-gun ships were to become 58-gun ships, again with heavier guns.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p84.] No First rates were built to the dimensions of the 1741 proposals, but one ship of 74 guns and two of 66 were constructed.

An additional side-effect of the war was the collapse of the system of rebuilding. Until the outbreak of the war, it had been the practise to periodically rebuild ships, so as to maintain the size of the fleet without alarming parliament with requests for new ships. In reality, many of these rebuilds amounted to just that, with little or no timber from the original ship surviving into her rebuilt form. In some cases, ships would be dismantled years before they actually underwent the rebuilding process, but remained on the active list for the entire time. Rebuilding a ship was a lengthy process, more time consuming and more expensive than building a completely new one. The pressures of the war meant that for drydocks to be taken up for long periods of time whilst a ship was surveyed to determine what timber was reusable in the new ship, and what could find a use elsewhere in the dockyard, disassembled and then rebuilt was counter-productive. Ships intended to be sent to the West Indies for service in the war required the use of drydocks to have their hulls appropriately sheathed to combat such problems as shipworm, and other uses of the drydocks for servicing the fleet meant that rebuilds were given a low priority. It was at this time that the British practise of converting old ships to hulks for expanded storage space in harbours began, as instead of wasting effort and dockyard space on breaking up an old vessel that was still perfectly capable of floating, they were converted to serve the dockyards in this new capacity. Few rebuilds were started after 1739, and none at all were begun after 1742, although any that had been started were allowed to complete.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p87.]

Notes

References

*Lavery, Brian (2003) "The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850." Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.