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Naval Leadership in the Atlantic World: The Age of Reform and Revolution, 1700–1850 Edited by Richard Harding and Agustín Guimerá Published by University of Westminster Press 101 Cavendish Street London W1W 6XH www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk Text © several editors and contributors 2017 First published 2017 Cover design by Diana Jarvis Cover image Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library, USA Printed in the UK by Lightning Source Ltd. Print and digital versions typeset by Siliconchips Services Ltd. ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-911534-08-2 ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-911534-76-1 ISBN (PDF): 978-1-911534-09-9 ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-911534-10-5 ISBN (Mobi/Kindle): 978-1-911534-11-2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book2 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Interna- tional License (unless stated otherwise within the content of the work). To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This license allows for copying any part of the work for personal and commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated. The full text of this book has been peer-reviewed to ensure high academic standards. For full review policies, see http://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/ site/publish/ Suggested citation: Harding, R. and Guimerá, A. 2017. Naval Leadership in the Atlantic World: The Age of Reform and Revolution, 1700–1850. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book2. License: CC-BY 4.0 To read the free, open access version of this book online, visit https://doi.org/10.16997/book2 or scan this QR code with your mobile device: Dedicated to the memory of Professor Colin White (1951–2008), Director of the Royal Navy Museum Portsmouth (2006–08): a scholar and great enthusiast in the study of naval leadership Naval Leadership in the Atlantic World: The Age of Revolution and Reform, 1700–1850 Richard Harding and Agustín Guimerá (editors) Contents Foreword ix Contributors xi Part One. Naval Leadership: A Voyage of Discovery 1 Introduction: Naval Leadership in the Age of Reform and Revolution, 1700–1850 (Richard Harding and Agustín Guimerá) 3 1. The Royal Navy, History and the Study of Leadership (Richard Harding) 9 Part Two. Naval Leadership in the Ancien Régime 19 2. Leadership Networks and the Effectiveness of the British Royal Navy in the Mid-Eighteenth Century (Richard Harding) 21 3. The Reputation of Louis XV’s Vice-Admirals of France (Simon Surreaux) 35 4. Types of Naval Leadership in the Eighteenth Century (Michael Duffy) 49 5. Naval Leadership in a ‘Fleet in Being’: The Spanish Navy and ‘Armed Neutrality’ in the Mid-Eighteenth Century (Catherine Scheybeler) 59 6. Admiral Louis Guillouet, Comte d’Orvilliers (1710–92): A Style of Command in the Age of the American War (Olivier Chaline) 73 7. Le Bailli Pierre-André de Suffren: A Precursor of Nelson (Rémi Monaque) 85 viii Naval Leadership in the Atlantic World Part Three. Naval Leadership and the French Revolution, 1789–1850 93 Introduction: Naval Leadership and the French Revolution (Richard Harding and Agustín Guimerá) 95 8. Leadership in the French Navy during the Revolution and Empire. The Optimist and the Pessimist: Louis-René de Latouche-Tréville (1745–1804) and Pierre Charles de Villeneuve (1763–1806) (Rémi Monaque) 99 9. Admiral Antonio Barceló, 1716–97: A Self-Made Naval Leader (Agustín Ramón Rodríguez González) 107 10. Naval Leadership and the ‘Art of War’: John Jervis and José de Mazarredo Compared (1797–9) (Agustín Guimerá) 117 11. Luis María de Salazar, Ángel Laborde and the Defence of Cuba, 1825–29: A Study in Combined Leadership (Carlos Alfaro Zaforteza) 131 12. Napier, Palmerston and Palmella in 1833: The Unofficial Arm of British Diplomacy (Andrew Lambert) 141 Afterword 157 Notes 165 Index 193 Foreword Vice-Admiral Sir Adrian Johns KCB CBE DL Second Sea Lord and Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command (2005–8) Governor and Commander-in-Chief Gibraltar (2009–13) President of the Navy Records Society I recall only too well the impact of the Practical Leadership Tests we suffered as young officers at Dartmouth. We thought then that leadership was all about self-projection, generating a sense of urgency and taking care of the team. But we soon learned that real leadership came into play when things went wrong. How many times do we hear today that failure is the result of a lack of leader- ship? Often perhaps, but that may be a simplistic conclusion and there are two truisms worth bearing in mind: no plan survives first contact with the enemy; and everything in war is simple but the simplest things are often the most dif- ficult to achieve. This collection of essays sprang out of a conference held at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in 2011 and provides an illuminating insight into naval leadership during a period of significant historical turbulence. Those in command at sea at that time enjoyed very limited communications and intel- ligence that often extended not much further than the visual horizon. Leaders had to rely on their own raw initiative and judgement in a very different way from today’s commanders in this globally networked world. But while in practical terms leadership may be exercised rather differently today, the insights offered in these essays point to enduring themes and a better understanding of a complex subject. I am delighted that this collection is dedicated to the memory of Professor Colin White, sadly departed but an old friend and an inspiring naval historian. He would have approved! Contributors Dr Carlos Alfaro Zaforteza (King’s College, London) is a visiting research fellow at the Department of War Studies. He completed his PhD thesis there in 2011, on Sea Power, State and Society in Liberal Spain, 1833–1868. He has published on Spanish naval history in American, British and Spanish scholarly journals and edited books. He is also co-author of the book European Navies and the Conduct of War (Routledge, forthcoming). Professor Olivier Chaline (Université de Sorbonne, Paris IV) is a French modernist historian. He has held professorships at the University of Rennes II (1999–2001) and the University of Paris IV (Paris-Sorbonne), a post he has held since 2001. He is Director of the Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Historical Research and Head of the international research program about Admiral de Grasse’s fleet. Dr Michael Duffy (University of Exeter) has retired from his positions as Head of History and Director of the Centre for Maritime Studies at Exeter University but remains a University Fellow and is presently Vice-President of the Navy Records Society. He was the Editor of The Mariner’s Mirror: The Journal of the Society for Nautical Research throughout the 1990s. His books on naval subjects include The Military Revolution and the State 1500–1800(1980), Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower (1987), Parameters of British Naval Power 1650–1850 (1992), The New Maritime History of Devon (1992, 1994) edited with S. Fisher, B. Greenhill, D. Starkey and J. Youings, The Glorious First of June: A Naval Battle and its xii Naval Leadership in the Atlantic World Aftermath (2003) edited with R. Morriss, Touch and Take: The Battle of Trafal- gar (2005) and, with R. Mackay, Hawke, Nelson and British Naval Leadership in the Age of Sail 1747–1805 (2009). Dr Agustín Guimerá (Instituto de Historia, Consejo Superior de Investiga- ciones Científicas, Madrid) is the author of numerous studies of comparative naval leadership, including: ‘Métodos de liderazgo naval en una época revolu- cionaria: Mazarredo y Jervis (1779–1808),’ in Manuel Reyes García- Hurtado, Domingo L. González-Lopo and Enrique Martínez-Rodríguez, eds., El mar en los siglos modernos (Santiago de Compostela: Xunta de Galicia, 2009), vol. 2, 221–33; Agustín Guimerá and José María Blanco Núñez, eds., Guerra naval en la Revolución y el Imperio (Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia, 2008); Agustín Guimerá and Víctor Peralta, El Equilibrio de los Imperios: de Utrecht a Trafalgar (Madrid: FEHM, 2005). Professor Richard Harding (University of Westminster) is Professor of Organ- isational History and Head of the Department of Leadership and Professional Development at the University of Westminster. His recent works include Mod- ern Naval History: Debates and Prospects (London: Bloomsbury Press, 2015); The Emergence of Britain’s Global Naval Supremacy: The War of 1739–1748 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2010), Naval Leadership and Management, 1650– 1950 (Boydell Press, 2012) (edited with Helen Doe), A Great and Glorious Vic- tory: New Perspectives on the Battle of Trafalgar (Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing, 2008). Professor Andrew Lambert (King’s College, London) is Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, Lon- don, and Director of the Laughton Naval History unit housed in the depart- ment. His work focuses on the naval and strategic history of the British Empire between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War. His books include: The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy against Russia 1853–1856 (Manchester: 1990), ‘The Foundations of Naval History’: Sir John Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession (London: 1997), Nelson: Britannia’s God of War (London: 2004), Admirals (London: 2008), Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navi- gation (London: 2009) and The Challenge: Britain versus America in the Naval War of 1812 (London: 2012), which won the Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research for the best maritime history book of that year. Contre-Amiral Rémi Monaque (Marine française) is a rear Admiral (retired) of the French navy. Since 1992, he has devoted all his time to naval history research.