Educating the Royal Navy

EDUCATING THE ROYAL NAVY This book constitutes the first comprehensive history of education and training for officers of the Royal Navy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It covers the development of educational provision from the first 1702 Order in Council appointing schoolmasters to serve in operational warships to the laying of the foundation stone of the present Royal Naval College Dartmouth, almost two hundred years later. This period contained many significant educational way marks including the establishment of the Royal Navy’s first naval academy, the commissioning of the officer training ship HMS Britannia, and the whole conduct of education at sea by the naval schoolmaster and his successor the naval instructor. The period also wit- nessed the birth of higher education in the Service with the opening of the Royal Naval College Greenwich and the provision of technical education and training for a new category of officer, the naval engineer. Educating the Royal Navy is the first full length work to attempt to draw these strands together. Employing extensive primary sources, it challenges the limited existing commentary and presents significant new information. It is an indispensable aid to understanding the two-hundred-year evolution of the officer corps of the most powerful navy in the world. This volume will be essential reading for students of naval history and naval education, and of much interest to professional military colleges study- ing the development of naval training. H. W. Dickinson teaches in the Defence Studies Department, Kings College, London. In 1997 he was awarded the Julian Corbett Prize for Modern Naval History. CASS SERIES: NAVAL POLICY AND HISTORY Series Editor: Geoffrey Till This series consists primarily of original manuscripts by research scholars in the general area of naval policy and history, without national or chronological limita- tions. It will from time to time also include collections of important articles as well as reprints of classic works. AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN NAVAL POLICY, 1904–1914 Milan N. Vego FAR-FLUNG LINES Studies in Imperial defence in Honour of Donald Mackenzie Schurman Edited by Keith Neilson and Greg Kennedy MARITIME STRATEGY AND CONTINENTAL WARS Rear Admiral Raja Menon THE ROYAL NAVY AND GERMAN NAVAL DISARMAMENT 1942–1947 Chris Madsen NAVAL STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS IN NARROW SEAS Milan N. Vego THE PEN AND INK SAILOR Charles Middleton and the King’s Navy, 1778–1813 John E. Talbott THE ITALIAN NAVY AND FASCIST EXPANSIONISM, 1935–1940 Robert Mallett THE MERCHANT MARINE AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 1850–1950 Edited by Greg Kennedy NAVAL STRATEGY IN NORTHEAST ASIA Geo-strategic goals, policies and prospects Duk-Ki Kim NAVAL POLICY AND STRATEGY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA Past, present and future Edited by John B. Hattendorf STALIN’S OCEAN-GOING FLEET Soviet naval strategy and shipbuilding programmes, 1935–1953 Jürgen Rohwer and Mikhail S. Monakov IMPERIAL DEFENCE, 1868–1887 Donald Mackenzie Schurman; edited by John Beeler TECHNOLOGY AND NAVAL COMBAT IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND Edited by Phillips Payson O’Brien THE ROYAL NAVY AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS Richard Moore THE ROYAL NAVY AND THE CAPITAL SHIP IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD An operational perspective Joseph Moretz CHINESE GRAND STRATEGY AND MARITIME POWER Thomas M. Kane BRITAIN’S ANTI-SUBMARINE CAPABILITY, 1919–1939 George Franklin BRITAIN, FRANCE AND THE NAVAL ARMS TRADE IN THE BALTIC, 1919–1939 Grand strategy and failure Donald Stoker NAVAL MUTINIES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY An international perspective Edited by Christopher Bell and Bruce Elleman THE ROAD TO ORAN Anglo-French naval relations, September 1939–July 1940 David Brown THE SECRET WAR AGAINST SWEDEN US and British submarine deception and political control in the 1980s Ola Tunander ROYAL NAVY STRATEGY IN THE FAR EAST, 1919–1939 Planning for a war against Japan Andrew Field SEAPOWER A guide for the twenty-first century Geoffrey Till BRITAIN’S ECONOMIC BLOCKADE OF GERMANY, 1914–1919 Eric W. Osborne A LIFE OF ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET ANDREW CUNNINGHAM A twentieth-century naval leader Michael Simpson NAVIES IN NORTHERN WATERS, 1721–2000 Edited by Rolf Hobson and Tom Kristiansen GERMAN NAVAL STRATEGY, 1856–1888 Forerunners to Tirpitz David Olivier BRITISH NAVAL STRATEGY EAST OF SUEZ, 1900–2000 Influences and actions Edited by Greg Kennedy THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SOVIET NAVY IN THE BALTIC, 1921–1940 Gunnar Aselius THE ROYAL NAVY, 1930–1990 Innovation and defence Edited by Richard Harding THE ROYAL NAVY AND MARITIME POWER IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Edited by Ian Speller DREADNOUGHT GUNNERY AND THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND The question of fire control John Brooks GREEK NAVAL STRATEGY AND POLICY, 1910–1919 Zisis Fotakis NAVAL BLOCKADES AND SEAPOWER Strategies and counter-strategies, 1805–2005 Edited by Bruce A. Elleman and Sarah C. M. Paine THE PACIFIC CAMPAIGN IN WORLD WAR II From Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal William Bruce Johnson ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE IN WORLD WAR I British naval aviation and the defeat of the U-boats John J. Abbatiello THE ROYAL NAVY AND ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE, 1944–49 Malcolm Llewellyn-Jones THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH NAVAL THINKING Essays in memory of Bryan Ranft Edited by Geoffrey Till EDUCATING THE ROYAL NAVY Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century education for officers H.W. Dickinson EDUCATING THE ROYAL NAVY Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century education for officers H. W. Dickinson First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2007 H. W. Dickinson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Dickinson, Harry W., 1949– Educating the Royal Navy: 18th and 19th century education for officers / H.W. Dickinson. p. cm. – (Naval policy and history) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Naval education–Great Britain–History–18th century. 2. Naval education–Great Britain–History–19th century. 3. Great Britain. Royal Navy–Officers–Training of–History–18th century. 4. Great Britain. Royal Navy–Officers–Training of–History–19th century. I. Title. V511.D53 2007 359.5Ј5094109033–dc22 2006024147 ISBN 0-203-93825-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–37641–6 (Print Edition) ISBN13: 978–0–415–37641–9 CONTENTS List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1 All at sea: the naval schoolmaster 1702–1837 9 2 ‘A sink of abomination . .’: the Portsmouth Naval Academy and the Royal Naval College Portsmouth 1733–1837 33 3 Pitchforks and professors: educating the young officer 1837–62 57 4 Inklings of a system: continuing and higher education to 1869 76 5 Britannia at Dartmouth, 1863–74 94 6 ‘While their minds are docile and plastic . .’: The Shadwell Report 1870 113 7 ‘As much by wisdom as by war . .’: The Royal Naval College Greenwich 1870–1902 131 8 The fortunes of HMS Britannia 1874–1902 152 9 ‘Engineers are not gentlemen . .’: education and training for naval engineers 177 Conclusion 199 Notes 214 Sources 238 Index 249 vii ILLUSTRATIONS 1 ‘Duties of the Naval Schoolmaster’ – an extract from the 1731 Regulations and Instructions 14 2 Jane Austen’s brother is accepted for the Naval Academy 41 3 Student sketch of the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, about 1812 48 4 James Inman, First Professor of the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth 84 5 HMS Britannia – fourth of the name at Dartmouth 1863–69 105 6 The fifth Britannia with Hindostan – cadet training ships 1869–1905 161 7 Architect’s sketch of the Britannia Royal Naval College about 1902 179 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am pleased to have the opportunity to thank a number of friends and colleagues who have assisted in the production of this book and with the research work associated with it. I was fortunate to be able to pursue my interest in the history of naval education and training for some years at the Institute of Education, University of London, where Dennis Dean and Joan Lewin took more trouble over my endeavours than their professional duties required. Richard Aldrich, Professor Emeritus, was unstinting in his encour- agement over a long period and without his inspiration and support I would never have taken the first steps on the road to the publication of this work. During my time on the teaching staff at the Royal Naval College Dart- mouth, I benefited greatly from my discussions with Evan Davies whose generosity and kindness, often in very trying times, remained constant. Much of the research for this book was conducted when the subject of naval history did not enjoy the popularity at the College that it does today and several members of staff, Alan Machin and Richard Alexander in particular, remained resolute in their support of both the subject in general and my work in particular. Richard Kennell, Janet Kennell and Robert Wardle were unfailingly diligent and helpful on my behalf in the College Library and Roy Clare, Richard Porter and Jane Harrold encouraged me to explore the Col- lege Archive and assisted with illustrations. I am also grateful to Christopher Cobb and his wife Helen (née Inman) for their hospitality and assistance regarding the Inman family history.

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