Roger Morriss - The Channel Fleet and the Blockade of Brest 1793–1801

edited by

ROGER MORRISS, BA, PhD

Based in part on transcripts made by the late

RICHARD C. SAXBY, BA, ALA

The Batteries at the entrance to Brest Harbour firing upon H.M. Brig Childers 1793. Engraving by James Fittler of a watercolour by Nicholas Pocock (17401821). Published by Thomas Cadell and William Davies, 20 February 1815. Originals in the National Maritime Museum, London.

Maps

This volume had its origins in a collection of transcripts of extracts from documents made by the late Richard Saxby. His aim was to provide a forerunner in content to the two volumes dealing with the blockade of Brest between 1803 and 1805 edited by John Leyland and published by the Navy Records Society in 1899 and 1902. Unfortunately, partly on account of his deteriorating health, Richard Saxbys work was not ready for publication by the Navy Records Society at the time he died. It nevertheless contained sufficient material of interest to warrant revision to the standard required for publication by the Society and the addition of further documents to enlarge its scope. It is this enlarged work that is here published, edited by Roger Morriss.

Richard Saxby transcribed 681 extracts of documents at the British Library and Public Record Office, covering the period December 1794 to October 1801. His main focus was the papers of George, second Earl Spencer, which were transferred from Althorp to the British Library during the time that he was working on the blockade of Brest. But he also used the papers of Lord Bridport and letterbooks of Lord St Vincent in the British Library, and made a few transcripts from the papers of Henry Dundas, First Lord Melville, and of William Windham in the same repository. The papers at the Public Record Office provided reports from the Commanders-in-Chief to the Admiralty with some of their enclosures. In making his transcripts Richard Saxby wished to reveal the politics of managing the blockade, particularly that between the Admiralty and the Commanders-in-Chief. He gave considerable attention to the Spithead mutiny, conscious that the correspondence between the Admiralty and Commander-in-Chief on that subject had largely been ignored. Otherwise he was motivated by desires to evoke the atmosphere of the period and to provide the reader with enjoyment.

The volume as published includes a further 160 documents enlarging the chronological period it covers, its substance and purpose. The documents now begin in June 1793 when the Channel fleet was placed on a war footing, and instructions were given to the Commander-in-Chief to proceed to the westward. The volume thus now covers the whole of the operational period of the French Revolutionary War. Documents relating to operations have been supplemented with further letters and instructions from the Admiralty to the Commander-in-Chief, and further reports from the latter to the Admiralty Secretary. Equally important are the addition of Admiralty orders to the Victualling Board, letters from the Victualling Board to the Admiralty Secretary and letters from the Sick and Wounded Board to the Admiralty Secretary. These additions come from both the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and the Public Record Office. These administrative documents add dimensions to the blockade which were conspicuously missing from Richard Saxbys work, and cover the challenge posed by the problem of keeping the Channel fleet free of scurvy, and the controversial issue of how to treat sick men once they had contracted disease. They reveal how the increase in Admiralty control, and the movement from an open to a close blockade, was based upon provisions for the welfare of seamen as well as on the routine refitting, repair and supply of ships of the Channel fleet.