The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815 (review)

The Command of the Ocean is the second volume in N. A. M. Rodger's multivolume naval history of Britain. Rodger has spent a career studying British sea power and this volume picks up the story where The Safeguard of the Sea (1997) ended. The present work attempts to illustrate the importance of naval history in the national history of Britain. Certainly no other national institution consumed as much time, energy, or public revenue as the navy in England and Britain between 1649 and 1815. Rodger's undertaking is no easy task and one that has not been tackled on this scale since Sir William Laird Clowes's History of the Royal Navy (1897–1903).

Rodger succeeds in placing the navy within a greater political, financial, social, and religious context by dividing the book chronologically according to operations, administration, social history, and technology. As an aid to the reader, extensive appendixes supplement the text, including world maps, a nautical glossary, and a chronological listing of events in naval history. Also included are Professor Jan Glete's statistical figures comparing the number of ships of the line and cruisers for England, her enemies, and allies during the same period.

Although the relationship between Great Britain and the sea is sometimes referred to as natural, Rodger points out that recognizing the sea's potential and harnessing it are two very different matters. Between 1066 and 1485, England was successfully invaded eight times. To truly dominate the sea, the navy would need to acquire professional expertise, administrative infrastructure, and public and political support. The development of sea power depended on whether or not Parliament considered the navy an important part of national policy. Much of the justification harked back to a distant memory of Elizabeth I's naval victories over Spain. However, this legacy fit neatly into the seventeenth-century idea that the English navy was the safeguard of individual, financial, and religious freedom. Thus, it came to symbolize the concept of the "nation in arms" and continued to receive the long-term financial support of the Parliament (p. 48). "Few of them knew much about the Navy," writes Rodger, "but they knew that they needed it" (p. 577).

Once the nation had assured the continued existence of the force, it was up to the Admiralty and Navy Board to acquire the expertise to run the general day-to-day operations. Between 1715 and 1763 British superiority in administrative matters set them apart from their enemies, especially France. This included methods of building, maintaining, supplying, and manning the Royal Navy. "British ships (unlike their French counterparts) were built to stand the strain of prolonged sea time in all seasons. They were built to fight and to last" (p. 414). To maintain those ships, the British operated a series of drydocks so that repairs could be made in home waters without having to "hove down the ships," a labor-intensive and dangerous process that shortened their life span (p. 301). Naval vessels were manned by an able group of officers with professional expertise. Rodger credits the lieutenant's examination as "one of the keys to the long-term efficiency of the Navy" (p. 122).

But none of those efforts would have been effective if the British could not keep ships at sea for extended periods of time. During the summer and fall of 1759 Sir Edward Hawke was able to keep a healthy Western Squadron on continuous blockade of Brest. Credit for this astonishing success went to the Victualling Board who arranged for transports carrying cattle, vegetables, and beer (well-known preventatives of scurvy). Thus the domestic agricultural market also played a key role in bringing national support for naval enterprise.

According to Rodger, these important developments emerged in the seventeenth century and flourished in the eighteenth century, so that by 21 October...