Administrative, Financial And Logistical Foundation of British Naval Power, 1649-1654, by James Scott Wheeler

Student research paper by Colonel James Scott Wheeler, U.S. Army in satisfaction of the requirements for the Department of Advanced Research. This paper provided a study of English naval finance, logistics, and administration in the context of the operational history of the navy during the 1650s to show how the English succeeded in sustaining their fleet and how this support was essential to operational success.

English naval administration as reorganized in 1649 by the republican Commonwealth. This coherent administrative system provided the financial and logistical support necessary to support the English navy as it defeated the Royalist navy in British waters (1649-1650), supported the conquests of Ireland and Scotland (1649-1652), reconquered all former overseas possessions of the English monarchy (1651-1652), and defeated the Dutch navy in the First Dutch War (1652-1654). The dependence of the navy on the government and the naval administrative system for financial and logistical support is clearly shown. This work proves that successful naval operations required adequate administrative, financial, and logistical support from England. During the period 1648 to 1654, the English government provided such support with two exceptions. The first failure occurred in 1648, before the Commonwealth established itself or reorganized the navy's administration. The result was the most serious mutiny in the navy's history. The second failure occurred when the Commonwealth government failed to provide enough money to pay for the supplies needed to get the entire fleet to sea to fight the Dutch fleet in November 1652. After this defeat, the English government provided sufficient money to its naval administration to allow for the adequate support of the fleet, enabling the fleet to defeat the Dutch in a series of bitter battles in 1653, leading to victory. Appendix A provides a historiography of English naval power, 1642-1659, and Appendix B describes how the English operated a system of deficit finance for their navy forty years before the creation of a national debt.