small until after the end of the sixteenth century. From a letter addressed to the Lord High Admiral in 1583, and preserved among Pepys' 'Miscellanies' (viii. 198), it appears that there were then only two queen's dry docks in the Thames, one at Woolwich, and the other probably at Deptford. The writers, Sir John Hawkyns, William Wynter, and William Folstoke, proposed "to enlarge that at Woolwich to that length and bigness that two royal ships at one time might be brought in to be repaired and built within the same."
Before the time of Henry VIII., the general executive government of the navy and some of the various other functions now discharged by the Admiralty were for a long period in the hands of the Admirals-in-Chief, no matter whether they happened to be called at the moment Admirals of the North and of the West, and held divided but co-equal authority, or whether the single head was Lord High Admiral. The civil work was done by the Clerk of the Ships, and occasionally by the King's Chancery. But the increasing business of the service necessitated the erection of more elaborate machinery. A Lord High Admiral continued to be appointed as before. To relieve him, however, of various branches of his duty, especially in his administrative work, civil officers, known as Commissioners, were appointed in April, 1546, to attend to victualling, construction and repair of ships, procuring of suitable ordnance, etc. These civil officers constituted the Navy Board.[1]
- ↑ The Navy Board was established by patent of April 24th, 1546. The officers then appointed were a Lieutenant of the Admiralty (whose post was never refilled after the death of the second occupant); a Treasurer; a Comptroller; a Surveyor; a Master of the Ordnance of the Navy (whose post was not refilled when it fell vacant for the third time, in 1598); and, at first, a couple of extra officers. In 1550, a Surveyor of Victuals was also appointed. The sequence of officers in these posts, up to the end of the reign of Elizabeth, was as follows:—
Lieutenant of the Admiralty:
April 24, 1546, Sir Thomas Clere.
Dec. 16, 1552, Sir William Woodhouse.Comptroller of Ships:
April 24, 1546, William Broke.
Dec. 12, 1561, William Holstock.
1589, William Borough.
Dec. 20, 1598, Sir Henry Palmer.Treasurer of Marine Causes:
April 24, 1546, Robert Legge.
July 8, 1549, Benjamin Gonson, senr.
Jan. 1, 1578, John Hawkyns.
(In abeyance from Nov. 12, 1595.)
Dec. 22, 1598, Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke.Surveyor of Ships:
April 24, 1546, Benjamin Gonson, senr.
July 8, 1549, William Wynter.
July 11, 1589, Sir Henry Palmer.
Dec. 20, 1598, John Trevor.
