This new reference book describes ever aspect the English navy in the second half of the seventeenth century, from the time when the Fleet Royal was taken into Parliamentary control after the defeat of Charles I, until the accession of William and Mary in 1689 when the long period of war with the Dutch came to an end. This is a crucial era which witnessed the creation of a permanent naval service, in essence the birth of the Royal Navy. Every aspect of the navy is covered ? naval administration, ship types and shipbuilding, naval recruitment and crews, seamanship and gunnery, shipboard life, dockyards and bases, the foreign navies of the period, and the three major warts which were fought against the Dutch in the Channel and the North Sea. Samuel Pepys, whose thirty years of service did so much to replace the ad hoc processes of the past with systems for construction and administration, is one of the most significant players, and the navy which was, by 1690, ready for the 100 years of global struggle with the French owed much to his tireless work. This book is destined to become a major work for historians, naval enthusiasts and, indeed, anyone with an interest in this colorful era of the seventeenth century. AUTHOR: David Davies, formerly Deputy Headmaster of Bedford Modern School, David Davies is the country's leading historian of the navy of this period and the author of the critically-acclaimed Gentlemen and Tarpaulins. He is chairman of the Naval Dockyards Society and sits on the council of the Navy Records Society. ILLUSTRATIONS 250 colour rb/w
