| Amounts received and paid by Treasurer | Already owing | Victualling | Deptford[1466] | Woolwich | Chatham | Portsmouth | Wages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| 1649[1467] | } 432,000 | 233,500 | 149,000 | 8700[1468] | 8786 | 23,768 | 5292 | |
| 1650 | ||||||||
| 1651 | 446,000 | 129,000 | 51,000 | 10,163 | 7776 | 19,089 | 3783 | |
| 1652 | 629,000 | 238,000 | 88,000 | 10,900 | 8381 | 22,744 | 6860 | 304,000 |
| 1653[1469] | 1,445,000 | 335,000 | 269,000 | 12,600 | 12,500 | 29,000 | 13,700 | 227,000 |
| 1654 | 1,117,000 | 450,000 | 230,000 | 11,700 | 13,500 | 22,500 | 15,700 | 225,000 |
| 1655 | 587,000 | 466,000 | 70,000 | 8700 | 7600 | 21,800 | 7700 | |
| 1656 | 791,000 | 473,000 | 209,000[1470] | 8000 | 7000 | 20,000 | 7000 | |
| 1657 | 746,000 | 506,000 | 9000 | 10,300 | 19,400 | 6200 | 311,000[1471] | |
| 1658[1472] | } 1,442,000 | 714,000 | 11,800 | 18,000 | 25,000 | 9000 | 447,000 | |
| 1660 | ||||||||
| 1660 | 1,056,000[1473] |
The Commonwealth began its naval administration hampered by a debt of £233,000, and it will be seen that, with the exception of 1650, during which year the arrears were partly paid off, it steadily grew in amount. But comparing the national revenue, which had also to support a standing army, with the sums devoted to the Navy, the wonder seems to be that the debt was not larger. For the financial year ending 29th September 1657 the total public income was £1,050,000, and of this £809,000 was assigned to naval purposes; for 1658 £951,000, of which the Navy took £624,000.[1474] The receipts for 1659 were put at £1,517,000,[1475] and the Navy estimates at £848,000[1476].
The strain began to be most seriously felt from 1653, when, in September, the Navy Commissioners warned their chiefs that £1,115,000 was required before 31st December, without including the cost of the vessels on the stocks or that of the winter fleet; no provision, they said, had been made for this and ‘we find it necessary to lay before you the daily clamours we undergo for want thereof.’[1477] In October 1654 the Admiralty Commissioners apprised the Protector that the credit of the Government was so greatly impaired that stores could not be obtained except for ready money; yet £1,117,000 in cash passed through the Treasurer’s hands in this year. This sum was procured from many sources—excise, £262,000; treasurer-at-wars, £424,000; customs, £162,000; ‘profits arising by probate of wills,’ £1163; commissioners for Dutch prizes, £2029; commissioners for prize goods, £44,000; treasurer at Drury House, £16,000;[1478] Col. Barkstead,[1479] £44,000; from the exchequer, £131,000; and defalcations and sale of stores, £31,000. Notwithstanding these receipts the Admiralty Commissioners wrote in April 1655 to the Council that they had only been able to pay seamen’s wages, that all other debts remained unpaid, and that the yards were exhausted of stores.[1480] Straitened as they were, the Council, two months later, were not deterred from ordering 2000 Bibles for the soldiers in the West Indies, although the fact that the commissioners of the treasury had to ‘consider’ how they could be paid for seems to imply that Bibles were no more to be obtained on credit than cordage. On at least one occasion Oliver appears to have himself advanced £10,000 to the Navy Office.[1481]
The debt increased, but the revenue did not show the same elasticity; all that the Admiralty Commissioners could do, themselves almost daily invoked by the Navy Commissioners, was to carry on the appeal to the Council, ‘finding every day a sad increase of the just complaints of several persons for money long since due.’ This was in 1658, but in March of the following year they wrote bitterly to the Council that, while such large debts were contracted and they were struggling with difficulties, it made them ‘exceeding unhappy’ to see that even their assignments on the customs were not handed over to them in full.[1482] In May 1659, among other items, £330,000 was owing for seamen’s and £43,000 for dockyard wages, and the £735 a week paid by the Navy Treasurer to the Savoy and Ely House hospitals was six months over-due.[1483] In September the army commissioners were directed to hand over £60,000 for naval purposes, although the soldiers’ pay was months in arrear. When the Commonwealth accounts close on 7th July 1660 the debt was £1,056,000.[1484] For this large sum every year from 1640 furnished its quota, thus detailed:—1640-9, £10,200; 1650, £71,000; 1651, £25,000; 1652, £16,000; 1653, £11,000; 1654, £5000; 1655, £50,000; 1656, £229,000; 1657, £218,000; 1660, £421,000. That the earlier amounts were not merely book debts carried forward for want of claimants is shown by the existence of a petition, of April 1658, begging for the settlement of a bill for freight incurred between 1643 and 1651.[1485] These liabilities, belonging to only one branch of the public service, help to explain why many classes of society, not actively royalist, may have welcomed a restoration which promised a settlement of debts and a more stable financial system.
Flags and The Salute.
When the St George’s cross was made the national flag in February 1648-9, it was also ordered that an escutcheon should be carried on the stern of each man-of-war, containing a red cross in one compartment and a harp in another. In 1653 the three Generals at sea used, besides their standards, a pendant of red, white, or blue, at the main, and their vice- and rear-admirals their respective colours at the fore and mizen. From 18th May 1658 the standard of the General of the fleet was to bear the arms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ‘with his Highnes’ escutcheon of pretence according to the great seal of England.’ The jack flag for admirals was to consist of the arms of England and Scotland united, ‘according to the ancient form,’ with the harp added, ‘according to a model now shown.’[1486] All saluting, whether from ships or forts, was strictly forbidden in 1652, except in honour of ambassadors; but the salute to the flag from foreigners was firmly upheld under all circumstances. By the treaty of 5th April 1654, the Dutch formally acknowledged the English right to the salute in the ‘British seas.’ In 1657 Opdam, with thirty Dutch sail, passing Dover struck his flag and saluted the castle; shortly afterwards he met the Dragon and the Colchester, whose captains ordered him again to strike. He refused, saying that he was not expected to pay this mark of respect to every ship he met, whereupon they replied that if he did not they would engage him till they sank alongside. Then ‘he struck in a great rage,’ and kept his flag down till out of sight of the Englishmen. Man-of-war captains sometimes displayed the same feeling of pride in their position at the expense of English ships. In 1654 a Virginiaman was run down and sunk in the Channel by the Ruby. In the subsequent inquiry the master of the merchantman held that the Ruby should have gone astern of his vessel, to which her captain retorted by asking, ‘How many men-of-war have you known go under a merchantman’s stern?’
Prices.
The prices of naval stores varied greatly, according to the confidence felt in the treasury and conditions of peace or war; the following are the rates for some of the principal articles:—
| Iron Ordnance |
| 1650, £20 a ton |
| 1653, £26 ” |
| Canvas |
| Noyals, 1652, £15 to £17 a bale[1487] |
| Noyals, 1654, £19, 7s a bale |
| Vitery, 1654, 1s a yard |
| Vitery, 1655, 1s 4d an ell |
| Ipswich, 1654, £1, 12s a bolt |
| Ipswich, 1655, £1, 7s 9d a bolt |
| Hemp |
| 1653, £32 a ton (English) |
| 1655, £38, 10s a ton (Riga) |
| 1657, £44 a ton (Riga) |
| 1658, £46 a ton (Riga) |
| 1658, £33 a ton (English) |
| 1658, £38 a ton (Russia) |
| Anchors |
| 1656, £34 a ton |
| ” £37 ” |
| Powder |
| 1650, £3, 16s a barrel |
| 1652, £4 ” |
| 1653, £4, 10s ” |
| Plank |
| 1653, £2, 18s a load |
| 1655, £3, 7s ” |
| 1657, £3, 5s ” (oak) |
| 1659, £3, 15s ” ” |
| Small Arms |
| Snaphaunces, 1658, 11s 6d each |
| Matchlocks, 1658, 10s 6d each |
| Carbines, 1658, 11s each |
| Pistols, 1658, 14s a pair |
| Black Rosin |
| 1655, £10, 10s a ton |
| 1657, £10 a ton (Mar.) |
| 1657, £9, 5s ” (Aug.) |
| Compass Timber |
| 1656, £2, 5s a load |
| 1658, £3 ” |
| Cordage |
| 1649, £30 a ton |
| 1656, £44 ” |
| 1657, £48 ” |
| 1658, £44 ” |
| Shot |
| 1652, £11, 10s a ton |
| 1653, £14 a ton |
| Tar |
| 1654, £1, 15s a barrel |
| 1655, £10, 12s a last |
| 1656, £12 a last |
| 1657, £12, 10s a last |
| 1658, £13 a last |
| Pitch |
| 1654, £1, 16s a barrel |
| 1655, £15, 5s a last |
| Beer |
| 1654, £1, 15s a tun |
| 1659, £2, 5s ” |
| Sprutia[1488] Deals |
| 1656, 12s 6d each |
| 1659, 14s ” |
| Ordinary Deals |
| 1657, £4, 3s per 100 of six score |
| Whale Oil |
| 1659, £26, 15s a ton |
| English Tallow |
| 1658, £2, 3s per cwt. |
| Lignum Vitæ for blocks |
| 1656, £6, 15s a ton |
Examples of that incongruity of expression usually associated with Puritan fervour are not frequent among the Navy papers, but they do occasionally occur. On one occasion Lawson writes, ‘All that look towards Zion should hold Christian communion—we have all the guns aboard.’ Major Robert Sedgwick, starting for the West Indies, asks the Navy Commissioners, after official details, for ‘your prayers that we may be sent out with a blessing and be a blessing where we go.’ Major Sedgwick’s duties were to kill Spaniards, plunder their property, and annex their territory. These men were too grimly earnest in the work they set their hands to do to trouble themselves about fine phrases. They lacked humour, and the court of Charles II was, we are taught, very witty; but when, in 1667, the roar of foreign guns was, for the only time in English history, heard in London, even that majority which always loves a royal jest must have begun to appreciate the distinction underlying Stewart wit and Puritan dulness.