1745 Establishment

The 1745 Establishment was the third and final formal establishment of dimensions for ships to be built for the Royal Navy. It completely superseded the previous 1719 Establishment, which had most recently been modified in 1741. Although partially intended to correct the problems of the ships built to the earlier establishments, the ships of the 1745 Establishment proved just as unsatisfactory, and important changes in the make-up of the Admiralty and Navy Boards finally led to the end of the establishment era by around 1751.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p86-97.]

Origins

When the 1706 Establishment had come into effect, British naval architecture had been set on a path of conservatism that caused stagnation in the advance of shipbuilding in Great Britain. Over the course of the existence of the 1706 and 1719 Establishments, the sizes of ships had remained relatively unchanged: the gundeck length of a 70-gun third rate of 1706 was convert|150|ft|m|1|abbr=on, compared with convert|151|ft|m|1|abbr=on in 1733. By comparison, the 70-gun French ship "Ferme" captured by the Royal Navy in 1702 was convert|156|ft|2|in|m|1|abbr=on, and the 70-gun "Magnanime" of 1744, captured in 1748 was convert|173|ft|7|in|m|1|abbr=on. This was almost as long as the convert|175|ft|m|1|abbr=on to which British first rates were to be built according to the 1741 proposals.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p168-175.]

With the end of Robert Walpole's government in 1742, the Board of Admiralty was re–organised, and the civilian Earl of Winchilsea was appointed First Lord. Under the new administration, there were some half-hearted attempts at reform, with the ordering of the 90-gun HMS|Namur|1729|2 to be razeed to 74-guns, as a response to the increasing French and Spanish practice of building 74-gun ships, and an experiment in building larger ships for their class resulted in the construction of HMS|Bristol|1746|2 and HMS|Rochester|1749|2.

The Duke of Bedford, again a civilian, was appointed First Lord in December 1744. He relied upon Rear-Admiral George Anson, who had refused promotion to flag rank under the previous First Lord. The fiasco that was the Battle of Toulon highlighted many of the problems in British shipbuilding, with several ships unable to open gunports due to a combination of a lack of stability and insufficient height of the ports above the waterline. It was observed by Commodore Charles Knowles that the British 70-gun ships were 'little superior to [the French] ships of 52 guns.'Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p90.] Many of the fleet's problems were blamed on Sir Jacob Ackworth, the Surveyor of the Navy since 1715, and an unsuccessful attempt to remove him was mounted by one of the members of the Board of Admiralty, Henry Legge.

For the previous Establishments, the dimensions had been decided upon through consultation with the Surveyor and senior shipwrights; instead in June 1745 the Admiralty took the lead when it decided to deal with the problem of ship sizes, and set up a committee to review proposals made by the Navy Board. The original purpose of the Establishments was to standardise the fleet, but because ships had been built and rebuilt at various times to varying established dimensions, there was little more standardisation than had been present before the 1706 Establishment came into being. The new Establishment of 1745 was intended to correct this situation, and at the same time solve the issues with British ships that had been the cause of complaint by sea officers for several years.

The Admiralty had intended that the 80-gun ships should no longer be built, they being too short and lacking in stability so as not to be able to open their lower ports in anything much above a calm sea. The committee the Admiralty had set up disagreed with their assessment however, and the suggestion to switch to 74-gun ships in lieu of the 80s was rejected. The size of ships was to be limited according to the depth of water available in the country's ports, and so even the 90-gun ships were to remain smaller than some French and Spanish 74s. Despite these setbacks, the Admiralty had achieved much greater increases in the sizes of ships than with the previous establishments. Furthermore, the ship types of pre-1741 were restored (ie the 64s returned to being 70s, the 58s to 60s, etc).

Whereas the earlier establishments had merely laid out the dimensions for ships (although in fairly exacting detail with the 1719 Establishment), the new 1745 Establishment also agreed a standard draught for each type of vessel. Additionally, the control over the Establishments was passed from the Admiralty to the Privy Council, a move intended to remove the possibility of changes being made in the future. Despite the rejection of their proposal that 74-gun ships should replace 80s in the new establishment, the Admiralty succeeded in having HMS|Culloden|1747|2, which was building as an 80, modified to be completed as a 74, though she was never considered a particularly successful ship, and was the smallest 74-gun ship of the 18th century.

Amendments

When the first of the new ships began entering service, it became apparent that they were not so successful a design as had been hoped. Captains complained of their poor sailing qualities, and so the Admiralty sought permission from the Privy Council to make amendments to the designs in 1750. The changes agreed mainly affected the 90, 80 and 60-gun ships, although changes were made to the draughts of all sizes of ships.

By 1752, it was felt necessary to petition the Council for further alterations to be made to the designs, and again in 1754. On this occasion, the Admiralty decided to omit certain details—namely a convert|2|ft|m|1|abbr=on increase in the length of the 70-gun ships—from their proposals, so as to better the chances of their being accepted. However, by this time it was clear that the ships of the 1745 Establishment were a thorough disappointment.

End of an era

In 1755 Joseph Allin, joint Surveyor of the Navy with Jacob Ackworth until his death in 1749 and sole Surveyor thereafter, retired from his post on ill health. The Admiralty reacted swiftly and appointed Thomas Slade and William Bateley as the new joint Surveyors, and shortly thereafter two new 70-gun ships were ordered to be built to Slade's draught, which represented a significant increase in size over their predecessors—convert|165|ft|6|in|m|1|abbr=on as opposed to the convert|162|ft|m|1|abbr=on of the 1754 amendments. Although nominally ordered as 70s, these new Third Rates were in fact the first of the sclass|Dublin|ship of the line|0 of 74s, and represented the end of the 70-gunner as a ship type on the navy lists. The era of crippling conservatism in British shipbuilding finally came to an end when Anson, by now the First Lord of the Admiralty, had the Navy Board reorganised with people who would support the Admiralty rather than fight with it, as had been the case previously.

Notes

References

*Lavery, Brian (2003) "The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850." Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
*Winfield, Rif (2007) "British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1714 - 1792." Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.