The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic Resource about Life in the Georgian Navy
Review: "The Wooden World" is a wonderful book on many different levels. For one, it chronicals the life of the sailor, from the press gangs to life at sea, the lives and duties of the officers, the convoluted and impossibly complex beaurocracy of the English Navy and the stresses involved in each of these.

The most amazing part of this book to me was the job of the Purser. While, I had some basic idea of the intricacies involved in the job, Rodger took my understanding to a whole new level. I was shocked at the detail, and the negatives to the job. The Navy's beaurocracy was so complex that pursers had to do all of their purchasing on credit from their own pocket. It often took them years and years to finally be repaid. It was a job that you had to pretty much be independantly wealthy to do. Of course, Rodgers also explains all the scams a purser could pull to make a little money on the side.

I'd strongely suggest this book to readers who have an interest in Naval history of the 18th century (1740-60's), or who are fans of that Genre of historical fiction (C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian, etc). The book is filled with revelations like the one above. Together, they really give a greater depth to the world that history and those stories are set in.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic Resource about Life in the Georgian Navy
Review: "The Wooden World" is a wonderful book on many different levels. For one, it chronicals the life of the sailor, from the press gangs to life at sea, the lives and duties of the officers, the convoluted and impossibly complex beaurocracy of the English Navy and the stresses involved in each of these.

The most amazing part of this book to me was the job of the Purser. While, I had some basic idea of the intricacies involved in the job, Rodger took my understanding to a whole new level. I was shocked at the detail, and the negatives to the job. The Navy's beaurocracy was so complex that pursers had to do all of their purchasing on credit from their own pocket. It often took them years and years to finally be repaid. It was a job that you had to pretty much be independantly wealthy to do. Of course, Rodgers also explains all the scams a purser could pull to make a little money on the side.

I'd strongely suggest this book to readers who have an interest in Naval history of the 18th century (1740-60's), or who are fans of that Genre of historical fiction (C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian, etc). The book is filled with revelations like the one above. Together, they really give a greater depth to the world that history and those stories are set in.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic resource for mid-18th century British navy
Review: I am not an expert on the British navy by any means. I first encountered this book as a recommendation on a reading list for Patrick O'Brian fans (and I have just started to read O'Brian and other writers of nautical fiction). Since I had so many questions about the British navy, this book seemed like a great resource.

It is a great resource. No questions about that. Like Jane Austen's Letter, it sits next to my bed and I dip into it from time to time to figure out answers to X, Y, and Z. It is also a useful corrective to myths about the Navy as a floating prison camp, populated solely by thieves, criminals, and various escapees from normal life, and officered by brutal chaps like Bligh.

The book does not claim to be about the British navy in the time of Napoleon and Nelson (although the author occasionally makes references to events and problems of the last decade of the 18th century). For what it is, an analysis of the British navy in the mid-18th century, it is fantastic. Several institutions - such as the Admiralty and the Press gang - existed in this time (and prior to this time), and they carried over largely unreformed to the time of Nelson (and the fictional Aubrey & Maturin, and Hornblower etc).

There is one problem with it - for which I take off one star. That is the fact that British society and politics changed dramatically between the Seven Years War and the Napoleonic Wars, and this book cannot do justice to the problems of the British navy in the latter period. Which, unfortunately, just happens to be the period that all my favorite nautical books seem to be set in. Rodgers mentions this at one point (when he talks about the rigid social structure allowing the officers to be more relaxed about discipline and hierarchy). Unfortunately, he does not explore the corollary - that officers became sterner about hierarchy and more rigid about punishment and discipline as the social structure broke down under the influence of the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and other factors.

There is one other problem. Rodgers talks about the fact that all officers were once ratings (what we consider sailors), and that even the Admirals of the Fleet had to serve for some years as ratings. Unfortunately, this statement rather glosses over the difference between being a captain's servant or a rating who was clearly officer-track and usually from a well-connected family, and a rating whose only hope was to rise to a petty officer if that. [Not to mention the impressed man with no nautical experience who might remain a landman until paid off]. I do not recollect the details of Nelson or Cochrane's service either, but I understand that at least one of them was carried on the books of a ship (or two) in name only until they attained the rank of midshipman. In short, they were never actually ratings - and Nelson in particular was promoted rapidly. At this point, the Navy is beginning to sound a bit like the British army.

The most interesting parts of the book for me were the descriptions of the ratings (the chapters on manning and discipline) and the descriptions of the officers. From the latter, I confirmed a theory that I had - that the Navy was a far better career choice for the younger son, or the son of an impoverished upper-class family, or the young man with no connections and no fortune. Rodgers does not discuss the background of the officers in great detail, but from other sources (Hibbert's biography of Nelson, for example), I learned that a substantial number of officers had clerical backgrounds (fathers who were clergymen) or parents who were professional men (surgeons, doctors, solicitors). I wonder though what proportion of them had a family member connected to the Navy, either in active service or working at the Admiralty. In any case, the career choices of men as diverse as Nelson (with a maternal uncle in the Navy, and as a younger son of a country clergyman) and Troubridge and Collingwood (men of no particular family and with no conenctions) was better explained.

One big myth remains - that brutal officers were the norm in the Navy. Rodgers takes great pains to dispell this idea, by pointing out that the Navy was far more lenient in practice than suggested by the Articles of War (or by anecdotes), that officers were not particular brutal (and in fact, brutal officers usually suffered damage to their career, not to mention going in fear of attack on shore), and that the choice of punishments aboard was limited. [Docking pay was not an option for example, when payments were in arrears of a month or longer].

The picture of the British navy as painted in THE WOODEN WORLD is quite a different picture painted by well-known stories such as Bligh and the Bounty, or films such as "Damn the Defiant!" Rodgers however does not explain how an officer such as Bligh (a brilliant navigator to be sure) became an Admiral. The problem lay, one suspects, in the system of promotion. Once a man became a captain, barring death or disgrace (resulting in being thrown out of the service), if he lived long enough, he would make Admiral. Becoming a captain was as much a matter of connections as it was of good luck and good seamanship and leadership. [This of course is well-known to lovers of the Hornblower and Aubrey-Maturin series].

I have several minor quibbles here and there, but this book is definitely a satisfying read, if somewhat hard to plough through at one sitting. After reading this, I felt better equipped to tackle the next Hornblower or Aubrey/Maturin novel.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic resource for mid-18th century British navy
Review: I am not an expert on the British navy by any means. I first encountered this book as a recommendation on a reading list for Patrick O'Brian fans (and I have just started to read O'Brian and other writers of nautical fiction). Since I had so many questions about the British navy, this book seemed like a great resource.

It is a great resource. No questions about that. Like Jane Austen's Letter, it sits next to my bed and I dip into it from time to time to figure out answers to X, Y, and Z. It is also a useful corrective to myths about the Navy as a floating prison camp, populated solely by thieves, criminals, and various escapees from normal life, and officered by brutal chaps like Bligh.

The book does not claim to be about the British navy in the time of Napoleon and Nelson (although the author occasionally makes references to events and problems of the last decade of the 18th century). For what it is, an analysis of the British navy in the mid-18th century, it is fantastic. Several institutions - such as the Admiralty and the Press gang - existed in this time (and prior to this time), and they carried over largely unreformed to the time of Nelson (and the fictional Aubrey & Maturin, and Hornblower etc).

There is one problem with it - for which I take off one star. That is the fact that British society and politics changed dramatically between the Seven Years War and the Napoleonic Wars, and this book cannot do justice to the problems of the British navy in the latter period. Which, unfortunately, just happens to be the period that all my favorite nautical books seem to be set in. Rodgers mentions this at one point (when he talks about the rigid social structure allowing the officers to be more relaxed about discipline and hierarchy). Unfortunately, he does not explore the corollary - that officers became sterner about hierarchy and more rigid about punishment and discipline as the social structure broke down under the influence of the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and other factors.

There is one other problem. Rodgers talks about the fact that all officers were once ratings (what we consider sailors), and that even the Admirals of the Fleet had to serve for some years as ratings. Unfortunately, this statement rather glosses over the difference between being a captain's servant or a rating who was clearly officer-track and usually from a well-connected family, and a rating whose only hope was to rise to a petty officer if that. [Not to mention the impressed man with no nautical experience who might remain a landman until paid off]. I do not recollect the details of Nelson or Cochrane's service either, but I understand that at least one of them was carried on the books of a ship (or two) in name only until they attained the rank of midshipman. In short, they were never actually ratings - and Nelson in particular was promoted rapidly. At this point, the Navy is beginning to sound a bit like the British army.

The most interesting parts of the book for me were the descriptions of the ratings (the chapters on manning and discipline) and the descriptions of the officers. From the latter, I confirmed a theory that I had - that the Navy was a far better career choice for the younger son, or the son of an impoverished upper-class family, or the young man with no connections and no fortune. Rodgers does not discuss the background of the officers in great detail, but from other sources (Hibbert's biography of Nelson, for example), I learned that a substantial number of officers had clerical backgrounds (fathers who were clergymen) or parents who were professional men (surgeons, doctors, solicitors). I wonder though what proportion of them had a family member connected to the Navy, either in active service or working at the Admiralty. In any case, the career choices of men as diverse as Nelson (with a maternal uncle in the Navy, and as a younger son of a country clergyman) and Troubridge and Collingwood (men of no particular family and with no conenctions) was better explained.

One big myth remains - that brutal officers were the norm in the Navy. Rodgers takes great pains to dispell this idea, by pointing out that the Navy was far more lenient in practice than suggested by the Articles of War (or by anecdotes), that officers were not particular brutal (and in fact, brutal officers usually suffered damage to their career, not to mention going in fear of attack on shore), and that the choice of punishments aboard was limited. [Docking pay was not an option for example, when payments were in arrears of a month or longer].

The picture of the British navy as painted in THE WOODEN WORLD is quite a different picture painted by well-known stories such as Bligh and the Bounty, or films such as "Damn the Defiant!" Rodgers however does not explain how an officer such as Bligh (a brilliant navigator to be sure) became an Admiral. The problem lay, one suspects, in the system of promotion. Once a man became a captain, barring death or disgrace (resulting in being thrown out of the service), if he lived long enough, he would make Admiral. Becoming a captain was as much a matter of connections as it was of good luck and good seamanship and leadership. [This of course is well-known to lovers of the Hornblower and Aubrey-Maturin series].

I have several minor quibbles here and there, but this book is definitely a satisfying read, if somewhat hard to plough through at one sitting. After reading this, I felt better equipped to tackle the next Hornblower or Aubrey/Maturin novel.

Rating:
Summary: An Intriguing Look at a Unique World
Review: The Wooden World is a valuable work for both the serious student of naval history and the reader of the `age of sail' fiction of Patrick O'Brian, Alexander Kent, and others. While the latter genre typically deals with the Royal Navy of the Napoleonic Wars, Rodger concentrates on the earlier period of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War (1740-1763). However, these conflicts are peripheral to the book's treatment of naval life; the author comments that the reader need know no more than that Britain was at war with France, and later Spain. Rodger provides a detailed account from contemporary sources of life in the Navy of George II and III, dealing in particular with manning and the issue of volunteering vs. pressed service, discipline, and officers. The reader will find such nuggets as the place of women on board, the fact that the Navy had no developed legal code and the problem this posed for naval justice, and the shortcomings of navigation at the time. Rodger provides fascinating appendices with statistics on, for example, desertion rates and the age of ships' companies. Anyone interested in maritime matters or eighteenth-century history will appreciate this work.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Book
Review: The writer of this book is an academic historian of some importance and he appears to be in the midst of writing a three volume history of the British navy. This book is a little more specalised and tells what it was like to serve on a British ship in the 18th Century.

The main theme of the book is to rebut academic theories which suggest that the British Navy of the period was run like a concentration camp. The author in some detail goes through the relations on ships and shows how the navy took a lot of care to preserve one of its key assets the sailors who manned the ships. Food was plentiful and of high quality or the time, British sailors worked out the cause of scurvey before medical science did. Care was taken to ensure that ships were clean and that sailors washed. The most interesting discussion is however on discipline. It would seem clear that in trials carried out to deterime the guilt of individual sailors, senior officers were very careful to establish the truth of charges and they were willing to aquit or to accept the sailors point of view. The book establishes that with a number of mutinies the Admirality removed incompetant officers from command and took no action against the men who mutinied, accpeting that the actions of the sailors was justified.

The author goes a long way to establishing that the reality of sea born life was one more or partnership rather than that of an oppresive regime.

The book however does more than this and describes in detail the tremendous organisational feat that was the Royal navy. It looks at all aspects of the navy from recruiting sailors, to feeding them and the reality of training and manning ships.

One finishes the book and relises what an achievment it was for England to be able to run such an effecient arm as the navy and how the way it was run led to the success it had in battle.

Rating:
Summary: Puts Ambrose to shame
Review: This is the kind of in depth, focused history that we need. Basically a history of the men and institutional life of the British Sea Service from 1740 to 1770, Rodger uses a wide array of sources, official and personal, to accurately sketch an organization that has long suffered from erroneous observations. Although he is, I think, just a little biased towards the Navy as a benevolent progressive institution, especially the First Lord Anson, he has good and sound reasons for being so. This book goes a long way towards reminding us that conflicts and wars are fought not by nations, but by those nations' instruments of defense, whose membership often invisibly determines the fate of countries.