by D avid Sorensen
In his service to the British Royal Navy (1660-1688), Samuel Pepys effected major reforms of the Admiralty, helping to make the Royal Navy emerge as the most powerful naval force on earth, a position it held for more than two centuries. As was common during this time, Pepys was assigned his initial post with the Admiralty through his connection with an aristocrat, his cousin-the Earl of Sandwich, Sir Edward Montagu. Pepys had no naval or maritime background, but it was through his tireless efforts, vision for a professional navy, and influence that he rose through the ranks, becoming Secretary to the Admiralty in 1686.
he D iary of Samuel Pepys is, perhaps next to Boswell's Life of Johnson, the greatest nightstand read of the English language. In his diary, written from 1660 to 1669, the naval bureaucrat is known for hi s witticism s, his self-deprecating sense of humor, and his brutally honest insights into human nature. H e was a veritable Forrest Gump of!ate seventeenth-century England. Pepys was aboard HMS Naseby when it transported C harles II and his brother, the future James II, from exile in Holland to retake the throne of E ngla nd and begin the Restoration . In his account of the Great Fire of London of 1666, he recalls digging a hole in his garden with his fri end and colleague W illiam Penn so th at they could sa fely store his beloved w ine collection and "Parmaza n cheese." H e made the arrangements fo r the expedition to suppress Baco n's Rebellion in Virginia (1676) and was fea tured on the tide page a nd in the wo rk of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica . Much like the fict ional G ump, Pepys seemed to have had ext rao rdinary luck: durin g G reat Fire of London, the bounda ry of the conflagration spread to his doorstep but his house was spared ; and while thousands were dying during the Grea t Plag ue of London, he m anaged to have one of the best yea rs of his life fin ancially. Samuel Pepys is fa m ous fo r having some connection with almost every consequential event and with the most significant people of the time, a nd then writin g about it in a m anner entertaining even to the contemporary reader. W hile Pepys is well known as a diarist, fewer people know
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of his career with the British Admiralty. Aside from his invaluable contribution as a witness and scribe of the times, what was his direct historical influence? To fam ous First Lords of the Admiralty, like Anson , Howe, and C hurchill- and almost every British bureaucrat or naval officer that came after him, Samuel Pepys was revered not as a diarist, but as a managerial mastermind whose influence resonates throughout the halls of the Admiralty to this day. Pepys's numerous profess ional projects and accomplishments had an eno rmous influence o n t he Royal Navy and, by ex tension, British history as a whole. H e worked tirelessly to rid the navy of the was te and rampant corruption that had plag ued it fo r decades, and then established the institutions a nd in fras tructure that the Royal Navy required to ensure its long-
term success. Pepys transformed the navy fro m an on-again , off-again naval fo rce to a truly professional organization by instit uting a reserve officer corps and a meri t-based system of commissioning officers, and by m akin g sure that the navy's ships were at the forefront of innovation. Lasd y, from the beginning of his career to the end, Pepys went before Parliament to defend the navy from scrutiny and solicit the fundin g that was needed to give England "the fi rst fleet in the world." 1 In the Royal Navy of Pepys's time, greed and administrative in effi ciency were bleed ing mo ney from the navy and compromising its combat effectiveness . When he started working fo r the Navy Board, he became awa re of-and was appalled by- the deep -rooted corruption and was te throughout the navy, particularly at the
Great Fire ofLondon, 2-5 September 1666
SEA HISTORY 135, SUMMER 2011