to the cause of improving th e navigational abilities of the navy's crews, and therefore was a stro ng advocate of the establishment of the Royal O bservatory at Greenwich . H e was a fr iend of Jonas M oore, who enlightened him to the potential of the science of celestial naviga tion. Pepys then helped Moo re obtain his charter for the Royal Observato ry from Kin g Cha rles II, a nd Pepys's friend, John Fla msteed , was appointed As tronom er Royal. Pepys was also deeply committed to his own pet project, the Royal Mathematical School at C hrist's H ospital, where he envisioned, and eventually achieved, "a nursery of children to be educated in M athem atics fo r the pa rticula r use and service of navigation ." 4 The idea of a hospital fo r injured seamen first ca me fro m the Duke of York, th e future K ing James II . Pepys, however, along with hi s fri end and colleague, John Evelyn, outlined its plans. What beca me the G reenw ich Seam en's H os pital was essential to Pepys's vision of a perma nent, profess io nal navy; if the navy were going to be at war regularly, it was crucial not o nly that there be a hospital exclusively fo r its sa ilo rs, but also that there wo uld not be a burden placed upon Bri tai n's civilian hospi tals. 5 The series of personnel reforms that Pepys enac ted were some of the m ore las ting of his initiatives, for they are what es tabli shed the navy as a perma nent a nd professional fi ghting force. This was cruci al because in his time and in the next century, wa r at sea was no longer a m atter of if, but a matter of when. The British wo uld spend a solid majority of the next hund red yea rs in a rmed conflict, and success at sea ensu red that there wo uld be no fight on the home isles and that the trade profits wo uld continue to pour in. For England to be prepa red fo r wa r at any given time, it needed a system by which the navy never lacked experi enced offi cers. Since maintaining wa rtime-level numbers of operational ships a nd ac tive men was cost-prohibitive, and the quick recruitmenr of new officers inev itably led to a fleet run by amateurs, Pepys established the half-pay system. H alf-pay gave retiring o r laid-off officers half of their ac tive-duty pay, a nd in return, the officers wo uld re turn to service if called upon. The result was an experienced extension of the naval offi cer
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corps that co uld be quickly mobilized in time of wa r, which was importa nt because ir took more time to train a good offi cer tha n it did to bu ild or refit a good ship. As the son of a tailor who rose in positi on mostly on the basis of his meri t, Pepys had a fo nd ness for those in the navy of modest birth who were, or were trying to become, officers. H e wo rried abo ut t he post-Restoration influx of inex perienced aristocrats ta king commands a nd compro mi sing the navy's effective ness. Nevertheless, Pepys was a pragmatist; on the adva ncem ent of young gentlema n in the navy at a fas ter rate than their ta rpaulin colleagues, he noted that "After the King's com ing in . .. being begun, it grew upon us, hath continued, and w ill hard ly ever be broken."6 So to these ends, in 1677 Pepys pu t before the Navy Board his proposa l for a n "Establishment fo r asce rtainin g the D uties and Trust of a Lieutenant," 7 layi ng the groundwork fo r the revolutionary Lieutena nt's Exam. The new qualifications requ ired th at ca ndidates must have served three years at sea, must possess a positive referra l from their captain, and must pass a comprehensive tes t on nav igatio n and seamanship. Though , predictably, the Lieutena nt's Exam was met with bitter opposition by many, ir had the support of Ki ng Cha rles and the flag officers and was passed, w ith a muchupdared version still in use today. Thro ughout hi s career, Pepys oversaw a sha rp rise in the quality of English wa rships. First, the ships of Pepys's navy grew increasingly longer fo r their bea m, lower at the quarterdeck and forecas tle, and with a gun deck closer to the wa ter line than those belo nging to Ki ngs James or C ha rles I. The result was a faste r, less top-heavy, and ultim ately more seaworthy ship, mo re closely resembling those of the eigh teenth century commanded by Rodney and Graves than those of the ea rlier seventeen th centurytake the fa miliar Mayflower as an example.8 Another important fix ture in Royal Navy ships was the adoption of the cast-iron cannon. Although they were more prone to overheating than their bronze counterparts, they were much lighter, cheaper, a nd every bit as effective, and they even becam e a popular expo rt item th ro ughout Euro pe. Although the cast-iron ca nnon had been aro und long before Pepys's time, they were no t universal in the fleet, and he
made sure that new ships we re full y outfitted with only cast-iron cannons which, when pro perly m aintained, allowed for a lighter, faster, cheaper warship with as devastat ing a broadside as any. Pepys consta ntly pursued a va riety of other techn ologies to the benefit of the navy's ships, includ ing solutions to the problems of corrosion, a new method of expelling worms from ships' timbers, a nd improvements to the bilge pump. W hen Pepys was pro moted to First Secretary of rhe Ad m iralty in 1673, o ne of hi s fi rst acts was to move t he Ad miralty offices to D erby H ouse in Londo n, situated halfway betwee n rhe kin g ar W hi tehall and Parliam ent at W estminster, to symbolize the navy's relationship with both bra nches of government. The closest that Pepys ever came to obtain ing the ki nd of recognition enjoyed by a victorious flag officer of the fleet was thro ugh his appea ra nces before Parliament. Although he fo ught fo r the navy m any times at Westm in ster, two occasions stand out as being especially im porta nt.9 The first came after the Second D utch W ar, during which the D utch ma naged to bring a squad ron dow n the R ive r M edway near the mouth of t he Th am es and burn several moored E nglish wa rships. 10 This was a hu m iliating blow, and natu rally Parliament dem anded a nswe rs. The Committee o n M iscarriages was fo rmed, and the first to give t hose answe rs was the Ad m iralty, with several ad m irals blami ng the Navy Board for nor a rranging the pro per fort ificatio n s to guard rhe ent ra nce to the Medway. It fe ll upon Pepys, then Surveyor- General of the Navy Board, to defend the office. This was a moment that wo uld decide bo th Pepys's professional fa te a nd the fate of the Navy Board . The nigh t before the hearing, his wife urged him to "qui t [his] h ands of this office and endure rhe tro uble of it no longer." However, the next day, Pepys gathered his notes and on h is way to Westminster Hall, as h is diary recalls, "to com fo rt myself did go to the Dogg a nd d rink half a pint of m ulled sack, and in the H all did drink a dra m of bra ndy" a nd "with the warmth of th is did find myself in bet ter order as ro courage, truly." Inside the H all, M embers of Parliament began their indictment "with great praejudice," and shortly thereafter, Pepys began his speech . Over the course of th ree ho urs he convinced Parliam ent that any shortcomings of the Navy Boa rd we re
SEA HISTORY 135, SUMMER 2011