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Pp
2 . The first evidence of a ( Navy ) Victualling
Department appears in the reign of King Henry VI, when , in
1496, John Redynge, Clerk of the Spicery, was commissioned both
the land and sea forces (Tellers roll No. 63). In July 1512
Sir Thomas Knyvet, Master of the Horse, was supplying the fleet.
Bewteen 1544 and 1547, several agents were commissioned by the
Royal Household to supply the fleet but they were subject to
no central control, unless a reference to the Lord Chamberlain,
Lord St John (Marquis of Winchester) as a “Chief Victualler”
of the “Army at the Seas” may be held to apply his general superintendance
of all Victualling arrangements. Victualling stores and requisites
were obtained by purveyance and the victualling rate was 18d
per man per week (in 1545). Ships were normally expected to
carry two months provisions which were estimated to occupy 83
ton space in a 100 ton ship witj a compliment of 200 men. A
pound of biscuit and a gallon of beer a day were allowed to
each man and “200 pieces of flesh” (salt beef or stock fish)
to every 100 men on four days of the week. The payment of provisions
from 1542 to 1547 amounted to £65610 and records of the
proceeding of various agents at Sandwich, Lowestoft, Portsmouth
, Yarmouth , and Southampton are still traced to the record
books.
Pp
4. There can be no doubt that Henry VIII had intended
the formation of a victualling department to meet the needs
of the growing Navy. The haphazard method of a dozen agents
acting independently and uncontrolled by any central authority
was distasteful to his ideas of systematic and responsible management.
In 1547, Edward Baeshe, who previously had been one of many
agents, was chosen with Richard Wattes to be “Surveyor of Victuals
withing the City of London” but later, in 1550, he was appointed
“General Surveyor of the victuals of the seas” by Letters Patent
of 28 June 1550, with a fee of £50 per annum, ¾d
per day travelling expenses and 2s per day for clerks. Provisions
were obtained by exercising the Cron's prerogative of purveyance
or forced purchase. The money was received from the Treasurer
of the Navy and included in his estimates, although Baeshe also
kept separate accounts.
By
an agreement of 1565, purveyance at rates fixed by officers
of the crown was abolished and Baeshe was to be paid 4½d
a day for each man in harbour and 5d per day for each man at
sea for providing provisions. He was not to use the right of
purveyance unless ordered to victual more than 2000 men suddenly
and was to keep in hand one month's provisions for 1000 men.
Edward Baeshe was succeeded in 1587 by James Quarles who was
in charge of the victualling at the time of the Spanish Armada
of 1588 but his chief clerk Marmaduke Darrell was sent to Plymouth
to supervise the victualling arrangements of the fleets of Lord
Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake.
Sir
John Hawkins, as a merchant, believed in the contract system
( of victualling ) and his family business, under his
brother William, was to control most oif the victualling arramgements
in Plymouth . In 1568-69 Williams built the new conduit for
improvement of the water supply for Plymouth and her ships.
In 1573 they founded the town flour mills and in 1578-9 provided
victuals for 5 ships and 250 men for a year. There was also
a high standard of victualling on Hawkins' ships and food supplied
included live sheep and pigs (to provide fresh meat) and apples
and pears for the good heatlth of his crew. He also in 1595
took out clothes for his men and his policy led to the introduction
of hammocks (then a store irem) in 1597 when a warrant authorising
payment for 300 bolts of canvas “to makes hanging cabones or
beddes….for the better preservation of their health”. The men
of the Queens 's ships had to pay for their clothing, (canvass
caps, breeches, shirt stocking and shoes); the supply was usually
a private speculation on the part of the paymaster.
The
victualling of the fleets in Plymouth prior to the encounter
with the Spoanish Armada was to be the largest task yet encountered.
Apart from the Queen's ships there was also a strong force of
merchantmen. All English ports were required to supply some
ships but to Plymouth fell the problem of feeding and watering
this great fleet. Lord Howard's first letter to Lord Burghley,
the Queen's chief minister declared, “It is a pity that they
( captains, soldiers and mariners ) should lack meat…”.
In another letter he wrote, “I know not which way to deal with
mariners to make the rest content with sour beer”. Victualling
ships were constantly coming from other ports to supplement
the local efforts. Drake's own fleet of 2900 men was reasonably
well equipped with victuals compared to the squadron of 9500
seamen and 1000 soldiers sent to join him in May 1588. In July
Lord Howard and Sir John Hawkins sent an estimate of victualling
costs to Lord Burghley. Of £6000 provided, £5500
was spent and another £19570 was needed at Plymouth .
In September the Surveyor General of Victuals, James Quarles,
sent out his accounts for 300 days, 1 st December 1587 to 20
th September 1588 – victualling stores without pay came to £21155.
Lack
of the Queen's money for paying for victualling stores mucy
have been a headache for James Quarles's assistant surveyor
of vixtuals, Marmaduke Darrell who was the victualling officer
in Plymouth during 1588-9.
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