Nelson & His World

I have been reading some of Nelson's letters from 1801, and noticed that writing about Thomas Troubridge, Nelson's accuses him of lording it over him while at the admiralty.

Is this true? If an officer at sea was higher rank than a fellow officer at the admiralty, how would this work? Could the officer at the admiralty issue orders to a higher ranking officer at sea?

I wouldn't think he could issue orders in his own name, but he would have plenty of opportunities to 'lord it over Nelson'. I guess in today's terminology, he was in the position of a 'key influencer'. I suppose he might be able to pass on instructions to a commander in chief in the name of the Admiralty, but I imagine that was normally the task of the Secretary. But he would certainly be able to offer an opinion to Nelson of how a request might be received by the 1st Lord, and was in a position to influence the 1st Lord's decision.

Troubridge was supposedly a close friend of Nelson, and had benefitted by Nelson's interest, particularly in terms of the honours and rewards he received for sitting on a sandbank throughout the Battle of the Nile. Nelson would therefore feel entitled to think that Troubridge would use his influence to Nelson's benefit within the Admiralty. I imagine that at that time it was not seen to be particularly honourable that someone would put loyalty to his political masters before loyalty to his own friend and patron.

I have been looking at a number of official sources - NMM, MOD etc. to find out who constituted the Board of Admiralty and the information is contradictory, one saying that the Board was made up of politicians, another that it consisted of a mixture of admirals and politicians. But if Troubridge was on the Admiralty Board in 1801 this in itself is curious in that he was not, at that point, an admiral. It was only in 1804 that he became Rear Admiral. It was largely at St Vincent's instigation that Troubridge received the Admiralty Board appointment. It may be that such an appointment is a post rather than a rank and that members need not necessarily be admirals. Nevertheless, it was a sign of significant favour and, as Tony says, of influence; and of proximity to the sources of power.

I've mentioned on another thread Nelson's distress about being thwarted by Troubridge, in his elevated position, in getting help for a distressed captain. Maybe Troubridge was merely communicating the position of the board collectively; but Nelson would take such a set-back very personally.

The Board of the Admiralty consisted of a mixture of Civil Lords (politicians) and Naval Lords. Jointly they held an office of state, and so were a political appointment. The Naval Lords were usually admirals, but as it was a political appointment to an office of state, I don't think there were any fixed rules about that. Thomas Fremantle also became a Lord of the Admiralty while still a captain in 1806. At £1,000 per year, the pay wasn't bad!

In theory decisions were taken by the Board as a whole, and a quorum was only two of its members, but in practice there would have been little disagreement with the 1st Lord's decisions as he was a member of the cabinet.

I don't think the Lords of the Admiralty were necessarily always admirals. Brian Lavery in his 'Nelson's Navy' writes that both admirals and captains could be members of the Board, especially if they combined a naval with a political career. There had also to be at least three naval officers out of the six junior members, beneath the First Lord. Interestingly, he sites that when the First Lord was a politician the senior naval officer became his advisor. This position later became that of First Sea Lord, but it was not then current.

Since the business of the Admiralty was to look into the appointments of sea officers and the movements of fleets, as you infer Tycho, Troubridge was probably only doing his job and Nelson was a little sensative about it!

There is a new book about the Admiralty soon to be published 'early in 2008', according to the 'blurb', which perhaps may answer these questions. I'll put more details over on the book thread.

Kester

Since we're discussing the Admiralty Board, I thought you might be interested in seeing this model of 'the' room. Quite intriguing, although from the dress it might be a little earlier than our period:

http://www.guzmanshipmodels.com/page20.html

Kester

As a point of interest, the composition of the Board of Admiralty at the time Troubridge was serving (Feb 1801 - Jan 1804) was -

Admiral the Earl St Vincent
Sir Philip Stephens
Hon. William Elliott
Captain Sir Thomas Troubridge
James Adams
Captain John Markham
William Garthshore

at the time Troubridge was also the MP for Great Yarmouth; Markham the MP for Portsmouth.

Thank you to everyone for your answers here. I understand better now how the Admiralty board worked.