Nelson & His World

Can anyone say a little more about the merchant ships, such as the Lady Juliana, mentioned on the ‘Lt Edgar’ thread, that were chartered by the Royal Navy?

Was chartering an exceptional, occasional or routine occurrence?

Were ships chartered to transport prisoners exclusively or were they assigned other tasks? If so, what might these consist of?

Were the terms of the contract fixed or did they vary from ship to ship depending on circumstances?

I believe that hiring merchant ships was fairly routine.
Merchant ships were usually hired for two reasons - as warships or as transports / stores ships.

In times of conflict it was the norm to hire suitable merchant vessels and arm them; these were usually referred to as 'Hired Armed Vessels' or 'Hired Armed Cutters' etc. This practice continued into modern times - in WW1 and WW2 hundreds of merchant craft were taken into naval service, the smaller craft as patrol vessels and minesweepers, the largest (the big ocean liners) being fitted and armed, and called 'Armed Merchant Cruisers'.

Merchant ships were also routinely hired to act as transports, carrying troops and equipment to far flung places or as store ships, carrying a wide range of material to support/supply troops or ships on foreign stations. This practice continues up to modern times (during the Falklands conflict they were referred to as STUFT - ships taken up from trade), and at this time the Ministry of Defence has a contract with Foreland Shipping to supply six Ro-Ro ships to carry stores and equipment out to the Gulf
(see: http://www.dunelmpr.co.uk/foreland-photosNEW.html)


I am uncertain of the terms and conditions, but I think that the usual practice at the 'Lady Juliana' period, was to call for tenders by advertising, then contract with ship owners or brokers, the Admiralty paying an agreed price per ton for an agreed period.

Many thanks, again, PN, for info.

Was it the practice in Nelson's day to commandeer merchant ships for naval service? I believe, though I am not certain, that this happened in the Falklands war. Maybe 'STUFT' is a euphemism for that?

Ships in recent times have indeed been 'Requisitioned' for naval service - the Falklands STUFT were taken over by use of a Statutory Instrument and WW1 and WW2 both had merchant ships taken over following a Royal Proclamation.

I am not aware of any such procedure being employed in the 18th/19th century, but I may be wrong ...

'Requisitioned'! That's the word I was searching for. Many thanks!

'Commandeered' does have a slight air of banditry about it.

During the first part of the War of American Independence up until 1779, the Navy Board hired ships for army troops, horses and equipment, but were not involved in providing shipping for army provisioning. This was previously arranged by the contracting suppliers, but the huge demand from the army in America, unable to obtain sufficient local provisions, meant that the government had to take control. But the Admiralty refused, and the Treasury became responsible for hiring army victuallers. At that time, shipping for navy provisioning was hired by the Victualling Board, and the Ordnance Board also hired its own shipping. That meant that there were four government boards competing to charter merchant ships. As far as I can make out, even in that time of need, there seems to have been no question of requisitioning ships.

Perhaps seamen were a bigger problem than ships. With the navy mobilisation, and the unavailabilty of American seamen, there was a lack of seamen and wages went up, driving up prices. Eventually the government boards started to cooperate a little, fixing prices between them, and there was a short moratorium on hiring victuallers while desperately needed army horse transports were obtained. But the navy still continued to occasionally press men from the transports.

In 1779, the Navy Board under Middleton took responsibilty for hiring ships for army victualling - cutting down the competition to just three Boards!

I think in 1794 the Transport Board took over reponsibility for hiring transports for troops and equipment, and the Victualling Board became responsible for shipping army provisions as well as victualling the fleet. At some stage the Transport Board took over responsibility for shipping Ordnance stores. Was that in 1794 or later?