Educating the Royal Navy: 18th and 19th Century Education for Officers (Cass Series: Naval Policy and History)

This volume provides the first comprehensive history of education and training for officers of the Royal Navy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It covers the development of educational provision, from the first 1702 Order in Council appointing schoolmasters to serve in operational warships, to the laying of the foundation stone of the present Royal Naval College Dartmouth in 1902. Educating the Royal Navy 1702-1902 includes the establishment of the Royal Navy’s first naval academy, the commissioning of the officer training ship HMS Britannia , and the conduct of education at sea. It also covers the birth of higher education in the Service with the opening of the Royal Naval College Greenwich, and the provision of technical education and training for a new category of officer, the naval engineer. This book will be essential reading for students of naval history and naval education, and of much interest to professional military colleges studying the development of naval training. BOOK COVER......Page 1 TITLE......Page 6 COPYRIGHT......Page 7 CONTENTS......Page 8 ILLUSTRATIONS......Page 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 12 INTRODUCTION......Page 14 CHAPTER 1: ALL AT SEA: The naval schoolmaster 1702–1837......Page 22 CHAPTER 2: ‘A SINK OF ABOMINATION . . .’: The Portsmouth Naval Academy and the Royal Naval College Portsmouth 1733–1837......Page 46 CHAPTER 3: PITCHFORKS AND PROFESSORS: Educating the young officer 1837–62......Page 70 CHAPTER 4: INKLINGS OF A SYSTEM: Continuing and higher education to 1869......Page 89 CHAPTER 5: BRITANNIA AT DARTMOUTH, 1863–74......Page 107 CHAPTER 6: ‘WHILE THEIR MINDS ARE DOCILE AND PLASTIC . . .’: The Shadwell Report 1870......Page 126 CHAPTER 7: ‘AS MUCH BY WISDOM AS BY WAR . . .’: The Royal Naval College Greenwich 1870–1902......Page 144 CHAPTER 8: THE FORTUNES OF HMS BRITANNIA 1874–1902......Page 165 CHAPTER 9: ‘ENGINEERS ARE NOT GENTLEMEN . . .’: Education and training for naval engineers......Page 190 CONCLUSION......Page 212 NOTES......Page 227 SOURCES......Page 251 INDEX......Page 262