From Jack Tar to Bluejacket: The campaign for social reform in the Royal Navy, 1815--1853

In terms of the social history of the Royal Navy during the nineteenth century, with few exceptions, studies conducted on this subject have largely fallen into one of two categories: those looking at the period of Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars, and those dealing with the Royal Navy in the latter half of the century. Because of this, we are presented with two very divergent impressions of naval life within the same timeframe. For example, we either get a representation of the navy as characterized by the oftentimes harsh realities of naval life in an era of European conflict and struggle, and that of an highly modernized and professional establishment of Victorian gentleman and sailors, whose mastery of new methods of propulsion and gunnery help to assert Britain's influence around the globe. What is lacking in this context, is a coherent explanation how one developed into the other.;Although this study covers the period from 1815-1853, the story of the Royal Navy's modern evolution certainly does not begin and end on these dates. They merely signify a period of transition linking one era to the next. Similarly, the intent of this study is not to uncover a definitive demarcation with respect to the point at which the old navy became the new. Rather the purpose of this study is to fill a gap in our understanding of the evolution of the Royal Navy during these decades. Historians have traditionally looked at the period of Nelson and the subsequent era of technological and professional evolution, eventually giving rise to the navy of Fisher and Jellicoe, as being two distinct periods. Yet this impression is not entirely accurate. As we will see, the rise of the modern navy was in many ways the direct legacy of the old. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).