An extensively illustrated reference covering four tumultuous decades that gave birth to the modern Royal Navy. Winner of the Samuel Pepys Prize and Latham Medal This reference book describes every aspect of the English navy in the second half of the seventeenth century, from the time when the Fleet Royal was taken into Parliamentary control after the defeat of Charles I, until the accession of William and Mary in 1689 when the long period of war with the Dutch came to an end. This is a crucial era that witnessed the creation of a permanent naval service, in essence the birth of today’s Royal Navy. Samuel Pepys, whose thirty years of service did so much to replace the ad hoc processes of the past with systems for construction and administration, is one of the most significant players, and the navy that was, by 1690, ready for a century of global struggle with the French owed much to his tireless work. This major reference for historians, naval enthusiasts, and, anyone with an interest in this colorful era of the seventeenth century covers: naval administration ship types and shipbuilding naval recruitment and crews seamanship and gunnery shipboard life dockyards and bases the foreign navies of the period the three major wars fought against the Dutch in the Channel and the North Sea “Davies writes clearly, knows his subject extremely well, organizes the material effectively, and covers each topic thoroughly . . . there’s some new piece of revelatory detail on pretty much every page. If you’re at all interested in seventeenth century sailing ships—especially English ships—this is a truly fascinating and rewarding book.” —Corsairs and Captives

Pepys's diary has made him a literary celebrity. In his own time he was known as the chief naval official under Charles II and James II and this aspect of the diarist's life has not received the attention it deserves from his modern biographers. Charles Knighton, a Pepys scholar with a particular interest in naval history, reveals the full extent of Pepys's achievements in creating a modern navy which was both permanent and professional.

Over the years the NRS has published various volumes relating to Samuel Pepys including the catalogues of his letters. His Naval Minutes mainly cover the period from 1680-1696. As the Naval Minutes are a series of random notes made by Pepys in connection with his proposed History of the Royal Navy, as well as notes and memoranda of his thoughts on naval affairs ranging from shipbuilding and navigation to manning and the hazards of going to sea, as well as acerbic comments on the admiralty commissioners of 1679-1683, they provide invaluable information about the navy. The volume includes Pepys’s famous dictum that Englishmen love their bellies. It also shows Pepys’s relationship with the Duke of York, and how much the Duke was still consulted over naval affairs, even though he had resigned his post as Lord High Admiral in 1673, because of his Catholicism.

"Although the diary is now Pepys's most famous work, it was unknown until long after his death. In fact, he only published one book in his lifetime - this account of the administration of the Navy from 1679 until his dismissal from office with the regime change in 1688." "As his friend Evelyn said of him, 'none in England exceeding him in knowledge of the navy', Pepys is able to provide a fascinating insider's view of the working of the Admiralty, replete with technical detail on shipbuilding and the operations of the dockyards. However, the wealth of fact and figures is misleading, and far from being impartial." "The new introduction by David Davies explains the political controversy which formed the background to the book's publication, and shows how Pepys manipulated his mastery of arcane information to his own ends - indeed, he would have made an ideal spin-doctor to a modern government." "The original appendix is a detailed list of the state of the fleet in December 1688, which in this edition is illustrated with contemporary drawings of typical ships." --Book Jacket.