The Safeguard of the Seas

A Naval History of Britain #1

by N.A.M. Rodger

Throughout Britain's history, one factor above all others has determined the fate of the its navy. N. A. M. Rodger's definitive account reveals how the political and social progress of Britain has been inextricably intertwined with the strength - and weakness - of its sea power, from the desperate early campaigns against the Vikings to the defeat of the great Spanish Armada. Covering policy, strategy, ships, recruitment and weapons, this is a superb tapestry of nearly 1,000 years of maritime history.'No other historian has examined the subject in anything like the detail found here. The result is an outstanding example of narrative history' Barry Unsworth, Sunday Telegraph

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Naval History, Military Fiction, War, British Literature, Military History

448 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Nicholas Andrew Martin Rodger, FBA, is a historian of the British Royal Navy and Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

Reviews

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very large book with a great deal of detail and should appeal strictly to those with a lot of time on their hands and a burning interest in the history of the British Navy.
The first part of the book up to 1509, when Henry VIII arrives, is just bits and pieces of trivia, so little is actually known. After that point quite a bit is known and most of it is a tale of gross incompetence and corruption.
The British Navy, which in this first of two volumes is really the English Navy, was mainly run by Lords who bought their offices with the primary interest of stealing as much money as possible.
We have Parliament to thank for the detailed knowledge of the corruption, due to investigations conducted and reports written to document the thievery. The monarchs would simply ignore the reports since they had sold the offices to the thieving Lords, fully understanding why the Lord was buying the office in the first place. Only Elizabeth comes off fairly well in the Author's opinion.
I am not sure I will try to read Volume II covering the history from 1650 to the present day, since Volume I was so discouraging a read.
Problem solved. Volume II is not available.

[Derek Nudd · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Sea power cannot be improvised. In every age and in every circumstance, the successful navies have been those which rested on long years of steady investment in the infrastructure essential to keep running the complex and delicate machinery of a seagoing fleet. ... This is a truth not universally acknowledged in the twentieth century and hardly demonstrated at all in the sixteenth, yet it was precisely in this that the precocious strength of the Elizabethan Navy rested.'
Rodger's slightly pointed opening to Chapter 23 encapsulates the narrative of this book taking in a thousand years of British maritime history, from the Saxon raiders of the seventh century to the execution of Charles 1. For most of this time sea power involved the transport and supply of armies by co-opted merchants and pirates (often the same people). The concept of a standing 'Navy Royal' emerged under the Tudors and was almost, but not quite, lost in the civil war. Which is where this book hands over to The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649-1815.
I came to this volume out of sequence, having read the two later ones first. As with the others its great strength is the way Rodger places the narrative of events in its political, social and technological context. It is well written and, unlike many paperbacks, has proper plate sections for the illustrations. Over a third of the page count is taken up by ancillary pages - appendices, notes, bibliography and index.
Overall, highly recommended.

[Marshall Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat ponderous a book, Rodger does not write about naval battles, but rather focuses on the politics, strategy, logistics, and administration of the early British Navy.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic piece of history. I'll spare you the bad nautical jokes, but Rodger does a great job of demolishing a number of myths about the Britain and how it was shaped by the sea. One might say they run aground on shoals of his erudition. (I lied) It's not a book for everyone, but if you enjoy reading about victualing, norse ship names, and Tudor ship painting practices, than there's certainly no better book than this. Rodger is fantastically learned, and the book ably shows how British social, economic and political history was effected by the fortunes of its navy. I've read this book at least 4 times and I've learned something new and fascinating every time. The only problem is that Rodger ends his book on a cliffhanger, with the Royal Navy being driven from England by the parliamentarians, and I had to wait 8 years for the publication of Command of the Ocean to find out what happened next.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was surprising to me because I hadn't realized how little of a navy they had for much of their history! For much of the time, ships were just "borrowed" from the (often merchant) owners. If they were damaged or destroyed in a battle, there was generally no compensation from the crown. There often weren't trained personel--just impressed persons and "gentlemen" to lead. The book didn't thrill me since there was (unsurprisingly) too much detail about ship building, maintenance, etc. That was my flaw though, not the book's.

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't come across N.A.M. Rodger's naval history of Britain trilogy until the third volume was published last year. The first volume, the Safeguard of the Sea, was published way back in 1997 so the trilogy has been some time in the making. Given the extensive appendices, footnotes, a helpful glossary and chronology that take up a third of this volume, the time taken to write each volume is unsurprising. This is a very thorough work indeed.

But this is a naval history of Britain, not a history of the British navy, and there is an important distinction. The latter could be very bogged down in rigging, mizzenmasts and the rest. The former seeks to interpret British history through its interaction with the sea and her ships, and that makes for an altogether more interesting read.

The first volume takes us at some pace through a thousand years of British history, although in fairness the paucity of sources, not to mention ships, means that things only really get going with the Hundred Years War. The main focus rightly sits with the Tudors, especially the Elizabethan Navy. The account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada is briskly told and riveting.

This is no Whig History of the advancement of British Naval Power. For a start, in this period, there is no British. Rodgers is of the view that the Scots were well in advance of the English when it came to warships, and indeed it may have been the Scottish experience of seafaring that pushed the English to innovate. In his story a few periods stand out when something like an English navy could be so described - Alfred the Great's navy against the Danes, Henry V (whose naval expertise has been overshadowed by his feats on the battlefield), Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. However very few of these monarchs actually formulated a naval strategy and it was not until Elizabeth that something like a standing (floating?) navy could be said to have been established. The innovations of the Elizabeth reign were swiftly undone by the first two Stuart monarchs.

So for Rodgers there is no inevitable rise of English sea power but fits and starts. He does make the interesting point in the conclusion that whereas the large standing armies of the continent led to absolutism, the two naval powers of the late Seventeenth Century, Britain and the Netherlands, continued to have dispersed power. In his persuasive reasoning money and power can buy you an army but it takes a complex and cohesive community to build a navy. Navies are the results of power sharing, not autocracy.

The Safeguard of the Sea is peppered with interesting facts and anecdotes. It came as a surprise to me that, when victuals were provided in an edible state, an English mariner could expect to consume 4500 calories a day (two pounds of beef or pork!). And apparently when Sir Francis Drake was becalmed off Tenerife he spent his days colouring in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. I never had it down as that sort of book.

[Justin Grant-Duff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superbly written analytical and historical account of the Royal Navy from its original foundations under King Alfred to the martyrdom of King Charles. The period of operations and administrations that plot the events of each chapter shows how the Navy developed in both political ways and in its warfare as a tool of policy and how the King's government protected the shores of England. Drawing on all the available sources from the fastness of the National Maritime Museum, Professor Rodger became one of the world's experts on the the greatest naval force that ever existed. Life on board was hard, discipline tough, and rations often scarcely adequate, but the Royal Navy was the very first organization the world to have a modern philosophy of promotion on merit. Other revelations included how important the Navy was to king's like Henry V who used it comprehensively to assist his invasions of 15th century France. But it was more than a bunch of lawless privateers but also a ruthless crew of competent seamen, and dynamic master-captains schooled in the arts of war. The first volume charts the transition from soldiers on board to a fully-fledged Navy after the Armada was driven off. Elizabethan Protestant England understood the significance of an island nation surrounded by water could only earn a living by Mercantilist trading supported by an aggressive Navy. The Civil Wars of early 17th century revealed just how protestant it truly was and how big city ports combined with ruthless discipline would marshall all England to conquer the world's shipping lanes in the name of a parliamentary governance. Ships became leaner, longer and with a draft to cut through the water, sail closer to the wind; while English gunnery was renowned early on for its devastating tactical effects. England learnt from richer nations; how to build ships like the French, fast and well-constructed, and how marines could be put on board to expand on another English specialism, Expeditionary forces. From the medieval period marines or soldiers were landed in Bordeaux to defend trade with the western fringes of Europe. Aquitaine was a place where wine would become so essential to a trading empire filling up the yards of the port of London with goods.

[Jon Gautier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having only knowledge of the mighty, globe-bestriding British navy and empire of the past few hundred years, it never occurred to me there was a time when the English were maybe not so good at this sea stuff. Rodger sets that all straight with his scathing history of many, many centuries of rank English naval incompetence, with only a few bright spots. It is positively entertaining to read about English failure after English failure against a parade of real sea dogs, including the Danes, the French, various Baltic types, and of course, the Spanish and Genoese.

Written overall chronologically but with themed chapters focusing on, for example, administration, technology, strategy, naval operations, the book does have its sloggy parts, but they are short and Rodger is a fine writer, so the eye watering is limited. I can’t imagine reading this except as a prelude to volume two, covering the 18th and 19th century stuff that we all want to read about. The real question is whether one wants or needs to read this part one at all. I’m glad I did, but it’s not essential.

[Craig MacKinnon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not an historian, and this is my first foray into the world of naval history, pre-19th century. After reading this book, I would like to learn more, which is one of the highest endorsements I can give. I cannot agree with one reviewer I read, who complained about maps - they are there, they are simply very difficult to navigate, as they appear scattered through the text, and are not necessarily placed in relevant sections. I must also object to the subtitle - "Naval History of Britain." The author mentions numerous times how this is supposed to be a history of Britain and not England, but the text does not bear this out. This is highlighted by the fact that he states (for example) that Scottish ships of certain eras were superior to English ones, but gives no details on Scottish shipbuilding methods, political structure, etc. Perhaps this is because of record-keeping?
At any rate, I recommend this book if you have an interest in naval history, and although no single volume can do full justice to 1000 years of history, this one does a good job for such a rookie as myself.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a magisterial work of naval history--part of a two volume set. The book begins with medieval England and ends with the English Civil War. Rodger covers technological innovation, how the navy was raised, and places naval engagement in wider historical context. In later chapters, the book addresses given periods in separate chapters on social history, administration, and operational history. The structure allows the reader to get a coherent picture of not only the Navy Royal but also the life of the sailor. The author focuses a lot of energy on administration, because it was a major source of power beginning with Henry VIII. The Island nation was able to out organize its more powerful continental rivals.

[Bruce Beavis · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of a 3 volume set, this book deals with the history of the English navy through the end of the English Civil War. I enjoyed it and was particularly impressed at how much more difficult it is for a state to raise an efficient navy than to mobilize troops for land warfare.
The comparisons between Spain, Holland, and France in terms of their ability to effectively manage both the huge financial demands of a navy as well as the application of industrial technologies and the supporting infrastructure. Prior to reading this, I had no idea of the difficulty of virtually the fleet!

Looking forward to getting the next volume

[Jon Klug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great scholarly reference book for one of my research projects, but it is not for casual reading. It's dense and detailed in its examination of the naval history of Britain from 660 to 1649, including operational, administrative, and social aspects. A key theme of this book is the "slow process by which the peopled of the British Isles learnt, relearnt, or did not learn at all how to use the sea for their own defense." And this "process for learning to use the sea was not a matter of growing understanding. It was above all a process of growing capability."

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another academic paper pusher giving the World something relevant in exchange for a better tax payer sponsored pension plan. In this case, Rodger has gone through the pains of interviewing both sailors and officers from the 700s and their service. So, in this case, Rodger brings never seen before information about something others have already pushed dull papers.

[The Damsel in the Library]

I appreciate the amount of research that went into this book, but it's not an easy tome to wade through and I did skim parts of it. I might pick up the next one because that's the era of sailing that I'm more interested in.

I have never seen the word "victual" used with such impunity. It's kinda funny.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definative history of the seas around Great Britain; the highs and lows of all forms of shipping, merchantmen, warships and privateers.
An interesting perspective of English history solely from a naval/sea=power point of view.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

What great history books are supposed to be like: there is no bright line between social, cultural, political, and military history here: instead, a full review of these elements coming together to create a navy, and reinforce the shape of that navy. Excellent work!

[Dan Egglestone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it a bit dense in nautical terms? Perhaps, but the author does not rely on a heavy understanding of rope to grasp the thrust of this masterpiece. Very much recommend, but don't expect a light piece of airport literature.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhaustive. At least, from when proper records start to show up. The early centuries are, for obvious reasons, quite light on detail and more of a broad brush summary of a big canvass.

[Jayjay Colley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fascinating subject; however the author gets fairly dry at many points, and it can read like a list of ships and commanders and events rather than any sort of narrative

[Graham Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning work of outstanding scholarship. I really enjoyed this book. Its packed with very interesting facts and is well written.

[Sam Hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, easy to follow. Vol 2 should be more interesting with the upcoming revolutionary war.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely detailed….extremely dry.

[Liam Zee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative, very dense.

[James Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superbly researched and densely detailed history of military use of naval vessels from the days of Alfred the Great up to the execution of Charles I. As Rodger points out, it is not really a history of the British Navy as we understand that term. Until the last half century covered by this book, there is no such thing. The "navy" consisted of privateers, commandeered merchant vessels, etc.

The first half the text(which totals only 434 pages, the other two hundred pages consisting of appendices with lists of when ships were built, commanders, naval terms, and notes), covering up to the Tudor era is fairly dry and academic. There is little else that can be done with this part of the history: we simply don't have the details for Rodgers to be able tell tales of sea battles, commanders, and incidents at sea. But once Rodgers gets to the Henry VII and primary source materials include these details, while never losing sight of the goal of a serious academic history, he starts telling a tale worthy of any adventure story. The stories of Drake, Hawkins, and the characters on the Navy Board were great reading and set up the other parts of the book on other aspects of war at sea.

Rodger rights his book as a series of chapters on these different aspects over specific periods of time. Thus he gives us chapters on the different types of Ships 1066 - 1455, Operations 1266-1336, Administration 1216 - 1420, and Social History 1204-1455, the latter discussing where both the commanders and the sailors came from. All of these subjects are essential to understanding how what would become the Royal Navy came to be.

My only real criticism is that while the book contains a fair number of black and white plates mostly showing images of vessels as they were represented in their own times there is not much to show what the ships really looked like in any kind of proportional representation. I've build model ships, been to several naval museums with lots of models etc. so have a good notion of what ships of the 18th century and later were like but could not get any real sense of what the ships, galleys etc. of medieval England that Rodgers talks about were really like or even how big they were. There is one half page set of silhouettes comparing four ships from the 15th - 17th Centuries with the Victory which one can see in Portsmouth. But this a small portion of the subject matter of the book and the comparison is limited to the largest of the ships from this era: Henry Grace a Dieu (1514), Sovereign of the Seas (1637), Wasa (1628), Grace Dieu (1418). There is nothing depicting the smaller vessels to any kind of scale and for most of the period of this book, these smaller vessels were what English Naval History was all about.

Still this is a small quibble and I enjoyed this enormously, recommending it highly to anyone interested in English history (specifically English, not British or European; the naval forces of Scotland, Ireland, and the continent are mentioned only insofar as necessary to understand what is going on the English) generally or naval history of any kind particularly in the age of sail.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not light reading - literally since it (and Volume 2) weighs over 3 lbs. The text is very detailed and the appendixes show the scholarship behind the work, done while Rodger was a research Fellow at the National Maritime Museum in London, and after many years in the Public Record Office. The various appendixes, references, bibliography, index etc occupy over 250 pages - about one-third of the book.

Some of this work may be too detailed for the general reader, who will not be interested in how many mates a gunner or boatswain might have had, nor in the minute details of various expeditions. However, there is much to enjoy, from dry comments such as King Edward III banning football, and that "The new King, Henry VIII, ... seemed to embody in everyone's eyes (especially his own) all the virtues of the perfect Renaissance prince." to the interesting and very readable chapters 22 and 27 on the social history of the Navy. The book covers the period from the Anglo-Saxon British Isles, with what is known about naval matters during the period of the Viking raids, up to the Cromwellian Civil War and the execution of King Charles I. The book reveals much surprising information about the extent of English piracy, conflated with privateering, during the Tudor and Jacobean periods. Many of these British pirates were respected national heroes and often backed by the money of highly-placed aristocrats. Their piracies were generally forgiven and overlooked because of the wealth it brought to their powerful backers: in some cases the crown itself. "This was not the romantic world of the gallant Elizabethan sea-dogs which an older generation of writers loved to conjure up." (Chapter 23). The later chapters, detailing how corruption and incompetence in the shipyards in the Stuart period reduced the efficiency of the Royal Navy, are depressing to read.

Although published over 20 years ago, the detailed scholarship in this book will still make it required reading for any serious historian or teacher preparing a course on maritime history.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more in depth than my usual history reading. First of three(?) volumes on the British navy, including technology, social settings and administrative framework as well as actual naval operations (and each period is broken down into chapters focusing on the above).

I could imagine the book being five stars for a genuine history fanatic. But since the topic is the British navy only, this means that the casual reader (ie, me) gets a relatively large amount of detail on operations that are important only to naval history, and not directly significant to the larger picture; while the overall background of the war or reign is often brief. Makes sense, and I usually knew enough to keep up, but I was straining my memory at times.

Some random notes:

- The best use of naval maneuvers prior through the middle ages was really as a sort of cavalry: you could maneuver armies from point-to-point in ways that a land based army couldn't keep up with, and chances of interception (or even a warning reaching your target) were minimal. Hence the success of the Vikings as raiders.
- With a couple exceptions, English kings were utterly incompetent as naval strategists from 1066 to Elizabeth. The best they did was realize ships could provide logistical support, but they constantly did idiotic things like landing troops in distant Aquitaine to fight the French, instead of threatening all of Normandy by landing at will. Rodger's criticism of Edward I's castle-building policy in Wales is so passionate it's phenomenally entertaining.
- By 1588, the English navy had advanced so far that the Spanish battle plan for the Armada was quite literally to pray for a miracle. They knew the English were better, and expected to be slaughtered unless God gave them (being good Catholics and all) a sudden change in the weather at the perfect time to let them close with the English ships. It didn't happen, of course.

[David Cheshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous read. Rodger is an authoritative guide to the issues shaping the prehistory of the British navy and our commitment to becoming a naval power. His title it surely ironic, since he comprehensively destroys the image of Britain as "an island fortress". In reality, as Rodgers catalogues, frequent raids and attempted invasions made our coasts a perpetual danger not a defence. Naval power took a long time to emerge. Medieval naval warfare was ineffectual. Building a navy required huge long-term investment, financial, technical, human and institutional. For sheer difficulty it was on a par with the modern space-race. Britain was slow to commit to this investment. But our weakness exposed us to the danger of becoming the plaything of hostile neighbours. We were also lagging well behind the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch overseas empires. Thus during Elizabethan times there emerged for the first time a serious national vision of maritime expansion, thanks to a strong alliance between members of the political elite and ambitious merchant-adventurers. This was the moment of naval and imperial take-off. We learned from our enemies and rivals (often via immigrants). The naval investment was made. The national vision was embedded. The rest, literally, is history. Like Linda Colley, Rodger explores the paradox that Britain's rise to greatness was rooted in national weakness. Post-empire, still floundering, still lacking a role, it is a lesson we need to relearn.

[JZ Temple · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the author notes, this is NOT a history of the Royal Navy. It is instead a history of naval activities by the government (or governments, at times). Interestingly the author breaks up the narrative flow to alternate chapters on operations with chapters on manpower and leadership, finances and ship design and building. It's not a casual read and there are parts which get tedious, but for someone seriously interested in the subject it does provide a very useful study. The author, a well known British naval historian, shows how important control of the seas has been since the earlist days, even to the extent that land campaigns were very dependent on sea communications and supply in an era when there were almost no roads. He also shows how the tradition of a strong English navy actually was derived from the Scots, who in their own internal warfare relied heavily on control of the local waters.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1998, The Safe Guard of the Sea is a detailed naval history of Britain for the years stated. This means that it looks at operations by Ireland, Wales and Scotland as well as England for a refreshing change against a background of Viking incursions in the early years, whilst wars with France and Spain dominate the later years. The level of detail is immense, so much so that is very difficult to absorb at times, and all of this detail is properly supported by numbered citations or notes. Additionally, there are very large appendices itemising such things as ships constructed for naval purposes in the period, rates of pay, Admirals and of course an impressive bibliography section. Very impressive, and looking forward to the second volume one day.

[Erick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting if you are into English Naval history.
Approaches the subject from very practical point of view.
Builders, material, personnel, pay rates, etc. A lot of
detail but, the author keeps it interesting.