John Beeler - Böcker

The technical transformation of the Royal Navy during the Victorian era posed many design, tactical and operational problems for administrators from the 1830s onwards. The switch from sail to steam required the creation of a system of defended coaling stations and a greater infrastructure.

Volume 3 of the Papers of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alexander Milner 1806-1896.Milne remained notably shy of publicity. In the words of one biographer he was known as 'that able and hard-headed Scotchman'. However he was the pre-eminent naval administrator in the Victorian period, perhaps of the years 1815-1900. Not once during 60 years of naval service did Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alexander Milne, Bt., K.C.B. hear British guns fired in anger, yet, on the basis of talents and abilities ideally suited to the century of the Pax Britannica, he numbers among the greatest officers of the post Napoleonic-era Royal Navy.He served as a Junior Lord for almost twelve straight years during the late 1840s and 1850s. His earlier years in the Navy were spent at sea but in 1846 he was appointed a Naval Lord of the Admiralty. There he was to remain for the next eleven and a half years, serving, successively, the Ministries of Lord John Russell, (Whig, 1846-52), Lord Derby (Conservative, 1852), Lord Aberdeen (Whig/Peelite coalition, 1852-55), Lord Palmerston (Whig, 1855-58), and Lord Derby again (1858-59).He was gazetted with the civil K.C.B. in recognition of his lengthy service at Whitehall, in particular his labours during the Russian (Crimean) War. He possessed in abundance both patience and discretion. He stated however that 'When I joined the Admiralty in December 1847, it was under the distinct understanding with Lord Russell, then Prime Minister, and Lord Auckland, the First Lord of the Admiralty, that I was to be entirely free from all political matters'.

This collection covers the period February 1862-March 1864, which constituted the final two years and one month that Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne commanded the Royal Navy’s North America and West India Station. Its chief focus is upon Anglo-American relations in the midst of the American Civil War. Whilst the most high-profile cause of tension between the two countries — the Trent Affair — had been resolved in Britain’s favour by January 1862, numerous sources of discord remained. Most turned on American efforts to blockade the so-called Confederacy, efforts that often ran afoul of international law, not to mention British amour-propre. As commander of British naval forces in the theatre, Milne’s decisions and actions could and did have a major impact on the state of affairs between his government and that of the US.While noting in one private exchange with the British ambassador to Washington, Richard, Lord Lyons, that he had been "enjoined to abstain from any act likely to involve Great Britain in hostilities with the United States," Milne added ominously, "yet I am also instructed to guard our Commerce from all illegal interference" and it is plain from his correspondence that both he and the British government were prepared to use force in that undertaking. Thus, between apparently high-handed behaviour by the US Navy and Milne’s and the Palmerston government’s resolve not to be pushed beyond a certain point, the ingredients for a major confrontation between the two countries existed. Yet most of Milne’s efforts were directed toward preventing such a confrontation from occurring. In this endeavour he was joined by Lyons and by the British government. No vital British interest was at stake in the conflict raging between North and South, and thus the nation was unlikely to become directly involved in it unless provoked by rash US actions.Yet there was no shortage of such provocations: the seizure of British merchant vessels bound from one neutral port to another, detaining such ships without first conducting a search of their cargo for evidence of contraband of war, the de facto blockade of British colonial ports, apparent violations of British territorial waters, the seizure of British merchantmen off the neutral port of Matamoros, Mexico, and the use of neutral ports as bases of operations by US warships among them. In responding to these and other sources of dispute between the US and Britain, Milne proved adept at pouring oil on troubled waters, so much so that in a late 1863 letter to Foreign Secretary Lord Russell, Lyons lamented his impending departure from the station: "I am very much grieved at his leaving….No change of admirals could be for the better."This collection centres upon Milne’s private correspondence, especially that between him and Lyons, First Lord of the Admiralty the Duke of Somerset and First Naval Lord Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Grey. It also includes private letters to and from many of Milne’s other professional correspondents and important official correspondence with the Admiralty.

The technical transformation of the Royal Navy during the Victorian era posed many design, tactical and operational problems for administrators from the 1830s onwards. The switch from sail to steam required the creation of a system of defended coaling stations and a greater infrastructure.

This volume examines the transformation of British and US naval policy from 1870 to 1889, which resulted in the British Naval Defence Act (1889), the construction of the first modern US battleships, and began the naval arms race which culminated in World War One.