Ideology, authority and the politics of innovation in the Royal Dockyards, 1796–1807

Abstract

To promote improvements in the construction, fitting and arming of British warships and in the facilities they needed at the dockyards, the office of Inspector General of Naval Works was created at the Admiralty in 1796. Samuel Bentham (brother of Jeremy Bentham, the philosopher and writer on jurisprudence) was appointed to the post. Bentham brought ideas for the management of the dockyards derived from the Utilitarian creed he shared with his brother. He was opposed by the Navy Board which managed the dockyards on traditional principles and resented the influence Bentham acquired among the yard officers. This article looks at the political conflict that ensued, the respective agendas of the protagonists, and the tactics each pursued to enhance their support. Noteworthy among the administrators who succeeded in abolishing the post of Inspector General and relegating Bentham to a junior seat at the Navy Board were their Evangelical and family connections. On this occasion, emotional, conservative Evangelicalism defeated radical Utilitarianism, in the process revealing that power and authority were more important to senior administrators than improvements in dock facilities, experiments in ship design or new methods of arming ships.