Abstract
During the Napoleonic War, the Royal Navy grew to an unprecedented size, but with the return of peace it dispensed with the services of an also unprecedented 124,000 men. By 1818, around 90% of commissioned officers were unemployed and on half pay. Drawing on the papers of navy agent Robert Brine, as well as Admiralty and Parliamentary sources, this paper sets out the scale of the unemployment problem among commissioned officers and the effects it had upon them, and surveys the options available to erstwhile sea officers and the strategies the deployed to make a living amid the post-war slump.
Highlights
Throughout the ‘long eighteenth century,’ one of the defining features of life in the Royal Navy was cyclical unemployment.[2]
The navy expanded during each war, and at its end contracted to a peacetime establishment, rendering unemployed large numbers of former naval personnel. This affected both officers and common seamen, though the implications for each were rather different since, whilst seamen were released back into the maritime labour market, standing officers such as gunners and boatswains remained with their ships, at least in theory, and commissioned officers received half pay.[3]
Successive wars throughout the century saw the navy grow to an ever-greater size, with a corresponding increase in the numbers released from naval service with the return of peace.[4]
Summary
Throughout the ‘long eighteenth century,’ one of the defining features of life in the Royal Navy was cyclical unemployment.[2].
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