Anson's Navy: Building a Fleet for Empire, 1744 to 1763

By Brian Lavery

When the Royal Navy of Great Britain of the Age of Sail is envisioned, it tends to be recalled through the glories of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In this period, the Royal Navy ruled the seas with famous victories such as the Glorious First of June, Camperdown, the Nile, and Trafalgar. In short, what is most readily recalled is Nelson's Navy, which Lavery touched on in an earlier book. However, before Nelson could command his formidable forces, they had to be created, and Lavery traces their origins to the often-overlooked middle of the eighteenth century and the forceful series of changes pushed through by George, Lord Anson.

While the Royal Navy had achieved note in both the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the War of Spanish Succession, it was an outdated and lumbering beast heading into the 1730s and 1740s. Ill-suited to the changing face of warfare, Lavery sees Lord Anson's successful circumnavigation and capture of a richly-stocked Spanish treasure ship in 1744 as being a moment of renewed pride for a flagging naval service.

More importantly, combined with his victorious command at the First Battle of Finisterre three years later, in 1747, Anson was propelled rapidly up the ranks, reaching First Lord of the Admiralty from 1751 to 1756 and 1757 to 1762. While he entered the office with no major reforms in mind, Anson repeatedly rose to the task of repairing notable deficiencies within the Royal Navy, including the need for new ships of the line, officer pools deficient in talent, and a lack of modernized naval tactics.

Over the course of thirteen chapters, Lavery weaves together a multitude of factors that served to affect the reformed shape of the modernizing Royal Navy. From an ongoing mixture of rivalry and collaboration between the navy boards and the Admiralty to the internal workings of Parliament and the quality of available men and ships, Anson's challenge is shown in its nearly Sisyphus-like nature. While less detailed than some die-hard naval enthusiasts might prefer, the flowing prose allows readers to engage with the monumental work that Anson achieved without becoming lost in the haze of minutia. In this way, the book quickly proves its worth as an addition to almost any shelf, particularly when paired with Lavery's two most similar titles Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organisation, 1793-1815, and Churchill's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation, 1939-1945. Those of a more scholarly inclination will doubtlessly appreciate the extensive bibliography, which encompasses multiple centuries of primary and secondary sources, as well as the general layout which allows for a smooth narrative flow. Those of a more casual enthusiast mindset likewise will appreciate that the book does not come to be bogged in the minutia but rather focuses on delivering an easy-to-understand level of information which can then be used to supplement additional research into the era of Anson.

• Barnsley, Seaforth Books, 2021
• Anapolis, Naval Institute Press, 2021
• 10” x 11-1/2”, hardcover, 208 pages
• Illustrations, drawings, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $70.00
• ISBN: 9781399002882

Reviewed by: Michael Toth, Texas Christian University