Article ID: CBB001421378

Ideology, Authority and the Politics of Innovation in the Royal Dockyards, 1796--1807 (2014)

unapi

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.

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Authors & Contributors
Morriss, Roger
Leggett, Don
Howard J. Fuller
Stephenson, Richard A.
Still, William N., Jr
Bisbee, Saxon
Concepts
Ships and shipbuilding
Military technology
Science and war; science and the military
Technology
Shipbuilding industry
Sailing ships
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, early
20th century
17th century
20th century, late
Places
Great Britain
United States
England
Belfast, Ireland
Atlantic Ocean
Russia
Institutions
Great Britain. Royal Navy
United States Navy
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