Many of my friends have often asked of me what, or rather who, is the Earl of St. Vincent that frequents my online persona and email addresses. Put simply he is Sir John Jervis, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath, Admiral of the Fleet, and the First Earl of St. Vincent, and member of Historic Members Privy Council. Your right, that isn't quite as simply put as you may have expected. But in my opinion it is a list of titles which reflects the character of the man, once described as saint, once as tyrant.
Upon inspection he holds the bearing of a man of great arrogance and contempt, and of this I would be inclined to agree but only with the knowledge of his accomplishment can a true interpretation be made. It also shows a thou
ghtfulness not often shared by many naval portraits of the great leaders.
For me Lord St. Vincent will remain my greatest hero of the historical past. A titan amongst his counterparts such as Sir George Rodney, Lord Hood and Lord Melville. As the First Lord of the Admiralty he oversaw unparalleled reforms in the Royal Navy, the likes of which would not be seen again until Lord Fisher took the helm of the Admiralty in the early 20th Century nearly one hundred years later. The success of these reforms cannot be underestimated. It is commonly thought that one infamous Lord Nelson was the reason the British Empire came out the victor in the twenty year struggle with first revolutionary then Napoleonic France, by defeating and therefore removing the naval threat of invasion at Trafalgar, it was not. Another commonly unknown fact is that Lord Nelson was the protégé of Lord St. Vincent. One could argue that Lord Nelson owed this selfless man everything, including his legacy.
It was during Lord St. Vincent's reign as the First Lord of the Admiralty that the blundering bureaucracy and festering corruption that was the naval dockyards of the empire came under intense scrutiny. Lord St. Vincent exposed massive corruption within the naval dockyard systems that had been delaying the efficiency and risking the safety
of the ships of the Royal Navy's fleets at sea. Shoddy workmanship, immoral pursers and corruption at every level is what faced Lord St. Vincent and he methodically and relentlessly went about his reform of the naval dockyards, and without going into too much detail created a massive public scandal in his exposure of high ranking officials involved in the
corruption. It was a breath of fresh air sweeping through the worlds largest and wealthiest organisations in the world. Nelson is credited with his victory at Trafalgar. Had it not been for Lord St. Vincents patronage of this headstrong often arrogant officer Nelson may not have been at Trafalgar. But more importantly had it not been for Lord St. Vincents reforms the Royal Navy would not have been ready for the combined Franco-Spanish Fleets that met them at Trafalgar.
Lord St. Vincents reforms left his public reputation in tatters in many ways, he had his friends and supporters of course. But his enemies were vocal in their condemnation the
n his friends were and until his death he was a character often viewed with contempt, but only the men at sea truly appreciated the changes he made. The ultimate testament to his reforms was that his personal flagship the HMS Victory, over 27 years old at the time, was infighting condition when Lord Nelson sailed her in the line of battle at Trafalgar. He allowed Nelson to exercise his tactical brilliance, he also prevented Napoleon from invading the British isles, his is a life of his duty, as he saw it it, before everything else, in defence of his country and for the improvement of the Royal Navy.
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7 comments:
yes he was a brilliant reformer, who put in work to task, and got rid of both the senior (and therefore most experience workers - who did most of the training) because they were two old to be productive, and the young because they had to be trained and that too delayed productivity, thus substantially undermining both future productivity for sea lords after him and the evolution of ship building techniques; Whilst some of his reforms were good, a lot of damage was caused by his obssession with his political ideals and allegiances rather than the close appreciation of reality which had made him such a great commander at sea.
N.A.M. Rodgers and J. D.G. Davidson both assert and admit, as do I, that although the reforms he made did initially weaken the strength of the Royal Navy, and some of the dismissals such as the old and young were questionable it did ultimately allow the Royal Navy to remain in a fighting condition for the remainder of the war and be in a position to be able to handle the American threat in the 1810's as well as the continued French threat. His political ideas were often antagonistic to his reforms and many were carried out in an "out of spite" manner. His rift with Sir John Orde is an example of how his political ideals and allegiances often overpowered his powers of perceiving reality.
Glad you read the blog though, wasn't sure anyway was! lol.
I thought it was very interesting, I was only seeking to add some balance, to your otherwise very informative entry - in fact as a historian myself I wish all blogs on history were so accurate, perhaps I would then not have to spend so long explaining to students why they are wrong when saying the Hannibal was never defeated in a battle, or claim that nelson was at every naval battle (reguardless of nationality involved( from 1700- 1950 (the student who put the latter date was very suprised to fail); for personal reasons I was wondering what sparked your interest so in this particular gentlemen of the blue cloth?
How strange, he thought Nelson was in all the naval battles? Well we all mistakes lets hope he's not still making the same one.
I'm not sure why this particular gentleman, I have a very strong interest in lots of Naval History but the Earl of St. Vincent has always been a favourite. I think if I'm properly honest the way he was depicted in the Aubrey-Maturin Novels by O'Brian sparked an interest for me. Because he came across as human, Aubrey often speaks "Our Nel" but so often he's a distant figure, and when I learned that St. Vincent was in fact Nelson's patron I had to learn more. As he seems to be a relatively neglected figure of this era.
Sadly a there are a lot of holes on my knowledge as there were very few naval or maritime subjects at university so much of it is self taught. I'm considering posting another on piracy in the Caribbean soon actually you might be interested in it. Have you any blog yourself?
I am planning on starting my own blog, once I have a stronger handle on my personal schedule; and possibly after I have finnished writing my two major projects at the moment; both on modern naval warfare; one focusing on naval technological development/purchasing and how this needs to be more thouroughly thought out or governments will find themselves stating that they can do a certain mission when they know longer have thee quality - or a more common problem quantity neccessary to carry out that task; the other is focusing on modern naval intervention.
this combined with some lecturing on various topics, some naval, some just military based, and dealing with students like the aformentioned gentleman takes up a large proportion of my time; although I should stress that thankfully he is the exception rather than the rule, and reading how Admiral Nelson won the Battle of Tushima with a well aimed cruise missile strike in 1945 verses the polish and spanish navies did prove to me that he that doth not attend lectures doth not know a thing.
Well let me know when you do as clearly I'm a hobbyist in comparison to your naval knowledge lol.
Where are you studying/teaching out of interest?
I decline to comment on Nelson at the battle of Tushima as I may be quite rude! lol
I now have my own blog, not sure how good it is though http://amphibiousnecessity.blogspot.com/
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