Forging the Trident: A Navy Board (Central Planning-Esque) Quest

mouli · Apr 19, 2021

Forging the Trident: A Navy Board Quest

"To pretend to Universal Monarchy without fleets was long since looked upon as a politick chimaera...whoever commands the ocean, commands the trade of the world, and whoever commands the trade of the world, commands the riches of the world, and whoever is master of that, commands the world itself"
-John Evelyn, Navigation and Commerce, 1674

London's burning, London's burning, London's burning, bright fire licking upwards from the pub beneath the Navy Board offices. There's a drunken sailor singing something bawdy under your window, and you're humming along off-key and slightly behind while you tot up the accounts – as usual, Parliament has failed to vote the required monies and you're reduced to skimming off just a tad to keep your household together. One has to make do in these times.

It takes another fifteen minutes to finish the accounts, by which time the seaman beneath your window has been apprehended by the patrolling guardsmen and the pub has had its fire doused – ever since the Great Fire things have been a bit better about that. Accounting done, you lean back in the old wooden chair and consider your little fiefdom for a moment. A little room, barely a hundred feet square, but a fiefdom that stretches across the world under the Navy's White Ensign. Thick books on the shelf above, gifts by famed naturalists who traveled with the Navy – you've read a bit of them, but they were left here by your predecessor and probably have to be dusted. Your desk, Indian teak and buffed to a shine, some of it visible under the papers and dockets and ink-pots that line it. A room with a single chair aside from yours, when you call in some hapless fool for grilling.

From here you are the Comptroller of the Navy, the Cabinet's representative in the fleet, the handler of the sinews of naval warfare. Dockyards, hospitals, the Sick and Hurt Board, the shipbuilders and victualling cartels and the specie shipments that keep the ships afloat from Chatham Dockyard a mile away to the Port of Bombay a world away from you.

In Calcutta, a squadron under the flag of the Honorable Company is setting sail, a dozen fat Indiamen with iron cannon and gold-laden holds flying the White Ensign. The commodore of the convoy takes a look out from his quarterdeck and sees nothing at all save the open seas of the Indian Ocean, the sharp triangular sails of the little darting dhows near the coastline of the Bay of Bengal. Nothing else save the bright sunlight glittering off warm, deceptively gentle waters as the wind brings the salty tang of the sea.

Along the wild coasts of the Baltic where almost-heathen Continentals (some of them are even Catholic), merchantmen out of the east coast of Britain make their way in a sea that has just melted. The winds are quiet here, the inland waters of the Baltic home to the quick, sleek lethality of coastal galleys flying every banner from Sweden to distant St. Petersburg. A captain on his quarterdeck clad in thick pea-coat and tricorne hat takes a moment to look out to sea, and sees no more than drifting ice and a Prussian fisherman's convoy. The seas are quiet here, above the rich amber-laden floor of the Baltic where the Vikings once sailed.

America is a land of contrasts, of bright proclamations of liberty in Quaker colonies and of the brutal chattel slavery of the Triangle Trade. Its ports are restless, its population restless and the British colonies in Canada a place that is overshadowed by the string of cities to their south. . When British ships pull into American ports they are met with glares at times, sullen muttering, and a captain in Boston is advised to keep one hand on his wallet and another on a smallsword. The seas here are far from quiet, for all that almost every flag flown by a warship on the Eastern Seaboard is a British one.

The Navy Board is the power that moves the Royal Navy, and it is the Royal Navy that keeps the seas quiet for British trade in the face of pirates, in the face of unrest, in the face of foreign nations and most of all in the face of the French. The Navy Board is your responsibility, to run the dockyards in places ranging from Bermuda to Bombay, to supply squadrons sailing as close as the Western Approaches and as far off as Cape Town. It does this on the back of a Parliament that votes perhaps two thirds of the monies needed, a King that alternates between supporting the army and supporting his two rather lackluster mistresses, and a string of merchants and dealers whose patriotism and willingness to deal with the Navy Board inflates with their prices.

You are the head of the Navy Board in these troubled times, and yours is the task of defending English liberties – that is to say, the liberty of the English to take liberties. It is a weighty task, one that requires a good deal of fortitude.
Lovely cask of Madeira in the cellars, perhaps that might aid you somewhat.

Pick a starting data: This is to be run on the PlanQuest format made by @Blackstar as the Royal Navy Board, the organization that handled everything from logistics and victualling to the building of ships.

[]1770: The colonials are restless. War beckons.

[]1789: Madness has come to France, and war will come as well. This is the easier option.

In addition, I will allow you to choose whether to have limited control over the Admiralty. This will mean running operations to some extent, and that has risks – can you do better than the Admiralty of the late 1700s?

[]Yes: Limited control of the Admiralty

[]No

AN: I realize that I have a great many projects unfinished: This is intended to be a relatively low-stress project to give some variety to writing while my brain's too fried to do something serious like Schwarz-Rot-Gold, and priority will return to that quest come May. This thread will update in tandem with Creative Destruction at least twice a week, and slow to once a week come mid-May. The more serious projects are not dead, they are at present on hold due to time and thinking bottlenecks.

mouli · Apr 20, 2021

Character Choice

[Winning vote: 1770, No]

The byzantine structure of the Navy Board is characteristic of the British approach to bureaucracy – that is to say, muddling through until some sort of organized solution presents itself, followed by a series of unnecessary mutilations to said solution, a sprinkling of corruption, and a final product that is surprisingly effective perhaps in spite of the efforts that went into its making. At the head of the Navy Board is the Comptroller of the Navy, the bureaucrat who handles the day to day administration of the Navy's internal systems. Under him is the Victualling Board, handling supplies and sustainment through a network of Agents-Victualler at British ports across the globe. There are the dockyards, from Chatham on the Thames to the malarial swamp of Sheerness to the larger yards at Deptford. There is the personnel side, tightly intertwined with politics, for while Britain likes to style itself a sailing nation there is a fierce opposition to the press gangs that keep the Navy manned. And lastly, there is the political side, where the Comptroller accounts for his monies and begs Parliament for more – usually to no avail outside of wartime.

With the Comptroller is the First Lord of the Admiralty, who runs the Navy's side of things. The First Lord's remit is outside the scope of the Comptroller's agency, but in the grand tradition of British bureaucracy, there is a hellish entanglement of responsibilities at times. That means you will have to deal with the personnel, patronage and to some extent the operational side of the Admiralty, although the bulk of that will be outside your remit.

You will have the following areas to plan around:

Victualling: This is the task of sustainment – purchasing food, naval supplies for repairs and maintenance, ensuring that the supplies and food reach their destinations, and doing all of this within budget. Also folded in here is the task of making sure that the merchants who sell food and naval supplies (and the Swedes who sell high-grade bar iron) don't utterly fleece you.

Infrastructure: This covers the task of capital spending and maintenance – keep in mind that almost all infrastructure spending won't pay for itself. The Navy makes war, not money. The more infrastructure you build that is run by the Navy and not by private interests, the more you have to pay for. This includes maintenance yards, hospitals, barracks and lodging for marines, workshops that handle specialized tasks such as cannon-founding, and so on. Options that are private and can pay their way once complete will be marked off as such.

Dockyards: This covers the task of shipbuilding (that is to say, meeting the Navy's requirement for ships of high quality while ensuring that Parliament has the numbers of ships it wants) within the constraints of Parliament's rather rosy and optimistic budgetary estimates. The Navy Board can advise and instruct the state yards at Sheerness, Deptford, Chatham, Devonport, and Portsmouth. There is also the great arsenal at Woolwich, which turns out cannon on demand for the Navy. All this is a vast expense, and requires constant attention.

The Admiralty: The First Lord of the Admiralty handles the dockyards (yes, there is overlap), doctrine and personnel (overlap again), supplying ships at sea using the supplies and cooperation of the Navy Board (clashing responsibilities here), shipbuilding oversight through Commissioners of the Royal Dockyards (overlaps with the Navy Board) and finally handles operational matters to a limited extent (the First Sea Lord handles most of that).

Politics: This is where you bribe, borrow money, cook the accounts, skim a bit off the top, handle political patronage within the Navy, and cozy up to Parliament, the PM and the King. Without this, the Navy cannot function.

You have the following indicators:

Quantitative:
→Corruption: This is the grease that keeps the Navy running, as well as being the bane of good organization. Corruption ranges from 0-100. Below 30 Corruption one starts to see a drop in effectiveness due to morale being low – pursers cannot line their pockets, sailors are more policed when off-ship and therefore angry, captains cannot indulge in patronage, etc. Above 50 Corruption there is a gradual rise in embezzlement, bad accounts, bad goods delivered to the Board, and so on. Corruption has to be strictly maintained and kept from growing out of control – and can be also used to gain political leverage, i.e. bribing the right people with sinecures in naval administration. Between 30 and 50 corruption hinders operations as it rises, but does not have as much of a pronounced effect.
→Money: As it says on the tin, what you can spend.
→Political Influence (PI): This is the political backing of the Comptroller and what determines the attitude of Parliament and the Cabinet. It ties into two of the narrative indicators below. Too low and you'll be hauled before a courts-martial or a star chamber. Too high and the PM will begin to intrigue against you, to smear and discredit you. To keep the Navy running effectively, this has to be kept high but not too high.

Qualitative:
→Targets: You will have to meet targets for (a) Supplies, (b) Naval Supplies (i.e. rope, hemp, sailcloth, hardwood, iron, etc), (c) Shipbuilding (Not just ships, but materials for it and the maintenance of the Fleet), (d) Personnel.
→Opinions: This gives an indication of the broadness of support you have – i.e. what the Navy, the Cabinet, the people and the King think.
→Further narrative indicators dependent on events.

Choose your Comptroller of the Navy:

[]Fmr. Governor Hugh Palliser: Admiral Palliser was captain of the Eagle, a sixty-gun ship of the line during the Seven Years' War noted for taking a fifty-gun Frenchman off Ushant in 1757. The Admiral then served as the Governor of Newfoundland and has now been called to administer the Navy as its Comptroller. Admiral Palliser is very much a compomise – the North Ministry needs someone reasonably competent to run the Navy, but at the same time does not want someone who is not a Whig (or indeed a Whig of the Rockingham faction) and also wants someone in decent odor with the King. This is the historical option.

Former Naval Officer: +5 to rolls involving working with the Admiralty.
Well-Known: This officer is well-known among the men and has long had an interest in their training and welfare. That tells, at times. +10 to rolls involving personnel training and doctrine, easier DCs for press-gangs. Does not stack.
Colonial Governor: +10 to rolls involving the American colonies, due to time as Governor of Newfoundland. This officer has an agenda to keep, though, with respect to his former colony.
Lackluster Administrator: Palliser is very much not the best of clerkly administrators, and that means that the staff are more easily able to run rings around him. +5 Corruption per turn.
Naval Factionalism: This officer has rivals in the Navy and the Parliamentarians who have an interest in the Navy. -10 to rolls involving Parliamentary and naval inquiries.

[]Sir Charles Middleton, (Later 1st Baron Barham): Barham was called back to the Navy after beginning a comfortable existence as a country gentleman, called back as a Tory and handed the navy as a deal made by Lord North with the Tories to keep them quiet and thereby marginalize the Whig backbenches that hate him. Barham is a brilliant administrator, but one that has unpopular views and is a Tory in a Whig government – the question is, how long will that Whig government last?

Brilliant Administrator: +15 to all rolls involving shipbuilding, supplies and personnel.
Tory: This man is a Tory. -15 to all political rolls while there is a Whig government.
Abolitionist: This man is influenced by an abolitionist parson and leans abolitionist – an unpopular view in Britain. Lose 5 PI per turn. Political actions lean abolitionist.
Renowned Frigate-Captain: +5 to all rolls involving commerce-escort and logistics, stacks.
Political Novice: This man is wearied of political infighting between Navy Board and Admiralty. -10 to all political rolls.

[]Henry Dundas, (Later 1st Viscount Melville): A prominent Scottish politician and lawyer styled as an 'Independent Whig', Dundas is thrice disadvantaged – he is young, barely serving a few years as Solicitor General of Scotland, he is a Scot, and he is viewed as North's man in the Admiralty. He is an energetic administrator and a deft political mind, someone who can stand up before Parliament and defend his department, but is that enough?

Not a Navy Man: -10 to all rolls involving naval affairs, improves by +2 per turn.
Solicitor: +10 to Parliamentary rolls and inquiries, +10 to legal actions
North's Man: +10 PI per turn, this man leaves if North leaves.
Scottish Political Kingpin: Political actions involve patronage in Scotland, costs PI and is unpopular. Some of these have to be taken every year. +10 to all rolls.
Fervent Abolitionist: This man is a fervent abolitionist and has connections among most of the Quaker merchants and the great committees that push for it – but that is still unpopular in this day and age. -5 PI per turn.

[]Admiral George Rodney: Former Rear Admiral Rodney is a man who served with honor in the Seven Years' War, in the taking of Martinique and the battle of Ushant. He is possibly one of the finest fleet commanders in Britain and may be recalled to the colours in the event that a war goes badly, and is a gambler and spendthrift besides - but is also an energetic, skilled and popular leader who knows as much about the yards and Fleet as anyone else in the candidate pool.

Renowned Admiral: +15 to all Admiralty rolls
Experienced Senior Officer: +10 to all Shipbuilding rolls, improved relations with the Navy.
Spendthrift: This man does not understand finance very well at all. +10 Corruption per turn.
Politically Tactless: -5 PI per turn.
Far-Ranging Service: This sailor has served in the Mediterranean, in the Caribbean, in the Channel and the North Sea. +10 to all rolls involving the colonies.
Popular: +10 to all parliamentary rolls during inquiries and when attempting to cultivate political influence.

mouli · Apr 20, 2021

The State of the Navy, 1770

London, 1770

Whitehall is cold in January, but it's a chill that you've been through before – the same chill of London breezes carrying the stench of ambition, of politics, of the great metropolis that pulls in the rest of Britain as if it were some bottomless well of wealth and grease. You shiver for a moment despite yourself as you enter the PM's offices, a sentry on duty giving your naval uniform an odd glance – an almost glare, you'd wager. The soldiers are a tad restless, with the confrontation happening over the Falklands.

The halls that you pass through are lined with the detritus of empire, pages and messengers scurrying back and forth while the pictures of past leadership line the walls and glare down as if to remind Britain of the price of ambition. The halls that once held the regicides of the Republic and the Stuarts' mistresses are now a place for the endless ranks of Parliamentary bureaucracy to mill about, some of them smelling of sweat and nervousness as you move towards the heart of the building. You nod again as a severe personal secretary looks once at you, and he seems to grimace before he waves you on in.

The Prime Minister turns to you as your footsteps are heard, and the crowded desk with its red inkwell and its thickly padded chair seems to signal his preoccupation as well as the famed North lethargy. Still, though, you were called here - and you aren't going to pretend to try to do a hail-fellow-well-met at this point. You clear your throat as North nods at you, "My lord North-" Ridiculous name, but you suppose it's better than being the Earl of Guilford, "You called?"

The eyes that so often sleep in the Commons and the Cabinet seem to wake a little and focus as Frederick North nods, pockmarked cheeks hollowing as he fills his pipe and lights it up. "Yes. Sit, Comptroller. We have much to talk about." He smiles as he calls you Comptroller, as if to remind you that the title was at his pleasure and temporary – the man was always a clever politician, carrot and stick both in his power.

"Much to talk about indeed." You point at one of the maps as you sit opposite the PM at his desk, "You know I'm not one for the Foreign Office and Parliament in Whitehall as yet, and that seems to be what's going on. I'll run the Navy and the Falklands haven't led to war yet. The Spanish can still be talked down."

North smiles thinly at your reply, and his words are lazily reprimanding as smoke rolls out of his mouth. "The Navy is, at this point, the more important thing. You understand the priorities, old boy. Better than most. You know the power that the Navy has and you know the amount of money that Parliament is willing to spend on it, and you have been a reliable old bureaucrat until now."

Unlike half the Whigs who hate you and me both, comes the unspoken addendum, and the PM's next words are enough to make you drop your guard for a moment. "You will be in command of the Navy Board and have my backing this year onwards. You will have full command authority for the Navy Board and a limited control of the Admiralty. More than the last Comptroller."

"What." As the word slips out of your mouth, lethargic old Lord North laughs.

What funding has Parliament allocated?

[]Half the required amount: Parliament is quite happy to fund the Navy to what it sees as the necessary amount. What do you mean you need shore stations? The Navy uses ships, right? 75 Budget per turn, +10 PI per turn.

[]Two Thirds the Required amount: Parliament has grudgingly voted what it sees as more than the required amount, as if to make up for the fact that the entire Navy is corrupt and under the thrall of a Whig administration. 100 Budget per turn. +5 PI per turn.

[]Three Quarters the Required Amount: The PM and Parliament have fought bitterly to get the estimates to a decent amount, and the remainder will have to be made up for by extraordinary income, borrowing if need be, and the use of side ventures by the Navy Board. 150 Budget per turn.

[]The Full Amount: Lord North has exploited the Falklands Crisis to garner a proper spending plan and emergency construction requirement for frigates, at the cost of a great deal of political capital and a great many promises of spending in particular constituencies. 200 Budget per turn, -10 PI per turn, +5 Corruption per turn.

What is your main agenda?

[]Readiness: Parliament wants the fleet ready for a conflict, driven by paranoia after the Falklands crisis and a sense of isolation in the Foreign Office. The main task is to build up the fleet and build up its lighter elements, and quality can come afterwards. Focus: Shipbuilding, complete 2 runs of emergency frigates, a rebuild of the mainline battlefleet and copper sheathing of the American squadron.

[]Politics: Parliament is once more using the Navy as a means of spending in targeted constituencies and addressing the beloved goal of the personnel advocates – the preservation and encouragement of the Newfoundland fisheries, so that seamen can be recruited without pressing. A fantasy, but a potentially helpful one. Focus: Infrastructure/Personnel, complete manning the fleet to full capacity, reduce corruption in victualling abroad, build up Bermuda and Jamaica dockyards, build up administrative apparatus at home in a politically acceptable manner.

[]Quality: The Admiralty is finding it easier to convince the state of the need to rebuild more of the fleet, sheath it in copper, ensure that good officers are retained and make the sailors less liable to desert. That means fixing arrears in pay, ensuring that refits are timely and rotations from the West Indies more frequent, and a massive program of yard work. Focus: Personnel/Shipbuilding: Complete manning the fleet, build up dockyards at Bermuda and subsidize the EIC yards at Bombay, import teak and copper for shipbuilding, complete full refits of the battlefleet.

AN: None of the above are possible to complete in any sense by 1772. The idea is to get a good enough start and a good enough political position to keep going.

mouli · Apr 21, 2021

Turn 1: First Half, 1770

Whitehall
1770

The Falklands Crisis is at present in full swing, with Spain having threatened to occupy the islands and Britain contesting the Spanish claim to the hitherto relatively quiet islands. The Falklands are wind-tossed rocks in the cold, stormy South Atlantic, their water supply thin and their economic value marginal, but they are the British eyes in the South Atlantic, a port and victualling station for fleets and squadrons threatening the Spanish base of power in South America and more specifically the River Plate. The islands have been a sore point between Spain and Britain, but they were until now viewed as a minor one – while the Falklands might be an eternal saddle-burr or blister, it is Gibraltar that is the greatest insult to the Spanish Crown. Which of course is why the Admiralty flies a massive Union Jack from the fortress at the Rock of Gibraltar at all hours of the day.

Now, though, the Falklands are contested. The energetic governor of Buenos Aires and the Rio de la Plata is Francisco de Paula Bucareli y Ursua, and he is at present threatening to send a force of frigates and marines to clear out the small British garrison and take the islands – while he can easily do so, the fact remains that doing so would lead to war between Britain and Spain. And of course, that would involve France. The indications so far point to peace, but Lord North has ordered a complete overhaul of the Navy just in case – a naval mobilization is something that takes time, calling back officers from half-pay and digging senior NCOs and sailors from the Indiamen and the bars. As a result, while Parliament has yet to take the problem seriously, the Navy Board and the Admiralty are forced to Do Something while pretending that they are Doing Nothing, because Doing Nothing is what the budgetary estimates have deemed is desirable.

You're just here as the newly minted Comptroller of the Navy, a former admiral who's been shuffled off here due to a mix of popularity, playing the prestige game, and the North Cabinet wanting a bona fide fighting man that can make a brave face before Parliament. You're not some old civilian hand like Sandwich or a priggish lout like Middleton, you're a man of the world. Just reading the dispatches and the reports of this new crisis are giving you ideas on what the Navy is to do.

And, of course, on which officers are suitable for the task. You smile a little. Patronage might be officially looked upon as something to do quietly, but it's still the game that makes or breaks careers in the Navy.

There's a knocking at your door, the dim lighting of the office this early in the morning making you squint a little. The door's shut, and you call out, "Come in. Who is it?"

It squeaks open, and in walks an austere man in a wig that's twenty years out of style, his eyes piercing and judging as he walks in. You don't stand to receive him. Not this old man. The man sits down, gives you as close to a glare as he'll ever do, and speaks. "Rodney. What are your plans for the Fleet? What the devil does the PM think, handing you the Navy Board?"

You raise an eyebrow, lean back a little in the hard wooden chair, and take a moment to answer. Anger takes time to subside, and it still roughens your voice when you speak. "I am to administer the Navy Board and work with the Admiralty, and to do it while building up the Fleet to face this new Spanish crisis. Possible Spanish war. I'm the fighting admiral and influential person that the PM tapped to lead the Admiralty, so that he doesn't have to deal with Parliament has much." Your last comment stings, for Sandwich is politically rigid and a priggish old man, refusing to play the patronage game and interfering in the privileges of the Admiralty.

He glares at you. You smile.

"The Navy is more than your fief, Rodney. Skimming from the top here will not be treated as lightly as your earlier misadventures. There are no French noblemen to loan you the remainders here." Your eyes narrow for a moment, and you're wondering where the fuck Sandwich learned about that, and then he smiles suddenly. "Now then. I am to replace Hawke as the First Lord and I will be working with you. Why not a drink, then, to toast the partnership we will have to build?"

There's not a trace of guile in the old man's eyes, and you take a long time to verify that. You grunt, and then smile back. It's completely insincere, as is the toast of Madeira and light conversation early in the morning that ushers in the new era of your life. You're left to contemplate things once Sandwich leaves, as the light filters in through old windows in the Navy Board's offices and the shouting of workmen beneath begins to drift up to your office. What a change, from Admiral Rodney to...this.

Head of the Navy Board, with the Spanish on the horizon and many, many eyes on you. With luck, the Parliamentarians won't be too nosy. With luck, you can amass enough to pay off your debts.

Or better yet, assign yourself a fleet command once war breaks out. Prize money is what you really need, prize money and the chance to see to your son's career. Well and so, there's a good plan.
Humming a little, you set to the paperwork with a lighter heart.

Quantitative Indices

Resources/Budget: 150
In Storage/Reserve: None

Corruption: 30/100
Corruption Gain Per Turn: +10

Political Influence: 50
Political Influence Gain Per Turn: -5

Targets: Range from Major Shortfall → Shortfall → Minor Shortfall → Sufficiency →Surplus →Major Surplus

Naval Supplies: Shortfall, Trending Down: There are shortfalls in seasoned wood, in copper, in rope and old-growth wood for masts.

Supplies: Minor Shortfall, Stable: The salt beef is old and complaints have already come in from ships on patrol, the beer is and always has been foul, and prices have ticked upwards. The harvest this year has been lackluster, prices are slated to rise.

Shipbuilding: Shortfall, Trending Down: Frigates have to be built for escort work, the line ships have to be rebuilt and refitted to stay in service, and maintenance has to be run on a large chunk of the Fleet.

Personnel: Sufficiency, Trending Down: Personnel are enough for peacetime service, expansion of the Fleet and more ships built means dealing with more personnel issues.

Opinions

The Navy: Admiral Rodney is a divisive figure in the Fleet. While the men are tepidly in favor of a fighting admiral leading the Navy Board, the officers are well aware that Admiral Rodney is not just a competent admiral and fleet commander. He is also known for being spendthrift, grasping and very very sharp in the patronage game. The officer following who he has boosted are very supportive, most of the rest of the officer corps dislike him.

The Cabinet/Parliament: At the moment, Rodney is popular and known as the fighting admiral who will clean up the Navy Board and bring the Navy into shape in time for the war.

The Crown: Rodney being in the Navy Comptroller's slot means that one of the King's favorites is not able to be put in. This means that the King is not very willing to aid him, but then the King is also not very inclined to hinder him.

Admiral George Rodney: Former Rear Admiral Rodney is a man who served with honor in the Seven Years' War, in the taking of Martinique and the battle of Ushant. He is possibly one of the finest fleet commanders in Britain and may be recalled to the colours in the event that a war goes badly, and is a gambler and spendthrift besides - but is also an energetic, skilled and popular leader who knows as much about the yards and Fleet as anyone else in the candidate pool.

Renowned Admiral: +15 to all Admiralty rolls
Experienced Senior Officer: +10 to all Shipbuilding rolls, improved relations with the Navy.
Spendthrift: This man does not understand finance very well at all. +10 Corruption per turn.
Politically Tactless: -5 PI per turn.
Far-Ranging Service: This sailor has served in the Mediterranean, in the Caribbean, in the Channel and the North Sea. +10 to all rolls involving the colonies.
Popular: +10 to all parliamentary rolls during inquiries and when attempting to cultivate political influence.

You have three free dice
Supplies and Victualling: Three dice

[]Auditing the Agents-Victualler (0/40): Agents-Victualler are purchasing agents that liaise with port merchants and chandleries in naval basing stations who buy up everything from fresh vegetables to fresh livestock and supply them to the ships. While ships might load biscuit, salt pork and pickled cabbage in England and from bases abroad, the Agents-Victualler are the ones that make sure crews have fresh food for the sake of health and morale. Their accounts have to be thoroughly audited, especially since the last Comptroller was more focused on other matters, and their accounts are notoriously opaque. Best to have a grasp on things before Parliament takes an interest, and once we have a grasp on things we can move towards actually reworking the system or improving it. Costs 5 Budget per die.

[]Seasoning Stage 1 (0/50): Wood has to be seasoned and stored properly for a decent time to allow it to attain the right sort of hardness and resistance to the elements that is necessary for the hull timbers of a man-of-war. That means storing valuable hardwood – both cut timber for the frame and the larger ones for the 'skeleton', along with great oaken masts, at the yards under cover and safely. Hardwood is a valuable thing, and its loss means the setback of years in shipbuilding. At present, we have to survey England for suitable wood on royal preserves, and we have to set up the storage facilities at Deptford and Chatham Navy Yards to take the timber for whatever planned build program is on the books. Costs 20 Budget per die, -5 per turn.

[]Pre-Empting the Harvest (0/100): There is word that the harvest will be poor this year, and last year's harvest was not a good one. While forecasting the harvest is a mug's game, the last few years have seem mediocre and lackluster – perhaps it would be wise to pre-empt a potential failed harvest. Ensure that the Navy Board has contracts for more than enough of the market's output to make sure that we can supply enough hardtack, salt meat, pickled cabbage and vegetables, and grog to the ships - not to mention ensuring that we can sell off the surplus to top off the Navy Board's coffers should the harvest be good. Costs 20 Budget per die.

[]Convict Labor (0/50): Nobody likes working with rope. Ropes for naval use are difficult to make and have to be cheap to get the Navy the rope it needs for everything from hammocks to rigging to the nine-tailed ship's cat. A proposal by the Parliamentarians of the North of England proposes to use convicts who would otherwise be transported to the colonies as workmen for rope-making, paying them a nominal wage as they work off their sentence at a dockyard or naval workshop. While expensive for capital costs, it is supposedly more humane than transportation or the gallows. Costs 15 Budget per die, pays its expenses.

[]Swedish Iron, British Iron (0/100): Swedish iron ore is high-grade and the only source at present for the Navy Board's bar iron. The Swedes have a royal monopoly on their iron reserves and are perfectly willing to charge the earth for it – and the mines that we have in the north of England are nowhere as good. The mines of the North of England are not suitable and the mines of Sweden are far too expensive in the very long term, and that leaves the colonies. Surveys of the Americas and inquiries into Spain and Russia are alternatives to Sweden, and would provide competition at the least – allowing us to negotiate a lowering of prices from the Swedes. Costs 20 Budget per die.

[]Coppering, Supplies (0/100): A novel idea is to use copper to coat the bottom of a major ship and thereby prevent it from being fouled by the buildup of barnacles on its bottom. Scraping the bottom of a ship clean – careening – is a labor intensive, dangerous and potentially damaging task, and ideally requires a proper dockyard. Coppering a ship would, in theory, allow us to squeeze a knot or more from ships that spend longer at sea, and moreover allow us to keep longer windows between yard visits. Well worth it...if it works. And the first step to testing it is to arrange for enough copper to coat a ship and to try that with a small sloop that's sitting in the Medway. Costs 15 Budget per die.

Shipbuilding: Three Dice

[]Escorts Stage 1 (0/150): Lighter ships – frigates and scouts for the fleet, called Fifth and Sixth Rates of the Line in the Navy's terminology, are in short supply and always needed. They're needed to escort merchantmen, raid the enemy's supply lines, scout for the fleet and maintain the cordon for a close blockade. They're fast, lightly built in comparison to a battleship and don't last as long. They therefore have to be built back up. And that starts by laying down the skeleton of the ship's timbers and letting it season in the slip for a time under cover before building around that skeleton and fitting out a ship. We can start by using the slips in the south of England, and work onwards from there. Costs 20 Budget per die, -5 per turn maintenance.

[]Private Escorts Stage 1 (0/100): Private yards are also able to build a frigate and fit one out, albeit often requiring more inspection than Navy yards. They also are able to do the building faster and cheaper on paper than the government yards, although the Navy Board often asserts that the private yards do that and to a lesser standard. When one needs lighter vessels, private yards at ports ranging from Bristol to Liverpool to London are a ready source to tap. Costs 15 Budget per die, -5 per turn maintenance.

[]The Great Rebuilding, Stage 1 (0/300): The main battlefleet has to be rebuilt and reworked, the older ships being wormy and unhandy by now. They have to be careened, rebuilt, fitted out with fresh everything, and in the case of the older three-deckers, converted to two-decker 'razee' frigates that can act as flagships for escort units and tangle with a lighter ship of the line. The rebuilding is a cheaper alternative to the task of rebuilding the entire line of battle, and that makes Parliament happier – they always do prefer to see the Navy Board take economies. They also expect us to win. Costs 20 Budget per die, -15 per turn maintenance.

[]Slade's Offer Stage 1 (0/300): Renowned shipwright Thomas Slade is the one that designed HMS Victory and is already thinking up new iterations on his older designs. The new battlefleet would be significantly better in handling, in hardiness and in armament than the older ships that are due for rebuilding, but they are also expensive and time-consuming to build. First step is to build the skeleton, season the timbers, and lay out the masts and other materials as well – once it seasons on the stand, it can be built up to sail. Costs 30 budget per die, -20 Budget per turn maintenance.

Infrastructure: Two dice

[]Auditing the Yard Commissioners (0/50): The commissioners at the yards are often those who run the place like a family business, and Admiral Rodney's reputation for being spendthrift means that they may take liberties. The obvious solution is to arrange a series of inspections and audits, and then we can begin to use the yards' rivalries as well as the increasing capacity of private yards, against the more corrupt of the state shipyards. 5 Budget per die.

[]The West Indies Yards (0/100): The West Indies yards are not built for building ships, rather they are maintenance and careening yards that are meant to keep the West Indies Squadron seaworthy. The winds that carry ships to the Americas blow in a great half-circle, from the North Sea to Newfoundland to the West Indies, and that makes the Caribbean a crucial theater - best to ensure that it is well-equipped. Given the present situation with Spain. 25 Budget per die.

[]Marine Barracks (0/100): The Marines are at present an odd lot. Trained and equipped as army units, dispersed in penny-packets aboard ships as landing troops and enforcers, expected to serve as unskilled ship's labor, and used against potential unrest on the ship's company. They are not of the Navy, and they are at present too much like the army in culture and in behavior. Building out barracks and facilities for them away from the army facilities and quartering that has kept them until now would allow for better integration, and allow them to suppress impressment riots in Portsmouth besides. 10 Budget per die. Maintenance -10 per turn on completion.

Personnel: Three dice

[]Cleaning the Naval Hospitals (0/50): Hospitals for the wounded and the lame are a place to die or a place to convalesce from the few injuries that can be efficiently treated by barber-surgeons and doctors. Cleanliness is key to these institutions, to avoid bad air from infecting wounds and exacerbating illness, and that means in this case funding the hospitals back up to scratch. At present there are small hospitals at the bases of Devonport, Chatham and Plymouth, as well as a small one in the Caribbean to provide what solace it can to the suffering there. Costs 5 budget per die, -5 budget per turn.

[]Setting Up Press Gangs (0/50): The Navy is not manned by volunteers, or at least not in its entire. The press gangs are a major component of the Navy's manning, trawling the ports and impressing seamen who are not one of the exempt groups. Local governments tend to take exception to pressing, and thus tend to either inhibit the press-gangs' operation or assign sailors to exempt categories – and thus the press-gangs have to be both well-funded and willing to pay out bounties and bribes with that funding. Costs 10 budget per die due to paying out bounties.

[]Standing Orders (0/50): The Fighting Instructions are the backbone of the Admiralty and the Navy's discipline, their rules and regulations nominally governing the Fleet. While the Navy's Fighting Instructions are nominally subject to the Admiralty's orders and doctrine and therefore outside the purview of the Navy Board, the Navy Board also lays out in those instructions the paper work that captains are expected to complete and turn in on pain of stoppage of pay. While extensive paperwork will cut corruption and too little will lead to excessive license being taken, some is needed – the issue is judging balance. Costs 5 Budget per die. Reduces Corruption, which can have adverse effects on morale.

[]Dredging Up Officers (0/100): Good officers are rare, and the bulk of the Navy is demobilized in peacetime. That means hundreds of officers drawing half-pay (What midshipmen call 'nothing a day and duties besides'), who can be called up to serve in wartime. In theory. In practice, most of them are already aboard other ships or serving abroad, and we have to find them and offer commissions, or at least make sure that it is known that we are offering commissions. That way we can rake in what trained gentlemen we can before war breaks out. Costs 10 Budget per die.

Politics: Two Dice

[]Additional Personnel: Hiring additional personnel would allow for more actions to be undertaken and more of the administrative work to be handled by the staff in that area, but at the same time we would have to ensure that said personnel are clean, honest and literate. That would take time and effort, and money besides. And after all of that, we have to pay them. Unfortunately, patriotic gentlemen also expect to be paid. DC25/50, lower DC is to succeed and increase Corruption. Adds one die to a user selected category.

[]Smearing the Rockingham Whigs: Rodney is one that can use Parliament to talk about the navy's readiness with more than a little authority, being as he is one of the admirals of the fleet in the last war as well as the Comptroller of the Navy. That means he can slander them in Parliament and stake out a position that would make Lord North grateful – and that gratitude would have dividends in future. DC40, gain PI, make enemies in Parliament.

[]Patronage: The admiral is one that can play the patronage game, and has done so in the past with panache. Patronage involves the selective boosting of careers of individuals of either ability (who would therefore reflect well upon you later) or those who have political clout and influence (and therefore can aid your career implicitly). Admiral Rodney knows both sorts, and is unafraid to meddle in the navy – every man has a political 'interest', and this is hardly inflammatory. DC45, gain +10 PI, +5 Corruption. Potentially unsuitable admirals/captains elevated.

[]Additional Funds: Convincing Parliament to release additional funding is difficult, but the Navy Board can borrow on its account and use future funding to pay things off. At present our credit is good, and that means that we can borrow with ease. Parliament might not appreciate excessive borrowing, so be cautious here. Autopass, gain 50 Budget, maintenance -5 per turn at present for that.

mouli · Apr 22, 2021

Turn 1 Results: 1770, First Half

[]Auditing the Agents-Victualler (0/40): Agents-Victualler are purchasing agents that liaise with port merchants and chandleries in naval basing stations who buy up everything from fresh vegetables to fresh livestock and supply them to the ships. While ships might load biscuit, salt pork and pickled cabbage in England and from bases abroad, the Agents-Victualler are the ones that make sure crews have fresh food for the sake of health and morale. Their accounts have to be thoroughly audited, especially since the last Comptroller was more focused on other matters, and their accounts are notoriously opaque. Best to have a grasp on things before Parliament takes an interest, and once we have a grasp on things we can move towards actually reworking the system or improving it. Costs 5 Budget per die.
Rolled: mouli: D100 → 32

The Agents-Victualler are scattered across the seas, in every naval base from Plymouth to Jamaica. Some of them are 'roaming', trading houses in neutral ports that buy up fresh food and send it onwards to the fleet. They're authorized to buy everything from rope and sailcloth to fresh vegetables, fruits and livestock – a frigate on long patrol in the Med might stop off at Algiers and take on a few head of cattle or a sheep, to relieve the monotony of the salt meat and biscuit. The records of the victuallers are therefore difficult to obtain and auditing them is harder, for not all of the Agents-Victualler are able to supply detailed records as needed on request.

Some of them are more organized. The trading houses of London that supply the Fleet near the British Isles are able to turn over detailed ledgers, down to the last hogshead of beer or barrel of salted pork. Their records take no more than a few months to scrutinize, a few frowning clerks sending back clarification requests and rapping a few merchants on the knuckles serving to convince them that we are indeed serious in this matter.

The merchants of Jamaica take longer. Their records are irregular, their affiliates scattered across the Leeward Islands and Bermuda, and their partners in the Americas notorious for having terrible ledgers in any case. But they aren't the worst.

It appears that the Agent-Victualler at the Port of Bombay is unable to turn over his ledgers. He claims that his three business partners have died of malaria and the records have been destroyed by damp and a fire in the port. While this is on paper an adequately true excuse, it is not enough to permit him to get away without paying some form of penalty. Surely.

Mr. Culverston,
It has come to the attention of the Navy Board that your Agency has been unable to furnish the required ledgers and records that are needed for the Navy Board to renew your contract to supply the Royal Navy's vessels at the Port of Bombay. While we acknowledge that there has indeed been a fire and an outbreak of malaria at the Port and that the ships of His Majesty's Navy have indeed been adequately supplied in your tenure, the fact remains that His Majesty's gold has been spent without being accounted for. As such, we are obliged to remind you that your contract obliges you to present yourself in London to explain yourself, before the Comptroller of the Navy…
Yrs,
Samuel Wilkinson,
Senior Clerk
On behalf of Admiral (Ret.) George Brydges Rodney, Comptroller of the Navy Board

"They want me to go NOW? When the monsoon is hotting up and I might die of it? All for the ledgers?"
-Arthur Henry Culverston, 1770

Progress now 32/40. Supply situation sees minor disruption in Port of Bombay.

[]Pre-Empting the Harvest (0/100): There is word that the harvest will be poor this year, and last year's harvest was not a good one. While forecasting the harvest is a mug's game, the last few years have seem mediocre and lackluster – perhaps it would be wise to pre-empt a potential failed harvest. Ensure that the Navy Board has contracts for more than enough of the market's output to make sure that we can supply enough hardtack, salt meat, pickled cabbage and vegetables, and grog to the ships - not to mention ensuring that we can sell off the surplus to top off the Navy Board's coffers should the harvest be good. Costs 20 Budget per die.
Rolled: mouli: 2D100 → 110(50 +60)

Buying up the future harvest is an unusual and risky thing, but not a very strange one – it has been done before, at least in terms of contracts with the merchants who buy from local farmers to ensure that the merchants sell for a fixed price. The merchants are able to guarantee a profit by means of stringent negotiation with the farmers and squires they buy from, and the Navy is able to secure a supply of meat, flour and vegetables for pickling and packing. The pickling and packing is to be done in summer after the harvest, before the ice and snow of wintertime, and the casks are already waiting in the London dockyard warehouses.

The harvest has already seen a hundred and one predictions made, from the hags of London's backstreets claiming that food will be cheap this year to the more august and learned astronomers buying up grain futures in expectation of a price spike and poor harvest. The Navy Board does not deal in gambles – there are already buyers lined up for the surplus should there be a surplus this year.

"So...you want to buy up what I might sell, in that I'm being offered a guaranteed price based on last year."
"Indeed."
"A good deal, then. A mug's game to do this, but it isn't my money."
"It's the King's."
"Indeed. So you'll buy me a drink on it, then, before I sign this?"
"Why not?"
-Conversation between a purchasing agent and trading house in the Midlands, February 1770

London,
1770

You are George Rodney, and things have been going well. Very, very well. Which is why you're here in the salon of one Adam Davenport, grain trader and noveau riche merchant, who wants to talk to you about the Navy Board's activities in Britain. You tip your hat to the lady of the house as she greets you, get a saucy smile in return – almost pasted on, as if smiling at you from lips and not from eyes – and head on inside the London townhouse to be confronted by as much splendor as Davenport can muster.

It isn't all that much. You've seen better.

Adam Davenport is a short, balding man who greets you as you enter his study, rising from the chair at his table to shake your hand and offer you a glass of wine. Good wine, as it turns out. French, if you're not mistaken. "Welcome, Admiral. Good of you to take the invitation, I wasn't sure if my humble abode would be a place that we could meet in." Humble abode he says, the home of the second-largest grain merchant in London. You almost snort.

Faux humility aside, though, Davenport is remarkably personable. You sit down and take another sip of the wine before replying to Davenport, "So you wanted to discuss the grain trade, I believe? Something to do with the whispers of a bad harvest on the horizon?"

"Indeed." He leans forward, steepling his fingers and looking at you through pince-nez with ostentatious brass rims, "So, what is it that the Navy wants with the grain market? You've been buying up contracts with the middlemen for months now? Something to do with the Spanish?"

You take another sip of the wine, eyes drifting away from Davenport to the paintings on the wall for a moment, "Perhaps. I can't tell."

"We both know that it is." The trader waves a pudgy hand dismissively, a hint of impatience creeping into his nasal voice, "The question is, what will you do if you have too much harvest to use? I do think that I can aid you there, in disposing of the excess." He smiles a little, "And I can make that worth your while, Admiral."

"Oh?" You're almost tempted to make a fuss, but here and now it's your word and his – there isn't the need. "Do tell, Mr. Davenport."

Complete 110/100

[]Coppering, Supplies (0/100): A novel idea is to use copper to coat the bottom of a major ship and thereby prevent it from being fouled by the buildup of barnacles on its bottom. Scraping the bottom of a ship clean – careening – is a labor intensive, dangerous and potentially damaging task, and ideally requires a proper dockyard. Coppering a ship would, in theory, allow us to squeeze a knot or more from ships that spend longer at sea, and moreover allow us to keep longer windows between yard visits. Well worth it...if it works. And the first step to testing it is to arrange for enough copper to coat a ship and to try that with a small sloop that's sitting in the Medway. Costs 15 Budget per die.
Rolled: mouli: 2D100 → 176(85 +91)
Overflow to Stage 2: 76/300; Crit allows practicable coppering a bit early

Dear Admiral Rodney,
I write to you as a shipbuilder in Liverpool, having worked with the West African trade for a number of years. My references are attached in the letter and attest to the longevity and quality of the ships that I have supplied to the West African trading houses, taking the winds from the Mersey to Gibraltar and southwards still. It has come to my attention that a new method for the coppering of ships has come to light – some say from France and some say from the Dutchmen – and I have tried it on the ships of my own construction for a brief time. As you know, the difficulty in affixing copper plating to the hull of a ship is the iron bolts that must hold it – iron rusts in seawater and will erode, and the water must be kept from the bolts. This was earlier done with great difficulty, and now can be done by the simple expedient of packing the plate with paper in an intervening layer to protect the bolt, and then affixing copper plating atop that. The iron bolts can be inspected in drydock and the ship is able to travel with far less trouble…
Yrs,
John Fisher

"This letter seems interesting, but I do not have the time to check it. Take it to the yards at Chatham and talk to the chief shipwright, Powell, make sure that you find out if it is practicable. This coppering fad might be worth looking into after all."
-Admiral George Rodney, 1770

"It might work, yes. The paper packing does help."
-Shipwright Audley Brotherton, 1770

"Admiral, the coppering-"
"What now?"
"They want to buy a mine, sir. Or at least, a great deal of copper."
"Do they now?"
"Parliament will have to be petitioned."
"Or the King, yes. An extraordinary expenditure. Leave that to me."
-Conversation between Senior Clerk Alonzo Powell and Admiral George Rodney, 1770

"...I do believe that I can secure enough to pay off the current balance in the light of recent events, and I ask for another eight months of forbearance in the matter. As you know, my new responsibilities are of a most solemn nature and have taken a toll on my ability to secure enough funds for the purpose of clearing my debts…"
-Admiral Rodney to moneylender William Carlisle, 1770

Pick one: Failure means losing PI to 'secure the passage' of your initiative, as it were.

[]Petition the King: An extraordinary expenditure like this needs the King to sign off now that we have a good idea of what to do for durable coppering. We would need the authority to buy copper from the market and copper the frigates in the yards, at least. That takes serious money, money diverted from the Estimates that Parliament voted. DC35. Would entail being obligated to the King if passed. -5PI if failed.

[]Petition Parliament: Allow Lord North to attempt to ram an extraordinary authorization through Parliament, and the Welshmen who own the copper mines would back it. It would mean having some palm-greasing and selective promotions, though. DC20, +5 Corruption. -10 PI on failure.

[]Slade's Offer Stage 1 (0/300): Renowned shipwright Thomas Slade is the one that designed HMS Victory and is already thinking up new iterations on his older designs. The new battlefleet would be significantly better in handling, in hardiness and in armament than the older ships that are due for rebuilding, but they are also expensive and time-consuming to build. First step is to build the skeleton, season the timbers, and lay out the masts and other materials as well – once it seasons on the stand, it can be built up to sail. Costs 30 budget per die, -20 Budget per turn maintenance.
Rolled: mouli: 2D100 → 101(88 +13)+mouli: D100 → 30=131+30=161
161/300

A man o'war is a massive thing, a hulking assemblage of wood and canvas that seems to almost give the appearance of a cloud at sea when all sails are unfurled and filled by the wind. Thomas Slade is the Navy's premier ship designer and the man that designed the great ship-of-the-line HMS Victory that is currently laid up in ordinary pending mobilization, and his new plan calls for another twelve ships of the line to be constructed over the next three years. Built to the same pattern as the standard seventy-four-gun ship of the line, they are to have better guns and better skeletons than the present rebuilt battleships of the main fleet.

At present, the design work has progressed enough to allow the Navy Board to issue contracts to the yards at Deptford, Chatham and Devonport, and to call for the materials for ship skeletons to be stockpiled at those locations prior to building up the ship's skeletons for storage and seasoning. Once the skeletons are built, seasoning would allow the timbers to gain strength and resistance to the elements, after which the ship can be built around that skeleton.

"The Admiral has been most insistent on the yards' rapid progress, Chief Shipwright. The fact remains that you have been delinquent of late, and the yards have not built to the same pattern and performance as before."
"We have our privileges that-"
"The same privileges that the Admiral is aware of. That does not excuse the mistakes made in layout and in the small-craft work that preceded this. You don't have some landsman in London now. Make do."
-Conversation between Portsmouth Yard Commissioner Captain Henry Cartwright and Chief Shipwright Walter Tillman, 1770

[]Auditing the Yard Commissioners (0/50): The commissioners at the yards are often those who run the place like a family business, and Admiral Rodney's reputation for being spendthrift means that they may take liberties. The obvious solution is to arrange a series of inspections and audits, and then we can begin to use the yards' rivalries as well as the increasing capacity of private yards, against the more corrupt of the state shipyards. 5 Budget per die.
Rolled: mouli: D100 → 6969, Complete

The yard commissioners are representatives of the Navy at the shipyards, ostensibly to ensure that the interests of the Navy are given primacy in the shipyards run by the Navy Board. With the shipwrights and the victualling commissioners reporting directly to the Navy Board in London, the commissioner have to rule through a mix of force of personality, legal recourse, contacts and in many cases less than legal means. What results is the use of the Navy Board as a hammer rather than an arbiter of conflict in this case, the Board called in when some egregious violation has been committed – and in the absence of such offenses, the yards trundle along in a haze of mutual acrimony and corruption.

In some cases things are more harmonious. At the yard of Jamaica, the Resident dockyard commissioner is one Michael Douglas, former Commodore, whose political interest had kept him from being drummed out of the service for a reputation that rivalled Admiral Rodney for corruption. Douglas was in turn in cahoots with one James Gambier, commander-in-chief of the North American station, and Gambier's involvement in the disappearance of twelve thousand pounds' worth of hardwood, sailcloth and powder from the stores at Jamaica and Bermuda was a tad much even for his own political interests to advance. The question then turned to what Admiral Rodney would do with the information – press Lord North for Gambier's ouster and use that to appoint someone that Rodney was more comfortable with or leave things be? In either case there are benefits for Admiral Rodney, although the benefits to the Navy are a tad more circumstantial.

Pick one:

[]Gambier Leaves: Commander-in-chief, North American Station is a decent career stepping-stone and a place from which one can make a great deal of money in prizes if a French or Spanish war breaks out. That alone makes it a place that Rodney might want as a future billet, which means getting Gambier out of there. Gambier leaves, replaced by the promising young Admiral Howe, who can then be moved outwards to a battlefleet to make room for Rodney in wartime. Thereby making Rodney money. The Navy is a tad less bitter towards Admiral Rodney.

[]Gambier Stays: It would take Lord North a great deal of political capital to make it happen, at least that is what he says. If Gambier stays, it would allow Rodney some political room for maneuver. +5PI. Gambier stays in what will be his retirement posting. No change in opinions anywhere.

[]Cleaning the Naval Hospitals (0/50): Hospitals for the wounded and the lame are a place to die or a place to convalesce from the few injuries that can be efficiently treated by barber-surgeons and doctors. Cleanliness is key to these institutions, to avoid bad air from infecting wounds and exacerbating illness, and that means in this case funding the hospitals back up to scratch. At present there are small hospitals at the bases of Devonport, Chatham and Plymouth, as well as a small one in the Caribbean to provide what solace it can to the suffering there. Costs 5 budget per die, -5 budget per turn.
Rolled: mouli: D100 → 1616
16/50

The naval hospitals at Portsmouth and London are up to shape, or so the report goes – they are small, though, and with perhaps a quarter of the beds that are needed to deal with the sick and injured. While the surgeons and the doctors are able to treat those in the hospitals here, they are less able to aid those in the 'contract' hospitals, that is to say the scattering of public-houses and alehouses that rent out bedrooms for injured or sick sailors and are then compensated by the Navy Board. The timeliness of the Navy Board in providing payment is rather below the desired level, and that in turn makes the contract hospitals provide perhaps less care than would be optimal.

The greatest issues are the hospitals at Plymouth and Jamaica. In the case of the former, the money for bedding has been appropriated to pay the back wages of the nursing staff and the doctors in charge, and the back pay of the staff in turn had been used by the now-deceased director of the hospital to pay off his gambling debts. In the case of the latter, the bad airs that plague the Jamaica hospital continue to affect it even as we move to clean the place, with a third of the cleaning crews being sick with yellow fever as of June 1770. While some lunatics (one Doctor Mead among them) claim that the preponderance of yellow fever is due to the swampy, marshy lands nearby, the eminent surgeons of London have dismissed this claim. All the same, much work remains to be done.

[]Setting Up Press Gangs (0/50): The Navy is not manned by volunteers, or at least not in its entire. The press gangs are a major component of the Navy's manning, trawling the ports and impressing seamen who are not one of the exempt groups. Local governments tend to take exception to pressing, and thus tend to either inhibit the press-gangs' operation or assign sailors to exempt categories – and thus the press-gangs have to be both well-funded and willing to pay out bounties and bribes with that funding. Costs 10 budget per die due to paying out bounties.
Rolled: mouli: D100 → 6464

The Navy Board once more has press-gangs walking the streets of the major ports in order to impress those sailors who are not exempt from the press. While the press-gangs are indeed necessary to man the Navy and there are those in Parliament that accept their necessity, the magnates of the cities of Bristol, Portsmouth, London and the cities of the north of England are assertive and connected enough to hinder pressing to a large extent. To the point where three lieutenants assigned to impressment have been thrown in gaol and the Admiral has had to make appeals to get them out of it – and they are lucky that he has, for the last war saw many simply left to prison for fear of embarrassment and public backlash to impressment.

Another issue is the exemptions. The Newcastle colliers are exempt from impressment, so any deserter can simply find their way to London, take ship to Newcastle, and then be done with the Navy as long as they have a berth – Parliament's assertion is that the colliers are a place for seamen to learn their trade. The Navy thinks otherwise.

While pressing has been reactivated and we see a slight surplus in the navy's manning, the fact remains that a full mobilization would not be possible without drastic spending and wide-scale impressment.

[]Standing Orders (0/50): The Fighting Instructions are the backbone of the Admiralty and the Navy's discipline, their rules and regulations nominally governing the Fleet. While the Navy's Fighting Instructions are nominally subject to the Admiralty's orders and doctrine and therefore outside the purview of the Navy Board, the Navy Board also lays out in those instructions the paper work that captains are expected to complete and turn in on pain of stoppage of pay. While extensive paperwork will cut corruption and too little will lead to excessive license being taken, some is needed – the issue is judging balance. Costs 5 Budget per die. Reduces Corruption, which can have adverse effects on morale.
Rolled: mouli: D100 → 5757

The Fighting Instructions lay out the means by which the Navy's officers are to engage the enemy, and the general means by which the captains are expected to enforce discipline aboard their ships. While discipline is still a matter for the captains to deal with and the Fighting Instructions are more a general vague guideline than a Bible in that area, the book of regulations are to be followed to the letter when it comes to the spending of His Majesty's money. The paperwork is to be completed on pain of stoppage of pay and shore supply, and in some cases relief from command – the Navy moreoever has released a new version, a more rationalised version that has old loopholes closed. The Admiral in command of the Navy Board has personally seen to it that many of the old dodges used by crooked captains have been closed, although he also has vetoed a large number of forms and records that would have enhanced transparency in the name of morale and timeliness.

"He might be a crooked old sod, but at least he's kept the Board from sending down too much paperwork."
"He's closed the old dodges from experience, I'll bet."
"Personal experience."
-Mess hall conversation aboard HMS Ocean, 1770

-10 Corruption. Navy morale is a little lower.

[]Dredging Up Officers (0/100): Good officers are rare, and the bulk of the Navy is demobilized in peacetime. That means hundreds of officers drawing half-pay (What midshipmen call 'nothing a day and duties besides'), who can be called up to serve in wartime. In theory. In practice, most of them are already aboard other ships or serving abroad, and we have to find them and offer commissions, or at least make sure that it is known that we are offering commissions. That way we can rake in what trained gentlemen we can before war breaks out. Costs 10 Budget per die.
Rolled: mouli: D100 → 79

Good officers are rare, mediocre officers are common and backed by political interests that keep them in the service, and the excellent officers are the ones that are already in the service. Due to Parliament's thrifty nature, the bulk of the Navy is demobilized in peacetime. That means hundreds of officers drawing half-pay and in many cases roaming through the bars and halls of London who can be called up to serve in wartime. Half-pay is a painful thing, and not enough for a man to live on in the style that a gentleman must maintain – the midshipmen with good reason call theirs 'nothing a day', and the competition for an active command is fierce.

While a large number of senior officers of means who are stable enough in their habits and location to be contacted quickly have been located, the fact remains that in order to mobilize at scale we would need some mechanism of promising berths aboard ships being brought out of ordinary. For instance, HMS Victory. Due to the current inability to promise a mobilization or expansion and therefore a berth, the officer corps remains relatively skeptical and thus is difficult to contact and get a commitment from.

[]Additional Personnel: Hiring additional personnel would allow for more actions to be undertaken and more of the administrative work to be handled by the staff in that area, but at the same time we would have to ensure that said personnel are clean, honest and literate. That would take time and effort, and money besides. And after all of that, we have to pay them. Unfortunately, patriotic gentlemen also expect to be paid. DC25/50, lower DC is to succeed and increase Corruption. Adds one die to a user selected category.
Rolled: mouli: D100 → 43

Additional hiring of personnel from clean, literate and apparently honest candidates has gone fairly well, albeit at the cost of hiring a great many people rapidly. Perhaps rapidly enough that we were not able to evaluate them with the care that is needed to get rid of the more meretricious of the candidates – at any rate, the Board is now able to turn its attention to the more important things. Such as assigning these clerks to the department where they will do the most good. With these patriotic gentlemen earning as much as forty to fifty pounds a year, surely they will not be corrupt or dishonest in their administration of the King's money?

+5 Corruption.

Choose one area to gain one die:
[]Supplies
[]Infrastructure
[]Shipbuilding
[]Personnel

[]Additional Funds: Convincing Parliament to release additional funding is difficult, but the Navy Board can borrow on its account and use future funding to pay things off. At present our credit is good, and that means that we can borrow with ease. Parliament might not appreciate excessive borrowing, so be cautious here. Autopass, gain 50 Budget, maintenance -5 per turn at present for that.
Autopass

Parliament has already made it clear that it has no intention of allowing the Navy to continually sup from the well of His Majesty's largesse, and instead desires that the Navy find alternatives. Preferably productive economies in the running of the Royal Navy. However, that just means that the Navy has had to contact its old friends in the London merchant banking community, to take advantage of the fact that peacetime has left the Navy Board with excellent credit and thanks to Admiral Rodney there is the willingness to use it. While this might have problems in the long run, the long run would come after we are prepared for a Spanish war – the current crisis comes first and above all else.

-5 Budget per turn. Gain +50.

AN: As mentioned, rather low-effort in the narrative department but speed compensates I think. There are three votes here, please remember to vote.

mouli · Apr 23, 2021

Turn 2: Second Half, 1770

The Falklands are the center of a major crisis, as those storm-tossed rocks in the South Atlantic are now under Spanish occupation by marines from the River Plate. Golden light pours in from the windows to your office, a saucer of tea on the table and a bottle of rum at its side as if to stiffen things, your eyes squinting a little as the sunrise comes in. On the other side of the room is the same map that you've spent altogether too much time on, the little dots of shipping and squadrons marked off in angry red as the sunlight shines on the wall that the map is nailed to. You yawn a little – you came in early today, and the work of the Admiralty diverted you from the work of the Navy Board. The First Lord is a most engaging fellow.

"Admiral Rodney?" There's a knock at your open door, a slim young clerk standing there in the same formal overcoat and breeches that the Navy Board has had its clerks wear since Samuel Pepys. You don't really hew to that at all. A brief nod at the boy and he comes inside, handing you a sheet of paper stamped with the PM's seal and signed by Lord North himself. The King's royal lion is rampant on the thick paper, reminding you that this is law. This is orders. "The PM asked me to convey this to you, sir."

"You've done so. Now off with you, William." The clerk nods and leaves, quickly and without looking back. You're already looking at the thick paper, creased and a bit wet from the journey it's taken. Parliament to the Palace to the PM, you'll wager, or at least in something approaching that order.

Its words are unambiguously clear.

Admiral Rodney,
His Majesty's Government has resolved to formally issue a notice of mobilization to the Royal Navy's Channel Fleet as of this day, in the year of the Lord 1770. The mobilization is to call up units of the Channel Fleet laid up in ordinary and reserve…

This is because the Governor of Buenos Aires took fifteen hundred marines and five frigates to the Falklands, and Lord North cannot be seen to be weak before the Spanish. You knew it was coming, vaguely, at least since last month.

It's still a pain, though, considering that you have other concerns as well. Such as your finances. Or the state of the Fleet and the build plan that the Estimates had already called for. It would appear that the Spanish care not for the plans of Britain.

Well. You already knew that. Maybe the rum's getting to you, this early in the morning.

Quantitative Indices

Resources/Budget: 150 – 30 (Maintenance, Interest) = 120
In Storage/Reserve: None

Corruption: 35/100
Corruption Gain Per Turn: +10

Political Influence: 45
Political Influence Gain Per Turn: -5

Targets: Range from Major Shortfall → Shortfall → Minor Shortfall → Sufficiency →Surplus →Major Surplus

Naval Supplies: Shortfall, Trending Down: There are shortfalls in seasoned wood, in copper, in rope and old-growth wood for masts.

Supplies: Minor Shortfall, Rising (Minor Shortfall, Trending Down): The salt beef is old and complaints have already come in from ships on patrol, the beer is and always has been foul, and prices have ticked upwards. Purchasing futures on the market has allowed the Navy Board to insulate itself from a bad harvest, for a price.

Shipbuilding: Shortfall, Trending Down (Shortfall, Trending Down): Frigates have to be built for escort work, the line ships have to be rebuilt and refitted to stay in service, and maintenance has to be run on a large chunk of the Fleet. The current build program is slowly proceeding, and focused on ships of the line.

Personnel: Sufficiency, Stable (Shortfall, Stable): Personnel are enough for peacetime service, expansion of the Fleet and more ships built means dealing with more personnel issues.

Special Requirement: Mobilization: You are required to take at least two separate actions marked [Mobilization] to satisfy this. The more that are taken the more effective the crisis resolution will be. Britain is on the brink of war.
Currently Personnel, Shipbuilding and Supplies in brackets reflect mobilization requirements.

Opinions

The Navy: Admiral Rodney is a divisive figure in the Fleet. While the men are tepidly in favor of a fighting admiral leading the Navy Board, the officers are well aware that Admiral Rodney is not just a competent admiral and fleet commander. He is also known for being spendthrift, grasping and very very sharp in the patronage game. The officer following who he has boosted are very supportive, most of the rest of the officer corps mildly dislike him.

The Cabinet/Parliament: At the moment, Rodney is popular and known as the fighting admiral who will clean up the Navy Board and bring the Navy into shape in time for the war.

The Crown: Rodney being in the Navy Comptroller's slot means that one of the King's favorites is not able to be put in. This means that the King is not very willing to aid him, but then the King is also not very inclined to hinder him. At present, the Comptroller owes the King a favor...

Admiral George Rodney: Former Rear Admiral Rodney is a man who served with honor in the Seven Years' War, in the taking of Martinique and the battle of Ushant. He is possibly one of the finest fleet commanders in Britain and may be recalled to the colours in the event that a war goes badly, and is a gambler and spendthrift besides - but is also an energetic, skilled and popular leader who knows as much about the yards and Fleet as anyone else in the candidate pool.

Renowned Admiral: +15 to all Admiralty rolls
Experienced Senior Officer: +10 to all Shipbuilding rolls, improved relations with the Navy.
Spendthrift: This man does not understand finance very well at all. +10 Corruption per turn.
Politically Tactless: -5 PI per turn.
Far-Ranging Service: This sailor has served in the Mediterranean, in the Caribbean, in the Channel and the North Sea. +10 to all rolls involving the colonies.
Popular: +10 to all parliamentary rolls during inquiries and when attempting to cultivate political influence.

You have three free dice
Supplies and Victualling: Three dice

[]Seasoning Stage 1 (0/50): Wood has to be seasoned and stored properly for a decent time to allow it to attain the right sort of hardness and resistance to the elements that is necessary for the hull timbers of a man-of-war. That means storing valuable hardwood – both cut timber for the frame and the larger ones for the 'skeleton', along with great oaken masts, at the yards under cover and safely. Hardwood is a valuable thing, and its loss means the setback of years in shipbuilding. At present, we have to survey England for suitable wood on royal preserves, and we have to set up the storage facilities at Deptford and Chatham Navy Yards to take the timber for whatever planned build program is on the books. Costs 20 Budget per die, -5 per turn.

[]Convict Labor (0/50): Nobody likes working with rope. Ropes for naval use are difficult to make and have to be cheap to get the Navy the rope it needs for everything from hammocks to rigging to the nine-tailed ship's cat. A proposal by the Parliamentarians of the North of England proposes to use convicts who would otherwise be transported to the colonies as workmen for rope-making, paying them a nominal wage as they work off their sentence at a dockyard or naval workshop. While expensive for capital costs, it is supposedly more humane than transportation or the gallows. Costs 15 Budget per die, pays its expenses.

[]Swedish Iron, British Iron (0/100): Swedish iron ore is high-grade and the only source at present for the Navy Board's bar iron. The Swedes have a royal monopoly on their iron reserves and are perfectly willing to charge the earth for it – and the mines that we have in the north of England are nowhere as good. The mines of the North of England are not suitable and the mines of Sweden are far too expensive in the very long term, and that leaves the colonies. Surveys of the Americas and inquiries into Spain and Russia are alternatives to Sweden, and would provide competition at the least – allowing us to negotiate a lowering of prices from the Swedes. Costs 20 Budget per die.

[]Coppering, Bulk (76/300): Coppering a ship has a somewhat-practicable approach now, thanks to the work of the Chatham Navy Yard and one John Fisher from Liverpool who builds ships for the West African trade. While the older methods tested in the 1760s made do with iron bolts to hold the copper to the hull – thereby allowing corrosion to peel off the copper sheathing – Mr. Fisher claims that the use of paper packing between copper and hull to guard the iron against the waters of the sea is a workable solution. It seems to work. Now, we have to secure enough copper to plate the light ships of the Navy over time and test it on a single frigate. Costs 15 Budget per die.

[][Mobilization]Loading Up (0/100): The rations are already in the warehouses, albeit packed and ready for a longer time of use in a peacetime navy. As we pull ships out of ordinary, we'll have to load up supplies and send a battle squadron to the South Atlantic. The Admiralty can handle the dispositions, but we have to make sure the sailors can eat and drink south of the Equator. For all that the meat might be bad, at least it's edible. Costs 5 Budget per die. Preps a battle squadron for the South Atlantic.

Shipbuilding: Three Dice

[][Mobilization] Out of Ordinary (0/200): The Navy has a number of ships laid up and waiting for reserve crews. The Admiralty can man the more ready ships with whatever personnel and supplies we scare up, but some of the ships require work before they can put out to sea. They need to be patched, they need to have sailcloth and cannon and shot loaded, they need to have the yards inspect them for damage while laid up. And this happens to include the ships that were built by Thomas Slade himself – HMS Victory is in reserve and waiting for mobilization. Costs 20 Budget per die. The more you accomplish, even if not complete, the more effective the mobilization to intimidate Spain. Taking this is highly advised to make the mobilization more effective.

[]Escorts Stage 1 (0/150): Lighter ships – frigates and scouts for the fleet, called Fifth and Sixth Rates of the Line in the Navy's terminology, are in short supply and always needed. They're needed to escort merchantmen, raid the enemy's supply lines, scout for the fleet and maintain the cordon for a close blockade. They're fast, lightly built in comparison to a battleship and don't last as long. They therefore have to be built back up. And that starts by laying down the skeleton of the ship's timbers and letting it season in the slip for a time under cover before building around that skeleton and fitting out a ship. We can start by using the slips in the south of England, and work onwards from there. Costs 20 Budget per die, -5 per turn maintenance.

[]Private Escorts Stage 1 (0/100): Private yards are also able to build a frigate and fit one out, albeit often requiring more inspection than Navy yards. They also are able to do the building faster and cheaper on paper than the government yards, although the Navy Board often asserts that the private yards do that and to a lesser standard. When one needs lighter vessels, private yards at ports ranging from Bristol to Liverpool to London are a ready source to tap. Costs 15 Budget per die, -5 per turn maintenance.

[]The Great Rebuilding, Stage 1 (0/300): The main battlefleet has to be rebuilt and reworked, the older ships being wormy and unhandy by now. They have to be careened, rebuilt, fitted out with fresh everything, and in the case of the older three-deckers, converted to two-decker 'razee' frigates that can act as flagships for escort units and tangle with a lighter ship of the line. The rebuilding is a cheaper alternative to the task of rebuilding the entire line of battle, and that makes Parliament happier – they always do prefer to see the Navy Board take economies. They also expect us to win. Costs 20 Budget per die, -15 per turn maintenance.

[]Slade's Offer Stage 1 (161/300): Renowned shipwright Thomas Slade is the one that designed HMS Victory and is already thinking up new iterations on his older designs. The new battlefleet would be significantly better in handling, in hardiness and in armament than the older ships that are due for rebuilding, but they are also expensive and time-consuming to build. First step is to build the skeleton, season the timbers, and lay out the masts and other materials as well – once it seasons on the stand, it can be built up to sail. Costs 30 budget per die, -20 Budget per turn maintenance.

Infrastructure: Three dice

[]Contracting Hiring (0/150): We have to deal with the fact that impressment is not the ideal way to recruit sailors – limited impressment to meet manpower needs for the Spanish crisis has met stiff opposition from everyone. Whalers, Newcastle colliers, port city magnates, all of them are in opposition. The Admiral has a characteristically corrupt solution – co-opt them by paying them a fee for finding landsmen for the Navy. Costs 15 Budget per die, sets up a trickle of manpower that alleviates shortages and can be ramped up in wartime.

[]The West Indies Yards (0/100): The West Indies yards are not built for building ships, rather they are maintenance and careening yards that are meant to keep the West Indies Squadron seaworthy. The winds that carry ships to the Americas blow in a great half-circle, from the North Sea to Newfoundland to the West Indies, and that makes the Caribbean a crucial theater - best to ensure that it is well-equipped. Given the present situation with Spain. 25 Budget per die.

[]Marine Barracks (0/100): The Marines are at present an odd lot. Trained and equipped as army units, dispersed in penny-packets aboard ships as landing troops and enforcers, expected to serve as unskilled ship's labor, and used against potential unrest on the ship's company. They are not of the Navy, and they are at present too much like the army in culture and in behavior. Building out barracks and facilities for them away from the army facilities and quartering that has kept them until now would allow for better integration, and allow them to suppress impressment riots in Portsmouth besides. 10 Budget per die. Maintenance -10 per turn on completion.

Personnel: Three dice

[]Cleaning the Naval Hospitals (16/50): Hospitals for the wounded and the lame are a place to die or a place to convalesce from the few injuries that can be efficiently treated by barber-surgeons and doctors. Cleanliness is key to these institutions, to avoid bad air from infecting wounds and exacerbating illness, and that means in this case funding the hospitals back up to scratch. At present there are small hospitals at the bases of Devonport, Chatham and Plymouth, as well as a small one in the Caribbean to provide what solace it can to the suffering there. Costs 5 budget per die, -5 budget per turn.

[][Mobilization]Hot Press (0/30): A 'Hot Press' is the potentially illegal action of impressing all seamen on the streets to fill the manpower needs of squadrons in port, using the Marines and officer-led impressment units to do the job. While the Navy might land itself in court later on, few are the sailors that can file and wage a lawsuit while at sea. And in the meantime, this allows the Admiralty to raise the lighter vessels while we bring the ships of the line out to sea. Costs 5 Budget per die. Will greatly lower public opinion for 1-3 turns.

[][Mobilization]Dredging Up Officers (79/100): Good officers are rare, and the bulk of the Navy is demobilized in peacetime. That means hundreds of officers drawing half-pay (What midshipmen call 'nothing a day and duties besides'), who can be called up to serve in wartime. In theory. In practice, most of them are already aboard other ships or serving abroad, and we have to find them and offer commissions, or at least make sure that it is known that we are offering commissions. That way we can rake in what trained gentlemen we can before war breaks out. Now that a crisis of war seems imminent and we have a proper mobilization in progress, we can probably fill the seats that are available with officers who are drawing half-pay. Costs 10 Budget per die.

Politics: Two Dice

[]Additional Personnel: Hiring additional personnel would allow for more actions to be undertaken and more of the administrative work to be handled by the staff in that area, but at the same time we would have to ensure that said personnel are clean, honest and literate. That would take time and effort, and money besides. And after all of that, we have to pay them. Unfortunately, patriotic gentlemen also expect to be paid. DC25/50, lower DC is to succeed and increase Corruption. Adds one die to a user selected category.

[]Smearing the Rockingham Whigs: Rodney is one that can use Parliament to talk about the navy's readiness with more than a little authority, being as he is one of the admirals of the fleet in the last war as well as the Comptroller of the Navy. That means he can slander them in Parliament and stake out a position that would make Lord North grateful – and that gratitude would have dividends in future. DC40, gain PI, make enemies in Parliament.

[]Patronage: The admiral is one that can play the patronage game, and has done so in the past with panache. Patronage involves the selective boosting of careers of individuals of either ability (who would therefore reflect well upon you later) or those who have political clout and influence (and therefore can aid your career implicitly). Admiral Rodney knows both sorts, and is unafraid to meddle in the navy – every man has a political 'interest', and this is hardly inflammatory. DC45, gain +10 PI, +5 Corruption. Potentially unsuitable admirals/captains elevated.

[]Mobilization Funding: We cannot mobilize the Navy without additional funding, that is the truth of the matter and will have to be made clear to Parliament. The Navy can win the war if it is allowed to fight – and that means Parliament has to vote the money for it to me mobilized. Lest we lose out to Spain in the South Atlantic. In the Admiral's characteristically colourful opinion, the Dons have no business sailing anywhere the waves are higher than thirty feet – we have to show that to them. Autopass, -10PI, +50 budget.

[-]Additional Funds: Convincing Parliament to release additional funding is difficult, but the Navy Board can borrow on its account and use future funding to pay things off. At present our credit is good, and that means that we can borrow with ease. Parliament might not appreciate excessive borrowing, so be cautious here. Locked due to having borrowed already, gain 50 Budget, maintenance -5 per turn at present for that.

AN: Needless to say, a smooth mobilization will mean your star rises politically.

Forging the Trident: A Navy Board (Central Planning-Esque) Quest

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