James Davey

Profile

Curator of Naval History

My job is to research the National Maritime Museum’s unrivalled naval collections, and in doing so illustrate the importance of the Royal Navy to the broader sweep of British history. I present this to the public and academic community in a variety of ways; particularly through galleries, exhibitions, publications, blogs, seminars and lectures.

The most rewarding part of my job

The most rewarding part of my job is working first hand with Britain’s material and cultural heritage, telling individual and national stories. The range and depth of the NMM’s collections never ceases to amaze me. I’m very fortunate to be involved in presenting the NMM’s wonderful collections in new and original ways to a variety of audiences, be it re-interpreting well-known stories or unearthing objects that have never been displayed before.

The question I'm asked most often

Was life at sea in the age the sailing ship as horrendous as is often believed?

Recent research suggests not. Historians have begun to peel away the myths that surround life on board a sailing warship, providing in the process a very different picture to the stories of forced labour, weevily biscuits and widespread disease.

Press gangs did exist but were used much less frequently than is often imagined, accounting for only 16% of seamen joining the navy; the vast majority of naval seamen were volunteers. A seaman’s diet was superior to that of the average Briton on land as was the healthcare available to him; one of the many incentives to serve on board a naval vessel. Officers and administrators alike had a vested interest in maintaining the health of their seamen, without whom a warship could not function.

Discipline was harsh, but it was almost universally applied in a rational and fair manner. Flogging itself was seen as an accepted part of naval life; during the widespread naval mutinies of 1797, flogging was not mentioned as a grievance. Indeed, even ships commanded by mutineers continued the practice of flogging for drunkenness. Certainly, life on board a naval warship was not a walk in the park, and was in many ways cruel by today’s standards. For many though, it provided a chance to gain wealth and status, an opportunity large numbers of people took advantage of.

My recommended sources of information

• The starting point for anyone interested in the history of the Royal Navy is N.A.M. Rodger’s The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815. His Safeguard of the Sea covers the earlier 660–1649 period.
• Recent biographies, such as Roger Knight’s The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson and Andrew Lambert’s Franklin: The Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation, are excellent introductions to naval history, outlining two fascinating careers.
• Recent books such as Jan Ruger’s The Great Naval Game and Timothy Jenks’ Naval Engagements are excellent at placing the history of the Royal Navy in a much broader cultural context.
• Anyone interested in exploring British naval history from their computer should browse the NMM’s Collections Online.

Academic profile

Curator of Naval History

Biography

Before joining the museum in 2009, I completed a BA at King’s College London and an M.St at the University of Oxford. Between 2006 and 2009 I was Research Assistant at the University of Greenwich on the project ‘Sustaining the Empire: War, the Navy, and the Contractor State’, where I also completed my PhD. I have also held a Research Fellowship at the NMM.

Areas of research and interest

I am interested in the history of Britain and its navy in a variety of political, economic and cultural contexts. Specific areas of interest include:

• Logistics and naval operations in the 18th century
• Britain’s economic and maritime relationship with the Baltic region
• The navy’s role in the development of the British state and economy
• The navy’s role in constructing national identity
• Caricature and visual culture
• Ballads and popular song in the long 18th century
• The career of Admiral Sir James Saumarez
• Issues developing from the speed of maritime communications

Current NMM projects

• My primary task here at the NMM is to work on a new gallery considering the history of the Royal Navy. Entitled Navy, Nation and Nelson, 1688–1815, it will place the navy at the heart of British history, drawing on the rich and diverse naval collections here at the NMM. While covering more traditional elements of British naval history, it will also consider the navy as a national institution in a variety of political, socio-economic and cultural contexts. It is due to open in June 2013. A successive gallery will focus on 19th and 20th century naval history.
• I have contributed to a new Maritime London gallery outlining the history of the city from the early 17th century to the present day, inextricably linked to its maritime surrounds. It will trace London’s growing power as a centre of national commerce, wealth, shipbuilding and its role as the administrative, political and symbolic home of the navy.
• I am also the lead curator on an exhibition investigating 18th-century naval caricatures, entitled Broadsides: Caricature and the Navy, 1750–1815. This will explore the political and cultural history of the Navy during the later 18th and early 19th centuries through the lens of contemporary caricature. It aims to outline the importance of the Royal Navy to 18th-century British society, while also tracing the growing popularity and development of caricature and graphic satire. I will also co-write a concurrent publication entitled Caricature and the Navy, 1756–1815.

External fellowships/honorary positions

• I am a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Greenwich where I teach a course on the history of the Royal Navy, and a Council member of the Society for Nautical Research.

Select Publications

Books

• (With Tim Voelcker ed.) Admiral Sir James Saumarez: The Private Correspondence, ed. (London: Navy Records Society, 2014)
• (With Quintin Colville, ed.), Navy, Nation and Nelson, 1688–1815 (London: Conway, 2013).
• The Transformation of British Naval Strategy, 1808–1812: Seapower and Supply in Northern Europe (Boydell and Brewer, 2012).
• (With Richard Johns), Broadsides: Caricature and the Navy, 1756–1815 (Seaforth, 2012).

Articles and book chapters

• ‘Fear and Anxiety: Invasion, Mutiny, and the British People’ in Colville and Davey, ed. Navy, Nation and Nelson, 1688–1815 (London: Conway, 2013).
• ‘Serving the State: Sir Joseph Banks, Civilian Expertise, and British Hemp Procurement, 1800–1801’ (forthcoming)
• ‘Singing for the Nation: Balladry, Naval Recruitment and the Language of Patriotism’ (forthcoming)
• ‘The Ship as a Historical Artefact’ (forthcoming)
• ‘The Naval Hero and British National Identity 1688–1763’ in Duncan Redford, ed. The Sea and Identity (London: I. B. Taurus, 2012).
• Supplied by the Enemy: the Royal Navy and the British Consular Service in the Baltic, 1808–1812’, Historical Research (to be published in 2012, available on ‘early view’ online in 2011)
• ‘The Advancement of Nautical Knowledge: The Hydrographical Office, the Royal Navy and the charting of the Baltic Sea, 1795–1815’, The Journal of Maritime Research, Vol.1 No.2, November 2011.
• ‘Securing the Sinews of Sea-power: British Intervention in the Baltic, 1780-1815’, International History Review, Vol.33, No.2, (June 2011)
• ‘Nelson’s Second: Admiral Sir James Saumarez in the Mediterranean 1797–1798’, The Trafalgar Chronicle, No.20 (October 2010)
• ‘The Repatriation of Spanish soldiers from Denmark, 1808: The British Government, Logistics and Maritime Supremacy’, The Journal of Military History, Vol.74, No.3, (July 2010)
• ‘Within Hostile Shores: Victualling the Royal Navy in European Waters during the Napoleonic Wars’, The International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 21 No. 2 (December 2009)
• I also write regular reviews in the Journal of Maritime Research, The Mariner’s Mirror, War in History, The Social History of Medicine and The Great Circle.