Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy

A series of four lectures reconstructs the administration of the Royal Navy in the Restoration-to-Revolution period by drawing on Samuel Pepys's extensive sea manuscripts and related sources. The text classifies his collections into official Admiralty records, deliberately assembled material for a planned naval history, and miscellaneous technical and curious works, and uses them to trace institutional practice and reform. Topics covered include naval administration, finance, victualling, discipline, shipbuilding, and ordnance, and the lectures synthesize documentary evidence to show how Pepys's work and records illuminate the workings and improvements of naval government.