Abstract
Sir Alexander Milne was one of the most influential naval officers of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1817 he entered a navy that was seriously retrenching after the long Napoleonic War, but managed to accumulate significant appointments and commands, so that by 1847 he was appointed to the Board of Admiralty as a junior naval lord. He remained there until 1859, becoming well versed and well-respected with regard to Admiralty business. These important formative years were covered by John Beeler in his first edited volume of Milne Papers, published in 2004. That volume particularly demonstrated how working at the Admiralty gave Milne the chance to experience, think deeply about and comment upon organisational and strategic issues facing the Royal Navy. This second volume of Milne papers follows his career from his appointment as Commander-in-Chief on the North American and West India station in January 1860 until almost the end of January 1862.
The North American and West India station covered a huge geographical area from Newfoundland to the northern border of Brazil. It covered the whole of the Caribbean basin, in which British political and economic interests were under constant threat. Milne had to position himself and distribute his force to meet standing and extraordinary demands. This was far from easy despite fairly reliable, if slow, communications networks based on commercial steam liners. Nor was it a quiet command. Milne faced numerous conflicts in Latin America, exploited by American freebooters, and very shortly after his arrival, a full-scale civil war within the United States.
The sources available to Beeler from which to select the documents are substantial, if not entirely complete. Whereas the first volume was drawn almost completely from the Milne papers at the National Maritime Museum, the second volume is able to draw upon his official correspondence as a station commander which survives in the Admiralty Papers at the National Archive. The papers of Earl Lyons, who was the British envoy in Washington, and those of the Duke of Somerset, who was First Lord of the Admiralty during this period, are important additions to the core of letters and enable the reader to see matters and views evolve as correspondence progresses. In the introduction, Beeler has summarised the main issues with which Milner had to grapple, but, as in the first volume, he has chosen to deal with this period of station command in a chronological fashion, allowing the reader to follow Milne’s own journeys around his command and to see him dealing with the large and small matters as they reached his desk.
The result is a detailed study of command on an extremely busy station. The pressures came from all around. There are standing problems, like maintaining patrols to suppress the slave trade, the need to deal with outbreaks of Yellow Fever, desertion, the misbehaviour of some of his officers, or the need to ensure adequate coaling and repair facilities at Halifax and Bermuda. All of these weave in and out of the correspondence. Some of them have impacts on more unusual events such as the voyage of the Prince of Wales to Quebec in the summer of 1860.
Milne was an able administrator who took these matters in his stride, and dotted throughout the correspondence are his thoughts on improvements and the right or the wrong way of handling such affairs. However, this collection is principally about an operational command. Milne had to ensure that British interests were robustly defended in all areas of his command without breeching Britain’s neutral stance in the regional conflicts, even when he could not be present himself. This provides some excellent examples of how Milne and his subordinate commanders worked together over great distances. The position of neutrality had to be balanced by the level of force required to defend British interests, and the failure to get this balance right was always a worry to Milne. This became increasingly important as the situation in Mexico began to deteriorate and the threat of French involvement raised its head. The importance of Milne’s judgement was even more significant when the war between the United States and the Confederate States of America broke out. The United States intended to impose a blockade on the South and to conduct amphibious operations against their coasts. The Confederate States fitted out their steamers of war. Both wanted coal and to prevent British vessels assisting the enemy. Milne was forced to position himself at Bermuda. His task was now considerably more complicated as he sought to respond to events and information from America, Britain, and his subordinate officers operating in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The famous Trent affair of November 1861 was only one of those complications, but it is well illustrated in the correspondence. By the end of January 1862 the reader can see how the tempo of work had risen as Milne prepared reports, plans and dispositions in an active theatre of war.
As a collection, this volume maintains the standards expected from the Navy Records Society. It is a very large volume, covering only about twelve months in an active command. However, the editorial selection and arrangement allows for an easy understanding of Milne, his concerns and his responses. It provides an interesting contrast with the first volume of Milne papers, in which Milne’s enquiring mind is applied to a wide range of problems facing the Admiralty and Royal Navy. There we saw a dedicated and thoughtful administrator. Here, we see that man evolve into an effective station commander.
Milne continued in command on that station until 1864, at least part of which will be covered in a future volume. He was never called upon to use his squadron in battle, but he went on to other significant political and military posts. There was to be much more in Milne’s life, but for anyone interested in Milne and the Royal Navy of the mid-nineteenth century this is an important book.