Forests and French Sea Power, 1660-1789

253 Pages·1956·13.94 MB·English

by  Paul Bamford

FORESTS
AND FRENCH
SEA POWER
1660-1789
Paul Walden Bamford
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS: 1956
Copyright ©, Canada, 1956, by University of
Toronto Press, and printed in Canada. London:
Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press
SCHOLARLY REPRINT SERIES
ISBN 0-8020-7033-7
LC A57-226
FORESTS AND FRENCH SEA POWER, 1660-1789
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TO MY PARENTS
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Preface
FEW WORKS in the English language deal with the historical de-
velopment of French sea power. G. S. Graham, in his Empire of
the North Atlantic, offers an integrated survey of French and Brit-
ish naval development during the old regime. And in adding James
Phinney Baxter's Introduction of the Ironclad Warship, and Pro-
fessor Robert G. Albion of Harvard University, who touches on
French developments, one just about completes the list. Theodore
Ropp's two-volume work on "French Naval Policy, 1871-1904,"
remains unpublished.
Historians of campaigns, like Mahan, have been more interested
in the eighteenth-century record of British success than in the naval
annals of the power that came off second-best. Hence British naval
history is much better known to the English reader, and with it the
political and economic influence of British sea power on inter-
national relations. The navy of the old French monarchy is best
remembered, at least in America, for its influence on the outcome
of the American Revolution. Otherwise, its history is often assumed
to consist merely of the unhappy side of British success, a long series
of individual defeats largely explicable in terms of faulty tactics and
strategy. Those interested in another side of the story, in naval
administration and the economic connections of French sea power,
can find large regions to be explored in the documentary riches of
the Archives de la Marine. Of one of these regions the present study
attempts to sketch a provisional map.
The title might be taken to promise considerable attention to
naval architecture, to problems of decay and rot in wooden ships,
and to the sciences, botanical and physical, involved in the con-
viii PREFACE
struction and maintenance of timbered warships. These matters are,
of course, relevant to the general problem in hand. However, the
work of Professor Albion on the British naval timber problem,
published some years ago, treats these questions at length. The diffi-
culties of French naval shipbuilders and their methods of dealing
with problems of dry rot, timber seasoning, storage, etc., were very
similar to the British problems and solutions. It has seemed unneces-
sary to do more than comment briefly on French experience with
some of these technical problems, though special attention has been
given here to the problem of mâture d'assemblage (made masts),
with which the French were far more deeply involved than the
British in the eighteenth century.
This study confines itself mainly to analysis of the emergence,
growth, and gradual aggravation of the French problem of naval
mast and timber supply before the French Revolution. Though
essentially concerned with naval administration, this subject has
involved study of the connections of the naval service with agricul-
tural, industrial, and commercial conditions in France and in
Europe. It has seemed particularly important to show how the mast
and timber problem, and with it French sea power, was affected
by geography and the nature of public policy.
In preparing this study I incurred a host of obligations. Fulbright
and Ford Foundation grants afforded financial help without which
the research in France and the United States could not have been
undertaken. At all stages of that research I enjoyed the co-operation
and assistance of archivists and librarians. In France I had the
benefit of counsel from MM. Georges Bourgin, Directeur Honoraire
des Archives de France, and Jean Denizet, Chef du Service des
Archives et Bibliothèques de la Marine. M. Olivier de Prat, charged
with the care of naval papers at the Archives Nationales, gave very
helpful pointers on the location and nature of manuscript sources,
and at Rochefort, Mme Marie Descubes facilitated my use of the
documents under her care. The kindness and co-operation of Mlle
Mireille Forget, at Toulon, was extended even to the point of giving
me access to documents while her archive was being transferred and
reorganized.
André Reussner, Professor at the Ecole de Guerre Navale, was
kind enough to read and comment on an early draft of chapters
11-v. I wish also to thank Professor Albion for his comments on a
PREFACE ix
draft of the manuscript, and for having taken the trouble to type
and send me unpublished extracts from his dissertation dealing with
the timber problem during the French Revolution. Valuable criti-
cism has also been given me by two colleagues, Professors Walter L.
Dorn and Warner Woodring of Ohio State University. Miss Jean
C. Jamieson, of the University of Toronto Press, gave the manu-
script the benefit of her searching editorial criticism.
At Columbia University I incurred deep obligations to Professors
Shepard B. Clough and Garrett Mattingly for reading and criticiz-
ing the entire manuscript. Neither, of course, is responsible for
whatever shortcomings remain, but to each I owe much for cor-
rections, and still more for the stimulation afforded by their respec-
tive seminars in French and early modern European history.
No obligation is greater than that to my wife, Pauline Homa
Bamford, who was asked to criticize almost every page of every
draft. Her unfailing patience and encouragement have made the
book possible,
P. W. B.