R. E. Mewett | US Naval Academy (original) (raw)
Permanent Military Professor/Assistant Professor of History at USNA.
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Papers by R. E. Mewett
International Journal of Maritime History, 2024
In the early eighteenth century, slow communications between the metropole and the margins of emp... more In the early eighteenth century, slow communications between the metropole and the margins of empire combined with fuzzy relationships among the various institutions of the composite imperial state to enable British naval officers to act with relative impunity. Facing little oversight and scant consequences for misbehavior, many captains took advantage of the entanglement of European empires in the Caribbean to pursue personal profit. They both protected local merchants engaged in illicit inter-imperial trade and themselves transported enslaved Africans across imperial lines. This article explores the extent of those activities and the intra- and inter-imperial conflicts they generated, emphasizing how naval officers’ behavior mirrored that of other public and quasi-public officials at the periphery. It also evaluates the conditions that allowed naval trading to persist despite its violation of longstanding laws and regulations, arguing that there was no powerful political stakeholder who clearly suffered by the naval officers’ actions.
Journal of British Studies
Historical Research, 2020
In 1737–8, officers aboard three British warships sent to Africa to secure seaborne commerce enga... more In 1737–8, officers aboard three British warships sent to Africa to secure seaborne commerce engaged in private trade themselves, in violation of navy regulations and parliamentary statute, and carried enslaved Africans to Barbados. Slave trading merchants from Bristol, Liverpool and London – whose business was hurt by this illegal competition – co-ordinated efforts and lobbied the admiralty and the house of commons to put a stop to naval trading and gain restitution for their losses. The episode was part of a long process of negotiation among stakeholders in the developing fiscal-naval state that eventually produced shared expectations about naval professionalism and the duty of commerce protection that were significantly influenced by mercantile interests.
Unpublished MA dissertation, 2017
Commissioned officers in the Royal Navy occupied a unique place in British society at the turn of... more Commissioned officers in the Royal Navy occupied a unique place in British society at the turn of the nineteenth century. Having evolved over the previous centuries as an unprecedented hybrid of gentlemen and professionals, they retained characteristics of both. As a result, the place they occupied in the long established and conservative order of British society was unclear, both to them and to their civilian contemporaries. Though long considered to have been culturally defined by a large proportion of noble and genteel officers, recent research has revealed that the numbers of “born gentlemen” in the ranks of the commissioned officers was significantly smaller. This finding, in conjunction with a close consideration of the evidence for genteel culture and behaviour in the navy’s wardrooms, calls into question the assertion that officers considered themselves inherently to be gentlemen. There is also evidence in contemporary sources that civilian society considered officers to be closely linked to and indeed part of the order known as the “middling sort.”
Unpublished BS (Honors) thesis, 2001
International Journal of Maritime History, 2024
In the early eighteenth century, slow communications between the metropole and the margins of emp... more In the early eighteenth century, slow communications between the metropole and the margins of empire combined with fuzzy relationships among the various institutions of the composite imperial state to enable British naval officers to act with relative impunity. Facing little oversight and scant consequences for misbehavior, many captains took advantage of the entanglement of European empires in the Caribbean to pursue personal profit. They both protected local merchants engaged in illicit inter-imperial trade and themselves transported enslaved Africans across imperial lines. This article explores the extent of those activities and the intra- and inter-imperial conflicts they generated, emphasizing how naval officers’ behavior mirrored that of other public and quasi-public officials at the periphery. It also evaluates the conditions that allowed naval trading to persist despite its violation of longstanding laws and regulations, arguing that there was no powerful political stakeholder who clearly suffered by the naval officers’ actions.
Journal of British Studies
Historical Research, 2020
In 1737–8, officers aboard three British warships sent to Africa to secure seaborne commerce enga... more In 1737–8, officers aboard three British warships sent to Africa to secure seaborne commerce engaged in private trade themselves, in violation of navy regulations and parliamentary statute, and carried enslaved Africans to Barbados. Slave trading merchants from Bristol, Liverpool and London – whose business was hurt by this illegal competition – co-ordinated efforts and lobbied the admiralty and the house of commons to put a stop to naval trading and gain restitution for their losses. The episode was part of a long process of negotiation among stakeholders in the developing fiscal-naval state that eventually produced shared expectations about naval professionalism and the duty of commerce protection that were significantly influenced by mercantile interests.
Unpublished MA dissertation, 2017
Commissioned officers in the Royal Navy occupied a unique place in British society at the turn of... more Commissioned officers in the Royal Navy occupied a unique place in British society at the turn of the nineteenth century. Having evolved over the previous centuries as an unprecedented hybrid of gentlemen and professionals, they retained characteristics of both. As a result, the place they occupied in the long established and conservative order of British society was unclear, both to them and to their civilian contemporaries. Though long considered to have been culturally defined by a large proportion of noble and genteel officers, recent research has revealed that the numbers of “born gentlemen” in the ranks of the commissioned officers was significantly smaller. This finding, in conjunction with a close consideration of the evidence for genteel culture and behaviour in the navy’s wardrooms, calls into question the assertion that officers considered themselves inherently to be gentlemen. There is also evidence in contemporary sources that civilian society considered officers to be closely linked to and indeed part of the order known as the “middling sort.”
Unpublished BS (Honors) thesis, 2001