admiralty

1. 1. A court exercising jurisdiction over all maritime cases.
   2. Maritime law.
2. Admiralty The department of the British government that once had control over all naval affairs.

Until a permanent royal navy came into being, organization did not need to be elaborate. A commander was appointed for the campaign, after which most of the vessels, being converted merchantmen, returned to their home ports. The first admirals were appointed in the late 13th cent. Henry VIII made a considerable effort to strengthen naval power. In 1540 Lord Bedford was named lord admiral and in 1545 a Council for Marine Causes was established—the genesis of the Navy Board. Buckingham, Charles I's favourite, was made lord high admiral and after his murder in 1628 the office was put into commission. This arrangement, with a 1st lord of the Admiralty, became permanent after 1708. The growing importance of the navy in the 17th cent. was underlined by the fact that the lord high admiralship was taken at the highest level—by James, duke of York, 1660-73, and by Charles II himself 1673-84.

The Navy Board took responsibility for administration and implementation, the Admiralty Board for appointments and strategy. The fleet to which Charles I had devoted considerable care deserted him at the Civil War. The Commonwealth regime abolished both boards, but found it necessary to replace them with commissioners of the Admiralty and naval commissioners, under whom the navy, particularly with Blake's leadership, acquitted itself well. Charles II in 1660 restored the old order and was fortunate enough to find in Samuel Pepys a remarkably capable civil servant. The same efficiency was scarcely maintained in the 18th cent. and the great victories were won more by tactics, morale, and personnel than by administration. Since the 1st lord was always a politician, often with no experience of the sea, professional naval advice came from a 1st sea lord.

The dual system came to an end in 1832, partly as a measure of economy, when Sir James Graham brought the Navy Board into the Admiralty structure and redefined channels of responsibility.

In the 20th cent. the degree of autonomy built up by the Admiralty was weakened by a number of factors—spiralling cost, an acceleration of technological change, and, not least, after 1945, by the remarkable shrinking of the navy itself. In 1931, for the first time since 1709, the 1st lord was briefly not a member of the cabinet, and in 1964, after a great run-down of the navy in the wake of the Second World War, the post of 1st lord was discontinued. In a unified Ministry of Defence the spokesman for the navy was the chief of naval staff and 1st sea lord.

From the beginning, St. Petersburg's docks and associated administrative building, collectively known as the Admiralty, had been an essential part of the city's existence. The shipyard was built by Peter the Great in 1704, and in the 1730s Ivan Korobov added the central gate and golden spire. By 1806 plans submitted by Andreian Zakharov for reconstruction of the large, and by then, decrepit complex had been approved. Zakharov had attended the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and studied extensively in France and Italy. Although he died in 1811, long before the completion of the building in 1823, no significant changes were made in his design.

In reconstructing Korobov's partially destroyed Admiralty, Zakharov expanded the length of the facade from 300 meters to 375. In addition there were two perpendicular wings almost half that long extending to the river. From the perspective of the Neva River, the complex consisted of two pishaped buildings, one within the other. The inner building served the Admiralty dockyard, which it enclosed on three sides, while the outer contained administrative offices. The Admiralty end-blocks, facing the Neva River, are among the most successful neoclassical attempts to achieve a geometric purity of structure.

The main facade, overlooking a large square (now a park), is marked in the center by a grand arch, flanked by statues of nymphs supporting a globe, sculpted by Feodosy Shchedrin. Above the arch, a sculpted frieze portrays Neptune handing Peter the Great the trident, symbol of power over the seas. The corners of the central tower support statues of Alexander the Great, Ajax, Achilles, and Pyrrhus. The tower culminates in a spire resting on an Ionic peristyle, the cornice of which supports twenty-eight allegorical and mythological statues representing the seasons, the elements, and the winds.

The remarkable power of the Admiralty building derives from Zakharov's ability to create visual accents for an immensely long facade. The simplicity of the surfaces provided the ideal background for large, rusticated arches and high-relief sculpture, thus converting a prosaic structure into a noble monument.

Bibliography

Brumfield, William Craft. (1993). A History of Russian Architecture. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hamilton, George Heard. (1975). The Art and Architecture of Russia. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books.

—WILLIAM CRAFT BRUMFIELD

This article is about a former military department of the United Kingdom. For other uses, see Admiralty (disambiguation).

Naval Service of the British Armed Forces
Components
Royal Navy Surface Fleet Fleet Air Arm Submarine Service Royal Naval Reserve Nursing Service (QARNNS)
Royal Marines Royal Marines Reserve
History and future
History of the Royal Navy History of the Royal Marines Customs and traditions Future of the Royal Navy
Ships
Current fleet Current deployments Historic ships
Personnel
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Related civilian agencies of the Ministry of Defence
Royal Fleet Auxiliary Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Originally exercised by a single person, the office of Lord High Admiral was from the 18th century onward almost invariably put "in commission", and was exercised by a Board of Admiralty.

In 1964 the functions of the Admiralty were transferred to a new Admiralty Board, which is a committee of the tri-service Defence Council of the United Kingdom and part of the Ministry of Defence. The new Admiralty Board meets only twice a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is controlled by a Navy Board (not to be confused with the historical Navy Board described later in this article). It is not uncommon for the various authorities now in charge of the Royal Navy to be referred to simply as The Admiralty.

The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom is now vested in the Sovereign. However, there continues to be a Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom and a Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom, both of which are honorary offices.

Contents 1 History 2 The Board of Admiralty 3 Admiralty buildings 3.1 The Admiralty 3.2 Admiralty House 3.3 Old Admiralty Building (or Admiralty Extension or OAB) 3.4 Admiralty Arch 3.5 The Admiralty Citadel 4 "Admiralty" as a metaphor for "sea power" 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

History

Flag of the Lord High Admiral

The office of Admiral of England (or Lord Admiral and later Lord High Admiral) was created around 1400, though there were before this Admirals of the Northern and Western Seas. In 1546 King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine, later to become the Navy Board, to oversee administrative affairs of the naval service. Operational control of the Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State.

In 1628, Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission and control of the Royal Navy passed to a committee in the form of the Board of Admiralty. The office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709, after which the office was almost permanently in commission (the last Lord High Admiral being the future King William IV in the early 19th century).

In 1831 the Navy Board was abolished as a separate entity and its duties and responsibilities were given over to the Admiralty.

In 1964 the Admiralty was subsumed into the Ministry of Defence along with the War Office and the Air Ministry. Within the expanded Ministry of Defence are the new Admiralty Board, Army Board and Air Force Board, each headed by the Secretary of State for Defence. As mentioned above, there is also a new Navy Board in charge of the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy.

The Board of Admiralty

When the office of Lord High Admiral was in commission, as it was for most of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries until it reverted to the Crown, it was exercised by a Board of Admiralty, officially known as the Commissioners for Exercising the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, &c. (alternatively of England, Great Britain or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland depending on the period).

The Board of Admiralty consisted of a number of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The Lords Commissioners were always a mixture of admirals, known as Naval Lords or Sea Lords, and Civil Lords, normally politicians. The quorum of the Board was two commissioners and a secretary.

The president of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty, who was a member of the Cabinet. After 1806, the First Lord of the Admiralty was always a civilian, while the professional head of the navy came to be (and is still today) known as the First Sea Lord.

Admiralty buildings

The Old Admiralty or Ripley Building

The Admiralty complex lies between Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade and The Mall and includes five buildings. Since the Admiralty no longer exists as a department, these are now used as an "office bank" by the British government:

The Admiralty

The oldest building, this was long known simply as The Admiralty, and is now referred to popularly as the Old Admiralty and officially as the Ripley Building.

The Admiralty complex in 1794. The colours indicate departments or residences for the several Lords of the Admiralty. The pale coloured extension behind the small courtyard on the left is Admiralty House.

It is a three storey u-shaped brick building, and completed in 1726. Alexander Pope implied the architecture is rather dull, lacking either the vigour of the baroque style which was fading from fashion at the time, or the austere grandeur of the Palladian style which was just coming into vogue. It is mainly notable for being perhaps the first purpose built office building in Great Britain. It contained a board room, other state rooms and offices and apartments for the Lords of the Admiralty. Robert Adam designed the screen which was added to the entrance front in 1788. Nowadays the Ripley Building is allocated to the Cabinet Office.

Admiralty House

Admiralty House is a moderately proportioned mansion to the south of the Ripley Building, built in the late 18th century as the residence of the First Lord of the Admiralty, serving that purpose until 1964. Winston Churchill was one of its occupants. It lacks its own entrance from Whitehall, and is entered through the Ripley Building. It is a three storey building in yellow brick with neo-classicistic interiors. Its rear facade faces directly onto Horse Guards Parade. The architect was Samuel Pepys Cockerell. There are now three ministerial flats in the building [1].

Old Admiralty Building (or Admiralty Extension or OAB)

The Admiralty Extension (which is also one of the two buildings which are sometimes referred to as the "Old Admiralty") dates from the turn of the 20th century.

This is the largest of the Admiralty Buildings. It was begun in the late 19th century and redesigned while the construction was in progress to accommodate the extra offices needed due to the naval arms race with the German Empire. It is red brick building with white stone detailing in the Queen Anne style with French influences. It is now used by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff refer to the building as the OAB (Old Admiralty Building).

Admiralty Arch

Admiralty Arch is linked to the Old Admiralty Building by a bridge and is part of the ceremonial route from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace. It contains further office space currently used by the Cabinet Office.

The Admiralty Citadel

This is a squat windowless World War II fortress north west of Horse Guards Parade, now covered in ivy. See Military citadels under London for further details.

"Admiralty" as a metaphor for "sea power"

In some cases, the term admiralty is used in a wider sense, as meaning sea power or rule over the seas, rather than in strict reference to the institution exercising such power. For example, the well-known lines from Kipling's Song of the Dead:

If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha' paid in full!

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Admiralty

• List of Lord High Admirals and First Lords of the Admiralty
• List of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty
• Lord High Admiral of Scotland
• Admiralty administration

References

• Bradley, Simon, and Nikolaus Pevsner. London 6: Westminster (from the Buildings of England series). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-300-09595-3.

External links

• The Admiralty at the Survey of London online

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - admiralitetet, flådedepartementet

Nederlands (Dutch)
bestuur van Marine (Brits), zeerecht

Français (French)
n. - amirauté, (GB) de la marine, (US, Jur) maritime (tribunal)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Admiralität

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ναυτ.) ναυαρχείο, (Βρετ.) Υπουργείο Ναυτικών

Italiano (Italian)
ammiragliato

Português (Portuguese)
n. - almirantado (m), tribunal (m) superior da marinha, ministério (m) da marinha, edifício (m) do tribunal da marinha em Londres

Русский (Russian)
адмиралтейство

Español (Spanish)
n. - almirantazgo, ministerio de marina

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - amiralskap, Marindepartementet

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
海事法庭, 海事法, 舰队司令职位

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 海事法庭, 海事法, 艦隊司令職位

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 해군 본부, 제독의 지위, 제해권

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - アドミラルティー島, アドミラルティー諸島, 海軍本部, 制海権, 海事法, 海事裁判所

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) أميراليه, إمارة البحر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮משרד הצי, אדמירליות, חוקי השיט בימים‬

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