Containing contemporary (original) copies of over a hundred and fifty letters and dispatches sent to individual commissioners, captains and Admiralty agents at Chatham, Deptford, Portsmouth, Yarmouth and other yards. Includes one letter to William Cockayne, Governor of the East India Company, concerning the fitting and provisioning of numerous specified ships, arrangement for prizes, and related matters, with reference to action taken against the fleet of Prince Rupert and the Dutch Fleet; also include commands by General at Sea Robert Blake.

The letters are written in several clerical hands. Various documents concerning authorisation from the Council of State, during the Commonwealth. Many letters concern provisions and victualling for certain ships in the Navy, sometimes a list of ships is provided in the margin, also includes an Admiralty order to enforce better guards for ships in harbour.

Administrative / biographical background
The Committee of Navy Commissioners was set up in February 1648/9 which included John Holland, Thomas Smith, Peter Pett, Robert Thompson, William and Francis Willoughby, Robert Moulton, Edward Hopkins and Nehemiah Bourne. Contains administrative records during the Commonwealth Navy.