Parishes-on-sea: Royal Navy chaplains

In this blog we look at the role and experiences of Royal Navy chaplains and what their accounts can tell us about shipboard life.

Chaplains have ministered to the personnel of England’s seaborne fighting force since before the founding of the Royal Navy by King Henry VIII. 

A. G. Kealy (1861-1927) begins his book Chaplains of the Royal Navy, 1626-1903, with the statement that ‘With the exception of the Boatswain the Chaplain is probably the oldest rank of Officer in the fleet.’ He quotes an article from King Stephen’s reign with reference to an expedition of 1147 which says that ‘on board each ship there shall be a Priest, and the same observances as the Parishes on shore’. King Charles I had ordered in 1626 that there should be a chaplain in every ship and King Charles II likewise gave ‘orders for preachers to goe in every of His ships to sea.’ It seems that not all ships obeyed, however. As late as 1815, a writer whom Kealy does not name wrote:

One reason, Kealy suggests, ‘is probably to be found in the fact that that the position allotted to the Chaplain of a Ship was so unsatisfactory that—with the exception of a few who had a strong love for the sea—Clergymen refused to enter the Service.’ According to Kealy:

It is perhaps significant that for many years chaplains were excluded from lists of Royal Navy officers. They first appeared in the Navy List in 1814, but it seems there was no Admiralty list of chaplains until 1820. Before 1844, chaplains were appointed by warrant, but from 1844 it was by commission.

In 1824, the Regulations give the following ranks: ‘Masters, Secretaries, Physicians, Chaplains, Surgeons, Pursers, to rank with Lieutenant in the Navy but to be subordinate to them.’ In 1859, chaplains themselves were divided into four classes based upon their years of service, and the following year their rank was abolished by Order in Council, which stated ‘Chaplains shall not hold any Military Rank, but they are to be treated with all consideration due to their Sacred Office.’

Those commanding Royal Navy ships were required to ensure that Anglican religious observance took place. Kealy tells us:

Though the prescribed religious practice changed during the Commonwealth (when the Book of Common Prayer was banned), the basic requirement for religious observance by officers and ratings was reiterated throughout the years following the Restoration of the monarchy. However, the realities of life at sea often intruded. 

With reference to the requirement under the General Printed Instructions for two prayers a day, one naval chaplain, the Reverend Joshua Larwood (1748-1808), wrote in the Naval Chronicle of January-July 1802 (page 381): ‘This daily ceremonial of worship the daily duty of the ship does not altogether allow.’

An account from later in the century agrees. William Guise Tucker (1812-1885), who was Chaplain of Greenwich Hospital, in his posthumously published Recollections of a Chaplain in the Royal Navy (1886) writes (page 8), with reference to his early career as a chaplain that:

The 1806 Regulations and Instructions Relating to His Majesty’s Service at Sea stated that the captain is to direct that divine service takes place and for there to be a sermon on Sundays, but with the qualification that this is ‘if the duties of the ship or the state of the weather do not absolutely prevent it’. Attendance was still mandatory. The Admiralty Order dated 1 August 1861 made it general practice that there was daily prayer. Kealy states that at the time he was writing in the 1900s, this was ‘now strictly carried out’.

From 1870, chaplains were permitted a choice of cabin once the senior executive officer and senior navigating officer had chosen theirs, and were among the officers accorded a special cabin by the Regulations of 1879.

For centuries, Royal Navy chaplains were exclusively Anglican, a situation which continued even after Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Even when, later in the nineteenth century, there was some provision of Catholic chaplains in the Royal Navy, these chaplains were not accorded the same status as Anglican chaplains and were viewed by the Admiralty as civilians. This was only finally put right during the Second World War, when an Order in Council of 17 November 1943 meant that Catholic chaplains made their first appearance in the Navy List. Chaplains for other faiths came later, and pastoral care for those of no faith was announced in 2023.

Since chaplains were educated and literate it is not surprising to find that some wrote memoirs or kept shipboard diaries. These do not only record their professional duties, but also accounts of shipboard life more generally. A particular challenge facing naval Chaplains is that they live among their flock more intimately than priests on land. William Guise Tucker notes (on page 4 of his memoirs) that:

Insight into the shipboard life of chaplains can also be gained from the Reverend H. Beardmore’s book The Waters of Uncertainly: a Book for Naval Chaplains, London: A. R. Mowbray, 1944 (Caird Library ID: PBB6651). Published during the Second World War, it gave advice to other chaplains in the service. Harold Beardmore already had 17 years’ experience in the Royal Navy by the time the book was published, so he was well placed to offer advice to those newly joining the service, such as the importance of sincerity:

Other practical advice included Beardmore’s view ‘that the Chaplain who does not drink or smoke is certainly viewed with suspicion by the ship’s company’, and ‘Never discuss a rating or the affairs of the ship’s company in the Wardroom’ as ‘the rating or ratings concerned will soon learn that they are being talked about’.

There follows advice on how to conduct services, which perhaps surprisingly includes baptisms. This is because an officer or rating might request that their child is baptised on board the ship. Beardmore also includes a chapter on duties during wartime and emphasises the importance of knowing how to get about the ship and where the watertight doors are located. He also advises that:
 

Beardmore gives further insight into shipboard and naval life by listing the routine of the ship, giving advice on providing welfare, and including appendices on the chaplain’s noticeboard and examples of letters and forms of address.

Our Archive collection has examples of manuscript journals kept by naval chaplains. Among these is the diary of the Reverend Robert Hind (JOD/65) covering the years 1853-1856. The following entry shows how chaplains could experience the same troubles at sea as the rest of the ship’s occupants. It comes from 24 February 1853 when Hind was off the coast of North Africa:

On the other hand, in Malta on 24 March 1853, Hind recorded that: ‘The Lord Bishop of Gibraltar held a confirmation this afternoon in the parish Church of St Paul, when about 250 partook of the solemn rite.’ He also recorded dining with the Lord Bishop of Gibraltar in Malta on 31 March, and going with some ‘officers to a pic-nic beyond St Paul’s Bay’ on 13 May.

The papers of Nelson’s chaplain Alexander James Scott (SCO) are also in the Caird Library and Archive.

What the accounts of naval chaplains give us is a sense of their experiences and those of others serving in Royal Navy vessels, as well as the vital and often practical role that chaplains played, and the multi-layered nature of their status and relationships. Chaplains were in an unusual position of being able to cut across ranks and hold one-to-one meetings in private with any of the ship’s officers or ratings. This gave them a more complete picture of the ship’s personnel than almost anyone else on board.

A. G. Kealy, Chaplains of the Royal Navy, 1626-1903, Portsmouth: Wilkins & Son, [1903?] (Caird Library ID: PBD7782). This provides a list of names of Royal Navy chaplains by the year and reign in which they were appointed for the dates covered.

From 1814, chaplains are also listed in the Navy List (available in the Caird Library).
For Anglican clergy in general (not just naval chaplains), Crockford’s Clerical Directory, which begins in 1858, provides information as to education and previous and current livings held, with years. Editions for 1868-1932 are available on Ancestry (available to access in the Caird Library Reading Room).

Appendices in Gordon Clifford Taylor’s The Sea Chaplains: a History of the Chaplains of the Royal Navy (Caird Library ID: PBN0127) contain lists of Royal Navy chaplains of various denominations.