Victualling Commissioners
It oversaw the vast operation of providing naval personnel (140,000 men in 1810) with enough food, drink and supplies to keep them fighting fit, sometimes for months at a time, in whatever part of the globe they might be stationed.[5] In 1550 he was listed as one of the seven members of the Board of Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy; he was required to 'take care always to have in store a stock of victuals to supply a thousand men at sea for one month at a fortnight's notice'.[6] At first the Victualling Office was accommodated in the Tower of London, but it soon spread outside the precincts to the east (on to the site of the recently dissolved and demolished Abbey of St Mary Graces).In the 1660s, Samuel Pepys, who was then Clerk of the Acts of the Navy, reformed the system of having a Purser assigned to each ship to oversee the distribution of supplies, and obliged each one to lodge a cash surety, and to keep complete accounts of every item issued.The single largest contributor of calories was beer, of which the Victualling Board purchased sufficient quantity that each sailor could consume a ration of one gallon per day.In the following decade, a complex of naval and victualling storehouses was built on Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour, Ireland (successor to an earlier depot at Kinsale).In some places these were overseen by a resident Agent appointed by the Victualling Commissioners (though in more out-of-the-way locations ships' captains were expected to make their own arrangements).In the 17th century there were Agent Victuallers in Leghorn and Tangiers, as well as at a range of ports at home; by 1810 they were in such diverse locations as Malta, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape and Heligoland.The other buildings on site include cooperages (for manufacturing barrels), officers' residences and an elegant Slaughterhouse (for provision of salted beef), all in matching limestone and arranged on a symmetrical grid layout.[17] Here the layout was less regimented, as the old cooperage was incorporated into the new complex; but it still presented an impressive frontage to the dockside (the symmetry of which has recently been restored through the rebuilding of a wing to the Granary, which had been demolished after the war).During the 19th century, Deptford in particular began to stock or manufacture more specialised foodstuffs, in addition to the more traditional fare: there were cocoa, pepper and mustard mills on the site, along with storehouses for tea, sugar, rice, raisins and wine, as well as tobacco.[16] The Victualling Board proceeded to build breweries, slaughterhouses, mills and bakeries near to the Royal Navy Dockyards to provide beer, salted meat, ship's biscuits and other supplies under its own quality control.
Office of the Surveyor of Marine VictualsVictualling DepartmentKingdom of EnglandKingdom of Great BritainUnited KingdomLondonAdmiraltyNavy BoardvictuallingRoyal NavyDepartment of the Comptroller of Victualling and Transport ServicesElizabeth IGeneral Surveyor of VictualsBoard of Principal Officers and Commissioners of the NavySt Mary GracesRotherhitheDeptfordDeptford Victualling YardSamuel PepysClerk of the Acts of the NavyPurserAnglo-Dutch WarsComptroller of Victualling and TransportsComptroller of VictuallingParliamentary and Financial SecretarySuperintendent of VictuallingDirector of VictuallingWar of the Austrian Successionship's biscuitHMS MaidstoneRochesterportable soupNapoleonic WarsPortsmouthPlymouthHarwichthe DownsMaison DieuHM Victualling Yard, DeptfordChathamSheernessWoolwichVictualling Yard at GibraltarHaulbowlineCork HarbourKinsaleLeghornTangiersRio de JaneiroHeligolandJamaicaAntiguaVictualling YardStonehouseRoyal William Victualling YardHMD BermudaRoyal Clarence Victualling YardGosportKing William IVRoyal Victoria Victualling YardGeorgetownAscension IslandMalta DockyardMalta Maritime Museumdockyard complex in BermudaDalmenyDockyard at RosythDarling IslandGovernment of New South Walesrum rationBrewhouseCutting HouseCooperageHoytakingNavy Pay OfficeNavy OfficeSomerset HouseCourtenay BoyleRichard HaddockJohn ParsonsThomas PapillonThomas ColbyJohn HoublonHenry LeeDenzil OnslowThomas BereWaller BaconOwen BuckinghamSir George Saunders Kt.Stephen BisseGeorge HuxleyEdward TrelawnySprig ManestyHenry ParsonsThomas RevellWilliam ThompsonThomas BreretonGeorge CrowleFrancis EylesWilliam HayArthur StertFrancis Haskins Eyles-StilesHoratio TownshendRoger BurgoyneJonas HanwayWilliam BoscawenFrancis John HartwellJohn RodneyCharles CunninghamEdward Richard StewartRobert William HayWilliam Lennox BathurstJames Alexander GordonJohn HillJohn Thomas BriggsSurveyor of Marine VictualsSir William Bellingham, 1st BaronetRodger, N. A. M.Comptroller of Victualling AccountsLieutenant of the AdmiraltyTreasurer of Marine CausesComptroller of the NavySurveyor of the NavyClerk of the NavyMaster of Naval OrdnanceKeeper of the Storehouses