ALL ORGANISATIONS are, and always have been, vulnerable to people who seek to enrich themselves through means both unlawful and immoral; the Victualling Board, in common with other areas of naval administration in Georgian times, was no exception. What is important in the context of this study is how the Victualling Board managed this situation: what policies they had in place for prevention and early detection, whether these policies were actively pursued, what action they took on detection or complaint, and whether these policies were effective in reducing the incidence of misdemeanours over time.

In addition to the various cases where the Board’s investigations produced evidence of wrongdoing (although this was often not sufficient to pursue legal action), there were also some cases where allegations appear to have been prompted by spite and where no evidence was found on investigation. Such allegations might be made by anonymous or pseudonymous letters, or, where officials were involved, by pamphlet, but as Morriss points out, despite the effort and time they absorbed, all had to be investigated as where officials were accused, such allegations undermined the credibility of both office holders and public finance.

Theft

Knight tells of a culture of petty theft in the dockyards, encouraged by professional receivers and perhaps fuelled by low wages, long payment intervals and inflation. His paper deals with the American War of Independence, but the situation cannot have changed much between then and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Clearly there were parallels: the same financial situation for the workers, the same working practices which allowed workers’ wives to bring meals into the yards in baskets which could then be used to remove plunder, the same opportunities for large groups of workers to ‘surge’ out of the gates at quitting time (and thus frustrating attempts to stop them for searches), the same impossibility for yard management constantly to observe the workers as they went about their tasks.

There were, however, differences between the victualling and dock yards, these being mainly that there were fewer small items of His Majesty’s property available to be slipped into pockets (nails and fine cordage were particularly vulnerable in the dockyards) although a handful of corn or flour, a piece of meat or a couple of biscuits could be wrapped in a handkerchief and pocketed.