ROYAL NAVY - SHIPBOARD ORGANIZATION

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

HMS Plantagenet's Watch-Bill. Remarkably elaborated, and very complete representation of the complex manning schedules required to operate a cutting-edge ship of the line, the most sophisticated weapons system of its day. These attractively rendered diagrams graphically display how the manpower of some 500 crew and marines was brought to bear in the manoeuvring of what also has a good claim to being at that time the most complex machine in the world bar none, a machine that was "uniquely human in its complexity because its maximum employment is as much an art as it is a science; a cusp … between humanity and technology, between art and science" (Ringle). These watch-bills were produced in much the same way as the far more prevalent manuscript signal books, as an exercise and aide-memoire for midshipmen or lieutenants. The Royal Museums, Greenwich hold over 50 watch, station and quarter bills in their manuscripts collection, but the great majority of these were produced 1830-60, and most are abbreviated versions in working pocketbooks, rather than this very thorough, handsomely decorated, if somewhat impractical, presentation.HMS Plantagenet was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of 1,774 tons, built to a design by Sir William Rule, laid down late in 1798 she was launched in 1801 at Woolwich. As one of the "large class" 74s she had a gun-deck 181 feet long, carrying 24-pounder guns on her upper deck instead of the more usual 18-pounders. During the Napoleonic War she saw sig

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.