The Navy Board is today the body responsible for the day-to-day running of the British Royal Navy. Its composition is identical to that of the Admiralty Board of the Defence Council of the United Kingdom, except that it does not include any of Her Majesty's Ministers.
From 1546 to 1831, the Navy Board was also the name of a body separate from the Admiralty, originally called Council of the Marine and presided over by the Lieutenant of the Admiralty, which was responsible for the administrative affairs of the naval service, including the building and repair of and supplies to naval ships. In doing so, they ran the six major naval dockyards in England, Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth and Plymouth, as well as smaller operations elsewhere. However their armament was the responsibility of an independent body, the Board of Ordnance.
In the 18th century, the Navy Board had subsidiary organisations such as the Sick and Hurt Commissioners (responsible for naval medical services) and the Victualling Commissioners (responsible for food supplies).
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Famous quotes containing the words navy and/or board:
“I call to mind the navy great
That the Greeks brought to Troye town,
And how the boistous winds did beat
Their ships, and rent their sails adown;
Till Agamemnon’s daughter’s blood
Appeased the gods that them withstood.”
—Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517?–1547)
“As a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails through the air. We mortals are all on board a fast-sailing, never-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright; and she is but one craft in a Milky-Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High Admiral.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)