Edmund Dummer (naval engineer)
Encyclopedia
Edmund Dummer was an English naval engineer and shipbuilder who, as Surveyor of the Navy
, founded the Royal Navy
dockyard at (Devonport)
, Plymouth
and extended that at Portsmouth
. His survey of the Royal Navy Dockyard
s is a valuable and well-known historic document. He also served Arundel
as Member of Parliament
for approximately ten years and founded the first packet service
between Falmouth, Cornwall
and the West Indies. He died a bankrupt in the Fleet
debtors' prison.
In her account of Dummer, Celina Fox sums up his career thus:
, Hampshire, the eldest of four sons born to Thomas Dummer (1626–1710), gentleman farmer of Chickenhall, in the parish of North Stoneham
near Southampton
, and his wife, Joanne Newman.
He joined the Royal Navy
in 1668 and served his apprenticeship as a shipwright under Sir John Tippetts at Portsmouth naval dockyard. In his 1686 account of the state of the Navy, Samuel Pepys
wrote that when Dummer was apprenticed to Tippetts, he was "mostly employed as his clerk in writing and drawing". By 1678, Dummer was employed as an "extra clerk" in the office of the Surveyor, "my patron and friend from my youth upward". His job was to make designs for a variety of projects – lanthorns, wet docks, lodgings at Sheerness
, ships' sterns – as well as to draught
ships' lines.
In 1677, Dummer and Tippetts assisted Sir Anthony Deane, who had been appointed Controller of the Victualling Accounts on the Navy Board, and given the responsibility for establishing for the first time standardized sets of dimensions of ships of the line to be applied to the "thirty new ships", the largest single shipbuilding programme hitherto undertaken. For his work on establishing the new standards, Dummer was "singled out by the Navy Board for his extraordinary ingenuity to lay down the bodies of all the thirty new ships".
Several of Dummer's draughts from this period survive including a sketch-book of "Tables of Proportions of Ships" which comprises a series of engraved sheets of squared paper on which are plotted the curves or sweeps of the hulls of one second rate and some of the third rate ships newly built in the Thames and Medway yards. A volume of eight Dummer drawings entitled "Draught of the Body of an English Man of War" is in the Pepys Library; these are much more elaborate, doubtless intended to show off his extraordinary skills as a draughtsman to potential patrons, and include vertical sections through the ships showing the design and layout of the structure. These works constitute the earliest surviving example of Dummer’s skills as a draughtsman
, demonstrating a capacity to express an organized tectonic sensibility that was to mark his progress towards the surveyorship.
In February 1679, Dummer became caught up in a political dispute involving Pepys and Deane, who had been accused of leaking naval intelligence to France. Amongst the charges laid against Pepys and Deane by Parliament were that "they had employed a man to take the bodies of the king's ships, supposed to be no good intention". Dummer, "being extremely fearful myself what ill use might be made of me, or of the works so innocently meant" was taken before the King
"to prevent (if in him it lay) by the King’s approbation and allowance any reflection upon them that were already distressed". Dummer was sent to Bristol
until January 1680 when he was summoned to attend the Navy Board with his draughts. There he met Deane who had been released from prison though not yet discharged; Deane asked Dummer to make two draughts for him, a promise Dummer failed to keep, having been instructed by the Navy Board not to do so.
The Admiralty still appeared to have suspicions about the loyalty of both Dummer and Deane, and at a meeting of the Lords Commissioners it was ordered "that I did not at the same time draw draughts for any other and as well as that of the King’s service, and ordered they should give me a written order ... and also to report what was fitting to allow me to draught ...". By April 1680, Dummer had delivered five draughts; he wrote to the Navy Board to ask "whether I can be supposed to draw new draughts by that way I have practised". In May he was still asking whether the Board wanted to discharge or continue employing him, warning of his impending ruin: "I could have borne the present with more respect and patience, were I not able to say it hath been always my misfortune, that the greatness of the enterprise was never truly valued nor encouraged". Although the order to pay him at the rate of £7 per draught was made by the Admiralty to the Navy Board on 24 February and again on 11 May 1680 (with the proviso, "to take care before the payment of any of the said sums to the said Mr Dummer, that the work be so performed as may answer the end for which the said draughts were at first designed") he was still waiting for payment on 11 June.
) was commissioned as a midshipman
-extraordinary on HMS Woolwich
and sent to the Mediterranean "in order to his collecting what useful observations should arise to him, in his enquiries through the several foreign ports there, relating either to the said art of ship-building, or the nature and order of the said ports, appearances of land, or ought else than might conduce to our service". Dummer had estimated that his expenses for about two years would be £
95 4s 0d
and it was agreed he was to be reimbursed for that sum by the Treasurer of the Navy.
On 3 August 1682, Dummer set out from Deal
on the Woolwich, under the command of Captain William Holding, taking the Moorish Ambassador, who had been in England for six months, back to Tangiers. Despite an attempted mutiny by the Ambassador's Moorish retainers while the ship was at anchor in Plymouth Sound
, the Woolwich reached Tangiers on 31 August. After a change in command to Lieutenant Rigby (Holding had died and was buried at Tangiers), they sailed on east into the Mediterranean, south of Sardinia
and Sicily
, across the Ionian Sea
to Cephalonia and Zante, then back through the Strait of Messina
past the active volcano of Stromboli
to Naples
and Livorno
, where Dummer disembarked, while the Woolwich started back to England on 24 November.
Dummer records that he then divided his time between Livorno and Pisa
until 11 February 1683, when he received an answer from the Commissioners of the Admiralty "to whom I had given an account of my leaving the ship, and the reasons" for requesting extended shore leave. During this period, Dummer delivered to Sir Thomas Dereham, the English envoy in Florence
, a magnificent panel carved by Grinling Gibbons
celebrating the fruits of peace and friendship between princes, which was commissioned by Charles II
as a gift for Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
.
Dummer took a keen interest in recording towns, their dockyards and fortifications throughout the Mediterranean, making detailed perspectives and measured plans, producing a visual record of the arsenals of Naples, Livorno, Pisa, Venice
, Genoa
, Toulon
, Marseilles, Gibraltar
and Cadiz
. In contrast to the English method of building and repairing ships in dry dock, the Mediterranean ports used covered slipways of which Dummer made many drawings. He was particularly impressed by the Venetian Arsenal
, drawing it in plan, general and detailed perspective, including "A Perspective of the Mode of laying up small Ordnance" and "A Perspective of Two Arches ... under which Ships & Gallies are Built & Repaired".
By April 1683, he was in Toulon where he took the opportunity to carry out a little informal espionage: "They with much readiness permit you to go aboard their ships, but it is in such regularity, as not to be done but by a note, under the hand of a special officer". Amongst the 50 or more vessels in the harbour was the Royal Louis
and two more first-rate
vessels. Dummer described the fleet as a "good fleet, but in appearance ill built, or through some weakness in long living have generally put their wales
a little straight in the midships". He described the Royal Louis as "a great ship and glorious in her first carving, no doubt; but to my judgment not of good proportion, nor good workmanship, her figure under water I know not, nor is that above to be admired".
Dummer reported that in Toulon, "all ships great & small are built on launches, and are careened
when their occasions require it; for here are no docks, an obligation we are not tied to". He also made drawings of the new fortifications then under construction to the designs of Vauban
.
On 14 April 1683, he arrived at Marseilles the home of the French King's galleys, of which there were 35 in the harbour. He described the galleys as "the most polite and beautiful I ever saw".
During the voyage, Dummer diligently carried out the King's orders to make "observations upon all foreign shipping", from Cadiz
to Constantinople
. His journal described each vessel, both large and small, in great detail accompanied by both watercolour views and three-dimensional skeleton models.
In July 1683 Dummer sailed homewards from Livorno in the Swallow
via the Balearic Islands
, Malaga
, Alicante
, Gibraltar
and Cadiz
, where on 13 September he received orders to attend Lord Dartmouth
in Tangier
and stay until the English garrison was given up and destroyed, on 6 February 1684. Dummer returned to England accompanied by Samuel Pepys
who had been in Tangier assisting Lord Dartmouth with the evacuation and abandonment of the British colony; they travelled back through Spain, arriving back in England after a particularly rough passage on 30 March 1684. By the end of the year his expenses, which amounted to £150 10s 6d – 50% more than his initial estimate – had been reimbursed.
On the completion of the voyage, Dummer produced a "sumptuous volume" which is now in the British Library
.
in Deptford
. Evelyn was "so charmed with his ingenuity", he wrote to Pepys, "that I look on it as a new obligation to you; and if you find I cultivate it for my own sake a little; you will let him understand ... how much I wish him the improvement of your favours ..." In December, following the death of Thomas Shish, the Master Shipwright at Woolwich
, Dummer applied for the vacant posts of Assistant Shipwright at Deptford and Chatham
; he was supported in his application by John Evelyn, who described him as "a diligent and most ingenious man", adding "in my life I have never observed a young man ... less pragmatical, and of greater modesty, beside his so humble, cheerful and becoming dedication of himself to his patron alone, which is a mark of his discretion, as well as of his duty".
Thus in 1686, Dummer replaced Daniel Furzer as first assistant master shipwright at Chatham
, under Robert Lee, retaining this post until 1689. Writing at the time, Pepys considered Dummer "an ingenious young man, but said rarely to have handled a tool in his life, nor knows judiciously how to convert a piece of timber; has been much abroad indeed, but gained his present promotion upon the credit only of his designing and making of draught".
(under Sir John Tippetts) with a salary of £300 a year; on the death of Tippetts in August 1692, he succeeded him as Surveyor at £500 a year.
As Surveyor, Dummer endeavoured to strengthen the Navy by extending the measure of uniformity in ship construction initiated by the thirty new ships project. Despite the Navy's desire for standardization, even the thirty new ships differed in size and tonnage, as shipwrights took the dimensions specified as being minimum rather than absolute measures. To end these disparities, in 1692 Dummer wrote to the men appointed to survey and measure the ships then under construction, enclosing a small printed sketch, with measurement points keyed in to letters, "to serve for one common rule of direction and information, whereby the parts necessary to be truly measure[d] and known are at one view made intelligible to every man alike: and the numbers to be set down are to respect the letters in the manner following ..." His method of measurement was adopted as official practice in April 1696.
Dummer was the first surveyor who introduced exact standards for the construction of new vessels, sending each builder with his warrant for building a new ship the precise measurements together with models of the completed vessel. "Mr Dummer caused every master builder, at docking a ship, to measure the body and compare the figure".
In January 1693, following instructions by the Admiralty Board to report on the subject of bomb vessel
s, Dummer wrote to his old master Robert Lee
at Chatham and to Fisher Harding at Deptford, asking them to check the proportions of a bomb-vessel designed by "a French engineer (Jean Fournier) who contrived those bomb vessels I saw when I was at Toulon". On the basis of their views, an experimental and rather unsatisfactory class of bomb vessels was built to English dimensions and rigging in 1693. A smaller, cheaper and more effective class followed two years later, built to mercantile dimensions in merchant yards.
In 1699, Dummer reported to the Admiralty on Thomas Savery
's patent designs for a system of paddle-wheels driven by a capstan
– following Dummer's negative report, the idea was dismissed by the Admiralty.
Dummer’s main achievement as Surveyor was his development of the royal dockyards at Devonport
near Plymouth
and at Portsmouth
.
. He returned to London in November with details of three possible locations, including sites at Cattewater
and Hamoaze
, which is a section of the River Tamar
, in the parish of Stoke Damerel, including estimates of the cost of building on each site, both in timber and stone. After some debate, the small inlet at Hamoaze was selected; the work was to be done in stone with a protective wet dock in front and, at the insistence of King Willam
, the dry dock was made large enough to hold first-rate
ships. At Devonport, Dummer was the designer of the first successful stepped stone dry dock in Europe.
Previously the Navy Board had relied upon timber as the major building material, which resulted in high maintenance costs and was also a fire risk. The docks Dummer designed were stronger with more secure foundations and stepped sides that allowed shorter timbers to be used for shoring and made it much easier for shipwrights to reach the underside of the vessel. These innovations also allowed rapid erection of staging and greater workforce mobility. He discarded the earlier three-sectioned hinged gate, which was labour intensive in operation, and replaced it with the simpler and more mobile two-sectioned gate. He wished to ensure that naval dockyards were efficient working units that maximized available space, as evidenced by the simplicity of his design layout for Plymouth. He introduced a centralized storage area and a logical positioning of buildings, and his double rope-house combined the previously separate tasks of spinning and laying while allowing the upper floor to be used for the repair of sails.
By 16 September 1694, Dummer reported to the Admiralty, "Our docks here are finished and we purpose to take in the cleaning the mouth of the basin from the dam that stands before it, which will be done in a few days; a more particular account I will give you hereafter". His "Account of the Generall Progress and Advancement of his Majestie’s New Docks and Yard at Plymouth" was presented to the Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy in December 1694. It clearly explains the logical thinking behind his planning of the works, influenced by his extensive travels. Typically, to the description of works undertaken he appended eight draughts: plans of the site, the yard and the dry dock, plans and elevations for the officers' dwelling houses, the great store house, hemp house, rope house and rope yard buildings, for "by representations and descriptions of works of this nature, when they are disposed in a manner most familiar and easy of the understanding, one finds at once both encouragement in the contemplation, and satisfaction in the judging of them". The drawings therefore served as a means of explanation and a form of advocacy, as well as evidence of and pride in his achievement.
In his design for the docks at Devonport, Dummer sought to arrange the buildings as efficiently as possible in order to eliminate the "great abuses committed in their Majesties' yards" such as "the tedious and expensive practices of carrying all things afloat for expediting of ship works, and which are many times very remote from the places where materials are kept, and workmen resort". This led to time-wasting and obstruction and presented opportunities for embezzling ships' stores. Because of the innumerable abuses, "too many to be named, and some too subtle to be discovered", Dummer ensured that men and materials were placed close together under the constant eye of command, saving time and costs. The thirteen officers' dwelling houses were similarly sited "on the most eminent spot of ground in the yard, for the officers' better observance of things abroad, and readier communication and conference with one another, on all occasions".
An abstract of the costs in Dummer's 1694 account amounted to £50,000, but he was at pains to point out that this was because of the greatness and novelty of the works, which overcame the deficiencies of the other yards. Obstructions had been brought about because of the irregular cash flow, the weakness of contracts and "the imbecile stock of a private man under the weight of so chargeable a work" (probably referring to the stonemason Robert Waters who was also blamed by Dummer for problems with the works), not to mention the fact that the country was at war. Increases on the original estimate (£23,406 in 1692, which nearly tripled by 1698) had, he maintained with some aplomb, been made purposefully by stealth so that they would be borne more easily, rather than by demanding too great a lump sum and getting rejected at the outset.
and work began in 1691 at an estimated cost of £15,890. It was built to new designs developed by Dummer who again substituted brick and stone for wood and increased the number of altars or steps. As with all future extensions, the new works were built on reclaimed land and the civil engineering involved was on an unprecedented scale. The great stone dock as it was called (extensively rebuilt in 1769 as No.5 dock) was evacuated with chain pumps powered by horses. A building slip was constructed in No.3 dock where the Mary Rose
is now housed.
In November 1691 he oversaw the raising and repairing of the 54-gun fourth rate ship St David
which had capsized and partially blocked Portsmouth harbour.
When all the surveys were completed and the critique written up, the work was addressed to the Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy and sent to the Lords of the Admiralty some time after 19 November 1698, just over four months after it was started. It was suggested in this report that the only ports worth considering were the ones in the area around Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight
and that no further yards should be built between Dover
and Land's End
. A copy of this report is held by the Hampshire County Council
Museums Service.
Dummer's survey was part of a general effort on his part and that of a handful of colleagues on the Navy Board to get to grips with the management of the massive business under their charge. Dummer's draughts constitute an extraordinary feat of surveyorship. In the volume, each royal dockyard is treated separately and its description given in the same order, each of the four types of drawing being made to the same scale so that cross-comparisons can be made. The emphasis was on exact measurement, with Dummer combining geometrical precision with great artistry. The first type of drawing relating to each dockyard gives the general situation of the port and harbour; the second focuses on the situation of the yard; the third compares the plan of the yard at the Revolution with its development ten years on, showing the improvements or new buildings added; the fourth – the most extensive section – gives in plan and elevation every single building in each yard.
The Survey first covers each of the royal dockyards on the Thames and Medway – Chatham, Sheerness, Woolwich and Deptford – as well as the Navy Office, before dealing with the dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth. In total it was estimated that the value of His Majesty’s Dockyards was £291,124, of which £166,799 had been spent in the previous ten years, more than doubling the original value. The greatest investment had been made at Plymouth of £67,095, followed by Portsmouth (£63,384), Deptford (£12,880), Chatham (£11,155), Woolwich (£10,477), Sheerness (£1,566) and finally the Navy Office (£239).
Dummer's achievements as Surveyor for the royal dockyards are highly regarded by present-day naval historians with the new docks at Plymouth and Portsmouth being "lasting monuments of his great skill".
. The candidates were Admiral Russell
, Alderman Hedger, and Edmund Dummer. The inhabitants of Portsea
living within the jurisdiction of the borough and paying "Scot and lot
", supported Dummer and insisted on their right to vote, but were prevented from doing so by measures adopted on behalf of Mr. Hedger. The gates of the town were shut against them, while threats and other unconstitutional measures were resorted to. Although a petition was lodged to have the election overturned, this was not followed up, with Dummer having been elected to represent the nearby town of Arundel
.
Dummer was elected MP for Arundel
three times as a supporter of the court, firstly in 1695 until 1698, when he did not stand for re-election. In January 1701 he was re-elected but this position lasted only ten months when he was replaced by Carew Weekes in November. Dummer returned to Parliament the following year and continued to represent the town for a further six years. In his Parliamentary career, he was a supporter of Robert Harley.
came to an abrupt end in December 1698, when he was suspended without warning following a dispute with John Fitch, the main contractor undertaking building works at Portsmouth Dockyard.
The origin of the dispute went back as far as 1693, when Dummer and Sir Anthony Deane had cause to doubt Fitch’s working methods and his claims for payments for "overworks". There had been endless construction problems, caused partly because the new docks were built on unstable reclaimed land. Fitch's workmen had damaged the entrance to the lower basin causing its banks to slide into the channel on the spring tide, leaving the piling exposed and vulnerable. On 20 June 1695, Dummer wrote from Portsmouth to Harley with the news that the dam which had been constructed the previous winter to shelter the work on the new docks from the sea had been breached. The following January and February he was writing to excuse his attendance at Parliament on account of the need to secure the great dam in the face of terrible weather. By the end of 1696, Dummer had finally ejected Fitch because of fraudulent claims for payment and terrible workmanship.
Fitch brought a case for payment against the Crown, with the Attorney General
, Richard Haddock
, and Dummer himself being named as defendants. The case was first heard in the Court of Exchequer
on 23 November 1696 and referred to trial. On 27 April 1697, the Court ordered that the matter be referred for arbitration to four referees, two appointed on behalf of the plaintiff and two on behalf of the defendants, with an umpire to determine between them if they were unable to agree. The party arrived in Portsmouth on 2 June to examine the works and advise on repairs, accompanied by Sir Christopher Wren
, in his capacity as Surveyor of the King's Works. After spending a day examining the works, the party returned to London and on 25 August their report took "a very strict view of the nature of the said defects" and confirmed Dummer's condemnation of the workmanship and ordered that the upper wet dock be taken down and rebuilt.
The Exchequer Court issued the final decree in late June or early July 1698, stating that Fitch should have been satisfied with the amounts already paid for the work done on the contract, £13,773 14s 6½d, and rejected his claims for payment on over work not included. It was also accepted that Fitch was still owed for further contract work completed before he was turned off site, valued at £8,757 1s 5d and £2,030 18s for materials.
Fitch then complained to the Admiralty that Dummer had asked for bribes in return for awarding him Navy contracts, claiming specifically that Dummer had told him he would get an immediate certificate for his bill if he made him a present of £100 and helped him with the sale of timber for Plymouth. Although Dummer conceded that he had borrowed £152 from Fitch on behalf of William Wyatt, a Bursledon
ship builder, he denied the other charges. With counter-accusations from both sides, Dummer was suspended from office with effect from Christmas Eve
1698.
Although his name was cleared by a civil court, which awarded him damages of £364, his career at the Navy Office was abruptly over. He was allowed the title and salary for 1699 but was not reinstated and dismissed by the Lords of the Admiralty
on 10 August 1699, with Daniel Furzer, Master Shipwright at Chatham, being appointed in his place from 22 September.
of South Stoneham (with whom he has been confused) helped to finance an ironworks at Sowley
, near Beaulieu
in Hampshire, leased from Ralph, Lord Montagu
, to Henry Corbett, who had manufactured the two-sectioned gate at Dummer's dry dock at Portsmouth.
Henry Corbett died in 1708 and Dummer seized his property by writ of exchequer
, claiming unpaid debts; Chancery
ruled in 1711 that Dummer was the rightful holder of the lease on the ironworks and Corbett's naval contracts. Dummer continued the business until 1712 whilst his brother Thomas (an ex-navy purser) continued to supply the navy until 1716.
s) for the Post Office packet service
from Harwich
to the Low countries
. Dummer also operated a packet service between Falmouth
, Corunna
and Lisbon
.
On the loss of his position as Surveyor of the Navy, Dummer devoted much of his energies to studying the problem of a regular packet service between England and the British Island Plantations in the West Indies. In a document dated 18 June 1702, he set out the "Terms for settling a monthly intelligence between England and the Island Plantations in the West Indies". Dummer proposed a monthly service to be operated by four oceangoing packet-boats calling at Barbados
, Antigua
, Montserrat
, Nevis
and Jamaica
.
On 30 June, the Crown agreed Dummer's plan, granting special concessions. He was permitted to fly the Queen's colours on his ships, his crews were exempted from impressment for naval service, and he was granted a letter of marque
for the duration of the War of the Spanish Succession
which had commenced in the previous year. The first transatlantic mail service directly sponsored by the Post Office
was inaugurated on 21 October 1702, with the sailing from Portsmouth
for Barbados of Dummer's packet Bridgeman. Bridgeman and its sister ship, Mansbridge, had operated on a mail service between Gravesend
and Brill
in the Netherlands
in 1699 and 1700. Two further ships, the King William, of 90 tons and 8 guns, and the Frankland of 132 tons and 10 guns, were purchased to start the service.
The four vessels were "designed to succeed each other monthly" and whose "motions are determined to be very quick, because thereon depends the chief fruit that is to be reaped". Dummer's fast transatlantic mail service had a best time of 88 days round trip (just under three months).
Dummer's packet service created the pattern which has been adapted by subsequent overseas mail services for the British Empire
– a service operated privately albeit with a heavy Government subsidy. To begin with, Dummer submitted his expenses to the Postmaster General who passed them on to the Treasury. During the first year £9,000 was impressed for the service, but the Treasury were so slow in paying that Dummer's finances could not stand the strain. In 1704 he was granted a salary as a Commissioner of the Navy, to be paid as from the date of the beginning of the service.
In the following year a new contract was drawn up to run for at least three years, or five years if the war continued. Under this a monthly service was to be maintained by a fleet of five vessels; Dummer was to receive £12,500 per annum, and was to be allowed to carry for his own profit 5 tons of freight on the outward journeys, and 10 tons on the homeward runs. In return he was to accept all risks to the ships and was responsible for replacements if they were lost or captured; further, he guaranteed that the Post Office would receive £8,000 per annum from the mail and passengers carried. For this new contract five new ships were built: Queen Anne, Prince George, Jamaica, Barbadoes and Antegoe. Each of these vessels was of 200 tons, armed with 20 guns, and with two decks; they were also fitted with 24 oars apiece to enable them to escape from attacking vessels in the calm
s, often met with in the Caribbean
.
By 1707 Dummer realised that he could no longer maintain the service as long as the clause guaranteeing the £8,000 income to the Crown remained in the contract. This resulted in a further contract being drawn up on 25 January 1708. Under this he was to continue the monthly service with five vessels; to supply stores and ammunition, and to be responsible for the payment of the crews; and to take all risks from the loss of ships. He was to be allowed £12,000 a year during time of war, and £8,000 in peacetime, together with all proceeds of cargo and passengers, whilst the revenue from the Mail was to go to the Crown.
Even with this new contract, however, it was impossible to carry on the service indefinitely. Dummer had to borrow money on the security of future payments. By the end of 1711, with the return of the packet Martlett, the service came to an end.
The loss of ships from enemy action during the War of the Spanish Succession and losses from storms, had left Dummer bankrupt. In nine years, Dummer had lost two packets at sea and had seven captured. His remaining seven packets were seized by creditors & the service lapsed.
It was not until 1745 that the Post Office re-introduced a service to the West Indies, based on Dummer's original plans, in response to demands from merchants, due to the growth of British interests in sugar plantations.
and two falconets
, subsequently replaced by a uniform armament of twelve 3-pounder guns.
In 1709 Dummer also designed and built the small Sixth Rate HMS Swan by contract with the Navy Board, and in the same year they purchased from him a similar vessel which he was building on speculation - the Sixth Rate HMS Hind. The French captured Ferret in 1706, the Hind unfortunately stranded and wrecked off the Isle of Wight just two months after her launch in 1709, and the Weazle and Swan were sold in 1712.
In 1705, Dummer acquired the estate at South Stoneham, near Southampton
from Giles Frampton and by 1708 South Stoneham House was completed, probably to the designs of the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor
.
soon afterwards he was recommitted to the Fleet in April 1712. He died there at the end of April 1713 and was buried at St Andrew's, Holborn on 8 May 1713.
After his death, the business at Sowley was bought from his creditor, the Duke of Montagu
, by his brother, who ran the ironworks until 1716.
In December 1713, a petition from his widow, Sarah, and his unmarried daughter, Jane, who were close to destitution, was presented to the Navy Board. The petition was heard by Dummer's former political mentor, Robert Harley as Secretary to the Lord High Treasurer. In the light of Dummer's earlier services as a civil engineer
, they were granted a pension of £150 per annum.
In August 1716, Dummer's estate, including South Stoneham manor and property at Shedfield
and Curdridge
, were eventually sold by Jane to meet the claims of his creditors. The manor passed to Edward Nicholas of Newton Valence
.
His widow survived him by only a few months and died in early 1714, being buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster on 20 February.
Surveyor of the Navy
The Surveyor to the Navy was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy. He was a member of the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 1546, and held overall responsibility for the design of British warships, although until 1745 the actual design work for warships built at each Royal Dockyard...
, founded the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
dockyard at (Devonport)
HMNB Devonport
Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...
, Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
and extended that at Portsmouth
HMNB Portsmouth
Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...
. His survey of the Royal Navy Dockyard
Royal Navy Dockyard
Royal Navy Dockyards are harbours where either commissioned ships are based, or where ships are overhauled and refitted. Historically, the Royal Navy maintained a string of dockyards around the world, although few are now operating today....
s is a valuable and well-known historic document. He also served Arundel
Arundel (UK Parliament constituency)
Arundel was twice a parliamentary constituency in the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. The first incarnation strictly comprised the town centre of Arundel and was a borough constituency first enfranchised in 1332 and disfranchised in 1868 under the Reform...
as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for approximately ten years and founded the first packet service
Post Office Packet Service
The Post Office Packet Service dates to Tudor times and ran until 1823, when the Admiralty assumed control of the service. Originally, the Post Office used packet ships to carry mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. The vessels generally also carried bullion, private...
between Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
and the West Indies. He died a bankrupt in the Fleet
Fleet Prison
Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.- History :...
debtors' prison.
In her account of Dummer, Celina Fox sums up his career thus:
"Using elements of mathematical calculation and meticulously honed standards of empirical observation, Dummer tried to introduce a more rational, planned approach to the task of building ships and dockyards, with the help of his extraordinary draughting skills. Operating on the margins of what was technically possible, meeting with opposition from vested interests and traditional work patterns, he struggled to succeed. Today he is little recognized outside the circle of naval historians and his grandest building projects were almost wholly destroyed by later dockyard developments or bombing."
Early career
Dummer was baptized on 28 August 1651 at St. Nicolas' Church, North StonehamSt. Nicolas' Church, North Stoneham
St. Nicolas' Church is an Anglican parish church at North Stoneham, Hampshire which originated before the 15th century and is known for its "One Hand Clock" which dates from the early 17th century, and also for various memorials to the famous.-Location:...
, Hampshire, the eldest of four sons born to Thomas Dummer (1626–1710), gentleman farmer of Chickenhall, in the parish of North Stoneham
North Stoneham
North Stoneham is a settlement and ecclesiastical parish in south Hampshire, England. It was formerly an ancient estate and manor. Until the nineteenth century, it was a rural community comprising a number of scattered hamlets, including Middle Stoneham, North End, and Bassett Green, and...
near Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, and his wife, Joanne Newman.
He joined the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in 1668 and served his apprenticeship as a shipwright under Sir John Tippetts at Portsmouth naval dockyard. In his 1686 account of the state of the Navy, Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
wrote that when Dummer was apprenticed to Tippetts, he was "mostly employed as his clerk in writing and drawing". By 1678, Dummer was employed as an "extra clerk" in the office of the Surveyor, "my patron and friend from my youth upward". His job was to make designs for a variety of projects – lanthorns, wet docks, lodgings at Sheerness
Sheerness
Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....
, ships' sterns – as well as to draught
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
ships' lines.
In 1677, Dummer and Tippetts assisted Sir Anthony Deane, who had been appointed Controller of the Victualling Accounts on the Navy Board, and given the responsibility for establishing for the first time standardized sets of dimensions of ships of the line to be applied to the "thirty new ships", the largest single shipbuilding programme hitherto undertaken. For his work on establishing the new standards, Dummer was "singled out by the Navy Board for his extraordinary ingenuity to lay down the bodies of all the thirty new ships".
Several of Dummer's draughts from this period survive including a sketch-book of "Tables of Proportions of Ships" which comprises a series of engraved sheets of squared paper on which are plotted the curves or sweeps of the hulls of one second rate and some of the third rate ships newly built in the Thames and Medway yards. A volume of eight Dummer drawings entitled "Draught of the Body of an English Man of War" is in the Pepys Library; these are much more elaborate, doubtless intended to show off his extraordinary skills as a draughtsman to potential patrons, and include vertical sections through the ships showing the design and layout of the structure. These works constitute the earliest surviving example of Dummer’s skills as a draughtsman
Draughtsman
A draughtsman or draftsman , is a person skilled in drawing, either:*drawing for artistic purposes, or*technical drawing for practical purposes such as architecture or engineering...
, demonstrating a capacity to express an organized tectonic sensibility that was to mark his progress towards the surveyorship.
In February 1679, Dummer became caught up in a political dispute involving Pepys and Deane, who had been accused of leaking naval intelligence to France. Amongst the charges laid against Pepys and Deane by Parliament were that "they had employed a man to take the bodies of the king's ships, supposed to be no good intention". Dummer, "being extremely fearful myself what ill use might be made of me, or of the works so innocently meant" was taken before the King
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
"to prevent (if in him it lay) by the King’s approbation and allowance any reflection upon them that were already distressed". Dummer was sent to Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
until January 1680 when he was summoned to attend the Navy Board with his draughts. There he met Deane who had been released from prison though not yet discharged; Deane asked Dummer to make two draughts for him, a promise Dummer failed to keep, having been instructed by the Navy Board not to do so.
The Admiralty still appeared to have suspicions about the loyalty of both Dummer and Deane, and at a meeting of the Lords Commissioners it was ordered "that I did not at the same time draw draughts for any other and as well as that of the King’s service, and ordered they should give me a written order ... and also to report what was fitting to allow me to draught ...". By April 1680, Dummer had delivered five draughts; he wrote to the Navy Board to ask "whether I can be supposed to draw new draughts by that way I have practised". In May he was still asking whether the Board wanted to discharge or continue employing him, warning of his impending ruin: "I could have borne the present with more respect and patience, were I not able to say it hath been always my misfortune, that the greatness of the enterprise was never truly valued nor encouraged". Although the order to pay him at the rate of £7 per draught was made by the Admiralty to the Navy Board on 24 February and again on 11 May 1680 (with the proviso, "to take care before the payment of any of the said sums to the said Mr Dummer, that the work be so performed as may answer the end for which the said draughts were at first designed") he was still waiting for payment on 11 June.
1682 voyage to the Mediterranean
In July 1682, Dummer (now officially Master Carpenter on HMS Windsor CastleHMS Windsor Castle (1678)
HMS Windsor Castle was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built by Thomas Shish at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched in 1679....
) was commissioned as a midshipman
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
-extraordinary on HMS Woolwich
HMS Woolwich (1675)
HMS Woolwich was a 54-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett III at Woolwich Dockyard and launched in 1675. She underwent a rebuild in 1702....
and sent to the Mediterranean "in order to his collecting what useful observations should arise to him, in his enquiries through the several foreign ports there, relating either to the said art of ship-building, or the nature and order of the said ports, appearances of land, or ought else than might conduce to our service". Dummer had estimated that his expenses for about two years would be £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
95 4s 0d
Penny (British pre-decimal coin)
The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....
and it was agreed he was to be reimbursed for that sum by the Treasurer of the Navy.
On 3 August 1682, Dummer set out from Deal
Deal, Kent
Deal is a town in Kent England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover and eight miles south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town...
on the Woolwich, under the command of Captain William Holding, taking the Moorish Ambassador, who had been in England for six months, back to Tangiers. Despite an attempted mutiny by the Ambassador's Moorish retainers while the ship was at anchor in Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a bay at Plymouth in England.Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point on Devon, a distance of about 3 nautical miles . Its northern limit is Plymouth Hoe giving a north-south distance of nearly 3 nautical miles...
, the Woolwich reached Tangiers on 31 August. After a change in command to Lieutenant Rigby (Holding had died and was buried at Tangiers), they sailed on east into the Mediterranean, south of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
and Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, across the Ionian Sea
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...
to Cephalonia and Zante, then back through the Strait of Messina
Strait of Messina
The Strait of Messina is the narrow passage between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of Calabria in the south of Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea with the Ionian Sea, within the central Mediterranean...
past the active volcano of Stromboli
Stromboli
Stromboli is a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily, containing one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. It is one of the eight Aeolian Islands, a volcanic arc north of Sicily. This name is a corruption of the Ancient Greek name Strongulē which was given to it...
to Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, where Dummer disembarked, while the Woolwich started back to England on 24 November.
Dummer records that he then divided his time between Livorno and Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
until 11 February 1683, when he received an answer from the Commissioners of the Admiralty "to whom I had given an account of my leaving the ship, and the reasons" for requesting extended shore leave. During this period, Dummer delivered to Sir Thomas Dereham, the English envoy in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, a magnificent panel carved by Grinling Gibbons
Grinling Gibbons
Grinling Gibbons was an English sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including St Paul's Cathedral, Blenheim Palace and Hampton Court Palace. He was born and educated in Holland where his father was a merchant...
celebrating the fruits of peace and friendship between princes, which was commissioned by Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
as a gift for Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Cosimo III de' Medici was the penultimate Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinando II. Cosimo's 53-year long reign, the longest in Tuscan history, was marked by a series of ultra-reactionary laws which regulated prostitution and...
.
Dummer took a keen interest in recording towns, their dockyards and fortifications throughout the Mediterranean, making detailed perspectives and measured plans, producing a visual record of the arsenals of Naples, Livorno, Pisa, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
, Marseilles, Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
and Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
. In contrast to the English method of building and repairing ships in dry dock, the Mediterranean ports used covered slipways of which Dummer made many drawings. He was particularly impressed by the Venetian Arsenal
Venetian Arsenal
The Venetian Arsenal was a complex of state-owned shipyards and armories clustered together in Venice in northern Italy. It was responsible for the bulk of Venice's naval power during the middle part of the second millennium AD...
, drawing it in plan, general and detailed perspective, including "A Perspective of the Mode of laying up small Ordnance" and "A Perspective of Two Arches ... under which Ships & Gallies are Built & Repaired".
By April 1683, he was in Toulon where he took the opportunity to carry out a little informal espionage: "They with much readiness permit you to go aboard their ships, but it is in such regularity, as not to be done but by a note, under the hand of a special officer". Amongst the 50 or more vessels in the harbour was the Royal Louis
French ship Royal Louis (1668)
The Royal Louis was a first-rate ship of the line of the French Royal Navy. She was constructed at Toulon between 1666 and 1670 under the direction of Rodolphe Gédéon and served as flagship of the French fleet in the Mediterranean...
and two more first-rate
First-rate
First rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line. While the size and establishment of guns and men changed over the 250 years that the rating system held sway, from the early years of the eighteenth century the first rates comprised those ships mounting 100...
vessels. Dummer described the fleet as a "good fleet, but in appearance ill built, or through some weakness in long living have generally put their wales
Gunwale
The gunwale is a nautical term describing the top edge of the side of a boat.Wale is the same word as the skin injury, a wheal, which, too, forms a ridge. Originally the gunwale was the "Gun ridge" on a sailing warship. This represented the strengthening wale or structural band added to the design...
a little straight in the midships". He described the Royal Louis as "a great ship and glorious in her first carving, no doubt; but to my judgment not of good proportion, nor good workmanship, her figure under water I know not, nor is that above to be admired".
Dummer reported that in Toulon, "all ships great & small are built on launches, and are careened
Careening
Careening a sailing vessel is the practice of beaching it at high tide. This is usually done in order to expose one side or another of the ship's hull for maintenance and repairs below the water line when the tide goes out....
when their occasions require it; for here are no docks, an obligation we are not tied to". He also made drawings of the new fortifications then under construction to the designs of Vauban
Vauban
Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban , commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them...
.
On 14 April 1683, he arrived at Marseilles the home of the French King's galleys, of which there were 35 in the harbour. He described the galleys as "the most polite and beautiful I ever saw".
During the voyage, Dummer diligently carried out the King's orders to make "observations upon all foreign shipping", from Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. His journal described each vessel, both large and small, in great detail accompanied by both watercolour views and three-dimensional skeleton models.
In July 1683 Dummer sailed homewards from Livorno in the Swallow
HMS Swallow (1653)
Gainsborough was a 40-gun fourth-rate frigate of the English Navy, originally built under the 1652 programme for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Thomas Taylor at Pitch House , and launched in 1653. She was named for the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Gainsborough in 1643.After...
via the Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
, Malaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
, Alicante
Alicante
Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...
, Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
and Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, where on 13 September he received orders to attend Lord Dartmouth
George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth
Admiral George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth PC was an English naval commander who gave distinguished service to both Charles II and James II.-Biography:...
in Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
and stay until the English garrison was given up and destroyed, on 6 February 1684. Dummer returned to England accompanied by Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
who had been in Tangier assisting Lord Dartmouth with the evacuation and abandonment of the British colony; they travelled back through Spain, arriving back in England after a particularly rough passage on 30 March 1684. By the end of the year his expenses, which amounted to £150 10s 6d – 50% more than his initial estimate – had been reimbursed.
On the completion of the voyage, Dummer produced a "sumptuous volume" which is now in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
.
Chatham
While completing the fair copy of his journal, Dummer applied for positions as shipwright based in part on the strength of his skills as a draughtsman. In September 1685, on the recommendation of Pepys (now Secretary to the Admiralty Board), Dummer visited John EvelynJohn Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
in Deptford
Deptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
. Evelyn was "so charmed with his ingenuity", he wrote to Pepys, "that I look on it as a new obligation to you; and if you find I cultivate it for my own sake a little; you will let him understand ... how much I wish him the improvement of your favours ..." In December, following the death of Thomas Shish, the Master Shipwright at Woolwich
Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard founded by King Henry VIII in 1512 to build his flagship Henri Grâce à Dieu , the largest ship of its day....
, Dummer applied for the vacant posts of Assistant Shipwright at Deptford and Chatham
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
; he was supported in his application by John Evelyn, who described him as "a diligent and most ingenious man", adding "in my life I have never observed a young man ... less pragmatical, and of greater modesty, beside his so humble, cheerful and becoming dedication of himself to his patron alone, which is a mark of his discretion, as well as of his duty".
Thus in 1686, Dummer replaced Daniel Furzer as first assistant master shipwright at Chatham
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
, under Robert Lee, retaining this post until 1689. Writing at the time, Pepys considered Dummer "an ingenious young man, but said rarely to have handled a tool in his life, nor knows judiciously how to convert a piece of timber; has been much abroad indeed, but gained his present promotion upon the credit only of his designing and making of draught".
Surveyor of the Navy
On 20 April 1689 Dummer was appointed Assistant Surveyor of the NavySurveyor of the Navy
The Surveyor to the Navy was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy. He was a member of the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 1546, and held overall responsibility for the design of British warships, although until 1745 the actual design work for warships built at each Royal Dockyard...
(under Sir John Tippetts) with a salary of £300 a year; on the death of Tippetts in August 1692, he succeeded him as Surveyor at £500 a year.
As Surveyor, Dummer endeavoured to strengthen the Navy by extending the measure of uniformity in ship construction initiated by the thirty new ships project. Despite the Navy's desire for standardization, even the thirty new ships differed in size and tonnage, as shipwrights took the dimensions specified as being minimum rather than absolute measures. To end these disparities, in 1692 Dummer wrote to the men appointed to survey and measure the ships then under construction, enclosing a small printed sketch, with measurement points keyed in to letters, "to serve for one common rule of direction and information, whereby the parts necessary to be truly measure[d] and known are at one view made intelligible to every man alike: and the numbers to be set down are to respect the letters in the manner following ..." His method of measurement was adopted as official practice in April 1696.
Dummer was the first surveyor who introduced exact standards for the construction of new vessels, sending each builder with his warrant for building a new ship the precise measurements together with models of the completed vessel. "Mr Dummer caused every master builder, at docking a ship, to measure the body and compare the figure".
In January 1693, following instructions by the Admiralty Board to report on the subject of bomb vessel
Bomb vessel
A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannon —although bomb vessels carried a few cannon for self-defence—but rather mortars mounted forward near the bow and elevated to a high angle, and projecting their fire in a...
s, Dummer wrote to his old master Robert Lee
Robert Lee
Robert Lee may refer to:* Robert Lee, 4th Earl of Lichfield , British peer and politician* Robert Lee , Regius Professor of Midwifery, University of Glasgow* Robert E...
at Chatham and to Fisher Harding at Deptford, asking them to check the proportions of a bomb-vessel designed by "a French engineer (Jean Fournier) who contrived those bomb vessels I saw when I was at Toulon". On the basis of their views, an experimental and rather unsatisfactory class of bomb vessels was built to English dimensions and rigging in 1693. A smaller, cheaper and more effective class followed two years later, built to mercantile dimensions in merchant yards.
In 1699, Dummer reported to the Admiralty on Thomas Savery
Thomas Savery
Thomas Savery was an English inventor, born at Shilstone, a manor house near Modbury, Devon, England.-Career:Savery became a military engineer, rising to the rank of Captain by 1702, and spent his free time performing experiments in mechanics...
's patent designs for a system of paddle-wheels driven by a capstan
Capstan (nautical)
A capstan is a vertical-axled rotating machine developed for use on sailing ships to apply force to ropes, cables, and hawsers. The principle is similar to that of the windlass, which has a horizontal axle.- History :...
– following Dummer's negative report, the idea was dismissed by the Admiralty.
Dummer’s main achievement as Surveyor was his development of the royal dockyards at Devonport
HMNB Devonport
Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...
near Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
and at Portsmouth
HMNB Portsmouth
Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...
.
Devonport
In September 1689, shortly after his appointment as Assistant Surveyor he was ordered to report on the most suitable site for a single dry dock at PlymouthPlymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
. He returned to London in November with details of three possible locations, including sites at Cattewater
Cattewater
The city of Plymouth, Devon, England is bounded by Dartmoor to the north, the river Tamar to the west. The open expanse of water called Plymouth Sound to the south and the river Plym to the east....
and Hamoaze
Hamoaze
The Hamoaze is an estuarine stretch of the tidal River Tamar, between the River Lynher and Plymouth Sound, England.The Hamoaze flows past Devonport Dockyard, which belongs to the Royal Navy...
, which is a section of the River Tamar
River Tamar
The Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . It is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning "dark flowing" and which it shares with the River Thames.The...
, in the parish of Stoke Damerel, including estimates of the cost of building on each site, both in timber and stone. After some debate, the small inlet at Hamoaze was selected; the work was to be done in stone with a protective wet dock in front and, at the insistence of King Willam
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, the dry dock was made large enough to hold first-rate
First-rate
First rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line. While the size and establishment of guns and men changed over the 250 years that the rating system held sway, from the early years of the eighteenth century the first rates comprised those ships mounting 100...
ships. At Devonport, Dummer was the designer of the first successful stepped stone dry dock in Europe.
Previously the Navy Board had relied upon timber as the major building material, which resulted in high maintenance costs and was also a fire risk. The docks Dummer designed were stronger with more secure foundations and stepped sides that allowed shorter timbers to be used for shoring and made it much easier for shipwrights to reach the underside of the vessel. These innovations also allowed rapid erection of staging and greater workforce mobility. He discarded the earlier three-sectioned hinged gate, which was labour intensive in operation, and replaced it with the simpler and more mobile two-sectioned gate. He wished to ensure that naval dockyards were efficient working units that maximized available space, as evidenced by the simplicity of his design layout for Plymouth. He introduced a centralized storage area and a logical positioning of buildings, and his double rope-house combined the previously separate tasks of spinning and laying while allowing the upper floor to be used for the repair of sails.
By 16 September 1694, Dummer reported to the Admiralty, "Our docks here are finished and we purpose to take in the cleaning the mouth of the basin from the dam that stands before it, which will be done in a few days; a more particular account I will give you hereafter". His "Account of the Generall Progress and Advancement of his Majestie’s New Docks and Yard at Plymouth" was presented to the Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy in December 1694. It clearly explains the logical thinking behind his planning of the works, influenced by his extensive travels. Typically, to the description of works undertaken he appended eight draughts: plans of the site, the yard and the dry dock, plans and elevations for the officers' dwelling houses, the great store house, hemp house, rope house and rope yard buildings, for "by representations and descriptions of works of this nature, when they are disposed in a manner most familiar and easy of the understanding, one finds at once both encouragement in the contemplation, and satisfaction in the judging of them". The drawings therefore served as a means of explanation and a form of advocacy, as well as evidence of and pride in his achievement.
In his design for the docks at Devonport, Dummer sought to arrange the buildings as efficiently as possible in order to eliminate the "great abuses committed in their Majesties' yards" such as "the tedious and expensive practices of carrying all things afloat for expediting of ship works, and which are many times very remote from the places where materials are kept, and workmen resort". This led to time-wasting and obstruction and presented opportunities for embezzling ships' stores. Because of the innumerable abuses, "too many to be named, and some too subtle to be discovered", Dummer ensured that men and materials were placed close together under the constant eye of command, saving time and costs. The thirteen officers' dwelling houses were similarly sited "on the most eminent spot of ground in the yard, for the officers' better observance of things abroad, and readier communication and conference with one another, on all occasions".
An abstract of the costs in Dummer's 1694 account amounted to £50,000, but he was at pains to point out that this was because of the greatness and novelty of the works, which overcame the deficiencies of the other yards. Obstructions had been brought about because of the irregular cash flow, the weakness of contracts and "the imbecile stock of a private man under the weight of so chargeable a work" (probably referring to the stonemason Robert Waters who was also blamed by Dummer for problems with the works), not to mention the fact that the country was at war. Increases on the original estimate (£23,406 in 1692, which nearly tripled by 1698) had, he maintained with some aplomb, been made purposefully by stealth so that they would be borne more easily, rather than by demanding too great a lump sum and getting rejected at the outset.
Portsmouth
In 1689, Parliament ordered one new dry dock and two new wet docks (or non-tidal basins) to be built at PortsmouthHMNB Portsmouth
Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...
and work began in 1691 at an estimated cost of £15,890. It was built to new designs developed by Dummer who again substituted brick and stone for wood and increased the number of altars or steps. As with all future extensions, the new works were built on reclaimed land and the civil engineering involved was on an unprecedented scale. The great stone dock as it was called (extensively rebuilt in 1769 as No.5 dock) was evacuated with chain pumps powered by horses. A building slip was constructed in No.3 dock where the Mary Rose
Mary Rose
The Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a...
is now housed.
In November 1691 he oversaw the raising and repairing of the 54-gun fourth rate ship St David
HMS St David (1667)
HMS St David was a 54-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched in 1667 at Lydney.She foundered in Portsmouth Harbour in 1690 and was raised in 1691 under the supervision of Edmund Dummer, Surveyor of the Navy....
which had capsized and partially blocked Portsmouth harbour.
Survey of the South Coast
In June 1698, under orders from the Lords of the Admiralty, Dummer undertook a plan to survey various harbours along the south coast of England, at a time when a new war with France was a real threat, and Portsmouth would have been a major target. In the survey, he was assisted by Captain Thomas Wiltshaw, a fellow Navy Board Commissioner and two Masters of Trinity House, Captain James Conaway and William Cruft, who were assisting the Navy because of their navigational experience. The surveying was completed in the months of July and August of 1698, with eighteen harbours being visited – the resulting charts appear to be rushed; on close examination they appear to be incomplete as in most cases they show few soundings, only the high and low water lines, and few, if any, navigational features making it difficult for any large vessel to enter one of these so-called ports, but this was not the purpose of this undertaking. Dummer and Wiltshaw were looking for sites for new dockyards, and also to see if any of the existing smaller ports could be improved to accommodate larger vessels.When all the surveys were completed and the critique written up, the work was addressed to the Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy and sent to the Lords of the Admiralty some time after 19 November 1698, just over four months after it was started. It was suggested in this report that the only ports worth considering were the ones in the area around Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
and that no further yards should be built between Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
and Land's End
Land's End
Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....
. A copy of this report is held by the Hampshire County Council
Hampshire County Council
Hampshire County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Hampshire in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are district councils, and town and parish councils...
Museums Service.
Survey of the Royal Navy Dockyards
In 1698, Dummer also produced his "Survey and Description of the Principal Harbours with their Accomodations & Conveniences for Erecting Moaring Secureing and refitting the Navy Royall of England...". It provided an account of the improvements which had been made at each of the royal dockyards since 1688, with full descriptions of the various buildings with their quantity and value, together with detailed descriptions of the new docks at Portsmouth and Plymouth.Dummer's survey was part of a general effort on his part and that of a handful of colleagues on the Navy Board to get to grips with the management of the massive business under their charge. Dummer's draughts constitute an extraordinary feat of surveyorship. In the volume, each royal dockyard is treated separately and its description given in the same order, each of the four types of drawing being made to the same scale so that cross-comparisons can be made. The emphasis was on exact measurement, with Dummer combining geometrical precision with great artistry. The first type of drawing relating to each dockyard gives the general situation of the port and harbour; the second focuses on the situation of the yard; the third compares the plan of the yard at the Revolution with its development ten years on, showing the improvements or new buildings added; the fourth – the most extensive section – gives in plan and elevation every single building in each yard.
The Survey first covers each of the royal dockyards on the Thames and Medway – Chatham, Sheerness, Woolwich and Deptford – as well as the Navy Office, before dealing with the dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth. In total it was estimated that the value of His Majesty’s Dockyards was £291,124, of which £166,799 had been spent in the previous ten years, more than doubling the original value. The greatest investment had been made at Plymouth of £67,095, followed by Portsmouth (£63,384), Deptford (£12,880), Chatham (£11,155), Woolwich (£10,477), Sheerness (£1,566) and finally the Navy Office (£239).
Dummer's achievements as Surveyor for the royal dockyards are highly regarded by present-day naval historians with the new docks at Plymouth and Portsmouth being "lasting monuments of his great skill".
Parliamentary career
In November 1695, Dummer stood for election in PortsmouthPortsmouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Portsmouth was a borough constituency based upon the borough of Portsmouth in Hampshire. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.- History :...
. The candidates were Admiral Russell
Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford
Admiral of the Fleet Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, PC was the First Lord of the Admiralty under King William III.-Naval career:...
, Alderman Hedger, and Edmund Dummer. The inhabitants of Portsea
Portsea
Portsea is an area of the English city of Portsmouth, located on Portsea Island, within the ceremonial county of Hampshire.The area was originally known as the Common and lay between the town of Portsmouth and the nearby Dockyard. The Common started to be developed at the end of the seventeenth...
living within the jurisdiction of the borough and paying "Scot and lot
Scot and lot
Scot and lot is a phrase common in the records of English medieval boroughs, applied to householders who were assessed for a tax paid to the borough for local or national purposes.They were usually members of a merchant guild.Before the Reform Act 1832, those who paid scot and bore...
", supported Dummer and insisted on their right to vote, but were prevented from doing so by measures adopted on behalf of Mr. Hedger. The gates of the town were shut against them, while threats and other unconstitutional measures were resorted to. Although a petition was lodged to have the election overturned, this was not followed up, with Dummer having been elected to represent the nearby town of Arundel
Arundel
Arundel is a market town and civil parish in the South Downs of West Sussex in the south of England. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Worthing east southeast, Littlehampton to the south and Bognor Regis to...
.
Dummer was elected MP for Arundel
Arundel (UK Parliament constituency)
Arundel was twice a parliamentary constituency in the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. The first incarnation strictly comprised the town centre of Arundel and was a borough constituency first enfranchised in 1332 and disfranchised in 1868 under the Reform...
three times as a supporter of the court, firstly in 1695 until 1698, when he did not stand for re-election. In January 1701 he was re-elected but this position lasted only ten months when he was replaced by Carew Weekes in November. Dummer returned to Parliament the following year and continued to represent the town for a further six years. In his Parliamentary career, he was a supporter of Robert Harley.
Greenwich Hospital
Dummer was appointed as one of the Governors of the newly opened Greenwich Hospital in 1695, retaining this position until his death in 1713.Downfall
Dummer's career as Surveyor of the NavySurveyor of the Navy
The Surveyor to the Navy was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy. He was a member of the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 1546, and held overall responsibility for the design of British warships, although until 1745 the actual design work for warships built at each Royal Dockyard...
came to an abrupt end in December 1698, when he was suspended without warning following a dispute with John Fitch, the main contractor undertaking building works at Portsmouth Dockyard.
The origin of the dispute went back as far as 1693, when Dummer and Sir Anthony Deane had cause to doubt Fitch’s working methods and his claims for payments for "overworks". There had been endless construction problems, caused partly because the new docks were built on unstable reclaimed land. Fitch's workmen had damaged the entrance to the lower basin causing its banks to slide into the channel on the spring tide, leaving the piling exposed and vulnerable. On 20 June 1695, Dummer wrote from Portsmouth to Harley with the news that the dam which had been constructed the previous winter to shelter the work on the new docks from the sea had been breached. The following January and February he was writing to excuse his attendance at Parliament on account of the need to secure the great dam in the face of terrible weather. By the end of 1696, Dummer had finally ejected Fitch because of fraudulent claims for payment and terrible workmanship.
Fitch brought a case for payment against the Crown, with the Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
, Richard Haddock
Richard Haddock
Sir Richard Haddock was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the Anglo-Dutch Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral in August 1690.-Family and early life:...
, and Dummer himself being named as defendants. The case was first heard in the Court of Exchequer
Exchequer of pleas
The Exchequer of Pleas or Court of Exchequer was a court that followed equity, a set of legal principles based on natural law, and common law, in England and Wales. Originally part of the curia regis, or King's Council, the Exchequer of Pleas split from the curia during the 1190s, to sit as an...
on 23 November 1696 and referred to trial. On 27 April 1697, the Court ordered that the matter be referred for arbitration to four referees, two appointed on behalf of the plaintiff and two on behalf of the defendants, with an umpire to determine between them if they were unable to agree. The party arrived in Portsmouth on 2 June to examine the works and advise on repairs, accompanied by Sir Christopher Wren
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...
, in his capacity as Surveyor of the King's Works. After spending a day examining the works, the party returned to London and on 25 August their report took "a very strict view of the nature of the said defects" and confirmed Dummer's condemnation of the workmanship and ordered that the upper wet dock be taken down and rebuilt.
The Exchequer Court issued the final decree in late June or early July 1698, stating that Fitch should have been satisfied with the amounts already paid for the work done on the contract, £13,773 14s 6½d, and rejected his claims for payment on over work not included. It was also accepted that Fitch was still owed for further contract work completed before he was turned off site, valued at £8,757 1s 5d and £2,030 18s for materials.
Fitch then complained to the Admiralty that Dummer had asked for bribes in return for awarding him Navy contracts, claiming specifically that Dummer had told him he would get an immediate certificate for his bill if he made him a present of £100 and helped him with the sale of timber for Plymouth. Although Dummer conceded that he had borrowed £152 from Fitch on behalf of William Wyatt, a Bursledon
Bursledon
Bursledon is a village on the River Hamble in Hampshire, England. It is located within the borough of Eastleigh. Close to the city of Southampton, Bursledon has a railway station, a marina, dockyards and the Bursledon Windmill. Nearby villages include Swanwick, Hamble-le-Rice, Netley and Sarisbury...
ship builder, he denied the other charges. With counter-accusations from both sides, Dummer was suspended from office with effect from Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
1698.
Although his name was cleared by a civil court, which awarded him damages of £364, his career at the Navy Office was abruptly over. He was allowed the title and salary for 1699 but was not reinstated and dismissed by the Lords of the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
on 10 August 1699, with Daniel Furzer, Master Shipwright at Chatham, being appointed in his place from 22 September.
Sowley Ironworks
In 1700 he and his cousin and namesake, Edmund DummerEdmund Dummer (lawyer)
Edmund Dummer was an English lawyer who was appointed "Clerk of the Great Wardrobe" under Queen Anne in 1706, holding that office until 1721....
of South Stoneham (with whom he has been confused) helped to finance an ironworks at Sowley
Sowley Pond
Sowley Pond is a 47.97 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest , in southwest Hampshire, notified in 1971. It is an important refuge for both surface feeding and diving ducks and functions as an integral part of the marshland system of the west Solent.-Location:Sowley Pond is...
, near Beaulieu
Beaulieu, Hampshire
Beaulieu is a small village located on the south eastern edge of the New Forest national park in Hampshire, England and home to both Palace House and the British National Motor Museum.- History :...
in Hampshire, leased from Ralph, Lord Montagu
Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu
Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu was an English courtier and diplomat.-Life:He was the second son of Edward Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton and Anne Winwood, daughter of the Secretary of State Ralph Winwood...
, to Henry Corbett, who had manufactured the two-sectioned gate at Dummer's dry dock at Portsmouth.
Henry Corbett died in 1708 and Dummer seized his property by writ of exchequer
Exchequer
The Exchequer is a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. The historical Exchequer developed judicial roles...
, claiming unpaid debts; Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
ruled in 1711 that Dummer was the rightful holder of the lease on the ironworks and Corbett's naval contracts. Dummer continued the business until 1712 whilst his brother Thomas (an ex-navy purser) continued to supply the navy until 1716.
Packet service
In 1694, when Dummer held the appointment of Surveyor of the Navy, he had supervised the construction of a number of exceptionally fast packet-boats (sloopSloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
s) for the Post Office packet service
Post Office Packet Service
The Post Office Packet Service dates to Tudor times and ran until 1823, when the Admiralty assumed control of the service. Originally, the Post Office used packet ships to carry mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. The vessels generally also carried bullion, private...
from Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
to the Low countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
. Dummer also operated a packet service between Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
, Corunna
A Coruña
A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...
and Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
.
On the loss of his position as Surveyor of the Navy, Dummer devoted much of his energies to studying the problem of a regular packet service between England and the British Island Plantations in the West Indies. In a document dated 18 June 1702, he set out the "Terms for settling a monthly intelligence between England and the Island Plantations in the West Indies". Dummer proposed a monthly service to be operated by four oceangoing packet-boats calling at Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, Antigua
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
, Montserrat
Montserrat
Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...
, Nevis
Nevis
Nevis is an island in the Caribbean Sea, located near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 350 km east-southeast of Puerto Rico and 80 km west of Antigua. The 93 km² island is part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies...
and Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
.
On 30 June, the Crown agreed Dummer's plan, granting special concessions. He was permitted to fly the Queen's colours on his ships, his crews were exempted from impressment for naval service, and he was granted a letter of marque
Letter of marque
In the days of fighting sail, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a government licence authorizing a person to attack and capture enemy vessels, and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale...
for the duration of the War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...
which had commenced in the previous year. The first transatlantic mail service directly sponsored by the Post Office
General Post Office
General Post Office is the name of the British postal system from 1660 until 1969.General Post Office may also refer to:* General Post Office, Perth* General Post Office, Sydney* General Post Office, Melbourne* General Post Office, Brisbane...
was inaugurated on 21 October 1702, with the sailing from Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
for Barbados of Dummer's packet Bridgeman. Bridgeman and its sister ship, Mansbridge, had operated on a mail service between Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
and Brill
Brielle
Brielle , also called Den Briel is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, on the north side of the island of Voorne-Putten, at the mouth of the New Maas. The municipality covers an area of 31.12 km² of which 3.63 km² is water...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
in 1699 and 1700. Two further ships, the King William, of 90 tons and 8 guns, and the Frankland of 132 tons and 10 guns, were purchased to start the service.
The four vessels were "designed to succeed each other monthly" and whose "motions are determined to be very quick, because thereon depends the chief fruit that is to be reaped". Dummer's fast transatlantic mail service had a best time of 88 days round trip (just under three months).
Dummer's packet service created the pattern which has been adapted by subsequent overseas mail services for the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
– a service operated privately albeit with a heavy Government subsidy. To begin with, Dummer submitted his expenses to the Postmaster General who passed them on to the Treasury. During the first year £9,000 was impressed for the service, but the Treasury were so slow in paying that Dummer's finances could not stand the strain. In 1704 he was granted a salary as a Commissioner of the Navy, to be paid as from the date of the beginning of the service.
In the following year a new contract was drawn up to run for at least three years, or five years if the war continued. Under this a monthly service was to be maintained by a fleet of five vessels; Dummer was to receive £12,500 per annum, and was to be allowed to carry for his own profit 5 tons of freight on the outward journeys, and 10 tons on the homeward runs. In return he was to accept all risks to the ships and was responsible for replacements if they were lost or captured; further, he guaranteed that the Post Office would receive £8,000 per annum from the mail and passengers carried. For this new contract five new ships were built: Queen Anne, Prince George, Jamaica, Barbadoes and Antegoe. Each of these vessels was of 200 tons, armed with 20 guns, and with two decks; they were also fitted with 24 oars apiece to enable them to escape from attacking vessels in the calm
CALM
CALM may refer to:*Campaign Against Living Miserably, UK charity aimed at bringing down the suicide rate among young men.*Café-Au-Lait Macules as seen in the medical condition neurofibromatosis...
s, often met with in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.
By 1707 Dummer realised that he could no longer maintain the service as long as the clause guaranteeing the £8,000 income to the Crown remained in the contract. This resulted in a further contract being drawn up on 25 January 1708. Under this he was to continue the monthly service with five vessels; to supply stores and ammunition, and to be responsible for the payment of the crews; and to take all risks from the loss of ships. He was to be allowed £12,000 a year during time of war, and £8,000 in peacetime, together with all proceeds of cargo and passengers, whilst the revenue from the Mail was to go to the Crown.
Even with this new contract, however, it was impossible to carry on the service indefinitely. Dummer had to borrow money on the security of future payments. By the end of 1711, with the return of the packet Martlett, the service came to an end.
The loss of ships from enemy action during the War of the Spanish Succession and losses from storms, had left Dummer bankrupt. In nine years, Dummer had lost two packets at sea and had seven captured. His remaining seven packets were seized by creditors & the service lapsed.
It was not until 1745 that the Post Office re-introduced a service to the West Indies, based on Dummer's original plans, in response to demands from merchants, due to the growth of British interests in sugar plantations.
Shipbuilder for the Navy
Dummer continued his association with the Royal Navy through his shipbuilding interests at Blackwall. In 1704 he presented to the Admiralty a model and a draught for a small vessel designed to "cruise on the coast of this Kingdom" and "to row with oars" as well as sail. On 7 March 1704, the Admiralty instructed the Navy Board to contract with Dummer to build two vessels to this design. These two sloops, HMS Ferret and HMS Weazle, were significantly greater in size and firepower than earlier unrated craft. These 128-ton vessels were the first sloops built to serve as effective warships, carrying eight minionsMinion (cannon)
The minion was a type of small cannon used during the Tudor period and into the late 17th century. The minion was of a small bore typically 3-inch and fired a 5-pound cannon ball...
and two falconets
Falconet (cannon)
The falconet or falcon was a light cannon developed in the late 15th century. During the Middle Ages guns were decorated with engravings of reptiles, birds or beasts depending on their size. For example, a culverin would often feature snakes, as the handles on the early cannons were often decorated...
, subsequently replaced by a uniform armament of twelve 3-pounder guns.
In 1709 Dummer also designed and built the small Sixth Rate HMS Swan by contract with the Navy Board, and in the same year they purchased from him a similar vessel which he was building on speculation - the Sixth Rate HMS Hind. The French captured Ferret in 1706, the Hind unfortunately stranded and wrecked off the Isle of Wight just two months after her launch in 1709, and the Weazle and Swan were sold in 1712.
South Stoneham House
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
from Giles Frampton and by 1708 South Stoneham House was completed, probably to the designs of the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor was a British architect born in Nottinghamshire, probably in East Drayton.-Life:Hawksmoor was born in Nottinghamshire in 1661, into a yeoman farming family, almost certainly in East Drayton, Nottinghamshire. On his death he was to leave property at nearby Ragnall, Dunham and a...
.
Bankruptcy and death
Dummer was declared bankrupt in February 1711, and although he was released from the Fleet PrisonFleet Prison
Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.- History :...
soon afterwards he was recommitted to the Fleet in April 1712. He died there at the end of April 1713 and was buried at St Andrew's, Holborn on 8 May 1713.
After his death, the business at Sowley was bought from his creditor, the Duke of Montagu
John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu
John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, KG, KB, PC , styled Viscount Monthermer until 1705 and Marquess of Monthermer between 1705 and 1709, was a British peer...
, by his brother, who ran the ironworks until 1716.
In December 1713, a petition from his widow, Sarah, and his unmarried daughter, Jane, who were close to destitution, was presented to the Navy Board. The petition was heard by Dummer's former political mentor, Robert Harley as Secretary to the Lord High Treasurer. In the light of Dummer's earlier services as a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
, they were granted a pension of £150 per annum.
In August 1716, Dummer's estate, including South Stoneham manor and property at Shedfield
Shedfield
Shedfield is a village and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. In the 2001 UK Census, Shedfield had a population of 3,914.-History:...
and Curdridge
Curdridge
Curdridge is a village and civil parish within the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. Also located within the parish is the similarly named village of Curbridge. The village houses a small school...
, were eventually sold by Jane to meet the claims of his creditors. The manor passed to Edward Nicholas of Newton Valence
Newton Valence
Newton Valence is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 4.4 miles south of Alton, just off the A32 road....
.
Family
Dummer married Sarah in about 1680 and they had five children:- Mary (1680–1690)
- Sarah (1682–1700)
- Edmund (died 1701)
- Susanna (born 1684, married William Dummer (a cousin) and had two children, Edmund (born 1704) and Sarah (born 1705).)
- Jane
His widow survived him by only a few months and died in early 1714, being buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster on 20 February.
External links
- A Survey of the Ports on the South West Coast of England from Dover to the Lands-end, made by Edmund Dummer and Captain Thomas Wiltshaw, Royal Navy, 1698.
- The Family of Dummer of British Origin
- The families of Dummer
- The Ingenious Mr Dummer: Rationalizing the Royal Navy in Late Seventeenth-Century England
- Ian Kenneth Steele – The English Atlantic, 1675–1740: an exploration of communication and community