years of the 13th century, speaks of the “ammiral of Babilon,” and the word was for long employed in this sense. As a naval title it was first taken by the French from the Genoese during the crusade of 1249. By the end of the 13th century it had come to be used in England as the name of the officer who commanded the Cinque Port ships. The English form “admiral” arose from popular confusion with the Latin admirabilis. Such errors were naturally produced by the fantastic etymology of the middle ages. In Spain, Alphonso the Wise of Castile, in his code of laws, the Siete Partidas (Seven Divisions), accounts for the Spanish form “almirante” by its supposed derivation from the Latin admirari, since the admiral is “to be admired” for the difficulties and dangers he overcomes, and because he is the chief of those who see the wonders of the Lord in the deep—mirabilia ejus (sc. Domini) in profundo. Both in Spanish and in Elizabethan English the word has been applied to the flagship of an officer commanding a fleet or part of one. The Spanish almiranta is the ship of the second in command, and the capitana of the first. In this sense it is not uncommonly found in the narratives of Elizabethan voyages or campaigns, and it is so used by Milton in Paradise Lost—“the mast of some tall ammiral.”
As the title of an office it was borne by the great military, judicial and administrative officer known in France as grand amiral; in England as lord high admiral; in Spain as almirante mayor. His functions, which were wide, have been generally absorbed by the crown, or the state, and have been divided among judicial and administrative officials (see Navy, History; Admiralty Administration; and Admiralty Jurisdiction.) The title of admiral is still borne as an hereditary honour by the descendants of Columbus, the dukes of Veraqua, in Spain. It is a purely honorific distinction representing the admiralship of the islands and Ocean Sea, conferred on the discoverer by the Catholic sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella.
In the staff of a modern navy the admirals correspond to the general officers in the army. Where, as in Russia, the grand admiralship is annexed to the crown, the highest rank is that of lieutenant admiral general. In Great Britain there is the rank of admiral of the fleet, corresponding to field-marshal. It is, however, little more than an honorary distinction. The three active ranks are those of admiral, vice-admiral and rear-admiral, corresponding to general, lieutenant-general and major-general in the army. They are found in all navies under very slightly varied forms. The only difference which is not one of mere spelling is in the equivalent for rear-admiral, which is contre amiral in French, and in other navies of the continent of Europe involves some slight variation of the word “contre” (first used at the time of the French Revolution). The vice- and rear-admiral of Great Britain are again honorary titles, without the active functions, conferred in compliment on senior naval officers. “Admiral” is also the name given to the chief of fishery fleets. On the banks of Newfoundland it was given to officials who had powers conferred by the state. In the case of an ordinary fishing-fleet in European waters, it is of private origin, and is of merely customary use.
Authorities.—Sir N. Harris Nicolas, History of the Royal Navy; La Roncière, Histoire de la marine française; Youge, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen; C. Fernandez Duro, Historia de la Armada de Castilea. (D. H.)
ADMIRALTY ADMINISTRATION. 1. The Administrative System.—That the navy (q.v.) is the only real defence of the British islands has been recognized by English people ever since the days of King Offa, who died in 796, leaving to his successors the admirable lesson that “he who would be secure on land must be supreme at sea.” The truth of the lesson thus learnt is sanctioned by all the experience of English history, and parliament has repeatedly enforced the fact. The navy is the only force that British Empire. can safeguard the British islands from hostile descents; it is the only force that can protect their vast sea-borne commerce and food supplies; by giving safety to the home country it sets British troops free for operations abroad, and makes their passage secure; and thus, as also by giving command of the sea, the fleet is the means by which the empire is guarded and has become a true imperial bond. It is natural for British admiralty administration to be taken here as the type of an efficient system.
British naval administration is conducted by the Board of Admiralty, and the function of that board is the maintenance and expansion of the fleet in accordance with the policy of the government, and the supplying of it with trained officers and men; its distribution throughout the world; and its preservation in readiness and efficiency The Board of Admiralty.in all material and personal respects. The character of the Admiralty Board is peculiar to the British constitution, and it possesses certain features which distinguish it from other departments of the state. The business it conducts is very great and complex, and the machinery by which its work is done has grown with the expansion of that business. The whole system of naval administration has been developed historically, and is not the product of the organizing skill of one or a few individuals, but an organic growth possessing marked and special characteristics. The Admiralty Board derives its character from the fact that it represents the lord high admiral, and that its powers and operation depend much more upon usage than upon those instruments which actually give it authority, and which, it may be remarked, are not in harmony among themselves. The executive operations are conducted by a series of civil departments which have undergone many changes before reaching their present constitution and relation to the Board. The salient characteristic of the admiralty is a certain flexibility and elasticity with which it works. Its members are not, in a rigid sense, heads of departments. Subject to the necessary and constitutional supremacy of the cabinet minister at their head, they are jointly and co-equally “commissioners for executing the office of high admiral of the United Kingdom, and of the territories thereunto belonging, and of high admiral of the colonies and other dominions.” The members of the Board are in direct and constant communication with the first lord and with one another, as also with the civil departments which work under their control. It was enjoined by James I. that the principal officers and commissioners of the navy should be in constant communication among themselves, consulting and advising “by common council and argument of most voices,” and should live as near together as could conveniently be, and should meet at the navy office at least twice a week. This system of intercommunication still exists in a manner which no system of minutes could give; and it may be remarked, as illustrative of the flexibility of the system, that a Board may be formed on any emergency by two lords and a secretary, and a decision arrived at then and there. Such an emergency board was actually constituted some years ago on board the admiralty yacht in order to deal on the instant with an event which had just occurred in the fleet. At the same time it must be remarked that, in practice, the first lord being personally responsible under the orders in council, the operations of the Board are dependent upon his direction.
The present system of administering the navy dates from the time of Henry VIII. The naval business of the country had so greatly expanded in his reign that we find the Admiralty and Navy Board reorganized or established; and it is worthy of remark that there existed at the time an ordnance branch, the navy not yet being dependent in that History.matter upon the War Department.[1] The Navy Board administered the civil departments under the admiralty, the directive and executive duties of the lord high admiral remaining with the admiralty office. A little later the civil
- ↑ The Board of Ordnance was originally instituted for the navy, but eventually fell into military hands, to the detriment of the navy—the only navy of any nation that has not full authority over its own ordnance. In 1653, according to Oppenheim, it was, owing to its inefficiency, placed under the admiralty. In 1632 it appears to have been independent, but “still retained that evil pre-eminence in sloth and incapacity it had already earned and has never since lost.”
