Talk:HMS Aldborough (1706)

Date out of service
There's a disagreement between sources on the date this Aldborough went out of service - either 1727 or 1743. I've gone with 1727 in the article and wanted to explain my reasoning.

So far I've found three sources on the subject:


 * Colledge (2010) - makes a single line reference to rebuilding in 1727 and breaking up only in 1743 (the date the subsequent HMS Aldborough (1743) was commissioned). This suggests there was an actual Aldborough in service until that latter date.
 * Winfield (2007) - gives a more detailed account which ends with a reference to breaking up at Portsmouth in 1727 with the intention of rebuilding, but does not go on to say that this rebuild actually occurred.
 * Lavery (1980) - directly quotes ADM106/3297 as noting that Aldborough's 1727 timbers would be put to the use of any other vessels in the yard in need of repair, which implies they were not used to rebuild Aldborough and that there was no such ship ins ervice after 1727.

In addition to the above, I can find no further record of any sea service by an HMS Aldborough between 1727 and 1743. Either it led an extremely quiet existence, or it didn't exist during this time. On balance, I've gone with the "did not exist" option in the article. Lavery (mentioned above and linked in the article page) gives extensive detail on Admiralty's policy of "rebuilding" in the early 1700s, and its use to circumvent the need to seek a new commission from parliament when a ship was required. He finds that in lieu of new commissions, Admiralty would eextend existing commissions by either extensively modifying older vessels or simply retaining the name long after the ship itself was gone. This reduced the scope for parliamentary interference in fleet matters, and met the newly conservative national mood of opposition to military expansion in peacetime.

Lavery indicates the policy was abandoned as impractical in the 1730s and ceased entirely by 1742. An entirely new Aldborough was commissioned in 1743, shortly after the "rebuilding" policy ended. Per Lavery, it seems likely the name Aldborough was retained after her breaking up in 1727, with the intention of rebuilding if both possible and required. She was effectively a phantom ship throughout this time, existing only in name on Navy lists. And the new Aldborough was commissioned (and note, actually received a parliamentary commission) when the "rebuilding" policy was abandoned following renewal of war with Spain. this 1743 Aldborough was also commissioned in February of that year, so if Colledge is correct the previous Aldborough would have had to have been both decommissioned and presumably returned for breaking up, in January.

I appreciate that's a wall of text over a minor point, and also that there's a risk of synthesis when sources conflict and there's little other detail. But I'd argue that there's sufficient strength in the Lavery source, uncontradicted by Winfield, to give this preference over Colledge's single line reference to the ship remaining in actual use until 1743.

Other views welcome. -- Euryalus (talk) 23:12, 15 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Alas, I have proved myself wrong. Winfield details an entirely different RN vessel, launched in 1727 for survey work in the West Indies and broken up in 1742 to make room for the Aldborough of 1743. Article is now at HMS Aldborough (1727). -- Euryalus (talk) 13:02, 24 November 2014 (UTC)