Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy

In this thoughtful series of lectures, the author walks listeners through the remarkable rise of England’s naval power from the Restoration to the Glorious Revolution, using the hidden trove of Samuel Pepys’s “sea manuscripts” as a guide. The material—over a hundred volumes of official papers, correspondence, and personal notes—reveals how Pepys, better known from his famous diary, was also a meticulous administrator striving to bring order to a complex and often chaotic Admiralty.

Drawing on Admiralty letters, minute‑books, and Pepys’s own reflections on shipbuilding, navigation and naval law, the narrative paints a vivid picture of the bureaucracy that kept a fleet moving. Listeners gain a clear sense of the challenges faced by seventeenth‑century officials, and see how Pepys’s diligent record‑keeping laid foundations for modern naval governance, all presented with the clarity of a lecture that still feels fresh today.