a later edition of Hoste's treaty Paul Hoste, a Jesuit priest and a mathematician, aged 45, publishes two masterworks : L’Art des Armées Navales ou Traité des Évolutions Navales and Traité de la Construction des Vaisseaux. The first one is especially original and foundational. His career looks like Georges Fournier’s one, sixty years ago - a Jesuit mathematician who becomes a chaplain for the Atlantic fleet, so a scholar scrutinizing ships and observing manoeuvres, as well a

Louis, marquis of Phélypeaux The defeat suffered at La Hougue last year has discouraged the king from attempting a new grand strategic manoeuvre as the destruction of the Allied fleet or the invasion of England. King Louis XIV, 55, and his Secretary for the Navy, Louis de Phélypeaux, 49, have decided to focus on attacking the Anglo-Dutch trade in the Atlantic ocean with their main Western fleet under steady Anne-Hilarion de Costentin, count of Tourville's command. This is

92-gun three-decker Prins Willem Last year, Cornelis Evertsen, 42 years old, Lieutnant-Admiral of Zealand has replaced Tromp as Lieutnant-Admiral General. He is known as being both gallant and skilful, and also considered as politically neutral, in contrast with Tromp, an active Orangist. Present time requires consensus behind Prince Willem for a war against France is considered as short-term unavoidable by every observer. ¤ Moreover, Tromp is certainly known as competent

Cornelis Marteenszoon Tromp The Staten-Generaal, that is the assembly of senate and house of representatives, has decided to build thirty-six ships to replace the core of the fleet built in the 1660s. This decision results, first, from the French threat, on land as at sea, and, second, from the decay of the ships hastily built in the 1660s, many having already been broken up. ¤ As everybody knows, Duquesne defeated Ruyter in the Mediterranean sea in 1676, and D'Estrées defe

Edmund Halley, an astronomer and polymath aged 35, already famed for quite a few achievements in astronomy and meteorology, presents two inventions at the Royal Society : (1) a diving bell ; (2) a damped compass. Diving Bell Halley's Diving Bell & Diving Suit Halley has been thinking about a diving bell meant to working underwater for a while. Two years ago, he produced a paper describing a bell moving on its four wheels on sea bottom, fitted with an air intake so as to main

Anne-Hilarion de Costentin, comte de Tourville Many ship constructions have already been ordered since the opening of this war between France and the Grand Alliance of England, of the United Provinces and of most of the states of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations, including Austria and Brandenburg, joined by Spain last year. Yet the late French victory near Beachy Head has exacerbated arms race. The defeat of the Anglo-Dutch fleet led by Arthur Herbert, earl of Torring

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 61 years old, Secretary-of-State for the Navy since 1669, has established three schools of naval architecture for naval officers at Brest, Toulon and Rochefort. It may look strange to address such schools to officers rather than to apprentice shipwrights but this decision is consistent with the creation in 1671 of the ‘Conseils de Construction’ to collect feedback from the officers about the performances of their ships – which, in its beginnings, unvei

Brest Founded in 1631 as a military dockyard by Archbishop and Prime Minister Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu (†1642), the port of Brest has just been endowed with a dry dock after four years of work. The permanent installation of Royal dockyards on the Atlantic coast was thwarted by lack of stability and of loyalty of Governors and Admirals from the wars of religion until the end of the Fronde. Those troubled times notably jeopardised the destiny of La Rochelle. They a

Pierre Arnoul A distinguished naval administrator, Pierre Arnoul, aged 28, is held responsible for a shipwreck so ousted from his...

Joachim d’Alencé, an astronomer, publishes the first release of an annual ephemeris, the ‘ Connoissance des Temps' . He has worked on...

Henry Winstantley Henry Winstantley, 54 years old, an engineer and a painter, lights the lighthouse he has built at his own expense on...

William Phips William Phipps or Phips, aged 36, originally a shipwright before becoming a complete ship captain and a famous treasure...

Edmund Halley Edmund Halley, an astronomer and polymath aged 30, presents at the Royal Society a map of the Trade Winds also known as Easterlies. As for the Atlantic ocean, they have been known by the Portuguese since the beginning of the exploration, that is in the first half of the 15th century. As for the Pacific ocean, this is Andrés de Urdaneta (†1568) who brought them to light in 1565 and plotted a map for the Manila galleon route between the Philippines and Acapulco.

Last year, a war broke out between Algiers and France at Dey Baba Hassan’s initiative. It implicitly involves the whole Barbary Coast, so the deys of Tripoli and of Tunis as well. This is a weird escalation from the usual tensions provoked by the Barbary pirates against shipping – a lasting plague. From time to time, an European nation retaliates by destroying a few pirate ships. The last expedition was a British one : with some success for just a while, Admiral John Narbor

Anthony Deane, naval architect expert to the Surveyor of the Navy, and Samuel Pepys, kingpin of the Admiralty, both Members of...

On the 11th of May, thirteen French warships run aground on the reefs of an isolated small archipelago in the West Indies. This is the final act of the Franco-Dutch war which has seen, after the series of setbacks suffered in the North sea in 1672-74, a number of naval victories of the French against the Dutch in the Mediterranean sea, then in Africa at Gorée island, and then in the Caribbean sea. The campaign in the West Indies has been successful so far and Admiral Jean II

The United Provinces and France have been at war for five years. They have been struggling for ruling the seas while the Royal Navy has fallen third. A key character, Samuel Pepys, 44 years old, convinces his peers to initiate an unexpected recovery through an extraordinary investment. Samuel Pepys A member of the Royal Society and positioned as the mainstay at the Admiralty, he became Secretary of Admiralty in 1673 and, the same year, a Member of Parliament. His influence

A new ordinance by Jean-Baptiste Colbert creates the Caisse des Invalides meant to rescuing the wounded mariners. Simultaneously, a small sum is spared from mariners’ wages – one 40th – to run two dedicated hospitals, one at Rochefort, the other in Toulon. This act completes Colbert’s welfare work to the seafarers. Trinity House On its own, England has been taking care of her mariners for long. The Guild which became in 1514, through a charter by King Henry VIII, the Maste

World Map by John Seller John Seller, 39 years old, a compass maker and a writer, already famous in the world of navigation for his handbook entitled Practical Navigation (1669), newly appointed as the Hydrographer to King Charles II, publishes the first volume of a collection of charts and of sailing instructions named The English Pilot . This is a very useful work, if far from being original. One must say that many Seller’s charts actually are Dutch ones copied with English

Jean-Baptiste Colbert The late steep rise of the French navy requires hands aboard the warships in unheard-of quantities. The French...