Skip navigation

Thursday 31 July 1662

Up early and among my workmen, I ordering my rooms above, which will please me very well. So to my office, and there we sat all the morning, where I begin more and more to grow considerable there. At noon Mr. Coventry and I by his coach to the Exchange together; and in Lumbard- street met Captain Browne of the Rosebush: at which he was cruel angry: and did threaten to go to-day to the Duke at Hampton Court, and get him turned out because he was not sailed. But at the Exchange we resolved of eating a bit together, which we did at the Ship behind the Exchange, and so took boat to Billingsgate, and went down on board the Rosebush at Woolwich, and found all things out of order, but after frightening the officers there, we left them to make more haste, and so on shore to the yard, and did the same to the officers of the yard, that the ship was not dispatched. Here we found Sir W. Batten going about his survey, but so poorly and unlike a survey of the Navy, that I am ashamed of it, and so is Mr. Coventry. We found fault with many things, and among others the measure of some timber now serving in which Mr. Day the assistant told us of, and so by water home again, all the way talking of the office business and other very pleasant discourse, and much proud I am of getting thus far into his books, which I think I am very much in. So home late, and it being the last day of the month, I did make up my accounts before I went to bed, and found myself worth about 650l., for which the Lord God be praised, and so to bed. I drank but two glasses of wine this day, and yet it makes my head ake all night, and indisposed me all the next day, of which I am glad. I am now in town only with my man Will and Jane, and because my house is in building, I do lie at Sir W. Pen’s house, he being gone to Ireland. My wife, her maid and boy gone to Brampton. I am very well entered into the business and esteem of the office, and do ply it close, and find benefit by it.

Friday 1 August 1662Wednesday 30 July 1662

Also on this day

Temperature: 15°C / 59°F

  • (Average for July 1662)

(About this data)

Annotations

  • “Captain Browne did threaten to go… to the Duke…, and get him turned out because he was not sailed.”
    L&M note:”To Jamaica.”
    I take it “get him turned out” means “get his backing”? Pepys to the defense of the Navy Board!

  • It’s more of the same, isn’t it? Sam is either really on a winning streak with Coventry and Carteret or riding for a fall with the rest of the Navy Office - alienating most of the Yards’ staff as well! I wonder how much of the indignant self-righteousness, gleeful priggishness and smug self-satisfaction he shows in the recent diary entries is actually being manifest in his exchanges with people?

    We now know where all the staff are - it’s faithful Jane who is in the damp muddle of the Pepys house and Sarah (with Wayneman) who has gone off to Brampton. The term “her maid” sounds like a personal, ladies’ maid to me and I had thought Sarah to be more of a kitchen maid, empty the chamber pots, fetch the wood kind of servant (or does the boy do these tasks?)with whom Elizabeth had not been on the best of terms. Have they maybe got a more expensive maid to wait on Elizabeth? Can’t really see Elizabeth and Sarah being bosom friends on the tedious journey to Brampton. With reference to Robert Gertz’s wonderful pastiche yesterday, I do wish we did know something of what is going on at Brampton!

  • “We found fault with many things…[i.a.]the measure of some timber now serving in which Mr. Day [Deane] the assistant told us of,…”
    L&M note: “On 30 October [yesterday] the timber-measurers at both Deptford and Woolwich were dismissed and the work given to the storekeepers.”
    Sounds like Sam already has more than one ally.

  • “much proud I am of getting thus far into his [good] books, which I think I am very much in.”

    —-with that addition, the idiom is still in use today.

  • A good time to consult Tomalin as to events in Brampton…

  • Not a word of criticism for Coventry from our boy to date, I notice, except that one rather positive comment a while back that Mr. C would be “prying into accounts” (ie overpadded expense accounts). Naturally York’s secretary can do no wrong but one would think in his current mood Sam would drop in a snide remark or two if there was anything to comment on. Has our boy found his new hero?

  • John Evelyn’s diary today:

    “I sate with the Commissioners about reforming the buildings & streetes of London, & we ordered the Paving of the Way from st. James

  • “I drank but two glasses of wine this day, and yet it makes my head ake all night, and indisposed me all the next day, of which I am glad.” Mayhap ma

  • Coventry and Brown(e)
    I read this incident differently from Terry F. I think the “he” that was “cruel angry” was Coventry, angry at Browne because he had not yet sailed the Rosebush for Jamaica as he was supposed to. Coventry threatened to go to the Duke (James) and have Browne dismissed from his command (“turned out”) for dereliction of duty. Then over lunch Coventry and Pepys decided to go check on the ship, and found her unready for sea (“all things out of order”). They put a scare into the officers, on the ship and in the yard, deciding that that was the most effective way to get things in order and the ship under way.

  • Coventry and Brown(e)
    I agree with Paul’s reading, but it isn’t easy to follow. I think it’s cleared up by the visit to the yard to check Browne’s reasons, which turn out to be valid.

  • Thankd you Paul Chapin, for resolving who was

  • Aye Xjy, Coventry was angry at Browne, threatening to appeal to the Duke to get him turned out because he hadn’t sailed; but he had not sailed in good part because the yard was in a mess because of the state of the staff. (BTW, for the dismissal of the timber measurers, L&M reference Duke of York, Mem. (naval) pp. 61-2.) Thanks to you and Paul Chapin, we will get this straight.

  • Robert Gertz, Brown exonerated, Sam hugs Coventry; is it because he — or was it also Coventry or them both —engaged in “frightening the officers there”?

  • I take it that the “we” who “resolved of eating a bit together, which we did at the Ship behind the Exchange,” are the Dynamic Duo. ?! Currying favor with Coventry, who is a welcome cover for Sam’s own agenda!?

  • Captain Browne of the Rosebush
    Note that he is married to or marries a sister of Sir William Batten.

  • Captain Browne of the Rosebush
    Pauline: “Note that he is married to or marries a sister of Sir William Batten.”
    Hm, interesting. But Sam isn’t working on Batten for his seamanship or marine record, but because he’s no good as an administrator and bureaucrat (and also in Sam’s way). Batten and the others have a tremendous navy record, it’s just that they’re not much good as landlubbers. Whereas Sam is the ultimate landlubber and lobby crawler. (OK, he enjoys the odd adventure on the Thames, shooting the white water under the bridge ;-) )

  • Yes, Terry I think our Boy Wonder has found his Batman… Though I forgot the one other charge against Honest Marshall er Commissioner Will-His selling of places which I believe was noted by Sam earlier, though that was not apparently considered a major fault. As to exoneration, I don’t know that Coventry and Pepys (Pepys anxious to be on that short list team, no doubt) let Browne off completely. They seem to have simply gone after everything that was holding up the ship and found everyone seemed to be stumbling around. Finding the officers on board “in disorder” can hardly be to the ship commander’s credit even if the officers of the yard are no better.

  • Deptford, Royal Navy shipyard…Early afternoon…

    A loud crash brought Pepys, midway in his inspection of one of the smaller ships with Coventry and the ship

  • Oops…Bit longer excerpt from my little fan-fic than I realized, sorry. But hopefully it suits the entry.

  • I drank but two glasses of wine this day, and yet it makes my head ake all night, and indisposed me all the next day…

    Seems a rather extreme reaction unless they were bloody big glasses. I wonder if quality control in the vinter’s industry was not what it is today?

  • I am very well entered into the business and esteem of the office, and do ply it close, and find benefit by it.

    I find this a healthy expression of self-awareness, not an unseemly display (he’s writing mainly and perhaps exclusively for himself). He sees that he is capable of ordering the Navy’s business better than it has been, he sees that others agree that it should be done, and respect him for his efforts. With this self-knowledge comes authority, which he exercises (in company with the more powerful Coventry) in shaking up the complacent officers of the Rosebush and the dockyard workers at Woolich, and a new readiness to criticize sloppy work. In both the psychological and professional dimensions, Sam is coming into his own.

  • “we ordered the Paving of the Way from st. James

  • There is enough blame to go around, as the Navy problem stems from that old source, MONEY and its being not enough, and of course the skimming[note: nowt said about using yard sources to build a better mouse trap or leads to walk on].
    The ship not being provisioned, the cheese still waiting for the milk.
    Logistics be not a science, even now one must watch the flow of the fa[r]things, . Those that can bamboozle their way to get the others to be flummacks, usually win . Coventry is quick in the brain power department, can get answers before the others be digesting the words. [Their will always be very few that care about the organisation, but many care about the linnings of purse.]
    So much of the beer tax and other incomes are spent in the grandisement of the Royal party.

  • Can we knock off the “fan fiction”? It powerful sucks.

  • Now, now, Hhomeboy, just because no one’s offered You a book contract… .

    Perhaps Sam’s wine had been fortified.

  • Compare today’s Coventry-dinner with Tuesday’s: day before yesterday,”being invited [Sam explained] I went with Sir George and Mr. Coventry to Sir W. Batten

  • Good one, Miriam!

  • It was too long a piece of the larger tale to put here, forgive the self-indulgence, I’m “with child” to see how folks outside my usual posting group for such things like the thing and this piece seemed to fit the entry. I will be more considerate of space limits.

    Welcome, Ed…Hope you have more to say about Pepys than that. (No, I won’t…You get lost first. Brief tussle, I win…) But I will be more considerate of space limits.)

  • Re: Fan Fic

    I’m not gaining much from (anything) your fan fic either Robert. But if others are, I have no problem with it taking up space. You see, my computer scrolls and scrolls, and never seems to run out of space.

    What I like most about the site is the clarification of terms, sometimes by one person, often by committee, that tends to enrich the diary.

  • Fan fiction
    After that bit of cut-rope deduction the image of Coventry wearing a deer stalker and clutching a smoldering briar will forever color my mental image of him.
    If I didn’t want to read the long post it would have been powerful easy to scroll down.

  • ‘the clarification of terms…that tends to enrich the diary’
    I

  • Exactly so, Pauline.

    Fictionalising the Life of Sam has its place, but I’m not convinced that that place is amongst these annotations.

  • As I say, too long a piece for here but as a part of a much longer tale I couldn’t resist crimping it in for a trial with an entry that seemed suitable. (Don’t worry, the whole thing will never show here…Sighs of relief.) I’ll continue to indulge my littler flights for now though, so long as they’re short and don’t clog things.

  • Robert’s annotations (dramatizations)are as good as an ilustration in that they permit to understand situations to people without imagination or not used to extract information from the annotations.
    They give another dimension to Sam’s personality. Do not deprive us of your skill!

  • But, um, in small doses perhaps.

Post an annotation

Before posting an annotation please read the annotation guidelines.
If your comment isn't directly relevant to this page, try the discussion group for other Pepys-related topics or the social group for general chat.

(required)

(required)

(optional)


No HTML in annotations. URLs will be turned into links. About copyright