ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT stated in these terms in their formal instructions, it is clear that, to use a modern term, the core work of the Victualling Board was to ensure that ‘His Majesty’s Ships and Vessels’ both at home and abroad, and soldiers abroad, were provided with food and beverages. In performing this aspect of its work, as in all others, the levels of autonomy and the areas of high and low competence can be seen.

The task was performed by utilising a combination of three strategies. Firstly, the purchase of bulk supplies of victuals which were then issued from stores operated by their own staff, manufacturing some of these items on their own premises (salt meat, biscuit and beer). Secondly, at locations where the first type of operation was not feasible, they arranged for contractors to operate stores in which to stock and issue victuals of an agreed type and quality. Thirdly, on a single ship level, they reimbursed pursers for items purchased at locations where neither of the other options was available, and on a fleet level, in some locations they employed a peripatetic agent victualler to purchase some perishable items from local merchants for the whole fleet.

In previous wars the tasks of providing victuals to army garrisons and settlements abroad had been carried out by other bodies, mainly theTreasury. There is a body of opinion that believes the Treasury’s woeful performance of that task during the American War of Independence was one of the major factors contributing to the loss of that war. Although not specifically stated to be for that reason in the Victualling Board records, these tasks, and that of feeding convicts en route to New South Wales, were passed to the Victualling Board. For these additional tasks, the Victualling Board used three strategies similar to those for the navy: bulk supplies were sent to the army abroad from the store premises at St Catherine’s dock. Contractor-run depots were set up close to garrison towns abroad, so that supplies could be delivered direct to the army’s local commissaries; this was dealt with in much the same way, and frequently by the same firms, as those for naval provisions.