The contrast between, say, 1779, when Middleton was thinking about his trend-setting memorandum on the Duty of Captains, and 1879, when this study closes, is stark, but even the shorter period since 1815 displays dramatic shifts in naval attitudes. This study has focused upon the most dynamic religious contribution to this change. Its inspiration was indubitably Evangelical, but like all dynamic forces it swept up adherents who did not necessarily accept all its beliefs (like FitzRoy perhaps) or would not stay perpetually within its fold (like Montagu Burrows). Evangelicalism in this context was a loose coalition of people and organisations adopting much the same theology, particularly over the Atonement and scriptural authority, but leaving room for disagreement over church order and secondary doctrines. The methods were diverse, some operating shipboard, others dockside, lay and clerical, officer-led or lower-deck. To call it all evangelical is justifiable but does not imply the existence of an ecclesiastical masterplan – beyond a general aim to evangelise maritime Britain, or communicate the Christian message to seafarers in an evangelical idiom.

As the Napoleonic Wars came to an end, evangelicalism stirred contrasting responses in the navy. Only a very small minority professed such views and officialdom was generally wary of enthusiastic excess. Many on the lower deck were contemptuous of its sexual ethics and views on sobriety. But the picture is more complex than this suggests, for a substantial body of opinion had come to regard religion with greater respect: it underpinned morale at testing moments; it had some effect on wilder characters who had previously made life intolerable for their shipmates, and it arguably served to ameliorate discipline. It did no harm and might do good. It could be seen as the main driver for recovering religion afloat, but having achieved its goals through Bibles, tracts, chaplains and services, surely its task was done, and its influence should be subsumed into something more conventional? It preached about sin and conversion – but was a warship the right place for a social experiment in moral reclamation? Evangelical piety began to look gratuitous, all right for those who wanted it but out of place in the collective experience of a fighting force.

Only two generations later religion was as firmly rooted in the navy as in shoreward society.