The Navy Board and Transports for Cartagena,1740

Abstract

The movement of British troops across the Atlantic to attack Cartagena during the War of Jenkins’s Ear was the first large British transatlantic troop movement in history. To carry these troops to Cartagena, the British government had to charter merchant ships to serve as transports. It was the responsibility of the navy board, an agency of the civil administration of the Royal Navy, to hire the required number of ships and to establish procedures and policies concerning freight rates, fitting, provisioning and administering the ships that served as transports during the expedition to Cartagena.