Surveyor of the Navy

Office of the Surveyor of the Navy
Ensign of the Royal Navy
Department of the Admiralty
Member of	Navy Board (1546-1832), Board of Admiralty (1832-1848)
Reports to	First lord of the Admiralty
Nominator	First lord of the Admiralty
Appointer	Prime Minister Subject to formal approval by the Queen-in-Council
Term length	Not fixed (typically 3–7 years)
Inaugural holder	Benjamin Gonson
Formation	1546-1848

The Surveyor of the Navy was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy. Was a former principle commissioner and member of both the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 1546 and Board of Admiralty from 1832-1848, the post holder held overall responsibility for the design of British warships.

Although until 1745 the actual design work for warships built at each Royal Dockyard was primarily the responsibility of the individual Master Shipwright at that Royal Dockyard. For vessels built by commercial contract (limited to wartime periods, when the Royal Dockyards could not cope with the volume of work), the Surveyor's office drew the designs to which the private shipbuilders were required to build the vessels. From 1745 design responsibility was centred in the Surveyor's office, with the Master Shipwrights in the Dockyard responsible for implementation. In 1832 the Navy Board was abolished and all of its functions were brought under the sole control of the Board of Admiralty, the Surveyor was a new member of the combined board until 1848. In 1859 the post of Surveyor of the Navy was re-styled as Controller of the Navy.

In date order (note that the post of Surveyor was frequently shared, which enabled the Admiralty to have competitive designs prepared for evaluation):

...
Wikipedia