Transport Board (Royal Navy)
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1690-1724, 1794-1817 |
| Jurisdiction |
 Kingdom of England  Kingdom of Great Britain
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| Headquarters | Whitehall, Westminster, London |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Admiralty |
The Transport Board was the British Royal Navy organisation responsible for the transport of supplies and military. It is also referred to as the Board of Transport and Transport Office.
It existed between 1690 and 1724, and again between 1794 and 1817 and was initially a subsidiary board of the Navy Board. In 1818 its functions were merged into the Board of Admiralty.
It originated in the need to transport the British Army to Ireland in 1689 to meet the Jacobite invasion of Ireland. The responsibility for the transportation was given to a board, later named the Commission for Transportation. In time the Commission assumed responsibility for transportation to all areas, not just Ireland. In 1724 the Commission was disbanded and other Admiralty boards and several Departments of the War Office assumed its functions. This arrangement did not work well.
The division of responsibilities and abuses that followed led to the creation of another Transport Board in 1794, which was one of three Boards — Navy, Victualling, and Transportation — that then ran the Royal Navy until 1817. The Transportation Board centralized and unified the function of military transportation overseas. The Army therefore had to arrange all movement by sea through the Transport Board.
The establishment in 1794 of the Board reflected experience gained in the War of American Independence. A strong supporter was Sir Charles Middleton (later Lord Barham), the former Controller of the Navy.
The Transport Board assumed responsibility for the care of prisoners of war on 22 December 1799 from the Sick and Hurt Commissioners, and in 1806 the Transport Board had taken over the business of the Sick and Hurt Board.
In its Transport Service role, the Board was responsible for “the hiring and appropriating of Ships and Vessels for the conveyance of Troops and Baggage, Victualling, Ordnance, Barrack, Commissariat, Naval and Military Stores of all kinds, Convicts and Stores to New South Wales and a variety of miscellaneous services such as the provision of Stores and a great variety of Articles for the Military Department in Canada and many Articles of Stores for the Cape of Good Hope and other Stations”. The Board maintained resident Agents at British ports and at those foreign ports transports frequented. The Board also employed agents who travelled with the transports.
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