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There was only one significant battle at sea between opposing fleets, at Málaga in the Mediterranean on 3 November 1650. A Commonwealth fleet led by Admiral Robert Blake defeated a Royalist fleet under the command of Prince Rupert. However, there were several smaller actions, since the Royalists primarily employed privateers to harass merchant ships, and the Parliamentary fleet tried to stop them. There were also many instances of the fleet supporting battles on land by bringing supplies, landing troops, or attacking coastal fortresses.One of the primary causes of the English Civil War was the way King Charles raised illegal taxes — the so-called 'Ship Money' — to pay for an expansion of the Royal Navy. It was thus deeply ironic when, as the battle-lines of the war were being drawn up, virtually the entire Royal Navy defected to Parliament rather than remaining loyal to the King who had lavished so much money on it.Part of the reason for this was that although Charles had spent vast amounts on building new warships, such as the magnificent 100-gun Sovereign of the Seas, he'd been a lot more stingy on paying for wages and benefits for the ships' crews. There was a lot of discontent building up. Charles's foreign policy was also unpopular in the Navy, since he attempted to align with Catholic Spain when most people who joined the Royal Navy had been raised on heroic tales of fighting the Spanish. Finally, the Navy naturally drew most of its personnel from England's port towns; and it so happened that these were also among the primary strongholds of Puritanism and political opposition to royal absolutism. A majority of the Navy's personnel, including officers, were therefore more sympathetic to the Parliamentary faction due to their upbringing.Sovereign of the Seas, the very expensive pride of King Charles’s fleetTensions had been rising between Charles and his opponents all through the 1630s, and reached crisis point in the early 1640s. In October 1641 a rebellion broke out in Ireland as Catholics began massacring the Protestants of Ulster. It was clear to both King and Parliament that an army would need to be raised and sent to Ireland to stop the slaughter: but neither side was willing to trust the other with command of a military force. Parliament feared that if it agreed to raise taxes to pay for an army, Charles would use it to attack them rather than the Irish rebels; but Charles saw Parliament's interference with his position as commander-in-chief as a treasonous attack on his rights as King.On 4 January 1642 Charles led soldiers to Parliament to arrest the five leading members of the opposition to his rule. They had been warned of his plan and went into hiding, and outrage quickly spread against the King's unlawful attempt to silence his critics. Charles began to fear for his own safety and that of his family if he remained in London, and fled to the North of England. Both King and Parliament began rallying their supporters and raising money for soldiers, but for the next eight months there was a tense state of cold war as neither faction was quite willing to start an open conflict against their fellow-countrymen. This waiting period eventually broke on 22 August 1642 when Charles raised his standard at Nottingham and thus formally declared war on his own Parliament. However, prior to that the Royal Navy had already been involved in several incidents.At the beginning of 1642 the Lord High Admiral of the Navy was the Earl of Northumberland, but he was suffering from poor health and was unable to serve actively in the role. Parliament scored a notable political victory in March of that year when a deputation of Lords persuaded Northumberland to appoint the Earl of Warwick as his deputy and stand-in, without consulting the King. Warwick was an experienced naval commander, but more importantly he was a staunch Puritan and a committed opponent of royal absolutism. Parliament now had one of its most loyal supporters in command of the Navy.The Earl of Warwick, Parliamentary commander of the Royal Navy in 1642In April Charles and his entourage went to Hull, a port city in Yorkshire where there was a castle filled with stores of armaments and weapons. Charles planned to take these to supply the army he was raising; but the commander of the Hull garrison refused to hand them over, and left his King standing empty-handed outside the locked gate of the fortress. Shortly afterwards, warships of the Royal Navy, acting on Warwick's orders, loaded the stores of weapons from the castle on board and brought them down to London, where they were instead used to equip the army Parliament was raising.Some time earlier the King's wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, had sailed to the Netherlands in order to seek assistance there. In June she sent a warship, the Providence, back to England from the Netherlands loaded with a cargo of Dutch arms and ammunition for the royal army. However, warships under Warwick's command intercepted the Providence and tried to chase her away. The ship's captain fled north into the River Humber, and eventually ran his ship aground in a shallow creek. He was able to unload the weapons safely, but then Warwick's fleet caught up and were able to commandeer the Providence.Queen Henrietta Maria arranged for several ships to sail from the Netherlands to England carrying cargoes of gunpowder and weapons for her husband’s armiesFollowing these two humiliations, Charles decided to try and take back control of the Royal Navy. In late June he removed Northumberland from the position of Lord High Admiral, which automatically meant that his deputy Warwick also lost his authority. In their place Charles appointed a supporter, Sir John Pennington, as the new Lord High Admiral.Pennington, who was over 70 years old, sent a messenger to the fleet anchored in the Downs off the coast of Kent to tell Warwick he was relieved of command rather than going in person. Warwick hastily secured an ordinance from Parliament confirming his position as Admiral, and on 2 July called a council of war of the commanders of all the ships in the anchorage. Of the 22 warships present, the captains of 17 of them immediately accepted Warwick as their leader and rejected the King's appointee. Five captains hesitated, and met together that evening to plan their next move.One of the five captains lost his nerve and went over to Warwick's side during the night. The following morning, Warwick ordered his fleet to surround the four remaining ships which were still loyal to the King. Two of the captains were intimidated into surrendering; that left two. Warwick ordered his flagship to fire a warning shot at the hold-outs, and then sent boats with armed sailors to board the two ships. There was no fighting; the ships surrendered and their captains were placed under arrest.The fact that the Royal Navy had gone over to Parliament with only a single shot being fired horrified King Charles, who had believed his Navy was loyal to him. His biographer Clarendon later wrote that this was the one incident that upset Charles most during this entire period of the Civil War.A week later on 8 July the warship Lion, which had been in the Netherlands with the Queen, sailed into the Downs completely ignorant of what had just happened. Warwick had the captain arrested; the crew of the Lion willingly joined with Parliament.There were two warships, the Bonaventure and Swallow, patrolling off the coast of southern Ireland, which were far enough away to be unaffected by Warwick's coup. In September 1642 Charles ordered them to sail to Newcastle to be reprovisioned. His plan was to then send the two ships to join his wife in the Netherlands. However, while these ships' captains were loyal to the King their crews were not: as soon as the two vessels reached Newcastle most of their crews deserted. Soon after, in October, Warwick's vice-admiral William Batten arrived off Newcastle with a flotilla of warships. The under-manned Bonaventure and Swallow both surrendered to this superior force without firing a shot.Modern impression of a warship of this era at seaBy the time the First Civil War began in earnest, then -- the Battle of Edgehill took place on 23 October 1642 -- the Royal Navy was almost entirely loyal to Parliament, and had control of the seas. During this conflict actual naval battles were thus rare due to the lack of opposition; although privateers would soon become active.The fleet consisted of around 30 warships, although more were built or converted as the war went on (by 1646 there were 44 in service). These were supplemented by a large number of armed merchantmen — up to 40 or 50 at a time — which were usually hired in the spring of each year to serve over the summer months. It was normal in those days for most ships to remain in port over winter due to the danger of storms in the waters of the North Sea and Atlantic.The principal missions of the Navy during the First Civil War were:Blockade those parts of Britain under the King's control so he could not receive foreign aid (such as the supplies the Queen was still trying to send from the Netherlands).Steer foreign trade to those ports under Parliament's control instead.Protect English shipping against the activities of pirates and privateers.Assist the armies ashore by escorting supply convoys to besieged fortresses or even assaulting enemy ports.During 1642, some of the skirmishes involving the navy included:The King's army laid siege to Hull, where the governor had earlier defied Charles to his face. A naval force assisted the garrison by landing 1500 reinforcements, then using its cannons to bombard the forts built by the besieging army.Contemporary map of the city of HullThe governor of Portsmouth declared his allegiance to the Royalists. Warwick sent eight warships to blockade the port until a Parliamentary land army could arrive to seize control. Detachments from the fleet also boarded and captured a warship in Portsmouth harbour, and took control of several small forts on the Isle of Wight to cover their rear.Over the winter of 1642-43, the Irish rebels who had seized control of most of the island and formed the Confederation of Kilkenny now encouraged the Catholic Flemish privateers who normally operated out of Dunkirk to shift their base to Waterford and Wexford in Ireland, and attack English and Scottish shipping instead. The small, fast and well-armed ships operated by the privateers quickly became a major problem for the English navy. Warwick was forced to keep most of his fleet in south-east England to maintain the blockade, leaving him little strength to spare for chasing privateers in the Irish Sea.In 1643, the war was going badly for Parliament. Their command of the sea was one of the few bright spots for them.Hull remained under siege. On two occasions, in June and October 1643, ships of the Navy landed reinforcements in the city and drove back the attackers. It is likely that without this naval support Hull would have fallen.In July, Warwick attempted to support Exeter in the same way, by sending a fleet with reinforcements as a Royalist army laid siege to the city. However, this attempt was a failure. The Royalists had shore-based artillery who fired on the ships as they made their way up the narrow channel to the port; six ships were lost or badly damaged. Exeter was forced to surrender in September, and the King's army took control of most of the south-West. However, Plymouth did still hold out for Parliament, and reinforcements brought by sea from Portsmouth to Plymouth did assist in this.In July 1643 Charles announced that he planned to form a new, loyalist Navy under the command of Pennington. He offered back pay and an amnesty to naval crews who abandoned Parliament and returned to their allegiance. Falmouth in Cornwall was initially to be the base of this new fleet, but when Prince Rupert captured the major port city of Bristol later that month it became its headquarters. By August, Royalist propaganda was boasting that Pennington's fleet consisted of "18 tall stout ships". While that might be an exaggeration, it is clear that Parliament's control of the sea was no longer unchallenged.Admiral Sir John Pennington, the King’s naval commanderThe King's renewed naval strength, as well as the ceasefire signed in September with the Irish Catholics, allowed him to ferry over several thousand fresh troops from Ireland to England in the final months of 1643. Warwick was unable to prevent this, and was left in frustration pleading with Parliament for additional manpower and resources, which they could not give him.Despite the crisis, the Navy managed to score some successes. Most notably, in August 1643 a Parliamentary ship, the Swallow, confronted the Royalist ship Fellowship which was based out of Bristol. The Royalist commander offered to negotiate: Captain Smith of the Swallow offered to pay his crew all their backpay if they immediately went over to Parliament's side instead. They did so willingly.1644 saw a turning point in the war on land, as the Scots intervened on Parliament's side and the King suffered his first major defeat at the battle of Marston Moor.These victories relieved the Navy of one of its greatest burdens. Newcastle in the north of England had been the only important port in the King's hands until he captured Bristol in 1643, and it was well-positioned to receive assistance from the Netherlands or Denmark, both governments being favourable to the Royalist cause. Parliament had therefore maintained a tight blockade of Newcastle, preventing ships passing in or out: this had been highly successful, but also a major drain on their resources. When the Scottish Covenanter army captured Newcastle in October 1644, those warships became available for use elsewhere.A blue bonnet was adopted by the Covenanters as their distinctive item of uniformThis was a great relief, because the privateer problem was spiralling out of control. Warwick informed Parliament in February 1644 that there were potentially 260 ships available to raid English commerce on behalf of the King. Southern Ireland and south-west England contained the main privateer bases, though French and Flemish privateers were also getting involved. The English Navy was able to maintain control, more or less, of the North Sea and English Channel, but the Irish Sea had been all but abandoned to the Royalist ships.In summer 1644 the Parliamentary commander, the Earl of Essex, came up with an ambitious plan which would end in disaster. He marched his army deep into the south-west, hoping to recapture the ports there such as Dartmouth and perhaps even Bristol, and lift the siege of Plymouth. Warwick strongly supported this plan since it would help the Navy's position in the region by removing several privateer bases. His fleet shadowed the army marching on land, bringing up supplies.However, Essex went too far, and managed to get his army surrounded deep inside enemy territory at Lostwithiel in Cornwall. On 2 September they were forced to surrender, though Essex himself managed to escape in a boat and reach Warwick's fleet. Far from capturing the Royalist ports in the region, this defeat allowed the King to lay siege to Plymouth again with renewed strength. The port city was on the point of surrender when Vice-Admiral Batten rallied its defenders with a squadron of ships and reinforcements.In the Irish Sea, the Navy struggled because while the privateers had many bases from which to operate, the only ports under Parliamentary control were at Liverpool and at Pembroke in Wales (plus Plymouth, far to the south). In January 1644 the local Royalist commander, the Earl of Carbery, attempted to capture the port of Pembroke and nearby Milford. He laid siege to them, and also constructed a fort at Pill, overlooking the harbour, in order to deny it to the Parliamentary navy. However, a force of ships under Admiral Swanley returned to the region and on 24 February landed troops at the Pill and captured both the fort itself and two Royalist warships anchored nearby. This success lifted the threat to Pembroke.The site of Pill fort near Pembroke (where the red-roofed house is now)Over the winter of 1644-45 Parliament passed the Self-Denying Ordinance, shaking up the command structure of its armed forces. This measure removed aristocratic commanders such as the Earls of Essex and Manchester from command, replacing them with dynamic new leaders such as Cromwell and Fairfax. The Ordinance also relieved the Earl of Warwick of command of the Navy — possibly due to his involvement in the disaster of Lostwithiel the previous summer tarnishing his reputation. Batten was named as his interim replacement while Parliament argued over who to appoint as a successor.During 1645 the situation at sea remained largely unchanged. Privateers continued to be a threat in the Irish Sea, although Parliament was gradually gaining the upper hand as its land armies captured more of their bases. Ships of the fleet again provided much-needed reinforcements to the besieged towns of Plymouth and Pembroke, and participated in the recapture of Bristol in September.1646 saw the end of the First Civil War. The King's son, Charles Prince of Wales, escaped from Falmouth by ship in March 1646 and took refuge in the Isles of Scilly. Admiral Batten showed up with a fleet of 20 ships the following month and 'invited' the Prince to surrender to Parliament, but a storm blew up and scattered his ships, and Prince Charles was able to escape again.The capture by Parliament of the last royalist ports in England and Wales ended the privateer threat from them, and by coincidence in October the French army, which was at war with Spain, captured Dunkirk and put an end to the privateers there as well. However, about 50 or 60 Irish privateers were still operating against English and Scottish ships in the Irish Sea.The Navy, freed of many of its other responsibilities, was now able to mount intensive patrols and provide convoy escorts; but dealing with the privateers was still, in the words of one of the English captains, 'a dull and fruitless employment' which made him 'heartily weary'.The next couple of years were a period of truce in England, though not in Ireland where the fighting continued, as different factions argued over what to do next (and what to do with the King).In May 1647 there was a dangerous international incident. Two English warships commanded by Richard Owen were patrolling off the Isle of Wight when they encountered six Swedish warships escorting a convoy up the Channel. Owen ordered the Swedish ships to salute the flag of Parliament since they were in English waters; the Swedes refused. Owen then opened fire on them, despite being outnumbered three to one. The Swedish fleet retreated rather than engage, but later found itself surrounded by English warships when it took shelter in Boulogne harbour. They surrendered, and the commander of the Swedish squadron was taken back to England as a prisoner, but then released again on Parliament's orders.The determination and ruthlessness showed by the Parliamentary navy impressed the French government, and two weeks later they agreed to expel all anti-English privateers from French ports and revoke their letters of marque.Vice-Admiral Batten was disgruntled at his treatment by Parliament, especially their unwillingness to grant him the same title (Lord High Admiral) which Warwick had enjoyed. He was also becoming alarmed that extremists in the New Model Army were pushing the country in a radical direction he disagreed with. By August 1647 he was secretly negotiating with one of the Scottish leaders, the Earl of Lauderdale, to bring the navy over to their side if a new civil war broke out. In September Batten was summoned to London to be questioned over rumours that his loyalty to Parliament was suspect; he resigned his position instead.Batten's replacement was Thomas Rainsborough. Although he was originally a naval officer he had most recently been serving as a colonel in the New Model Army, and his appointment was seen as an insult by many in the Navy since it implied their subordination to the Army. Rainsborough was also a noted radical (and a supporter of the Levellers), which alarmed many naval officers who sympathised with the more moderate position which Batten had embraced.In May 1648 there was an anti-Parliamentary revolt in Kent, demanding the disbandment of the New Model Army. This marked the start of the Second Civil War, as further uprisings broke out across the nation.On 27 May several of the warships anchored in the Downs off the Kentish coast, including Rainsborough's own flagship, mutinied. Rainsborough suffered the humiliation of being sent away in a small boat, and the mutineers sent a message to London asking for the Earl of Warwick to be restored to command as their admiral.Parliament did indeed re-appoint Warwick as admiral, but his first action was to try and persuade the mutineers to stand down. He failed, and had to leave Kent. Instead he went to Portsmouth and ensured the loyalty of the ships based there. However, he warned Parliament that their allegiance was shaky, and that threatening harsh action against the mutineers might only provoke more crews to join them in solidarity.When Sir Thomas Fairfax crushed the rebellion in Kent, the mutineers became vulnerable. Several of them therefore decided to sail to the Netherlands for asylum. The Prince of Wales was there, and they accepted him as their new Admiral. Much to Parliament's surprise, Batten also sailed out to Holland in a privateer he owned and joined them there.In July 1648 the captains of ten of the warships now under the Prince of Wales's command issued a manifesto condemning Parliament and the Army for extremism, and calling on the other crews in the Navy to join them. The fleet then set sail for the Downs and began blockading the Thames Estuary.The situation was now very different from the First Civil War. Instead of almost the entire Navy being loyal to Parliament, now a substantial section of it —including many of its most powerful warships — was actively in arms against it under the command of Prince Charles. The Prince had about 20 ships in his fleet, including 11 purpose-made warships.However, his actions were plagued by caution and indecision. While many of the ships' crews were eager to attack (and plunder) the ships sailing to London, Charles was reluctant to antagonise the London merchants whose support he might soon need. After several weeks of not much happening, Charles decided to return to the Netherlands. His angry officers instead forced him to agree to sail up the Thames to 'try their fortunes' in attacking the ships loyal to Parliament.On the morning of 29 August 1648, Charles's fleet of about 20 ships found a slightly smaller squadron of warships commanded by Warwick off Shoeburyness in Essex. The two fleets confronted each other all day with no action, then anchored about three miles apart for the night. Warwick was expecting reinforcements to arrive from Portsmouth and decided to avoid battle until they arrived, so on 30 August the two fleets again manoeuvred but never came close enough to open fire. Rising winds forced them to separate and anchor again. On the third day of the non-battle Charles decided to pull back out to sea, away from the dangerous sandbanks, and lure Warwick into a battle there. Warwick followed, but stayed out of range.After nightfall on 31 August Charles's fleet encountered the squadron from Portsmouth, which had been delayed but was finally approaching the region, not suspecting they were in danger. His commanders urged him to attack them while they were still separated from Warwick's fleet following behind, since this was their best chance for a victory. However, Charles was unwilling to risk it, and instead ordered a return to Holland — much to the anger and frustration of his men. The epic three-day Battle of Shoeburyness thus ended with no combat, no shots being fired, and nobody getting hurt (apart from their feelings).The tidal flats of Shoeburyness as they are todayWarwick decided to pursue Charles, and on 18 September his fleet made its way to Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands and anchored offshore from the Royalist fleet. Four days later a delegation from the Dutch government approached him and demanded that he promise not to launch an attack within Dutch territorial waters. Warwick agreed — he was later criticised for not having attacked immediately, before he had to make this promise. Shortly afterwards around 15 Dutch warships arrived and stationed themselves between the two English fleets to keep them apart.A long stalemate ensued, and morale fell on both sides due to the inactivity. The Prince of Wales appointed his cousin Prince Rupert to command the ships in his place: Rupert was famously dynamic and proactive, but his arrival angered many of the officers who'd fought against him during the First Civil War. Even Batten decided to re-rat and defect back to Warwick, who arranged for him to receive an indemnity.On 8 November Warwick decided to increase the pressure on the Royalists, hoping that more of them would surrender. He moved his fleet close to them, trying to goad them into opening fire on him — since his promise to the Dutch States-General not to attack them would obviously not apply if his opponents shot first. The Royalists threw stones and clumps of earth at the Parliamentary ships, showing how close together they were, but avoided the provocation to fire their guns. Instead the Royalist fleet withdrew into the inner harbour; but several ships were unable to make it there, and instead surrendered to Warwick.The port of HellevoetsluisThis bizarre naval engagement thus saw the Royalists lose several of their ships without a single shot being fired. Warwick then abandoned his blockade and returned to the Downs to reprovision.Warwick expected Prince Rupert to remain in Hellevoetsluis until the spring. He was wrong; Rupert left port on 21 January 1649 with eight warships and set sail for Kinsale in Ireland. A week later his uncle, King Charles I, was executed for high treason against the English people.The new English republic reorganised its navy, and Warwick again lost his job. Three Generals-at-Sea, Popham, Blake and Deane, were appointed to command the Navy.Prince Rupert's fleet at Kinsale, along with the Irish privateers who were still active, posed a serious threat to English shipping in the region. However, in May 1649 a Parliamentary fleet sailed to Kinsale and found Prince Rupert's fleet in port, so they blockaded him there. The result was a stalemate over the summer, since Kinsale was too heavily defended for the English fleet to attack directly, but their blockading squadron was too strong for Rupert to challenge.Prince Rupert of the Rhine, first a cavalry commander and now an admiralThe situation was changed when Oliver Cromwell led the New Model Army over to Ireland later in 1649 to put an end to Royalist and Catholic resistance there. Kinsale was thus threatened with a landward invasion. On 20 October Prince Rupert took advantage of a storm which blew Admiral Blake's squadron away from the port entrance, and slipped out to sea with seven warships. He had to leave several other ships behind since he lacked the crews to man them. Rupert made for Lisbon in Portugal, where King João IV had agreed to offer him temporary refuge.By the beginning of 1650 the Portuguese government was starting to drop hints to Rupert that he had outstayed his welcome; they did not want to get dragged into war with the Commonwealth of England. He was still there in March, however, when Robert Blake showed up with an English fleet and sailed into the mouth of the River Tagus to attack Rupert's ships. However, the wind dropped and Blake's fleet was rendered immobile and forced to anchor. A diplomatic confrontation ensued. The Portuguese sent 13 of their own warships to station themselves between Blake's fleet and Rupert's fleet; Parliament sent reinforcements to Blake commanded by General-at-Sea Popham, and threatened Portugal with war if it did not hand over Prince Rupert.Three times over that summer Rupert tried to break out of Lisbon harbour, supported by the Portuguese ships; but each time they came under fire from Blake's fleet and returned back to port. Little damage was done to either side in these skirmishes. In September 1650, however, Blake intercepted a Portuguese convoy returning from Brazil and plundered its ships. The Portuguese government became alarmed that what had so far been a relatively minor confrontation might turn into full-scale war, and ordered Rupert to leave their waters immediately as England had demanded.While Blake's ships were reprovisioning in the Spanish port of Cadiz, Rupert left Lisbon and sailed into the Mediterranean. He seems to have been offended that Spain was giving this assistance to the English republicans, and so deliberately and provocatively sailed into several Spanish ports and attacked any English merchant ships he found anchored there. Blake sailed in pursuit.On 3 November 1650, Blake's fleet finally caught up with Prince Rupert off the coast near Málaga. The result was the first and only naval battle between multiple ships on each side during the English Civil Wars. Rupert had six ships remaining by this point, and one of these was captured by the Commonwealth fleet. The remaining Royalist ships took refuge in Cartagena, but were driven ashore while trying to escape two days later. Rupert was able to escape, but the Commonwealth now had command of the sea. Blake became a national hero for his success.The coast near MálagaThere were now just two warships and some smaller privateers still active which remained loyal to the Royalist cause: the larger ships were the Constant Reformation and the Swallow. Prince Rupert was able to join them and took command, leading them to attack English commerce. However, in September 1651 when they were attempting to cross the Atlantic to operate in the West Indies the Constant Reformation sank in a storm, and the surviving Royalist ships took refuge in the Azores. For the rest of the year they operated off the coast of Africa.The following year Rupert's fleet crossed the Atlantic after all, only to run into a hurricane on 13 September 1652. The Royalist ships were scattered and one of them sank: Rupert's brother, Prince Maurice, was among the dead. The grieving Rupert abandoned his campaign and sailed back to Europe. On 4 March 1653 he arrived at the mouth of the River Loire in France in his one remaining warship, the Swallow. The ship was then left to rot.All told, Prince Rupert’s naval campaign between 1648 and 1653 had been dramatic and a thorn in the side of Parliament, but never a serious threat to their survival.Meanwhile, the Commonwealth government had completed its capture of the remaining privateer bases. Those in southern Ireland fell to Cromwell and Ireton's campaign, while Admiral Blake led his fleet to capture the Scilly Isles and Channel Isles in 1651. In 1652 Admiral Ayscue took a fleet over the Atlantic to ensure that Barbados and the North American colonies were loyal to the new republican government.General-at-Sea Robert Blake, one of the most successful British naval commanders in history despite being less well-known todayFeeling threatened by other European powers who were hostile to 'regicides', the Commonwealth also expanded its navy greatly, commissioning 45 new warships in 1651 alone. Naval conflicts with Portugal, France and the Netherlands marked the early years of the republic; and the Anglo-Dutch War of 1652-54 in particular was a massive conflict with major fleet actions involving dozens of ships on each side. However, with the end of Prince Rupert's squadron the civil war at sea had come to an end.

Yes. Absolutely. Most tribes do other things than having casinos for income.The majority of tribes do not have casinos. 238 tribes out of 573 tribes have casinos in 28 states. That means 59% of tribes do not have casinos. The rural and unpopulated locations of many Native nations make the idea of having a casino unfeasible and unprofitable. Many tribes operate gaming facilities primarily to generate employment. Approximately 72 tribes give per capita payments from gaming revenue. That is 12.6% who use the money they make to make payments to members. Those range from hundreds of dollars a year to many thousands. Very few distribute large sums. The rest of the tribes with income use the money to run the tribal government and address tribal needs. Those that do have casinos paid $6.2 billion in federal taxes, $2.4 billion in state income, and $100 million in local income through payroll, sales taxes, and direct revenue sharing through government agreements in 2010.Most tribes are very poor. They have small amounts of land and few natural resources. Those that had resources were forced to lease or sell them at below-market prices for generations. Some who succeeded in managing their resources well to the benefit of the tribe faced jealousy and resentments form white Americans. Those Americans work hard to pass laws to strip the tribes of their resources and any sources of wealth. This is how the Klamath Tribes of Oregon went from being one of the wealthiest tribes until the 1950s by operating timber and sawmill business to becoming one with no land or income after 1953. An act of Congress did that. It was even opposed by Oregon politicians. It was pushed relentlessly by Senator Arthur Vivian Watkins of Utah. He thought it would make them more likely to become Mormon. He decided there was an “Indian Problem” and his solution was to impoverish them. He was helped by politicians from South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming, North Dakota and Washington.The fact is any business or land or resource ownership by a company or family in the US owes the title to the forcible taking of those lands and resources. Then those lands were given for nominal fees to Euro-Americans. Many large companies and family fortunes have their basis in this theft of resources. The Hearst company would not exist if tribal land had not been seized. That meant George Hearst was able to stake mining claims on that land and make great wealth that he invested in other things. Rockefeller wealth would not have happened without oil that was under land that was taken from tribes. All the great timber and mining and oil and coal and railroad wealth have the same basis.In Alaska, we have an example of how things could have been if the settlements with the tribes had been a little fairer. There are other tribes in different areas of the US who do the same thing but mostly on a smaller scale. Tribes make money on oil, gas, coal, timber, grazing, irrigated agriculture, farming, tourism, and by investing in many sorts of businesses and financial instruments. However, the Alaska tribes are a graphic example of how many tribes might succeed if they had right and ownership to a larger portion of the land and resources that are rightfully theirs.In Alaska, the settlement of land and resources with Native people was much fairer. Many things were not fair but it was in large part fairer that in the other states. So these tribes have more income. It is not from casinos. There are 573 federally recognized tribes in the US as of 2018. Of those, 229 are federally recognized Alaskan villages. That means 40% of tribes are in Alaska. There are no casinos in Alaska. There are two of the 229 Village Corporations that have bingo and pull tabs. All of the Alaskan Native people are shareholders in village corporations and shareholders in one of the 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations. There is only one small reservation in Alaska.Being an ANC shareholder is comparable to a tribal membership. It is a lifetime enrollment that cannot be bought or sold. The 13 corporations and villages control 44,000,000 acres and the resources on or over them. That is about the same size as Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Ireland combined. It is about the same size as North Dakota or Washington State. It is more land area than any single east coast state, including Florida. The Native Alaska Native Regional Corporations (ANCSA) are very large and important economic, political, and cultural forces in Alaska and beyond. They have invested in Alaska and around the country and the world. employ 58,000 people worldwide, with about 16,000 of those jobs here in Alaska. They make money in mineral resources, forestry and fishing, among other things. In 2011 alone, $172 million in mining industry payments to Native Corporations were made. $82 million of it was redistributed to other regional and village corporations. These corporations cumulatively reached $11.3 billion in revenues in 2010. Of the 49 top companies n the state of Alaska, the ANRC made 74% of the total revenue earned. They have 64% of the total Alaska jobs, and 84% of all the employees working for those top 49 companies.Each ANRC has different resources. Below is a rundown on the sort of things they own and how they make money for their tribes. If the Cherokee or the Creek in the SE or the Six Nations tribes in NY had been allowed to retain their assets then they might look a bit like what Alaskan tribes do. Of course, it would be different because the environment and resources are different, but it could be similar. You might even live or work in a building owned in part of all by an Alaska Native Corp as they run things all over the country. In addition, most of the ANRC and some villages have created nonprofits to provide social services and healthcare through grant funding and federal compacts. They focus generally on cultural and educational activities, such as scholarships for Native students, sponsorship of cultural and artistic events, preservation efforts for Native languages, and protection of sites with historic or religious importance.The 13th Alaska Native Corp has failed. That is because Congress explicitly refused to give them ANCSA land as was provided the other 12 regions. If Congress had not done this their entitlement would have been approximately 1.2 million acres. Because the 13th shareholders did not receive an equal entitlement of land they were denied any share in 7(i) revenues generated through sales of minerals, timber, and other valuable resources or development of selected lands through the revenue pooling provisions of ANCSA, as do the original 12 corporations and their shareholders. From 1975 to 2013 the used half the initial money they did get for investments. The other half was disbursed to shareholders. There has been mismanagement and possibly criminal fraud on the part of the operation. They owned M Kennedy Construction, part of Mail Boxes Etc in the Northwest, Alindeska Electrical Contractors, North Star Industrial Contractors, North Star Industrial Contractors, Four Winds Services, Inc. NW Business Services Group, a land deal investment in Spokane, Wash, and Cold Bay Development Corp.So, here are the 12 Alaska Native Regional Corporations.Ahtna Inc. It owns approximately 1,528,000 acres in the Copper River Basin in east-central Alaska. Ahtna has 14 operating subsidiaries that are involved in government contracting, civil and vertical construction, pipeline maintenance, environmental remediation, surveying, facilities maintenance, administrative and janitorial services, and food service contractors.The Aleut Corporation manages and sells sand, gravel, minerals and rock aggregates as part of its subsurface rights within the region. The Corporation’s primary areas of business are real estate, government operations and maintenance contracting, aggregate sales, and investments in oil and gas producing properties and marketable securities.Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) has title to nearly five million acres of land abundant in natural resources in northern Alaska. In addition to oil and gas potential, ASRC lands include one of the world’s largest bituminous coal deposits. The ASRC owns and runs companies in engineering, venture capital and financial management, oil and gas support services, petroleum refining and distribution, aerospace engineering, consulting, civil construction, and communications.Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) owns the majority of Alaska's Seward Peninsula and the coastal lands of eastern Norton Sound. It manages nearly two million acres of subsurface estate of land. Other businesses they own are real estate management and development, tourism, construction, mining services and sales of rock and aggregate. In Anchorage, they have an office that runs the company's government contract work under SBA's 8(a), HubZone and also small business programs.Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) Has land that is home to the world’s largest salmon fishery. BBNC owns nearly three million acres of sub-surface land in the Bristol Bay region. Key assets include an investment portfolio and over 30 operating subsidiary companies, specializing in petroleum distribution, construction, government services, and oilfield and industrial services. The company does business in Alaska and throughout the U.S. and the world. Gross revenue for fiscal year 2011 was $1.7 billion. It has provided over $100 million in shareholder dividends since 1979.Calista Corporation has a diverse business and investment portfolio with subsidiaries specializing in oil well work-over drilling, construction, government and military contracting, public relations services, property management, catering and camp services, telecommunications, heavy equipment sales, construction and royalties from gold and construction material mining. Annual corporate revenues from this diversified portfolio are in excess of $200 million. Their mineral lands include a number of placer gold properties, and adjacent hard rock gold and platinum prospects.Chugach Alaska Corporation (CAC) As well as in Anchorage it has regional offices in Washington, D.C., Nevada, Alabama and Hawaii. It is provider of Base Operations and Facilities Maintenance. Other Chugach subsidiaries provide business services in the areas of General Construction & Construction Management; Civil Engineering; Oil & Gas Services; Educational Services; Environmental/Oil Spill Response Services; Information Technology (including network security and monitoring); Telecommunications; Employment Services; and Manufacturing Services. It operates the best trained and equipped oil spill response organization in the world. It operates in remote locations including the Western Pacific Islands, Canada, Africa, Spain and Turkey.Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI) is based in Anchorage and has interests across Alaska, the United States and abroad. It is Southcentral Alaska’s largest private landowner and has 1.3 million acres of subsurface available for responsible gas, oil and mineral leasing. They have a diversified business portfolio that includes energy and resource development, oilfield and heavy construction services, commercial and retail real estate development and management, environmental remediation services, tourism and hospitality, renewable energy, telecommunications, aerospace defense, private equity, venture capital and marketable securities investments. They are developing alternative energy resources on CIRI land including a commercial-scale wind farm on Fire Island three miles offshore from Anchorage and an underground coal gasification project west of Cook Inlet.Doyon Limited Has 12.5 million acres. It is the largest private landowner in Alaska and is one of the largest private landowners in North America. Doyon Drilling is the corporation’s largest subsidiary, producing more than half of the corporation’s revenues. The subsidiary is actively engaged in Arctic drilling activity on the North Slope. Doyon is a partner in a gas exploration project in the Nenana Basin and the corporation also holds prospective gas resources in the Yukon Flats. Other companies they own provide a wide range of services, including catering, facility maintenance, security, tourism and support for oil, gas and mining construction across Alaska. They also manage real estate assets and have operations in the tourism industry.Koniag Incorporated has land holdings across the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island and Afognak Island. Koniag Development Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koniag, operates as Koniag's business arm, managing most of the corporation’s real estate holdings and business operations, including oversight of nearly a dozen subsidiaries. The work of these companies can be grouped into six broad categories: Operations and Maintenance, Environmental Services, Logistics, Information Technology, Consulting, and Manufacturing. Koniag’s real estate portfolio is comprised of office buildings, warehouses, apartment buildings, hotels and vacant land, in Alaska, Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona and Idaho. Koniag’s share of ownership in these properties ranges from 10 percent to 100 percent.NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. (NANA) is a billion dollar corporation with more than 13,000 employees at operations spanning the globe. Investments range from the resource development industry to facilities management and logistics, engineering and construction, information technology and government contracting. NANA manages the surface and subsurface rights to more than 2.2 million acres of land in northwest Alaska covering 38,000 square miles, or an area roughly the size of Indiana. The NANA region is mineral-rich. NANA has a stake in the Red Dog Mine, located in the Delong Mountain Range 90 miles north of Kotzebue. Red Dog Mine is one of the world’s largest zinc and lead mines. They have a subsidiary called NANA Development Corporation (NDC). It is a leader in engineering and construction; resource development; facilities management and logistics; real estate and hotel development; and information technology and telecommunications.Sealaska Corporation is a diverse company with investments in forest products and marking, silviculture and land management, financial investments, fabrication, plastics injection molding and manufacturing, information technology, construction aggregates, environmental remediation and consulting, logistics, construction and security services in Alaska and around the world.If you have stuck with me through these details I hope you can see the sorts of things that some tribes who have had access to resources have done to make money. The tribe with the largest enrollment and largest land base is the Navajo tribe. They are about 330,000 members and have 27,000 sq miles of land. They have coal, oil, gas, forestry, the largest contiguous irrigated agriculture in the US and tribally owned businesses. In recent years they decided to start 4 casinos on the edges of their land. Most of the reservation land is too remote to attract people to a casino. For decades older Navajo voters rejected the idea of casinos. This is largely because of some traditional religious stories about a Great Gambler who enslaved all the people. Some non-traditional people opposed it for Christian religious reasons as well. Other’s thought it would bring bad influences to the Navajo Nation. It is not the majority of tribal income but it has been bringing in $80 million for the tribe and for the fund which gives money to the 110 Navajo tribal local governments (like counties), known as Chapters. Each tribe around the country is a unique situation. Some have tribal fisheries or wild rice. Others have ranching or timber. The luckiest have mineral resources like the Southern Ute who are most likely the tribe doing the best. How a tribe makes what money it can, depends a great deal on where it is and what resources it has.