Astrea Essay

As the dispatch of the Astrea implies, during the War of Jenkins’ Ear Vernon recognised the advantages of the exploitation of the colonies in North America as the source of naval stores, thanks to the proposal that the officers at Port Royal advanced on the procurement of masts from New England. As the intercolonial trade between North America and the West Indies provided Jamaica with large amount of timber, naval stores, and provisions from the early eighteenth century, the officers fully grasped the merits of the direct transportation of naval stores from North America in spite of the fact that the dockyard at Port Royal depended on the supply of goods from England. The naval stores policy through which Britain could encourage the inhabitants in North America to produce and deal with naval stores made American naval stores profitable commodities in the intercolonial trade as well as the transatlantic trade. As the navy had purchased some amount of American masts, pitch, and tar and consuming them in the royal docks in Britain since the early eighteenth century, the navy duly considered the colonies in North America as the
The intercolonial trade between North America and the West Indies prospered and the shipping list at Kingston from 1709 to 1711 illustrates that some quantity of naval stores and timber had been already imported from several ports in North America to Jamaica, while the navy did not effectively utilise naval stores produced in North America for the supply of the overseas base. The navy’s inadequate logistic network in the Western Hemisphere including little authority of the dockyard at Port Royal to procure naval stores made the transportation of naval stores from New England to Jamaica