The Downs Station also known as the Commander-in-Chief, the Downs or Admiral Commanding at the Downs was a formation of the

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...

and then the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

based at Deal. It was a major

command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

of the Royal Navy from 1626 until 1834. The Downs is a roadstead (area of sheltered, favourable sea) in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast. It is primarily known in

naval history Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large lan ...

for the Dutch defeat of the Spanish in the

Battle of the Downs The Battle of the Downs took place on 21 October 1639 (New Style), during the Eighty Years' War. A Spanish fleet, commanded by Admiral Antonio de Oquendo, was decisively defeated by a Dutch force under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp. Vict ...

in 1639.

History

The Downs served as permanent base for naval vessels operating out of Deal, Kent. It served as a base for warships patrolling the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

. The command generally covered an area in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast. The station lasted until 1815, when it was absorbed into the

Commander-in-Chief, The Nore The Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, was an operational commander of the Royal Navy. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Nore Station or Nore Command. The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the T ...

's control, whose role and geographic area of responsibility was re-defined by the Admiralty.

Commanders in chief

Incomplete list includes:
= died in post * Rear-Admiral Sir

John Penington Sir John Penington (1584?–1646) was an English admiral who served under Charles I of England. Biography John Penington was the second cousin of Isaac Penington (Lord Mayor), Sir Isaac Penington or Pennington, and the son of Robert Penington ...

, 1626-1631 * Vice-Admiral Sir

, 1638-1645 * Vice-Admiral Sir

John Mennes Vice Admiral Sir John Mennes (with variant spellings, 1 March 1599 – 18 February 1671) was an English naval officer, who went on to be Comptroller of the Navy. He was also considered a wit. His comic and satirical verses, written in correspond ...

1645-1649 * Rear-Admiral Richard Badiley, 1649-1650 * Vice-Admiral John Lawson, 1650-1656 * Vice-Admiral Richard Badiley, 1656 * Admiral Sir

Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, KG PC FRS JP (27 July 162528 May 1672) was an English military officer, politician and diplomat, who fought for the Parliamentarian army during the First English Civil War and was an MP at various time ...

July 1657 – 1663 * Commodore

Thomas Allin Thomas Allin (May 14, 1757 – June 26, 1833) was a soldier and surveyor who became an early settler and political leader in Kentucky. He served in the Revolutionary War, first in the North Carolina militia and then as part of general Natha ...

, 1663-1664 * Admiral Sir

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

, November 1664 – 1666 * Rear-Admiral Sir John Holmes, 1667-1677 * Vice-Admiral Sir John Holmes, 1677-1679 * Commodore Stafford Fairborne, 7 January 1695 – 17 January 1697 * Commodore Gerard Ellwes, 1707-1708 * Commodore Tudor Trevor, 1711-1712 * Rear-Admiral Sir

Charles Wager Admiral Sir Charles Wager (24 February 1666 – 24 May 1743) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1733 to 1742. Despite heroic active service and steadfast administration and diplomatic service, ...

, 1712-1714 * Commodore Philip Cavendish, 1716 * Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon, 1744 * Vice-Admiral Thomas Smith, 1755-1756 * Admiral Thomas Smith, 1757 * Commodore William Boys, 1759 * Commodore John Moore.1761-1766 * Rear-Admiral John Montagu, 1771 * Commodore John Elliot, 1777-1778 * Vice-Admiral Matthew Buckle, 1778-1779 * Vice-Admiral Francis William Drake, 1779-1782 * Rear-Admiral John Evans, 1780-1781* * Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, 1781-1782* ''Station not active 1782 to 1790'' * Rear-Admiral Sir Richard King, 1790-1791 ''Station not active 1791 to 1793'' * Rear-Admiral John MacBride, 1793-1794 * Vice-Admiral Joseph Peyton, 1794-1799 * Rear-Admiral John Bazely, 1796-1797* * Vice-Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge, 1799-1802 * Rear-Admiral Edward Thornbrough, 1803 * Vice-Admiral Philip Patton, 1803-1804 * Vice-Admiral John Holloway, 1804-1807 * Vice-Admiral Bartholomew Rowley, 1807-1808 * Vice-Admiral George Campbell, 1808-1811, "commander-in-chief at the Downs" (1811). * Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Foley, 1811-1815 * Rear-Admiral

William Hall Gage Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Hall Gage (2 October 1777 – 4 January 1864) was Second Sea Lord in the British Navy. He took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent and the Siege of French-held Malta during the French Revolutionary Wars. He a ...

, 1833. ''Temporary command in absence of senior officer *''

Notes

References

* * Ireland, Bernard (2001), Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail - War at Sea 1756–1815, 1st Ed, WW Norton & Co. . * Marshall, John (18 November 2010). Royal Naval Biography: Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-Officers, Superannuated Rear-Admirals, Retired-Captains, Post-Captains, and Commanders. Cambridge University Press. * Rodger, N.A.M. (2004), The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815. New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company. . * {{Royal Navy fleets Commands of the Royal Navy Military units and formations established in 1777 Military units and formations disestablished in 1815