Secret Intelligence in the Age of Nelson Steven E Maffeo Editor’s note: Much of this article is extracted from, and informed by, Captain Maffeo’s book Most Secret and Confidential: Intelligence in the Age of Nelson(Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2000 and 2012; London: Chatham Publishing, 2000). Slightly more narrow in scope than the overall maritime Georgian era (roughly 1714 to 1820), the great ‘Age of Fighting Sail’ – often associated with Britain’s Vice-Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson – essentially ran from 1754 to 1815. Present within this context of the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic War and the War of 1812 were fundamental characteristics common to modern, multi-source intelligence. Reasonably sophisticated, national-level and naval intelligence existed during this time and, aside from its crude technology and primitive communications, it lacked only the formal, institutionalised, and bureaucratic organisations that began to emerge in the late nineteenth century – which in turn evolved into the modern, extremely technical intelligence communities of today. At the end of the eighteenth century many countries had created diplomatic information systems, developed cryptography and cryptanalysis, established networks of spies, arranged for clandestine mail interception and opening, and built infrastructures to record, distribute and file the resulting information. This mass of information contained degrees of sensitive material – or secret intelligence. That said, no government differentiated secret intelligence from other information; moreover, most governments essentially regarded all information as their property – secret or not. No distinction existed between public domainand classifiedinformation. It is illustrative to focus upon the British and the Royal Navy to describe and analyse national and naval intelligence during this period. Eighteenth-century British intelligence was organisationally centred in the diplomatic establishment, with an extensive consular network of overseas correspondents. This network was supplemented by a well-funded programme of espionage – along with considerable foreign trade analysis and ship movement information supplied by Lloyd’s insurance marketing association. And, perhaps surprisingly, 10
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