Charles Wager

The Right Honourable Sir Charles Wager
Portrait of Admiral Sir Charles Wager by Thomas Gibson
Born	(1666-02-24)24 February 1666 Rochester, Kent, England
Died	24 May 1743(1743-05-24) (aged 77) Stanley House, Chelsea, England
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Rank	Admiral of the White
Commands held	Samuel and Henry Newcastle Woolwich Greenwich Medway Hampton Court Jamaica Station Baltic Fleet
Battles/wars	War of the Spanish Succession Anglo-Spanish War

Admiral Sir Charles Wager PC (24 February 1666 – 24 May 1743) was an English 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, Wager can be criticized for his failure to deal with an acute manning problem.

However, in reality, the Royal Navy's numerical preponderance over other navies was greater than at any other time in the century, and its dockyard facilities, overseas bases (Wager was much involved in the development of new bases in the Caribbean), victualling organization, and central co-ordination were by far the most elaborate and advanced.

Although British warship design was inferior to French in some respects, the real problem was an insufficiency of the versatile and seaworthy 60-gun ships, a class that Wager's Admiralty had chosen to augment during the 1730s but, as wartime experience would show, not aggressively enough.