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.

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.

[1] His paternal grandfather was John Wager (died 1656 when captain of the Greyhound which blew up in action with Spanish pirates) of St Margaret's, Rochester, who became a mariner after migrating from Charlton Kings, Cheltenham.

[2] His father commanded the Yarmouth in the fleet that brought Charles II to England and quickly proved to be a capable, trustworthy, well-liked officer of the Royal Navy.

[5] Wager was apprenticed to a Quaker merchant captain of New England named John Hull of Barnstable, Massachusetts who operated a transatlantic shipping service.

Hull could not fight due to his religious convictions but equally was loath to surrender his valuable vessel and cargo and so he turned to his right-hand man.

Wager was in the Britannia, Admiral Edward Russell's flagship, in 1692, took part in the battle of Barfleur, and was made post captain on 7 June.

Captains Wager and John Baker were the men Byng sent ashore to carry out negotiations and witness the signing of the England's re-negotiated treaty with the Dey of Algiers.

A French squadron under Admiral Ducasse was known to be coming from Europe, and Wager's initial deployments were designed to gain intelligence of its arrival and protect trade.

He learned in December that Ducasse had gone to Havana, far to leeward; thus the French squadron (ten of the line) could neither surprise Jamaica nor shield the galleons of the Spanish treasure fleet at the isthmus, and if those galleons were to follow their usual practice of returning to Cartagene de Indias before proceeding to Havana, Wager would have a chance to intercept them after they loaded Peruvian silver at Portobelo.

His wealth stemmed chiefly from the silver on the captured galleon, its value estimated at over £60,000 in addition to his flag share of other prizes taken in the West Indies.

As a firm Whig he could no longer expect an important command so he prepared to spend the rest of his life ashore in contrast to the previous twenty years of almost continual sea service.

[10] Following the death of Queen Anne, Wager was still listed as a Rear Admiral and he was ordered to take charge of the ships at Portsmouth, and in later to go out to the Strait of Gibraltar and assume command of the Mediterranean Fleet.

His report of 30 April 1726 evoked a glowing response from the secretary of state, Viscount Townshend: "his Majesty has commanded me to let you know from Him, that he was before persuaded you was a very good Admiral, but he now sees that you are likewise an able Minister.

To reassure Sweden the British fleet stayed at Reval all summer, losing many men to sickness, and did not enter the Thames until 1 November 1726.

The fleet helped cover the land approaches, Wager ordered two frigates and a bomb-vessel to "the back of the Hill",thus ensuring re-supply for the garrison.

Finally, in early March 1728, Spain agreed to a convention and Wager's fleet could be ordered home; he arrived on 9 April after sixteen months abroad.

[5] Wager resumed his regular attendance at the Admiralty board, but again in May 1729 he was ordered to take command of thirty-three ships, which were soon joined by fourteen Dutch.

Thus Wager's flag was hoisted on the Namur (90 guns) and the British fleet entered Cadiz Bay on 1 August 1731, and, after much grand entertainment, moved into the Mediterranean.

"But", he continued, "I have been sent on several expeditions (not by my own choice), wherein I have succeeded so well, as to have the King's approbation, and very like may be put, in case of a Vacancy, at the head of this Board.

"[15] When Lord Torrington died in January 1733, Under-Secretary Delafaye reported to a colleague: "Every body looks upon Sir Charles Wager as the person who will now be at the head of the affairs of the navy; as indeed I may say he has been for some time".

[20] Upon the outbreak of the so-called “War of Jenkins' Ear” in 1739 the problem rapidly grew severe, and Wager, strongly encouraged by Admiral Sir John Norris, pressed for legislative measures; the government introduced bills to facilitate naval manning and Walpole supported them, but Parliament would not pass anything meaningful.

Wager was not confident, as he well knew the price of delay in that climate; his preferred strategy was to threaten the Peruvian coast from the "South Sea".

Even before the expedition to the West Indies left England the typhus epidemic of 1740, the worst of the century, ravaged newly recruited seamen and spread through the fleet, seriously aggravating the manning problem and delaying departure.

[26] In 1747, Francis Gashry, long his right-hand man of business, erected a monument by the sculptor Peter Scheemakers in Westminster Abbey, and the bas-relief shows his famous naval engagement, with the inscription "The destroying & taking the SPANISH GALLEONS A.D. 1708".

[26] His chief heir was Charles Bolton, son of his sister Prudence, to whom his estate at Kilmenath, near West Looe, Cornwall passed.

[5] Wager was known for spreading his generosity very widely, to individuals in need as well as philanthropic organizations, for example he was patron of the "Cockney Feast" held in the east end of London.

A remembrance recorded many years later by Arthur Onslow, the respected speaker of the Commons, remains highly instructive:” He was of the most gentle and humane disposition I ever knew, and spent almost the whole he got in generous acts of charity and compassion.

He had a very good understanding, great plainness of manners, and a steadiness of courage that no danger could daunt, with the same calmness in it that he shewed in the most ordinary acts of his life.

His father was a captain of a man of war before the restoration, and very likely after that: but dying when this son was young, and the mother marrying a Quaker, he was bred up among that people; by which he acquired the simplicity of his manners, and had much of their fashion in his speech as well as carriage.