The statue of Admiral Robert Blake in Bridgwater, Somerset. Oliver Cromwell's "General at Sea".

I have tried several times to take a decent photo of Admiral Robert Blake’s statue in Bridgwater, but it has always been in the shade.  My latest attempt, below, is my best to date as it is silhouetted against a pleasing clear blue sky. 

The statue of Robert Blake, Cromwell's "General at Sea", in Bridgwater, Somerset.  Erected in the town centre, it was unveiled 1900. 

Robert Blake was born in Bridgwater in 1598, one of 13 children.  A graduate of Oxford University he is said to have become a merchant and travelled the continent.   He became Bridgwater’s MP in 1640.

Blake played a prominent role in the English Civil War, early on being a key figure in the siege of Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire where Royalist forces, although outnumbering the Parliamentarian defenders by six to one, were held at bay until the town was relieved.
 

As Colonel Robert Blake he commanded Parliamentary forces successfully defending Taunton which was besieged by Royalist forces from July 1644 to July 1645.  Blake famously declared he “had four pairs of boots and would eat three pairs before he would surrender”.

Appointed as Oliver Cromwell’s “General at Sea” in 1649, he set in train the expansion of the fleet to become the largest England had possessed up until that time. 

The Commonwealth built 210 new warships by 1660.  He produced the Navy’s first ever ‘Rules and Regulations’ and reorganised tactics which would become the foundation of English Naval Tactics in the age of sail.  Little wonder he was known as the “Father of the Royal Navy".

During the English Civil War he blockaded and eventually defeated the Royalist Fleet of Prince Rupert of the Rhine.  He won victories against the Portuguese, Dutch (First Anglo Dutch War, 1652-1654) and Spanish (Anglo-Spanish War, 1654-1660).

He died at sea off Plymouth in 1657.