Kaiser Wilhelm II at Gibraltar, 1904 Wilhelm II As eldest grandson of Queen Victoria – at whose death he was present – and as nephew of Britain’s King Edward VIII, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany displayed had a half-respectful, half-resentful, attitude to Britain. He gloried in being an honorary admiral of [...]
The Epic of Diamond Rock 1804-05 Diamond Rock - Credit: Apmarles, Wikipedia A steep rock, three-hundred yards diameter and all but circular, some 570 feet high, became the scene of one of the most spectacular exploits of the Royal Navy during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Located off the southern tip of [...]
Naval Artists of the Age of Fighting Sail – Part 1 Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg Some time ago I posted a short blog about the cutting-out of the French corvette Chevrette in 1801 (Click here to read it if you missed that blog). I had stumbled on this incident through finding in an 1894 publication [...]
Privateer in action: the Ellen 1780 Privateers receive little attention in accounts of naval warfare right up to the time when the practice was banned by international Paris Declaration of 1856, which only the United States, among major nations, omitted to sign. Such privately-owned ships were authorised by a “letter of marque” to prey on [...]
Routine on a Royal Navy warship, late-19th Century When one is interested in the navies of the late 19th Century, and especially when writing naval fiction set in that era, as I do in the Dawlish Chronicles, it is generally easy to access information about the ships themselves, their armament, their machinery and their performance. [...]
The Crimean War: Bombarding Odessa 1854 HMS Furious The Crimean War (1854-56) in which Britain, France, Turkey and Piedmont took on Russia is generally thought of in terms of the operations in the Crimea itself. Most notable of these were the Siege of Sevastopol and [...]
Captain Richard Bowen, Beau Ideal of a Naval Officer Part 3 of 3 Captain Richard Bowen with wound patch on his cheek This article brings to a tragic conclusion the story of the splendid Captain Richard Bowen (1761-1797) which was told in my blogs of 11.05.18 (Click here to read if you missed [...]
HMS Alexander at bay, November 1794 Richard Bligh as Admiral Captain William Bligh – “Bligh of the Bounty” – is one of the best-remembered officers of the Age of Fighting Sail, not only because of the loss of his ship through mutiny but for his 3618-mile, 47-day voyage to safety [...]
