The 9th Dawlish Chronicle is available from 12th December 2020. Details at end of article. Civilian Life – and Death – at sea in the 1870s It is easy, at this remove, to be entranced by the “romance” of the seaborne trade in the 19th Century, when the numbers of ships grew explosively to satisfy the [...]
The Matchstick Fleet Two weeks ago I visited the Nothe Fort in Weymouth, Dorset. This is one of a whole series of forts built along the southern English coast in the 1860s to guard against a French invasion that never came. (The Prussians invaded to France successfully in 1870, and that was the end of [...]
Shipwreck, Survival, Slave Trade Suppression - and Injustice, 1845 High-quality radio communications today, and the associated ability of ships in difficulty to transmit distress messages, make it difficult to envisage just how desperate were the plights of shipwrecked crews in earlier years. Of these we know, only because the remaining handful were rescued, but [...]
Naval Artists of the 18th Century – Part 2 Creating the Image of the British Seaman In the first part of this occasional series, which appeared on my blog last month, I discussed the remarkable career of Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg. (Click here to read if you missed it then.) He was a painter of considerable [...]
Guest Blog by Helen Hollick: The Man Who Knew About Pirates Click image for details My friend Helen Hollick writes a nautical fiction series based on the adventures of her fictional pirate, Captain Jesamiah Acorne and his ship, Sea Witch, but her latest UK release in paperback is [...]
The First Victoria Cross Winner 1854 Ever since the Crimean War (1854-56) the Victoria Cross has been the highest award for British service personnel for gallantry in the face of the enemy. It takes precedence in order of wear over all other British orders, decorations, and medals, including the Order of the Garter. Instituted [...]
One Submarine, Two Flags and Two Heroes: WW1 Two spectacular cases of submarines penetrating enemy anchorages are well known to naval-history enthusiasts. the first was when the Royal Navy’s E14, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Edward Boyle, surfaced in the Golden Horn, in the heart of Istanbul, in May 1915. This followed penetration of the [...]
