Visiting restored SS Great Britain, early ocean liner I recently visited the restored SS Great Britain, laid down in 1839 and launched in 1843, the brainchild of the great British engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She is today located in Bristol, England, and is a splendid memorial to a heroic era in engineering and seafaring. Antoine [...]
The Last Fireship Attack? HMS Dart & Désirée, 1800 For many centuries fireships were to be some of the most dramatic and devastating of all naval weapons, albeit that they were difficult to deploy and dangerous to their crews. The most effective and history-changing use ever of such ships was when they were used to attack the Spanish Armada [...]
HMS Buckingham in furious action, 1758 The Seven Years War, 1756-63, which often been fairly described as “The First World War” since it was fought on a global basis, saw much naval action in the West Indies because of the value of the “sugar islands” held by Britain, France and Spain there. One of [...]
The Two Tragedies of the SS Orteric The 9th of December 2015 was the 100th anniversary of the torpedoing in the Eastern Mediterranean of the SS Orteric. This 6,535-ton, 460-feet cargo and passenger liner was a relatively new ship, built in Scotland and entering service in 1911. At the time of her loss to a [...]
The sinking of the slave ship Phoenix, 1762 The horror of the Atlantic slave trade is well exemplified by the loss of the slave ship Phoenix in 1762 and the appalling sufferings endured by its human cargo before she finally disappeared. One well-known image above all symbolises the evil of the trade. Some two and [...]
“Bring me out the enemy’s ship if you can…” HMS Southampton off Toulon, 1796 Close blockade of the coasts of French-occupied countries in the Napoleonic era was the most important weapon in Britain’s armoury. It may indeed also have been the single most important factor in securing Napoleon’s ultimate defeat. He all but acknowledged this by [...]
