HMS Bellona vs. Courageux Duel: 1761 Devotees of naval history and fiction will know that the “74”, the so-called Third- Rate ships of the line, were the backbone of the fleets of the major European powers in the period 1756-1815. Though the type is primarily thought of as British, the original concept, dating from the 1740s, [...]

First Blood 1914: HMS Amphion and SMS Königin Luise On 4th August 1914 Germany rejected the British ultimatum to withdraw from neutral Belgium, which had been invaded in the preceding days. From 2300 hrs that evening both countries were at war.  Britain’s Royal Navy was already on a war footing and sweeps of the North Sea were already [...]

The Wreck of the Rothsay Castle 1831 A number of articles on this blog site have dealt with 19th Century shipping disasters. There is a horrible fascination about them since they illustrate how the management of civilian shipping was often so lackadaisical and how command, control and management techniques did not keep pace with [...]

Duel: HMS Espoir and the Liguria 1798 The Mediterranean was a very active theatre of naval warfare in 1798, culminating in Nelson’s spectacular destruction of the French fleet that had convoyed Bonaparte’s Army to Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on the 1st to the 3rd of August. At almost exactly the same [...]

The Royal Navy 29th July 1914: “Eighteen miles of warships running- at high speed and in absolute blackness through the narrow straits” This blog is published one day before the one hundred and sixth anniversary of a decisive step taken by Winston Churchill on Wednesday 29th July 1914. Germany had not yet declared war [...]

Guest Blog: Napoleon in Egypt Introduction by Antoine Vanner One of the great pleasure I found after I published my first novel was meeting other writers who were working in the Historical Fiction Genre - one that covers a vast range of epochs.  It was not only a welcoming community, but one that offered [...]

The loss of the liner La Bourgogne, 1898 The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 remains locked in the public imagination as the supreme tragedy of North Atlantic passenger travel, all the more so since elementary safety precautions could have saved many more lives, even if they could not save the ship. What is however quite horrifying is [...]

HMS Guardian 1789 – an epic battle for survival Some while ago I discovered the wonderful 1895 publication “Story of the Sea”, edited by “Q” (Sir Arthur Quiller Couch 1863-1944), with contributions from several luminaries of the era and splendid illustrations. It dates from the period in which the British general public’s fascination with [...]

Hell at Sea: Merchant Service in the mid-19th Century It is impossible to see images of the great clippers and other large vessels under sail in the mid to late 19th Century, a time when hull design and the technologies and disciplines of managing sail reached their apogee, without being fired with admiration. The [...]

Guest Blog by Bob Cordery: Making the best of what you have: Germany’s Kriegsmarine and some of the warships it captured Introduction by Antoine Vanner: A few weeks ago, I posted a blog article about the varied career of the late 19th-Century Dutch protected cruiser Gelderland. (Click here to read it if you missed [...]