The Royal Navy’s emergency purchases, 1877/78 and the Mesrutiyet, a heroine of “Britannia’s Wolf” A key role is played in the first of the Dawlish Chronicles, “Britannia’s Wolf”, by the Ottoman-Turkish ironclad Mesrutiyet (“Constitution”) which was built by Samuda’s, a British shipyard at Poplar, on the Isle of Dogs, London. Ship-building was at that time a major industry on [...]
An Unequal Duel: Trader vs. Privateer 1744 The story of war against maritime trade in the Age of Fighting Sail is usually told, whether in fact or in fiction, from the viewpoint of the naval commerce-raider intent on prize-money. One finds few accounts which view these contests from the side of the victims. I was [...]
War in the North Sea, 1864 – The Battle of Heligoland Tegetthoff In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries the “K.u.K” – “Imperial and Royal” – Navy was probably the most efficient and well-equipped part of the Austro-Hungarian armed services. Operating out of bases on the Adriatic [...]
A liner turned raider: Prinz Eitel Friedrich 1914 – 15 In the late 19th and early 20th Century the French and German navies became fixated on the idea of “Cruiser Warfare” – the individual ships operating far from home on the world’s oceans and striking at enemy seaborne trade. Britain, with enormous merchant fleet and the dependence of its [...]
Three Sisters Merchantman vs. a French Privateer, 1811 Throughout the Age of Fighting Sail merchant shipping – from small coastal craft to large vessels engaged in interoceanic trade - were at the mercy of privateers. These were privately owned vessels issued with “letters of marque” that authorised them to attack and capture enemy shipping. If captured [...]
A Circle of Hell - the Alzhir Gulag camp for women This article was published on my previous blog in 2014, following two trips to Kazakhstan. In the light of insights gained and lessons learned from visits to the site of a women's camp of the Soviet Gulag at Alzhir, I believe it’s the most [...]
The Imperial German Navy vs. Haiti, 1897 and 1902 The Imperial German Navy that went to war in 1914 was essentially a creation of previous four decades. One tends to think of it in terms of its squadrons of superbly engineered battleships and battle-cruisers, designed primarily for the anticipated show-down with the Royal Navy in [...]
Agony by ice: HMS Proserpine, 1799 Part 2 (Click here to read Part 1 if you missed it previously) With a major portion of his crew and passengers having reached safety in Cuxhaven – albeit at the cost of a fearful trek across fissured ice – Captain Wallis remained on Neuwerk Island in the Elbe [...]
Agony by ice: HMS Proserpine, 1799 Part 1 HMS Proserpine was a 28-gun Enterprise-class frigate that entered Royal Navy service in 1777. Her career up to 1799 was worthy but unspectacular. In January 1799 when commanded by Captain James Wallis, she was tasked with carrying the diplomat Thomas Grenville (1755 –1846) on the first leg [...]
The Salvage of HMS Royal George, 1782 - 1844 HMS Royal George in her glory The loss, while at anchor at Spithead, off Portsmouth, of the ship-of-the- line HMS Royal George on August 29th 1782 was a disaster that had an impact on British society comparable to the loss of RMS Titanic [...]
