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 wreck of HMS Hero, 1811 Though the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars involved some two decades of continuous conflict, in which control of the sea was a vital consideration for Britain, many of hundreds of Royal Navy vessels involved were never exposed to direct combat with the enemy. Bad weather was however a constant hazard, [...]
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 by [...]
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 heavily-mined [...]
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 [...]
The Epic of Diamond Rock 1804-05 Diamond Rock - Credit: Apmarles, Wikipedia A steep three-hundred yards diameter and all but circular rock, some 570 feet high, became the scent of one of the most spectacular exploits of the Royal Navy during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Located off the southern tip of the [...]
The wreck of the monitor Rusalka 1893 In a recent blog I recounted the story of the loss of the Dutch monitor Adder in 1882 (Click here to read it if you missed it.). The lesson of this tragedy was that it was folly to send low-freeboard vessels suited to use in sheltered coastal waters out [...]
Naval Artists of the Age of Fighting Sail – Part 1 Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg on April 13th this year 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 [...]
