Benito de Soto – Part 1
Benito de Soto, Pirate of the Post-Napoleonic Era – Part 1 The Pirate of the early 19th Century - a brutal thug I’ve always been surprised how a romantic aura has built up around pirates, ignoring [...]
On the Navy List for 96 Years
On the Royal Navy List for 96 Years - Sir Provo Wallis Wallis in 1813 I am always amazed at just what change – political, technical, economic, scientific – can occur in a single human lifetime. I was reminded of this when I saw a reference in an 1895 book to [...]
Vitus Bering
Vitus Bering: a Forgotten Hero of Exploration Soviet Stamp: 300th Anniversary of Bering When thinking of the exploration of the Pacific the name that most immediately comes for mind is that of Captain James Cook (1728 – 1779) whose three voyages in the 1760s and 70s added immensely to knowledge of that ocean. [...]
Royal Navy emergency purchases -1877/78
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 [...]
Trader vs. Privateer 1744
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 [...]
Battle of Heligoland 1864
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 [...]
Prinz Eitel Friedrich 1914-15
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 vs. a French Privateer, 1811
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 [...]
The Alzhir Gulag camp for women
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 [...]
Imperial German Navy vs. Haiti
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 [...]