May 2023
First Winner of Victoria Cross – 1854
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 [...]
A Sultan’s Salvage and Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria and a Sultan’s Salvage It’s hard to imagine a sequence of events that links an Ottoman Sultan, Queen Victoria, the Royal Navy of 1889, [...]
April 2023
Silas Talbot – American Naval Hero
American Naval Hero: Silas Talbot USS Constitution today The USS Constitution – “Old Ironsides” – is apparently [...]
Discipline and heroism in the aftermath of the loss of HMS Alceste
Discipline, heroism and survival: HMS Alceste, 1817 The aftermath of the wreck of the French frigate Medusa in 1816 is widely regarded as one of the most horrible [...]
Battling the curse of the Riff Pirates 1848-51
Fighting the Riff Pirates 1848-51 The Barbary pirates of North Africa were a scourge to maritime trade for many centuries. It was only in the nineteenth [...]
March 2023
1779 – Frigate Action HMS Quebec vs. Surveillante
HMS Quebec vs. Surveillante – 1779 Perhaps the most ferocious frigate action ever? Single ship actions, usually between frigates, are remembered as some of the most [...]