Published here for the first time, this volume presents a superb range of insights into this crucial effort of the Second World War. This Naval Staff History describes the vital role of the Arctic Convoys, 1941-1945 and was first issued by the Historical Section of the Admiralty as a confidential study for use within the Royal Navy in 1954. It grew out of the earlier Battle Summary No. 22 compiled by Commander J. Owen of the Admiralty's Historical Section and issued in 1943 to cover the convoys run to North Russia in the last half of 1942 and early 1943. That wartime Battle Summary was subsequently revised and expanded by Commander L.J. Pitcairn-Jones to include all the main convoys run from August 1941 until the end of the war using all the historical records which were at hand after the war. A new preface provides additional context for the convoys, highlighting support provided to Russian forces in their struggle against Germany, for the original Staff History was narrowly focused on the naval aspects of the Arctic Convoys to Russia. This is an excellent resource for all students with a particular interest in the Arctic Convoys, the Second World War and in maritime and military history.

This book brings together recent developments in modern migration theory, a wide range of sources, new and old tools revisited (from GIS to epigraphic studies, from stable isotope analysis to the study of literary sources) and case studies from the ancient eastern Mediterranean that illustrate how new theories and techniques are helping to give a better understanding of migratory flows and diaspora communities in the ancient Near East. A geographical gap has emerged in studies of historical migration as recent works have focused on migration and mobility in the western part of the Roman Empire and thus fail to bring a significant contribution to the study of diaspora communities in the eastern Mediterranean. Bridging this gap represents a major scholarly desideratum, and, by drawing upon the experiences of previously neglected migrant and diaspora communities in the eastern Mediterranean from the Hellenistic period to the early mediaeval world, this collection of essays approaches migration studies with new perspectives and methodologies, shedding light not only on the study of migrants in the ancient world, but also on broader issues concerning the rationale for mobility and the creation and features of diaspora identities.

This book updates African maritime economic history to analyse the influence of seaports and seaborne trade, processes of urbanization and development, and the impact of globalization on port evolution within the different regions of Africa. It succeeds the seminal collection edited by Hoyle & Hilling which was conceived during a phase of sustained economic growth on the African continent, and builds on a similar trend where African economies have experienced processes of economic growth and the relative improvement of welfare conditions. It provides valuable insights on port evolution and the way the maritime sector has impacted the hinterland and the regional economic structures of the affected countries, including the several and varied agents involved in these activities. African Seaports and Maritime Economics in Historical Perspective will be useful for economists, historians, and geographers interested in African and maritime issues, as well as policy makers interested in path-dependence and long-term analysis

Beyond Trawlertown takes a journey through the British distant-water fishery and its port-city connections in an era of disruption. In 1976, defeat in the Anglo-Icelandic Cod Wars saw the British trawling fleet excluded from their traditional hunting grounds. Combining with wider global factors, the move brought an end to long-established trawling practices, with profound social, economic and cultural repercussions. Through a case study of the port of Hull, oral history and archival research explore the challenges, responses and legacy of rapid change. Although the emphasis is on Hull, this is far from a local history. Hull's position among the world leading distant-water pioneers gives the story international significance. Focusing on memory, lived experience and place, the book goes beyond established narratives. Personal acts of remembering offer cultural perspectives on how global events and marine policy impact upon the seafaring communities that live with the consequences. The Cod Wars signaled an end, yet amid the disruption there were also new beginnings. And in the wake of an active fishery, the rhythms of the past continue to resonate in the negotiation of fishing heritage within the contemporary city. Through the convergence of time, place and memory, this holistic narrative of interweaving stories reveals the intricacies of our human interaction with the marine environment and the aftermath when its threads are broken.

A devastating disaster at sea . . . an officer who refuses to hide the truth. . . a courtroom confrontation with far-reaching implications . . . "The Perfect Storm meets "A Civil Action in a gripping account of one of the most significant shipwrecks of the twentieth century.
In 1983 the "Marine Electric, a "reconditioned" World War II vessel, was on a routine voyage thirty miles off the East Coast of the United States when disaster struck. As the old coal carrier sank, chief mate Bob Cusick watched his crew-his friends and colleagues-succumb to the frigid forty-foot waves and subzero winds of the Atlantic. Of the thirty-four men aboard, Cusick was one of only three to survive. And he soon found himself facing the most critical decision of his life: whether to stand by the Merchant Marine officers' unspoken code of silence, or to tell the truth about why his crew and hundreds of other lives had been unnecessarily sacrificed at sea.
Like many other ships used by the Merchant Marine, the Marine Transport Line's "Marine Electric was very old and made of "dirty steel" (steel with excess sulfur content). Many of these vessels were in terrible condition and broke down frequently. Yet the government persistently turned a blind eye to the potential dangers, convinced that the economic return on keeping these ships was worth the risk.
Cusick chose to blow the whistle.
"
Until the Sea Shall Free Them re-creates in compelling detail the wreck of the "Marine Electric and the legal drama that unfolded in its wake. With breathtaking immediacy, Robert Frump, who covered the story for the "Philadelphia Inquirer, describes the desperate battle waged by the crew against the forces ofnature. Frump also brings to life Cusick's internal struggle. He knew what happened to those who spoke out against the system, knew that he too might be stripped of his license and prosecuted for "losing his ship," yet he forged ahead. In a bitter lawsuit with owners of the ship, Cusick emerged victorious. His expose of government inaction led to vital reforms in the laws regarding the safety of ships; his courageous stand places him among the unsung heroes of our time.

"From the Hardcover edition.

A brilliant telling of the history of the common seaman in the age of sail, and his role in Britain's trade, exploration, and warfare "No other book resurrects the wooden world of Jack Tar in such captivating and voluminous detail."-Roger Ekirch, Wall Street Journal "[A] rollicking narrative . . . Superb"-Ben Wilson, Times British maritime history in the age of sail is full of the deeds of officers like Nelson but has given little voice to plain, "illiterate" seamen. Now Stephen Taylor draws on published and unpublished memoirs, letters, and naval records, including court-martials and petitions, to present these men in their own words. In this exhilarating account, ordinary seamen are far from the hapless sufferers of the press gangs. Proud and spirited, learned in their own fashion, with robust opinions and the courage to challenge overweening authority, they stand out from their less adventurous compatriots. Taylor demonstrates how the sailor was the engine of British prosperity and expansion up to the Industrial Revolution. From exploring the South Seas with Cook to establishing the East India Company as a global corporation, from the sea battles that made Britain a superpower to the crisis of the 1797 mutinies, these "sons of the waves" held the nation's destiny in their calloused hands.

First Published in 2005. This book arose in conversation with some very good friends of the British merchant seaman who were regretting their inability to put into his hands any comprehensive one-volume history of the shipping industry.

This book examines how the principal British maritime industries - shipping, shipbuilding and ports - adapted, or failed to adapt, to a changing world in the period between 1918 to 1990, and discusses their reactions to the great opportunities seemingly offered by offshore oil and gas from the mid-1960s. At the outbreak of World War I, Britain's maritime industries still dominated the world. The British merchant fleet was by far the largest in the world, the nation's shipbuilding output eclipsed all rivals, and British ports were busy and expanding.By 1990, British shipping was a shadow of its former self, shipbuilding seemed on the verge of total collapse, and although the ports had been modernised, trade was concentrated at only a few of them. For almost four centuries, these industries had been of vital importance to Britain's wealth and power, but by 1990, politicians scarcely gave them a second thought.

Following successive international legal verdicts, Bangladesh is now an accredited maritime state. Possessing a spacious territorial sea and an extended continental shelf, with a maritime zone almost equalling its land borders, a 'window of opportunity' has opened for the country to realise its developmental aspirations. Yet, it faces numerous challenges, many of which are entwined. This book is a detailed analysis of Bangladesh's maritime strategy. It charts the country's maritime legacies, including disputes with both Myanmar and India and analyses the contributions of the leadership in the maritime territorial gains. The author examines Bangladesh's need to consolidate these newly reclaimed gains, whilst exploring the unremitting interest of major global power players in maintaining maritime resource exploitation, navigation and security. Finally, the author demonstrates how the country needs to embrace the notional principles of sustainable development of its ocean economy to utilize its resources and how it has since been coming to grips with the emerging concept of "blue economy" to enhance its enduring national development. The first systematic study on Bangladesh's maritime policy and the country's importance in the emerging geopolitical rivalry in the Indian Ocean, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of South Asian and Indian Ocean politics.

The formidable force of the Normans at sea has been frequently overlooked. This volume shows their dominance over the Mediterranean, and its far-reaching effects. The rise of Norman naval power in the central Mediterranean in the eleventh and twelfth centuries prompted a seminal shift in the balance of power on the sea. Drawing from Latin, Greek, Jewish and Arabic sources, this book detailshow the House of Hauteville, particularly under Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger, used sea power to accomplish what the Papacy, the German Empire and the Eastern Empire could not: the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily from Islam. The subsequent establishment of an aggressive naval presence on Sicily, first by Roger de Hauteville and then by his son Roger II, effectively wrested control of the central Mediterranean from Byzantine and Muslim maritime hegemony, opening the sea to east-west shipping. The author goes on to describe how this development, in turn, emboldened the West Italian maritime republics, principally Genoa and Pisa, to expand eastward in conjunction withthe Crusades. It was, quite literally, a sea change, ushering in a new period of western maritime ascendancy which has persisted into the modern era. Dr Charles D. Stanton is a former US naval officer and airline pilotwho, after retirement, studied medieval Mediterranean history at Cambridge under David Abulafia. He has written extensively on medieval maritime history, including, most recently, Medieval Maritime Warfare.

This book is a comparative study of the evolution of the German navy in the second half of the nineteenth century. It examines the development of strategy, especially commerce-raiding, in comparison to what other navies were doing in this era of rapid technological change. It is not an insular history, merely listing ship rosters or specific events; it is a history of the German navy in relation to its potential foes. It is also a look at a new military institution involved in an inter-service rivalry for funds, technology and manpower with the prestigious and well-established army.

This authoritative biographical guide presents the lives and careers of over six hundred men and women who have made their mark in the world's fighting navies, from the sixteenth century to the present day.
From the great admirals who won - or lost - major sea battles, to commanders who specialised in minesweeping; from eminent naval administrators to those who designed the ships, it features those who have helped to shape sea-warfare around the world.
Covering key events from the Battle of Trafalgar to those of World War Two and the Vietnam War, this is an invaluable work of reference for anyone interested in naval history.

Symbols of safety, reassurance, and guidance, lighthouses hold a special fascination for many people. On the Great Lakes, lighthouses - "northern lights" - helped to open the region to settlement and supported the growth of commercial trade. To this day, they continue to light the way for thousands of recreational boaters. In this definitive guide to the lighthouses of the Great Lakes, Charles Hyde describes the histories of more than one hundred and sixty individual lighthouses that still exist on Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, and the straits of Mackinac. He also describes the lives of early lighthouse keepers and their families, the heroes and heroines who lived in isolation, dedicated to aiding travelers in distress. Hyde documents maritime history from the early eighteenth century, when the first lighthouses were built in North America, and the subsequent growth of commerce on the Great Lakes. He also provides a general history of the United States Lighthouse Service and its descendants and examines how these organizations have functioned on the Great Lakes. As the shipping industry flourished, so too did the necessity for lighthouses. With their proliferation came a demand for more sophisticated structures. This book describes the changing design of lighthouses and the equipment that produces their beacons.

During the nineteenth century, British and American naval supremacy spanned the globe. The importance of transoceanic shipping and trade to the European-based empire and her rapidly expanding former colony ensured that the ocean became increasingly important to popular literary culture in both nations. This collection of ten essays by expert scholars in transatlantic British and American literatures interrogates the diverse meanings the ocean assumed for writers, readers, and thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic during this period of global exploration and colonial consolidation. The book's introduction offers three critical lenses through which to read nineteenth-century Anglophone maritime literature: "wet globalization," which returns the ocean to our discourses of the global; "salt aesthetics," which considers how the sea influences artistic culture and aesthetic theory; and "blue ecocriticism," which poses an oceanic challenge to the narrowly terrestrial nature of "green" ecological criticism. The essays employ all three of these lenses to demonstrate the importance of the ocean for the changing shapes of nineteenth-century Anglophone culture and literature. Examining texts from Moby-Dick to the coral flower-books of Victorian Australia, and from Wordsworth's sea-poetry to the Arctic journals of Charles Francis Hall, this book shows how important and how varied in meaning the ocean was to nineteenth-century Anglophone readers. Scholars of nineteenth-century globalization, the history of aesthetics, and the ecological importance of the ocean will find important scholarship in this volume.

As the fall of France took place, almost the entire coastline of Western Europe was in German hands. Clandestine sea transport operations provided lines of vital intelligence for wartime Britain. These secret flotillas landed and picked up agents in and from France, and ferried Allied evaders and escapees. This activity was crucial to the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) and the SOE (Special Operations Executive). This authoritative publication by the official historian, the late Sir Brooks Richards, vividly describes and analyses the clandestine naval operations that took place during WWII. The account has been made possible through Sir Brooks' access to closed government archives, combined with his own wartime experiences and the recollections of many of those involved. First published in 1996, the original edition included descriptions of naval operations off French North Africa. The history has now been amended and expanded by Sir Brooks and is now published in two volumes. This first volume concentrates on the sea lines to Brittany.

former US Coast Guard *Contains photographs, maps, line drawings, Notes and an explanatory Glossary *Recounts tales of shipwrecks and rescues From the East Coast to the West Coast, the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and Hawaiian islands, Lighthouses and Keepers explores the fascination of lighthouses in the United States. Among the most readily recognised buildings of the maritime world, these lonely sentinels by the sea have long been the subject of paintings and photographs. Today they continue to capture public imagination as visitors flock to their sites and help preserve them against the ravages of time and tide. Lighthouses and Keepers covers not only lighthouses and lightships, but buoys, buoy tenders, fog signals, and their keepers. The work is as rich in historical document as it is rarely seen photographs, and fourteen maps guide readers to the lighthouses'precise locations. Readers are also treated to stories of shipwrecks and rescues, including the extraordinary story of Ida Lewis, head keeper of the light at Lime Rock, Rhode Island, who saved the lives of eighteen people in a dramatic maritime rescue.

In the Age of Sail scurvy was responsible for more deaths at sea than piracy, shipwreck and all other illnesses, and its cure ranks among the greatest of military successes - yet its impact on history has mostly been ignored. Stephen Bown searches back to the earliest recorded appearance of scurvy in the sixteenth century, to the eighteenth century when the disease was at its gum-shredding, bone-snapping worst, and to the early nineteenth century, when the preventative was finally put into service. Bown introduces us to James Lind, the navy surgeon and medical detective, whose research on the disease spawned the implementation of the cure; Captain James Cook, who successfully avoided scurvy on his epic voyages; and Gilbert Blane, whose social status and charisma won over the British Navy. Scurvy is a lively recounting of how three determined individuals overcame the constraints of eighteenth-century thinking to solve the greatest medical mystery of their era.

This volume brings together a set of scholarly, readable and up-to-date essays covering the most significant naval mutinies of the 20th century, including Russia (1905), Brazil (1910), Austria (1918), Germany (1918), France (1918-19), Great Britain (1931), Chile (1931), the United States (1944), India (1946), China (1949), Australia, and Canada (1949).
Each chapter addresses the causes of the mutiny in question, its long- and short-term repercussions, and the course of the mutiny itself. More generally, authors consider the state of the literature on their mutiny and examine significant historiographical issues connected with it, taking advantage of new research and new methodologies to provide something of value to both the specialist and non-specialist reader. The book provides fresh insights into issues such as what a mutiny is, what factors cause them, what navies are most susceptible to them, what responses lead to satisfactory or unsatisfactory conclusions, and how far-reaching their consequences tend to be.

Applauded by the public and revered by the men who served under him, Adm. William F. Halsey was one of the leading American personalities of World War II. His reputation as a no-holds-barred fighter and his tough-guy expression earned him the nickname "Bull," yet he was also known for showing genuine compassion toward his men and inspiring them to great feats in the Pacific. Originally disclaiming the praise heaped on him, Halsey eventually came to believe in the swashbuckling legend that surrounded him, and his conduct became increasingly controversial. Naval historian E. B. Potter, who established his reputation with an award-winning biography of Chester W. Nimitz, gets behind the stereotype of this national hero and describes Halsey at his best and worst, including his controversial actions at Leyte Gulf. To write this book Potter had full access to Halsey's family and to the admiral's private papers and provides detail of Halsey's youth and career before the war. First published in 1985, it remains the definitive study. The late E. B. Potter, a longtime history professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and former naval officer who served in the Pacific during World War II, is the author of several books, including Nimitz and Sea Power: A Naval History, which he wrote with Admiral Nimitz.

Sailing beneath the ominous cloud of war between Turkey and Russia, the frigate Trojan is on her way to the Black Sea, carrying on board a mysterious passenger, a young woman whose identity must be concealed by orders of the Admiralty. Although First Lieutenant Phillip Hazard is captivated by the charming young woman, he has a far more pressing concern: the Trojan's captain is a sadistic despot-and quite possibly insane.

From an eminent and provocative historian, a wrenching parable of the ravages of colonialism in the South Pacific. Countless museums in the West have been criticized for their looted treasures, but few as trenchantly as the Humboldt Forum, which displays predominantly non-Western art and artifacts in a modern reconstruction of the former Royal Palace in Berlin. The Forum's premier attraction, an ornately decorated fifteen-meter boat from the island of Luf in modern-day Papua New Guinea, was acquired under the most dubious circumstances by Max Thiel, a German trader, in 1902 after two decades of bloody German colonial expeditions in Oceania. Goetz Aly tells the story of the German pillaging of Luf and surrounding islands, a campaign of violence in which Berlin ethnologists were brazenly complicit. In the aftermath, the majestic vessel was sold to the Ethnological Museum in the imperial capital, where it has remained ever since. In Aly's vivid telling, the looted boat is a portal to a forgotten chapter in the history of empire-the conquest of the Bismarck Archipelago. One of these islands was even called Aly, in honor of the author's great-granduncle, Gottlob Johannes Aly, a naval chaplain who served aboard ships that helped subjugate the South Sea islands Germany colonized. While acknowledging the complexity of cultural ownership debates, Goetz Aly boldly questions the legitimacy of allowing so many treasures from faraway, conquered places to remain located in the West. Through the story of one emblematic object, The Magnificent Boat artfully illuminates a sphere of colonial brutality of which too few are aware today.

A vividly detailed account of life aboard U.S. submarines in the Pacific during World War II.

The Indian Ocean, used and travelled by humans for over 5000 years, is by far the 'oldest' sea in history. In this stimulating and authoritative overview, Michael Pearson reverses the traditional angle of maritime history and looks from the sea to its shores - its impact on the land through trade, naval power, travel and scientific exploration. This vast ocean, both connecting and separating nations, has shaped many countries' cultures and ideologies through the movement of goods, people, ideas and religions across the sea. The Indian Ocean moves from a discussion of physical elements, its shape, winds, currents and boundaries, to a history from pre-Islamic times to the modern period of |European dominance. Going far beyond pure maritime history, this compelling survey is an invaluable addition to political, cultural and economic world history.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203414136

A distinct branch of the multi-faceted fishing industry, trawling dates back at least to the 1370s when attempts were made to prohibit the use of a primitive trawling device, the 'wondyrychoun' on the Thames. But it was not until the late 18th century that the beam trawl was deployed to any great extent, the fishermen of Barking and Brixham claiming credit for pioneering the technique. Thereafter, particularly from the 1840s, trawling eclipsed seining, drifting and line fishing as the principal method of capture, a transition which not only underpinned the growth of east coast fishing stations such as Hull and Grimsby, but also explained Britain's emergence as the largest and most successful of Europe's fishing nations. The rapid adoption of the steam trawler in the 1880s confirmed these trends and facilitated the exploitation of more distant fishing grounds. Two World Wars, a series of Cod Wars and intense foreign competition have eroded Britain's pre-eminence in the 20th century, so much so that by the early 1990s her interests in distant water trawling were negligible. The author adopts a largely chronological approach to chart the rise and fall of trawling in Britain. Using an array of primary sources, he identifies the key factors - growing demand, links with markets, technological change, political rivalries - which have conditioned the performance of the trawling business. A number of themes permeate the work, including the life and working conditions of the trawlermen, the place of trawling in the fishing industry at large, attitudes to the conservation of fish stocks and the role of government in the prosecution and prosperity of the trawl fishery. In dealing with such issues, the book provides a well balanced, thoroughly researched account of a vital arm of Britain's 19th and 20th century fishing industry.

Pirates, conspiracy, highway robbers, and other sinister forces confront Jared Lee, a young law clerk in Philadelphia smitten by a beautiful French noblewoman. Travel back in time to 1793, when life was not so safe and simple. This action packed adventure story takes young readers back, following our noble hero's misadventures as he falls in among a decidedly wrong crowd.