Southern Lights recounts the story of how New Zealand lighthouses were established through the transfer of technology from Scotland to New Zealand over a period of almost 90 years. This resulted in most of New Zealand's lighthouses being fully or partially built using Scottish materials and expertise. The major Scottish contribution was the professional services provided by the firm founded by Robert Stevenson. The firm of David and Thomas Stevenson took on the first commissions and its successor companies over a period of 80 years were Consulting Lighthouse Engineers to the New Zealand Government. They arranged tenders, advised on technology, supervised manufacture and dispatch of lighthouse components and stores, and much more, proving invaluable to the New Zealand Agent-General in London. It was on this basis that in the period 1859 to 1941, 38 major lighthouses were built; 30 of which were constructed between 19865 and 1897. Thirty-three were built using Scottish-designed and built lanterns and apparatus and Scottish-designed lenses, although these were of French or English manufacture. Of the other five, two were eventually replaced by Scottish lighthouses, two were upgraded with Scottish technology and the fifth remains the sole example of English lighthouse design, although in its time was supplied with Scottish equipment. Scotland also supplied trained professionals who manned the lights, designed and administered them.

Discusses the lessons which Britain learned in the war of 1739-48 which, when applied in later wars, brought about Britain's global naval supremacy. The British involvement in the war of 1739-1748 has been generally neglected. Standing between the great victories of Marlborough in the War of Spanish Succession [1701-1713] and the even greater victories of the Seven Years War[1756-1763], it has been dismissed as inconclusive and incompetently managed. For the first time this book brings together the political and operational conduct of the war to explore its contribution to a critical development in British history during the eighteenth century - the emergence of Britain as the paramount global naval power. The war posed a unique set of problems for British politicians, statesmen and servicemen. They had to overcome domestic and diplomatic crises, culminating in the rebellion of 1745 and the threat of French invasion. Yet, far from being incompetent, these people handled the crises and learned a great deal about the conduct of global warfare. Thechanges they made and decisions they took prepared Britain for the decisive Anglo-French clash of arms in the Seven Years War. In this misunderstood war lie some of the key factors that made Britain the greatest naval power for the next one hundred and fifty years. RICHARD HARDING is Professor of Organisational History at the University of Westminster. He is the author of numerous articles and books on naval history and editor, with Helen Doe,of Naval Leadership and Management, 1650-1950 (Boydell, 2012).

This book, originally published just after World War I, is the definitive reference to United States Naval aviators in World War I. Also included: a history of naval aviation operations in World War I.

This timely collection brings together twelve original essays on the cultural meaning of the sea in British literature and history, from early modern times to the present. Interdisciplinary in conception, it charts metaphorical and material links between the idea of the sea in the cultural imagination and its significance for the social and political history of Britain, offering a fresh analysis of the impact of the ocean on the formation of British cultural identities. Among the cultural and literary artifacts considered are early modern legal treatises on marine boundaries, Renaissance and Romantic poetry, 19th- and 20th-century novels, popular sea songs, recent Hollywood films, as well as a diverse range of historical and critical writings. Writers discussed include Shakespeare, Milton, Coleridge, Scott, Conrad, du Maurier, Unsworth, O'Brian, and others. All these cultural and literary 'fictions of the sea' are set in relation to wider issues relevant to maritime history and the historical experience of seafaring: problems of navigation and orientation, piracy, empire, colonialism, slavery, multi-ethnic shipboard communities, masculinity, gender relations. By combining the interests of three related but distinct areas of study-the analysis of sea fiction, critical maritime history, and cultural studies-in a focus upon the historical meaning of the sea in relation to its textual and cultural representation, Fictions of the Sea offers an original contribution to the practice of existing disciplines.

The remains of the world's most famous passenger liner, RMS Titanic, were discovered off the coast of Newfoundland in 1985, seventy-three years after it sank. Since then there have been numerous deep-water expeditions to the wreck site, yet little has ever been revealed about the details of these operations. Now, in this fully updated book, Eugene Nesmeyanov recounts all the major Titanic expeditions from 1985 to 2021, taking us on a journey alongside the scientists, cinematographers and other specialists who have visited the legendary wreck 21/2 miles below the surface of the North Atlantic. A thorough analysis of the sophisticated technical equipment used is presented, along with historical, biological and other scientific findings, and rare material from official archives and private collections.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of the earth's surface is made up of oceans, there has been surprisingly little work by geographers which critically examines the ocean-space and our knowledge and perceptions of it. This book employs a broad conceptual and methodological framework to analyse specific events that have contributed to the production of geographical knowledge about the ocean. These include, but are not limited to, Christopher Columbus' first transatlantic journey, the mapping of nonexistent islands, the establishment of transoceanic trade routes, the discovery of largescale water movements, the HMS Challenger expedition, the search for the elusive Terra Australis Incognita, the formulation of the theory of continental drift and the mapping of the seabed. Using a combination of original, empirical (archival, material and cartographic), and theoretical sources, this book uniquely brings together fascinating narratives throughout history to produce a representation and mapping of geographical oceanic knowledge. It questions how we know what we know about the oceans and how this knowledge is represented and mapped. The book then uses this representation and mapping as a way to coherently trace the evolution of oceanic spatial awareness. In recent years, particularly in historical geography, discovering and knowing the ocean-space has been a completely separate enterprise from discovering and colonising the lands beyond it. There has been such focus on studying colonised lands, yet the oceans between them have been neglected. This book gives the geographical ocean a voice to be acknowledged as a space where history, geography and indeed historical geography took place.

A fresh assessment of seaborne activity around England in the later middle ages, offering a fresh perspective on its rich maritime heritage. England's relationship with the sea in the later Middle Ages has been unjustly neglected, a gap which this volume seeks to fill. The physical fact of the kingdom's insularity made the seas around England fundamentally important toits development within the British Isles and in relation to mainland Europe. At times they acted as barriers; but they also, and more often, served as highways of exchange, transport and communication, and it is this aspect whichthe essays collected here emphasise. Mindful that the exploitation of the sea required specialist technology and personnel, and that England's maritime frontiers raised serious issues of jurisdiction, security, and internationaldiplomacy, the chapters explore several key roles performed by the sea during the period c.1200-c.1500. Foremost among them is war: the infrastructure, logistics, politics, and personnel of English seaborne expeditions are assessed, most notably for the period of the Hundred Years War. What emerges from this is a demonstration of the sophisticated, but not infallible, methods of raising and using ships, men and material for war in a period before England possessed a permanent navy. The second major facet of England's relationship with the sea was the generation of wealth: this is addressed in its own right and as an intrinsic aspect of warfare and piracy. RICHARD GORSKIis Philip Nicholas Memorial Lecturer in Maritime History at the University of Hull. Contributors: Richard Gorski, Richard W. Unger, Susan Rose, Craig Lambert, David Simpkin, Tony K. Moore, Marcus Pitcaithly, Tim Bowly,Ian Friel

Pirates have long captured peoples' imaginations with images of cutlass-wielding swashbucklers, eye-patches and buried treasure. But what was life really like on a pirate ship? Piracy was a risky, sometimes deadly occupation, and strict orders were essential for everyone's survival. These 'Laws' were sets of rules that determined everything from how much each pirate earned from their plunder to compensation for injuries, to punishments and even the entertainment allowed on ships. These rules became known as the 'Pirates' Code', which all pirates had to publicly swear by. Using primary sources such as eyewitness accounts, trial proceedings and maritime logs, this book explains how each one of the pirate codes was the key to pirates' success in battle, on sea and on land.

Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition departed England in 1845 with two Royal Navy bomb vessels, 129 men and three years' worth of provisions. None were seen again until nearly a decade later, when their bleached bones, broken instruments, books, papers and personal effects began to be recovered on Canada's King William Island. These relics have since had a life of their own-photographed, analyzed, cataloged and displayed in glass cases in London. This book gives a definitive history of their preservation and exhibition from the Victorian era to the present, richly illustrated with period engravings and photographs, many never before published. Appendices provide the first comprehensive accounting of all expedition relics recovered prior to the 2014 discovery of Franklin's ship HMS Erebus.

An overview of a wide range of aspects of maritime social history in the Tudor and early Stuart period. Traditionally, the history of English maritime adventures has focused on the great sea captains and swashbucklers. However, over the past few decades, social historians have begun to examine the less well-known seafarers who wereon the dangerous voyages of commerce, exploration, privateering and piracy, as well as naval campaigns. This book brings together some of their findings. There is no comparable work that provides such an overview of our knowledge of English seamen during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the tumultuous world in which they lived. Subjects covered include trade, piracy, wives, widows and the wider maritime community, health and medicine at sea, religion and shipboard culture, how Tudor and Stuart ships were manned and provisioned, and what has been learned from the important wreck the Mary Rose. CHERYL A. FURY is Professor of History at the University of New Brunswick, and on the editorial board of Northern Mariner [the Canadian journal of maritime history]. Contributors: J.D. ALSOP, JOHN APPLEBY, CHERYL A. FURY, GEOFFREY HUDSON, DAVID LOADES, VINCENT PATARINO JR, ANN STIRLAND.

A fascinating account of an often overlooked naval action of World War II, and one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of the Royal Navy. In April 1941, following the Axis invasion of Greece, the British Mediterranean Fleet was ordered to evacuate Allied survivors, many of which were taken to Crete. The Luftwaffe established itself in airfields on the Greek mainland, and formed plans to invade Crete by air and sea, under the cover of 500 fighters and bombers of the Luftwaffe's Fliegerkorps VIII. Facing them were a small and scattered garrison on the island, a handful of under-strength RAF squadrons and the hard-pressed warships of the Mediterranean Fleet. What happened next was a costly, but ultimately inspiring, naval battle, in which Royal Navy crews were placed under intense strain. Using period photographs, stunning battlescene artworks, detailed maps and an authoritative narrative, world-leading maritime historian Angus Konstam tells the fascinating story of how Allied ships failed to repulse the Axis invasion convoys bound for Crete, before successfully evacuating troops from the island, all the while under relentless Luftwaffe attack. Offering a fresh insight into this strategically important battle, this work shows how it marked a turning point in the naval war for the Mediterranean, and also witnessed the first use of new elements in naval warfare: the mass use of aircraft to contest control of the sea, and the use of Ultra intelligence to forestall the Axis invasion of Crete. Despite a heavy butcher's bill of dozens of Royal Navy ships lost and damaged, and hundreds Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed, the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet would live to fight another day.

Racundra's First Cruise is Arthur Ransome's account of Racundra's maiden voyage, which took place in August and September 1922. The cruise took him from Riga, in Latvia to Helsingfors (Helsinki) in Finland, via the Moon Sound and Reval (Tallinn) in Estonia and back. His first book on sailing, it was also the first of his titles that achieved such high levels of success. Although reprinted many times in various editions and formats, Fernhurst Books' hardback edition of the title (2003) was the first to use the original text in its entirety - with the original layout, maps and photographs - and also includes an excellent introduction by Brian Hammett containing a treasure trove of previously unpublished writings, essays and photographs. Ransome's first attempts at Baltic sailing, in his two previous boats, Slug and Kittiwake, are also explained in detail using his writings and illustrations. The life of Ransome's beloved Racundra is chronicled to its conclusion and there is an explanation of how he came to write the book. The original illustrations are enhanced by the inclusion of present day photographs of the same locations. Having gone out of print in 2012, this new paperback edition retains all of the original and additional features; bringing back to life Ransome's epic first cruise in his pride and joy, his treasured Racundra.

Describes the voyages of East India Company's ships to India and China in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, discussing the nature of trade and the involvement of the Company's ships in maritime warfare. Awarded the prestigious Anderson Medal by the Society for Nautical Research for the best volume published on an aspect of maritime history for 2010. This book covers every aspect of the East India Company's trade duringthe final century of its commercial life as the focus moves steadily eastwards, driven by Britain's unquenchable thirst for China tea. The whole spectrum of the trade, physically and temporally, unfolds through the careers of three generations of an important East India shipping family. Starting as second mate in Salisbury in 1746, William Larkins gained a command, then entered the powerful circle of managing owners who monopolized the supply of the Company's ships. His sons and grandsons followed him, all playing a significant part in the wider struggle to establish Britain's political supremacy in India and dominance of the China Sea trade. From the end of the eighteenthcentury liberalization eroded their power and wealth: they had to compete in the provision of the Company's ships, while the virile free merchants in the eastern seas finally broke down the Company's privilege of trading between Britain and the east. The last member of the Larkins family to serve the Company adapted to the prevailing conditions following the Company's withdrawal from trade in 1834, carrying British manufactures to China and bringing back tea, boosting his earnings by investing in smuggled opium. JEAN SUTTON is a maritime historian, author of the highly acclaimed Lords of the East, the East India Company and its Ships [1981, second edition 2000].

From women who fought alongside the men in dastardly high-sea robberies, to an Irish heroine who plundered British ships, to women unfortunate enough to fall amongst thieves, captured and virtually cast into a life of ill-gotten gain, this book explores some long overlooked characters in the history of piracy. Women haven't always played the mere role of passenger aboard ships -- there were those who commanded them. In fact, one of history's most notorious pirates was Madame Ching, whose fleet involved thousands of war junks that literally ruled the southern coasts of China in 1809. Scandinavian princess Alwilda's adventures as a pirate have made her name legendary in the northern seas, and Ireland's Grace O'Malley is a much-documented heroine, whose brave fighting exploits in the late 1500s, both on land and sea, earned her the respect of the British throne. And during the final throes of Western piracy, Mary Read and Anne Bonny cruised the Caribbean, disguised as men and committing deeds that earned them death sentences upon their capture.

Contemporary public discourses about the ocean are routinely characterized by scientific and environmentalist narratives that imagine and idealize marine spaces in which humans are absent. In contrast, this collection explores the variety of ways in which people have long made themselves at home at sea, and continue to live intimately with it. In doing so, it brings together both ethnographic and archaeological research - much of it with an explicit Ingoldian approach - on a wide range of geographical areas and historical periods.

In the late seventeenth century, Spain dominated the Caribbean and Central and South America, establishing colonies, mining gold and silver, and gathering riches from Asia for transportation back to Europe. Seeking to disrupt Spain s nearly unchecked empire-building and siphon off some of their wealth, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British adventurers both legitimate and illegitimate led numerous expeditions into the Caribbean and the Pacific. Many voyagers wrote accounts of their exploits, captivating readers with their tales of exotic places, shocking hardships and cruelties, and daring engagements with national enemies. Widely distributed and read, buccaneering and privateering narratives contributed significantly to England s imaginative, literary rendering of the Americas in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and they provided a venue for public dialogue about sea rovers and their position within empire. This book takes as its subject the literary and rhetorical construction of voyagers and their histories, and by extension, the representation of English imperialism in popular sea-voyage narratives of the period."

In 1909, the Smithsonian Institution commissioned ex-President Theodore Roosevelt to collect specimens of African wildlife for the National Museum. Roosevelt went to Africa with his son Kermit, several prominent naturalists, and many journalists, thereby initiating the safari industry and setting the standard for the big game hunt. Yet Roosevelt never killed for thrills, instead hunting only specific animals in the amounts requested by the Smithsonian. Making his way from the Kenyan coast to the Upper Nile, he records his impressions of the African landscape, witnesses a traditional lion hunt by African pastoralists, and recalls his meetings with East Africans, to whom he was known as 'Bwana Tumbo (belly).'

Over the past decade, evidence has been mounting that our ancestors developed skills to sail across large bodies of water early in prehistory. In this fascinating volume, Alan Simmons summarizes and synthesizes the evidence for prehistoric seafaring and island habitation worldwide, then focuses on the Mediterranean. Recent work in Melos, Crete, and elsewhere-- as well as Simmons' own work in Cyprus-- demonstrate that long-distance sailing is a common Paleolithic phenomenon. His comprehensive presentation of the key evidence and findings will be of interest to both those interested in prehistory and those interested in ancient seafaring.

This collection of 13 essays deals with a range of topics concerning Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese merchants, commodities and commerce in maritime Asia in the early modern period from c. 1585-1800. They are based on exhaustive research and careful analysis of diverse sets of archival materials found around the globe. Written by a leading authority on global maritime economic history and the history of European Expansion, each individual essay addresses a topic of fundamental importance to those interested in knowing more about what merchants did (with which resources and under what conditions) and how they did it, what were the commodities that were incorporated into local, regional, intra-regional and global economies, and what was the role and function of early modern maritime trade and commerce in economic development in general and especially in Asia in the early modern era, from c. 1585-1800. A number of them, in particular, relate the individual or collective merchant experience to specific European (Portuguese and Dutch) imperial projects and their contestation amongst themselves and their indigenous neighbours over portions of the period. Collectively, they form an exposition of a utilitarian view of human activity under a wide-ranging different set of circumstances and conditions but with similar patterns of behaviors and responses that are largely independent from ethnic, racial or religious stereotyping. The work therefore should raise new issues and avenues of research concerning these agents and objects in European Expansion, Asian and Global History.

Challenges the received wisdom about the relative weakness of French naval power when compared with that of England. This book traces the advances and deterioration of the early modern English and French sea forces and relates these changes to concurrent developments within the respective states. Based on extensive original research in correspondence and memoirs, official reports and accounts, receipts of the exchequer and inventories in both France, where the sources are disparate and dispersed, and England, the book explores the rise of both kingdoms' naval resources from the early sixteenth to the mid seventeenth centuries. As a comparative study, it shows that, in sharing the Channel and with both countries increasing their involvement in maritime affairs, English and French naval expansion was intertwined. Directly and indirectly, the two kingdoms influenced their neighbours' sea programmes. The book first examines the administrative transformations of both navies, then goes on to discuss fiscal and technological change, and finally assesses the material expansion of the respective fleets. In so doing it demonstrates the close relationship between naval power and state strength in early modern Europe. One important argument challenges the received wisdom about the relative weakness of French naval power when compared with that of England.

The oldest and most renowned Dutch university, Leiden was an attractive proposition for travelling foreign students in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Alongside offering an excellent academic program and outstanding facilities, Leiden was also able to cater to the desires of noble students providing various extra-curricular activities. Leiden was the most popular continental university among English students, and this book investigates the 831 English students who studied there between 1575 and 1650. The preference of English students for Leiden was, on the one hand, related to close Anglo-Dutch relations of the period, and these are investigated with respect to politics, economy, religion, culture, as well as to the large 'stranger' communities residing in the respective countries. On the other hand, Leiden's attraction resulted from its academic achievements, which are traced back to the conditions in the United Provinces, the limited influence of the Calvinist Church, Leiden's professors, as well as the university's facilities. The core of this study is an exhaustive quantitative study of the composition of the Leiden student population in general, and that of its English segment in particular. Information is provided on the duration of the studies of English students at Leiden, their age, social background and fields of study. We learn about the careers of English students both prior to and after their time at Leiden, and of the motivation that led the English to choose Leiden over other continental universities. More than a study of one group of students at one university, this book is a valuable contribution to the history of early modern universities and will appeal to a wide international readership interested in cultural and intellectual history as well as in Anglo-Dutch relations.

A wide-ranging history of the geography and communities of Kent from the earliest times to the present day. Kent, with its long coastline and its important geopolitical position close to London and continental Europe, and on major trading routes between Britain and the wider world, has had a very significant maritime history. This book covers a wide range of topics relating to that history from the earliest times to the present day. It sets Kent's varied coastline and waters in their geological and geographical context, showing how erosion and sediment deposition have contributed to the changing nature of maritime activities and populations. It examines Kent's strategic role in the defence of the country with the development and redevelopment of coastal defences, including four naval dockyards. It goes on to consider the supporting industries which grew up around the coastline, those which supplied raw materials and agricultural products from the county's hinterland, and its wider national and international trading links. It also discusses the diverse coastal communities of Kent and how they have changed in response to the demands of defence, trade, and changing population and migration patterns. In addition, the book includes detailed case studies which explore particular subject areas as exemplars of the major themes covered by the book.