A fascinating and original look at how the sea has defined Britain - and decided the course of its history - for thousands of years. Being an island nation is a core part of the British identity. An estimated two thirds of the world's population have never seen the sea, but in the UK that drops to under 10 per cent. Yet most people don't appreciate the impact our position on the edge of a continental shelf has had on our history, going back thousands of years. Our coast neither starts nor ends at the beach, and this eye-opening book takes a look beneath the surface to explore the forces of nature that have made Britain what it is. We experience some of the highest tides on the planet and we are battered with waves that have travelled halfway around the globe before they get here, but most of what we understand about our unique waters has only been discovered in living memory. In this fascinating guided tour of the fantastically varied British coastline, Professor David Bowers combines oceanography with maritime history, explaining tides, currents and waves in an accessible way whilst revealing how they have been responsible for both salvation (the Channel alone checked the Nazi advance in 1940) and disaster (such as the catastrophic 1953 flooding that led to the ingenious development of the Thames tidal barrier). He covers everything from how ocean swell waves were first recorded here in preparation for the D-Day landings, to how the first underwater light measurements paved the way to modern ocean satellite observation. This is a story 8,000 years in the making, ever since the country broke away from mainland Europe in the Mesolithic era, and in his insightful and irreverent telling of it Professor Bowers shows that the British Isles are defined by the sea, regardless of whether you look at them from land or water. With exclusive photos and specially commissioned illustrations, the book encourages you to visit all the places it explores, but when you stand on the beach or clifftop you will never think of Britain in quite the same way again.

Examines the union of England and Scotland by weaving the navy into a political narrative of events between the regal union in 1603 and the parliamentary union in 1707. This book examines the union of England and Scotland by weaving the navy into a political narrative of events between the regal union in 1603 and the parliamentary union in 1707. For most of the century the Scottish crown had no separate naval force which made the Stuart monarchs' navy, seen by them as a personal not a state force, unusual in being an institution which had a relationship with both kingdoms. This did not necessarily make the navy a shared organisation, as it continued to be financed from and based in England and was predominantly English. Nevertheless, the navy is an unusually good prism through which the nature of the regal union can be interrogated as English commanded ships interacted with Scottish authorities, and as Scots looked to the navy for protection from foreign invaders, such as the Dutch in the Forth in 1667, and for Scottish merchant ships trading with the Baltic and elsewhere. These interactions were often harmonious, but there were also many instances of tensions, particularly in the 1690s. The book illustrates both the ambiguous relationship between England and Scotland in the seventeenth century and also the navy's under-appreciated role in creating the political union of Britain.

After Britain's Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, a squadron of Royal Navy vessels was sent to the West Coast of Africa tasked with suppressing the thriving transatlantic slave trade. Drawing on previously unpublished papers found in private collections and various archives in the UK and abroad, this book examines the personal and cultural experiences of the naval officers at the frontline of Britain's anti-slavery campaign in West Africa. It explores their unique roles in this 60-year operation: at sea, boarding slave ships bound for the Americas and 'liberating' captive Africans; on shore, as Britain resolved to 'improve' West African societies; and in the metropolitan debates around slavery and abolitionism in Britain. Their personal narratives are revealing of everyday concerns of health, rewards and strategy, to more profound questions of national honour, cultural encounters, responsibility for the lives of others in the most distressing of circumstances, and the true meaning of 'freedom' for formerly enslaved African peoples. British anti-slavery efforts and imperial agendas were tightly bound in the nineteenth century, inseparable from ideas of national identity. This is a book about individuals tasked with extraordinary service, military men who also worked as guardians, negotiators, and envoys of abolition.

An account of the naval commander Roger of Lauria and his command of warfare at sea. Just before Vespers on 30 March 1282 at the Church of the Holy Spirit on the outskirts of Palermo, a drunken soldier of the occupying French forces of Charles of Anjou accosted a young Sicilian noblewoman. It sparked a bloody conflagration, the so-called War of the Sicilian Vespers, that would ultimately involve every part of the Mediterranean. The struggle for the coveted throne of Sicily eventually enmeshed all the great powers of medieval Europe - thepope, the Byzantine Emperor and the kings of France, England and Aragon. Because the core of the Kingdom of Sicily was a wealthy, strategic island dominating the centre of the Mediterranean, the battles were fought mostly at sea.And in war at sea, a single figure proved pre-eminent: Roger of Lauria - Aragon's "Admiral of Admirals". In the course of some twenty years of naval combat, he orchestrated decisive victories in six pitched battles and numerous limited actions, never once suffering a defeat: a feat never equalled - not even by the legendary Lord Horatio Nelson. Drawing from multiple Sicilian and Catalan sources as well as Angevin and Aragonese registers, this chronological narrative details the tactics and strategy Lauria employed to become the most successful galley fleet commander of the Middle Ages, while highlighting a crucial conflict at a pivotal point in European history, long overshadowed by the Hundred Years War. CHARLES D. STANTON is a retired US naval officer and airline pilot; he gained his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

This two-volume set highlights the importance of Iberian shipbuilding in the centuries of the so-called first globalization (15th to 18th), in confluence with an unprecedented extension of ocean navigation and seafaring and a greater demand for natural resources (especially timber), mostly oak (Quercus spp.) and Pine (Pinus spp.). The chapters are framed in a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary line of research that integrates history, Geographic Information Sciences, underwater archaeology, dendrochronology and wood provenance techniques. This line of research was developed during the ForSEAdiscovery project, which had a great impact in the academic and scientific world and brought together experts from Europe and America. The volumes deliver a state-of-the-art review of the latest lines of research related to Iberian maritime history and archaeology and their developing interdisciplinary interaction with dendroarchaeology. This synthesis combines an analysis of historical sources, the systematic study of wreck-remains and material culture related to Iberian seafaring from the 15th to the 18th centuries, and the application of earth sciences, including dendrochronology. The set can be used as a manual or work guide for experts and students, and will also be an interesting read for non-experts interested in the subject. Volume 1 focuses on the history and archaeology of seafaring and shipbuilding in the Iberian early modern world, complemented by case studies on timber trade and supply for shipbuilding, analysis of shipbuilding treatises, and the application of Geographic Information Systems and Databases (GIS) to the study of shipwrecks.

Examines Naval co-operation between Britain and Russia and the often underappreciated prowess of the Russian navy. Naval co-operation between Britain and Russia continued throughout the eighteenth century, with Britain providing huge assistance to the growth of Russia's navy, and Russia making an essential but often overlooked contribution to Britain's maritime power in the period. From 1698 when Tsar Peter the Great served briefly as a trainee shipwright at Deptford dockyard Russia recruited British, often Scottish, shipwrights, engineers, naval officers and naval surgeons who both helped build up the Russian navy and who were also key advisers to the Russian navy at sea. At the same time, naval stores from Russia, especially after Britain lost the American colonies, were vital for the maintenance of Britain's fleet. Moreover, as this book argues, Russian naval power was much more formidable than is often realised, with the Russian navy active alongside the British fleet in the North Sea and winning decisive battles against the Ottoman navy in the Mediterranean, including the battles of Cesme in 1770 and Navarino in 1827. Britain did well to have Russia as a naval ally rather than an enemy. This book provides a comprehensive overview of this important subject, at a time when Britain's relationship with Russia is of considerable concern.

Economic Warfare and the Sea examines the relationship between trade, maritime warfare, and strategic thought between the early modern period and the late-twentieth century. Featuring contributions from renown historians and rising scholars, this volume forwards an international perspective upon the intersection of maritime history, strategy, and diplomacy. Core themes include the role of 'economic warfare' in maritime strategic thought, prevalence of economic competition below the threshold of open conflict, and the role non-state actors have played in the prosecution of economic warfare. Using unique material from 18 different archives across six countries, this volume explores critical moments in the development of economic warfare, naval technology, and international law, including the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War. Distinct chapters also analyse the role of economic warfare in theories of maritime strategy, and what the future holds for the changing role of navies in the floating global economy of the twenty-first century.

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.

'We are fish' observed Lord Salisbury of Britain's global interests at the height of the 19th century pax Britannica. Yet the relationship between the sea and Britain's empire during the Victorian era has rarely been treated in a single volume. The essays in this book do just that. Through a series of case-studies these cutting edge contributions survey the work of the Royal Navy as the policeman of imperial interests: combating piracy and the slave trade. In examining the battle for technological supremacy at sea, the role of the large shipping companies in emigration and migration, and the shipping of British culture overseas via the circulation of knowledge and artefacts, this volume gives an insight into the Victorians' understanding of their own destiny as a sea-faring island.

The sea has been an endless source of fascination, at once both alluring and mysterious, a place of wonder and terror. The Sea Journal contains first-hand records by a great range of travellers of their encounters with strange creatures and new lands, full of dangers and delights, pleasures and perils. In this remarkable gathering of private journals, log books, letters and diaries, we follow the voyages of intrepid sailors, from the frozen polar wastes to South Seas paradise islands, as they set down their immediate impressions of all they saw. They capture their experiences while at sea, giving us a precious view of the oceans and the creatures that live in them as they were when they were scarcely known and right up to the present day. In a series of biographical portraits, we meet officers and ordinary sailors, cooks and whalers, surgeons and artists, explorers and adventurers. A handful of contemporary mariners provide their thoughts on how art remains integral to their voyaging lives. Often still bearing the traces of their nautical past, the intriguing and enchanting sketches and drawings in this book brilliantly capture the spirit of the oceans and the magic of the sea.

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, schooner trade was a well-developed system of maritime transport for commodities such as grain, lumber, and iron. The schooner trade was as critical to the development of the Great Lakes region as covered wagons were to the Far West and paddle wheel steamers were to the South. Schooners sailed the Great Lakes in large numbers and played a formative role in the shaping of pioneer life throughout the region. The schooners that traveled the Lake Michigan basin succeeded in bringing a range of shoreline communities and four separate states into one coherent region. Although schooners successfully competed with steam vessels for more than a half-century, wooden sailing ships could not match the scale of the giant steel bulk carriers that began to emerge from shipyards in the twentieth century. The Mary A. Gregory -- one of the last schooners left in 1926 -- was torched, sunk, and buried in Lake Michigan. Schooner Passage is a history of these magnificent sailing vessels and their role in maritime trade along Lake Michigan.

Theodore J. Karamanski shares with the reader the stories of the men and women who sailed on the schooners, their labor issues and strikes, the role of the schooner in the maritime economy along the Lake Michigan basin, and the factors that led to the eventual demise of that economy in the early twentieth century. Karamanski has put together historical accounts from newspaper dippings, historical society archives, and government documents to provide one of the few available histories of schooners.

Schooner Passage will interest scholars and students of Great Lakes and American history as well as the generalreader interested in nineteenth-century western expansion.

Far from the romanticised image of the swashbuckling genre of maritime history, the eighteenth-century Caribbean was a 'marchlands' in which violence was a way of life and where solidarities were transitory and highly volatile. This book paints a picture of the eighteenth-century British Caribbean as a frontier zone in which war, international rivalry, disease and slavery are paramount themes. It explores the lure of the region as a vaunted site of potential wealth and derring-do, the fragility of tropical campaigns, the nature of slave insurrection, and the efforts of indigenous peoples (here, the Miskito of the Mosquito Coast and the Black Caribs of St Vincent) to carve out some autonomy from the British and Bourbon powers. It also explores the mutiny of a slave-ship and its unsuccessful raiding ventures in order to show how the dominant European powers sought to contain piracy in an expanding plantation complex. The book emphasizes the contrarieties of struggle, the difficulties preventing subaltern groups, whether slaves, free blacks, indigenous peoples or soldiers and sailors, from forging broader alliances, and the importance of tropical disease in shaping military outcomes. It warns against romanticizing resistance in the eighteenth-century Caribbean, showing that it was instead a 'marchlands' in which violence was a way of life and where solidarities were transitory and highly volatile.

For centuries, the English Lake District has been renowned as an important cultural, sacred and literary landscape. It is therefore surprising that there has so far been no in-depth critical examination of the Lake District from a tourism and heritage perspective. Bringing together leading writers from a wide range of disciplines, this book explores the tourism history and heritage of the Lake District and its construction as a cultural landscape from the mid eighteenth century to the present day. It critically analyses the relationships between history, heritage, landscape, culture and policy that underlie the activities of the National Park, Cumbria Tourism and the proposals to recognise the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It examines all aspects of the Lake District's history and identity, brings the story up to date and looks at current issues in conservation, policy and tourism marketing. In doing so, it not only provides a unique and valuable analysis of this region, but offers insights into the history of cultural and heritage tourism in Britain and beyond.

This revisionist book compares and contrasts US and British naval practice and war planning in the Far East during the pre-war period. Drawing on new archival evidence, the author reveals information about the state of war planning in both navies, which radically challenges the conclusions of Marder, Roskill and others.The terms 'Singapore Strategy' and 'Main Fleet to Singapore' have carried with them implications that British Far-Eastern strategy was devoted exclusively to the relief of Singapore, and that the Admiralty was unconcerned about the area north of the Malay Barrier. This book suggests otherwise. The author argues that Admiralty planning had returned to a pre-war framework that called for the rescue and relief of Singapore and Hong Kong together; the Admiralty was not only concerned with the defence of the Malay Barrier but also had a strong interest in the area to its immediate north, and had already agreed to operate the fleet on arrival from Manila.

Recognising the fundamental role both of shipping communities and the technologies crafted and shared by them, this book explores the types of ships, methods of navigation and modes of water-borne trade in the Indian Ocean region and the way they affected the development of distinctive settlements against a changing but strong sense of regional consciousness and identity.

It is a century since Mahan and his disciples taught the world that a battlefleet was indispensable to a great power. Great and not so great powers still keep powerful navies today, but we have no generally-accepted principles to explain why. In this book historians and naval officers from Britain, the United States and other countries study the use of naval power over a century, and ask what it is for, and what it can do. It will be essential reading for modern historians, policy-makers and strategists.

A survey of a wide range of new research on many aspects of life at sea in the early modern period. Maritime social history is a relatively young and fertile field, with many new research findings being discovered on a wide range of aspects of the subject. This book, together with its companion volume The Social History of English Seamen, 1485-1649 (The Boydell Press, 2011), pulls together and makes accessible this large body of research work. Subjects covered include life at sea in different parts of the period for both officers and seamen, in both the navy and in merchant ships; piracy and privateering; health, health care and disability; seamen's food; homosexuality afloat; and the role of women at sea and on land. Written by leading experts in their field, the volumesoffer a nuanced portrait of seafarers' existence as well as an overview of the current state of the historiography. CHERYL A. FURY is Professor of History at the University of New Brunswick (Saint John campus) and a Fellow of the Gregg Centre for War and Society. Contributors: J.D. ALSOP, JOHN APPLEBY, JEREMY BLACK, B. R. BURG, BERNARD CAPP, PETER EARLE, CHERYL A. FURY, MARGARETTE LINCOLN, DAVID MCLEAN, N. A. M. RODGER, DAVID STARKEY

Sassetti’s Indian Letters are among the most interesting penned during these years, offering a trove of cultural speculation and economic analysis. Sassetti was neither a principled critic of imperialism nor a principled advocate of liberalism, but a pragmatic theorist of free trade Sassetti was very much the archetypal Renaissance man

The definitive history of the Spanish Armada, lavishly illustrated and fully revised In July 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed from Corunna to conquer England. Three weeks later an English fireship attack in the Channel-and then a fierce naval battle-foiled the planned invasion. Many myths still surround these events. The genius of Sir Francis Drake is exalted, while Spain's efforts are belittled. But what really happened during that fateful encounter? Drawing on archives from around the world, Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker also deploy vital new evidence from Armada shipwrecks off the coasts of Ireland and Scotland. Their gripping, beautifully illustrated account provides a fresh understanding of how the rival fleets came into being; how they looked, sounded, and smelled; and what happened when they finally clashed. Looking beyond the events of 1588 to the complex politics which made war between England and Spain inevitable, and at the political and dynastic aftermath, Armada deconstructs the many legends to reveal why, ultimately, the bold Spanish mission failed.

Maritime workers occupy a central place in global labour history. This new and compelling account from Australia, shows seafaring and waterside unions engaged in a shared history of activism for legally regulated wages and safe liveable conditions for all who go to sea. Maritime Men of the Asia-Pacific provides a corrective to studies which overlook this region's significance as a provider of the world's maritime labour force and where unions have a rich history of reaching across their differences to forge connections in solidarity. From the 'militant young Australian' Harry Bridges whose progressive unionism transformed the San Francisco waterfront, to Australia's successful implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, this is a story of vision and leadership on the international stage. Unionists who saw themselves as internationalists were also operating within a national and imperial framework where conflicting interests and differences of race and ideology had to be overcome. Union activists in India, China and Japan struggled against indentured labour and 'coolie' standards. They linked with their fellow-unionists in pursuing an ideal of international labour rights against the power of shipowners and anti-union governments. This is a complex story of endurance, cooperation and conflict and its empowering legacy.

This book presents the proceedings of the international academic workshop on "Early Navigation in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Maritime Archaeological Perspective" held from June 21-23, 2013 at Harvard University campus and organized by Harvard-Yenching Institute. It includes high-quality papers focusing on the historical shipwrecks investigated by underwater archaeologists from Eastern Asian, including southern China, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, and North America, including California, Oregon and Washington in the US, as well as Mexico. These investigations reveal the history of the early pan-Pacific navigation and maritime globalization from the 16th to the 18th century, covering the background and formation, concept and practice, as well as the results and influence of this early globalization and global economy, emphasizing the maritime archaeological evidence of Spanish exploration of transportation between East Asia and North America. The book provides an excellent opportunity for maritime archaeologists from both sides of the Pacific to share the latest findings and new developments in maritime archaeological exploration. It discusses 16-18th century nautical trade and maritime cultural history and provides a comprehensive overview of research work in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Compendium of World Sovereigns series contains three volumes Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern. These volumes provide students with easy-to-access 'who's who' with details the identities and dates, with ages and wives, where known, of heads of government in any given state at any time within the framework of reference. The relevant original and secondary sources are also listed in a comprehensive bibliography. Providing a clear reference guide for students, to who was who and when they ruled in the Dynasties and other ruler-lists for the Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern worlds - primarily European and Middle Eastern but including available information on Africa and Asia and the pre-Columbian Americas. The trilogy accesses and interprets the original data plus any modern controversies and disputes over names and dating, reflecting on the shifts in and widening of focus in student and academic studies. Each volume contains league tables of rulers' 'records', and an extensive bibliographical guide to the relevant personnel and dynasties, plus any controversies, so readers can consult these for extra details and know exactly where to go for which information. All relevant information is collected and provided as a one-stop-shop for students wishing to check the known information about a world Sovereign. The Early Modern volume begins with Eastern and Western Europe and moves through the Ottoman Empire, South and East Asia, Africa and ends in Central and South America. Compendium of World Sovereigns: Volume III Early Modern provides students and scholars with the perfect reference guide to support their studies and to fact check dates, people, and places.

Black Friday is the astonishing true story of a coastal community that lost 189 men in a single afternoon. Britain's worst fishing disaster decimated the coastal community of Eyemouth, yet is an almost forgotten part of the past. One hundred and twenty-five years on, this is the story of that storm, told through the accounts of fishermen at sea caught up in the maelstrom, of their families waiting anxiously for news, and of its historical context. At its heart is a gripping narrative of survival and high adventure when Eyemouth was the centre of a massive smuggling ring. Author Peter Aitchison does more than simply spin a good yarn: as a direct descendant, his account of how these fishermen plied their trade, led their lives and met their fate in the 1880s is an insightful and compelling read. Previously published as: Children of the Sea.

Examining diversity as a fundamental reality of empire, this book explores European colonial empires, both terrestrial and maritime, to show how they addressed the questions of how to manage diversity. These questions range from the local to the supra-regional, and from the management of people to that of political and judicial systems. Taking an intersectional approach incorporating categories such as race, religion, subjecthood and social and legal status, the contributions of the volume show how old and new modes of creating social difference took shape in an increasingly early modern globalized world, and what contemporary legacies these 'diversity formations' left behind. This volume show diversity and imperial projects to be both contentious and mutually constitutive: one the one hand, the conditions of empire created divisions between people through official categorizations (such as racial classifications and designations of subjecthood) and through discriminately applied extractive policies, from taxation to slavery. On the other hand, imperial subjects, communities, and polities within and adjacent to empire asserted themselves through a diverse range of affiliations and identities that challenged any notion of a unilateral, universal imperial authority. This book highlights the multidimensionality and interconnectedness of diversity in imperial settings and will be useful reading to students and scholars of the history of colonial Empires, global history, and race.