The technical transformation of the Royal Navy during the Victorian era posed a succession of bewildering design, tactical and operational problems for administrators from the 1830s onwards. These problems have attracted considerable scrutiny. Far less scrutiny, however, has been paid to an equally fundamental strategic quandary created by the switch from sail to steam.

Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650 is the first truly international study of warfare at sea in this period. Commencing in the late fifteenth century with the introduction of gunpowder in naval warfare and the rapid transformation of maritime trade, Warfare at Sea focuses on the scope and limitations of war before the advent of the big battle fleets from the middle of the seventeenth century.
The book also compares the social history of seamen and the early officer corps in several European countries and includes discussion on Spain, Portugal, France, Venice, the Ottoman Empire and the Baltic states.

Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650 is the first truly international study of warfare at sea in this period. Early modern warfare at sea was an important part of the transformation of European societies and of Europes impact on other parts of the world. Warfare influenced trade, state formation, the economic and political rise and decline of regions and the life of seafaring populations. This book places the history of warfare at sea within a modern scholarly framework, bringing together historical research and analysing questions on war, statebuilding, strategy and tactics, and economic and technological change.
Commencing in the late fifteenth century with the introduction of gunpowder in naval warfare and the rapid transformation of maritime trade, Warfare at Sea focuses on the scope and limitations of war before the advent of the big battle fleets from the middle of the seventeenth century.
The book also compares the social history of seamen and the early officer corps in several European countries and includes discussion on Spain, Portugal, France, Venice, the Ottoman Empire and the Baltic states.
Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650 is essential reading for those interested in early modern history in general and in economic and naval history in particular.

How did the British navy maintain authority among its potentially disorderly crews? And what order exactly did it wish to establish? Churchill once famously remarked that he would not join the navy because it was "all rum, sodomy and the lash". How far this was true of the navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars is the subject of this important new book. Summary punishments, courts martial, flogging and hanging were regularly made use of in this period to establish order in the navy. Based on extensive original research, including a detailed study of ships' captain's logs and muster tables, this book explores the concepts of order and disorder aboard ships and examines how order was preserved. It discusses the different sorts of disorder and why they occurred; argues that officers toosometimes pushed against the official order; and demonstrates that order was much more than the simple enforcement of the Articles of War. The book argues that the behaviours that were punished, how and to what degree reveal what the navy saw as most resistive or dangerous to its authority and the order it wanted established. In addition, it considers the role of patronage in shaping order, outlining how this was affected by Admiralty moves to centralise appointments, and shows that acts of disorder were plentiful, and increasing, in this period, and that the imbalance in court martial outcomes for sailors, marines and warrant officers, in comparison to commissioned officers, points to a flawed system of justice. Overall, the book provides an extremely nuanced picture of order and how it was preserved. Thomas Malcomson is a Professor in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario. He completed his doctorate in history at York University, Toronto.

The South China Sea has long been regarded as one of the most complex and challenging ocean-related maritime disputes in East Asia. Recently it has become the locus of disputes that have the potential of escalating into serious international conflicts. Historical mistrust, enduring territorial disputes, and competing maritime claims have combined to weaken an at least partially successful regional security structure. Issues of concern include territorial sovereignty; disputed claims to islands, rocks, and reefs; jurisdiction over territorial waters, exclusive economic zones, and the seabed; regional and international rights to use the seas for military purposes; maritime security; rapid economic development; and environmental degradation. The fear is that increasing competition for energy and other resources will exacerbate conflicts and further fuel nationalism and sovereignty issues in the region. The SCS has an integrated ecosystem and is one of the richest seas in the world in terms of marine flora and fauna: coral reefs, mangroves, sea-grass beds, fish, and plants. National economic security can be easily affected by conflicts occurring in major international trade routes like the SCS, or how such an unclear situation might even give rise to environmental challenges in the future. The book creates an understanding as to why this region is important not only to the claimants but to global powers like the United States and India. The book examines current and potential conflicts in the South China Sea, and also evaluates how conflicts have been "managed" to date and suggests as to how they might be better managed in the future. This book concludes with recommendations for improving the situation in the region by ensuring a strong economic relationships, using high-resolution observation satellites, and undertaking joint development, and resource exploration etc.

From the author of "Amphibious Warfare in the Eighteenth Century" and "The Evolution of the Sailing Navy, 1509-1815", this book serves as a single-volume survey of war at sea and the expansion of naval power in the 18th century. The book is intended for undergraduate courses on 18th century European history, and for amateur and professional military historians, and for navy colleges, and navy and ex-navy professionals.

Discussion of medieval European expansion tends to focus on expansion eastward and the crusades. The selection of studies reprinted here, however, focuses on the other end of Eurasia, where dwelled the warlike Celts, and beyond whom lay the north seas and the awesome Atlantic Ocean, formidable obstacles to expansion westward. This volume looks first at the legacy of the Viking expansion which had briefly created a network stretching across the sea from Britain and Ireland to North America, and had demonstrated that the Atlantic could be crossed and land reached. The next sections deal with the English expansion in the western and northern British Isles. In the 12th century the Normans began the process of subjugating the Celts, thus inaugurating for the English an experience which was to prove crucial when colonizing the Americas in the 17th century. Medieval Ireland in particular served as a laboratory for the development of imperial institutions, attitudes, and ideologies that shaped the creation of the British Empire and served as a staging area for further expansion westward.

From the author of "Amphibious Warfare in the Eighteenth Century" and "The Evolution of the Sailing Navy, 1509-1815", this book serves as a single- volume survey of war at sea and the expansion of naval power in the 18th century. The book is intended for undergraduate courses on 18th century European history, and for amateur and professional military historians, and for navy colleges, and navy and ex-navy professionals.

Rear Admiral Raja Menon contends that nations embroiled in Continental wars have historically had poor maritime strategies. After an analysis of existing literature on this subject and a discussion of case studies, he develops the argument that those navies that have been involved in such wars have made poor contributions to the overall politial objectives. Government neglect, inadequate funding and structures that are more appropriate to purely maritime wars are symptomatic of a universal strategic dilemma that arises from inadequate strategic theory.

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.

At last a paperback edition of this standard work on marine archaeology. Sean McGrail's study received exceptional critical acclaim when it was first published in hardback in 1987 and it is now revised and published in paperback for the first time. Professor McGrail provides an authoritative survey of water transport across Northern Europe from the Late Palaeolithic to the later Middle Ages, using evidence of excavations, but also documentary sources, iconographic and ethnographic evidence. In the process he answers such key questions as How were these boats built? What sort of environment were they used in? What speeds could they achieve? and how were they navigated?

This classic study explores the role of merchant seamen in precipitating the American revolution. It analyzes the participation of seamen in impressment riots, the Stamp Act Riot, the Battle of Golden Hill, and other incidents. The book describes these events and explores the social world of the seamen, offering explanations for their actions. Focusing on the culture, politics, and experiences of early American seamen, this legendary study played an important role in the development of histories of the common people and has inspired generations of social and early American historians. Lemisch's later related article, "Jack Tar in the Streets," was named one of the ten most important articles ever published in the prestigious "William and Mary Quarterly. "Long unavailable, this edition includes an index and an appreciative foreword by Marcus Rediker, author of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750"
(Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University, 1962)

Explore the early history of Oregon by delving into the journals of explorers Alexander Mackenzie, David Thompson, and Lewis & Clark. Read about journeys into Oregon and first encounters with Native Americans on the coast. Hear legends of white-winged ships that first came to these shores and eyewitness accounts of survivors from shipwrecks who intermarried with local tribes. Return to the days of treasure ships and their mysteries along the Oregon coast.

For over 30 years Peter Drummond has roamed Scottish fishing harbours armed with at least one camera. Here then are the best monochrome images taken over that period showing a wide variety of vessel types ranging from former ring netters and drifter/seiners through more modern designs to the latest 21st Century pelagic vessels, with brief histories of the boats illustrated. Covering waters around Scotland both east and west, from Kirkcudbright to Mallaig and from Eyemouth to Burghead, as well as a detailed appendix of vessels, this photographic collection is something special for the maritime enthusiast.

Challenges of Mapping the Classical World collects together in one volume fourteen varied items written by Richard Talbert over the past thirty years. They cohere around the theme of mapping the classical world since the nineteenth century. All were originally prompted by Talbert's commission in the late 1980s to produce a definitive classical atlas after more than a century of failed attempts by the Kieperts and others. These he evaluates, as well as probing the Smith/Grove atlas, a successful twenty-year initiative launched in the mid-1850s, with a cartographic approach that departs radically from established practice. Talbert's initial vision for the international collaborative project that resulted in the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (2000) is presented, and the successive twice-yearly reports on its progress from 1991 through to completion are published here for the first time. A further item reflects retrospectively on the project's cartographic challenges and on how developments in digital map production were decisive in overcoming them. This volume will be invaluable to anyone with an interest in the development and growing impact of mapping the classical world.

The Asian continent has a maritime tradition spanning as far back as the third millennium BC, and its port cities have for centuries had a social and cultural character radically different from those on the shores of the Atlantic. This book offers a fresh perspective on Asian history, focusing on the vital role played by ports and port cities.

These studies show how the British Empire used its maritime supremacy to construct and maintain a worldwide defence for its imperial interests. They rebut the idea that British defence policy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was primarily concerned with the balance of power in Europe.

This unique and comprehensive account describes the interplay of internal and external factors in the emergence of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from a coastal defence force in 1904 to a respectable battle force capable of the joint operations with other Triple Alliance fleets in the Mediterranean by the eve of World War I. By 1914 the Austro-Hungarian Navy was the sixth largest navy in the world and the quality of its officers and men was widely recognised by most European naval observers at the time. The book describes the relationships between naval leaders, the heir to the throne Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and the Parliament in shaping the dual Monarchy's naval policy. It also shows how the changes in foreign policy in Italy and underlying animosities between Rome and Vienna led to a naval race in the Adriatic that eventually bolstered Germany's naval position in respect to Great Britain in the North Sea.

Not many 'amateur' yacht designers would dare to enter the first boat they had ever designed into the epic offshore Fastnet Race, let alone with the intention of winning it. But that is what Dick Carter did in 1964, beating all 151 other yachts, some sailed by the most notable sailors of the day. He repeated the feat 4 years later with another of his own designs (which also won the Admiral's Cup that year as top boat and top team), but by then he could certainly not be described as an 'amateur' yacht designer. His radical innovations created fast and comfortable boats which were much in demand in this, the golden age of offshore racing. They were commissioned by the top sailors and succeeded in winning the Admiral's Cup, Southern Cross Series, One Ton Cup, Two Ton Cup and many of the biggest races. He even went on to design the massive 128-foot Vendredi Treize for Jean-Yves Terlain to sail single-handed in the 1972 OSTAR (trans-Atlantic) race - the longest boat ever to have been raced single-handed. But after just a decade at the top of his game, he quit the world of sailing and moved on to other challenges. He hadn't been heard of for so long that sailors assumed he was dead. His surprise appearance at the funeral of Ted Hood gave rise to the suggestion that he wrote this book. It is beautifully produced with many fabulous photographs and boat plans and was first published in the US by Seapoint Books and is now published in the UK by Fernhurst Books. While his career as a yacht designer may have been brief, the impact of his innovations has lasted the test of time. Who today would think of an offshore yacht without internal halyards in the mast or that the rudder always had to be fixed to the keel? These concepts, and many more, were first introduced by Dick Carter.

Published in 1928, this exploration of the accounts of missionary Thomas Gage, edited by A.P.Newton, accounts the arduous journey around the Americas that Thomas Gage took to spread Christian teaching.

Focusing on aspects of the functioning of technology, and by looking at instruments and at instrumental performance, this book addresses the epistemological questions arising from examining the technological bases to geographical exploration and knowledge claims. Questions of geography and exploration and technology are addressed in historical and contemporary context and in different geographical locations and intellectual cultures. The collection brings together scholars in the history of geographical exploration, historians of science, historians of technology and, importantly, experts with curatorial responsibilities for, and museological expertise in, major instrument collections. Ranging in their focus from studies of astronomical practice to seismography, meteorological instruments and rockets, from radar to the hand-held barometer, the chapters of this book examine the ways in which instruments and questions of technology - too often overlooked hitherto - offer insight into the connections between geography and exploration.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"A well researched and lucid history of the Southeast Asian island realms (Indochina), attending to a variety of subjects such as crops and language groups, the silk and spice trade, African sailors and Chinese porcelains, religions, and royal houses". -- Reference & Research Book News

An account of the development of the English navy showing how the formidable force which beat the Spanish Armada was created. When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 the English Navy was rather ad hoc: there were no warships as such, rather just merchant ships, hired when needed by the king, and converted for military purposes, which involved mostly the transport of troops and the support of land armies. There were no permanent dockyards and no admiralty or other standing institutions to organise naval affairs. Throughout the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary, and theearly part of the reign of Elizabeth, all this changed, so that by the 1580s England had permanent dockyards, and permanent naval administrative institutions, and was able to send warships capable of fighting at sea to attack theSpanish in the Caribbean and in Spain itself, and able to confront the Spanish Armada with a formidable fleet. This book provides a thorough account of the development of the English navy in this period, showing how the formidableforce which beat the Spanish Armada was created. It covers technological, administrative and operational developments, in peace and war, and provides full accounts of the various battles and other naval actions. David Loadesis Honorary Research Professor, University of Sheffield, Professor Emeritus, University of Wales, Bangor, and a member of the Centre for British and Irish Studies, University of Oxford. He has published over 20 books, including"The Tudor Navy" (1992).