A bold and authoritative maritime history of World War II which takes a fully international perspective and challenges our existing understanding Command of the oceans was crucial to winning World War II. By the start of 1942 Nazi Germany had conquered mainland Europe, and Imperial Japan had overrun Southeast Asia and much of the Pacific. How could Britain and distant America prevail in what had become a "war of continents"? In this definitive account, Evan Mawdsley traces events at sea from the first U-boat operations in 1939 to the surrender of Japan. He argues that the Allied counterattack involved not just decisive sea battles, but a long struggle to control shipping arteries and move armies across the sea. Covering all the major actions in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as those in the narrow seas, this book interweaves for the first time the endeavors of the maritime forces of the British Empire, the United States, Germany, and Japan, as well as those of France, Italy, and Russia.

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.

This enthusiastically reviewed, scrupulously researched and prize-winning book, which was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, chronicles a resonant episode of Victorian history. It is the tale of the agitation led by Samuel Plimsoll MP, 'The Sailor's Friend', and by his wife Eliza, who worked together to defend sailors against nefarious practices including overloading and the use of unseaworthy 'coffin-ships'. The backlash of libel cases and vilification almost ruined Plimsoll, but his drive and passion made him feverishly popular with the public; he was the subject of plays, novels, street ballads and music hall songs. With the demonstrative support of the nation, he faced down his enemies, came close to ousting Disraeli's government and achieved lasting safety measures for merchant sailors, including the load line that bears his name. Nicolette Jones throws light on a cross-section of Victorian society and tells the story of an epic legal, social, and political battle for justice, which is still an inspiring example of how the altruism and courage of determined individuals can make the world a better place.

This is the story of the greatest naval conflict in history'The Second World War demanded more of its sailors than any other war in history, in endurance and unremitting need to face danger - danger from increasingly lethal weapons and an ever-increasing need for vigilance by day and night.' The war at sea - the longest battle of the Second World War - never ceased. From the Arctic Circle to the Pacific, the enemy threat was ever-present, on the surface, in the skies, and lurking beneath the waves. In this comprehensive and compelling history, Richard Hough brings the titanic struggle to life. Using personal accounts from veterans of all sides, his book tells the story of the Second World War at sea, including the Battle of the Atlantic and the U-boat menace, the infamy of Pearl Harbor, the American triumph at Midway, naval operations in support of D-Day, and the greatest naval battle of all time, Leyte Gulf. The definitive book about naval power in the Second World War, Richard Hough's masterpiece is essential reading for followers of Max Hastings and James Holland. 'We are in Richard Hough's debt' New York Times 'Utterly absorbing' Financial Times

With the end of the Cold War, Russia's submarines were no longer needed to deter or fight Western navies and were very expensive to operate and maintain. Older submarines were taken out of service in large numbers, but without firm plans and infrastructure in place to remove and adequately care for their nuclear components, problems soon developed over the disposition of spent fuel assemblies. Problems arose also of course between Russia and the international community as to the best way to respond to the challenge. This book looks at those problems, first discussing Russia's economy, its environment, and the Russian Navy, and then covering in detail the spent fuel of Russian submarines and related nuclear problems. The engagement of the international community on the issue is then addressed. A theoretical analysis is offered on how Russia's fellow nations can help remedy a troubling environmental problem in a difficult country.

An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library. 'Who ever thought they would one day be able to read Malcolm Lowry's fabled novel of the 1930s and 40s, In Ballast to the White Sea? Lord knows, I didn't' - Michael Hofmann, TLS This book breaks new ground in studies of the British novelist Malcolm Lowry (1909-57), as the first collection of new essays produced in response to the publication in 2014 of a scholarly edition of Lowry's 'lost' novel, In Ballast to the White Sea. In their introduction, editors Helen Tookey and Bryan Biggs show how the publication of In Ballast sheds new light on Lowry as both a highly political writer and one deeply influenced by his native Merseyside, as his protagonist Sigbjorn Hansen-Tarnmoor walks the streets of Liverpool, wrestling with his own conscience and with pressing questions of class, identity and social reform. In the chapters that follow, renowned Lowry scholars and newer voices explore key aspects of the novel and its relation to the wider contexts of Lowry's work. These include his complex relation to socialism and communism, the symbolic value of Norway, and the significance of tropes of loss, hauntings and doublings. The book draws on the unexpected opportunity offered by the rediscovery of In Ballast to look afresh at Lowry's oeuvre, to 'remake the voyage'.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea focuses upon the seamen's experience in order to illuminate larger historical issues such as the rise of capitalism, the genesis of free wage labor, and the growth of an international working class. These epic themes were intimately bound up with the everyday hopes and fears of the common men who toiled upon the deep.

Privateers were essentially freelance ships, sanctioned during wartime to sail and do battle on behalf of adversary governments, and this tale follows Alexander Musgrave, a privateer-turned-adventurer, across three continents and into the arms of a beautiful woman.

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2020 A SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, THE TIMES AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR For most of human history, the seas and oceans have been the main means of long-distance trade and communication between peoples - for the spread of ideas and religion as well as commerce. This book traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world's greatest bodies of water, charting our relationship with the oceans from the time of the first voyagers. David Abulafia begins with the earliest of seafaring societies - the Polynesians of the Pacific, the possessors of intuitive navigational skills long before the invention of the compass, who by the first century were trading between their far-flung islands. By the seventh century, trading routes stretched from the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, bringing together the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific and linking half the world through the international spice trade. In the Atlantic, centuries before the little kingdom of Portugal carved out its powerful, seaborne empire, many peoples sought new lands across the sea - the Bretons, the Frisians and, most notably, the Vikings, now known to be the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese supremacy dwindled in the late sixteenth century, the Spanish, the Dutch and then the British each successively ruled the waves. Following merchants, explorers, pirates, cartographers and travellers in their quests for spices, gold, ivory, slaves, lands for settlement and knowledge of what lay beyond, Abulafia has created an extraordinary narrative of humanity and the oceans. From the earliest forays of peoples in hand-hewn canoes through uncharted waters to the routes now taken daily by supertankers in their thousands, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks came to form a continuum of interaction and interconnection across the globe: 90 per cent of global trade is still conducted by sea. This is history of the grandest scale and scope, and from a bracingly different perspective - not, as in most global histories, from the land, but from the boundless seas.

The bestselling author of The Endurance reveals the startling truth behind the legend of the Mutiny on the Bounty -- the most famous sea story of all time. More than two centuries have passed since Fletcher Christian mutinied against Lt. Bligh on a small armed transport vessel called Bounty. Why the details of this obscure adventure at the end of the world remain vivid and enthralling is as intriguing as the truth behind the legend. Caroline Alexander focusses on the court martial of the ten mutineers captured in Tahiti and brought to justice in Portsmouth. Each figure emerges as a richly drawn character caught up in a drama that may well end on the gallows. With enormous scholarship and exquisitely drawn characters, The Bounty is a tour de force.

"This volume is a set of kaleidoscopic impressions of life along the Hudson, from its earliest days to the present," writes Allan Keller in his Preface. Keller's impressions encompass the scope of history, art, and literature, to tell the story of the majestic Hudson River and the life along its banks. The book provides a picture of life along the river at every step of the way, including facts and fables, legends and living realities. It is the story of sloops and steamers, shad fishing and ice cutting, the splendor of the Palisades and the stately homes of the well-born. From Revolutionary battles to the Hudson River School of painting, life along the river through the ages comes to life in Keller's kaleidoscopic view of one of our great national treasures.

Both the Christian Bible and Aristotle's works suggest that water should entirely flood the earth. Though many ancient, medieval, and early modern Europeans relied on these works to understand and explore the relationships between water and earth, sixteenth-century Europeans particularly were especially concerned with why dry land existed. This book investigates why they were so interested in water's failure to submerge the earth when their predecessors had not been. Analyzing biblical commentaries as well as natural philosophical, geographical, and cosmographical texts from these periods, Lindsay Starkey shows that European sea voyages to the southern hemisphere combined with the traditional methods of European scholarship and religious reformations led sixteenth-century Europeans to reinterpret water and earth's ontological and spatial relationships. The manner in which they did so also sheds light on how we can respond to our current water crisis before it is too late.

Nusantaria - often referred to as 'Maritime Southeast Asia' - is the world's largest archipelago and has, for centuries, been a vital cultural and trading hub. Nusantara, a Sanskrit, then Malay, word referring to an island realm, is here adapted to become Nusantaria - denoting a slightly wider world but one with a single linguistic, cultural and trading base. Nusantaria encompasses the lands and shores created by the melting of the ice following the last Ice Age. These have long been primarily the domain of the Austronesian-speaking peoples and their seafaring traditions. The surrounding waters have always been uniquely important as a corridor connecting East Asia to India, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. In this book, Philip Bowring provides a history of the world's largest and most important archipelago and its adjacent coasts. He tells the story of the peoples and lands located at this crucial maritime and cultural crossroads, from its birth following the last Ice Age to today.

Popular films about the Bounty mutiny only scratch the surface. This rebellion on a British vessel in 1789 sparked the voyages of H.M.S. Pandora-dispatched to track down the mutineers and return them to England for court-martial-and the Matavy, a schooner built by the mutineers in Tahiti. This is the first book to include eyewitness accounts from five men who endured these voyages. Presented in overlapping, chronological order are the first publication of a narrative by a member of Matavy's crew, who vividly describes a desperate struggle to survive with meager provisions among islands filled with hostile natives. A previously unpublished poem by an anonymous sailor on Pandora recounts the ship's sinking, the survivors' tortuous journey to the Dutch East Indies, and their return to England. The captain's unedited statement on the loss of Pandora is included and appendices summarize the Bounty and Pandora courts-martial and the later history of each narrator.

Being aboard a sinking ship is perhaps the most terrifying experience a human being can endure. Imagine those last peaceful moments as the vessel beneath you slides quickly into the dark waters that only moments before you had so confidently glided across. It is as one survivor you will read about in this stunning collection recalled, "a sudden sickening sense of disaster." Awaiting you are starvation, thirst and unimagined weather--perhaps blistering sun or soul-crushing cold. Outside your leaking and fragile craft are circling sharks waiting to tear you to shreds. Hope will fade quickly. Utterly absorbing and eminently entertaining, here is a collection of inspirational stories of life and death and hope-and of resilience and unimagined strength. These stories show more than anything the indomitable spirit of sailors who scoffed at death and moved on-doing what they had to do to live. Among the tales in this terrifying yet absorbing collection are the recollections of sailors from the USS Indianapolis who floated hopelessly as their companions were torn apart by sharks; of the crew whaleship Essex, who did the unthinkable; of small boat adventurers like Dougal Robertson, who survived for weeks on little but faith. The Greatest Sea Survival Stories Ever Told is a tribute to incredible men and women. It is a testament to the remarkable fortitude that made them quiet heroes.

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.

Shows how the rise of evangelical religion in the navy helped create a new kind of sailor, technologically trained and steeped in a higher set of values. This book examines how, as the nineteenth century progressed, religious piety, especially evangelical piety, was seen in the British navy less as eccentric and marginal and more as an essential ingredient of the character looked for in professional seamen. The book traces the complex interplay between formal religious observance, such as Sunday worship, and pockets of zealous piety, showing how evangelicalism gradually earned less grudging regard, until inthe 1860s and 1870s it became a dominant source of values and a force for moral reform. Religion in the British Navy explains this shift, outlining how Arctic expeditions showed the need for dependability and character, how Health Returns revealed the full extent of sexual licence and demonstrated the urgency of moral reform, and how manning difficulties in the Russian War of 1854-1856 showed that a modern fleet required a new type of sailor, technologically trained and steeped in a higher set of values. The book also discusses how the navy, with its newly awakened religious sensibilities, played a major role in the expansion of Protestant missions globally, in exploration,convict transportation, the expansion of imperial frontiers, and worldwide maritime policing operations. Fervent piety had an effect in all these areas - religion had helped develop a new kind of manliness where piety as well asdaring had a place. RICHARD BLAKE is the author of Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815 (Boydell 2008).

They were bold, arrogant, brutal. They strode the rolling deck of a ship more easily than the tame streets of a town. They were wealthy--some beyond the wildest dreams of the governors and kings who first supported them, then pursued them. They were the pirates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and they terrorized shipping lanes and coastal villages around the world. The pirates in this book sailed far and wide, but all made their mark on the Atlantic coast. Some made their home there, such as the notorious Blackbeard, who anchored his ship off Ocracoke Island and lived for a time in Bath, North Carolina. Others put ashore just long enough to change seafaring history, such as the rakish Calico Jack Rackham, whose chance meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, with a spirited redheaded girl would give the world another legendary pirate--the beautiful Anne Bonny. Though popular culture has created an image of a typical pirate, plying his trade with dash and vigor beneath his skull-and-crossbones flag, in reality these men--and women--were of character and background as varied as the flags they flew. In this collection of pirate tales, you will meet scions of colonial aristocrats like Rhode Island's Thomas Tew and the dandified Stede Bonnet of Barbados; off-spring of unassuming farm families like Pennsylvanian Rachel Wall and Massachusetts' Charles Gibbs; and those like Edward Low of England, who escaped lives of desperate poverty and squalor by putting to sea. What these men and women had in common was a yearning for excitement, a love for the seafaring life, and a taste for the wealth that piracy could provide. Romance, danger, suspense, adventure--all this and more awaits you on board the tall ships with the pirates of the Atlantic coast. Join them now for a voyage you will never forget. Nancy Roberts, a popular Southern writer and storyteller, was the acclaimed, award-winning author of more than twenty-five books where she blended suspense, mystery, and history with a talent for finding true stories of the supernatural. She was aptly proclaimed the Custodian of the Twilight Zone by Southern Living magazine, and was frequently introduced as the First Lady of Folklore. She was a featured speaker or teller at several locations: the North Carolina Museum of History; Thalian Hall in Wilmington, North Carolina; Kiawah Island Resort, South Carolina; University of Illinois at De Kalb; and many schools and libraries throughout the Southeast. She passed away in the fall of 2008.

When the Queen Elizabeth 2 entered service in 1969 she was the last of the great transatlantic liners and the sole survivor of a bygone era. The modern ship was 963 feet long, 70,000 gross tons, and boasted a service speed exceeding 30 knots. The QE2 made an instant impact worldwide and went on to have an illustrious career spanning four decades. This long-awaited new edition presents the colourful history of the Cunard Line and an engrossing narrative of the ship's eventful history, including construction and launch, service in the Falklands War, various mishaps, the sale of Cunard to Carnival, and the introduction of the new flagship Queen Mary 2. Also covered is the ship's final decade, leading up to her eventual sale to become a floating hotel in Dubai. The story ends with a personal afterword by Commodore Ronald Warwick, recounting his long and unique association with the renowned vessel.

Recent discussion, academic publications and many of the national exhibitions relating to the Great War at sea have focussed on capital ships, Jutland and perhaps U-boats. Very little has been published about the crucial role played by fishermen, fishing vessels and coastal communities all round the British Isles. Yet fishermen and armed fishing craft were continually on the maritime front line throughout the conflict; they formed the backbone of the Auxiliary Patrol and were in constant action against-U-boats or engaged on unrelenting minesweeping duties. Approximately 3000 fishing vessels were requisitioned and armed by the Admiralty and more than 39,000 fishermen joined the Trawler Section of the Royal Naval Reserve. The class and cultural gap between working fishermen and many RN officers was enormous. This book examines the multifaceted role that fishermen and the fish trade played throughout the conflict. It examines the reasons why, in an age of dreadnoughts and other high-tech military equipment, so many fishermen and fishing vessels were called upon to play such a crucial role in the littoral war against mines and U-boats, not only around the British Isles but also off the coasts of various other theatres of war. It will analyse the nature of the fishing industry's war-time involvement and also the contribution that non-belligerent fishing vessels continued to play in maintaining the beleaguered nation's food supplies.

Most people know of Arthur Ransome, the author of the classic children's sailing tale, Swallows & Amazons, and many other books in the same series. But besides his exciting tales of children on the water there is much more to the man. Before he wrote Swallows & Amazons, Ransome was a journalist for the Daily News, based in Russia. He is reputed to have played chess against Lenin and he married Trotsky's secretary. He cruised extensively in the Baltic in the 1920s on board his beloved Racundra. His account of his first cruise on that boat was his first commercially successful book, Racundra's First Cruise (also available from Fernhurst Books). The second cruise was spoilt by bad weather, but the third cruise was special - it was his honeymoon having married Evgenia Shelepina. Ransome clearly intended to publish the account of this cruise, but never finished it. Ransome enthusiast, Brian Hammett, got hold of the unpublished manuscript and found Ransome's hand-written notes, diaries, logbooks and photographs in the Ransome archive at Leeds University. Brian compiled this book, adding his own notes from his cruises in the same area. The result is a glorious volume which has delighted Ransome enthusiasts, sailors and landlubbers equally. This new paperback edition and eBook will be published on 8th May - the very day that Ransome and Shelepina got married in 1924 before their honeymoon cruise which is recounted in this book.

For centuries, ships' commanders kept journals that recorded their missions. These included voyages of discovery to unknown lands, engagements in war and sea and general trade. Many of their logs, diaries and letters were lodged at The National Archives and give a vivid picture of the situations that they encountered. Entries range from Captain James Cook's notes of his discovery of the South Pacific and Australia, to logs of the great naval battles, such as Trafalgar and the Battle of the Nile. From the ships that attempted to stop piracy in the Caribbean, to the surgeons who recorded the health of the men they tended and naturalists who noted the exotic plants and animals they encountered, comes a fascinating picture of life at sea, richly illustrated with maps, drawings and facsimile documents found alongside the logs in the archives.

Cornwall is quintessentially a maritime region. Almost an island, nowhere in it is further than 25 miles from the sea. Cornwall's often distinctive history has been moulded by this omnipresent maritime environment, while its strategic position at the western approaches-jutting out into the Atlantic-has given this history a global impact. It is perhaps surprising then, that, despite the central place of the sea in Cornwall's history, there has not yet been a full maritime history of Cornwall. The Maritime History of Cornwall sets out to fill this gap, exploring the rich and complex maritime inheritance of this unique peninsula. In a beautifully illustrated volume, individually commissioned contributions from distinguished historians elaborate on the importance of different periods, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The Maritime History of Cornwall is a significant addition to the literature of international maritime history and is indispensable to those with an interest in Cornwall past and present. Winner of the Holyer an Gof Non-Fiction Award 2015.

One of the greatest treasures in the archives of the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum is the Hansen Collection, consisting of over 4500 negatives of shipping taken at Cardiff Docks between 1920 and 1975. Lars Peter Hansen, a native of Copenhagen, settled in Cardiff in 1891 and he and his third son Leslie established a photographic business in the docks; taking pictures of ships for sale to seamen and shipowners was an important part of their business. Following the retirement of Leslie Hansen in 1975, the museum purchased the negative collection. Its historical value cannot be overstated and this album is intended as a tribute to the Hansens, who through their work have bequeathed to Wales a pictorial record of shipping activity at the nation's premier port.

Pirates of Barbary is an extraordinary record of the European renegades and Islamic sea-rovers who terrorised the Mediterranean and beyond throughout the seventeenth century. From the coast of Southern Europe to Morocco and the Ottoman states of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Christian and Muslim seafarers met in bustling ports to swap religions, to battle and to trade goods and slaves -- raiding as far as Iceland and New England in search of their human currency. Studying the origins of these men, their culture and practices -- from pirate etiquette to intimidation tactics -- Adrian Tinniswood expertly recreates the twilight world of the corsairs in fascinating detail, and uncovers a truly remarkable clash of civilisations.
Pirates of Barbary draws on an incredible wealth of material, from furious royal proclamations to the private letters of pirates and their victims, as well as recent Islamic accounts to provide a new perspective on the corsairs, both as criminals and as devout warriors engaged in a battle against European incursions. The result is a kaleidoscopic image of a wild and exotic people, place and time, and a fascinating insight into what it meant to sacrifice all you have for a life so violent, so uncertain, and so alien that it set you apart from the rest of mankind.