The adoption of steam engines for oceangoing vessels in the mid nineteenth century revolutionized shipping. On the face of it shipbuilders were presented with two choices. They could either strive to ...

This is an article detailing the period when sidelights began to come into use and eventually became mandatory. Prior to their use it was only recommended that mooring lights be shown, with the ...

This article gives a detailed insight into the life of John Tyrrell, following archaeological investigations of the third rate ship Anne, the only English ...

Land-based gunpowder weapons were mounted in ships from the 1330s and thereafter were modified specifically for maritime use. Shipboard guns were primarily defensive weapons in the 14 th and 15 th ...

This article provides a survey of Guernsey-based privateering from roughly 1689 to 1815. The opportunity is also used to discuss reciprocal privateering by the French (from St. Malo to Dieppe), as ...

Part 7 of a series of articles drawn from the manuscript of the late Sir Oswyn Murray, originally planned as a volume in the Whitehall Series. This Part deals with the organisational structure of the ...

In this episode Dr Sam Willis explores HMS Warrior, one of the most groundbreaking ships in the history of naval power. An iron-framed, iron-clad single-gundeck warship, launched in 1860 HMS Warrior ...

The Battle of the Nile of 1798 was one of the most important naval battles that has ever been fought. This episode presents an introduction explaining the context of the battle and is followed by a ...

This article is a detailed study of the costs involved in building warships of the period. It is based on Progress Books One, Two and Five. Direct comparisons between the costs of different vessels ...

The earliest map of London that has come down to our time is Wyngaerde’s panorama, dating from between 1543 and 1550. It provides a bird’s-eye view of the whole city, together with Westminster and ...

The first dock constructed in the United Kingdom was the Howland Great Wet Dock at Rotherhithe, built sometime before 1703 when it was first recorded as being in use. Shown in the accompanying ...

The use of table decorations in the form of ship models, known as nefs, became a way of demonstrating prestige among the elite merchant class of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. One of the most ...