(2021). Editorial. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 3-3.

(2021). Patricia K. Crimmin (1933–2020) The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 4-5.

The stern rudder presents a formidable challenge to the power of the sea. Already extant by the twelfth century in the Frisian region, it has long been compared with the quarter rudder of antiquity. Past scholarly studies have focused almost entirely on the reasons for its creation, ignoring the complex evolution of this steering system. The disastrous consequences of the rudder’s loss mid-voyage made

As commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands station in 1807, Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane became principal enforcer of the new Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. He was also a plantation and slave owner with much to lose from upholding the law. By manipulating distinctions between apprentices and enslaved labour, Cochrane served his own interests, capitalizing on distance from the metropole

In August and September 1819 the first Russian Antarctic expedition, commanded by Captain Bellingshausen, visited Britain to purchase navigational and scientific instruments, charts and books. Using documents in the Russian Naval Archives, this article describes the visit in detail and reflects on what this information tells us about the framing of the expedition and the constraints under which it

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, Portugal was already monitoring the political situation in Spain very closely since left-leaning Republican governments were seen to pose a major threat to the regime of António Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970), the dictatorial ruler of Portugal. The ensuing conflict, which would set the standard for Salazar’s political position with regard to other

(2021). Whaler versus Steamer: The pursuit of the Ville de Bordeaux, 1841. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 94-99.

(2021). New Research into the History, Theory and Practice of Naval Wargaming. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 100-103.

(2021). Sovereign of the Seas 1637: A reconstruction of the most powerful warship of its day. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 104-105.

(2021). The Master Shipwright’s Secrets: How Charles II built the Restoration navy. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 105-106.

(2021). The Stirling Castle, a 70-gun Ship Lost in the Great Storm of 1703: Archaeological investigations 1979–2009 The Maritime Archaeology Monograph, series 4. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 106-108.

(2021). Kendall’s Longitude. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 108-110.

(2021). Chasing the ‘Bounty’: The voyages of the ‘Pandora’ and the ‘Matavy’. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 110-112.

(2021). Stormflod 1825. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 112-113.

(2021). Leith-built Ships, vol. 1, They Once Were Shipbuilders. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 113-114.

(2021). Robert J. Walker: The history and archaeology of a U.S. Coast Survey steamship. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 114-116.

(2021). A Man for All Oceans: Captain Joshua Slocum and the first solo voyage around the world. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 116-117.

(2021). Great Britain, International Law, and the Evolution of Maritime Strategic Thought, 1856–1914. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 117-118.

(2021). Silver State Dreadnought: The remarkable story of battleship ‘Nevada’. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 118-120.

(2021). The Modern Cruiser: The evolution of the ships that fought the Second World War. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 120-121.

(2021). Warship 2020. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 122-123.

(2021). Mastermind of Dunkirk and D-Day: The vision of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. The Mariner's Mirror: Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 124-125.

This article considers the published writings of aircrew from RAF Coastal Command who served during the Second World War. While there has been extensive discussion about how the war was presented by flyers from other RAF commands, the accounts of the men who fought the maritime air war have received scant attention. This article shows how the war that these men remember was shaped by factors unique

In his post-war study of the First World War, The World In Crisis (vol. 1, 1911–14) the former First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, observed drily that during the ‘naval scare’ of 1909, ...

William George Hammock (1825–1912) wrote a memoir in 1905 he described as ‘a few rather random and out of the way jottings by an octogenarian engineer’. He worked first at the engineering works of Blyth’s of Limehouse before joining the Thames marine engineers J. & W. Dudgeon at the Sun Iron Works, Millwall in 1859 as manager of its engine works. Here he supervised the construction of the engines for

Admiral Sir James Somerville’s command of the Eastern Fleet in 1942 caused serious tensions in Anglo-American naval relations despite the admiral’s personal efforts to cultivate closer ties with the US Navy. Specifically, US Navy admirals such as Ernest King felt that while the US Navy had helped the Royal Navy in its hour of need, the favour was not returned by the British. Diverging assessments of

At the beginning of the First World War, Britain had to confront a phenomenal challenge. Faced with the indisputable British naval hegemony, Germany launched the cruiser warfare, using armed merchant ships as auxiliary cruisers, as its first offensive weapon in the economic war, attacking trade from the South Atlantic, through which much of the British supplies arrived. The objective of the German

PS Comet, Europe’s first commercial steamship, launched in 1812, was rebuilt to new dimensions in 1819 with improved machinery, and wrecked in 1820. These facts are known, but not very much accurate detail exists about its wrecking. Many books and articles on the Comet repeat the same basic information, in some cases with minor variations and ambiguities which only cloud the issue. This article focuses

The Griffin or, as it was sometimes called, Gribshunden (griffin hound) was a ship that belonged to the Danish–Norwegian King Hans. The ship sank in 1495 and was one of the largest and most modern warships of its day. In 2015 a peculiar figurehead carving was raised from the wreck. It is shaped like a beast swallowing a man screaming in agony. The question is, what this sculpture is meant to symbolize

Commissioned in 1943, the United States Ship Iowa was the lead ship of a class of six that were destined to be the very last US battleships; indeed only four of the class were subsequently built. F...

This is the eighth and final volume in a series begun in 2004 with an account of bones from the British Isles, and completes a gazetteer of the seven continents, plus an additional publication reco...

William Falconer is well known for his influential Universal Dictionary of the Marine. Less well known is that the Dictionary owed its origins to Falconer’s other claim to fame as a poet. The Shipwreck (1762) is a narrative of his personal experience of a voyage, notable for its density of nautical terminology, and extensive annotation, explaining the seafaring terminology and techniques for managing

Shortly after the conquest of Mexico, Cortes ordered the construction of a shipyard in Tehuantepec (Oaxaca), on the Pacific coast, known as El Carbón. This article examines a document dated to 1535 which provides the principal dimensions, tonnages, and construction characteristics of three navíos (ships) designed and built in this shipyard for Pacific Ocean navigation. The ships’ dimensions are given

he was recalled for further notable service. This began with his appointment as one of the two navy members on the Roberts Commission which investigated the responsibility for the losses at Pearl Harbor. Reeves agreed with the commission’s report that the army and navy commanders, General Short and Admiral Kimmel, had failed to adequately prepare their forces. His major wartime role was as head of

ports. The ports could not be closed without first pulling the loaded guns back inboard, which meant hauling them uphill against the increasing list of the ship. There was no way to close the ports in time, regardless of how the lids were operated, which makes the arrangement irrelevant to the sinking. A proper discussion of the ship’s stability requires much more than a calculation of the angle at

This article provides a comparative physical and cultural study of a cypress log sailing canoe and the plantation culture of nineteenth-century north-eastern Florida that created it. The author makes the argument that this and other vessels of similar construction represent a typology of log boat construction that was limited to Florida’s north-east during the mid- to late nineteenth century. These

During the eighteenth century, various British authors analysed the decline of Dutch naval power. Anticipating the politico-cultural frame of reference of the British political nation, they invoked the memory of the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch wars to dramatize the failure of Dutch sea power. They disagreed about the causes of this development, but seemed unanimous in their conviction that the

This article is a fundamental re-examination of the published work of John Clerk of Eldin and the influence it had on fleet commanders of the Royal Navy from 1782. While previous assessments have alluded to the potential for some influence, the general conclusion has been that any influence was limited; although some have dismissed it out of hand. For the first time there has been an opportunity to

and authority. Mutiny at the Nore, or British Sailors in 1797 (1830) is described by the editor as ‘this collection’s most controversial tale’ (vol. 1, p. 367) in its depiction of the ‘floating republic’ of the mutineers. Mutinies were an influential subject for melodrama, but at this time of the Reform Bill and debate about voting rights, the authors recognize that their audiences needed reassurance

This article considers sail training over a period of some 150 years, starting with its early nineteenth-century origins. It takes the first Tall Ships’ Race in 1956 as a key point, using the races as barometer thereafter for progress up to the 1980s, by which time the upward trend towards becoming global was well established. It shows that this has been a neglected area for research, tries to separate

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 improve the sailing ship, or they could design a vessel that employed steam as the primary source of power. In fact, the choice was not that straightforward. There was another alternative; to design (or

This study focuses on the Royal Navy’s use of American naval stores, especially New England masts, during the Seven Years War. It highlights the significance of the eastward naval logistics of American naval stores across the Atlantic, based on records revealing the navy’s constant effort to sustain these logistics in the British Atlantic world. Drawing on hitherto neglected official manuscripts relating

Robert Napier is often regarded as a great engineer and the ‘father of Clyde shipbuilding’. However, most commentators do not fairly represent the contribution of his chief engineer David Elder to the establishment of the reputation and success of Clyde shipbuilding and marine engineering in the mid-nineteenth century. Elder served as Napier’s works manager for over 30 years, before being dismissed

reports of land to the south of Cape Horn, it was Edward Bransfield whom he appointed in command, supported by three other navy men (master’s mate and two midshipmen). The fact that William Smith (the owner and original master) remained on board as an adviser/pilot has confused some authors, and as she notes this undoubtedly made for a difficult atmosphere. Bransfield’s voyage south from Valparaiso

It is a long-standing assumption that the colour scheme of British warships between 1775 and 1815 changed from yellow hulls, through the yellow and black Nelson chequer to the ubiquitous black and white; while the interiors and bulwarks were first painted red, then yellow ochre, then a range of light colours including green. In the light of recent debate on the authentic Trafalgar livery of HMS Victory

class, with details of modifications over time), Kittiwake (Kingfisher class), Whitley (V/W class, AA conversion), Beaufort (Hunt Type II), Lindisfarne (Isles class), Sir Kay (Round Table class), Coldstreamer (Military class), Camellia, Alisma, Zinnia, Buttercup, Arabis (Flower class, with additional drawings showing principal variations within class), Bridlington (Bangor class) and Rattlesnake (Algerine

Claims have been made for the establishment of an English royal navy in the twelfth century. This article offers a reappraisal of the documentary evidence to assess whether Richard the Lionheart or his younger brother John can be credited with creating this instrument of royal power. Their use of ships in warfare and the possession of vessels by the Crown was very similar. A small group of ships owned

War artist by more unusual means. After graduating from Edinburgh College of Art and becoming a commercial artist (employed primarily as an advertising illustrator), he eventually joined the British Merchant Navy as a radio operator. This was in 1940. His career at sea was to be short-lived for in March 1943 the ship he was serving on was torpedoed and sunk. Although initially declared ‘missing’, Plante

This article examines how the archaeological record of 33 U-boats sunk in the English Channel during the Inshore Campaign, June 1944 to May 1945, compares with the assessment of U-boat destructions made by the Admiralty’s Anti U-boat Division (AUBD) in 1946. Comparison of the two shows an accuracy rate of 57 per cent across the entire Inshore Campaign, compared to ASD’s overall accuracy rate in the

In 1553 the Edward Bonaventure set sail from England with two other ships to search for a Northeast Passage to Asia. Eventually the ship made it to the White Sea and the captain of the ship, Richard Chancellor, reached Moscow where he met Tsar Ivan IV, ‘the Terrible’, at the Kremlin. In 1554 the ship returned to England but was ‘robbed by Flemings’, according to Richard Hakluyt. The discovery of a

The Mary LK 981 is the oldest surviving Shetland-built boat. Detailed recording of surviving examples of Shetland’s boats has been rare, and where undertaken, has focused on analysing overall boat form rather than their biographies. However, previous work has been critiqued as too narrowly focused on hull form and the direct connection between Shetland’s small boats and their Norwegian (or even Norse)

During the British gunboat war against Denmark–Norway in the period 1808–13, the Danish island of Anholt posed a navigational hazard to Baltic convoys carrying strategic materials and manufactured goods through the Baltic. It also offered a secure supply of freshwater and an alternative anchorage to Wingo Sound. When the lighthouse marking the island and its reefs was extinguished, a Royal Navy invasion

This is a story of the hare and the tortoise. While the British hare started well ahead in the naval aviation race at the end of the First World War, political decisions and financial strictures undermined development so that by the Second World War it had been overtaken by the United States Navy (USN) tortoise, with an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) tortoise coming a close second. As the author asserts

The German High Seas Fleet’s sorties in strength after the battle of Jutland were few and inconclusive, but as a ‘fleet in being’ it remained a powerful threat. Britain’s Admiralty, alive to the tactical issues thrown up by Jutland’s titanic clash, was anxious to learn what had gone wrong. Luckily for the British, German veterans of the battle were progressively posted to U-boats and other units. As

This article seeks to explain the impact of the international shipping crisis of the 1970s on the Spanish shipbuilding industry (then the third biggest in Europe after Sweden and Germany) and the responses to the crisis given by the state and by shipyards. It contributes to the literature on the decline of merchant shipbuilding in Europe since the 1970s. Based on international production statistics

The Swedish warship Mars was considered to have been one of the largest ships in the world when it exploded and sank in 1564. The problem is that no written accounts clearly reveal its dimensions. This article reviews how different researchers have discussed the size of Mars in the past. It also aims to shed new light on this topic by using information from the archaeological survey carried out at

Since the 1960s Denmark has become internationally renowned for its architecture and design output. The work of Danish modernist architects and designers working on terra firma is very well known, but very little has been written about their influence on the design of merchant ships. This article examines the manifestation of Danish architectural modernism in the interior design of Danish and other

William Crickmay was the purser of five Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ships from 1854 to 1858. These ships provided mail services from Southampton to St Thomas and Rio de Janeiro, and thence to local ports of call. His third ship, the Orinoco, chartered for war service, voyaged to and from Portsmouth to the Crimean war zone. After the war it returned to the St Thomas route. During Crickmay’s last

When in February 1917 Germany started the unrestricted submarine campaign, the number of merchant ships sunken by U-boats increased, reaching its peak in April that year. From that time the number of vessels sunk started to decrease. However, a more detailed study of the number of ships sunk while navigating the area between the north Iberian peninsula and the Portuguese-held archipelagos of the Azores

By 1790 the Post Office ran a service using mail coaches and sailing packets that was fast, safe and reliable. High postal rates, however, restricted its use to merchants and the more affluent, and there were no special arrangements for the armed services. In 1795 this changed. Recognizing the benefits to morale, the authorities introduced a scheme whereby soldiers and sailors could send and receive