Archive Results For: Arctic
Book Review-‘After the Lost Franklin Expedition: Lady Franklin and John Rae’ by P. Baxter
It seems that Dr John Rae is a popular fellow, as on the back of his unfinished autobiography comes this new book by Peter Baxter. To recap the story, it contrasts the adventures of the Orkney-born Arctic explorer, Rae (1813–93), and veteran Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. It was Rae who first discovered the fate […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Nineteenth C) | Arctic
Subjects include: Science & Exploration
Book Review-‘Scottish Arctic Whaling’ by C. W. Sanger
Sanger has published extensively on the subject of whaling and sealing and this volume shows an author in complete command of his sources. Utilizing diaries, logs and records of catches he gives us a narrative which reveals the hazards of the northern fishery, with frostbite, scurvy and death being a constant threat. With tremendous skill, […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Nineteenth C) | Arctic
Subjects include: Whaling & Fishing
Book Review – ‘The Fleet Book of the Alaska Packers Association, 1893–1945: An historical overview and list’ by Paul O’Brien
Donald H. Dyal offers a detailed and exhaustive account of a relatively obscure American industry which emerged in the late nineteenth century and rose to considerable prominence by the mid-twentieth century. Dyal draws most of the detail from the surviving (though incomplete) series of fleet books preserved in various repositories throughout Alaska. The illustrated volume […] Read More
Filed under: Nineteenth Century | Pacific | Arctic
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Manpower & Life at Sea | Whaling & Fishing
Book Review – ‘Total Germany: The Royal Navy’s war against the Axis powers 1939–1945’ by Derek Law
David Wragg is a hugely prolific author, having produced some 150 monographs in the last 40 years on everything from railways to the RAF. This 250-page volume is aimed at the general reader and gives a brief history of the Royal Navy at war. Inevitably it focuses on major events which are in general described […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | English Channel | North Sea | Mediterranean | Indian Ocean | Pacific | Arctic
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Submarines
Book Review – ‘Discovering the North-West Passage: The four-year Arctic odyssey of H.M.S. ‘Investigator’ and the McClure Expedition’ by Richard L. Bland
In 1845 Sir John Franklin set out in command of the ships Erebus and Terror to discover the Northwest Passage. As the years passed without word from Franklin, increasing anxiety rose about the fate of the expedition. Rescue missions were sent out to find the missing ships. One of those missions, departing England in 1850, consisted of the ships Enterprise and Investigator, […] Read More
Filed under: Arctic
Subjects include: Navies | Science & Exploration
Book Review – ‘Far Horizons: From Hull to the ends of the world’ by Robb Robinson
Hull has a long history as one of Britain’s major port cities and as such has not been neglected as a subject for historical study. Joyce Bellamy, Mike Brown, Ralph Davis, Wendy Childs, Gordon Jackson, David J. Starkey and Donald Woodward, as also Robb Robinson himself, are just a few of the specialists who have […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | North Sea | Twentieth Century | Arctic
Subjects include: Biography | Harbours & Dockyards | Miscellaneous
The Politics of Liverpool’s Northern Whaling Trade, 1750–1823
Whaling is a largely under-researched aspect of Georgian Liverpool’s maritime heritage. Nevertheless, some broad features of this trade are known. Indeed, Liverpool began sending whaling vessels to the Arctic in 1750, but by 1823 this trade had effectively collapsed at the port. However, there is one area in particular that has been especially overlooked by […] Read More
Filed under: Eighteenth Century | Nineteenth Century | Arctic
Subjects include: Whaling & Fishing
The Role of Foreign Experts in the Revival of Scottish Northern Whaling: 1750-1784
Occasional voyages were made by the British to engage in Northern Whaling from the 1630s but the trade only entered a period of rapid expansion from 1750 until, by 1823, the Scots had become the principal suppliers of Arctic whale products. Scottish companies hired experienced Dutch whalers to assist them from 1750 and then in […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Arctic
Subjects include: Whaling & Fishing
Health and Safety in the British Deep-Sea Trawl Fisheries in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
The paper makes comparisons between the working conditions for those working in deep sea trawlers especially apprentices in the late nineteenth century and the second half of the twentieth century. In the earlier period sailing smacks made up the majority of the fleet especially at Hull and Grimsby. Apprentices were used as crewmen and many […] Read More
Filed under: English Channel | North Sea | Other (Twentieth C) | Other (Nineteenth C) | Arctic
Subjects include: Manpower & Life at Sea | Shipbuilding & Design | Whaling & Fishing
Note: A Newly Discovered Arctic Whaling Journal of 1774
The discovery of a rare journal of a whaling voyage provides details of a voyage which would otherwise be unrecorded. Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Arctic
Subjects include: Whaling & Fishing
‘Handsome Willie May’: a Reappraisal
Willie May (1849-1930) has been accused by historians of vanity, incompetence and unpopularity. His career spanned the sailing and “steam and torpedo” Navy. It merits reappraisal. Promoted methodically from sea duties, experimental vessels, European naval attache, royal yachts and the newest battleship, May acquired considerable experience and fame. Curiously, most of May’s appointments were relinquished […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | English Channel | North Sea | Mediterranean | Indian Ocean | Arctic
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Biography | Navies | Science & Exploration | Ship Handling & Seamanship | Submarines | Weapons
Coopers and Casks in the Whaling Trade 1800-1850
Most whale oil casks were fairly large which meant the staves were bigger, more numerous and the cask correspondingly more difficult to assemble. ‘A cooper at large work is an old man… at forty… his physical energies then are nearly all exhausted’, said one experienced cooper in 1850. The years they spent stooping over their […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | High Middle Ages | Other (Early Modern) | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Shipwrecks | Arctic | Other (location)
Subjects include: Archaeology | Harbours & Dockyards | Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration | Whaling & Fishing