Archive Results For: Atlantic
‘One Torpedo, One Ship’: An appraisal of Otto Kretschmer’s U-boat tactics, 1939–1941
Otto Kretschmer was the most successful U-boat commander of the Second World War. While his wartime actions have been narrated several times, his tactics, summarized by the famous motto ‘one torpedo, one ship’, have never been systematically analysed. In this work, Kretschmer’s success is appraised through the analysis of the key characteristics of his attacks, […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | WW2
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Submarines
The Fishing Sector in the Atlantic Oceanic Islands and its Role in the Economy of the Canarian Archipelago under the Ancien Régime
Commercial fishing has played a critical role in the economy of the different islands of the Atlantic Ocean and those in the Canarian Archipelago in particular. In fact, one of the motives behind the European colonization of the Canaries was to exploit the fishing grounds of the Saharan Bank to satisfy part of the nutritional […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic
Subjects include: Whaling & Fishing
Portugal and the Spanish Civil War at Sea, 1936–1939
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 […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Interwar
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
Abolition, the West India Colonies and the Troubling Case of Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, 1807–1823
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 […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic
Subjects include: Administration | Biography | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘The New Coastal History: Cultural and environmental perspectives from Scotland and beyond’ by Jamin Wells
Our coasts matter. They are among the most populated, sought after, contested, and dynamic landscapes in the world. They are also among the least understood, at least by historians. The 17 essays in David Worthington’s tightly edited volume, begin to fill this gap in the scholarship while making an impassioned case for readers to ‘accept […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Period | North Sea | Irish Sea | Eighteenth Century | Other (Twentieth C) | Nineteenth Century | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Administration | Harbours & Dockyards | Miscellaneous
Book Review – ‘U-boat Ace: The story of Wolfgang Lüth; Teddy Suhren Ace of Aces: Memoirs of a U-boat rebel; U-boat 977: The true story of the U-Boat that escaped to Argentina’ by David Bowen
This is a small wolf pack of U-boat books which share a number of similarities. They all come from the Pen and Sword stable, share a high production quality and are new editions of works already published … Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | English Channel | Period | North Sea | WW2 | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Biography | Submarines
Book Review -‘Progressives in Navy Blue: Maritime strategy, American empire and the transformation of US naval identity 1873–1998’ by Eric Grove
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the United States navy was transformed. The ‘old navy’ of wooden cruisers devoted to constabulary duties and monitors to be mobilized for coast defence was transformed into a steel navy primarily organized for war. Its capabilities were demonstrated against Spain in 1898. This has traditionally been seen […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | WW1 | Interwar | WW2 | Other (Twentieth C) | Nineteenth Century | Other (Nineteenth C) | Pacific
Subjects include: Navies | Shipbuilding & Design | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘Forty Years Master: A life in sail and steam’ by Frank Scott
The title of this autobiography, Forty Years Master, sums up the dominating theme in Killman’s recollections: being in command of a merchant ship for four decades. This is also its structure, ship by ship, and the style, ‘authoritative’. The autobiographical text occupies 250 pages, and the remaining 100 pages are taken up the editorial team, […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Twentieth C) | Nineteenth Century | Other (Nineteenth C) | Twentieth Century | Pacific
Subjects include: Biography | Merchant Marines
Book Review – ‘Around Cape Horn Once More: The story of the French clipper ship ‘Montebello’’ by Frank Scott
This book centres on the life of the French barque Montebello (2,284 grt) from launch in October 1900 until it was wrecked in November 1906. The use of old postcards to illustrate places mentioned in the text works well, and the wreck photographs of the Montebello and Croisset are suitably poignant. However, the author, Paul Simpson, writes throughout […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | English Channel | Other (Twentieth C) | Twentieth Century | Pacific
Subjects include: Biography | Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration | Miscellaneous
Book Review – ‘People, Place, and Power on the Nineteenth-Century Waterfront: Sailortown’ by Isaac Land
This book is the first serious effort to synthesize the disparate studies on this topic and relate it to larger interpretive frameworks. Readers will find rich, vivid accounts here of the costs and benefits of desertion, of boarding houses reputable and otherwise, and of efforts to investigate and reform the waterfront. Although Graeme J. Milne […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Manpower & Life at Sea | Miscellaneous
Book Review – ‘The First Atlantic Liner: Brunel’s Great Western steamship’ by W. Mark Hamilton
Helen Doe has written a marvellous new book on the early years of transatlantic passenger traffic, with special reference to the Great Western steamship. Her examination is from the perspective of the cultural and social historian and not the technical maritime specialist, but the reader is informed of the numerous technical challenges of early steamship travel. The Great […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Nineteenth Century | Other (Nineteenth C)
Subjects include: Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration | Manpower & Life at Sea | Ocean Liners & Passenger Craft
Book Review – ‘The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker dwarf who became the first revolutionary abolitionist’ by Johan Francke
Marcus Rediker, Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh and Senior Research Fellow at the Collège d’études mondiales/Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme in Paris, encountered the remarkable story of the abolitionist Benjamin Lay while working on The Many Headed Hydra, reading Lay’s magnum opus All Slave-Keepers that Keep the Innocent in Bondage, […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Eighteenth Century | Other (Eighteenth C) | Caribbean
Subjects include: Biography | Miscellaneous