Archive Results For: Atlantic
Book Review: ‘Mutiny on the Spanish Main: HMS ‘Hermione’ and the Royal Navy’s revenge’ by A. Konstam,
The Hermione mutiny needs little introduction to those interested in the social history of the Royal Navy. It was the most notorious, most bloody and probably the most ruthlessly punished mutiny suffered by the navy. The Spithead and Nore mutinies in May and June 1797 might have been greater in scale and important for the […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Eighteenth Century | Nineteenth Century
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Manpower & Life at Sea
Note: George Camocke’s 1718 Proposal of a Jacobite–Pirate Alliance
Following Marcus Rediker noting a curious link between Jacobitism and the ‘Golden Age’ of Caribbean piracy, many works in the past decade have drawn attention to a proposal by George Camocke in 1718 to ally the Jacobites in Europe with the pirates in the Bahama islands in support of the exiled Stuart monarchy.1 The plan, […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Eighteenth C)
Subjects include: Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers | Strategy & Diplomacy
Driven Mad by the Sea Serpent: The strange case of Captain George Drevar
In 1881 George Drevar, a merchant captain who had survived a shipwreck in the Cape Verde Islands, was tried at the Old Bailey for libel and threatening the life of the Commissioner of Wreck, Henry Cadogan Rothery, in part because of a disagreement over the existence of the great sea serpent. This article explains the […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Nineteenth C)
Subjects include: Biography | Miscellaneous
The Fourth Duke of Portland’s Pantaloon (1831–1852): Private yacht, experimental ‘brig sloop of war’ and slave-ship hunter
The launch of the 323-ton private brig rigged yacht Pantaloon at Troon in 1831 for the Duke of Portland, marks the opening of the final and contentious ‘Symonds’ era in British wooden hull naval architecture. Designed for the duke by Captain William Symonds RN it was immediately acquired by the Royal Navy as a fast […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Nineteenth C)
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design
Some Considerations on the Causes of Mutiny Among Privateer Ships of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, 1815–1821
The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata used privateers during their war for independence against the Spanish crown. At first, this activity was limited to the River Plate, but in 1815 privateering became maritime, taking the offensive to the Spanish trade routes in the Atlantic and the Pacific. This way of waging war […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Nineteenth C)
Subjects include: Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers
The Monster from Elba: Napoleon’s escape reconsidered
This article argues that historians have overlooked and underplayed a major British strategic error, namely that Napoleon’s escape from Elba in February 1815 was a preventable calamity that put the hard-won victory of the sixth coalition at risk. It had the potential to change the course of history because the allied victory at Waterloo was […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Napoleonic War
Subjects include: Strategy & Diplomacy
‘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