Archive Results For: English Channel
Book Review-‘Catastrophe at Spithead: The sinking of the ‘Royal George’’ by H. L. Rubinstein
Hilary Rubinstein’s in-depth research has successfully collated all the relevant information to explain why the 100-gun Royal George should have foundered on 29 August 1782 while at anchor between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. Certainly, to the many witnesses it was beyond belief that she could just disappear with only her mast visible in […] Read More
Filed under: English Channel | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Miscellaneous
Book Review: ‘The Other Norfolk Admirals: Myngs, Narbrough and Shovell’ by Sam McLean
In this book retired consultant anaesthetist Simon Harris discusses the careers of three important Royal Navy flag officers in the period 1660 to 1707: Christopher Myngs, John Narborough (or Narbrough) and Cloudesley Shovell. The book begins with a short description of the lives of the three admirals before they joined the Royal Navy; however it […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | English Channel | Period | Eighteenth Century | Other (Early Modern)
Subjects include: Biography | Navies
Book Review – ‘The Royal Navy Lynx: An operational history’ by David Bowen
The naval version of the Lynx helicopter operated by the Royal Navy has this year (1918) been withdrawn after 40 years of distinguished service. Moreover, it is ‘an aircraft that has never really had its praises sung’, so an account is not only timely but long overdue. One may ask why a book about an […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | English Channel | North Sea | Post WW2 | Indian Ocean | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Miscellaneous | Naval Aviation
Book Review – ‘French Battleships of World War One’ by Andrew Lambert
This book is the prequel to John Jordan’s French Battleships 1922–1956 of 2009, written with Robert Dumas. Anyone who has read that superb book will know what to expect. This time Philippe Caresse shares the writing credits. The opening section examines French naval policy and capital ship procurement after the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | WW1 | English Channel | Interwar | WW2 | Mediterranean | Nineteenth Century | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Navies | Shipbuilding & Design
Book Review – ‘I Hope to Have a Good Passage: The business letters of Captain Daniel Jenkins, 1902–11’ by J. D. Davies
David Jenkins, the former principal curator of the transport collections at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, has done a splendid job of editing this remarkable collection of documents, and placing them before a wider audience. Daniel Jenkins (1871–1922; apparently no relation of the editor) was born in the village of Aberporth on Cardigan Bay, […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | English Channel | Irish Sea | Mediterranean | Other (Twentieth C) | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Biography | Harbours & Dockyards | Manpower & Life at Sea | Merchant Marines
Book Review – ‘The Sea in History: The modern world’ by Steven Gray
This tome forms a substantial finale to the four volume Sea in History series, a result of the huge Oceanides project. It is an 848-page behemoth, with a contributor list that reads like a who’s who of modern naval history, and indeed beyond the field. It is therefore appropriate that the volume is edited by a scholar as distinguished […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Baltic | English Channel | North Sea | Irish Sea | Mediterranean | Nineteenth Century | Indian Ocean | Caribbean | Pacific
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Manpower & Life at Sea | Merchant Marines | Miscellaneous | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘Far Distant Ships: The blockade of Brest, 1793–1815’ by Thomas Malcomson
Quintin Barry’s book the different approaches used by the British of blockading the Atlantic ports of France and its allies during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The contents cover an area from Cadiz in the south to the Texel in the north, and west to Ireland. It provides a good introduction to the challenges […] Read More
Filed under: English Channel | North Sea | Irish Sea
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies
Book Review-‘North Sea War 1914–1919’ by R. Malster
The title of this book is somewhat misleading because readers, expecting perhaps another account of the clashes of the British and German battle fleets or a far-ranging analysis of how naval and air operations in the North Sea theatre influenced the outcome of the First World War, will feel disappointed. Instead Robert Malster, author of […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | English Channel | North Sea
Subjects include: Navies
Book Review – ‘’Formidable’: A true story of disaster and courage’ by Robert J. C. Mowat
In the opening hours of 1915 the pre-Dreadnought battleship HMS Formidable was lost to torpedo attacks by the German submarine U-24 while off Portland Bill. A clear parallel to the loss of HMS Royal Oak 24 years later, it is of comparable significance. The sinking, however, has apparently not previously been the subject of specific scholarly study, but this book does […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | English Channel | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Submarines
Book Review – ‘The Raid on Zeebrugge: 23rd of April 1918, as seen through the eyes of Captain Alfred Carpenter, VC’ by David Bowen
The story of this raid is well known – a bold attempt to block a major U-boat base and interrupt successful predations in the English Channel at the very end of the First World War. In this book we have, illuminated before us, the very lantern slides used to illustrate postwar talks by one of […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | English Channel
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Harbours & Dockyards | Navies | Submarines