Archive Results For: Indian Ocean
The Finest Invention in the World: the Royal Navy’s Early Trials of Copper Sheathing, 1708-1770
For wooden vessels venturing into warmer waters it would not be until the advent of the steel hull that their nemesis ‘The Worm’ – Teredo Navalis – would be a thing of the past. In this article the author details early experiments by the Royal Navy to limit the worm’s destructive effects to a ship’s […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Mediterranean | Indian Ocean | Caribbean
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Navies | Shipbuilding & Design
Documents: The Taking of Geeriah Fort and Town 1756 Amphibious Operations in Indian Waters
This is a transcript of a manuscript in the Indian papers of Christopher Henrik Braad (1728-81). McGonen (or McGovern or McGowan), its signatory, was an observer on board HMS Kent and on shore with troops. Well informed on points of military detail, he seems to be a soldier. In the account of the attack on […] Read More
Filed under: Seven Years’ War | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies
Lord Melville, the Admiralty and the Coming of Steam Navigation
In the 1820s and early 1830s Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Lord Melville andFirst Lord of the Admiralty, and Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin, Comptroller/Controller of the Navy, executed a secret plan to buy up the latest steam engines. Knowing also that steam could not be introduced at sea until sufficient stockpiles of coal existed, […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | English Channel | Mediterranean | Other (Nineteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Administration | Logistics
Note: Herodotus 4.42, the Sun Direction
A discussion of the report by Herodotus that Africa had been cicumnavigated by the Phoenicians. Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Antiquity | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Miscellaneous | Science & Exploration
The Mysterious Hulc
The study of the development and structure of medieval ships has for many years relied on iconographic evidence and the hulc in particular has proved different from other types with its characteristic dish like shape and ‘reversed’ clinker construction. Any recognised remains have yet to be found in Europe but various forms, some very close […] Read More
Filed under: Baltic | English Channel | Medieval | North Sea | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design
Document: Get a Haircut!
In November 1912 Captain Hughes-Onslow, Second Naval Member of the Australian Naval Board, inspected the Royal Australian Navy’s Williamstown Naval Depot. Although generally satisfied with what he found he was critical of a number of aspects of the base and its personnel. His greatest concern was the length of the men’s hair which he demanded […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Twentieth C) | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Administration | Navies
Seychelles Schooners: a Retrospect
A detailed account and short essay of the sailing schooners trading general cargo amongst the island archipelago of the Seychelles group. The vessels listed were locally built with regard to specialised local conditions experienced in the region. Read More
Filed under: Other (Twentieth C) | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Shipbuilding & Design
Note: The Short and Active Life of a Brig-sloop at war: HMS Wolverine 1798-1804
An account of the furious reistance put up by this remarkable ship’s captains and crew in a succession of assaults by numerous larger assailants. Read More
Filed under: Napoleonic War | Atlantic | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics
The Straits of Hormuz Fleets: Omani-Portuguese Naval Rivalry and Encounters, c.1660-1680
Portuguese trade with Asia was outperformed by the Dutch during the seventeenth century but there was a localised resurgence in the Arabian Sea and in East Africa during the later part of the period. The main opposition to the Portuguese, whose strength centred on Goa, came from a powerful Omani Arab state. Conflict continued throughout […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Early Modern) | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Merchant Marines | Navies
Note: Early Dutch Steamships in Eastern Waters.
These vessels and their owners are described as a follow-up to the MM article in 1995/3 by Colin Bains. Read More
Filed under: Other (Nineteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Merchant Marines