Archive Results For: North Sea
Forgotten Memoirs: The Second World War as remembered by the Aircrew of RAF Coastal Command
This article considers the published writings of aircrew from RAF Coastal Command who served during the Second World War. While there has been extensive discussion about how the war was presented by flyers from other RAF commands, the accounts of the men who fought the maritime air war have received scant attention. This article shows […] Read More
Filed under: English Channel | North Sea | WW2
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Harbours & Dockyards | Naval Aviation | Strategy & Diplomacy
Neutral Waters? British Diplomacy of Force in the Canary Islands at the Start of the First World War
At the beginning of the First World War, Britain had to confront a phenomenal challenge. Faced with the indisputable British naval hegemony, Germany launched the cruiser warfare, using armed merchant ships as auxiliary cruisers, as its first offensive weapon in the economic war, attacking trade from the South Atlantic, through which much of the British […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Baltic | WW1 | English Channel | North Sea
Subjects include: Strategy & Diplomacy
Dutch Naval Decline and British Sea-power Identity in the Eighteenth Century
During the eighteenth century, various British authors analysed the decline of Dutch naval power. Anticipating the politico-cultural frame of reference of the British political nation, they invoked the memory of the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch wars to dramatize the failure of Dutch sea power. They disagreed about the causes of this development, but seemed unanimous in their […] Read More
Filed under: Dutch Wars | North Sea
Subjects include: Strategy & Diplomacy
An Ethnography of Shetland’s Oldest Boat, the Sixareen Mary LK 981
The Mary LK 981 is the oldest surviving Shetland-built boat. Detailed recording of surviving examples of Shetland’s boats has been rare, and where undertaken, has focused on analysing overall boat form rather than their biographies. However, previous work has been critiqued as too narrowly focused on hull form and the direct connection between Shetland’s small boats and […] Read More
Filed under: North Sea | Other (Nineteenth C)
Subjects include: Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration | Shipbuilding & Design
The Battle of Jutland, Through a Looking-glass
The German High Seas Fleet’s sorties in strength after the battle of Jutland were few and inconclusive, but as a ‘fleet in being’ it remained a powerful threat. Britain’s Admiralty, alive to the tactical issues thrown up by Jutland’s titanic clash, was anxious to learn what had gone wrong. Luckily for the British, German veterans […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | North Sea | Jutland
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics
‘Breaching Neutrality’: English prize-taking and Swedish neutrality in the First Anglo-Dutch War, 1651–1654
This article considers the impact of English seizure of neutral Swedish vessels during the First Anglo-Dutch War, 1651–4. These actions were undertaken at a time when no bilateral diplomatic treaty existed between the two nations and thus the legal basis for such prize-taking was hotly disputed on both sides. Through an examination of extant sources […] Read More
Filed under: Dutch Wars | North Sea
Subjects include: Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
A Model of HMS Vindictive as Fitted for the Zeebrugge Raid, 1918
HMS Vindictive’s role in the Zeebrugge raid on St George’s day 1918 is well known to First World War naval historians but details of her conversion for the event are difficult to ascertain. The work carried out at Chatham dockyard prior to the raid was shrouded in secrecy with very few details being recorded at […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | North Sea
Subjects include: Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration | Navies | Ship Models & Figureheads
The Battle of Jutland’s Heritage Under Threat: Commercial salvage on the shipwrecks as observed 2000 to 2016
This paper presents the most recent ndings up to August 2016 of the extent to which the shipwrecks from the battle of Jutland have been exposed to salvage for metals. Commercial salvage of the wrecks is not new and archival research has traced salvage activity as far back as 1960. However over the last 15 […] Read More
Filed under: North Sea | Other (Twentieth C) | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Miscellaneous | Navies
Writing the Battle: Jutland in Sir Julian Corbett’s Naval Operations
This article examines the origins, development and purpose of Sir Julian Corbett’s account of the controversial battle of Jutland. Naval Operations is seen as an extended analysis of how British strategy was intended to work and why it had failed on this occasion. The argument was carefully constructed to explain the failure without challenging the […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | North Sea
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Biography | Navies
The Jutland Paradox: A keynote address
The battle of Jutland was a paradox, a massive naval engagement with little result. Thousands of men were lost in an indecisive clash that settled nothing. This account sets out its author’s interpretation of the battle. Key reasons for the battle being indecisive were the contrasting characters of the British Grand Fleet’s commanders. Admiral Jellicoe, […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | North Sea
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies