Archive Results For: Other (Twentieth C)
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 -‘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
Review – ‘Britain and the Mine, 1900–1915: Culture, strategy and international law’ by Matthew S. Seligmann
Underwater weapons – specifically, mines and torpedoes – have had a profound influence on twentieth-century naval warfare. Despite this, studies of them to date have not been all they might be. Richard Dunley seeks to rectify this in respect of the mine with a major evaluation of its place in Royal Navy thinking and planning […] Read More
Filed under: English Channel | Period | North Sea | Other (Twentieth C) | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Miscellaneous | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy | Weapons
Review – ‘The Portuguese in the Creole Indian Ocean: Essays in historical cosmopolitanism’ by Markus Vink
Using the work of French Réunion historian Françoise Vergès, ‘Indian-Oceanic Creolizations: Processes and practices of creolization on Réunion Island’ (in C. Stewart, Creolization: History, ethnography, theory Walnut Creek ca, 2007, 133–52) as an entry point, Fernando Rosa, a research affiliate in the English department at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and self-described ‘displaced Brazilian scholar’ (p. 39), presents […] Read More
Filed under: Early Modern | Eighteenth Century | Other (Early Modern) | Other (Twentieth C) | Nineteenth Century | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Miscellaneous
Book Review – ‘Allan Sekula: Okeanos’ by Christiaan de Beukelaer
OKEANOS is a posthumous solo-exhibition of Allan Sekula’s maritime-themed œuvre. Allan Sekula (1951–2013), an American documentary photographer and theorist worked on an array of topics and themes. But one of the most significant foci of his work remains the political economy of seafaring. The book OKEANOS illustrates, documents, and discusses several projects that focus on shipping in […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Twentieth C) | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Biography | Manpower & Life at Sea | Miscellaneous
Book Review – ‘US Naval Strategy and National Security: The Evolution of American Maritime Power’ by Eric Grove
Dr Sebastian Bruns is head of the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security at the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel. Together with the American Center for Naval Analyses he founded the annual Kiel International Seapower Symposium and associated workshop during Kiel Week in June and was co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of […] Read More
Filed under: Period | Other (Twentieth C) | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘Liverpool Docks: A short history’ by Martin Bellamy
Much has been written on Liverpool’s docks in recent years, particularly through the ground- breaking work of Adrian Jarvis. A welcome addition to this would be a short publicly accessible survey that provided non-specialist readers with a useful introduction. I think that was the intention of this new book (by David Paul). A recent trip […] Read More
Filed under: Irish Sea | Eighteenth Century | Other (Twentieth C) | Nineteenth Century | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards
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 – ‘British Box Business: A history of OCL’ by René Taudal Poulsen
In the 1950s container shipping was pioneered by US and Australian companies in their domestic trades, and by the mid-1960s it diffused internationally. In order to ensure survival, European shipping lines with strongholds in most liner trades were forced to respond quickly. They became second movers in the process of innovation. British Box Business focuses on […] Read More
Filed under: Post WW2 | Other (Twentieth C)
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Shipbuilding & Design
Book Review -‘The Luckiest Thirteen: The forgotten story of the men of St Finbarr – a trawler crew’s battle in the Arctic’ by Frank Scott
Brian W. Lavery has followed up The Headscarf Revolutionaries, his account of the ‘Hull Triple-Trawler Tragedy’ of 1968, with this story of an earlier Hull trawler tragedy. This time the vessel involved was one of the most modern in the fleet, a stern trawler that had revolutionized British fishing by allowing the entire catch to be […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Twentieth C)
Subjects include: Manpower & Life at Sea | Whaling & Fishing
Book Review-‘Jimmy Reid: A Clyde-built man’ by W. W. J. Knox and A. McKinlay
n studying the history of the Clyde, one is amazed at the numbers of the ‘great and the good’ who enabled this river to produce more than 30,000 ships in a mere 200 years. This list encompasses naval architects, marine engineers and shipbuilders – most with academic training and some others who had worked their […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Twentieth C)
Subjects include: Biography | Shipbuilding & Design