Archive Results For: WW1
Book Review – ‘The Royal Navy and the German Threat 1901–1914: Admiralty plans to protect British trade in a war against Germany’ by Matthew S. Seligmann
The history of British naval policy at the start of the twentieth century has been keenly contested in recent years; Matthew Seligmann’s contribution to the debate takes its courage from close examination of the archival source on an aspect which has been largely neglected by previous scholarly efforts: the Admiralty’s engagement with the challenge of […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | WW1 | English Channel | North Sea | Irish Sea | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | 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
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
The Convoy System in the Mid-Atlantic, 1917–1918
When in February 1917 Germany started the unrestricted submarine campaign, the number of merchant ships sunken by U-boats increased, reaching its peak in April that year. From that time the number of vessels sunk started to decrease. However, a more detailed study of the number of ships sunk while navigating the area between the north […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | WW1
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Submarines
Articles The Archaeology of First World War U-boat Losses in the English Channel and its Impact on the Historical Record
This article examines how the archaeological record of 35 known U-boats sunk in the English Channel in the First World War compares with the assessment of U-boat destructions made by the Admiralty’s Antisubmarine Division (ASD) in 1919. Comparison of the two shows that only 48 per cent of the 37 assessments were correct. This divergence […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | WW2
Subjects include: Archaeology | Navies | Submarines
The Operational Impact of the Loss of HMS Paragon in the Straits of Dover, 17 March 1917
In early 1917, the torpedo boat destroyer HMS Paragon was part of the Dover Patrol, then subject to repeated raids by German destroyers. Its history is normally consigned to a few, often inaccurate, short sentences, in which it is implied that it had an almost supine role in the action in which it was lost. This article […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | English Channel | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Navies
HM Steam Yacht Venetia: A luxury yacht in Royal Navy service, 1914–1919
This article tells the story of the steam yacht Venetia as seen through the experiences of its fireman, Edward Beckwith. Originally a luxury yacht, Venetia was handed over to the Admiralty in 1914 and took part in the Northern Patrol based in Kirkwall before transferring to Falmouth to take on patrol duties in the Western Approaches to the English […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | English Channel
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Navies
Documents. Two sets of fighting instructions, 1914
The two sets of tactical instructions relate to the defeat at the Battle of Coronel of Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock. Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | WW1
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies
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
Note: Engineer Captain Nikolai Saczkowski and the Yenisei
This description of the careers of Engineer Captain Saczkowski and the Yenisei illuminate the period at the start of the first World War when British submarines assisted the Russian Baltic fleet. Read More
Filed under: Baltic | WW1
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Submarines