Gabriel Bray embarked as a lieutenant for the voyage of HMS Pallas to the West coast of Africa and Jamaica in 1774-1775. He left behind an album of seventy-five drawings of that cruise, which ...

This episode looks at the extraordinary maritime history of Scarborough, a port town on the UK’s northeastern coast. Famed for its medieval herring fair that features in Simon and Garfunkel’s 1960s ...

The construction of built-up guns has been conjectural until their recovery from the Mary Rose, but examples of cannon from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands are available for study. The article ...

The preamble to the 1866 Naval Discipline Act, which incorporates the Articles of War reads: “The Navy whereon, under the good Providence of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of the Kingdom ...

In this article the author explores Spain’s approach to naval recruitment during the 18th century. In an effort to increase the number of mariners in its service without resorting primarily to the use ...

The practice of beaching seafaring ships in the ancient Mediterranean is a widely accepted phenomenon. This paper examines the evidence for beaching and outlines the various methods, tools and ...

The first dock constructed in the United Kingdom was the Howland Great Wet Dock at Rotherhithe, built sometime before 1703 when it was first recorded as being in use. Shown in the accompanying ...

In the early Victorian period, the Royal Navy built scores of small, wooden, steam-and-sail-powered gunboats, each carrying a pair of 32-pounder guns on traversing carriages. The success of these ...

The records of the Society of Merchant Venturers, who retained control of pilotage for two and a half centuries from 1611, have yet to be examined in detail, but it is known that Bristol Corporation ...

Cook’s voyages played a significant part in the history of science and were supported by initially the Royal Society and later by the Board of Longitude. Astronomers, naturalists and artists went on ...

This article is a detailed study of the costs involved in building warships of the period. It is based on Progress Books One, Two and Five. Direct comparisons between the costs of different vessels ...

It is a long-standing assumption that the colour scheme of British warships between 1775 and 1815 changed from yellow hulls, through the yellow and black Nelson chequer to the ubiquitous black and ...