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The Bayonnaise and HMS Ambuscade action, 1798
In this blog, and later on my website, I have dealt several times with single-ship actions during the Age of Fighting Sail (see links at the end of this article), the protagonists being mainly British...
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Discipline, heroism and survival: HMS Alceste, 1817
The aftermath of the wreck of the French frigate Medusa in 1816 is widely regarded as one of the most horrible events in maritime history. Abandoned on an overloaded raft by officers and crew who took...
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Trawlers at War in the North Sea, May-June 1915
A hundred years this month the sinking by German U-boats of three large ships, one civilian, two naval, alerted the world to the fact that the submarine was now a serious menace. A mere decade before...
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The Shortest War in History: Zanzibar 1896
The island of Zanzibar, off the coast of modern Tanzania, was to be the scene in 1896 of what has been described as “The Shortest War in History”. It lasted a mere 38 minutes but in this short period...
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HMS Charybdis to the rescue, 1841
When reading about the Royal Navy in the 19thCentury one never ceases to be amazed by the degree of autonomy accorded to ships’ commanders, even of relatively junior rank, and the willingness of both...
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Romans: River Trade and Warfare
It is my pleasure this week to introduce a guest blog by my friend and fellow-novelist Alison Morton. She is known for her innovative - and highly credible - alternate-universe thrillers, in which a...
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Massacre at Sea: Royal Edward and UB-14, 1915
In both World Wars the greatest danger many troops faced, especially if they were in support or non-frontline roles, may well have been that of sinking of their transports. It is a tribute to the...
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The Bombardment of Odessa 1854
The Crimean War (1854-56) in which Britain, France, Turkey and Piedmont took on Russia is generally thought of in terms of the operations in the Crimea itself. Most notable of these were the Siege of...
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Kaiser Wilhelm II at Gibraltar 1904
Wilhelm - looking ludicrousAs eldest grandson of Queen Victoria – at whose death he was present – and as nephew of Britain’s King Edward VIII, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany displayed had a...
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Guest Blog by Tom Williams: Waterloo + 200
Thursday June 18th2015 was the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and to mark it I asked my friend and fellow-novelist Tom Williams to write a guest blog about it. In it he puts the Waterloo...
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One Submarine, Two Flags and Two Heroes
Two spectacular cases of submarines penetrating enemy anchorages are well known to naval-history enthusiasts. The first was when the Royal Navy’s E14, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Edward Boyle...
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Blood in the Streets, Amsterdam 1886
From 1833 to 1940 the Kingdom of the Netherlands experienced one of the longest periods in which any Western European nation did not go to war. A separate army was maintained in the Dutch East Indies...
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Duel in the Dark: Frigates Blanche and Pique 1795
Though major fleet actions such as Camperdown, The Nile and Trafalgar seem to most as emblematic of the Great Age of Fighting Sail. Such engagements were, by their very nature, few in number. Far more...
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SS Archimedes – setting the shipping paradigm
If anyone is challenged today to draw a simple picture of a ship, there is probably a more than a 99% likelihood that they’ll draw a long hull, a smaller superstructure above it, one or more funnels...
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Polar Explorers and other Heroes – London’s Statues
The Scott MemorialI’ve been in London today and am just back home, so no time this Friday evening for a long blog. The weather was beautiful – warm and sunny – and it’s on such summer days that London...
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Chaplains at sea in the Age of Fighting Sail
One seldom comes across any mention of chaplains in Nautical Fiction, despite the fact that by the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars period both all line-of-battle ships and frigates were allowed them....
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The Eventful Career of HMS Rattler
A recent blog told the story of the invention and initial testing of screw-propellers for ships, building on principles established two millennia previously. In the late 1830s the practicality of this...
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The First Victoria Cross Winner 1854
Ever since the Crimean War (1854-56) the Victoria Cross has been the highest award for British service personnel for gallantry in the face of the enemy. It takes precedence in order of wear over all...
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Shipwreck, Survival, Slave Trade Suppression - and Injustice, 1845
High-quality radio communications today, and the associated ability of ships in difficulty to transmit distress messages, make it difficult to envisage just how desperate were the plights of...
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Adam Worth: the real-life “Napoleon of Crime”
“He’s a thief,” Topcliffe said. “A most accomplished and successful one. That’s why he’s useful to us.”“But he seemed…”“Exactly what he is. A clever, cultured, agreeable American gentleman, whose...
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