Maritime History – Page 2 – Greenwich Maritime Centre

The twenty-second New Researchers in Maritime History Conference will be hosted by the University
of Greenwich in the historic Old Royal Naval College. The conference provides a unique opportunity
for emerging scholars to present their work to a supportive audience in one of the world’s most
iconic maritime settings.

Applications to present will be accepted from both research degree students and by independent
scholars. The organisers welcome contributions that address all aspects of maritime history.

Paper Proposals

Those wishing to offer a paper should please complete the from http://tinyurl.com/qglnfg5. The deadline is 12th January 2015.

Delegate Registration

Anyone interested in attending the conference without presenting a paper is warmly invited to register via our booking site . http://newresearchersmaritimehistory2015.eventbrite.co.uk

Registration Information

The registration fee includes a welcome reception including keynote address on the Friday evening;
lunch and refreshments throughout the day on the Saturday plus conference materials.

£35 standard fee; £30 student fee; presenters attend for free.

Contact the conference secretariat at: +44 (0)20 8331 7612 or maritimehistory@gre.ac.uk

The Nelson Collection of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation

Gina Balta

PhD Candidate, Maritime Studies

It was on May when I received an invitation to attend the opening of a very unique and interesting exhibition. The Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation was inviting me to attend the opening of Lord Admiral Nelson’s naval exhibition taking place at the Hellenic Maritime Museum in Piraeus, Greece for a limited time only. The private collection is permanently exhibited in a neoclassical mansion in Piraeus, at the premises of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation and consists of books, paintings, personal items, dispatches, autograph letters and more. The collection belongs to the Greek shipowner Panos Laskaridis, President of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation. It took Laskaridis thirty years to collect these items through auctions and other collectors and it was a result of admiration and appreciation of the British maritime history. Parts of the collection have been exhibited during the 200^th Anniversary celebration of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005 in London, Athens, Cephalonia and the Falkland Islands.

During my visit at the museum I met Mr Steven Coobs, responsible for the collection, who gave me an interview and also guided me through the exhibits. Mr Coobs explained that Nelson’s private collection has been one of the biggest collections outside the United Kingdom and its importance to the public is remarkable. The collection contains a selection of nearly 800 books, all dedicated to Horatio Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars. Placed in glass display cases someone can see documents and newspapers of the same period talking about the Siege of Malta (1798-1800), the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797), the Battle of the Nile (1798), the Battle of Copenhagen (1807) and the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). But the most interesting among the documents are probably the autograph diary of Admiral Lord Collingwood, the autograph diary of Thomas Fletcher, who was a gunner aboard HMS Defense at the Battle of Trafalgar, and also a few pages from the diaries of HMS Naid and HMS Swiftsure.

The Foundation’s outstanding collection encompasses a wide range of painting, flags and banners from the period of the Napoleonic Wars as well. One of the exhibits is the framed fragment of Lord Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory. Moreover, among the exhibits someone can see some of his personal items, like his special cutlery set. It was constructed after Nelson lost his right arm at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797 and its usage is aimed for one handed people. Although Nelson was not naturally left-handed, he managed to write again and finally build up to the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It is easy to detect the dramatic change in his handwriting especially in his first letters. The collection contains two letters written by the naval commander which refer to Admiral Cornwallis and Admiral Collingwood, and his correspondence with Lady Hamilton which reveals different aspects of his character.

While walking through the exhibition room Mr Coobs asked me if I am ready to see something unique. Suddenly, I had in front me about thirty ship models made almost entirely from bones. The bone ship models were constructed during the period of the Napoleonic Wars by French war-prisoners and became very famous among the British artistic crowd. Mr Coobs explained that during the Napoleonic Wars over 10,000 prisoners were held captive in Britain and some of them had remained locked away for over a decade. Encouraged by the captors the prisoners were allowed to produce small objects d’art and sell them afterwards at the camps’ periodic civilian open markets. Very popular were the models representing British naval ships. All the models were constructed mostly from cattle bones kept by the prisoners from the food rations issued by the British, which they boiled until they became soft and ductile. Each ship model would normally take about a year to complete and that makes them unique. The prisoners used the large bones to carve the body of the ship and by using pieces of wood they used to create the finely detailed cannons and masts. For the sail rigging they used their own hair or threads taken from their bed clothes.

Similarly interesting is the Scrimshaw Collection which also belongs to the Laskaridis Foundation and is dated back to the 19^th century. These handmade crafts were created by whalers who would patiently carve the teeth and bones of whales and other marine mammals. These crafts were normally created at sea and would later be donated to friends and family. The decorated or engraved bones and ivories depict various aspects of life in land and at sea, a seaman’s adventures, various ships and whales of course.

One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the World: The Panama Canal

Dr Chris Ware

One hundred years ago today ( 15 August) the Panama Canal was opened to traffic, no longer would vessel have to round Cape Horn against prevailing Westerly wind instead they would transit the 49 miles from Atlantic( Caribbean) to Pacific. The idea not new would only be realised at the end of the 19^th Century when first the French sort drive a series of cuts and locks across the Isthmus, this first effort would end in Bankruptcy and a large death total, upward of 22,000 died from fever.

It would be the United States which would, in 1904, take over the project and take a lease on a strip land across Panama, and complete the work by 1914.This allowed the American’s to move the Warships from the Atlantic to the Pacific and allowed the increasing trade of the West Coast of the US to follow East and vice versa. Now the Canal is being widened and there is talk that Nicaragua is looking to build a canal. % 25 percent of the world tonnage is built to Panamax standard, ships which can transit the Canal, however less than 2% per year actually do so, the remodel Canal will allow large ships with better hull forms to be built and run. If the Pharos of Alexandria and the Colossus of Rhodes were wonders of the ancient world, the Panama Canal stand as one of the engineering wonders of the 20^th century and beyond.

History book donation – new titles to come and read

Here at the Greenwich Maritime Institute we are very lucky to have some fantastic supporters. Only today Micheal Clark, a History student graduating in 2006, visited us to donate some wonderful books. Micheal Clark has been a reviewer of titles for The Northern Mariner.

The Norther Mariner is a fully refereed journal devoted to all aspects of the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It publishes essays,notes and documents on a variety of naval and maritime history, including merchant shipping, maritime labour, naval history, shipbuilding, fishing, ports, trade, nautical archaeology and maritime societies. TNM/LMN is published quarterly by The Canadian Nautical Research Society in association with the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH)

One example title is : The rise of an early modern shipping industry, Whitby’s golden fleet, 1600-1750 by Rosalin Barker

The ancient but isolated town of Whitby has mad a huge contribution to the maritime history of Britain: Captain Cook learned sailing and navigation here; during the eighteenth century the town was a provider of an exceptionally large number of transport ships in wartime; an in the nineteenth century Whitby became a major whaling port. This book examines how it came to be a such an important shipping center.

All are welcome to come and read this title amongst others in our Greenwich Maritime Institute office at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

4th August 1914 ……….the date that changed the world

By Dr Chris Ware

For the better part of the last one hundred years the 4 August has passed , if not unnoticed at least with a relatively low key statement that it was the start of the bloodiest war, in sheer numbers , that Britain , had been engaged in. Centenaries touch something within us which fifty or ninety years do not. This is history writ large yet we can still be connected, almost every family had someone who was involved in some way or another.

A war which stretched from the Pacific to the Arctic bounded by the world’s oceans but whose centre was Europe, Scylla and Charybdis, men-and-women inexorable caught up in it, only to be devoured. And a hundred years later what, after all the upheaval, the fall of empires and the birth of new nations, are we remembering? The death of millions, the change in the world order, the idea that a League of Nations would solve the issues by negotiation, violence would after all be forgotten as a way to resolve disputes: Perhaps George Santayana’s words should ring out loud and long “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

Eastbourne pier fire

Fire crews have saved two thirds of Eastbourne Pier after fire destroyed part of the structure, leaving a metal skeleton.

The blaze broke out on Wednesday afternoon behind some wood paneling in the arcade building.

Just after 3pm a fire took hold in the wooden wall panels of the former 900-seat music pavilion and ballroom, which is now an amusement arcade. Thick black smoke was soon billowing up into the sky which, until then, had been the blue of a perfect day at the seaside. Holidaymakers on the beach watched as 60 firemen, later increased to 80, struggled to douse the flames which engulfed the near end of the 330-yard pier.

The fire was initially described by authorities as “small” and there were even cheers when the first engines arrived. But any hope of stopping the destruction of the town’s Grade II* listed landmark faded quickly as a fierce blaze stripped it back to a smouldering metal shell.

Despite the devastation, the pier was safely evacuated and nobody was injured, but a police cordon was repeatedly pushed back along the promenade as loud explosions emanated from the inferno.

It is 148 years since the first pile of Eastbourne Pier was driven into the sea bed. Designed by Eugenius Birch, the Victorian architect who crafted much of Britain’s south coast, the pier was officially opened by Lord Edward Cavendish on June 13 1870.

It was the age of expansion, when seaside towns across the country were following the example set by Ryde pier on the Isle of Wight — 200 years old this week — and constructing increasingly elaborate wood and wrought iron edifices that jutted further and further out to sea.

Eastbourne was no exception. By 1888, the first 400-seat theatre had been built on the pier at a cost of £250 at the seaward end. A 1,000-seat theatre, bar, camera obscura and pier office complex followed, and in 1925, the music pavilion was constructed at the shoreward end.

But the elements have long inspired against the pier. In 1877, a New Year’s Day storm washed part of the shoreward end away. A century later, hurricane damage tore through the landing stage.

According to Tim Wardley, the chairman of the National Piers Society, the “constant onslaught of Mother Nature” has halved the number of British piers to just 61 over the course of a century.

Fire presents the gravest risk. The pier’s Pavilion Theatre was destroyed by a blaze in 1970.

Further along the coast, Southend Pier, the longest pleasure pier in the world at 2,360 yds, was devastated by its fourth fire in 50 years in 2005, destroying a pub, restaurant, fish and chip shop as well as an arcade and train station. The Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare was badly damaged by a blaze in 2008, while in 2010, the Grade II-listed Hastings Pier was almost completely destroyed.

In May 2002, more than £1.5 million of damage was caused to a pier in Hunstanton, Norfolk, when it was engulfed in flames.

Some piers do recover, such as Weston-super-Mare which was reopened by Princess Anne in 2011.

In 2003, the 148-year-old West Pier in Brighton was left a mass of derelict metal by two major blazes within two months.

In February, part of the ruin collapsed after being battered by winds of up to 70mph and rough seas. The pier, which is not maintained, was shut in 1975 after being deemed unsafe. Its crumbling skeleton, still standing sentinel not far from the shore, is slowly being reclaimed by the sea.

But each time Eastbourne Pier’s sturdy foundations have come under threat, it has so far stood firm.

Even when the order came in World War Two to blow up the pier in an attempt to stop it being used to aid an enemy invasion, the building was spared and gun platforms were instead installed in its theatre to ward off German ships.

Five years ago, the pier was put up for sale for £5 million, but a successful summer season ensued and it was taken off the market just months later. Still the crowds come to enjoy the sort of attractions that only the English seaside can provide. The pier’s Victorian camera obscura remains in situ as the last surviving working example on a pier left in the world.

In two weeks, Eastbourne’s annual air show, Airbourne – the town’s biggest tourist event held on the seafront – was due to draw in tens of thousands of visitors.

They may still come, but this summer season has been blighted for holidaymakers and residents of Eastbourne alike.

On Wednesday evening, Stephen Lloyd, the Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, said: “I hope and pray that our wonderful pier has not been lost forever.”

Click here to find out more

Treasure trove of classic cars at the bottom of the sea from the SS Thistlegorm

Recent photo’s have been released from the wreck of SS Thistlegorm.

She set sail on her fourth and final voyage from Glasgow on 2 June 1941, destined for Alexandria, Egypt. The vessel’s cargo included: Bedford trucks, Universal Carrier armoured vehicles, Norton 16H and BSA Motorcyles, Bren guns, cases of ammunition, and 0.303 rifles as well as radio equipment, Wellington Boots, aircraft parts, and two LMS Stainer Class8F Steam locomotives.These steam locomotives and their associated coal and water tenders were carried as deck cargo and were for the Egyptian Railways. The rest of the cargo was for the Allied forces in Egypt. At the time the Thistlegorm sailed from Glasgow in June, this was the Western Desert Force, which in September 1941 became part of the newly formed Eight Army. The crew of the ship, under Captain William Ellis, were supplemented by 9 naval personnel to man the machine gun and the anti-aircraft gun.

Due to German and Italian naval and air force activity in the Mediterranean, the Thistlegorm sailed as part of a convoy via Cape Town, South Africa, where she refueled, before heading north up the East coast of Africa and into the Red Sea. On leaving Cape Town, the light cruiser HMS Carlise joined the convoy. Due to a collision in the Suez Canal, the convoy could not transit through the canal to reach the port of Alexandria and instead moored at Safe Anchorage F,in September 1941 where she remained at anchor until her sinking on 6 October 1941. HMS Carlisle moored in the same anchorage.

There was a large build-up of Allied troops in Egypt during September 1941 and German intelligence ( Abwehr) suspected that there was a troop carrier in the area bringing in additional troops. Two Heinkel He-111 aircraft were dispatched from Crete to find and destroy the troop carrier. This search failed but one of the bombers discovered the vessels moored in Safe Anchorage F. Targeting the largest ship, they dropped two bombs on the Thistlegorm, both of which struck hold 4 near the stern of the ship at 0130 on 6 October. The bomb and the explosion of some of the ammunition stored in hold 4 led to the sinking of the Thistlegormwith the loss of four sailors and five members of the Royal Navy gun crew. Mr. Rejda single-handedly saved most of the sailors by swimming into the wreck and towing them to safety.

The survivors were picked up by HMS Carlisle. Captain Ellis was awarded the OBE for his actions following the explosion and a crewman, Angus McLeay, was awarded the George Medal and the Lloyd’s War Medal for Bravery at sea for saving another crew member. Most of the cargo remained within the ship, the major exception being the steam locomotives from the deck cargo which were blown off to either side of the wreck.

The end of History….

By Dr Chris Ware

With HMS Illustrious paying off and HMS Queen Elizabeth named but not due run sea trials until 2016 and be fully operational until 2020, it will fall to HMS Ocean to fill the role as both Flagship of the Royal Navy and helicopter platform. However as Illustrious leaves service it begs a bigger question what do we want the Royal Navy to be able to do? If in due course we have both the Queen Elizabeth and Princes of Wales, and that is a very big if, they would be powerful players when they receive fixed wing aircraft. However with a limited number of frigates and destroyers will the RN be a single battle group Navy able to put carrier and escorts, both sub and surface, into theatre, but with few ships left for anything else?

This speaks to a larger issue, which may seem unrelated, the fate of Illustrious once she leaves the Navy. Preserving ships is not cheap, what are we trying to say by doing so? That we were a sea power, however in a changing world Britain has to be mindful of cost and of what the nation can afford? Is that the lesson of history? Perhaps not. Historically Britain has had a Navy even when it seemed she could not afford one. People like the idea of visiting historic ships, both naval and merchant, but what they forget is that to create history you have to participate, and in unstable world sea power is even more important. Illustrious is worth saving because she of what she has done.

The art of teaching war- have you booked your place???

July 22nd 6pm with wine reception

At The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

booking email: l.hattersley@gre.ac.uk

How do you force someone to fight for you – to go to war? This and other questions will be addressed at a free public lecture by a military expert and University of Greenwich academic.

Professor Chris Bellamy is Director of the university’s Greenwich Maritime Institute, in the Faculty of Architecture, Construction & Humanities. An award-winning author and former defence correspondent at The Independent, Chris is also an expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union. His views have been widely sought by media over the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Don’t try this at home…: Teaching War, 400 BC to the present takes place at the university’s Greenwich Campus on Tuesday 22 July 2014 at 6pm.

Chris says: “Warfare – the use of violence for political ends – is as old as recorded history and, some would argue, is the ‘dark side of civilisation’. Warfare requires communities organised on some scale and a measure of authority to force people to participate in an exhausting, terrifying, arduous and often tedious activity which runs against many of our natural instincts.

“From the beginnings of recorded civilisation the communities most successful in armed conflict triumphed through better organisation, equipment, training, tactics, and the conceptual component – an intellectual understanding of the nature and processes of warfare. To win in battle, and in warfare more generally, training and education are key.”

Technology, technique and science all feature strongly in the history of war. Examples developed and explored by Chris during his 13 years as a teacher at the Defence Academy of the UK at Shrivenham reveal that, until relatively recently, one combatant seldom had a decisive technological edge over another. It was discipline, training and technique– how they used it – that determined success.

Chris has taught these ideas to students, including many serving members of the armed forces, for many years. He will present a number of case studies, including analysis of the leap from mechanical energy – bows and arrows and catapults, to chemical energy – guns and rockets. Chris will also discuss the importance of indirect fire – artillery firing at targets which those manning the guns cannot see.

Without this development in technique the First World War, the start of which is being commemorated this year, could not have happened as it did. Yet very few historians understand what indirect fire is, or mention its decisive role in shaping the fighting on land, particularly on the Western front.

Don’t try this at home…: Teaching War, 400 BC to the present. University of Greenwich Maritime Institute, presented with the Centre for the Study of Play and Recreation. Tuesday 22 July 2014, 6pm until 7.30 pm. Room 080, Queen Anne Court, University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, SE10, 9LS. To be followed by a wine reception.

All are welcome to this free lecture but to book a place for the wine reception, please contact the Greenwich Maritime Institute on l.hattersley@gre.ac.uk

This lecture precedes the 36th Annual Conference of the International Standing Committee for the History of Education, Education, War and Peace, to be held at the Institute of Education, University of London, 23–26 July 2014.

Mary Clare Martin, Ewa Sidorenko and Leticia Fernandez-Fontecha Rumeu, of the Department of Education and Community Studies, will be speaking on a panel at the ISCHE conference, entitled Survival, Pain and Memory: recovering experiences of war, peace and education in Spain, Poland, Gibraltar and Britain, 1902-1950.

Cutty Sark Replica project – What is it?

Who we are?

The initiators of the project are a team of highly motivated people, with high quality knowledge of building traditional ships, operating them with all the logistics and P.R., all with long standing experience in all the different aspects of the Tall Ship’s world, headed by Captain Vladimir Martus, owner and builder of the ‘Shtandart’, a replica of the first naval vessel of Russia, built by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703.Vladimir Martus has constructed this vessel, launched her in the year 2000 and ever since she is sailing the seas as one of the few traditionally built replica ships in the world.

Mission

To reconstruct, maintain and exploit a replica of the clipper ship ‘Cutty Sark’ as an operational sailing vessel and a living memorial to the era of sailing ships. to encourage education and training in seamanship of young persons of all nations. to provide facilities for the promotion of sail-powered shipping as an environmentally friendly alternative.

The Cutty Sark Replica is an international project

As the original Cutty Sark was constructed from materials that came from various countries and during her active life she sailed the seven seas, we want this project to be international in all its different aspects.
It should also be accessible to people of all nations and all walks of life, and when finished sail the world as an ambassador not of just one country, but as a living proof of unity between people with heart and soul for traditional ships and the seas.