When Congress contemplated creating the US Navy, myriad statesmen, shipbuilders, and captains debated concepts for its first warships. Facing conflicting requirements to battle Barbary Pirates and ...

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 American Civil War saw the need for many quickly conceived experimental projects in naval warfare. CSS David, a semi-submersible torpedo boat, proved to be an important innovation as it spurred ...

Admiral Sir James Somerville’s command of the Eastern Fleet in 1942 caused serious tensions in Anglo-American naval relations despite the admiral’s personal efforts to cultivate closer ties with the ...

This article reviews the function of the mould loft and mast houses constructed at the Royal Dockyard Chatham in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. The loft is the only surviving intact mould loft from ...

Shortly after the conquest of Mexico, Cortes ordered the construction of a shipyard in Tehuantepec (Oaxaca), on the Pacific coast, known as El Carbón. This article examines a document dated to 1535 ...

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Elizabethan and early Jacobeantrading voyages were managed by a triumvirate: the master, responsible for navigation, ship handling and the safe conveyance of cargoes; the agent of the merchants that ...

Prior to c.1535 British naval power was largely an ad hoc affair, with fleets being raised according to prevailing need and then discarded. Henry VIII”s confrontation with the Papacy gave rise to the ...

The development of the Severn Trow from the 15 th to early 20th century is discussed. The earliest form was an open flat bottomed, double ended barge progressively developing a more rounded section ...

Whaling is a largely under-researched aspect of Georgian Liverpool’s maritime heritage. Nevertheless, some broad features of this trade are known. Indeed, Liverpool began sending whaling vessels to ...

Throughout the Second World War, collier ships took coal to London from north-east ports. From the outset, the masters of these ships had to learn the skills of sailing in convoy with the additional ...