Andrew Choong

Profile

Curator, Historic Photographs and Ships Plans

I help with the care, administration of and research into two collections: historic photographs and ships plans. My responsibilities include answering enquiries, assisting visitors, cataloguing of items in the collections, copying ship plans for customers and routine administration. Where possible, I find time to conduct research into the parts of the collections that interest me, an activity which hopefully also benefits our visitors!

My favourite subject to talk about is…

...naval history from 1860 to 1945, focusing on the British, Japanese and US navies in the period. For me, this era marks a phase of unsurpassed experimentation and development in the areas of technology, naval tactics, and strategic considerations for these three nations. The experience of serving navy crews and their officers in these turbulent 85 years is naturally fascinating, and still partly in living memory to boot!

To find out more

If you are interested further in ship plans or historic photographs, here are some sources of information that I would recommend:

Ship plans

• Ritchie (ed). 1992. The Shipbuilding Industry; A Guide to Historical Records. Manchester University Press
• B. Greenhill and J. Mannering, The Chatham Directory of Inshore Craft: Traditional Working Vessels of the British Isles (London: Chatham, 1997)
• D. Lyon, The Denny List (parts I–IV) (London: National Maritime Museum, 1975)
• D. Lyon, The Sailing Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy: Built, Purchased & Captured 1688–1860 (London: Conway Maritime Press, 1993)
• D. Lyon & R. Winfield, The Sail & Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889 (London: Chatham, 2004)
• NMM ships plans.

Historic photographs

• Historic Photographs at the National Maritime Museum; An Illustrated Guide (London: National Maritime Museum Publishing, 1995)
• The NMM ships historic photographs online negatives catalogue.

Academic profile

Curator, Historic Photographs and Ships Plans

Biography

My interest in maritime, and particularly naval history has been life-long. I was able to indulge this interest to some degree while studying Ancient & Modern History at Lincoln College, Oxford. This was followed by an MA in Maritime Archaeology at Southampton University, completed four months prior to my taking up my current position at the Museum in February 2004.

Collections responsible for

Historic photographs

This comprises a mixture of photographic material, both negatives and prints, from a range of private and official sources. The collections cover a variety of maritime themes, including ship portraits, personalities, fishing, inshore craft, travellers at sea, maritime topography, historical events, shipbuilding and cargo-handling. The collections cumulatively number about three hundred thousand negatives and a million prints.

Ships plans

The ships plans collections comprise a range of material from both private shipbuilders and the Admiralty. The Admiralty collection is the largest and most coherent individual collection, covering the development of the Royal Navy’s ships and equipment from about 1700 to the late 1960s.

The merchant collections start later (the earliest items, barring the odd unnamed sailing merchant and East Indiaman, date from the late 1840s), generally coinciding with the use of iron in commercial shipbuilding. Examples of shipbuilders well-represented in this period are Barclay-Curle and Alexander Stephens. The merchant collections extend to cover vessels built in the 1980s, Anchor Line and the Shell Tankers collections being good examples of mid to late 20th-century collections.

The ships plans collections number roughly one million items, ranging from small recognition profiles of about A5 size to plans of oil tankers and dreadnoughts over 20-feet long.

Technical records

The technical records form a part of the plans collections, and consist mainly of document-based material which complements the information on the ships plans. Again, the Admiralty material is the most numerous and coherent, although much survives from private yards and owners as well.

Areas of research and interest

• Royal Navy, 1860–1945
• Imperial Japanese Navy (Teikoku Kaigun), circa 1867–1945
• US (and Confederate) Navy, 1860–1945

Current NMM projects

Ongoing cataloguing projects for both collections. This involves everything from initial research into items up to creating and completing records for them on the Museum’s main catalogue.

I am currently cataloguing the newly-acquired prints and negatives of the Angela Bromley-Martin Collection (which I hope to complete in the late spring of 2012) and the Admiralty Ships Covers (which may take the next four years). I am also researching and writing an article about the development of anti-aircraft defences for British battleships between the Wars, and gathering material for a staff seminar on the performance of British-designed warships in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05.

Previous NMM projects

Lectures and seminars (including an Adult Learning series) on topics ranging from accessing Museum collections to naval operations in the 20th century. I was also involved in the research phase and set-up of the Arctic Convoys micro-gallery.