Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

A short description of the Isle of Thanet ... Hunter, Robert Edward 1799 • RARE-PAMPH • 1 copy available. 094:914.223

The voyages, distresses and adventures of Capt Winterfield Winterfield, Captain 1799 • RARE-PAMPH • 1 copy available. 094:656.61.071.22

Science, utility and maritime power : Samuel Bentham in Russia, 1779-91 /Roger Morriss. "During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Samuel Bentham influenced both the technology and the administrative ideas employed in the management of the British navy. His influence stemmed from his passion for science, from his desire to achieve improvements based on a belief in the principle of Utility, and from experience gained over eleven years in Russia, a large part in the service of Catherine the Great and Prince Potemkin. Having travelled extensively throughout the north and south of Russia, Poland and Siberia, he managed Potemkina (TM)s industries at Krichev, built fast river galleys, armed the Russian flotilla of small craft at Kherson and served with the flotilla that defeated the Turks in the Black Sea. His main ambition was to open river communication in Siberia and develop trade into the Pacific. However he returned to England and in 1796 became Inspector General of Naval Works, a post in which he fought for innovations in the technology and management of the British royal dockyards. Regarded then by the Navy Board as a dangerous maverick, this book reveals the experiences, creativity and thinking that made him a major figure in British naval development."--Provided by the publisher. [2015]. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92BENTHAM

1759 : the year Britain became master of the world /Frank McLynn. "Although 1759 is not a date as well known in British history as 1215, 1588, or 1688, there is a strong case to be made that it is the most significant year since 1066. In 1759 - the fourth year of the Seven Years War - the British defeated the French in arduous campaigns on four continents and also achieved absolute mastery of the seas. Drawing on a mass of primary materials - from texts in the Vatican archives to oral histories of the North American Indians - Frank McLynn shows how the conflict between Brtiain and France triggered the first 'world war', raging from Europe to Africa; the Caribbean to the Pacific; the plains of the Ganges to the Great Lakes of North America. It also brought about the War of Independence, the acquisition by Britain of the Falkland Islands and, ultimately, the French Revolution."--Provided by the publisher. 2008 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.48"1759"

The politics of empire at the accession of George III : the East India Company and the crisis and transformation of Britain's imperial state /James M. Vaughn. "In this bold debut work, historian James M. Vaughn challenges the scholarly consensus that British India and the Second Empire were founded in 'a fit of absence of mind.' He instead argues that the origins of the Raj and the largest empire of the modern world were rooted in political conflicts and movements in Britain. It was British conservatives who shaped the Second Empire into one of conquest and dominion, emphasizing the extraction of resources and the subjugation of colonial populations. Drawing on a wide array of sources, Vaughn shows how the East India Company was transformed from a corporation into an imperial power in the service of British political forces opposed to the rising radicalism of the period. The Company's dominion in Bengal, where it raised territorial revenue and maintained a large army, was an autocratic bulwark of Britain's established order. A major work of political and imperial history, this volume offers an important new understanding of the era and its global ramifications."--Provided by the publisher. 2019 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 347.71EAST INDIA

The Kongolese Saint Anthony : Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian movement, 1684-1706 /John K. Thornton. "This book tells the story of the Christian religious movement led by Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita in the Kingdom of Kongo from 1704 until her death, by burning at the stake, in 1706. Beatriz, a young woman, claimed to be possessed by St Anthony, argued that Jesus was a Kongolese, and criticized Italian Capuchin missionaries in her country for not supporting black saints. The movement was largely a peace movement, with a following among the common people, attempting to stop the devastating cycle of civil wars between contenders for the Kongolese throne. Thornton supplies background information on the Kingdom, the development of Catholicism in Kongo since 1491, the nature and role of local warfare in the Atlantic slave trade, and contemporary everyday life, as well as sketching the lives of some local personalities."--Provided by the publisher. 2009. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 967.51/01/092

Panorama of the Thames : a riverside view of Georgian London /John R. Inglis & Jill Sanders. "This historical gift book is a reincarnation of a guide to the river Thames first published 1829 by Samuel Leigh. The original was a concertina of 45 printed and hand-coloured sheets, glued together to form a magnificent 60ft depiction of the river's north and south banks or Middlesex and Surrey banks, as they were then from Westminster Bridge to Petersham Meadows in Richmond. Among the buildings that stood along this 30-mile stretch of river in those days were many that no longer exist including the Houses of Parliament before they burned down in 1834, or the factory owned by the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel but others still stand today. A great deal of the original panorama shows just trees and foliage, so for this book it has been edited down to feature the most interesting sections. These are grouped into 19 villages, each with a short 200-word introduction. The buildings are captioned (in the present tense, for vivid appeal), and there is an AZ detailing landmarks and key buildings in each section. Written in collaboration with local experts and various local history societies, these descriptions are richly informative and include information on the waterway, the landscape, and the people who lived and worked on the banks of the river at the end of the Georgian era."--Provided by the publisher. 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available. (411)7.047 ING

The social history of English seamen, 1650-1815 / edited by Cheryl A. Fury. "Maritime social history is a relatively young and fertile field, with many new research findings being discovered on a wide range of aspects of the subject. This book, together with its companion volume The Social History of English Seamen, 1485-1649 ... pulls together and makes accessible this large body of research work. Subjects covered include life at sea in different parts of the period for both officers and seamen, in both the navy and in merchant ships; piracy and privateering; health, health care and disability; seamen's food; homosexuality afloat; and the role of women at sea and on land. Written by leading experts in their field, the volumes offer a nuanced portrait of seafarers' existence as well as an overview of the current state of the historiography."-- 2017. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 355.124(42)"1650/1815"

Edmund Burke and the British Empire in the West Indies : wealth, power, and slavery /P.J. Marshall. "Edmund Burke was both a political thinker of the utmost importance and an active participant in the day-to-day business of politics. It is the latter role that is the concern of this book, showing Burke engaging with issues concerning the West Indies, which featured so largely in British concerns in the later eighteenth century. Initially, Burke saw the islands as a means by which his close connections might make their fortunes, later he was concerned with them as a great asset to be managed in the national interest, and, finally, he became a participant in debates about the slave trade. This volume adds a new dimension to assessments of Burke's views on empire, hitherto largely confined to Ireland, India, and America, and explores the complexities of his response to slavery. The system outraged his abundantly attested concern for the suffering caused by abuses of British power overseas, but one which he also recognised to be fundamental for sustaining the wealth generated by the West Indies, which he deemed essential to Britain's national power. He therefore sought compromises in the gradual reform of the system rather than immediate abolition of the trade or emancipation of the slaves."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 325.3209033

Waterford's maritime world : the ledger of Walter Butler, 1750-1757 /John Mannion. "In October 1750 Walter Butler, a Waterford sea captain, purchased a ship in the port of Bordeaux and had it refitted there before loading it with wine, brandy and other French produce for his home port. Renamed the Catherine after his wife, the ship spent the winter in Waterford where Butler and his men prepared for a voyage to Newfoundland. She departed for the fishery in April 1751 with "passengers" (seasonal migrants) and salt provisions, returning home in the fall. Over the next six years the Catherine completed three more round trips to Newfoundland and voyages to London, Tenby, Dublin, Cork, Lisbon, Cadiz and Seville. The brig was captured off St Lucar by a French privateer in spring, 1757. Butler's account of the Catherine survives (Prize Papers, High Court of Admiralty). The ledger contains the most detailed description of a Waterford ship, shipmaster and crew for the eighteenth century. It is a record of everyday economic exchanges with merchants, traders, artisans and labourers in Waterford city and in the ports and fishing harbours visited by the Catherine overseas, in England, Wales, France, Iberia and in faraway Newfoundland."--Provided by the publisher. [2022] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 387.20941915

Seven-figure logarithms of numbers from 1 to 108000, and of sines, cosines, tangents, cotangents to every 10 seconds of the quadrant, with a table of proportional parts /by Dr. Ludwig Schrèon, Director of the Observatory of Jena etc. etc. etc. Schrèon, Heinrich Ludwig Friedrich, 1865. • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 519.662(083.5):094

The Principles of astronomy : designed for the use of students in the University Vince, S 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:52

Admiral Lord Howe / by David Syrett ; foreword by James Bradford. "Howe's career spans Britain's 18th century naval wars, from the War of Austrian Succession to the Great Mutiny at Spithead in the French Revolutionary War. [...] In the Seven Years War Howe conducted Pitt's raids on the coast of France and led the British attack at Quiberon Bay. He initially sought a political solution to the American Revolution through negotiations with Benjamin Franklin. When war did erupt, Howe commanded the British squadron in America and subsequently conducted the Third Relief of Gibraltar. He served as First Lord of the Admiralty in the government of the Younger Pitt and in the French Revolutionary War, Howe commanded the Channel Fleet, defeated the French on the Glorious First of June, and negotiated the end of the Great Mutiny at Spithead." --Provided by the publisher. 2006. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92HOWE

A compendious system of astronomy, in a course of familiar lectures ... Bryan, Margaret 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:52

The effect of the nitrous vapour in preventing and destroying contagion ... Smyth, James Carmichael 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:613.68

Paths of glory : the life and death of General James Wolfe /Stephen Brumwell. "Ugly, gangling, and tormented by agonising illness, Major General James Wolfe was an unlikely hero. Yet in 1759, on the Plains of Abraham before Quebec, he won a battle with momentous consequences. Wolfe's victory, bought at the cost of his life, ensured that English, not French, would become the dominant language in North America. Ironically, by crippling French ambitions on this continent Wolfe paved the way for American independence from Britain. Already renowned for bold leadership, Wolfe's death at the very moment of victory at Quebec cemented his heroic status on both sides of the Atlantic. He became an icon of patriotic self-sacrifice, immortalised in epic paintings and verse. During the past half century, however, Wolfe's reputation has undergone sustained assault by revisionist historians who see him as a bloodthirsty and self-righteous mediocrity, famous for one singularly lucky - though crucial - victory. Was there more to James Wolfe than a celebrated death? Stephen Brumwell's internationally praised biography seeks to answer that question, drawing on extensive research to offer a boldly argued reassessment of a soldier whose short but dramatic life changed the course of world history." --Provided by the publisher. Ã2006. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92WOLFE

Court, country, city : British art and architecture, 1660-1735 /Mark Hallett "The late 17th and early 18th centuries saw profound changes in Britain and in its visual arts. This volume provides fresh perspectives on the art of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods, focusing on the concepts, spaces, and audiences of court, country, and city as reflected in an array of objects, materials, and places. The essays discuss the revolutionary political and economic circumstances of the period, which not only forged a new nation-state but also provided a structural setting for artistic production and reception. Essays cover such diverse topics as tapestry in the age of Charles II and painting in the court of Queen Anne; male friendship portraits; mezzotint and the exchange between painting and print; the interpretation of genres such as still life and marine painting; the concept of remembered places; courtly fashion and furnishing; the codification of rules for painting; and the development of aesthetic theory"-- 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 7(42)"1660/1735"

Island of the blue foxes : disaster and triumph on the world's greatest scientific expedition /Stephen R. Brown. "The immense eighteenth-century scientific journey, variously known as the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition, from St. Petersburg across Siberia to the coast of North America, involved over 3,000 people and cost Peter the Great over one-sixth of his empire's annual revenue. Led by the legendary Danish captain Vitus Bering, the ten-year voyage, which included scientists, artists, mariners, soldiers, and laborers, discovered Alaska, opened the Pacific fur trade, and, thanks to the brilliant naturalist Georg Steller, discovered dozens of New World plants and animals. The story of the expedition is a tale not only of adventure and historic achievement, but also of shipwreck, endurance, and "one of the most tragic and ghastly trials of suffering in the annals of maritime and arctic history.""--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(573)"17"

Curious encounters : voyaging, collecting, and making knowledge in the long eighteenth century /edited by Adriana Craciun and Mary Terrall. "With contributions from historians, literary critics, and geographers, Curious Encounters uncovers a rich history of global voyaging, collecting, and scientific exploration in the long eighteenth century. Leaving behind grand narratives of discovery, these essays collectively restore a degree of symmetry and contingency to our understanding of encounters between European and Indigenous people. To do this the essays consider diverse agents of historical change, both human and inanimate: commodities, curiosities, texts, animals, and specimens moved through their own global circuits of knowledge and power. The voyages and collections rediscovered here do not move from a European center to a distant periphery, nor do they position European authorities as the central agents of this early era of globalization. Long distance voyagers from Greenland to the Ottoman Empire crossed paths with French, British, Polynesian, and Spanish travelers across the world, trading objects and knowledge for diverse ends. The dynamic contact zones of these curious encounters include the ice floes of the Arctic, the sociable spaces of the tea table, the hybrid material texts and objects in imperial archives, and the collections belonging to key figures of the Enlightenment, including Sir Hans Sloane and James Petiver."-- 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(100)"17"

Turner's modern world / David Blayney Brown, Amy Concannon, James Finch And Sam Smiles. "Published to accompany a landmark exhibition of the art of J.M.W. Turner, this publication will highlight Turner's contemporary imagery, the most exceptional and distinctive aspect of his work throughout his career. Rather than making any claims for Turner's protomodernist credentials, it will explore what constituted modernity, and what it meant to be a modern artist, in his lifetime. Turner's career spanned revolution and the Napoleonic War, Empire, the explosion of finance capitalism, the transition from sail to steam and from manpower to mechanisation, political reform and scientific and cultural advances that transformed society and shaped the modern world. While historians have long recognised that the industrial and political revolutions of the late eighteenth century inaugurated farreaching change and modernisation, these were often ignored by artists as they did not fit into established categories of pictorial representation. This exhibition and its accompanying publication will show Turner updating the language of art and transforming his style and practice to produce revelatory, definitive interpretations of modern subjects."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 700.941

Cayman's 1794 Wreck of the Ten Sail : peace, war, and peril in the Caribbean /Margaret E. Leshikar-Denton. "The story has been passed through generations for more than two centuries. Details vary depending on who is doing the telling, but all refer to this momentous maritime event as the Wreck of the Ten Sail. Sometimes misunderstood as the loss of a single ship, it was in fact the wreck of ten vessels at once, comprising one of the most dramatic maritime disasters in all of Caribbean naval history. Surviving historical documents and the remains of the wrecked ships in the sea confirm that the narrative is more than folklore. It is a legend based on a historical event in which HMS Convert, formerly L'Inconstante, a recent prize from the French, and 9 of her 58-ship merchant convoy sailing from Jamaica to Britain, wrecked on the jagged eastern reefs of Grand Cayman in 1794. The incident has historical significance far beyond the boundaries of the Cayman Islands. It is tied to British and French history during the French Revolution, when these and other European nations were competing for military and commercial dominance around the globe. The Wreck of the Ten Sail attests to the worldwide distribution of European war and trade at the close of the eighteenth century. In Cayman's 1794 Wreck of the Ten Sail: Peace, War, and Peril in the Caribbean, Margaret E. Leshikar-Denton focuses on the ships, the people, and the wreck itself to define their place in Caymanian, Caribbean, and European history. This well-researched volume weaves together rich oral folklore accounts, invaluable supporting documents found in archives in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, and France, and tangible evidence of the disaster from archaeological sites on the reefs of the East End."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.9163/65

How to survive in the Georgian navy : a sailor's guide /Bruno Pappalardo "Rigidly organised and harshly disciplined, the Georgian Royal Navy was an orderly and efficient fighting force which played a major role in Great Britain's wars of the 18th and early 19th centuries. This concise book explores what it was like to be a sailor in the Georgian Navy - focusing on the period from 1714 to 1820, this book examines the Navy within its wider historical, national, organisational and military context, and reveals exactly what it took to survive a life in its service. It looks at how a seaman could join the Royal Navy, including the notorious 'press gangs'; what was meant by 'learning the ropes'; and the severe punishments that could be levied for even minor misdemeanours as a result of the Articles of War. Military tactics, including manning the guns and tactics for fending off pirates are also revealed, as is the problem of maintaining a healthy diet at sea - and the steps that sailors themselves could take to avoid the dreaded scurvy. Covering other fascinating topics as wide-ranging as exploration, mutiny, storms, shipwrecks, and women on board ships, this 'Sailor's Guide' explores the lives of the Navy's officers and sailors, using extracts from contemporary documents and writings to reconstruct their experiences in vivid detail."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.124(036)

The great Anglo-Russian naval alliance of the eighteenth century and beyond / Philip MacDougall. "Naval co-operation between Britain and Russia continued throughout the eighteenth century, with Britain providing huge assistance to the growth of Russia's navy, and Russia making an essential but often overlooked contribution to Britain's maritime power in the period. From 1698 when Tsar Peter the Great served briefly as a trainee shipwright at Deptford dockyard Russia recruited British, often Scottish, shipwrights, engineers, naval officers and naval surgeons who both helped build up the Russian navy and who were also key advisers to the Russian navy at sea. At the same time, naval stores from Russia, especially after Britain lost the American colonies, were vital for the maintenance of Britain's fleet. Moreover, as this book argues, Russian naval power was much more formidable than is often realised, with the Russian navy active alongside the British fleet in the North Sea and winning decisive battles against the Ottoman navy in the Mediterranean, including the battles of ðCeðsme in 1770 and Navarino in 1827. Britain did well to have Russia as a naval ally rather than an enemy. This book provides a comprehensive overview of this important subject, at a time when Britain's relationship with Russia is of considerable concern."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.0094109033

Disciplining the empire : politics, governance, and the rise of the British navy /Sarah Kinkel. "Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves" goes the popular lyric. The fact that the British built the world's greatest empire on the basis of sea power has led many to assume that the Royal Navy's place in British life was unchallenged. Yet, as Sarah Kinkel shows, the Navy was the subject of bitter political debate. The rise of British naval power was neither inevitable nor unquestioned: it was the outcome of fierce battles over the shape of Britain's empire and the bonds of political authority. Disciplining the Empire explains why the Navy became divisive within Anglo-imperial society even though it was also successful in war. The eighteenth century witnessed the global expansion of British imperial rule, the emergence of new forms of political radicalism, and the fracturing of the British Atlantic in a civil war. The Navy was at the center of these developments. Advocates of a more strictly governed, centralized empire deliberately reshaped the Navy into a disciplined and hierarchical force which they hoped would win battles but also help control imperial populations. When these newly professionalized sea officers were sent to the front lines of trade policing in North America during the 1760s, opponents saw it as an extension of executive power and military authority over civilians--and thus proof of constitutional corruption at home. The Navy was one among many battlefields where eighteenth-century British subjects struggled to reconcile their debates over liberty and anarchy, and determine whether the empire would be ruled from Parliament down or the people up."--Provided by the publisher. 2018. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 941-44

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