Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

Mutiny on the Spanish Main : HMS Hermione and the Royal Navy's revenge /Angus Konstam. "In 1797 the 32-gun Royal Navy frigate HMS Hermione was serving in the Caribbean, at the forefront of Britain's bitter sea war against Spain and Revolutionary France. Its commander, the sadistic and mercurial Captain Hugh Pigot ruled through terror, flogging his men mercilessly and pushing them beyond the limits of human endurance. On the night of 21 September 1797, past breaking point and drunk on stolen rum, the crew rebelled, slaughtering Pigot and nine of his officers in the bloodiest mutiny in the history of the Royal Navy. Handing the ship over to the Spanish, the crew fled, sparking a manhunt that would last a decade. Seeking to wipe clean this stain on its name, the Royal Navy pursued the traitorous mutineers relentlessly, hunting them across the globe, and, in 1801, seized the chance to recover its lost ship in one of the most daring raids of the Age of Fighting Sail. Anchored in a heavily fortified Venezuelan harbour, the Hermione - now known as the Santa Cecilia - was retaken in a bold night-time action, stolen out from under the Spanish guns. Back in British hands, the Hermione was renamed once more - its new identity a stark warning to would-be mutineers: Retribution. Drawing on letters, reports, ships' logs, and memoirs of the period, as well as previously unpublished Spanish sources, Angus Konstam intertwines extensive research with a fast-paced but balanced account to create a fascinating retelling of one of the most notorious events in the history of the Royal Navy, and its extraordinary, wide-ranging aftermath."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 359.1334

The first mapping of America : the general survey of British North America /Alexander Johnson. "The First Mapping of America tells the story of the General Survey. At the heart of the story lie the remarkable maps and the men who made them - the commanding and highly professional Samuel Holland, Surveyor-General in the North, and the brilliant but mercurial William Gerard De Brahm, Surveyor-General in the South. Battling both physical and political obstacles, Holland and De Brahm sought to establish their place in the firmament of the British hierarchy. Yet the reality in which they had to operate was largely controlled from afar, by Crown administrators in London and the colonies and by wealthy speculators, whose approval or opposition could make or break the best laid plans as they sought to use the Survey for their own ends."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 526/.097/09033

Spreading canvas : eighteenth-century British marine painting /edited by Eleanor Hughes. "Spreading Canvas takes a close look at the tradition of marine painting that flourished in 18th-century Britain. Drawing primarily on the extensive collections of the Yale Center for British Art and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, this publication shows how the genre corresponded with Britain's growing imperial power and celebrated its increasing military presence on the seas, representing the subject matter in a way that was both documentary and sublime. Works by leading purveyors of the style, including Peter Monamy, Samuel Scott, Dominic Serres, and Nicholas Pocock, are featured alongside sketches, letters, and other ephemera that help frame the political and geographic significance of these inspiring views, while also establishing the painters' relationships to concurrent metropolitan art cultures. This survey, featuring a wealth of beautifully reproduced images, demonstrates marine painting's overarching relevance to British culture of the era."--Provided by publisher. 2016 • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 75.047(26:42)

A maritime history of the American Revolutionary War : an Atlantic-wide conflict over independence and empire /Theodore Corbett. "While many books have been written on the naval history of the Revolution, this is one of the first to treat it in its entirety as an Atlantic-wide conflict. While its geographical scope is vast, it features overlooked aspects of the war in which sloops and barges fought, actions which proved to be as decisive as the familiar ship of the line confrontations. It is also history from the bottom up, emphasizing the role of the crew as much the not always heroic officers. From naval perspective the rebellious colonies did not gain a military victory, though Benjamin Franklin was able to secure their independence at the peace table in Europe." -- 2023. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 973.35

The memoirs of Captain Hugh Crow : the life and times of a slave trade captain /[introduction by John Pinfold]. Memoirs of Captain Hugh Crow (1765-1829), originally published in 1830 after his death. Crow was involved in the slave trade for seventeen years, making thirteen transatlantic voyages on slave-trading vessels, the last seven of these as master. Crow's Memoirs were written during his retirement but unlike other slave-trade captains he continued to justify his position and defend the trade after abolition. Crow remained convinced that the slave trade was a legitimate form of commerce and even that enslaved people were treated better and had a better life on the plantations than in Africa, both arguments being used by other supporters of the trade at the time. The Memoirs also provide an account of the conditions and practicalities of life at sea on board a slave-trading ship. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92CROW

Journey back to freedom : the Olaudah Equiano story /Catherine Johnson ; with illustrations by Katie Hickey. "Aged only eleven, Olaudah Equiano was cruelly snatched from his home in Africa and sold into slavery. He spent much of the next ten years serving various masters at sea, travelling to the far corners of the globe. He witnessed horrendous cruelty and occasional kindness, while experiencing daring adventures and extreme peril. Throughout it all, he never gave up hope that one day he would be free again."-- 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.362092

A Narrative of the loss of His Majesty's ship the Proserpine, James Wallace, Esq, Captain Wright, John 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:656.61.085.3Proserpine

Tafelen ... Douwes, Bernardus Joannes 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:527

Manuel des marins : ou dictionnaire des termes de marine Bourde, Citoyen 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:629.12(038)

New sailing directions for the coast of Africa ... and the African islands Dalzel, Archibald 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:527.83(261)

The first part of the North American pilot Jefferys, Thomas 1799 • ATLAS-OVER • 1 copy available. 094:912.44(261)"17"

Charts and plates to La Perouse's voyage Galaup, Jean Francois 1798 • RARE-OVER • 1 copy available. 094:910.4(100)"1785/1788"

The poetical works of the Rev Dr E Young : with the life of the author Young, Edward 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:820-1

A third dissertation on fever : part 2... Fordyce, George 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:616.9(043.3)

A series of plays : in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger passions of the mind ... 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:820-2

Observations on the cure of the curved spine in which the effect of mechanical assistance is considered Earle, James 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:616.71

Uproar! : scandal, satire and printmakers in Georgian London /Alice Loxton. "London, 1772: a young artist called Thomas Rowlandson is making his way through the grimy backstreets of the capital, on his way to begin his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. Within a few years, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank would join him in Piccadilly, turning satire into an artform, taking on the British establishment, and forever changing the way we view power. Set against a backdrop of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebrity, French revolution, American independence and the Napoleonic Wars, UPROAR! follows the satirists as they lampoon those in power, from the Prince Regent to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Their prints and illustrations deconstruct the political and social landscape with surreal and razor-sharp wit, as the three men vie with each other to create the most iconic images of the day. Alice Loxton's writing fizzes with energy on every page, and never fails to convince us that Gillray and his gang profoundly altered British humour, setting the stage for everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to Private Eye and Spitting Image today. This is a book that will cause readers to reappraise everything they think they know about genteel Georgian London, and see it for what it was - a time of UPROAR!"--Publisher's description. 2023. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 942.107

Astronomical observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, from the year MDCCLXV to the year MDCCLXXIV Maskelyne, Nevil, 1776-1811. • RARE-FOLIO • 4 copies available. 52.092:094

Poseidon's curse : British Naval impressment and Atlantic origins of the American Revolution /Christopher P. Magra. "Poseidon's Curse' interprets the American Revolution from the vantage point of the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher P. Magra traces how British naval impressment played a leading role in the rise of Great Britain's seaborne empire, yet ultimately contributed significantly to its decline. Long reliant on appropriating free laborers to man the warships that defended British colonies and maritime commerce, the British severely jeopardized mariners' earning potential and occupational mobility, which led to deep resentment toward the British Empire. Magra explains how anger about impressment translated into revolutionary ideology, with impressment eventually occupying a major role in the Declaration of Independence as one of the foremost grievances Americans had with the British government."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 973.03

The occupation of Havana : war, trade, and slavery in the Atlantic world /Elena A. Schneider. "In 1762, British forces mobilized more than 230 ships and 26,000 soldiers, sailors, and enslaved Africans to attack Havana, one of the wealthiest and most populous ports in the Americas. They met fierce resistance. Spanish soldiers and local militias in Cuba, along with enslaved Africans who were promised freedom, held off the enemy for six suspenseful weeks. In the end, the British prevailed, but more lives were lost in the invasion and subsequent eleven-month British occupation of Havana than during the entire Seven Years' War in North America. The Occupation of Havana offers a nuanced and poignantly human account of the British capture and Spanish recovery of this coveted Caribbean city. The book explores both the interconnected histories of the British and Spanish empires and the crucial role played by free people of color and the enslaved in the creation and defense of Havana. Tragically, these men and women would watch their promise of freedom and greater rights vanish in the face of massive slave importation and increased sugar production upon Cuba's return to Spanish rule. By linking imperial negotiations with events in Cuba and their consequences, Elena Schneider sheds new light on the relationship between slavery and empire at the dawn of the Age of Revolutions."--Provided by publisher. 2018 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326(729.1)

Unhomely empire : whiteness and belonging, from the Scottish Enlightenment to liberal imperialism /Onni Gust. "Examining the discourse of 'home' and 'exile' in Enlightenment thought, this book explores its role in British imperial expansion during the 'long' 18th century. European imperial expansion radically increased population mobility through new trade routes, war, disease and labour, and by the 18th century millions of people were on the move. This book argues that this mass movement led to intellectual ideas and questions about what it meant to belong, and played a major role in the construction of racial difference in empire. Unhomely Empire maps the consolidation of an elite discourse of 'home' and 'exile' through three inter-related case studies and debates; slavery and abolition in the Caribbean, Scottish highland emigration to North America, and raising white girls in colonial India. Playing out over poetry, political pamphlets, travel writing, philosophy, letters and diaries, these debates offer a unique insight into the movement of ideas across a British-imperial literary network. Using this rich cultural material, Gust argues that these intellectual ideas in the long 18th century played a key role in determining who could belong to nation, civilization and humanity"--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 909/.0971206

Foreign Jack Tars : the British Navy and transnational seafarers during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars /Sara Caputo (University of Cambridge). "The British Royal Navy of the French Wars (1793-1815) is an enduring national symbol, but we often overlook the tens of thousands of foreign seamen who contributed to its operations. Foreign Jack Tars presents the first in-depth study of their employment in the Navy during this crucial period. Based on sources from across Britain, Europe, and the USA, and blending quantitative, social, cultural, economic, and legal history, it challenges the very notions of 'Britishness' and 'foreignness'. The need for manpower during wartime meant that naval recruitment regularly bypassed cultural prejudice, and even legal status. Temporarily outstripped by practical considerations, these categories thus revealed their artificiality. The Navy was not simply an employer in the British maritime market, but a nodal point of global mobility. Exposing the inescapable transnational dimensions of a quintessentially national institution, the book highlights the instability of national boundaries, and the compromises and contradictions underlying the power of modern states"-- 2023. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 359.00941

Scientific correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, 1765-1820 / edited by Neil Chambers. The letters of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. Banks accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage on the Endeavour, was President of the Royal Society for over 40 years and advised King George III on the establishment of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, sending botanists around the world to collect specimens. These 2,215 letters cover a broad range of scientific subjects and are published in six volumes. The letters are arranged chronologically, each with a serial number which can be used to find letters to or from a particular correspondent using the calendar of correspondence and index to the voumes both published in volume 6. Volume 1 includes a biography of Banks. 2007. • BOOK • 6 copies available. 92:5

A new and complete plan of London, Westminster, and borough of Southwark containing all the improvements in, and round the metropolis 1799 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:912.43(421.2)

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