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showing 579 library results for '2019'

Inquisitive eyes : Slade painters in Edwardian Wessex /Gwen Yarker "This real contribution to the literature on artists and place is a truly fresh look not only at the Slade milieu but at the flavour of landscape painting in early twentieth century Britain. Convincingly argued, this focuses on the importance of Purbeck to some of the most important Edwardian painters. Plein air artists visiting from the 1890s saw the county through the lens of Thomas Hardy and exhibited paintings of a timeless Wessex in London. Slade tutors and students, during its Grand Epoch and 'first crisis of brilliance', mostly visited through their friendship with a friend of Hardy, the little known Dorset-born painter John Everett. Easily accessible by train from London, painters were there in the summer months leading to Augustus John's description that 'Corfe Castle and the neighbourhood would make you mad with painter's cupidity'. Up to 300 painters were attracted to this sketching ground by its unique combination of ancient barrows and mining/clay pits, and dramatic coast, over the period. Painters featured in the book include, Vanessa Bell, Charles Conder, John Everett, Roger Fry, Augustus John, Helen McNicoll, William Orpen, Philip Wilson Steer and Henry Tonks. This book is richly illustrated and has broad appeal for non-specialists interested in landscape painting, as well as to specialists interested in re-assessing artistic reputations and ideas of modernity in early twentieth century British art. A genuinely fresh look at the Slade's first crisis of brilliance, centred in Thomas Hardy's Dorset. An excellent wealth of new and unpublished material with quotes carefully selected to illuminate the interlocking lives of well- and lesser-known modern painters. This includes never before published drawings by Orpen charting the closeness of his friendship with John Everett and fellow Slade students. This story is a lost chapter in British art."--Provided by the publisher. 2016 • BOOK • 1 copy available.
Battleship Bismarck : a design and operational history /William H Garzke Jr, Robery O Dulin Jr, and William Jurens with James Cameron "This new book on Bismarck offers a forensic analysis of the design, operation and loss of Germany's greatest battleship and draws on survivors' accounts and the authors' combined decades of experience in naval architecture and command at sea. Their investigation into every aspect of this battleship has taken fifty-six years of painstaking research, during which time they conducted extensive interviews and corresponded with the ship's designers and the survivors of the battle of the Denmark Strait and Bismarck's final battle. Albert Schnarke, for instance, the former gunnery officer of Tirpitz, Bismarck's sister ship, aided the authors greatly by translating and supplying manuscript materials from those who had participated in the design and operations. Survivors of Bismarck's engagements contributed to this comprehensive study including D B H Wildish, RN, damage control officer aboard HMS Prince of Wales, who located photographs of battle damage to his ship. After the wreck of Bismarck was discovered in June 1989, the authors served as technical consultants to Dr Robert Ballard, who led three trips to the site. Film maker and explorer James Cameron has contributed a chapter, which gives the reader a comprehensive overview of his deep-sea explorations on Bismarck and it is illustrated with his team's remarkable photographs of the wreck. The result of nearly six decades of research and collaboration, this new work is an engrossing and encyclopaedic account of the events surrounding one of the most epic naval battles of World War Two. And Battleship Bismarck finally resolves some of the major questions around her career, not least the most profound one of all: 'Who sank the Bismarck, the British or the Germans?'"--Provided by the publisher 2019. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.82BISMARCK
Fishermen, the fishing industry and the Great War at sea : a forgotten history? /Robb Robinson "Recent discussion, academic publications and many of the national exhibitions relating to the Great War at sea have focussed on capital ships, Jutland and perhaps U-boats. Very little has been published about the crucial role played by fishermen, fishing vessels and coastal communities all round the British Isles. Yet fishermen and armed fishing craft were continually on the maritime front line throughout the conflict; they formed the backbone of the Auxiliary Patrol and were in constant action against-U-boats or engaged on unrelenting minesweeping duties. Approximately 3000 fishing vessels were requisitioned and armed by the Admiralty and more than 39,000 fishermen joined the Trawler Section of the Royal Naval Reserve. The class and cultural gap between working fishermen and many RN officers was enormous. This book examines the multifaceted role that fishermen and the fish trade played throughout the conflict. It examines the reasons why, in an age of dreadnoughts and other high-tech military equipment, so many fishermen and fishing vessels were called upon to play such a crucial role in the littoral war against mines and U-boats, not only around the British Isles but also off the coasts of various other theatres of war. It will analyse the nature of the fishing industry's war-time involvement and also the contribution that non-belligerent fishing vessels continued to play in maintaining the beleaguered nation's food supplies."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.459(42)
A fistful of shells : West Africa from the rise of the slave trade to the age of revolution /Toby Green. "By the time of the 'Scramble for Africa' in the late nineteenth century, Africa had already been globally connected for many centuries. Its gold had fuelled the economies of Europe and Islamic world since around 1000, and its sophisticated kingdoms had traded with Europeans along the coasts from Senegal down to Angola since the fifteenth century. Until at least 1650, this was a trade of equals, using a variety of currencies - most importantly shells: the cowrie shells imported from the Maldives, and the nzimbu shells imported from Brazil. Toby Green's groundbreaking new book transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa. It reconstructs the world of kingdoms whose existence (like those of Europe) revolved around warfare, taxation, trade, diplomacy, complex religious beliefs, royal display and extravagance, and the production of art. Over time, the relationship between Africa and Europe revolved ever more around the trade in slaves, damaging Africa's relative political and economic power as the terms of monetary exchange shifted drastically in Europe's favour. In spite of these growing capital imbalances, longstanding contacts ensured remarkable connections between the Age of Revolution in Europe and America and the birth of a revolutionary nineteenth century in Africa. A Fistful of Shells draws not just on written histories, but on archival research in nine countries, on art, praise-singers, oral history, archaeology, letters, and the author's personal experience to create a new perspective on the history of one of the world's most important regions."--Provided by the publisher 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 966
German battleship Helgoland : detailed in the original builders' plans /Aidan Dodson. "Alongside its incomparable archive of British warship plans, the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich also holds a selection of drawings from foreign sources. Among the gems of this collection are a number of German warships dating from the First World War era. These are official plans, acquired by the Naval Inter-Allied Commission of Control as part of the peace treaty, and very similar in style, detail and draughtsmanship to Royal Navy 'as fitted' general arrangements, including the use of coloured line and washes. The very best of these, in terms of the completeness of coverage and the visual impact of the drawings, relates to the battleship SMS Helgoland, launched in 1909. The name-ship of the second class of dreadnoughts designed by the Germans, she was a big advance over the earlier Westfalen class, having 12in guns that matched those of her British opponents. She served in the High Seas Fleet throughout the war, fought at Jutland, and was ceded to Britain as part of the peace terms - which is probably why the plans are at Greenwich - and was broken up in 1924. This book is the latest in a series based entirely on original draughts which depict famous warships in an unprecedented degree of detail. Using the latest scanning technology to make digital copies of the highest quality, it reproduces complete sets in full colour, with many close-ups and enlargements that make every aspect clear and comprehensible. Extensive captions point the reader to important features to be found in the plans, and an introduction covers the background to the design. The result is a novel form of anatomy that will be a revelation to any warship enthusiast."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.82HELGOLAND
All at sea : naval support for the British army during the American Revolutionary War. ''The American Revolutionary War was a conflict that Britain did not want, and for which it was not prepared. The British Army in America at the end of 1774 was only 3,000 strong, with a further 6,000 to arrive by the time that the conflict started in the spring of 1775. The Royal Navy, on which the British depended for the defence of its shores, trade and far-flung colonies, had been much reduced as a result of the economies that followed the Seven Years War. In 1775 the problem facing government ministers, the War Office, and the Admiralty was how to reinforce, maintain and supply an army (that grew to over 90,000 men) while blockading the American coast and defending Britain?s many interests around the world; a problem that got bigger when France entered the war in 1778. With a 3,000 mile supply line, taking six to eight weeks for a passage, the scale of the undertaking was enormous. Too often in military histories the focus is on the clash of arms, with little acknowledgement of the vital role of that neglected stepchild - logistics. In All At Sea, John Dillon concentrates on the role of the Navy in supporting, supplying and transporting the British Army during the war in America. Because of individual egos, other strategic priorities, and the number of ships available, that support was not always at the level the British public expected. However, without the navy the war could not have been fought at all.''--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 973.35
Under pressure : living life and avoiding death on a nuclear submarine /Richard Humphreys. "Imagine a world without natural light, where you can barely stand up straight for fear of knocking your head, where you have no idea of where in the world you are or what time of day it is, where you sleep in a coffin-sized bunk and sometimes eat a full roast for breakfast. Now imagine sharing that world with 140 other sweaty bodies, crammed into a 430ft x 33ft steel tube, 300ft underwater, for up to 90 days at a time, with no possibility of escape. And to top it off, a sizeable chunk of your living space is taken up by the most formidably destructive nuclear weapons history has ever known. This is the world of the submariner. This is life under pressure. As a restless and adventurous 18-year-old, Richard Humphreys joined the submarine service in 1985 and went on to serve aboard the nuclear deterrent for five years at the end of the Cold War. Nothing could have prepared him for life beneath the waves. Aside from the claustrophobia and disorientation, there were the prolonged periods of boredom, the constant dread of discovery by the Soviets, and the smorgasbord of rank odours that only a group of poorly-washed and flatulent submariners can unleash. But even in this most pressurised of environments, the consolations were unique: where else could you sit peacefully for hours listening to whale song? Based on first-hand experience, Under Pressure is the candid, visceral and incredibly entertaining account of what it's like to live, work, sleep, eat - and stay sane - in one of the most extreme man-made environments on the planet."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.93092
Black Swan class sloops : detailed in the original builders' plans /Les Brown. "The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the as fitted' general arrangements, these drawings represented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service. Intended to provide a permanent reference for the Admiralty and the dockyards, these highly detailed plans were drawn with exquisite skill in multi-coloured inks and washes that represent the acme of the draughtsman's art. Today they form part of the incomparable collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, which is using the latest scanning technology to make digital copies of the highest quality. This book is one of a series based entirely on these draughts which depict famous warships in an unprecedented degree of detail - complete sets in full colour, with many close-ups and enlargements that make every aspect clear and comprehensible. Extensive captions point the reader to important features to be found in the plans, and an introduction covers the background to the design. This volume is devoted to the sloops of the Black Swan class and its improved derivatives, widely regarded as the Rolls-Royce' of Second World War convoy escorts. Heavily armed and superbly equipped for their role, they were among the most effective anti-submarine ships of the battle in the Atlantic. The design was gradually improved and this book uses plans of four selected ships to chart that development. These comprise: Black Swan as built; Flamingo as modified later; Starling, the single most successful U-boat hunter of the war, as in 1943; and Amethyst, as refitted after her clash with Chinese communists on the Yangtze in 1949."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.822/50223
British amphibious assault ships : from Suez to the Falklands and the present day /Edward Hampshire ; illustrated by Adam Tooby. "Amphibious assault ships have been at the centre of nearly all of Britain's expeditionary campaigns since World War II, from the Suez crisis of 1956 to operations as far afield as Borneo (1963-66), the Falklands (1982), Sierra Leone (2000) and Iraq (2003). In major operations such as Suez and the Falklands, the use of amphibious assault ships was essential to the military success of the campaigns. The Suez Crisis saw two of the Royal Navy's former light fleet carriers converted into 'commando carriers' to specialise in amphibious warfare. In the 1960s these were followed by the famous Fearless class ships - the first purpose-built amphibious assault ships in the Royal Navy. With an internal dock, headquarters capability, and multiple landing craft, these 'Landing Platform Docks' were built to project power around the world. When the Falklands were invaded, HMS Fearless was the key to the successful landing in San Carlos. In the 1990s, a new generation was ordered: the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean and the Albion class LPDs. In recent years Ocean, Albion and Bulwark have been the largest fighting ships of the Royal Navy and have acted as the navy's flagships, as well as being perhaps the most versatile ships in the navy. This title is an essential guide to British Amphibious Assault Ships across the decades, from the mighty Fearless to the modern Albion. Packed with full-colour illustrations, contemporary photography, and detailed analysis, this definitive work explores the history, development, and deployment of the Royal Navy's front line."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.8250941
SS Great Britain : Brunel's ship, her voyages, passengers and crew /Helen Doe "In SS Great Britain, Helen Doe provides a narrative account of this famous and historically important ship. Experimental and controversial, Great Britain led the way for iron shipbuilding and screw propulsion. The book charts the ship's brilliant design and construction, and the tribulations of her owners as they battled financial crises to turn Isambard Kingdom Brunel's vision into reality. Brunel was passionate about this ship and was devastated when a navigational error stranded her in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. She was rescued in a great feat of salvage and went on to a long life at sea, carrying passengers to New York, troops to the Crimea and India, and thousands of emigrants to Australia. Helen Doe highlights the contribution of the many individuals connected to the ship, ranging from crew members to passengers, at least one grand Victorian scandal, and the mysterious disappearance of her long-serving captain. In this way, the ship's life and times are recreated and the history of a technical marvel is given a human face. The ship was salvaged a second time, when she was rescued from the Falkland Islands and towed home across the Atlantic. She now sits in splendour in her original dock in Bristol and is one of the most visited attractions in Britain. This a compelling account of an iconic ship and of an important moment in industrial history."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 629.123GREAT BRITAIN
Joseph Banks' Florilegium : botanical treasures from Cook's first voyage /with texts by Mel Gooding ; commentaries on the plates by David Mabberley ; and, an afterword by Joe Studholme. "A full-colour publication of the botanical illustrations commissioned by Joseph Banks, with expert commentaries. Joseph Banks accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage round the world from 1768 to 1771. A gifted and wealthy young naturalist, Banks collected exotic flora from Madeira, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia and Java, bringing back over 1,300 species that had never been seen or studied by Europeans. On his return, Banks commissioned over 700 superlative engravings between 1772 and 1784. Known collectively as Banks' Florilegium, they are some of the most precise and exquisite examples of botanical illustration ever created. The Florilegium was never published in Banks' lifetime, and it was not until 1990 that a complete set in colour was issued in a boxed edition (limited to 100 copies) under the direction of the British Museum (Natural History). It is from these prints that the present selection is made, directed by David Mabberley, who has provided expert botanical commentaries, with additional texts by art historian Mel Gooding, setting the works in context as a perfect conjunction of nature, science and art. An afterword by Joseph Studholme describes the history of the modern printing."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 58
Singapore, Chinese migration and the making of the British Empire, 1819-67 / Stan Neal. "The transformation of Singapore, founded by Stamford Raffles in 1819, from a trading post to a major centre for international trade was a huge commercial and colonial success for Britain. One key factor in all of this was the recruitment of Chinese migrant labour, which by the 1850s made up over half of the population. The transformation, however, was not limited to Singapore. As this book demonstrates, colonial administrators saw that the "model" of what had been done in Singapore, especially the use of Chinese migrant labour, could be replicated elsewhere. This book examines the establishment of the "Singapore model" and its transference - to Assam in India, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), Mauritius, Australia and the West Indies. It examines the role of the key people who developed the model, including the Hong Kong merchant houses and their financial expertise, discusses central ideas which lay behind the model, notably free trade and the use of "industrious" Chinese rather than "lazy" natives, and assesses the varying outcomes of the different colonial experiments. The themes discussed - economic opportunities and globalisation; the need to find labour without recourse to slavery, indentured labour or convict labour; migration, ethnicity and racism - all continue to have great significance at present, as does the idea that Singapore, still, is a model to be replicated more widely."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 941-44(592.3)
Sons of Tubal-cain : a history of artificers in the Royal Navy 1868-2010 /John North. ''Sons of Tubal-Cain is a comprehensive history of the evolution of Artificers in the Royal Navy from the introduction of the Engine Room Artificer in 1868 right through to the last class of Artificers, to Pass Out from HMS Sultan in 2010. Told with anecdotes, memories and all sorts of stories from Artificers themselves in both war and peace, the book is narrated with humour and affection on the author?s part, as he was himself as an Artificer. This history follows the introduction of the different trades that the Royal Navy required as the technology became more sophisticated, with the introduction of the Electrical Artificer in 1901, the need for Ordnance Artificers and, strangely, the introduction of the Shipwright Artificer as the last trade to join in 1947. It includes the evolution of the Boy Artificer, Jackie Fisher?s ?Second to None? in 1903 through all the establishments associated with Artificers and the differing training regimes that changed over the years as the technical requirements of the ships in the fleet altered. There are many contributions from retired Artificers, serving Artificers and also from relatives of Artificers, going back as far as 1871, with many memories that show how engineering in the Royal Navy changed and what it required of its highly trained personnel during the past 150 years. The foreword has been supplied by the Chief Naval Engineer Officer, Rear Admiral Rick Thompson CBE.''--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.98230941