Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

U-boats vs destroyer escorts : the Battle of the Atlantic /Gordon Williamson. "Winston Churchill claimed the 'U-boat peril' was the only thing that frightened him during World War II. The U-boat was developed from a small coastal vessel into a state-of-the-art killer, stalking the high seas picking off merchant convoys, until the introduction of the Destroyer Escort and other specialized escort vessels, and the development of dedicated anti-submarine tactics provided a means of defence and attack against the U-boats. Gordon Williamson describes the design and development of these deadly opponents, their tactics, strengths and weaknesses, weaponry and training. He provides an insight into the lives of the Royal Navy, United States Navy and Wolfpack crews as they played their deadly games of cat and mouse on the high seas, gambling with their lives and the fate of the war."--Jacket. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.545.9

The Yorkshire Mary Rose : the ship General Carleton of Whitby /by Stephen Baines. "The ship 'General Carleton' was built in Whitby in 1777 and sank off the coast of Poland in 1785. When she was excavated in the 1990s a wide range of artefacts were recovered many of which, due to being coated in tar from the ship's cargo, were in a remarkable state of preservation - most notably a unique collection of sailors' clothing. It is because of the picture these objects give us about life, both aboard and ashore, for 18th-century mariners from Whitby and other coastal towns in the North-East, that 'General Carleton' has been called the 'Yorkshire Mary Rose'. This book is the story of 'General Carleton', of those who built her, owned her and sailed on her in an age of war, shipwreck, privateers and press-gangs; it is the tale of an ordinary merchant ship in extraordinary times"--Provided by the publisher. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 656.61.085.3GENERAL CARLETON

John Brett : Pre-Raphaelite landscape painter /Christiana Payne ; and Charles Brett. "Drawing on a wealth of unpublished sketchbooks, journals and writings, this essential guide to John Brett (1831-1902) investigates the painter who was seen as the leader of the Pre-Raphaelite landscape school. As well as the familiar early works, including 'The Val d'Aosta' and 'The Stonebreaker', it provides rich information on his later, less-known coastal and marine paintings. Brett's turbulent friendship with John Ruskin is discussed, as are his relations with his beloved sister Rosa, and his partner Mary, with whom he had seven children. His fervent interest in astronomy, his love of the sea, and his lifelong pursuit of wealth and recognition are all examined in this reassessment, which concludes with a catalogue raisonne of his works, prepared by his descendent Charles Brett"--Provided by the publisher. 2010. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 759.2

Post-war on the liners / William H. Miller. "From the end of the Second World War through three decades, to the 1970s, traditional port-to-port, class-divided passenger ship business carried on. This meant all kinds of ships-from big liners to small, often rebuilt, ex-coastal steamers. Accommodations varied from luxurious suites with bedrooms, sitting rooms and marble baths in upper-deck accommodations to Spartan dormitories with as many as 50 berths and communal facilities. But the purpose was all but the same: to go from A to B. It was about the destination, whether with 100 pieces of baggage like the Duke & Duchess of Windsor on five-night Atlantic crossings to little more than an overnight bag for a immigrant on a six-week voyage from Europe out to Australia. This book examines, through anecdotes & collected experiences, the many passenger ship services of now a bygone era. It is about the diversity and the contrast. There are of course the Atlantic crossings, but also three & four class ships to South America, combination passenger-cargo types carrying only 100 or so travellers, fast mail ships to South Africa, colonial passenger vessels to Mombasa, crowded migrant sailings to Sydney and Auckland, and trans-suez and trans-Pacific passages. All sorts of ships appear: big Cunarders like the Queen Mary, Italy's Augustus and Britain's Kenya & Uganda, the Oronsay & Southern Cross and even more remote ships such as the Cap Salinas, Tjinegara, Changsha & Hikawa Maru. It concludes with the closing down, in 1977, of the Union Castle Line's run between Southampton and the South African Cape, the last regular big liner service in the world."--Provided by the publisher. 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 629.123.3"194/196"

Schnellboote : A complete operational history /Lawrence Paterson. "The Kriegsmarine's Schnellboote - fast attack boats or E-boats to the Allies - were the primary German naval attack units in coastal waters throughout the Second World War. Operating close to their various bases they became a devastatingly effective weapon in nearly all the Kriegsmarine's theatres of war, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was in the English Channel, however, that they scored their most notable successes, destroying some forty warships and more than one hundred merchant ships. In addition to interception and attack, they were also used for minelaying, landing sabotage troops and general escort duties. There has been, to date, no comprehensive operational history of the S-boat service in all the theatres in which it saw service, but due to the relatively small number of units it is possible to recount the duties and fates of each individual craft and in this new book the author examines the career of each in detail. In addition, operations alongside the commando units of the Kleinkampfverbande are covered. As the War progressed, S-boats suffered from the increased Allied mastery of the seas and skies but they were a formidable foe right to the end; this new book is the first to do full justice to their record of success."--Provided by the publisher. 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.82

Black flags, blue waters : the epic history of America's most notorious pirates /Eric Jay Dolin. "Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy's 'Golden Age' -spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s- when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. Best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Through engrossing episodes of roguish glamour and extreme brutality, Dolin depicts the star pirates of this period, among them towering Blackbeard, ill-fated Captain Kidd, and sadistic Edward Low, who delighted in torturing his prey. Also brilliantly detailed are the pirates' manifold enemies, including colonial governor John Winthrop, evangelist Cotton Mather, and young Benjamin Franklin. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Dolin provides this wholly original account of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life."--Provided by the publisher. 2018 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 341.362.1(73)

The ships that came to the Pool of London : from the Roman galley to the HMS Belfast /Nick Robins. "The Pool of London has long been a busy place. It has been the focus of seaborne trade with the city since the Roman galleys first arrived with exotic cargoes. After the Industrial Revolution the sailing packets were followed by wooden-hulled paddle steamships in the coasting trades, while the deep sea fleets still relied on both sail and steam. Imposing warehouses were constructed to store goods safe from the weather; several survive to this day, including Butler's Wharf and Hay's Wharf on the south bank of the Upper Pool. The Pool developed an important connection with Northern Europe and the near Continent, as ships travelling further afield became larger and migrated to the new dock systems. Barges cluttered up the riverside wharves delivering and collecting goods from up and down river and transhipping goods from the docks. This is the story of the ships that came to the Pool and, with it, the development of London as a port and an international commercial centre. It is an exciting story, full of colour and bustle that will appeal to many, including the numerous visitors that come to see HMS Belfast."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.82009421

Naval eyewitnesses : the experience of war 1939-1945 /James Goulty. "Although many books have been written about naval actions during the Second World War - histories and memoirs in particular - few books have attempted to encompass the extraordinary variety of the experience of the war at sea. That is why James Goulty's vivid survey is of such value. Sailors in the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy experienced a war fought on a massive scale, on every ocean of the world, in a diverse range of vessels, from battleships, aircraft carriers and submarines to merchant ships and fishing boats. Their recollections are as varied as the ships they served in, and they take the reader through the entire maritime war, as it was perceived at the time by those who had direct, personal knowledge of it. Throughout the book the emphasis is on the experience of individuals - their recruitment and training, their expectations and the reality they encountered on active service in many different offensive and defensive roles including convoy duty and coastal defence, amphibious operations, hunting U-boats and surface raiders, mine sweeping and manning landing and rescue craft. A particularly graphic section describes, in the words of the sailors themselves, what action against the enemy felt like and the impact of casualties - seamen who were wounded or killed on board or were lost when their ships sank. A fascinating inside view of the maritime warfare emerges which may be less heroic than the image created by some post-war accounts, but it gives readers today a much more realistic impression of the whole gamut of wartime life at sea."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.545941

The Aberdeen Line : George Thompson Jnr's Incomparable Shipping Enterprise /Peter H. King A history of the Aberdeen Line founded in 1825 by George Thompson Jnr. The business developed rapidly from its initial operations in the North Atlantic, Baltic and UK coastal trade routes to provide services to South America and Australia by the mid-1840s. The line is famous for its fast clipper Thermopylae, rival to the Cutty Sark, launched in 1848 and its first steamship, SS Aberdeen, launched in 1881. Facing fierce competition on its Australian routes, the company was restructured with the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (White Star Line) and Shaw Savill and Albion taking effective control in 1906 and fully acquiring the company in 1920. The Aberdeen name survived later takeovers first by the Royal Mail Group and then Furness Withy, continuing as the renamed Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line following the acquisition of the Australian Commonwealth Line. However, when the Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line ceased trading in 1957 the name disappeared. Appendices include a corporate chronology, family trees of the Thompson and Henderson families involved in the Aberdeen Line, and a fleet list of vessels owned or managed by the company. The book is illustrated throughout. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 347.792ABERDEEN

Scapa Flow : the defences of Britain's great fleet anchorage, 1914-45 /Angus Konstam "A strategically important natural harbor in the Orkney Islands, Scapa Flow served as Britain's main fleet anchorage during World Wars I and II. In 1914 and again in 1939, the British began building a comprehensive defensive network by fortifying the entrances to Scapa Flow, and then extended these defenses to cover most of Orkney. By 1940, it had become an island fortress, the largest integrated defensive network of its kind in Europe, manned by as many as 50,000 Commonwealth troops. Backed by newly commissioned artwork, naval historian Angus Konstam tells the story of this mighty naval fortress, many pieces of which can still be seen on the island today."--Provided by the publisher. 2009. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49(411.2)

Lighthouses of Ireland : an illustrated guide to the sentinels that guard our coastline /Roger O'Reilly O'Reilly, Roger 2018. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 627.715(417)

Ferries of Scandinavia : the Baltic sea and the Nordic lands. "The Scandinavian region is one of the most fascinating regions in the world for shipping. Blessed by breath-taking scenery and stunning, historical cities, it plays host to a vast number of modern, well-appointed, technologically advanced and environmentally friendly vessels that set the standard for the ferry industry worldwide. Sea-faring has been at the heart of Scandinavian culture for millenia and many contemporary shipping companies have become industry leaders of world renown. Of particular importance to the Scandinavian economies are the passenger, car and freight ferry operations that link ports great and small across the major waterways: the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat and Skaggerak, the North Sea and the North Atlantic. During the second half of the twentieth century, the companies behind these services invested in a series of every more lavish vessels that resulted in the Baltic cruiseferry becoming a byword for luxury and entertainment. This trend has continued into the twenty-first century, with superlative vessels such as the Viking Grace and the Megastar setting new travel standards for the contemporary traveller. The ferries of Scandinavia offer a extraordinarily diverse travel experience. Giant cruiseferries sail overnight between the major capitals whilst more functional ro-pax and freight vessels keep the wheels of commerce turning between the nations. Smaller, coastal ferries maintain essential lifelines for countless islands and small communities. The Scandinavian ferry industry has never been in finer health than it is today, with ongoing investment in new fleets transforming the travel experience once again. This is the story of the Ferries of Scandinavia and how they have become the greatest ferry fleet the world has ever seen."--Provided by the publisher. 2018. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. txt

Wales and the sea : 10,000 years of Welsh maritime history/edited by Mark Redknap, Sian Rees and Alan Aberg. "Comprehensively illustrated, Wales and the Sea tells the story of prehistoric, Roman, medieval and more recent maritime history. It evokes the impact of the sea on the imagination and historical experience through coastal maps, naval paintings, seascapes, poetry, songs and popular seaside souvenirs. Archive photographs from the National Monuments Record of Wales, the National Library of Wales and National Museum of Wales bring life the age of the ocean-going liner, the cable-laying ships that connected Wales to the rest of the world, fishing boats, pleasure steamers, racing yachts and seaside piers, as well as the busy docks that supplied Welsh slate, coal, iron and steel to the rest of the world."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 900

Clad in iron : the American Civil War and the challenge of British naval power /Howard J. Fuller ; foreword by Robert J. Schneller, Jr. Fuller, Howard J., 2008. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.82(73)"1861/1865"

The Royal Navy at Dunkirk : Commanding officers' reports of British warships in action during Operation Dynamo /Martin Mace "The fact that the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk in May-June 1940 has achieved the status of a legend. Whilst the part played by the 'Little Ship's in that miracle is equally well-known, the role of the Royal Navy's warships -- the destroyers, minesweepers and personnel ships -- is often overlooked. Indeed, more than 300,000 troops out of a total of 338,226, were evacuated from the harbour at Dunkirk in these vessels. In the weeks after Operation Dynamo, the Admiralty issued an order requiring the Commanding Officers of those British warships involved to submit a report detailing their actions. Described in their own words, with the events still fresh in their minds, the result is a vivid record of the chaos, improvisation, skill and bravery that all combined to rescue the basis of an army that helped carry Britain through the dark months and years that followed. It is a record that forms the basis of this book."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.542.1"1940"

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)

The Kaiser's lost Kreuzer : a history of U-156 and Germany's long-range submarine campaign against North America, 1918 /Paul N. Hodos. "In 1917 and 1918 Germany made her first attempt to wage long range submarine warfare against the faraway shores of the US, Canada, and West Africa. In that deadly last chapter of the Great War the Germans sent giant submarines to prey upon Allied shipping far distant from the main naval war zones around Europe in a desperate gamble to save the faltering unrestricted U-boat war. This is the first time the whole story has been told from the perspective of Imperial Germany in the English language. The U-156's experiences in this barely known saga of World War I epitomize the whole campaign. The U-156 raided commerce, transported captured cargo, and terrorized coastal populations from Madeira to Cape Cod. On 19 July 1918, the USS San Diego was headed into New York harbor when an explosion occurred and the ship quickly sank close to the Long Island coast. The attack was the opening salvo in a series of record-breaking firsts undertaken by the U-156 against the US and Canada. Over a month later, after waging a humane but unrelenting war just off North America, the crew of the U-156 sailed toward home and into history."--Provided by publisher. 2018. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.451.6(43:73)"1918"

Schnellbootwaffe : Adolf Hitler's guerrilla warfare at sea: S-Boote 1939-1945 ; rare photographs from wartime archives /Hrvoje Spajic. "The Schnellbootwaffe was created in the early 1930s, before the Second World War, in concurrence with the regenerated Kriegsmarine, and young officers, most of whom learned their craft in the old Imperial Navy, would take responsibility for the operational use of these revolutionary vessels. Working with the naval engineers of Lurssen Shipyard, the Germans designed combat weapons that were never surpassed by their opponents. After the first series of Schnellboote were launched, constantly improved versions of these vessels would follow. The Schnellbootwaffe would achieve significant victories for the Kriegsmarine at the beginning of the war by using these vessels in high-level strategies, including a style of guerrilla warfare. The British often call German torpedo boats E-boats, and these fast vessels were a genuine threat not only to coastal trade, but also to the movement of Allied ships after D-Day. Indeed, Admiral Rudolf Petersen's flotillas remained combat-ready until the very end, even after the balance of power was in favour of the Allies. Allied air bombardment of German torpedo boat bases from 1944 onwards failed to destroy the offensive potential of the Schnellboote and their crews. The Allied disaster at Lyme Bay at the end of April 1944 shows how this guerrilla war at sea was still dangerous, even at this stage of the war. The Allied invasions plans were not yet known to the Germans, but Eisenhower learned a great deal from Lyme Bay and the Schnellbootwaffe was still potentially dangerous right until the end of the war. This book tells the fascinating story about these special people, whose pirate spirit and guerrilla style of naval combat is reminiscent of the ancient pirates and their own way of warfare."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.545943

Huddart Parker : a famous Australasian shipping company, 1876-1961 /W.A. Laxon ; completed by H.W. Dick, I.J. Farquhar & T.S. Stevens. "Huddart Parker was not only a famous Australian interstate shipping company, but also the only one to maintain a passenger line to New Zealand. Its coastal liners Westralia and Zealandia, trans-Tasman liners Ulimaroa and Wanganella, and Bass Strait ferries Nairana and Taroona were household names. Huddart Parker also operated a small fleet of interstate cargo ships, tugs at Melbourne and Port Adelaide, and excursion steamers on Port Phillip Bay. Besides shipping, it owned large coal mines, had shareholdings in various industrial companies and was a pioneer in domestic aviation.This book is the first to record the history of the company from the arrival of its founders during the gold rush of the 1850s through the establishment of the company in 1876 to its takeover and withdrawl from shipping in 1961. It includes a detailed fleet list and over 130 illustrations."--Provided by the publisher. 2008. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 387.506594

The rescue ships and the convoys : saving lives during the Second World War /Vice Admiral B.B. Schofield ; edited and expanded by Victoria Schofield. "The Rescue Ships and the Convoys tells the history of one of the least known aspects of Second World War maritime history. In the early months of the war, altholugh encountering heavy losses of ships and lives at sea, there was no organised system to rescue survivors. The provision of hospital ships to accompany the convoys was precluded by the fact that they had to be lit and would therefore betray a convoy?s position. The solution was to create a fleet of 30 small Merchant Navy vessels of about 1,500 registered tons, whose prior occupation was limited to coastal trade. These 'Rescue Ships', commanded and manned by Merchant Navy personnel, carried Royal Navy medical doctors, as well as life-saving equipment, operating theatres, hospital beds, hoists, and lifeboats. Undeterred either by enemy action or atrocious weather conditions, these vessels accompanied close to 800 convoys in the North Atlantic and Arctic, saving over 4,000 lives. During their service, seven Rescue Ships were lost. This is a story packed with suspense, danger, achievement and tragedy. As Vice Admiral Schofield writes, it is a record 'of great humanitarian endeavour, of superb acts of courage, of a display of seamanship of the highest order, of a devotion to duty by medical officers under the most arduous conditions imaginable, of great deeds by men of the Merchant Navy in little ships on voyages they were never designed to undertake.'" 2024. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.5/45941

Warship 2008 / editor, John Jordan. 2008. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.821

America, sea power, and the world / edited by James C. Bradford. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.02(73)"17/21"

Islamic seapower during the age of fighting sail / Philip MacDougall. "Studies of the "Age of Fighting Sail" have tended to focus on the British or American navies, or sometimes on those of France or Spain. However, there were also at this time very significant navies built by the Islamic powers: the North African Barbary states, whose ships, allegedly pirates, plagued Mediterranean shipping and raided even as far as Cornwall and the south coast of Ireland; the Ottoman Empire, which built the largest sailing warship ever; the navies of Arabian and Indian rulers and of Persia, which were forces to be reckoned with in the Indian Ocean; and more. This book presents a comprehensive survey of Islamic seapower from about the beginning of the seventeenth century until the middle of the nineteenth century, charting the rise and fall of different Islamic navies. It focuses on strategy, examining the development and implementation of naval policy and exploring the technology that supported it. It considers the wars Islamic navies participated in, covers all the areas in which Islamic navies operated, and relates Islamic naval power to wider international power politics. The book highlights in particular the importance of the large Ottoman navy, which influenced and gave a lead to other Islamic naval powers."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.02(5)

The sloop of war, 1650-1763 / Ian McLaughlan. "This is the first study in depth of the Royal Navy's vital, but largely ignored small craft. In the age of sail they were built in huge numbers and in far greater variety than the more regulated major warships, so they present a particular challenge to any historian attempting a coherent design history. However, for the first time this book charts the development of the ancillary types, variously described in the 17th century as sloops, ketches, brigantines, advice boats and even yachts, as they coalesce into the single 18th-century category of Sloop of War. In this era they were generally two-masted, although they set a bewildering variety of sail plans from them. The author traces their origins to open boats, like those carried by Basque whalers, shows how developments in Europe influenced English craft, and homes in on the relationship between rigs, hull-form and the duties they were designed to undertake. Visual documentation is scanty, but this book draws together a unique collection of rare and unseen images, coupled with the author's own reconstructions in line drawings and watercolour sketches to provide the most convincing depictions of the appearance of these vessels. By tackling some of the most obscure questions about the early history of small-boat rigs, the book adds a dimension that will be of interest to historians of coastal sail and practical yachtsman, as well as warship enthusiasts."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 623.824(42)"16/17"

Explore our Collection