Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

A Civil War gunboat in Pacific waters : life on board USS Saginaw /Hans Konrad Van Tilburg ; foreword by James C. Bradford and Gene Allen Smith. Van Tilburg, Hans. c2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.82SAGINAW

Art and the Second World War / Monica Bohm-Duchen. This is the first book in English to provide a comprehensive and detailed international overview of the complex and often disturbing relationship between war and the fine arts during this crucial period of modern history. This generously illustrated volume starts by examining the art produced in reaction to the Spanish Civil War (often viewed as 'the first battle of World War II'), and then looks at painting, sculpture, prints, and drawing in each of the major combatant nations, including Japan and China. Breathtaking in scope, this scholarly yet accessible publication places wartime art within its broader cultural, political, and military contexts while never losing sight of the power and significance of the individual image and the individual artist. Monica Bohm-Duchen's thought-provoking analysis ranges from iconic paintings such as Picasso's Guernica to unfamiliar works by little-known artists. 2013. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 7.044"1939/1945"

The Bombay country ships 1790-1833 "In this book, for the first time, the privately owned merchant ships of Bombay are described in detail. Owned by Indians and English, often in partnership, officered, in the first part of the period, by Europeans with Asian crews and licensed to trade east of the Cape of Good Hope, they were of vital importance to the financial stability of the East India Company's operations in China. The story has been salvaged from references in the Company's records, private papers and newspapers, with frequent quotations to give colour to the period. Ships and their tonnage are listed and their trade assessed. Where possible it shows the degree of Indian and European participation; it not only makes an interesting contribution to maritime studies but fills a gap in the economic and social history of both countries."--Provided by the publisher. 2000 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 954.03"1790-1833"

Deterrence : selected articles from the Naval War College Review /Robert C. Ayer, editor. 2021 • BOOK • 1 copy available. txt

Richard Hakluyt and travel writing in early modern Europe / edited by Daniel Carey and Claire Jowitt. "This is an interdisciplinary collection of 24 essays which brings together leading international scholarship on Hakluyt and his work. Best known as editor of "The Principal Navigations" (1589; expanded 1598-1600), Hakluyt was a key figure in promoting English colonial and commercial expansion in the early modern period. He also translated major European travel texts, championed English settlement in North America, and promoted global trade and exploration via a Northeast and Northwest Passage. His work spanned every area of English activity and aspiration, from Muscovy to America, from Africa to the Near East, and India to China and Japan, providing up-to-date information and establishing an ideological framework for English rivalries with Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands. This volume resituates Hakluyt in the political, economic, and intellectual context of his time."--Back cover. 2012. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 061.22HAKLUYT

Battleship Musashi : the making and sinking of the world's biggest battleship "Admiral lsoroku Yamamoto, the man who planned the attack on Pearl Harbour, said that the three great follies of the world were the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, and the battleship Musashi. Yamamoto understood that sheer size and firepower would not be decisive factors in the battle for naval supremacy in the Pacific. The Musashi was massive - upright it would have approached the size of the Chrysler Building. Outfitted with eighteen-inch armor plating and nine eighteen-inch guns, the largest ever mounted on a warship, the Musashi was considered by its creators to be invincible and unsinkable. Yet during its two years of active duty with the Combined Fleet, it never fired a single shot against another ship. It was sunk, as Yamamoto had predicted, by torpedoes and bombs. Akira Yoshimura's dramatic reconstruction of the birth of the Musashi portrays a nation preparing for total war. Under these extreme conditions, courage, genius, and integrity coexisted with brutality, folly, and paranoia. During the more than four years it took to build and outfit it, shipyard engineers and their Navy mentors were faced with seemingly insurmountable technical problems and plagued by natural calamities and the constant fear of espionage. The solutions they found to each successive crisis were sometimes brilliant, sometimes absurd. Battleship Musashi is a tribute to the men who achieved this engineering marvel and a testament to the excesses of bureaucratic militarism."--Provided by the publisher. 1999 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.821.2(52)

Observations on the zodiacal light : from April 2, 1853, to April 22, 1855, made chiefly on board the United States steam-frigate Mississippi, during her late cruise in eastern seas, and her voyage homeward : with conclusions from the data thus obtained /by George Jones Jones, George, 1856. • RARE-FOLIO • 1 copy available. 910.4(520:73):094

Britain, Canada and the North Pacific : maritime enterprise and dominion, 1778-1914 /Barry M. Gough. "From the time of Cook, the British and their Canadian successors were drawn to the Northwest coast of North America by possibilities of trade in sea otter and the wish to find a 'northwest passage'. The studies collected here trace how the British came to dominate the area, with expeditions sent from London, Bombay and Macau, and the Canadian quest from overland, and how commercial enterprise, the Royal Navy and British statecraft fended off American opposition and Russian and Spanish resistance to British aspirations. Elsewhere in the Americas, the British promoted trans-Pacific trade with China, conveyed specie from western Mexico, and established the South America naval station. The flag followed trade and vice versa; empire was both formal (at Vancouver Island) and informal (as in California or Mexico). This book features individuals such as James Cook, William Bolts, Peter Pond, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie. It is also an account of the pressure that corporations placed on the British state in shaping the emerging world of trade and colonization in that distant ocean and its shores, and of the importance of sea-power in the creation of modern Canada."--Provided by the publisher. c2004. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 656.61(218)"1778/1914"

Tarnished gold : Ghana and the Netherlands from 1593 /Gijs van der Ham. "Gijs van der Ham's book Tarnished Gold tells the story of the Dutch presence in Ghana with reference to a fascinating series of artefacts, maps, drawings, engravings and paintings, most of them part of the Rijksmuseum collection in Amsterdam. This painful and yet fascinating story is one of inhumanity and curiosity, competition and exploitation, power and subjugation, the encounter between two very different cultures, and human lives that were dramatically and irrevocably changed - above all, and most tragically, by the slave trade. Gijs van der Ham (b. 1955) is senior curator of history at the Rijksmuseum. In 2013 he published The history of the Netherlands in 100 objects, a book likewise based on the Rijksmuseum collection. Tarnished Gold is part of the Country Series published by the Rijksmuseum's History Department. By researching objects from the Rijksmuseum Collection, the series describes the shared history of the Netherlands with Indonesia, Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Ghana, Suriname and Brazil."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.1(492:667)

Bloody Foreigners : the story of immigration to Britain "The story of the way Britain has been settled and influenced by foreign people and ideas is as old as the land itself. In the first book to treat the subject as a continuous narrative, Robert Winder tells of the remarkable migrations that have founded and defined a nation. It is a moving and inspiring history, which begins with hunter-gatherers following the melting ice and moves through a thousand years of invasions from 55BC to the Battle of Hastings. Winder describes how the Jewish community, originally sponsored by William the Conqueror, was persecuted and expelled by Edward I; how a Dutch elite crossed the Channel with William II, among them clockmakers, goldsmiths and artists; and the daring escape of the Huguenots, who fled religious persecution on the continent and helped lay the foundations of an industrial and commercial revolution. Victorian Britian hummed with human traffic from all over Europe, from scientists to sailors, dissidents to engineers. Robert Winder chronicles the impact of the Irish and the other great influxes of that century: from Italy, Germany, Jewish Russia and Poland. As the curtain falls on the British Empire, he follows the tumultuous arrival of the hopeful travellers from India, Africa, China and the Caribbean."--Provided by the publisher. 2004 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 325.14(42)

Scotia (1845) and Caledonia (1856) : two little-known paddle steamers /Fraser G. MacHaffie "This new book tells the extraordinary tale of two 19th century Clyde paddlers, Scotia (1845) and Caledonia (1856), that crossed the Atlantic to serve as blockade-runners in the American Civil War and later enjoyed peacetime careers on the eastern seaboard of North America. The author, Fraser G MacHaffie, is a distinguished steamer historian and a member of the CRSC for many years. Fraser played a major part in the development of the CRSC before moving to work and live in the USA. The Club have been honoured to have Fraser as a speaker over the past three winter seasons, during his visits home to friends and family. His immaculately researched narrative illuminates a long-neglected period of Clyde steamer history."--Provided by the publisher. 2013. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 629.123.21(414.1)

Treasures from the map room : A journey through the Bodleian collections /Debbie Hall. "This book explores the stories behind seventy-five extraordinary maps. It includes unique treasures such as the fourteenth-century Gough Map of Great Britain, exquisite portolan charts made in the fifteenth century, the Selden Map of China - the earliest example of Chinese merchant cartography - and an early world map from the medieval Islamic Book of Curiosities, together with more recent examples of fictional places drawn in the twentieth century, such as C.S. Lewis's own map of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien's map of Middle Earth. As well as the works of famous mapmakers Mercator, Ortelius, Blaeu, Saxton and Speed, the book also includes lesser known but historically significant works: early maps of the Moon, of the transit of Venus, hand-drawn estate plans and early European maps of the New World. There are also some surprising examples: escape maps printed on silk and carried by pilots in the Second World War in case of capture on enemy territory; the first geological survey of the British Isles showing what lies beneath our feet; a sixteenth-century woven tapestry map of Worcestershire; a map plotting outbreaks of cholera and a jigsaw map of India from the 1850s. Behind each of these lies a story, of intrepid surveyors, ambitious navigators, chance finds or military victories. Drawing on the unique collection in the Bodleian Library, these stunning maps range from single cities to the solar system, span the thirteenth to the twenty-first century and cover most of the world."--Provided by the publisher. 2016 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 528.9

Coal, steam and ships : engineering, enterprise and empire on the nineteenth-century seas /Crosbie Smith. "Crosbie Smith explores the trials and tribulations of first-generation Victorian mail steamship lines, their passengers, proprietors and the public. Eyewitness accounts show in rich detail how these enterprises engineered their ships, constructed empire-wide systems of steam navigation and won or lost public confidence in the process. Controlling recalcitrant elements within and around steamship systems, however, presented constant challenges to company managers as they attempted to build trust and confidence. Managers thus wrestled to control shipbuilding and marine engine-making, coal consumption, quality and supply, shipboard discipline, religious readings, relations with the Admiralty and government, anxious proprietors, and the media - especially following a disaster or accident. Emphasizing interconnections between maritime history, the history of engineering and Victorian thought, Smith's innovative history of early ocean steamships reveals the fraught uncertainties of Victorian life on the seas."--Provided by the publisher. 2018. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 629.123.2

Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty, the last naval hero : an intimate biography /Stephen Roskill Roskill, Stephen 1980 • BOOK • 2 copies available. 92BEATTY

Aquatint worlds : travel, print, and empire, 1770-1820 /Douglas Fordham. "In the late 18th century, British artists embraced the medium of aquatint for its ability to produce prints with rich and varied tones that became even more stunning with the addition of color. At the same time, the expanding purview of the British empire created a market for images of far-away places. Book publishers quickly seized on these two trends and began producing travel books illustrated with aquatint prints of Indian cave temples, Chinese waterways, African villages, and more. Offering a close analysis of three exceptional publications--Thomas and William Daniell's Oriental Scenery (1795-1808), William Alexander's Costume of China (1797-1805), and Samuel Daniell's African Scenery and Animals (1804-5)--this volume examines how aquatint became a preferred medium for the visual representation of cultural difference, and how it subtly shaped the direction of Western modernism."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 769.922

The birth of an icon : Scott Linton and the building of the Cutty Sark : the true story/Alan Platt & Robert T. Sexton "The Cutty Sark is the world's most famous surviving merchant sailing ship and stands proudly amongst the top few maritime survivors of any kind. She is an icon, a brand, and her memorably intriguing name joins Auld Lang Syne as the most widely known words from the Scots of Robert Burns. That she was built at Dumbarton in Scotland in 1869-70 for Scottish owners is well known, but that much of the money which it took to build her was unwittingly provided by Scottish creditors is explained here for the first time. London, however, was her home port when she was under the Red Duster gaining her reputation amongst the glorious clippers which brought tea to the Thames from China and from her phenomenal voyages in the Australian wool trade."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 2 copies available.

The sea and the sky : the history of the Royal Mathematical School of Christ's Hospital /Clifford Jones "The Royal Mathematical School of Christ's Hospital was set up in 1673 to teach the principles of navigation to selected boys in preparation for a career at sea. Using mainly the original records dating back 400 years, this is a major groundbreaking history, nearly 350 packed pages of never before published accounts of the Foundation of the Mathematical School, of the teachers and the pupils from the beginning right through to the present day. Fully illustrated in colour throughout, it dispels the myth that Samuel Pepys started the school and provides new insights into his role during the first thirty years. Full details are provided of the extensive contributions made by Robert Hooke, John Flamsteed, Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Isaac Newton, among many others. Some 2000 boys left Christ's Hospital to travel the world, including Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, the West Indies and North America, on voyages of commerce and exploration, leaving many amazing stories to tell."--Provided by publisher. 2015. • FOLIO • 1 copy available.

Lords of the East : the East India Company and its ships (1600-1874) /Jean Sutton. Sutton, Jean, 2000. • BOOK • 3 copies available. 382/.06/041

The British Navy in eastern waters : the Indian and Pacific oceans /John D. Grainger. "This book outlines the early voyages of the English East India Company, its building of its own naval forces and its conflicts with Indian states. It examines the opening up of the Pacific Ocean, the wars with the French in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the activities of the British navy in the later nineteenth century, both off the coasts of China and Japan, and also in the many other places to which the navy's very great power extended. It goes on to consider the wars of the twentieth century, Britain's withdrawal from east of Suez, and Britain's continuing relative decline. Throughout, the book provides accounts of battles and other actions, and relates the activities of the British navy to the wider political situation and to the activities of other European and Asian navies."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.00941

Turn of the sea : Art from the Eastern Trade Routes /edited by Luâisa Vinhais and Jorge Welsh. "This catalogue includes works of art from Africa, India, Sri Lanka, China, and Japan, which travelled to the West via maritime trade routes opened and operated by Europeans, and focuses on the quintessential examples of their time. Totalling 69 entries, this selection ranges from brass works from the Kingdom of Benin to Indian silver filigree, Sinhalese ivory furniture, Chinese porcelain, and Japanese lacquer, among other pieces. By encompassing new symbols, decorative patterns, shapes, functions, materials, and techniques, these works of art were originally intended to fulfil different needs throughout the world and help to document the social transformations that arose from the opening of direct channels of trade. At the same time, all of these works of art embody the theme of intercultural exchange, which led to the creation of new traditions and forms of art that resonate in our ever-more international cultures of today."--Provided by the publisher. 2017 • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 7(5/6)

Strange company : Chinese settlers, Mestizo women, and the Dutch in VOC Batavia /Leonard Blussâe. "The walled city of Batavia, today's downtown Jakarta, is chiefly remembered as a tropical deathpit, where the Dutch defiantly struggled to preserve a life style of brick houses and canals transplanted from the home country. This misleading stereotype masks the fascinating world of colonial settlement, whose citizens of different ethnic origins coexisted in the shadow of the almighty Dutch East India Company. The heroes of this study, the Chinese settlers and the mestizo wives of the Hollanders, stand out within this plural society: they played indispensable roles in the upkeep of Batavia, and yet both were objects of mockery and ridicule to contemporary western observers. How their lot came to be tied up to the interests of the VOC is shown in this collection of essays, in which new light is thrown on such wide ranging topics as the introduction of Chinese currency to the Archipelago, the origins of the Chinese massacre of 1740, the junk trade to China, and the central place of mestizo women in the early history of the town. The tragic biographies of a Chinese towkay and a Batavian widow reveal how profoundly the VOC affected the individual lives of its Batavian subjects."--Provided by the publisher. 1986. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 959.8/2

Hero in the footnotes : the life and times of Richard Cadman Etches : entrepreneur and British spy /Michael Etches. "The book tells the story of Richard Cadman Etches, born in Warwickshire in 1753, who left home while still a youth to seek his fortune in London. He set up a successful liquor and wine importing business and soon acquired his own ship to deal directly with European suppliers. When, in 1784, news came from James Cook's fatal expedition that huge profits could be made from buying sea otter pelts from local tribes on the North Pacific coast of America and selling them in China, he seized his opportunity and set up a trading base in Nootka Sound. Unfortunately, one of his vessels was captured by Spanish forces who believed they controlled the coast, and this almost led to a war with Britain. Richard then became a full time British agent during the turbulent times of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars and, among his many exploits was the organisation of Sir Sidney Smith's escape from a Paris gaol. He died in penury in a debtors' prison in London in 1817."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 942.07092

Indentured labor, Caribbean sugar: Chinese and Indian migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 /Walton Look Lai ; introduction by Sidney W. Mintz. " ... Offers the first comprehensive study of Asian immigration and the indenture system in the entire British West Indies -- with particular emphasis on the experiences of indentured laborers in the major receiving colonies of British Guiana, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Exploring living and working conditions as well as the makeup of immigrant communities and their cultures, Look Lai offers a "dialectical pluralist" model of Caribbean acculturation that contrasts with the more familiar "melting pot" or "pure pluralist" model."--Publisher's description. [1993] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/63

Brass from the past : brass made, used and traded from prehistoric times to 1800 /Vanda Morton "Brass from the Past is not only a history of the use and production of brass, but more broadly an insight into the journey of this important metal in the context of a changing and modernising world. The book follows the evolution of brass from its earliest forms around 2500 BC through to industrialised production in the eighteenth century. The story is told in the context of the people, economies, cultures, trade and technologies that have themselves defined the alloy and its spread around the world. It explores innovations, such as the distillation of zinc, that have improved the quality and ease of production. From national or religious priorities to exhaustion of raw material supplies, the themes from the past are echoed in our own world today. In the later centuries, the book shines a light on some of the more personal aspects of people, businesses and relationships that have influenced industry and its progress. Above all the book reflects the enthusiasm, not just of the author, but of all brass enthusiasts across the world. The search for information has involved scrambling down Bohemian ravines, stumbling over brass-works debris under trees, and studying pre-civil-war artefacts in Virginia. Academics and experts from across the world have provided information, from China to Qatar and the USA to the Czech Republic. Brass is a strong and attractive metal, which has been used to create items of great beauty and utility. It is hoped that the reader will come to value the qualities of this material which has become a passion for so many people around the world."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. txt

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