Explore our Collection

Language
Format
Type

showing 328 library results for 'drawing'

The master shipwright's secrets : how Charles II built the Restoration Navy /Richard Endsor. "Inspired by the recent discovery of mathematically calculated digital plans for a fourth-rate ship by the Deptford master shipwright, John Shish, The Master Shipwright's Secrets is an illustrated history of Restoration shipbuilding focused on the Tyger, one of the smaller but powerful two-deck warships of the period. It examines the proceedings of King Charles II in deciding the types of ship he wanted and his relationship with his master shipwrights. This fascinating book reveals the many secrets of Charles II's shipwrights through an analysis of John Shish's plans for the Tyger, revealing innovative practical calculations which differ significantly from the few contemporary treatises on the subject and the complicated process of constructing the moulds necessary to make the ship's frame. All the other duties performed by the master shipwrights, such as repairing ships, controlling their men and keeping up with the latest inventions are also discussed in detail. The Master Shipwright's Secrets is replete with beautiful and detailed illustrations of the construction of the Tyger and explores both its complicated history and its complex rebuilding, complete with deck plans, internal sections, and large-scale external shaded drawings. The title also explores associated ships, including another fourth-rate ship, the Mordaunt, which was purchased into the Navy at the time and underwent a dimensional survey by John Shish. A rare contemporary section drawing of another fourth-rate English ship and constructional drawings of Shish's later fourth-rate ship, St Albans, are also included."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.8225
A dangerous enterprise : secret war at sea /Tim Spicer. "Between 1942 and 1944 a very small, very secret, very successful clandestine unit of the Royal Navy, operated between Dartmouth in Devon, and the Brittany Coast in France. It was a crossing of about 100 miles, every yard of it dangerous. The unit was called the 15th Motor Gunboat Flotilla: crewed by 125 officers and men, it became the most highly decorated Royal Naval unit of the Second World War. The 15th MGBF was an extraordinary group of men thrown together in the most secret of adventures. Very few were regular Royal Naval officers: instead the unit was made up of mostly Royal Naval Volunteer Officers and 'duration only' sailors. Their home was a converted paddle steamer and luxury yacht, but their work could not have been more serious. Their mission was to ferry agents of SIS and SOE to pinpoint landing sites on the Brittany coast in Occupied France. Once they had landed their agents, together with stores for the Resistance, they picked up evaders, escaped POWs who had had the good fortune to be collected by escape lines run by M19, as well as returning SIS and SOE agents. It is a story that is inextricably entwined with that of the many agents they were responsible for - Pierre Hentic, Yves Le Tac, Virginia Hall, Albert Huâe, Jeannie Rousseau, Suzanne Warengham, Franðcois Mitterrand and Mathilde Carrâe, as well as many others. Without the Flotilla, such intelligence gathering networks as Jade Fitzroy and Alliance would never have developed, and SOE's VAR Line and MI9's Shelburne Escape Line would never have been realised. Drawing on a huge amount of research on both sides of the Channel, including private archives of many of the families involved, A Dangerous Enterprise brings the story of this most clandestine of operations brilliantly to life."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.545941
We're here because you were there : immigration and the end of empire /Ian Sanjay Patel. "Drawing on new archival material from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ian Sanjay Patel retells Britain's recent history in an often shocking account of state racism that still resonates today. In a series of post-war immigration laws, Britain's colonial and Commonwealth citizens from the Caribbean, Asia and Africa were renamed immigrants. In the late 1960s, British officials drew upon an imperial vision of the world to contain what it saw as a vast immigration crisis involving British citizens, passing legislation to block their entry. As a result, British citizenship itself was redefined along racial lines, fatally compromising the Commonwealth and exposing the limits of Britain's influence in the world. Combining voices of so-called immigrants trying to make a home in Britain and the politicians, diplomats and commentators who were rethinking the nation, Patel excavates the reasons why Britain failed to create a post-imperial national identity. From the Windrush generation who came to Britain from the Caribbean to the South Asians who were forced to migrate from East Africa, Britain was caught between attempting both to restrict the rights of its non-white colonial and Commonwealth citizens and redefine its imperial role in the world. Despite Britain's desire to join Europe, which eventually occurred in 1973, its post-imperial moment never arrived, subject to endless deferral and reinvention." --Provided by publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 304.8/41
Oriental visions : exhibitions, travel, and collecting in the Victorian age /Nicky Levell. "A richly illustrated and unique contribution to the fields of critical museology, the history of collecting, and cultural studies, in general. Through the biography of Frederick John Horniman (1835-1906), a Victorian traveller, collector, and Museum founder, this work critically reconstructs and explores the dynamic cultural network of individuals and institutions; touristic and collecting practices; textual and exhibitionary media, which interacted and generated images of the exotic Orient. Starting in the leafy suburbs of south London, this study begins by examining the afterlife of the world renowned Crystal Palace, which had housed the world's first Great Exhibition. Following its move from Hyde Park to Sydenham in the mid-1850s, this immense glass structure soon became a popular tourist destination, attracting more than a million visitors every year and transforming its once isolated rural surrounds into fashionable residential areas. Levell specifically focuses on the powerful, though selective, representations of the distant Orient at the People's Palace, which enchanted Victorian sightseers, artists, collectors, and travellers. She then looks in detail at the spectacular displays of the British Empire's 'Eastern Possessions' at the hugely popular Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 in South Kensington. Together these two exhibitionary complexes, with their visually striking images of the Orient, guided Frederick Horniman's travels and also influenced the type of material that he acquired for his private Museum, which was located in Forest Hill, a short distance from the Crystal Palace. From exhibitions and collections, this monograph then moves on to explore travel and collecting. Drawing on the journal that Frederick Horniman kept during his world tours, a fascinating and richly illustrated account is given of the Victorian tourist's travels in India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Japan, China, Burma (Union of Myanmar), and Egypt, describing the places he visited, the peoples he encountered, and the objects he collected. Finally, attention is turned to the extensive oriental collections, which were assembled by Horniman over a forty-year period, and placed on public display in his twenty-four room Museum. In their museal setting, these exhibits, which had been acquired from dealers, auction houses, international exhibitions, missionaries, travellers, and colonial officials, both at home and abroad, conjured up striking and alluring visions of the Orient."--Provided by the publisher. 2000. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 7.074"18/19"
Crisis at sea : the United States Navy in European waters in World War I /William N. Still, Jr. ; foreword by James C. Bradford and Gene A. Smith. "Crisis at Sea is the first comprehensive history of the United States Navy in European waters during World War I. Drawing on vast American, British, German, French, and Italian sources, the author presents the U.S. Naval experience as America moved into the modern age of naval warfare. Not limited to an operations account of naval battles and strategies, this volume - the second in a series - examines diplomatic policies, cabinet decisions, logistics, the home front, support systems, and shipbuilding to illustrate the complexity and enormity of America's naval participation in World War I." "This is a thorough treatment of not only the events but also the personalities of the war, with particular attention paid to the difficulties they faced. The book reveals insights into the United States' relations in the world, the nation's unpreparedness for such a war, the limits imposed on the Navy by the cabinet, and the unexpected conclusion to the war. Much of the author's exhaustive research is new, such as the use of French official documents and British recollections of the American ships and sailors. This book will be the standard reference volume for libraries and serious scholars with a special interest in World War I and in the history of warfare."--Provided by the publisher. 2006. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.353(73)"1914/1918"
The darksome bounds of a failing world : the sinking of the "Titanic" and the end of the Edwardian era /Gareth Russell. "When the ship of dreams sank, so did the Edwardian era. In this original and meticulously-researched narrative history, Gareth Russell considers the real story of the Titanic, and the seismic shift of modernity the 1910s have come to mark in the West. Had she survived her first voyage, The Titanic probably would have dated like other ocean liners. Instead, within a week of setting sail on 10th April 1912, the disaster of her sinking had turned her into one of the biggest news stories of the century. Writing in his signature prose, Gareth Russell peers through the portholes of six first-class travellers to immerse us into the Edwardian era while demonstrating how modernity shook up the class system of the age. Lucy Leslie, Countess of Rothes; 'son' of the British Empire, Tommy Andrews; captain of the industry John Thayer and his son Jack; Jewish immigrant Ida Straus; and model and movie star Dorothy Gibson. Each subject?s unique story offers insights into the established hierarchy during the fin de siáecle of pre-war Britain and America, the Titanic's respective spiritual and economic homelands. Through these entwining lives, Russell investigates social class - its mores, its foibles, its accents, its etiquette, its benefits, its casual or intentional cruelties, its potential nobility. Those nuances also invite analyses of the shipping trade, the birth of the movie industry, the aristocracy, the American Gilded Age, the Irish Home Rule crisis, and Jewish-American communities. The Titanic is the vessel in which we can extrapolate lessons on hubris, folly, greed, love, class, magnificent courage and pitiable weakness. She carried thousands of people and, in that way, she still has thousands of stories to tell. Drawing on brand new and unpublished materials, journal entries and film archives from the time, The Darksome Bounds of a Failing World focuses on the symbolism of the Titanic as the floating symbol of Anglo-American success, its clientele an apt illustration of the limitless - technological, financial - possibilities of its time."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 656.61.085.3TITANIC
The Baltimore Sabotage Cell : German agents, American traitors, and the U-boat Deutschland during World War I /Dwight R. Messimer. "By the summer of 1915 Germany was faced with two major problems in fighting World War I: how to break the British blockade and how to stop or seriously disrupt the British supply line across the Atlantic. The solution to the former was to find a way over, through, or under it. Aircraft in those days were too primitive, too short range, and too underpowered to accomplish this, and Germany lacked the naval strength to force a passage through the blockade. But if Germany could build a fleet of cargo U-boats that were large enough to carry meaningful loads and had the range to make a round trip between Germany and the United States without refueling, the blockade might be successfully broken. Since the German navy could not cut Britain's supply line to America, another answer lay in sabotaging munitions factories, depots, and ships, as well as infecting horses and mules at the western end of the supply line. German agents, with American sympathizers, successfully carried out more than fifty attacks involving fires and explosions and spread anthrax and glanders on the East Coast before America's entry into the war on 6 April 1917. Breaking the blockade with a fleet of cargo U-boats provided the lowest risk of drawing America into the war; at the same time, sabotage was incompatible with Germany's diplomatic goal of keeping the United States out of the war. The two solutions were very different, but the fact that both campaigns were run by intelligence agencies - the Etappendienst (navy) and the Geheimdienst (army), through the agency of one man, Paul Hilken, in one American city, Baltimore, make them inseparable. Those solutions created the dichotomy that produced the U-boat Deutschland and the Baltimore Sabotage Cell. Here, Messimer provides the first study of the degree to which U.S. citizens were enlisted in Germany's sabotage operations and debunks many myths that surround the Deutschland."--Provided by the publisher. 2015 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.4/8743
Far distant ships : the blockade of Brest 1793-1815 /Quintin Barry "Throughout the long drawn out war at sea during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, it was a cardinal principle of British naval strategy to blockade the port of Brest, the largest and most important of the French naval bases that threatened the security of the British Isles. It was a strategy that had been perfected by Sir Edward Hawke during the Seven Years War of 1756 - 1763, when it culminated in the stunning victory of Quiberon Bay. The American naval historian A.T. Mahan memorably summed up the contribution of the Royal Navy to the ultimate defeat of Napoleon when he wrote: 'Those far distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which the Grand Army never looked, stood between it and the domination of the world.' There were many aspects to the blockade of Brest, but always at its centre was the need to frustrate French attempts at the invasion of Britain or Ireland. Most famous of these, of course, was Napoleon's intricate combination that led to the campaign of Trafalgar, in the course of which his invasion plans disintegrated. But there were many other offensive moves which it was the blockading fleet's duty to prevent. Inevitably, there were great sea battles when the French ventured out, though fewer than might have been expected. For many months at a time the British fleet was at sea off Brest facing the considerable dangers of wind and weather without encountering its adversary. There were many remarkable leaders who came to the fore during the long years of war; Howe, Bridport, St Vincent, Cornwallis and Keith were among those who led the Channel Fleet. Nelson described his captains as a 'band of brothers', but this was by no means a description that could be applied to the quarrelsome, self willed and argumentative group of men who held the destiny of the Royal Navy in their hands, whether at sea or around the boardroom table at the Admiralty. Drawing on the official and personal correspondence of those involved, this book traces the development of British naval strategy, as well as describing the crucial encounters between the rival fleets and the single ship actions which provided the press with a constant flow of news stories for its readers."--Provided by the publisher. 2017 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.463.3(42:44)"1793/1815"
Nelson's Arctic voyage : the Royal Navy's first polar expedition 1773 /Peter Goodwin. "In the summer of 1773 the 14-year old Horatio Nelson took part in an expedition to the Arctic, which came close to ending his naval career before it had begun. The expedition was to find a navigable northern passage between the Atlantic and Pacific, and was supported by the Royal Society and King George III. Two bomb vessels HMS Racehorse and Carcass were fitted out and strengthened under the command of Captain Hon. Constantine Phipps. It was an extremely cold Arctic summer and the ships became locked in ice far from Spitzbergen and were unable to cut their way out until days later when the wind changed and the ice broke up. The ships were extricated and returned home. On the trip, the young Nelson had command of one of the smaller boats of the ships, a four-oared cutter manned by twelve seamen. In this he helped to save the crew of a boat belonging to the Racehorse from an attack by a herd of enraged walruses. He also had a more famous encounter with a polar bear, while attempting to obtain a bearskin as a present for his father, an exploit that later became part of the Nelson legend. Drawing on the ship's journals and expedition commander Phipps' journal from the National Archives, the book creates a picture of the expedition and life on board. Using the ships' muster books it also details the ship's crews giving the different roles and ranks in the ships. The book is illustrated using some of the ship's drawings and charts and pictures of many objects used on the ship, while a navigational chart of the route taken has been created from the logbooks. The book also looks at the overall concept of naval exploration as set in train by Joseph Banks and the Royal Society. The fact that the expedition failed as a result of poor planning with potentially tragic results demonstrates the difficulties and uncertainties of such an expedition. It also looks at a great naval commander at the earliest stage of his career and considers how the experience might have shaped his later career and attitudes. Other great captains and voyages are discussed alongside Nelson, including Captain Cook and his exploration of the south seas and the later ill-fated northern journeys of Franklin and Shackleton."--Provided by the publisher 2018. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(98)