Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

The Imperial War Museum book of the war at sea, 1914-1918 / Julian Thompson. "Based on gripping first-hand testimony from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, this book reveals what it was really like to serve in the Royal Navy during the First World War"--Dust jacket. 2005. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.45

Dr Savage's Bermuda / edited by Edward Cecil Harris. "The forgotten landscape of Bermuda in the 1830s is recovered in this remarkable collection of paintings by the prolific and talented Royal Artillery surgeon Dr. Johnson Savage. The paintings were the start of an extraordinary relationship between Bermuda and several generations of the Savage family. Included are exquisite images from Savage's later posting in Corfu; his work as a medical illustrator; paintings by his Royal Navy Midshipman son Arthur; and an account of the doctor's grandson, Arthur Johnson Savage, RE, who completed the great Ordnance Survey of Bermuda in 1900."--Provided by the publisher. 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

Are we nearly there yet? / D.W. Furlong. This is a personal account of the author's life up to the age of 24. He was born in 1936 and in 1953 joined the Vindicatrix, which had been fitted out as a National Sea Training School for boys who wanted to join the Merchant Navy. He relates his adventures on various cargo liners and tramp ships. At the age of 20 Furness joined the RAF and was posted to Aden. The book has a few black and white photographs of the author, colleagues and family. 2009. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92FURLONG

Operation Dragoon : the invasion of the south of France, 15 August 1944 /edited by Andrew Stewart. "The Allied landings that took place in Southern France in August 1944 represented both one of the concluding elements of the wartime Mediterranean campaign and a decisive follow-on to the invasion of Normandy that had taken place two months before. It was viewed by many at the time as something of a sideshow and not a significant part of the wider war effort. Considerable controversy surrounded the planning of what was originally known as ANVIL with the senior Allied political and military leaders heatedly debating the strategic rationale for such an operation. The maritime force of escort carriers, a gun support force, minesweepers, cargo vessels and heavy landing craft was commanded by an American admiral but a third of it was supplied by the Royal Navy. On the day of the landings the British cruiser HMS Argonaut fired the most rounds of any ship in the fleet. An overwhelming superiority in airpower and a lack of a cohesive German response meant that the landings were an overwhelming success. By the third day the Allies held a 50-mile front as much as 30 miles deep, a total of some 500 square miles. At least nine important towns were in Allied hands and spearheads were ten miles from the naval base of Toulon, ten miles from Cannes. Seaborne and airborne troops had met ashore and reinforcements and supplies were being landed in large quantities. As this Naval Staff History highlights even so "The Champagne Campaign", as it was later termed by many of those who had been involved, required considerable planning and the contribution provided by the Royal Navy had a significant part to in the final Allied success. With this came the capture of intact French ports and the establishment of a vital logistic hub would help safeguard the Allied drive through North-Western Europe. This is the second volume in Helion's new series, 'Naval Staff Histories of the Second World War'. The series aims to make available to a broad authorship these indispensable studies of the key operations of the war." 2015 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.542.1"1944"

The Naval War of 1812 : a documentary history /William S. Dudley, editor, Michael J. Crawford, associate editor. 1985-2002. • BOOK • 7 copies available. 973.5/25

Indonesia pilot : volume 2 Great Britain. Hydrographic Department 1983 • FOLIO • 7 copies available. 527.83

Midway : dauntless victory :fresh perspectives on America's seminal naval victory of World War II /by Peter C. Smith. "This is an in-depth study of the battle of Midway that reviews the many previous accounts and compares their accuracy and veracity with fresh documentation that has been released recently, including some new material on the post-war analysis made by a select committee. There are new viewpoints on the muddle among the US Admirals; the total failure of the USAAF, despite elaborate claims; views on a whitewash of Admiral Fletcher and others; fresh thinking on the part played by the US Navy Dauntless dive-bombers in the action; the mystery of the carrier Saratoga's presence; Hollywood's totally wrong take on the battle in all the films since made about it; some new eyewitness material the author has obtained and information from Japanese sources not previously used. The Appendices will include statistical details - the ships, the planes and the men."--Provided by the publisher. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.542.6"1942"

Duel in the North Sea : HMS Ambuscade at Jutland /Pat Avery. "The most intensely contested and significant naval engagement of the First World War took place 100 years ago in the grey misty waters of the North Sea, near the coast of Denmark. The battle of Jutland, fought between the Royal Navy and the German Navy's High Sea Fleet, was the largest, and last, of the great battleship battles. The fierce exchanges between capital ships during the encounter has been well documented, less so the role played by the smaller destroyers, and the officers and ratings who manned them. Unseen eye witness material from those who experienced this historic battle is rare, but author Pat Avery has recently discovered the dairies of his grandfather, a telegraphist serving in the torpedo boat destroyer 'HMS Ambuscade', providing a compelling insight into events as they unfold. 'HMS Ambuscade' was at the very heart of the night fighting, which culminated in a brutal clash with the retreating German battles cruisers shortly before midnight on 31st May 1916."--Provided by the publisher. 2016 • BOOK • 1 copy available.

Battleships of the world : Struggle for naval supremacy /John Fidler "The battleships of the world's navies in the 1820s were descended directly in line from the Revenge of 1577: they were wooden-built, sail-powered and mounted guns on the broadside, firing solid shot. In the next half century, steel, steam and shells had wrought a transformation and by 1906, Dreadnought had ushered in a revolution in naval architecture. The naval race between Britain and Germany that followed, led to the clash of the navies at Jutland in 1916. Though this was indecisive, the German navy never again challenged the Grand Fleet of Britain during the war, and eventually the crews refused to put to sea again. Disarmament on a massive scale followed, but the battleship was still regarded as the arbiter of sea-power in the years between the wars. However, the advocates of air power were looking to the future, and when in 1940 biplane Swordfish torpedo bombers of the Fleet Air Arm sank three Italian battleships at their moorings in Taranto, the Japanese sensed their opportunity. Their attack on the American Pacific fleet base at Pearl Harbor sank eight battleships - but the American carriers were at sea, and escaped destruction. Given the distances involved, the Pacific war was necessarily a carrier war, and in the major actions of the Coral Sea, Midway, Leyte Gulf and the Philippine Sea, all the fighting was done by aircraft, with battleships reduced to a supporting role. Soon after the war ended, most were sent for scrap, and a naval tradition had come to an end. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.821.2"1820/1945"

The Seaman's Medical Advocate : Or, An attempt to shew that five thousand seamen are, annually, during war, lost to the British Nation through the yellow fever /Elliot Arthy "Written by a naval surgeon in 1798, this medical treatise provides a frank and harrowing account of life in the British navy. Elliot Arthy started his career as a surgeon's mate in the Africa and West Indies merchant service. He eventually became a surgeon, and worked on a slave ship for many years. In this publication he shows that at least 5,000 seamen were lost to Britain annually through yellow fever and other illnesses, a loss the nation could little afford during wartime. Stressing the 'absolute necessity' for naval surgeons, Arthy's treatise is divided into six parts: the first examines the nature and causes of yellow fever; the second discusses how seamen come into contact with the disease; the third focuses on other causes of the loss of seamen on board ships of war; the fourth on statistics. The fifth and sixth parts suggest methods of prevention."--Provided by the publisher. 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 613.68

The victory of seapower : winning the Napoleonic War 1806-1814 /Richard Woodman "The victory at Trafalgar marked the beginning of nine years of expansion and domination by the Royal Navy right across the globe. This book charts the events of those years, including the Battle of San Domingo in 1806, the attack on Copenhagen in 1807 and the capture of the French base on Mauritius in 1810. Also covered is the Navy's crucial support of Wellington's army in the Peninsula War. Thematic sections of the book feature the skills of the seaman and the lives of prisoners of war. The prints and drawings collection of the National Maritime Museum is the source for the 300 contemporary illustrations."--Provided by the publisher. 1998 • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 355.49"1806/1814"(42:44)

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

Dreadnoughts : an illustrated history /Gerald Toghill "Two things made the battleship possible: the harnessing of steam for propulsion and Britain's vast industrial power in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With these two massive powerhouses available to ship designers, it was inevitable that change would come to the seas. For a short while France led the way with the launching of the Gloire, but Britain soon stole the limelight with the launch of HMS Warrior in 1863. The moment her keel hit the water the naval world was turned upside down and all other warships were rendered obsolete. But that event was as nought compared to the astonishing revolution in warship building caused by the launch in 1906 of the mighty Dreadnought. If Warriorhad caused a great upheaval, the impact of Dreadnought was positively Krakatoan. Such was her impact on the naval world that her very name became generic. All battleships built before her were classed as 'pre-Dreadnought' and all battleships built post-1906 came to be known as 'Dreadnoughts'. This is their story."--Provided by the publisher 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.821.3(100)

The 'Clio', 1877-1920 : a study of the functions of an industrial training ship in North Wales /by Emrys Wyn Roberts. "Officially, the Clio - moored in the Menai Strait - was a care and training ship for young 'street ruffians' in the second half of the nineteenth century. This study shows that it also provided a regular supply of seamen for the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine. Letters of some of the old boys of Clio during the First World War and an unique collection of photographs combine to make this book a fascinating history of a pre-1918 Education Act establishment."--Provided by the publisher. 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 629.123CLIO

Jutland : the unfinished battle/Nicholas Jellicoe. "One hundred years after Jutland, the first and largest engagement of Dreadnoughts in the twentieth century, historians are still fighting this controversial and misunderstood battle. What was in fact a strategic victory stands out starkly against the background of bitter public disappointment in the Royal Navy and decades of divisive acrimony and very public infighting between the camps supporting the two most senior commanders, Jellicoe and Beatty. This book not only re-tells the story of the battle from both a British and German perspective based on the latest research, but it also helps clarify the context of Germany's inevitable naval clash. It then traces the bitter dispute that ensued in the years after the smoke of war had cleared - right up to his death in 1935, Admiral Jellicoe was embroiled in what became known as the 'Jutland Controversy'. Nick Jellicoe is uniquely placed to tell the story of Jutland. His naval connections are strong: his father, the second Earl served as First Lord of the Admiralty while his grandfather, Sir John Jellicoe commanded the Grand Fleet for the first two years on the war, from 1914 to 1916 - famously described by Churchill as being 'the only man who could have lost the war in an afternoon'."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.456(489)

Never to sail in her : Victoria & Albert III, Queen Victoria's last Royal Yacht /Mike Keulemans. "In the days when Britannia ruled the waves, arguably from the mid-18th Century, Britain had established a naval hegemony that was to remain unrivalled until the 1920s. As a result of the rich pickings afforded the academic or enthusiast, a significant proportion of the ships that had fought to achieve and represent the nation's maritime superiority are well recorded, indeed some of these vessels, perhaps most notably H.M.S. Victory,a re preserved to this day. By the mid 1800s, Heads of State of maritime, and quite a few not so maritime, nations would vie with each other to build bigger, faster and more opulent Royal or State Yachts. Perhaps because we did not feel the need, with a Royal Navy that was the envy of the world, Britain's dominance of the oceans saw our Royal Yachts somewhat less ostentatious than many others. They were reflective of the whims of the Monarchy and embodied British inventiveness and technology, evidencing the industrial progress of our small island nation that, towards the end of the Victorian era, was building over 60% of the world's ships. One important vessel which to date has largely avoided the chronicler's attention is the Royal Yacht VIctoria & Albert III. Here that omission is put to rights."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. txt

The East India Company in Persia : trade and cultural exchange in the eighteenth century /Peter Good. "In 1747, the city of Kerman in Persia burned amidst chaos, destruction and death perpetrated by the city's own overlord, Nader Shah. After the violent overthrow of the Safavid dynasty in 1722 and subsequent foreign invasions from all sides, Persia had been in constant turmoil. One well-appointed house that belonged to the East India Company had been saved from destruction by the ingenuity of a Company servant, Danvers Graves, and his knowledge of the Company's privileges in Persia. This book explores the lived experience of the Company and its trade in Persia and how it interacted with power structures and the local environment in a time of great upheaval in Persian history. Using East India Company records and other sources, it charts the role of the Navy and commercial fleet in the Gulf, trade agreements, and the experience of Company staff, British and non-British living in and navigating conditions in 18th-century Persia. By examining the social, commercial and diplomatic history of this relationship, this book creates a new paradigm for the study of Early Modern interactions in the Indian Ocean."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382.0941055

Pearl, December 7, 1941 / Daniel Allen Butler. "Pearl: The 7th Day of December 1941 is the story of how America and Japan, two nations with seemingly little over which to quarrel, let peace slip away, so that on that "day which will live in infamy", more than 350 dive bombers, high-level bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters of the Imperial Japanese Navy did their best to cripple the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet, killing 2,403 American servicemen and civilians, and wounding another 1,178. It's a story of emperors and presidents, diplomats and politicians, admirals and generals - and it's also the tale of ordinary sailors, soldiers, and airmen, all of whom were overtaken by a rush of events that ultimately overwhelmed them. Pearl shows the real reasons why America's political and military leaders underestimated Japan's threat against America's security, and why their Japanese counterparts ultimately felt compelled to launch the Pearl Harbor attack."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.5426693

Only ghosts can live / Guy Morgan ; illustrated by John Worsley. A memoir by British novelist and screenwriter Guy Morgan recounting his experience as a German prisoner of war from 1943 to 1944, towards the end of the Second World War. The first section describes how Morgan, a Royal Navy officer, was injured in a German attack off the coast of the Dalmatian Island of Lussin in November 1943, and captured as a result. The second section describes elements of day-to-day life as a prisoner of war through a number of 'documentary short stories', including food and black market trade, solitary confinement, camaraderie between the prisoners, and a 'glossary of gefangenschaft' (imprisonment). Includes two black and white plates and 28 black and white illustrations by John Worsley. 1945. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92MORGAN

Coins, weights and measures, ancient and modern, of all nations ... : also a large collection of specific gravities Millan, John 1749 • RARE-BOOK • 2 copies available. 094:627.72(42)"1746"

The battle for Copenhagen roads : a talk by Captain Finn Volke :The loss of HMS Invincible :the St Vincent Anniversary Lecture :by Derek R Hayes. This volume contains the text of two talks. The first is a description of the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 from the Danish perspective given to members of the Nelson Sociey by Captain Finn Volke. A table presents details of both the British and Danish fleets, giving type and name of vessel and the number of guns, dead and wounded on each ship. Diagrams showing the relative positions of each fleet are also provided. The seond talk is an account of the loss of HMS Invincible, a Third Rate with 74 guns launched in 1765 and lost in 1801 off Happisburgh, Norfolk following her grounding on her way to join the Baltic expedition bound for Denmark. Four hundred men died from the crew of 600. This talk was given at the City Hall, Norwich on 14 February 1990. 1990 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.82Invincible

The mechanism of men-of-war : being a description of the machinery to be found in modern fighting ships Oldknow, Reginald C 1896 • BOOK • 4 copies available. 623.82:621.1

Perilous fight : America's intrepid war with Britain on the high seas, 1812-1815 /Stephen Budiansky. "Budiansky shows that, far from an indecisive and unnecessary conflict--as historians have long dismissed the War of 1812--this "forgotten war" had profound consequences that would change the course of naval warfare, America's place in the world, and the rules of international conflict forever. Never again would the great powers challenge the young republic's sovereignty in the aftermath of the stunning performance of America's navy and privateersmen. Drawing extensively on diaries, letters, and personal accounts from both sides, Budiansky re-creates the encounters at sea, the intimate hopes and fears of vainglorious captains and young seamen in search of adventure, and the behind-the-scenes political intrigue and maneuvering in Washington and London."--From publisher description. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1812/1815"(42:73)

The challenge : America, Britain and the War of 1812 /Andrew Lambert. Lambert, Andrew D., 2012. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 355.49"1812"(42:73)

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