Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

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

That most precious merchandise : the Mediterranean trade in Black Sea slaves, 1260-1500 /Hannah Barker. "The history of the Black Sea as a source of Mediterranean slaves stretches from ancient Greek colonies to human trafficking networks in the present day. At its height during the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the Black Sea slave trade was not the sole source of Mediterranean slaves; Genoese, Venetian, and Egyptian merchants bought captives taken in conflicts throughout the region, from North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, the Balkans, and the Aegean Sea. Yet the trade in Black Sea slaves provided merchants with profit and prestige; states with military recruits, tax revenue, and diplomatic influence; and households with the service of women, men, and children. Even though Genoa, Venice, and the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and Greater Syria were the three most important strands in the web of the Black Sea slave trade, they have rarely been studied together. Examining Latin and Arabic sources in tandem, Hannah Barker shows that Christian and Muslim inhabitants of the Mediterranean shared a set of assumptions and practices that amounted to a common culture of slavery. Indeed, the Genoese, Venetian, and Mamluk slave trades were thoroughly entangled, with wide-ranging effects. Genoese and Venetian disruption of the Mamluk trade led to reprisals against Italian merchants living in Mamluk cities, while their participation in the trade led to scathing criticism by supporters of the crusade movement who demanded commercial powers use their leverage to weaken the force of Islam. Reading notarial registers, tax records, law, merchants' accounts, travelers' tales and letters, sermons, slave-buying manuals, and literary works as well as treaties governing the slave trade and crusade propaganda, Barker gives a rich picture of the context in which merchants traded and enslaved people met their fate."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/6209822

Hitler's attack U-boats : the Kriegsmarine's submarine strike force /Jak P. Mallmann Showell. "The success of German submarines during the First World War in almost cutting off Britain's vital imports had not been forgotten by Adolf Hitler and when, in March 1935, he repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, Britain, magnanimously, signed up to an Anglo-German Naval Agreement. This allowed the Germans to build their submarine strength up to one third of the British Royal Navy's tonnage. When war broke out in 1939, German U-boats went quickly into action, but with only four years of production and development, the main armament of these submarines was considerably weaker than equivalent boats in other navies and many of the other main features, such as living and the fighting conditions, were also significantly inferior. Nevertheless, the German U-boat onslaught against British merchant ships during the autumn of 1940 was highly successful because the attacks were made on the surface at night and from such close range that a single torpedo would sink a ship. Soon, though, Allied technology was able to detect U-boats at night, and new convoy techniques, combined with powerfully-armed, fast modern aircraft searching the seas, meant that by 1941 it was clear that Germany was losing the war at sea. Something had to be done. The new generation of attack U-boats that had been introduced since Hitler came to power needed urgent improvement. This is the story of the Types II, VII and IX that had already become the workhorse' of the Kriegsmarine's submarine fleet and continued to put out to sea to attack Allied shipping right up to the end of the war. The Type II was a small coastal boat that struggled to reach the Atlantic; the Type VII was perfectly at home there, but lacked the technology to tackle well protected convoys; whilst the Type IX was a long-range variety that was modified so that it could operate in the Indian Ocean. In this latest book by the renowned Kriegsmarine historian Jak Mallmann Showell, these attack U-boats are explored at length. This includes details of their armament, capabilities, crew facilities, and just what is was like to operate such a vessel, and of course the story of their development and operational history."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.5451

Imperial twilight : the Opium War and the end of China's last Golden Age /Stephen Platt. "In 1839 Britain embarked on the first of its wars with China, sealing the fate of the most prosperous and powerful empire in Asia, if not the world. Motivated by drug profiteering and free-trade interests, the Opium War helped shape the China we know today, sparking the eventual fall of the Qing dynasty and the rise of nationalism and communism in the twentieth century. Imperial Twilight is a riveting and revealing account of the end of China's Golden Age and the origins of one of the most unjust wars in history."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 951/.033

Sea survival : Air Ministry Pamphlet 224. "First issued to airmen in the 1950s, the Air Ministry's Sea Survival guide includes emergency advice to crew operating over the ocean. With the original illustrations and text, this survival guide provides an insight into military survival techniques from a bygone era. Packed with line drawings and instructions including: How to punch man-eating sharks, which are 'cowards'; The pros and cons of drinking 'fish juice', When to smoke. Focussing on one of the most challenging environments on Earth, Sea Survival is one of four reprints of The Air Ministry's emergency survival pamphlets. Others include: Jungle Survival, Desert Survival and Arctic Survival."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 613.6909162

Sacred history, selected from the scriptures, with annotations and reflections, particularly calculated to facilitate the study of the holy scriptures in schools and families : vol 6 Trimmer, Mrs 1796 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:291.8

Eight down : the story of eight maritime disasters over a period of 42 years /David Reid. "Eight Down reviews eight maritime casualties over forty-two years beginning with the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975 to the Stellar Daisy in 2017. As a former seafarer and member of the maritime profession for the past fifty years, all of the 'Eight' have taken place during my watch. I have found resonance with my own experiences, that has sparked my curiosity. I explore the connective threads that will illustrate how these events are the consequence of what Professor James Reason has called the 'Swiss Cheese Model'. I know from my own experience that there were many instances when I might have been but one step away from being a maritime casualty - is it luck? Or is it the awareness or raised consciousness of someone who acts before that last step occurs? I hope to provide insight into the management of change as it relates to safety and the avoidance of traveling through the final hole in a 'Swiss Cheese.'"--Provided by the publisher. 2018. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

Instructions for the Sperry gyro-compass : adjustment care, operations and theory Sperry Gyroscope 1916. • FOLIO • 1 copy available.

Oxford : mapping the city /Daniel MacCannell. "Over the past four and a half centuries, the magnificent city of Oxford has been mapped for many reasons, few of which have involved the mere finding of one's way through the streets. Maps were produced as part of schemes to defend Oxford from rampaging Roundheads, raging floodwaters, and the ravages of cholera; to plan the new canals and bridges of the eighteenth century and the new railways, tramways and suburbs of the nineteenth; to determine and display changes in the city's political stature under the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867; to aid police enforcement of the laws against homosexuality; and even to plan a Soviet ground assault on the heart of the British motor industry. Given its status as a world centre of drama, poetry, literature, music, architecture, and scientific experimentation, and sometime royal capital, it is unsurprising that Oxford was the first British town to be included in map form in a tourist guidebook, as early as 1762, and one of just two inland towns mapped by French invasion planners in the Seven Years' War.For the first time, this lavishly illustrated volume brings together sixty of the most remarkable maps and views of the area that have been made by friend and foe since 1575."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 911.425/74

Inky fingers : the making of books in early modern Europe /Anthony Grafton. "From Francis Bacon to Barack Obama, thinkers and political leaders have denounced humanists as obsessively bookish and allergic to labor. In this celebration of bookmaking in all its messy and intricate detail, renowned historian Anthony Grafton invites us to see the scholars of early modern Europe as diligent workers. Meticulously illuminating the physical and mental labors that fostered the golden age of the book - the compiling of notebooks, copying and correction of texts and proofs, preparation of copy - he shows us how the exertions of scholars shaped influential books, treatises, and forgeries. Inky Fingers ranges widely, tracing the transformation of humanistic approaches to texts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and examining the simultaneously sustaining and constraining effects of theological polemics on sixteenth-century scholars. Grafton draws new connections between humanistic traditions and intellectual innovations, textual learning and craft knowledge, manuscript and print. Above all, Grafton makes clear that the nitty-gritty of bookmaking has had a profound impact on the history of ideas - that the life of the mind depends on the work of the hands."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 094/.2

William Doxford & Sons Ltd. of Sunderland : shipbuilders and engineers 1837-1988 /Patricia Richardson. "This is the 'biography' of this outstanding family run company of British ship builders and marine engineers, spanning 150 years. After a hesitant beginning, William Doxford moved his yard to Pallion and brought his sons into the business. The company developed the innovative 'Turret Ship', and won the coveted Blue Riband for production in 1907. The sons controversially sold the business after WW1, but remained in charge, introducing the Marine Oil Engine, which helped them to survive the depressions of the 1920s and 1930s, and which was their icon to the 1970s. The book describes the successes of WW2 and the post war period, and then the struggles and decline of the British Shipbuilding Industry up to the Government's decision to close of yard at the end of 1988."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

The strange and dangerous voyage of Captaine Thomas Iames, in his intended discovery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea ... James, Thomas 1633 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:910.4(987)"1631/1632"

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

Suppressing piracy in the early eighteenth century : pirates, merchants and British imperial authority in the Atlantic and Indian oceans /David Wilson. "This book charts the surge and decline in piracy in the early eighteenth century (the so-called 'Golden Age' of piracy), exploring the ways in which pirates encountered, obstructed, and antagonised the diverse participants of the British empire in the Caribbean, North America, Africa, and the Indian Ocean. The book's primary focus is on how anti-piracy campaigns were constructed as a result of the negotiations, conflicts, and individual undertakings of different imperial actors operating in the commercial and imperial hub of London; maritime communities throughout the British Atlantic; trading outposts in West Africa and India; and marginal and contested zones such as the Bahamas,Madagascar, and the Bay Islands. It argues that Britain and its empire was not a strong centralised imperial state; that the British imperial administration and the Royal Navy did not have the resources to mount a state-led, empire-wide war against piracy following the sharp increase in piratical attacks after 1716; and that it was only through manifold activities taking place in different colonial centres with varied colonial arrangements, economic strengths, and access to resources for maritime defence - which was often shaped by competing and contradictory interests - that Atlantic piracy was gradually discouraged, although not eradicated, by the mid-1720s."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 909.0971241

Empire made me : an Englishman adrift in Shanghai /Robert Bickers. "Shanghai in the wake of the First World War was one of the world's most dynamic, brutal and exciting cities - an incredible panorama of nightclubs, opium-dens, gambling and murder. Threatened from within by communist workers and from without by Chinese warlords and Japanese troops, and governed by an ever more desperate British-dominated administration, Shanghai was both mesmerising and terrible. Into this maelstrom stepped a tough and resourceful ex-veteran Englishman to join the police. It is his story, told in part through his rediscovered photo-albums and letters, that Robert Bickers has uncovered in this remarkable, moving book."--Provided by the publisher. 2004. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 951.13204092

Shipboard life and organisation, 1731-1815 / edited by Brian Lavery. 1998. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 355.124(42)"17/18"

Sailing round my oyster : a memoir /by R.K. Whitworth. "These are the remembered experiences of a man born in Australia, who couldn't swim, but went to sea, whose background was mysterious and undoubtedly antipodean, though he admired the English way of life. Working as a steward in the heyday of the passenger liners, he went round the world several times visiting exotic places. He remembers his passengers, some admirable, some not so, some just plain odd! He remembers too his fellow mariners with fondness for the vanished camaraderie and glamour from the days when going to sea was still a great adventure."--Provided by the publisher. 2008. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 387.5092

An Act to enable the Pacific Steam Navigation Company to reduce their capital and to invest moneys; and for other purposes. 41 Vict. Ch 51 Great Britain. Laws, statutes, etc 1878 • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 347.792Pacific

Ferries from the British Isles to Iberia / John Bryant. "Ferries from the British Isles to Iberia looks at the development of the ferry services from Britain to Spain from the 1960's and includes the pioneering companies of Swedish Lloyd, Southern Ferries, Aznar Line and Brittany Ferries who have successfully developed and expanded the routes over the last 40 years. Detailed analysis of each company and the principal vessels that have operated the services over the years. A wealth of new images, brochures and maps to compliment the text."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. txt

Negotiating abolition : the antislavery project in the British Strait Settlements, 1786-1843 /by Shawna R. Herzog. "Negotiating Abolition: The Antislavery Project in the British Straits Settlements, 1786-1843 explores how sex and gender complicated the enforcement of colonial anti-slavery policies in the region, the challenges local officials faced in identifying slave populations, and how European reclassification of slave labor to systems of indenture or 'free' labor created a new illicit trade for women and girls to the Straits Settlements of Southeast Asia. Through a history of early-19th century slavery and abolition in this often overlooked region in British imperial history, Herzog bridges a historiographical gap between colonial and modern slave systems. She discusses the dynamic intersectionality between perceptions of race, class, gender, and civilization within the Straits and how this informed behavior and policy regarding slavery, abolition, and prostitution within the settlement. This book provides an important new perspective for scholars of slavery interested in Southeast Asia, British imperialism in the Indian Ocean world and Asia, the East India Company in the Straits, and gender and sexuality in the context of empire."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326/.809033

Grace Darling : Victorian heroine /Hugh Cunningham. Grace Darling (1815-1842) was the daughter of the keeper of Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Isles. In September 1838 she rowed out with her father to rescue survivors from the shipwrecked steamer Forfarshire. Within days of the rescue she was regarded as a national heroine, a rare accolade for a woman in Victorian times. This book examines her life and the reasons for her fame and celebrity, which have endured into the 21st century. Grace's image was used to sell books, soap and chocolates; the book's illustrations include advertising material, paintings and photographs of commemorative items. The appendix contains poems about her by Wordsworth and Swinburne. There are extensive notes, a bibliography and an index. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92Darling, Grace

Forgotten few : naval fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain /Paul Beaver. "Forgotten Few is a homage to the 57 naval pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain. For 20 years, the Admiralty and the Air Ministry did not recognise the valiant efforts of these young men - now historian Paul Beaver has compiled their biographies and explains the award of the coveted Battle of Britain clasp. Nine of the Forgotten Few died in combat but five became aces. There is no doubt that they contributed to the ultimate victory, even though they were mostly flying their obsolete Sea Gladiator biplanes and obsolescent Fairey Fulmar. Twenty-three more pilots joined famous RAF Fighter Command squadrons and one achieved local notoriety as Douglas Bader's wingman in fights over London."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

The Spanish Civil War at sea : dark and dangerous waters /Michael Alpert. "The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 underlined the importance of the sea as the supply route to both General Franco's insurgents and the Spanish Republic. There were attempted blockades by Franco as well as attacks by his Italian and German allies against legitimate neutral, largely British, merchant shipping bound for Spanish Republican ports and challenges to the Royal Navy, which was obliged to maintain a heavy presence in the area. The conflict provoked splits in British public opinion. Events at sea both created and reflected the international tensions of the latter 1930s, when the policy of appeasement of Germany and Italy dissuaded Britain from taking action against those countries' activities in Spain, except to participate in a largely ineffective naval patrol to try to prevent the supply of war material to both sides. The book is based on original documentary sources in both Britain and Spain and is intended for the general reader as well as students and academics interested in the history of the 1930s, in naval matters and in the Spanish Civil War."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 946.08145

Sea change Royal Museums Greenwich • • 1 copy available. Currents

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