Marines
Marines are soldiers trained to operate on and deploy from warships. In the earliest days of naval warfare there was little distinction...
‘Warm Work’ – the fight between the Quebec and the Surveillante
In June 1779, the Royal Navy frigate Quebec (32) was patrolling off the coast of Brittany when she encountered a small convoy of French...
Robert Seppings and the Birth of Innovation in Shipbuilding
For most of the age of sail shipbuilding was a conservative affair. Naval architects began life as apprentices, learning their craft from...
The Barbary Pirates
Most people asked to think of a pirate will picture someone from the golden age of Caribbean piracy. Blackbeard, Captain Kidd or Anne...
Rutters
Ask most people to imagine a ship’s navigator at work, and they will usually picture someone poring over a chart. But prior to the major...
The Voyage of HMS Challenger
When NASA came to name their fleet of space shuttles, they chose to honour five famous ships and a space craft used for scientific...
Sir Gilbert Blane
For much of the Age of Sail, scurvy was considered an occupational hazard of oceanic travel. The disease, which we now know was caused by...
The Wreck of the Minotaur
HMS Minotaur was a Leviathan class 74 launched at Woolwich in November 1793. She had a busy career and took part in numerous actions,...
The Ghost Ships of San Francisco
At the start of 1848, San Francisco was a sleepy Mexican village with a population of under two hundred Spanish-speaking fishermen and...
Plimsoll Lines
Search the hull of a merchant ship and you will find a curious ladder of lines punched or welded to the hull and picked out in paint. It...
