British Shipping Research Articles

‘We Are Making No Sailors’: Apprenticeship and the British mercantile marine 1840–1914

For more than a century and a half, apprenticeship was of fundamental importance to the recruitment and training of British seafarers. From the introduction of compulsory apprenticeship in 1703, through the removal of compulsion in 1850 and up to the outbreak of the First World War, tens of thousands of boys and young men served apprenticeships on British ships, making up a substantial proportion of the maritime labour force. Apprenticeship in the merchant shipping industry has received little attention and the whole question of maritime training remains under-researched. This article opens by revisiting the debates of the 1840s over the Navigation Laws and argues that shipowners’ attitudes to apprenticeship were ambivalent. It provides a survey of the decline and evolution of apprenticeship in the six decades following the repeal of the Navigation Laws, highlighting the unevenness of its decline and the existence of countervailing factors in some sectors. Finally, it examines the widespread concerns over the quality and skill of British seafarers and the impact of apprenticeship on recruitment to the Royal Navy.

The Birth and Growth of Two Scottish Deep-sea Tramp Ship Firms: Hugh Hogarth & Sons and the Lyle Shipping Company Limited, 1832–1967

This article is largely based on the surviving records of two Scottish tramp shipping firms, Hugh Hogarth & Sons and Lyle Shipping, the former privately owned throughout its history and the latter later a public company. It traces their birth and growth up to what became, after 1958 when ocean freight rates dropped, an increasingly difficult operational environment for British shipping firms dealing with increased international competition, political and economic volatility and financial pressures. As family owners died, chartered accountants increasingly took control of company boards to negotiate credit terms, arrange loans and overdrafts, and to chase tax-free allowances and investment grants from governments. In this regard, Hogarth and Lyle were no different to other British shipping companies.

The mental image of the United States of America among the Jordanian public after the outbreak of the Gaza Wa

This study aims to explore the mental image of the United States of America among the Jordanian public after the outbreak of the events of October 7, 2023, which led to the eruption of a war between Hamas and Israel. This war resulted in the deaths, injuries, and disappearances of tens of thousands of victims. The war extended to neighboring countries, where Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, some Islamic organizations supporting Iran in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthi Ansar Allah group from Yemen participated. The Houthis prevented the passage of American, Israeli, and British ships, declaring that they did so in solidarity with Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip. This study is descriptive in nature, and within its general framework, the survey method was adopted. An electronic survey tool was used to collect information about the study sample, with 370 individuals considered leaders of public opinion in Jordan. The study revealed that the image of the United States of America is negative among the Jordanian public, as political and popular leaders organized sit-ins and protests in front of the US Embassy in Amman in protest against its supportive stance toward Israel. The study sample considered that the United States of America strongly supports Israel, providing it with money and weapons, and considers it the main supporter of this country in the Middle East and the world.

Testimonies of Spanish captives about the course of Francis Drake's circumnavigation

The publication is devoted to the events related to the second circumnavigation organised by the English privateer, naval commander and discoverer Francis Drake. The author pays special attention to sources of Spanish origin, represented by the materials of interrogations of Spanish prisoners who had been on board the English ship and personally communicated with English corsairs. The Spanish testimonies contain detailed descriptions of the actions of Drake and his companions on the Pacific coast of the New World, reports on the armament and composition of the English crew, and considerations about the goals of the expedition. A special place in the testimonies is occupied by reports on the damage caused and the booty captured by the English. The comparative-historical method allows, as a result of comparing Spanish and other sources, to identify new details about the course of the expedition, omitted for various reasons by the authors of English testimonies about Drake's voyage. Spanish sources are actively introduced into the scientific turnover during the XX century, changing the idea of the course of the first English circumnavigation expeditions. Despite the repeated information in the testimonies about the actions of English corsairs off the Pacific coast of the New World we can trace the dynamics of Drake's actions, understand how his plans changed as he moved along the coast. Witness testimony allows us to imagine the scale of the booty captured by the British during their plundering raid, to trace the peculiarities of corsairs in Spanish waters on the eve of the open Anglo-Spanish conflict. Numerous testimonies of the captives of the English corsair help to recreate the image of Drake and his companions, to determine the peculiarities of their perception by the subjects of the King of Spain.

Solving the Oneida Question: Anglo-American relations during a public outcry

On 24 January 1870 USS Oneida sank when, sailing out of Tokyo Bay, it collided with the British ship Bombay, which failed to stop and render aid, leading to the deaths of 115 American sailors. This article compares the public reaction of the Anglo-American press with the internal conversations in both nations’ governments. It will demonstrate how, despite intense public condemnation of the British captain, both countries were keen to put the issue to rest in as quiet and amicable a manner as possible. The goal of presenting a united front to the new Meiji government was essential during a new era of imperial co-operation.

Warwick : An Interim Report on Artefact Assemblage Recovered from the Early 17th-Century English Ship, Castle Harbour, Bermuda

<i>Warwick</i> : An Interim Report on Artefact Assemblage Recovered from the Early 17th-Century English Ship, Castle Harbour, Bermuda

Captain Pennington’s perplexity: the loan of English ships to France, 1625

Abstract The contentious loan of English ships to France in 1625 has usually been treated as a political scandal contributing to the impeachment of the duke of Buckingham. Here it is examined as a maritime episode, particularly challenging for Captain John Pennington of the royal ship Vanguard. English mariners were opposed to serving under the French, and vehemently against allowing their vessels to combat the Huguenots at La Rochelle. Inconsistencies in policies and directions contributed to the captain’s perplexity, but he was not party to the conspiracy that some historians have detected to thwart the loan and its application.

Review: Cabotajes Novohispanos: Espacios y contactos marítimos en torno a la Nueva España, by Guadalupe Pinzón Ríos

Review: <i>Cabotajes Novohispanos: Espacios y contactos marítimos en torno a la Nueva España</i>, by Guadalupe Pinzón Ríos

Teaching marine engineering terms through online methods in maritime training courses

Verbal communication is an integral part of seafarers’ professional activity and a compulsory condition of vessels’ safety, the prevention of marine environment pollution, the fulfillment of international and national legislation in the field of sea transport, and the organization and management of sea transport traffic involving multinational crews. The present study contributes to the resolution of professional communication linguistic support problems within the framework of the marine engineer’s activities. Additionally, it ensures safety at sea by developing the terminological component of the foreign-language competence of marine engineers. The purpose of the research presented in this article is to identify patterns of teaching the English maritime engineering term system used in oral professional communication and technical documentation engaging the Moodle Platform. The concept of marine engineering terminology, as well as the principles of distinguishing it from a more general concept of «maritime terminology», was considered in order to achieve this goal. The article suggests a combination of the most efficient Moodle tools that can be used to develop trainees’ specific terminological competence. Highlights A comprehensive analysis has allowed identifying differences in the functioning of ship engineering terms in technical documentation and oral professional communication The elements of this terminological system under analysis form hierarchical paradigms The functioning of ship-engineering terms in professional communication is complicated by the presence of synonyms within the terminological system and pseudo-international vocabulary Marine engineering terms can be successfully taught through a combination of several Moodle instruments, which enables trainees to conduct comprehensive structural-semantic comparative analysis of the English ship engineering terminological system

Critical Insights: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Critical Insights: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The bridge or someplace later! The demise of two Scottish deep-sea tramp-ship firms, Hogarth Shipping Co. Ltd. and Lyle Shipping PLC, 1960–1987

This article, which is in four parts and is based on the surviving records, consists of two case studies on the responses of one privately owned company (Hogarth Shipping Co. Ltd.) and one public company (Lyle Shipping PLC) to the increasingly difficult operational environment of the post-1960 era confronting British shipping firms dealing with increased international competition, political and economic volatility, and financial pressures.

A Nation of Immigrants Reconsidered: US Society in An Age of Restriction, 1924–1965

A Nation of Immigrants Reconsidered: US Society in An Age of Restriction, 1924–1965

Weak Planet: Literature and Assisted Survival

Weak Planet: Literature and Assisted Survival

Maine’s Mode of Privateering: A Tale of Fraud and Collusion in the Northeast Borderlands, 1812–1815

The American declaration of war passed by Congress in June 1812 was followed by a prize act which authorised the issuing of Letters of marque. These commissions or licenses allowed American citizens to fit out privately armed vessels to seize British ships. Although most privateers complied with Congress’s instructions, their counterparts operating along the Maine coast used their commissions to further own economic self-interest by orchestrating pre-arranged captures with British merchants in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Since the British government encouraged its subjects to trade with the enemy to undermine the American war effort, American privateers assumed most of the risks. Merchants and mariners from as far away as New York and Connecticut traveled to Maine to trade with the British despite the hazards of detection. As these privateers engaged in fraud, other Americans turned to vigilante violence to uncover and foil these schemes. After the British occupied Eastern Maine in the summer of 1814 trading with the enemy became illegal on the British side of the border. Despite the risks, British merchants continued to engage in trade with the enemy. Ultimately, persistence of conflict and accommodation in the Northeastern Borderlands, the area comprising Maine, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, helped undermined Eastern Maine’s allegiance to the United States.

Equiano’s World: Chronicling the Life and Times of Gustavus Vassa

Equiano’s World (www.equianosworld.org) is a website that chronicles the life and times of Gustavus Vassa (c. 1741–1797), who is known most frequently by his birth name, Olaudah Equiano. Vassa became well known in Britain after the publication of his autobiography in 1789 and for his prominent role in the movement for abolition of the British slave trade, which was only finally enacted in 1807, ten years after his death. The associated database includes all known documentation on Vassa and information relevant to the study of his life. Foremost among these materials is his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, which was republished nine times in his lifetime. Other documentation includes contemporary newspaper accounts, legal documents, and images from his life experiences. The website addresses issues arising from the context of Vassa’s life, including his place of birth, his name, and his influence on the abolition movement. It demonstrates that he only wanted to be known by the name he was given when he was enslaved rather than by his birth name; even today he is best known as Olaudah Equiano or even simply Equiano, even though Equiano was not a surname. His unusual experience as an enslaved servant to a British naval officer during the Seven Years’ War and afterwards to a merchant in the Caribbean gave him particular insight into the horrors of slavery and his commitment to its abolition. Because of the education he received on British ships and subsequently in London after he purchased his own freedom, he stands out as a prominent and literate intellectual and political activist. His autobiography continues to be read widely and taught in university courses. The project is part of a broader initiative that explores the testimonies and personal profiles of Africans who were enslaved during the era of slavery, most of whom were taken to the Americas.The article outlines the structure of the website into seven sections: first, a Home page that includes a project history, acknowledgements, technical details, and a discussion of the “Best Practices” that underlie the project. The second section focuses on Context, examining key settings from the interior of the Bight of Biafra where Vassa was born, the slave trade of the late eighteenth century, the Middle Passage across the Atlantic, the Seven Years’ War, and London and Britain in the late eighteenth century. The section on his travels has a chronological timeline and maps relating to them. The Associates section contains biographical sketches and images of his family, those whom he knew while he was enslaved, his associates in the Abolition movement, his co-religionists, and his connections in scientific and military circles. It also includes a list of individuals who subscribed to his autobiography. The section on Studying Equiano includes his autobiography, a list of its editions, and over 200 legal documents, letters, and newspaper notices and accounts. The Resources section includes a bibliography of several hundred items that discuss Vassa and his work, as well as audio and visual resources, links to websites on Vassa, slavery and diaspora. This article discusses technical details of website construction, which uses a backend known as Regenerated Identities (RegID). The website relies on open-source content and has a search function that enables location of people, places, and periods relevant to Vassa’s life.

The Global Crisis of Commodity Glut During the Second World War

This article examines the global crisis of commodity glut that came in the wake of the Fall of France and Italy’s entry into the Second World War in June 1940, when the extension of the British blockade and shipping problems cut off primary producers around the world from major continental European markets. As a surplus of unmarketable primary commodities piled up in British colonies, as well as in Latin America and French, Dutch, and Belgian colonies, this jeapordized the blockade and threatened political unrest across the British Empire, as well as the spread of Nazi influence in Latin America. This article examines how the British government attempted to respond to this crisis, both unilaterally and in combination with the U.S. government. In doing so, it argues that Anglo-American negotiations over a joint approach to the problem of commodity glut led to some of the earliest attempts to create new international economic organizations for the postwar period. While these plans were transformed as the surplus problem itself changed in late 1941, they nonetheless laid the groundwork for Anglo-American relief planning, contentious negotiations over an international wheat agreement, and international commodity price stabilization schemes.

THE GREAT SECRET The Classified World War II Disaster That Launched the War on CancerJennetConant 380 pages including notes, biography and an index, W.W. Norton &amp; Company ISBN 978‐1‐324‐00250‐5.

On December 2, 1943 the German Luftwaffe succeeded in surprising the allied defences in the Apulian harbour of Bari and bombed it, resulting in the second largest air raid losses in the Second World War after Pearl Harbor. Seventeen ships were sunk and hundreds of soldiers and civilians died instantly. A quite unexpected and key event was that days later, soldiers who survived the incident without immediate injuries developed skin rashes, lung symptoms and lethargies irreconcilable with their transient exposure to flames and fumes. This led the United States Mediterranean army to dispatch an MD with expertise in chemical and biological warfare from Tunis to Bari. This book tells the story of how Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Alexander painstakingly described his findings on the affected individuals. He observed dramatic changes in their blood counts, especially neutrophils, findings that lead him to strongly suspect exposure to nitrogen mustard, even though the symptomatology did not fit the bill and even though British authorities vehemently denied it. Through hard work and tenacity in dealing with the latter it emerged that one of the British ships did in fact carry vast amounts of nitrogen mustard, whose effects Alexander had previously studied in rabbits. The outbreak was caused by the poison leaking to the harbour basin and mixing with other agents there. That explained the rashes due to direct contact with huge doses, as well as the lung symptoms which were initially light due to the low content of the agent in the atmosphere at the time. There is no doubt that Alexander was the ideal MD on site, compassionate in treating the patients, accurate in the description of their diseases, including harvesting tissues from autopsies, and last but not least in writing a meticulous report. That dismayed Churchill to the extent that he refused to acknowledge the presence of the chemical weapons. Alexander was, however, vindicated in two ways, first during the war itself, and then two decades later, when a college student essay about him resulted in public acknowledgement by the US senate (earlier honours were given in secrecy). These — inadvertent — exposures were among the very first recorded ground-breaking findings on the effects of nitrogen mustard on humans when only effects in laboratory animals were known. You might have expected Dr. Alexander to pursue this area of research after the war. However, he declined offers from Cornelius Rhoades, a noted cancer specialist, who also worked on chemical weapons and went back to the family practice in New Jersey, as he had promised his father before being enlisted. This well-written book has a double theme: one on the Bari bombing and one on how cancer chemotherapy evolved partly from the disaster, in the immediate aftermath of the war. While the first part is a riveting story in itself, the second theme overlaps with other books on the emergence of chemotherapy. It does, however, contain the story of the early beginnings of the Sloan–Kettering Institute by Dr. Rhoades, and how he ultimately fell into disrepute on the grounds of what can best be described as a racist MeToo event. The prose flows easily for this author of other WW2 biographies, and even in its disjointed way there is a clear progression in this story, which is well to invest some time and money on.

Loaning Ships and Leveraging Influence? American and British Responses to the HMAS Voyager Tragedy

The loss of HMAS Voyager following a collision with HMAS Melbourne on 10 February 1964 was a national tragedy for Australia. Britain and the United States were quick to express their sympathy and both offered to loan a ship to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to offset their loss. The offers were genuine and were intended to aid an important partner. The RAN had been tied closely to the RN since its creation, but the 1950s and 1960s witnessed an important transition and the RAN’s decision to purchase the American designed and built Charles F. Adams class destroyer as its new class of escorts in 1961 exemplified an increasing alignment with the United States Navy (USN). The Voyager tragedy reignited the debate over standardization and afforded both the Royal Navy (RN) and USN with an opportunity to attempt to strengthen ties with the RAN. The eventual Australian decision to accept the British offer, ultimately, had little effect on the development of the RAN. Rather than harking back to a time when the RAN was an appendage of the RN, the decision to select the British ship was a mark of its increasing independence.

АМЕРИКАНСЬКО-БРИТАНСЬКА ВІЙСЬКОВА СПІВПРАЦЯ ЗА АДМІНІСТРАЦІЇ ДОНАЛЬДА ТРАМПА (2017–2021 рр.)

This article refers to military cooperation between the United States and Great Britain. Their relationship constitutes an important component of the system of the international relations. Both countries have nuclear weapons and the latest military technology. Both states are sending troops to resolve military conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. The United States and the United Kingdom provide a significant support to Ukraine in its confrontation with the Russian Federation. Methodology. The research is based on chronological, historical-political and comparative methods. The purpose of the article is to study the changes and the development of the US-British bilateral relations in the context of military cooperation. Looking at the results of this study, the US-British military relations under the Donald Trump administration have not changed. The article illustrates that the United States and the United Kingdom are the main partners in the production of weapons and equipment, strategic planning of operations. British ships in the Asian-Pacific and Middle East plying with the US Navy, repeatedly conducted joint exercises. These are the only countries that conduct the bilateral military exercises almost every year. Under the premiership of Theresa May and Boris Johnson, the United Kingdom pursued a foreign policy strategy which is called Global Britain. The main goal is to make the country more powerful in the international arena. At the same time Donald Trump`s main strategy was to «Made America great again». So, sometimes there were some political discussions among political leaders how to react and to solve the problems in the Middle East, especially in Iraq. However, this did not affect the proximity of the military partnership. Both countries work closely together in the military force and in intelligence.

Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire by Alan Gallay

Reviewed by: Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire by Alan Gallay Cecelia Moore Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire. By Alan Gallay (New York: Basic Books, 2019. Pp. xiv, 560. $40.00, ISBN 978-1-5416-4579-0.) Alan Gallay's new book, Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire, challenges the myths and representations of Sir Walter Raleigh to offer a fresh analysis of the iconic Elizabethan courtier. Ralegh (his own preferred spelling) has been the subject of numerous biographies and historical works and is familiar to many from popular depictions in novels, movies, plays, and more. Gallay has returned to the primary sources to explore the cultural influences that informed Ralegh's role in colonization and conquest in Ireland and the Americas. The author's aim is to present "an origin story of empire far different from what we have imagined," and thus to provide "new context for understanding its legacies" (p. 5). Gallay has used his broad knowledge of primary sources and scholarly works in this biography, which also draws from his studies of the Indian slave trade. Walter Ralegh has an interwoven narrative that revisits the same period as it moves between locales and documents to connect the various aspects of Ralegh's career. Gallay relies on the reader to have some knowledge of the story; however, a timeline would have been helpful for quick reference. The United States has memorialized Ralegh as a founder from the beginning of the nation, nowhere more so than in North Carolina. Revolutionary-era state leaders named their new capital city for him. Nineteenth-century elites embraced the account of his so-called lost colony on Roanoke as an origin story of a white, English, Christian nation. In this mythology Ralegh became the representative for an imagined heritage of Anglo-white supremacy that served to justify the continued oppression of African Americans. In Walter Ralegh, Gallay argues that this depiction has covered over the cultural forces that shaped Ralegh's worldview and erased his elemental role in the development of England's sixteenth-century plans for empire. Colonization was just one strategy the English Crown used to challenge Spain's dominance of the Atlantic world. The English also used piracy and outright war. Ralegh was involved in all of it from 1578, when he joined his half-brother Humphrey Gilbert in a naval expedition, to his execution in 1618. The narrative connects Ralegh's court activities, military exploits, and colonization efforts in the Americas and Ireland. Ralegh was the architect who crafted the moral and legal justifications for English conquest. Gallay argues that Ralegh's view of empire did not have the racial features that came later. Instead, Ralegh believed that England would be improved by exposure to other cultures, that "empire would be an act of co-creation," where each partner benefited the other (p. 12). Gallay shows how Hermeticism, a movement that linked knowledge of the physical world to a greater understanding of the mystical realm, informed this theory. Ralegh sought to chronicle the languages and society of the Native peoples of the Americas because this work added to a [End Page 321] greater knowledge of the world. His vision was an English empire that included both Indians and English. The beauty of Ralegh's own writing and his utopian vision can mask the brutality of England's actions. Even as Gallay strips away the fictions about Ralegh's life for a fresh examination of his ideas, the author reminds readers that much of what Ralegh and his compatriots wrote was itself public relations to advance their cause. They positioned themselves for European audiences as the antithesis of the Spanish, and they wooed Native peoples as allies when their forces were not powerful enough to subdue opposition. By the time of Ralegh's death in 1618, English ships had looted more than a thousand Spanish ships and ports, launched unprovoked attacks on Indigenous societies, traded in enslaved Africans and Native Americans, and brutally put down multiple uprisings in Ireland. Ralegh might have argued that English colonization could be a humane force, as Gallay notes, yet the trajectory of English conquest remained exploitative and murderous. Less than a year after Ralegh's death...