Naval Sailors Research Articles

RUSSIAN RIVER MILITARY FLOTILLAS IN THE REPULSION OF THE FRENCH INVASION OF 1812

The Russian use of river flotillas during the 1812 military campaign against Napoleonic France is discussed in this article. Their use on the Western Dvina River (the Daugava in Latvian) and the Western Aa River (now the Lielupe, Latvia) during the defence of Riga played a colossal role in stopping the advance of Napoleon’s troops towards St. Petersburg – the capital of the Russian Empire. What was a particularly significant factor was the fact that the said offensive appeared to be impossible for the French either during the clashes of Vilna (the Battle of Vilna), Saltanovka or Polotsk. As a matter of fact, the defence of Riga would not have been that effective without the participation of the Baltic Fleet. The considered flotillas, which were used in the water area of the above mentioned rivers, did not allow the enemy troops to break through to St. Petersburg bypassing Riga. It is this problem that is considered in this article. For the study of the voiced problem, the materials of the Russian State Archive of the Navy were attracted. As a result, thanks to archival materials and the works of historians Feodosiy Veselago and Nikolay Kallistov, it was possible to establish that it was the crews of the ships of the flotillas that successfully defended Dünamünder fortress (now Daugavgrīvas fortress) located on the Western Dvina River, and that by knocking the enemy out of Schlock (now Sloka district of Jūrmala) located on the Western Aa River, Russian naval sailors defended the latter town as well. The courage and skill of the crews of the ships of the flotillas helped to prevent the enemy from advancing from the western direction. This saved the capital and largely decided the outcome of the war in Russia’s favour.

Measuring sleep parameters of naval sailors: A comparison between subjective self-report and wrist actigraphy

Wrist actigraph and self-report activity logs were used in a Royal Canadian Navy's at-sea exercise to track sleep patterns of naval personnel. In this study, we compared sleep parameters obtained from two measurement methods and investigated their intrinsic biases. The results revealed a strong agreement between two methods for recording sleep offset times, but a relatively poor agreement for parameters that include substantial periods of transition between sleep and wake states. Overall, self-reported sleep durations were substantially longer than actigraphic estimates (mean bias of −30.6 min; limits of agreement −95.9 to 34.8 min), and the discrepancy was mainly caused by differences in two methods to track sleep onset latency and Wake-up After Sleep Onset (WASO). Based on a customised activity log, a strong positive correlation (rho = 0.75, p < .001) between self-report and actigraphy was observed for sleep duration estimates, which confirmed the effectiveness of the activity log in field studies. Between two participant groups with different work schedules, the agreement between self-report and actigraphy was consistently better for day workers than watch keepers. The findings inform future sleep research planning that involves naval personnel in field settings.

Treating, Preventing, Feigning, Concealing: Sickness, Agency and the Medical Culture of the British Naval Seaman at the End of the Long Eighteenth Century.

SummarySeen as a crucial historical step in the development of ‘modern’ institutional healthcare, eighteenth-century British naval medicine has traditionally been studied from the point of view of the state and of physicians and surgeons: naval sailors’ attitudes towards health, medicine and their own bodies remain virtually unexplored. Using official and personal sources, this article sketches a ‘patient’s history’ of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century British ratings. Aiming to counterbalance Foucauldian interpretations, it highlights some of the ways in which individuals, even when apparently most powerless, confined in ships far from home, and controlled by rigidly disciplined institutions, could take responsibility for their health, successfully or otherwise, within, against or alongside the system. If the unprecedented administrative requirements of the French Wars strengthened and standardised top-down medical authority, they also brought opportunities for evasion and negotiation. This complicates established narratives of the relationship between modern medicine, the armed forces and power.

Book Review: Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers That Brought Them There by Christopher McKee

Book Review: <i>Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers That Brought Them There</i> by Christopher McKee

Identity and mentalité: British naval sailors and encounter during the ‘scientific’ voyages, 1764–1803

ABSTRACT This article examines the identities and mentalités of British sailors that took part in the ‘scientific' voyages of the Royal Navy between 1764 and 1803. The ‘scientific' voyages were a distinct type of late-eighteenth-century naval activity, and this article explores the ways in which the unique socio-cultural experiences of these voyages altered the identities and mentalités of British sailors. In the eighteenth century, sailors travelled almost everywhere in the known world, but not everywhere were their experiences, identities and mentalités the same. Therefore, although this article recognizes that a sailor's rank was a major cause of variation, by incorporating all members of the professional community on board a ship within its definition of ‘sailors', it explores the intersection between general factors - such as rank or social background - and the specific circumstances and experiences of this type of voyage. Fundamentally, it contributes an additional layer of complexity to the current views of naval sailors as a more homogenous entity, by instead demonstrating how the identities and mentalités of a number of sailors, particularly their understandings of status, race, and class, were discernibly influenced, if somewhat temporarily, by their unique socio-cultural experiences of encounter during the ‘scientific’ voyages.

Comparison of Royal Canadian Navy Watchstanding Schedules.

Life on board a naval vessel is exceptionally demanding. Workdays for naval sailors can quite easily become 18+ hours long when watch schedules, training, and drills/evolutions are taken into account. Rotating watches and short off-watch periods can force sailors into a biphasic sleep pattern that is not sufficiently restful or a rotating pattern that is impossible to adapt to. Six different watch systems were evaluated over four separate at-sea trials. Engineering and tactical/combat departments have had different watch systems in the past because of constraints related to the specific environment in which they work. Therefore, two of the watch systems were engineering-specific watch evaluations, three of the systems were specific to tactical/combat departments, and one watch system was evaluated with the entire company of the naval vessel. Both two-section (1-in-2) watch systems and three-section (1-in-3) watch systems were evaluated, which involve two or three shifts of sailors rotating through a full continuous 24-h day, respectively. Moving beyond three rotations of sailors is impossible on Canadian naval vessels due to bunk space and other limitations. The best watch system that we evaluated with respect to fatigue and quality of life at sea was the 1-in-3 straight 8-h shift system that was tested for the entire ships' company. The system has a single 8-h daily watch obligation (red watch, 4:00 am-12:00 pm; white watch 12:00 pm-8:00 pm; and blue watch, 8:00 pm-4:00 am). The best 1-in-2 system was the 8-4-4-8 system in which sailors are on-watch for 8 h, off-watch for 4 h, on-watch for 4 h, and then rest for 8 h. Both of these two systems have the advantage of equitably sharing the Window of Circadian Low (from about midnight to about 8:00 am), especially when melatonin concentration in the body is usually at its peak, between 2:00 am and 6:00 am. The goal of this work was to comprehensively evaluate both submarine and surface fleet watch systems. We were able to develop alternative watch systems that increased Royal Canadian Navy operational readiness and improved the quality of life of our sailors at sea.

Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers That Brought Them There

Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers That Brought Them There

Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers that Brought Them There by Christopher McKee

Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers that Brought Them There by Christopher McKee

Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers That Brought Them There by Christopher McKee

Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers That Brought Them There by Christopher McKee

Mental Health During Naval Deployment: The Protective Role of Family Support.

Minor mental health problems among service members deployed in combat areas are relatively common, but social support is a protective factor. With the advent of digital communication, as well as more frequent family separations, a stable family support system may be more important than before. In this exploratory study, we aimed to test the relationship between perceived family support and the development of minor psychiatric symptoms during a 4-month naval counter piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden. We measured minor mental health problems with the general health questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12) and family support at three intervals, 3 weeks before deployment, 2 months into the mission, and at the end of deployment. We used mixed multilevel regression analysis to analyze the main effects of family support and time, as well as their interaction. All analyses were controlled for military rank. We found that minor psychiatric symptoms increased at both midway (B=0.51, P<0.05) and toward the end of the mission (B=0.72, P<0.01). The results also showed that receiving more family support is associated with fewer psychiatric symptoms (B=-0.87, P<0.01). Family support also moderated the development of symptoms toward the end of the mission (B=-0.73, P<0.01). The buffering effect was such that service members with a high degree of family support experienced no increase in minor psychiatric symptoms during the deployment. The results indicate that naval deployment is associated with a small increase in minor mental health problems and that having a high degree of family support buffers this effect. Efforts to increase support among military families may positively influence the wellbeing of naval sailors during combat missions.

It's been a hard day's night: A diary study on hardiness and reduced sleep quality among naval sailors

A hardy disposition is regarded as an advantage in demanding and stressful environments and is associated with improved military performance. Recent evidence suggests that hardiness may also be related to resilience with respect to sleep disturbances. The aim of the present study is to investigate the moderating role of hardiness in the sleep quality – job performance relationship in a sample of naval cadets during a demanding training exercise. We hypothesize that (1) Hardiness positively influences daily job performance, (2) daily sleep quality positively influences daily job performance, and (3) Hardiness buffers the impact of poor daily sleep quality on daily job performance. A sample of 56 naval cadets first filled in a general questionnaire, and then filled in a daily diary assessing sleep quality during a 30-day training mission across the Atlantic Ocean. Daily job performance was assessed by using peer-ratings. Results of multi-level analyses showed a positive main effect of hardiness on job performance. Hardiness also moderated the sleep quality – job performance relationship. Cadets high (vs. low) on dispositional hardiness were less affected by poor sleep quality, also after controlling for neuroticism. The results suggest that hardiness moderates the effect of poor sleep quality on job performance.

General assemblies of personnel as a part of self-government on the ships of the Baltic Fleet in July and August of 1917

The article is devoted to the evolution of the functioning and status of a part of selfgovernment of the Baltic Fleet naval sailors – general assemblies – in the period of intensified political struggle in the summer of 1917. In the conditions of the February Revolution representative bodies took upon themselves the entire internal life of military service of ships’ crews. At the same time, a number of important issues was in charge of the staff meetings. During the period under review, general meetings became an alternative authority in relation to the committees, and in some cases even enjoyed great prestige. Such a situation allowed team members to take a real part in resolving issues of concern to them, which led to a further increase in the influence of meetings. By the end of the summer of 1917, general assemblies represented a serious force, which had the opportunity to take control of the entire ship’s life.

ALIEN SEAMEN IN THE BRITISH NAVY, BRITISH LAW, AND THE BRITISH STATE, c. 1793 – c. 1815

AbstractDuring the ‘long eighteenth century’, several thousands of sailors born outside British territories served in the Royal Navy. This phenomenon, and the peculiarities of their employment compared to that of British seamen, remain largely unstudied. This paper aims to show that, as far as disabilities or privileges were concerned, official legislation only played a very small part in making alien seamen's experiences in the navy distinct from those of their British colleagues. More broadly, this article argues that, whilst transnationalism can be overemphasized, there are specific contexts and groups of people for which the power of the state falters when it comes to obstructing movement, and indeed it is forced, for its very survival, to act strategically against the barrier to circulation that frontiers normally constitute. In similar circumstances, the origins of the individuals concerned, intended as official labels that states normally use to classify them, control them, and claim or disclaim ownership over them, can become all but meaningless. Thus, naval sailors, as useful state servants, can be an excellent case-study to understand the category of legal ‘foreignness’ as it developed in modern nation-states, and the tensions inherent to it.

Union Jack or Yellow Jack? Smallpox, Sailors, Settlers and Sovereignty

ABSTRACTIn 1877 the flagship of the Royal Navy’s Australia Station, HMS Wolverene, was quarantined in Sydney Harbour. It marked a curious moment in which the dreaded disease smallpox arrived in the city aboard three different vessels within the space of a month. With cases appearing among merchant seamen, naval sailors and local residents, this event exposed numerous antinomies in the health governance of New South Wales. If the colony’s legislative authority over the imperial warships tasked with its protection proved uncertain, so did the extent to which civic power could be exerted over the movements, property and bodies of individual citizens. Exploring the conjoint histories of the naval and medical defence of the Australian colonies, this article argues that 1877 saw these tensions playing out on different scales of sovereignty. Marking a critical point before colonial defence and quarantine strategies turned markedly against ‘Asiatics’, this incident encapsulated the uneasy state of colonial self-government amid a technological transformation of the seaways.

International Radicalism, Local Solidarities: The 1797 British Naval Mutinies in Southern African Waters

AbstractThis article details the 1797 mutinies in the British Royal Navy in southern African waters at Simon's Bay and Table Bay at the Cape of Good Hope. Drawing attention to the intersections between international protest during the age of revolution and between local, African protest, it shows that the Cape mutinies were part of an empire-wide strike, and were rooted in the organizational traditions of naval sailors. Yet, these mutinies were also of local significance. They signalled the growing confidence, and radicalization, of the popular classes at the Cape, as sailors, KhoiSan labourers, and slaves all experimented with new strategies of rebellion. Realizing the fundamental class bias of custom and law during their struggles for improvements in wages and working conditions and for a more democratic workplace regime, naval sailors also contributed to a broader political dialogue at the Cape concerning the relationship between the imperial state, freedom, and rights.

Sailors and Slaves: The ‘Poor Enslaved Tar’ in Naval Reform and Nautical Melodrama

This article explores the rhetorical comparison of naval sailors' exploitation to that of African slaves in pre- and early-Victorian discourses on naval reform. It is structured around an analysis of J.T. Haines's nautical melodrama My Poll and My Partner Joe (first performed 1835), in which the hero, having been press-ganged by the navy, risks his life freeing enslaved Africans on the Middle Passage even though he considers himself a slave to his nation. This plot was both timely and provocative: first performed in the immediate aftermath of the illegalization of slavery in Britain's colonies, it dramatizes an analogy between slaves and sailors that was contested by campaigners for naval reform and their opponents. Ultimately, My Poll and My Partner Joe palliates radical commentary on sailors' rights, in its second and third acts, as the sailor patriotically celebrates his freedom in antithesis to African slavery. Rather than read its denouement simply as romantic escapism, I argue that it proposes resol...

Chasing a Fault across Ship and Shore

Knowledge management (KM) in the U.S. Navy is championed as a strategic initiative to improve shipboard maintenance and troubleshooting at a distance. The approach requires capturing, coordinating, and distributing domain expertise in electronics and computer engineering via advanced information and communication technologies. Coordination must be achieved to ensure ship readiness. A potential challenge for human performance technologists is to develop robust theoretical frameworks to analyze and explain existing practice within this context. To illustrate, we present the case of U.S. naval sailors and civilian subject-matter experts (SMEs) collaboratively troubleshooting complex shipboard radar systems across ship and shore. Adapting perspectives from organizational theory, information science, and educational psychology, we conduct a multi-level analysis of the context of distributed knowledge and work. Findings suggest that regulative and normative restrictions, boundary spanners and objects, and disruption of coordination across system components influence practice substantively. Implications for research and practice, including a readdressing of the existing cannon of analytical frameworks are offered.

Occupational stress in naval personnel

Introduction: Increased stress levels have been reported and it has been implicated for mental illness amongst service personnel. However no study has been reported among Indian naval sailors. Methods: Occupational stress and life satisfaction was measured in 413 naval personnel serving afloat and ashore. Result: Naval personnel serving on board submarine and ship had lower levels of occupational stress as compared to those serving on shore establishments. Occupational stress scores were higher among junior sailors (36.7%) as compared to officers and senior sailors (20%). Life satisfaction scores were lower in junior sailors. Greater occupational stress was linked to lower life satisfaction. Conclusion: The findings of high occupational stress in junior sailors needs to be investigated further with a larger sample.

Helicobacter pyloriInfection and Seasickness Susceptibility among Naval Sailors: Is There Any Association?

Vomiting is a very common and bothersome expression of seasickness. Previous works have shown that Helicobacter pylori infection may be related to vomiting resulting from nongastrointestinal causes, and physiological research has revealed that H. pylori may alter gastric motility. These findings, along with anecdotal case histories, led us to suspect that H. pylori infection may be related to the vomiting of seasickness. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between H. pylori infection and seasickness susceptibility. Participants were 90 healthy, male, naval crew members 19.5 to 25 years of age. Forty-five were susceptible to seasickness, and 45 were nonsusceptible control subjects. Quantitative analysis of IgG levels for H. pylori was performed with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The rate of H. pylori infection was 38% in the susceptible group, compared with 31% in the nonsusceptible group (p = 0.5). The titer of antibodies to H. pylori among case subjects was 81.2 U/mL (95% confidence interval, 11.5-151.1 U/mL), compared with 31.1 U/mL (95% confidence interval, 0.1-65.1 U/mL) for control subjects (p = 0.2). The current study does not support an association between H. pylori infection and seasickness susceptibility among sailors.

The Ship as a Scientific Instrument in the Eighteenth Century

Au XVIII e siecle, les bateaux etaient consideres comme des instruments scientifiques permettant de voyager et connaitre ainsi la geographie, la topographie et la meteorologie a travers le monde