The Mariner's Mirror Podcast

Our mini-series on Maritime Disasters continues with the Vasa, the mighty flagship of the Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus. Built between 1626 and 1628 Vasa was the pinnacle of Swedish artistic and scientific achievement. She was the most sophisticated warship ever built in Sweden, built at a time when Swedish seapower was on the rise. By the mid 1620s Sweden had become a major player in the naval and maritime make up of northern Europe and Gustavus Adolphus had established himself as a king with muscle and intent. Thousands came to the waterside in Stockholm to watch the maiden voyage of this most prestigious ship, and thousands watched in disbelief as she rolled over and sank. Salvaged in 1961 with all of her secrets intact Vasa is now one of the world's most important museum ships and a time-capsule of seventeenth century maritime and royal power. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr Fred Hocker, Director of Research at the Vasa museum in Stockholm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Maritime Disasters mini series continues with the shocking, and scarcely believable tale, of HMS Guardian. In 1789 this 44-gun 2-decked ship of the Royal Navy was sent to the British colony in Australia under the guidance of the brilliant Captain Edward Riou. She was chock-full of convicts, livestock and provisions for the colony when she left England, and then re-stocked with provisions when the half-way point was safely reached at the Cape of Good Hope. Water was always a problem on such long journeys and any captain took advantage of a source of fresh water whenever it was discovered. Icebergs were such a source of fresh water, but approaching them was always fraught with danger, especially in the Atlantic hundreds of miles off the coast of South Africa when the weather could suddenly change....what happened next has been described as 'almost without parallel' in all of maritime history. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr Margaret Schotte, professor of Early Modern History in York's Department of History whose book Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 investigates how early modern sailors developed mathematical and technical expertise in the age of exploration and the print revolution - expertise that helped people like Edward Riou cope if it just so happened that their ship was horrendously damaged by an iceberg miles from home....This episode includes a rendition of the song "The Forecastle Sailor, Or The Guardian Frigate" by the historian Seb Falk, most likely the first ever recording of the song. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our maritime disasters series continues with the anniversary of the first successful underwater trials in 1863 of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley. Shortly after the Hunley’s first trials in late July 1863 she sank during another test run, killing five of her eight crew. She was raised but then sank again in October killing all eight of her crew including Horace Hunley, the vessel’s designer, before sinking for the last time in 1864, again killing all of her crew. The story of the Hunley is remarkable - it’s one of those stories that you can return to time and again. The early submarine pioneers were exploring an environment as dangerous as the early space pioneers and did so willingly. Why did these people willingly get inside an iron tube that was built to operate underwater at a time when the science of operating vessels underwater was not properly understood? Why did they continue to do so when the vessel repeatedly demonstrated it was dangerous? To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Michael Scafuri, senior archaeologist at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston South Carolina, today the home of the Hunley, as she was raised from the depths in 2000 with all of her secrets perfectly preserved.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We continue our mini series on maritime disasters with the third part of our episode on the wreck of the magnificent Italian passenger liner the Andrea Doria. Launched in 1953 as a means to rebuild Italy's reputation and status on the world stage after the Second World War she enjoyed a splendid career for just three years before she sank in 1956 after a horrific collision off the coast of Massachusetts.To find out more about the wreck of the vessel itself Dr Sam Willis spoke with the underwater explorer John Moyer who has has dived over 120 times on the Andrea Doria wreck, one of the most dangerous wrecks in the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode continues our mini series on maritime disasters and our investigation into the wreck, in the summer of 1956, of the Italian passenger liner, Andrea Doria. This episode includes eyewitness accounts from Linda Hardberger and Mike Stoller. Linda is now 80 and lives in San Antonio Texas – she has been a teacher, librarian, museum curator and is a mother and in spite of her terrible experience on the Andrea Doria has been boating for 40 years. Mike Stoller is now 89, lives in California and is one half of the songwriting team Lieber and Stoller – who wrote, among many other hits, Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock and Stand by Me. The Andrea Doria was built in the 1950s, born from Italy’s bruised pride after the Second World War, and seen as a way to put Italy back on the map as a major player in the world of transatlantic travel. She became a hugely important ship for the Italian nation, a true icon of Italian culture and history. Launched in 1953 to great fanfare and fitted with the most exquisite Italian art, she enjoyed a successful career – though cut far too short by the events of July 1956. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We continue our mini series on maritime disasters with the extraordinary tale of the Andrea Doria, a magnificent Italian passenger liner lost off the coast of Massachusetts in 1956 when she was rammed by another liner. The Andrea Doria was built in the 1950s, born from Italy’s bruised pride after the Second World War, and seen as a way to put Italy back on the map as a major player in the world of transatlantic travel. She became a hugely important ship for the Italian nation, a true icon of Italian culture and history. Launched in 1953 to great fanfare and fitted with the most exquisite Italian art, she enjoyed a successful career – though cut far too short by the events of July 1956. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Pierette Simpson who, as a child, witnessed those terrible events and has since dedicated her life to sharing the story of the Andrea Doria so that it is never forgotten. Pierette is the author of Alive on the Andrea Doria!: The Greatest Sea Rescue in History and the award-winning docufilm Andrea Doria: Are the Passengers Saved?This episode is Part 1 of 3. Part 2 will include two more eyewitness accounts including an interview with Mike Stoller of the legendary songwriting team Lieber & Stoller who wrote hits for Elvis and Ben E. King. Part 3 will be focussed on the wreck itself and includes an interview with marine explorer John Moyer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We continue our mini-series on Iconic Ships by looking at the magnificent Sutton Hoo ship - placed inside the burial mound of an Anglo-Saxon king in the seventh century in what proved to be the richest intact medieval grave ever discovered. The riches of the tomb are now on display in the British Museum and a fantastic new project is underway to recreate the vessel itself which did not survive the centuries, though enough evidence of it did to allow us to understand and recreate it in detail. This was a crucial period in maritime history in northern Europe when, in the aftermath of Roman occupation but prior to the Viking invasions, the maritime cultures developed their own tradition of sailing and oared craft. And yet it is a period about which we know very little indeed. This project is set to transform our understanding of Dark Age seapower. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Tim Kirk, Master Shipwright of the project, and a man who knows more about the Sutton Hoo ship than anyone else alive... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we head much further back in time than we have ever dared before for an Iconic Ship…to find out about Henry V’s ship Grace Dieu, launched in 1418. And what a ship she was...Henry only reigned for ten years but in those years he worked harder than any of his predecessors to build a navy designed to destroy French seapower. His ships were not just barges designed for transporting armies to France, but great warships built for prestige and power. It is during Henry V’s time as king that one of the finest of all medieval warships, Grace Dieu, was constructed. Contemporary descriptions marvelled at its size, and modern historians were cynical until her wreck in the River Hamble near Southampton was surveyed. These investigations proved that her mainmast was 200ft tall: she was nearly three times larger than Henry VIII’s Mary Rose which was built nearly a century later, and no warship that rivalled her for size was built for another 200 years. To find out more about this remarkable feat of construction and the vision to attempt something apparently impossible, Dr Sam Willis spoke with Susan Rose, a legend in the world of medieval maritime and naval history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our 'Iconic Ships' series continues with the magnificent SS United States, published on the 70th anniversary of her maiden voyage. Launched in June 1951 she was the last remaining American superliner from the golden age of transatlantic travel and was built specifically to break the transatlantic speed record. On her maiden voyage she made the transatlantic run in just three and a half days. To this day, she still holds the trans-Atlantic speed record: no other passenger ship has crossed the Atlantic faster in either direction. Not only built for speed, her design was also innovative for a number of different reasons, all of which are crucial in the history of ship design, and in particular in the history of safety in passenger ships, at a time when America was wrestling with Russia on the world stage. With lessons having been learned from the Second World War, in this period passenger ships were designed in a way that made them easily convertible into troopships. Her designer William Francis Gibbs famously summed up his achievement: 'You can’t set her on fire, you can’t sink her, and you can’t catch her.' The SS United States has remarkably survived the years and today sits at Pier 82 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia while money is raised and plans set in place to preserve her for future generations. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Susan Gibbs, granddaughter of William Frances Gibbs, the ship's visionary designer and President of the SS United States Conservancy, the body dedicated to her preservation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first of a new mini-series on maritime innovations, we look at the history of the propeller. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Joanna Mathers, Head of Collections at the SS Great Britain Trust in Bristol. This episode was inspired by the discovery of an unusual design for a propeller in the collections of the Lloyds Register Foundation: the 'De Bay Propellor' invented in 1876. Of a very unusual design which involved two interlocking propellers, the De Bay propellor was just one of numerous attempts to improve the propeller in the nineteenth century. To make sense of this we have created an animation of the propeller which can be seen on our YouTube Channel and also a short animation on the general history of propellers. In this podcast episode we find out all about the transition from sail to steam, from paddle wheels to propellers, and all of the problems face by maritime engineers and the solutions that they proposed. A particular focus is paid to the ss Great Britain, the iron-hilled, steam-driven passenger liner designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 1840s, because of its important position in the history of marine propulsion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part two of our special episode looking at the remarkable life of Hannah Davison, wife of Captain Davison of the steel barque Alice A. Leigh/Rewa and mother to six children. The Davison family were something of a maritime Von Trapp family, and wherever they arrived in port they appeared in the local newspapers. Hannah carefully kept any newspaper cuttings that mentioned her family and her exploits. The stories included how the vessel survived a typhoon, was nearly torpedoed by a German U-Boat when the First World War broke out, births, deaths and illnesses of her children. There are also recipes for the kids and some of their drawings. The scrapbook now survives in the collections of the New Zealand Maritime Museum/Hui te Ananui a Tang-aroa. Check out our YouTube page for a video exploring the life of the ship and the Davison family.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us for the fantastic story of Hannah Davison who gave birth to six children on board the barque Alice A. Leigh (renamed Rewa in 1921), a steel barque which sailed the world between 1889-1930. The largest vessel ever built at Whitehaven in Cumbria, this four masted barque plied the world's sailing routes with a variety of cargo before joining a New Zealand wool merchant's fleet in 1921. Her story is particularly rich because of the family of Captain Davison who lived aboard. His wife Hannah was mother to their six children and kept a detailed scrapbook of their lives. Their large maritime family was well known and featured regularly in local newspapers. The scrapbook now survives in the collections of the New Zealand Maritime Museum/Hui te Ananui a Tang-aroa. Check out our YouTube page for a video exploring the life of the ship and the Davison family. Finally, damaged by a storm, the Alice A. Leigh/Rewa was sunk as a breakwater in Hauraki Gulf, Aukland, New Zealand where her semi-submerged wreck can still be easily seen and provides a tourist attraction for snorkelers and divers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What did people wear in naval battles and why? The adoption, style and development of naval uniform is a hugely significant subject - one which helps us understand not only the development of the navy as a fighting body but also the forging of national identities, gendered identities and notions of social hierarchy. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr Amy Miller, Curator of Decorative Arts and Material Culture at Royal Museums Greenwich. Amy has used the remarkable and extensive collections at the National Maritime Museum, along with personal papers, diaries, fiction and period artefacts to help us understand these wonderful garments in their social and economic contexts in her book Dressed to Kill: British Naval Uniform, Masculinity and Contemporary Fashions, 1748–1857. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 29 May 1914, the magnificent passenger liner Empress of Ireland sank in the St Lawrence River with the loss of over a thousand people. A full two years after the Titanic disaster, this was a vessel with adequate lifeboats and watertight compartments, and yet she foundered in just fourteen minutes after a collision with a Norwegian collier - ss Storstad - which punched an enormous hole into her side allowing 60,000 gallons of water in. More passengers died in this tragedy than eitherTitanic or Lusitania, both of which have featured in our Maritime Disasters series. She was one of the first two passenger liners built especially for the Canadian Pacific Line’s growing emigrant trade from Liverpool to Canada, her sister ship being the Empress of Britain and they provided a weekly service for emigrants, starting in the Spring of 1906. With so many years of service behind her the Empress of Ireland has an important position in the history of thousands of Canadians today. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dan Conlin, curator at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Sea Fights series continues on the 350th anniversary of the Battle of Solebay, fought between the Dutch and the allied English and French off the eat coast of England, and one of the hardest-fought battles of the Age of Sail. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr David Davies, historian and author of the Journals of Matthew Quinton, a series of historical novels set in the seventeenth century navy.This was a fascinating and important period of naval history when so much was still being learned about how to actually fight at sea in broadside-armed ships, and in particular in enormous fleets: in this battle the Dutch had 75 ships and over 20,000 men and they took on a combined fleet of 93 ships and over 34000 men – that’s 108 MORE ships than fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It is also an unusual example of the English actually co-operating – or at least trying to – with the French.The battle was fought during the third Anglo-Dutch war, a prolonged period of intense commercial rivalry between European powers which had begun some twenty years before hand with the First Anglo-Dutch war in 1652. By 1672 both sides had landed mighty blows but the Dutch and English engines of war that were producing ships and keeping them at sea was now working as well as it ever had, and to complicate matters the French now had a formidable fleet of their own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 24 May 1945 the Supreme Commander of the German Navy, Admiral Karl Dönitz recorded the following words in his War Diary:‘Wolf Pack operations against convoys in the North Atlantic, the main theatre of operations and at the same time the theatre in which air cover was strongest, were no longer possible. They could only be resumed if we succeeded in radically increasing the fighting power of the U-boats. That was the logical conclusion to which I came and I accordingly withdrew the boats from the North Atlantic. We had lost the Battle of the Atlantic.’In this episode Dr Sam Willis speaks with U-boat historian Lawrence Paterson to find out how the U-boat shaped the global nature of the Second World War. The U-boat war was not confined to the Atlantic but fought in the Baltic, Mediterranean and in every other sea save for the Southern Ocean. It was a truly global conflict. Overstretched and undersupplied, it was this global nature of the U-boat role that ultimately doomed the campaign from the very start. Lawrence helps reset the mythology of the Battle of the Atlantic within the wider context of the war itself, analysing the chaotic German military and industrial mismanagement that occurred in all the theatres and hamstrung brilliant commanders and crews. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we continue looking at folklore, myths and legends relating to the sea by investigating the story of the Feejee Mermaid, an extraordinary tale of a 'real' mermaid that was discovered in Japan in 1822, purchased by a collector and displayed in London to the grotesque fascination of thousands of people. Dr Sam Willis speaks with Béatrice Laurent, Professor of Victorian Studies at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne in France. They discuss the reasons why people believe in mermaids in the nineteenth century and how the discovery of mermaids fitted in with religious and scientific thought at the time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Folklore, myths and legends relating to the sea have existed for as long as humans have been travelling by sea. The alien nature of the marine environment, the almost inconceivable scale of the oceans, the power of the sea, and the extraordinary richness in the ocean’s biodiversity has led to the creation and development of the most fabulous legends.And one of the most important of those legends concerns women and the sea – women in the form of mermaids and sirens – both subtly different creatures: the mermaid having the torso of a woman and the tail of fish; a siren being a creature that first appears in Greek mythology, who lured sailors to shipwreck and death with their enchanting voices. Their appearance was different and although written descriptions are few and far between, they are depicted in art as birds flying over the sea and ships, but with the heads of women.Such a rich story is culturally rather complicated. To find out more Eirwen Abborley-Watton spoke with Cecilia Rose a PhD Student at the university of Exeter whose work focuses on mermaids and sirens as figures of indeterminate gender in the art and poetry of the late Victorian Era and how these figures may still be used as symbols for transgender and non-binary communities today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 4 of our special min-series on the Lusitania disaster. Dr Sam Willis meets Lusitania historian Peter Kelly and together they explore some of their favourite items in the Lusitania exhibition at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. They discuss two different ships linked with the Lusitania story - the Falaba, a passenger ship of Liverpool's Elder Dempster line sunk by a German U-Boat off the southern coast of Ireland a matter of weeks before the Lusitania disaster; and the Carmania, a Cunard line Atlantic liner like the Lusitania. But unlike the Lusitania the Carmania was converted into an armed ship and went on to sink an armed German merchant cruiser in Bermuda. Sam and Peter also discuss Peter's project researching the biographies of all of those on board Lusitania on her last voyage and also the extraordinary satirical medallions made in Germany to commemorate the sinking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 3 of our mini-series on the Lusitania tragedy when, in May 1915 the Cunard passenger liner Lusitania was torpedoed 16 miles off the coast of Ireland, leading the deaths of over 1100 men, women and children. This episode looks at the general history of the ship, the reasons behind her construction, and the reasons behind her destruction. The episode puts the Lusitania sinking in the context of early twentieth century shipbuilding and of the First World War. To find out more Dr Sam Willis travelled to Liverpool on the day of the Lusitania memorial service, held on Albert dock where one of the Lusitania's propellers survives, and spoke with Peter Kelly, a historian researching the biographies of every single passenger on board the ship on her fateful voyage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the second episode in our Lusitania Disaster Special in which we explore the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-Boat in May 1915, which ended in the death of over 1900 people. In this episode we hear three fascinating eyewitness accounts: The 18 year-old lookout Leslie Morton describes how he lost his brother when the torpedo struck, scrambled for his life and ended up trawling the morgues in Queenstown for his brother's corpse; we hear from Grace French, a 24 year-old dressmaker from Scotland making her way back home who was taking the air with a young man she had taken a shine to when the torpedo tore her future apart; and the English nurse Alice Lines, travelling with her American employers to look after their children. When the torpedo struck Alice found herself as far away from safety as possible - she was inside, downstairs, with a five year old and a seven year old she had to save as well as herself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode forms part of our mini series on the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 - that terrible event when the enormous Cunard passenger liner was sunk off the coast of Ireland by a German U-Boat killing 1193 people. To find out more Dr Sam Willis speaks with Anthony Richards from London's Imperial War Museum. Anthony is an expert on eyewitness testimony and on the sinking of the Lusitania. They discuss the exciting purchase at auction by the Imperial War Museum of numerous accounts of the disaster, and what they can tell us about this defining moment in the First World War, and in the history of all disasters at sea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second of a new mini-series on ship models. Dr Sam Willis explores the extraordinary model of the SS Great Eastern held in the collections of the National Maritime Museum in London. The Great Eastern, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was one of the most remarkable ships ever built.She was the largest ship ever built – by an enormous margin.measuring 692 feet(211m) and 17,274 tons gross she was almost twice as long as any ship that had ever been built.Her registered tonnage was six times more than any ship ever built and in an age of the most extraordinarily rapid technological development her size was not actually surpassed until the launching of the Oceanic of 701 feet (214m) in 1899 and in tonnage by the Celtic of 21,035 tons gross in 1901. She was the largest passenger ship ever built and could carry 4,000 passengers - seven times more than ever before. A figure not surpassed until 1913 by the German ship SS Imperator. She was the first ships to carry three different methods of propulsion – screw, paddle and sail. She was a pioneer in the laying of subsea telegraphic cables – laying the first successful Trans-Atlantic cable to USA.For the video check out the Mariner's Mirror YOUTUBE channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We explore the astonishing intertwined tales of both Robinson Crusoe and Alexander Selkirk, two men marooned on a desert island, one in fiction, one in real life.Robinson Crusoe was a novel published in 1719 by Daniel Defoe – that supposedly came from the pen of Crusoe himself – and told the story of how he was marooned and spent 28 years on a deserted island in the Caribbean. The book was enormously successful and is widely considered to be the beginning of realistic fiction as a genre – Crusoe’s tale was entirely plausible at a time when ships were regularly sailing from the northern hemisphere to the tropics; when ships were regularly getting wrecked; when pirates were regularly attacking them; when there was still so much to discover about the world’s geography; when the idea of a sailor finding himself accidentally or deliberately abandoned on a desert island made perfect sense.Crusoe’s story was based on a true story – the story of one Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish mariner who found himself castaway on a remote Pacific island for four years and four months a decade before Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk is a fascinating character – and his history is absorbing, regardless of the fact that he found himself marooned. He was involved in buccaneering and privateering, he rounded the horn and sailed in the pacific where he attacked Spanish ships and towns – and it was here, on an island known as Mas al Tierra, 400 miles off the coast of Chile, that Selkirk chose to be marooned.To find out more about these two brilliant stories, the way that Defoe intertwined them, and the way that we now believe they are intertwined, Dr Sam Willis spoke with Professor Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies at King's College. In 2010 Lambert joined a German expedition to Mas al Tierra – now known as Robinson Crusoe Island, The expedition focused on the relationship between the fictional character of Crusoe, the real character of Selkirk, and the development of British global strategy that culminated in the arrival of Commodore George Anson’s naval expedition in 1741.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carpathia is the vessel that earned her historical fame by coming to the rescue of the stricken Titanic in April 1912. She is often glossed over in the history books but Carpathia herself was a remarkable ship with a fascinating history, and one that also ends in disaster with the vessel at the bottom of the Atlantic. Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger ship, launched in 1908. Her dramatic story is one of innovation, competition, immigration, courage, shipwreck and war. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr Jay Ludowyke an author and academic who teaches writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Queensland and the author of Carpathia: The extraordinary story of the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In April 1912, the Titanic - the largest vessel in the world, and the largest man-made moving object that had by then been created - struck an iceberg, split in half and sank in the middle of the Atlantic, taking with her around 1500 souls. Her early demise meant that one of her most important pieces of safety equipment - her anchors - were never used as intended. In this fascinating episode Dr Sam Willis speaks with Clare Weston from the Black Country Living Museum about the fabrication of Titanic's anchors and the crucial role that Britain's industrial heartland played in creating a powerful maritime economy and empire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the Arctic there is a sea route which passes from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It passes up the west coast of Greenland into baffin bay before taking a sharp left turn through a maze of islands that lie off the northern coast of Canada. Once through these islands the route passes to the north of Alaska and then through the narrow straits between Russia and Alaska into the Bering Sea and from there to the Pacific. This 'Northwest Passage', the fabled northern route linking East with West, was not successfully navigated until 1906 by Roald Amundsen. Today we talk about the four centuries of exploration before then, when European maritime powers and private companies attempted to find a route to the Pacific and to map to their attempts. It's a story of exceptional courage, perseverance, folly, competition, greed and culture-clash. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr Katie Parker, a historian specialising in Pacific history, the history of the book and the map, and the history of empires in the long-eighteenth century. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Those of you who have spent any time at sea will know how the unique conditions of being afloat can fundamentally change the way that you think and how you experience the world. It will come as no surprise that there have been occasions in history when humans have been pushed to their absolute limits and their minds have cracked; when a firm grasp on reality has catastrophically failed in a sudden a violent shock, or when doubts and anxiety have crept in like water through a tiny hole the hull of ship, unnoticeable until its weight has become too heavy to ignore and impossible to fix. Dr Sam Willis explores the troubling history of madness at sea, a fascinating topic that allows us to range freely across the oceans of history, exploring a variety of stories that highlight different aspects of how the maritime environment has affected the mental health of sailors in the past. It's a story of loneliness, hallucinations, psychopaths, endurance and the limits of the human mind. It takes us to the adventures of ancient mythical seafarers, to the age of exploration and global maritime empires, to world wars fought at sea, to the challenges of modern racing and the dangerous pleasures of sailing for fun...Sam speaks with the author and sailor Nic Compton whose book 'Off the Deep End' explores this theme as never before. Do NOT listen to this episode on your own on a boat, and be certain that safety at sea starts - and ends - in the mind. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first of a new mini-series on ship models. Dr Sam Willis explores the extraordinary model of HMS Royal George held in the collections of the National Maritime Museum in London. The Royal George is widely considered to be one of the finest eighteenth-century ship models ever made. It was made for the King in the 1770s, as a means of encouraging George III to take an interest in the Royal Navy and some of the finest artists in the kingdom worked on it, resulting in a model that not only showcased the power of a First Rate ship of the line, but also the artistic ingenuity and skill in the kingdom. The ship modelled is the First Rate Royal George, launched in 1756, at the time the largest ship in the world, that would have had a crew in excess of 800 and was armed with 100 guns. The Royal George played a significant role in the Seven Years War (1756-63) and the war of American Independence (1775-1783) but sank at her mooring near Portsmouth in August 1782 in one of history's worst maritime disasters. More than 900 souls died, including 300 women and 60 children visiting the crew. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The San Juan was a basque whaling ship that sank in Labrador in 1565, and was rediscovered in 1978.In the autumn of 1565 several Basque whaling ships were anchored in a remote bay of Labrador, opposite the island of Newfoundland. It was the end of the whaling season, and hundreds of sailors were hurrying up to complete their ships’ cargo of oil barrels. Some were flensing the blubber off the dead whales, some working in the rendering ovens while others were taking the oil barrels on board. All that frantic industrial activity was happening in the wilderness, decades before any Europeans would establish the first colonies of the country that we now call Canada.In October a fierce storm hit that unprotected, barren coast. Under the strain of the hurricane-force wind, the anchor cables of one of the ships, the 200-tonne San Juan, gave in. To the despair of her crew members, the ship went adrift and ran aground on the small island that closed the bay. We can imagine the titanic efforts the crew members undertook in order to save the ships; nevertheless, the San Juan started sinking very near the shore, at about 10 m depth. The captain ordered to save as many victuals as possible and as much of the ship’s gear, and the crew members managed to save their belongings before the ship sank with nearly one thousand oil barrels on board.The ship and its associated artefacts were rediscovered in 1978 and subsequently excavated, and have transformed what we know about seafaring in general and of course whaling in particular in that hugely important era where European seafarers were just beginning to stretch their reach across the Atlantic. The San Juan is now being recreated by hand and with the utmost care and attention to historical accuracy in the northern Spanish port of Pasaia To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Saul Hoffmann, an Italian shipwright who has worked on the ship, and Cindy Gibbons, the Cultural Resource Management Advisor of the Western Newfoundland and Labrador Field Unit, and a qualified witness of the impact in Red Bay of the discovery of the San Juan, Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The battle of the Egadi Islands - or the Aegates - is one of the most significant naval battles of the ancient world. On 10 March 241 BC the mighty naval powers of Rome and Carthage met off the coast of Sicily. The Carthaginian fleet was ambushed by the Romans in a well-planned and brilliantly executed trap leading to a decisive Roman victory. This was the battle that ended the mighty First Punic War which had dominated both Roman and Carthaginian history for two generations; it marked a turning point in the histories of both empires; it was the moment that marked Rome as having the potential to be far more than a local power in the Mediterranean; and it is the ONLY naval battle that archaeologists have managed to identify. The finds raised from the seabed across this enormous battle site are unique and astonishing. To find out more Dr Sam Willis speaks with Peter Campbell, an archaeologist who has been involved in the project to survey and excavate the battle site for many years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the most fascinating periods in all of maritime history is the Viking Age. From around 700 CE and for the next 700 years, Vikings spread out from Scandinavia, reshaped Europe and influenced lands far beyond. It's a story of ingenious maritime engineering, astonishing navigation, fierce battles, culture clashes, trade, language and the rise and fall of a complex society. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Tore Ske, one of Norway’s most acclaimed historians. Tore has written several prize-winning and bestselling works of medieval history that challenge a traditional nation-oriented historical narrative. His latest book - The Wolf Age: The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons and the Battle for the North Sea Empire is a bestseller in Norway, won the prestigious Sverre Steen award and is the first of Tore’s books to be translated into English. Tore is a man with a gift for bringing to life the backstabbing, plotting, bribery and warfare of this period and for helping you think about the whole Viking era in a new way.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Dr Sam Willis and the multi winning historian William Dalrymple discuss the extraordinary story of the East India Company's dominance of India. It is still too easily assumed that the British conquered India through imperial conquest but the reality is even more shocking and relevant to the present day - because India was subdued not by a government, but by a private enterprise with global reach - a business, almost entirely unregulated, and controlled from a small office in London. How did a private enterprise come to control an entire subcontinent? How does maritime trade and seapower fit into this picture? The East India company was born out of Tudor seafarers, explorers and pirates. By 1803 it had its own navy, an army of 200,000 men, and had subdued or directly seized India - and it had done so in less than fifty years. It's a story of global trade in spice, textiles and tea; of shipbuilding, British-Indian warfare, British-European warfare, politics, law and terrifying amounts of murder, and it is a key moment in the shaping of the modern world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In one of the most remarkable maritime history stories of recent years, a team of scientists and explorers are getting closer than ever before to finding the Endurance, the ship that Ernest Shackleton took on his 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition. An expedition is currently in the Weddell Sea, less than two miles from the last known position of the Endurance and have released an underwater vehicle to scan the sea bed. To find out more, Dr Sam Willis interviewed David Mearns, a professional shipwreck hunter famed for discovering HMS Hood, about the remarkable story that led to Shackleton's ship being crushed by the ice; the challenges faced in identifying its location; and what it would mean if the ship is finally found.The story of the Endurance is one of the most remarkable in the history of exploration. Shackleton and his 27 men became ice bound on the Endurance in February 1915, having spotted land just days before. Eight months later, having survived the antarctic winter, the ship was crushed and sank. The men camped on the ice and drifted northwards for six months before taking to the sea in the Endurance's small boats as the ice melted. In five days of sailing in open boats, they made it to Elephant Island and set up camp. Ten days later Shackleton and five others set sail once again in one of the small open boats to undertake an 800-mile journey to South Georgia. Two weeks later, having survived the worst weather the south Atlantic could throw at them, they arrived in South Georgia. Three of them then crossed an uncharted mountain range in a 36-hour hike to reach the settlement of Stromness, where they began to plan the rescue of the three members of the crew left around the coast on South Georgia, and the 21 left behind on Elephant Island. It took three separate attempts on three separate vessels to reach the camp on Elephant Island but eventually they were rescued, three months after Shackleton had left. Not a single man died. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The naval battle of Guadalcanal was one of the most intense and dramatic naval battles of the war, and with with far-reaching strategic consequences. It is the winter of 1942, a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour which brought America into the war. Guadalcanal is the largest of the Solomons Islands, found to the north west of Australia. In the months after the attack on Pearl Harbour the Japanese had been immensely successful; they had driven the Americans out of the Philippines, the British out of Malaya, the Dutch out of the East Indies. The Japanese had then began to expand westwards in an attempt to build a defensive ring around their conquests and threaten the lines of communication from the United States to Australia and new Zealand. They reached Guadalcanal in May 1942 and invaded.Three months later, the Americans responded with an invasion fo their own, their first amphibious landing of the war and, crucially, captured the airfield newly constructed by the Japanese. The following six months was spent in a desperate battle trying to hold it against relentless waves of Japanese attacks. The battle reached a crisis point in November with a concerted effort from the Japanese to bombard the airfield from the sea and a corresponding American naval effort to drive the Japanese ships away. They were successful and by February of 1943 the Japanese had evacuated the island, an immensely challenging operation, brilliantly executed.To find out more Dr Sam Willis speaks with the historian Jeffrey Cox.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we are exploring the history of how to become a naval officer, with particular focus on the American experience and the foundation of the Naval War College in Rhode Island. Established in 1884 the U.S. Naval War College offered professional study for naval officers and now offers advanced courses of professional study for all services, U.S. government agencies and departments, and international navies.In our modern world media interest on naval power tends to be directed towards materiel rather than personnel: recent news stories, for example, have focussed on the USS Nevada, armed with no fewer than 20 Trident II strategic nuclear missiles recently surfacing at the American naval base in Guam in the Pacific – a clear demonstration of strength or in the official wording - of ‘readiness and commitment’ - towards China and North Korea. We do not hear, however, about the personnel wielding this naval power. No news stories ran a feature saying that a particularly successful or maverick or reliable naval officer had been sent to Guam; all we hear about is the submarine.This is notably different to the way that naval power appears in history, as it is dominated by personalities, whether it is the American Chester Nimitz in the Pacific theatre of the Second World War, one of his great rivals the Japanese Chuichi Nagumo, the British Beatty and Jellicoe, in the First World War, Horatio Nelson, John Paul Jones, Francis Drake, …and so on.So how does the US Navy try to guarantee the competence of the men who lead their fleet now - and how did they do it in the past? To help me find out more I spoke with Dr Evan Wilson, Assistant Professor in the John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Sam Willis speaks with Don Lynch, a historian who has spoken to more survivors of the Titanic than anyone else alive and was the official historian for James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic. Sam and Don discuss a number of issues including the concept of ‘women and children first’ and how that actually worked in practice. They also discuss unresolved historical issues relating to the history of the Titanic. This episode is made to go alongside a remarkable new 3D model of the Titanic that has been built using the original plans for the ship and allows us to explore the Titanic in great depth and with great accuracy. The video can be found on the Mariner's Mirror Podcast YouTube Channel.Laid down in March 1909 she was launched a little over two years later and completed just under a year after that, on 2 April 1912. Her size was immense: at 882 feet 9 inches long, she was the largest moveable man made object on earth. This was a major engineering challenge and it revolutionised shipbuilding. No one had ever tried to build a ship the size of the Titanic or her sister ships Olympic and Britannic, ever before.It took an entire year to put the Titanic’s frames in place. She was built with 2000 hull plates mostly 6ft wide and 30ft long, weighing up to three tons. The hull was held together with over three million iron and steel rivets. The radio room with the latest Marconi radio equipment was located on the boat deck, as close to the top of the ship as possible to keep the feed line to the antennae short. The transmitter was the most powerful at sea able to contact either New York or London from the centre of the Atlantic.The First Class accommodation was high up in the ship away from the noise of the machinery. The suites were lavishly decorated in styles of different historical periods. The largest had their own private section of deck. The Third Class accommodation was split between either end of the ship in the lower decks. Single men were in the bow and single women and families were in the stern where they were subjected to the noise and vibrations of the engine and propellers.The 20 lifeboats were carried on the uppermost deck but 32 more, featured in the original design were never put in place, to create space for the wealthy to exercise. This meant that the Titanic only had sufficient lifeboats for 33% of her passengers.At 11.40 on 15 April 1912, the Titanic was 370 miles south of Newfoundland, in 12,500 feet of water – nearly two and a half miles, travelling just under her top speed of just under ten metres per second, when an iceberg was spotted by the lookout.He telephoned the bridge with the words ‘Iceberg right ahead’. It was 100 ft tall, the size of an eight-story building, and with no light to reflect it, the iceberg appeared almost black. The order was given hard to starboard, to turn the ship to port but she struck on the starboard side, tearing as many as six different holes in her hull, all along the lines of her hull plates, suggesting that the rivets snapped off.Water poured in at seven tons per second, fifteen times faster than it could be pumped out. The hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments but they did not extend all the way up to the top of the ship, so the water flooded into each one at a time, as the bow began to sink. Within 45 minutes, 1500 tons of water were in the front section of the ship, and she snapped in half. Each section hit the seabed with such force that it created an enormous debris field, the stern burying itself fifteen metres below the sea bed. 1534 lost their lives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Sam Willis explores the fascinating history of the UK’s historic fleet – the historic vessels that survive in the UK. Many are afloat but there are also ships on slipways, in sheds, hidden in creeks, dismantled in boxes, forgotten on canals... To find out more Sam speaks with Hannah Cunliffe, Director of National Historic Ships UK. a government funded, independent organisation which gives objective advice to UK governments and local authorities, funding bodies, and the historic ships sector on all matters relating to historic vessels in the UK. Sam and Hannah met on board HMS Medusa in Portsmouth, a fine example of one of the UK's historic ships that was saved and is meticulously cared for for future generations to enjoy. Medusa is a Harbour Defence Motor Launch (HDML), built in 1943, and the last surviving vessel to have been at Omaha beach on DDay. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We explore the extraordinary story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941.To find out more Dr Sam Willis speaks with Mark Stille, a retired commander in the US Navy, who studied at the Naval War College and has recently finished a 40-year career working in the intelligence community, with tours on the faculty at the Naval War College, the Joint Staff and US naval ships; he is also the author of numerous works focussing on naval history.This episode is designed to sit alongside the most fabulous 3D animation exploring the Shokaku - one of the Japanese carriers involved in the attack. The full video can be seen on the Mariner’s Mirror podcasts’s Youtube and Facebook pages with shorter clips on Twitter and Instagram.Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack, launched by the Japanese against the American naval base in Hawaii, before the formal declaration of war between the two nations. The Japanese goal was nothing less than to destroy the American pacific fleet. From six aircraft carriers, The Japanese launched hundreds of aircraft in two waves. Less than two hours later the Japanese had crippled or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 airplanes. Dry docks and airfields were also destroyed. 2,403 sailors, soldiers and civilians were killed.Importantly, however, the Japanese actually failed in their goal to cripple the Pacific Fleet. By the 1940s, battleships were no longer the most important vessel in the navy as they had been in the previous war: Aircraft carriers and seaborne airpower had now changed that nature of seapower and all of the American Pacific Fleet’s carriers were away from the base on December 7 and escaped destruction.Moreover, for the the first time in years of discussion and debate about America entering the war, popular opinion now dramatically swung towards joining the fight. The following day America declared war on Japan, and three days later, on Germany.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we hear about Thermopylae, one of the most magnificent clipper-ships ever built, and some claim the finest of them all. In 1879, before her second wool voyage from Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald eulogised: 'The fastest and handsomest ship in the world is now lying at the Circular Quay loading for London, and those who take pleasure in seeing a rare specimen of naval architecture should avail themselves of the opportunity of doing so. Of course, we allude to the Thermopylæ, the celebrated Aberdeen clipper. [The] Thermopylæ has all the appearance of a yacht, and yet she carries a good cargo, is a beautiful sea boat, and stands up to her canvas well.' Built in Aberdeen and commissioned in 1868, but long over-shadowed in public recognition by her rival, Cutty Sark (a ship built specifically to out-pace her in the China tea trade but only once succeeded in so doing), Thermopylæ lives on as arguably the finest all-round clipper of them all.Clipper ships like Thermopylae were astonishing to behold, and were the culmination of centuries of refinements in sailing technology that led to some of the most beautiful and fastest merchant ships ever built. They revolutionised global trade tearing around the seas carrying tea, wool, luxury goods, and of course people as this era of migration changed the populations and economies of the world forever. Their heyday was short lived, however, as increasingly efficient steam engines and railways changed the way that goods were transported – all over again.To find out more, Dr Sam Willis speaks with Captain Peter King. Peter recently retired from the merchant shipping industry after over 62 years of continuous service in a wide range of maritime disciplines. In the 1980s, while serving as Managing Director of one of the Christian Salvesen group companies in Aberdeen, he developed an interest in the George Thompson Jnr’s Aberdeen-based shipping enterprise leading to his researching and publishing the first definitive history of Thermopylæ. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this, episode 12 of our 'Iconic Ships' series we discover the story behind one of the most remarkable pieces of footage to come out of the Second World War: the battleship HMS Barham capsizing and exploding having been torpedoed by a U-Boat on 25 November 1941. HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, She enjoyed a lengthy career, serving in both the First World War and Second World War. Her role in the Second World War was largely focussed on the complex Mediterranean theatre at a time when the French navy and Italian navy both posed significant threats to the British. To find out more Sam Willis speaks with Dr Philip Weir, a historian who specialises in the Royal Navy in the early twentieth century. He has written for the Navy Records Society, History Today and Time and has contributed to television and radio programmes, including the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are. Philip is also a Titan in the world of maritime and naval history on Social Media and can be followed on Twitter @navalhistorian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this our final episode dedicated to the maritime history of Wales, Eirwen Abberley Watton finds out about a project which has been documenting and reconstructing First World War stories from the Welsh coast. The project focuses not only on unearthing and recording shipwrecks such as the U-Boats from the war, but also on the the lives of communities and families affected by the war. To find out more Eirwen speaks with Dr Michael Roberts, a marine geologist and research fellow at the Centre for Applied Marine Sciences, School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University. Michael's recent research in collaboration with Bournemouth University has focussed on using multibeam sonar data in combination with historical archives/collections to identify offshore Irish Sea shipwreck sites. Between 2016-19, in collaboration with the Royal Commission and Nautical Archaeology Society, Michael led the Bangor team in contributing to the development and delivery of the HLF funded U-Boat project Wales 1914-18, which placed major emphasis on linking maritime collections held by local maritime museums and private individuals with larger national records and archives.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this our fourth episode dedicated to the maritime history of Wales, Eirwen Abberley Watton finds out about the work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales who research and record Wales’ history from the tip of Snowdon to the depths of the Welsh coastline. Today we discuss their collaboration with the Lloyds Register Foundation in their hunt for Welsh shipwrecks.There are many processes involved in the discovery and collection of maritime history, which has been revolutionised thanks to the advancement of technology and the unending curiosity of the Welsh public – many old wrecks are still appearing due to constantly changing tides, and being discovered by surprised dog walkers. Lloyd’s Register’s records are crucial in filling in the gaps when unearthing a ship’s story and matching new finds to existing knowledge.Eirwen speaks with Dr Julian Whitewright, the Senior Maritime Investigator at the Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Julian is responsible for overseeing the maritime archaeological parts of the National Monuments Record within Wales, as well as advising on marine planning for offshore development. Julian joined the Royal Commission in June 2021 having previously worked in the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton. His archaeological interests cover all boats and ships from the earliest remains to the 20th century but he has a particular love of small craft and is a keen sailor and rower. He lives in Pembrokeshire, a short distance from the sea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this our third episode on the maritime history of Wales we find out about the mysterious 'Bronze Bell' wreck, an early eighteenth-century wreck c.1700, discovered off the coast of Tal-y-Bont, Cerdigion, in 1978. The wreck is very distinctive due to the 65 tonnes of Carrera marble and heavy armaments found on board, as well as the bronze bell for which it was named. The wreck has been investigated as part of the Welsh Climate Change and Coastal Heritage project: 'CHERISH'.To find out more Eirwen Abberley-Watton spoke with Dr Julian Whitewright and Alison James. Julian is the Senior Maritime Investigator at the Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Julian is responsible for overseeing the maritime archaeological parts of the National Monuments Record within Wales, as well as advising on marine planning for offshore development. He works closely with colleagues from CHERISH, and his archaeological interests cover all boats and ships from the earliest remains to the 20th century. Alison is a Director and Project Manager at MSDS Marine with extensive experience in the management of historic shipwreck sites, volunteer involvement, community engagement and education initiatives. This summer she has been managing work on the Bronze Bell wreck on behalf of MSDS Marine for a project funded by CHERISH, including a recent dive on the site. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this, our second episode on the maritime history of Wales, Eirwen Abberley Watton speaks with Dr Toby Jones about a medieval ship that was discovered in the city of Newport in 2002, unearthed by chance during the construction of the Riverfront Arts Centre. The find provoked a huge response from the archaeological and local community who campaigned for funding so that it could be fully excavated. The ship turned out to be an exceptionally rare rind - a clinker built ship from the 15th century whose hull has been beautifully preserved in the mud of the RIver Usk along with several hundred objects including seeds, shoes, cork and coins, allowing historians and archaeologists to recreate the Atlantic world of the Newport Ship. To find out more Eirwen speaks with Dr. Toby Jones, a nautical archaeologist and the curator of the Newport Medieval Ship. Toby has worked on several other projects around the world, including the Red River Wreck in Oklahoma, the Aber Wrac’h I wreck in Brittany and the Mica shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico. He has also participated in shipwreck surveys along the southern coast of Cyprus and in the Algarve in Portugal.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first episode of our new series about the maritime history of Wales. Our Welsh presenter Eirwen Abberley Watton finds out about the Porth Felen anchor-stock, a unique find for British waters for its age: the Porth Felen anchor stock is believed to be Roman.It was found in the Bardsey Sound off the coast of the Llyn peninsula in the north of Wales in 1974, a very dangerous (but beautiful) stretch of coast. An anchor-stock is a beam of wood or iron placed at the upper end of the shank of an anchor - transversely to the plane of the arms - and it serves to keep the anchor from lying flat on the seabed.To find out more Eirwen speaks with Jake Davies, a Welsh based diver and marine biologist with a passion for sharing the underwater marine environment off the Welsh coast. As a diver he's not just interested in marine life but the history and stories that lie beneath the welsh coast. Jake has recently led a series of dives looking for extra evidence relating to the anchor stock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Dr Sam Willis explores the troubling history of safety at sea. In the eighteenth century seafaring was a very dangerous business indeed: not only were navigation and safety systems limited but unscrupulous owners of merchant ships would deliberately send ships to sea over-laden, but with enormous insurance raised on the vessel. These became known as ‘Coffin Ships’. To make matters worse, sailors who had signed up for a voyage but then refused to sail in such vessels could be sent to prison. Appalled by such public flouting of responsibility one man - Samuel Plimsoll - took it upon himself to reform safety at sea, taking on the entire maritime establishment. Plimsoll eventually succeeded, but only after numerous knock-backs from politicians in the grip of maritime merchant interest. His solution to the problem, the ‘Plimsoll Line’ - being a safe load-line marked on the hull of a ship - changed seafaring forever and also marked a significant moment in popular democracy when the will of the British public – in this case for the protection of their mariners – was heard. To find out more, Sam speaks with Nicolette Jones, author of the multiple-award winning book ‘The Plimsoll Sensation: The Great Campaign to Save Lives at Sea.’ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Dr Sam Willis explores HMS Warrior, one of the most groundbreaking ships in the history of naval power. An iron-framed, iron-clad single-gundeck warship, launched in 1860 HMS Warrior defied categorisation and changed the way that seapower was both wielded and imagined. She was built in a period of intense rivalry between Britain and France when technology was advancing so rapidly that innovations existed alongside an entirely realistic fear that new inventions would undermine Britain’s existing naval supremacy. In this period steam would replace sail for propulsion; iron and then steel would replace wood for construction; exploding shells would replace solid iron shot for armament and they would be fired from rifled, breech loading guns that could fire further than could ever have been imagined. Warrior had more firepower than two standard wood ships of the line. Remarkably, Warrior still survives: she was decommissioned from active service in 1882, but survived being scrapped. In 1979 the ship was rescued for preservation having served as a fuelling pontoon in South Wales for 50 years. She can now be visited in all of her glory at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth: a most remarkable warship – a technological innovation in the business of war, but which never fired a single shot in anger: and the two were linked: warrior was so superior to any other warship at the time of its construction that its supremacy never had to be challenged in battle: she was the ultimate naval deterrent. To find out more, Sam speaks with Jeremy Michell, Senior Curator: Maritime Technologies at the National Maritime Museum in London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this, a joining-together of our Great Sea Fights and Iconic Ships series we feature HMS Pickle, the small topsail schooner that was chosen to sail as swiftly as possible back to England with news of the British success at the battle of Trafalgar, and also with the tragic news of the death of the British fleet’s commander, Horatio Nelson. The story of how the battle dispatches made it all the way to London from Cape Trafalgar off the coast of Spain is quite remarkable, and is told brilliantly by Kathy Brown, Director of the Trafalgar Way – the overland route taken by the pickle’s commander, Richard Lapenotiere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Sam Willis explores the many wounds that Nelson received in his life, as well as his fatal wound received at the Battle of Trafalgar. Sam speaks with Michael Crumplin, a retired consultant general and upper gastro-intestinal surgeon and Honrary Curator and Archivist at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Nelson was so damaged by a life of naval service it has been calculated that he would have received a total degree of disablement at 140% if assessed for war pension today: his right eye was damaged by flying earth at siege of Corsica in 1794; he developed a ‘fist-sized’ hernia when hit by flying timber at the battle of St Vincent in 1797; his arm was amputated after being hit by a musket ball at Tenerife, also in 1797; his forehead head was struck so hard, and cut so badly by flying debris at the battle of the Nile in 1798 that he thought he was gong to die. And then, at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 he was shot by a French marksman, the ball breaking his spine and puncturing a lung. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.