In August 1927, nearly 50,000 people flocked to Portsmouth to attend the first Navy Week. Showcasing the power and prestige of the Royal Navy, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, mine-laying monitors, submarines, and an aircraft carrier were all either on view or available for close inspection. Attendees saw HMS Rodney and HMS Nelson, the two most modern […]
When war was declared on Germany on 3 September 1939 Britain immediately began to mobilise its forces. Whilst the bulk of the Royal Navy was focused on convoy protection and controlling the North Sea the Royal Navy Patrol Service (RNPS), comprised reservists from both the Royal Navy Reserve (RNR) and Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), […]
Join us online in marking the launch of Gunboats, Empire, and the China Station – a book that ‘transforms our understanding of the Royal Navy in the 1920s’. 22nd October from 4.30 to 5.30 pm. Please book via Eventbrite. Professor Joe Maiolo (King’s College London) will open the event with a short introduction, after which the author […]
An illustrated talk about the secret Royal and Merchant Navy past. By Dr Jo Stanley, co-author of Hello Sailor!The hidden history of homosexuality at sea, and co-curator of the Hello Sailor! exhibition, Merseyside Maritime Museum. https://prideinplymouth.org.uk/queer-seas/
Animal husbandry at HMS Excellent on Whale Island expanded considerably at the onset of the First World War. As it became clear that war to about to break out, the island management began to view the island with different eyes. Although it was surprising that sailors would be put to farming duties, men were tasked […]
In 1832 the Fourth Sea Lord of the Admiralty suggested there was a need for ‘theoretical instruction’ in gunnery. Thus what had been previously considered an art became a science.[1] Marine artillery embraced the science and technology of the age, and this modernisation of gunnery was aligned with a transition from sail to steam ships. […]
