Tag Archives | Royal Navy

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PBB9832: Chatham Navy Week: Official Guide and Souvenir, 1934. Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

‘Power, presented in its latest and most potent forms’: Navy Weeks at the Home Ports, 1927–1938

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 […]

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Larger type of the early German magnetic mine, recovered in 1939, with rule alongside to show its size. © IWM A 30292.

The Coastal War, 1939

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), […]

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Matt's book pic

Book launch: Gunboats, Empire, and the China Station by Dr Matthew Heaslip, 22 October 4.30pm

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 […]

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Sailor with a lion cub (Courtesy of Brain Witts, Curator of the HMS Excellent collection)

The Sailor Zoo and Farm in Portsmouth: Re-enchantment and Necessity (Part 1 of 2)

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. […]

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