Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

Naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars : Cape St. Vincent, the Nile, Cadiz, Copenhagen, Trafalgar & others /W.H. Fitchett. "The wars against Napoleonic France and Spain in the early years of the nineteenth century have long fascinated historians and casual readers who are enchanted by the colour and romance of those incredible times. No aspect of the period has generated more interest and enthusiasm than the war at sea-fought between great naval commanders whose names from reverberated through time and who stood upon the decks of equally famous ships of the line in heroic battles. Here are the true life events that so inspired C. S. Forrester-and those who later followed his tradition of naval adventures to appeal to a new and enthusiastic audience. However, nothing in fiction is more remarkable than the actual events related in this book. Here are the true stories of the Victory, the Temeraire, the Orient and many other iconic vessels, and their famous and inspiring feats of naval warfare at Copenhagen, the Nile, Cadiz, Trafalgar and many other battles that helped shape the modern world."--Provided by the publisher. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1803/1815"(42)

Midway : dauntless victory :fresh perspectives on America's seminal naval victory of World War II /by Peter C. Smith. "This is an in-depth study of the battle of Midway that reviews the many previous accounts and compares their accuracy and veracity with fresh documentation that has been released recently, including some new material on the post-war analysis made by a select committee. There are new viewpoints on the muddle among the US Admirals; the total failure of the USAAF, despite elaborate claims; views on a whitewash of Admiral Fletcher and others; fresh thinking on the part played by the US Navy Dauntless dive-bombers in the action; the mystery of the carrier Saratoga's presence; Hollywood's totally wrong take on the battle in all the films since made about it; some new eyewitness material the author has obtained and information from Japanese sources not previously used. The Appendices will include statistical details - the ships, the planes and the men."--Provided by the publisher. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.542.6"1942"

Contemporary piracy and maritime terrorism : the threat to international security /Martin N. Murphy. Do piracy and maritime terrorism, individually or together, present a threat to international security, and what relationship if any exists between them? Piracy may be a marginal problem in itself, but the connections between organised piracy and wider criminal networks and corruption on land make it an element of a phenomenon that can have a weakening effect on states and a destabilising one on the regions in which it is found. Furthermore, it is also an aspect of a broader problem of disorder at sea that, exacerbated by the increasing pressure on littoral waters from growing numbers of people and organisations seeking to exploit maritime resources, encourages maritime criminality and gives insurgents and terrorists the freedom to operate. In this context, maritime terrorism, though currently only a low-level threat, has the potential to spread and become more effective n the event of political change on land. It is only by addressing the issue of generalised maritime disorder that the problems of piracy and maritime terrorism may be controlled in the long term. c2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 323.28:341.362.1

Birds of the sea : 150 years of the General Steam Navigation Company /by Nick Robins. A history of the General Steam Navigation (GSN) company, incorporated in 1824, formed by a small consortium of shipowners, including Thomas Brockelbank, with an original fleet of five Thames steamers. The book includes tables covering fleet disposition in 1826, the main routes served in 1914, losses to enemy action in the First World War, second-hand purchases between 1921-24, and excursion fleets of the New Medway Steam Packet company in 1936. The GSN was aquired by P&O in 1920 and in the 1960s became part of the North Sea Ferries and Normandy Ferries consortiums. Included is a comprehensive fleet list, including separate lists for excursion steamers, the New Medway Steam Packet Company, Moss Hutchison Line, Great Yarmouth Shipping Company, and the Grand Union (Shipping) Company. Illustrated extensively with black-and-white photographs and some colour reproductions. 2007. • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 347.792General Steam Navigation Company

Merchants, medicine and Trafalgar : the history of the Harvey family /by Richard Morris. This book covers the history of the family from 1578 until the 1950s. Five of Thomas Harvey's seven sons followed their father in becoming merchants in the City of London, trading in silks and spices. The eldest son was William Harvey, the noted physician who discovered the circulation of the blood in 1628. He was physician to Charles I and was with the King at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642. The fifth generation of the Harvey family included Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey who commanded the Temeraire at Trafalgar. The family lived at Rolls Park, Chigwell, Essex for over 200 years, where they amassed a collection of art, although this was dispersed after the death of the Admiral in 1830. By 1953 Rolls Park was in decline and very little remains today. The book contains new material including previously unpublished letters about the Admiral's role at Trafalgar and his daughter Louisa's relationship with the Duke of Wellington. Appendix B contains coffin inscriptions in the Harvey vault at St Andrew's Church, Hempstead, Essex. Appendix C gives details of Harvey family monumental inscriptions in the Harvey Chapel of that church. There are a few black and white and colour illustrations, a bibliography and an index. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

Slavery and the birth of an African city : Lagos, 1760-1900 /Kristin Mann. "As the slave trade entered its last, illegal phase in the nineteenth century, the town of Lagos on West Africa's Bight of Benin became one of the most important port cities north of the equator, Slavery and the Birth of an African City explores the reasons for Lagos's sudden rise to power. By linking the histories of international slave markets to those of the regional suppliers and slave traders, Mann shows how the African slave trade forever altered the destiny of the tiny kingdom of Lagos. This magisterial work uncovers the relationship between African slavery and the growth of one of Africa's most vibrant cities."--book jacket. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.1(42:669.199)

Liverpool and transatlantic slavery / edited by David Richardson, Suzanne Schwarz and Anthony Tibbles. An edited collection of essays published to coincide with the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. 2007. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 326.1

The Royal Navy and the Arctic convoys : a naval staff history /with a preface by Malcolm Llewellyn-Jones. 2007. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 940.542.1(268)"1941/1945"

Science in the marketplace : nineteenth-century sites and experiences /edited by Aileen Fyfe & Bernard Lightman. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 5(091)(42)"19"

The mindful hand : inquiry and invention from the late Renaissance to early industrialisation /edited by Lissa Roberts, Simon Schaffer and Peter Dear. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 001.894(4)"13/18"

Out of the blue : public interpretation of maritime cultural resources /John H. Jameson, Della A. Scott-Ireton, editors. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 930.26(204):37

U-boats vs destroyer escorts : the Battle of the Atlantic /Gordon Williamson. "Winston Churchill claimed the 'U-boat peril' was the only thing that frightened him during World War II. The U-boat was developed from a small coastal vessel into a state-of-the-art killer, stalking the high seas picking off merchant convoys, until the introduction of the Destroyer Escort and other specialized escort vessels, and the development of dedicated anti-submarine tactics provided a means of defence and attack against the U-boats. Gordon Williamson describes the design and development of these deadly opponents, their tactics, strengths and weaknesses, weaponry and training. He provides an insight into the lives of the Royal Navy, United States Navy and Wolfpack crews as they played their deadly games of cat and mouse on the high seas, gambling with their lives and the fate of the war."--Jacket. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.545.9

The invention of pastel painting / Thea Burns. "Chalks and pastels are particularly appropriate materials for portraits because they appear effortlessly to convey the warm tones and soft, matte velvety surface of skin. Portraits and head studies therefore figure prominently in histories of pastel. The Invention of Pastel Painting describes the relatively sudden emergence in the later seventeenth century of sets of friable pastel sticks and a new artistic practice of painting in pastel. The author reconsiders the use of natural and fabricated drawing sticks as tools, firmly locating their use in the context of historical function. 'Artistic techniques have a social history; they are signs endowed with cultural meaning by society.' The visual, documentary and etymological evidence does not support the concept of a narrative history of pastel gradually progressing from a 'simple' original state in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, Jean and Francois Clouet and the Dumonstiers to an increasingly richly coloured and technically complex visual record in the paintings of Robert Nanteuil, Joseph Vivien and Rosalba Carriera, and then continuing to evolve through the nineteenth century. In considering the history of chalk and pastel, the author argues that the change is aesthetic, not formal, and is grounded in social function and technical response. She has drawn not only on artists' letters and accounts, documents, critical and theoretical writings, and, broadly, the secondary literature, but also on close visual examination and scientific analysis of selected chalk drawings and paintings in pastel, particularly those created between 1500 and 1750."--Provided by the publisher. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 741.235

Archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the local instiutions [sic] in Batavia (Jakarta) : Arsip-arsip Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) dan lembaga-lembaga pemerintahan kota Batavia (Jakarta) = De archieven van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) en de locale instellingen te Batavia (Jakarta) /G.L. Balk, F. van Dijk, D.J. Kortland. Containing inventories of 15 archives related to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) that are kept in Jakarta as well as material on the history of the VOC and additional references. The inventories included are: Hoge Regering, Hoge Commissie, Algemene Rekenhamer, Raad van Justitie, Schepenbank, Heemraden, Weeskamer, Boedelkamer, Bank van Lening, Vendukantoor, Amphioensocièeteit, Notarissen, Kerken, Burgerlijke Stand, and Engelhard. 2007. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 347.71EAST INDIA:930.25(594.51)

The Bright-Meyler papers : a Bristol-West India connection, 1732-1837 /edited by Kenneth Morgan. "These documents illuminate the conduct of British trade in the Caribbean when slavery was at its height and Jamaica was the wealthiest territory in Britain's Atlantic empire. Pertaining to the commercial and plantation interests of two Bristol families connected through marriage and business, the volume sheds light on how fortunes were created by merchants striving for improvement, independence, and social mobility. The documents include correspondence, wills and inventories, partnership agreements, insurance policies and property deeds. The introduction addresses issues of the slave trade and sugar cultivation, capital accumulation, the ways in which a West India fortune was created, the risk environment of the Caribbean, and social, economic and demographic conditions in 18th-century Bristol and Jamaica."--Provided by the publisher. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.1:382"1732/1837"

Polar crusader : a life of Sir James Wordie /by Michael Smith. "Sir James Mann Wordie, born in Glasgow in 1889, was the elder statesman of polar exploration - the link between the heroic Edwardian Age of Shackleton and Scott and the mechanised modern era which opened up Antarctica and the Arctic. The remarkable life of one of Scotland's gratest heroes remains surprisingly little known; although resolute and ambitious (perhaps even scheming), he shunned publicity and popular fame. Wordie's career as both explorer and academic geologist opened with his participation in Shackleton's epic Endurance expedition of 1914-16, where he proved one of the most resilient of those stranded in appalling conditions on Elephant Island. He continued to lead arduous expeditions to the Arctic well into his forties, while building his reputation as an academic and mentor to new generations of explorers and mountaineers. During and after the Second World War he was instrumental in safeguarding British strategic interests in the Antarctic territories, and later rose to be President of the Royal Geographical Society and Master of St John's College, Cambridge. He died in 1962. This is the first full biography of Wordie to be written, and it makes use of a wide variety"--Provided by the publisher. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 919.804092

Bomb Alley, Falkland Islands 1982 : Aboard HMS Antrim at War /David Yates. "This is the untold story of the Falklands War as experienced by a below-decks seaman on one of the most important ships to be despatched to the South Atlantic. It is a no-holds-barred account as seen through the eyes of a Royal Navy matelot who shared the terror of the first encounter with Argentinean forces when South Georgia was retaken from the invaders in Operation Paraquat. Then, HMS Antrim led the first attack into the North Falklands Sound where she destroyed enemy defences and later became part of the main force anti-aircraft defences in the infamous 'Bomb Alley' or San Carlos Water. During one of the many air attacks, the ship was struck by a bomb that destroyed her defensive missile system, but through pure chance, the bomb did not explode and remained aboard wedged in the aft 'heads'. All around the stricken ship other RN vessels were taking extreme punishment from the almost continuous onslaught from low-flying Argentinean jets. HMS Antelope, HMS Coventry and the Atlantic Conveyer were all lost within a short period whilst the army was trying to establish a bridgehead."--Provided by the publisher. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 997.11024092

Art for the Nation : the oil paintings collections of the National Maritime Museum /edited by Geoff Quilley ; with contributions from John Bonehill, Caroline Corbeau, Olivia Horsfall Turner, Eleanor S. Hughes, Roger Quarms and Pieter van der Merwe. National Maritime Museum (Great Britain) 2006. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 069(6:421.6):75

The Arctic gold rush : the new race for tomorrow's natural resources /Roger Howard. "On August 2, 2007, a Russian submarine captured world headlines by making a dangerous journey to the bottom of the Arctic seabed and planting a metal, rustfree national flag more than 14,000 feet beneath the North Pole. The aim was to assert Russia's legal sovereignty over a region whose importance had only recently started to become apparent as its melting ice had made, or was expected to make, vast natural resources open to exploitation. The latest estimates are that the region holds around 13% of the world's undiscovered oil and as much as 30% of undiscovered natural gas reserves that would be hugely profitable for any country that managed to secure control over them. Gold, platinum, copper, and other precious metals have also been found along the coast. Neighboring countries - Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark, and Norway - are already doing everything they can to mark out new borders. The ensuing political disagreements over the issue are already rife. In particular, games of political intrigue between Moscow and Washington are being played out in the region. But as the world's resources become increasingly scarce and valuable, could the scramble for Arctic resources become violent? Could a 'War for the Arctic' be fought?"--Provided by the publisher. 2009. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(98):553

Islamic science and the making of the European Renaissance / George Saliba. "The Islamic scientific tradition has been described many times in accounts of Islamic civilization and in general histories of science, with most authors tracing its beginnings to the appropriation of ideas from other ancient civilizations - the Greeks in particular. In this thought-provoking and original book, George Saliba argues that, contrary to the generally accepted view, the foundations of Islamic scientific thought were laid well before Greek sources were formally translated into Arabic in the ninth century. Drawing on an account by the tenth-century intellectual historian Ibn al-Nadim that is ignored by most modern scholars, Saliba suggests that early translations from mainly Persian and Greek sources outlining elementary scientific ideas for the use of government departments were the impetus for the development of the Islamic scientific tradition. He argues further that there was an organic relationship between the Islamic scientific thought that developed in later centuries and the science that came into being in Europe during the Renaissance."--BOOK JACKET. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 5(5-15:4)

The Jamestown project / Karen Ordahl Kupperman. "Reconfiguring the national myth of Jamestown's failure [Karen Kupperman] shows how the settlement's distinctly messy first decade actually represents a period of ferment in which individuals were learning how to make a colony work.... the structures and practices that evolved through trial and error in Virginia would become the model for all successful English colonies, including Plymouth."--Dust jacket. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 973.02

Oil paintings in public ownership in Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly / The Public Catalogue Foundation ; Andrew Ellis, director, Sonia Roe, editor, Rob Airey, catalogue coordinator, Steve Tanner, photography. "Reveals 1,556 publicly owned oil paintings from 54 collections across the county and archipelago off Land's End. The largest single collection is the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro with just over 400 paintings. Other significant holdings are found at Penlee House Gallery and Museum in Penzance and Falmouth Art Gallery"--Dust Jacket. 2007. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 069(423.7)

British Warships in the age of sail, 1714-1792 : design, construction, careers and fates /Rif Winfield. Winfield, Rif. 2007. • FOLIO • 3 copies available. 623.82(42)!"1714/1792

The company's island : St Helena, company colonies and the colonial endeavour /Stephen Royle. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1502 and fought over by the English, French, Dutch and Portuguese before its annexation by the East India Company in 1659, this book reviews the strategic importance of St Helena arising from its location as a vital refuelling stop for ships returning to Europe from India and the East. With no indigenous population the East India Company established a society from scratch and the author explores the themes of law and morality, gender, slavery, resistance and defence on the island set against the context of trade and imperialism. The appendices include tables relating to imports, migration and population, criminal offences, jury service, taxation, slavery and also list those condemned after the 1684 rebellion. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 347.71 EASTINDIA:94

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