The contents of this, the eighth of the Navy Records Society’s Miscellany series, chronicles the activities and adventures of the Royal Navy, its officials, its officers and its men – both in British employment and out of it – over a period of some six hundred years. Ranging from the reign of Edward III to… Read Abstract »
This seventh volume of Naval Miscellany contains documents which range in date from the late thirteenth century to the Korean War. They illustrate the many different ways in which the naval forces of the crown have served the realm. Topics covered include the role of ships in campaigns against Scotland under Edward I and Edward… Read Abstract »
This valuable work of reference shows the key dates in the career of every traceable commissioned officer who served in the Royal Navy between the Restoration of King Charles II and the close of the Napoleonic Wars. Commissioned Sea Officers — Introduction Commissioned Sea Officers — Surnames A
This edition contains documents from the seventeenth century to the Second World War. There is additional material to complement NRS Volume 116 from the Commission of Enquiry in 1608, an account of the Earl of Warwick’s voyage to the Mediterranean in 1627 and documents relating to the management of the Royal Dockyards between 1672 and… Read Abstract »
This collection of naval court martial transcripts and related documents from the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars contributes not only to our understanding of military jurisprudence in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries but also to our knowledge of Georgian and Regency criminal law in general. Each chapter presents transcripts relating… Read Abstract »
This seventh volume of Naval Miscellany contains documents which range in date from the late thirteenth century to the Korean War. They illustrate the many different ways in which the naval forces of the crown have served the realm. Topics covered include the role of ships in campaigns against Scotland under Edward I and Edward… Read Abstract »
Edited documents in this Naval Miscellany include the 14th-century repair of Bayonne Galleys, Armada correspondence, the building of Plymouth dockyard, letters of Admiral Collingwood, Nelson’s Public Order Book during his 1801 blockade of Boulogne, Louis Parsons’ journal 1882-1901, Captain Clayton’s letters from the Australia Station 1885-8, Dudley Pound’s Grand Fleet diary 1914-15, and HMS Aurora’s… Read Abstract »
During the French Revolutionary War the Channel Fleet played the crucial role of defending Britain from invasion, protecting Britain’s incoming and outgoing trade through the Channel and Western Approaches, and preventing the French Brest fleet from setting forth on raids and expeditions. Presenting documents revealing the evolution of this role during the war, this book… Read Abstract »
The idea behind this volume, according to its editor Brian Lavery, was to give a rounded picture of life at sea during the age of sail. It concentrates on the daily routine of shipboard life rather than more dramatic events such as battles and mutiny. It supplements other volumes produced by the Navy Records Society,… Read Abstract »
This book presents a collection of contemporary documents throwing light on the campaigns by the Royal Navy, in association with the army, on cities of the Spanish Empire in South America, beginning with the (unauthorised) assault on Buenos Aires in 1806, by Sir Home Popham. One of Popham’s aims was to open South America for… Read Abstract »
To celebrate its centenary in 1993, the Society produced a special volume covering seven hundred and fifty years of British naval history, containing 535 documents carefully selected by leading experts. See the contents of British Naval Documents 1204-1960.
This edition contains documents from the seventeenth century to the Second World War. There is additional material to complement NRS Volume 116 from the Commission of Enquiry in 1608, an account of the Earl of Warwick’s voyage to the Mediterranean in 1627 and documents relating to the management of the Royal Dockyards between 1672 and… Read Abstract »
This volume follows the organisation of the editor’s seminal study, Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole (1965), but the documents presented here represents a longer period (of thirty-five years) than in his original book. Separate sections include documents describing the structure of the central administration, including the Admiralty’s sometimes difficult relationship with the Navy… Read Abstract »
How should the Royal Navy be manned? Was impressment the best answer to this question? Was the seizure of men off the streets by Press Gangs acceptable to a freedom-loving society? What was the alternative? This issue provoked considerable debate, especially with reference to the Georgian and Victorian Navy, and attracted the attention, not only… Read Abstract »
David Syrett came to study the British capture of Havana in 1762 as a forgotten campaign of the Seven Years’ War. Through this collection of documents he showed that Havana was arguably the most complex and difficult operation of that war. It involved making an opposed landing with an army of 16,000 men on a… Read Abstract »
Ghost-writing is not a twentieth Century invention. In this volume for the Navy Records Society Dr Williams revealed that the classic best-seller, ‘A Voyage round the World by George Anson‘, purportedly written by Anson’s chaplain Richard Walter, had in fact been ghost-written by Benjamin Robins, a man who had not sailed on the voyage. Describing… Read Abstract »
The second half of the eighteenth century saw dramatic improvements in the health of the Royal Navy and, as a result, an enhanced capacity to fight and to successfully impose tight blockades. The menace of scurvy was tamed through improved diet and the use of citrus juice; and smallpox stopped in its tracks by a… Read Abstract »
The defence of trade has always been a priority for the Royal Navy. This volume details the operations of the squadrons deployed in South American waters amid the turmoil which began with the French occupation of the Iberian Peninsular and ended with the independence of Argentina, Chile, Peru and, eventually, Brazil. British trade, ships and… Read Abstract »
Published in this volume are various Spanish documents concerning the Armada; a journal of one of Blake’s officers in the mid seventeenth century; Boscawen’s letters to his wife; the account of a Swedish officer who served in the French Navy during the Seven Years War; selections from the Hood papers regarding Prince William’s service in… Read Abstract »
These documents were selected by Rear-Admiral Thursfield for the light they throw on life afloat in the Navy of the Napoleonic era rather than for their contribution to the history of the operations in which their authors took part. They comprise four ‘Journals’, based mainly on dairies kept at the time and written up at… Read Abstract »
This Miscellany contains several documents that were in private ownership and range from 1656 to 1815 and are mainly related to naval operations. There are documents relating to the raid on the Dutch coast in 1666 and letters from Blake to Montague on operational matters in 1756; a discussion on whether to prosecute the likely… Read Abstract »
A collection of legal cases and precedents dealing with aspects of maritime and naval law such as piracy, prizes and prize goods, letters of marque and reprisal, contraband, ransom, convoy, and impressment. The volumes cover 1205-1648 and 1649-1767 respectively. This volume covers the years 1649-1767.
A collection formed by the Admiralty in its own defence after Byng had allowed the island to fall, but before he was tried. It contains most of the official papers of importance, but the selection naturally supports the official line.
This contains documents that date from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The three for the sixteenth century include English piracy against the Spaniards, a Scottish document about a ship getting under way and the taking of the Madre de Dios in 1592. Two documents from the seventeenth century are a description by Rear Admiral… Read Abstract »
During the Spithead Mutiny of 1797, the crew of HMS Mars created their own court, tried one of their shipmates and sentenced him to ....
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This post presents the physical description of seaman John Teede’s tattoos as a rare and intimate glimpse into an eighteenth-century ....
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This letter continues our series of correspondence from John Yule to his wife Eliza. An archive of 100 letters survive from Yule and ....
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This posts continues our extracts from the colourful diaries of David Talbot, impressed to HMS Calliope in December 1809. He had newly ....
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