MA Naval, Maritime and Coastal History Portsmouth

The final part of a first-hand account of Operation Pedestal from the perspective of Ronnie Russell (who served as a Mate aboard the British cargo ship MV Clan Ferguson) is now available on the Navy Records Society's online Magazine.

Read it today at: www.navyrecords.org.uk/magazine_pos...

Image shows the graduation booklet

Image shows the History teaching team with some of the prize-winning students in academic gowns

Image shows balloons reading 'class of 2025'

Image shows the History team in their academic gowns

We enjoyed celebrating with our students on graduation day. It's always one of our favourite days of the year.

Congratulations all! #UoPGrad

We still have some spaces available! It really is a special course with a great student community. Students join because they're interested in our topics and enjoy discussing them, and some end up producing publishable work that they didn't know they could do!

#CoastalHistory

Modern steel and wire traps from UAE. https://forum.alrams.net/showthread.php?t=703799

Traditional #fishweir called a hadra can be found in Gulf States like #Bahrain, #UAE, #Kuwait, and still in use! In the gulf, fishing & pearling has been part of ancient & modern industries The growth of ports & trade has resulted in shore reclamation, destroying marine habitats. 1/7 #coastalhistory

Footage was upside down *and* reversed. It shows Chateau de Trevarez, a rest facility for U-Boat crews, under attack by Mosquitos from 613 Squadron, #OTD in 1944. #WW2 #HISTORY

30 July 1941 // Submarine HMS Cachalot was rammed by Italian torpedo boat Generale Achille Papa north of Benghazi, and sank after being abandoned. The Cachalot had engaged the Italian vessel with gunfire and assumed they had driven her off as she had withdrawn making smoke. [1/4]

HMS Calypso, a 16-gun sloop built in 1783, shown in bad weather among ships of a convoy in a hand-coloured engraving, undated but probably early 19th century. National Maritime Museum image: PAF7972. A coloured depiction of a small three-masted warship in distress in bad weather: her sails and rigging are being violently torn by the wind, and her mizzen mast has been swept away. We can see the starboard side of the ship, and her decks as she rolls in the waves. Other vessels can be seen in the background, also being tossed violently by the huge waves.

30 July 1803 // 16-gun sloop HMS Calypso sank in the Atlantic north of the Azores after being run down in a violent storm by a merchantman from the Jamaica convoy she was escorting to England. All 120 people on board were lost. (Image: National Maritime Museum) #RoyalNavy #Shipwreck #NavalHistory

Drawing of people fishing from boats and Seine fishing at Olinda a historic city in #Pernambuco, #Brazil, in 1682. From Dutch sources. #fishing #maritime #heritage #Stonefishweirs #DecadeHeritage #oceanspast #costalhistory

REMINDER!📣The Heritage Centre is currently hiring three new roles:

✔️Archive Officer
✔️Collections Assistant
✔️Collections Data and Systems Manager

Find out more and to apply 🔗 www.lr.org/en/careers/

That one time I got to read a signal log from VICTORY, dated 1804, while cross-referencing a period signal book…

Spine-chilling stuff. The past felt so close.
#HMSVictory #SignalHistory #RoyalNavy #AgeOfSail

#MaritimeHistory

#NavalHistory

Naval, Maritime and Coastal History (Distance Learning) If you're fascinated by naval history, this Master’s degree will enable you to turn your interest into a versatile postgraduate qualification. Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy, and our partner...

Working on the MA in Naval, Maritime and Coastal History distance learning course. We cater to international students enthusiastic about watery history, and have consistently had high student evaluations. Come join us in Sept or Jan! #NavalHistory #MaritimeHistory www.port.ac.uk/study/course...

HMS Surprise - Types of Naval Officers Drawn from the History of the British Navy

Stephen Maturin reflects on the types of naval officers in HMS Surprise. He wasn't the first to do that:

evanmwilson.substack.com/p/hms-surpri...

Corner of a hand-stitched sail from the 1800s. Every warship had a sailmaker who played a vital role in making and maintaining the huge number of sails required to power the ship in all weathers.

#Ageofsail #RoyalNavy #Tallships

In 1976, a U.S. Navy torpedo recovery boat was dragging a parachute as a sea anchor when it snagged something. After a fierce struggle, the crew managed to pull aboard a bizarre creature. They had discovered the megamouth shark. Only 300 have been seen since.
#SharkAwarenessDay

Via Google Translate (great work Søren 😊):

New source for the history of the Danish navy.

Diary of Anders Jensen Lønborg. No. 72 on board the Frigate JYLLAND. 1862-1864

Type: Ebook: books2read.com/u/mgdEdx
Language: Danish
Publisher: Søren Nørby

#NavalHistory #histbookchat

#NavalHistory

The British and Commonwealth Navies in Korea (Korean War series 3) – Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution The Korean War was predominantly a land-based conflict fought under the flag of the United Nations and the Royal and Commonwealth Navies played a significant, but often unreported at the time, role in denying Communist forces use of the sea. A total of 76 naval and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships took part in the three-year period until an armistice was reached. The Korean war can be categorised as one of differing military phases – each calling for a specific naval effort at certain times. Two aspects were constant  however; namely the blockade of Communist-held ports and the continuous naval bombardment of enemy utilised land routes. During the Korean War there was no challenge to the UN command of the seas around the Korean peninsula – restating the long-held truth that Sea Power has remained Britain’s most timely contribution to her Allies in time of conflict. David Verghese is a naval researcher and biographer.

🚢🌊 Join us for another Military History event : The British and Commonwealth Navies in Korea on Wed, July 23.⚓ Hear about the untold story of how naval forces played a pivotal role in the Korean War, ensuring UN command of the seas. www.brlsi.org/whatso... #KoreanWar #SeaPower #NavalHistory

How was religion provision purveyed in British ports in the 19th century? One of our EHS committee members, Hilary Carey, discussed Christian missions to seamen at the height of the British navy's expansion #navalhistory

a man wearing a military uniform and a hat with a gold feather on it Alt: Robert Lindsey as Captain Pellew in Hornblower, touching his hat and nodding with a proud look on his face. His crew did well.

Our current students are now working hard on their dissertations, due in September. We would like to thank all of our students, past and present, for being so wonderful. You're all the best part of our job! #NavalHistory

#NavalHistory #MaritimeHistory #CoastalHistory

This post continues our extracts from the colourful diaries of David Talbot, impressed to HMS Calliope in December 1809. He had newly been appointed as master of the brig Isabella so legally he should not have been pressed www.navyrecords.org.uk/magazine_pos...

Samuel Bentham, Inspector General of Naval Works, 1796-1807, built successful ships, advocated non-recoil gunnery and introduced steam-powered machinery into the dockyards. This year's Volume is dedicated to this challenging figure. Discover more: www.navyrecords.org.uk/coming-soon-...

Naval, Maritime and Coastal History (Distance Learning) If you're fascinated by naval history, this Master’s degree will enable you to turn your interest into a versatile postgraduate qualification. Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy, and our partner...

Portsmouth's distance learning MA in Naval, Maritime and Coastal History are looking forward to our new Sept cohort! We still have places available for full or part time study, Sept or Jan entry. We bring together students from all over the globe. Join us! www.port.ac.uk/study/course...

Lt. Col. William Godfrey Rayson Masters R.M., 'View of the Taku Forts, mouth of the Peiho river, North China. Attacked unsuccessfully 25th June 1859. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons. A depiction of a series of low fortifications rising on either side of a broad river, with boats visible near the forts on the left and in the distance.

25 June 1859 // Battle of the Peiho Forts, also known as the Second Battle of the Taku Forts (Second Opium War): a British attempt to force a passage through obstacles and fortifications on the Hai River near Tianjin was met by fierce and effective Chinese resistance, and was defeated. [1/4]

A black and white photograph shows a man giving a thumbs-up sign. He's seated at a double-barrelled 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun.

Today in 1944, at Plymouth; Jock Macgregor of the Canadian destroyer HMCS Haida gives a thumbs-up. Two days earlier he had been first to fire on the German submarine U-971. Haida later rescued six survivors. #OTD #SWW #WW2 #Navalhistory

Photo: Harold Tomlin www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Dive Deeper – Tales of the Tudor Cook: Thursday 3rd July 2025

Explore how 500 crew members ate aboard the Mary Rose in this dynamic talk using historical evidence and archaeology to uncover Tudor naval cooking, food supplies, and daily rations.

maryrose.org/events/dive-...

Contemporary woodblock print showing the battle between USS Wasp and HMS Reindeer on 28 June 1814 in which the latter was captured and burnt. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons. An illustration of two sailing ships, the one on the left little damaged but the one on the right on fire and with masts and rigging wrecked. Small boats are passing between the two vessels.

28 June 1814 // Brig HMS Reindeer was captured by USS Wasp after a hard-fought engagement in the western English Channel. 25 were killed from her crew of 128. Reindeer was too badly damaged to be salvaged after capture and was burnt. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) #RoyalNavy #NavalHistory

Every so often, we get to go into the ship hall with our conservation team and get pictures from an unusual angle...