All articles in Maritime
26th November, 2021 in Local & Family History, Maritime
MS Pilsudski: The largest shipwreck off the Yorkshire coast
Richard M. Jones, author of Britain’s Lost Tragedies Uncovered, tells the story of MS Pilsudski. Over 80 years ago, on 26 November 1939, the Polish ocean liner Pilsudski was off the coast of Yorkshire at the start of a long journey from the River Tyne to Australia. At the outbrea…
11th November, 2019 in Maritime, Military
The sinking of Hitler’s battleship Tirpitz
‘Last night’s raid successful. Tirpitz sunk.’ On 13 November 1944, this announcement at No 5 Bomber Group’s staff conference signalled the end of four and a half years of air effort by the RAF and Fleet Air Arm. The 52,000 tons armoured German battleship with 15in guns capable of…
8th October, 2019 in Maritime
Terrible true tales of life at sea
Many tragic and awful things happened to mariners and other seafarers in the age of deep-sea sailing ships. Cannibalism: The ‘Custom of the Sea’ After the American schooner Sallie M. Steelman was battered by a storm off Cape Hatteras in December 1877, it drifted, derelict, for ov…
21st August, 2019 in Maritime
The craziest things overheard on a cruise ship
It must be that sea air can do crazy things to some people’s brains. Here are six of the worst examples: 1. With the ship in port, one passenger arriving in his cabin immediately complained he had booked a cabin with a porthole for an outside view and he didn’t have one. His stew…
19th August, 2019 in Biography & Memoir, Maritime
The elusive Henry Every
In 1695 Henry Every, a thirty-six-year-old master mariner from the south coast of Devon, led one of the most powerful pirate crews in history on a short but spectacularly successful cruise in the Red Sea. Their capture of the Grand Moghul’s ship the Gang-i-Sawai was one of the mo…
31st July, 2019 in Archaeology, Maritime
Titanic wreck stories: fact or myth?
It’s no secret that the story of Titanic is interwoven with legends, myths and misconceptions due to its complexity and worldwide popularity. However, this ubiquitous mythology has also penetrated even into a relatively new branch of Titanic science, namely, into the history of t…
19th November, 2018 in Maritime
10 facts about Blackbeard
Edward Thache (aka ‘Blackbeard’) met his fate on 22 November 1718 and was thus immortalised as a pirate legend. We take a look at some little known facts about this infamous highwayman of the seas. 1. Blackbeard’s real name was Edward Thache and was likely to have been…
6th November, 2018 in Maritime, Military
Secret gold 20 fathoms deep: The quest for HMS Laurentic’s treasure
When HMS Laurentic hit German mines and sank off the coast of Ireland in 1917 nobody knew the significance of the cargo she was carrying. The Admiralty wanted to keep it that way. After all, broadcasting that there were now 3,211 ingots of gold at the bottom of the Irish Sea in t…
6th September, 2018 in Maritime, Transport & Industry
Seven things you (probably) didn’t know about Portsmouth Dockyard
The history of Portsmouth Dockyard can be traced back over 800 years. During that time it’s been the country’s first dry dock, ordered in 1495 by King Henry VII, and later played a part in the construction of the Dreadnought. But how much do we really know about Britain’s oldest…
31st August, 2018 in Maritime
How was the wreck of the Titanic discovered?
Over three decades ago the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, the former pride of the White Star fleet, was discovered – or, perhaps, re-discovered – two and a half miles below the surface of the Atlantic by the joint French-American expedition led by Dr. Robert D. Ballard, then the he…
16th July, 2018 in Maritime
The launch of SS Great Britain
On a showery summer morning in 1843 excited onlookers poured into the city of Bristol eager to witness the ‘floating out’ of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s revolutionary new ship – SS Great Britain. The date was 19 July 1843, exactly four years to the day since the start of the s…
4th July, 2018 in Archaeology, Maritime
Diving the wreck of Carpathia
The circumstances and details of Carpathia’s sad ending were typical of the many thousands of merchant vessels sunk by enemy action in the First Word War. Consequently, stories of more publicised and controversial losses, such as the Lusitania in 1915, tended to dominate public a…