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Academic papers on the Royal Navy (Primarily of the First World War era) |
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Go to Genealogical Guide into British Merchant Mariners
Careers of the 19th and 20th Centuries |
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The First three of the following essays formed part
of a Master’s degree course, in War Studies, at King’s College, University of
London. The opinions expressed below cannot however be regarded as those of the
college and are mine alone.
The fourth paper, on Valentine Joyce, is a
purely private venture.
Incidentally, some of these papers have also
been posted elsewhere on the internet.
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Education and training
in the Royal Navy 1756-1918
as an element of the impact of industrialisation
on war and the military establishment
This
essay was an effort in going some way to disproving the college line on
education, which maintained that military establishments in the ‘civilised’
world were highly active in promoting education for the masses in the 19th
century, because of the complexities that industrialised war brought. Thanks to
N.A.M. Rodger’s wonderful book The
Wooden World
I already knew of educational requirements in the R.N. during the Seven Years
War and my own studies into merchant mariners of the 19th century
made me realise that the situation was far more complex than portrayed at
college. While not written to support my activities as a genealogical
researcher, this paper can be used as an aid to social history.
As
originally written the first version was no more than an introduction to this intriguing
character, delivered at a seminar for fellow students with no previous
knowledge of the subject. A short paper and relatively lightweight, in order to
put over salient points I deliberately mixed analysis with narration. The
severe limitations imposed did not allow for research from primary sources and
would not have served any useful purpose. In regards to Fisher, I have read a
number of biographies over time, but have judged Ruddock F. Mackay’s still to be the only one that has properly sought to explain the
inconsistencies in his actions.
N.B. Although
having already revised this in some ways to reflect recent ‘Navalist’
theories, Matthew Seligmann’s papers have confirmed
my own suspicions over some of these ‘Navalists’ and
show that Professor Arthur Marder was actually
correct in much of what he wrote post First World War. Therefore, when I have
the time, I shall address this matter within my paper
- The Royal Navy
and Mine Countermeasures 1904-1914
This
is a slightly expanded and reworked version of my dissertation for M.A. I chose
this subject for two main reasons. In my private work I had dealt with the
effect of mines on merchantmen during 1914 and from reading operational records
had wondered precisely why the R.N.’s performance in mine-countermeasures had
been less than excellent in the early stages of the war. An under researched
subject, this was an opportunity to satisfy my own curiosity. Secondly, I had
attended a lecture by two well-known British naval historians. The subject
matter supposedly was a major reassessment of the Royal Navy’s performance at
the Dardanelles in 1915 that incidentally I have never seen any signs of. While
I was not fully competent to judge the analysis on gunnery, I was far from
convinced in one of these historians’ statements on dealing with the
Turkish/German mine defences in the narrows. This historian associated himself
with Rear Admiral Keyes and the deployment of mine-sweeping destroyers. From
the operational records I had already seen, dealing with the North Sea in 1914,
it was obvious that destroyers were simply not suited to sweeping in confined
waters. I brought this point up, but was sent away with a flea in my ear.
Apparently Roger Keyes knew a lot more about the subject than I. Having now
done the requisite research on the pre-war trials, I am now even more of the
opinion that sending fast destroyers rigged with sweep-gear up the Dardanelles
would have been suicidal for the crews involved and pointless tactically.
How successfully did
Britain respond to German Unrestricted U-boat warfare in 1917 & 1918?
The
original version of this essay was written at a time when I was more than slightly
disenchanted with my degree course. Overwhelmingly, war was treated purely as a
military matter, without outside concerns ‘relegated to the footnotes’ if even
mentioned. Highly critical of this, I decided to draw on my own studies and
answer this question in a far wider manner than anticipated. I was rather
surprised to receive a good response to this!
Having
later posted this on an American university’s website dealing with the First
World War, it has been used twice in Strategic Studies Group seminars at the
United States Navy’s War College, Newport, Rhode Island. Disagreeing inherently
with US foreign policy, I have, however, requested that the USN does not use my
paper further.
With
new analysis on the Admiralty War Staff, this has been slightly amended in
early 2010.
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Valentine Joyce - Spithead Mutineer of 1797
This
paper grew out of a piece of commissioned research. Originally tasked to
research this mariner as my client had been told that he was a forebear of her
husband, this proved not to be the case. However, I became interested in
finding out more about the mutineer and his family. The result is but a ‘work
in progress’. In time I hope to find out more about how the young Valentine was
educated, probably at a church school in what is now called ‘Old Portsmouth’,
but was then the heart of Portsmouth in the 18th century. I would
also like to learn more about his family. There are also other questions I wish
to answer, such as where he was lent when onboard the Royal George and what previous links can be found to
the other principal mutineers. As and when I get answers to these questions, I
shall update the online paper.
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For details on self published booklets primarily on maritime subjects
relating to the First World War |
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