The Mariner's Mirror Podcast

In this, the sixth episode of our Great Sea Fights series, we explore the remarkable events of 19 August 1812 when the powerful frigate USS Constitution fought and destroyed the British frigate HMS Guerriere in one of the greatest shocks to the Royal Navy in its history and one of the most ferocious single-ship actions ever fought. It is an extraordinary story: how did the United States get to a s...

In this, the sixth episode of our Great Sea Fights series, we explore the remarkable events of 19 August 1812 when the powerful frigate USS Constitution fought and destroyed the British frigate HMS Guerriere in one of the greatest shocks to the Royal Navy in its history and one of the most ferocious single-ship actions ever fought. It is an extraordinary story – how did the United States get to a...

In this, the sixth episode of our Great Sea Fights series, we explore the remarkable events of 19 August 1812 when the powerful frigate USS Constitution fought and destroyed the British frigate HMS Guerriere in one of the greatest shocks to the Royal Navy in its history and one of the most ferocious single-ship actions ever fought. It is an extraordinary story: how did the United States get to a s...

In this, the sixth episode of our Great Sea Fights series, we explore the remarkable events of 19 August 1812 when the powerful frigate USS Constitution fought and destroyed the British frigate HMS Guerriere in one of the greatest shocks to the Royal Navy in its history and one of the most ferocious single-ship actions ever fought. It is an extraordinary story: how did the United States get to a s...

In this the third and final part of our special mini Great Sea Fights series on the Tudor naval battle of St Mathieu in 1512, one of the Mary Rose's earliest engagements and possibly the first ever naval battle in which guns were fired out of gunports. We explore the problems posed to historians trying to recreate a medieval sea fight. What sources are available? How can you recreate the tides on...

In this, Part II of our special episodes on the battle of St Mathieu in 1512 and its aftermath, we hear three contemporary accounts. The first is from the Venetian Ambassador Nicolo di Favri, fascinating as it includes a great deal of information on life and manners in Tudor England as well as war news. The writer was newly appointed to the court of Henry and was a member of the Ven...

In this, the fifth episode of our Great Sea Fights series we explore the remarkable battle of St Mathieu, of 10 August 1512. In one of the earliest engagements of the Mary Rose a French squadron is surprised near Brest, and it ends with two major warships one French, and one English - and the largest in both fleets, on fire. It is also possibly the earliest naval battle fought with cannon, firing...

This the third episode in our special series on the maritime history of Scotland. Dr Sam Willis explores the remarkable career of Joannes Wyllie, a Fife man who made a fortune running guns from Glasgow to the confederate south during the American Civil War (1861-5) – revealing Scotland's hidden history of supporting slavery. He talks with John Messner a curator for transport and technology at...

In this, our second episode dedicated to the remarkable maritime history of Scotland, we explore the fabulous shipbuilding heritage of Leith, the port just to the north of Edinburgh. To unpick this story Dr Sam Willis speaks with Ron Neish . Ron is a remarkable man with many man stories to tell. Born and bred in Leith he served his apprenticeship as a Ship Loftsman, in the Henry Robb Shipyard in L...

In the latest episode of The Mariner's Mirror Podcast we begin three episodes dedicated to the maritime history of Scotland. In this episode I speak with Ben Saunders, a senior marine archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology, based at their office in Edinburgh, and we talk about the hulks of two X-Craft on the shore at Aberlady Bay, East Lothian. An innovative video has been created to accompany this...

In this episode Dr Sam Willis explores the Exeter Ship Canal which, with the exception of the Roman 'Fossdyke' in Lincolnshire, is the oldest manmade waterway in Britain. Canal building is usually associated with the canal mania which gripped Britain between 1790 and the 1820s as the early years of the industrial revolution both posed problems and created solutions for those wishing to travel and...

Today we have episode 7 of our Iconic Ships mini-series in which a curator of a historic ship makes a case for their ship being iconic, or a historian takes a ship from history but which sadly no longer survives and make a case for that ship being iconic.  HMS Bellerophon - known fondly as the Billy Ruffian - was a Third 74-gun ship of the line with one of the most extraordinary careers...

Today we have episode 6 of our Iconic Ships mini-series in which a curator of a historic ship makes a case for their ship being iconic, or a historian takes a ship from history but which sadly no longer survives and make a case for that ship being iconic. Today we have the magnificent - and surviving - warship from the great age of sail, USS Constitution, otherwise known as 'Old Ironsides'. A...

Today we have episode 5 of our Iconic Ships mini-series in which a curator of a historic ship makes a case for their ship being iconic, or a historian takes a ship from history but which sadly no longer survives and make a case for that ship being iconic. Today we have none other than HMS Belfast. Moored today just upstream of Tower Bridge, Belfast is a true icon of the London skyline and Tha...

In August 2014, a group of amateur divers revisited a known shipwreck from the seventeenth century but found that shifting tidal patterns had exposed much more of the wreck than had previously been seen, including a number of wooden luggage chests. Over the course of two days around a thousand items were brought up from the wreck, comprising silk textiles, women’s clothing, furnishing items and ob...

This episode opens up the fascinating world of maritime historical discovery. Dr Sam Willis meets Max Wilson from the Lloyds Register Foundation archives to explore some of the different types of document that you might come across conducting maritime research: from boiler plans, ship plans, stowage plans and rigging plans - to survey reports, casualty returns, correspondence, photographs and intr...

In the 18th and 19th centuries countless whaling ships set sail from Shetland for the Arctic. They brought back whales for their valuable oil, but left behind their music. Maurice Henderson, a fiddle player from Shetland, has been rediscovering these arctic whaling tunes and its surviving tradition in Greenland. Here he plays some of them, and discusses their history. For the video check out the M...

The fourth episode in our Iconic Ships series features three members of the curatorial team of the Cutty Sark arguing for the iconic status of their ship. At the time of her launch in 1869 the Cutty Sark was a state-of-the-art Tea Clipper designed to bring manufactured goods to China and return with Chinese tea as quickly as possible. She could carry well over 1,300,000 million lbs of tea. Soon th...

In the early years of the twentieth century commercial dredging removed a shingle beach from the tiny fishing village of Hallsands in South Devon. Soon high tides and storms washed everything away and all that is left now are the ruins of this maritime community. Dr Sam Willis meets maritime archaeologist Grant Bettinson from CITiZAN to find out more. The interview was filmed so do check out our Y...

Today we have Part 3 of our special episode on the Battle of Jutland because, on this day in history in 1916, the German and British battlefleets were coming to terms with the results of the largest naval battle of the First World War and one of the largest in history involving 250 ships and 100,000 men, and in which 25 ships of various sizes were sunk. Part 1 outlined the events and included a fa...

Today we have Part 2 of our special episode on the Battle of Jutland because, on this day in history in 1916, the German and British battlefleets met in the largest naval battle of the First World War and one of the largest in history involving 250 ships and 100,000 men. Part 1 outlined the events and included a fantastic interview with Dr Stephan Huck, head of the excellent German Naval Museum in...

Today we have for you Part 1 of our special episode on the Battle of Jutland because, on this day in history in 1916, the German and British battlefleets met in the largest naval battle of the First World War and one of the largest in history - involving 250 ships and 100,000 men. Parts 2 and 3 will follow in the coming days and will introduce you to a host of original eyewitness sources to the ba...

The final instalment of our 3-part special on the Battle of Tsushima explores the Japanese perspective of the battle including a consideration of the extraordinary growth of the Imperial Japanese Navy both before and after Tsushima. Dr Sam Willis speaks with Kunika Kakuta . Kunika is a final year PhD student in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and specialises in the relations...

Part 2 of our 3-part special on the Battle of Tsushima explores the Russian perspective of the battle with a reading of the diary of Captain Vladimir Semenoff. Semenoff was a well known Russian naval officer who served in several positions throughout the course of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. His presence during the siege of Port Arthur and later during the Baltic Fleet's long voyage to Ts...

The Battle of Tsushima was the decisive naval action between Japan and Russia that effectively ended the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 and one of the most important naval battles in history. It was the first in which radio played a major part; the action that demonstrated the power of the all-big-gun battleship, leading to HMS Dreadnought of 1906 and the Anglo-German dreadnought race; the first tim...