The Mariner's Mirror Podcast

Dr Sam Willis meets with Dr Miranda Kauffman to discuss the research that led to her prizewinning book Black Tudors – The Untold Story, and in particular to her discovery of the lives of numerous Africans living in England and Scotland's port towns during the 16th and 17th centuries. She explains how they arrived in Britain, what occupations and relationships they found in the ports and how they w...

This episode finishes the first story in our new ‘Great Sea Fights’ series, exploring the fascinating story of the Battle of the River Plate, one of the most iconic battles of the Second World War. In this episode Dr Sam Willis speaks to Professor Eric Grove, author of The Price of Disobedience: The Battle of the River Plate Reconsidered  who offers an analysis of the battle. Why was the...

This episode continues our first story in our new 'Great Sea Fights' series, exploring the fascinating story of the battle of the River Plate, one of the most iconic battles of the Second World War. The immensely powerful and fast German pocket battleship Graf Spee was hunted by a squadron of far smaller British cruisers and found off the River Plate in South America. She never returned...

This episode, published on the anniversary of the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December 1939, launches our Great Sea Fights series. Dr Sam Willis begins with a brief overview of seapower at the start of the Second World War before introducing the battle. An account is then read, first gathered together by the Admiralty from the official dispatches of the Royal Naval squadron in the immediate af...

One of the key aspects of maritime historical research that is helping us understand our modern world is the use of ships logbooks to understand and map climate change in various regions across the world. Today Dr Sam Willis Dr Matthew Ayre, a Climate Detective (or more officially a Historical Climatologist) at the Arctic Institute of North America. Matt uses 200 year old documents surviving from...

Dr Sam Willis visits the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London to explore their new photography exhibition. Exposure: Lives at Sea was brought together during the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown. It is the first exhibition curated by Laura Boon, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Public Curator for Contemporary Maritime. The importance of seafarers has been brought into sharp focus during the Covid pa...

On the 900th anniversary of the shipwreck, Dr Sam Willis talks with Charles, Earl Spencer, about the White Ship disaster of 25 November 1120. The loss of the ship was one of the greatest disasters that England ever suffered and its repercussions changed English and European history forever. Henry I was sailing for England in triumph after years of fighting the French as the most formidable ruler i...

Ten hand-drawn maps of the Spanish Armada have surfaced in London and been brought by a private collector. An export ban has been imposed by the British Government in the hopes that £600,000 can be raised to keep these maps in a British institution. The maps are the only contemporary depiction of the battle. Dr Sam Willis speaks to Professor Dominic Tweddle, Director General of the National Museum...

Sam speaks to Sarah Wassberg Johnson, Director of Exhibitions and Outreach at the excellent Hudson River Maritime Museum. In the conversation we discover just how important the Hudson River is to the development of American history. Topics include ice-harvesting, the great fire of New York of 1835, the American Revolution, the appreciation of the wilderness, the launch of the environmental movemen...

Dr Sam Willis heads to the new JMW Turner exhibition at the Tate Britain: 'Turner's Modern World'. Turner is one of the best known of all British artists and one of history's greatest maritime artists. His painting The Fighting Temeraire is a national treasure and now appears on the new £20 note. Sam meets the curator of the Turner bequest, David Blayney Brown, and focuses on three of Turner's pai...

Sam Willis explores the remarkable conservation project underway in Portsmouth to preserve Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory, for future generations. Her hull - obviously designed to float - has started to suffer from a century in dry dock and her immensely complex rigging has been dismantled. Her masts are about to be removed. Sam talks with Nick Ball who works with Victor...

Dr Sam Willis talks with David Davies, naval and maritime historian and author of naval fiction and Chairman of the Society for Nautical Research, about the importance of maritime history. The plans for the podcast are laid out: this will be a podcast that brings our listeners the most important global stories in maritime history; gives behind the scenes and special access to maritime museums and...