News
Look here for news of what the Society for Nautical Research (South) has been doing lately. To find out about forthcoming attractions see our Events page.
Villeneuve and Barham
Our May meeting brought contrasting views of two near contemporaries: Admirals Villeneuve and Barham. Paul Chamberlain spoke on Villeneuve: The Inconvenient Admiral. The Napoleonic wars saw some 200,000 French [...]
Midshipmen’s Journals
Brian Lavery’s talk on Midshipmen’s Journals in History drew on his current research on the insights available from this under-appreciated resource. Originally a strictly factual echo of the ship’s [...]
The Special Relationship
Admiral Sir Jonathon Band’s very topical talk entitled The Special Relationship – At risk from Trump? started with a reminder that the term was coined by Winston Churchill in [...]
Triangle Girls
Our member Cheryl Jewitt and Ian Barbeary produced a fine double act on the ‘Triangle Girls’ of Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in the First World War. Who? Following the extension [...]
SMS Emden
In January our main feature was Jeremy Thomas on SMS Emden. The talk entitled A Tale of Five Ships concerned the exploits of the German light cruiser Emden in [...]
Gunboats on the Great European River
Our main feature was Mark Brady talking about Gunboats on the Great European River. Mark joined Dartmouth in Sep 1968 and retired from the Service at the end of [...]
May 2023 Meeting
Our main speaker was Jacob Thomas-Llewellyn on PLUTO – a successful failure. His talk was excellent both for content and delivery and sparked lively discussion afterward. Jacob holds a BA in War, Peace and International Relations and a master’s degree in strategic studies and has recently completed doctoral studies with the Department of History at the University of Reading. He has been published by the Independent, the Conversation and the Royal Logistic Corps. He has also advised and been interviewed by Michael Buerk as part of the Channel 5 documentary, How Britain Won WW2.
John Bingeman’s talk went far beyond its nominal subject of Vasa’s Whipstaff Steering circa 1628, covering illustrations of his and Jane’s rare privilege of an internal inspection of the ship and the corrosive effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on iron – a conservation issue relevant to the Mary Rose. Again, a brisk conversation followed.
April 2023 Meeting
Roger Smith gave a fascinating talk on Shinano – the brief story of the Biggest Carrier of WW2. She was converted from the hull of the third Yamato-class battleship mid-build and had a short, profitless life, setting an unhappy record on the way when she was sunk just seventeen hours into her maiden voyage. Roger’s gripping, moment-by-moment account gave a real feeling of ‘being there’.
Continuing the Far East theme, Derek Nudd had the unenviable task of following Roger with a chat about WW2 Japanese language training in the Royal Navy. When war struck the Pacific and Indian Oceans too many linguists were trapped in newly occupied territories, leaving the Allies deaf to enemy intentions. The story of their efforts to catch up has its own interest and provoked a lively follow-on discussion.