The Mariner's Mirror Podcast - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

The Mariner’s Mirror Podcast — History
The Mariner’s Mirror Podcast

The world’s No.1 podcast dedicated to all of maritime and naval history. With one foot in the present and one in the past we bring you the most exciting and interesting current maritime projects worldwide: including excavations of shipwrecks, the restoration of historic ships, sailing classic yachts and tall ships, unprecedented behind the scenes access to exhibitions, museums and archives worldwide, primary sources and accounts that bring the maritime past alive as never before. From the Society for Nautical Research, and the Lloyds Register Foundation. Presented by Dr Sam Willis.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright: © The Society for Nautical Research and the Lloyds Register Foundation

Latest Episodes:

Trafalgar Battle Surgeon: William Beatty Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

In this special episode Dr Sam Willis explores the life of William Beatty, the surgeon on HMS Victory who tended Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Beatty's life prior to Trafalgar is examined and his work put into context with primary sources that illustrate the life and work of naval surgeons in the age of sail, in their own words. This episode is designed to provide historic context for our previous episode, an interview with Jo Laird, a medic in today's Royal Navy, who launched a successful crowdfunder campaign to purchase William Beatty's medicine chest and donate it to the Haslar Heritage Group.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Medical Chest that Belonged to Nelson's Surgeon Jan 22, 2021

Show notes

An early nineteenth century medicine chest with a brass plaque engraved ‘William Beatty Warranted Surgeon RN 1803’ has come into the possession of a Hampshire antiques dealer from a private collector near Bristol. Members of the Royal Navy Medical Service are aiming to crowdfund to buy it to retain a part of the RNMS history and to donate it to the Haslar Heritage Group(http://www.haslarheritagegroup.co.uk). The Haslar Heritage Group have been granted the use of the Old Medical Supplies Agency building at the site of Haslar Hospital to develop into a visitor's centre with a museum for the Royal Navy Medical and Dental Services. In this episode, Dr Sam Willis speaks to Jo Laird, one of the navy medics behind the campaign – about her role as a naval medic in today's navy, and her interest in the chest as a means of commemorating the past but also of bringing attention to the role of navy medics today in the fight against Covid. This episode will be followed soon by a special episode on William Beatty and life as a surgeon in Nelson's navy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Royal Navy's Bloodiest Mutiny: Murder and Mayhem on HMS Hermione Jan 19, 2021

Show notes

Dr Sam Willis discusses the infamous Hermione mutiny of 1797 with the naval historian Angus Konstam. In 1797 the British frigate HMS Hermione was serving on the Jamaica Station during the French Revolutionary war. Under the sadistic and mercurial Captain Hugh Pigot the ship became a floating hell as he flogged his men and ruled his ship through terror. When the men finally mutinied it became the bloodiest in the history of the Royal Navy. Pigot and his officers were hacked to death. The mutineers then took the ship to the Spanish main - and handed the ship over to the Spanish. The ship was then recaptured in 1799 in one of the most daring and brilliantly executed operations of the Age of Sail and the Admiralty launched a relentless and worldwide manhunt for the mutineers that lasted a decade.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Challenges and Rewards of Maritime History Jan 12, 2021

Show notes

Dr Sam Willis speaks to Professor Felipe Fernández-Armesto, one of the world's leading authorities on global history. A British historian with Spanish roots who writes on world history, Fernández-Armesto offers a unique and comparative perspective on the importance of the sea in national histories. They discuss the challenges and rewards of studying maritime history from an international perspective. How is the sea remembered in national memory? How important is the sea to national identities of Spain and the UK? How valuable is maritime history as a tool for investigating encounters between different cultures and race relations? What are the current problems in maritime history - is it too dominated by narratives of western seafarers? You may never think about maritime history the same way ever again....

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Africans in Tudor and Stuart Port Towns Jan 06, 2021

Show notes

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 were treated by the church, the law courts and the other inhabitants. Their lives are a crucial part of our understanding of this age in which England made her first steps as a colonial empire and their experiences shed light on many of the leading Tudor seafarers of the time including Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Ralegh. Miranda's research into the Africans living in England in the Tudor and Stuart periods encourages us to ask wider questions about Tudor perceptions of race, religion and the ethics of enslavement and colonialism.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Great Sea Fights: The River Plate Part 3 - Analysis Dec 22, 2020

Show notes

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 Graf Spee in South America? What were the tactical advantages of the German pocket battleship? How did the smaller, faster British ships maximise their capabilities? Why was the battle so important at the time and what was its longer-term legacy?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Great Sea Fights: The River Plate Part 2 – The Sinking of the Graf Spee Dec 14, 2020

Show notes

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 home. The account continues, first gathered together by the Admiralty from the official dispatches of the Royal Naval squadron in the immediate aftermath of the battle. We have reached a crucial stage in the battle: The German pocket battleship Graf Spee has been found by a hunting group of British cruisers near the River Plate in South America and battle has broken out. The engagement is evolving at immense speed. The Graf Spee is damaged, zigzagging to keep out of harm and throwing up smokescreens. One of the three British ships, HMS Exeter, is disabled and has ceased firing. The two remaining British ships are operating at full speed to close the range with the German ship.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Great Sea Fights: The River Plate Part 1 - The Dispatches Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

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 aftermath of the battle. The Battle of the River Plate was 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 home.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to map climate change with 200 year-old ships' logbooks Dec 07, 2020

Show notes

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 the Arctic whaling trade to look back at the Arctic climate.It's an important topic. Over the past 30 years, the Arctic has warmed at roughly twice the rate as the entire globe, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification.

Ships’ logbooks are now an accepted data source in climate change studies.Matt is an expert on the particular issues surrounding logbooks from the Arctic region in what is known as the pre-instrumental period and has tackled important questions linked to this research – how, for example, can you reliably express narrative descriptions of wind, weather and sea ice in index form? An dhow then can you most effectively manage scientific analysis fo such data, which – remember -- was not recorded for such purposes. How do you digitize historical logbooks?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The National Maritime Museum's new photography exhibition - 'Exposure: Lives at Sea' Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

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 pandemic. Seafarers are keyworkers have helped keep our supermarkets stocked, and yet hundreds of thousands of them have been stranded at sea. This exhibition is designed to bring recognition to the important role seafarers play in the modern world and explores many themes with both contemporary and historical relevance. In this socially distanced, visually-led exhibition, the experience of work and play at sea is displayed through the lens of six seafarers and researchers - from the large-scale panoramic to the intensely intimate - bringing together photography taken around the world, from the reefs of Mexico to the isolation of Antarctica, to document the myriad ways life can be spent at sea. We rely on our oceans for food, ecosystem services, energy and transportation, yet it is a world rarely seen - making this exhibition both striking and important.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Related Podcasts