England Expects
On the 21st of October 1805, the most famous naval battle of the age of sail was about to begin. On board his flagship Victory, Vice...
A Ship called Ranger
At the end of 2017, the American aircraft carrier Ranger (CV-61) was finally scrapped, having been out of commission for over twenty...
James Cook and the conquest of Canada
Captain James Cook is famous for the three epic voyages of scientific exploration that he led into Pacific Ocean between 1768 and his...
Launching Ships
When Queen Elizabeth II launched her namesake, the Royal Navy’s latest aircraft carrier, last year, she smashed a bottle of whisky...
The Battle of the Nile
At the end of 1942, the Allies won three victories in three different theatres. In the Pacific the US Navy turned back the remorseless...
Black Tars
In the heart of London is Trafalgar Square, where the figure of Nelson stands on top of his column and gazes out over the city’s traffic...
“What, are there two of them?”
In 1757 the Cornish Pellew family celebrated the birth of their second son, Edward. The following year his younger brother Israel was...
Grog
The Royal Navy has long been associated with the consumption of rum, the drink produced from sugarcane in the islands of the Caribbean....
Samuel Pepys’s other great achievement
If Samuel Pepys came back to life, he would surely be delighted to find out that he was still famous three hundred years after his death....
Animals Onboard
When the Mary Rose, pride of Henry VIII’s fleet, sank in to the muddy waters off Portsmouth in 1545 she took most of her crew with her....
