The British Sailor of the First World War
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
Quintin Colville
Dr Quintin Colville is Curator of Naval History at the National Maritime Museum. He is lead curator of the new Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery, and specialises in the social and cultural history of the Royal Navy. His work has been awarded the Julian Corbett Prize in Modern Naval History, and the Royal Historical Society's Alexander Prize.
Read more from Quintin Colville
Nelson, Navy & Nation: The Royal Navy and the British people, 1688-1815 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The British Sailor of the First World War
Titles in the series (100)
Buckles Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chocolate: The British Chocolate Industry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Campaign Medals 1815-1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victorians and Edwardians at Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Church Misericords and Bench Ends Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tractors: 1880s to 1980s Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVW Camper and Microbus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5London’s Statues and Monuments Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Flying Scotsman: The Train, The Locomotive, The Legend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerambulators Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe English Seaside in Victorian and Edwardian Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Gallantry Awards 1855-2000 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Victorian Country Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orchards Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeat and Peat Cutting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5British Campaign Medals 1914-2005 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buttons Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5British Postcards of the First World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Britain's Working Coast in Victorian and Edwardian Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victorians and Edwardians at Play Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scalextric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLorries: 1890s to 1970s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5London Plaques Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Medieval Monastery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Airfix Kits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beauty and Cosmetics 1550 to 1950 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Building Toys: Bayko and other systems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Victorians and Edwardians at War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Women’s Suffrage Movement Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poole Pottery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
The Last Big Gun: At War & At Sea with HMS Belfast Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5New Brunswick and the Navy: Four Hundred Years Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDestination Dardanelles: The Story of HMS E7 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe British Sailor of the Second World War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Southern Thunder: The Royal Navy and the Scandinavian Trade in World War One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of HMS Revenge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHMS Royal Sovereign and Her Sister Ships Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Admiral of the Blue: The Life and Times of Admiral John Child Purvis (1747–1825) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Naval Trawlers and Drifters in Two World Wars: From The John Lambert Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battleships of the World: Struggle for Naval Supremacy, 1820–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFamous Sea Fights From Salamis to Tsu-Shima Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Merchant Navy Seaman Pocket Manual 1939–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChurchill's Pirates: The Royal Naval Patrol Service in World War II Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Royal Navy at Dunkirk: Commanding Officers' Reports of British Warships In Action During Operation Dynamo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War II Rhode Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSweet Pea at War: A History of USS Portland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warriors and Wizards: The Development and Defeat of Radio-Controlled Glide Bombs of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Presumed Lost: The Incredible Ordeal of America's Submarine POWs during the Pacific War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nelson the Sailor [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recollections of a Rebel Reefer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ocean Class of the Second World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNarragansett Bay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Ceaseless Watch: Australia’s Third-Party Naval Defense, 1919-1942 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Adventures of the Griffon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCommanding Lincoln's Navy: Union Naval Leadership During the Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Luck on My Side: The Diaries & Reflections of a Young Wartime Sailor 1939–1945 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A new naval history Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Coming of the Comet: The Rise and Fall of the Paddle Steamer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
European History For You
Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Austen: The Complete Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Six Wives of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Victorian Lady's Guide to Fashion and Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of English Magic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMein Kampf: The Original, Accurate, and Complete English Translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Violent Abuse of Women: In 17th and 18th Century Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Discovery of Pasta: A History in Ten Dishes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The British Sailor of the First World War
2 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The British Sailor of the First World War - Quintin Colville
VISIT
INTRODUCTION
IF YOU HAD been observing the Royal Navy’s ships in the opening days of the First World War you might have witnessed a curious sight. Whether at a British anchorage, or around the world from Gibraltar to Bermuda, some of the first casualties of the conflict were pianos. Already battered by rowdy evenings in the mess, and with hammers sticky from spilled beer, they were removed from gunrooms and wardrooms and either landed or unceremoniously pitched over the side. With them went assorted furniture and woodwork, comfortably domestic fittings and fixtures being considered a fire hazard if a ship was hit in combat, and also suddenly seeming rather out of keeping with the momentous news of war. This is not to say that the Navy roughed it in the years that followed. Most flag officers continued to boast day and dining cabins stocked with mahogany and silver. But these Spartan preparations reflected the reality that, after a century of relatively untroubled British sea power, the Royal Navy was facing a new European struggle and a stern test of its mettle.
Accounts and commemorations of the conflict are understandably dominated by the appalling slaughter on the Western Front. The army’s loss of life has a horrifying arithmetic that the war at sea cannot match. The cultural outpouring that began with the war poets and continues to this day through novels, films and documentaries has also familiarised us with the stock characters of trench warfare: the stoical Tommy; the well-bred young lieutenant, revolver in hand; and the well-fed general enjoying the comforts of a château far behind the lines. For all their partiality and inaccuracy, these caricatures at least give us a point of entry to the experiences of the land war. The case of the Navy is quite different. Public memory of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who served within its ranks is, by comparison, blurred and vague. Who they were, what they did, and what contribution they made, are questions that most would find hard to answer.
Masters of the Seas, oil on canvas by W. L. Wyllie. The leading battleship, HMS Audacious, had already been sunk when this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915. (BHC4167)
The aim of this book is to bring these Royal Naval lives into sharper focus. It cannot attempt to explore the immensely important role played by merchant mariners, or indeed by non-British sailors from around the world. The range of naval contexts that this involves remains extraordinarily diverse – from the mighty steel battleships that clashed at Jutland in 1916, to shallow-draft gunboats patrolling the inland waterways of what is now Iraq during the Mesopotamia campaign. What follows is also careful to show that the naval war did not simply take place on the waves. Although largely untried weapons at the beginning of the conflict, Royal Navy submarines soon proved their value, growing rapidly in size, seaworthiness and endurance. Even the sky was a naval battleground. For Royal Naval Air Service pilots, naval war was waged at the limits of technology and with tactics and equipment that evolved with dizzying speed. Moreover, tens of thousands of sailors fought ashore as part of the Royal Naval Division: from Belgium in 1914 to Gallipoli in 1915, and from there to the killing fields of France.
Crew of the battleship Queen Elizabeth assembled for a visit by the Bishop of London in July 1916. (N16562: Howe Collection)
The maritime struggle that involved this vast and varied cast of characters was truly global, raging from the North Sea to South America, and from Africa to China. The stakes could not have been higher. Britain’s war effort depended on food and raw materials from overseas – crucial supplies that could only arrive by ship. Without sea power, rations and reinforcements could not have reached the men in the trenches, and the hundreds of thousands who fought alongside them from India, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Africa and Canada would never have arrived at all. From the first day of the war the German navy threatened these lifelines, and the men and women who defended them