Category Archives: American history

AI or A1?

Just recently it has been impossible to get away from AI (artificial intelligence), because it is being used, abused and debated the world over. Reading about AI is disconcerting, because at a glance it looks like A1, and with some typefaces it is impossible to distinguish between the letter ‘I’ and the numeral ‘1’ (and to add to the confusion, I is the Roman numeral for one).

Classification of ships

In maritime history, A1 referred to the highest classification of seagoing vessels. Lloyd’s Register was founded as a classification society in 1760, and surveyors recorded the condition of vessels. The information was printed in annual Lloyd’s Registers of Shipping, whose abbreviations and symbols changed over the years. The earliest known Register covered 1764–6, when top-quality vessels were classed as AG – the hull being A and the equipment G (for ‘good’). AG later changed to ‘a1’, but the Register for 1775–6 used A1.

In order to keep their class, ships had to be well maintained. Although classification was not compulsory, it was highly desirable, as it facilitated insurance and was a reliable sign of quality, reassuring underwriters, merchants, passengers and crew. Disasters could still happen to A1 shipping, Continue reading

Sinking of the Royal George

Our article ‘Royal George: The Sinking of the Royal Navy’s Greatest Warship’ was published in the summer 2020 issue of the online magazine Quarterdeck. This was the disastrous accidental sinking of the Royal George warship at Spithead, off Portsmouth, in August 1782. As well as the loss of over 900 lives, it was also the loss of the flagship that was about to lead a relief convoy to the besieged Rock of Gibraltar. The delay caused by the sinking and its aftermath almost led to Gibraltar being captured by the French and Spanish, but the garrison of the Rock held out.

It was an important incident for British, American and Gibraltarian history, which we feature in Continue reading

John Singleton Copley

The birthplace of the Anglo-American artist John Singleton Copley was Boston, Massachusetts.Born in 1738 (or possibly 1737) to Irish immigrants, Copley became a successful artist in Boston and New York, but left for England in June 1774, followed by his family a year later, in order to escape the political turmoil on the eve of the American War of Independence.

St John the Baptist Church at Croydon in 1785, where John Singleton Copley was buried

He became one of the foremost artists in London and spent more than five years on the huge Continue reading

Gibraltar Heritage Journal

The Gibraltar Heritage Trust has been publishing the Gibraltar Heritage Journal for 25 years. The Trust itself was formed a few years before the journal was launched. Each journal contains a range of articles connected with Gibraltar, and many have a social history theme.

Back numbers can be purchased as print copies or downloads on their website. We have an article in the latest volume, called “The British Salamanders”, an expanded version of a piece we wrote for Folklife Quarterly on a contemporary ballad relating to the Great Siege of Gibraltar. This year, Continue reading

Petrolia

Oil mania

Before the invention of the internal combustion engine, nobody knew what to do with the natural petroleum deposits in north America, apart from small-scale use. In the 1840s, western Pennsylvania was a sparsely populated area of forests, farms and creeks, and petroleum was marketed as a curative medicine. Experiments then showed that kerosene (paraffin) could be distilled from petroleum and was suitable for replacing whale oil in lamps. This was such an incredible development in lighting that it led to speculative wells being dug. A further development occurred in 1859 when the first artesian well was successfully drilled at Titusville in Pennsylvania, initially producing 25 barrels (each containing 42 US gallons) of petroleum a day. The news spread like wildfire, and oil mania began.

Petrolia was the overall name given to the region, and in just four years numerous small towns Continue reading

Lancaster and the Slave Trade

Origins

In the 1st century AD, the Romans established a fort at Lancaster, at a point where the river crossing could be defended, and seagoing ships and boats would sail up the river estuary with supplies. A thousand years later, the Domesday Book’s name for the place was ‘Loncastre’, meaning ‘Roman fort on the River Lune’. A bridge may have been built during the Roman occupation, and one has certainly existed since medieval times.

The port

St George’s Quay was developed on the south bank of the River Lune in the mid-18th century, and with access to the open sea, large sailing ships could moor close to the warehouses and load and unload goods.

St George’s Quay with its row of Georgian warehouses

The flourishing port was further boosted by the construction of the Lancaster Canal, Continue reading

Gibraltar Penguins

We are thrilled to be published by Penguin in the United States, because this is such an iconic brand, the most famous in bookselling. The American editions of Nelson’s Trafalgar, The War for All the Oceans and Jane Austen’s England were all published in hardback by Viking and then in paperback by Penguin. For the jacket of Jane Austen’s England, an embroidered design was used – including an embroidered Penguin motif for the paperback! That was a beautiful touch.

Our latest Penguin paperback is Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History, which was published in north America in March (ISBN 9780735221642). Continue reading

American Revolution paperback

The Great Siege of Gibraltar was very much part of the American Revolution (also called the American War of Independence). Our book Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History was published in hardback in the United States in March 2018, and today it is published  as a Penguin paperback. The jacket design is more-or-less the same, with the striking painting by the American artist John Trumbull (you can read more about it here). The Penguin paperback has a lovely quote from the review of our book by Stephen Brumwell in The Wall Street Journal, and yesterday we saw another excellent review in the Military History magazine by James Baresel, in which he says :   “The authors provide superb context regarding the siege, drawing on firsthand accounts and touching on military innovations developed during the protracted campaign. Just as fascinating is their analysis of its political aftermath”  You can read that review in full here.

 

World Book Day paperback

The paperback of our book Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History is published today in the UK by Abacus – on World Book Day! That’s a very fitting date, especially as the book tells the story of the Great Siege of Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783, an incredible story within world history and the most lethal battle of the American Revolution (the American War of Independence). The paperback is also published to coincide with the 240th anniversary of the start of the Great Siege. It is available in all good bookshops, and the ISBN is 9780349142395. You can find out more information here.

The official launch of the paperback will be at an event at Gibraltar House in London on 1st April. See details here.

Oranges and Treasure

Hermione treasure ship

During the Seven Years’ War of 1756 to 1763, Philemon Pownoll commanded the Royal Navy sloop Favourite, while his friend Herbert Sawyer was in charge of the frigate Active. Cruising near Cape St Vincent (the south-western tip of Portugal) in May 1762, they spotted, chased and captured the Spanish vessel Hermione, bound from Lima in South America to Cadiz.

Captain Pownoll advert at The Sharpham Trust’s open day

The Hermione was brought into Gibraltar and then given a naval escort to England, where the cargo and ship were valued at Continue reading