The Mariner's Mirror Podcast

This week we are exploring the history of how to become a naval officer, with particular focus on the American experience and the foundation of the Naval War College in Rhode Island. Established in 1884 the U.S. Naval War College offered professional study for naval officers and now offers advanced courses of professional study for all services, U.S. government agencies and departments, and international navies.

In our modern world media interest on naval power tends to be directed towards materiel rather than personnel: recent news stories, for example, have focussed on the USS Nevada, armed with no fewer than 20 Trident II strategic nuclear missiles recently surfacing at the American naval base in Guam in the Pacific – a clear demonstration of strength or in the official wording - of ‘readiness and commitment’ - towards China and North Korea. We do not hear, however, about the personnel wielding this naval power. No news stories ran a feature saying that a particularly successful or maverick or reliable naval officer had been sent to Guam; all we hear about is the submarine.

This is notably different to the way that naval power appears in history, as it is dominated by personalities, whether it is the American Chester Nimitz in the Pacific theatre of the Second World War, one of his great rivals the Japanese Chuichi Nagumo, the British Beatty and Jellicoe, in the First World War, Horatio Nelson, John Paul Jones, Francis Drake, …and so on.

So how does the US Navy try to guarantee the competence of the men who lead their fleet now - and how did they do it in the past? To help me find out more I spoke with Dr Evan Wilson, Assistant Professor in the John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island.

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Dr Sam Willis speaks with Don Lynch, a historian who has spoken to more survivors of the Titanic than anyone else alive and was the official historian for James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic. Sam and Don discuss a number of issues including the concept of ‘women and children first’ and how that actually worked in practice. They also discuss unresolved historical issues relating to the history of the Titanic. This episode is made to go alongside a remarkable new 3D model of the Titanic that has been built using the original plans for the ship and allows us to explore the Titanic in great depth and with great accuracy. The video can be found on the Mariner's Mirror Podcast YouTube Channel.

Laid down in March 1909 she was launched a little over two years later and completed just under a year after that, on 2 April 1912. Her size was immense: at 882 feet 9 inches long, she was the largest moveable man made object on earth. This was a major engineering challenge and it revolutionised shipbuilding. No one had ever tried to build a ship the size of the Titanic or her sister ships Olympic and Britannic, ever before.

It took an entire year to put the Titanic’s frames in place. She was built with 2000 hull plates mostly 6ft wide and 30ft long, weighing up to three tons. The hull was held together with over three million iron and steel rivets.

The radio room with the latest Marconi radio equipment was located on the boat deck, as close to the top of the ship as possible to keep the feed line to the antennae short. The transmitter was the most powerful at sea able to contact either New York or London from the centre of the Atlantic.

The First Class accommodation was high up in the ship away from the noise of the machinery. The suites were lavishly decorated in styles of different historical periods. The largest had their own private section of deck.

The Third Class accommodation was split between either end of the ship in the lower decks. Single men were in the bow and single women and families were in the stern where they were subjected to the noise and vibrations of the engine and propellers.

The 20 lifeboats were carried on the uppermost deck but 32 more, featured in the original design were never put in place, to create space for the wealthy to exercise. This meant that the Titanic only had sufficient lifeboats for 33% of her passengers.

At 11.40 on 15 April 1912, the Titanic was 370 miles south of Newfoundland, in 12,500 feet of water – nearly two and a half miles, travelling just under her top speed of just under ten metres per second, when an iceberg was spotted by the lookout.

He telephoned the bridge with the words ‘Iceberg right ahead’. It was 100 ft tall, the size of an eight-story building, and with no light to reflect it, the iceberg appeared almost black. The order was given hard to starboard, to turn the ship to port but she struck on the starboard side, tearing as many as six different holes in her hull, all along the lines of her hull plates, suggesting that the rivets snapped off.

Water poured in at seven tons per second, fifteen times faster than it could be pumped out. The hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments but they did not extend all the way up to the top of the ship, so the water flooded into each one at a time, as the bow began to sink. Within 45 minutes, 1500 tons of water were in the front section of the ship, and she snapped in half. Each section hit the seabed with such force that it created an enormous debris field, the stern burying itself fifteen metres below the sea bed. 1534 lost their lives.

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We explore the extraordinary story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941.

To find out more Dr Sam Willis speaks with Mark Stille, a retired commander in the US Navy, who studied at the Naval War College and has recently finished a 40-year career working in the intelligence community, with tours on the faculty at the Naval War College, the Joint Staff and US naval ships; he is also the author of numerous works focussing on naval history.

This episode is designed to sit alongside the most fabulous 3D animation exploring the Shokaku - one of the Japanese carriers involved in the attack. The full video can be seen on the Mariner’s Mirror podcasts’s Youtube and Facebook pages with shorter clips on Twitter and Instagram.

Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack, launched by the Japanese against the American naval base in Hawaii, before the formal declaration of war between the two nations. The Japanese goal was nothing less than to destroy the American pacific fleet. From six aircraft carriers, The Japanese launched hundreds of aircraft in two waves. Less than two hours later the Japanese had crippled or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 airplanes. Dry docks and airfields were also destroyed. 2,403 sailors, soldiers and civilians were killed.

Importantly, however, the Japanese actually failed in their goal to cripple the Pacific Fleet. By the 1940s, battleships were no longer the most important vessel in the navy as they had been in the previous war: Aircraft carriers and seaborne airpower had now changed that nature of seapower and all of the American Pacific Fleet’s carriers were away from the base on December 7 and escaped destruction.

Moreover, for the the first time in years of discussion and debate about America entering the war, popular opinion now dramatically swung towards joining the fight. The following day America declared war on Japan, and three days later, on Germany.

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In this episode we hear about Thermopylae, one of the most magnificent clipper-ships ever built, and some claim the finest of them all. In 1879, before her second wool voyage from Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald eulogised: 'The fastest and handsomest ship in the world is now lying at the Circular Quay loading for London, and those who take pleasure in seeing a rare specimen of naval architecture should avail themselves of the opportunity of doing so. Of course, we allude to the Thermopylæ, the celebrated Aberdeen clipper. [The] Thermopylæ has all the appearance of a yacht, and yet she carries a good cargo, is a beautiful sea boat, and stands up to her canvas well.'

Built in Aberdeen and commissioned in 1868, but long over-shadowed in public recognition by her rival, Cutty Sark (a ship built specifically to out-pace her in the China tea trade but only once succeeded in so doing), Thermopylæ lives on as arguably the finest all-round clipper of them all.

Clipper ships like Thermopylae were astonishing to behold, and were the culmination of centuries of refinements in sailing technology that led to some of the most beautiful and fastest merchant ships ever built. They revolutionised global trade tearing around the seas carrying tea, wool, luxury goods, and of course people as this era of migration changed the populations and economies of the world forever. Their heyday was short lived, however, as increasingly efficient steam engines and railways changed the way that goods were transported – all over again.

To find out more, Dr Sam Willis speaks with Captain Peter King. Peter recently retired from the merchant shipping industry after over 62 years of continuous service in a wide range of maritime disciplines. In the 1980s, while serving as Managing Director of one of the Christian Salvesen group companies in Aberdeen, he developed an interest in the George Thompson Jnr’s Aberdeen-based shipping enterprise leading to his researching and publishing the first definitive history of Thermopylæ.

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In this our fourth episode dedicated to the maritime history of Wales, Eirwen Abberley Watton finds out about the work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales who research and record Wales’ history from the tip of Snowdon to the depths of the Welsh coastline. Today we discuss their collaboration with the Lloyds Register Foundation in their hunt for Welsh shipwrecks.

There are many processes involved in the discovery and collection of maritime history, which has been revolutionised thanks to the advancement of technology and the unending curiosity of the Welsh public – many old wrecks are still appearing due to constantly changing tides, and being discovered by surprised dog walkers.

Lloyd’s Register’s records are crucial in filling in the gaps when unearthing a ship’s story and matching new finds to existing knowledge.

Eirwen speaks with Dr Julian Whitewright, the Senior Maritime Investigator at the Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Julian is responsible for overseeing the maritime archaeological parts of the National Monuments Record within Wales, as well as advising on marine planning for offshore development. Julian joined the Royal Commission in June 2021 having previously worked in the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton. His archaeological interests cover all boats and ships from the earliest remains to the 20th century but he has a particular love of small craft and is a keen sailor and rower. He lives in Pembrokeshire, a short distance from the sea.

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In this our third episode on the maritime history of Wales we find out about the mysterious 'Bronze Bell' wreck, an early eighteenth-century wreck c.1700, discovered off the coast of Tal-y-Bont, Cerdigion, in 1978. The wreck is very distinctive due to the 65 tonnes of Carrera marble and heavy armaments found on board, as well as the bronze bell for which it was named. The wreck has been investigated as part of the Welsh Climate Change and Coastal Heritage project: 'CHERISH'.

To find out more Eirwen Abberley-Watton spoke with Dr Julian Whitewright and Alison James. Julian is the Senior Maritime Investigator at the Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Julian is responsible for overseeing the maritime archaeological parts of the National Monuments Record within Wales, as well as advising on marine planning for offshore development. He works closely with colleagues from CHERISH, and his archaeological interests cover all boats and ships from the earliest remains to the 20th century. Alison is a Director and Project Manager at MSDS Marine with extensive experience in the management of historic shipwreck sites, volunteer involvement, community engagement and education initiatives. This summer she has been managing work on the Bronze Bell wreck on behalf of MSDS Marine for a project funded by CHERISH, including a recent dive on the site.

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In this, our second episode on the maritime history of Wales, Eirwen Abberley Watton speaks with Dr Toby Jones about a medieval ship that was discovered in the city of Newport in 2002, unearthed by chance during the construction of the Riverfront Arts Centre. The find provoked a huge response from the archaeological and local community who campaigned for funding so that it could be fully excavated. The ship turned out to be an exceptionally rare rind - a clinker built ship from the 15th century whose hull has been beautifully preserved in the mud of the RIver Usk along with several hundred objects including seeds, shoes, cork and coins, allowing historians and archaeologists to recreate the Atlantic world of the Newport Ship. To find out more Eirwen speaks with Dr. Toby Jones, a nautical archaeologist and the curator of the Newport Medieval Ship. Toby has worked on several other projects around the world, including the Red River Wreck in Oklahoma, the Aber Wrac’h I wreck in Brittany and the Mica shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico. He has also participated in shipwreck surveys along the southern coast of Cyprus and in the Algarve in Portugal. 

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