The Surprising History of the British Merchant Navy
1500 – 2005
Richard Woodman
This unique five-volume series is a detailed account of a neglected yet vital aspect of British history – that of its merchant marine which began to assert national ambition and identity from the time of the Tudors. From a reckless and aggressive mixture of trade, exploration and opportunist warfare, much of which amounted to state-sponsored piracy, it was the merchant adventurers who dislodged first Spain and then The Netherlands from their positions of maritime supremacy, to found the world’s first great corporation, the East India Company.
Merchant ships and their seamen extended first English and then British power into the East and West Indies, the Indian and China Seas and, during the long conflict with France, provided the wealth by which Britain waged war and the Royal Navy with more than just its man-power.
From the slave-trade to the transport of convicts, coolies and emigrants; from the carriage of opium, wool, grain, tea and a thousand other commodities, including oil – all were carried in British merchant ships which gave rise to the modern industrial world. In the 20th Century, what had become a Merchant Navy twice saved the civilised world from the threat of totalitarian domination by maintaining supply-lines against ferocious odds.
In this wide-ranging series, author Richard Woodman restores Great Britain’s Merchant Navy to its rightful place in the nation’s history, alongside – but hitherto eclipsed by - the Royal Navy.
Captain Richard Woodman is author of over forty works of maritime history and historical fiction. He has won several prestigious awards, including the Society for Nautical Research’s Anderson Medal in 2005 – the Year of the Sea. He went to sea at the age of sixteen as an indentured midshipman in the Blue Funnel Line and is well placed to write this definitive and unique history of Great Britain’s mercantile marine. Richard spent eleven years in command and six in operational management, his experience ranging from cargo-liners to Ocean Weather-Ships and specialist support Vessels, with voyages in yachts, square-riggers and trawlers thrown in for good measure.
Volume 1: Neptune’s Trident - £30 Hardback
9780752448145 - Available Now
Spices and Slaves, 1500 – 1807
Full of risk, adventure and heroic action on the one hand, with exploitation, skull-duggery and piracy on the other, this volume carries the reader from the appearance of the merchant ships of Tudor England on the world’s oceans in defiance of Spain’s mighty sea-borne empire, to the end of the Seven Years War, with a full account of the slave-trade until its abolition in 1807.
Piracy intermingled with privateering in the Caribbean and Indian Seas; slaving with its dreadful consequences; the early ventures of the East India Companies of England and Scotland whose story is entangled in the Union of the two countries and the opening of trade with China, are part of this momentous, surprising and revealing history.
The Princess Royal has written the Foreword to this edition.
“If Neptune’s Trident sets the standard for what is to follow – we can at least rest assured that there is a series that truly does justice to our proud merchant maritime past” Nautilus UK Telegraph, December 2008
“Richard Woodman tells many a good tale in this first volume and it is fascinating to read. I highly recommend this first volume in the Neptune’s Trident for anyone with an interest in the early modern period. If the rest of the series is as good as this one, they should all be on the bookshelves of those studying the history of Britain, from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries” Open History, Spring ‘09
Volume 2: Britannia’s Realm - £30 Hardback
Available Now - 9780752448190
In Support of the State, 1763 - 1816
Throughout the difficulties of the American Rebellion and a war in which the maritime states of Europe combined against Britain, her mercantile marine maintained trade against the odds. Then came the long conflict with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France which was by no means settled after Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar. What followed was a ten-year war to maintain trade, the vital essence of Britain’s ability to fight and win against the might of Napoleon’s Empire. To achieve this objective, her Merchant Navy was of supreme importance and had to fight for its very existence.
“Highly recommended, this book is both extremely readable and thought-provoking – delivering fresh and incivisive insights into the way ships and seafarers have helped to mould our world.” Nautilus UK Telegraph, October 2009
“This enthralling book is a must for everyone interested in the sea.” Seafarer Magazine, October 2009
Shortlisted for the 2009 Mountbatten Maritime Award for Best Literary Contribution
Volume 3: Masters Under God - £30 Hardback
Available Now - 9780752448206
Makers of Empire, 1817 – 1884
With Britain triumphant after the defeat of Napoleon, the British Merchant Navy began to expand. With powerful Blackwall ‘frigates’ serving a growing empire, a vast migration to North America, Australia and New Zealand and the carriage of valuable cargoes such as tea from China, sail remained dominant throughout much of the 19th Century. From a tentative beginning, British steam-vessels increased in power and endurance so that, by 1884, they had taken over the long-haul routes to China and the Antipodes. Far from trade following the flag, it was almost always the other way round as this extraordinary history demonstrates.
“Like its predecessors, this is a meticulously researched book, giving detailed insights into a bygone era, considered by many to be a golden age for our maritime nation.” Book of the Month: The Marine Society, December 2009
Volume 4: More Days, More Dollars - £30 Hardback
To be published May 2010 - 9780752448213
The Universal Bucket Chain, 1885 -1920
By the end of the 19th Century the British Merchant Navy had become the world’s largest carrier of people, manufactured goods and raw materials, supporting the growing populations of Canada, Australia and New Zealand within the British Empire and providing a universal service to all parts of the world. Almost every British family had a member serving in merchant ships whose variety and type are bedazzling in these last years of sail and the final coming of age of both the ocean liner and the deep-sea tramp-ship. All this was achieved against a ceaseless struggle against the elements and then, after 1914, against the malice of a new enemy, the German U-Boat, which brought Britain close to surrender in 1917. Only the dogged courage of an almost defenceless Merchant Navy avoided this catastrophe.
Volume 5: Fiddler’s Green - £30 Hardback
To be published October 2010 - 9780752448220
Hell, Heaven and Aftermath, 1921- 2005
Plunged into depression after a brief, post-war boom, the ships and men of the British Merchant Navy found themselves called upon to repeat their sacrifice to the menace of German hostility within twenty years of the end of the ‘war to end all wars’. For over three years, until the Royal Navy bettered the German U-Boat, the Merchant Navy maintained the supply of food, raw materials and the sinews of war against appalling odds until victory ushered in a new age of peace and prosperity. It was not to last for long. Within a generation the Merchant Navy had all but vanished, its companies wound up, its men and women cast aside, its loss to the nation yet to be appreciated in one of the quietest yet most fundamental changes to affect this country at the end of the millennium.
Richard Woodman on what led him to embark on the series: Facebook link