New Researchers in Maritime History Conference
At this annual conference, the British Commission supports emerging scholars who wish to share their work in a supportive environment and build relations with other maritime historians. We encourage applications from research degree students and warmly encourage participation by independent scholars. Contributions can address all aspects of maritime history in its broadest sense.
It is held in the spring of each year, and the location moves around Britain, as the conference is hosted by a variety of universities and museums and is sponsored by the Society for Nautical Research.
30th Conference for New Researchers
Hull History Centre - 11-12 April 2025
The British Commission for Maritime History (BCMH), in association with the University of Hull, is delighted to welcome you to for the thirtieth conference for New Researchers. This annual conference organised by BCMH is supported by the Society for Nautical Research. The conference will be held in Hull, a port-city that ranked as the third busiest commercial port in Britain, and one of Europe’s largest fishing harbours. Today, as well as continuing to engage in various sea-related activities, Hull is leveraging its significant maritime heritage, through the refurbishment of six historic sites and two preserved ships, to market itself as Yorkshire’s Maritime City. It therefore provides an inspiring location for a conference that focuses on the maritime dimensions of history.
Provisional Conference Programme
Friday 11 April
From 14:00 there will be opportunity for tours and visits. More info to follow.
17:00-17:45 Registration
18.00: Keynote Lecture: Robb Robinson (University of Hull)
19.45: Evening tbc
Saturday 12 April
8:30 – 9:15: Registration
9:15: Conference Organisers Welcome, Dr Martin Wilcox (University of Hull)
9:30 – 10:45 SESSION ONE: MARITIME SPACE
Peter Wells (University of East Anglia), ‘“No Land Nor Ice in the Way”: Captain John Wood’s 1676 Search for the North-east Passage’.
Saanika Patnaik (Ashoka University), ‘Expelling Pirates, Acquiring Sovereignty: The East India Company at Malvan, 1765-1812’.
Matilda Sidel (University of Oxford), ‘Customary law of the sea seen through literature: 'Naufragios' and troubles at the coastline of Spanish America’.
10.45-11.15 Coffee
11.15 -12.30 SESSION TWO: MARITIME HISTORIES FROM BELOW
Eliška Bujkova (University of New Brunswick), ‘Bodies of labour and labouring bodies: colonial structures of care and bodywork in the British Atlantic c 1650 c 1780’.
Kit Barton (University of Exeter), ‘Reconstructing the World of the British Sailmakers; 1688-1714’.
Hannah Bradbury-Crowther University of Plymouth), ‘Examining the role of female contractors at Plymouth Dock, 1692-1763’.
12.30-13:30 Lunch
13:30 Presentation of awards
13:45 to 14.45 SESSION THREE: NEW NAVAL HISTORIES
Kieron Hoyle (Canterbury Christ Church University), ‘The Maison Dieu and the Narrow Seas’.
Dave Brooks (University of Hull), ‘Patronage and Capability in the British Royal Navy 1815-1870’.
Paul O’Donnell (Birkbeck College, University of London), ‘The Vegetarian Dreadnought: the ship that was built for Liberals’.
14.45 to 15.15 Tea
15.15 to 16.30 SESSION FOUR: FROM THE LOCAL TO THE NATIONAL
Jason Mazzocchi (Canterbury Christ Church University), ‘Faversham’s Maritime Community and Oyster Disputes in late Elizabethan and Early Jacobean Kent’
Tom Gayton (University of Exeter), ‘Paid “like drops of blood”: Popular Allegiance in Dorset’s Ports in the Early Seventeenth Century’
Sophia Bella Chapple, Johannes Rom Dahl, Cianna Devitt (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Marine Resource Use During Times of Adversity: A Mixed Methodological Approach to Studying 17th Century Scottish Adaptation’
16.30: Closing remarks
16.45: Conference ends
Further information on the event and how to register will be shared nearer the time.
