Report on the Scottish Maritime History Conference 2024
Posted: Tuesday 19th November 2024
This year’s Scottish Maritime History Conference took place at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow on 15-16th October. It was well attended and remains a unique annual event open to all researchers. The University of Glasgow played a major part in its organisation, with Professor Hugh Murphy and Dr Martin Bellamy working with Professor Ray Stokes of the Centre for Business History in Scotland.
This report by BCMH attendee, Dr Roy Fenton, aims to highlight key details from the presentations. Full abstracts of papers are also available to download here.
In pursuit of Revenge: the John Gow piracy case, 1724-1725 - Jack Abernethy, University of St. Andrews and Richard Pennell, University of Melbourne
Unusually in a piracy case, considerable archival evidence exists about John Gow’s activities, allowing an assessment to be made of the Royal Navy’s capacity to capture pirates, and also to consider how realistic fictionalised accounts of the pirate’s career by Scott and Defoe actually are.
The case began in November 1724 with a mutiny on the George Galley, whose officers were murdered and command vested in John Gow. With the vessel renamed Revenge, and with those of the crew willing to turn pirate, Gow set out on a cruise along the coast of Portugal during which he captured five ships. Despite Gow being described as ‘despicable’, his captures were relatively bloodless. None of the crews were killed, and they were released along with their or other vessels. Gow then returned to his native Orkney to reprovision and careen the Revenge, but someone recognised the ship and reported this to the local authorities. The Admiralty were alerted and mobilised a force to arrest Gow, but a local laird had him captured along with members of his crew, and the Revenge had run aground before the Royal Navy arrived.
Gow was taken to London, tried, with the murders on board the George Galley serving to convict him. Local actors were at least as important as the Royal Navy in Gow’s downfall. The proceedings of the trial show that Gow was somewhat inept as a pirate and not necessarily in full control of his ship. This is in contrast to fictional accounts of his career. It was remarked from the floor that Defoe’s works were particularly unreliable.
Transatlantic innovation: naval shipbuilding in Havana in the 1730s and 1740s - Dr Catherine Scheybeler, Kings College.
Havana occupied an important place in Spain’s transatlantic system, particularly as a place for assembling the convoys that brought the wealth of its colonies in South and Central America to Spain. As a major rendezvous for ships, Havana had building and repair facilities but did not become a major site for naval shipbuilding with a state-owned naval yard until the 1730s. For the Spanish Navy, transfer of shipbuilding from Spain to Cuba appeared to offer particular attractions. Havana had a safe harbour, there was skilled labour available, and the hardwood timber of the Americas was known to be particularly good for shipbuilding, with Cuba having plentiful forests. However, there were disadvantages: iron was simply not available locally, and had to be imported from Spain. Timber proved more difficult to source, as well as at times less suitable, than expected. The Spanish government mistrusted local authorities in Cuba assuming that corrupt practices would develop, sometimes with reason. Distance also complicated the transfer to Cuba of innovative shipbuilding designs that were then being developed in Spain.
Havana, nonetheless, became a key naval shipbuilding site. Dr Scheybeler listed some 24 ships built by the Contractor Juan de Acosta and the Royal Havana Company between 1730 and 1750. Despite the complications created by distance, they followed the trend in contemporary Spanish and international practice of moving to larger and particularly longer hulls offering better seaworthiness and a platform for heavier and more numerous guns.
This transition in design presented certain challenges for Spanish shipbuilders, especially in the attempt to create long-lasting ships. These challenges were also encountered in Cuba, but Havana’s ships, built of tropical hard woods, still enjoyed a longer lifespan than those constructed in Spain. The Rayo of 1750, for example, was the oldest ship present at the Battle of Trafalgar (being wrecked in the storm that followed the battle).
Reconstruction or restoration of the woman worker? Women in shipbuilding ad engineering during the First World War - Dr Joe Redmayne, University of Newcastle
The experiences of women in shipbuilding and marine engineering during the First World War have been overshadowed by women’s experience in munitions work. The Women in Shipbuilding (WIS) project aims to correct this imbalance by thinking critically about the different experiences of women in war work and about the issue of dilution and the legacy of women’s entry into shipbuilding. In January 1919 there were 8,800 women working in shipbuilding, 3.3 percent of the total shipbuilding labour force.
The foundation in 1906 of the National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW) was inspired by the women’s suffrage movement. Dr Redmayne’s research focused on its branches in the North East of England, and their responses to expulsion from heavy industry during the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy, which saw 200,000 women summarily dismissed. The NFWW protested about skilled women being coerced by Labour Exchanges into accepting vacancies in traditional unskilled occupations, where there was a significant pay gap between women and men. This activity continued in subsequent ‘right to work’ and ‘work not dole’ campaigns. The presentation discussed the impact protests had on social attitudes to women working, and in particular in the light of the introduction of votes for some women in 1918. The NFWW maintained that participation in employment was an indispensable part of full citizenship.
Mending maritime misery: women’s emotional labour in seafarers’ missions - Dr. Jo Stanley, Blaydes Maritime Centre, University of Hull
Seamans’ missions were Christian institutions which offered refuges to seamen who Dr Stanley describes as essentially ‘temporary immigrants’. The British-based Missions to Seamen was probably the largest provider of such facilities, with at one time over 200 establishments in some 50 ports. Female wardens were introduced in these missions in 1942. Concentrating on the post-Second World War period, Dr Stanley discussed the benefits bestowed on seafarers by the female domestic staff and volunteers in missions. These women brought a glimpse of the tenderness of a home setting to men who were isolated on ships, especially from female company. While male staff were primarily engaged in spiritual work, the females in Jo’s words helped ‘stop seamen going bonkers’ by helping to address their emotional needs. The work could be emotionally demanding, and not surprisingly, there was a high burnout rate amongst the women.
Passenger ships: Scottish and British built: a statistical analysis - Professor Ian Buxton, University of Newcastle
Using data on 82,000 ships held in the British Shipbuilding Database, Professor Buxton asked if the Clyde deserved its reputation as the primary UK region for building passenger ships of all types. The Clyde’s output of powered vessels stretches from the Comet of 1812 to the Ferguson-built Glen Sannox completed in 2024.
The ships considered in this analysis were defined as those having accommodation for more than 12 passengers. The ocean-going ships considered extend from the Britannia of 1840 to the St. Helena of 1990 (although she was built at Aberdeen). Short-sea passenger vessels began with Rob Roy from Denny in 1818 and ended with P&O’s Norsea delivered from Govan in 1987.
Of the total of 18,000 passenger vessels built in Britain, the Clyde did indeed build almost exactly half, justifying its reputation as the go-to region in Britain and perhaps even the world for passenger ship building.
How to take a fire-breathing monster to market - Dr Morten Tinning, Copenhagen Business School
After unsuccessful attempts to use or sell her on the Thames, the Clyde, in Rotterdam or on the Rhine, the Glasgow-built paddle steamer Caledonia arrived at Copenhagen on 22 May 1819 to be met with cheering crowds. She was Denmark’s first commercial steamship, with her owners putting her on the important route connecting Copenhagen and Kiel.
Caledonia was to compete with sailing vessels on grounds of reliability rather than speed. But there was considerable distrust in this ‘monster’, and the travelling public needed to be convinced to patronise Caledonia. In spite of the excitement and hype of her arrival, newspaper coverage was unenthusiastic and could cite the numerous cases elsewhere of steamship’s boilers exploding with fatal consequences. Promotion of Caledonia involved a number of commissioning of paintings of the craft, specially printed tickets, and engraved glasses. The food served aboard was an important selling feature, with her steward becoming something of a local celebrity. What finally convinced the public was patronage of Caledonia by the Danish royal family.
Although not during Caledonia’s career, Danish innovation was eventually to be of immense importance to shipping, notably with the pioneering ocean-going motor ship Selandia, built and engined at Copenhagen by Burmeister and Wain.
The adventure training schooner Captain Scott - Brian Rice (Independent Researcher)
Brian Rice drew on his background in naval architecture and his considerable experience of traditional sailing vessels to describe the reasons for building the wooden schooner Captain Scott and the unique and demanding conditions experienced by 16 to 21 year-old trainees on her expeditions. Unlike the 13-day courses run by the Sail Training Association, those on Captain Scott ran for a full four weeks, and all involved arduous expeditions ashore. The inspiration for building the ship can be traced back to the Outward Bound School courses begun in 1934 by the German refugee Kurt Hahn, and perpetuated in the curriculum of Gordonstoun School: ‘Colditz in Kilts’ as King Charles III once dubbed it. Days for the 36 trainees began with a cold shower from the fire hose, after which they were sent up and over the top of the mast. The three expeditions ashore, through summer and winter, involved navigation and camping, usually in hostile Scottish terrain.
The Captain Scott was built and financed by the Dulverton Trust, and from 1971 to 1975 ran 37 courses for a total of 1,300 trainees, including many police and army cadets. But finance failed. forcing the schooner to be laid up. Sold to the Royal Navy she sailed as a training ship until 2015.
Modern art aboard British ships, 1930s to 1970s - Professor Bruce Peters, Glasgow School of Art
In choosing ‘modern’ art to adorn the public areas of passenger ships, Professor Peters noted that the shipping company executives had little knowledge of contemporary art, and relied heavily on advisors. The eventual choice usually fell on work which was seen to be ‘modern’ but was considered acceptable to the majority of passengers. It was important that it did not give offence, with the result that the terms ‘romantic modernism’ could be applied to much of it. It fell somewhere between ‘fine art’ and ‘decorative art’.
Outstanding examples of modern art installation included the interiors of the Orion of 1935, the Queen Mary (which can still be enjoyed in her Long Beach berth), the Oriana of 1960 and the Queen Elizabeth II of 1969. Cunard and P&O/Orient ships were prominent in this presentation, but it did not neglect short-sea ships such as British Railways St. Edward of 1974. As Professor Bruce pointed out, critically acclaimed art in British ships was employed, as it was by owners in many countries, to reflect the progressive and culturally appealing faces of their nations.
Reflections
The 2024 Scottish Maritime Conference addressed a remarkably wide spread of subjects, and the speakers are to be congratulated on the clarity and the interest of their presentations.
The organisers, Dr Martin Bellamy and Professor Hugh Murphy, plus the chairs of the sessions, Professor Niall McKenzie, Professor Alan McKinlay, Professor Andrew Perchard and Dr Chris Miller share with the presenters the credit for staging what is the only annual general maritime history conference in the United Kingdom which is open to all.
Support, financial and otherwise, comes from the BCMH, Glasgow Life, the Lind Foundation, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the Society for Nautical Research, and the University of Glasgow.
Image: Mediterranian Harbor Scene', folding screen by Kenneth Shoesmith, Queen Mary, first class drawing room (Source WIKI - This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. Public Domain in the US)
