Undergraduate Prizes: 
Undergraduate Achievement in Maritime History

The British Commission awards a small number of £75 prizes each year for undergraduate dissertations in the broad field of maritime history. The Commission’s aims are to encourage students to pursue maritime questions in their final year research, and to reward the best of that work.

Subjects eligible for consideration reflect the Commission’s view of maritime history as a wide-ranging discipline. It includes topics such as shipping, seafaring, ports, seapower, maritime labour, coastal communities, trade, exploration, shipbuilding, navigation, and fishing, and embraces a wide range of political, economic, social, technological and cultural approaches.

Nominations must be made by Heads of Department or equivalent, and the closing date for entries is 1 August in each year. Final year dissertations awarded first class marks are eligible for consideration. Project work will also be considered where extensive use is made of primary evidence, and where the portfolio includes an extended piece of writing.

To make a nomination please complete the Undergraduate Prize Form and upload the necessary documents here.

Congratulations to our 2023 Prize winners! 

Annie Bones  (University of York), Stable Isotope Analysis of Marine Resources: Overlooked and Undervalued in the Iron Age?

Alexander Massetti (University of Leeds), An ‘Atlantic Suicide Squad’?: Examining the Catafighters and Dispelling the Myth of Britain’s

‘Kamikaze’ Pilots of World War Two

 April Rose Perks  (University of Wolverhampton), The “Unsinkable” RMS Titanic: Which Factors Have Contributed to the Disaster’s Continued

Relevance in Popular Culture?

Pauline Pralle  (University of Stirling),Defending the Empire: Carolingian Defensive Strategies against Viking Raids, c.800-900

Gerald Sim  (University College London), Waves of Contention: The Belitung Shipwreck, Maritime Heritage, and Politics in Singapore

For further information, please contact the Hon Secretary.