A Dictionary of Liverpool Ship Portraitists and Marine Artists by Anthony Tibbles is an illustrated dictionary providing comprehensive biographical and artistic information about all the ship portraitists and marine artists who worked in and around the port of Liverpool from the late eighteenth century until the present day. To celebrate the publication of this new … Continue reading
Sailor Talk: Labor, Utterance, and Meaning in the Works of Melville, Conrad, and London
I was raised in a world rich with sailor talk. My father, Captain James (‘Jay’) S. Bercaw, was a masterful storyteller. My sister Katrina, brother Seán, and I cherished sitting at his feet as he told brilliant and evocative sea stories. He had sailed twice around the world as First Mate on a square-rigged vessel, … Continue reading
Royal Navy sailors were appalled by conditions on slave ships, but those they ‘rescued’ rarely experienced true freedom
This piece was originally published on The Conversation. Britain was once among the most enthusiastic of slave-trading nations. But just over 200 years ago, the country dramatically changed course and used its naval dominance against the transatlantic trade in enslaved African people, one of the worst historical crimes against humanity. After the Abolition Act of 1807 … Continue reading
Economic Warfare and the Sea, 1650-1945
The recently published Economic Warfare and the Sea examines the relationship between trade, maritime warfare, and strategic thought between the early modern period and the late-twentieth century. To celebrate the publication of this latest publication from our Research in Maritime History series, editors David Morgan-Owen and Louis Halewood have put together a short introduction to the … Continue reading
The contribution of Black seafarers to British maritime history – in conversation with Ray Costello
The Black Salt exhibition at the Liverpool Maritime Museum is due to reveal the contribution Black seafarers to some of the most significant maritime events of the past 500 years. To celebrate its opening we spoke to Ray Costello, author of the accompanying book Black Salt: Seafarers of African Descent on British Ships about the roles of and experiences of Black … Continue reading
Liverpool University Press Blog 