Best The Society for Nautical Research Podcasts (2025)

1
Seapower Past & Present 2: Critical National Infrastructure 49:50

1d ago49:50

49:50

This episode forms part of a new strand of our podcast: Seapower Past and Present which explores seapower as it is understood and practised in the modern world whilst offering a historical perspective on the themes we explore. Each episode is chosen according to a theme or a location – a hotspot in the modern world where seapower has a major influe…

1
Seapower Past & Present 1: Economic Warfare 46:16

8d ago46:16

46:16

This episode forms part of a new strand of our podcast: Seapower Past and Present which explores seapower as it is understood and practised in the modern world whilst offering a historical perspective on the themes we explore. Each episode is chosen according to a theme or a location – a hotspot in the modern world where seapower has a major influe…

1
Tales From the Cinque Ports: Faversham 47:45

16d ago47:45

47:45

This episode continues our series on the Cinque Ports, an ancient confederation of maritime towns in southeast England that from the early Middle Ages provided ships and men to the crown in return for special powers and privileges. They have since become rightly dubbed as the cradle of the Royal Navy. Our first episode explored the Cinque Ports’ ri…

1
The Bremen Cog: Maritime Germany 2 39:48

30d ago39:48

39:48

The Bremen Cog is a historical gem; the best-preserved medieval trading ship in the world. We know from her beautifully-preserved timbers that her construction dates from 1380, and her discovery dramatically unlocked a fascinating world not only of shipbuilding and seamanship but also of trade. This was a period in which trade routes and shipping w…

1
The Cinque Ports 1:19:21

1M ago1:19:21

1:19:21

This episode is the first of a series on the history of the Cinque Ports in which we bring you a mixture of fascinating history alongside a glimpse into contemporary life in these vibrant and ancient maritime towns. In the eleventh century during the reign of Edward the Confessor, five ports in the south-east of England joined together into a confe…

1
The Ocean and Us: Maritime Germany 1 52:43

2M ago52:43

52:43

A mini-series on the maritime history of Germany launches with a visit to the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, which has recently launched a stand-out new permanent exhibition 'Ship Realms - The Ocean and Us.' Through the clever presentation of artefacts amongst immersive displays, the exhibition powerfully makes the point that, the more we k…

1
The Ship That Changed Shipbuilding: ss Fullagar 24:51

2M ago24:51

24:51

In 1920, in the Cammell, Laird & Co. shipyard in Birkenhead, a ship was built that would change the shipbuilding industry and shipyards forever. ss Fullagar was the world's first fully welded ocean-going ship. For generations, ships' iron and steel hulls had been held together with rivets, put in place by specialist teams of riveters. In 1920 elect…

1
I Sank the Lusitania: The War Diary of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger, May 1915, Commander, U-20, 1915 29:00

3M ago29:00

29:00

This episode continues our work bringing you some of the finest original historical material, written by the people who were actually there. Today we bring you the war diary of the U-boat commander Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger, commander of U-20, from May 1915, when he sank the transatlantic liner Lusitania, full of civilian passengers. 1193 p…

1
How to Catch a Murderer At Sea: Dr Crippen and the SS Montrose 34:37

3M ago34:37

34:37

This episode links together one of the most important inventions in all of maritime technology with one of the most notorious murders in history. In 1910 Dr Hawly Crippen killed his wife Cora in their London home and buried her dismembered body under the floor of his basement. As the net closed in, Crippen ran and he sought his escape by sea, aboar…

1
Great Sea Fights: The Battle of the Nile, 1798 32:21

4M ago32:21

32:21

The Battle of the Nile of 1798 was one of the most important naval battles that has ever been fought. This episode presents an introduction explaining the context of the battle and is followed by a reading of an account written by Captain Samuel Hood of HMS Zealous. The battle was fought at a key moment of French expansion. The French army, led by …

1
Predator of the Seas: The Slaveship That Fought for Emancipation 34:46

4M ago34:46

34:46

This is the extraordinary history of a single ship - a Baltimore clipper. Once she was the Henriqueta, a slave ship; but subsequently she became the Black Joke, a hunter of slave ships. In her former life she trafficked over 3000 captives across the Atlantic; in her new life she became the scourge of Spanish and Brazilian slavers. To find out more …

1
Kidnapped at Sea: The Tragic Story of David Henry White in the American Civil War 34:57

4M ago34:57

34:57

This episode presents an astonishing and tragic story from the American Civil War with great relevance to the present day. It’s the story of a black teenager called David Henry White who comes from Delaware and has done all in his power to create a life for himself – he has signed onto a merchant ship for work with the prospects of pay and promotio…

1
Secrets of the Great Ocean Liners 44:20

5M ago44:20

44:20

This episode explores one of the world’s greatest historical collections relating to the golden age of ocean liner travel. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with John Sayers, a man who has dedicated his life to creating the most wonderful collection. In the early 1950s John’s parents took him across the Atlantic on the Cunard Line’s RMS Franconi…

1
Indian Figureheads From the Royal Navy's Bombay Dockyard 35:47

5M ago35:47

35:47

Bombay, now Mumbai, was a major shipbuilding centre for the Royal Navy in the first half of the nineteenth century. The ships were magnificent, built from the famous Malabar teak and by the hands of a highly skilled Indian workforce. This episode explores that fascinating history through one particular aspect of a sailing warship’s construction: th…

1
European Ship Surveyors in China, 1869-1918 31:32

6M ago31:32

31:32

In this episode we explore the fascinating history of Europeans working in the complex maritime world of China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular we find out about ship surveyors working for the classification society Lloyd’s Register, and how those employees influenced the global perception of maritime safety and r…

1
The Last Shantyman: The Remarkable Maritime Life of Stan Hugill 34:54

6M ago34:54

34:54

Stan Hugill was known in his lifetime as the ‘Last Working Shantyman’ and became a guardian of the tradition of maritime music. Stan had a colourful and eventful life. He spent 23 years at sea including a stint as the official shantyman on board the steel four-masted barque Garthpool, the last British commercial sailing ship. In the Second World Wa…

1
Merchants, Trawlers and Whalers: The Maritime History of Hull 33:19

7M ago33:19

33:19

In this episode we hear all about the rich and long maritime history of the English port of Hull. Dr Sam Willis spoke with Sam Wright, a tour guide of historic Hull as well as a researcher working on a PhD relating to the historical activities of the marine classification society Lloyd's Register in Hull. The port has more than 800 years of maritim…

1
The Royal Navy in the Cold War 36:52

7M ago36:52

36:52

During the Cold War years the Royal Navy faced some of its greatest challenges, both at sea confronting the increasingly capable and impressive Soviet Navy, and on shore when it faced policy crises that threatened the survival of much of the fleet. During this period the Navy had rarely been so focused on a single theatre of war - the Eastern Atlan…

1
The Amazing History of Icebreakers 33:51

8M ago33:51

33:51

The ability to navigate in icy seas is one of the most important themes in the historical and contemporary story of human interaction with the sea. Over centuries of development ships are now able to operate safely in and amongst giant ice-islands or semi-submerged floes as deadly as any reef. Specialist vessels have been designed with strengthened…

1
Nelson's Pathfinders: A Forgotten Story in the Triumph of British Sea Power 37:02

8M ago37:02

37:02

Today we discover the remarkable story of how a handful of intrepid scientific navigators underpinned British naval dominance in the conflict with Napoleon. During the Napoleonic Wars, more than twice as many British warships were lost to shipwreck than in battle. The Royal Navy’s fleets had to operate in unfamiliar seas and dangerous coastal water…

1
Black Mariners in the Royal Navy 28:58

8M ago28:58

28:58

Throughout the eighteenth century the Royal Navy was the largest employer of free black labour in a period when Britain was - at the same time - the largest trader in human lives across the Atlantic. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Steve Martin, expert on black British history and literature, and who works with museums, archives and the e…

1
The Spice Ports: Mapping the Origins of Global Sea Trade 47:13

8M ago47:13

47:13

We may think of globalism as a recent development but its origins date back to the fifteenth century and beyond, when seafarers pioneered routes across the oceans with the objectives of exploration, trade and proft. And what did they seek? Exotic spices: cloves, pepper, cinnamon, ginger. These spices brought together the European ports of Lisbon, L…

1
Portsmouth Historic Quarter and the SHE_SEES Exhibition 43:12

8M ago43:12

43:12

The SHE-SEES exhibition, hosted in partnership with the Lloyds Register Foundation, Portsmouth Historic Quarter and the University of Portsmouth, taps into archive materials from across the UK and Ireland to uncover the extensive history of trailblazing female voices in the maritime industry and aims to change the tide on diversity. Dr Sam Willis s…

1
Eyewitness: Captain Avery and the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates 43:49

9M ago43:49

43:49

This year we are launching a new strand of the podcast on eyewitness testimony, in which we bring you the most extraordinary primary sources – history as told and written by the people who were actually there. Today we start with one of the most atmospheric of all maritime sources, one that transports you directly back to the creaky decks of the ag…

1
Finmen: The Inuit Who Paddled 1200 Miles 32:42

9M ago32:42

32:42

It is a little known and extraordinary fact that over 300 years ago the Inuit made crossings from Greenland to the Orkney Isles and northern Scotland. The journey across the hostile North Atlantic is over 1200 miles. Their traditional craft were made of nothing more than skin, bone and driftwood. The literature of Scotland, particularly in relation…

1
Lifesavers: How Conflict Innovation Can Build a Better World 48:48

10M ago48:48

48:48

We find out about an exciting project run by the Imperial War Museum which explores how conflict has driven innovation in science and technology. Sponsored by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the project aims to discover how conflict has accelerated innovation, and how this has impacted on the world we live in today. Science and technology are the key …

1
King of the Beggars: The Extraordinary Life of Billy Waters 40:25

11M ago40:25

40:25

Billy Waters was born into enslavement in 1770s New York, before becoming a sailor in the royal navy. After losing his leg in a fall from the rigging, the talented Waters became London’s most famous street performer, celebrated on stage and in print. Towards the end of his life he was elected 'King of the Beggars' by his peers. Waters died destitut…

1
My Yacht Was Sunk by Killer Whales 53:20

11M ago53:20

53:20

Today we hear from Douglas Robertson. In 1971 Douglas’s father, Dougal, a retired merchant navy sailor turned Staffordshire dairy farmer, sold his farm and bought a yacht. He planned to sail around the world with his wife, daughter and three sons. Douglas was then sixteen and today casts his mind back to that fateful voyage. He recalls in great det…

1
Shipwreck Survivors 41:49

11M ago41:49

41:49

We hear about an exciting project to save and record accounts of shipwreck survivors. The project's goal is to raise awareness and understanding of the experiences of those who have been unfortunate enough to experience shipwreck. This is crucially important at a time when familiarity with life at sea is diminishing and there is a noticeable absenc…

1
Sea Monsters Part 2: The Eyewitness Accounts 23:04

12M ago23:04

23:04

An entire episode dedicated to historical accounts of sea monsters! In the last episode we learned how sailors' encounters with sea monsters inform us of a changing world and link themes of religion and science with exploration of the natural world and safety at sea. In this episode we hear what they actually had to say, in their own voices. We hea…

1
Sea Monsters Part 1: The Analysis 33:12

12M ago33:12

33:12

In this episode we hear about the extraordinary and long history of sailors coming across monsters from the deep. It’s a complex and fascinating topic intimately linked with the human experience of sea, but for historians it exists as a strand of knowledge and experience which runs alongside developing ideas of faith and developing understanding of…

1
WW2 Battle Convoy: HG-76 33:42

1y ago33:42

33:42

In December 1941 HG-76 sailed from Gibraltar to Britain and was specially targeted by a wolfpack of U-boats whilst, in a rare example of German inter-service cooperation, the Luftwaffe pounced from French airfields. In Gibraltar and Spain, German intelligence agents had known every detail of HG-76 before it had even sailed. Nonetheless, the convoy …

1
Smugglers, Pirates and Terrorists: Maritime Crime and Security 33:05

1y ago33:05

33:05

Recent conflict in the Red Sea caused by Houthi attacks on commercial shipping has brought the subject of maritime crime and security into focus. In this episode Dr Sam Willis speaks with Christian Bueger, Professor of International Relations at the University of Copenhagen, Director of the SafeSeas Network for Maritime Security and author of the i…

1
The Dreadnought Hoax 42:41

1y ago42:41

42:41

The Dreadnought Hoax is one of the most fantastical events of all naval and maritime history. In 1910 four white English people – three men and one woman – pretended to be members of the Abyssinian royal family, complete with black face make up, false beards and magnificent robes, and were given a tour of HMS Dreadnought, the most powerful battlesh…

1
Vrak - The Museum of Wrecks, Stockholm. 24:51

1+ y ago24:51

24:51

In this episode we visit Vrak - The Museum of Wrecks in Stockholm. Nowhere else in the world are there as many well-preserved wooden wrecks as there are in the Baltic Sea. People have lived on the shores of the Baltic ever since the end of the Ice Age, where they have travelled, sailed, hunted and waged war, for millennia. The Baltic has special wa…

1
The First Naval Architect: Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (1721-1808) 28:29

1+ y ago28:29

28:29

In this episode we explore the extraordinary life of Frerik Henrik Af Chapman, the man considered the grandfather of naval architecture. Born in Gothenburg in 1721 to immigrant English parents, his father served in the Swedish navy before becoming the manager of a shipyard in Gothenburg. His mother was the daughter of a London shipwright. Frerderik…

1
Sweden's National Maritime Museum 31:31

1+ y ago31:31

31:31

The third episode in our mini series on Maritime Sweden is a tour of Sweden's National Maritime Museum in Stockholm: Sjöhistoriska Museet. Listen in as Dr Sam Willis is guided around the museum by its curator, Jonas Hedberg. We hear about the founding of the purpose-built maritime museum in the 1930s; explore the extraordinary collection of ship mo…

1
The Vikings in Arab Lands 26:34

1+ y ago26:34

26:34

One of the most fascinating aspects of Viking history is their voyages east, to Arab lands. Vikings from the geographical area that would become Sweden played an important role in the creation of the political entity known as Rus, and some Scandinavians travelled by river to Arab lands, where they traded slaves for dirhams, and to Constantinople, w…

1
Swedish Naval Power 1500-present 26:38

1+ y ago26:38

26:38

This episode starts a new mini-series on the maritime history of Sweden, and we begin by exploring Sweden’s fascinating naval history over the last 500 years, and how Sweden’s modern defence thinking has been shaped by its past. Founded in 1522, the Swedish navy is one of the oldest continuous serving navies in the world and its complex history ref…

1
Nelson and the Walrus 15:04

1+ y ago15:04

15:04

A special episode which explores the young 16 year-old midshipman Horatio Nelson's exploits on the Phipps' expedition in search of a Northeast Passage in 1773, in which he fought off a walrus. The episode is linked to an ongoing project run by St Paul's Cathedral and the University of York '50 Monuments in 50 Voices' which showcases thought-provoki…

1
Great Maritime Innovations 2: Sea Charts 31:21

1+ y ago31:21

31:21

This episode looks at the fascinating history of sea charts, a subject crucial to the making of the modern world. The world took shape in our minds through the development of the sea chart, which in turn led to colonization, globalisation - a great mixing of the populations of the world that has created our diverse nations and complex history of to…

1
Great Maritime Innovations 1: The Stockless Anchor 27:08

1+ y ago27:08

27:08

This episode starts a new mini-series on maritime innovations, and we start with one of the most important: the stockless anchor. A Victorian innovation, the stockless anchor transformed seafaring, making it safer and simpler. The stockless anchor was a simple but clever design which presented many advantages over traditional anchors. Previous anch…

1
Freak Ships of the Nineteenth Century: SS Bessemer 33:18

1+ y ago33:18

33:18

This episode explores ss Bessemer (1874), known as the 'Swinging Saloon Ship.' An experimental cross-channel steamship, Bessemer was designed with a central saloon that moved on gymbals, to counteract the motion of the ship. It was designed to eliminate seasickness. The man behind the idea was the lifelong seasickness-sufferer Sir Henry Bessemer, a…

1
Filming The World's Best Ship Models: Stockholm 24:51

1+ y ago24:51

24:51

This episode looks at Llloyd’s Register Foundation’s new project Maritime Innovation in Miniature which is one of the most exciting maritime heritage projects of recent years and a leader in terms of innovation in the maritime heritage field. The aim of the project is to film the world’s best ship models. They are removed from their protective glas…

1
The Royal Navy at the time of the Great Fire of London 34:15

1+ y ago34:15

34:15

The 1660s were a time of great turmoil in England. In 1666 the great fire of London had destroyed much of the country’s capital and just a year earlier the great plague had killed a fifth of the city’s population. In amongst this chaos the new King, Charles II, recently restored to the throne after the English Civil War, began to build an extraordi…

1
Maritime Scarborough 26:11

1+ y ago26:11

26:11

This episode looks at the extraordinary maritime history of Scarborough, a port town on the UK's northeastern coast. Famed for its medieval herring fair that features in Simon and Garfunkel's 1960s version of the traditional English ballad 'Scarborough Fair' it has a lesser known but significant maritime history. Once one of the largest shipbuildin…

1
The Titanic Inquiry 5: Annie Robinson 12:34

1+ y ago12:34

12:34

In this the final episode of our dramatisation of witness testimony from the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry, we hear from Annie Robinson. Annie was a First Class Stewardess and one of only three women interviewed at the inquiry. She was asleep when Titanic collided with the iceberg - and this was the second time she had been on a vessel that …

1
The Titanic Inquiry 4: Charles Lightoller 39:53

1+ y ago39:53

39:53

We continue our dramatisation of witness testimony given at the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry into the Titanic disaster. Today we hear from Charles Lightoller, Titanic's second officer and the most senior officer to survive the disaster. Lightoller is a fascinating character. By the age of 21 he had survived a shipwreck, a cyclone and a ship…

1
Great Sea Fights 11: Leyte Gulf 29:55

1+ y ago29:55

29:55

The battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 was the largest naval encounter in history and the most decisive naval battle of the Pacific War. By its end the Japanese navy had been eliminated as an effective fighting force and resorted to using suicide attacks. The battle was a huge, sprawling affair - not one battle but in fact four separate naval bat…

1
Admiral Lord Nelson, Trafalgar and Heroic Death at Sea 46:45

1+ y ago46:45

46:45

On the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805 we look at a question that is central to the legend that grew up around the events of October 1805. How did a naval officer end up with a state funeral with no precedent for someone who was not a member of the Royal Family? How was death perceived in the Royal Navy of the Age of Sail and why did…

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