Founded in 1910, the Society initially encouraged research into seafaring, ship-building, the language and customs of the sea, and other items of nautical interest.[1]
The Society led a public appeal in 1922 to save HMS Victory and continues to support the ship today.
In 1922 the Society initiated a public appeal in the United Kingdom to raise funds to save Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship HMS Victory. Launched in 1765, the ship was in very poor condition by 1922.[7]Sir James Caird, and the Save The Victory Fund raised sufficient funds to secure HMS Victory in dry dock in Portsmouth and provide a permanent endowment for the ship.[8] The Society established The Victory Technical Committee to research preservation measures for the Victory and to conserved its artifacts in the new Victory Museum.[9]
The Society still supports HMS Victory by funding research into areas such as paint samples and wood marks.[11] Since 1922 the Society has provided over £1 million to the ship's upkeep.[12]
The National Maritime Museum
In 1913 the Society helped reorganise and rationalise the collection of the Royal Naval Museum in the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.[13] During World War I, the collection was dispersed for safekeeping.
In 1924 the Society catalogued and inventoried the collections. In 1925 during a meeting of the Society's Council, the concept of a National Maritime Museum was raised for the first time. The task of setting up a permanent home for the Admiralty's collection of ship models was given to a new Trust.[14]
In 1927 the Admiralty made an official announcement:
It having become necessary for a body of trustees to be appointed to take charge of the interests and property of the National Naval and Nautical Museum which is eventually to be accommodated in the Queen's House at Greenwich, The First Lord of the Admiralty has obtained consent of the following, Earl Stanhope DSO, Civil Lord of the Admiralty, Admiral Sir George P.W. Hope, Chairman of the Council of the Society for Nautical Research, Sir Lionel Earle KCB KCVO, Secretary of the Office of Works, Mr Roger C. Anderson, FS A, Member of the Council of the Society for Nautical Research, Prof Geoffrey Callender, FSA, Royal Naval College Greenwich.[15]
The Trust, which was largely staffed by officials of the Society, eventually created a home for the items, prints and drawings, including the Macpherson Collection, in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
The Macpherson Collection endowment fund
In 1927 The Society launched an appeal to raise £120,00 in order to save 11,000 maritime prints, drawings and paintings collected by yachtsman and collector Arthur Macpherson from being sold abroad.[16] Caird stepped in again and purchased the entire collection.[17]
This enabled the funds raised by public subscription to be used to establish the Macpherson Collection Endowment Fund, which purchases art, prints and drawings for the nation, which are held in the National Maritime Museum.[18] The Macpherson Collection Endowment Fund is administered by the Society.[19]
The Society supports new research by providing grants to students undertaking nautical research and seminars and conferences on maritime themes.[21] It also provides financial support to the annual conference for new researchers in maritime history.[22]
The Society presents three medals:
The annual Anderson Medal book award, named after founder and naval scholar Dr R. C. Anderson,[23]
The occasionally awarded Anderson Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Maritime History.[24]
and the Victory Medal, awarded to those who have displayed notable dedication in the conservation of a historic vessel.[25]
Since 2017 the Society has also organised its own conferences in partnership with other institutions. A recent example includes an event held in Bristol in 2019 with SS Great Britain and the Brunel Institute.
The Mariner's Mirror
TheMariner's Mirror is the Society's peer-reviewed quarterly journal. First published in 1911, the journal publishes original papers, articles, notes and book reviews on a wide range of topics relating to humankind's relationship with the sea, including archaeology, shipbuilding and design, historic vessels, naval tactics, administration and logistics, merchant seafaring, shiphandling and seamanship and other subjects of nautical interest.[26]
In 2016 the society instituted Fellowships (FSNR) to recognise members' contribution to its work. As of 1 November 2018 there were 43 Fellows of the Society.[30]
Other Activities
Beginning in 2010, the group began supporting the Alan Villiers Memorial Lecture.[31]In 2020 the Society launched a podcast covering all themes and periods of maritime history.[32]
↑ European Collections of Scientific Instruments, 1550-1750, Giorgio Strano, Stephen Johnston, Mara Miniati, Alison D. Morrison-Low, BRILL, 2009, 9047426177, p. 170
↑ "National Naval Museum", The Times, 9 June 1927.
↑ Of Ships and Stars: Maritime Heritage and the Founding of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Kevin Littlewood, Beverley Butler, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998, 0485121468, p. 78
↑ Sextants at Greenwich: A Catalogue of the Mariner's Quadrants, Mariner's Astrolabes, Cross-staffs, Backstaffs, Octants, Sextants, Quintants, Reflecting Circles and Artificial Horizons in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, W.F.J. Mörzer Bruyns, Richard Dunn, OUP Oxford, 2009, 0199532540, p. 72
↑ English/British Naval History to 1815: A Guide to the Literature Issue 15 of Bibliographies and indexes in military studies, Eugene L. Rasor, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, 0313305471, p. 385.
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Sir Francis Beaufort was an Irish hydrographer, creator of the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale, and naval officer.
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, it has no general admission charge; there are admission charges for most side-gallery temporary exhibitions, usually supplemented by many loaned works from other museums.
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is the UK's agency for providing hydrographic and marine geospatial data to mariners and maritime organisations across the world. The UKHO is a trading fund of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and is located in Taunton, Somerset, with a workforce of approximately 900 staff.
HMS Implacable was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was originally the French Navy's Téméraire-class ship of the line Duguay-Trouin, launched in 1800.
HMS Queen Charlotte was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1790 at Chatham. She was built to the draught of Royal George designed by Sir Edward Hunt, though with a modified armament.
HMS Royal James was a 102-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Anthony Deane at Portsmouth Dockyard at a cost of £24,000, and launched on 31 March 1671.
Sir Geoffrey Arthur Romaine Callender was an English naval historian and the first director of the National Maritime Museum from its opening in 1937 until his death in 1946.
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HMS Cormorant was an Osprey-class sloop launched at Chatham on 12 September 1877 and later the receiving ship at Gibraltar. She was renamed Rooke in 1946 and broken up in 1949.
HMS Penguin was an Osprey-class sloop. Launched in 1876, Penguin was operated by the Royal Navy from 1877 to 1881, then from 1886 to 1889. After being converted to a survey vessel, Penguin was recommissioned in 1890, and operated until 1908, when she was demasted and transferred to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Forces for use as a depot and training ship in Sydney Harbour. After this force became the Royal Australian Navy, the sloop was commissioned as HMAS Penguin in 1913. Penguin remained in naval service until 1924, when she was sold off and converted into a floating crane. The vessel survived until 1960, when she was broken up and burnt.
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759, and launched in 1765. With 245 years of service as of 2023, she is the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission.
Innes McCartney is a British nautical archaeologist and historian. He is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University in the UK.
HMS Briton was a Briton-class wooden screw corvette built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s.
Peter G Hore FRHistS naval officer, historian and obituarist, served a full career in the Royal Navy (1962-2000), spent ten years working in the cinema and television industry (2000-2009) and is a successful biographer and obituarist. One of his books, Habit of Victory, was the Daily Telegraph reader's choice and another book, Sydney, Cipher and Search was praised for its literary quality and depth of research and shortlisted for the Mountbatten Media Awards. His reasons for becoming an historian are published at British Naval History.
The Admiralty and Marine Affairs Office (1546–1707), previously known as the Admiralty Office (1414–1546), was a government department of the Kingdom of England, responsible for the Royal Navy. First established in 1414 when the offices of the separate Admiral of the North and West were abolished and their functions unified under a single centralised command, it was headed by the Lord High Admiral of England. The department existed until 1707 when England and Scotland united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, after which it was known as the British Admiralty.
Roger Charles Anderson was an independently-wealthy English maritime historian, collector, and a leading figure in the early years of the Society for Nautical Research and of the Navy Records Society. Four times editor of the Mariner's Mirror, Anderson was also a founder trustee, and later chairman of the board of trustees, of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and held the higher Doctor of Letters degree. In 2005, the Swedish naval historian Jan Glete characterised Anderson as "one of the most important naval historians of the twentieth century. He mainly wrote about early modern warship technology and used his linguistic skills to write books and essays based on the literature from several countries."
David Bonner-Smith, historian of the Royal Navy, served as Admiralty Librarian from March 1932 until May 1950.
The Commander-in-Chief, Devonport, was a senior Royal Navy appointment first established in 1845. The office holder was the Port Admiral responsible for the command and administration of the Devonport Station. The appointment continued until 1900 when the Devonport Station was renamed back to the Plymouth Station and this title in name was abolished.
David Watkin Waters was a British naval officer, historian of navigation, and naval historian, who served as deputy director of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 1971–1978.
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