The Mariner's Mirror Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Mariner's Mirror Podcast

The Society for Nautical Research and the Lloyds Register Foundation

History

Education

Music

Frequency: 1 episode/7d. Total Eps: 224

The world's No.1 podcast dedicated to all of maritime and naval history. With one foot in the present and one in the past we bring you the most exciting and interesting current maritime projects worldwide: including excavations of shipwrecks, the restoration of historic ships, sailing classic yachts and tall ships, unprecedented behind the scenes access to exhibitions, museums and archives worldwide, primary sources and accounts that bring the maritime past alive as never before. From the Society for Nautical Research, and the Lloyds Register Foundation. Presented by Dr Sam Willis.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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🇬🇧 Great Britain - history
13/01/2025
#88

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https://sam-willis.com/
113 shares
https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/
3 shares
https://www.navyrecords.org.uk/
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Score global : 48%

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Kidnapped at Sea

Thursday, January 9, 2025 • Duration 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 promotion. Life has different plans for him however. When war breaks out he finds himself crossing paths with the USS Alabama, a confederate commerce raider of immense power blazing a path of success. White’s ship is taken and he also is taken and forced to work on the confederate warship, captained by Raphael Semmes.

White works on board until his fate is sealed in battle and the Alabama sunk. Semmes survives but White does not. He drowns. After the war Semmes writes his memoirs which paint the world in which White lived and died a very different way to how it appeared in reality.

It's a story of the life and tragic death of a disempowered black boy, of an entitled racist naval officer, and of the profound and lasting power of written propaganda. After listening to this podcast you will burn with the light of the true historian, and never believe anything you read again without checking who wrote it, and more importantly WHY.

To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Andrew Sillen, author of the new book that unpicks this remarkable tale in the finest detail: Kidnapped at Sea.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Secrets of the Great Ocean Liners

Thursday, January 2, 2025 • Duration 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 Franconia eastbound to the UK, and RMS Queen Elizabeth back westbound to America. Shortly after that he came across five souvenir ocean liner lapel pins at a Sunday morning antiques fair and from that moment on his career as a collector began. What started with lapel pins and then souvenir spoons and napkin rings soon moved onto ephemera - printed bits and pieces relating to everyday life on board ship - a crucial source of historic material that helps us reconstruct the lived experience of those aboard, both passengers and crew. That collection, which includes posters, tickets, brochures, sailing schedules, letters written on board, passenger lists, menus, advertising material (the list really is endless) – is now held in the John Johnson collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and to illustrate it John has written a fabulous new book: Secrets of the Great Ocean Liners.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Spice Ports: Mapping the Origins of Global Sea Trade

Monday, September 16, 2024 • Duration 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, London, Amsterdam and Venice, with Goa, Bombay, Malacca and Jakarta - and through those ports the Arab world and China.

To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Nicholas Nugent. Nicholas spent his career as a journalist with the BBC World Service and his spare time collecting a valuable archive of original maps, developing a passion for how the growth of the spice ports helped spread the exchange of global culture between east and west. His magnificent book, The Spice Ports: Mapping the Origins of the Global Sea Trade published by the British Library is out now.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Tuesday, August 30, 2022 • Duration 38:34

This is the first of two episodes dedicated to that magical piece of prose so beloved by all with an interest in the sea – Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, first published in 1798. Many know of it, some have read it but few people have actually heard it in full, and listening to this masterpiece is the best way of appreciating its full maritime and supernatural glory.

This episode therefore presents The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in full. It is also a traditionally masculine poem, written by a man and usually read or performed by a man, usually an English man – so to help appreciate this story through a different lens, the story is read today by the wonderfully talented Elaine Kingston – who you are soon to discover, is a Scottish Woman. To bring the story to life we have also commissioned the multi-talented composer Jamie Whyte to create an original work that combines music and sound effects. The combination of Elaine's reading and Jamie's soundscape creates a dramatic new interpretation of this poem.

Coleridge’s story begins at a wedding party where a man is accosted by a grizzly old sailor, beady of eye, who begins to unravel his own history. We hear how he sailed from his home harbour south, and is trapped in ice at the South Pole. They manage to break free and the sailors credit their salvation to an albatross; but the mariner then shoots the bird with a crossbow. Although, initially, it seems like a good move for these superstitious folk, things start to go horribly wrong and the murderer of the albatross is blamed. The sailor is forced to hang the carcass round his neck and over time becomes more appreciative of the natural world - which redeems him.

The text is dramatic and haunting and Coleridge explores numerous themes and sub-themes. It defies any single interpretation but you will certainly hear themes of retribution, punishment, guilt, curse and fear.

Part 2 of this episode features an interview with Professor John Spicer, Professor of Marine Zoology at the School of Biological & Marine Sciences at the University of Plymouth, who believes that the poem could teach us a lesson or two about the way we treat our environment today.

The Golden Age of Piracy

Wednesday, August 24, 2022 • Duration 39:13

Scholars debate the period when pirates actually ruled the waves - and the answer certainly depends on the location in question - but by general consensus it was all over by 1730 and it had begun some 80 years earlier, around 1650. The Golden Age of Piracy had been born in this crucial period when European maritime powers were flexing their muscles and starting to project naval power beyond the horizon. As empires grew so did the quantity and quality of trade and the seas became littered with merchantmen carrying indescribable wealth across the oceans. And yet this was a time when the maritime geographies of the new empires was imperfectly known, and when navigation was still as much guesswork as it was a science - this was the period immediately before the means to calculate longitude accurately had been discovered. The result was that ships carried this trade at predictable times of year, on predictable routes, in locations that were impossible to police adequately. Although European naval powers did create naval bases in the tropics, it was a slow process and one with many pitfalls. At the same time thousands of young men were learning how to sail and how to fight in a near endless series of maritime wars. The result? A period of piracy so intense and colourful that it still lives on today in myth, legend, and increasingly detailed and accurate histories. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with pirate historian Dr Jamie Goodall.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Maritime Disasters: Vasa

Wednesday, August 10, 2022 • Duration 35:45

Our mini-series on Maritime Disasters continues with the Vasa, the mighty flagship of the Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus. Built between 1626 and 1628 Vasa was the pinnacle of Swedish artistic and scientific achievement. She was the most sophisticated warship ever built in Sweden, built at a time when Swedish seapower was on the rise. By the mid 1620s Sweden had become a major player in the naval and maritime make up of northern Europe and Gustavus Adolphus had established himself as a king with muscle and intent. Thousands came to the waterside in Stockholm to watch the maiden voyage of this most prestigious ship, and thousands watched in disbelief as she rolled over and sank. Salvaged in 1961 with all of her secrets intact Vasa is now one of the world's most important museum ships and a time-capsule of seventeenth century maritime and royal power. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr Fred Hocker, Director of Research at the Vasa museum in Stockholm.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Maritime Disasters: HMS Guardian

Tuesday, August 2, 2022 • Duration 41:09

Our Maritime Disasters mini series continues with the shocking, and scarcely believable tale, of HMS Guardian. In 1789 this 44-gun 2-decked ship of the Royal Navy was sent to the British colony in Australia under the guidance of the brilliant Captain Edward Riou. She was chock-full of convicts, livestock and provisions for the colony when she left England, and then re-stocked with provisions when the half-way point was safely reached at the Cape of Good Hope. Water was always a problem on such long journeys and any captain took advantage of a source of fresh water whenever it was discovered. Icebergs were such a source of fresh water, but approaching them was always fraught with danger, especially in the Atlantic hundreds of miles off the coast of South Africa when the weather could suddenly change....what happened next has been described as 'almost without parallel' in all of maritime history.

To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Dr Margaret Schotte, professor of Early Modern History in York's Department of History whose book Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 investigates how early modern sailors developed mathematical and technical expertise in the age of exploration and the print revolution - expertise that helped people like Edward Riou cope if it just so happened that their ship was horrendously damaged by an iceberg miles from home....

This episode includes a rendition of the song "The Forecastle Sailor, Or The Guardian Frigate" by the historian Seb Falk, most likely the first ever recording of the song.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The H.L. Hunley

Sunday, July 31, 2022 • Duration 43:20

Our maritime disasters series continues with the anniversary of the first successful underwater trials in 1863 of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley.

Shortly after the Hunley’s first trials in late July 1863 she sank during another test run, killing five of her eight crew. She was raised but then sank again in October killing all eight of her crew including Horace Hunley, the vessel’s designer, before sinking for the last time in 1864, again killing all of her crew.

The story of the Hunley is remarkable - it’s one of those stories that you can return to time and again. The early submarine pioneers were exploring an environment as dangerous as the early space pioneers and did so willingly.

Why did these people willingly get inside an iron tube that was built to operate underwater at a time when the science of operating vessels underwater was not properly understood? Why did they continue to do so when the vessel repeatedly demonstrated it was dangerous?

To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Michael Scafuri, senior archaeologist at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston South Carolina, today the home of the Hunley, as she was raised from the depths in 2000 with all of her secrets perfectly preserved.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Wreck of the Andrea Doria Part 3: The Wreck

Tuesday, July 26, 2022 • Duration 32:39

We continue our mini series on maritime disasters with the third part of our episode on the wreck of the magnificent Italian passenger liner the Andrea Doria. Launched in 1953 as a means to rebuild Italy's reputation and status on the world stage after the Second World War she enjoyed a splendid career for just three years before she sank in 1956 after a horrific collision off the coast of Massachusetts.To find out more about the wreck of the vessel itself Dr Sam Willis spoke with the underwater explorer John Moyer who has has dived over 120 times on the Andrea Doria wreck, one of the most dangerous wrecks in the world.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Wreck of the Andrea Doria Part 2: The Eyewitness Accounts

Monday, July 25, 2022 • Duration 54:20

This episode continues our mini series on maritime disasters and our investigation into the wreck, in the summer of 1956, of the Italian passenger liner, Andrea Doria. This episode includes eyewitness accounts from Linda Hardberger and Mike Stoller. Linda is now 80 and lives in San Antonio Texas – she has been a teacher, librarian, museum curator and is a mother and in spite of her terrible experience on the Andrea Doria has been boating for 40 years. Mike Stoller is now 89, lives in California and is one half of the songwriting team Lieber and Stoller – who wrote, among many other hits, Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock and Stand by Me. The Andrea Doria was built in the 1950s, born from Italy’s bruised pride after the Second World War, and seen as a way to put Italy back on the map as a major player in the world of transatlantic travel. She became a hugely important ship for the Italian nation, a true icon of Italian culture and history. Launched in 1953 to great fanfare and fitted with the most exquisite Italian art, she enjoyed a successful career – though cut far too short by the events of July 1956.

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The Mariner's Mirror Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Mariner's Mirror Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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Youtube7

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

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Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other65

Youtube7

Amazon9