Most Recent Articles
‘The Best Books To Change Your Ideas on the Napoleonic Wars’, five key books selected by Roger for Shepherd.com (2023): Link
'Funding War: Britain' in Alan Forrest, Bruno Colson and Alexander Mikaberidze (eds) 'The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars' Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023) pp. 291-308, 696-697).
‘British North Atlantic Convoys, 1812-14, and the subsequent rejection of the convoy system’ in eds. Paul Kennedy and Evan Wilson, ‘Navies in Multipolar Worlds: From the Age of Sail to the Present’ (Routledge, 2021) pp. 47-61
‘The Achievement and Cost of the British Convoy System, 1803-1815’, in David Morgan-Owen and Louis Halewood (eds.) ‘Economic Warfare and the Sea: Grand Strategies for Maritime Powers, 1650-1945’ (Liverpool University Press, 2020) pp. 121-136
See also a chronological list of Articles below.
Published Research on Naval and Maritime History
Guide to Manuscripts in the National Maritime Museum ed. (Mansell, London, 2 vols, 1977, 1980)
(with Alan Frost) The Journal of Daniel Paine, 1794-1797 (Sydney, New South Wales, 1983)
Portsmouth Dockyard Papers 1774-1783: The American War (ed.) (Portsmouth, 1987)
(joint editor) Part V, 1714-1815’, pp.315-559 of British Naval Documents, 1204-1960 (Centenary volume of the Navy Records Society, 1993)
Shipbuilding Timber for the British Navy: Parliamentary Papers, 1729-1792 ed.(Delmar, New York, 1993)
Articles
Many of these early articles are now difficult to obtain, thus provision has been made here for printable versions of seven of the articles for students and specialists.
‘Sandwich, Middleton and Dockyard Appointments’, Mariner’s Mirror, LVII, 1971, pp.175-192
Sandwich, Middleton and Dockyard Appointments (10 pages)‘The administration of the Royal Dockyards in England, 1770-1790’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XLV, 1972, pp. 148-150 (summary of the Julian Corbett Prize Essay, 1970)
‘The Introduction of Copper Sheathing into the Royal Navy, 1779-1786’, Mariner’s Mirror, LIX, 1973, pp.299-309: also reprinted in Richard Harding ed. Naval History, 1680-1850 (Aldershot, Hants, 2007) pp. 481-491
The Introduction of Copper Sheathing into the Royal Navy (11 pages)‘The Performance of the Royal Dockyards in England during the American War of Independence in The American Revolution and the Sea: the proceedings of the 14th Conference of the International Commission for Maritime History (1974), pp.139-144
‘Pilfering and Theft from the Dockyards at the time of the American War of Independence’, Mariner’s Mirror, LXI, 1975, pp. 215-225
Pilfering and Theft from the Dockyards (11 pages)‘Early attempts at Lead and Copper Sheathing’, Mariner’s Mirror, LXII, 1976, pp.292-4
Documents relating to the American Revolution, 1775-1783, in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (EP Microfilm, accompanying pamphlet, 1977)
‘Civilians and the Navy, 1660-1832’ in Sea Studies: essays in honour of Basil Greenhill, CB, CMG, on the occasion of his retirement (Greenwich, 1983) pp.63-70
‘Henry Duncan’ in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol.V (Toronto, 1983) pp. 280-281
‘The Building and Maintenance of the British Fleet during the Anglo-French Wars, 1688-1815’, in Martine Acerra, Jose Merino and Jean Meyer (eds.) Les Marines de guerre europeenes, XVII-XVIIIe (Paris, 1985) pp.35-50
Building and Maintenance of the British Fleet (17 pages)‘New England Forest and British Seapower: Albion Revisited’, American Neptune, XLVI, 1986, pp.221-9
New England Forests and British Seapower (10 pages)‘The First Fleet: its State and Preparation, 1786-1787’ in John Hardy and Alan Frost eds., Studies from Terra Australis to Australia (Canberra, 1989) pp.121-136, 256-262
‘Displaying Records and Artefacts: the Problem of the First Fleet’ in John Hardy and Alan Frost eds. European Voyaging towards Australia (Canberra, 1990) pp.163-167
‘The Royal Navy’s Recovery after the Early Phase of the American Revolutionary War’ in George J. Andreopoulos and Harold E. Selesky, The Aftermath of Defeat: Societies, Armed Forces & the Challenge of Recovery (New Haven, Conn.1994) pp.10-25, 160-162
The Royal Navy’s Recovery (20 pages)‘The Atlantic Economies before 1800’; ‘Changing Technologies and Materials’; ‘The Convulsion of Europe’: ‘The Naval Conflict during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars’; ‘The Last Years of Sail’ in John Hattendorf ed. Maritime History, vol 2: The Eighteenth Century and the Classic Age of Sail (Malabar, Florida, 1997) pp.213-273
‘Surfing the Sources: Plugging into British Naval History in the 1990s’ in William B. Cogar ed. New Interpretations in Naval History: selected papers from the Twelfth Naval History Symposium (Annapolis, Maryland, 1997) pp. 191-201
‘Thirty Years Later’, chapter in Kevin Littlewood and Beverley Butler, Of Ships and Stars: Maritime Heritage and the Founding of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (London, 1998) pp.194-199
‘From Impressment to task work: strikes and disruption in the Royal Dockyards 1688-1788’ in Kenneth Lunn and Ann Day, History of Work and Labour Relations in the Royal Dockyards (1999), pp.1-20
‘John Lort Stokes and the New Zealand Survey, 1848-1851’ in Alan Frost and Jane Samson, Pacific Empires: Essays in Honour of Glyndwr Williams (Melbourne, 1999) pp.87-99
Tributes to Terence Thornton Lewin: Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Lewin of Greenwich (Record of the Memorial Service: Greenwich, 2000)
‘Richard, Earl Howe, 1726-1729: a scientific officer’ in Peter Lefevre and Richard Harding eds. Precursors of Nelson: British Admirals of the Eighteenth Century (London, 2000) pp.278-299
‘Devil Bolts and Deception?’ wartime naval shipbuilding in private shipyards, 1739-1815’, Journal of Maritime Research, April 2003, 20pp
Nine entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004): Admiral Lord Howe; Admiral Sir Roger Curtis; Admiral James Gambier; Admiral Sir Francis Geary; Captain Sir Andrew Snape Hamond; Admiral Sir Edward Hughes; Admiral Sir Thomas Pye; Admiral Sir Charles Saunders; Sir Philip Stephens
‘The Fleets at Trafalgar: the Margin of Superiority’ in David Cannadine ed. Trafalgar in History (Basingstoke, Hants. 2007) pp.61-77
Four entries in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History ed. John Hattendorf (Oxford, 2007) ‘Richard Howe’ vol.2, pp.158-159, Naval Dockyards and Bases, vol.2, pp.662-669’; Shipbuilding Materials: Naval Stores Trade’, vol. 3, pp.588-589; ‘Naval Shipyards’vol. 3, pp.710-715
‘Apoyo logistico britanico a los bloqueos navales y operaciones anfibias, 1793-1815’ [British Logistical Support for Blockade and Amphibious Operations, 1793-1815] in Agustin Guimera Ravina and Jose Maria Blanco Nunez eds. Guerra Naval en la Revolucion y el Imperio (Madrid, 2008) pp.99-119
‘The Entangled Fortunes of the Marsh and Towry families, 1755-1808’, The Trafalgar Chronicle, 20, 2010, pp.49-57
‘Changing the Agenda: the new naval history of the British sailing navy’, Mariner’s Mirror, 97, 2011, pp. 225-242
(with Nigel Rigby) ‘Two Decades of National Maritime Museum Fellowships’, Mariner’s Mirror, 97, 2011, pp.79-80
‘The Spending and Accounting Performance of the British Victualling Board, 1793-1815’ in Stephen Conway and Rafael Torres Sanchez eds. The Spending of States: Military expenditure during the long eighteenth century: patterns, organisation, and consequences, 1650-1815 (Saarbrucken, Germany, 2011) pp.181-200
‘Michael Duffy: an Appreciation’ in Helen Doe and Richard Harding eds. Naval Leadership and Management, 1650-1950 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2012) pp.1-9
‘War, Government and the Market: The Direction of the Debate on the British Contractor State, c. 1740-1815’ in Richard Harding and Sergio Solbes eds. The Contractor State and its Implications, 1659-1815 (Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, 2012) pp.175-198
'British Defensive Strategy at Sea in the War against Napoleon' in N.A.M. Rodger, J. Ross Dancy, Benjamin Darnell and Evan Wilson (eds.) Strategy and the Sea: Essays in Honour of John B. Hattendorf (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2016) pp. 88-97
‘The Battle for Control of the Royal Navy, 1801-1835’ Global Maritime History website, 2019
Reviews
Times Literary Supplement, Journal of Modern History, International Journal of Maritime History, Mariner’s Mirror, Trafalgar Chronicle, Journal of Military History, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies