Wales and the Sea: 10,000 years of Welsh Maritime History

Mae'r llyfr hwn hefyd ar gael yn y Gymraeg: 
Cymru a’r Môr: 10,000 o flynyddoedd o Hanes y Môr

The most comprehensive study of Wales’ maritime history ever commissioned, taking over a decade to research and produce – sees publication this week. Entitled Wales and the Sea: 10,000 years of Welsh Maritime History, the volume delves into every aspect of Wales’ connection with the sea, from earliest history to the present day: from archaeology to paintings and poetry, from naval history to seaside holidays.

Contents

Foreword by The Right Honourable The Lord Elis-Thomas, PC, AM, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport in the Welsh Government

Introduction: People and the sea: a common inheritance

Chapter 1: Ships, sea and the imagination

• The art of Francis Place
• The architecture of the sea
• Seafaring in medieval legend
• Medieval poets at sea
• Ships fashioned and scratched
• Visual imagery
• Sailor' souvenirs
• Pioneers of photography and film
• Songs of the sea

Chapter 2: For those in peril: navigation and safety

• Medals for bravery
• A cut above the rest: the pilot cutter
• ‘And now for the shipping forecast…’
• Measuring, marking and timekeeping
• Seamarks, beacons and lighthouses
• A house fit for a lifeboat

Chapter 3: The sea’s rise and fall

• The West Coast Palaeolandscapes Project
• The evolution of the Menai Strait
• Molluscs, middens and fishing
• Seascapes characterisation
• Welsh floods

Chapter 4: Prehistoric and Roman boats

• The golden boat of Caergwrle
• Caldicot and Goldcliff
• Ships on coins in the Rogiet hoard
• Placing faith in divine aid
• The Barland’s Farm boat

Chapter 5: Roman conquest and trade

• Port facilities at Caerleon
• Late-Roman coastal defences
• Roman trade and transport

Chapter 6: Early medieval connections

• Documentary sources for early medieval seafaring
• Scandinavian coastal names
• A Viking ship that wasn't
• The Battle of the Menai Strait
• A victim of The Smalls reef

Chapter 7: The Middle Ages

• The medieval dock at Beaumaris Castle
• Rhuddlan Castle and the canalisation of the River Clwyd
• Flint: coastal fortress and centre of industry
• The ports and harbours of south-west Wales
• Two ships and their fates

Chapter 8: Coracles to carracks

• The Magor Pill ship: a medieval workhorse
• The Newport ship
• Slates in the sea
• Ships on seals
• Ships and faith
• The Bardsey handgun

Chapter 9: Maritime Wales in the Tudor period

• Tudor ship images
• A Tudor trader's house
• Port books and trade

Chapter 10: Merchant shipping in the modern age

• Centres of Welsh shipbuilding
• Coastal trade
• Distinctive small vessels: smacks, sloops, trows and flats
• The ‘Mersey flat’ and the North Wales coastal trade
• ‘Such store of fishe as pleased God to send’
• ‘Consider slavery’
• The 'Bronze Bell' wreck
• Ships that roofed the world
• The Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris boats
• The Pembrokeshire lime trade
• Coastal limekilns
• Shipping dynasties and local shareholders
• North American vessels in Welsh waters
• The coal trade
• Sarah and Primrose
• Trans-shipment from canal to ocean-going vessels
• Ballast spotting
• Cable ships
• Sand factories

Chapter 11: The lure of the sea

• The royal yacht Mary
• On pleasure bent…
• Packet services, ferries and pleasure steamers
• The Kathleen & May
• The Blue Riband
• A. M. Dickie & Sons

Chapter 12: Defending the coast of Wales

• Pembroke Dockyard: a great enterprise
• The last invasion of the British Isles
• Victory spoils: Napoleonic cannon in Wales
• Robert Seppings and HMS Conway
• Faded glories: training ships
• HMS Hamadryad
• The Resurgam submarine
• The H5 submarine
• Short Sunderland T9044: a unique survivor
• Saunders-Roe, of Beaumaris, Anglesey
• The Harlech Lightning
• The Royal Naval Patrol Service
• Ferro-concrete shipping
• Modern warfare

Chapter 13: Ships as microcosms

• A Roman sailors’ joke?
• Newport Ship carpenters’ marks
• Food on board
• Weapons on board
• The Ann Francis
• Finds from the royal yacht Mary
• The Royal Charter
• Life aboard the ‘Bronze Bell’

Chapter 14: A future for our underwater past

• Intertidal wrecks in Swansea Bay
• Wales’s maritime archaeological record
• The naming of ships
• Historic vessels afloat
• Magnificent flying machines
• Recording techniques
• The view from the air
• Documenting fishtraps
• Climate change
• Modelling the Newport ship
• Rescuing the Magor Pill hull
• Renewable energy
• Dredging for sand and gravel
• Waterfront regeneration; the Alice and the City of Ottawa
• Eroding coastlines

Chapter 15: Maritime heritage and the law

• Protection, marine archaeology and the law in Wales
• State-owned vessels and aircraft
• Salvage law
• Smugglers, wreckers and pirates
• Legendary smugglers
• The Ann Francis: wreck and aftermath
• Swallowing sands: the Dollar wreck

Chapter 16: Museums: access for all

• The Nautical Archaeology Society
• Archives as research sources
• Models and replicas

• Glossary
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Index