Posts by Admin
Grace Hopper: Computer Communicator (National History Day)
Tyler Kaus of Chadron Senior History School was honored in the History of Physical Sciences and Technology with his documentary entry titled, Grace Hopper: Computer Communicator. In an interview with local news in Chadron, NE, Tyler had this to say: “I was introduced to National History Day in 6th grade. It was an opportunity for…
Read MoreOfficers in the ‘Fishpond’ and their Roles in the Royal Navy of the Fisher Era 1904-1919
Henrikki Tikkanen Aalto University School of Business Abstract Admiral Sir John Fisher was the leading figure behind the considerable reforms that took place in the Royal Navy before and during the First World War. Britain was engaged in a costly naval arms race with Imperial Germany during the Fisher era of 1904-1919. The controversial admiral…
Read MoreA Question of Faith, A Matter of Tactics: The Royal Navy and the Washington Naval Agreement
At the conclusion of the Washington Conference in February 1922, statesmen had good reason to feel satisfied at their handiwork.[Those attending the conference included the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, Italy, China, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal with representatives from India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand attached to the British delegation.] A naval arms…
Read MoreU.S. Asiatic Fleet Submarines 1941-42: An Evaluation of Senior Leadership
There exists a misperception of submarines as self-sufficient hunters, prowling the seas and conducting their operations with little oversight, using only the cunning of their commanding officers and resourcefulness of their crews to perform their mission. But the reality is that despite the independent nature of their operations, American submarines in the Second World War,…
Read MoreView From the Quarterdeck: December 2022
The International Journal of Naval History is now in its third decade of publication. Dr. Gary Weir, the Founding Editor Emeritus, recognized the potential for digital scholarship in the historical profession ahead of many contemporaries. The IJNH remains as he originally conceived it: a digital journal intended to be a naval history forum designed to…
Read MoreVolume 17, No. 1: About the Authors
Jim Ransom U.S. Asiatic Fleet Submarines 1941-42: An Evaluation of Senior Leadership
Read MoreValor and Courage: The Story of the USS Block Island Escort Carriers in World War II
“For the 957 sailors on board, the two German torpedoes with 660 pounds of explosives slamming Block Island caught them in a range of activities including showering, cooking meals, and doing laundry…..immediately heading for the bridge (Captain) Hughes witnessed visible damage, ‘en route I noticed the port side of the flight deck curled back about…
Read MoreSmall Boats and Daring Men Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy
Benjamin Armstrong’s Small Boats and Daring Men provides a fascinating account of an often-overlooked aspect of naval history. Armstrong, a Navy Commander and Associate Professor at the US Naval Academy, has already written extensively on naval history and that clearly helped lead to this refined book on naval irregular warfare. With eight compelling and well-researched…
Read MoreMahan, Corbett, and the Foundations of Naval Strategic Thought
Those writing on naval affairs will ever be indebted to Alfred Thayer Mahan and Julian Corbett, if not the first to put pen to paper and write about navies, then they remain of the first rank of those still cited owing to their breadth of treatment, originality of thought, and continuing influence. More than historians,…
Read MoreLethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II
On Mary Sears’ eightieth birthday one of the grandfathers of American oceanography, Scripps’ director Roger Revelle, described her as a “force of nature.” In my own research as an historian of American oceanography I once discovered a letter written by the Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Columbus Iselin, that referred to her…
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