New Researchers in Maritime History Conference 2025

Welcome to the New Researchers in Maritime History Conference 2025! Join us for exciting discussions and presentations by up-and-coming scholars in the field of maritime history. The event will begin on Fri Apr 11 2025 at 14:30 with optional tours, followed by an opening keynote lecture in the evening at the Hull History Centre. Settle in for a full day of talks on Sat 12 April from 08:30. Don't miss this opportunity to learn about the latest research and network with fellow enthusiasts.

This annual conference welcomes emerging scholars who wish to share their work in a supportive environment and build relations with other maritime historians. This year, the British Commission for Maritime History (BCMH), in association with the University of Hull, is delighted to invite you for the 30th conference for New Researchers, sponsored by the Society for Nautical Research.

Take the opportunity to explore Hull, a port-city that ranked as the third busiest commercial port in Britain, and one of Europe’s largest fishing harbours. Today, as well as continuing to engage in various sea-related activities, Hull is leveraging its significant maritime heritage, through the refurbishment of six historic sites and two preserved ships, to market itself as Yorkshire’s Maritime City. It therefore provides an inspiring location for a conference that focuses on the maritime dimensions of history.

14:30 and 15:30 free guided tours of Hull's maritime heritage depart from the History Centre, led by accredited local tour guide Dr Sam Wright.

16:45-17:30 Registration, Hull History Centre

17:30 Welcome: Dr Helen Doe (Chair, British Commission for Maritime History)

17:45: Keynote Lecture: Robb Robinson (University of Hull) - 'Interrogating a Ghost Ship of Grytviken.’

19:30: Evening - Conference Dinner at The Minerva, Nelson Street (not included in ticket price)

8:30 – 9:15: Registration

9:15: Conference Organisers Welcome, Dr Martin Wilcox (University of Hull)

9:30 – 10:45 SESSION ONE: MARITIME SPACE

Peter Wells (University of East Anglia), ‘“No Land Nor Ice in the Way”: Captain John Wood’s 1676 Search for the North-east Passage’.

Saanika Patnaik (Ashoka University), ‘Expelling Pirates, Acquiring Sovereignty: The East India Company at Malvan, 1765-1812’.

Matilda Sidel (University of Oxford), ‘Customary law of the sea seen through literature: 'Naufragios' and troubles at the coastline of Spanish America’.

10.45-11.15 Coffee

11.15 -12.30 SESSION TWO: MARITIME HISTORIES FROM BELOW

Eliška Bujkova (University of New Brunswick), ‘Bodies of labour and labouring bodies: colonial structures of care and bodywork in the British Atlantic c 1650 c 1780’.

Kit Barton (University of Exeter), ‘Reconstructing the World of the British Sailmakers; 1688-1714’.

Hannah Bradbury-Crowther University of Plymouth), ‘Examining the role of female contractors at Plymouth Dock, 1692-1763’.

12.30-13:30 Lunch

13:30 Presentation of awards

13:45 to 14.45 SESSION THREE: NEW NAVAL HISTORIES

Kieron Hoyle (Canterbury Christ Church University), ‘The Maison Dieu and the Narrow Seas’.

Dave Brooks (University of Hull), ‘Patronage and Capability in the British Royal Navy 1815-1870’.

Paul O’Donnell (Birkbeck College, University of London), ‘The Vegetarian Dreadnought: the ship that was built for Liberals’.

14.45 to 15.15 Tea

15.15 to 16.30 SESSION FOUR: FROM THE LOCAL TO THE NATIONAL

Jason Mazzocchi (Canterbury Christ Church University), ‘Faversham’s Maritime Community and Oyster Disputes in late Elizabethan and Early Jacobean Kent’

Tom Gayton (University of Exeter), ‘Paid “like drops of blood”: Popular Allegiance in Dorset’s Ports in the Early Seventeenth Century’

Sophia Bella Chapple, Johannes Rom Dahl, Cianna Devitt (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Marine Resource Use During Times of Adversity: A Mixed Methodological Approach to Studying 17th Century Scottish Adaptation’

16.30: Closing remarks

16.45: Conference ends

Find out more about BCMH here: Home : British Commission for Maritime History

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Hull History Centre, Worship Street, Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom