Port Towns and Urban Cultures Conference Report
Better late than never, a wee report from the Port Towns and Urban Cultures conference. Needless to say we had a whale of a time! It was the first time that I'd been to Portsmouth so the night we arrived nodbear gave me a grand tour of the historic landmarks around the town, culminating with dinner at Gunwharf Quay. The weather was glorious and it was a perfect evening, though the less said about nodbear's short cuts the better ;)
The conference itself ran for three days and was organised by the University of Portsmouth and the National Museum of the Royal Navy. We were lucky enough to present on the first day in the Princess Royal Gallery of the NMRN, which overlooks the Victory. Of course the view was stunning but it was the roof beams that were distracting me, the whole gallery is constructed from massive ships timbers and I couldn't help wondering which ships they had come from and what action they had seen. Our presentation went very well, we got several interesting questions, including one we couldn't answer* and lots of people spoke to us afterwards to say how interested they were in our research and how much they'd enjoyed the presentation. We were also rather chuffed that two people spotted the Hornblower connection and said how much they'd loved the tv series! :D Isaac Land gave an interesting keynote asking “Are Port Towns Transnational?” and, although I didn’t agree with all his hypotheses, his presentation left us with lots to think about, which is exactly what you want from a keynote.
Princes Royal Gallery, NMRN
The first day of the conference culminated with dinner aboard Victory which was just fabulous. We had drinks on the forecastle in glorious sunshine and were then led down to the lower gun deck for dinner. nodbear got her very own navyboy to escort her through the ship! Jealous? Moi?! ;) Although parts of the ship were closed, we had the lower gun deck all to ourselves, and it was great to be able to wonder around at leisure. I must admit though, it was rather unsettling to be sitting there enjoying dinner in a place that had once seen such terrible carnage. It definitely gave us pause for thought.
Dinner aboard HMS Victory
The second and third days of the conference were at the Royal Naval Club and Royal Albert Yacht Club, which is as delightful as you would imagine. We went to two panel sessions before ducking out to do some work on the paper we're presenting at the Recruiting the Royal Navy conference later in September. All the papers we heard were excellent, barring one which was poorly presented, and the range of topics was remarkable. The focus of the event was very much maritime communities, rather than naval history, and the presentations covered everything from the experiences of female dockyard workers and sailors wives, crime and disorder, the activities of waterfront preachers, the decline of the trawler industry, to companion animals at sea. It’s testimony to the quality of the presentations that we found ourselves riveted by papers on topics that we knew absolutely nothing about!
Presentations at the Royal Naval Club
All in all there were about 80 delegates from all over the world and it was noticeable that there was a really good gender balance of both speakers and delegates. Many of the delegates commented on how friendly and enjoyable the conference was and how it provided a really supportive environment in which to present their research. As one presenter remarked “All the questions were really helpful and no one was trying to score points.” Which is exactly as it should be! The final conference dinner was held at the Royal Naval Club, with drinks beforehand in the bar overlooking Portsmouth harbour. It was all rather idyllic really :)
Drinks at the Royal Naval Club
I'm really looking forward to going back to Portsmouth for the Recruiting the Royal Navy conference in early September though we're a bit apprehensive about this one as it will be our first "proper" naval history conference and we've been led to believe that they can be a bit tougher than nice fluffy interdisciplinary conferences like the Port Towns one :} Wish us luck!
*The question we couldn't answer was - how many naval officers served as cabinet ministers between 1790 and 1820? We know that about 100 served as members of parliament, but have no idea how many became cabinet ministers.
The conference itself ran for three days and was organised by the University of Portsmouth and the National Museum of the Royal Navy. We were lucky enough to present on the first day in the Princess Royal Gallery of the NMRN, which overlooks the Victory. Of course the view was stunning but it was the roof beams that were distracting me, the whole gallery is constructed from massive ships timbers and I couldn't help wondering which ships they had come from and what action they had seen. Our presentation went very well, we got several interesting questions, including one we couldn't answer* and lots of people spoke to us afterwards to say how interested they were in our research and how much they'd enjoyed the presentation. We were also rather chuffed that two people spotted the Hornblower connection and said how much they'd loved the tv series! :D Isaac Land gave an interesting keynote asking “Are Port Towns Transnational?” and, although I didn’t agree with all his hypotheses, his presentation left us with lots to think about, which is exactly what you want from a keynote.
Princes Royal Gallery, NMRN
The first day of the conference culminated with dinner aboard Victory which was just fabulous. We had drinks on the forecastle in glorious sunshine and were then led down to the lower gun deck for dinner. nodbear got her very own navyboy to escort her through the ship! Jealous? Moi?! ;) Although parts of the ship were closed, we had the lower gun deck all to ourselves, and it was great to be able to wonder around at leisure. I must admit though, it was rather unsettling to be sitting there enjoying dinner in a place that had once seen such terrible carnage. It definitely gave us pause for thought.
Dinner aboard HMS Victory
The second and third days of the conference were at the Royal Naval Club and Royal Albert Yacht Club, which is as delightful as you would imagine. We went to two panel sessions before ducking out to do some work on the paper we're presenting at the Recruiting the Royal Navy conference later in September. All the papers we heard were excellent, barring one which was poorly presented, and the range of topics was remarkable. The focus of the event was very much maritime communities, rather than naval history, and the presentations covered everything from the experiences of female dockyard workers and sailors wives, crime and disorder, the activities of waterfront preachers, the decline of the trawler industry, to companion animals at sea. It’s testimony to the quality of the presentations that we found ourselves riveted by papers on topics that we knew absolutely nothing about!
Presentations at the Royal Naval Club
All in all there were about 80 delegates from all over the world and it was noticeable that there was a really good gender balance of both speakers and delegates. Many of the delegates commented on how friendly and enjoyable the conference was and how it provided a really supportive environment in which to present their research. As one presenter remarked “All the questions were really helpful and no one was trying to score points.” Which is exactly as it should be! The final conference dinner was held at the Royal Naval Club, with drinks beforehand in the bar overlooking Portsmouth harbour. It was all rather idyllic really :)
Drinks at the Royal Naval Club
I'm really looking forward to going back to Portsmouth for the Recruiting the Royal Navy conference in early September though we're a bit apprehensive about this one as it will be our first "proper" naval history conference and we've been led to believe that they can be a bit tougher than nice fluffy interdisciplinary conferences like the Port Towns one :} Wish us luck!
*The question we couldn't answer was - how many naval officers served as cabinet ministers between 1790 and 1820? We know that about 100 served as members of parliament, but have no idea how many became cabinet ministers.