Can I just get this in under the wire for Halloween? Maybe if I'm quick :} Here's G.M. Woodward and Isaac Cruikshanks The Dance of Death Modernised which features, among other topical characters of the early 1800s, a one legged Jack Tar with whom Death is on very familiar terms...


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Now who do these two fine gentlemen remind me of...?


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I'm sure you are all the very epitome of sobriety and propriety, but just in case any of you did overindulge over the festive season, you might want to consider this stern warning published by the National Temperance League in 1890. This painfully worthy example of high Victorian doggerel was posted on the British Library's wonderful Untold Lives ( Read more... )

A little ballad for Halloween, from the Royal Museums Greenwich, dating from 1805.


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I don't think this is quite what Mr K had in mind when he asked Lord H to take Bartholomew for a walk! There'll be trouble when he finds out the old bugger has been promenading with Miss Chloe....


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Here's a scene that might have been familiar to Archie Kennedy - Drury Lane Theatre in the early 19th century. Actually this charming image is dated 1808, so sadly it's a little late for poor Archie, but I'm sure it would have been a familiar scene.


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The National Maritime Museum published a lovely blog post today as part of International Women's Day commemorating the wartime artist Gladys E. Reed. Reed joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) in 1943 and over the next two years, while serving in Liverpool and Birkenhead, she sketched her fellow WRNS at work and leisure. After the war, ( Read more... )

Since you were all so charmed with the portrait of Sir James Clark Ross (and lets face it, who wouldn't be?), here are a few more pictures of him. As you can see he remained a very striking man even in his later years. And like Cochrane, Ross was one of those iconic figures from the Age of Sail that lived long enough to be photographed.


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Now I've got time to catch breath, it's time for another picture of the midshipman's berth and there's a bit of a story to this one...


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One of the things I love about old books is that they sometimes come with old book plates attached. Last week I got a new addition to the collection courtesy of nodbear who tracked down a copy of Vivian Stuart and George T. Eggleston's His Majesty's Sloop of War Diamond Rock for me, which originally came from the Seafarer's Education Society and is inset ( Read more... )