Alessandro Farnese
(1545–92),Duke of Parma, soldier, and statesman, born in Rome on 27 August 1545, the son of Ottavio Farnese, duke of Parma, and Margaret of Austria. He accompanied his mother ...
argosy
In poetic and literary use, a large merchant ship, originally one from Ragusa or Venice. Recorded from the late 16th century, the word apparently comes from Italian Ragusea (nave) ‘(vessel of) ...
Battle of Trafalgar
(21 October 1805)A naval engagement between the combined French and Spanish fleets, and the British, fought off Cape Trafalgar near the Spanish port of Cadiz. After failing to lure the British fleet ...
bilboes
Long bars or bolts, with a padlock on the end, on which iron shackles could slide. They were used on board ship to confine the legs of prisoners in a similar manner to putting someone in the stocks. ...
coast defence
Has generally been the primary responsibility of navies, and fixed defence by land forces only a last resort. The debate over the merits of these two approaches has been acrimonious. ...
dukes of Medina Sidonia
Grandees of the oldest duchy of the kingdom of Spain, conferred by King Juan II in the 15th century. It is believed that this branch of the family was founded ...
East India Company
Incorporated on 31 December 1600, this joint-stock company established trading stations in India and the East Indies and served as the agent of British administration there. After the Indian Mutiny ...
fireship
Were a favourite weapon of the Chinese who used them from the earliest times, floating them downstream onto enemy ships. They liked to chain several together before setting them alight and letting ...
Francis Drake
(1540–1595),English seaman and circumnavigator. Drake was born in Tavistock, in Devon, England, probably in February or March 1540. He was the son of Edmund Drake, a shearer turned priest. ...
French Revolutionary Wars
(1792–1801).It is the deepest irony that the French Revolution, with its ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity, led to a quarter-century of bloody war. Although the revolutionaries who formed ...
galleass
A compromise between the oared galley and the galleon, in which oars were retained to provide free movement irrespective of the direction of the wind, although masts and sails were also carried. In ...
HMS Revenge
One of the best-known ship's names of the British Navy. The first of several ships called Revenge was made famous by Lord Tennyson's poem which tells of her last fight in 1591. She was a 34-gun ship ...
HMS Victory
The fifth warship in the British Navy to bear this name, the first being the flagship of Sir John Hawkins during the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. She was laid down at Chatham in 1759 as a ...
marine and underwater archaeology
Humankind's artefacts litter the seabed, partly as a result of mercantile and naval activities, but also because landscapes have become submerged. This submergence is not only the result of the sea ...
marine painting
Historically, at least up to the late 19th century when the camera became generally available as an instrument of record, the overall volume of marine painting, of whatever country of origin, remains ...
Netherlands revolt
(1567–1648),or Eighty Years War. The long struggle that eventually gave birth to the nationality called ‘Dutch’ in English is complicated by the fact that the identity itself did not ...
sailor
N. a person whose job it is to work as a member of the crew of a commercial or naval ship or boat, especially one who is below the rank of officer.[...]
singeing the King of Spain's beard
The contemporary English description of an operation against Cadiz in April 1587 by Sir Francis Drake. He commanded a naval squadron, which destroyed several Spanish ships and a vast quantity of ...
Sir John Hawkins
(1532–95),naval commander, who led expeditions in 1562, 1564, and 1567 to the West African and Spanish‐American coasts, slave‐trading and fighting the Spaniards, and published an account of his ...
Sir Martin Frobisher
(c. 1535–94).Although notable as an early English sea trader in west Africa and the eastern Mediterranean in the 1550s and later associated with Drake in the West Indies expedition of 1585–6 and the ...
