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One Hundred Years of British Naval Aviation

December 4th, 2008

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Just out, this eBook tells the story of British Naval Aviation, and a gripping story it is.

Fly Navy 100 will celebrate one hundred years of the Fleet Air Arm in May 2009.

The full story of British Naval Aviation starts during the Napoleonic Wars at the start of the Nineteenth Century.

Since 1908, the Royal Navy has fought a continuing battle to retain or regain control of naval aviation. Royal Navy aviators have been transfered into the Army’s Royal Flying Corps, then back under Admiralty service when the Royal Naval Air Service was formed one month before the outbreak of war in 1914, then transferred into the newly formed Royal Air Force in 1918, before returning to the Royal Navy in 1937 as the Fleet Air Arm.

The author has begun with the papers of Admiral Thomas Cockrane, followed the use of balloons and man-carrying kites, into the story of powered naval flight, two World Wars and a selection of other conflicts in which British Naval Aviation has played an important role. The author then continues on into the future with new carriers, supersonic STOVL fighters and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that are starting to take over roles from manned naval aircraft.

The eBook contains a great many images, including images that have never been seen by the public before.

Visit the eBookshop at: tinyurl.com/6p2zaq

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IMO chief makes direct appeal to Security Council for Somalia piracy action

November 22nd, 2008

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IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos has issued a call at the highest level for a coordinated and cohesive response, both internationally and nationally, to combat the scourge of piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Yesterday (20 November), in a personal briefing to the UN Security Council in the context of the latter’s consideration of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s report on the situation in Somalia, Secretary-General Mitropoulos told Security Council members about the scope and extent of the problem which, he said, was a matter of grave concern. He also outlined a series of actions the Security Council might consider taking to address the situation. In particular, he requested that the Security Council take appropriate action:

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“Vertical” round the world solo yachtsman to give fundraising talk for local RNLI lifeboats

November 11th, 2008

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Adrian aboard Barrabas off the Siberian coast

Date: 11/11/2008

Author: Adrian Don, Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer

Reference: Tynemouth 045 2008

Tynemouth and Cullercoats RNLI lifeboat stations are asking people to join us for an extraordinary event.

Adrian Flannigan, solo yachtsman, will re-live his adventures to raise funds to help keep our lifeboats saving lives at sea.

Adrian has a reputation for delivering a fascinating and lively talk, capturing his audience completely.

Adrian became the first person to complete a ‘Vertical Circumnavigation’ of the planet in 2008, having endured an epic 405 days of sailing and 31,000 lonely miles.

The event takes place on Friday 14 November 2008, from 6.30pm (start 7.30pm prompt) at South Tyneside College, St Georges Avenue, South Shields, NE34 6ET.
Tickets: £8 (adults; £5 (students / senior citizens); £10 (on the door)
TICKETLINE: 0191 266 1037 or 07703 323 086
Email: info@storrarmarine.co.uk or info@thepolarfront.com

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Over The Top

November 9th, 2008

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This is an inspiring story and it holds the reader from the first page.

Good books inform and entertain. This is a good book. The author is a writer who embarked on an extraordinary adventure. The result is a well-written book. The adventure was the first attempt to complete a vertical or bi-polar circumnavigation by sea. The idea took root while the author was a teenager. The events of life conspired to delay the adventure for three decades. Many have a dream, see it delayed and never pluck up the courage to make it happen. Flanagan sets the scene with a brief and readable background to his life before the adventure. The task he set himself was considerable. He had to acquire the necessary skills of seamanship, find and equip a suitable boat and then sail his dream. That would have been a serious challenge for a novice sailor, but he planned a course that would tax the most experienced yachtsmen. It involved sailing from the South Coast of England, down through the Atlantic, past the Falkland Islands, round Cape Horn against prevailing wind and currents, north through the Pacific to the Bering Strait and then along the Russian northern coast, round the top of Norway and down the North Sea to the English Channel and back to Southampton Water. The preparation was compressed into less than a year and the expedition was largely funded by mortgaging his home and using all his savings. The voyage was full of extreme tests, not least in obtaining the first permission from the Russian Government for a single-handed sailor to transit the Russian Northern Sea Route.

tinyurl.com/6zxsfx

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The Voyage of the Beagle

November 3rd, 2008

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This book is both a fascinating account of one of the events that changed the world, and fine art. The publisher has produced a handsome volume with printed linen covers and high quality paper. The work is lavishly illustrated with art, photographs, sketches, maps, facsimile extracts of newspapers and advertisements. The production standard is very high and the quality of illustration is to be expected of this publisher and of an author who was an auctioneer with Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers, Head of Victorian Paintings and a former curator of art. James Taylor has collected together for the first time all the threads of the story of Charles Darwin and the Voyage of HMS Beagle that was to change our view of the world. The text is readable and engaging, enriched by first-hand commentary from personal letters and diaries.

tinyurl.com/6y7wmp

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OVER THE TOP

October 23rd, 2008

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The First Lone Yachtsman to Sail Vertically Around The World

by Adrian Flanagan

Published in hardback by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on 6th November 2008, at £16.99

In May 2008, Adrian Flanagan made history when he completed the first ever single-handed ‘vertical’ circumnavigation of the world. Over The Top tells the story of this remarkable voyage.

In 1975, when Adrian Flanagan was 15, he read Sir Francis Chichester’s account of his record-breaking circumnavigation and a dream began to form. 30 years later, on 28th October 2005, Adrian set sail from England on his quest to voyage vertically around the earth by the most difficult route imaginable, via Cape Horn and the icebound waters of the Russian Arctic.

The challenges would test the limits of his endurance. Only a handful of solo sailors had ever rounded Cape Horn against the prevailing winds. The Russian government had never allowed a single-handed yachtsman to enter their territorial waters.

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BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF BRITISH NAVAL AVIATION

October 11th, 2008

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“One Hundred Years of British Naval Aviation”
Nighthawk Publishing, Available November 2008,
eBook, £9.99, ISBN 1-84280-118-X

The British Government has selected 2009 as the Official Centenary of the Fleet Air Arm. This is an arbitrary date that can be justified on the basis that the Naval Estimates for 1909 included funds for the construction of the ill-fated HM Airship No 1 “Mayfly”.

The real story of British naval aviation starts with papers written by the colourful Admiral Cochrane while still a Napoleonic War frigate captain. Later, RN observers during the American Civil War experienced balloon flight. By the close of the Nineteenth Century naval gunnery officers were regularly using Army balloons as observation platforms, spotting for naval guns landed in South Africa.