Description:
The first study of its kind. The book explores the rich, complex maritime inheritance of Cornwall on a national and international scale, considering the importance of the different historical periods from the medieval to the twentieth century.
Brief description: Philip Payton is Emeritus Professor of Cornish & Australian Studies in the University of Exeter and Professor of History at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. He served in the Royal Navy for thirty years, a dozen as a regular and the remainder as a reservist, retiring in the rank of Commander. He was inter alia Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and International Affairs at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 1989-91. Recent books include A.L. Rowse and Cornwall: A Paradoxical Patriot (2005, paperback 2007), Making Moonta: The Invention of Australia's Little Cornwall (2007), John Betjeman and Cornwall: 'The Celebrated Cornish Nationalist' (2010), and Regional Australia and the Great War: 'The Boys from Old Kio' (2012). Alston Kennerley served in the Merchant Navy as a navigating officer, having spent his first year in the four masted barque Passat. After qualifying as a master mariner, he pursued an academic career at Plymouth teaching navigation to generations of students taking cadet, mate and master courses, and maritime history to nautical undergraduates, while researching nautical education and seafarers' welfare for his research degrees. He retired from the University of Plymouth in 2000, the year he published The Making of the University of Plymouth, a history of tertiary education in south Devon since 1815. He has published extensively in academic journals such as History of Education and International Journal of Maritime History, mostly on topics of maritime social history. Helen Doe gained her PhD in Maritime History from the University of Exeter after an international career in marketing. She is a Fellow at the University of Exeter and her research interests are in the field of maritime business history and Cornish maritime history. She has published widely with articles in the Economic History Review, International Journal of Maritime History, the Journal of Transport History and the Mariner's Mirror. Her recent books are Enterprising Women in Shipping in the Nineteenth Century and From Coastal Sail to Global Shipping a history of a mutualmarine insurance club. She is co editor with Professor Richard Harding of Naval Leadership and Management, 1650-1950 published in 2011.
Review Quotes:
'There are some books which are a delight to hold, and to behold, even before one delves into their pages - and this is one of them. A pleasingly chunky volume, the front of the dust jacket features Joseph Southall's The Three Masted Schooner, his limpid and evocative 1919 marine landscape of a marine vessel at Fowey which sums up so many of the themes coverd within, such as maritime trade, coastal communities, and Cornwall's later promotion as a holiday destination. A well-chosen and effective pictorial overture!'
'Each part is prefaced by an admirable joint essay by the editors'
'This is a serious, substantial, yet readily readable volume, which comprises excellent essays by some of the UK's foremost maritime historians.'
(David Jenkins, The Mariner's Mirror 102.1, Feb 2016)
'[...] the book is handsomely produced and the editors are to be congratulated on a job well done.'
(James H. Thomas, Southern History 37, 2015)
'This hefty and handsome volume ...
'The editors are to be commended for pulling so many threads together in such a capable way, and their editorial contributions certainly make the volume much more coherent than is often the case with multi-author projects on this scale. The book sets some important standards for maritime-regional studies. It should be the first port of call for anyone interested in Cornwall's history (maritime or otherwise), as well as for scholars seeking examples of long-term change in societies at the frontier between land and sea.'
(Graeme J. Milne, The International Journal of Maritime History 27, 3 2015
'An impressive team of authors has been assembled, with a number of highly regarded scholars contributing chapters on their specialist subjects.' (Dr David J. Starkey, Maritime Historical Studies Centre, Hull)
'Occasionally a book is published that can truly be described as seminal.'
'The Maritime History of Cornwall [...] really does encapsulate 10,000 years of salty facts, figures, statistics, true stories, legends and anecdotes.'
'A handsomely illustrated volume of commissioned contributions from distinguished historians.' (Martin Hesp, Western Morning News, 19.11.14)
'It is very difficult to do justice to the wealth of research, writing and organisation that has clearly gone into the production of The Maritime History of Cornwall. Everything about it screams quality, from the paper and the layout of the text on the page to the green cloth binding and the now-rarely-seen matching cloth bookmark. One very minor quibble: it would have been better if the twenty eight colour illustrations were scattered throughout the text, rather than confined to a block between pages six and seven. That aside, this is as close to perfection as any publication gets!' (James Whetter, The Cornish Banner 159, February 2015)
'This is an important and very well produced books, profusely illustrated, including 28 colour plates, and with abundant maps, prints, photographs, tables and figures.'
'[...] they have taken pains to set the chapters of their work in context with five substantial, informative, wide-ranging introductions to the volume's component parts... These indeed have been the key to making the volume work so well.'
'[...] this is a quality production and a mine of knowledge presented in a readable and easily accessible way that those with an interest in the maritime history of the South West cannot afford to be without.' (Michael Duffy, South West Soundings 98, March 2015)