Conference Programme for New Researchers 2026 Announced!

Posted: Wednesday 25th March 2026

 

Event Date: 17 & 18 April 2026

Location: University of Southampton, Avenue Campus

Organisers: British Commission for Maritime History

The British Commission for Maritime History (BCMH), in association with the University of Southampton, warmly invite you to the thirty-first Conference for New Researchers. The event is generously supported by the Society for Nautical Research to help emerging scholars who wish to share their work in a supportive environment and build relations with other maritime historians. 

The day will include talks from a range of postgraduate students and independent scholars.

Please Register via Eventbrite

 

Friday 17th April

17:30  Registration

18:00  Welcome - Dr Helen Doe Chair, BCMH & Prof Helen Farr, University of Southampton

18:15 Keynote Lecture - Professor Craig Lambert - ‘From Ships to Systems: Rethinking Maritime Britain, c.1550-c.1650’

Followed by a reception

Saturday 18 April

9:00 Welcome & Registration

9:30 – 10:45 Session One

Ranald Lindsay 'Practising Taranto: How the Royal Navy developed the air attack on a fleet in harbour'

Claire Smith 'Censoring naval mail in Word War II: beyond intrusion and control'

Lucas Radford 'How the Navy made its bed: From Procurement to Production of Hammocks in the Early Eighteenth-Century Royal Navy'

10.45-11.15 Coffee

11.15 -12.30 Session Two

Jenny Wittamore 'Looking back to move forward: mobilising cultural heritage in the UK marine fishing industry'

Suzanne Hagarty 'Love, Loss and Fortitude: The Eyemouth Fishwives and the Berwickshire Fishing Disaster of 1881'

Rebecca Wilkieson 'Maritime Scotland and the Transatlantic Trade: the development of Scotland’s maritime infrastructure through the transatlantic trade, 1690-1750'

12.30-13:30 Lunch

13:30 Presentation of Awards

13:45 to 14.45 Session Three

Kevin Elsby 'Natural History and Health on the ‘magnetic crusade’ – the British Antarctic Expedition 1839 – 1843'

Felix Pedrotti 'Lines of Discovery: Digital Twins, Polar Archives, and the Evolution of RRS Discovery'

Nicola Johnson 'Titanic Myths: What the Records Really Reveal'

14.45 to 15.15 Tea

15.15 to 16.30 Session Four

Stephanie Rickson 'The Reality and Myth of British Q-Ships in the First World War: A cultural re-evaluation of effectiveness, impact, and the role of memoirs, myth, and theatre in Britain’s First World War Q-Ship story'

Hans Hamilton Fairley 'An Investigation into the Loss of HMS M2, the Royal Navy's Only Aircraft-Carrying Submarine'

Samuel Johnson 'Looking back on Foresight: Elizabethan Naval Endeavours Viewed through the Construction and Career of a Notable Sailing Warship'

 

Find out more

Please Register via Eventbrite

There is an FAQs page on the Eventbrite page. 

Please direct any queries to newresearchers@maritimehistory.org.uk

Download Full Conference Programme

Details on previous years canbe found here.