Student and Research Prizes

Are you a student working on maritime history? Apply for our Undergraduate and Postgraduate prizes.

New Researchers Conference

Research degree students and independent scholars are warmly encouraged to share their work at our annual New Researchers Conference.

Conference Programme for New Researchers 2026 Announced!

Posted: Wednesday 25th March 2026

Conference Programme for New Researchers 2026 Announced!

 

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 Provisional Conference Programme

Details on previous years canbe found here.