Masters Prize Winner 2024 announced
Posted: Friday 14th March 2025
British Commission for Maritime History (BCMH) are pleased to announce the Maritime History Prize 2024 session has been awarded to Kit Barton (University of Plymouth) for their thesis Sailmakers in British Naval Dockyards at the Turn of the 18th Century.
The applications for the Masters award in 2024 have again demonstrated the quality and variety of research into maritime history. The richness of subject, method and primary data employed give good reason for believing that the maritime history is expanding its horizons in more ways that one. With this variety, and consistency of quality, selecting the winner was, as always, a difficult task.
Sailmakers constituted a small percentage of the artisans employed in naval dockyards, working in the sail lofts and sometimes at sea. Kit Barton’s study, focusing principally on Plymouth, explores the working spaces, social status, work patterns and impact of these neglected artisans. The study uses the important archival materials, highlights the contribution the study of these workers can make to related subjects and the opportunities there are for further research in the subject.
Highly Commended
The following dissertations, which demonstrate the high quality of handling evidence and sensitivity to methods of analysis, are highly commended by the panel:-
Xander King, What Do We Do With the Commingled Sailors? Investigating Disarticulated and Commingled Skeletal Remains as An Under-Utilised Source of Information. Bournemouth University
Alexander Massetti, ‘Not a Happy Time at All’?: Feelings of Disgruntlement, Contentment & Pride in the German Navy, 1939-43. University of Leeds
Find out more about BCMH prizes here. Prizes & Fellowships : British Commission for Maritime History
