Previous Masters Prize Winners

2022-23 - Emma Haddon (University of Portsmouth)

The Hulks of the Hamoaze: A Study of the Receiving Ships of Plymouth during the Napoleonic Wars.

The award of the prize this year was a difficult task, as the candidates represented both high quality of work and the rich diversity of subject that can be tackled in maritime history. Emma Haddon’s dissertation made a mature contribution to the contested subject of the manning of naval vessels during the Napoleonic War. The research was placed clearly in the context of the current debate The evidence was laid out and subjected to excellent analysis. The contribution the work makes to the debate and the additional lights it shed on the lives of those who came within the walls of the receiving gave it additional value.

2021-22 - Corey Watson (University of Plymouth)

Tales from the ‘Desolating Coast’: An exploration of the Narratives of the Naval Surgeon Peter Leonard on the Anti-Slavery Squadron, 1821-1832

Cory's dissertation uses the narratives of the naval surgeon, Peter Leonard, to uncover and understand attitudes towards sailors, empire, race, slavery and naval squadron life in the context of a West Africa. He uses up-to-date scholarship to consider the role of African mariners in the life of the squadron, and the impact on Europeans of encounters on land. The study situates Leonard’s writing within contemporary British attitudes to race, patriotism and abolitionism.