Undergraduate Prizes: 
Undergraduate Achievement in Maritime History

The British Commission awards a small number of £75 prizes each year for undergraduate dissertations in the broad field of maritime history. The Commission’s aims are to encourage students to pursue maritime questions in their final year research, and to reward the best of that work.

Subjects eligible for consideration reflect the Commission’s view of maritime history as a wide-ranging discipline. It includes topics such as shipping, seafaring, ports, seapower, maritime labour, coastal communities, trade, exploration, shipbuilding, navigation, and fishing, and embraces a wide range of political, economic, social, technological and cultural approaches.

Nominations must be made by Heads of Department or equivalent, and the closing date for entries is 1 August in each year. Final year dissertations awarded first class marks are eligible for consideration. Project work will also be considered where extensive use is made of primary evidence, and where the portfolio includes an extended piece of writing.

To make a nomination please complete the Undergraduate Prize Form and upload the necessary documents here.

Congratulations to our 2025 Prize Winners!

John C. Beiner  (University of Edinburgh), ‘An Emblem of the Dire and Destructive Effects of War’, Sentimentalising the War at Sea, c.1780-1800

Abi Cunningham  (University of York), Rethinking Barbary Piracy: Trade Networks and Political Entanglements, 1619-1625

Claire Lacaden  (University College London), ‘Echoes across the Waves’, Maritime Mobility as a Legacy of Connectivity in the Philippines

Arran Mitchell  (University of Durham), Coal, Infrastructure, and Development during the Industrial Revolution: A Study of Seaham, c.1820-1900

Felix Nunneley  (University of Plymouth), The Perquisite of Wood Chips and its Abuses in Naval Dockyards in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Islwyn Phillips  (Keele University), Shipwrecks and Trade Networks: Maritime Archaeology in Gibraltar

For further information, please contact the Hon Secretary.