The Mariner's Mirror Podcast

On 21 October 1805, HMS Victory led the British fleet into one of the most famous battles in naval history. But what was Trafalgar really like for the ordinary sailors who fought it? Six weeks after the battle, David Johns, a Welsh sailor from Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire, sat aboard Victory at Spithead and wrote a remarkable letter to his parents. He described the terrifying intensity of the fighting, the enemy ships surrounding Victory, and the death of Admiral Nelson. His words offer a rare and deeply personal account of Trafalgar, written before the battle had passed into legend.In this episode, we bring Johns's letter to life and explore its extraordinary story with historian, novelist and expert on Welsh maritime history J. D. Davies. Together, we discover a Trafalgar far removed from the familiar world of admirals, monuments and grand strategy: a battle experienced through smoke, splinters, cannon fire and the desperate struggle to survive. It is also a reminder of the often-overlooked Welsh contribution to British naval history, and of the thousands of ordinary men whose experiences made Trafalgar much more than Nelson's victory.

When we think of historic ships, we tend to picture warships, explorers and celebrated voyages. SS Explorer is a different kind of maritime hero: a ship built not to conquer the sea, but to understand it. In this episode, recorded on board the Explorer in Leith, Scotland, we explore how this pioneering 1950s fisheries research vessel became a floating laboratory, measuring fish, plankton, currents, temperature and salinity to answer an increasingly urgent question: could the sea continue providing indefinitely? The painstaking science conducted aboard Explorer helped transform our understanding of the oceans from an inexhaustible larder into a living ecosystem—and laid foundations for modern fisheries management and marine conservation. Now undergoing restoration she is a rare survivor from a transformative period in Britain’s scientific and maritime history.

In 1677 Charles II embarked on one of the most ambitious shipbuilding programmes England had ever attempted: thirty great new warships, built to challenge the naval power of France and the Dutch Republic. Two years later, a young shipwright and draughtsman named Edmund Dummer began travelling between the dockyards, measuring their hulls and recording their shapes. His aim was extraordinary — to capture on paper knowledge that had traditionally lived in the hands, eyes and memories of shipwrights. But political crisis intervened, Dummer’s work was left unfinished, and much of it was subsequently lost.In this episode of the Mariner’s Mirror Podcast, Sam Willis talks to historian and shipbuilding expert Richard Endsor, who has spent more than twenty-five years piecing that lost fleet back together. Using Dummer’s surviving measurements alongside ship models, Van de Velde drawings, official records and wreck archaeology, Richard has reconstructed the architecture of Charles II’s vanished warships in his magnificent new book The Lost Ships of Charles II's Navy. Their conversation explores how seventeenth-century ships were actually designed, how far Charles II involved himself in naval affairs, and whether putting the shipwright’s craft onto paper helped transform not just shipbuilding, but the ability of the state to understand and control its navy.

This is episode 5 of our Heritage Harbours short series, celebrating the Heritage Harbour initiative which seeks to protect and revive historic ports, docks, canals and waterfronts that still retain a genuine working maritime character.Most harbours tell their history through what went out: ships, goods, armies and explorers. Ramsgate’s story is shaped by what came back in—ships in trouble, sailors in danger, soldiers escaping disaster and people searching for safety.Built beside the treacherous Goodwin Sands, Ramsgate became a great harbour of refuge. Its lifeboat crews have repeatedly ventured into appalling seas; its fishing fleet has worked these waters for generations; and its harbour later welcomed Victorian holidaymakers. In 1940, Ramsgate became the gathering point for the Little Ships of Dunkirk and received thousands of rescued soldiers, while civilians sheltered from bombing in tunnels beneath the town.Britain’s only Royal Harbour, Ramsgate has long been a working port, seaside resort and place of rescue. This episode of Heritage Harbours explores a harbour built against danger—and devoted to bringing people safely home.

This is episode 4 of our Heritage Harbours short series, celebrating the Heritage Harbour initiative which seeks to protect and revive historic ports, docks, canals and waterfronts that still retain a genuine working maritime character.Ipswich holds a remarkable place in maritime history: it can claim links with Anglo-Saxon kings, the Hanseatic trading network, the circumnavigation of the globe, the founding of English America, and one of Britain's busiest modern commercial estuaries.The story begins nearly 1,400 years ago, when the Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia established one of England's very first international trading ports on the River Orwell. Just a few miles away lies Sutton Hoo, where one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in Europe revealed the splendour of those early kings. But if Sutton Hoo tells us about royal power, Ipswich tells us where much of that wealth came from. Merchants here were trading across the North Sea centuries before England even existed as a united kingdom.By the Middle Ages, Ipswich had become one of England's great commercial ports, trading extensively with the great merchant cities of northern Europe through the Hanseatic League—that remarkable alliance of trading towns stretching from London to the Baltic. Those connections helped bring timber, iron, grain and countless other goods to the town, while East Anglia's agricultural produce flowed in the opposite direction. Today, Ipswich celebrates those historic links as a member of the New Hanse, a modern network of towns that share this extraordinary trading heritage.Fast forward to the Age of Discovery and the Ipswich area produced a quite remarkable trio of maritime pioneers.First came Sir Thomas Cavendish, from nearby Trimley, who became only the second Englishman to sail around the world. Inspired by Francis Drake, he deliberately set out to circumnavigate the globe, raiding Spanish shipping as he went and capturing one of the richest prizes of the Elizabethan age—the treasure-laden Manila galleon Santa Ana.Sailing with him was an Ipswich merchant called Thomas Eldred, the first known man from the town to circumnavigate the globe. Unlike Cavendish, Eldred wasn't an aristocrat or an adventurer. He was a businessman. Returning home, he became one of Ipswich's leading merchants and an early supporter of the East India Company, helping turn England's age of exploration into an age of global trade.Then, just a few years later, came Bartholomew Gosnold, born at nearby Otley. Long before the Pilgrim Fathers sailed on the Mayflower, Gosnold crossed the Atlantic, explored and named Cape Cod, and went on to help found Jamestown—the first permanent English settlement in North America. In many ways, he helped lay the foundations of English America.Today, Ipswich is proud to be one of the UK's Heritage Harbours, but this isn't simply a place that preserves its past. It's still a thriving commercial port, exporting grain from the fertile fields of East Anglia to markets around the world. It's a wonderful example of a harbour that has never stopped working.

This is episode 3 of our Heritage Harbours short series, celebrating the Heritage Harbour initiative which seeks to protect and revive historic ports, docks, canals and waterfronts that still retain a genuine working maritime character.Today we're in Bideford and neighbouring Appledore. For centuries these twin ports have been among the most important maritime communities on England's west coast. Bideford grew rich through overseas trade, exporting woollen cloth and importing goods from across the Atlantic and Europe. In the seventeenth century it became one of Britain's principal tobacco ports, its merchants closely connected with the emerging colonies in North America. Nearby Appledore developed as a centre of shipbuilding, producing everything from wooden sailing ships to modern commercial and naval vessels. Together, the two towns tell a remarkable story of maritime enterprise, innovation and – best of all I think - resilience.That story continues today. While the age of sailing ships has passed, North Devon is once again looking to the sea for its future—through shipbuilding, green technology, marine conservation and heritage. This episode explores how those different strands come together.We begin aboard the historic steamship Freshspring, where we meet John Puddy. As founder of the Steamship Freshspring Trust, John has led the rescue of one of Britain's most significant surviving post-war steamships. We talk about why preserving working ships matters, what they can teach us about Britain's maritime past, and how heritage can inspire future generations.We then hear from Hannah Nash of the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere. Her work focuses on protecting the region's extraordinary marine environment while balancing the needs of wildlife, local communities and the maritime economy. We explore how conservation and maritime heritage can work together. Our third conversation is with Jack Partridge, an apprentice at the shipbuilding company Navantia who feature in one of the biggest shipbuilding stories of recent times – this is Spain’s state-owned shipbuilding company who recently acquired Harland and Wolff, one of the most important names in British shipbuilding history.