We have selected recent news items of interest to the South West. If you would like your news to feature here, please send it to editor.soundings@swmaritime.org.uk
The South West Maritime History Society is joining forces with the Devonport Naval Heritage Centre for a special day exploring more than 300 years of Plymouth’s Royal Naval and maritime heritage on Saturday 24 October 2026. The morning begins with a guided visit to the Heritage Centre and an opportunity to discover its fascinating collections … Read more
Explore Plymouth’s extraordinary Royal Naval heritage with SWMHS and the Devonport Naval Heritage Centre. In the morning, enjoy a guided tour of the Naval Heritage Centre’s collections, discover the Centre’s historic dockyard records and family-history resources. In the afternoon hear three expert talks exploring the marine archaeology of Plymouth Sound; Royal Navy and dockyard songs; … Read more
If you love history – local and maritime, Watchet it is the place to be this October! There are plenty of history talks and conferences across the South West, but relatively few occasions when the history of one small town is explored from so many different directions in a single day. 4 reasons to join … Read more
The SWMHS is launching a new Research Prize to encourage new writing in maritime history, established through the generosity of Mike Duffy, who has made a founding gift of £5,000. The prize will support high-quality maritime history writing based on original research. It will be open to students, independent researchers, local historians and emerging scholars … Read more
The South West Maritime History Society is pleased to announce the 2026 David Clement Memorial Lecture, to be delivered by historian David Davies, Chair of the Society of Nautical Research, and author of best selling Journals of Matthew Quinton series of naval historical novels. David will explore The Stuart Navy in the West Country, and … Read more
Barbary Corsairs, English Privateers & Devon Mariners Four talks that explore how English privateers and Barbary Corsairs fared from 1550-1815. This History Day is now SOLD OUT – for more talks and events about Maritime History in the South West, please see our Events page for details. Our 4 talks explore the violent, profit-driven, and … Read more
Hear 6 talks by recognised experts on the Maritime & Local History of Watchet and its hinterland The programme of talks includes tales of nefarious doings in the Bristol Channel, the importance of the railway to Watchet’s marine trade, life in Watchet in the seventeenth century and a tale of woe relating to a merchant … Read more
THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT – PLEASE SEE OUR OTHER EVENTS IN TEIGNMOUTH, TOPSHAM AND WATCHET Hear 5 talks by published experts on the Maritime History of Bideford and North Devon From Sir Richard Grenville’s ill-fated attempts to set up a colony in the New World to the participation of North Devon ships in … Read more
Our Maritime Heritage is under threat – please give us your views on priorities for action! Our Maritime Heritage is a unique aspect of our identity as a sea-faring nation; from the historic ships that remind us of naval and commercial stories we grew up with, to the records, diaries and journals in public and … Read more
Here is the taster of South West Soundings the digital magazine of the South West Maritime History Society. It includes the full sections covering maritime news and events, and a selection of the articles and book reviews; please download it or read online below. To get instant access to the full magazine, which is published four times … Read more
Here is the taster of South West Soundings the digital magazine of the South West Maritime History Society. It includes the full sections covering maritime news and events, and a selection of the articles and book reviews; please download it or read online below. To get instant access to the full magazine, which is published four times … Read more
We are looking forward to welcoming Members to our 2024 AGM on Saturday Nov 16th. Please join us at the Exeter Custom House, Exeter Quay from 10.30 am, meeting starts at 11.00 am. Details have been e mailed to all members and the Agenda and programme for the day can be downloaded in the members … Read more
12th-24th August in Taunton Library. The secret work of the Hydrographic Department during WW2 is brought to life…
Here is the taster of South West Soundings the digital magazine of the South West Maritime History Society. It includes the full sections covering maritime news and events, and a selection of the articles and book reviews; please download it or read online below. To get instant access to the full magazine, which is published four times … Read more
South West Maritime History Society has designed a programme of 4 free talks to illustrate and tell the story of Exeter’s steam and maritime heritage 1830-1930, including the railway and the canal to the heritage harbour. The talks will cover Brunel’s expensive experiment with the new fangled atmospheric propulsion of railway carriages for the phase … Read more
Illustrated talk for the Kingswear Historians Society Join us on Monday 8th at 7.30pm in Kingswear Townhall to hear about the little known Dartmouth Captain, William White. He lived in Dartmouth in the late 16th and early 17th century and sailed for the Roope family of Warfleet. Over a 20 year period we can track … Read more
Wednesday 17th January 2024, 7.30 pm. Members of the Maritime Heritage Trust may attend a virtual talk on the mysteries surrounding the Newport Medieval Ship. Visit https://www.newportship.org/ to find out more about the Friends of the Newport Ship.
The British Commission for Maritime History (BCMH) invites contributions to its twenty-ninth conference for new researchers, which will be held in March at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Those wishing to offer a paper should fill in and submit an application via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/NRvgsE4oaP6KfqdS9 by 15 January 2024. Further information about the … Read more
The County of Peebles, one of Craig’s “Counties” An illustrated lecture by Bill Cumming, author of the book “Gone”: The story of the four-masted iron sailing ships pioneered by Robert Craig, which unexpectedly prolonged the usefulness of sail, and prompted a new class of vessel: the iron windjammer, that sailed the seas 1875-1904. David Clement … Read more
Join us at the Rolle Building, Plymouth University for a Symposium about Devon’s maritime heritage in the 1920s. You’ll hear 7 talks on a wide variety of topics given by experts in their field, covering leisure sailing, fishing, dockworking in both North and South Devon, as well as the work of the Marine Biological Research … Read more
David Clement’s life work was his study of the 4 masted square rigger, which he documented and descibed in the two volume Square Rigger Sunset. His source material for this was the biography of each of the 440 4 masted square riggers, their ship’s details, and the details of each trip that they made. These … Read more
To celebrate the Exeter Heritage Harbour Festival the South West Maritime History Society has collected as many articles as it could find that were published by the society in past issues of Maritime South West, the annual journal, and Soundings, the newsletter/magazine, which is currently published quarterly. This anthology comes in two versions: the shorter … Read more
