The British Seaborne Empire
John MacKenzie samples two new works on the maritime history of Britain.
Captain Peter Hore
£25
ISBN 0283073128
The British, as Bill Bryson once noted, have a curious habit of driving to the coast, parking by the beach, and looking wistfully out to sea. Since I lived by the seaside for thirty years, I can confirm this from personal observation. The British also take, proportionately, more cruising holidays than any other people. Ships of the P&O, Fred Olsen, Saga, Cunard, Swan Hellenic and more are packed full of British ‘seafarers’ experiencing voyages as comfortable tourists where their Royal Navy, merchant marine, and emigrant forebears did it for real. Although the central cultural and social significance of the navy, not to mention the economic importance of shipbuilding and mercantile shipping, may have declined in the final decades of the twentieth century, the British have not entirely abandoned their love affair with the sea.
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