This one-day conference will examine the role and scope of naval bases and naval support facilities in and around the Indian Ocean.
Were bases built to defend colonies, control colonies, or to attack the enemy? Were they to suppress local forces, engage companies threatening the British East India Company or as adjuncts to European struggles? How useful were they to their founding countries in the 17th–20th centuries? How has their heritage developed?
Programme: Chair Ann Coats
10.30–4.00 GMT
10.30–11.05 Thean Potgeiter Commanding ‘the passage to and from India’: The Royal Navy at the Cape of Good Hope, 1795–1803
11.05–11.40 David Erickson The Contribution of Simon’s Town to Diplomatic & Naval Affairs, 1795–1957
11.40–11.50 10-minute break
11.50–12.25 Robert Ivermee The Hooghly River and the limits of colonial power: European dockyards and naval bases in Bengal
12.25–1.00 Patricia O’Sullivan Out of the Shadows – the Police Force of Hong Kong’s Royal Naval Dockyard
Break 1.00-1.30
1.30-2.05 Erik Odegard Dutch, French and British planners and Trincomalee naval dockyard
2.05-2.40 Richard Holme Trincomalee in the twentieth century: The use of floating docks in the Indian Ocean
2.40–2.50 10-minute break
2.50-3.25 Philip MacDougall In Support of Napoleon’s Great Adventure – the navy of Tipu Sultan. Its design, construction and purpose
3.25-4.00 Karim Malak The Anglo-Egyptian Naval Encounter: A new history of Egypt and Britain
4.00 Chair’s thanks
4.00 END
