So, just a few updates on what’s going on with this project.
This has been pushed the side quite a bit because I’ve been studying for/working on my maritime professional certificates (Tickets, as they’re sometimes called). Hopefully come the 22nd of June, that wo’t be an issue anymore.
However, there’s a been a few things. First of all, the fabulous Roy Metcalfe scanned BR 1- the Catalogue for books of Reference for me. Secondly, the lovely Roger Suffling loaned me his large-scale scanner, which has allowed me to scan OU 5274 Handling Ships (1934/1941) and also BR 2092 Handling Ships (1954) which are the direct precursors to the (not so mythical) restricted Vol IV of the 1960s Admiralty Manual of Navigation (which the fabulous Benjamin Redding took photos of for me, and which I’ll be writing a post about shortly). Also, Michael Wynd of the Royal New Zealand Navy museum has sent me a fabulous list of their holdings of manuals and such documents.
As you’ve probably guessed, this project is spiralling out of control. One could, probably, get a PhD out of this, if one had time to go to the UK and find all these publications and do all kinds of neat things. That is not an option for me.
What I would like to get out of this is something that I can present at the Canadian Nautical Research Society conference next year (which will be in or around St Catharines, ON. LIkewise, I’d like to get something around 10,000 words to send to The Northern Mariner for publication. (An actual article, or something). Maybe A research note as well. Other than that, I’d like to make as much of the stuff I’ve gathered available to other researchers as possible.
In terms of the next steps, I think my next thing is going to be a more in-depth analysis of BR1. Frankly, the text comparisons of the different editions of the same volume isn’t going to be a huge mine of important things- after all, the secret stuff in those Handling Ships volumes is the Turning Data. Which is cool (if you’re into shiphandling) but not, like historically important.
But BR1 has a *ton* of information there, and it certainly needs to be examined in depth. So that’s the next major step. I’ve also linked to the photos from that volume above, so if you’re interested you can check it out.
