No description available.

This thesis will demonstrate that the British leaders saw the policy of non-intervention during the Spanish Civil War as the best option available under the circumstances, and will also focus on the role of the Royal Navy in carrying out that policy. Unpublished sources include Cabinet and Admiralty papers. Printed sources include the Documents on British Foreign Policy, newspaper and periodical articles, and memoirs. This thesis, covering the years 1936-37, is broken down into six chapters, each covering a time frame that reflected a change of policy or naval mission. The non-intervention policy was seen as the best available at the time, but it was shortsighted and ignored potentially serious long-term consequences.

This work presents a study of shipbuilding and timber management in the Royal Dockyards in the period 1750 – 1850, focusing on an archaeological investigation of ship timber marks. The first chapter outlines the concept of timber marking in shipbuilding contexts, stressing the multi-disciplinary approach to the study highlighted in the available archaeological and documentary evidence by which the practice of timber marking can be understood. Chapter two outlines the background to timber marking in the Georgian era and the development of the practice within the broader advances made in shipbuilding, technology and design prior to the end of the 17th century. Chapter three outlines the developments in shipbuilding and the introduction of systems to control and standardise the management of timber in the Royal Dockyards in the 18th century. In the latter half of the 18th century we will see the attempts of naval reformers to develop these systems of timber management and pave the way for the sweeping changes made at the beginning of the 19th century. Chapter four highlights these changes with the introduction of the Timber Masters and looks at the nature of timber management and the marking of timbers as identified in documentary sources. This evidence lays the foundation for the understanding of timber marking in the 19th century as witnessed in the archaeological record. The remaining chapters present the much more extensive archaeological evidence for timber marking among several high profile assemblages. The main assemblages presented in Chapters 5 to 9 show the diversity of timber marking practices and how they relate to the working processes of the Royal Dockyards. The research offers new insights into the understanding of shipbuilding and the management of timber in the Royal Dockyards between 1750 and 1850 and explores the possibilities for further avenues of study.

This study examines Churchill's struggle during the summer of 1940 to preserve Britain's naval superiority worldwide, through the neutralization of the French fleet and by securing the active participation of the United States. Sources consulted included autobiographies of the participants, especially those by Churchill, Reynaud, Baudouin, and Weygand, document collections, and British and American official histories. This study is organized to give a chronological analysis of Churchill's efforts from 10 May to 2 September 1940, ending with the United States' acceptance of the destroyers-for-bases agreement. This act committed them to shared strategical responsibilities with Great Britain. The thesis concludes that Churchill's efforts in this period laid the foundation for later Allied victory.