Casting Off

Happy Trafalgar Day, everybody!

This is, of course, always an auspicious day in the field of maritime history, but it’s especially so today. I’m proud and very happy to announce that the Society for Nautical Research, which I chair, is today launching The Mariner’s Mirror Podcast, which shares the name of our flagship journal, founded in 1910. As far as we can establish, the new podcast is the world’s first to cover all aspects of maritime history – all periods, all themes, all continents and nations, just as the journal itself is truly international in scope. The podcast is presented by award-winning naval historian and well known TV presenter Dr Sam Willis, who has lined up a programme of truly extraordinary variety for the weeks and months ahead. Unfortunately, though, he couldn’t get anybody better for the first programme, so he had to chat to me instead… You can access the podcast on the society’s website or else on your podcast provider of choice (it’s on iTunes and Spotify, for example).

I really hope you’ll enjoy the podcast, and if you listen to the first programme today and the sun is over the yardarm in your part of the world when you finish listening to it, then I hope you’ll join me in raising a toast to the Immortal Memory.